Miss DEVEREUX 
 
 OP THE 
 
 MARIQUITA 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, LIMITED 
 
^Thirteenth] Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser. 
 
 [Issue. 
 
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Thirteenth] 
 
 Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser. 
 
 [Issue. 
 
 OF 
 
 WE GATHER THE HONEY OF WISDOM FROM THORNS, NOT FROM FLQWErjS. 
 
 NOBILITY OF LIFE. 
 " Who best can suffer, best can do." MILTON. 
 What alone enables OB to draw a just moral from 
 
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 answer with Lassues, it is ' EXPERIENCE.' " 
 
 LOBD LYTTON. 
 
 "QUEEN'S HEAD HOTEL, NWCASTLE-UPOS-TYKI:. 
 "SIR, Will you to-day allow me U present you with 
 this Testimonial and Poem on END'S justly celeb rated 
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 very refreshing and exhilarating drink. I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, J. W. NEIL. To J. C, BNO, Boq." 
 
 SMALL POX, SCARLET FEVER, PYJEMIA. ERYSIPELAS, MEASLES, GANGRENE, 
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 " April 21st, 1894. " A PROFESSIONAL NUBS*." 
 
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 E 
 
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 Withoufit, yn have been impofed on by a wcrtMe?s imitation. Sold by all Chemists. 
 
 Prepared only at ENO'S "FRUIT SALT" WORKS, LONDON, S.E. 
 [By J. C. Eno s Patent.] 
 
Thirteenth] Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser. [Issue. 
 
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 In Collapsible Tubes, of all Druggists, or from the Proprietor, 
 
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 Prepared only by the Proprietor 
 
 THOMAS BEECHAM, ST. HELENS, LANCASHIRE. 
 
 Sold by all Druggists and Patent Medicine Dealers everywhere. 
 
 100,000, S. & B. f Ltd., 25/3/95. 
 
MISS DEVEREUX OF THE 
 MARIQUITA 
 
 
By RICHARD HENRY SAVAGE. 
 
 Uniform with this Volume. 
 
 MY OFFICIAL WIFE. 
 
 THE LITTLE LADY OF LAGUNITAS. A 
 Franco-Californian Romance. 
 
 PRINCE SCHAMYL'S WOOING. A Story of the 
 
 Caucasus Russo-Turkish War. 
 
 THE MASKED VENUS. A Story of Many Lands 
 DELILAH OF HARLEM. A Story of the New York 
 
 City of To-Day. 
 
 FOR LIFE AND LOVE. A Story of the Rio Grande. 
 THE ANARCHIST. A Story of To-Day. 
 
 THE PRINCESS OF ALASKA. A Tale of Two 
 Countries. 
 
 THE FLYING- HALCYON. 
 
 THE PASSING SHOW. 
 
 A DAUGHTER OF JUDAS. 
 
 IN THE OLD CHATEAU. A Story of Russian Poland. 
 
MISS DEVEREUX OF 
 THE MARIQUITA 
 
 A STORY OF 
 BONANZA DAYS IN NEVADA 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD HENRY SAVAGE 
 
 AUTHOR OF "MY OFFICIAL WIFE" 
 
 COPYRIGHT 
 
 LONDON 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, LIMITED 
 
 BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL 
 MANCHESTER AND NEW YORK 
 
 .1895 
 [All rights nserved\ 
 
LOMDOM: 
 
 BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, WH1TEFR1ARS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 TITLE BY POSSESSION. 
 
 CFIAP. PAGE 
 
 I. IN GRIZZLY CANON 5 
 
 II. MR. ROBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK 28 
 
 III. ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE 56 
 
 IV. JIM THE PENMAN 77 
 
 V. IN PAY ORE 105 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 JK BONANZA DAYS. 
 
 VI. ONE Of i?ArUKE "S NOBLEMEN 132 
 
 VII. HER FAULTLESS FACE 160 
 
 VIII. A VANISHED GODDESS 188 
 
 IX. AFTER THE STORM 227 
 
 X. FROM SHORE TO SHORE 255 
 
 BOOK III. 
 TRYING THE TITLE. 
 
 XI. FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW , , 286 
 
 XII. THE TURN OF THE TIDE 316 
 
 XIII. A FLAW IN THE DEED , 352 
 
 XIV. MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEN PARTY , 401 
 
 XV. THIS ECHOLESS SHORE. . . 404 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The State of Nevada enjoys the proud boast, in its 
 recent history, of having unbosomed to the greedy hand 
 of man the most compact mass of treasure ever discovered. 
 Its gray mountain buttresses hide to-day uncounted mill- 
 ions. Its sage-brush plains, its stony wastes, its alkaline 
 lakes, its wind-swept gorges, never invited the thrifty 
 Mormons, who fifty years ago were impelled by that un- 
 crowned monarch, Brigham Young, to deftly seize Cali- 
 fornia. The trifling evidences of gold found in the Carson 
 and the Humboldt were ignored by the Mormon spies, Avho 
 seized a few fertile oases in this gloomy land of the Piutes. 
 it \ras a land without a history, until the secret of the 
 mountain gnomes was stolen by Comstock on the flinty 
 breast of Mount Davidson. In 1845, the splendid mind 
 of Brigham Young, dreaming dreams far beyond even the 
 magnificent Aaron Burr, was turned to Mexico, to Arizona, 
 to California, to even the smiling Sandwich Islands, those 
 gems of the blue Pacific. James Marshall, the millwright, 
 of Culloma, called the whole world to the " fierce race for 
 wealth," when he picked up that little nugget at Sutter's 
 mill. He founded by chance the self-evolved empire of 
 the West, and thus foiled the policy of the astute Brigham, 
 who never knew his humble mechanic enemy. California, 
 the golden Star of the West in our ante-bellum days, in- 
 cited the later explorations of Australia, South Africa, 
 and our own Western territories, for hidden treasure. To 
 this dreary waste of Washoe came Comstock a second 
 
 (i) 
 
11 PREFACE. 
 
 Marshall prospecting for gold; Gould, Curry and other 
 humble men were near at hand when the shout went up 
 which called the whole world to "Silverado." Though 
 the State of Nevada is now a dethroned queen, and Col- 
 orado wears the silver crown, while Montana and Cali- 
 fornia divide the honors of the golden sceptre, no land in 
 the world ever made history as rapidly as Washoe, and 
 Nevada, from 1858 down to those royal Bonanza days, 
 when the Nevada Silver Barons stormed San Francisco, 
 and building their Pine Street Fortress, made themselves 
 the Bonanza Kings of the world. 
 
 In the wild rush of Washoe, the infant Territory was 
 filled with a mass of heterogeneous humanity and 
 " womanity " who wait, in the fading visions of the grow- 
 ing gray gloom of " recent history," for their Bret Harte. 
 California boasts the magician of the Sierras, and Joaquin 
 Miller still wears his crown of the drifted western pine, but 
 Nevada is an unwritten, a songless and a silent laud. Its 
 glory has departed, and even the Bonanza Kings have 
 " gone to a land without laughter," all save that genial 
 prince of finance, whom his friends hail yet as "John 
 Mackay." Over the old emigrant road, down the Geiger 
 grade, came the Washoe rush of the late fifties; the early 
 sixties saw the wanderers from the East toiling over the 
 plains of the Sioux and Cheyenne, and then creeping tim- 
 idly under Brigham's rocky battlements at Echo Canon. 
 Life painted itself luridly in those "flush days "of Vir- 
 ginia City. Adventurer and bravo, sly wanton, and toil- 
 ing miner, desperado and keen operator, fought, delved, 
 drank, gambled, schemed and struggled for the "unearned 
 increment." Fresh hearts failed, weary hands dropped 
 nerveless by the wayside, plot and intrigue wove their dark 
 web around the entombed treasures, and the Dance of 
 Death was mingled with the fierce, panting life, above and 
 
PREFACE. Ill 
 
 below ground. When Mount Davidson's millions swamped 
 San Francisco in a golaeii tide, the pulse that beat in the 
 mountain city throbbed by telegraph down at " The Bay." 
 Mad, wild, Bonanza days! Speculation brought with it 
 strange scenes of dramatic debauchery in the two states. 
 In the early seventies, the golden and silver tide had 
 reached its highest point, and around the Bonanza Kings 
 were gathered all the princes and princesses of the House 
 of Belshazzar. Here, in these pages, one AV!IO lived and 
 moved among those scenes as boy and man, has written 
 the story of a mine! The strange history of the inheritance 
 of a friendless girl! The story of an unpunished crime! 
 There are pictures of those Delilah parlors where the 
 mighty men of the Stock Exchange plotted to delude the 
 share-buying public, left stranded when the crash came. 
 Schemes which reached out from San Francisco to Vir- 
 ginia City, New York, London, and Paris, are herein 
 drawn from life, with phases of a wild, Walpurgis night 
 social revel which has now happily passed away forever. 
 The remarkable Southern adventurer who sought to be 
 "one of Nature's noblemen," the " Woman in Scarlet," 
 who was Queen of the Night, the great King of Forgers, 
 and the social and mining adventurers of that ' l time of 
 storm and stress," are real human units who have " strutted 
 their brief hour" upon the scenes of Bonanzadom. The 
 matchless miners of Nevada, brave, bold and resolute, are 
 herein called back from the misty past, and, while to-day, 
 the streets of Virginia City are deserted, and the glory of 
 the past has faded, the romance of the old still lingers! 
 Thrilling and exciting, the story of Miss Devereux of the 
 Mariquita, tells of a modern Una, who walked unharmed 
 among the lions. It is the history of a princess "who 
 came to her own again," after many days. It is vain to 
 search in the world's financial history for a parallel to the 
 
iV PREFACE. 
 
 upheaval brought about by the delvers in Mount David- 
 son's flinty bosom. No such men and women now exist, 
 for the fierce light which played upon the Silver Throne 
 has faded forever, and the story of Miss Devereux of the 
 Mariquita, lifts for a few tableaux the curtain which has 
 fallen for all time, for the play is played out, the actors 
 are all dead or hidden in the gloom of obscurity. The 
 beating of the human heart upon Mount Davidson, the 
 secret life of the Broker Barons, and the intrigues of cap- 
 italist and schemer, are painted in the fifteen chapters of 
 this exciting novel, for those who across the vanished 
 years " see these things as in a glass darkly." 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 TITLE BY POSSESSION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 IN GRIZZLY CANON. 
 
 "Well, Steve! Back again from the Bay! You do 
 look as if you have had a rough ride! Come in and have 
 a drink! " The speaker had been eagerly waiting for the 
 Carson City stage, on a nipping September evening in the 
 year 1862. The sun had sunk behind grim Mount David- 
 son, and his last rays glinted back sullenly from the rocky 
 faces of the forbidding gray mountain ranges around 
 Virginia City. The sterile sagebrush hills of Nevada had 
 wrapped themselves in dusky evening robes, and the stars 
 were shining coldly far above in the thin mountain air. The 
 person thus addressed, briskly sprang down from his seat of 
 honor, next to the driver, and peered furtively at the 
 throng of idlers loitering around the stage station. In 
 the evening shadows he seemed to see nothing of special 
 interest, and, as he breathed a sigh of relief, only then Mr. 
 Steve Berard's right hand dropped quietly to his side. It 
 had been resting on the polished mahogany butt of a 
 heavy revolver, whose blue steel barrel bore those cheering 
 words "Sam'l Colt, Hartford, Conn., IT. S. Navy," 
 for "Ready, aye, ready!" was the Berard family motto. 
 
 " All right," whispered his companion, in a low voice. 
 "That gang is all down to-night at Gold Hill. Big bear 
 
6 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 and bull fight. I've been waiting here for you two hours. 
 Come in!" And Fred Wyman hastily drew the newcomer 
 along through the motley crowd now pouring into the 
 Magnolia saloon. Its open doors and cheery lights were 
 the very warmest signs of welcome at the present moment 
 in the straggling mining town clinging to the scarred 
 breast of Mount Davidson, towering there eight thousand 
 feet above the blue Pacific a bleak mountain eyrie! 
 
 " Snow on the Geiger grade?" queried the off-hand host, 
 as he elbowed Steve Berard up to a quartet of busy bar- 
 keepers whose faces were all exemplars of that shining 
 truth, " The Spirit ye have always with you! " " Plenty 
 and to spare shortly," said Berard, as he contemptuously 
 pushed back the bottle first offered. < Not that the best in 
 the house!" he cried, as he defiantly threw down a ring- 
 ing twenty-dollar gold piece on the polished bar slab. 
 Raising his glass, he nodded carelessly to Wyman, and 
 then quickly swept his change into the pocket of his 
 sack coat. With one keen glance at the bystanders, Berard 
 whispered: "Look here, Fred, I've got to have some 
 supper, quick. There's a man putting up at the Golden 
 Eagle whom I played with all the way from 'Frisco to Sacra- 
 mento. Big merchant! If he is as much of a fool on land 
 as on water, I'll be staked for the whole winter by morn- 
 ing. I can't afford to miss him! I'll get hold of him 
 again at the supper table sure. Such suckers are only 
 caught once in a lifetime." 
 
 " But those assays?" eagerly queried Wyman. 
 
 "Tell you all later. Come up to my room at midnight 
 and wait. There he goes now"; and Mr. Steve Berard 
 darted unceremoniously out of a side door as the tired 
 
IN GRIZZLY CANON. 7 
 
 group, crawling out of the great Concord stage coach in 
 the stable yard, slowly broke up. 
 
 With a muttered curse, Fred Wyman saw his companion 
 escape and hasten to join a party now straggling along 
 the narrow street skirting the hillside, where an extra 
 twelve inches on the right leg would have made the north- 
 ward journey to the hotel far more pleasant. For then, 
 as now, Virginia City's first welcome to the stranger was 
 the uneasy sensation that everything was doomed to slip 
 down two thousand feet below into the resounding canons 
 of the Carson River. 
 
 " Just his cool impudence! " snorted Wyman. "I can't 
 help it now. I will wait for the mail anyway! " 
 
 Possessing himself of a choice cigar by the surrender of 
 a half dollar, the young man gazed at the motley arrivals 
 now clustered around the belated stage, and sullenly await- 
 ing the unloading of the great boot filled with their lug- 
 gage. Whip in hand, the stunted driver, a keen-eyed, cross- 
 looking man of the shortest possible legs and the longest 
 possible oaths, was contemptuously hurling anathemas at 
 the management of the monopoly stage line, and terror- 
 izing the subservient hostlers. "An hour and a half late 
 with these old crabs!" He was an ^Etna of sulphurous 
 ejaculation, while the statuesque "shot-gun" messenger 
 stood silent and watchful, with his foot sternly planted on 
 Wells, Fargo and Co.'s iron-bound express box. 
 
 "What a rabble!" mused the disgusted Wyman, as ho 
 saw the substantial looking merchant disappear in the 
 shadows followed by the stealthy Berard, who was "bold, 
 yet not too bold." For the consequential looking denizen 
 of San Francisco, doomed to be Berard's prey, had just 
 then pompously possessed himself of that one typically 
 
8 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 mysterious "lady passenger, "whose attire of price and Fat- 
 ima-like eyes, are always the standing interrogation points 
 of frontier stage travel. An earnestly puffing Hebrew mer- 
 chant, a stray singing girl, a wild-eyed mining engineer of 
 foreign extraction, two Chinamen and a robust-looking 
 woman cook " specially imported for the Golden Eagle 
 Hotel " made up the new arrivals in these ' ' higher cir- 
 cles" of "VVashoe society, the bouquet finishing with a 
 couple of hard-eyed " sports," who, perched on the roof of 
 the stage, looked every inch the thugs, gamblers and 
 would-be murderers they w T ere at heart. 
 
 4 'This is a nice hole," growled Fred Wyman, as he 
 walked into the huge old stable, roughly built of riven 
 slabs, and then personally inspected the provender of his 
 pet riding mule, before seeking his own repast. ' ' I will 
 have to go down to the caiion after supper. Devereux is 
 always crazy over that woman's letters. I wonder how 
 many men love their wives like that eccentric." There 
 was a faint sneer on Fred Wyman's mobile lip as he 
 strolled up to the bar counter and took a drink < on private 
 account." Though but twenty-four years of age, the tall, 
 flashily handsome young fellow had already solved all 
 the problems of life to his own satisfaction. A pair of 
 dark, handsome, uneasy eyes gave a shade of distinction 
 to a face whose full lips and softened chin betrayed the 
 pleasure lover. A frontier beard and silken mustache, well 
 set off the rich locks of that abundantly vitalized youth 
 which was Wyman's best capital. Nervous, neat and ath- 
 letic, his swing and dash spoke of the outdoor habits of 
 the West and Southwest, and withal, a varnish of superior 
 polish lifted him above the rude men now boisterously 
 quarreling over the last news from the front. 
 
IN GRIZZLY CANOX. 9 
 
 For, in these dark days of '62, after the Peninsula, 
 the second Bull Run and Antietam, with the gloomy hor- 
 rors of Fredericksburg and Murfreesboro waiting in the 
 web of the Fates, no man could tell whether ' 'Jeff " Davis 
 or " Abe" Lincoln would rule from Portland, Maine, to 
 the Straits of Fuca. The stars and stripes and stars and 
 bars were flying on a level. Here on the Comstock, in 
 the far away territory of Nevada, men were only ' ' gold 
 mad," "silver mad," *' whisky mad," "card mad," or 
 " woman mad," but not maddened by the roar of battle. 
 They simply assassinated in a cowardly and free and easy 
 manner, callously forgetful of the sleepless vengeance of 
 that Lord who sternly repays all. 
 
 Fred Wy man's .intelligent brow was unruffled as he 
 gazed with youthful superiority, at the bar-room junta. 
 His eyes never smiling, though his facile lips were rolled 
 apart in an habitual curl, swept along the two or three 
 mean straggling streets of Virginia City, now flashing 
 into light. 
 
 There was the regular sequence, saloon, gambling shop, 
 cigar store, etc., in unvarying regularity. Down below, a 
 quarter of a mile, the " Ophir," " Gould and Curry," and 
 one ,or two other stamp mills were still pounding noisily 
 away. A few cross streets of hovels and cabins sheltered 
 the men not at work in the mines, or lounging in the 
 saloons. 
 
 " It's a pretty tough community," mused Wyman. "Not 
 half a dozen home circles here in ten thousand men, 
 all in the flower of life. One third of these fellows hide 
 in the tunnels and shafts, another third in their beds, and 
 the last shift are spending their hard won wages in dance 
 house, gin mill, or gambling saloon. So it goes, with 
 
10 MISS DEVEREtfX Otf THE MAKtQUITA, 
 
 an occasional job for the coroner, mostly sudden revolver 
 practice." The young pleasure lover's eyes hardened as 
 he turned away from the window. He was wearied of 
 these flinty hills, the bleak gullies, the sagebrush plains, 
 and the dreary wind-swept mountain side. Not a tree nor 
 flower, not a window plant or ribboned curtain spoke of 
 that respectable element of womanhood which was supposed 
 yet to linger, in a dim "survival of the fittest," far over 
 the Sioux haunted plains "in the States," or to be now 
 clinging to the shores of the Pacific slope of the Sierra 
 Nevadas, within sight of the sprouting wooden church 
 steeples of the Yankee. For, already, the old missions 
 were crumbling to ruins, and the black browed men of the 
 scrape and lasso were vanishing with the ghostly Padres, 
 who had melted away in the golden days of the Church, 
 into mere hovering shades. 
 
 In a vague desire for popularity and an easy self surren- 
 der, Fred Wyman swallowed several drinks with chance 
 met companions as he waited for the little one window of 
 the postoffice to open. A line of a hundred and fifty men^ 
 whose belted revolvers, heavy boots and flannel shirts 
 were void of the aesthetic decorative element, was await- 
 ing the distribution of the mail. 
 
 "Lots of time," lazily soliloquized Wyman, as he 
 declined several pressing invitations to be the fourth 
 man of a poker game, where a player's life went 
 with his hand, and he also gracefully put aside further 
 suggestions of a visit to the faro games, or the dance 
 houses, where the Scarlet Woman, with her fresh evening 
 smile, and deepest decollete cut, was ' ' ready to meet all 
 .ers." 
 By Jove! a respectable woman on the social scene 
 
IN GRIZZLY CA^OK. 11 
 
 would draw to heavy houses here. Devereux will never 
 make a miner. I wonder, now, if his wife came up here 
 and opened a good boarding-house, they could not dis- 
 count the Mariquita. Damn the Mariquita! " he angrily ex- 
 claimed, as the hasty exit of his friend came back to gnaw 
 him with its cool disdain. " Steve is a cold-hearted 
 scoundrel, and will he play me fair? Yet, after all, he is 
 the only Southern man I know here." For, as in a 
 corner, a haggard eyed boy was crooning, "I'm gwine 
 back to Dixie, I'm gwine where the orange blossoms 
 grow," it recalled to Mr. Frederick Wyman, an integral, 
 but very active section of his once beloved country, which 
 he had suddenly left, for cause, two years before. 
 
 The young adventurer eyed with disdain the cheap 
 adornments of the Magnolia saloon. A flashy bar with 
 cut glass bottles of multi-colored poisons, a huge box 
 stove now roaring with a fire of "fat" pine wood, several 
 prints not hung on the line, but illustrative of the crude 
 artistic development of Virginia City in those halcyon 
 days, were the main features. 
 
 "The Southern Beauty " very, very degagee, and all 
 too amiable, in her abandon. ' < The great race between the 
 * Natchez ' and the " Planter.' ' A realistic print of the 
 1 ' Great International Fight between Messrs. Tom Sayers 
 and John C. Heenan, atFarmborough," and a phenomen- 
 ally over-canvased clipper ship, entitled "The Flying 
 Cloud." The competitive Babel of maudlin profanity, 
 worn-out obscenity, and vain sectional quarrel was salted 
 with useless conjectures as to the value of the ten thousand 
 " mining locations " now ornamenting the records of Storey 
 county, Nevada. These valuable archives had successively 
 ornamented a butcher shop, a stable office, a blacksmith 
 
12 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 shop, and now were conveniently located in a < < respect- 
 able " saloon. To use the vulgate, " Everybody had a 
 hack at them." And yet, the titles to one thousand 
 millions of hidden bullion were traced in these vicarious 
 leaflets. That golden future for which Frederick Wyman 
 sighed was locked up in a one-quarter ownership of the 
 "Mariquita," to whose high-sounding title the name of 
 Robert Devereux was affixed as "original discoverer." 
 For the lonely man, now waiting for him in his log cabin, 
 a mile and a half from the " center of civilization," in the 
 gloomy Grizzly Canon, had taken in as a partner the 
 showy youth who was, at least, a companion. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman was vaguely supposed to be 
 "educated," a fortuitous circumstance which militated 
 against him in Virginia City. "Stuck up," "Puts 
 on airs," was a dangerous general verdict. A slight 
 affectation of dress, and the remains of some aca- 
 demic training, gained in two years of college life, 
 really lifted Wyman into a dangerous eminence. He had 
 never told the facts of his sudden adieu to Horatius Flaccus 
 and Publius Terentius. A vicious knife thrust in the 
 ribs of a forward Yankee professor at Louisville, suddenly 
 turned the passionate youth westward. Physically drawn 
 toward every luxury, sly, insincere, and at heart callous 
 and dishonest, Mr. Frederick Wyman was in the golden 
 glow of that ripening youth which enchants blind woman- 
 hood with the fool's gold of appearance. 
 
 He stirred uneasily in his chair as the crowd at the post- 
 office lessened to a knot, and murmured* "I must watch 
 them both. If it does turn out to be a mine, by God, I'll 
 have it all! I'll find the way." As he walked over the 
 muddy, unpaved way to the postoffice, an ugly thought 
 
OT GRIZZLY CAtfON. 13 
 
 came to him. "Berard may go in with Devereux, on the 
 private, and so get rid of me. If I could only get Dever- 
 eux down to the Bay for the winter, I could work some 
 safe scheme. Yes, I must get rid of him, and divide 
 with Steve. But how?" 
 
 In a brown study, Wyman pocketed two bulky letters 
 for his partner, and his face was still clouded as he 
 mounted his big red mule, "Pete," and slowly rode 
 down into the deeper night shadows veiling Grizzly 
 Canon. "I will have time to think it over before 
 Steve will finish up with his San Francisco greenhorn," 
 mused the excited young adventurer. "Steve dare not 
 hold back the truth from me. He has no title; I have at 
 least possession, and I must separate Devereux and him 
 forever." 
 
 In his selfish forgetfulness of the fact that his waiting 
 partner had generously given him the quarter of the 
 mine he legally owned, "for services, " Wyman ignored 
 the ownership by Devereux of the greater portion of the 
 "Mariquita." It was now represented by a two hundred 
 foot tunnel, two shafts, and several hundred dollars worth 
 of tools and implements. 
 
 The chill night winds sweeping down the "Divide," 
 forced Wyman to bend his head away from the blast. 
 Lost in thought, he was unprepared as his mule suddenly 
 stumbled, and he fell prone upon a soft mound of fresh 
 earth. He had been picking his way along through a little 
 valley, where some wind-blown earth afforded an easy 
 path to the spade of the volunteer burial parties of Vir- 
 ginia City. 
 
 As he caught his mule, he stumbled over a rude head- 
 board. Then in the darkness of the growing night there 
 
 a 2 
 
14 MISS DEVE11EUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 came to Frederick Wyman thoughts blacker than the 
 shades around him, and yet they were welcome to him. 
 He rode 011 slowly to where a single glimmering light 
 showed him all the home he could boast of now. " Yes, 
 it is the only w r ay. But how to work it! All depends 
 upon Steve. If I only dared, I would go away myself with 
 some of the stuff," he grumbled, "but I would then leave 
 Steve and Devereux alone here together. I wish to God 
 I had studied for six months metallurgy and assaying, 
 instead of those cursed Greek roots and Latin paradigms. 
 Half knowledge is more maddening than idiocy. I feel in 
 my heart that there is sheeted horn silver and fat sulphide 
 ores in the heavy stuff I have secreted, and yet I do not 
 dare to go near any assayer here. They would give me 
 away." 
 
 He rode up to the door of a rough log cabin, whose 
 huge chimney of rough stones was now flaming out like 
 a furnace. A hobbling old Piute Indian, who flourished 
 under the name of "Captain Johnson," the legacy of 
 some neatly scalped army officer, led the mule away. Be- 
 fore Wyman could enter the door, a nervous voice rang 
 out on the night, " Any thing for me, Fred?" The man 
 stood near enough to place his hand in friendship on the 
 young man's shoulder, and Wyman started like a guilty 
 shade, as he huskily said, "Yes; two. Here they are. 
 How are you to-night? " 
 
 "Just the same; weak enough," was the feeble response 
 of Devereux, as he disappeared into the cabin. 
 
 Wyman drew up to a rough table, and, seated on a bis- 
 cuit box, greedily devoured a meal of bacon, beans and 
 strong coffee innocent of cream. He was glad to be left 
 to the silence of his own black, bitter beart, for the blood 
 
IX G1UZZLY CANOX. 15 
 
 was bounding in his veins under the suspense of his com- 
 ing excitement. Seated by the fire, Robert Devereux 
 was poring over the folded leaves of two long letters by 
 the light of a tallow dip, stuck in the pine logs with a 
 miner's candle holder. 'When he had thrust his letters 
 deep into the bosom of his rough flannel jerkin, Devereux 
 drew up to the table and addressed himself to the uninvit- 
 ing viands. His lip trembled with suppressed feeling, and 
 a few draughts of coffee were his sole repast, aided by 
 several attempts at what it were vain flattery to call " the 
 loaf." Captain Johnson, who had by the cohesion of 
 helplessness settled down as their unpaid drudge, had 
 never mastered the bread of the pale face. The salted 
 flour paste, burned on one side, doughy on the other, was, 
 in truth, "big medicine." 
 
 "Going up to town to-night?" queried Devereux, as the 
 lithe young fellow stuffed a pipe, and betook himself to 
 striding up and down in the firelight, on the red clay 
 floor. 
 
 "Yes, I must see a man," senteutiously said Wyman, 
 "and, I won't be back till noon to-morrow. I'll take up 
 your letters. All well down at the Bay? " 
 
 "Yes, "said the elder man wearily, " but they want 
 me at home." 
 
 "Skeptical as to the Mariquita? " queried Wyman, with 
 the half sneer which was the hall-mark of his coarse 
 egoism. 
 
 "They are anxious about my long sickness," sadly 
 rejoined Devereux as he drew out writing material from 
 an emptied provision case, which was now an escritoire. 
 While the husband and father wrote in silence, the young 
 man x>aced the -floor like a restless wolf. He hungered 
 
16 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 for the hidden tidings known only to Steve Berard who 
 was sitting just then at a table in the "Golden 
 Eagle," where a half dozen fresh packs of cards contained 
 in their glossy surfaces the mystic combinations which 
 held Steve Berard's hoped for " winter stake." 
 
 Gray-eyed, bullet-headed, white-haired, with fine woman- 
 ish, sinewy hands, and a pitiless thin lip, Steve Berard did 
 not have a clear title to his name. For he had left the old 
 patronymic by the side of a murdered Federal paymaster 
 in Missouri, whose governmental " greenback" wallet had 
 furnished forth the fleeing guerilla on his westward 
 journey. " Let these fools fight on here, I am going to 
 skip to California," the ruffian had confided to a fellow 
 disciple of Quantrell, the jayhawker; and in truth, a fine 
 horse, branded IT. S., bore the ex-Mississippi River gambler 
 well on his way westward, through the Indian territory. 
 
 Seated opposite the pompous commercial magnate from 
 San Francisco, Berard .knew that a little "raising of prices" 
 of his goods on the flush companies, would recoup the 
 purse of his doltish victim. For, bad wine and the wintry 
 smiles of the frontier Delilah had already blinded the 
 tl soft pork and sour flour" pillar of commerce. 
 
 Down in Grizzly Canon, where the coyotes yelped dismally 
 on the lonely rock knolls, the table at which Devereux was 
 writing, divided the two dissimilar mining partners. The 
 Rembrandt light of the fire threw Wyman's dusky shadow 
 in strange outlines on the floor, as he awaited the prepara- 
 tion of the letters. For Robert Devereux was writing 
 one to the loving wife who had shared his uncertain 
 fortunes, and a few great printed lines to little Hope, the 
 one ewe lamb of the modest line of Devereux. A four 
 months' siege of ague had weakened the man of forty-five, 
 
IN GRIZZLY CAJJtoX. 17 
 
 whose grizzled beard, worn and wasted cheeks, and sunken 
 eyes told of one who was fast failing in " the fierce race for 
 wealth." A thoughtful tender indecision characterized the 
 whole aspect of the man, whose sympathetic face grew 
 almost handsome as thoughts of the absent wife and bairn 
 thronged upon him. The scratching of his pen was the 
 only sound in the cabin, save the shuffling feet of the old 
 Indian in the "lean-to" shed. 
 
 As Devereux threw down the pen with a sigh, he gazed 
 curiously at Wyman, still striding up and down. 
 
 "What's the matter! " roughly demanded the restless 
 Wyman. 
 
 A misty look passed over Devereux's eyes. "As you 
 walked there, your shadow was carved out, as if you were 
 swimming in a sea of blood," slowly said the slender 
 middle-aged man, as he threw himself down on one of two 
 rough bunks, filled with blue and gray blankets. His 
 mind was in a moody and weakened depression. 
 
 "Nonsense," energetically shouted Wyman, with a start. 
 "You need twenty more grains of quinine, that's what 
 you want, I'll get it for you. Bring my mule! " he yelled 
 to the old Indian. Grasping the letters lying on the table, 
 he then buckled on his heavy revolver. " Shall I bring 
 you down also a bottle of good whisky? " Wyman turned 
 at the door. 
 
 "No, Fred," patiently replied the older, " whisky and 
 I have said good-by forever. There's madness, not health, 
 in the bottle." 
 
 "You're a bit too much of a Puritan for Virginia City," 
 rapped out Wyman, as he cried "So-long!" and rode 
 away out into the night. He left behind him, hovering 
 around the despairing lonely man, white-winged visions of 
 
18 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQtTlTA. 
 
 peace and love, called up by the thoughts of his distant 
 wife and child. On his own solitary way there were dark 
 spirits ministering to Wyman's cruel imaginings, spirits 
 whose wings wafted the brooding shadows of death over 
 that lonely cabin, lying below him. 
 
 "What in the devil's name put that into his head now? r ' 
 growled Wyman, as he spurred his mule rapidly up the 
 pass. He was startled into a prophetic anger. 
 
 In the half hour before he reached the shaky old stable 
 on C street, around which the night wind howled, Wyman 
 revolved all the occurrences of the last year. The little 
 money he had received from the old Kentucky home, be- 
 fore a fraternal war had cut off all communication, had 
 aided to prosecute the "legal work " needed to hold the 
 "Mariquita." 
 
 Devereux, himself a Massachusetts man, of some in- 
 telligence and a tine business experience, had sold from 
 time to time a few of his first locations, and all these 
 funds had either gone to the support of his little family at 
 San Francisco, or into the scratchy attempts to open what 
 might be a mine or a mere bald rock gallery. 
 
 Hope nerved always the stout miner's arm, and yet, 
 alas! too many of these human burrows were doomed to bs 
 merely proofs of the wasted energy of audacious man. 
 Hard as was the flinty breast of Mount Davidson, nothing 
 could daunt the rugged bosoms of the wielders of the 
 pick and drill, who were at least indomitable in pluck and 
 manly marrow. 
 
 Frederick Wyman chuckled softly as he realized that 
 the cabin was well stocked for the long winter. There 
 were also funds enough to keep up the legal work till 
 spring. Devereux's sickness had enabled Wyman, for 
 
IN GRIZZLY CANOX. 19 
 
 four months, to hide the evidences of what his covetous 
 heart told him was a very valuable discovery. One 
 shaft he had deliberately caved down with a blast, and 
 had securely covered there, a precious secret hugged to 
 his own heart alone, in an already effected treason to his 
 loyal partner! With his own hands he had also filled up 
 a short cross cut, in the two hundred foot tunnel, where 
 an unknown valuable looking substance had softened the 
 sheeted porphyry of the Comstock. Was it the spur of 
 some great vein? The beads of perspiration stood out on 
 Wyman's brow as he lounged in the Magnolia saloon and 
 impatiently watched the crawling hands of the saloon 
 clock. He knew the viper fangs of Steve Berard too well 
 to dare to break in on the " sheep shearing," at the 
 Golden Eagle. For the polished mahogany butt of that 
 navy revolver already bore^ several crosses, and the ulti- 
 mate removal of Steve Berard himself " by violent acci- 
 dent," seemed the only way of avoiding in future an 
 extension of that symbolic list. 
 
 Mr. Berard was not over popular on the Carson River, 
 but by the social "specific gravity" of the deadly sport, 
 he moved unharmed in his own circles. 
 
 The expansion of this golden circle by new arrivals, its 
 contraction by the extinction of a shining light, now and 
 then, did not affect the "honest working miners" who 
 earned their five dollars a day manfully, and then got 
 drunk peacefully, or squandered their wages, without 
 violence, in the dance halls or gambling saloons. The 
 occasional visits of the sporting fraternity to the useful 
 mercantile circles, were only due to the selection of costly 
 raiment and ornaments, suited to either sex, to the pur- 
 chase of lethal weapons, or playing cards, and pistol car- 
 tridges. 
 
20 "MISS DEVEBKUX OF THE MATCIQUITA. 
 
 StevenBerard,Esq.,and his prototypes, with undeviating 
 regularity, first visited the saloon for the matutinal cock- 
 tail and cigars, next the tonsorial artist, then a promenade 
 en grande tenue was followed by a choice dejeuner at some 
 restaurant affected by the cosmopolitan Aspasias of these 
 higher altitudes. The afternoon was devoted to the social 
 duties of exhibiting fast women and faster trotters, or 
 else, secluded "poker practice," led up to the gambler's 
 harvest of the night, when all of Virginia City not 
 "absurdily puritanical " gamboled on the green. 
 
 The absence of Robert Devereux from the houses of 
 play, the gin mills, and the dance halls had, at first, marked 
 him as a stingy curmudgeon. But, even the painted 
 Phrynes who watched the careworn miner eagerly await- 
 ing his weekly San Francisco letters, respected the man 
 who passed his days, stooping, hollow chested, over the 
 pick, and toiling manfully for his absent ones. 
 
 His lonely cabin life had been gloomy enough until 
 Fred Wyman's coming lightened it. Strange to say, the 
 egoistic borderer had all the careless charm of an easy- 
 going personal nature. In long later years, men, and 
 women, too, were alike to be doomed to always take Fred 
 Wyman for what he was not. His easy pliancy sat lightly 
 on his fine brow and the shifting, glittering eyes were 
 softly pleasing. His voice, of a rich varying timbre, was 
 as wooing as that of the snake charmer, and hardened 
 men often turned and followed the accents of his musical 
 speech. In his lazy disdain of the local clamor following 
 an act of violence so common at the South Wyman had 
 never even disowned the good Kentucky name he bore. 
 He was safe enough in the wild West. 
 
 Fred Wynian had chafed sorely under his two hoarded 
 
IX GRIZZLY CANOX. 21 
 
 secrets for months. Some subtle fascination of the devil- 
 ish effectiveness of Steve Berard's wickedness drew the 
 two together. In the tawdry bowers of the Washoe 
 " Ames damnees," Wyman ever welcome Gentleman 
 Wyman heard tales of the subtle viciousness of this cold 
 gambler, a master at all tricks. From a soft-eyed New 
 Orleans quadroon girl, Wyman had learned all of Steve 
 Berard's history. The creamy-faced daughter of the Mag- 
 nolia land had marked Berard's dark career on the Missis- 
 sippi river steamboats, where he had used her as a stool- 
 pigeon to entrap the swarthy Louisiana planters and their 
 reckless, bright-eyed sons. " Mass' Steve's a Past Grand 
 Master, shuah. He is the Devil's own," softly cooed the 
 timorous quadroon Venus. "But he's dead game South- 
 ern blood, and he will always fight at the drop of a hat! " 
 Such was the admiring yellow girl's verdict. When Fred 
 Wyman had finished some object lessons in poker, and had 
 transferred his own loose change in yellow twenties to 
 Professor Steven, with an easy nonchalance, he said, "See 
 here, Steve, you had better carry my education on a little 
 farther, you may need a man to sit all night with you 
 sometime in a big game. Give me the thirty-third 
 degree." 
 
 "By God! you are true blue, youngster," said Berard, 
 and from that time the shadow of white-headed Steve's 
 wing was a protecting aegis to the good-looking young 
 stranger. 
 
 In all the wild hurly-burly of life in the mushroom min- 
 ing camp, Wyman passed in peace through scenes of dan- 
 gerous excitement. "Friend of Steve's," was the word 
 passed from gambler to gambler, and they forbore to pluck 
 him, as he was vaguely supposed to be a candidate for the 
 
22 MISS DEVEREL'X OF THE MARIQITITA. 
 
 dangerous honors of the profession. A closo intimacy 
 followed tliis secret alliance, and Wyman had often prof- 
 ited by the "third hand" position at poker, where the 
 last man furnished the " soft wool" for the shears. 
 
 When the clock marked twelve, Wyman arose and so 
 ended a weary day with a copious libation to Bacchus. As 
 he strode along the streets to the Golden Eagle, he flat- 
 tered himself at his prescience and cool secrecy. He had, 
 sackful by sackful, secretly carried away a half ton of the 
 hopeful-looking vein matter from the shaft, and also a dozen 
 back loads from the now blocked up cross cut. He had on 
 successive weekly pay days quietly dropped off all the men 
 of their little gang who had worked on either of the two 
 places of suspicious interest. His secret was safe. For 
 stringers, bits, tantalizing bits of the rich gold and silver- 
 bearing ores were also often met with, in all the workings 
 of the Mariquita. Either geologic changes, a fault, a 
 slide, a some forgotten Titan game of the great gods now 
 dead, had caused these incidental finds which on the Corn- 
 stock brought a wild hope often leaping up into the stout- 
 est hearts. 
 
 When Fred Wyman first around a saloon stove ex- 
 hibited several horny, transparent-looking lumps from 
 one coat pocket, and innocently drew out three or four 
 dark, greasy-looking blue buttery nodules from the other, 
 the circle of phenomenal liars merely laughed. The oldest 
 miner present calmly ordered the drinks for the whole 
 crowd at Wy man's expense. Every man carried ore or 
 croppings in his pocket to the inconvenience of his neces- 
 sary revolver and bowie knife. For these, and a pack of 
 ''fixed" poker cards, were the usual toilet articles of a 
 " gentleman of Washoe," in those days. "See here, 
 
IN GRIZZLY CA^OX. 23 
 
 Wyman, you'll get shot by the watchman of the * dump ' 
 if you steal any more of the best 'Ophir' ore," said the 
 veteran prospector as he swallowed a "hot Scotch." 
 
 "What do you mean?" Wyman had replied, flushing 
 hotly, for his wild southern blood was not yet toned up to 
 the loaferly familiarity of the frontier bar-room. In that 
 easily expanded circle of loiterers, the last "new-comer" 
 was the general butt until he had paid his " scot," in more 
 ways than one. 
 
 "See here, young .eller, don't get hot," the miner re- 
 torted, for he had half started up at the gleam of Wyman's 
 eyes. "Yer either a fool or a millionaire, if ye didn't 
 steal that from the ' Ophir ' dump. This yere cheese-like 
 stuff is horn silver cloride, and will go three thousand 
 dollars to the ton. That sulphury-looking greasy stuff is 
 also good for four to five thousand. Yer a fool not to 
 know it," he laughed, "an' a millionaire if ye've got the 
 mine." 
 
 It was Andy Bowen's expert reputation as an old Swan- 
 sea man, which caused Fred Wyman to join gaily in the 
 general guffaw. He decided to good-humoredly follow the 
 round of drinks with cigars, and then to wander away to 
 muse over the situation with strange biting thoughts gnaw- 
 ing away at his heart. 
 
 His father, now a Major-General of the seemingly thriv- 
 ing Southern Confederacy, had in his easy way often in old 
 times descanted of the gilded salons of the old world, the 
 sybaritic delights of Saratoga and Long Branch. Too 
 young for an independent social record, young Wyman 
 had only learned the more or less barbaric vices of Louis- 
 ville, iu his native Kentucky, which were confined to 
 an extravagance in cards, whisky and certain venal 
 
24 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 pleasures. His store of classical knowledge sat lightly on 
 Iiirn. His more positive accomplishments of matchless 
 horsemanship, good rifle shooting and the usual arts of 
 the border Kentuckian, were comparatively useless now. 
 But, some low streak of antenatal cunning caused him 
 to paint, in his vigorously sensual mind, the delights of 
 wealth, the power of gold, the pleasant future of a man 
 of fair appearance, endowed with an inexhaustible capacity 
 for all the practical vices of young manhood. For neither 
 heart, head, conscience nor nerve had ever failed Fred 
 Wyman where the open doors of pleasure led him on to 
 the delights of that "passing moment still so fair." 
 
 He had feared to be slyly followed, if he sought for 
 other samples of his secret ore dump. He avoided all 
 future reference to the supposed valuable specimens. But 
 he eagerly studied up the whole subject, and, thanks to 
 Devereux's sickness, he was enabled to confirm the fair 
 average of the selected deposits. 
 
 The whole surface skimming of the great treasure vein 
 had so far only opened its breast a few hundred feet. 
 No one dreamed that men would toil there, in later days, 
 thirty- three hundred feet under the ground; and all the ores 
 now giving revenue were in a transition state from the 
 sublimed gold of the surface, to the chemically combined 
 silver ores of the great " bonanzas." For they were as 
 yet hidden in the mountain's breast, and those heirs of 
 Monte Cristo the rude Bonanza Barons were all as poor 
 as Fred Wyman, and infinitely below him in the social 
 scale. Even - now, James Shinney and Henry Comstock 
 were already poor outcasts, looking back at the Aladdin's 
 Lamp they had rubbed for a doubting world. For they had 
 sold a nation's ransom in milliards for a mere pittance! 
 
IX GRIZZLY CANOX. 25 
 
 Wyman knew this. " By God! No one shall ever out- 
 wit me! " he swore, in his teeth. It never occurred to him 
 to divide his assumed knowledge with his benefactor Dev- 
 ereux. " I must get rid of him someway," he had promptly 
 decided, having no conscience to wrestle with. 
 
 A special visit of Steve Berard's to San Francisco en- 
 abled Wyman to send down a dozen carefully graded 
 samples of each of the hidden ores for an unprejudiced 
 assay. Wyman had hoarded all his gambling winnings to 
 pay the expenses and so conceal this from Devereux. 
 
 His last remark to Berard on leaving was to " Spare no 
 expense! " The romantic story told to Berard of an Indian 
 who knew where there was a mountain of the deposits, 
 never imposed for a single moment on the acute gambler 
 who had cheerfully replied with the optimism of his pro- 
 fessor, "Oh! Damn the expense! I'll do the thing on 
 the square." 
 
 Mr. Berard was a chosen delegate of ' ' the fraternity " 
 to visit San Francisco, and secretly purvey certain im- 
 proved "faro" cases, which by the judicious use of 
 concealed springs, enabled the dealer to produce the 
 last three cards in a bewildering variety of arranged 
 sequences. This neat arrangement filled the faro banker's 
 heart with secret joy, his coffers with gold; and also oc- 
 casioned untold pyrotechnic profanity and financial heart- 
 break among those who "stood up against the game." 
 A rising vote had allotted Steve Berard a handsome 
 sum for "contingent expenses," and the injunction "to 
 have a good time " had followed him, and had been obeyed 
 by their agent to the letter to the " Scarlet Letter." 
 
 But Steven had not forgotten the assays. Even when 
 he entered his rooms at 2 o'clock A. M., this night, he was 
 
26 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 keenly alert as he roused up the sleeping and slightly quarrel- 
 some Wyman. For the potent Spiritus vini Gallici had 
 hastened the beating of the young fellow's heart. His ugli- 
 ness soon vanished as Berard genially smiled, and then emp- 
 tied a confused mass of gold, "greenbacks," and several 
 checks on the table, supplementing this Golconda with a 
 gold watch and chain and a huge cluster diamond pin, the 
 last then being a distinctive badge of the "prosperous 
 American jackass." 
 
 "Hold on, now, Fred! " grinned Steve, " Don't don't, 
 my boy, say anything you would be sorry for." He softly 
 added, "Halloran is sending up two good bottles and a 
 nice little supper. I am seventeen thousand dollars to the 
 good. That is, if he don't stop the checks. But," he 
 thoughtfully smiled, " this fellow can't afford to 'squeal.' 
 His partners in the grocery business would instantly 
 * bounce ' him. I won all he had, except the lady 
 passenger," chuckled Mr. Berard. "Now, boy!" he 
 energetically said, as he handed Frederick Wymaii three 
 sealed envelopes bearing the cabalistic names of * * Kellogg 
 &Heuston," " Kustel & Riotte," and " E. Molitor & 
 Co.," "there are your assays! They gave me certified 
 copies. Unless I have thrown away two hundred dollars, 
 your ore goes way up over Andy Bowen's mark. It is 
 very rich." 
 
 Wyman sank back quickly in his chair, and eagerly 
 drained a glass of brandy forced on him^ For he had 
 paled before the finger of Destiny. Something in his man- 
 ner impressed the reckless gambler. 
 
 "Can you get hold of that mine?" whispered Steve 
 Berard, with a strange light gleaming iii hie eyes. 
 
IN GRIZZLY CANON. 27 
 
 "If you will stand in with me, Steve," muttered the 
 young man, who had torn open the envelopes. 
 
 "On the square to the death!" said Berard, as the 
 clink of champagne bottles was heard on the stair. Their 
 hands met in a silent compact to the death ! 
 
 And, far away, lonely Robert Devereux stirred uneasily 
 in his sick bed down in the cabin in Giv.zzly Cailon. 
 
28 SIISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQU1TA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 ME. ROBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 
 
 " I have studied over the best plan to hoodwink Dever- 
 eux, Fred," said Steve Berard, a month later, as he looked 
 over the ashes of his Cabana at Wyman. They were 
 seated in the safe concealment of the private back room 
 of the "Blue Wing " gambling den. Without, the drifted 
 snows lay piled deep in canon and gully, and thunderous 
 avalanches, which had slipped down from the peak of 
 Mount Davidson, hung threateningly over Virginia City 
 buried in its winter shroud. 
 
 The only sound of life was the lazy puffing of the steam 
 exhausts down on the Comstock. Only a few homeless 
 outcasts staggered along the bleak stony mountain-side. 
 Within the "swell " gambling saloon was that air of genial 
 comfort which is not unconnected with prosperous .vice. 
 Strange to say, the children of Belial, however threaten- 
 ingly the future may lower in the Far Beyond, frequently 
 have what is called a "pretty good time" in this mundane 
 sphere. It) is only a "vale of tears" for the painfully 
 conscientious, who carry their self-allotted burden heavily, 
 like poor Christian in that most estimable book "The 
 Pilgrim's Progress." 
 
 But, life seemed worth living even on this dreary 
 winter afternoon to both Messrs. Wyman and Berard. 
 The untold success of the "deus ex machina" faro box ar- 
 rangements " specially imported " by the gray -eyed gam- 
 
MR. EGBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 29 
 
 bier, had quickly enriched him. A snug, quiet percent- 
 age, weekly rolled into his pockets; for conversation 
 would be awkward, should Steven Berard drop a single 
 word to any disgruntled patron. 
 
 The great strikes of rich veins on the Lode, had drawn 
 new hordes of liberal moneyed men to the winter city, and 
 leisure, excitement, and fictitious values, made money roll 
 easily down the sides of Mount Davidson, and all around 
 the streets still clinging to its precariously rocky breast. 
 The influx of politicians, newspaper men, alleged scientists, 
 and varied adventurers "made Rome howl "; to use the 
 cheerful words of Andy Bowen. The snugly nested mem- 
 bers of the " demi-monde" now looked askance at several 
 really authenticated families. 
 
 A pale faced Priest and a robust Methodist circuit rider 
 regularly lifted up their dissonant voices in Sabbath pray- 
 ers, to the utter astonishment of the ungodly. The school 
 bell clanged out daily, and on Sundays it called to church, 
 with occasional odd jobs as a fire alarm. When it was 
 " packed in " with some ceremony, its usefulness in tapping 
 for the Vigilantes of the future was dimly hinted at. The 
 bounding pulses of life throbbed freshly now along the 
 Comstock, and even upstart wealth began to show its 
 ambitious head. As yet, Virginia City had thrown out no 
 dazzling meteoric representative in the Senate, in the gay 
 circles of Paris, or in the finance baronies of the world's 
 Plutus disciples. Nevada was as yet only a Territory, 
 but the " truly loyal, " yearned to have its baby star sparkle 
 on the flag which drooped so sadly now over the butchered 
 thousands of Fredericksburg and Stone River. 
 
 "Let's have your plan, Steve, " said Wyman, thought- 
 fully, "This town is getting pretty lively now. With 
 
 D 2 
 
30 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE 
 
 the impending elections, the winter racket here, and 
 the fevered stock craze at San Francisco, there may be any 
 day some big upheaval here. I have tried to get Devereux 
 to go down this winter to that wife of his who is always 
 snivelling for him. Then, we could examine the shaft and 
 tunnel in peace. But he sticks. He is useless here. He 
 swears that he will be better in the spring, and then, able 
 to take the whole management. That will spoil our plans. 
 He might soon blunder on the truth. " 
 
 * ' Whited-headed Steve 1 ' eyed the speaker keenly. ' ' Sup- 
 pose that I let you have enough ready money now to tempt 
 him to go down to San Francisco and rest there till the 
 weather is warmer? " Berard jingled his pockets, in a com- 
 fortable mood. 
 
 "Ah! No, Steve," replied Wyrnan. "I could not ex- 
 plain to him, where or how I got it. No one would hon- 
 estly advance anything on my interest, and he knows that 
 I can get nothing now from home. All is war and tumult. 
 The old gentleman may be in Cincinnati even now, if Gen- 
 eral Bragg only has the nerve." The two plotting scoun- 
 drels then drank to the " C. S. A." in an honest sentiment 
 of sectional pride, for the " Stars and Bars " soared high. 
 
 " Then, my boy," cautiously said Berard, "as this fool, 
 Devereux, seems so dead set on watching the mine, all we 
 can do is to lure him away for a couple of months. I have 
 a, ' dead square ' friend old man Holman down on the 
 Carson river. His ranch is only five miles from Carson 
 City, and, by Jinks, its the only homelike place in Washoe. 
 He's under some considerable obligations to me. Now, if 
 Devereux won't cross the Sierras, then try and get him to 
 go down there for a few weeks. He can have woman 
 nursing, and milk and eggs, and honey and chickens down 
 
ME. ROBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRIXK. 31 
 
 there. Holman has got four wives tucked away there. 
 He is one of the first fellows that Brigham Young sent 
 ever here in '48. Sensible old boy! While his party 
 scratched around after a little surface gold they found, 
 ha took up three thousand acres of the Carson valley. 
 His hay and stock, trading with the government and 
 the emigrants have made him solidly rich. So rich that 
 when silver was discovered here in '59, he only laughed. 
 I've kept away from your partner, and he does not even 
 know me by sight. You tell me he's a sort of a home 
 fellow, a kind of book man." 
 
 " Yes," said Wyman. "He was manager of a bank in 
 Massachusetts. He got involved in some way. He's a 
 spirited fellow, but weak at heart. He came over here 
 under a sort of a cloud. I fancy his wife is a peg or two 
 above him in nerve and stamina." 
 
 ' Then he'll be good company for old man Holman's 
 long-legged Mormon girls. They're always begging books 
 and spouting poetry," replied the gambler. 
 
 "Can you depend on Holman?" eagerly said Wyman. 
 
 "I should smile," gaily replied Steve. "You see 
 Brown, 'Killer Brown,' makes his headquarters there. He 
 keeps all his fast horses in old Holman's care. Brown is 
 solid with 'the boys,' and he is a game friend of mine. 
 You see," continued Berard reflectively, "Just after you 
 came here, some ' Smart Aleck ' around Carson ran away 
 with Holman's prettiest Mormon daughter. These gals 
 are just as romantic and as high-blooded here as your South- 
 ern beauties. I suppose it's loneliness, and the climate," 
 Berard leered in a secret joy. 
 
 "What did you do?" languidly asked Fred, his ears 
 tingling at the mention of the "gang of pretty Mormon 
 girls." 
 
32 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 "Oh, I followed them. You see the chap wanted to get 
 to Truckee and get a parson, and marry the girl there over 
 the California line. But I caught him at Reno, and put a 
 ball into him, and brought the girl back. So old man 
 Holman is my friend for life." 
 
 "Did you have any trouble?" said Wyman, with a 
 slight shiver at Berard's perfect unconcern. 
 
 "Not a bit," cheerfully said Steve, taking a good 
 " three finger " drink. "The old man is Justice of the 
 Peace, and he discharged me 'on my own recognizance,' 
 self defense. There was no one but the gal there to 
 look on," simply concluded the cold-blooded murderer. 
 
 "What did he do with the girl?" said Fred. 
 
 " Oh, I saw her, white-faced and peaked enough, loaded 
 into an emigrant wagon, to be dumped out at the Endow- 
 ment House ' in Salt Lake. Some one of the Bishops was 
 ready to marry her seal her. They're a closer corpora- 
 tion even than us sporting men," said Steve, laughing, 
 "She's saved from hell by this time." 
 
 "But, Devereux might leave there without our know- 
 ing it and catch us at our sly work. He would be aston- 
 ished to find you down in the shaft or tunnel. It would 
 be a 'dead give away,' " objected Wyman, doubtfully. 
 
 44 He will never leave there without old man Holman 
 knowing it," replied Steve, coldly. " I will run down 
 myself once or twice, and, if he tried to sneak up here, he 
 would be stopped on the road, sure enough. " 
 
 There was a cruel ring in the gambler's voice. He saw 
 Wyman's air of astonishment. "Nonsense, boy, if you 
 are going to play for a million, you need some nerve 
 nerve first and last. Now, you have pluck enough, 
 but no nerve yet. It will come with a sporting life. Now 
 
MR. ROBERT i^YEREUX DECLINES A DSIrTK. 33 
 
 Holmau's ranch is only a death trap for any outsider. The 
 old man is one of 'Slade's ' gang. lam too. Andaman 
 who has our pass word is safe from the Indian Territory 
 to Boise City, or from Fort Badger to Tucson. All the 
 fancy stolen stock on the plains is handled by these fel- 
 lows, who all understand each other. And ' Bise ' Mc- 
 Lean, in No Man's Land, is the king of the South, while 
 Slade ' is king of the North. ' " 
 
 " Who is this McLean? " curiously said Wyman. 
 
 "Oh, he's a wild young Texan, who ran away from 
 West Point after knifing a fellow cadet. Pity, too; 
 ' Bison ' was smart. He would have been an army officer in 
 six months. They called him 'Bison' because he was 
 covered, body and all, with soft, shaggy, thick hair. He 
 now leads the war parties of the Apaches and Comanches." 
 
 " I should think it would go hard with him if the regu- 
 lar army ever catches him," moodily said Wyman, who 
 had winced under the ugly word "knifing." 
 
 "His own classmates have sworn to burn him alive if 
 they ever catch him, and he has already killed two of 
 them in open single fight. He's a born devil is <Bise' 
 McLean. The only army officer who ever deserted to the 
 Indians." 
 
 "Your recommendation of Holman is a solid one," said 
 Wyman, who began to divine Berard's dark purpose in 
 cooping up the sick man in the Mormon rancher's den of 
 death a robber's nest. 
 
 "Tell me of Devereux's girl," carelessly said Berard, 
 his gray eyes fixed steadily on the young man. "How old 
 is she?" 
 
 "Oh! she's now a handsome, likely child of eight or 
 nine years. She looks to have the mother's grit from her 
 
34 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 picture. The wife is half supporting herself as a costumer 
 for one of the big variety theaters in San Francisco, the 
 "Bella Union," I think. I suppose she has given up all 
 hopes of fortune. She wants Devereux to come down and 
 take a permanent place in some 'Frisco office, and try and 
 make a little home. " 
 
 "Ah!" ejaculated Berard, with a deep drawn breath. 
 "Couldn't we buy the fool out? I don't mind risking a 
 few thousands." 
 
 "Steve!" earnestly said Wyman. "This fellow is really 
 silver mad. I don't know if it is second sight. Perhaps 
 the nervous sensitiveness of his illness. He swears we've 
 really got a mine; and he swears he will never leave it 
 alive. He does." 
 
 "There he is mistaken, my boy, " said Berard, rising 
 with a cruel flash of his eyes. " He will leave it alive, but 
 he won't come back to it, unless he can fly." 
 
 Finishing the brandy bottle at a gulp, Steve Berard's 
 eyes gleamed yellow, as he said, " Now I'll get old man 
 Holman to write to Devereux to come down and talk over 
 the purchase of an interest. You ' lay low,' and leave it all 
 to me. Holman will delay him and keep him on there. 
 The women will all coddle him. They have to do just what 
 the old man says. By God!" cried Berard, forgetting 
 his professional coolness, "Mormon women never kick. 
 They are as gentle as lambs. They've got to be. No airs. 
 Not an air. It's only the young brood who cast sheep's eyes 
 at the good-looking young Gentiles. But, the Danites have 
 already laid out a few dozen of those 16ve-sick Gentile fools. 
 It ain't healthy. I'd sooner run off with a Pawnee chief's 
 wife or a Sioux war chief's sister from a crowded camp 
 than fool with a Mormon girl. These Mormon fellows 
 
MR. EGBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 35 
 
 are scattered along on the road with their station ranches, 
 from Idaho to Arizona and from San Bernardino away to 
 Denver. They are a 'cold deck.' Tell me, when does the 
 delegate, election occur?" Berard was idly fingering his 
 navy revolver. 
 
 "In three months," slowly said Wymau. "The terri- 
 tory was admitted in March, '01. They want to get it in as 
 a state by '64, to give Abe Lincoln two more war Senators." 
 
 "That'll be a good time to do it," mused Berard, as he 
 shoved his revolver back into its sheath, and then busied 
 himself getting ready for an outing to inspect the half 
 dozen faro games he was now interested in. 
 
 "To do what?" cried the startled young borderer. 
 
 Mr. Steven Berard turned back from the door. "To 
 put the damned fool out of the way, if you can prove to me 
 you have got this ore vein in that mine. If he knew what 
 was good for him he would foot it to San Francisco the 
 whole hundred and eighty miles, and not growl at the 
 Truckee trail, either. I suppose we are to have an even 
 interest, Fred, counting the whole mine?" 
 
 "Yes, yes!" eagerly cried the excited Wyman. "But 
 who is to do it?" The young fellow's voice was quivering 
 in the thrill of a first deliberately plotted crime. 
 
 "You will see," sententiously remarked Berard, as he 
 filled his cigar case. " Look here, Fred, if you pull off a 
 big stake here, what will you do? You can't go back 
 South as an alien enemy. You couldn't hold title here 
 now under the devilish Yankee iron-clad laws. We must 
 get the title and records fixed all O. K. after he is done 
 up," seriously ruminated Berard, with a business air. 
 
 "I shall never go back South, Steve," answered the 
 youth, gazing complacently at himself in a twisted sheet 
 
36 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 looking-glass. " If I do get money, I will have my fling 
 in Europe first, then marry into some big family out here 
 and settle down. This coast will be a great section yet 
 for style and luxury." 
 
 Berard smiled, but he grew attentive as Wyman con- 
 tinued, " I have watched the metal here change as the 
 mines are sunk, from three-quarters gold to three-quarters 
 silver. Now, Steve, big, deep silver mining is a very sci- 
 entific affair. There'll be a systematic hollowing out of 
 this magic mountain. Millions will go into machinery, a 
 great city and railroads will be here. If Abe Lincoln 
 holds America together they will push the railroad on east 
 over the plains. There will be place, power, and a high- 
 toned money society. I want to get right into it at the 
 top. That's my plan." Wyman's tongue ran on in rosy 
 anticipation. 
 
 " And so you will build up your house of life on your first 
 partner's bones," sneered Steve Berard. " Well he's a fool 
 and a Yankee, any way, but it's mighty rough on the woman! 
 Still, if he w r on't get out of the way, we've got to put his 
 light out." Berard was brisk and quietly cheerful in his 
 manner. 
 
 " Steve," faltered the young dreamer, "you must not 
 connect me with the the 
 
 "Oh, nonsense!" roughly cried tne gambler. " There's 
 your damned lack of nerve. You are ready for the spoils, 
 but you want to be held safe. I tell you again, you've 
 got no nerve. Now, keep your eyes open and boost him 
 off cheerfully when Holman's letter comes. He will have 
 it in four days. Then come to me at once; till then, keep 
 dark. I must be very careful. First, to see if you've 
 really got this rich pay ore." 
 
MR. ROBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 37 
 
 " It's five feet thick in the shaft, and I cross cut it eleven 
 feet in the tunnel," eagerly cried the youth. 
 
 11 All right then. It's a < whack,'" answered the gam- 
 bler. " I'll have to be sly. I may have someone else do 
 it, or else pick a quarrel on politics. I'll work him oft' 
 sure enough. Now, remember! " and Mr. Steven Berard 
 walked away, unconcernedly whistling, "Dixie's Land." 
 
 Fred Wy man's face was blanched as he rode down to 
 the shades of Grizzly Cafion to meet the sick man who 
 trusted him, his partner, to the last, the very last. 
 
 "What a cold-hearted young brute that Wyman is," 
 mused Steve Berard, as he kept his eyes fixed to the front 
 between the nervously pointed ears of a fine trotter that 
 evening. A sleigh dash of ten miles to the Five Mile 
 House and return, cleared the card sharper's brain for his 
 evening devotions to Fortuna. "If the vein is there, we 
 will have all the money we want, and I'm glad to have 
 the thing come off down at Carson." 
 
 Mr. Berard noticed as he drove back along C street 
 several knots of earnest looking men eagerly eying his 
 great roan trotter. He never fancied that they objected 
 to the carmine-cheeked, mouse-eyed little French queen of 
 Faro at his side. But, even cool gray-eyed sports can 
 miss a trick, now and then. 
 
 A peculiarly atrocious murder caused by a quarrel over 
 this very woman had caused the quick sprouting of that 
 fern seed of magic power which at last bringeth out 
 the " Regulator," the "Vigilante," the " Committee of 
 Safety," and other sturdy step-children of " Judge Lynch." 
 
 Steve Berard was still unaware of the crystallization of a 
 certain determined feeling in Virginia City that certain 
 dark fruit was ripening soon to dangle from telegraph pole 
 
38 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Oi' mining hoist frame, with that peculiarly uneasy twist- 
 ing of the eccentrically knotted hangman's rope, when 
 Andy Bowen good-humoredly remarked, "Steve, you 
 sports ought not to shear the boys too close, and be too 
 free with the knife and pistol. A mining crowd is an 
 ugly one sometimes." Steve had only shown the faint 
 wintry gleam of the gambler's smile, "Andy, "he said 
 quietly, ci when the tidal wave of reform strikes this here 
 camp, I will be over the hill and far away. I know just 
 how high a telegraph pole is, and I never yet have worn 
 out my welcome. Let's all have a drink." 
 
 In the lofty attitude of the Comstock, " a drink " punc- 
 tuated all social meetings, with its staccato ejaculation 
 "How!" Equally fit for wake, funeral, christening or 
 wedding; the first hailing sign of friendship, the last sigh 
 of regret, the "drink" was the smallest current gold coin 
 amity, and a legal tender never to be refused. Certain 
 grave public functions might defer the solemnity, but 
 moral insanity, or rooted hatred alone, explained a decli- 
 nation. To the shaggy-breasted giants of the Comstock, 
 a deliberate refusal was, if public, and premeditated, the 
 cut direct, and the one unpardonable sin. A lurid mist of 
 uncertain but bloody chronological anecdotes hovered 
 around the memories of ill-starred men, cut off in their 
 prime, who had blundered upon their doom. Some local 
 regret still clings to the virginal name of a strayed theolog- 
 ical student, whose mild but positive declination had been 
 the " deep damnation " of his sudden taking off. Alas! His 
 firmness of moral principle was mistaken for that un- 
 seemly pride which goeth before a fall and it was treated 
 accordingly. 
 
 The fact of a general subscription for a railing and 
 
MR. ROUEET DEVEREUX DECLINED A DRINK. 39 
 
 wooden cenotaph to mark the spot where the lost lamb 
 had lain, until removed eastwardly, showed a general 
 good-humored regret. The spread-eagle, in the national 
 colors, with a neat label, "We mourn his loss," was a 
 credit to the sign painter, who had just illuminated Vir- 
 ginia City's one-hand fire engine, with a somewhat sim- 
 ilar device other words, but the same stencilled eagle! 
 
 While Steve Berard lived easily on the involuntary con- 
 tributions of the " patent faro box " victims, Mr. Freder- 
 ick Wyman shared not the social public diversions of his 
 friend. Somewhat in Berard' s debt, Wyman could not 
 afford to share his expensive pleasures. He now avoided 
 all public association with the "sport" element, and in 
 the days following the interview, when the trapping of 
 Devereux was arranged, the borderer clung closely to the 
 cabin in Grizzly Canon. With the aversion of a south- 
 erner to all menial hand labor, Wyman revolted at the 
 simple personal care devolving on him of a fortnightly 
 effort at his own laundry work. But it was painfully 
 achieved at the side of the nearest brook, and with the 
 aid of the faintly gleaming winter sun. 
 
 Standing there, one day, watching his coarse jerkins and 
 canvas overalls waving in the Mount Davidson zephyrs, 
 Wyman started as Devereux called him back into the 
 cabin. For a friendly passer-by had thrown in at the 
 open door a couple of letters. 
 
 Wyman eyed his sickly querulous partner with an ill- 
 concealed disgust, as he joined him at the rough table. 
 The mean interior of the cabin had never looked so 
 shabby to the son of an easy slave-owning planter. A 
 few cast-off tin >meat cases, some emptied boxes, buckets 
 improvised from kerosene cans, the walls covered 
 
40 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 with gaudy prints cut from the "illustrated" weeklies, 
 the smoke grimed ceiling and clay floor recalled the hovels 
 of the "poor white trash" he had often seen in Arkansas. 
 He only missed the coon skins nailed against the doors 
 for sun curing, and the squalid children. 
 
 "Curse this rocky wilderness!" he muttered. "A rac- 
 coon has too much native sense to stay here." And, the 
 young man cast longing glances at the far dim Sierras, 
 towering far away in the crystal air. 
 
 Far beyond their summits, yet less than two hundred 
 miles, lay San Francisco, with its hastily thrown together 
 mansions, where bright eyes gleamed over whitest bosoms, 
 passionately heaving in life and love. There jewels 
 gleamed; the rich laughter of Avomen rang out not the 
 painted mechanical puppets of the tawdry dance halls but 
 women worth the winning. There, the boards groaned 
 under feasts glittering in silver and crystal. Far-off music 
 seemed to haunt his dulled ears; the waving forms of the 
 beauties in the dance, the glitter of high life real life 
 not the every day realistic drudgery of the adventurer, not 
 the occasional debauch of the idle worker, all charmed him. 
 He yearned for the smooth and easy path where roses 
 smiled around the trail of the softly sliding serpent of 
 Pleasure. 
 
 "I am going to leave you, Fred; that is, for a few days, 
 or even weeks," said Devereux, with the hesitating, ambi- 
 tionless voice of a man dragged down by ague's gnawing. 
 "I have received an offer for an interest in the mine. A 
 man named Holman, down near Carson, writes me and he 
 wants to see me. Can you get along without me here for 
 a little while? " 
 
 Wyman's heart beat like a trip hammer, and he turned 
 
MR. EGBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 41 
 
 away his head to hide a crimson flush of physical shame; 
 for the poor bird was fluttering along into the snare. 
 
 " Well! If you must go, I suppose you must! " indeci- 
 sively rejoined Wyman, busying himself with his pipe. "I 
 can hold on to the mine, and keep up the twenty days 
 work in every three months. It may do you good. 
 Where is this man's place, do you say? " He turned away 
 to hide his joy. 
 
 "Near Carson City," answered Devereux, in a sickly 
 monotone. "He says that I can pick up a bit there, as he 
 has a homelike place; and there are women there, too, of 
 his family. What do you say? Shall I write him that I 
 will come? " The man's fate was trembling in the balance. 
 
 "You might as well go down on the stage to-morrow, 
 and you would beat your own letter in schedule time. I'm 
 going up to the 'burg,' and I'll hold you a place in the 
 stage," said Wyman. 
 
 " All right," replied his partner. "Do you wish to sell 
 any of your own quarter interest? " Wyman started. He 
 was taken by surprise. After a few moments, he answered, 
 sullenly: 
 
 "No. If we don't strike it in the Mariquita, then I'll 
 work my way back East over the Sierras, and give it up. 
 But I'll stay on here and take care of your interest." 
 
 That night, while Robert Devereux stirred uneasily in 
 his rough couch, as a crackling back log threw out its 
 shower of sparks in its sudden fall, or when, flushed with 
 fever, he drained the can of cool water, brought by the 
 poor old Indian, who watched his fevered meanings when 
 the " spell" was on, Steve Berard and Frederick Wyman 
 perfected all their final arrangements for " taking care of 
 his interest." 
 
 "Get him off in good shape, Fred," soothingly said 
 Berard, as they parted, for a late faro game was on. 
 
42 MISS DEYEllEUX OF THE 
 
 " Find out where he keeps all his papers and things. Don't 
 let him stow any ugly reminders away around the cabin. " 
 
 61 Oh! He'll take all down there with him," answered 
 the younger villain. "Then I'll get everything, right 
 enough." 
 
 "Holmanwill look out for that," remarked Berard, 
 cheerfully, as he added: " When he is safely picketed out 
 to grass there, I will give you the word. Then, you and 
 I will go through the mine, in short order." 
 
 " And, if we find what I know is there," eagerly whis- 
 pered Wynian, " you make it a sure thing for me and 
 I'll make the other a dead cold game. 
 
 "And, no talk, either," answered Berard. 
 
 In the wintry gray of the ensuing morning, Robert 
 Devereux leaned out of the window of the stage coach, 
 and feebly waved his hand to his stalwart young partner, 
 standing on the platform of the Magnolia saloon. For, 
 with a deft eccentric curve, and a fusillade of crackling 
 oaths, the driver tooled his "scratch" team out of the 
 stable yard to the straight run out of town. 
 
 "Fred's a good fellow, true, staunch; and I am safe in 
 his hands," mused Devereux, as his wearied head sank 
 back against the leather cushions in the stage. He fell into 
 a sleep of exhaustion, and he missed the last view of 
 gloomy Grizzly Canon from the divide near Gold Hill, as 
 it lay silent there in the shadow, under the rocky knobs of 
 outcroppings marking the fancied course of the metal- 
 bearing veins of the " Mariquita. " There was nothing to 
 call him back to the squalor and misery he left behind. 
 But Hope with rosy fingers pointed onward to Holman's 
 ranch, and a dim undercurrent of cheerful imaginings fol- 
 lowed the jingle of the rattling trace chains. The sleeper 
 only heard the rattle of golden coins. A portion of his 
 interest marketed, with ready money, then, a few months 
 
MR. ROBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 43 
 
 with the brave, bright-eyed wife in far San Francisco, and 
 the merry child, whose sweet, loving face he only saw in 
 his dreams. 
 
 Fred Wyman turned away with a sneer, as the stage 
 swept around a huge rocky promontory, and his partner 
 was swallowed up in its overhanging shadows. "There 
 goes a man who is a mere slave of an absent woman's will. 
 A poor, nervous driveller. No woman will ever make a 
 fool of me. " Secure in the complacency of the bright 
 armor of his youth, Wyman drank to his own reflection in 
 the saloon mirror, and then sauntered away to report to 
 Berard, who was " lying perdu," for this day. 
 
 " I will have all ready for you, Steve," said the now 
 eager traitor. " Old Captain Johnson shall keep watch 
 over the tunnel and shaft. I can easily show you what 
 you wish to verify in a couple of nights' secret work. Day 
 and night are the same down there in those holes." 
 
 "All right! I'm your man," replied the laconic Berard. 
 " Stay down below until I get word from old Holman. 
 Brown goes down to-morrow, and Holman then gets the 
 private tip to keep Devereux there. I will never show 
 up at the Ranch unless I happen along by mere accident." 
 
 The cold shivers were chasing each other along the spinal 
 nerves of Mr. Frederick Wyman, as he quickly walked 
 away with a nod of humble obedience. These necessary 
 practical details of a crime atrociously planned in cool 
 mental deviltry startled Wyman, who was shyer than the 
 poor girl, stealing with strangely naming eyes, to a first 
 rendezvous. But his mean, egoistic, callous and selfish 
 heart had coldly abandoned to his fate the man for whom 
 mother and child were now praying on their knees that 
 night by the stormy San Francisco Bay. 
 
 "I fancy Berard is right," muttered Wyman, as he 
 picked his way down Grizzly Canon. He seemed to fear 
 
44 MISS DEVEEEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 even the dark shadows now. * ' I have the heart, the 
 pluck at last, but I am not sure of my nerve," he mur- 
 mured; " that's what Steve says." Keeping even the 
 poor old Indian in sight as a lay figure to ward off dark 
 and haunting thoughts, Wyman could not realize that he 
 only needed success, the vulgar but concrete power of 
 money, to change him into an insolent bully. He needed 
 but the crushing force of the golden hammer to drive in 
 the hall-mark of his smiling, insincere face upon the pinch- 
 beck metal of the gilded society of the West. * * If we only 
 strike it, I will show them what I can do," the vain 
 plotter proudly dreamed, as he contemplated the graceful 
 outlines of his own shadow. * ' Once up there among the 
 swells, I am as good as any of the Californian quality. 
 They all lack background, and a verified history." The 
 sneer was lost on the wild winds wailing down Grizzly 
 Caiion, while Robert Devereux lingered far away in 
 wonder at the cordial welcome of the oily Mormon 
 ranchero and his passively obedient sad-eyed womanhood. 
 
 " He even doubts me!" ruminated Wyman, a week later, 
 as Berard, in the gray dawn, loaded his strong saddle horse, 
 hidden behind the cabin in Grizzly Canon, with the last 
 saddle-bag's burden of selected samples from shaft and 
 tunnel. For hours, Wyman had watched the lithe gam- 
 bler burrowing in the exposed masses of the crumbling 
 chloride, or eagerly scooping out with his hand the rich, 
 fat sulphides crumbling under the blows of a short miner's 
 pick. 
 
 "You can work like ahorse, Steve," admiringly re- 
 marked the young man. 
 
 "So I can, so I could, so I used to in Missouri; but 
 hard work and I have parted company forever," the gam- 
 bler shortly answered. 
 
 Eagle-eyed, nervous, suspicious, the arch villain buried 
 
1R ROBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 45 
 
 himself in the little drifts and cross-cuts made by his own 
 toiling hands. 
 
 66 This is my deal, Fred," he laconically remarked, 
 " and no man shuffles the cards without my having a cut." 
 
 On the last morning of the secret exploration, he turned 
 at last sharply and faced Wyman: "See here, Fred, 
 there's lots of this stuff. I'm satisfied of that. I have 
 locked up all I have taken, and I will now have it privately 
 worked over for the last time. Now, if the assays come 
 out all right, I'll back you through thick and thin, and 
 we will get this mine into our hands, even interests, mind 
 you. But I will send a friend down here to watch for me. 
 I do not want you to come to town, to go near the mine 
 myself, or to open a letter or telegram till I tell you to 
 come up to town. I'll send you down all the supplies you 
 want, daily." 
 
 "But the mine?" babbled Fred. 
 
 "I'll have that watched, too, on the private. Don't 
 you forget it! Do you accept?" The gambler spoke 
 roughly. The cross blood in Frederick Wymau's heart 
 boiled up. His youthful gorge rose. 
 
 "And if I do not?" he snarled, with one attempt at 
 self-assertion. A sudden flash of cold steel glittered be- 
 fore Wyman's eyes. The navy revolver had never looked 
 as inconveniently oversized as on this particular day when 
 Wyman looked down its loaded barrel. " I'll kill you in 
 your tracks if you double on me; for I have got your fool 
 of a partner now where I want him." 
 
 Wyman's glance dropped, and his hand left the butt of 
 his own pistol. "Anything, anything, Steve," he mur- 
 mured; and he stood there trembling and fascinated as 
 the gambler rode away. 
 
 Four days later, Berard walked into the cabin where 
 Wyman and his secret jailer sat over their cards and 
 
 K 2 
 
46 MISS DEVEREU& OF THti MARIQUITA. 
 
 whisky. By the brookside the gambler indicated the 
 "Mariquita" with a wink. "We've been struck by light- 
 ning luck. There's millions in that location." Wy man's 
 teeth chattered as he walked away and sat down on a stone 
 by the icy flowing waters of the brook leaping out of the 
 buttressing crags over him there, covering the unsuspected 
 bonanza. 
 
 " Are you sure? " he faintly said. 
 
 " I know it! " firmly answered his master. <- Get your 
 things together and come up and stay at the Golden Eagle 
 for a couple of weeks, for I am going down to Holman's 
 ranch. But I'll first go to Washoe City, catch the stage 
 and go on over at night to Truckee. Then I'll happen in 
 at the old man's place at Carson about the time of this 
 election of delegates to the Convention." 
 
 " When do you want*me? " meekly murmured the man 
 who had loosened this growing afrite from the bottle. 
 
 "Oh! Get up there about night-fall. By the way, leave 
 all your traps here. Old Johnson can look after them. 
 I'll send a decent outfit into your room, and leave you 
 plenty of money." Berard paused, in this unusually long 
 personal announcement. 
 
 " And, what shall I do up in town? " hazarded Wyman, 
 now drifting along helplessly under the piloting of the 
 cool villain, who had mastered him. 
 
 "Just lay around town, and keep your mouth shut. Stay 
 away from the cabin here, till you hear from Holman's 
 ranch." 
 
 When Wyman was alone, he felt a strange new sensa- 
 tion. Some strange warm fluid, new to him, seemed to be 
 coursing in his veins. His head was unconsciously ele- 
 vated, in a new born pride, but all that afternoon he 
 started at the mere crackle of a twig, or the chance shadow 
 of a passing wayfarer in the lonely trail leading down to 
 
MR. ROBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 47 
 
 the Carson. At night-fall, he left the canon and dared 
 not look back to where he had so often sat in the cool of 
 the evening before their cabin door, with the man who 
 was now lingering by the great stone fireplace at Holman's 
 ranch. In the hush of that winter evening, as he climbed 
 the hill to the straggling city on the mountain's breast, 
 the huge black mass of Mount Davidson seemed to him to 
 be only a giant stone rolled over the crushed breast of 
 Robert Devereux. 
 
 " I hope to God I will never see or hear of him again!" 
 was the singular prayer which ascended to Heaven from 
 the cowardly renegade's heart. 
 
 Three weeks later, Elder Holman of the Church of the 
 Latter Day Saints sat, in the noon sunshine, gazing out com- 
 placently on the far sweeping Carson meadows which 
 were his own property. The comfortable seat of his road 
 wagon was the throne of the Mormon dignitary, who 
 veiled here his unlawful rank, under the genial vulgate 
 of Old Man Holman. He was in high good humor on this 
 election morning. A new government contract for hay at 
 fifty dollars per ton, enabled him to dispose of the vast 
 crop which cost him little, save cheap rations and unlim- 
 ited whisky for the Piutc aboriginal squaws who cut it. 
 Three thousand acres of land simply pre-empted, was his 
 baronial domain. On Ui3 hills, grazed the cattle and 
 horses picked up from the emigrant trains, still pouring 
 westward. For they crawled along over the Rockies, 
 from "St. Joe" and Kansas City, to thread the never-end- 
 ing Platte valley, wander, weary-footed, past Salt Lake, 
 drag down the Ilumboldt, and then, by Donner's Gap and 
 Truckee, enter the great Sacramento Valley through the 
 eternally uplifted gates of the Sierras. From these 
 hardy parents of the untamed brood of the Golden Land, 
 the sly, oily old Mormon became rich by a traffic on their 
 
48 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 necessities. He fell heir to their abandoned hous ehold 
 gear. Their broken-down trains were all refitted at his 
 shops, and even his pale-faced harem spoiled the care- 
 worn emigrant mothers of their last treasured womanly 
 gear. 
 
 While the Indian squaws cultivated " garden truck " 
 for the near-by market of Carson City, the territorial cap- 
 ital, Holman used the Indian "bucks " to herd his cattle 
 and to convey the produce to the nearest settlements. The 
 sordid squaws worked for rations and shining silver, with 
 trading goods of inflammatory color, but the lordly war- 
 rior toiled alone for that Avhisky, the all potent* 'fire 
 water " which unlocks the savage heart over the whole 
 world. "The warrior bent his crested head" only to 
 linger lovingly with his copper-hued lips ; glued to the 
 neck of the magic brown bottle. 
 
 On the frontier, it is an even race for "Home Rule," 
 between an attractive Avoman, even with a go-as-you-please 
 history, and the invincible spirits of wine. King Alcohol 
 usually creeps closer to the heart and lingers longer than 
 the vicarious daughters of Venus who awake long slum- 
 bering passions. The wide swath cut by "forty rod 
 whisky" in this weary world puts the grim record of At- 
 tila the Destroyer far back into well merited obscurity. 
 
 It was whispered in Reno and Carson, yea, even to Vir- 
 ginia City's halls, that old Holman artfully kept several 
 large U. S. Cavalry posts garrisoned near him, a splendid 
 market for his stock, horses and hay, by inducing his 
 swarthy warrior helots, when not cutting grass, to go out 
 and make insane demonstrations of revolt in the nearest 
 mountains. Mail carriers waylaid, a periodical Indian 
 scare, and all these threatened uprisings enriched the old 
 hypocrite, who regarded all this only as a good joke on 
 "Uncle Sam." 
 
MR. EGBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 49 
 
 His " Uncle" was quite busied then with Messrs. Lee, 
 Bragg, Beauregard, and Johnston, and the ocean was lit 
 up with the flames of burning Yankee ships. So 1 1 Brother 
 Holman " worked all his little schemes in safety, for Brig- 
 ham Young was now the uncontrolled master of the Middle 
 Gates of America at Echo Canon. There, with twenty 
 thousand stalwart Mormons at his back, he could say, ' ' No 
 Thoroughfare," for the magic locomotive would not 
 scream the knell of the Mormon Church for several long 
 and weary years. And the country's fate trembled in the 
 balance ! 
 
 ^"Devereux," heartily cried the old Danite (whose 
 awful secret rank was unknown in the Carson Valley), 
 " Don't mope around here always with my women. You 
 make me jealous." The coarse old patriarch guffawed, as 
 the sun-bonneted women fled away. 
 
 They all liked Devereux's gentle ways, his personal re- 
 finement, and one or two of the ''wives" had even fur- 
 tively chatted with the convalescent about the " States," 
 which they were doomed never to see again. Swept into 
 the grinding mill of the world's strangest social experi- 
 ment, these dull-eyed drudges still cherished a bit of hid- 
 den sentimentality at heart. The dull sameness of their 
 anonymous maternity, drudgery and cowering slavery, 
 yielded to Devereux's feeble yet tender sentimentality for 
 his absent wife and child. 
 
 "See here, jump in and ride down to the polling place 
 with me. I've got to see that all goes on square and fair. 
 It's only a couple of miles down there at the Willows 
 Cross Roads." Devereux slowly yielded to Holman's hearty 
 persuasions. Lingering along in the artful bargaining, 
 waiting till the rancher could sell a " drove of beeves," or 
 five hundred cavalry horses to get ready gold, the chief 
 owner of the "Mariquita" was content, for his weekly 
 letters from partner Wyman told that all was well. 
 
50 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQU1TA. 
 
 " If I get the new mail contracts, or close my annual 
 hay supply with Uncle Sam, I can then pay you out in 
 1 'greenbacks," urged Ilolman as he dallied daily with the 
 unsuspecting stranger within his gates. For, banks there 
 were none near him. 
 
 Robert Devereux fell naturally in with Holman's easy 
 mood, and never once turned back his eyes to where the clus- 
 tered women watched them from the porch, as they drove 
 away over the springy Carson meadows. There was one 
 among the dull-eyed women who went back into her den 
 in the great old two-storied ranch house, and hid her face 
 in her blue cotton apron, crying the pitiful wail of a feeble 
 woman. 
 
 ''Mother Louise" was now an old woman, Holman's 
 first wife. She had passed all the days of passion's storms. 
 Whatever poor bit of timid-beating heart she ever had, 
 was now broken. In secret sadness, she had seen addition 
 after addition made to the roomy old caravansera. As 
 Ilolman prospered and waxed socially defiant, younger, 
 more comely women claimed the brief honors of the ruling 
 favorite. But the faded old " first wife " was intelligent. 
 Fear and mere habit had made her loyal. It was she who 
 had brought the smooth-faced old scoundrel the loaded re- 
 volver which the stranger guest might have felt in Asa 
 Holman's overcoat pocket as they drove away, crowded 
 together on the wagon seat. No one but old " Mother 
 Louise" knew of the secret visits of Killer Brown and 
 his ilk. 
 
 She, alone, had observed Steve Berard wandering around 
 nt night-fall, in the farthest corral, behind the storehouse, 
 for several days past, with the cold-eyed despot who bru- 
 talized her, and yet trusted her, alone, of all the world. 
 
 "For God's sake, Asa! " she had timidly whimpered, 
 " Have no harm come to this poor man, under our roof. 
 
MR. ROBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DRINK. 51 
 
 Think of yourself." But she was fain to be silent as the 
 sturdy old scoundrel threw her from him. 
 
 "By God, Louise, if you take on, I'll cart you down to 
 John, on Salt River in Arizona, and he can then take care of 
 you." The poor old dethroned wife hid her whitened face 
 in her deserted room, for the one son of these early days, 
 now a fiery apostle of Brigham, was far away pushing the 
 feelers of the Mormon octopus on toward Arizona and 
 Mexico. 
 
 The frightened woman, sobbing alone in her room, could 
 not divine the sly, mean rascality of her husband, who did 
 not care to risk his life, or the enjoyment of his "much 
 good " in a mere blood quarrel. But Magistrate Holman, 
 the leading citizen, had his cue and his eyes never left the 
 face of the stranger as they dallied in " bald disjointed 
 chat " until they reached the polling place. 
 
 An excited, drunken crowd of several hundred lingered 
 around the Willows Cross Roads, at a safe distance; for by 
 the law's light prohibition, the voting place was located in 
 some sheds, near the stage house station and grog shop, 
 where Holman's meaner villainies were usually enacted. 
 Frowsy indians, playing cards, on greasy blankets stretched 
 near the fences, a few dozen horses tied to the rails of the 
 corrals, a fringe of armed, vulgar loafers, and the occa- 
 sional visits of wagon loads of noisy voters, enlivened the 
 great day of the Constitutional Convention election. 
 
 Devereux, finally voting at Holmau's dictation, after 
 several feeble protests, was really glad to leave the scene, 
 when the Elder Magistrate, the leader of public opinion 
 in the valley, had pompously inspected the whole proceed- 
 ings. 
 
 "There maybe some letters. It's near stage time." 
 carelessly remarked Asa Holman, as they leisurely drove 
 over to the Cross Roads. 
 
52 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 A motely crowd of loungers, purchasers and patrons of 
 the bar, filled the Cross Roads store. In the tedium of 
 waiting for the assorting of a hundred letters by a half 
 drunken clerk, cigar in mouth, and in his shirt sleeves, 
 Devereux wandered out into the bar-room, where a few 
 flashy illustrated papers lay spread on the vacant card 
 tables. From without, the sounds of political quarrel, 
 cheers for the Red, White and Blue, hurrahs for Jeff 
 Davis, and all the Babel of a day of days at the Cross 
 Roads, jarred upon the weakened nerves of the sick pros- 
 pector. Wearied of waiting, he rose to pass out, and, 
 with his eyes vainly searching for " Brother Holman," 
 essayed to edge his way through the newer patrons of the 
 " whisky spring." A pair of sinewy hands whirled him 
 roughly round before the bar. For the first time he saw, 
 at close range, the disgustingly vicious face of " White- 
 headed Steve." 
 
 " See here, every man has got to drink to the Stars and 
 Bars. Hurrah for Jeff Davis! Hats off, and whisky all 
 round. Damn Abe Lincoln! " the gambler cried, in an 
 affected fury. Devereux was half way to the door when 
 the gambler's hot breath was on his cheek. 
 
 "Don't back out, you white-livered Yankee," cried 
 Steve Berard, whose hand had dropped to his side. In 
 the nervous revulsion of the sudden onslaught, Devereux 
 stepped back a pace with his hands clasped behind him. 
 
 "I don't drink to Jeff Davis; I There were two 
 
 deafening reports in quick succession, a crash of glass, as 
 several frightened loafers sprang through the flimsy win- 
 dows, and as the barkeepers raised their heads from their 
 concealment behind the bar, the blue smoke drifted away. 
 "White-headed Steve," as repulsive as a cotton-mouthed 
 moccasin, was there, still erect. Springing back a step or 
 two, he still held his smoking pistol cocked in his hand. 
 
ME. EGBERT DEVEEEUX DECLINES A DRINK. 53 
 
 Not a word escaped his thin, cruel lips as Asa Holman 
 leaned over the prostrate form of Devereux, writhing 
 on the floor, with a thickening pool of warm red 
 blood stealing out from under the twitching arms. The 
 lips of the dying man moved. Holman bending down 
 over him, heard the last sigh of the parting spirit: "My 
 God, Mary, the child! " 
 
 . And as the outsiders crowded to the door, Berard's 
 voice broke the silence: "Take his pistol away, Judge. 
 That's all. He wasn't quick enough." 
 
 When Elder Holman laid the undischarged pistol on 
 the bar, before them all, his husky voice shook slightly as 
 he said: " What's all this about, gentlemen? This is 
 most unfortunate. This man was staying down at my 
 house." 
 
 In five minutes the soberest of the bystanders were 
 awaiting the summons of a coroner's jury, to the little rear 
 office, where Robert Devereux's face was slowly stiffening 
 from the waxen warmth of the passing, into what the men 
 of the scalpel call the " rigor mortis." 
 
 Steven Berard, in an adjoining storeroom, was sur- 
 rounded by an excited crowd. " Don't talk, Steve," cried 
 a hard-faced man, pushing his way to the front. "Judge 
 Holman, himself, knows that this here fellow pulled his 
 gun first. Keep quiet. You'll be out all right." 
 
 To a casual stage passenger, who leaned against a door, 
 the sudden sobering of Mr. Steve Berard looked very 
 strange. The outsider quickly wended his way to the 
 now waiting stage, and as he dropped into his seat, mut- 
 tered, "Looks like a ' put-up job.' The poor fellow never 
 tried to shoot. That I know. I'll be glad to get out of 
 this murderous hole alive." The stage was miles away 
 before the stranger suddenly started. " That pistol, yes, 
 some one dropped it there near him. For what purpose? 
 
54 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAK1QUITA. 
 
 Poor fellow, he looked rather decent. Sort of Eastern man, 
 I guess." And, on his arrival in Virginia City, the Postal 
 Inspector, who prudently traveled in strict incognito, mar- 
 veled that the "Carson City Times" made no mention 
 of the incident. 
 
 " The fact is, "said Asa Holman,on the day following the 
 tragedy, as he talked with the editor of the one journal of 
 Carson City, " My women are taking on awfully about this. 
 It's the first killin' near our ranch. The jury found it 
 was * self-defense,' and, true, there was this man's pistol 
 in his hand, you see. I could do nothing but let Berard 
 go. He's a sort of a half-way peaceable fellow, is Steve. So, 
 as it's all regular, I wish you would not stir this thing up. 
 All the boys down there say it was i square shootinV I 
 heard two shots myself." 
 
 " Did this man shoot at Steve? "the editor languidly 
 said, as he motioned the rich farmer into the nearest 
 saloon for a last solemn drink to the manes of the de- 
 parted. 
 
 "Well, that's argued," said the cautious Mormon, 
 scratching his head. "I picked up the pistol and laid it 
 on the bar. It's gone! Somebody whipped it away in the 
 hurry." 
 
 " Where's Steve? " queried the journalist as he finished 
 his drink. 
 
 " Oh, he got out of the valley. Gone back to Virginia 
 City by way of Washoe City. lie was quite badly cut up 
 about this." 
 
 " Who was this man, anyway? " was the last interroga- 
 tory of the man of ink. 
 
 " No one knows much. His things were all turned over 
 to me. My women are looking through them, but he had 
 no papers of any kind." 
 
 Elder llolman soberly drove away homeward in his com- 
 
MR. EGBERT DEVEREUX DECLINES A DR1XK. 55 
 
 fortable road wagon, and never finished that remark. He 
 meant to imply that Robert Devereux had no papers with 
 him, when a shallow trench, hollowed in the Carson mead- 
 ows, hid the pale, accusing face of the victim from the eyes 
 of the sanctimonious Holman. Behind the Elder, Mother 
 Louise, with blanched face, looked at the hasty ceremony. 
 She alone knew where the missing pistol was hidden. She 
 alone knew of the vigil in Avhich Holman and Steve Ber- 
 ard rifled all the poor belongings of the dead owner of the 
 " Mariquita." Steven Berard hurrying away to the scene 
 of future triumphs, bore, in his flinty bosom, the little 
 packet of faded papers, which tied up the legal title to the 
 hidden treasures. 
 
 The quiet of the winter night which closed down upon 
 the lonely grave at Holman 's ranch, was broken by no 
 woman's wail, for, far away, Mary Devereux was comfort- 
 ing her child. 
 
 " We will all be so happy, Hope, when your father comes 
 home to us." For, the waiting wife only knew vaguely of 
 some impending stroke of good fortune. 
 
56 MISS DEVEBEUX OF THE MAK1QUITA. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. 
 
 Frederick Wyman was a changed man in the four weeks 
 of lonely waiting for tidings from the ranch on the Carson. 
 In some strange, occult way, Berard had broken his spirit. 
 He never even considered the mutiny of a stolen visit to 
 where the buried riches of the " Mariquita" lay. Week 
 by week the great ' ' lode " was being traced southward to 
 the edge of the high ridge overlooking Grizzly Canon. " I 
 shall not write to you," Berard had snapped out. "My 
 man will keep me posted by our own < grapevine telegraph.' 
 Don't you fret about the mine. Have a good time. Wait, 
 and keep your mouth shut."* 
 
 The good time spun itself out into a galling and lazy 
 slavery. The faces of the loungers, the painted visages of 
 the cheap Cleopatras of Nevada, the dull round of visits to 
 saloon, stage station, dance hall, and the street loitering, 
 all these things became disgustingly familiar. To read 
 was impossible. In a town boasting two hundred saloons, 
 there was not as yet a single book store. Wyman dared 
 not visit the principal mines. Even the daily chatter of 
 the leather-lunged prospectors weighed upon him. For 
 the thousandth time, he briefly explained that his partner 
 had gone < ' over the Ridge " for rest and medical treatment. 
 A slowly burning fever took possession of his mind, cen- 
 tered now upon the deed without a name. "What if Dev- 
 ereux should escape, should slip away, led on J>y his 
 Heimweh? Perchance, an unhappy accident of the en- 
 counter might betray all. Then, discovery meant ruin." 
 
ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. 57 
 
 That golden future grew black. The borderer wasted his 
 youthful vigor in tossing at night upon a, restless bed. He 
 haunted the stage station and wearied the drivers with his 
 too labored questions of the news from Carson City. The 
 direct question, "Looking for your partner everyday?" 
 soon frightened him away. 
 
 And still, no news from the prowling human tiger who 
 coveted the Mariquita. It was a cheerless spring after- 
 noon, when a letter and telegram roused him to instant ac- 
 tion. He shivered as he gazecl at the signature of the let- 
 ter "Mary Devereux." He thrust the envelope quickly 
 into his bosom. But every drop of blood bounded as he 
 read the dispatch. " Meet me at the Virginia House, Gold 
 Hill, to-nightall right." The signature " Steve, "told 
 the story of the ghastly achievement. It was all over! 
 With an unsteady step, he sought the bar-room, and, even 
 Mulholland, the dispenser of "giraffe" drinks, muttered 
 in surprise, 
 
 "Take out a wholesale license, Fred. You are a large 
 consumer. What's wrong with you? " Wyman dropped his 
 eyes nervously. 
 
 " I don't know," he answered, almost humbly, as his 
 teeth chattered, "I may have brought the Grizzly Canon 
 ague up here with me." He was cold indeed! His Leart 
 lay like a stone in his breast and his face was gray and 
 ashen, as he cowered under heavy wraps in the buggy, 
 which swiftly x conveyed him to Gold Hill. He divined 
 Berard's intentions in the coming quiet conference; the ar- 
 rangements to perfect their title and possession. He knew 
 not that Steve Berard had accurately gauged his lack of 
 nerve. "That smug face of his would be a give away, 
 until I tone him up a bit," mused the gambler, as he lei- 
 surely "rode into the rival mining camp which seemed to 
 fatten on the tail end of the great Comstock lode, follow- 
 
58 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 ing the astounding expansion of Virginia City. For men 
 were organizing " Companies," and anchoring sporadic 
 masses of hastily thrown together machinery wherever a 
 few rocky knobs even hinted of a vein beneath. It was 
 the expansive period of the American "boom" locality, 
 throbbing with the fiery fever of life, before crystallizing 
 into solidity. 
 
 "Anybody here for me?" carelessly asked "White- 
 headed Steve," as he finished his stern injunctions to the 
 hostler to give his riding mare " Strideaway, " the treat- 
 ment of an equine princess. 
 
 " Gentleman from Virginia in the private card room," 
 nodded the barkeeper, as he " set them up" with auto- 
 matic neatness and the confidence of a long knowledge of 
 Berard's habits. 
 
 The gambler passed on, without another word, into the 
 room where Fred Wyman stood in waiting, trembling at 
 the sound of the murderer's voice. Closing the door, 
 Berard deliberately lit a cigar and dropped into a chair. 
 Fixing his eyes on the eager Southerner, Steve said quietly, 
 "Well, it's over. Any talk up here?" 
 
 "Not a word," answered Wyman, starting at the hol- 
 low sound of his own voice. "Did you get any papers 
 from from him? " faltered Fred, with an ill-concealed 
 anxiety. His selfish egoism overcame his moral fear of 
 this stunted little viperous destroyer who had sent poor 
 Devereux to a " land without laughter. " 
 
 "Nothing," unblushingly lied the " sport," as the thin 
 packet pressed on his breast rose and fell with his breath- 
 ing. 
 
 "Then," whispered the sorrowing partner, "I fear we 
 are in for trouble. I got a letter from his wife to-day. 
 He must have sent his certificates and papers down to 
 her." 
 
ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. 59 
 
 u What's in the letter?" shortly demanded Steve, with- 
 out removing his cigar. 
 
 " I don't know. I could not bear to read it." Wyman's 
 jaw dropped, as Berard held out his hand without a word. 
 For the gambler despised the weaker villain of the dual 
 conspiracy. 
 
 " Nothing there," he said, contemptuously, after a pause 
 when he threw the letter back. " Only woman's rot about 
 coining home, and so on. Now, we've got to work this 
 thing neatly. You had better get out of the way a little, 
 and leave me to do enough work on the mine to forfeit 
 Devereux's interest. This woman will surely bother you 
 with more letters. You can't very well make any decent 
 excuses. She may get anxious. She may telegraph or 
 come up here, if she's fool enough. You never can tell 
 just what a woman will do," said Berard, closing his eyes, 
 in a troubled and reminiscent manner. ' They turn up in 
 the funniest way, just when you don't want them. You 
 could not explain very well to her. She has written to 
 him at Holman's, and, also, to the old man. But, that's 
 all safe. Old Asa will hold the letters to him, apparently 
 unopened. The other, he won't notice. I guess they're 
 poor enough, and she'll jump around a little, and then 
 pickup somebody else." 
 
 Wyman walked to the window to hide his disgust. 
 There was a shade of sentimentality in the unslaked, 
 sensual nature of the florid young fellow. 
 
 " What do you propose?." he said, in a muffled voice. 
 
 " Give me a contract to sink the shaft a couple of hun- 
 dred feet, and to run the main tunnel in the same distance. 
 You can legally sign for yourself, and for Devereux, as his 
 agent. You see you are supposed to know nothing of his 
 death. That will give me legal control and possession of 
 the mine. I will put a superintendent on, and hold posses- 
 
^t?5S JHTXMBTX OF THE 
 
 ket \thtm \ orer. He win, of course. know 
 ate Dererem, and I will keep in tbe hack 
 'Musoa & Co./ or anybody else we 
 . It's my imomrr,, anyway," said the gam- 
 
 wiZ I be safe, Stere?"" querulously de- 
 n_ - I ire u all to ou. and hare noth- 
 
 ng >3?# *r *yr zty OWB save m ts new 
 
 "" steraly siid the desperado; 
 . He accentuated this state- 
 You had better go down to 
 ta. m rn the thin? alone 
 interest legally sold out for 
 CXZL 1 ^p ibe irde." 
 
 - 1 wffl not cogent! 9 cried Wjnazu hounding np, his 
 
 be bidden treasure which 
 
 was to psve his g--: 1-icifc way to the *^**^ 1 " > g 64 ujpfiei 
 li ailm i ~ of San Francisco's elastic Vanity Fair. 
 
 -- You kfci better he reasonable. The nan who is now 
 watching that mine would nU yom with lead like a stray 
 eoyote, if yon set foot on it without my sanction! ~ re- 
 =L2rked Mr. i5teT*i Berard^ with his hand on the familiar 
 nahogany bolt of that Colt's nary, which was now enti- 
 ^*rl t;? 2Ji- iLtr ETOCE. Fo*" tsudsLoal reasons, Berard bad 
 nikd to inscribe it. is He don't eonnt. Too much like 
 tiffing a csdcfcen, was the eaOons Terfict of the slayer, 
 as he had fif Klx i iU Ij frtonVd his weapon on the road 
 after VTT^fMisnn*T "Rsnrh -' Xow. I want arjamnper. 
 Be m mil le, Fred. Don't get rnstj. It won't pay. I 
 ride in to Virginia to-night. Yom come up with the 
 
 Ton wffl find me at the 
 I wffl look arovnd town a little. I wffl 
 we will split the thing on the square. Tom 
 I can not make yom dead safe. We hare got to patch 
 
ADMLSI5TEKL5G UPOX THE ESTATE. SI 
 
 up papers and get the tiling squarely in our feuds, before 
 we dare to show oar title to it."" 
 
 Yon arerigkt. Steve," 5 submissively remarked Wynan, 
 TTDO reflected he was now alone with a desperate man is 
 
 one of the - gang's 7 ' chosen resorts. No friecdiT vitijfiss 
 was near to o*.^erre a duplication of the ts^rks which. 
 h^d sent DcTerem to a, bioxjy az. I i^. ot^i-nr? grave. 
 
 All rigat,^ ckeerfaily answered tie gas tier, wao. 
 however, allowed Wyman to go out t^fore ikim. as he 
 motioned the yonih onward to the h&r. f :T iLe golden 
 seal of friejxishipu 
 
 It never occurred to Frederiek Wvnisn to tcs: Lis piy*- 
 ieal superiority, or eonal prowess ^sritii ih:< s 
 scoundrdi over whom be toweiwL For. the -coc-Z g 
 of Berard never leu ki> d -je 2 n :z:er.t : *^I r> 
 : - . >:: . . . : 
 
 Did yon hear abovt Brown last n:gt :"" wrdspc 
 barkeeper to Berard, as Wjnan, after driakmg, 
 sway oat of hearing. 
 
 Xo. what's CT^^ inT3iteri Berarvi. with i sir^i 
 ?^r.?e of ui>e>isii:e^. 
 
 * B7>>TTTi nisde the mistake c-f iiis life. HA-! * ro 
 st oung fellow from the East ia a s*k:>:5- 
 -.:-."- ^ _ ' - - 
 
 :..:_.- .-- :_ . . - : . ' 
 
 impauentlr demandW 
 
 There's a big ejceitersent at Virgiziii. 
 some talk, Steve,of - BegT>Iat>r^"- Vigilazites. 
 Look out for vomraelf, Steve. I wonldn\ 
 to-ni^ht.^ The Gaavmevie was anxkwK and 
 
 * 
 
 -What do yon nwan? ' fiereerr devanied the spoil. 
 -They talk of miming all the fraey SHSI ost of town 
 there. I would not want yoa to get into any trombie. Ia 
 
 7 - 
 
62 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE AIARltjL'lTA. 
 
 you that this thing has gone too far. Brown got up ugly 
 this morning, and then threatened to kill Henry Van Side 
 down at his hotel. Now, I know, "and the voice sank still 
 lower, " Van took his big shotgun and a couple of pistols 
 and fled to the trails, and there will be trouble ahead. It 
 is one or the other of them. And, Brown is drunk. A 
 poor show! " 
 
 "Pshaw!" simply said Berard. "It's only a scare. Let 
 me have an extra pistol! I'll ride up to town after my 
 supper. I'll put * Strideaway ' up with a friend on a side 
 street, and walk into the city. The boys will post me. 
 Give me a dozen of your best cigars." 
 
 "All right, Steve," the boniface good-humoredly said. 
 "You know your own mind best, but take care of your- 
 self." 
 
 Berard nodded as he strolled into the supper room. 
 
 As the gambler leaned over the the arched neck of his 
 beautiful mare, under the friendly stars that night, at part- 
 ing from Wyman, the barkeeper stole up with a flask in his 
 hand. "Take this Steve, it's cold on the road." And again 
 he whispered, "By Heavens! I wouldn't risk it. Some of 
 the boys say they are raising hell now up there." Steven 
 Berard's dauntless face never moved a muscle. He thought 
 of the treasure-stuffed veins of the Mariquita. With an 
 oath, he dashed the spurs into the fretting steed whose 
 hoofs left a long line of sparks on the flinty road, as she 
 raced madly along toward the city of the hidden millions. 
 
 Before the graceful' " Strideaway " dropped her wearied 
 head at the friendly shelter of the_ friend's stable door, two 
 men, armed to the teeth, were hidden in the box belfry of 
 the little school house in Virginia City, ready to sound 
 certain signals known only to the " 101," a mystic organ- 
 ization of recent but ominous growth. As Berard lightly 
 leaped from his horse, he stumbled and fell upon his face. 
 
ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. 03 
 
 Something, for the first time in his life, chilled him to the 
 marrow, as his waiting friend hastily drew him into the 
 cover of his hut, barred the door and then blew out all the 
 lights. "Lay low, Steve," a familiar voice cried. "We 
 are already watched, and there are large bodies of men 
 moving around the streets." 
 
 While the springing hoofs of " Strideaway " were keep- 
 ing time to Steve Berard's anxious thoughts as he neared 
 Virginia City, Frederick Wyman sat alone in his room at 
 the hotel in Gold Hill. He was greatly disturbed. He had 
 not failed to note the colloquy between Berard and the 
 barkeeper, and the clustering of heads in the card room, as 
 man after man rode into the yard, in somewhat unseemly 
 haste, from the greater town, only four miles away. These 
 men were mostly of the order of the human " rapacida?." 
 Haggard-eyed, anxious, armed to the teeth, they clustered 
 together in the private card room, and Wyman, at a late 
 hour, noted their silent departure on the Steamboat 
 Springs road, in a body now swelled to fifteen or twenty 
 by late arrivals. 
 
 "What's up? " hazarded Wyman to the barkeeper, as they 
 were left alone in the deserted bar-room. Fred had quickly 
 walked around Gold Hill's few straggling streets, and was 
 astonished to see several mining offices and business houses 
 brilliantly lit up, and bodies of earnest men, visible in the 
 rooms which offered the only places of public assembly, 
 at Gold Hill. He uneasily returned to his hotel, and it 
 was well, for two armed men were now posted at each 
 ntreet corner, who carefully scrutinized all belated travelers. 
 The hasty departure of the body of gamblers and all-round 
 sporting men also caused Wyman to feel uneasy. He 
 had also noted the exit of two or three of the hostlers of 
 the hotel stable, mounted on bare-back steeds, and saw 
 them disappear on the gallop toward Virginia. He never 
 
04 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 knew that these private scouts were skillfully posted on the 
 road between Virginia City and Gold Hill, to warn the 
 fleeing adventurers of "Virginia," to make a detour and 
 avoid danger at Gold Hill. The " 101 " had blossomed 
 about four hours later at Gold Hill than at the larger end 
 of the Comstock cornucopia of gold and silver. 
 
 But the barkeeper, alert and active, at once divined that 
 the hollows and canons, the alkali plains, rolling hills, 
 straggling forests of pine, spruce and fir, stretching around 
 the great mining camps, offered a good temporary shelter 
 to the surprised men of leisure. Cattle ranches abounded 
 on the shores of Humboldt, Mud, Pyramid, Carson and 
 Walker lakes. The road stations, like Holman's Ranch, 
 were also friendly hiding places. The shores of beautiful 
 Lake Tahoe, that sparkling diamond flashing in the bosom 
 of the Sierras, were thickly lined with wood-cutters' camps. 
 Here the Knights of the Green Cloth, with full purses, could 
 hide till they might safely join their friends in Carson 
 City, Reno, Truckee, or even Nevada, Placerville and 
 Sacramento. 
 
 "I will save as many of the boys as I can," the man of 
 mixtures regretfully vowed. For he, alone, knew that 
 "Brown's mistake" had brought on the public spasm of 
 virtue predicted by the genial Andy Bowen. When 
 Wyman questioned him, the barkeeper busied himself at 
 a symmetric rearrangement of the multicolored fluids of 
 the long bar, the shrine of Bacchus. "I don't know," 
 he carefully answered. " Some racket at Virginia City. 
 We will know all in the morning." 
 
 Wyman sat late in his room that night. He was in a 
 nioody despair. Before Berard galloped away, a loosely 
 contrived agreement, signed at the dictation of Berard, 
 gave him the colorable possession of the mine, under pre- 
 tense of the extension of shaft and tunnel. In return for 
 
ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. 65 
 
 this, Frederick Wyman held the check of Steven Berard, 
 on the Agency of Wells, Fargo & Co. , for ten thousand 
 dollars. " This will make you feel safe, Fred," roughly 
 said Berard, < and if you need funds at once, you can get 
 it cashed here in Gold Hill. " With a simple directness, 
 Steve had called in the proprietor of the "Virginia House." 
 This magnate, who sat by his stove in a dignified silence all 
 day, broken only by trips to the bar, or a chat with some 
 mining magnate, said, as he looked at the check, " Certainly, 
 sir; Mr. Berard's check is always good! If you stay here, 
 telegraph to the paying teller at Virginia to wire me it is 
 O. K., and then I'll cash it myself. I want to send a remit- 
 tance down to San Francisco. I have the gold here." By 
 a hazard of fate the night operator had worked this very dis- 
 patch through before the lines of the "101 " were closed 
 around the two cities. 
 
 There were so many thoughts chasing each other through 
 the borderer's brain that he could not sleep. In vain he 
 tried the comfort of his cigar case and pocket flask. 
 Loud colloquy, the noise of galloping hoofs, and a growing 
 excitement below, worried him until he fell asleep by mere 
 exhaustion of his nervous forces. He had moved his cot 
 bed away from the windows, barricaded the 'door with 
 pieces of the furniture, and reconnoitered the easy descent 
 to the stable yard. By his side lay his own heavy Colt 
 revolver, and also a pocket edition of "Colt on Self- 
 Defense. " It had flashed over him that the sifting of the 
 wheat and chaff might have commenced at last! That the 
 sheared sheep had decided to trample down the goats, and 
 that the telegraph poles might be decorated with their 
 unnatural fruit, so common to the domains of Judge Lynch. 
 "Thank God, I am not openly identified with Steve," 
 was Wyman's only grain of comfort in these ugly night 
 reflections. As he closed his eyes, true to the callous 
 
60 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 egoism of his shallow nature, Wyman murmured, "I 
 wonder if the check will go through all right." Selfish to 
 the last! 
 
 Morning brought with it several matters of more than 
 passing interest to the " surviving partner." The news 
 that only the mails and necessary official travelers were 
 allowed to enter Virginia City, and a dispatch from the 
 paying teller of Wells, Fargo & Co. that the check 
 "properly endorsed" was "good." Both these things 
 excited Wyman, and it was late in the afternoon when he 
 learned, through the personal telegram of the hotel keeper, 
 that Steven Berard was not at the Golden Eagle. "Not 
 here; town in uproar; Vigilantes in charge," were the 
 ominous words. And Steven! Where was he? 
 
 All that day and night, Frederick Wyman deceived him- 
 self with the false hope that Steve Berard had been warned 
 away by his attendant daemon, and was lurking in safety 
 until the sudden storm would blow over Before the Gold 
 Hill agency of the great money monopoly of the Pacific 
 coast closed its doors that day, Frederick Wyman saw his 
 ten thousand dollars deposited in the hotel safe in two 
 sealed bags. "I shall stay with you here for some little 
 time," he .remarked, with that lofty air which the posses- 
 sion of the "coin of the realm " always imparts. 
 
 Fred Wyman saw at once that he was the object of some 
 lingering suspicion at Gold Hill. His presence with Steve 
 Berard had been noted, and he was without the pale of the 
 sympathy of the crafty barkeeper. For, Berard had lightly 
 remarked: " A good fellow, private friend of mine, can't 
 trust him, for he's got no nerve. Besides, he's not square 
 with the sporting men." So, all of Wyman's queries were 
 baffled, until the liquor seller gruffly turned at last and 
 wearied out, remarked: " Find out for yourself ! I'm not 
 an intelligence office." 
 
ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. CV 
 
 Wyman grew ominously restless at heart. " I am safe 
 at any rate," mused the man of the "Mariquita." "I've 
 got money enough for a year. Steve will surely find the 
 way out, even if they have trapped him in Virginia. He's 
 'cuter than a coyote." 
 
 Alas! " The pitcher had gone too often to the well." 
 That night, while Frederick Wymau pored over a dog- 
 eared copy of the "Count of Monte Cristo" he had picked 
 up, Steven Berard was lying hidden in a little "dug-out," 
 hollowed under the floor of his sporting friend's cabin. 
 A couple of mutely faithful Piute squaws watched the 
 cabin and barn where, in a " lean-to " shed, the graceful 
 " Strideaway " was hidden among a dozen tethered mules. 
 There were three other men hidden there and, though 
 armed, they lay breathless in their concealment, as a sudden 
 domiciliary visit of the ' 'Vigilantes" drew out nothing from 
 the poor Indian women, whose vacant eyes only stared in 
 wonder at the armed intruders. A sortie of one of the 
 women before nightfall, disclosed the ugly fact that five or 
 six swaying forms dangled from convenient poles or trust- 
 worthy timbers around town. The dance halls, gambling 
 houses, and Paphian resorts were all shrouded in darkness. 
 As for "the fraternity," the places where "their feet 
 were beautiful on the mountains, knew them no more." 
 
 The Indian spy could not divine that some fifty of the 
 "ungodly" were then herded as prisoners in a strong powder 
 magazine, under a heavy guard; that the gambling houses 
 had been wrecked, and, alas! the patent " faro box " of 
 Steven Berard was a secret no longer ! Though he did not 
 "materialize," there were murmurs, loud and deep, among 
 those who had connected the personal "dealing" of 
 Berard with their recent losses, thus violating the friendly 
 fluctuations of the wavering smiles of the ' * painted ladies. " 
 Several of the "reformers" had "gone broke" recently 
 
68 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 in an illogical manner. Alas! The social prominence of 
 Berard, his haughty parade of the " trotter," the swell 
 " turn out," the mouse-eyed French "Madame," all this 
 was an incentive to his capture. And, the crooked faro 
 dealing! 
 
 6 'See here!" said White-headed Steve, at last, as he 
 twisted his cramped limbs around. ' ' I'm not going to 
 stay in this dammed hole to freeze to death. They could 
 easily burn us out. We would be shot like dogs here if 
 caught. I will try a straight run for it. " 
 
 "For God's sake," whispered " Hell-fire Hennessey," so 
 baptized from his favorite "three star" tipple. "They'll 
 get your scalp sure, Steve. Better lay low and take the 
 chances here. Yc were always popular with the boys, 
 maybe they won't hang you." 
 
 "We owe this all to that crazy brute 'Brown,' " growled 
 "Deaf Burke," the facial counterpart of that celebrated 
 pugilist. A unanimous explosion of triplicate curses, deep 
 if not loud, accentuated this true remark. At that moment, 
 it was a matter of utter indifference to Brown himself, 
 for the usually inoffensive Mr. Henry Van Sicle had emptied 
 both barrels of a heavily loaded shotgun into the desper 
 ado as he rode into a stable, still stupid from the effects of 
 the debauch, in which he had killed a stranger without a 
 single flash of memory following the act. He had led his 
 own slayer on to the act by a too prophetic remark, as to 
 " one or the other being laid out when they next met." Mr. 
 Brown's last remark, " He's got me !" was perfectly useless. ! 
 It " lagged superfluous " in the memory of his fellow 
 citizens, who thought of the lengthened mortuary cara 
 van, twenty-six, or more, who had preceded "Brown," as 
 the result of his own misdirected energy. 
 
 While the three hidden sports " trifled with " his name 
 and fame, Brown was sleeping far away from his fathers, 
 
ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. 69 
 
 in one of the unknown, unmarked graves of western 
 America. To-day they hide the dust of those who "paint- 
 ed the town red," in their never returning "halcyon days." 
 
 It was at four o'clock in the still morning that " White- 
 headed Steve " crept from his chilly place of concealment 
 in the dark. A few hurried words of adieu, a gripping 
 of blood-stained hands, and he was gone. The warm- 
 hearted Hennessey had thrust his brawny fist out of the 
 dug-out as Steve stretched his cramped limbs. 
 
 " Take my pistol, old boy. Ye may need it!" the gen- 
 erous Celt huskily cried. 
 
 " You're a good fellow, Mike, but I don't want it. I'm 
 fixed," and only the whisper, "So long, boys, take care of 
 yourselves," reached them, as Berard crawled to the stable 
 through the darkest shadows. His saddle and bridle, hid- 
 den in the straw, were easily reached. A familiar hand 
 laid on " Strideaway's" glossy neck quieted her antics. 
 
 The four men listening under the cabin floor only heard 
 the light spring as if of a panther's feet, as the blood mare 
 daintily picked her way out of the icy stable yard. Rid- 
 ing lightly, with no needless weight, Steven Berard slipped 
 his huge dragoon revolver around to the front. His 
 "navy" was thrust in his breast, and a score of loose cart- 
 ridges were in the pockets of his shooting coat. Beyond 
 a flask and a few cigars, the only other weight he carried 
 was the packet of papers rifled from the dead body of the 
 luckless Devereux. 
 
 He caught a gleam from his costly diamond rings as he 
 swung himself into the saddle. "Shall I throw them 
 away? " He smiled faintly, " Here goes for luck! " and, 
 then, he boldly rode out into the silent cross streets. " I 
 can get down on the bench below the mines, slip through 
 Grizzly Canon, and skirt the Carson river to the north and 
 west. These fellows will be all watching on the Gold Hill 
 
70 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 road and the big streets." Lightly springing aside from 
 the scattered boulders, the thoroughbred dropped nimbly 
 down the cross street to the bench below the town. A 
 ten minutes' fast trot along a well-known bare spot 
 brought the intrepid fugitive to the entrance of lonely 
 Grizzly Canon. There, across his path, sweeping down 
 from its parent vein, the river fragments of the mother 
 "lead "lay, hiding the treasures of the virgin " Mari- 
 quita." 
 
 "I have fooled them," he thought, as he gathered up 
 his reins. "I've now got a dead thing. I can write 
 to Wyrnan. He will let the mine lie, and I'll come back 
 when this thing blows over, and dig out all that fat stuff 
 hidden here." The man's eyes, keen as a Oomanche's, 
 were peering out into the gloom, and his hand was closed 
 on his heavy revolver, carried cocked and at a poise. The 
 blood mare threw up her graceful head wildly with a 
 snort, as two dark figures rose suddenly up, crying, " Halt! 
 Halt!" 
 
 The maddened racer dashed down the pass as Steve 
 Berard fired quickly right and left, point blank into the 
 faces of the men, now almost at the mare's head! A groan 
 followed him down the echoing canon. He turned with a 
 shout of mocking triumph, as he swept around the narrow- 
 ing bend of the gorge below. Into the full light of a bonfire 
 blazing before the deserted cabin of Robert Devereux, Steven 
 Berard galloped, blinded by the lurid flash. There were 
 sudden, hurrying forms. A deafening volley from shot- 
 guns and rifles rang out. When the gallant mare sank 
 down on the stony sward, throwing her head from side 
 to side in her dying agonies, her desperate master lay 
 crushed to the ground under her, with his ' ' Colt's dragoon " 
 still clenched in the bony hand, where the gambler's dia- 
 monds flashed back the light of the pine wood torches. 
 
ADMINISTERING 1JPON THE ESTATE. 71 
 
 " Who is it?" yelled a voice. "It's Steve Berard himself. 
 And, by God! boys, he died game." Andy Bowen with a 
 sigh dropped the butt of the heavy ducking gun he car- 
 ried, and his first thought was a hope that the sixteen buck- 
 shot in each barrel he had fixed had not helped the general 
 fusillade. The startled mountain owls fled away affrighted 
 and the wailing night winds bore away the last words. 
 ' < Died game ! " " Died game ! ' ' 
 
 So, a half hour later, Berard lay cold in death on the bunk 
 in the cabin, where Robert Devereux had often dreamed of 
 the locked up wealth of the " Mariquita." Opposite him, 
 slept the guard who had fallen under the gambler's unerr- 
 ing aim at the head of Grizzly Canon. In the passionless 
 waxen calm of the two faces, no one could trace the en- 
 mity which had cut them off in the very prime of young 
 manhood. With limp, hanging arms, there was naught to 
 tell of the difference between the reformer and the social 
 outlaw. It was all the same at last. It mattered not," If 
 this were Bill or that were Joe," they divided the per- 
 sonal sovreignty of royal Death ! 
 
 Andy Bowen gazed long at the stern face of "White- 
 headed Steve. " With a sudden impulse, he covered it with 
 a handkerchief. It was to blot out the appealing memories 
 of old days when they had " called the turn" or "bet on the 
 cases " together Comrades once. i He was a game sport, ' ' 
 softly remarked big Andy. "And a determined little 
 cuss! " The sigh which Andy breathed was the only trib- 
 ute to the departed, save a sudden heart spasm of the mouse 
 eyed "Madame," when the news reached her later, in her 
 own hiding place; "Ah-h-h! Cesbrigands! Le pauvre Steve! 
 II me traitait tou jours en prince." 
 
 The first stage after the interdict of the " 101 " was 
 lifted, bore Frederick Wyman back to Virginia City. He 
 was without news of the " threshing out " of the human 
 
72 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 straw, and the continued silence of Steven Berard was 
 most ominous. Keenly conscious of his own endangered 
 position, Wyman kept his eyes to the front all the while, 
 as the other stage passengers exchanged many rumors. A 
 Sunday silence reigned in the three horizontal streets of 
 Virginia City, as the stage swept up to the "Golden 
 Eagle," where the "local " line always left its passengers. 
 But for the puffing of the steam mills down on the Corn- 
 stock-, and a few loitering knots of men on side streets, 
 the town seemed bodily deserted. For no man knew 
 where the scorpion lash of the " 101 " would strike in its 
 next fall. It was impossible for Wyman to ignore the 
 furtive signals of big " Andy Bowen," as he caught sight 
 of Wyman 's mechanically composed countenance. 
 
 " Get yer room, quick, my boy, I want to talk to ye in 
 private," said Bowen, as Fred Wyman registered his name 
 prominently, as of "Gold Hill." 
 
 Mean at heart, he was now a not innocent Peter, and 
 most desirous of denying the dangerous man who had 
 been his , financial savior. "Send me up a bottle of the 
 best whisky and some good cigars," was the new made 
 capitalist's order, as he followed a frightened-looking 
 negro to his room. Reform seemed to have lowered the 
 spirits of all the dwellers on Mount Davidson! The ques- 
 tion, "Who next? " shook many a burdened conscience. 
 Aware of a violent purgation of the long-suffering com- 
 munity, still Wyman was astonished at the funereal still- 
 ness of the gay town. 
 
 When Andy Bowen deposited his giant bulk in a cor- 
 ner of Wyman's bed, he remarked, " Ye've been away 
 some time? " with an awkward preparatory flourish. 
 
 Wyman, eager and excited, broke in, "Where's Steve, 
 now? Is he all right?" 
 
 Andy gazed curiously at the young man, and, reaching 
 
ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. 73 
 
 for the bottle, poured out a liberal reflection. "As to 
 whar he is now, I kin tell ye. There's about ten tons of 
 quartz layin' on him down there in the canon by yer old 
 cabin. Them coyotes finished off that thousand-dollar 
 horse of his, and they were sinkin' a shaft after poor Steve, 
 when we piled them rocks on him. As to his bein' all 
 right, that there's a matter of theological opinion ! I hev 
 my own doubts! An' poor Steve can't tell us! Fur I stood 
 by, when he an' that game mare came thrashin' down -in a 
 bunch, both of 'em dead as door nails. Steve died as 
 game as a Pawnee brave. " 
 
 Fred Wyman staggered, for he had sprung to his feet. 
 The ashen pallor of his face and his trembling lips proved 
 again that fatal "lack of nerve," so objectionable in the 
 eyes of the late Steven Berard. 
 
 "What killed him? " faltered Wyman. 
 
 " About a dozen shotguns an' rifles blazin' away bang 
 at ten paces," coolly answered Andy, as he reached out for 
 a cigar. Crossing his legs, Mr. Bowen apologetically re- 
 marked: " You see, Wyman, the boys were bit pretty hard 
 by that double-decked fan box speculation of Steve's, and 
 they all had it in for him. I'm on the Executive Com- 
 mittee, an' I give you my word we was watching the 
 canon for a run out of some of the other sports who were 
 in hiding. Poor Steve! He run right into a hornets' nest, 
 but he died game as a wild cat. He just bored Hank 
 Duffy plum through the heart, at the head of the gully!" 
 
 Wyman's eyes were gloomily fixed on the floor. " Who 
 looked out for him and buried him and all that? " the 
 young borderer queried, for he was anxious to know of 
 the whereabouts of that contract. "lam the only human 
 being left, who knows the secret of the 'Mariquita,' I 
 wonder if Steve talked to old Holmau. Probably not." 
 So the young man quickly ran over the chances. 
 
74 MISS DKVKREUX OF THE MAKIQU1TA. 
 
 Audy Bo wen, with some pride, slowly said as he rose: 
 "We all did the square thing by him. As I knowed him 
 best, the hoys left it to me to bury him. I have turned in 
 his saddle and bridle, his shooting arms and his watch, 
 chain and rings to the Public Administrator here. By the 
 way," and the great hulking fellow fumbled in his blanket 
 coat, ' there was a bundle of old mining papers, too, and 
 I saw yer name. He had them hid in an inside breast 
 pocket. There was a woman's picture an' an old letter or 
 two from New Orleans. I left them things with him, and 
 they're lying where he carried them always, on his breast; 
 only it's a cold deal for poor Steve, for he's played his last 
 hand out. Now, I've got to go and report. We're goin' to 
 escort all the bummers out of these yere corporate limits. 
 That's why ye see the burg so Sunday-like. We are 
 going in for a virtuous life, you bet." 
 
 "Come around to-night here, and talk things over," 
 urged Wyman whose lingers twitched convulsively as he 
 fingered the bundle of papers. 
 
 "I will, boy,"good-humoredly said Andy, over his part- 
 ing glass; "if they don't send me off on this yere escort 
 duty. I don't want to go. I've done enough and, besides, 
 I'm a heavy rider. Don't you be afeard to show your- 
 self in town. Your name came upon the 'fancy list,' 
 and a dozen of us all spoke up and said you were a dead 
 square honest miner." 
 
 "Thank you, Andy, " cried Wyman; " I'll do you a 
 good turn, some day." 
 
 " Whar's yer partner?" called out Andy as he turned at 
 the stairs. "Don't see him round any more." 
 
 " Oh! He went over the ridge. He may not come 
 back. I may buy him out, "replied Wyman with Ananias' 
 dexterity. "He's too delicate for hard work." 
 
 " That fool will soon give the whole town this last in- 
 
ADMINISTERING UPON THE ESTATE. 75 
 
 vention of mine," mused Frederick Wyman, as he locked 
 the door and spread out the papers. He sprang up in de- 
 light as he read them. " Safe at last! " he cried in glee. 
 
 Two hours later, the " surviving partner" walked 
 briskly to the nearest stable, and then rode down to the 
 "Mariquita" on a hired inusta.ng. As he had expected, no 
 one now lingered near the deserted shaft or the neglected 
 tunnel, from which an icy rill of spring thaw was flowing. 
 4 'It's all right," the lonely man whispered to himself. 
 Steve's watcher was frightened away. He dared not descend 
 the canon to where poor old Captain Johnson watched the 
 few hundred dollars worth of rough winter outfit left in the 
 cabin. No! For the pale, accusing shade of Robert Dev- 
 ereux lingered by that creaking door. A stone's throw 
 from the porch, the piled gray rocks marked where the bold 
 disciple of Fortuna lay cold in death, with the picture of 
 that unknown, still beloved, woman in far away New Or- 
 leans, moldering on his dauntless heart, now stilled for- 
 ever. 
 
 Wyman rode smartly back to the Golden Eagle. In his 
 comfortable room, cheerful with its light and blazing fire, 
 he dreamed of the golden future, as the blue wreaths of 
 his cigar rose over him. " It's the devil's own luck," he 
 softly chuckled. * ' Steve intended to hold these old papers 
 of Devereux's over me. He must have robbed that poor 
 fellow's body^" 
 
 Wyman rose and steadied "that shaky nerve " with a 
 good pull at the bottle. "There's a couple of letters, too, 
 from his wife. By Heavens! I will go down to San Fran- 
 cisco, myself . Her address is on one of the letters. Ah!" he 
 paused; " I must think. Now, I will trust no one. I need 
 no one. I will administer upon the estate; yes, quietly, 
 and distribute it to myself. She probably does not even 
 know the name of the <Mariquita. ' There's a whole lot of 
 
76 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 other locations. I will let this blow quietly over. But 
 I'll build a new cabin, house the main shaft over, bulk- 
 head up the tunnel, and open the mine next winter, with 
 Steve's money. I have' got my contract back !" And the 
 ungrateful scoundrel's nerve was steadier, as, with a sly 
 smile, he raised his glass: " Here's to you, Steve! My Part- 
 ner Steve! " 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 77 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 JIM THE PENMAN. 
 
 A 'week after the return of Mr. Frederick Wyman from 
 Gold Hill, the "101 " had restored the normal balance of 
 social and business life upon the Comstock Lode. The 
 leading citizens of business importance backing the author- 
 ities, at last checked the sweeping orders of the "101." 
 For, strange to say, Reform was now beginning to outrun 
 itself, and personal spleen was already hinted at. The dis- 
 covery of several outlying mining districts also drew away 
 many of the adventurous. The sports, warned away, 
 spread afar the news of the "virtuous spasm," and the 
 weary were at rest for indeed the wicked ceased to 
 trouble. The daily consumption of liquor was only that 
 good steady thirst, which never rose now to the frenzy of 
 the "jamboree." Even Andy Bowen repented his undue 
 prominence, and sought a temporary obscurity in prospect- 
 ing trips to Inyo, Mono, Reese River, Eureka and other 
 shadowy localities. 
 
 The sole owner of the Mariquita, after much self-com- 
 mune, decided to hurry slowly. lie limited his improve- 
 ments to a substantial structure covering the shaft and a 
 cheap cabin with the bulkhead at the mouth of the tunnel. 
 Fortunate in securing a stolid Swedish emigrant as 
 watchman, Wyman felt that his new cabin mate was harm- 
 less, as he could not chatter. To ease off the disappear- 
 ance of Devereux, the sly plotter still allowed " Captain 
 Johnson " to remain in charge of the old headquarters. 
 Escorted by his Scandinavian man-at-arms, Wyman re- 
 moved the tools, and left the old Indian to the heirship of 
 the food and rude household outfit. But once did he him- 
 
78 MISS DEVEREU. OF THE MAR1QUITA. 
 
 self enter the cabin, and then, the appealing eyes of the old 
 Piute soon drove him out with a quickly beating heart; 
 for, pointing to the bunk of the unreturning partner, the 
 poor aborigine, in sign language and broken Spanish, sought 
 for news of his absent benefactor. 
 
 Wyman paced the floor of his new den long that night. 
 For prudential reasons he had withdrawn his golden de- 
 posit from the hostelry at Gold Hill. It was his turn now 
 to triumph over the once haughty barkeeper, who sought 
 for news of the ultimate adjustment of the estate of the late 
 Steven Berard. "Find out for yourself," remarked 
 Wyman. " He's as near to you as lie is to me. " 
 
 After returning from Grizzly Canon, Wyman was 
 sharply questioned at the postoffice by the incumbent, a 
 man of some little discernment. ' ' Look here, there are a 
 lot of unclaimed letters here now for your partner Dev- 
 ereux. Will you take them or shall I send them on East to 
 the dead letter office?" Frederick winced as he answered, 
 "I can't tell. He started for San Francisco and was to 
 send me his address. We have only left now, in common, 
 some joint locations where we used each other's names. He 
 was a queer, uncertain sort of a chap, and he may have got 
 tired and thrown up the sponge." 
 
 But, calm as was his face when he left the office, Wymau 
 was startled. He knew that several pleading letters from 
 the anxious wife addressed to him were not yet answered. 
 "The king-pin of the whole thing now is old man 
 Holrnan. If this woman would stir up a row there, I 
 might lose all." And yet, Wyman dared not visit the den 
 of the old Mormon. Fear restrained him! 
 
 "This old brute may fear to be mixed up in the doings 
 of the Brown and Berard gang. If I set my foot on his 
 stolen domain, he might put me quietly out of the way, 
 for his own safety. I've got to chance it. She will get 
 tir'ecl of writing." 
 
Jlil THE PENMAN. 79 
 
 It was near daylight when Wyman decided upon his 
 final course. " I'll keep quiet, ignore all, and watch the 
 mine for a season. I have money enough, and then, in 
 the spring, I can put up a little arrastra, and grind out 
 enough to build a ten-stamp mill. But the title, the 
 title! I must cover myself in some way. Possession is 
 one thing. If this development continues, I may yet be 
 forced to show my hand." 
 
 And then, an uneasy desire to know also of the fate of 
 Devereux's wife and child began to gnaw at his heart. " Can 
 I risk a secret trip to San Francisco? I might carefully 
 shadow this woman and see what her present surroundings 
 are." And yet, he did not wish to visit the Panther of the 
 Golden Gates until he had grasped Fortune's wheel so 
 firmly that he should be borne up into those circles of lux- 
 ury which, open to the millionaire owner of the " Mari- 
 quita," seen but dimly as yet in his rosy dreams, were as 
 yet a " terra incognita," to the poor prospector who watched 
 every flutter now of the faintly upheld < 'Stars and Bars," 
 with less enthusiasm. He had fashioned out in his mind 
 a successful western man. In the keen, fresh intelligence 
 of his nnjaded youth, the days of Gettysburg and Vicks- 
 burg had tolled the knell of the confederacy for him. 
 "The rebs will never make that Washington trip now," 
 he sighed. Frederick Wyman gave up at last the verifi- 
 cation of Mr. Robert Toombs' dream of " hearing the roll 
 of his slaves called under the Bunker Hill monument." 
 
 " It was a little premature, this war," mused Wyman. 
 " I must drift in with the victorious northern sentiment 
 here. Non-committal now, I can come out ' truly loyal ' 
 later." Again, that coarse, sensual sneer on the pleasure- 
 loving lips. " I will wait here fora few months in quiet. 
 If I do not hear further from this woman, I can then slip 
 down to San Francisco and have a light prospecting mill, 
 
SO MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 or a set of * arrastra ' irons sent up here. Then, in a few 
 months, I can take out enough gold to set me up for good, 
 like a gentleman. But,uo partners! I have had enough part- 
 ners." Over his mind came the prophetic visions of the 
 future. "I will show them what a millionaire should be! 
 These double assays can not lie. And the experienced 
 Steve Berard would not have thrown ten thousand dollars 
 in good gold * chinks ' away on me for nothing." 
 
 "By God! what a windfall of luck this reform 
 interlude was for me. It squared all the accounts at 
 once. " The young man lightly filliped his ringing glass. 
 4 'If I have no nerve, Mr. Berard, I am at least a pretty good 
 * stayer. ' I have all the cards, and the deal is mine. 
 Now, to play my own lone hand against the world." 
 
 He cast up his resources carefully. He had over nine 
 thousand dollars in yellow "twenties" safely hidden. His 
 eager mind returned to the snug boxes of thirty thousand 
 dollars each, neatly ranged behind the counters of Wells, 
 Fargo & Co. Those invincible battalions of Plutus. 
 " That's the stuff to make men bow, and and women 
 smile," he murmured, and his throat grew warm with a 
 rising flush of the anticipated pleasures of the future. 
 ' ' Only only, never to lose my head ! " 
 
 Wyman had stumbled upon an axiomatic self-counsel. 
 Though no magic introspection had given him the clue to 
 his real nature, he was dimly conscious that the heart 
 would not trouble him much. The high tide of life 
 flushed his veins, and at the gates of his future two 
 nymphs with longing eyes waited. Their names were 
 Pleasure and Desire. He had marked the clumsy excesses 
 of the few prosperous men whom he had seen on the Corn- 
 stock. The only mark of their higher standing seemed to 
 him to be a noisy assumption, a floundering about as of 
 clumsy beetles fallen into honey. A more prolonged 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 81 
 
 drunk, a little more reckless gambling, a few lurid flashes 
 of display, these were the only realizations of millionaire 
 eminence so far on the Comstock. An inflammation in 
 colored vestments, an efflorescence of clustered diamonds, 
 cable chains and huge watches; and a peculiar desire to 
 meddle with other men's womenkind; these all seemed 
 strange symptoms. 
 
 Frederick Wyman raised his eyes to that other world, 
 the world of High Life, in which he would soon shine 
 with the veiled romance of a Claude Melnotte the mys- 
 terious power of a Monte Cristo. i ' Men shall fear me, 
 women shall be under my feet. The golden bell will open 
 their closed hearts! " And, far away in Fancy's glass, he 
 saw himself a crowned god, with a background of town 
 house, villa, shooting box, club honors, horses, yachts 
 and a modish circle. " One must be a gentleman born, to 
 show life to these fellows, but I will do it in style. The man 
 who will rule Virginia City must be silent, pitiless, alert, 
 active! He must sway the Stock Board, have standing 
 abroad, social and financial. Politicians and journalists 
 must woo his friendship, and his appearance in society 
 must be that of one of Nature's noblemen. Yes, the Mari- 
 quita is the golden lever. Then, a joint control in San 
 Francisco and Virginia mining circles, a name in New 
 York, Washington, Paris, London." 
 
 The sudden sputter and extinguishment of the miner's 
 adamantine " sixes " which lit up the cabin of the million- 
 aire " in future," brought him to his bunk in a sudden re- 
 call to the present. "But, there's no nonsense," he solil- 
 oquized as he drew off his heavy boots. "The whole 
 thing is to be mine, and it now lies buried there, in the 
 Mariquita." 
 
 When Wyman awoke the next day, his mind was alert 
 and active. Not even the gloomy realism of a breakfast 
 
83 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQU1TA. 
 
 of bacon, beans, black coffee and saleratus biscuits, eased 
 down by golden syrup, could depress him. He good- 
 humorodly watched his one henchman, the Swede, who ate 
 manfully of the provender, and thanked the God of the 
 Swedes that it was there. The air was sweet and balmy. Birds 
 eschewed the basalt crags of Mount Davidson, for obvious 
 reasons. But, faint patches of green were now every- 
 where visible, for the thousands of animals and hundreds 
 of pack trains had carried the barley and oats of Califor- 
 nia, by fortuitous accident, far over the Sierras. The 
 breeze sweeping from far silvery Tahoe was redolent of 
 fir and balsam. The sunlight gleamed even kindly on the 
 stony cuirass of the old mountain giant. 
 
 " Can I trust this chap?" mused Wyman. "He does 
 not talk, but he may think in his own cursed lingo." 
 
 An hour spent while sunning himself over a repeated 
 cigar as he gazed at his mine lying there, brought all Wy- 
 man's plans to a head. " I can fix up this tunnel and shaft, 
 myself, so that no one can ever get near the hidden ore. I 
 can leave such debris and tell-tale secret marks, that a glance 
 will show me that all is well that nothing has been dis- 
 turbed. Patience, silence, and only a few months more 
 waiting. If the confederacy " caves in " this fall, there will 
 be a great influx to the Pacific here next year. Speculation 
 will boom, for then the Yankee "shin-plaster" money will 
 soon flow out here. I am safe now, and I will be safer still 
 in three months. But I must get a good written title on 
 record in some way. There's the rub, to make all the 
 papers sure. There's no hurry, but I must get a clear chain 
 of recorded title from Devereux. It could be easily done 
 now, while all is yet unsettled, while no one knows of 
 his death." 
 
 He sat down on a huge boulder and watched the fleecy 
 clouds sailing high over the jagged peaks of the gray 
 
-{M THE 1'KXMAX 83 
 
 mountains over him. "I have no friend, no one to help 
 me, and also, no enemies to bother me. All that I can do 
 is to hide this thing from everyone in Devereux's interest. 
 If I only had some one to help me to play off 
 Devereux!" 
 
 He sprang up. A sudden thought had enlivened the 
 brooding darkness of his mind. " Yes, I can do it away 
 from here, but who am I to get to help me? It must be 
 some safe outsider. And, I ought to patch this tning up, so 
 that if his wife makes me any trouble I have something to 
 show. If I go down to San Francisco I must be ready to 
 bamboozle her someway. It will not do to try and buy her 
 out. Who ever knew a woman to be manageable about sign- 
 ing a paper? And, it would also admit that she had some 
 rights. If there's a child left, a minor child, that thing 
 might follow me. If I could only make that bill of sale of 
 his for one quarter legally cover the other three-quarters 
 the whole, but it is properly recorded. A later transfer! 
 Yes, of the balance, before the wife or her representatives 
 can ever see me. For, whatever I do, I must stick to it 
 through thick and thin. To hold the 'Mariquita' now, 
 when no one wants it, is very easy, but when she smiles out 
 on the world, there's a difference. I must set my house in 
 order. There's one good thing. There have been three 
 or four sets of Recorders and Clerks since I registered my 
 first bill of sale. No one up there now knows either me 
 or Devereux. By Jove! I'll go up to town and take a 
 look at the situation. 
 
 High noon found Mr. Frederick Wyman seated at the 
 table of the Golden Eagle, after a very guarded visit to 
 the new Recorder's office. The spasm of virtue which 
 had so markedly shortened the expectations of life of a 
 score of " sports, "and brought woe to the decollete bosoms 
 of the Paphiau nymphs of the burg, had also wafted the 
 
84 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 records of the "lead" from their saloon domicile to 
 a tiny office now sacred to themselves. For three dayc 
 after the " 101 " episode, the men avoided the gin palaces, 
 for yet other three days, they slipped in at the back door; 
 for yet other clouded days, they dodged in at side doors, 
 but now, the average citizen wandered in with a shameless 
 brow and quenched his thirst, regardless of " les moeurs 
 publiques." 
 
 The croVn of Virtue sat most uneasily on the head of 
 fair young Virginia City, the wild mountain nymph, and 
 even now it had tilted a bit sideways. The purple mus- 
 tached fraternity were not unrepresented, though the voice 
 of the turtle was a still small voice. Gleaming eyes again 
 shone out as fixed stars, along " C " street and " I " street, 
 behind unmistakable zinc plaques, freshly engraved, 
 "Coralie," "Mamie," "Cleopatra," et id omne genus. 
 There were no swans in the air, but Venus Victrix, peep- 
 ing out, transfixed the passer-by with her alas! too prom- 
 inent charms and painted siren smile, from the semi-shel- 
 ter of diaphanous curtains. The minions of order were 
 not there to spy out the rosy land where the flag of sin 
 still gaily fluttered in the wooing spring breeze. As Andy 
 Bowen remarked vaguely, " Things seem to be coming 
 around all right ! " 
 
 Wyman met him as he emerged from the office of the 
 Recorder, where an alert man of thirty was neatly extend- 
 ing the verbiage of a pile of new transfers in several 
 freshly prepared books. The superior air of this new 
 functionary at once struck the owner of the " Mariquita." 
 
 "Is that the new Recorder?" carelessly asked Wyman, 
 as he led Andy out of the "Stonewall Jackson" saloon 
 after a mighty drink a " housewarmer," the great 
 giant termed it, as he spoke of his drinkless exile in his 
 long trip afield. 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 85 
 
 " That chap is a new arrival, sir," cried big Andy. "And 
 all the front name he's got is 'Jim the Penman.' He's a 
 dandy scribe, that's what he is, and our local business is in- 
 creasing, so that the Recorder has two or three extra fellows 
 at the records. But, this fellow is the boss. I saw him 
 the other night write down a half-dozen fellows' names on 
 a bet, three times each, mixing them with a slip written 
 at the same time, by themselves. An outsider marked all 
 the real ones and the fellows were all stuck for the drinks 
 for the crowd on their own mistakes. He's an eastern 
 chap, too, and a right good fellow." 
 
 Frederick Wyman carried off only a part of Andy 
 Bowen's harangue, and yet, he turned back to gaze again 
 at the cool self-possessed stranger whose flying fingers were 
 the wonder of the clumsy Nevadans. "How did he get 
 here? Is he an outcast?" was Wyman's last remark, a 
 quick suggestion of his own private needs. 
 
 "Oh! No! He seems all right. He was in the navy 
 somewhere East, and had to give up the sea. Looks con- 
 sumptive. I guess he came out here for a change of air." 
 
 Andy sauntered away, leaving the sly Wyman standing 
 lost in thought. The " change of air ' ' impressed him as the 
 cabalistic letters " G. T. T." on the door of thehidden 
 skeleton cupboard for years indicated that the absent owner 
 thereof had "Gone To Texas! " Whether crime, woman, 
 dissipation or heartbreak sent Mr. James Walter Hooper 
 over to Washoe, his contemporaries did not know, and cared 
 still less to ask ; for the mental storehouses for the local 
 euphemistic lies were overcrowded. 
 
 "Faith, Hope and Charity, but the greatest of these is 
 Charity." This wholesome truth was verified among the 
 ungodly, for an absence of Faith in their shadowy biog- 
 raphies, was more than atoned for by the mantle Charity, 
 which left each man's past to mock him alone, with its 
 
86 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAR1QU1TA. 
 
 unrevealed ghastliness. Any story was acceptable, provided 
 like a duelists' sword that it was of the right length. 
 
 Mr.Wyman, secret capitalist and budding aristocrat, did 
 not return to his dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes 
 au naturel, and canned peaches. He lingered at the Golden 
 Eagle for a swell dinner. A chance meeting in the gloam- 
 ing with Andy Bowen favored the saturnine Wyman with 
 the acquaintance of Mr. James Walter Hooper. To the as- 
 tonishment of the casual loungers, in a week, the penman 
 was an inmate of Wyman's neat cabin at the head of 
 Grizzly Canon. 
 
 4 'Ye see," dilated Patsey Casey, the gay Ganymede of 
 the Golden Eagle bar; "they're both high-toned loike, 
 slick up on Sundays, and do the style of a Lord Lieutenant. 
 They are the two bloods of the Comstock, and I suspect 
 aych of them of having been kicked out of some college 
 or another. We're proud of them, and they make a fine 
 show." 
 
 But, Patsey Casey, dealer in hell-fire poisons, was not 
 gifted with the " higher light." Wyman, desiring to care- 
 fully guard his own personal secrets, studiously held aloof 
 from all the little cliques of the streets. He was now 
 watching for the turn of the tide in every way, and his 
 breath often came quickly as he realized how his careless 
 intimacy with Steve Berard might have ended in his tassel- 
 ling a telegraph pole. In truth, it was only his fatal lack 
 of cool, ready, reliable nerve that had caused Berard to 
 abandon the hope of making Wyman a useful brother of 
 the green cloth. Nimble, sly, plausible, taking, in his 
 manners, and practicable, he was not yet entirely master 
 of himself. His vulgarly timid nature demanded one foot 
 on solid ground before he could play the brave man. 
 
 Intuitively, Wyman felt that this self-contained and ac- 
 complished stranger might be useful to him later. It was 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 87 
 
 nearly a month after they had shared the same roof shelter 
 before Hooper revealed even a part of his life story. His 
 air of semi-discipline, his neat manner, and ready aplomb 
 bore out the navy story. Busied daily in his copyist 
 labors,he was very companionable with Wymau,for both of 
 them shunned the grosser pleasures of the tawdry streets. 
 Wyman's cold economy was born of ambition and prudent 
 fear; the other man's of necessity. 
 
 Hooper bore his thirty years very jauntily, and fresh, 
 blonde and steady-eyed, he betrayed no nervous anxiety 
 save in his haunting the postofticc for letters which never 
 came. His smooth brow was unruffled, but, his waiting look 
 impressed even the watchful Wymaii. The firm lips, hid- 
 den with a sweeping mustache, still guarded the secrets of 
 his past, and such modest wardrobe as he had, was of the 
 order of the children of fashion. His personal baggage 
 was most shadowy, and yet, with a quiet dignity, he gently 
 declined Wyman's offer of money assistance. 
 
 " I will save enough to get me over to San Francisco, 
 and then, I will get a position in some one of the mQY- 
 chant steamer lines. t I detest these low brutes. I have 
 always handled money, not men of this calibre. I would 
 be entirely useless here. " 
 
 The guarded silence of the facile stranger visitor was still 
 unbroken when two months later he quietly said to "VVyman, 
 "I am going down to the Bay;" for, the long looked for 
 letter had at last arrived. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyrnan started at the sudden announce- 
 ment, for a long cherished plan had slowly matured in his 
 mind. Cold and egoistic, he feared to trust to any human 
 being. He had now finished all his labors of safety around 
 the mine and, the desire to fathom the history of the dead 
 Devereux's widow, the pressing need to set up his legal 
 title before opening the hidden mine, now weighed on him. 
 
88 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 "By Heaven! I must soon get machinery on this lead and, 
 I do>not dare yet to show my hand." 
 
 He was now familiar with all of Hooper's clerical dex- 
 terity. "I only showed these grinning fools what I could 
 do, as a means of getting temporary work," said Jim the 
 Penman, "but, I'm ready for the road now, and I would 
 not stay here for any ordinary temptation." The color 
 flamed in his face. It was a singular visage. A peculiar 
 glittering crafty twinkle of the eyes, or affected carriage of 
 the stylish head, an aristocratic over-loading with that 
 obtrusive element, the nose, gave him the air of a petit 
 maitre. His ceremonial and lisping manner set up an 
 invincible barrier between him and the hairy giants of the 
 sledge and drill. 
 
 Wyman breathed hard as he heard the sudden announce- 
 ment. He knew now that in all the ways of the world 
 which he longed to conquer. Hooper was a Past Grand 
 Master, where he was as yet, only a tyro. He knew that a steel 
 spring nerve lurked behind the stranger's folded veil. In 
 his dreams, he had looked to this man as a possible tool. 
 That idea had now vanished. But, could he obtain his 
 help in any way? Fearing to break the ice, he had so far 
 remained quiet. "He might have fixed up those records 
 for me," thought Wyman, with a pang at heart. He 
 merely waited for an opening, as he said : * ' I'm sorry to 
 lose you, I hope to meet you soon in San Francisco. What 
 takes you down there, some business certainly? 
 
 Jim the Penman gazed steadily at the younger man. 
 "You've been very kind tome Wyman. I don't mind 
 telling you. It was a woman sent ine out here to this 
 devilish stone quarry, and it's a woman, the same woman, 
 who takes me away. " His eyes gleamed with that passion 
 which lights up the windows of the lost soul showing the 
 never-dying fire within. 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 89 
 
 " The same woman? " cautiously queried Wyman. 
 
 " Yes, the very same! She's coming out on the steamer. 
 I had to leave her in New York, but now it's different." 
 And, the elegant and impassive James Walter Hooper then 
 paced the floor with the springy tread of a panther. For, in 
 his veins was burning the subtle philtre of a love which had 
 gnawed into his very soul, and eaten up in its shriveling 
 flames, all that he ever knew of the paltry bird-cage meshes 
 we call principle or honor. When did they ever avail 
 against " Her bright smile?" The one who comes to craze, 
 to dazzle, to rule in imperious wickedness, or roving 
 fancy. 
 
 "When do you go down?" continued Wyman, his 
 eyes gleaming. 
 
 " To-morrow, I will get my poor wages. I take to-mor- 
 row night's stage to Reno," said the penman. 
 
 " I'll go on as far as Truckee with you," cried Wyman, 
 " I have some business over there." 
 
 "It's my last chance," he thought, under his breath; 
 and then, Hooper's last remarks, gave him the needed clue. 
 The way was open at last. ' ' Yes, he can do what he 
 wants to safely there, over the line, in California." 
 
 All that night, Wyman watched the regular breathing 
 of the man who evidently was dreaming of a reunion of 
 passionate love, a love which never stopped to dally in its 
 flood of burning feeling with the foolish trammels of 
 guilt or innocence. For, what is guilt when the one 
 bosom of the world pillows a lover's head? " Some wan- 
 dering star who has forgotten her home orbit," sneered 
 Frederick Wyman, who could not imagine why any 
 woman should cross the tropics in search of Jim the Pen- 
 man. " He is poor, but as sharp as a flash. Can it be some 
 Bcheme? Counterfeiting? Some new modern swindle? 
 No! In such cases, the preliminary money is ever forthcom- 
 
90 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 ing. It may be that he ran away to escape a sudden personal 
 vengeance or to save her name. Perhaps, there was a hus- 
 band or a child to get rid of. But I must watch him, use 
 him and a few hundred dollars might be a godsend to him 
 now. Shall I risk it?" 
 
 Mr. James Walter Hooper had made several furtive 
 character studies of his host during this stay. He mused 
 as he watched Wyman. "This man is hiding something 
 from the world. His pent-up nature is eager to burst 
 through some trammels. What are they? What restrains 
 him here? Young, plausible, active, unfettered, and yet, 
 he lingers in an apparently aimless insincerity of purpose 
 here. He is following me down to Truckee for a hidden 
 reason. And, that same reason will at last unlock his 
 tongue." 
 
 James Walter Hooper had watched many, many schemes 
 of craft and chance before he was driven forth from the 
 Brooklyn navy yard by the " angel of the flaming sword." 
 "This boy, untried as he is. is smart dangerous a cold- 
 hearted liar, and has already ome direct path laid out to cut 
 his way to success. It lies cut through the quivering hearts 
 of some innocent sufferers. There is only one thing which 
 will keep this fellow from becoming a notable human 
 shark; it is his lack of nerve and the easy runway of that 
 pleasure-loving chin. He is the sort of a chap to be * laid 
 by the heels' at last. But, God knows where he will 
 drive on to. In fair weather, any fool can sail a yacht!" 
 
 As the two men clambered into the stage, in the hush of 
 the next evening, Hooper narrowly observed his host and 
 self-appointed traveling companion. Wymau's slender 
 luggage indicated an early return. His face was un- 
 troubled, his air quietly expectant. Hooper cast a scorn- 
 ful glance at the bald, sterile, social wilderness of the shabby 
 town, and he then trundled away over the hidden veins 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 91 
 
 below with no thought of the gnome-guarded golden 
 veins founded in silvery buttresses. But as the stage 
 swept around the last point, a ray of the setting sun lit up 
 the gloomy gorge of the Grizzly Canon. The eager air 
 of Wy man's farewell glance stimulated Hooper's curi- 
 osity. 
 
 "Has this fellow a buried treasure down there? He 
 seems so cool so confident, so indifferent to the future, * 
 and yet, he has neither associates nor backers. What 
 underlies his strange serenity?" These unanswered 
 questions yielded to memories which thrilled Hooper's 
 heart to the throbbing core. 
 
 As the wheels revolved, Jim the Penman softly closed his 
 eyes. He could see again Vinnie Hinton, as on that day, 
 two years before, when she first entered the office of the 
 Naval Paymaster at the Brooklyn Yards. The very first 
 notes of her velvety voice cost him his peace of mind, 
 and Uncle Sam, a new check book, for a quart of copying 
 fluid baptized that open document, which figured so promi- 
 nently later in Vinnie Hinton's rapidly enlarged social 
 horizon. The disgraced fugitive could see once more the 
 woman's flashing, wonderful brown eyes, with their two 
 glistening spots, a resistless invitation, at once, a pleading 
 and a snare. His heart leaped up madly, as he pressed his 
 arm upon a crackling letter in his bosom. For, their life 
 paths were again to run into one i. i tne Golden Gate. 
 
 What mattered it if Paymaster Arthur Hallowell was 
 now a not ornamental inmate of the Dry Tortugas prison, 
 a man from whose shoulders the 7 *ue and gold had been 
 stripped? The double event wuich made a great dis- 
 bursing agent her slave, and his confidential man her 
 humble man Friday, was a tribute to thoSfe quietly exerted 
 fascinations which a lavish nature had given to the reckless, 
 shy eyed beauty, as a fatal dower. It had ruined several 
 
9^ MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 others, before her velvet cheek glowed one shade deeper 
 under the ardent glances of poor Arthur Hallowell, whose 
 eyes now swept, hopelessly, the sapphire zone of the 
 Caribbean. 
 
 Whether from a convict's standpoint, Vinnie Hinton 
 was still the Queen of Arts and Hearts, Hooper knew 
 not, but it was strangely true that very night the man in 
 stripes, a dishonored officer, dreamed again of those 
 splendid eyes, trembling with the unshed tears. The 
 word " Embezzlement," coldly entered against the name 
 of Arthur Hallowell, might have been properly followed 
 by the uglier remark "Forgery," coupled with the 
 patronymic of James Walter Hooper, the Paymaster's 
 Chief Clerk. 
 
 "What a genius Vinnie is!" fondly mused Hooper 
 that night at Reno. < No one but she would have had 
 sense enough to burn up the extra warrant book and the 
 check book. When pooi Hallowell helped himself a little 
 to the government funds, he never knew that I could 
 follow him up with a better signed check than his own. 
 I don't fancy that his bondsmen will ever find out how 
 much we took, jointly and severally. I only wonder if 
 Vinuie has kept an egg or two of the golden nest. The 
 government is about two years behind the rebellion. The 
 Auditor's and Treasury accounts are about two years be- 
 hind the government. Long before my criminality can 
 be traced, I will be either well placed in this world, 
 high above any suspicion, or else eligibly located in 
 another." 
 
 So it was, with a light heart, Mr. James Walter Hooper 
 blew out his brief candle and dreamed of { ' working " 
 San Francisco with the resistless and fascinating Vrnnie 
 "on joint account." "She must have some distinct 
 ideas," was his last thought, " or else she would have con- 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 93 
 
 veniently forgotten poor Jim the Penman." Even in his 
 freely indulged soliloquies, he avoided that brutally direct 
 term "Jim the Forger." Luck had been with him so 
 far, for his hasty flight from New York to save an ap- 
 pearance, as a witness of damning injury to the un- 
 fortunate Hallowell, was effected through a warm-hearted 
 young brother officer. He had recognized the dainty 
 touch of lovely Vinnie Hinton's jeweled hand in the 
 instantaneous flitting, and the brief scrawl: "Burned all 
 Arthur's books and things here at the New York Hotel; 
 work your way out to San Francisco; I'll join you there. 
 Send only address here to me; I'll bring you out all right 
 yet!" The one key word she signed threw open the door 
 of Memory to a spell which still held him trembling in 
 silence at her feet the Conqueror. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman had been strangely abstracted 
 during the ride, and the furtive watching of the ex-pay- 
 master's clerk evolved no clue to his covert necessities. 
 At Willows Cross Roads, the penman noted a sudden flush 
 of interest, as Mr. Wyman joined eagerly in a general 
 conversation based upon the sudden elevation of Elder Asa 
 Holman to be a Bishop of the Mormon Church. 
 
 "Has he left here? " demanded Wyman carelessly of the 
 hotelkeeper. 
 
 "Yes. Sold out all his ranch and stock to the stage 
 company. Going to be sent either to Europe to drum up 
 recruits for Brother Brigham, or else to found a new Mor- 
 mon colony in Mexico. He's gone away already, and one or 
 ( two of the old women alone, are left here packing up to 
 follow him on to Salt Lake City. That old slyboots left 
 here with a good two hundred thousand dollars in gold. " 
 
 As the heavy stage lumbered along to its final destina- 
 tion at Truckee, Hooper began to feel a very warm curios- 
 ity in Wymau's future movements. There was a restless 
 
94 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 glitter in his eyes, which denoted the working of his 
 crafty brain. 
 
 "I am in a hurry to reach San Francisco," said Hooper, 
 as the two men wandered away from the little hotel porch, 
 on the star-lit night following their debut at Truckee. 
 Down in the gorge the river was dashing among its 
 dark boulders, and the huge swaying pines sang the .sad 
 wailing song of the Sierras over them. 
 
 " I wish you would give me to-morrow here," finally 
 remarked Wyman, as they raised their eyes out of the 
 dark olive depths. " I will make it an object to you." 
 
 1 i Have you much business here? Are we over the 
 State line?" casually remarked the penman. 
 
 " I think so! I must find out a notary. There must be 
 one here. I've not been in this town before; but only 
 passed through." Wyman had incautiously trapped him- 
 self. 
 
 The firm lips of Jimmy Hooper never quivered. 
 "Wants to do a bit of private business. If I mistake not, 
 it's a good investment for the future." 
 
 The two young men indulged in an earnest game of 
 billiards till late, but the word " business " never crossed 
 Wyman's lips till the golden sun had cleared the swaying 
 forest giants the next day. It cost the borderer a final 
 wrench at heart to approach the subject. "He will never 
 come back to Virginia. And he will forget the names 
 and all. I'll take the papers away at once." 
 
 Decided to take the final risk, the egoist timidly asked 
 his own heart, "Will five hundred dollars be enough?" 
 He was man enough to own that, possessed of Mr. 
 Hooper's singular talent, he himself would have demanded 
 more. But he ignored Mr. Hooper's total inability to 
 discern just how much of the late Steve Berard's gold 
 coin lay snugly buried behind a set of framing timbers of 
 
JIM THE PENMAX. 95 
 
 the tunnel, where the stolid Swede was now watching 
 that golden hearted virgin, the Mariquita. 
 
 Frederick Wyman was astir betimes the next morning. 
 Before his companion had ceased to dream of the kalei- 
 doscopic changes of fortune of Vinnic Hinton, the borderer 
 had thoroughly explored the burg of Truckee. 
 
 " Yaas! it's a queer place! " said an early barkeeper, as 
 the two men listened to the plumed quail piping in the 
 theoretical streets of Truckee. "Just stumps enough cut 
 out here, for the stage to get in and out. The river gives 
 us water to blend our whisky, and the old hole burns up 
 regularly every year when leaves are dry. You see we're 
 in a regular basin here a cup. Dern it! a fellow killed a 
 a big grizzly bear in the town limits the other day, and 
 them yellow panthers lug off every colt and calf around 
 here. Notary public? Yes sir! Over there! Shake his door 
 well. He was drunk last night. You'll find him. a handy 
 man. He's a tailor, barber, shoemaker, and Justice of 
 the Peace, as well as the Postmaster and Insurance agent. 
 He does a bit of real estate, too, but that's not his strong 
 hold." 
 
 In a half hour, Mr. Wyman returned with the facto- 
 tum, who, after three stiff drinks, explained a few details 
 extracted from a very greasy copy of the Practice Act. 
 
 "Wait for me at your office, Squire," said Wyman, as 
 he privately pledged the barkeeper to keep the "Squire" 
 sober until after ten o'clock. " Then, you can turn the 
 'trcrnens' loose on him, for all I care," said Wyman, as 
 they took a drink " on private account." 
 
 The homely hotel breakfast dispatched, Mr. Frederick 
 Wyman affected such a fine air of easy unconcern, that, 
 at last, Hooper came flatly to the point. 
 
 "What am I to do for you, Wyman?" he briskly said. 
 ' ' Now, the day is crawling on. " 
 
96 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Shut up in a stifling little upper room, Wyman slowly 
 produced several old papers, and a small assortment of an- 
 tique stationery which he had picked up, bit by bit, at Vir- 
 ginia City. His hand still trembled with the bill of sale 
 of one quarter of the "Mariquita," clutched in his eager 
 grasp, when his lame and halting story was over. 
 
 The glittering blue eyes of James Walter Hooper were 
 lazily fixed on a great gray squirrel capering gaily on a dry 
 limb of a huge pine near. Gurgling water, the fresh 
 morning breeze, a patch of bluest sky, arched with the 
 forest monarchs, all the fine veiled harmony of nature, 
 wooed the ex-clerk to a lonely stroll. 
 
 " Don't differentiate, my boy, out with it! Tell me 
 what I can do for you! These papers are not worth a 
 damn to you, unless verified. Who is going to do that?" 
 
 "You see," faltered Wyman, now in a close corner, 
 " the fact is, Devereux was a rolling stone. He will never 
 turn up again. No one knows him, and I only want to 
 close my title. I hate to put in a whole season's work on 
 the mine, and then be worried later. " 
 
 "And, you want me to leap into the chasm for you, 
 here?" Mr. Hooper was now very wide awake. 
 
 " I want the papers fixed up just as if Devereux him- 
 self were here," sullenly said the borderer. 
 
 "What sort of a chap is the Notary?" calmly said 
 Hooper. 
 
 " He's over there now, half drunk, waiting for me," re- 
 plied Wyman. 
 
 "How much loose money have you with you?" placidly 
 continued Hooper. 
 
 4 * I have five hundred dollars in good twenties, if no one 
 can tell the difference of these documents." Wyman 
 sighed, and his face plead poverty. 
 
 " Go over there and keep that chap on a moving drunk, 
 
JIM THE EEXMAX. 97 
 
 but, just so sober that he can stick on his seal. You are 
 sure we are now in California? " the Penman queried. 
 
 "There's an impression of his notarial seal!" cried 
 Fred. 
 
 "All right! I'll be there in a jiffy. Stay! Give me 
 all the dates you want, and the consideration." 
 
 Wyman, by hazard, put down ten dollars to be named in 
 the deed, and the date of the uprising at Virginia, for the 
 forged transfer of the three quarters of the Mariquita, still 
 standing on the records as the property of one Robert Dever- 
 eux. "They will remember that all was upside down 
 then, at Virginia City, if any one ever looks it up, and it 
 will explain his being over here, too. It all goes well with 
 the idea of Devereux's final disappearance for California." 
 Mr. Wyman was now very anxious to sse the work of 
 Jim the Penman, in its finished state. 
 
 "You take the gold over there along with you, and 
 you'll get the documents when you pay the Notary his 
 fees," coldly remarked Hooper. " Stay! The damned fool 
 may ask me a question or so. Have you anything with 
 you of the absent man's? Something to identify him?" 
 
 Wyman thrust a couple of envelopes hastily into his 
 hand. "There's a couple of letters addressed to him. 
 You can show those, if he asks you to prove your own 
 identity." 
 
 And, while Wyman returned to stand guard over the 
 Notary, Hooper, after a few moments practice and char- 
 acterization study, deftly ran off the required full transfer. 
 He left the date blank. 
 
 "That's a very neat job," said the Penman, as from his 
 window he saw Wyman now ornamenting the narrow 
 portico of the saloon where the Squire was holding forth 
 on the great future of Truckee City. Some busy devil's 
 suggestion caused the scribe to run off a penciled copy of 
 
98 MISS DEVEEEUX OF THE AIAEIQUITA. 
 
 the two letters, even to the marks on the envelopes. l ' My 
 friend Wyman," he smiled, as he indulged in his second 
 morning appetizer. "There is more than five hundred 
 dollars in this affair. Seed sowed by the wayside, and I 
 can afford to wait. However, I've taken all there is in 
 sight." 
 
 Ten minutes later, with semi-drunken gravity, the 
 Notary objected to the blank date, and his own ignorance of 
 the personality of the maker of the transfer, "Oh! Put 
 in the date of our bargain!" said Wyman easily, and the 
 false Devereux inscribed the date of the occultation of the 
 "101." 
 
 "There, Mr. Notary, are my letters. I suppose that 
 will satisfy you," remarked Hooper as he laid the en- 
 velopes, with the furtively copied letters, under the 
 Squire's red nose. 
 
 "Certainly! Certainly! That's all right. Must how- 
 ever obey the Code," commented the official, as he finally 
 affixed the notarial seal to the superbly executed forgery. 
 The ink, the faded blue paper and every ear mark of the 
 original document was there. 
 
 "Stay, Mr. Notary," briskly said Wyman, as he re- 
 ceived his change for a twenty-dollar piece. "I wish 
 also a certified copy. Take the fees out for that." And, 
 Mr. Wyman did not grudge the twelve dollars which he 
 parted with. 
 
 "You see, Devereux," laughed Wyman, as Hooper 
 quietly gathered in his five hundred dollars in shining 
 gold, "I will keep the original and send the certified copy 
 up to Virginia City for record. It will only take you a 
 few moments to run it off." 
 
 " This fellow Wyman is a bit smarter than I thought 
 him," mused Hooper, as he good humoredly threw in 
 another forgery of the document. " I suppose he has 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 99 
 
 some wildcat claim up there, which he would gladly use 
 as a shadowy background to his cheap pretensions. This 
 young tiger cub may grow to be a bit dangerous, when 
 his teeth are longer, and so I'll keep an eye on him. It's 
 very useful money to me now, this little windfall. I can 
 prospect around and study Vinnie's game a little, before 
 she has me at Hoodman's Blind, again. I wonder what it 
 is now, Army or Navy?" 
 
 While Wyman, with assumed carelessness, sauntered 
 over to have the copy certified, Hooper thought of all the 
 bright-eyed harpies clustering around the disbursing offi- 
 cers of Uncle Sam. "Sixty-one, sixty two, sixty-three," 
 had developed a brood of soft plumaged falcons who 
 hovered very near the eagle so neatly graven on the official 
 buttons; and, they all loved the crisp green treasury notes. 
 "Ah! Vinuie! Vinnie! I suppose you have marked your 
 game down already now; some successor to poor Hallowell." 
 He never imagined that Vinnie Hinton, with a prophetic 
 eye, saw the evolution of the "stock millionaire," the 
 Pacific coaster, the bonanza baron, the freshest, coarsest, 
 "greenest " of fortune's uplifted fools. 
 
 "If this run of luck keeps up out there, Aladdin's lamp 
 was a baby's toy to what the flame of fortune may show 
 these ' golden calves. ' ' The unwearied attention of sev- 
 eral United States Marshals and secret service detectives 
 caused Vinnie Hinton to find the New York Hotel a bit 
 stuffy. "Westward the star," she gaily hummed as she 
 flirted with the purser on the Atlantic, only to captivate 
 his successor on the Pacific side. " I am all right now," 
 laughed Vinnie, over a bottle of champagne under the 
 sparkling skies of the Carribean. " For once, I am fol- 
 lowing the advice of a Bishop the good Berkeley. 
 But, I must have my Jimmie, he can turn the trick on 
 these lumbering sons of a lucky star. I can't do it 
 alone. He shall be my business man." 
 
100 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 " Do you go right back to Virginia City? " questioned 
 Hooper, as he found Wyman, amusing himself with com-f 
 pleting the beastly drunkenness of the frontier official, 
 now a silent reddened Silenus. 
 
 "Yes! My stage comes along at three o'clock," an- 
 swered the now happy borderer. 
 
 " Wyman has some object in blotting out this Notary 
 fellow's memory of faces and names to-day," reflected 
 Hooper. He had seen a great deal of what eastern con- 
 tractors called "funny business," around the "greenback" 
 spouts of his Uncle Sam. 
 
 "Are your records all straight?" hazarded Hooper. 
 
 " Oh! yes!" gaily replied Fred. " I saw his entries all 
 O. K. So, I am now ready to leave this initial point of a 
 future empire. By the way, give me your San Francisco 
 address." 
 
 Mr. James Walter Hooper glibly lied, for he gave a 
 place which was conspicuously not the meeting haunt 
 arranged by the quick witted Vinnie. " Some of the 
 queens of shadow land must have posted her in New 
 York !" thought Hooper, as he had read the Perdita's 
 minute directions for his behavior on arrival. 
 
 " I can always write to you, any change," quietly said 
 Hooper, with a sly gleam of his eye. " Neither of us, I 
 guess, will ever refer to this little Truckee episode. It's 
 a cold State's prison matter for both of us." 
 
 " Oh! It's nobody's business," hastily rejoined Wyman. 
 " I have always been too loose about my documents and 
 things. This straightens me out." 
 
 "lam too careless myself," rejoined Hooper, with a 
 twinge of remorse for the numbers of interpolated 
 checks which poor Paymaster Hallowell had unwittingly 
 signed. i ' I only wish I had been only more active in my 
 well doing," sighed Hooper, " I would not have been so 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 101 
 
 dependent on Vinnie's whims now. However, I might as 
 well surrender at discretion." It was true that to be near 
 her, to look into the soft brown eyes, even though their 
 light was a lying beacon signal of passion, was now 
 Hooper's very breath of life. 
 
 The dust-covered stage which bore Frederick Wyman, 
 Esq., away from Truckee toward Reno, left him at the 
 lirst watering station. " Never mind my fare," he hastily 
 said to the driver." " I left some papers behind me by 
 accident. I'll come up to-morrow." Jim the Penman was 
 well over the Geiger grade, and the Spirit of the Summit 
 whispered of Vinnie's open arms to him, before Wyman 
 returned to Truckee. 
 
 His first morning duty was to sober up the factotum, 
 whom he had made crazy drunk as the only Notary and 
 Justice. But, he needed him now sober. In his capacity 
 of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s assistant express agent, the re- 
 calcitrant receipted for a sealed package of documents, 
 addressed to the County Recorder of Storey County, 
 Virginia City, Nevada. The gold for the official fees and 
 a liberal douceur, accompanied this forwarding of the ex- 
 quisitely natural work of Jim the Penman. 
 
 " I will get the documents here in a week or so my- 
 self," remarked the man, now happily disembarrassed of 
 friend Hooper. "I have to visit Sacramento and I will 
 return in a week." A sigh of relief escaped the UQW 
 owner of the " Mariquita." 
 
 On the next evening, Wyman, light-hearted, followed 
 Hooper over the crested Sierras to the golden valley of 
 the Sacramento. As he paced the hotel porch at Auburn, 
 two days later, Mr. Wyman was in the gayest of moods 
 while waiting for the last fragment of his stage journey. 
 ' ' The train from Folsom to Sacramento, then the boat, 
 and in forty-eight hours I will know what Mrs. Robert 
 
102 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQU1TA. 
 
 Devereux is like. By Jove! I must not stumble on 
 Hooper. I will have to play the night owl." 
 
 As the great steamer " Chrysopolis " throbbed along 
 down the matchless San Francisco Bay, Wyman's last 
 plans were achieved in his deck dreams. " I will change 
 the name of the mine, then the people will soon forget 
 Devereux. I will let it lie idle this winter, and I will 
 order my light machinery on this visit. By next spring, I 
 will have grown into my recognized ownership, and all talk 
 will have died away. Devereux and Berard will be merely 
 faded shadows, and my uncontested title and possession 
 will be known of all men. Then, by the Gods, next year, 
 a single month's work will take out enough to give me the 
 wherewithal to knock at the doors now closed to poor 
 Fred Wyman. " 
 
 As the great river steamer swept up to her landing, San 
 Francisco's ten thousand twinkling lights seemed to shine 
 in his happy heart, lighting the way to myriad veiled 
 pleasures. " The Devil's own luck has stood in with me so 
 far," he murmured, as he sped away from the city 
 wharves. In the carriage, he deciphered from the stolen 
 letters the humble address on Kearney Street where the 
 lonely wife of his murdered partner had lived, in the 
 vicinity of the theater, in which she acted as costumer. 
 "By Heavens! I have it," he cried, and then, dis- 
 nlissing his driver at the nearest corner, he lounged into 
 the huge music hall theater, only a vast man trap with its 
 painted sirens and adjacent bar-rooms. 
 
 A few hospitable civilities to a lounging usher made him, 
 at once, free of the lower corridors. Within, shouts and 
 yells attested the vigor of the evening's enjoyment. " Oh! 
 Yes. I know the woman you mean," babbled the usher. 
 "A decent woman, too. You see she sickened awhile 
 ago and had to give up work and go to the hospital. Old 
 
JIM THE PENMAN. 103 
 
 man McCabe, the stage manager, knows aU about them. 
 He took the little girl in. He's a good old chap, is Mac. 
 And his wife is kind hearted." 
 
 Wyman departed happy with a last crumb of welcome 
 news. "You'll find McCabe, alone here, at ten o'clock 
 always in the mornings." "Luck still with me," cried 
 Wyman in his confident joy. "I am all safe now. I 
 hope she is by this time dead." 
 
 With unabashed front, the surviving partner visited the 
 dingy rooms where Devereux's wife had dragged out the 
 agony of two long weary winters, and a lonely summer. 
 The "people opposite," those opportune Mercuries who 
 always seem to be human encyclopedias, wondered at the 
 appearance of the only visitor who had ever sought the 
 departed lodger, save weazened-faced old Jimmy McCabe, 
 the < ' melodeon " stage manager. Mr. Wyman's ready 
 explanations of his desire to hire a resplendent costume 
 for a masked ball, was met with a fiood of detail. "Ah! 
 The poor woman," said the middle-aged gossip, driving 
 back a varied brood of youngsters who eagerly divided a 
 handful of small coins, "You see, she moped herself 
 sick, and when they took her to the Sisters' Hospital, old 
 Mr. McCabe and his wife took the little girl away. No! 
 There ain't uothin' here belongin' to them. The costumes 
 and things wuz all the theater's own, an' they didn't have 
 much. McCabe can tell ye all. She had some 
 trouble with her husband, or lost him. That's all. No! 
 I don't know what particular Catholic hospital she was 
 taken to. She was all gone in. Consumption? Yes. 
 That's the end of them worrying women. An' the man 
 never turned up. The letter carriers don't leave no more 
 letters. If ye were to see Mr. McCabe at the theater, ye 
 can get what costumes ye want there. He told me he 
 hoped to get the little girl into the orphan asylum. She's 
 bright L ; ke, poor dear thing." 
 
104 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 Before Wyman descended the stair, the sound of the 
 washboard resounded and he had decided at once not to 
 interview the kindly disposed McCabe. "I am invincible 
 now impregnable. The Mariquita is mine forever," he 
 mused, as he wended his way down to order his ma- 
 chinery. "I'll get back to the Comstock and watch my 
 hidden treasure." 
 
 At that very moment Vinnie Hinton, with glowing eyes, 
 was pledging Mr. James Walter Hooper in a sparkling glass 
 of Cliquot. "Jimmy," she laughed, "I am going to put 
 you into high life. I've got a rich banking magnate here 
 on the string. " 
 
IN PAY OREo 105 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Ix PAY ORE. 
 
 It was no cold, ascetic turn of mind which caused Wy- 
 man to deny himself the varied pleasures of the Golden 
 City. Satisfied that the wife and child of his dead partner 
 had been hurled far away from his orbit, by the sudden 
 shock of a new misery, he now yearned for the higher alti- 
 tudes of the Comstock. Afraid to show his face, for fear of 
 awkward explanations with Hooper, he made only a brief 
 visit to the Miners' Foundry, to buy his machinery, before 
 purchasing his four o'clock steamer ticket. He did, how- 
 ever, indulge in a three hours' quiet ride around the rapidly 
 extending limits of San Francisco. This, with a single 
 furtive visit to the Stock Board, and a glimpse of the new 
 business palaces, verified all his winter dreams on Mount 
 Davidson. 
 
 ''Yes! Prosperity, wealth, luxury, even splendor, have 
 come to pitch their gilded tents here," he muttered, as he 
 swore in his heart : "I will force myself up here. I will 
 yet rule among even these growing madmen." Poring over 
 the journals, he observed the fever pulse of the "stock" 
 mania, throbbing in their every line. The faces of the 
 hurrying men, the sideling glances of the eager, hawkeyed 
 women, all spoke to him of the iridescent bubbles now 
 dazzling every wandering eye. Sudden ^wealth, quick 
 prominence, unrestrained enjoyment! Vogue la galere! 
 
 " I will be my own Committee of Ways and Means," he 
 reflected, as he concluded his orders for four sets of horse 
 power gearing, a 20-foot circular arras tra quartz mill, aud 
 
106 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 all the simple outfit, needed to reduce some of his choicest 
 selected ores. " It makes a hole in my safety fund to 
 the extent of a couple of thousand dollars," thought Wy- 
 man, "but, in the winter and spring, my Swede, with a 
 single carpenter, can get these machines into position at 
 the mouth of the tunnel. The record's all right; my own 
 possession continued and acknowledged, I can then break 
 down and sack up ore enough myself, for the first few runs. 
 I will soon have the means to draw in a goodly amount of 
 floating mining stock in good claims, as well as to make 
 my mine build its own great permanent mill. A cheap 
 shed will cover all my workings, and, I will be a fairly 
 rich man before even I attract local attention. But first, 
 the mine's name must be legally changed, and the memory 
 of Devereux and Berard fade away." 
 
 As the afternoon steamer whirled passed grim, rocky 
 Alcatraz fort, quivering under the impulses of its sixty 
 foot wheels, the budding capitalist caught a glimpse of the 
 storm flag flying out over the huge citadel. "My Uncle 
 Sam," he sneered, "I will thank you for a miner's patent 
 to the 'Mariquita,' that's all. And, I would not trouble 
 you for that even that if General Sidney Johnson had 
 played our trump card for the rebellion here, out West. 
 But, all's well that ends w T ell," he mused, as he gazed back 
 at that scene of his future triumphs. 
 
 San Francisco lay embattled on its sandy hills, glowing 
 in golden sun gleams darted down from golden clouds, and 
 there behind him, the setting sun left a shining wake of 
 gold upon the blue, heaving waters. Even the long reaches 
 of the sandy shore, stretching f roni Fort Point townwards, 
 glistened with a gleaming light, suggestive of the golden 
 grains, man's Hire, womanhood's curse, and the soul's 
 ready damnation. 
 
 ' I will come back here in triumph, and these doors shall 
 
IN PAY ORE. 107 
 
 all be flung wide open to welcome me," he pledged himself, 
 as his eye rested on the pagodas where Pride already 
 perched a bit above the humble every-day usefulness below. 
 He had wolfishly gazed at the heaped up treasures of 
 windows and marts, the scattered votive offerings of costly 
 folly. The richly dressed women, racing on with kindling 
 eyes in the glittering streets, had brushed the unknown 
 dreamer aside. But, the rustle of silk, the sheen of velvet, 
 the flutter of lace, still told him of the Paradise to 
 come that Eden whose white-breasted Eves, radiant in 
 diamonds, with glowing eyes, drank, in beaming invi- 
 tation, to the lucky man touched by Fortune's magic 
 lingers. 
 
 One face haunted him still, the face of a woman who had 
 flashed a pair of wonderful brown eyes, full of lingering 
 softness, at the graceful mountaineer, even though his garb 
 was not yet that of a Prince Charming. " I'd like to find 
 her some day again, when I am rich," he muttered. " I 
 would hang a rope of pearls upon that neck; but, it should 
 bend. What a pair of eyes! " 
 
 He had watched the anonyma, as she swept into 
 " Shreve's," with the stride of a goddess. Wayfarers turned 
 to look again upon that poetry of grace in motion, for, 
 the charm of face must ever yield to that nameless grace of 
 the goddess' form the Idalian model swelling in delicious 
 curves 'neath the draping of these later days. 
 
 Wyman never knew that the fair one who charmed him, 
 had laughingly parted, only a half hour before, with his de- 
 parted collaborator, Jim the Penman. Waving a check be- 
 fore Hooper's eyes, which was signed with three cabalistic 
 initials, she laughingly said, " You must not embarrass 
 me in public, my boy. When you have mastered that one 
 handwriting, I will show you then, how to turn paper into 
 gold. I think that I shall set you up as a broker, in a 
 
108 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 small way, my own particular broker; for I have a 
 banker already." 
 
 Wyman was returning from a last tour of the locality 
 whence the broken-hearted wife had been borne to the hos- 
 pital, when this vision of passing beauty so dazzled him. 
 She was, in fact, a star newly risen in the local firmament, 
 and sundry social astronomers had already cast the in- 
 quiring glances of their opera-glasses at this strange di- 
 vinity, murmuring in scientific quandary "Whose? " 
 
 Wyman had passed on to the great Bella Union Theater, 
 and, his heart had failed him as the barkeeper pointed out 
 Mr. Billy McCabe, the veteran ex-Dublin manager, now 
 the Asmodeus of the "Bella Union." He was a little 
 bullet-headed man of sixty-five, with a keen gray eye, a 
 decisive nose a la Wellington, and a bustling manner. 
 Wyman had fancied that he might locate the orphan 
 school where Miss Hope Devereux was sheltered under 
 those " white wings" always stretched out to shield the 
 friendless poor. 
 
 "He does not look like an easy customer to tackle. 
 He might follow me and easily spot me," thought Mr. 
 Frederick. " I fancy the Church will graft in this child as 
 a sisterling by and by. Silence is golden. I will let well 
 enough alone. I could not buy him with a few dollars." 
 
 All in all, Mr. Wyman of the .Mariquita was pleased 
 with his trip to the Bay. As the stage toiled up over the 
 steep hills above Auburn, the borderer's heart grew light, 
 when the forest shades welcomed him. The chattering 
 bluejay's discordant scream, the plash of the waters fall- 
 ing into the far dim gorges, the blue skies domed above, 
 where the poised mountain hawk fluttered as if mysteri- 
 ously fixed in the thin ether, all this, called him away 
 from the Vanity Fair he had left. But Pleasure and 
 D^irc, bold-eyed handmaidens, whispered still of the 
 
IN PAY ORE. iU l J 
 
 speaking brown eyes of the Beautiful Unknown. " Time 
 enough for that when I have my first hundred thousand," 
 resolutely decided Wyman. " I will be a finished gentle- 
 man, and my chariot will have golden wheels. I will 
 succeed; for, only the poor are despised in this western 
 world." 
 
 Several neat little by-plans wove themselves now into the 
 plotted career of the next year. "lean hide my secret 
 operations easily by putting up a sign ' Ores sampled.' 
 With a light steam-engine, I can cover expenses and so 
 veil my own operations, until I am sure of both my own 
 practical skill and reputed ownership." The half hour 
 which others devoted to a " lightning meal " at Truckee, 
 enabled Wyman to reclaim his papers from the Notary- 
 Express agent, who was now professionally sober, as the 
 village barber, and shaving several daringly trustful souls, 
 at fifty cents a head. 
 
 " There you are, sir! All right to a trivet," cried the 
 man of lather, with a sigh that he could not just then re- 
 new those "pleasing assurances." He was delighted to 
 hear the grateful Wyman exclaim that he would "hang 
 up" a half dozen drinks for him at the bar. 
 
 As Mr. Wyman of the Mariquita rolled out of Truckee, 
 the very happiest man on the creaking Concord coach, he 
 rejoiced in the properly recorded papers, which attested the 
 slickness of Jim the Penman's imitative work. His last 
 glimpse of the Notary was in his capacity of " man about 
 town," making for those drinks, and leaving his razeed pa- 
 trons astounded more at his " fortiter in re" than his 
 " suaviter in modo." 
 
 "There's a good deal of electricity in this mountain 
 air," growled a patron whose epidermis had partially fol- 
 lowed the lost glory of his chin. 
 
 With the furtive moral triangulations of his nature, 
 
 i 2 
 
110 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 Wyraan could not avoid a careful cross-questioning of 
 the barkeeper at Willows Cross Roads, as to the affray in 
 which Berard had figured. "Poor Steve," said the 
 saloonkeeper, as he bowed in answer to Wyman's courteous 
 frontier question,' "Join me?" "It was very neatly 
 done, you see. This fellow was sort of rebellious like, and 
 tried to back off, and sneak out his own pistol on Steve, 
 but, Lord bless you, Steve had him plugged twice before 
 you could say < Jack Robinson.' Yes, sir. Right there 
 where you're standing now. It was the quickest thing I 
 ever see done in my life." 
 
 Wyman started, for his eye caught the dark dis- 
 colored stains in the soft puncheon floor. It was the red 
 seal of his new title to the " Mariquita." He gasped in- 
 coherently, "What did they do with him? " 
 
 " Oh, old man Holman planted him, down there at his 
 ranch. Perhaps, he'll come up a Latter Day Saint. Who 
 knows? " 
 
 It was a most judicious investment, the pocket flask 
 which kept Wyman's "spirits " up, all the way to Gold Hill, 
 for, dark shadows had fallen once or twice over his future, 
 golden as it had gleamed. He muttered between frequent 
 drinks: "The past is all closed up; the Holmans are 
 all gone; the girl is an orphaned waif; Berard and 
 Devereux are both dead. They can now watch each 
 other," he gloomily joked. "This fellow Hooper will 
 surely drift away to ruin. I can then defy the Devil 
 himself." 
 
 With an expiring gleam of caution, Wyman left the stage 
 at Gold Hill. To his delight, he found the silent bonif ace 
 there, had " sold out rich" and, gone "to the States." 
 Another "active young man" towered behind the bar, one 
 who was of a fresher grist than the man whose friendship 
 with the " sports" had, perhaps, induced the change of 
 
IN PAY OEE. Ill 
 
 ownership of the hotel. Perfectly satisfied with the drift- 
 ing of the leaves of Time over his blind trail, Mr. Wyman 
 entered the hourly stage, and returned, in peace, to Virginia 
 City. " God himself couldn't dig up all the little threads 
 of this thing now. It is buried, buried forever. " This 
 irreverent self gratulation of Wyman's attested both the 
 end of his journey and the emptiness of his flask. He slept 
 a happy man. 
 
 He dreamed strange dreams of a rosy future, that night 
 in his little cabin on the rocky battlements of Mount David- 
 son. Happy stars shone down on him, for the faithful 
 Swede was evidently true to his trust. There was no sign 
 of the interloper, and, a brief visit satisfied him that his 
 secret marks and signals had been left undisturbed in tun- 
 nel and shaft. The "Mariquita " was safe at last! 
 
 "I have nothing left to fear now. I am all right, and I 
 will now set up my machinery, and soon be in the richest 
 pay ore. But, the millionaire of the future fell asleep, 
 dreaming of the wistful brown eyes of the Cleopatra a la 
 mode, who had paused to transfix him with her parthian 
 glance down there " at ihe Bay," where rivers of coveted 
 diamonds flashed and sparkled in Shreve's windows. 
 
 " I will have them all soon at my beck and call, men 
 shall bow to the owner of the Mariquita, and, women's 
 white arms shall draw me down to the whiter haven of 
 their throbbing bosoms. Gold is the one potent charm, 
 and, I have now found the side door of AH Baba's cave." 
 
 The wild wind shook the frail cabin and whistled on, 
 wailing down through Grizzly Canon, where the now 
 scattered pyramid of rocks weighted down the man who 
 had more nerve than luck. Steven Berard slept on as 
 camly as his victim rested far away under the grassy 
 meadows of Holman's ranch, for neither pale ghost 
 haunted the sleep of the fortunate man, who had more 
 
112 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 luck than nerve. It was reserved for Frederick Wyman 
 to shine out later as " one of Nature's noblemen," in that 
 bright constellation of bright immortal souls, borne out 
 from obscurity on the golden tide of Mount Davidson's 
 millions the evolution of Nature's noblemen. 
 
 The spring of 1865 found Virginia City spreading its 
 ambitious feelers still farther along the sides of the grim 
 old mountain. Several stately brick and masonry build- 
 ings were pointed to with pride. There was a longer line 
 of hoisting works, noisier stamp mills and greater smoke 
 clouds drifting along the Comstock Lode. Far and near, 
 the miners' cabins now speckled the dreary landscape as if 
 distributed by some gigantic pepper box, fearfully clinging 
 to every little rift and level place. The near approach of 
 the railroad, the doubling of population, and an ambi- 
 tious efflorescence of the ''family element," proved that 
 here " Civilization on its luminous wings, soared, Phcenix- 
 like, to Jove." A haughty local pride shone in the face 
 of every " honest miner," for, Nevada was a State at last. 
 Its silver star proudly glittered upon the banners of the 
 irresistible host which General Grant was ready to hurl 
 on the hard held lines of the matchless Lee. 
 
 Virginia City was gay and cheerful, for the great mines 
 were all " in pay ore." The names, " Gould and Curry," 
 "Ophir," Crown Point," "Mexican," "Imperial," and 
 "Chollar," had gone forth to the astonished world. En- 
 graved certificates fluttered around the brokers' offices of 
 Virginia City, thicker than "leaves in Vallombrosa." 
 The feverish tick of the telegraph, day and night, bore 
 cipher-hidden tidings away to San Francisco, where in the 
 "Big Board," the " Little Board," on the curbstone, and 
 at each corner, the blinder children of blind Plutus 
 "went it blind," daily, on their favorite "gambles." 
 
 The sound of revelry by night was, however, judiciously 
 
IN PAY ORB. 113 
 
 regulated, and, the social tension never rose again to the 
 "hanging point," in the prosperous mountain city. The 
 Carson River was noisy with custom stamp mills; long 
 mule trains, groaning teams, and sporadic horsemen at- 
 tested the vitalized movement of the queen silver city. 
 For already, beneath the stony surface, the great pumps 
 were drawing the " lower levels," strangely termed 
 " lower," at four hundred feet, where no man dared to 
 dream that the miner's pick would yet be swung thirty- 
 five hundred feet below the flinty crags, over which 
 "Strideaway " had galloped, when Steve Berard went 
 recklessly on to his death. 
 
 In all this blossoming and bourgeoning, 110 one held up 
 his chin more bravely than Frederick Wyman, the " ris- 
 ing citizen." Mr. Wyman 's " Sampling Works," were 
 now a well-known center of activity. In the long winter 
 of 1864, a practical course of ore working and assay 
 studies, had fitted the borderer for his assumed calling. A 
 neat little industrial center was the Wyman works, where 
 a hundred horse-power engine moved a fine line of prac- 
 tical machinery. Men wondered at the pre-occupied air 
 of the prosperous young man. But, success had given a 
 searching glance to his eye; boldness came with the bul- 
 lion he now held in a precious secret reserve, and the name 
 of "Wyman " ornamented the City Council. A substan- 
 tial stone house had replaced his cabin at the mouth of the 
 "Mariquita" tunnel, and the Magnolia saloon and Golden 
 Eagle bar-room lost forever the inspiring presence of the 
 young "business man." In the leasure hours, when 
 not running his enlarged mills upon "custom work," 
 the surviving partner of the " Mariquita " had verified, 
 by secret explorations, the treasures for which poor 
 Devereux had died. They were evidently priceless! 
 
 When the telegraphed news of General Grant's great 
 
114 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MASIQUITA. 
 
 advance on the collapsing lines of the defiant Virginians 
 jtt Petersburg made March, 1865, a time of breathless 
 national anxiety, Frederick Wyman finally cast up his 
 reckoning, as he sat alone, in his comfortable stone house, 
 on a spring evening. "This is the beginning of the 
 end," he murmured, over his San Francisco paper. " The 
 United States will soon be able to give me a title, without 
 any reference to the Southern Confederacy. It's all up 
 with the South." 
 
 Prosperity had agreed with Wyman, whose mind had 
 long since relegated to Limbo, the haunting shades of the 
 departed Devereux and Berard. Lightly had he borne the 
 death, before Atlanta, of his own father, an undefeated 
 exponent of Kentuckian valor. His own cold, selfish 
 nature had been engrossed in guarding the hidden stolen 
 treasure of the hills. As he turned over his San Francisco 
 mail, on this March evening, the " rising citizen" was 
 painfully reminded of the one vulnerable point in the 
 Achilles armor of his title to the stolen mine. For, a 
 neat business circular and card accompanied a brief letter, 
 in which the writer tendered his business facilities. 
 Wyman's hand shook as he gazed at the showy card. 
 "Ah! He has crawled up!" he murmured as he read, 
 
 JAMES WALTER HOOPER, 
 
 STOCK & EXCHANGE BROKER, 
 
 343 CALIFORNIA ST., 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 "There's the only man who might annoy me, Jim the 
 Penman. He seems to be crawling up in the world. I 
 wonder who is behind him. He certainly was not over- 
 
IN PAY OEE. 115 
 
 loaded with capital when he left here." Wyman enjoyed 
 his faint sneer, for over a hundred thousand dollars in dore 
 bullion was now stored away on his own private account, 
 in the vaults of the leading assay and bullion exchange, on 
 the Comstock. " If I could trust this smart fellow, he 
 might be now useful. With my local knowledge here, 
 and a well arranged cipher, he could gather in some of the 
 Virginia City securities, of ten at a rare bargain. But, could 
 I trust him? There is only one kind of man to trust. I 
 don't know much about women. On principle, I wouldn't 
 trust any one of the bright-eyed devils." 
 
 Wyman's eyes glittered, of ten now, with a strange eager- 
 ness. He rose and paced the room. Something seemed 
 to be calling him away. " Not yet! Not yet! " he gasped, as 
 floods of hot blood flamed through his agile form. "Not 
 until I am a millionaire. Then, then, I will try the 
 1 Golden Rule'; the rule of the Twenty-Dollar Piece. 
 For, no ear is deaf to its ring. Could I trust to this 
 man? The only safe men that I know are my old partners, 
 'sleeping partners.' But, I must keep an eye on him. If 
 he gets money power his memory may call up the 
 'Mariquita.' 
 
 "Pshaw! That's all safely buried now. The 'Lone 
 Star ' has effaced the memory of the ' Mariquita. ' It 
 was a capital idea to change the name. Xo one will ever 
 dig up the records of the relocation. This chap, Hooper, 
 might however keep an eye on me, and blackmail me a bit. 
 No, he will be afraid. For, there's forgery ahead of 
 Jim the Penman's story. No, he will never tell it. But 
 I'll watch him. I may find him to be a good business 
 man next year, perhaps." And, as Wyman gazed around 
 his own comfortable abode, he thought very complacently 
 of several thousand shares of south end stocks which he 
 had quietly picked up during the last year. 
 
116 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 Marketing a few of his mingled gold and silver bars 
 from the ''Lone Star," now and then, the exchange offices 
 supposed Wyman to be only realizing on the "tribute 
 bullion," paid him for sampling ores. For, these huge 
 dull-looking bricks, in value from twelve hundred to eight 
 thousand dollars, were then current at their stamped re- 
 finery value. 
 
 "I could, perhaps, use some of my idle capital," mused 
 Wyman, "in picking up stock here, if I had a man to 
 work with now; for, month by month, the rising values 
 and daily growing activity show that the lead is being 
 traced down to the 'Mariquita.' When I push my work- 
 ings it will be a natural discovery, and people will think 
 I have just struck a 'dead thing.'" The slang word, 
 "dead thing " brought back his " sleeping partners," and 
 Wyman restored his complacency with a visit to the side- 
 board. 
 
 ' ' The one mistake of my whole campaign was not to 
 have traced out the fate of that woman and child, to the 
 last detail, while down' at the Bay! ' " he soliloquized, as he 
 seated, himself again before the cosy fire. "This fellow 
 Hooper, lying loose around town, might prick up his ears 
 some day at the name Devereux." The great pine logs 
 snapped and crackled cheerily as Wyman laughed away 
 this one last haunting shadow. "Bah!" he cried, "Jim, 
 the Penman is not likely to haunt hospitals or Catholic 
 orphan asylums to look up the loose ends of that little 
 Truckee transaction. No! He will be found racing after 
 that will-o'-the-wisp woman, who made a fool of him 
 away in the East; for a rascal he was before, yes, and a 
 dangerous rascal, too. I must keep an eye on this one shady 
 party. His star is beginning to twinkle a little higher 
 than I thought it would, but he's powerless to hurt me 
 in any way." Wyman started as his Chinese servant 
 glided into the room. 
 
IN PAY ORE. 117 
 
 "One man want see you!" the bland Mongolian re- 
 marked, in a voice void of emphasis. Wyman had 
 jumped up in a sudden alarm. 
 
 " Damn that fellow! He comes stealing in like a 
 ghost," cried the irritated miner, as he stepped to the 
 door. His right hand was bestowed neatly a la Berard, 
 ready for either peace or war. One useful lesson he had 
 loarncd from Steven! 
 
 "Hello! Just the man I was thinking of . Come in, 
 Andy," cried Wyman hospitably, as the huge bulk of the 
 ' Comstocker " darkened the door. i f Why, you are no 
 end of a swell, Andy!-" continued the host, in some sur- 
 prise, as he pushed out a cigar box, and then motioned to 
 his Mongolian adjutant. The Chinaman adjusted the 
 drinkables with the same passionless leer he would have 
 used inlaying out a deal at " fan-tan, "spreading an op ; um 
 " lay out," or setting up " hemlock " for the " justest of 
 the Greeks." The Sphinx of all of the East is John 
 Chinaman. 
 
 1 'I've just been down to the Bay, Wyman," said Andy, 
 as by a star observation, he measured a four-finger drink. 
 "A fellow like me has got to dress up to the style, 
 down there now." 
 
 "Everything all right, with you, Andy," said Wyman, 
 as he surveyed the resplendent appearance of the ex-com- 
 mittee man of the "101." 
 
 " Oh, yes. I have made some very neat turns, lately," 
 cried Bowen, complacently, as he bit the tip from a fine 
 cigar. " I hear that you, too, are rushing things." 
 
 "About all we can do, all the while, here! I'm think- 
 ing of extending the reduction works. If I can hold my 
 present business,! may soon put up a mill of my own down on 
 the Carson," slowly replied Wyman, feeling instinctively 
 that Bowen had some special object in his visit. 
 
118 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 " I wish you would put up a mill, up here, on the lead, 
 Fred," said Bowen, his face glowing with eager emotion, 
 and good whisky. "The fact is, that I came down here 
 to have a l square ' talk with you. I have an idea of 
 making an apparent show of opening some of my old 
 locations down here, and, then, getting them incorporated. 
 There's money in it. You can sell anything now. I want 
 to have something visible to back up my beautiful stock 
 certificate. The fact is, Wyman, anything with an ele- 
 gant steel engraving on it, will sell down at * 'Frisco ' just 
 now! Women, merchants, servants, outsiders, mechanics, 
 laborers, every one is beginning to take a little flyer of 
 their own, and I've got a man down there now to help me, 
 who is as smart as chain lightning. If I can only get up 
 something that he can sell, he will rush things. I never 
 thought he had the ' go ' in him, which he is showing now. 
 I'll let you into the deal, Fred, if you'll only take a 
 hand." 
 
 "Who's your smart friend?" sneered Wyman, as he 
 narrowly eyed his lymphatic visitor. 
 
 Bowen burst out into a horse laugh. "You'd never 
 guess, but he is a lightning stylish broker now, and he's 
 got a holy terror of a pretty woman, too, behind him. Do 
 you remember the fellow we once called < Jim the Pen- 
 man. ' " Wyman's face was pale, and whiteuinge very in- 
 stant, as he strolled over to the sideboard and sampled his 
 private cognac. Five-dollar ordinary whisky was good 
 enough for his visitor. 
 
 "Do you mean that man Hooper?" carelessly queried 
 Wyman. But, he did not dare to turn around and face 
 the burly miner. He had not yet caught the valuable 
 secret of Gambler Berard's nerve. And, the letter and 
 ornate card of James Walter Hooper were even now lying 
 on his desk in plain sight, 
 
IN PAY ORE. 110 
 
 " The very same man. He's in pay ore now, you bet!" 
 energetically answered Bowen. "Say!" he rose, and 
 
 then whispered confidentially, "You know , the big 
 
 banker? " Wyman was now all attention, as he hastily 
 nodded. " Well," lazily answered Bowen, "This party 
 in calico, or rather silk and laces, runs the big banker's 
 ' private affairs,' and Mr. James Walter Hooper, ' Es- 
 quire,' is her especial < business man.'" Wyman seated 
 himself quietly, and gazed blankly at the returned Argo- 
 naut. 
 
 "What's your scheme?" he finally demanded in a sharp, 
 cold voice. His narrow nature was up in arms. Every 
 quivering nerve was ringing its hidden alarm bell ; for, ' ' Jim 
 the Penman," once a nomadic vaurien, now a "promi- 
 nent" man, and the "power behind the throne," whereon 
 a veiled goddess sat ruling the great banker, was a most 
 dangerous shade looming up, far too near the "Lone Star." 
 
 Andy Bowen's eyes twinkled with an easy cunning, as he 
 said, "You remember that this partner of yours, Dev- 
 ereux ? " 
 
 " What about him? " snappishly cried Wyman, spring- 
 ing up. 
 
 "Well!" lazily cried Bowen, reaching out for another 
 drink. "I 'jumped' a whole lot of locations of his up 
 here a few months ago. They were all advertised for 
 assessment work, and I went in and got hold, cheaply, of the 
 whole lot. I wish to God that I knew where he is now." 
 
 Frederick Wyman thought of the unknown grave hid- 
 den by the long, waving grass of the Carson meadows. His 
 own blood surged back to his heart as bethought, "Thank 
 God! Old Holman has cleared out forever." Bowen's 
 loosely digested story ran on, under the gentle stimulus of 
 his " toddy." " I wish that I could get a clear title direct 
 from him. I am going to incorporate all these claims as 
 
120 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 new mines and then, let Hooper rush the stock out on the 
 market. Now, I don't care to throw away fifty thousand 
 dollars to put up a real stamp mill, on a humbug lot of 
 mines. Now, Wyman, if you built a mill up here, I could 
 make a good show, and you could run a lot of my ore 
 through for me and keep the sham up long enough to float 
 the mines. I could buy or steal a lot of rich ore. I'll 
 guarantee you a good, round profit, and I suppose that 
 you'll soon want a mill if you open the 'Mariquita,' now 
 that you've bought out Devereux? Hooper told me to see 
 you and talk the thing over with you." Frederick Wyman's 
 face was livid with rage, as he walked away to a window 
 and then glared down into the mouth of Grizzly Caiion. 
 
 "Did Hooper tell you that I had bought Devereux out?" 
 he suddenly said in a thick voice, as he faced Andy Bowen, 
 who was regarding him with the lazy adroitness gained at 
 much patient " poker " practice. 
 
 " Why, yes! " simply replied Andy. "Didn't you see 
 Hooper when you were down at the Bay? " 
 
 "No! " slowly answered the disturbed surviving partner, 
 "but, I met him on the road. I may have told him that I 
 had bought Devereux out. I don't know where Bob Dev- 
 ereux is now. I guess that he just let the whole thing 
 slide, and then went East with what money I paid him. 
 I've changed the name of the mine, however, to the < Lone 
 Star.'" Andy was cogitating deeply. 
 
 " I think you're about on the level just to strike the tail 
 end of the lead, at about five hundred feet. I believe that 
 you've really got a mine there," open-heartedly mused 
 Bowen. "I always thought so. Why don't you push the 
 thing?" 
 
 "Well, I will be frank," answered Wyman, "I do not 
 care for partners. I'm doing pretty well now, Andy, and 
 making some money. I called that mine the Lone Star,' 
 
IN PAY ORE. 121 
 
 because I'm going to push it alone when I can afford to. 
 But, I won't overreach myself. The fact is, Andy," and 
 Wyman smiled a wolfish smile, as he surveyed his own 
 handsome personage, "I want to live like a gentleman, 
 when I can get into the right place in life. You see my 
 people were ' way up ' in Kentucky. I am a gentleman 
 born, a southern gentleman, too." 
 
 "Going into politics?" smiled the good-natured pros- 
 pector. 
 
 "No," replied the southerner. "We have already got 
 a couple of ' sage brush ' senators, and, you know, I'm on 
 the wrong side. I was a rebel sympathizer." 
 
 "Oh, yes, you're a secesh," easily laughed Bowen. 
 "Well, what do you say to going in with us on this deal? 
 Hooper is as sharp as a weasel, and he's got an all-fired 
 smart woman now to back him. She's got money, too. 
 God, she is a stunner! I saw her wearing diamond ear- 
 rings down there as big as hazel-nuts. No humbug. Real 
 sparklers. She's a ripper, a dazzler." Wyman sighed as 
 he thought of the poor waif of fortune, Hooper, basking in 
 the smiles of such a sultana. 
 
 And, Mr. Andrew Bowen was right. It was, indeed, a 
 verity that the great firm of San Francisco jewelers had 
 imagined that these especially selected stones were in- 
 tended to decorate the lawful spouse of the sharp-featured 
 banker. But, the "head of the house" smiled a grim, 
 quiet smile, as the banker paid for them with a cashier's 
 check, and then, carelessly dropped the blue velvet box in 
 his pocket, with the remark, "This is a little private mat- 
 ter." And, dashing Vinnie Hinton merrily laughed, as 
 she allowed the banker that evening to adjust the two bits 
 of dazzling carbon in the filmy sea-shell pink of her own 
 pretty ears. < ' In consideration of your good taste, I will 
 allow you to take the liberty," the queen of the year mur- 
 
122 MISS iDttVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA 
 
 mured, with a smile which was a devil's draught of sor- 
 cery. In the dusky splendor of that concealed harem on 
 Sacramento street, no such witching devil had ever reigned 
 before. And so, this strange woman of a new empire 
 was the Egeria of the rising young broker! 
 
 ''What do you say, Wyman, can we make a deal?" 
 urged Big Andy as he took a last draught, and then lit a 
 fresh cigar, before facing the evening zephyr. "There's 
 big money in it for all of us." 
 
 " I will think it over, Andy," answered the fox-like 
 Wyman, who was now sheltered far back in his mental 
 cave of safe retreat, a cautious reserve. 
 
 "When shall I see you again? " The " surviving part- 
 ner" affected a carelessness which he was far from feeling. 
 ' ' If these brutes were to sink down on some of these 
 locations, they might really strike the ledge. I think that 
 I'll play them a double cross. I think I see the way," he 
 mused, as Bowen reached for his sombrero. 
 
 ' ' I'm going to bring some surveyors down to-morrow, 
 and block things out in the way I wish, so I can Tvork up 
 their locations to the best showing. I may come in and 
 see you. Are you safe from eaves-droppers here?" 
 Bowen lazily answered. 
 
 " Only my Chinaman; and he speaks no English. Come 
 in then, and take breakfast with me," answered Wyman, 
 as he held out his hand. 
 
 "It's a whack," remarked Bowen. " I guess we can 
 fix up a little deal. The fact is, there's entirely too much 
 money down at the Bay. Now, Wyman, you've got the 
 education and blood, and the good looks, too. You could 
 run all these things in good shape down there, and also 
 live like a fighting-cock. A man like you is lost up here 
 in Virginia City. Why don't you run down and see 
 Hooper himself if we can hit it off? " The giant miner 
 
IN PAY ORE. 123 
 
 lurched out into the night, with an informally shouted 
 good-bye, "So long," leaving Frederick Wyman excited, 
 and, far more impressed by his words than ever Bowen 
 would have dared to hope. A new life was offered to 
 him now ! 
 
 "It is strange, strange!" dreamed Wyman, by his dying 
 fire. "This thing closes right in around me. It's the 
 devil's own luck." And, he tossed that night in uneasy 
 dreams, for there came back to him the sinuous, gliding 
 beauty of the unknown, whose brown eyes had thrilled 
 him to the very marrow, as she flashed him that one not 
 unconcerned glance. lie dreamed of the nameless divinity 
 whom he had seen on his visit. She was the " first bit of 
 choice goods " he had marked at the devil's auction. And, 
 on this lonely, anxious night, he strangely dreamed that they 
 were reveling together. That her rich sensuous lips mur- 
 mured, "It is you; I have waited for you!" And in his 
 dream, he realized all the hidden treasures of the "Lone 
 Star." 
 
 Morning, crisp and cliyir, brought him the conviction 
 that he must either rule this new combination of Bowen and 
 Hooper, or else in the end be gravely annoyed by them. 
 "Shall I go down to San Francisco and face this ex- 
 forger? Have I money enough yet? or shall I open the 
 Lone Star?" Out on the crags of the mountain side, 
 Wyman found his own keen brain active in its wary 
 counsels. Already a line of flag poles, indicated the 
 rapid work of Bowen's surveyors. "By Heavens! I have 
 it!" cried Wyman. "One or two of these locations join 
 my ' Mariquita ' of the olden time. I must operate so 
 as to get them entirely into my own hands, and so keep 
 off all encroachment. Joining these fellows, they will 
 be always my friends in the future. I will make them my 
 blind dupes; for I will be on \he inside, and I will buy 
 
 K 
 
124 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA, 
 
 in and control all the nearest locations to the * LonQ 
 Star.' I can easily handle Mr. Andy Bowen, Whisky 
 first, and then get him well in my debt. Besides, I 
 will be always here, near him, I must, however, go to 
 San Francisco to see Hooper. To rule him, to gain a, 
 fatal leverage upon him, I must try and take that woman 
 away from him ! 1 wonder what she is like. Hooper is 
 not such a beauty." 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman regarded himself with a pleasant 
 adulation in the glass, as he returned to his domicile for 
 the early coffee. "Money I can also bring to bear on her, 
 at the right time, out of the 'Lone Star's' hidden 
 treasury. This woman probably knows all the secrets of 
 the greatest operator in San Francisco. Bowen says he is 
 her blind slave. I am younger than her millionaire 
 master, younger than Hooper, her working slave, and I 
 have plenty of loose money. I can lavish it on her. And, 
 what woman ever withstood the right sum of money, at 
 the right time?" He sneered again. A glow of future 
 glory lit up the unruffled brow of the " surviving partner." 
 "I can see a broadening path. I have the hidden power 
 in my hands here. And, by God! she shall teach me all 
 the tricks of her millionaire protector, and then make me 
 a man of the golden circle. I will go in with these two 
 men, and control them," he decided. " Yee, I will go 
 down also to San Francisco," he murmured, "and it will 
 be diamond cut diamond. She shall light my way on to 
 the future with the Lamp of Love, and I, will furnish 
 the golden oil to feed the sacred flame; for no long con- 
 tinued passion can ignore the fact that Mr. Cupid has 
 golden wings." 
 
 There was a pleasant smile on the face of Mr. Fred 
 Wyman as he welcomed his lumbering fly into the parlor 
 where Wyman set himself slyly at work to play the spider, 
 
IN PAY ORE. 125 
 
 " About two bottles of the best whisky, will bring out the 
 whole story," he craftily mused; and it was true that a 
 very fair word picture of the veiled goddess delighted 
 Wyman before Andy Bo wen carried a "good load" of 
 thatjDest whisky up to the streets of Virginia City. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when Bowen left Wyman's 
 private office. "You think then, you'll go down and see 
 Hooper? " he urged, hoping fora definite answer. Already 
 a sybarite, Mr. Frederick Wyraan allowed his glowing 
 imagination to dwell on Andy Bowen's rough sketch of 
 the veiled goddess, for several days before he decided 
 finally to answer in the affirmative. But, his lynx eyes had 
 fathomed every detail of Andy Bowen's most ingenious 
 proposed swindles. "I will make both these fellows 
 swindle themselves, and, by Jove, I will then take this be- 
 witching woman away from Hooper, but not till she has 
 learned to serve tho owner of the ' Lone Star.' I need a 
 woman to lift mo, not one to slave for," he mused. 
 
 A week later, Andy Bowen sat with beaming eyes, listen- 
 ing to the pearls of wisdom falling from the lips of 
 Frederick Wyman. The cosy interior of Wyman's 
 bachelor home was a type of cheerfulness itself, as the two 
 men sat at a large table covered with plats and maps. Bowen, 
 in working clothes, and full of a subject which he was 
 master of, was the embodiment of the rough, hardy 
 American prospector. He had laid away his magnificent 
 garb, for use in future visits to ," the Bay," as these 
 human chamois termed San Francisco. 
 
 "The fact is, Wyman, I attracted a good deal of atten- 
 tion here in that rig," said Andy, as he deftly manipulated 
 his toddy with a long spoon. 
 
 "I should imagine so," drily answered Wyman, whose 
 undeveloped aesthetic tastes were, at least, above cluster 
 pins, star spangled waistcoats and trousers of a damning 
 
 K 2 
 
126 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE HABIQUITA. 
 
 intricacy of brilliant plaid. Two pound gold watches, 
 massive bullion dog chains, specimen rings and diamond 
 studs, neatly infesting solf erino colored flannel shirts, were 
 alien even to border Kentucky taste. 
 
 "Yaas," thoughtfully answered Andy. " Firstly, ,you 
 see, that outfit cost me about twenty dollars a day extra 
 for drinks." 
 
 "How so?" queried Wyrnan in some surprise. He had 
 never been very convivial, and he had also feared to become 
 a saloon lounger, while the secret of the "Lone Star," erst- 
 while the "Mariquita," burned in his locked-up bosom. 
 He had also sworn a solemn oath never to "give away" 
 his own secrets while drunk. He had seen too many fool 
 shows of the kind. The two sleeping partners might 
 avenge themselves, even from their forgotten graves. 
 
 " Oh! I had to < wet that suit of clothes,' and * set 'em 
 up ' for the ' whole house,' wherever I went. Besides, by 
 hookey, every fellow I owed a dollar to up here came piling 
 down on me for the 'cold coin.' They thought I had 
 struck it richer than < Sandy Bowers. ' Now, I had also to 
 pay off a Avhole lot of old ' whisky ' and ' poker debts,' and 
 I hold that it's clean throwing money away, when a fel- 
 low is forced to pay up this old dead-horse money." 
 
 "You are quite right, Andy," agreed Wyman, with his 
 eyes fixed on the maps. He w r as studying the interlaced 
 "locations," which lapped and overlapped along the five 
 or six miles of the mountain sides in wild confusion. 
 "Have you all your new lines laid out properly here?" 
 brusquely queried the borderer. 
 
 " In grand style, to the queen's taste," cheerfully re- 
 marked Andy. " I paid four hundred dollars to the survey- 
 ors for this, and for the record of these sixteen locations. 
 Hooper sent me up the new names, and they are all "way 
 up." Wyman studied a neat side scroll whereon the 
 
IN PAY ORE. 127 
 
 legend, " The Hooper, Bowen & Co. 's properties," bore 
 the list of the surface claims proposed to be incorporated 
 and handled: " Forest Belle," "Southern Chief," "Rising 
 Star," " Pearl of Nevada," " Champion," and so on to the 
 end, read out Wymaii slowly. His thin lips parted in 
 their usual sneer. 
 
 " I suppose the brown-eyed witch named some of these, 
 Andy? They do look a little better than Jackrabbit,' 
 1 Lone Wolf,' 'Six shooter,' and ' Walleye,' or ' Coyote.' " 
 
 " Oh, yes! you bet she did!" retorted Bowen. "She's 
 up to every move that Hooper makes. Why, that there 
 woman's only got a girl shaped head, and a pair of * half 
 cryin' eyes,' but she is a regular lightning striker. My 
 God ! she's got the nerve." Andy " located" his toddy, 
 as he remarked, "If her big backer ever found out the 
 little game she's playing with Hooper, he'd land Jim in the 
 State's prison, and run the woman right out of the State. " 
 Wy man's eyes flamed with a velvety softness of tanta- 
 lized desire, as Bowen continued. " The very last thing 
 she did was to give me a private note to the old lawyer 
 who runs 's business up here." 
 
 "What did he say?" continued Andy, answering the 
 question of Wy man's eager eyes. 
 
 "lie just told me he'd put all the incorporation papers 
 through at once for me, and it wouldn't cost me a cent. 
 She said to me when I left, ' Andy, I'll ask the Judge to 
 supper when he comes down, and you'll find him very 
 obliging.' And, so I did! She told me, too, to go and 
 sec ' Sandy Bowers' ' wife. You know they call her the 
 Washoeseeress,' since the 'bank gang ' got most of Sandy's 
 property away from him. They all pay her for her opin- 
 ion. You see she's the oldest hand of a respectable woman 
 up here, and the boys, naturally, give her all the points. 
 She's a kind of second-sight woman." 
 
128 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQITITA. 
 
 "Did you really go and see Mrs. Bowers?" anxiously 
 asked Wyman, his heart beating lest the gnomes of the 
 " Lone Star " might have chattered to this queer old front- 
 ier prophetess. Wyman feared the grizzly shades of his 
 " sleeping partners." ," By heaven! I believe I'll have the 
 old Indian dig up Berard and pitch him in the Carson 
 River," he mused, as Andy volubly replied: 
 
 "Mother Bowers told me that there was a big mine 
 hidden down here. She looks in a glass ball and pre- 
 tends to see what's underground. < But, it's not for you, 
 it's for some one else, ' she cackled, as she stopped short. 
 So, I'm going to speculate on them locations and sell 
 them." Wy man's heart was leaping wildly in a strange 
 unrest. "Now you've got the whole lay-out, Fred," 
 finished up Bowen. "I've had a dozen telegrams lately 
 from Hooper. He's got a man waiting down there. I 
 suppose that the witch woman has twisted some other 
 capitalist around that pretty finger of hers, and got him 
 'on a string.' You've got first show with us, Fred, but 
 you must talk turkey now. You see the mill would be of 
 use to you when you open your mine." 
 
 "I tell you what I'll do, Andy, "cried Wyman, who now 
 had a strange, wild feeling gnawing at his heart. Those 
 night hours of the last week had showed to him dazzling 
 dreams of wealth, power, of all the myriad pleasures of 
 the fast, fierce, life of the reckless moneyed circles of San 
 Francisco. This woman of Circe-like charms seemed to 
 have the key to every hidden mystery. The young man 
 shut his eyes a moment and drifted on in wild dreams of 
 all that passion's tide can bring sweeping along youth's 
 gay bark between golden gleaming shores; for those 
 brown "half cryin'" eyes seemed to lure him on! 
 
 "You've got four locations there, of the sixteen you 
 own which touch my < Lone Star.' Now, if you and 
 
IK PAY O&E, 12 
 
 Hooper will organize these and give me all the stock, so 
 I'll have no boundary trouble, I'll then go in with you 
 even on the other twelve. I'll put up a good ten-stamp 
 mill here of my own in grand shape. It will cost me fully 
 fifty thousand dollars. I'll work off all your sample ores 
 in any way you want, and stand in, square with you. I've 
 got my own assayer, too, here now, and I can give your 
 twelve mines on the market, any reports and standing you 
 want. Now, I'll also put up an even third of all the 
 money to handle these twelve, but, you and Hooper must 
 give me the four; all the stock, except just enough to keep 
 you and him, and a few more men whom we name as di- 
 rectors. In the other affair, we share and share alike, and 
 I'll so go iii with you and help you rob those damned fools 
 down at the Bay. We might as well have their money as 
 any one else! What do you say, Andy? " Wyman's hand 
 trembled slightly as he tried his own Otard, Dupuy & Co. 
 cognac. 
 
 " It's a whack as far as I go," genially said Andy. "I'll 
 telegraph Hooper. The little woman stole a couple of 
 private cipher codes from her big banker, and she's got 
 one that he gave her, too. I'll have the answers all to- 
 morrow. But, Hooper's in a great hurry. When could 
 you go down? " Bowen's eyes gleamed with a rough 
 good humor. 
 
 "If I shut things down here, and you can stay and 
 watch my place, I could leave to-morrow night. I could 
 stay for a week at the city, and then order the mill and 
 come right back. I've had the mill site surveyed and 
 plans drawn for some time." 
 
 "All right," cried Andy, " It will be a go. I'll go now 
 and telegraph, and, I tell you, Fred, Hooper will give you 
 a rattling good time doAvn there. He is a high flyer now. 
 You arc just the boy to put on style with the best of 
 them." 
 
130 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 In ten minutes, Wyman was left dreaming alone before the 
 fire. His altered circumstances and his concealed treasure 
 had warranted him in preparing the means of showing a 
 somewhat braver front than on his first visit to San Fran- 
 cisco. "I think I will do. I will let her educate me a 
 bit," mused Wyman, "if she is the right one. Noth- 
 ing like a woman to bring a man around. I wonder if 
 these two fellows will really drop into iny trap. If they 
 do, I am all right, if I can only play a winning game with 
 this pretty ' she-devil.' She can open the door for me of 
 that 'inside ring,' which runs this whole coast. If she 
 does, then I am a made man. But, my lady, the woman 
 who will betray one man, will find a way to deceive an- 
 other at the right time. She shall never know the secrets 
 of the 'Lone Star.' It shall shine for me alone. But, if I 
 can use her to witch Hooper and Andy Bowen, it will be 
 well worth my while to change a couple of these ore bars 
 into a necklace for that swan-like neck of hers." And 
 Mr. Wyman dreamily repeated a childish proverb of his 
 own, "Nothing for nothing in this world." "Once in the 
 ring with these two smart rascals between me and the 
 public, I can go on up to the head. And then! then I will 
 show them what it is to live." 
 
 Never had Andy Bowen hurled his huge bulk along as 
 smartly as when, next day, he hurried down from the 
 Western Union Telegraph office to Wyman's works. The 
 eager "surviving partner" had already marked Andy in 
 his "downward career," and it was easy to divine from 
 the reckless haste of the prospector that he was the bearer 
 of good tidings. Wyman looked up calmly from an in- 
 spection of his daily assay book, as Bowen burst into the 
 private office. In his hand he waved two dispatches. 
 
 "Here's one for you. Read it! I ciphered this out, 
 and this to me is Hooper's answer. He says: 'Proposi- 
 
IK PAY ORE. 131 
 
 tion accepted just as made. Please have friend come at 
 once; papers drawn here; send all maps and papers you 
 have ready by him.' ' Wymau had learned nerve enough 
 to control any outward gleam of satisfaction as he listened 
 while his eye rested on his private dispatch. "Meet you 
 at boat; dine with me at Martin's; telegraph from Sacra- 
 mento." Extending his hand, he calmly said, "Andy, 
 it's a bargain, we are three of a kind now." The seal of 
 the spirit soon ratified the ambitious compact in which 
 Wynian became the "Co." of the elegantly engrossed map 
 title. 
 
 Three days later, Fred Wyman was still calmly observ- 
 ant as he entered a private room at Martin's Restaurant, 
 " down at the Bay," with the resplendent Hooper. As a 
 door opened, and a beautiful woman swept into the salon 
 where the feast was set for three, Wyman's heart leaped 
 up as a velvety voice murmured, " I think we have met 
 once before, last year." And now he was under the spell 
 of the " half cry in' eyes." 
 
132 MISS DEVEREUX QJf X1IE MA1UQUITA. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 IN BONANZA DAYS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ONE OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 
 
 The July morning sun streaming down over the Coast 
 Range leaped in with a golden flood, as Frederick Wy man's 
 valet drew the curtains of his private apartment promptly 
 at nine o'clock, as ordered; for these summer mouths of 
 eighteen hundred and seventy-five were times of a wild up- 
 heaval in San Francisco. Neither rich nor poor droned out 
 the fleeting moments of these fierce Bonanza days. The 
 poor, desiring to abridge their poverty, going early afield, 
 were jostled by the rich, ever agog to become richer; for 
 the golden tide, the silver stream of wealth had leaped 
 down the Sierras from far Virginia City. Congested Cal- 
 ifornia street now eyed askance its budding rival Pine 
 street, and the haughty summits of huge redwood palaces 
 began to show their "fine sky-lines," on "Nob Hill." 
 Rival bank palaces, great hotels, huge marts of business in 
 construction, littered the streets with debris. San Francis- 
 co's hills, its outlying districts, nay even its " Tar Flat " and 
 plebeian district, ' ' south of Market, ' ' sent hordes of crazed 
 
OKB OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 133 
 
 men and women pouring down daily to the Big Board, the 
 Little Board and the countless brokers' offices. A mad car- 
 nival of gambling. 
 
 On this particular morning, Tony Morani, the very pearl 
 of valets, had skimmed over all the stock news before pre- 
 senting a sheaf of dailies to the lordly occupant of the very 
 handsomest bachelor apartment in the occidental city. 
 Morani's glistening black eyes gleamed with pride, as he 
 deftly arranged the morning coffee service of the most suc- 
 cessful young capitalist of the Pacific Coast. His neat little 
 dark mustache bristled attentively as Frederick Wyrnau, 
 with a huge self satisfaction, uncoiled himself from the 
 meshes of a most delightful night's slumbers. There was 
 contentment in his first good-humored query: 
 
 " What sort of a morning, Tony? " 
 
 "Splendid, sir!" 
 
 " Have my horses here at four o'clock then! " pleasantly 
 directed the youngest and far the handsomest of the rising 
 millionaires. Morani bowed in silence, and awaited his 
 master's further orders. 
 
 "Bring in the letters, and tell Hopkins to come in here." 
 In five minutes Mr. Wyman had run over his list of morn- 
 ing engagements, and daintily picked out his private mail. 
 
 "What is there on for me this morning? " briskly de- 
 manded Wyman of his keen -eyed, pale-faced young secre- 
 tary. 
 
 " Mr. Wilder, for orders, before the Board, sir. Mr. 
 Brown, as usual," answered the neat-framed lad, refer- 
 ring to his memorandum commonplace book. "Captain 
 Haley also telegraphed his arrival from the mine. Be 
 here at eleven, sir." 
 
 " Ah! " briskly cried the millionaire, " Let nothing in- 
 terfere with Haley. Be sure of that. The other people 
 must be put off. I must see hinio" 
 
134 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Hopkins bowed and retired, -casting an envious glance at 
 the splendid pied a terre of the man who once ate from a 
 tin plate the sodden bacon and greasy beans prepared by 
 that frowsy old Indian Ganymede, "Captain Johnson." 
 " Autres temps, autres moeurs! " A judicious liberality of 
 backsheesh had enabled the oldPiute brave to float happily 
 away to Hades on a burning tide of fire-water. "Just as 
 well to have the old beast out of the way," said Fred. ' ' The 
 last of the old-timers. And it's cheaper, too, than to have 
 him knocked on the head." Millionaire Frederick Wyman, 
 on a visit of inspection to where a forty stamp mill now 
 hammered away at the " Lone Star " ores, had called up 
 Captain Bob Haley, his superintendent. "Give that old 
 Indian, Cap. Johnson, all the whisky he wants, and let 
 him keep a den in that old cabin down in Grizzly canon," 
 sharply ordered the pet of Plutus. "He used to be my cook 
 in the old times." 
 
 No memories of the log cabin lingered now around this 
 Kearney street abode, at once an art museum, bachelor 
 nest, hidden harem, and a crystallization of all the light- 
 ning effects of Aladdin's lamp. Spacious waiting rooms, 
 the apartment of gray-haired old Cashier David Brown, 
 whose pride was in his faultlessly kept books, and several 
 private entrances, gave a sober air to the modesty of this 
 bonanza Monte Cristo. There were always several human 
 buffers between Wyman and any sudden intrusion. A 
 keen-eyed fighting man lingered within call around the 
 two or three adjacent blocks, where the sons of gold from 
 their cosy, hidden nests could dip one foot in the rosy 
 flood of the sparkling wavelets of the gay tide of the demi- 
 monde, and yet with the other, stand in the ripple of the 
 silver sea of society San Francisco society. 
 
 Private telegraph and telephone wires, "stock tickers," 
 and a corps of messengers were also adjuncts of Frederick 
 
ONE OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 135 
 
 Wyman's business affairs. A high priest of the hours of 
 rosy dalliance, Tony Morani alone admitted those who came 
 with a smile and left with a sigh. But, one woman for ten 
 years had boasted a private key to the personal side of 
 this Janus-faced bachelor haunt of luxury. It was the 
 imperial Vinnie Hinton, to whom all of the golden circle 
 still bowed. For, at thirty-five, the bright promise of her 
 youth " once written on her brow," had only been re- 
 placed by the noonday glow of an Aspasian beauty. Her 
 sweet solace had cost several money kings a world of mem- 
 ories and of sighs. 
 
 One towering pinnacle of finance, in an incautious mo- 
 ment, said to Wyman: "Fred, my boy, in all this ruck 
 and truck of glittering she-devils and male sharks, I fear 
 but two people. They are Captain Lees and Vinnie 
 Hinton. Both of them know a great deal too much." 
 The great banker, whose rocky nature always yielded the 
 cooling streams of Pactolus at the touch of Vinnie's be- 
 diamonded finger, sighed heavily, "They are both un- 
 necessary evils." And yet, no stroke of divine Providence 
 cut off either the great Detective Captain or the Queen of 
 Anonymas in a preternatural overshadowing of men and 
 things. It was true that Vinnie Hinton had been once 
 gently reminded by Frederick Wyman, Esq., not to make 
 a too free use of her private key, yet that woman with 
 the "half cryin' brown eyes" calmly pursued "the even 
 soprano of her way." She turned her flashing eyes on 
 him, and a promising smile melted him. 
 
 As Wyman threw down his letters upon a table covered 
 with the omnium gatherum of a " night off," his eyes roved 
 delightedly over the walls wherein gleamed a treasure in 
 superb pictures, mostly of the slightly erotic school. 
 Exquisite bronzes and bibelots in the same lovely amatory 
 style were shone down on by a richly frescoed ceiling 
 
136 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 where the dimpling glories of Vinnie Hinton's still match- 
 less physical beauty had earned the great artist, Cipriani, a 
 five thousand dollar check from the capitalist, and also a 
 diamond scarf-pin from the delighted lady herself. But, 
 Wyman held the mirror up to nature itself. 
 
 At a celebrated initial private view of the fresco, the 
 lady, with a modest self-depreciation, fixed her eyes mock- 
 ingly upon her slave and master, Wyman. "I am not 
 half as lovely as that!" she naively remarked, shyly point- 
 ing to her counterfeit presentment, with a five hundred 
 dollar diamond-mounted parasol, a marvel of the " White 
 House " taste. 
 
 " We must follow nature in high art, Vinnie," gallantly 
 remarked her "lord and master" of the time, as he led 
 her to breakfast and kissed his hand to her pictured beau- 
 ties hoverincf there above them. 
 
 O 
 
 The pyramid of cigars, gold notes, invitations, opera 
 tickets, blue poker chips and varied feminine reminders 
 which adorned Wy man's table on this sunshiny morning 
 oppressed the sybarite miner. 
 
 " Tony ! " he cried, " what is up for to-day? " The gay 
 little Leporello significantly waved a lace scarf caught up 
 from a chair. 
 
 ' 'Breakfast to-day, you promised, sir." Wyman's face 
 instantly clouded. 
 
 " All right! " he said, after a stubborn pause. " Send 
 over to Marchand's, and tell them to get up something nice 
 for one o'clock in my private room. Then, come back and 
 fix me up. Stay! bring me a brandy and soda." And, as 
 the young leader of San Francisco's financial " haut ton" 
 lit his first morning cigar, he murmured, "I muGt not have 
 her linger around here as freely 9 when the big stock deals 
 come on. Why, in Heaven's name, does not Andrew 
 Bovven, Esq., take her over to Europe on his voyage to in- 
 
ONE OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 137 
 
 doco the benighted Europeans to participate in the 
 glories of the Comstock? " 
 
 As Wyman swiftly assumed his normal static elegance 
 of appearance, uaoier the deft fingers of Morani, he mused 
 on the strange upheaval of the last ten years. Time had 
 dealt very gently with the borderer. He was unaware as 
 he glanced with a most critical eye at his valet's work, 
 that he owed the cachet of hie correct form and somewhat 
 distinguished appearance entirely to the voluptuous Vinnie 
 Hinton's severely correct taste. Through the blue cloud 
 of his cigar, the stern-eyed capitalist slowly revolved cer- 
 tain conundrums ever knocking unanswered at the doors 
 of his mind. He glanced complacently at his well-groomed 
 hands. The varying hues of a matchless diamond, once 
 the property of a lovely and ill-starred queen, was the one 
 lingering mark of bonanza advertisement. 
 
 " You should give me that stone, Fred," his imperious 
 Aspasia had one day remarked, with a just secret appraise- 
 ment. 
 
 ( < So I will some day, Vinnie, when I get tired of it. But 
 it always makes me think of the 'Lone Star." 
 
 "You may get tired of me, too," the reigning sultana 
 softly said, with a wicked sweep of those wonderful brown 
 eyes. The millionaire had only answered her by a glance, 
 which brought the blood flaming to the cheeks of the peer- 
 less automatic love machine, who now shared the secrets of 
 the Kings of the Golden Table Round. 
 
 This little episode returned to Wyman, as his eye strayed 
 over a few marked " Personals,' 5 the grateful incense of 
 San Francisco journalism. Hia name appeared in all the 
 papers gracefully intertwined with the social, artistic, 
 financial and fashion life of the day. 
 
 "Ah, by Jove! I must not forget Mrs. Hammond's 
 musicale. That lovely dame is a power in the more rarefied 
 
138 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 circles. This new singer, she of tb.o faultless face, as 
 usual a California diamond,' and, of course, Mrs. Ham- 
 mond's protegee. With a sardonic smile, Wyman glanced on 
 down to a flaming article, sounding her own praises. * ' She'll 
 he the protegee of some other than Mrs. Hammond very soon 
 if she has any go in her, 53 was Wyman's inner tho'ight as he 
 reflected upon the disappearance of various " bright partic- 
 ular stars," whom he had missed suddenly, in the last 
 five years of his acknowledged social prominence. They had 
 usually turned up all right in the flesh, after describing 
 extraordinary orbits under the hidden attraction of heavy 
 bodies, millionaires, judiciously remaining veiled from 
 public remark. The laws of Kepler were all at fault in the 
 strange career of these soft-eyed, white-breasted planets of 
 the West. It was mighty, conquering gold, which drew 
 them down. 
 
 4 'So I am really one of Nature's noblemen," sneered 
 Wyman, as he cast the papers away. A moderate gift to 
 some current local charity had unloosed the clarion notes 
 of the "San Francisco Bugle," a journal of the times, 
 which did much energetic blowing, in varied keys, and 
 sounded its suggested notes, high over the din of even 
 these roaring Bonanza days. 
 
 " Yes, I suppose that I am all that, if they say so," 
 grinned Wyman, "and, the social reporter will be clamor- 
 ing here soon for a check, a loan, or a little favor, surely 
 before to-morrow morning." A sudden spasm of inquiry 
 seized the prosperous scoundrel, for his uneasy thoughts 
 of Vinnie, the deliciously unreliable, had brought back 
 memories of the still uncompleted title to the "Lone Star." 
 
 "I must go to work and trace out that widowed woman's 
 history. It is safe enough now. Ten years have passed 
 since she was carted to the City Hospital from that little 
 den, and after all she does not count for much. But, the 
 
ONE OP NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 139 
 
 girl, the girl! where is she? " Wyman rose and paced the 
 room quickly, as he nervously glanced at his watch. He 
 was now awaiting his broker, his man of figures, and that 
 hawk-eyed leader of men, "Captain Bob Haley." 
 
 ' ' This old theater fellow, McCabe, who sheltered that girl, 
 is dead and gone, too. He died and left no sign. And, the 
 once famous Bella Union is now merely a catch-all for 
 tramps, sailors and hoodlums. If I only dared to trust to 
 any one. But," and Wyman anathematized the whole 
 social fabric, "this town is a mad whirlpool of all the float- 
 ing scum of the world. Hyena men, harpy women, the 
 refuse of the war, broken down eastern men, European ad- 
 venturers, the clouded of two hemispheres, all crowd in 
 here, to dabble their itching fingers in the golden stream. 
 If I made any move, I would be at once blackmailed right 
 up to the limit. Lawyers, officials, all around me, are 
 hollow friends and, perhaps, invisible foes. And the 
 journals, if they would ever get a hint of any weakness 
 in the chain which hands down the ownership of the old 
 ' Mariquita,' they, too, would bleed me to the last dollar. 
 
 "Whom have I now to fear?" the "nobleman of Na- 
 ture" asked himself. "There's Hooper with all the 
 hundreds of thousands which he has easily gained in 
 stocks or as 'running mate' for Viunie, he has yet gambled 
 the whole away* Ho has no art to keep, to have and to 
 hold. Some day he will surely make an awful break, of 
 some startling character. And, will Vinnie then throw him 
 over? She is a strange, strange, compound," the newly 
 fledged aristocrat muttered. " The loosely worn chain of 
 old habit still binds her to Jim Hooper. Some memory of 
 the past years. What an unfathomed devil she is! But, no 
 one can ever say she has twisted the reins of her chariot, 
 reckless as she has been. No one dares to hint that she has 
 ever opened a leaf of her many-paged Book of Life, to the 
 
140 MISS DEVE&EtJ: OF l-Hfi MARIQUITA, 
 
 stranger eye. By God! Vinnie is game.*' Wyman's eye 
 rested upon her pictured glories of matchless bodily 
 womanhood gleaming there above him. "I believe that 
 if she really loved a man, she would be dead game to the 
 last, a ' stayer ' to the very bitter end. There's Andy 
 Bowen; only think of that big loaf er, too, blossoming into a 
 millionaire. He has offered to roll her in diamonds. And 
 yet, she only laughs at him. These three people are the 
 only dangerous ones around me. I cannot safely get any 
 of them out of the way." 
 
 Wyman threw himself in a chair. A sudden timorous 
 spasm seized upon him. He had so much to lose now! 
 Though his face gleamed out in the well-kept good looks 
 of prosperity, though his eye settled with conscious power 
 on his inferiors, though money arrogance had curdled his 
 egoism and stiffened his fluttering nerves, he was still a 
 coward at heart. His teeth chattered as he thought, "If 
 Jimmy Hooper has ever given away his old secrets, that 
 old Truckee transaction, to Vinnie, then, she is the only 
 one to fear; for some day, he may have to 'skip' out 
 between two days, or else kill himself, if he's drunk enough 
 to be reckless. I could get him easily * done up ' at any 
 rate. Andy Bowen, rough as he is, has a very long busi- 
 ness head, and he never would, never dare to rip up the 
 whole details of our * group of mines.' Besides, he has 
 sensibly saved his money. I could consolidate with him, 
 'pool issues' with good old Andy, easily; but, Vinuie 
 has the heart of a lion in that Venus-moulded, devil-in- 
 spired body of hers. With all that, her own cool, trained 
 nerve never deserts her a moment. What a woman she 
 would have been if she were only 'straight.' " 
 
 Mr. Wyman, sailing down the stream of his happiest 
 years, had gained only a varied experience in much 
 tyrannic voluptuous enjoyment, gold suggested. His 
 
OP NATUKE'S NOBLEMEN. 141 
 
 knowledge of women was only of the rosy fighters under 
 the banner of Venus Victrix, or their feeble competitors, 
 the prowling, overdressed social hypocrites of the doubt- 
 fully "respectable circles." Philosophy had poured forth 
 no silver stream of wisdom for him yet. He reflected not 
 that in the confining circle of humble duties, or the honest 
 obscurity of a modest home, the heralded charms of 
 voluptuous Vinnie would have been lost to the glittering 
 world she knew. She had wisely taken her magnetic 
 charms to the glaring display of their very best market, 
 the Bonanza circles of San Francisco. 
 
 Wyman was not aware that opportunity makes Aspasias, 
 that many a fair, willing Helen of Troy waits with all her 
 glowing charms ready, only tied down by a humdrum life, 
 and watches for the all-conquering Paris; that hordes 
 of men, possibly exemplars of Menelaus, never dream of 
 the unfolded passion daily folded in their arms, till oc- 
 casion or disaster tears away the veil and shows the pa- 
 tient Griselda, her life blood bounding in repression, to be 
 only a Bianca Capello " in futuro." But, these dreams do 
 come even to the chaste in envious moments! 
 
 Wyman was most coldly practical in money matters. 
 It was his one sacred obligation, the care of the golden 
 stream now running out of the forgotten graves of luck- 
 less Devereux, and the ill-starred Berard, he of the ready 
 revolver. He was a model ' business man, " and also one of 
 Nature's noblemen. "I will keep on the right side of 
 Vinnie," lie decided, as a knock sounded at the door. 
 
 1 ' She has probably wormed this secret of the Truckee 
 affair out of Hooper. If she were, however, to take some 
 cool lawyer into the magic circle ' of her adorers, ' then 
 she would be most dangerous, I must keep her out of 
 Andy Bowen's clutches. Bah? She would not even be 
 Been on the street with him," The name of the gray- 
 
142 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 haired old Satan who was the great ruling "Bank's" 
 lawyer at Virginia City, flashed over Wyman's quick 
 mind. 
 
 "No! He's too old, too worn and faded tu be 
 Vinnie's lover, in fact he is only a < legal adviser' to 
 watch over her relations with her still princely exploiter." 
 And Wyman then murmured the name of a king of 
 finance whom even he feared, rich as he was now, in the 
 safe retirement of his harem castle. " Some outside chap, 
 some sharp fellow who had a grudge against me, such as a 
 hostile lawyer, might aid Vinnie to pull me down. So 
 Madame Graceful Graceless, you shall rule over me yet, in 
 a way. But, I'll tie you down with rosy chains." 
 
 Wyman suddenly remembered one day, when passion still 
 gave its thrilling zest to their real love, the day of a sharp 
 quick quarrel, when the angry Vinnie, glaring through her 
 veiled lashes, transfixed him as she said, "I am the one 
 woman you should never, never quarrel with. Don't for- 
 get it, Fred." "By Jove," he cried, "that's her danger- 
 ous secret." And, so dismissing Venus to her rosy clouds, 
 he now invoked Minerva, as he sharply cried, "Come in!" 
 It was the hour for the daily reports. 
 
 David Brown's sixty years sat -lightly on him as he 
 bowed, pen behind ear, and then silently handed Frederick 
 Wyman a confidential blotter. The gray old scribe's face 
 was as impassive as stone, while Wyman pored over the con- 
 solidated figures of the day before, and then glanced at a 
 financial schedule for the ebbing and flowing of ten hours 
 of the fierce tiger life of the stock market. Wyman, seated 
 at his table, sat with his rapid eye, flitting over the figures 
 which were the trusty soldiers he daily fought his battles 
 with. Every nerve thrilling with keen interest, he was 
 now another man in appearance. Napoleon poring over 
 the maps of Italy, and dreaming of Wurmser's ominously 
 
ONE OF NATUKE'S NOBLEMEN. 143 
 
 numerous host, was no more alert than this Ishmaelite 
 financier. For, he played his lone hand against all the 
 world. 
 
 "Bring me out the stock ledger, David," he said in a 
 low voice, his face growing grave. 
 
 " I shall want some checks signed also, sir," the old 
 accountant quietly interpolated. 
 
 " How many? " queried Wyman. 
 
 "Well, about fifty. It looks to be a very lively day 
 down town," said the bookkeeper. 
 
 Wyman's pen was flying along from check to check 
 on old Brown's return. His face was working under a 
 powerful internal feeling as he sharply closed the great 
 Russia-bound check book. For fifteen minutes, the chiefs 
 pencil dashed off, note after note, as he turned the leaves 
 of the stock ledger and gazed on the schedule of the day. 
 
 It did not seem strange to the one time tenant of the 
 squalid cabin in Grizzly Canon, that his own daily ex- 
 changes were now sometimes half a million dollars. For, 
 though the extensive speculations of the Hooper, Bowen 
 & Co. group of mines were all handled in the Exchange 
 by the reckless and world-weary Hooper himself, the last 
 survivor of the "Mariquita" embryo, transacted a huge 
 private business. A series of cross-fire gambling opera- 
 tions had stamped Wyman as one of the very coolest heads 
 in the human maelstrom, whose center was now at Virginia 
 City. 
 
 Few knew that Horace Wilder, the dashing broker, he 
 of the red rose and jaunty attire, had a private entrance 
 to Wyman's rooms on Kearney street, neatly effected by 
 cutting into the walls of adjoining houses; that, day by 
 day, night by night, the two men there concerted wild, sky- 
 rocket stock operations, to the great amazement of the 
 ungodly; and, that the velvet-voiced Vinnie Hinton 
 
144 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 brought a dashiug life, an amazing nerve and considerable 
 picturesque moral obliquity into these hidden councils. 
 She had the inner voice of the ruling kings. She raised a 
 warning finger when Wyman (left alone) would have run 
 on the reefs of Ruin. Thankful for her guidance, he 
 never questioned her as to the details of her prophetic 
 wisdom; for he knew that ten years of a secret intrigue, 
 had only deepened her hold on the great Colossus, who 
 often stole a half hour to linger in the dim retreat on 
 Sacramento street, where so many bright, passion-gleam- 
 ing eyes had gazed on the splendors of that unique retreat. 
 There were reigning kings in far Europe, who had never 
 commanded the money luxury which reigned in that 
 private sanctum a 1'inconnu. 
 
 In later days, when the bare floors echoed back only the 
 foot of the curious stranger, some mighty fascination yet 
 lingered in those vacant halls, where the fight for millions 
 had been carried on to the death, where a nation's ransom 
 had been struggled for, where the concealed filaments 
 of deadly intrigues knotted together the bright-browed 
 daughters of fashion, who stole in on the sly, and the 
 panther-footed lost ones, who boldly ranged in these royal 
 shades. The shadow of past smiles, the ghosts of consent- 
 ing sighs, the reflections of vanished forms, the memory- 
 hoarded whispers of the beautiful, the wails of the betrayed, 
 linger yet around the haunted place where every shadow 
 to-day, has its bewitching picture of the dead and gone past, 
 to throw "floating on the floor," in those sad days of 
 death, silence and ruin. For there, the last rose has scat- 
 tered its lifeless leaves, the wine cup will never again ring 
 its crystal brim to a happy lover's glass, the loves and 
 laughter of other days have vanished forever, with the 
 mighty dead. Of all the mad passion play of the past, in 
 this star chamber, nothing will ever be known: for the un- 
 
145 
 
 broken silence of oblivion has wrapped these wild days, 
 love-haunted, sin-stained, with the soft pall of fear, of 
 forgetf ulness and of woman's Delilah dissimulation. But, 
 there's not a single soul, sold to sorrow and shame, there's 
 not an easy crime led on by ringing gold or sparkling 
 gems, there's not a mad wine-drenched hour of wicked- 
 ness, which ever added to the grim renown of these beauti- 
 ful halls of Eblis, which has not been paid for to the utter- 
 most, in the blood and tears of the innocent. It is ever 
 so! 
 
 There was a hard gleam on Wyman's face as he lifted 
 his head and faced the silver-haired Brown. The situation 
 of the day was an ugly one, and Frederick Wyman sprang 
 angrily to his feet, when the scribe, in his passionless voice 
 intoned: "A letter from the bank. They must have 
 more collateral to-day on our overdraft amount." 
 
 " What was the limit set?" sharply demanded Wyman, 
 though he too well knew it. 
 
 "Four hundred thousand," simply answered the old 
 man, "and, we are at the last check, within thirty thou- 
 sand of it." 
 
 " All right," calmly angered his chief. "Come back 
 here at two o'clock. I will cut it down a hundred thou- 
 sand. You can tell the cashier so. Will that do?" 
 
 " Certainly," rejoined Brown, as he went away, as un- 
 concerned, as if to his own modest morning marketing. 
 His brow was unruffled, his heart light, for he only played 
 this daily game for fool's gold, at second hand, and with 
 no added heart beat, as stocks shot up and down. 
 
 Frederick Wyman paced the floor of his room and only 
 nodded a good morning to his private broker, as Horace 
 Wilder entered with the ambrosial freshness of the morn- 
 ing on his handsome face. It was the " pious and logical " 
 result of a night at high "poker," with Fortune smiling. 
 
146 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 Certain "stars," who had "shot madly from their 
 spheres," also smiled upon the struggle where a " wine 
 supper," awaited the truce until the next seance. But, a 
 morning drive, a dip in the surf, and an absinthe-dashed 
 cocktail had brought up "Wonderful Wilder" to his 
 regular form. Pie was gaily living along on the golden 
 life capital of his matchless constitution. The Bank of 
 Youth still honored his unlimited drafts. " You see, 
 boys," he cried, "I do not care to linger on in this vale 
 of tears 'as an old chromo,' to Mag superfluous ' on this 
 gay and festive scene. I wish to go 'all at once' when I 
 go, and where to? Ah! I give it up." The light-hearted 
 broker had truly described himself, as " working the game 
 of Life for all it was Avorth." 
 
 "I must put up some of my U. S. bonds," mused 
 Wyman, thinking secretly of his narrowed "overdraft" 
 at the tyrannical bank. He had long since laid away 
 a secret safety hoard, the untouchable, his Tenth Le- 
 gion, and, for the first time in his broadening schemes, 
 that cash reserve was imperiled. 
 
 "I have let too much of the 'Lone Star' stock drift 
 away out on the market," thought Wyman. "I have 
 been putting far too many irons in the tire. I must make 
 a break, a big break in Lone Star, and then, throw it down 
 with a clatter. I can gather in about thirty thousand 
 shares, if I am successful, and then up she goes again. 
 That will hold this bank collateral all right, and I will 
 never go so near to my limit again. But how? Dare L 
 trust this mad fellow? For all I know, if he thought 
 that I was weak, he might join Hooper and Bowen, and then 
 sweep me out of the whole line. By Jove! Vinnie, too, 
 may have such an idea. I'll sound her at breakfast. I 
 must sweeten on her." He smiled with the air of a con- 
 quering hero. He had won that soft victory many, many 
 times. 
 
ONE OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 147 
 
 " Well, Horace. If you have now done looking at that 
 passing woman," cheerfully broke out Wyman, " you can 
 tell me how things head to-day." 
 
 "I don't like what the ten-dollar-a-week reporters call 
 the < financial outlook ' "murmured the gay Wilder, lightly, 
 as he availed himself of the opportunity to share Wyman's 
 peerless cognac. "The truth is, Fred," and Wilder tried 
 to look serious, "Giants don't stay in the cast, as giants to 
 eternity, in this stock market here. New currents, new 
 ideas, turn up strangely. New schemes, ncAvlies, new 
 panics, new plots, new swindles, all these convulse and dis- 
 tort. By gad, sir! " he confidently exclaimed, as he care- 
 fully trimmed a, cigar," I would as soon take a raw clerk's 
 prophecy to-day, as the united voice of any twenty of the 
 oldest brokers. I've been in this hubbub from the very 
 first. I cannot travel myself underground not yet and 
 I thus cannot give you the latest news from the center of 
 the earth, but there is surely a great war of millionaires in 
 prospect here in this confused money field. I would as 
 soon take any one of a half a dozen of the leading claims 
 at random as the mine of the future anywhere along Mount 
 Davidson. I would as soon draw lots as to dare to 
 prophesy, whether Ralston, Keene, Hayward, Sharon, Bald- 
 win, Ilobart, Latham, the Cooks, Jones, Stewart, or Flood, 
 O'Brien & Co., will lead in this endless race across un- 
 known country, to a nameless goal. All I can tell you is, 
 that most of them will never leave the game with a dollar! 
 Who will be first, who will be last, no one to-day knows! 
 But, it's the old thing with the Derby. I don't care how 
 many are in the field, there's only one winner." 
 
 Horace Wilder closely examined Frederick Wyman's 
 galaxy of " personally signed " photographs of contempo- 
 rary "living pictures," and then carelessly answered his 
 friend's question, as Wyman anxiously demanded: 
 
148 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 < * Do you look for any particular great struggle or 
 break-up very soon? " 
 
 "Oh, anything at any time. Everything goes in San 
 Francisco's money market. I just dropped in for your or- 
 ders on 'Lone Star.' ' 
 
 "Hold it stiff at forty dollars. Watch it carefully. 
 Take in all that is offered, and keep it strong. I'll be here 
 till four o'clock, within reach," said Wyman, with a fur- 
 tive smile cast toward the low, two-storied shanty where 
 Marchand's offered the best cuisine, the choicest wines, and 
 the very worst company, in all San Francisco. There the 
 bright-eyed Free Lances of Folly bloomed perennia-l in the 
 abandon of their characterless Nirvana. 
 
 "All right, old man," cheerfully replied Wilder. "See 
 you at the Cliff this evening. Any news with you?" 
 
 "Yes, Haley is here, and I am going to drive him out. 
 I may go up to Virginia for a couple of weeks. He wants 
 me to look the mine over." 
 
 With a nod, Horace Wilder sauntered away to join in 
 the coming devil's scramble of the morning's call. " Wy- 
 man has something on his mind, I fancy," mused the devil- 
 may-care broker, as .he revolved certain little afternoon and 
 evening plans, intimately connected with the endless 
 deviltries of his reckless private life. He had covered 
 the two short blocks to his office, before his day was ar- 
 ranged, so as to quietly and expeditiously provide for the 
 shattering of several of the commandments, which were, 
 and are, a dea'd letter as far as San Francisco is concerned. 
 A climatic effect, probably! 
 
 As Wyman prepared to go on his regular morning parade 
 at the clubs he now only awaited his mine foreman, Haley. 
 "I will drive Bob down on the ocean beach," mused the 
 annoyed operator. " It's the only place for a safe inter- 
 view within fifty miles, There? by Jove! I can head them 
 
149 
 
 all off women, reporters, gossips, stock spies, and the 
 whole gang of busybodies." 
 
 Frederick, the faultless, smiled at himself as he ap- 
 proved the careful finishing work of Vinnie Hinton's 
 golden years of friendly endeavor. His spirits rose as he 
 thought of his matchless trotters, of the eight mile 
 curve of that grand surf-washed beach, sweeping, brown 
 and glistening, in the afternoon sun, from the "Cliff," 
 down to far Point Lobos. A southerner in his love of 
 horses, he delighted to speed along there, his cheek fresh- 
 ened with the crisp salt breeze, blown shoreward from the 
 sparkling sea which broke on no shore nearer than the far 
 islands of Japan. The great purpled cliffs above the 
 Golden Gate gave the scene all the witchery of a fitting 
 background, with far Tamalpais and snow-capped Monte 
 Diablo, uplifted hi^h above him in the clear California 
 skies. 
 
 The "show-up" at the Cliff pleased his egoistic vanity, 
 for crowds now craned their necks to win the honor of a 
 nod of recognition from Frederick Wyman, "one of 
 Nature's noblemen." In the slower "park parade," many 
 a bright eye followed longingly the " successful man. " In 
 those gilded circles which constituted " High Society," 
 separated by an" elastic band," alas! too easily crossed from 
 the "unclassed," Wyman was even now regarded as the 
 most eligible "parti" of monied society. 
 
 His future marriage strangely interested scores of full bos- 
 omed dowagers, whose falcon-eyed daughters, light of foot, 
 and hard of heart, yearned to wear the " diamond neck- 
 lace," which was supposed to be awaiting some growing 
 rosebud of these ozone-laden western skies. "When I 
 marry," had been the indefinite boundary of many a sly 
 plan of Wyman's, but he had also a certain cynical skepti- 
 cism as to the ' staying power " of the beautiful California 
 
150 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 girls, in whose thrilled veins an electric lava fluid seemed 
 to bound; far quicker in its pulsing throbs than the more 
 regulated blood of the paler eastern roses. 
 
 Several match-making mammas would have been greatly 
 disheartened if they could have listened to Wyman's half 
 sneer: "I think that I will stand back, and let other men 
 take the chances on these fiery young Nourmahals." For 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman's self-allotted path onward and 
 upward, led him far away out over the summits of the 
 Sierras, to the broader circles and higher glories of Euro- 
 pean society. 
 
 Physically and personally luxurious, sowing broadcast 
 his widely-spread crop of wild oats, Wyman had easily 
 acquired the practical dexterity of the western man in his 
 adaptation to varied social circles, not frequently inter- 
 secting. His proud name shone in the lists of the varied 
 clubs of San Francisco. He showed a gilded liberality 
 in the affected charities of fashion, a judiciously regulated 
 social advertising system was his, and a confidential 
 intimacy with various " society leaders " of Eve's trustful 
 sex, who "dabbled in stocks," had finally taught him the 
 hornbook of "high life." On this particular morning, 
 as at all important business junctures, he designed care- 
 fully displaying himself as a man of leisure at the various 
 places, where the men " of his order " sheltered themselves 
 from the usefully vulgar, by the "dead line" of club 
 membership. 
 
 He had long nourished a secret plan, after skimming 
 the financial cream to the last drop, having acquired 
 the surface hall-mark of the gentleman, to seek a 
 broader field of fashion far beyond the green Atlantic; 
 but, on this particular morning, he felt again the truth of 
 his haunting fears. " I must never leave the coast till 
 Hooper, my bright-eyed friend Vinnie, and Andy Bowen 
 
ONE OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 151 
 
 are all powerless to meddle with the 'Lone Star,' and drag 
 out the weakness of the Mariquita title." And so, raising 
 and lowering the stock, keeping control of the directory, 
 enjoying its revenues, by skilled manipulation of the ac- 
 counts and monthly yields, he stood steadily on, in his 
 successful course. " When the public will contribute no 
 more by general operations, I will then personally run it 
 as an investment of my own." Led into other and out- 
 side speculations himself, Wyman felt the necessity of 
 some brilliant coup, which would refill his coin coffers. " I 
 need more cash reserve," he muttered, "and I must make 
 a big turn." 
 
 "Ah! Captain Bob! Here you are," cheerily remarked 
 the great man, as a square-shouldered, lean-faced miner of 
 forty briskly entered the room. " Just waiting for you. 
 I want to have a long talk with you to-day. Drive out 
 with me at four, this afternoon. We'll go over everything- 
 and then, we can have a quiet dinner at the Cliff." 
 
 The foreman nodded acquiescence, and stood facing his 
 employer with both hands lightly dropped in the pockets 
 of his sack coat. Wiry and neat, brown skinned, with a 
 spare wolfish mustache, the cold, gray eye of "Captain 
 Bob" was resolute and unflinching as he calmly said: 
 
 " I would have telegraphed you, but, on second thoughts, 
 I came down myself. You are going to have some trouble 
 about the ' Lone Star ' stock, and I wanted to warn you 
 myself. You can't trust to our ciphers, we are all bought 
 and sold." 
 
 "Tell me now, right off. Sit down here!" cried 
 Wymaii, forgetting the man of fashion, in the cool, self- 
 defensive speculator. 
 
 Over a cigar and a glass, Captain Bob Haley, 
 awkwardly stroking the words out of the knees of his 
 pepper-and-salt colored trousers, delivered himself oracu- 
 
152 MISS DEVtflUiUX OF THE MAElQtTlTA, 
 
 larly. A southwestern man of magnetic nerve, Bob Haley 
 could handle, with a single look, the most turbulent miner. 
 His hands had an ugly fashion of flashing two self-cocking 
 revolvers out of those pockets, and, his co'd nerve 
 was proverbial. To an unbroken word, a perfect, even- 
 handed justice, and a personal liberality never denied, he 
 added all the watchful wisdom of years of experience and 
 also the golden charm of few words. Active, alert, ener- 
 getic, and " square" on every issue, Haley's pre-eminence 
 among mining foremen, dated from the day when, single- 
 handed, at the "Golden Eagle" he defended the com- 
 pany's bullion storehouse against the sudden dash of a 
 dozen desperate outlaws. When the quick flashes of a 
 Winchester rifle had rung out the doom of three of their 
 number, as they vainly tried to storm the little stone house, 
 a sick captive miner, tied to a tree, called out with pardon- 
 able pride: "You'll never get in there. Bob Haley's in- 
 side with a spare box of cartridges! " And so, the siege was 
 incontinently raised. 
 
 It was this same cool human machine who now said: 
 "You have an eager enemy on your trail. Some one has 
 been quietly buying in all the loose stock of the * Lone Star ' 
 to be found in Nevada, and sending it down here. I can't 
 find who is behind it, but, there's an unlimited order to 
 buy, and the stock is all quickly shipped down here. I've 
 got a friend or two in the express office, and I am always 
 posted. Now, you are just within three months of your 
 annual election. The mine's all right, still, somebody is 
 going back on you. Look out for yourself! " Wyman 
 sat as if stunned. His ashen face did not escape the keen 
 eye of Bob Haley. 
 
 When the startled capitalist found words, he said slowly : 
 "Haley,! want you to keep close here to-day,inmy rooms, 
 till I come back. Tony will attend to all your wants. 
 
ONE OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 153 
 
 G-o up to-morrow, home to Virginia, and don't you let one 
 single human being enter that mine unless he has a private 
 signal which I will give to you. No! It isn't Hooper or 
 Andy Bowen," he flashed out, in answer to an inquiring 
 glance. " They are both sound on the goose. It's some 
 rank outsider. Now make yourself at home. I'll throw 
 out my dragnet, and I'll soon catch this strange shark. By 
 Heavens! I'll knife him, too when I have him in the net! " 
 And then his blood surged away from his heart. 
 
 "Could Vinnie Hinton have played him here the double 
 cross? " He caught his breath. She could know nothing 
 of his current affairs. Neither Bacchus nor Venus had 
 ever loosened the seal of his egoism. No man knew of his 
 private finances, for, unknown to even Brown, Wyman had 
 his secret deposit of United States Bonds, reserve moneys 
 at Virginia City, and also, certain eastern ground-anchors 
 carefully laid down. A running deposit account with 
 Wilder kept that gay youth in his power as a "silent 
 partner," and the funds in the Hooper, Bowen & Co., 
 combination, were all that Vinnie could trace, even with 
 the utmost duplicity. As to peeping at his books or even 
 a paper, all the doors leading to the business department 
 of his seraglio office, had heavy spring locks on the other 
 side, and also secretly-placed bolts. Madame Vinnie, she 
 of the " half-cryin' brown eyes," could only use her own 
 golden key to enter the "sunny side," the social "spider 
 parlor," of that Kearney street nest whose glories were now 
 too well known to many pairs of bright eyes. " Besides," 
 murmured Wyman, "she is royal even in her wholesome 
 iniquity, wL'^h now fits her loosely like an easy glove. 
 No! Vinnie has no present cause for war a 1'outrance. It 
 is some cursed outside malignant." 
 
 While Bob Haley became an interested student of bric- 
 a-brac, the angry capitalist sauntered down slowly to the 
 
156 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 don't forget to tell me the whole truth; the whole truth, 
 sir, and nothing but the truth." 
 
 Wyman's protestation of worn-out platitudes resulted in 
 a very, very pretty woman, perched on his knee, saying 
 gently: "Fred, I will forgive all the white lies of the 
 past. Give me now a clear, straight story." And so, 
 while the practical siren dallied with her oysters, Wyman 
 slowly unburdened his stormy soul. He was full of the 
 subject, and did not notice a 'twinkling light in Vinnie's 
 eyes. 
 
 "Now, I can for once give you a reward of merit," she 
 laughed, as she affixed an improvised boutonniere, and 
 hummed merrily, "Call me back again." "There's a 
 very nice new necklace in the window down at Shreve's, 9 
 marked five thousand dollars. You should have my name 
 most neatly engraved on the clasp, and you can also say, 
 * Love, the giver,' if you wish. Shall I tell you a bit of 
 news? " Her eyes were glowing. 
 
 "Anything, anything you ask, Vinnie," hoarsely mut- 
 tered Wyman. " Don't keep me waiting." 
 
 "Well then, I'll trust now entirely to your honor." 
 
 Fred nodded, and his eyes sealed the unspoken promise 
 about the necklace. ' I was down at the ' old camp 
 ground ' last night. The usual lot were there. " 
 
 Wyman sprang up, for the Sacramento street golden 
 bird-cage from whence she once came to him, a fair de- 
 serter, was so termed. ' ' The usual lot, " in her gay 
 words, was a triumvirate so weighty as to then rule the 
 destinies of all Nevada's silver mountains up to this very 
 fateful hour. 
 
 " Well, your own name strangely came up. I said noth- 
 ing, for they have no idea of our secret life, and, besides, 
 the old Judge ' was making dead love to me, while the 
 Chiefs all talked shop." She laughed merrily. "But I 
 
ONE OF NATURE'S 
 
 always take all their talk in quietly, on general principles. " 
 Vinnie softly smiled a triumphant smile, as Wy man's eager 
 arms stole round her supple waist. He was kneeling at 
 her side now, his burning eyes gleaming into her own ! 
 
 " First they all raved about the War Hawk,' a Reese 
 river mine they were unloading on the market. They just 
 had received a private dispatch that the mine had been all 
 burned out inside, and had then caved in. ' That knocks 
 the stock from twenty down to two dollars in the next 
 week,' growled the Duke, and then, Fred, he raved on 
 about being terribly short on your stock, the * Lone Star.' He 
 wanted to borrow a lot of the stock from the other two of 
 the big syndicates. ' Haven't got any,' was all he could get 
 as reply from his partners, and then they all chipped in 
 with the inside story of its being run way up in price to 
 get a cinch on you at the next election. It appears that 
 you blackballed a lawyer here, a man I don't know, 
 Waldo Strong, at the Yacht Club, some time since." 
 
 " Yes, I did," hissed Wyman. " I hate the fellow! He 
 fought me like a tiger as Vice-President of the Art Asso- 
 ciation, and, he moved heaven and earth to defeat me there. 
 So, I got all the money men I knew to throw out his name 
 from the Yacht Club. I have never met him, but I have 
 good reason to hate him." 
 
 "Well," said Vinnie,*' sit down like a Christian, now, 
 and I'll finish, for I want my breakfast, sir," she laughed. 
 "He has patched up a sort of a floating title to some of 
 'Jim and Andy's ' outside claims. He lost money on back- 
 ing our party. He wants to get even. He has got the 
 real idea of gathering in all the loose stock of the ' Lone 
 Star,' and then, turning you out, or investigating your 
 management. The Syndicate said he had scraped Virginia 
 City clean of all the loose stock, and they canvassed 
 your own name, and all of them said you would be in a 
 
 M 2 
 
158 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 bad hole, if this fellow Strong ever got three or four 
 Directors. He is smart, and lie has some outside money 
 behind him now. You must have let the stock get away 
 from you." 
 
 " Who backs him? " sharply queried Wyman. 
 
 " They don't know themselves!" simply answered Vinnie. 
 "I was afraid that my face would betray me, and so, I 
 made play with the old Judge, to cover up the listening 
 dodge. That was all, and then they went on talking again 
 about this disastrous fire in the War Hawk. I commenced 
 to drink some wine, just for fun, with these three gay old 
 bugs, and, the usual result, I forgot myself. I have a 
 headache. They got me dancing and cutting up, and I did 
 not get home; but I hope I have helped you. I know I 
 didn't help myself!" she laughed, and drank a glass of 
 Burgundy. 
 
 Wyman came around the -table, and softly kissed the 
 rosy partner of his easy sins. " There will be the ear-rings 
 with that necklace. You are a game girl. So you made a 
 night of it, you pretty devil. And, you have really given me 
 the clue. All I want you to do for me, for the next week, 
 is just to make it pretty public that you have stolen away 
 "with me for a few days, 'on the strictly quiet.' See 
 these old boys down there; I want them all to know it! 
 Stay here a couple of days, and come in and out of my 
 rooms often; show yourself openly. Keep your carriage 
 standing out there in front. Then, get quietly out of 
 town. Go at night over to Alvarado and telegraph me 
 to Virginia City. The cipher address I gave you. I will 
 come back then with you, here openly, in a week, for I 
 will join you there at Alvarado, on the sly. Wait there 
 for rne, blow high, blow low." 
 
 " I'll do it, Fred !" laughed Vinnie, "but, I am still 
 pnly a woman. I must know all. " When they had di- 
 
ONE OF NATURE'S NOBLEMEN. 159 
 
 vidcd a glass of champagne, with loving eyes gazing in 
 her own, Wyman whispered: 
 
 " I am going up on a private engine to Virginia City at 
 midnight. I will flatten out this chap, Waldo Strong, 
 flatter than a pancake. And you, Vinnie, are supposed to 
 keep me in garrison here, apparently, for a couple of days, 
 and then, fly by night. But, load up those old boys with 
 the story." 
 
 The man who had neither faith nor respect for woman- 
 hood, left the room an hour later, light-hearted and trust- 
 ing his whole cause, the Waterloo field-day of ten years, 
 to the amour propre of a reckless light-o'-love. 
 
 As Wyman disappeared, Vinnie Hinton followed him, 
 for once, with admiring eyes. " He has trusted me, all in 
 all, and I will not ' go back ' on him! " 
 
 At seven o'clock, the stern-eyed Captain Bob Haley was 
 astounded, when the panting steeds drew up at Wyman's 
 door on the return from the twenty-mile dash, for 
 Wyman had simply said: "Wait here, and don't show 
 your face outside. I must go to a reception, but at sharp 
 midnight we go to Virginia City on a special engine, and 
 ' muni's' the word, it iis for blood! " 
 
160 MISS PEVJSHEUX OF THE MARIQUJTA, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 HER FAULTLESS FACE. 
 
 "Captain, I have a special reason to ask you to keep 
 closely to your room here," quietly said Wyman, as they 
 mounted the stair. "lam watched night and day by 
 stock spies, and the morning papers would be full of my 
 trip if we were seen going away together. My man will 
 serve your dinner in your rooms, and also get you any- 
 thing you wish for. Next time when you come down, I 
 will show you the town in style. I'll be back here at eleven. 
 I have just telegraphed for an engine to wait at the Oakland 
 wharf, ready for Truckee. We will get another one 
 there, and the tug will be on hand at Naval Boat Landing. 
 So, make yourself comfortable." 
 
 "All right! Don't mind me. Business is business. 
 I'm glad enough to get back to Virginia City," curtly re- 
 joined Haley. "I have no use for this town." 
 
 It was true. When Haley was not doing his troglodyte 
 "specialty act," on the Comstock, his pleasures were two. 
 One, the practice of a little confidential " poker " game of 
 Draconian rigidity, with a few other "foremen" of mines, 
 or else keeping up his unerring aim, by slaying ' ' sage 
 hens" on a Sabbath day. The gray-eyed "fire-eater" was 
 secretly admired by all the "Camilles" of the Comstock, 
 yet, no woman had ever sat beside him after his spectral 
 trotter. A convenient shortness of hair saved this 
 mighty man of the mining camp from the blandishments 
 of the audacious Delilahs of C street. "No, sir," he 
 promptly answered once when rallied on his lonely life. 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 161 
 
 "None in mine. I let women alone, on principle! " The 
 " cup that inebriates while it vastly cheers," was also given 
 the "go by." " What's the good of a walking whisky 
 tank, anyhow?" was Haley's curt criticism. "When a man 
 makes drinking his profession, he ought to stick to it, and 
 let deep mining alone." So, Captain Bob Haley was not 
 denied the crowning glory of a "spree in 'Frisco" by his 
 lonely evening at Wyman's rooms. He spent his four 
 hours, however, in enjoying an excellent dinner and peer- 
 ing into the future through the smoke of several of 
 Wyman's best cigars. His eyes were fixed in wonder at 
 the artistic indelicacy of certain wall pictures, only they 
 dropped now and then to the practical, as he slapped his 
 muscular leg, as if he would smartly extract an answer to 
 his semi-profane query: "I wonder what the hell he is 
 going to do now up at the mine? " 
 
 That practical problem had agitated the absent million- 
 aire, from the very moment when he sat down to his soli- 
 tary meal in his own sanctum. The disclosures of Vinnie 
 Hinton had gravely alarmed him; moreover, they enraged 
 him! 
 
 Mr. Waldo Strong! I'll ." He ground his teeth 
 
 and shivered, as he studied the best method to crush the 
 hostile son of Blackstone. Keen-eyed Tony Morani noted 
 his master's nervousness. 
 
 "Do you want a fire, sir? " he said. But, his eyes 
 opened in wonder, as Wyman sprang up. 
 
 "Yes, by God! That's the very thing. A fire! Yes, 
 a fire!" the millionaire cried, and Tony, on his knees, won- 
 dered as his master poured out a terrific horn. 
 
 * ' You must have got a chill down at the beach. The 
 fire will make you all right." 
 
 As the red flames leaped up and danced high in the fire- 
 place, Wyman dropped his head in his hands and murmured: 
 
160 MISS PEVEHEUX OF THE MARIQIUTA, 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 HEK FAULTLESS FACE. 
 
 "Captain, I have a special reason to ask you to keep 
 closely to your room here," quietly said Wyman, as they 
 mounted the stair. "lam watched night and day by 
 stock spies, and the morning papers would be full of my 
 trip if we were seen going away together. My man will 
 serve your dinner in your rooms, and also get you any- 
 thing you wish for. Next time when you come down, I 
 will show you the town in style. I'll be back here at eleven. 
 I have just telegraphed for an engine to wait at the Oakland 
 wharf, ready for Truckee. We will get another one 
 there, and the tug will be on hand at Naval Boat Landing. 
 So, make yourself comfortable." 
 
 "All right! Don't mind me. Business is business. 
 I'm glad enough to get back to Virginia City," curtly re- 
 joined Haley. "I have no use for this town." 
 
 It was true. When Haley was not doing his troglodyte 
 "specialty act," on the Comstock, his pleasures were two. 
 One, the practice of a little confidential " poker " game of 
 Draconian rigidity, with a few other " foremen " of mines, 
 or else keeping up his unerring aim, by slaying ' * sage 
 hens" on a Sabbath day. The gray-eyed "fire-eater" was 
 secretly admired by all the "Canailles" of the Comstock, 
 yet, no woman had ever sat beside him after his spectral 
 trotter. A convenient shortness of hair saved this 
 mighty man of the mining camp from the blandishments 
 of the audacious Delilahs of C street. "No, sir," he 
 promptly answered once when rallied on his lonely life. 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 161 
 
 " None in mine. I let women alone, on principle! " The 
 " cup that inebriates while it vastly cheers," was also given 
 the "go by." " What's the good of a walking whisky 
 tank, anyhow?" was Haley's curt criticism. "When a man 
 makes drinking his profession, he ought to stick to it, and 
 let deep mining alone." So, Captain Bob Haley was not 
 denied the crowning glory of a "spree in 'Frisco" by his 
 lonely evening at Wyman's rooms. He spent his four 
 hours, however, in enjoying an excellent dinner and peer- 
 ing into the future through the smoke of several of 
 Wyman's best cigars. His eyes were fixed in wonder at 
 the artistic indelicacy of certain wall pictures, only they 
 dropped now and then to the practical, as he slapped his 
 muscular leg, as if he would smartly extract an answer to 
 his semi-profane query : "I wonder what the hell he is 
 going to do now up at the mine? " 
 
 That practical problem had agitated the absent million- 
 aire, from the very moment when he sat down to his soli- 
 tary meal in his own sanctum. The disclosures of Vinnie 
 Hinton had gravely alarmed him; moreover, they enraged 
 him! 
 
 Mr. Waldo Strong! I'll ." He ground his teeth 
 
 and shivered, as he studied the best method to crush the 
 hostile son of Blackstone. Keen-eyed Tony Morani noted 
 his master's nervousness. 
 
 "Do you want a fire, sir? " he said. But, his eyes 
 opened in wonder, as Wyman sprang up. 
 
 "Yes, by God! That's the very thing. A fire! Yes, 
 a fire!" the millionaire cried, and Tony, on his knees, won- 
 dered as his master poured out a terrific horn. 
 
 ' ' You must have got a chill down at the beach. The 
 fire will make you all right. " 
 
 As the red flames leaped up and danced high in the fire- 
 place, Wyman dropped his head in his hands and murmured: 
 
162 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 " Yes, the fire will make me all right! " The valet stood 
 aghast looking on at the unfinished dinner. 
 
 " Are you really well enough to go out, sir?" Shall I 
 have Dr. Boland come in? " The servitor was truly 
 alarmed, but it was only for his place. Tony knew the 
 value of " a good thing," and had seen several of Califor- 
 nia's most promising capitalists wafted away to some 
 4 'distant shore," at the beck of that veritable " pride of 
 the West " pneumonia. These men, ' ' not lost, but gone 
 before," had never, by auricular or written communica- 
 tion, indicated whether or not they had " struck a better 
 place than 'Frisco." If Dr. Watts and many others may 
 be believed (the wise, pessimistic clerical croakers), the 
 chances were decidedly against these " sons of Belial," for 
 they had been ruthlessly pulled-up while ''going the hot- 
 test pace." 
 
 "I couldn't afford to lose this man, he's 'one of 
 Nature's noblemen,' " said Morani, appreciatively, as he 
 slipped out to warm a small bottle of especial Burgundy 
 for his master. On principle, Wyman always allowed 
 Morani to rob him, with the lofty disdain of a Grand 
 Seigneur. " I'll more than get even, anyway, on the other 
 fellows;" he sneered, "we are all a gang of thieves after 
 all, out here, from the big shark to the little minnow." 
 A just personal estimate! 
 
 Wyman recalled, while dreaming alone at the fire, Yin- 
 nie Hinton's story of the mishap at the "War Hawk 
 Mine." "That would just be the very racket,' if I could 
 only work it, " he mused. " I wonder if it Avas a < square ' 
 accident. If I could only throw this stock down now 
 quickly, I could crush this parchment-faced sneak, and all 
 of his gang. But, the "War Hawk " thing is too recent. 
 It was not so serious after all, and, I have this cool Bob 
 Haley to outwit, and all the reporters, and these sharp bar- 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 163 
 
 room ( experts' of Virginia City. Fire! yes, a fire! Vin- 
 nie gave me the right cue. But, it must be a real disas- 
 ter no humbug! Sudden, sharp, a serious matter. That 
 alone Avill drop the stock to where I want it." 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman's face was ashen pale as he poured 
 the choice wine down his throat. He only drank to distract 
 the valet, and to cut off his voluble sympathy. " By 
 Jove! Stop your croaking!" he cried finally. "I am not 
 dead or dying. Lay out my dress things. I am going up 
 to Mrs. Hammond's reception." 
 
 " At what time, sir?" queried the alert valet. 
 
 " Half-past eight, " wearily answered his master. 
 " There's going to be music. Miss Miss Lyndon. Do 
 you know anything about her?" Wyman eyed tbo spry 
 little Machiavel keenly, as he brought in the cigar tray. 
 
 Morani was the peerless Figaro of San Francisco. Dilet- 
 tante and raffine, he was the star, par excellence, in the 
 wicked upper circles of those pretty soubrettes, who were a 
 fittingly lurid background to those reckless social prem- 
 ieres their San Francisco mistresses. Bright-eyed, hard- 
 hearted, neck or nothing, the suddenly evolved dames of 
 fashion, were now " out-Heroding Herod " and "showing 
 the way " to their startled sisters of the fast sets of the 
 East. To use the confidential remark of one of these 
 Madame Benoitons : * ' Paris was not in it, with San Fran- 
 cisco." Morani cast eyes of admiration to the ceiling, as 
 if invoking the benediction of Vinnie Hinton's resplend- 
 ent loveliness, glowing there above. 
 
 " Miss Gladys Lyndon, a tall perfect blonde, sir. Most 
 lovely blonde I ever saw, sir. Always riding out with 
 Mrs. Hammond now. See them very often in the park. 
 Mr. Strong, the lawyer, too, along with them, often on 
 horseback." 
 
 " Ah! " There was a steely glitter in the borderer's dark 
 
164 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 eyes. "How long has this been going on?" Morani 
 deftly handed the Damascus coffee cup to his master. 
 
 "Oh! a couple of months, sir. She has only given one pub- 
 lic concert. You were away. Great success. Mr. Strong on 
 the committee, and all that. You know he's very chummy 
 with Mrs. Hammond, sir." Morani dropped his eyes to 
 conceal his virtuous emotions. ' ' I suppose that Mr. 
 Strong is only obliging Mrs. Hammond, in this musical 
 matter." There was an implication in his velvety tones. 
 
 "Oh! I see," cried Wyman, as Morani escaped. " Very 
 likely he is obliging himself also, if what this fellow says 
 is true," and his eyes bent on the dancing flames of the 
 live oak and madrona he loved to see crackling in the fire- 
 place. Wyman swore a deep oath. " I will lay this lawyer 
 sneak out, crush him, and and by Heavens! I will take 
 the 'tall perfect blonde' away from him. Yes!" and 
 Wyman strode up and down the room. " I will get solid 
 with the Hammond, and then turn her against Mr. Waldo 
 Strong. Damn him! " A charming future outlook for 
 the lawyer! 
 
 There was a peculiarly devilish smile lurking around 
 Frederick Wyman's sneering lips as he surveyed himself, 
 when the admiring Morani released him from his clutches 
 an hour later. 
 
 "The carriage is now in waiting, sir," announced the 
 Leporello. 
 
 Wyman passed out through Bob Haley's room and 
 startled that staid miner of fighting antecedents, with the 
 vision of an Apollo Belvedere a la mode. " Frederick the 
 Great " was thoroughly satisfied Avith himself now. He 
 felt the peculiar rigidity of backbone which " coin " 
 quickly imparts, and he had acquired a "noli me tangere" 
 hauteur, which now looked haughtily over all men below 
 him in the financial scale. As, to the outer man, he had 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 165 
 
 indeed in these ten years merited Vinnie Hinton's encom- 
 iums. * ' I've done a good deal with you, " she had mur- 
 mured once in a burst of gratified womanly pride. " You 
 now only need a foreign tour, and then a careful reim- 
 portation " she merrily laughed. " You would be swell 
 enough for this * western lot,' anyway, just as you are now. 
 I have finished you!" And, many a silver-necked bottle 
 they had " punished" to that wicked favorite toast, " To 
 the finishing process." This was a vague reference to a 
 trip to London, Paris, and other ' < worlds yetunconquered," 
 where they would linger, < i the world forgetting, by the 
 world forgot," in that sweet trance of sinful dreaming which 
 knows no rude awakening usually, save, alas! the money 
 running out! It is a sad and awkward fact that " delayed 
 remittances " have broken up more of these little tempo- 
 rary " earthly Paradise " episodes, than all the remorse 
 which Sunday School books describe to us as eating into 
 the hearts of the wicked! 
 
 The ingratitude of the " tyrant man " was shown in the 
 delightful dreams which caused Frederick Wyman to 
 chuckle softly, as his easily-hung carriage rolled along 
 towards the aristocratic shades of Van Ness avenue. Some 
 imp of Satan had just suggested to him the "tall perfect 
 blonde," as ' ( an admirable companion" for that future 
 voyage to Europe, to effect the "finishing" of his d'Orsay 
 elegance. 
 
 "It would be a rare sort of a Don Juan idea 
 very dashing and, the Hammond is just the very 
 woman to help me," the capitalist mused over his easy- 
 going relations with Mrs. Milly Hammond. " That society 
 leader " had already several turned down pages in her re- 
 markable "book of life," the dates of which vaguely re- 
 called certain checks of the capitalist of the " Lone Star," 
 marked "private account, "and drawn to his "own order," 
 
1GG MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 and endorsed also by "himself." A very adaptable per- 
 son, and most useful in her way to herself, the lady really 
 merited her name of " E pluribusunum," for she was really 
 " many in one," and, as was wittily remarked by Mr. 
 Arthur O'Leary, of the "Clarion," she was " all things to 
 all men." 
 
 " First, I'll lay out this Mr. Waldo Strong, and 
 then, after I have attended his financial auto da-fe, and 
 seen his cold ashes scattered to the viewless winds, I will 
 induce dear, jolly little Mrs. Hammond to give a neat 
 little private breakfast of about three persons; " so the 
 glittering-eyed schemer dreamed. " About five hundred 
 dollars worth of breakfast," he sneered, "with possibly 
 another five hundred dollars worth of dessert, later! " 
 
 These mingled thoughts of love and fire, busied Mr. 
 Wyman, until he stepped out, at the hospitable doors of 
 the lady whose help he so confidently counted upon. ' ' But, 
 just how to work this little Virginia City matter, I do not 
 as yet see," he murmured, as he gave stern orders to his 
 coachman, and yet his brow was all smiling and unruf- 
 fled, as he plumed himself proudly into the dressing-room. 
 
 He had designedly gone early to the lair of that Calypso, 
 Mrs. Hammond, and his perfect entente cordiale with the 
 hostess, as well as her memory of " the days that were," 
 was evinced in the skill with which the lady piloted her 
 visitor into the conservatory for a few moments, for he 
 was judiciously early, the bower was dark. Provided with 
 an excellent "running mate, "who welcomed the incoming 
 tide of guests, dashing, velvet-eyed Mrs. Hammond, 
 panted for just a few moments in dumb show behind her 
 thickest "invisible green" of friendly shrubs, in quick 
 answers to Wyman's eager questions. 
 
 "You have not met Gladys? Her voice is wonderful! 
 Such a lovely girl, and she so wishes to go to Europe, 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 1G7 
 
 and finish her education. Then the opera, the opera! 
 She is a perfect wonder! a second Patti." Wyman admir- 
 ingly eyed the ripe loveliness of the shapely brunette, who 
 in gold-colored satin and black lace was a" standing temp- 
 tation," as she eagerly eyed him. " Did you wish to see 
 me for any particular business, Fred?" said Mrs. Ham- 
 mond, as with flaming cheeks, she dropped her eyes sud- 
 denly under Wyman's brutally direct gaze. 
 
 " Listen," he said, il I have to go away for a few days, 
 down country. I will only have a chance to hear your 
 friend's wonderful voice in one song. I have a vast lot of 
 business to finish up to-night. Now, Milly, you can't stay 
 long with me. As soon as I come back, I want you to ask 
 this wonderful girl to breakfast here, at your house, alone, 
 with you and me, as if by accident. Don't forget, alone! " 
 and, he leaned and whispered a few words which brought a 
 benign smile to her startled face. 
 
 " All right, Fred," she laughed, as she uncoiled herself 
 from a human tangle into which she had " accidentally " 
 been betrayed, and then, ran away with her linger on her 
 lips. Her eyes were gleaming with a vicious pleasure, as 
 she turned on the step of the most conveniently arranged 
 dead angle passage. " But, I warn you, it will 'be all time 
 thrown away. She's a prude." There was a tempting res- 
 ignation in her own smile. 
 
 "We will see about that," grimly remarked Wyman, as 
 he quickly turned and sought a blossom to replace the 
 boutonniere which had been crushed under his foot, as he 
 stood for a moment straining his lovely hostess to his 
 breast in that "human entanglement." With unconscious 
 egoism he sought the rarest blossom, and, as he noted the 
 epray of lilies of the valley lying there under his careless 
 foot, the delicate rose-bud stained and ruined, he sneered, 
 " Leaf by leaf the roses fall. So, this tall, perfect blonde 
 
168 MISS DEVEfcEUX OF THE MABIQUITA* 
 
 seems to be a frozen Venus." As the glittering steel 
 blade of his penknife severed a fragrant bud, the deep 
 boom of a bell smote upon his ear in solemn clangor. 
 
 "Fire! fire!" it signaled to the throbbing air of night! 
 Wyman started with pain, for he had cut his gloved fin- 
 gers to the very bone. The dismal signal had recalled 
 Vinnie Hinton's strange story of the accident in the War 
 Hawk mine, and it crystallized an awful purpose brood- 
 ing in his mind. " Yes, yes, a fire will fix me all right! " 
 he muttered, between deep curses, as he essayed to staunch 
 the flowing blood. By the dint of a tight knot, he suc- 
 ceeded, and then, covered the wounded hand with the silken 
 folds of his handkerchief, as well as he could. 
 
 For fifteen minutes, he debated his course. It was impos- 
 sible for him now to mingle in the crowd of guests throng- 
 ing the salon, from whence the preparatory notes of the 
 accompanist were heard, high above the lively hum of 
 what was gaily termed by the knowing, a " Californian 
 crowd." 
 
 The social reporter (feminine), at her first glass of 
 champagne, in the hidden coign of vantage sacred to her, 
 had already entered in her note-book the words, "un- 
 equaled gathering of beauty and fashion." This auspic- 
 ious beginning was destined to blossom out into the most 
 glowing technical description of the marketable or mar- 
 keted loveliness present, with toilet details, more or less 
 minute, according to the liberality of the " shy sisters," 
 who daily advertised themselves furtively, under the head- 
 ing, "Society News." 
 
 Wyman, who was now much disconcerted by his 
 accident, glowered at the hundred and fifty men and 
 women crowding the Hammond parlors. He was search- 
 ing for some Fidus Achates to aid him. " I don't care to 
 go away till I have caught a glimpse of this wonderful 
 
FAULTLESS FACE. 169 
 
 Gladys Lyndon. I would like to hear her voice,this same 
 budding Patti. After that, when I have seen her, if it is 
 worth my while, I will get over to the Oakland landing." 
 
 He had business now at Virginia City, of which he was 
 again reminded by the heavy rumble of the passing fire- 
 engines ,the flaring lights and the clangor of the firemen rush- 
 ing wildly along the planked streets. His eye rested on the 
 throng of eager women faces moving in a Devil's auction 
 parade through the splendid rooms, so seldom graced by 
 the ubiquitous Mr. Hammond, whose absence gave to the 
 dashing Milly a "free hand," an easy condition of which 
 she availed herself by going it alone. 
 
 It was very well known in " high-life " society that the 
 practical Hammond paid only a judiciously selected pro- 
 portion of the family bills, leaving his gay wife " to spar 
 around," as it was charitably termed, for the means to 
 keep up certain "unexplained splendors." The gleam of 
 pearls and diamonds, glitter of sapphire and ruby, flash of 
 emerald and carven wealth of gold, decking the ardent- 
 browed beauties of the Occidental City, were pale, color- 
 less and faded beside the vigorous life which danced in 
 sparkling eyes, the glow on warm-ivory necks and heaving 
 bosoms, the blue-veined arms rounded in life's entrancing 
 youthful softness. What manner of heart beat under 
 these deeply-swept and tastefully-arranged corsages, was 
 immaterial to the gay, reckless men whose bold eyes needed 
 not the halting messages of the tongue to tell their passion- 
 ate stories. All was a spirited, devilish abandon to the 
 reacting influences of the pride of the eye and the lusts of 
 the flesh; for it was in the height of the Bonanza Days, 
 and, only Gold was King, Silver was Dictator ! Bacchus, 
 Venus, and blind-eyed Fortune were ministers of the 
 ceaseless pleasures which nightly followed the fierce battles 
 of the street. 
 
170 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA, 
 
 Careworn schemers forgot here their heart-eating 
 anxieties in the smiles of the Frou-Frous who had de- 
 scended, in sudden flight, a rosy band drawn from the four 
 quarters of the whole earth, to prey here on banker, broker, 
 Bonanza baron, and " mining man! " The gleaming rays 
 of the Aladdin Lamp shining out from Mount Davidson 
 had drawn from distant shores a swarm of men and 
 women, all in the flower of youth, high-pulsed in the pride 
 of life, whose social note-books of memory, when inad- 
 vertently opened, showed all the intrigues of reckless 
 human nature, the lurid background of the great Civil and 
 Franco-German wars, and all the vagaries of human pride, 
 passion, vice, and covetousness. Every scheme known to 
 the Robert Macaires and Cora Pearls of a dozen countries 
 flourished here on the golden shores of the West in a 
 generous competition of international deviltry. Codeless, 
 historyless, heartless, reckless, the children of "Bonanza 
 days," Folly's wantons, played at social see-saw for hearts 
 and millions. Promoted servant-girls, other men's wives, 
 and choice bits of feminine "crookedness," reigned in the 
 homes of the suddenly enriched, whence the sad-eyed 
 partner of an honest youth often went forth empty-handed, 
 the heart-broken Hagar of an upstart Abraham. 
 
 As for the "Brokers of the Big Board," these gentle- 
 men of leisure and pleasure, sharks by day, hawks by 
 night, had all the efflorescent splendor of the "cast-up" 
 American, and, pitiless-eyed, vulgar, and vain, were 
 coldly mean at heart in their bejeweled splendor. Woe to 
 the timid dove who struggled in the sharp claws of these 
 human rapacidae. Goethe, with his usual coarse un- 
 gallantry of the higher spirit, has remarked that: " When 
 in the Devil's dance we tread, woman's a thousand steps 
 ahead!" 
 
 The removal to another, and it is hoped, abettor world, 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 171 
 
 of the great German singer, "urged on by circumstances 
 not within his own control," prevented his personal ac- 
 quaintance with these financial " stars of the West, "whom 
 he fairly antedated a hundred years. Had Johann Wolf- 
 gang von Goethe been permitted to observe the sweeping 
 style, in which these "game chickens," the "Bonanza 
 Brokers," went to the devil, he would have added a sup- 
 plementary distich, describing the " distancing " of these 
 unhappy women, the subjects of his song, by the Cali- 
 fornia Sons of Moloch; for, no possible human competi- 
 tion could deprive these energetic sinners of the lurid 
 laurels due to their speed and grim moral obliquities, 
 human vultures. 
 
 "The whole show here is a nice lot," sneered Wyman, 
 intelligent and justly minded, even if withered at heart by 
 all the routine vices of a coarse latter-day money roue. 
 "Ah, there's Varick! " and, in response to a silent signal 
 of distress, his club friend made his way on, past out- 
 stretched arms and kindling eyes, to where Wyman lurked 
 in the conservatory. A simultaneous craning of necks, 
 turning of heads and cessation of the mingled wickedness 
 of the veiled passion play in the salons, told Wyman that 
 the "event of the evening" was now coming on. In a 
 few hurried whispers, the millionaire told of his plight, 
 and Varick promptly aided him. 
 
 "Wait a few moments, Miss Lyndon is going to sing, 
 and, when she has finished, I will bring in Mrs. Hammond 
 to you. You can have the butler let you out of the side 
 door and also call your carriage, and I, myself, will see to 
 your coats and things. " 
 
 ' 'You're a good fellow, Varick, " gratefully answered 
 Wyman. "By the way, name any day after a week, 
 when you can breakfast with me, at my rooms. I have 
 some new pictures there which I wish to show. A 
 
172 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Fortuny, two Corots, and a very fair Bougereau. I have 
 to go to Los Angeles for a few days on business." 
 
 While he entered the date in his note-book, Wyman smiled. 
 "This fellow will tell half of these women, and all of the 
 club men, of his * breakfast invitation,' and, the dark 
 schemer dreamed of a lire which was not yet lighted, as 
 he listened to the first notes of a voice which pierced to 
 his very heart ! 
 
 "There! There! Is she not a wonder? Isn't that a 
 faultless face?" whispered Varick, clutching Wyman's 
 arm as he drew the young man to a corner, from whence a 
 lovely girl of eighteen could be seen standing at the grand 
 piano. A scowl passed over Wyman's features as he noted 
 Mrs. Milly Hammond, the human butterfly so lately "en- 
 tangled " in his arms, earnestly whispering, in a corner, 
 with a grave-faced man of a cold, austere air. 
 
 "Is not that this lawyer chap, Waldo Strong, over 
 there with the Hammond?" hoarsely queried Wyman, aa 
 he strove to see the hidden face of the woman whose voice 
 now rose up in rich floods of- peerless melody, bringing a 
 rapt abandon to the faces of the crowd of worldlings; 
 for, on the waves of that golden flood many a heart 
 floated back to the dim but unforgotten past. 
 
 "Yes, certainly. Don't you know Strong? He's < dead 
 gone ' on this girl. Swears he'll marry her, and all that." 
 Wyman's heart gripped his ribs as he answered, with a 
 smothered curse : 
 
 "No, I don't know him, and I don't care to! " As he 
 spoke, by some curiosity of mutual repulsion, Waldo 
 Strong turned his eyes away from the beautiful face which 
 he had been studying, and, guided by Milly Hammond's 
 furtive glance, sought out his hidden enemy, Wyman. 
 
 "He is not much to look at," muttered Wyman, as the 
 spare-framed lawyer stood motionless, his passionless face 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 173 
 
 turned toward them. Beardless, prematurely yellowed 
 with the flicker of midnight oil, a face with the thin, firm 
 lips of the Jesuit, a mobile mouth, large and flat-lipped, 
 a hard, stony chin, heavy, high cheek bones, and an over- 
 hanging brow, the son of Blackstone looked to be only a 
 cold animated bundle of thoughts. His steely gray-blue 
 eyes were as cold as the winter brook's icy flow, steady 
 and fixed as the North Star. Deliberate, neat, and lithe 
 in all his movements, there was little to suggest either 
 thirty-five or sixty in his manner, save the immediate 
 personal effect of his presence, for he seemed to discon- 
 cert and keep up those around him, to a moral nervous, 
 ness. 
 
 " Looks like a human interrogation point, don't he?" 
 sneered Wyman. 
 
 "Nevermind. You keep out of the witness-box, my 
 boy, if he has you under cross-examination. I'd sooner 
 fry in a slow fire for a week. He tore me all to pieces a 
 few weeks ago. 'Liar and fool, too,' he made me out, 
 and, by Jove, I was all the while, telling the truth," 
 laughed Varick. "Now, now's your chance. Get a good 
 view of her face," cried the Bohemian! as the thunders 
 of applause rang out; for the last notes of "Adelaide" 
 had died away in lingering echoes, and Waldo Strong 
 leaped forward, to be the very first to press the hand of 
 the young goddess of the night. The eager glow under- 
 lying his cold, daily mask showed this Ca?sar of the 
 forum to be of that most dangerous human species, the 
 intellectual voluptuary. A man to linger and to plot, to 
 triangulate and weave his web, and at leisure to enjoy the 
 futile efforts of his prey to struggle out of the environ- 
 ment of his practiced intellect, barring, with mathematical 
 precision, every avenue of escape a man to enjoy a 
 woman in alienating her from her kind. But, the red 
 
174 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 blood flamed up in Frederick Wyman's face, as for the 
 first time he gazed into the face of this daughter of the 
 gods, divinely tall and most divinely fair, whose cheek 
 bloomed in deeper roses under the congratulations of the 
 now excited guests. 
 
 As Wyman's eyes turned to Varick to confirm the en- 
 comiums of the clubman, a cold, metallic voice near them 
 smote in their ears: "No, sir, I never forget a face! I've 
 seen that face before, here, in this very town, and in one of 
 the music halls, too. She was many years younger, only a 
 slip of a girl, and there was an old fellow who stood 
 guard over her." As the two men moved away out of 
 hearing, Wyman, in a quiet voice, said to Varick: 
 
 " Where did she come from, anyway? By God! It is 
 a faultless face. You were right. " His eyes were riveted 
 upon the sweet purity of the young Diana's uplifted coun- 
 tenance. Her broad, noble brow was lit with the aspira- 
 tion of a glorious youth. In her slender hands the roll of 
 music trembled, as with the moulded arms drooping before 
 her, she, with a frightened grace, answered the congratula- 
 tions of the "upper circles" of the chosen city of Plutus. 
 Golden hair in a shining coronal, robes of clinging white, 
 and only a knot of roses on her fair breast, she was a very 
 dream of loveliness. The original grace and freshness of 
 her beauty shone out among the artistic triumphs of the 
 womanly "make up" around her. 
 
 "Diana, Hebe, and Venus in one! A St. Cecilia with a 
 dreaming heart, a nymph only waiting the touch of love to 
 be a Venus Victrix," grandiloquently whispered Varick, 
 as he descended to a practical answer. "She has been 
 educated, I am told, in some institution here; she was an 
 orphan, I believe. The Hammond dug her up. She is 
 always on the look-out for these new lights. Gladys 
 Lyndon is a professional name, I believe, and she turns 
 
HER FAULTLESS PACE. 175 
 
 her eyes towards Europe. They say she is devoted to her 
 art, extremely reserved, and of a gentle, womanly charac- 
 ter. Rare old trainer ' she has there in Milly Hammond. 
 I wonder where she will land under the Hammond's tute- 
 lage. At any rate, if she is a walking mystery, she is a 
 most beautiful one. She has a stunning face. " 
 
 But,Wyman, a woman-hunter by virtue of his hot blood 
 and fiery passions his ardent eyes following her every 
 movement gazed upon Gladys Lyndon, with the eager 
 craving of a tiger for the gazelle. It was the yearning 
 for possession of that bright, beautiful woman-nature 
 which flooded his throat with warm waves of choking fire, 
 his voice thrilled as he turned away, and he clinched his 
 wounded hand. "By Heavens! I will send her over to 
 Europe myself. I will make a prima donna of her, if it 
 takes the whole ' Lone Star ' income for a year. And, I'll 
 grind up this lanky pettifogger so finely that he will be 
 helpless to meddle with her future." The evident desire 
 of Varick to mingle in the court of the rising star led him 
 to cheerfully pilot the hostess over to the now anxious 
 Wyman. And yet, he must go! 
 
 In five minutes Wyman was on his way to his rooms. 
 He had whispered to Varick, " Don't tell any one that I 
 have gone to Los Angeles, and be sure to be on hand, for 
 that breakfast. I want your judgment on all those pic- 
 tures." Before Milly Hammond had recovered from her 
 thrill of delight at Wyman's parting words, Varick had 
 told half a dozen chums of Wyman's southern tour. The 
 usual fate of secrets ! But, a happy glow filled Mrs. Ham 
 mond's breast, the glow of radiant hope. 
 
 "Milly," the young mining king had impulsively said, 
 " if you will bring that tete-a-tete breakfast off and make 
 me ' solid ' with your young friend, you can pick out the 
 handsomest solitaire ring you can find anywhere in town. I 
 will have it engraved, ' For a good girl.' r 
 
176 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 "All right, Fred!" she had smiled, " and, I'll earn it; 
 but, let me know the very moment that you return. You 
 must come up here on an afternoon and meet her, as if by 
 accident. I am now keeping everyone else away from her 
 for you. Strong is the only man." 
 
 "Well, he won't be very long in my way," remarked 
 the young Croesus, with a grim smile, as he left the bril- 
 liantly lighted house. The fire companies were returning, 
 jaded and tired, as Wyman's coupe picked its way down 
 town, and a dying glow, with occasional wind-blown 
 sparks, told of the " effective work" of the hungry flames. 
 
 ' * Yes ! That's the very thing, a fire !" murmured Wyman. 
 But, even in his preoccupation of a scheme which had 
 evolved under forgotten Vinnie Hinton's " half cryin' eyes," 
 his heart throbbed in a mad new-born passion, it was born 
 of the distant glimpses of the radiant young goddess of 
 song. The full tide of his years poured like molten lava 
 through his veins, as he thought again of Gladys Lyndon, 
 the beautiful meteor of a night. "I'll give Mr. Waldo 
 Strong something to chase that face forever out of his 
 mind," he swore, as he registered a vow that the girl 
 should go to Europe under his tutelage. "And after 
 after?" 
 
 "Ah! Money, enough of it, will do anything in this 
 world," he murmured, as he drew up at his own door. 
 "By Jove! I ought to leave some orders with Wilder. 
 Never mind, I can telegraph to him from Truckee, and," 
 as he entered his private hallway, a dark form advanced 
 suddenly to meet him. 
 
 " Hooper!" exclaimed Wyman. 
 
 "Quiet! easy! old man. I want a few words with you. 
 Vinnie told me you were going to leave town for a few 
 days." 
 
 "So I am!" gruffly replied Wyman, who was both 
 startled and annoyed. 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 177 
 
 "I must have a few private pointers from you, then, 
 about the ' Lone Star,' " resolutely answered Hooper. 
 
 Wyman led the way silently to his private business con- 
 ference room, and then, touching a secret bell, brought 
 Morani in, who telegraphed by a wink, that all was ready, 
 and Bob Haley still waiting in his agreeable social prison. 
 
 " Bring us in some whisky and cigars, Tony," quietly 
 remarked Wyman. "Call me, then, in ten minutes! I 
 have just that time to give you! " said the capitalist, turn- 
 ing and facing Hooper. 
 
 "Now! what's up with you?" roughly demanded Wy- 
 man, as he gazed at the angry broker. Time had not dealt 
 gently with Jim the Penman. Though prosperous and 
 overdressed, his face was hardened in the furtive, hungry 
 glare of the professional gambler. Stocks did not always 
 move quick enough for him, and poker, with a dash at 
 Billy Briggs' game of "faro," of ten finished his nights now. 
 Piles of "blue chips," won and lost, never brougtft a single 
 change of countenance to Hooper. Drink had broadened 
 his once fine features, and an uneasy restlessness permeated 
 his lost social varnish. The whole man was hollowed out 
 and undermined! It was easy to see why he only wore 
 Vinnie Hin ton's collar now, instead of playing a star en- 
 gagement (in private) as Mark Antony to her Cleopatra. 
 
 Hooper broke out sullenly, as soon as he filled his glass 
 with a shaky hand, and Morani had dexterously vanished. 
 
 "I'm worried about the 'Lone Star.' Bowen leaves me 
 here all the drudgery of our firm. He is banging around 
 up in Nevada, opening new mines, drawing out his money, 
 and leaving me to keep our firm's checks good, and I am 
 worried enough. I tell, you, Wyman, you ought not to 
 go away now. This whole market may break. There's a 
 giant fight going on, under the rose, here. Flood and 
 O'Brien, for themselves; Keene and Baldwin each tackling 
 
178 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 the whole world alone; Ralston, Sharon, Hay ward and 
 Jones, on the old lay; the Cooks, and God knows who 
 else. Some one will surely go to the wall. Someone will 
 either wind up a fugitive, be hauled up, or pass out! The 
 millionaire column may reverse itself any day. You don't 
 know who is rich. I know an old Irishman who can 
 hardly read, who carries to-day a million dollars of stocks 
 around in a greasy hat. Some one has got to bust!" re- 
 marked Hooper roughly, as he swallowed a second refresher. 
 " There's not gold coin enough in America to keep these 
 three hundred millions of par values of stocks moving on 
 the market." 
 
 "Look here! Hooper," impatiently cried Wyman. 
 " Get down to business! What is all this to me? " 
 
 ' ' I want you to give me the dead tip on ' Lone Star. ' 
 I know that Wilder handles your controlling interest in 
 that mine. It may make a difference of a hundred 
 thousand dollars a day to me. That fellow Strong will 
 break you, if you abandon the market." Hooper paused 
 with an ugly look in his eye. 
 
 "Let me handle Strong and his gang," coldly answered 
 Wyman. " That's my own business." 
 
 "And, what shall I do?" roared Hooper, wrathfully, 
 rising. 
 
 ' ' Cover all your sales on ' Lone Star ' daily, and don't 
 speculate in it. That's all. You'll get no news from me. 
 Our joint account always left 'Lone Star' out. Don't 
 play the 'baby act' on that, now!" Wyman was ir- 
 ritated, and hotly anxious to get away. Morani's knock 
 resounded at the door. 
 
 "You forget that I gave you the title to that mine! " 
 screamed Hooper, as his face .grew purple. His voice 
 died away into a groan, as Wyman, quick as lightning, 
 pressed the muzzle of a heavy pistol against the temple of 
 Jim the Penman. 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 179 
 
 "Damn you! Do you threaten me. I'll kill you like 
 a dog if you breathe that -word again." When Wyman 
 dropped his hand, he was alone, for Hooper had slunk 
 away. It was now war ! 
 
 The angry millionaire quickly double-locked the open 
 door. He did not hear Hooper's oath, " By Heavens! 
 Vinnie shall not go away with him." He would only 
 have laughed, for the days were gone when Hooper 
 could dictate to the resolute free lance of soiled woman- 
 hood. Vinnie managed to carry herself along on the 
 ' ' broad path" with a reserved vitality and dignity, which 
 placed her far beyond Hooper's feeble efforts at domina- 
 tion. "Cur and blackmailer," hissed Wyman. " I must 
 now hold on to Vinnie, and have her watch this half 
 crazed fellow, for he is now dangerous. His road is a 
 short one, if he don't pull up." 
 
 In twenty minutes, muffled to the ears, Wyman and 
 Haley watched the red light on Oakland pier, as the 
 little tug, " Sea Lion," bored along over the waters of the 
 silent bay, with an astonishing speed. Haley, taciturn 
 always, caught a glimpse of Wyman's face, distorted with 
 passion, as he gazed at the line of anchored ships. Wy- 
 man did not speak till after they had passed the low point 
 of Yerba Buena Island. The chill air moved on the fresh 
 dark tide and cooled the financier's heated brain. His 
 half formed purpose crystallized into a heartless plot to 
 ruin Strong and all his adherents, at any cost; for, besides 
 his unslaked revenge, the eyes of Gladys Lyndon seemed 
 to call him far away from this maelstrom of speculation 
 at the Golden Gate. Wyman curtly said to Captain 
 Haley, as the tug neared the Oakland pier: 
 
 "I do not wish one single human being to know that I 
 have passed Truckee. My visit to Virginia City is a 
 secret." Haley bowed, and then raised his eyes. 
 
180 MISS DEVEBEUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 "Every one knows you, though, in Nevada." 
 
 "I'll fix that," answered Wyman. 
 
 4 'He is in some trouble," simply ruminated Haley, who 
 had seen, without wonder, common miners become million- 
 aires, and noted the man who discovered three hundred 
 million of hidden treasures also reduced to "free drinks," 
 and small loans. Nothing ever astonished the gray-eyed 
 foreman. Life in the West was to him only a startling 
 " lightning-change " act, in which he was an unmoved, 
 passionless spectator. 
 
 But dark thoughts, and merciless resolves, filled Wyman's 
 breast, as he sent a last viva voce order to Vinnie Hinton, 
 by the redoubtable Morani, who disappeared in the fog as 
 the tug cast off, murmuring: " He is surely a devil of a 
 fellow." But, Wyman had already leaped on the waiting 
 engine, and now "No. 69" was tearing along on the 
 smooth steel rails, like a released red-eyed demon of the 
 night.- Two coal-tenders steadied the huge engine, and 
 the engineer had already grinned as Wyman said, "Here is 
 five hundred dollars in gold notes if you beat the record 
 to Truckee." The nervy son of Vulcan sententiously re- 
 marked, " Don't put 'em up again. I'll earn them sure." 
 
 Wyman hardly turned his head, until they had reached 
 Port Costa. The red flames of the funnel, as the exhaust 
 forced out the sparks, recalled to him the full text of that 
 voluptuous siren, Vinnie Hinton's story, " Fire! Fire! 
 Fire!" 
 
 Gloomily standing on the transfer boat at Port Costa, 
 in the black night, Wyman saw the other shore crawl 
 up upon him as the boat seemed motionless on the inky 
 midnight waters of the inlet. His own life, lonely and 
 hidden from all, seemed thus to bring the dark future up 
 to him without effort. Rich, young, cool, vicious, des- 
 perate, he had passed on from a raw boy, and penniless 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 181 
 
 adventurer, to be a money power in the land, borne along 
 on silent tides of fortune, which had swept him far 
 on beyond his first dark crimes. But, as in the lonely 
 tideless arctic seas, in the blackness of the six winter 
 months, the lonely mariners may drift, on, on, ever 
 towards a waiting death, with no land-mark in sight, 
 moved by hidden currents, far below, so, Wyman had 
 floated on past every distant land-mark of human nature, 
 with no light to guide, no beacon to steer by, on the cold 
 black waters of his shadowed criminal egoism. There 
 was no past to lend him its sailing code, no future lit up 
 with hope. Cut off, pent up with the shadows of his early 
 crimes, he was only a dark enigma, drifting, he knew not 
 whither! 
 
 As the powerful engine leaped away on its racing run, 
 "to beat the record," the moments seemed to crawl, 
 though the eyes of Captain Bob Haley met Wyman's in a 
 mute inquiry as to where they would land if they were 
 derailed. ' ' By heaven! I can stand it if he can. He is a mill- 
 ionaire," mused the foreman, as he quietly settled him- 
 self down to a nap. Haley regretted the safe pastoral 
 conveyance, the ox team, which he had guided over the 
 plains from " St. Joe," twenty-five hundred miles. As the 
 huge mountain engine, tore along, shrieking and yelling 
 through the little hamlets of the Sacramento Valley, Wy- 
 man's uneasy dreams were haunted by the faces of his own 
 strange entourage in the whirlpool of life! Silver-haired 
 old Brown, the scribe; Wilder, dapper and excited, ever 
 craving new orders; rude, reckless, efflorescent Andy Bowen, 
 a blatant millionaire "in posse;" sneaking Hooper of the 
 unsteady eye; Waldo Strong, his now doubly-hated enemy 
 and rival, with the ferret-eyed Morani and a strange 
 trinity: the ubiquitous free-lance Vinnie Hinton, the vel- 
 vet-eyed Mrs. Hammond, and, seen in the glow of rosy 
 
182 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 dreams, a tall stately girl, bending in grace, with parted, 
 smiling lips, laughing eyes, and youth and innocence as 
 her guardian angels. 
 
 Wyman woke with a start as the engine leaped over a 
 half open switch, and murmured as the telegraph poles 
 flew by in a dizzy repetition: " If I can clean this thing up, 
 I will cut this whole circus of knaves and fools, and finish 
 my business in Europe. It would be just as well to keep 
 out of the way for a couple of years." 
 
 The rising gray crags and waving pines of Rocklin gave 
 Wyman twenty minutes to refresh his shattered nerves, 
 and the telegraph operator wondered at the cabalistic 
 nonsense of several telegrams, respectively addressed to 
 Brown, the cashier; to Horace Wilder, and to that prince 
 of French valets, Morani. " Just as well to let Tony 
 shadow Vinnie and see that she plays me fair, and also 
 keep an eye on that cur, Hooper, but, Vinnie is only a 
 law unto herself. " It dawned upon Wyman as the engine 
 throbbed up the rising foothills, that a brave, fearless, 
 and, perhaps, unforgiving woman might break up the 
 romance of the golden future, wherein the "tall per- 
 fect blonde" was already cast as "leading lady." "I 
 will settle a handsome sum on Vinnie, an income, and 
 thus, make her dependent upon good behavior. As for 
 Hooper, he will soon drink himself to death, and thus 
 rid me of one dangerous nuisance." 
 
 Ever tearing along threatening, creaky trestles, swing- 
 ing round dangerous curves, the giant mountain engine 
 sped away through the blackening night. Distant gleams 
 of twinkling light, a thousand feet below, told Wyman 
 of the miners' cabins below in the terrific gorges of the 
 American River. The swaying pines wailed and soughed 
 on the lonely Sierras, and a deeper darkness bridged the 
 ravines where the icy brooks leaped down these channels 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 183 
 
 below him. Darker blackness than the shadowed night 
 filled Wyman's heart. He crouched in a corner, like a 
 beast at bay. ' < I must lose no time, but how, when to 
 make the break? Can I afford to depend on Wilder, on 
 luck, on every desperate chance? " 
 
 A worn and weaned man staggered off the engine at 
 Truckee, as the engineer, with a grim smile, claimed his 
 reward at four o'clock on the next morning. A second 
 engine was already waiting on a side switch. Frederick 
 Wyman smiled as the new engine-driver stepped up and 
 sharply said: "All ready, sir?" 
 
 " Wait a minute," sternly ordered Wyman, as he sent 
 Bob Haley into the squalid bar-room for some bottles of 
 whisky and cold food. " Come out in the round house 
 with me," said the capitalist to the man who had beat 
 the record. They stood in the dark shed where twenty 
 locomotives were backed up waiting orders. "Here's 
 your five hundred dollars," cried Wyman, "and another 
 hundred when you get out of those working clothes." 
 The burly engineer stripped his blue jacket and over 
 trousers in an instant. "I want the cap, too," laughed 
 Frederick, the sly, as he handed a ten-dollar hat to the 
 astonished operative. 
 
 "Good-bye and good luck," roared the engineer. 
 "You will make New York in three days if you keep 
 it up." But, Wyman did not hear him, he had grasped 
 a double handful of the hanging soot from the walls and 
 washed his face with the floating carbon dust. Captain 
 Bob Haley yelled, "Where's Wyman," as he jumped 011 
 the fresh engine in answer to his unseen master's voice. 
 
 "Silence! " roared the capitalist, who was at his side, 
 now a typical fireman, and Haley deposited his bottles 
 and parcels in a grim silence, as he sat down on a box 
 thrown into the caboose. "He is a slick one. No one 
 
184 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEJQUITA. 
 
 would ever recognize him! " mused the wary foreman, who 
 was now disturbed at heart. "Some scheme, some queer 
 game," he muttered, and did not speak till the strained 
 locomotive snorted around the base of Mount Davidson 
 at eleven o'clock on a sunny morning. The track was 
 clear, and, at a signal, the engineer halted at the head of a 
 long switch a half mile below Virginia City. 
 
 The smokestack of the " Lone Star " mill could be seen 
 six hundred yards down the gully. The engine driver's 
 eyes met Wyman's in a look of mute understanding, a last 
 pledge. Haley never knew that a simple card in his 
 pocket bore an address where a thousand dollars waited 
 a still-tongued man, a month later, in San Francisco. It 
 was a mystery of later years to the foreman how engine 
 No. 236 was side-tracked, with fires banked, on mysterious 
 orders at Gold Hill, to await the departure of a "gentle- 
 man tired of mountain life. " But, honest Captain -Bob 
 never learned the whole story. 
 
 "Let us walk down the canon. I wish no one to see 
 me," sharply cried Wyman, as he plunged down the bank, 
 and the engine backed away around the curve. Sullen 
 and annoyed was Captain Bob as he unlocked the door of 
 his private office at the mine and faced his employer. The 
 little den was hidden out of the way, where the noise 
 of the works and the rude frolic of the men's boarding- 
 house would not break in upon the dignity of the foreman. 
 Wyman had in his hand only a light traveling bag, and he 
 gazed earnestly at his watch, as he faced Haley. " I wish 
 to go alone into the mine and go down to the lower level, 
 when the shift changes after dinner. I will then spend 
 the afternoon in this rig. No one will know me." Wy- 
 man smiled. "Now, you can show yourself around a few 
 minutes, I will go into the old tunnel, and ring the bell at 
 the 200-foot station. Let the engineer send you down 
 
HER FAULTLESS FACE. 185 
 
 alone, and you can wait for me there. Not a soul in Vir- 
 ginia must know of my visit! " 
 
 There were a thousand idle conjectures in Haley's mind, 
 as he wandered away to the hoisting works alone. "He 
 always was a queer, silent fellow. I suppose that he is 
 uneasy about the ore, and wants to see it for himself." The 
 foreman knew that Wyman, from his private map and 
 weekly corrected plan of the mine, knew every single 
 cranny of the workings. Even he did not know that Wy- 
 man had resolutely worked away from the richest ore 
 toward the south from the main shaft, and left unexplored 
 grounds to cut off all connection with the barren grounds 
 of the Hooper, Bowen & Co. false leads, long since left 
 " instatu quo"- - permanent investments. " We ought to 
 look at the best place for a connection with the other 
 mines of the lead, by-and-by, to-day," Haley had said, as 
 he slumped away. " All right I will think it over," was 
 the stern employer's rejoinder. 
 
 It was a half hour later when Haley stepped out of the 
 cage at the 200-foot level, saw Wyman, still disguised, 
 with an old slouch hat, caught up at the office, pressed 
 down over his brows. A twinkling miner's candle in the 
 millionaire's hand gleamed fitfully in the darkness. 
 
 "Have you light enough?" said Captain Bob. 
 
 " Oh, plenty! All I want," answered Wyman, as 
 Haley stepped to his side and sent the cage up. The two 
 men were alone in the bowels of the gold-seamed rocks, 
 where silver ledges twisted their deceitful way through 
 the porphyry and granite. 
 
 "Haley," said Wyman suddenly in a smothered voice, 
 "I have forgotten something. I dare not show myself 
 here. I ordered Wilder to send me some cipher dispatches 
 with to-day's morning board sales, at Gold Hill. I forgot 
 that. We ran through there so quickly. Take your own 
 
186 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 horse and drive down there, and wait at the office till you 
 get them. I told Wilder to address them to you. I will 
 wait for you at your office. Give me the key. Don't 
 come back without those dispatches. Wait till you get 
 them, for I must answer them, and then go back at mid- 
 night, or before morning. I can easily get an engine here 
 any time." 
 
 " All right," cried the sturdy miner, as he groped his 
 way out of the mine alone, along the tunnel. He turned 
 and gazed at Wyman standing there as motionless as a 
 bronze statue, waiting there with the trembling light in 
 his hand. "Look out for yourself!" cried Haley, forget- 
 ting that Wyman knew every foot of the mine by the 
 knowledge gained in his monthly visits. 
 
 "I'm all right. Go on," answered the owner of the 
 "Lone Star, "whose voice echoed strangely in the dripping 
 tunnel, as gruesome as a cave of death. 
 
 Captain Haley was strangely disturbed as he drove down 
 alone to the Gold Hill and waited several hours at the tel- 
 egraph office for the dispatches which finally began to click 
 over the wire. " I ought not to be so long away from the 
 mine," uneasily thought the man who loved the "Lone 
 Star" as the growing triumph of his own practical skill. 
 He had set the thousands of timbered frames in the shafts 
 and galleries, where they creaked under the weight of the 
 slowly shifting rocks. 
 
 Another uneasy man was the hoisting engineer, who had 
 run the great reel around twice in answer to signals from 
 below and then the stage returned to the surface with no 
 one in it ! But, a dark-faced man, with a slouched hat pulled 
 down over his eyes, had stolen out of the tunnel unobserved 
 and fled away; an empty hand satchel was in his grasp! 
 He cast it carelessly down an old shaft ! There was a 
 strange odor of benzine on this man's hands, which same 
 
IIER FAULTLESS FACE. 187 
 
 odor clung to all the timbering of the main shaft as that 
 empty cage returned to the surface. A miner toiling far 
 down in the bottom of the shaft looked up in astonishment 
 to the hole nine hundred feet over him, where a square patch 
 of light glimmered, as a sponge fell at his feet. Then, a 
 wild, crazed yell resounded, as twenty-eight men fought for 
 their lives to reach the hoisting c<*ge. Alas! only a raging, 
 crackling sea of flame leaped up to the surface, as the 
 engineer above rang the alarm bell, and its mad clangor 
 told the whole Comstock of a fire, which soon made the 
 " Lone Star" shaft only a blazing tomb for the impris- 
 oned men below! 
 
 " Here's your dispatches at last!" said the operator at 
 Gold Hill, as Bob Haley, worn out with waiting, sprang 
 to his feet and thrust the yellow envelopes in his jacket. 
 His horse pawed at the door. " Hold on, Bob," cried 
 the operator suddenly, with a frightened face. " This just 
 came over. * Send help. "Lone Star" shaft on fire. 
 Twenty-eight men caught below.' ' : 
 
 Haley's horse dropped dead a half hour later, as he lashed 
 the beast down the runway to his office. A mad mob was 
 raging already around the hoisting works. He ran to his 
 office door. Locked! With one vigorous kick he burst 
 in the door. His old slouched hat lay on the table. In it 
 a card, "Gone, 2:15; will telegraph." And, the gray-eyed 
 foreman dropped his head on his hands and burst into 
 tears. "My poor men. I was not here, and, now I can't 
 get orders from Wyman," 
 
188 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A VANISHED GODDESS. 
 
 Captain Haley was the very picture of gloomy despair, 
 as he sat, late that night, in his office, surrounded by a 
 dozen foremen of the leading Comstock mines. They were 
 all resolute, manly fellows, who sorrowed for their brawny 
 comrades at last abandoned to their fate. A gloomy 
 crowd still loitered round the "Lone Star" hoisting works,' 
 although the mine was now tightly sealed. It was, alas! 
 the only way to prevent the destruction of the final 
 compartment shaft. The men had been caught like 
 caged rats there far below the flames, which had spread 
 up and down with lightning rapidity, running along 
 the greased guides. Stalwart Cornishmen, keen-eyed 
 Americans, resolute Irishmen, turned away, sickened at 
 heart, as they left the place of the disaster with bitter 
 sighs. It was the revenge of the gnomes. As for the 
 sympathizing miners, those fearless toilers in the service 
 of King Plutus, it was only "Hodie mihi, eras tibi," with 
 them. The same gloomy death might overtake them all 
 at any time! 
 
 "Damn this mean-hearted scoundrel Wyman's economy! 
 The shaft should have been connected by a gallery with the 
 other mines for safety," said a stern leader of the Miners' 
 Union. * ' We'll see about that, before another single man 
 goes down. If he was here, he ought to be lynched." 
 
 At that very moment, Mr. Frederick Wyman breathed 
 more freely, as his special engine dashed away and left 
 Truckee, the scene of Jim the Penman's neat touches, far 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 189 
 
 behind. " Thank God," cried Wyman, now restored to 
 his proper dress, "I am well over the California line. I 
 am now safe. " He had already dispatched to Wilder to 
 meet him at Alvarado at daylight. ' ' I will not go up to 
 Virginia City again, till this thing has all blown over," 
 mused the man who had deliberately held his candle to the 
 benzine drippings at the mouth of the 100-foot level, with- 
 out a pitying thought of the men cooped up below, whom 
 he sent to a horrible death. ' ' It was a lucky idea, and Vin- 
 nie is a trump," he mused. " I wonder how far the stock will 
 break. Mr. Waldo Strong, you are now laid out for good!" 
 The cowardly, murderous hand shook as he took a pull at 
 his great traveling flask. It was emptied long before he 
 reached Rocklin in the "wee sma' hours." 
 
 "See here, Haley, cheer up; pull yourself together. 
 You are the one man in the gap," cried Superintendent 
 Hank Wetherbee, as the foremen in council decided that 
 at present nothing could be done but to keep the shaft 
 sealed. " Where's Wyman? Have you heard from him? " 
 
 Haley's breast heaved convulsively. " I never killed a 
 man before," he groaned. "That is, in a mine," he added, 
 apologetically. For, he regarded his little homicidal ex- 
 ploits on the surface as only ' ' necessary removals. " They 
 were, in fact, merely " survivals of the quickest," a prac- 
 tical Western proof that "delays are dangerous." And 
 then, lifting up his head in the rough code of loyalty to his 
 employer, he lied for the first time to his fellows. " I don't 
 know where Wyman is. I've sent several telegraphs down 
 for orders." For he had to keep his master's business secrets! 
 
 "This news will break the stock down to nothing," said 
 a cautious foreman, who speculated a bit. Haley handed 
 around a recently received telegram from Wilder. "Re- 
 port extent of damage at once. Stock dropped from a hun- 
 dred down to three dollars! News here that everything 
 
 o 2 
 
190 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE XAR1QU1TA. 
 
 is destroyed. Answer to me. Wyraan not here. Horace 
 Wilder.'' 
 
 ' ' What did you do ?" queried one of the readers. Haley's 
 face twitched. 
 
 " I answered: 'Find Wyman. Associated Press news 
 is correct.' I did not dare say more." 
 
 " That's right! That was very prudent!" answered a 
 chorus, and the conclave sadly broke up, several of the 
 warm-hearted fellows agreeing to remain with Bob Haley, 
 who made half-hourly trips to the shaft, a useless kindly 
 solicitude. 
 
 "Keep cool, old fellow! " said a veteran miner. "It 
 will take a week before you can open the mine, and, Wyman 
 will surely be up here long before then." 
 
 "I don't know," gloomily answered the dejected Haley, 
 who sullenly rose and paced the porch of the little office 
 house, alone under the stars. 
 
 " This thing may ruin Mr. Wyman," said his friend, as 
 Haley passed out of the door. " It has broken the stock 
 down to nothing, you see!" Haley started, but held his 
 own counsel. That one chance remark dispelled a vague 
 hellish doubt of Wyman's secret purpose in the visit. 
 
 "Yes, Yes! Itmay be total ruin to him. It is an enormous 
 loss as it is! The mine will be shut down for a long while!" 
 
 Bob Haley crumpled a letter in his hand and stole away 
 into a corner of the porch where the light streamed out 
 from the curtainless window, and then read it over again 
 with care. It was only a hasty scrawl, from the strangely 
 disappearing Wyman: "Just got a later message in cipher, 
 sent to you here by my orders. I had told Wilder to dis- 
 patch any important news. Big stock panic feared in San 
 Francisco. Will telegraph you from Truckee, and send all 
 other orders from 'Frisco. Can get an engine at Gold Hill. 
 I left you a card. Burn this. W " 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 191 
 
 c ' Yes! It is all straight," mused Haley. He was very well 
 aware that he knew only a tithe of his saturnine employer's 
 many secrets. " I suppose he told Wilder how to have the 
 messenger find him. It is very lucky that he got away un- 
 seen. The boys would have lynched him; by God, they 
 would! He will reach San Francisco at daybreak. This 
 may ruin him now." And with a clearer brow, Haley 
 re-entered his office, and then wrote two dispatches. One 
 in cipher, giving the details and asking for orders, lie ad- 
 dressed to his master, Wyman; the other was a "tracer" 
 to Tony Morani, who, he well knew, always " held the 
 fort," in Wyman's absence. Wyman suffered and yet 
 doubted Tony. The millionaire often laughed, "I am 
 now well used to Tony's little thefts, and he likes to read 
 all my letters. If I have any one else, or send him away, 
 there may be some ' outside leakage.' Tony is too well 
 paid to give me away. He only amuses himself with these 
 little tricks ; and he is silent." 
 
 At ten o'clock the next day, after a sleepless night, Cap- 
 tain Haley was sadly baffled when he received Moroni's 
 answer: " Mr. Wyman is away in the country. Cannot 
 deliver dispatches. You must wait his return." 
 
 An hour later, Haley and his friendly council read 
 Wyman's explicit orders, dated at Oakland, California. 
 1 1 See the news of the fire in all the morning papers. Keep 
 the shaft sealed. Pay off the men. Come to San Fran- 
 cisco as soon as it is safe to leave the mine. Stop all work. 
 Send all dispatches to Wilder." 
 
 "It is strange, very strange! " mused the foreman, who 
 went silently about his new duties with a heavy heart. 
 The object of Wyman's secret trip was still a mystery, 
 but, it was not his business. 
 
 The driver of Wyman's special engine was sullen, when, 
 under the gray coming glow of dawn, he ran down to 
 
192 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQTJUTA. 
 
 the head of the long mole at Oakland, where the one pas- 
 senger on the engine would naturally take the boat to 
 San Francisco. When on the side switch, he waited for 
 orders, the man whose hands were tired with holding on 
 to his throttle-bar all night revolted, as Wyman said: 
 
 " Signal to the train dispatcher. I want you to run me 
 down to Alvarado, if the line is clear." 
 
 "I will not! " stubbornly cried the angry man. " I am 
 worn out!-" Wyman brought his hands up out of his 
 pocket, filled with great double eagles, the cumbrous 
 twenty-dollar gold pieces. The man's scowling face re- 
 laxed in a smile. "Well, of course, if you'll do the 
 right thing," he began. Wyman laughed. 
 
 "Go ahead, now, and do your very slickest. There is 
 a lady waiting there for news of the loved and absent." 
 
 There was no sour look on the face of the grimy engine- 
 driver as Wyman lightly leaped from the cab, two hours 
 later, before the quaint old hostelry at Alvarado. A man 
 in waiting grasped Wyman by both hands, as the sun 
 leaped over the rich hills of Livermore valley. 
 
 "Thank God, you are here, Wyman!" stammered 
 Wilder, who showed all the effects of a sleepless night. " I 
 must get over to the 'First Call.' The town is mad, the 
 market is crazy; all sorts of disasters are feared, and no man's 
 credit is safe." Wyman's lip curled with a triumphant 
 smile, as he leaned over and whispered a word. 
 
 "Yes, she is here all right. Go right up!" The 
 broker smiled. 
 
 " Say, Horace, get a box of good cigars and a bottle 
 of brandy for this game engine-driver. He's had no break- 
 fast. I'll wait for you on the porch." 
 
 As the anxious broker hurried away, the tired capitalist 
 entered the quaint garden of the old hotel, where dreamy 
 quiet, superb wines and noted game dinners offered in- 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 193 
 
 ducements to the "initiated," for these little "parties 
 a deux" of the swells, who shone in the gilded sham of 
 San Francisco's gay life. The unscrupulous Boniface 
 only thought of his bill, and, never remembered either 
 dates or faces. This peculiar listlessness gratified the 
 fierce-hearted fugitives of love who always cast aside all 
 fear and restraint in this welcome haven. The piano 
 in the curtained parlors had often sent out witching melo- 
 dies of passion under fair jeweled fingers, ostensibly busied 
 elsewhere. But, the listening roses nodded silently under 
 these naughty secrets, and all the world kept each other's 
 counsel in the laughing recontres, which often brought a 
 smile to trembling lips. 
 
 Wyman broke off a budding rose and tossed it up to a half - 
 opened window, as a face which he had never found so 
 fair, beamed down on him. It was Vinnie Hinton, as 
 fresh as the very roses bending there in the golden morn- 
 ing sunlight, the blossoms of whose fragrance drew bird 
 and bee to their honeyed bosoms. So, she was true! 
 
 "Well, Horace," said Wyman, as he drew up a huge 
 arm chair, at the farthest angle of the old porch, and 
 listened to the clink of the silver spoon, as the eager bar- 
 keeper made two special "bonanza" cocktails, "What is 
 the news?" The broker handed to his chief the half 
 dozen morning papers he had caught up on his trip over 
 the Bay, on the press tug, at two o'clock in the morning. 
 
 "They will keep!" muttered Wyman, conscious that 
 the broker was eying him very closely, "Tell me your 
 own news?" Wyman's eager voice trembled. He longed 
 to be alone with the frail woman, whom he had trusted, 
 when doubtful of all besides. A boy hovered at a dis- 
 tance, with some fatuous remarks about ' ' breakfast wait- 
 ing, upstairs, with the lady. " Wyman tossed a five-dollar 
 gold piece to the imp, who vanished. 
 
194 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 "Mr. Waldo Strong is busted, flat busted," gaily said 
 Wilder, as he lit a cigar, "flatter than a flounder, and all 
 his gang, too." Wyman drew a long breath, and drained 
 his cocktail, as the barkeeper nodded a salutation to one 
 of his best customers. 
 
 " That's good," sententiously remarked Wyman, who 
 now, saw a new glory in the peaceful, sparkling morn. It 
 seemed to him as if he had left all cares and sorrows be- 
 hind in the forest arches of the Sierras, where wailing 
 night winds behind him had whispered, "Murder! Mur- 
 der!" as the locomotive dashed down the slopes into the 
 Sacramento Valley. Wyman had hardly closed his eyes 
 in that mad race down past the yawning chasms of the 
 American River, and it seemed as if he had now entered 
 into another world. For above him there, a rich voice was 
 caroling out a song he loved, and as he closed his eyes, 
 in a delightful day-dream, he also thought of that little 
 breakfast under the tutelage of the velvet-eyed Hammond, 
 where the sapphire eyes of the " tall perfect blonde " would 
 beam into his own. 
 
 "That fool is at last out of the way," growled Wyman 
 and he became again the alert child of Midas, as he 
 .abruptly said, "How do your books stand? How do we 
 come out on the ' Lone Star ' ? " Wilder drew out a long 
 slip, and handed it to his chief. 
 
 "There you are! We cover in all our shorts, and you 
 have got back about forty thousand shares of the stock 
 that was out. It gives you eighty thousand of the hun- 
 dred thousand." The broker glanced at his watch. "I 
 must get away. I want to collect every check before 
 noon. There'll be a lot of failures to-day! A great crash 
 is feared." 
 
 " All right," said Wyman, his eye gleaming in triumph. 
 "You rake in anyway about twenty thousand dollars 
 commissions, my boy. " 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 195 
 
 " Yes, and a couple of hundred thousand profit in the 
 week's work! The disaster to the 'Lone Star' carried all 
 stocks down about five points, and I cleared up all my 
 outstanding contracts." Wyman breathed freely, as his 
 subordinate spoke so lightly of the sensation of the day 
 before. It gave him the key-note for their future conver- 
 sations. 
 
 " I have not slept for thirty-six hours," quickly said the 
 man who had so coldly ruined his foes and cleared three- 
 quarters of a million of dollars, for his own account was 
 now four hundred thousand dollars in coin, ahead. 
 
 Scrawling a few words to Brown, the cashier, Wyman 
 rose. "Horace!" he said, "I'll send you over some tele- 
 grams this afternoon. Report every hour to-day, by wire, 
 and come over here on the ten o'clock train. We'll make 
 a night of it. Bring - ," and he whispered a name 
 which made the broker laugh, as he called for his buggy 
 to take him down to the station. "Stay!" said Wyman, 
 "Tell Brown not to lose a moment in taking all my stocks 
 out of the bank. I am at last out of their clutches, and I 
 think I'll watch this coming racket you speak of, from a 
 distance, and then, go to Europ efor a year or so;" for 
 Wilder had told of a coming day of wrath, sweeping down 
 on Pine street, and doomed California street, in particular. 
 
 "Let her sweep!" was his light rejoinder. " I'll assess 
 the 'Lone Star,' rebuild the shaft, and run the mine closer 
 now. I will keep the public out;" for, with the whole 
 stock swept back at a nominal price into his hands he could 
 now open up the withheld rich deposits, to the north which 
 he had kept for his own benefit. His happiness was com- 
 plete. He was unsuspected. 
 
 " It has been a great deal! " hesmiled, as he saw Wilder 
 drive away, and then, springing up the stairs, he was clasped 
 in a moment, in the opened arms of the pouting but de- 
 lighted Vinnic Hinton. 
 
196 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 " So, sir! " she smiled, with dreaming eyes. " I thought 
 you were growing fast, like one of these old oaks down 
 there in the garden." She laughed. Wyman strained her 
 to his breast, but with a revulsion of his over- tired nerves, be- 
 fore a half hour, the victorious scoundrel slept under her 
 eyes, while the witching adventuress watched the twitch- 
 ing of his handsome face. He had trusted her in all, and 
 yet, Mr. Horace Wilder had privately murmured to the 
 strange-hearted queen of light loves: "He is the black- 
 est-hearted scoundrel in the whole world, and hanging is too 
 good for him!" These eyes had met over their wine, for 
 both suspected, what the sleeper alone knew, that a whole- 
 sale murder rested now on the stained soul of ' ' one of 
 Nature's noblemen." 
 
 Seated on the upper veranda, shaded by the climbing 
 prairie roses of the old fashioned hostelry, Vinnie Hiuton 
 glanced over the journals which Wyman had tossed on the 
 table. " He is a rare scoundrel," the adventuress mused, 
 as she ran over the columns detailing the great disaster, 
 " but if he acted on my story, about the War Hawk,' how 
 could he manage to deceive a man like Bob Haley? Did 
 that man sell his brother miners to death? Never! " indig- 
 nantly protested the gay wanton, as she paced the long 
 veranda; and, with a last pang of regret for her girlish 
 days of honesty, she remembered Captain Haley's uniform 
 courtesy and grave kindness on his past visits. " He is a 
 simple fellow, brave and honest. I wonder if he really 
 takes me for a lady. My God! " There was a bitter taste 
 in the little morning" nip " she took to steady her nerves, 
 for Wyman, now struggling with the demons of unceasing 
 remorse in his sleep, shrieked and started wildly up. 
 
 "Ah! Coward, as well as scoundrel! " thought Vinnie. " If 
 I must tie myself to a scoundrel, I do not wish one who is 
 also a coward." And, as she approached the sleeper, who 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 197 
 
 displayed a sickly smile of nervous recovery, Vinnie mur- 
 mured to herself: "Jim Hooper is true, poor fool! He loves 
 me with the unthinking slavery of a dog, asking only what 
 return I may choose to give. Scoundrel, but no coward, 
 and yet, his manhood is daily drowned in the bottle. This 
 fellow will some day surely overreach himself, and as for 
 poor Jim, he too, will make some 'awful break.' 5: 
 
 " Where shall I drift to at last, into the hands of 
 Wilder? " She smiled bitterly, for the broker had been 
 prone at her feet in the darkened hours. " No, he is only a 
 human butterfly. The first pin will nail him to a wall. 
 Besides, a turn of the market may leave him stranded 
 to toil as a clerk to one of his own promoted clerks." 
 And, with a strange premonition of the dark days 
 to come, she glanced at the mirror to see if the "half 
 cryin' eyes" had lost their charm. I must change my base 
 soon." she quickly decided. "This mushroom financial 
 system will go soon, all to smithereens." She laughed, as 
 she reflected she did not exactly know the fineness of 
 "smithereens, "but, from the men she knew, the pace they 
 made, the queen o' light loves fancied that many "heavy 
 operators ' ' would soon drop through the * ' thin ice " they 
 skated on. For, in the free association of her life, "half 
 within the door," the men who used her as a plaything, as 
 an antidote against the " blue devils," talked most freely 
 in her presence. She knew they all feared the " showing 
 up" day, and her invariable reply to her "moneyed" 
 adorers, when the economical fit touched them, was that 
 "a millionaire without money was a sickening object to 
 behold! " Yet, there were many now, who bravely wore 
 the toga, covering very depleted exchequers. A single 
 panic, and then, the crash! 
 
 "Vmnie!" seriously said Wyman, as he struggled to 
 his feet, "I want you to do me a good turn." He paced 
 
198 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 the room in deep thought. " I will take yon out for a 
 nice ride this morning. I will leave you where you can 
 get the afternoon express. Run over to town so you can 
 stir around among your own friends, the old boys, you 
 know. See Morani, too. Pick up what gossip you can, 
 and, come over for breakfast to-morrow. Find out all 
 about the 'Lone Star' deal, about what is said on the 
 street of me. Trace up Walter Strong and his party. 
 Then, to-morrow, we'll rundown to San Jose, and later re- 
 turn to town in style on the other side of the Bay. Now 
 there's a good girl. Stand by me and I'll stand by you! " 
 He drew. her down to his knee, as the quick-witted woman 
 saw he would fain send her out a bright-plumaged dove 
 on the surface of the troubled financial waters. He was 
 afraid. " You see," he stammered, "I want to keep out 
 of the way for a few days. Wilder is coming over to- 
 night, and, we have a whole lot of business." He read the 
 half -veiled scorn in her eyes, for Vinnie Hinton justified 
 her occasional boast "in vino veritas," that she feared 
 neither " God, man nor the devil." 
 
 It was true, in a certain sense, for she was a queen of 
 that class of women who break through all canting rules 
 from the mere overplus of a passionate, overvitalized, 
 sensuous nature. No man had ever fathomed the whole 
 story of her life. No man knew that she had delib- 
 erately cast herself away, determined to drink of all the 
 pleasures, which she knew were as easily within her reach 
 as within the reach of those whom, in her girlish days, she 
 saw raise the rosy cup, decked in easily won finery, and 
 glittering in illgotten jewels. Pleasure was to her the one 
 law of life, and never had she paused to ask whither the 
 current bore her on, while the current was swift enough 
 and laughter labored at the oar. 
 
 "I'll never forget you," the schemer pleaded, as he 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 199 
 
 clasped her hands. A hard look flashed out from the 
 woman's eyes and her lips curled in quiet ccorn. 
 
 "Don't humbug me, Fred. Of course I will go. But 
 do you think that I believe you? How far would you fol- 
 low me in trouble, in sickness, in want, if your wander- 
 ing fancy changed? Dresses, wine, jewels, your second- 
 hand caresses you may lavish on us poor women, but we 
 know you all, the tyrant slave, the man of the moment!" 
 Wyinan looked up in some alarm. "Oh, don't be afraid, 
 Fred. I'm dead game," said the adventuress. "Even in 
 our nameless shadow life, our codeless soul traffic, we of 
 the anonyma class have one unbroken mute pledge of honor. 
 It's our poor pitiful esprit de corps. Only your 'fine 
 ladies ' who < stoop to conquer ' play the repentant sneak 
 and the blackmailing spy." 
 
 * * Why, Wyman, at these feet," and, she tapped the floor 
 with her shapely little bronze gaiters, " many a leading citi- 
 zen has told little matters, which would shake your whole 
 social fabric, if I peached. Why should I? I am only a 
 homeless shadow. Money, jewels, pleasure," she sneered, 
 "I have a long lease of them yet, unless this poor face 
 should wither. If so, I'll bother no one, for I am game 
 to the last. But, your love, your protestations! Do you 
 know, Fred Wyman," and she turned her flashing eyes 
 upon him, " the colossal vanity of the thing called man is 
 the mock of every woman like myself. You think that 
 we sell ourselves. Not a bit! You are all only phases of 
 the prodigal son, slaves to your reflected vanity, the 
 sport of your own passions, the laughing stock of the 
 woman you all think you can dupe. No! You do not care 
 for me. You never did. You care only for yourself. 
 You are like the rest. Man loves himself alone in such 
 love!" 
 
 Wyman was kneeling at her side. He remembered that 
 
200 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 she controlled the hidden secret of the man who was her 
 galley slave, "Jim the Penman." His voice grew tender, 
 " Vinnie, I swear that I would go through fire and water 
 for you," he pleaded as he essayed his arts, as of old. 
 
 Her burning eyes glowed, as if lit up with an internal 
 fire, as she coldly said: 
 
 ' < Would you dare to be seen in public in my company, 
 by those women whom you call ' respectable, ' your higher 
 circles? Would you aid me to enter into any honest fam- 
 ily, and try and leave this, this damnable life I lead?" 
 Her eyes burned into his very soul! She laughed bit- 
 terly. 
 
 11 Why, of course," he hesitated, " that is quite another 
 matter," and then, Wyman gazed most uneasily at his 
 beautiful tormentor. 
 
 Vinnie laughed again as she drank a glass of Wyman's 
 best private stock. ' ' There you are, you see. You, your 
 class, your successors, your teachers in folly, will cringe 
 at our feet in private, we of the shadowy sisterhood. 
 You will break any tie, every rule of life, every com- 
 mandment for us, and then whine in fear to face us in 
 public. My dear boy," she laughed, " there is the whole 
 humbug of life. Lola Montez amused herself with riding 
 on a king, pick a back. Generals drag their blood-stained 
 laurels at our feet, sages unbend, even the clergy can slip and 
 stumble." Vinnie's smile was most deliciously dainty. 
 4 'But all of these, only in the fancied privacy of this relation 
 which you enjoy, but you dare not acknowledge. No, Fred, 
 man, the fool, worships only himself in his mistress. Why, 
 you, Frederick Wyman, Esq., of the Lone Star, will soon 
 select some innocent girl to be paraded in the open as 
 your beloved wife. How would you feel then if you met 
 me in Paris, with your holy one on your arm? Because 
 you turned the other way, would memory lose her fabled 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 201 
 
 grip? I think I would like to try you, my boy," and the 
 rebellious Vinnie gayly drank her favorite toast, " Old 
 times, Rocks!" as the startled capitalist said: 
 
 " Don't be a fool. Get your things on ready for our 
 ride." She stood there laughing. 
 
 "See here, Vinnie," continued Wyman; " You're a 
 good girl. Do as I ask you. There's going to be an aw- 
 ful crash here. Now, I will do what I can for you. If 
 you want to do the European tour in style, count on 
 me for the cash on call, and no one shall do it better 
 than you, I'll promise you that." 
 
 "All right!" cheerfully remarked the fair original of 
 his Venus fresco. " I will make fair game of the old boys 
 to-night. I may not see them soon again! They will give 
 you a roasting, and all that, I can tell you, but I will never 
 cross the line, Fred. Not a word on their own affairs." 
 
 "Thank God! She is at last off my hands," remarked 
 Wyman, as the fair one disappeared that afternoon and he 
 caught a glimpse of a waving handkerchief, as he urged 
 the trotters away to the hotel, for eager to gather in his 
 harvest, he only waited the telegram of Wilder. Anxious 
 to be busied about his own affairs, he dismissed Vinnie 
 Hinton's little sermon from his mind. " She's been drink- 
 ing, that's it, she's low spirited," he muttered. It had 
 never occurred to him that any of the victims of his own 
 routine passions had any human nature left, after their 
 technical fall from womanly grace. What became of such 
 women after they failed to please longer, was a problem he 
 had not thought of, but, he reflected, with comfortable 
 confidence in the power of gold, that if a particular 
 bright face was missed, others were always ready to fill a 
 vacant niche the march of life, its dreadest game. 
 "She would have been a credit if she had not gone wrong, " 
 he sadly thought, however, as Vinnie disappeared, and 
 
202 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 yet, he never debated whether a daily struggle with neg- 
 lect, poverty and family cares, and a certain heroic self- 
 sacrifice was her personal duty, to be accepted without 
 murmur, as a matter of course, instead of playing the com- 
 panion role to his own, in the life of the victorious human 
 shark. 
 
 Wyman was busied until the shades of the night, which 
 he feared, in sending forth telegraphic orders to veil all 
 the movements of his vast financial game of chess. He 
 would not have smiled so unconcernedly as he did, on the 
 closing day, could he have noted the face of the defeated 
 lawyer, Waldo Strong, who had drawn Andy Bowen and 
 Hooper into a dark niche of Pauper alley. 
 
 The afternoon shades were deepening on Pine street, as 
 the passionless lawyer, for once, entirely forgot himself. 
 " See here! The public went into the * Lone Star ' on your 
 reputation as directors. There is some deadly swindle in 
 this strange mishap. By heaven! It has ruined me, but 
 I'll hunt that brute Wyman down to his death yet. I swear 
 it! He broke down this market on purpose. I know it! " 
 There was a desperate gleam of undying hatred, in this 
 man's haggard eyes. 
 
 "Come and take a drink," soothingly said Andrew 
 Bowen, Esq. "I was away, Strong," the good-humored 
 capitalist said. "Hooper here, tells me it is a 'square 
 thing.' You can bet that Bob Haley is no man to be in a 
 * rotten deal ;' and, twenty-eight men were burned. Any 
 man's life would not be worth a pin's fee in Virginia who 
 would do that, or have it done." Bowen espied the 
 gathering crowd. " You see," he further pleaded, 
 " Hooper and I only hold directors' stock, ten shares each. 
 Our own affairs with Wyman are in the other locations. 
 No, it's the fortunes of war, Strong, and I'm sorry for 
 you. It's California up one day, down the other." 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 203 
 
 The two friends walked away up Pine street together, 
 as the lawyer left them, still swearing oaths of vengeance. 
 
 "Andy," huskily whispered Hooper, "Look out for 
 Wyman. He's a deadly scoundrel." The big Nevada 
 giant laughed. 
 
 "Oh! He's welcome to what he can steal from me! " 
 
 "But, Hooper, stocks, you know, stocks; a man 
 would scalp his own father, and turn him out-of-doors on 
 a stock deal. If I were you, I would keep quiet about 
 Wyman. There's bother enough ahead for us all. Why! 
 I'm told even that is shaky." And the name he 
 whispered was so mighty, that its mention startled the half- 
 drunken Hooper into other thoughts. He nursed in his 
 bosom two special grievances, Wyman's rough threats, 
 the memory of that flashing pistol barrel, and the unex- 
 plained absence of his own vanished goddess. 
 
 "I will be even with him yet, too, by God," swore 
 Hooper, as he took a double cocktail alone before his 
 solitary dinner. "I could crush the scoundrel now.-" And 
 yet, he dared not speak. There was madness in the 
 thought. 
 
 But, the cheering news of Wilder's gathering in the 
 golden harvest, refreshed the disturbed soul of the wait- 
 ing Wyman. The thousand and one rumors of the street all 
 cleared off, and the financial field was only covered, so 
 far, with the dead of the ruined Waldo Strong faction. 
 
 " It is a marvel how we cashed all in," cheerfully said 
 Wilder, over their wine, as they nodded to the "veiled 
 companion," who had arrived with the happy broker. 
 
 1 < There is an uneasy local feeling that something very 
 grave will soon happen. It will be a battle of the Gods," 
 Wyman laughed. 
 
 "I'll stay over here another day. Vinnie will be back 
 in the morning, and I've telegraphed to Haley to come 
 
- ~ MISS BEnaoEGX or THE 
 
 down in three days* So. if yo will have the 
 meats made that ;:ie -Lose Star 9 will soon be 
 with improved laachinery. at once reopened and properly 
 connected with the south end mines* it will soon get us 
 at of the woods* SAV. too. that Captain Haley has 
 been sixmmoned down here by me to make plans for the 
 EX-IS* expensive improvements; about a thousand dollars 
 w%>rtJb of good newspaper talk.^ 
 
 High was the revel at the old Alvarado Hotel, while 
 Wyiaaas merry mood lasted, for, his returning dove had 
 tro^giit to him good news which brought back the even 
 swing of his pulses. - There's nothing at all ugly said. 
 Fred,^ laughed Yinme, ** for, to tell you the truth, a big 
 war for blood is coming on. and the * big fosr* set me play- 
 ing waltzes in tie far end of the room, while they whis- 
 pcr^nii&eir own deviltry. As far as I can make out it^s Vir- 
 ginia City against San Francisco, and some one, some one, 
 will have to go to the walL Xow, you're all right! The 
 senator himself said you had cleaned out the Strong syndi- 
 cate horse, foot and dragoons, and that you would be 
 a king of the Gomstock. yet. if you did not lose your 
 head. Xow, that's a high compliment. 7 * 
 
 There was an added richness of tasteful diamond decora- 
 tion in Yinnie Hintonf s personal make up. after they had 
 eiremtottshr reached San Francisco, and the "lady from the 
 country 30 mocked the morose Hooper, with varied stories 
 of Ibcr wandering in fragrant fields, for even Hooper 
 could not make her betray Wyinan. Yinnie simply 
 naDed and made no sign. It brought him blindly to her 
 :.,:. 
 
 "The bank books of die aged scribe. Brown, showed fat 
 balances, which astounded even the covetous Wyman him- 
 rff. Morani rejoiced in an unexpected heavy gratuity. 
 and Hr. Horace Wildere aew "four-in-hand 7 ' 
 
A VAXISHJ2D GODDESS. 205 
 
 termed "The Lone Star" by envious brokers, who still 
 drove only modest ten-thousand dollar spans. Bat one 
 cload, and that a very dark one, rested on Frederick Wy- 
 man's mind, still casting its shadow over certain definite 
 arrangements for that breakfast, for which Mrs. Miily 
 Hammond was now slyly engaged in preparing the mind 
 of Miss Gladys Lyndon. 
 
 The beautiful singer was burdened with a very sad 
 heart. Around the path of youth, innocence and loveli- 
 ness, the shadows of care already threw a gloomy penum- 
 bra. "I had hoped that I might be able to finish my 
 operatic training in Paris. Mr. Strong had such faith in 
 my future. He was so kind. He had even offered to 
 help me to go, so that my mind could be at ease, while I 
 studied: and now, he is utterly ruined, thousands of 
 dollars worse off than nothing/' Miss Gladys Lyndon's 
 sobs were interrupted by the suave voice of Milly Ham- 
 mond, speaking with a sudden alarm. 
 
 4i You have not foolishly tied yourself up with him? any 
 marriage engagement? I hope not that?^ The handsome 
 society leader closely questioned the girl with a keen 
 scrutiny of the graceful bowed form. 
 
 "No! no! There is nothing, bat it was my main- 
 stay, his manly friendship, and your fcindngga. I have 
 no other friends." 
 
 4 ' Listen. Gladys! " soothingly remarked Milly Hammond. 
 "I wish you to come and sing for a friend of mine, Mr. 
 Wyman. He is deeply interested in art-" Milly smiled 
 as she thought of the floating Venus fresco on the clouded 
 ceiling, of ^rhich, with envious eyes, she had enjoyed a 
 4 i private view." "personally conducted" by "dear 
 Fred." <; I may induce Mr. Wyman to take an inierest in 
 you. I do so wish him to hear your Toioe." And so. the 
 white dove nattered gently down, softly stealing into 
 
 : . 
 
206 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 that trap which velvet-eyed "lady friends" have so often 
 set for the innocence which they always despise, when 
 their ow T n vague regrets are deadened under their own 
 Paris corsages. The whippers in are always pitiless! 
 
 Victory perching on the Wyman banner, the cheering re- 
 ports of that soiled dove, Vinnie Hinton, the comparative 
 quiet of all the local journals as to his name, " after Broker 
 Wildcr's anodyne," and the restoration of all his bank- 
 pledged collaterals, made Frederick Wyman, Esq., very 
 light-hearted, as he eagerly closete"d himself with Captain 
 Bob Haley, on the arrival of that disheartened chief of 
 gnomes. 
 
 Wyman had already fixed a date for the little "ac- 
 cidental " breakfast which was to bring Gladys Lyn- 
 don into the meshes of his golden net, and so he gaily 
 chanted a bit of a lately learned love song, "a la mode," 
 while Haley prepared himself for the business interview. 
 
 "I'll put you up here in good shape, Captain, and you 
 can then have a week's offtime, after we look things all 
 over," said Wyman, as Haley went quietly to his room. 
 The miner's face was gravely preoccupied, and his manner 
 was seemingly sullen and depressed. 
 
 "He takes it pretty hard," the speculator mused. 
 
 Wyman gazed at his beautiful guardian demon floating 
 there above him on the ceiling, and, contemplating the gay 
 sisters of Joseph outside, whose coats of many colors 
 alone, were preserved as family characteristics, sweeping 
 by on their daily parade, he nursed an exceptionally fine 
 cigar with a feeling of perfect comfort. "I must soften 
 Haley down. I'll give him a big present." 
 
 " It's a good time for my European tour, a first ' pros- 
 pecting trip,'" he thought, stretched out at his ease. "I 
 have ' corraled ' the whole stock, except just enough to 
 assess, the rebuilding of the shaft on. If I have to buy 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 207 
 
 that in, I will then have the whole mine back. Cautiously 
 opening into my best ground, paying some regular divi- 
 dends, mostly to myself, I ought to be able to unload 
 forty per cent, of the stock in the East or on the London 
 or Paris market at very big, fancy prices. That would all 
 drift back to me in time. I could hold on then to the 
 mine, direct the future explorations to suit me, and so 
 easily clear up two or three millions in time. But, I 
 must have leisure to 'work the London market.' I 
 must get into good Paris and London society. I can 
 make a very good showing there, and work in on the 
 money men from the basis of society. They would 
 hardly believe a rough booby like Andy Bowen to be a 
 big man out here, or in any other place. I need only two 
 or three years now to reach my final standing, and my 
 finances are all right now. It was a grand clean up, that 
 fire. The best of it is, that no one suspects. And, Mr. 
 Walter Strong, crushed once, I'll keep you under my heel. 
 I can safely leave the mine with Haley. He's a trump. 
 Brown is the one honest man I've struck down here. He 
 is acclimated to it from youth! I'll pay Brown well and 
 leave things with him and Haley. Wilder's account and 
 the Hooper, Bowen & Co. connection, I will liquidate." 
 
 While waiting for Haley, the millionaire called in 
 young Hopkins, and dictated a note which set Messrs. 
 Hooper & Bowen to looking about smartly for " ready 
 cash." The strongest partner was about to make a 
 "move" of some Napoleonic kind, but Wyman's word 
 was law. 
 
 "Wilder I will leave to the very last, and then let a 
 little money lie in his hands, enough to keep his tongue 
 still." 
 
 Glancing at a " society journal " lying before him, 
 Wyman noted a flaring headline, ' ' Marriage in High 
 
208 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Life, a Union of Hearts, Hands and Millions." Some- 
 thing seemed to let a ray of light into his brain, as he read 
 the fulsomely enthusiastic screed. "Why not myself? " 
 he smiled. "What if I were to marry some girl high up, 
 with a powerful family backing, some one who could 
 launch me over there and thus keep me?" He paced the 
 floor, and, opening a little private wall safe, contemplated 
 a picture obligingly donated by that easy-going social star, 
 Mrs. Milly Hammond. It showed to his eager gaze the 
 face of a beautiful girl; a delicate, noble, dreamy face, 
 untouched by sorrow and unspotted by sin. The face of 
 this " nobleman of Nature " glowed with the sudden, weird 
 fire of a hidden passion, fed on its own self-created fuel. 
 It was the young singer! 
 
 "Marriage! No, not yet," he softly murmured. "Not 
 till I have had some little musical experience," and his 
 face bore the delightful smile of a sleeping tiger, as Captain 
 Robert Haley was shown in by the pert Morani. The 
 miner stood before him with a gloomy brow. 
 
 " Tony, "sharply said Wyman, "tell Mr. Hopkins no one 
 must interrupt me now till I ring, only Mr. Brown or Mr. 
 Wilder, and you stay out there and come in yourself. I 
 don't want to see even them, not unless it is absolutely 
 necessary. The captain and I have important business. 
 
 "Now, Haley, I am ready for your report," briskly 
 said the confident millionaire, as he spread out his private 
 note book, ready to jot down his personal comments. 
 * Leave all the papers till later. Tell me all from the 
 first." 
 
 Wyman's hands rested on the bundle of neat documents 
 prepared by the company's bookkeeper, and, pencil in 
 hand, he listened to Haley's grave monotone, as the miner 
 did a round, unvarnished tale deliver. Haley's eyes were 
 downcast, and his shoulders twitched as if some in- 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 209 
 
 ternal emotion mastered him. While he detailed in prac- 
 tical terms the whole mishap, he gave an accurate resume 
 of the later situation. There was not a single reference 
 to Wyman's mysterious homeward trip, to his sudden 
 flitting, or to the state of feeling among the five thou 
 oand men of the Miners' Union, that hidden association of 
 the craft, which practically regulated the whole affairs of 
 the Comstock, and tamed the insolence of the budding 
 Bonanza kings, once their equals, for well knew the men 
 who toiled, half naked, in the steaming depths of the 
 Comstock lode, that no force available at call of capitalist 
 or kaiser, in the whole world, could at once replace their 
 own local knowledge and skilled services. They were the 
 matchless product of fifteen years of daring experience 
 and indomitable pluck. Man, brute, egoist and sensual- 
 ist, always rises to the sublime in the dauntless front he 
 shows to peril, the stern self-devotion of his struggle with 
 nature, animate or inanimate. Fainting in burning des- 
 erts, clinging to the frozen " royals," with bleeding hands, 
 throwing himself into the hell vortex of battle, fac- 
 ing the horrible Arctic silent ice wastes, thrusting 
 himself into the splintered crevices of the earth, 
 glowering in darkened prison cells, bearing the brunt of 
 labors sufficient to affright a Hercules, soaring in the air, 
 or groping in the bottom of the sea, "no dangers fright 
 him, and no labors tire." Facing the ferocious giants of the 
 forest, drifting on trackless seas, no Alp appalls, no path- 
 less wilderness affrights, and strong-armed, tough-hearted, 
 he reaches out, sublime in his own heart of oak, to make 
 the impossible possible! From time immemorial, this in- 
 grained strength and courage, has won the tremulous physi- 
 cal adoration of Eve's sleek-skinned daughters, who, with 
 a thrill of passionate abandonment, a secret, unspeakable 
 joy, hurl themselves ever gladly into the outspread arms 
 of strength and courage. 
 
210 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 In this self-abandonment, the filmy mesh of the moralist 
 is broken at a single bound of the lissome-limbed chil- 
 dren of Venus, all awakened and aglow in their wild ecstatic 
 hero worship. IsTo stouter hearts ever faced peril than 
 the grim, hairy-breasted giants of the Comstock. Long 
 after their bones are mouldered, the chorus of their ring- 
 ing picks and sharp-struck drills will haunt the side of 
 Mount Davidson in ghostly echoes, a memory of clear 
 pluck and grit to the backbone! Warm hearted, no peril 
 ever came upon their fellows, that volunteers did not glory 
 in risking their own lives, unpaid, with no hope of re- 
 nown, to save the life of their rude fellows. 
 
 So, " Flynn of Virginia" is no fancy sketch of the man 
 of diamond pencil, but he has lived, he lives yet, and 
 has his prototypes in the handsome troglodytes, who gaze 
 with scorn at the "tenderfoot," who goes down a station or 
 two, on a safety cage, returning to the surface to lie like 
 a Munchausen. The talent which develops the explorer 
 into an immediately successful "first-class liar," seems 
 to even descend to the tourist, with his tweed suit, ex- 
 cursion ticket, and brazen inexperience. It is the very 
 first heritage of travel, and was no doubt the legacy to the 
 successors of the snake who reported that < * morning call" 
 on Adam and Eve in the garden, the first of interviewers, 
 and "the prince of liars." 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman, in the full tide of his own 
 golden fortune, taken at the flood, feared alone the Miners' 
 Union, for well he knew that if there was a single keen- 
 eyed man whose suspicions were aroused, not a miner 
 would re-enter the shaft until the will of the * ' union " 
 governed the future working of the mine. So, when 
 Captain Haley finished his recital, the millionaire was 
 keenly alert, as the foreman handed him an unpretentious 
 note, " It is from the Miners' Union! "he said, and then 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 211 
 
 rose, and, thrusting his hand into his blouse pocket, gazed 
 mutely out of the window. 
 
 Wyman's hand trembled slightly, as he opened the brief 
 note. It was curt enough, but it spoke with the irresisti- 
 ble voice of five thousand men. The millionaire read it 
 
 aloud. 
 
 VIRGINIA CITY, Nev., July 18, 1875. 
 
 To THE OWNERS OF THE "LONE STAR" MINE, 
 
 Gentlemen: At a regular meeting of the Miners' Union, held 
 July 12, 1875, it was ordered that no member of the Union be per- 
 mitted to do any but work needful for the care and preservation 
 of property, until the " Lone Star " is properly connected at suitable 
 levels, for life saving, with the north or south end mines. This 
 work to be all done before any regular shift begins extracting any 
 ore. 
 
 Your early attention is called to this matter. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 I. H. DUGENNESS, 
 
 Secretary Miners? Union. 
 
 " Is the mine still sealed?" asKed "YVyman. Haley 
 wheeled around, quick as a flash, from his post by the win- 
 dow. 
 
 "Yes sir!" he said, with the prompt obedience of a sub- 
 ordinate. "I opened it and was lowered down myself, 
 with a safety lamp, on a slack cable wire. There is no fire 
 now in the mine, but I resealed it for fear of a single 
 lingering spark. There's little left to burn." His eyes 
 were glowering, and yellow flashes lit them up, as Wyman, 
 in a husky voice, said: 
 
 "Did you find the men's bodies? Have they been re- 
 moved?" 
 
 "Nothing there to remove," answered Haley. "Only 
 the white ashes of the live coals, which fill the shaft thirty 
 or forty feet. The men were all down in the lower level, 
 and, they are ashes, too, under these white ashes, The 
 
212 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 ashes were still warm, and so, I got quickly out of the mine. 
 Wyman shuddered, and his hand shook, as he drained a 
 full glass of brandy. Lighting a cigar, he walked slowly 
 up and down. 
 
 "Did you go into any of the upper levels?" 
 
 " Where I could," replied Haley. " Some of them are 
 badly caved. The frames all burned away and let the loose 
 rocks down. The one you came out of is choked all the 
 way, at both ends. I tried to have a boy crawl in there. 
 Couldn't make it." Wyman threw himself down in a 
 chair and drew a long breath. 
 
 "I will send a formal answer to the Miners' Union, and 
 telegraph to the secretary to-night that I will do as they 
 wish. Now, tell me your own plans. What will you do?" 
 The young millionaire's heart beat easier, as he noted not a 
 single awkward reference to the secret visit. He sprang to 
 his feet in a sudden astonishment, as Haley suddenly 
 assumed the attitude of a man freed of bondage. Hand- 
 ing a closed envelope to the astonished Wyman, he said 
 bluntly : 
 
 "I will just take a check for my salary up to this time, 
 and then, hunt for another job." Having delivered him- 
 self of the note, which seemed to be a dreaded formality, 
 Captain Robert Haley coolly lit a cigar, and then dropped 
 in a loose heap, in a chair. He was now his own master, 
 and his manner clearly showed it. 
 
 "What do you mean by this? " angrily cried Wyman, 
 as he tossed the letter of resignation down on the table. 
 An instant later, he regretted speaking harshly. 
 
 For, Bob Haley was on his feet in an instant. The 
 change of Wyman's tone had touched some hidden chord, 
 and his right hand slid, snake-like, into his blouse pocket. 
 
 "It just means that I will never set foot in the "Lone 
 Star" again, as long as I live. I left McManus in charge 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS 213 
 
 there. Everything is in order, and you can send my check 
 down to me at the Russ House. " The eyes of the two men 
 met, and even in the supreme moment of a breathless rage, 
 Frederick Wyman found time to remember that nothing 
 had ever yet shaken the dauntless nerve of Bob Haley. The 
 miner turned without a single word, and, entering the 
 splendid suite of rooms, where Wyman had put him up, 
 picked up his untouched hand valise. 
 
 A cold sickening feeling oppressed Wyman, as he 
 touched the bell for Morani. 
 
 " Tony! " he said, as the lithe form of Haley appeared, 
 sack in hand, in the door, ' ' Call a coupe for Captain 
 Haley, and take his valise down for him." 
 
 " Never mind, Tony," very good-humoredly said Haley, 
 * ' I drove a bull team all the way over the plains from St. 
 Joe, and, I can walk two blocks. " The polite efforts of 
 Morani to capture Haley's bag were unsuccessful. 
 
 When the street door of the private entrance closed, 
 Frederick Wyman realized that his factotum had gone 
 away, without even a single kindly word of parting greet- 
 ing. Morani's arched eyebrows were lifted, as he busied 
 himself in his master's room, but the sounds of a vigorous 
 volley of oaths did not disconcert this prince of valets. 
 San Francisco life had many such little episodes. 
 
 ' ' Curse the fool ! ' ' cried Wyman. * ' He knows that I 
 dare not go back now and face those low brutes up there; " 
 and he then, swore a deep and bitter oath to himself. 
 " I'll leave those ash-heaps there, at the bottom of the 
 shaft, and I'll open the upper levels and work on my hid- 
 den ore body." The clear, steady gaze of Haley had burned 
 a l Scotch verdict " into his own cowardly soul. ' ' Damn 
 him!" cried Wyman. "He can prove nothing not a 
 thing. I'll put the bookkeeper in charge, and then tele- 
 graph McManus down here. Some fellow will, probably, 
 kill Haley some day, and that will let him out." 
 
214 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 When he had seen the nimble Hopkins depart with the tel- 
 egrams to the "Miners' Union," and also to the uncon- 
 sciously promoted McManus, Wyman's throbbing pulses set- 
 tied down again to their even click of static health. But 
 as he robed himself for a park ride, his cheeks burned 
 red in shame. The cool defiance of the workingman, 
 the unspoken sentence of honest Bob Haley branded him 
 in his own heart, as a detected coward and scoundrel. 
 
 " How much does he suspect? " gasped Wyman. " He 
 never will, he never can know anything. Damn him! I 
 would like to have him put out of the way. " Alas ! even 
 his heated brain was cool enough to realize that no man in 
 Nevada would dare to come to close quarters with the gray- 
 eyed dead-shot, who was as fearless as nerve could make a 
 man. The miners all adored him, and they were a band of 
 Guardsmen, " one for all, and all, for one." " Some out- 
 sider," he mused. "No, I might bring up the old mat- 
 ters that way," and with a smiling face, he dictated a letter 
 of eulogy to Captain Robert Haley, Rnss House, San 
 Francisco, and enclosed, besides his monthly salary, a check 
 for one year's full earnings, "as a slight testimonial of 
 your valuable services in the past." 
 
 It was not three hours till a hotel porter returned that 
 portion of the money enclosure, with a great scrawl of the 
 hotel desk-pen, defacing the neat check. It read, "Not 
 wanted. R.Haley." But, Wyman was really triumphant, 
 for he well knew now the silent man would not publicly 
 brand him, and his spirits rose, when an hour later, he saw 
 Mrs. Milly Hammond's victoria slowly moving around the 
 band pavilion in Golden Gate Park. Turning out into 
 the Mall, he telegraphed one quick appeal to the dashing 
 brunette " leader of fashion." There was a victorious 
 gleam in his dark, eager eyes, as, on the second turn, Mrs. 
 Hammond's victoria drew also, into the oval. 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 215 
 
 In five minutes the very essence of good form the 
 young millionaire approached the carriage. Even at a 
 distance the gleaming, golden hair and graceful, girlish 
 form told of the gentle quarry he had already marked 
 clown. Miss Lyndon was there. 
 
 "I am so glad to meet you, Mr. Wyman, to-day," re- 
 marked Mrs. Hammond, smilingly, as the young man 
 bent low over her hand. " Gladys, my dear, allow me to 
 present my intimate friend, Mr. Wyman. Miss Lyndon, 
 Mr. Wyman. As Gladys is going down to Menlo Park 
 for a week, I hope you will come and breakfast with me 
 to-morrow, and then you may hear this ' gentle lark ' in 
 private. Your accident took you away so early from my 
 musicale and, you naughty man, what have you been 
 doing with my pet stock, the ' Lone Star? ' I am a heavy 
 loser with you! " 
 
 Wyman's eyes met Milly Hammond's in a glance of un- 
 feigned gratitude, for his heart was thrilled with the near- 
 ness of the beautiful divinity who now haunted his nightly 
 dreams. As he stood, hat in hand, by the side of the car- 
 riage, and the park orchestra gave an excellent rendition 
 of a " Rigoletto " potpourri, Wyman did not wonder at 
 his friend Varick's enthusiasm. In his new metier of 
 "rising citizen" Wyman had well used his leisure hours, 
 and Vimrie Hinton's fragmentary musical sky-rocketing, 
 had not been lost upon him. While they glided into an 
 easy entente cordiale, Frederick Wyman's pulses were 
 thronged "with the fullness of the spring," beaming in 
 the splendid eyes shining down on him. Gladys Lyndon'o 
 low musical voice thrilled him, and he forgot himself, in 
 his rapid, earnest self-surrender to the witchery of her 
 presence. He failed to see the fiery glances of a royally 
 beautiful woman glaring from behind the half-drawn 
 maroon silk curtains of a well-appointed coupe, drawn up 
 in the nearest line. 
 
216 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 " Ah! Le roi s'amuse," muttered la belle inconnue, Vin- 
 nie Hinton. " It is the rising queen of song! She shines 
 me down, I suppose. Never mind," and, with a bitterness 
 at heart she dared not own to herself, the queen o' light 
 loves " whispered, ' Tu me lo pagherai ! " for, it was the first 
 gleam of the coming sunset of her beauty the first inti- 
 mation that the days were coming when she would play 
 " leading lady " no more in the mad whirl of Mr. Frederick 
 Wyman's lurid and vicious life. At a touch of her bell, 
 the coachman drew out, and Vinnie Hinton shuddered as 
 the cold mist swept in from the sounding Pacific. 
 
 Turning her head, she saw the young millionaire still 
 standing spell-bound, at the side of "La Diva Nuova." 
 Her eyes rested last, on the tall cross, crowning the bare 
 slopes of "Lone Mountain," rising out of the cemetery 
 near, with its embattled army of the dead. * ( I am sick of 
 this whole mad devil dance here. Anything is better than 
 this. I want to get out of this life, far, far away!" And 
 a singular stroke of fate awaited her, as she entered her 
 own rooms an hour later, in the growing gloom, as Mr. 
 James Walter Hooper, perfectly sober, and with an ashen 
 face and haggard eyes, drew her to his side, and locked 
 the door. 
 
 * ' Vinnie ! Drop all nonsense ! " he hoarsely said. ' * You 
 must lend me your brains for a short half hour. It's a 
 matter of life and death. Listen! " And, he told a story 
 of shame and crime. 
 
 Wyman, in the park, lingering " under her spell," re- 
 called himself as Mrs. Millie Hammond shivered under her 
 India shawl. The tete-a-tete was being observed, and it 
 did not suit her private code, for she < ' moved in a myste- 
 rious way " her wonders to perform. 
 
 "I will give you stock enough, at current rates, to make 
 you think better of the 'Lone Star,'" gracefully said the 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 21 7 
 
 young man, as he caught Milly's telegraphic eye, " and you 
 will think better of your faith in me, for I never desert a 
 friend." 
 
 The gratitude of Mrs. Hammond was a factor in the 
 waiting look of welcome for the morrow, which dismissed 
 Wyman, with all the sweet promise of Gladys Lyndon's 
 eyes. She mused in hopeful anticipation, as the ladies 
 easily journeyed homeward: "My dear! only make an im- 
 pression on Mr. Wyman with your singing to-morrow, and 
 your career is made. He can do everything for you. " 
 
 The fair, trusting girl dreamed then of triumphs at La 
 Scala and San Carlo, at the Opera, the noble seat of Parisian 
 art, at "Her Majesty's," and her fancy ran on as free and 
 far, as the winds wailing in from the sea. 
 
 A flash, the sharp click of flying feet, and Wy man's 
 handsome face fleeted by, his hat doffed, as the superb 
 trotters leaped forward, level as the soaring pelican, and 
 light-footed as the bounding deer. 
 
 < There goes one of Nature's noblemen ! " enthusiastic- 
 ally cried the delighted Mrs. Hammond, as she thought of 
 the schemer's enforced generosity in equalizing her losses 
 by the unexpected fire in the " Lone Star." 
 
 Wyman, already a half-mile away, had taken up again 
 his own bundle of cares at the park gate, and, strange to 
 relate, his cheeks still burned, as if with the shame of an 
 unrequited blow, when he thought of Bob Haley's con- 
 temptuous desertion. "I wonder if that brute will soon 
 leave town," he mused, as he mounted the private stairs to 
 his rooms, where the alert Hopkins awaited him, with a 
 last report for the day. 
 
 " Any thing new?" wearily queried Wyman, as the 
 young man handed to him Captain Haley's note so disdain- 
 fully returning the extra check. 
 
 " Only this, sir," smartly said the handsome youth, who 
 
218 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 was impatient to join his girl at a private dinner. " I got 
 all the funds from Hooper, after a very strong debate. He 
 asked for time, but I got his checks, and went at once to the 
 banks and cashed them, so as to make sure. The times are 
 so ticklish now. Mr. Brown has the money. I thought 
 you would not want the checks to lie uncollected. Our 
 own bank was closed, but he got the gold into the vault, 
 as a special deposit." 
 
 4 'Good! You're a smart fellow, Hopkins," Wyman 
 smiled. " Stay, bring me a blank check ," and he then, 
 handed the delighted youth a welcome bonus of six 
 months' salary. "How did they pay it? I was afraid 
 they might not come to time," the employer asked. 
 
 "Certified checks on Latham's bank," replied Hop- 
 kins, who already burned to cash his own check. There 
 was one particular flashing diamond in a jeweler's win- 
 dow near, which his waiting girl coveted. ' ' I can get 
 around there, and have it to give her at dinner," the happy 
 clerk mused, for he was acting the part of assistant hus- 
 band for a young beauty, in whose burning veins " the cli- 
 mate" had poured a fiery tide of light and corrupt blood. 
 She could not always find time to grace the ' ' table for two " 
 in that little private room at the "Poodle Dog," at whose 
 door so many light feet have waited, in trembling haste, 
 till the security of the interior left the secret of their stolen 
 kisses safe, at least for a time, in one of San Francisco's little 
 quiet restaurants. 
 
 Frederick Wyman sat alone gazing in mute inquiry, at 
 the attractive loveliness of the strange woman who had 
 ruled him, vicariously, for ten years. It seemed to him 
 to-night poor and tawdry, even in the glowing opulence of 
 her all too evident charms, gleaming there above him, on 
 the florid ceiling fresco. In the full tide of the passionate 
 delights of possession, it had never occurred to the man, 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 219 
 
 proud of the clouded social eclat of her mastery, that he 
 might ever tire of Yinnie Hinton! But, he was restless 
 and impatient on this night, as he twisted up Haley's re- 
 turned bank check and lit a cigar with it after his 
 dinner. 
 
 "Shall I, must I give her up now," he thought. " What 
 am I to do with you, Vinnie? " and he glowered viciously 
 above, and he saw the "half-cryin' eyes" shining steadily 
 down from above. < She will be a very devil to pacify if 
 she finds this out, this musical adventure of mine," and, on 
 his listening nerves, strained in all the delightful antici- 
 pation of a would-be lover, the silvery voice of this un- 
 spoiled child of song, seemed to again rise in the joyous 
 carol of her virginal freshness. The wonderful gleaming 
 sapphire eyes were shining kindly on him from the blue 
 cloud mists of graceful wreathing smoke. Again he 
 could hear her low whisper: 
 
 " Till to-morrow, then. Oh, I will sing for you, yes! 
 until you are tired of hearing me!" For hope had inspired 
 her. 
 
 " I will not be very soon tired, I will promise you," he 
 had most gallantly replied, but now, the throbbing pulses 
 in every vein, told him that he only waited to see the 
 flush of awakened passion tint that St. Cecelia face, to see 
 a meaning thrill in her sparkling eyes, to feel her soft 
 arms around his neck, to strain her to his fiery bosom, and 
 to hear her murmur, ' I love you, I love you. n 
 
 He was swept away in this delicious dream. "By 
 heaven, she is a woman! Not a mere worn-out shell of 
 shapely form, fit for the automatic display of laces, jewels 
 and hardly-earned robes. This girl shall be mino. Every 
 smile, every sob, every sigh, mine." And, with a deli- 
 cious sense of his money power, he leaned back ia his chair 
 and then murmured, "I can give her all that sho wants." 
 
220 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 Ah ! How many a cold-hearted egotist has so easily sum- 
 med up all a helpless woman's soul longings ? Certain bodily 
 comforts, varied gewgaws and glittering gear of the Van- 
 ity Fair booth, pleasures at call for a time, and a wilder- 
 ness of wasted sighs and vain 'regrets, in the days when 
 the sparkle has left the wine, and the siren's song falls 
 flatly on the ear! Woman-tamer, roue, libertine, man of 
 the world, cold social hypocrite, all types of the graded 
 Silenus band, all the thick-lipped sons of Priapus, murmur 
 in a leering underestimate, "I can give her all she wants;" 
 and yet, my masters, never yet did woman fall so low, 
 never yet was she so strongly swept along the tide of pas- 
 sion, that the victim crowned for the red banquet of sin 
 did not murmur at last, " I would be, sometimes, treated as 
 a woman who had not given up every semblance of woman- 
 hood in my self surrender," the eternal craving to keep 
 what has been thrown away! Alas, the vanished graces! 
 
 Morani, with startled eyes, broke in on his master's de- 
 lightful reveries. His finger was on his lip when he had 
 whispered. " She's in there and, either drunk or crazy!" 
 
 "Who?" softly interrogated Wyman, clutching the 
 valet's hand. Tony's speechless lips quivered. He then 
 pointed with uplifted finger to the lovely picture shining 
 down from above ! Wyman stood for one moment irresolute. 
 He quickly thought of Bob Haley's fresh insult, of Hooper, 
 "Jim the Penman," drunken, and a now dangerous foe, 
 and of the woman whose form he had mentally decided to 
 order painted out, as it now gleamed threateningly above 
 him. * 'But, I must not quarrel with her now, " he mused, then 
 the portiere was rudely thrown aside, and, richly dressed, 
 as if from a banquet of the "syndicate," the woman who 
 had coached him upwards, on his easy path to ' ' social 
 honors," stood before him, quivering with rage, with 
 flashing eyes. There were rich diamonds gleaming on her 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 221 
 
 wrists ; in her hair, on that breast which had pillowed him 
 so often. She laughed defiantly as she picked up Gladys 
 Lyndon's picture, the one so easily surrendered by that 
 graceful Madame Pandarus, Mrs. Milly Hammond. 
 
 "Ah! Lyndon, Gladys, to be first favorite, vice Hin- 
 ton, Vinnie, 'removed for cause,' you are a nice one! I 
 saw you hanging over that stringy-looking girl's hand in 
 the park this afternoon. Don't deny it," she said coolly, 
 as she appropriated a cigarette, and a glass of pousse cafe 
 brandy. "Your beautiful society jackal, Mrs. Hammond, 
 is running her in for you. Fred! You're a fool ! " the half 
 tipsy woman said. ' ' I came down here to quarrel with you, 
 but, you are not worth the powder," she sneered. "Now 
 I have covered up all your rascality for years. I have 
 made a half-way gentleman of you. You now throw me 
 over, without a single word, for that cheese-faced girl, a 
 frozen enigma to you, whose blood may be ice- water, as 
 well as ditch-water. She is a pauper, an adventuress. 
 She will pay you out! " 
 
 "Stop! Stop right there!" cried Wyman, his face 
 livid. 
 
 "Why so?" his lovely tormentor continued, "you are 
 the very last man I fear. You are a coward, and, you know 
 it. If you bluff me, the whole world will soon know it, too. 
 That's a great difference to you, my boy," and Vinnie Hin- 
 ton crossed her shapely legs, and blew her cigarette smoke 
 impudently, in his face. " Your unexplored regions seem 
 to be a fairyland to you. Va bene ! you worship what 
 you know not of the charm of mystery. This girl you 
 would drag down to my level. She tempts you, for she 
 possesses yet that < shop seal' of nature, the negative 
 charm of unsullied virtue. Do you reflect that she may 
 not be so ready to fall into your arms? She may wish to 
 keep her ten talents ' still buried in the dreamy inertia of 
 
 Q 2 
 
222 MISS DEVERETJX OF THE MARIQUITA, 
 
 unspotted womanhood. But you would like to set the 
 whole machinery of love in motion, to see the thrill of 
 passion leaping through this clock-work, golden-love 
 machine. Fool, the dupe of your own jaded conceit, 
 your frosty virgin will lead you a gay dance! Now, I will 
 gladly abdicate! I will step down and out, for, I am going 
 to leave this gay and festive scene." Vinnie peeped from 
 picture to picture, and tripped lightly around the room, 
 with a studied purpose to exasperate him. He was raging 
 with passion, under an affected calm. 
 
 " You said once, that you would do something for me, if 
 I asked you, Fred. Do it quick then! For, I'm going 
 away on the quiet." 
 
 "And, you'll let me alone after this?" questioned 
 Wyman. 
 
 "You are a damned fool to ask me any questions! First, 
 you know me to the core; second, I could lie to you if I 
 cared to. You must now square yourself with your own 
 sense of decency. A little money would be just now a 
 help." 
 
 "-Where are you going?" queried the frightened capi- 
 talist, as she gazed with scornful eyes at Gladys Lyndon's 
 picture there before her, in its clinging robes of white. 
 
 "None of your business. I efface myself for good! 
 That's the French of it, and a fact." 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman tapped his bell, and quietly said 
 to Morani: "Wait here with this lady." He returned in 
 a few moments, and then placed two compact bundles 
 before Vinnie Hinton, when the Leperello had vanished. 
 
 "There's twenty thousand dollars in four per cent, 
 coupon bonds, Vinnie," he kindly said. "They are good 
 all the world over, not registered, and will net you 
 twenty-five thousand dollars. Stay! read me off these 
 numbers," and, while the wondering woman quickly called 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. 223 
 
 off the numbers, Wyman drew up a little memorandum of 
 a stock transaction and certified to the delivery of the 
 bonds, by number. 
 
 "I have left the name blank," he smiled. " You can 
 fill in any name you care to. You'll have no trouble now 
 in negotiating them. Here is also, a little bit of pin 
 money." Wyman placed a packet of gold notes before 
 her. " There's fifteen hundred dollars ready money, all 
 I had here. The banks are all shut." Vinnie Hinton 
 stood laughing on her tip-toes, at his side. She bent down, 
 and kissed him softly. 
 
 1 'Fred, you are a gentlemen, and a scholar! You are a 
 fraud, I am a fraud, we are all frauds out here, but you 
 have 'risen to the occasion,' as Brother Beecher would 
 gracefully say. Now that we are quits and square, old 
 boy, I will tell you it's a straight skip ! There will be a 
 little racket, of course, in the morning papers, but you, of 
 all men, will keep quiet. Now, my dear boy, as they say 
 in the drama, 'time presses! ' ' 
 
 Wyman caught her for the last time in his arms. He 
 was intoxicated by the -personal atmosphere, which had 
 drawn him so often down in abject slavery to her shapely 
 feet. He had groveled before her, worshiping her blindly 
 in his passionate abandonment, and now that she was 
 going, he was loth to lose this sleek, tiger-like demon of 
 the velvet skin. 
 
 "Well, for this occasion only! " she laughed, and then, 
 taking his head in her hands, for he had knelt once again 
 before her, and his face was hidden in her clinging silks 
 and laces: "I believe that you begin to be a bit sorry 
 already. I shall be glad to remember you then as more 
 of a fool than I thought. It is a shake and break away, 
 but, the divided path lies forever before us, Fred. It is 
 a case of Hobson's choice, I can't leave one man in 
 
224 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 the world who is in trouble, for, poor apology of man- 
 hood as he is, drunken Jimmie Hooper would blow his 
 brains out, on my door-step, if I left him in the lurch, 
 when the tide is running dead strong against him, and so 
 we are going to chance it together. Good luck to your 
 white-faced girl, and you!" She turned and caught up a 
 glass from Morani's tray, for he had executed his standing 
 order of a chilled bottle of Pommery sec. "Here's to 
 crime! " said Vinnie, as she gaily drained the glass and 
 then hurled the ringing crystal into the blazing grate, 
 where it lay unbroken. With laughing eyes she cried: 
 "That's a piece of crazy good luck." She kissed Wyman, 
 madly winding her arms around him. "Good-bye, Fred," 
 she whispered through her tears, and then passed out 
 humming softly her old refrain: 
 
 "And when, perchance some other lover, 
 
 Shall claim the heart that I resign, 
 And in exulting joys discover, 
 The charms which now are mine. " 
 
 She was singing on her way down the stair which sho 
 would never tread again. 
 
 Wyman sprang after her, but the rattle of a coupe 
 wheel told him that she was too quick for him. A great 
 flood of old-time memories choked him, as he watched the 
 open door where she had vanished forever. 
 
 "Morani," sternly said Wyman, as he handed him a 
 half handful of loose gold, "here, follow her all night, 
 and that fellow, Hooper, too. Don't spare any money! 
 Don't interfere, but, let me know to-morrow where they 
 go, and all about it." The valet caught up his hat and 
 coat and was away like a flash. Wyman dropped his head 
 on his hands. " Vinnie! " he murmured, but he could not 
 call her back. Her eyes, glowing on the ceiling, spoke a 
 last, mute farewell. 
 
A VANISHED GODDESS. . 225 
 
 It was a tribute to the fascination of the departed, that Fred- 
 erick Wyman slept but little that night. ''What can be the 
 reason of this sudden flight?" he cried, and paced the floor 
 long in doubt. He was happy to be positive that the checks of 
 Hooper were all cashed in due order. " All is straight as 
 a string there. What can be up? " and yet, he lingered in 
 entire ignorance until the return of Morani, hollow-eyed 
 and nervous, at half-past nine the next morning. The little 
 arch devil slipped up to his master who was receiving 
 Bookkeeper Brown's first reports. 
 
 "Mexican steamer, nine o'clock! Both disguised. 
 Hooper and the Madame sailed I saw them off, and gave 
 them the slip all right. They've taken all her valuables. 
 I guess that he has nothing of his own, and her maid is 
 left to liquidate, and close out her museum ' of high 
 art." 
 
 "Nevermind that change, you have well earned it," 
 cried Wyman. < ' Keep a shut mouth, and fit me up now. 
 I had my breakfast at Marchand's. Emil told me she was 
 in there at two o'clock last night with the Senator." 
 
 "That was only a throw-off," jovially cried Morani, as 
 he disappeared to prepare his master for the eyes of the 
 singing lark. That breakfast! 
 
 Wyman heard the boys crying, "Extra! Extra! Failure 
 of Hooper, Bowen & Co. ! Heavy forgeries! Panic on the 
 stock market!" in a harsh uproar, as he rode along Kearney 
 street, with only ten minutes to spare to reach Madame 
 Milly Hammond's golden spider parlor. Throwing the 
 first boy a half-dollar, he glanced his eyes to the brief pub- 
 lished accounts. "Ah!" his eyes gleamed. "She is 
 after all the queen of the turf. I must keep silent," for 
 the raising of certified checks to a huge amount, had been 
 the neat trick by which Mr. James Walter Hooper had ob- 
 tained the funds to pay Wyman's suddenly drawn in 
 
MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 account. With all remaining deposits, trust funds and 
 the extra amount after paying Wyman, Hooper had prob- 
 ably " cleared out" with several hundred thousand dol- 
 lars ! 
 
 "I see the whole game! He intended to give me, 
 too, the slip. But, the Mexican steamer was their only safe 
 chance. There's no extradition treaty there. She is, of 
 course, innocent and will transact the necessary money 
 business and handle the secret funds. Now 1 am safe for- 
 ever!" he exulted, " for, neither of them will ever dare to 
 return. I will keep my own mouth shut. This is the last 
 of the cursed < Mariquita ' business. It seals up Devereux's 
 tomb forever! " 
 
 With glowing eyes, he rode on, his carriage spattering 
 a shower of mud over Mr. Waldo Strong, who, anxious-eyed, 
 was crossing on foot at Sutter street. 
 
 " I will hound you down yet, you vile scoundrel!" mut- 
 tered Strong, as he turned and cursed the flying lover, al- 
 ready in the distance. 
 
 But Wyman was only murmuring : " Vinnie is after all a 
 dead game girl, and I will not paint out her face on my 
 ceiling. The form alone is worth all the money it cost. 
 It is matchless ;" and so he sighed for the departed. 
 
AFTER THE STOEM* 227 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 AFTER THE STORM. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman carried the impending curse of 
 his defeated enemy very lightly, as he dashed swiftly along 
 Sutter street on his way to the breakfast. He was, how- 
 ever, now confronted with a serious dilemma. His own 
 social experience had not led him into an intimate associa- 
 tion with many refined and innocent women. Somewhat 
 uncertain as to the offerings at the shrine of Diana, he was 
 at a loss how to shape his course in regard to the meeting 
 with Gladys Lyndon. The mere fact of the field being 
 free, the happy eclipse of the vanished goddess, these were 
 after all but negative points in his favor, in the coming cam- 
 paign. He was dimly conscious that the young singer 
 walked far above him "on the heights." Pure and white 
 as the edelweiss of the Alpine snow crags, the fair dove 
 hovered far above him and, was not yet, a fond dove. 
 
 Though the Bonanza capitalist had been greatly hard- 
 ened by the habitual domination of the fast set he moved 
 in, though he was an agnostic #t, -heart, as regarded all 
 womanly virtue, he was nevertheless keenly intelligent. 
 He felt that, as a matter of mere prudence, he must affect 
 what he possessed not, some manly ardor and delicacy. 
 His lonely life also, had militated against him. He had 
 never met the proud, refined woman of high class in the 
 distant border state, which his youthful rashness had 
 driven him from. Guilty as he was, he suffered with 
 all the ' war generation " of the south, in having had no 
 home life, no true womanly affection near him. The 
 
MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 coarse realism of life in Virginia City had only dragged 
 him further down. The raffish, stuffy half elegance of 
 the life he led in San Francisco, merely showed him the 
 shadow side of womanhood. 
 
 Even the men of some local mark whom he met at the 
 clubs, were vainly sensual, and most brutally direct in their 
 personal manners. Books he was a stranger to, and the 
 unreal glimpses of stage life which he had seen, made him 
 but too familiar with the ' < blind side " of the woman 
 nature. The opened shrine-gate of the passions, 
 "Camille," "East Lynne," " Frou-Frou," "Article 
 47," and the other lurid emotional dramas suited to the 
 western stage, had given him but the strangest glimpses 
 of "sweet belles" jangled out of tune, the heroines were 
 women all at war with every bright promise of their youth. 
 
 " I must go along slowly here," he mused, " and, advise 
 with Mrs. Hammond." To this end, he drew aside that 
 highly decorated chatelaine into the conservatory, on his 
 entrance, and murmured an earnest request for her expe- 
 rienced guidance. 
 
 "You are very wise, Fred," the lady gasped, as she re- 
 leased herself among the roses, who blushed a bit for this 
 and other sights they had often seen. " Gladys is coming 
 in a few moments. Be very, very cautious. She is good, 
 shy, and really very delicate minded. Beware of startling 
 her inexperience. You have her respect now. It may 
 be fanned into a warmer confidence. It rests with you to 
 rule her heart by your princely generosity. Be very wary, 
 though. One thing, above all, she was raised in strict 
 seclusion. Her childhood was an unhappy one, shaded 
 with many sorrows, so you must not blunder along into 
 any family questions, or call up her past in any way. She 
 was educated in an orphan institution." 
 
 "Catholic or Protestant?" quickly questioned the 
 
AFTER THE STORM. 229 
 
 miner, as he heard a light foot sounding on the stairs. 
 Ah! the listening stag is no keener than the lover to the 
 first sound of the coming one! 
 
 "Catholic!" gravely remarked Mrs. Milly Hammond, 
 as her ready society smile spread out in a heavenly aureole 
 over her anxious face. The immediate bustle of the 
 duties of hospitality enabled her to leave the young man 
 at once alone with the gentle singer. After a half hour, 
 Mrs. Hammond, under her veiled lashes, looked out upon 
 the status of the millionaire guest with secretly happy 
 eyes, for, in an easy and natural manner, Gladys Lyndon 
 had led Wyman on to speak of the great mining town, 
 hanging high in air beyond the sparkling Sierras. It was 
 a welcome topic to him. Secure in his audience, devoid 
 of competition, he spoke well, and led the girl along into 
 well-pictured scenes of the wild mountain life. With a 
 sympathy which excited the passions pulsing behind his 
 words, Wyman listened to the frank avowals of the 
 bright-browed singer, in which her single aim of life 
 shone out in hopeful wishes pointing far beyond the 
 Atlantic. 
 
 It was no wonder that Frederick Wyman was led out of 
 his bitter past, his soiled daily life, into a land of light 
 and dreams, when the girl, with her whole heart in her 
 voice, sang for him with a rising hope in her eyes and a 
 craving in her lonely heart for that help which now seemed 
 so far away, since Waldo Strong had frankly confessed 
 his financial ruin. 
 
 Under the spell of her fresh beauty, thrilled by her 
 voice, which found its way into the innermost recesses of his 
 heart, his eye resting upon the rapt loveliness of her beau- 
 tiful face, in its highest soul expression, Wyman was 
 now quivering in every nerve, and tempted to cast him- 
 self down at the feet of this new goddess of youth and 
 
230 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 life's freshest spring, when the restrained force of Mrs. 
 Hammond broke in upon these golden moments. She 
 entered the room with an anxious brow. 
 
 "It seemed so important, I dared not linger. Your 
 man is here, Mr. Wyman, with a most important com- 
 munication requiring immediate action." The hostess 
 sighed as she realized the possible jeopardy of her prom- 
 ised diamond ring, but, with a grave bow, Wyman had 
 now retired to the hall where Morani's frightened face 
 called for no reproaches. Again, the unexpected! 
 
 "Mr. Wilder! Half crazy sir! You must come down 
 home at once." And the master opening the note which 
 his valet gave him, then turned pale, and leaned against 
 the wall in a sudden spasm of weakness. "Come at 
 once ! The bank is in danger. You will not have an hour 
 to act in, I am afraid, for the run is already a hot one. 
 Looks as if the whole town was going to hell! " The 
 scrawled name "Wilder" served to prove that it was 
 not a passing phantasm. Leaping lightly back into the 
 salon, Wyman approached the white queen, who had 
 risen in alarm at his changed face. 
 
 O 
 
 ' ' You will hear from me, my dear young lady, at once, 
 through Mrs. Hammond, I have the deepest, the very 
 warmest interest in your future career, I assure you. 
 Let me only have the honor of meeting you here on your 
 return. " His cold hand pressed hers convulsively, and then, 
 he stooped and picked up a rose which had fallen from 
 Gladys Lyndon's bosom. Their eyes met, and the fair 
 girl's cheek glowed, as he touched it lightly and reverently 
 \vith his lips. "I will keep this as a pledge that I shall 
 see you soon again." One kindly glance from her eyes 
 told him of a newly dawning hope in that frightened girl's 
 fluttering bosom, that her ,way upwards might be made 
 smooth. When she had drawn the second breath, and 
 
AFTER THE STOKM. 231 
 
 raised her eyes, she was left alone! In the hall, Wyman 
 confusedly murmured : 
 
 "Milly, for God's sake! Hold that girl, as she is, 
 keep my face, my interest, my usefulness, before her. 
 I've got to race away, for the devil has broken loose! " And 
 he whispered in her ear, a sentence, which made her reel, 
 worldling as she was, "The Bank of California is going 
 to fail!" Then in a hot whisper, he pleaded, "Come 
 down to my rooms and dine with me, alone at seven. 
 My man will wait at the private entrance. " The woman's 
 knees smote together, and her facile face crimsoned, as 
 she faltered: 
 
 "Fred, I dare not. Think of my name, what I risk. 
 Anything but that." 
 
 "By Heaven! I'll be your friend for life. I'll bring 
 you home myself. I'll stand by you forever. Milly! I 
 must have that girl for my own, my very own! I'll do 
 anything in God's world for you." The fierce promise 
 of his eyes was so emphatic, so passionate that the 
 weaker one dropped her eyes at last, and murmured in a 
 frightened whisper: "I will come!" 
 
 He snatched her hand, and kissed it eagerly a dozen 
 times, and springing down the steps, he shouted, "to 
 Wilder' s office! On the dead run." 
 
 "Tony," he murmured hoarsely, as he turned to his 
 man, who had leaped in beside him, at a sign, " I'll let 
 you jump out at Kearney and Sutter; get Brown, with his 
 bankbooks and all of his cash accounts, instantly down to 
 Wilder's office. Don't lose a single moment for your very 
 life!" and his own heart kept time to each spring of the 
 maddened horses, lashed along the sloping street, until, 
 from a half block distant, he saw an excited knot of men, 
 checks in hand, barring the doors of the olive sandstone 
 money palace, where King Gold had ruled for so many 
 years with a rod of iron. 
 
232 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 From lip to lip the fatal words flew: " The Bank of 
 California is in danger!" and, there was a fervent zeal in 
 Wyman's, "Thank God," as his cashier entered Wilder's 
 back room with Morani, who had quickly caught up a 
 couple of the office force, and then flying fingers were 
 soon tracing checks, which Hopkins and Wilder's clerks 
 fled away to cash at once. 
 
 Afar in the Van Ness avenue house, Gladys Lyndon sat 
 alone, still dreaming at the piano, her slender hands wander- 
 ing lightly over the keys as she played one of Mendelssohn's 
 exquisite "Lieder ohne Worte." "He seems so good, so 
 true, so ardent, so noble. He may perhaps help me." 
 The girl's eyes were now very dreary, and her breast rose 
 and fell in soft languor. She was only a friendless girl, 
 an uncrowned Esther before a stranger Ahasuerus, and, 
 in a timid honesty of purpose, the pearls of her soul had 
 been cast at the feet of a stranger, whose magic gold 
 might fare her forth to honor, to future glory, to fame, 
 to the laurels which her fair brow dreamed of that night, 
 on the pillow of innocence. Ah ! the bright days of youth's 
 fond dreams. 
 
 Above, in her own room, startled and roused by a nervous 
 exaltation which carried her far away from the double life 
 she had long led, Milly Hammond's face was haggard and 
 anxious, as, with folded hands, she wept bitter, bitter 
 tears, for even she, bold as she was, had now gone out 
 beyond her depth, away out beyond the breaker line. There 
 was no going back now, and, a spectral finger madly 
 beckoned her on forward. "My God! to be forever- 
 more in his power; and, Gladys!" The hollow-hearted 
 society parasite, in a storm of tears, owned to her own ac- 
 cusing heart that she was cruelly leading the tender one, 
 the gentle one, this blind Nydia of innocence, outward, 
 downward, into the thickest gloom, into the viewless 
 
AFTER THE STOEM. 233 
 
 shadows of sin. "It is a hell on earth, this sham life I 
 lead," the velvet-eyed woman owned bitterly in this intro- 
 spective hour. 
 
 And yet, the hour-glass had been turned but a few 
 times, before, with a cautious elastic step arid furtively 
 glancing eyes, in a studied toilet of degagee elegance, Milly 
 Hammond glided silently into the dark hallway where 
 Morani stood on watch, awaiting her light steps. "I 
 could not go back," she murmured, gaining courage on 
 the stair, and Frederick Wyman, glittering-eyed and 
 joyously happy at his recovered bank deposits, smiled in 
 a delicious self-abandonment of pride and vanity, as he 
 gazed at the exquisite dinner service laid for two, for 
 his quick ear had caught the rustle of Milly Hammond's 
 robes, and he sprang to meet her in a joy he could not 
 conceal. 
 
 "You are the dearest little woman on the golden 
 shore," he cried, and, strangely, Milly Hammond forgot 
 the voice which had just waked her better nature, and the 
 roses in her bosom were dashed with sparkling wine, as 
 the silver chime of the clock told of the slowly drawn-out 
 hours of that never-forgotten little private banquet. Wy- 
 man, looking in triumph into her burning eyes, saw far 
 beyond these happy moments the sparkling gleam of the 
 blue eyes of the queen of song to be. 
 
 San Francisco was in a wild tumult on the evening when 
 Wyman and Milly Hammond in their stolen hours ex- 
 changed glowing glances over the wine goblet, for, while 
 life and passion swept them on, Hopkins and Cashier 
 Brown toiled late in the private office, Morani, guard as 
 well as ganymede, repelled all intrusion, while a private 
 policeman, at each street entrance, absolutely denied admit- 
 tance to all. But one person had the "open sesame." It 
 was Horace Wilder, whose twenty clerks were working all 
 
234 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA, 
 
 night in running up the lightning change stock accounts of 
 the firm's customers. Wyman gloried in the luxurious 
 ease of his safe hiding place and the inspiring company of 
 Mrs. Milly Hammond, who now " snatched a fearful joy" 
 while queening it in the harem bower, which the vanished 
 Vinnie Hinton would never more enter. Wyman, safely 
 sheltered from the financial storm, had now told the new 
 partner of his bosom of the definite obscuration of that 
 bright star who had so long there ruled supreme. * ' It is 
 a night of all nights to me, and, Milly, now that you have 
 cast away your childish fears, see the future stretching out 
 bright before you." 
 
 They reveled in the luxurious joys of these stolen hours, 
 deliciously crowned with a guilty secret, whose thrill was 
 enhanced by the difficulty and danger. Mobs were loud 
 without, the tramping feet of guards and militia resounded 
 below them, for the great bank had at last closed its doors ! 
 Their loud clang that day shook every firmly poised for- 
 tune on the golden shores. Business offices were all 
 agleam with lights, and late into the night, toiled the anx- 
 ious sons of Mammon, preparing for the doubtful morrow. 
 
 Wyman' s bark rode lightly, high above the financial 
 storm. Wilder had stolen in twice or thrice, to say that 
 all was looking well, and to confer with the confidential 
 workers in the outer office. ' ' The panic will stop here, if 
 no other banks go," whispered Wilder, "but, the king has 
 abdicated. The noblest Roman of them all has laid down 
 the golden truncheon. A man whose slightest wish opened 
 every purse yesterday, is to-night seated in his half-fin- 
 ished palace, deserted by his fair-weather friends, and 
 writhing in the gloom and shadows of defeat, heartbreak 
 and woe. The king has lost his throne ! " 
 
 " Did you get all your own checks in, Wilder?" anx- 
 iously queried Wyman, anxious to return to where the vel- 
 vet eyes gleamed hotly for him, behind the arras. 
 
AFTER THE STORM. 235 
 
 "Oh, yes!" laughed Wilder, "I had the first private 
 tip. For a week, I have cashed in at once all my checks 
 on the Bank of California. I knew that it was life or 
 death with Ralston; I took no chances." 
 
 "Why did you not tell me? " hotly cried Wyman. 
 
 " I did not dare to," said Wilder, frankly. " It might 
 have cost me my life. I knew, too, that you were all 
 safe. I would have warned you sooner, but the run came 
 even quicker than I thought. For two days, in a certain 
 office, checks were being cashed, and the coin tied up in 
 vaults to throw Ralston down and weaken the bank, but there 
 will be plenty of coin in town in two days! The mint is 
 running night and day on twenty-dollar pieces, and there is 
 the sum of nine millions in gold bars there, to be run out 
 for ' Big Four 'your own Nevada wonders." 
 
 " And, what will become of the noble-hearted Ralston? " 
 demanded Wyman. 
 
 "Ah! God only knows. He is the one lion in a gang of 
 jackals, and he is being done to death in the house of his 
 friends. By the way, Wyman, there is a secret conference 
 to-night about those checks of Hooper's. The police can't 
 find him, and you may be called up and questioned. See 
 your lawyer and say nothing ! " 
 
 Wyman smiled slyly. 
 
 "Thank you, Horace, I will be watching here all day 
 to-morrow. Brown, Hopkins, Morani, will come to you, 
 and they will have my cipher card. Trust nothing, now, 
 but that. I have my own lawyer in here, now." Wilder 
 fled away, as Wyman, laughing, with eager foot, sprang 
 into the curtained room, where the soft, rounded arms 
 of " his lawyer," drew him down to a bosom now all his 
 own, for a common self -surrender to the wild joys of the 
 mad hour had made them one in their purpose of drifting, 
 drifting out on the purple tide of passion. It was enough, 
 that one night, to taste the joys of life and love ! 
 
MISS DEVEBEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 But the midnight oil was burned in Waldo Strong's lonely 
 office, where his grave face shone out even graver in the 
 shadows of the disaster, which had swept away his own 
 fortune and left his friends wrecked. He had nothing left, 
 save the capital underlying his care-wrinkled forehead. 
 
 Silent, stern, and noting a point here, a clue there, the 
 cold lawyer listened eagerly to the opinions of all present at 
 the secret conference of forger Hooper's dupes. The mechan- 
 ism of the ruin of the whole Strong party was stocks, pure 
 and simple. It could not be denied that in their own 
 eagerness to gain control, they had driven the stock up, by 
 bidding rashly, to treble the real value of the "Lone Star." 
 The audacious nerve of Wyman (through Wilder), selling 
 double the whole issue of stock as short sales, was not a 
 new feature in the crazed antics of Californian plungers. 
 The iron trap had fallen on them. Settlements had ruined 
 them all, for the enormous rise had called out all the float- 
 ing stock, and Frederick Wyman, in desperation, had 
 thrown his own entire interest out on the market, break- 
 ing it to a nothing and sweeping the whole stock back in 
 a week, with an underlying golden residuum of three- 
 quarter of a million dollars. 
 
 There was no tangible general news of moment, save 
 the already announced placing of a ten-dollar a share 
 assessment on the "Lone Star," to rebuild the shaft 
 and refit the burned-out mine; for, simple-minded 
 Haley had gone back mutely to Virginia City, and 
 McManus, his successor, now awaited Wyman's call 
 in the Bay City. There was no mortal eye which had 
 rested on the pale-faced scoundrel who lit the benzine- 
 soaked timbers, and then fled away, alone, through the 
 darkened tunnel. With a lightning flash, the flames had 
 spread, leaping along the dried timbers of the double com- 
 partment. It had been only a pure loyalty to the dead, a 
 
AFTER THE STORM. 237 
 
 deep disgust at "Wyman's callous indifference, which made 
 Haley so mutely give up his trust. Every hour he gloom- 
 ily thought the thing over on his way back over the 
 Sierras. * ' It was my own duty to have insisted before, 
 upon escape galleries." 
 
 But, when in the conference, all of James Walter 
 Hooper's skillful villainy was finally unveiled, a new light 
 gleamed now upon the past, which gave to Waldo Strong the 
 long-missing clue. All the disgruntled capitalists, brokers 
 and bank representatives, found in Hooper's plan only the 
 scheme to draw together a heavy fund and disappear. As 
 yet, the sinuous form of Vinnie Hinton was not missed 
 in the particular "swim " which she deified, for her mys- 
 terious little disappearances were frequent matters of cur- 
 rent history, and they strangely coincided with occasional 
 movements of the lords of the West. 
 
 A widely diffused charity in such private matters kept 
 all the speakers silent as to the vanished goddess, and her 
 laughing sisters of that ilk, for each rosy light o' love 
 went unheeded in the gay whirlpool where she listed. 
 Hooper had craftily obtained a large number of checks for 
 small amounts from his customers, of various plethoric 
 bank accounts. In the usual run of large business, this 
 attracted no special attention. They were all retained, 
 and duly certified at the varied banks. These, most skill- 
 fully raised to huge amounts, were then deposited in his 
 own bank. With his own checks certified on these sup- 
 posed deposits, he had slyly reaped the golden harvest he 
 garnered, to flee away with one of these very checks, for a 
 huge amount had been paid to Wyman and as promptly 
 cashed. 
 
 When the conclave broke up, the disheartened lawyer 
 walked homeward, alone in the midnight, up the darkened 
 California street, and passed the doubled militia and police 
 
 R 2 
 
238 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 patrols. Men, fearful of the coming still morrow, lingered 
 in anxious knots and the clash of glasses in the saloons 
 told of rum, man's nearest comforter, his ready fiery friend 
 in all hours, joy or woe. The dreaming, lonely street was 
 now haunted with memories of vanished men who had given 
 up heart, soul and character in the struggle for wealth. 
 On the shaded recesses of the huge business palaces had 
 hovered scores of women, bright and eager-eyed, passionate- 
 hearted, whose life, soul and body, whose very honor and 
 womanhood, had been crushed in the mire under the 
 wheels of the Juggernaut of stocks. 
 
 "I see it all!" cried the broken-hearted lawyer, as his 
 eye rested on the huge square tower of the great Cathedral, 
 where first he had heard Gladys Lyndon's soaring voice. 
 "I see it all. This fellow Bowen and the convict Hooper, 
 have evidently been fellow scoundrels with Wyman. 
 Bowen has drawn out rich; ignorant and being timid, he 
 has sheltered his stealings in Nevada, out of reach of our 
 State laws. Hooper's own swindling has helped on this 
 devil Wyman with the funds to break up our foolish com- 
 bination in the stock market. The forger is now safely 
 on his way to either Australia, Japan or Mexico; and here, 
 before me, this villain Wyman now exults in his sweeping 
 victory, and probably shields the desperate man who fled." 
 
 The deep boom of the Cathedral bell startled the lonely 
 man, who unconsciously murmured <l Fire!" as the mid- 
 night hour began to run off its heavy strokes. When his 
 startled nerves resumed their balance, Waldo Strong fixed 
 his eyes on the four great crosses, towering there far above 
 him in the blue starlight, on the yet unfinished main 
 tower. " That's it! " he cried, with a sudden divination. 
 " Fire! That arch fiend caused that very fire! It sent a 
 band of innocent men to a horrible death. It has ruined 
 hundreds, and enriched him. It has broken my heart and 
 
AFTER THE STOEM. 239 
 
 robbed me, too, of Gladys Lyndon, for how can I ever ask 
 her to share the only Calif ornian disgrace, honest poverty? 
 It would doom her to the eclipse of her splendid genius." 
 The stern man softened as he muttered, ''My poor darling! 
 There are all paths ready for your feet, shaded paths, rose 
 bowered, and, I may not walk by your side." 
 
 All the impotence of his present position now swept over 
 him. He paused, and lifting his hand, swore in his pas- 
 sionate heart to follow Frederick Wyman to the very 
 grave! 
 
 ' < To-morrow, I will begin my work. I will trace back 
 the whole past history of these three precious villains. 
 The group of alleged mines of Hooper, Bowen & Co., was 
 only an audacious swindle. Who fired the 'Lone Star' 
 mine? I know that Hooper was here every day. Bowen, 
 I saw talking over the very first news. Wyman, Wy- 
 man, he was perhaps not here." And, the lawyer stood ir- 
 resolute. ' ' I will sell my law library, but I will trace 
 every moment of his time. I saw him only a day before 
 at the musicale, but, there are telegraphs, ciphers, ready 
 villains. He could have reached there on a special 
 engine." The man's life work now came to him. A nature, 
 never to tire and never to pardon, he vowed to follow out 
 this grim quest to the death. ' * And, he is intimate with 
 Mrs. Hammond, also. I must Warn Gladys, warn her 
 against the friend of such a wretch." 
 
 While the ruined lawyer wandered aimlessly toward his 
 rooms, at the door of her own splendid mansion, Milly 
 Hammond turned to say a whispered "good-night" to 
 her host of this one happy night. The blinking butler 
 opened the door and then shambled off, while the woman 
 with the velvet eyes, drew Wyman quickly into the dusky 
 drawing-room. Her eyes glowed like dusky diamonds in 
 that friendly devil's bower, as she threw herself madly 
 on Wyman's breast. 
 
240 MISS DEVEKEUX OP THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 ' * Fred, I swear she shall be yours ! I will do your 
 every bidding, but, " and her arms closed around him, 
 "don't forget that I am a woman, too, and that I love 
 you! " There were happy smiles wreathing the face of the 
 elated lover who leaned back on his way home in the 
 luxury of his splendid carriage. " Oh! She is just my one 
 needed woman friend. Milly, the very one I need. And I 
 will make my will to be all in all, to her. It is so easy, and 
 Gladys Lyndon shall have a musical career. I will set 
 Milly quietly at work at once." 
 
 For, he had already in the soft dalliance of that little 
 private dinner showed Milly Hammond how to lime the trap 
 for the soft, fair dove with shining eyes. "I give you 
 free hand as to all details and my carte blanche backing. 
 Don't startle her, for you must succeed, and, when that girl 
 is mine, your own future is a golden one. I am, then, 
 your standby for life." "Through all, to the very last?" 
 the eager woman had queried. " To the very last," Wy- 
 man had replied, sealing his oath with hot kisses rained 
 on the lips of the woman who had now whistled all regret 
 down the wind, for, the future stretched out rosy and 
 fair for Milly Hammond the friendship of one of Nature's 
 noblemen. It was a very tower of strength to her totter- 
 ing fortunes! 
 
 The day after Wyman's unholy compact with his 
 married dupe, was one of unexampled gloom in San Fran- 
 cisco, for, a great man lay dead among false friends 
 and exultant foes. Stretched lifeless on the shores, from 
 whence he last saw the Golden -Gates ajar, the great 
 banker, who had been discovered, lay cold and lifeless, in 
 his very prime. What silent agony snapped the silver 
 cords, now loosened sorever, man will never know, but on 
 that day, white lipped weaklings crowded in the marts of 
 Mammon, and spoke, in bated breath, of the fallen giant, 
 
AFTER THE STOBM. %i'L 
 
 his royal hospitality, his public spirit, his fearlesr -le- 
 iiance of obstacles, his unshaken faith in the Golden \v est, 
 his cheery word for the humblest, his tender heart for all 
 suffering. The years which have drifted the sands over 
 his tomb by the Lone Mountain, where the rolling waves 
 thunder his requiem on the shore, have not torn the face 
 of the dead leader from grateful and loving hearts! 
 Pioneer in opening nature's treasure vaults, builder of roads 
 and factories, financier, land owner, the very head and front 
 of enterprise, California shuddered to find the uncrowned 
 King lying, scepterless and dead, among his foes! And 
 meaner men, who disported once under the shade of this 
 great cedar of Lebanon, ruled over the bank in his 
 stead! 
 
 "This is enough. This settles it," gloomily growled 
 Wyman, as he reviewed his plans in the struggling foggy 
 gray morning, when the chief of the once mighty bank, 
 an idolized John Law, lay cold in death. "It will take 
 long years to gather up the reins which have fallen from 
 the cold hands of Ralston," cried Wyman, throwing 
 down the last of his mining maps and sketches. The 
 young Napoleon of finance smiled as he thought of his 
 securely hidden wall vault, of the now firmly held tenure 
 of the "Mariquita," and of all the triumphs of the perilous 
 way he had walked alone. * ' I am safe now. I defy the 
 very devil himself. My tracks are covered up forever. 
 I will give Foreman McManus his orders. I will then 
 quietly go on to the East; but," he smiled a tiger-like 
 prophecy, * ' I will have the most delightful voyage On 
 record to Europe, if Milly Hammond is only reasonable. 
 I will surely lose nothing here in being away for a year or 
 so. I can easily control the future of my mine, and I 
 will slowly reopen the workings, while I cultivate my 
 musical taste' a little." 
 
242 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 " Can I win Milly over? Can she find an excuse? Ah, 
 yes! A little gold, a great deal of loving kindness, and 
 her own flattered vanity. These three things would take 
 her to the very devil, where she is surely going, where 
 you, my vanished goddess, Vinnie, went on gaily before." 
 And, Nature's nobleman smiled and then kissed his 
 finger tips to the face of Vinnie Hinton still smiling down 
 on him. "Smart girl," he murmured as he briskly rang 
 his bell, and ordered the new foreman to be shown in. 
 "Yes, Vinnie and her precious James are safe 'over the 
 hills and far away.' I wonder where they will finally 
 drift to? They are a precious pair; but, with a full purse, 
 a new change of names, and raiment, let us hope," he 
 piously added, "they will bring a new heart to the duties, 
 the varied duties, devolving upon them. I would like 
 to see them again some day," he chuckled. 
 
 At that moment when McManus, a frightened colossus, 
 transplanted from his developing medium, the Comstock, 
 blundered in, to gaze on the glories of "the den," for 
 the first time, Mr. Waldo Strong, that eminent counselor, 
 was dismissing from his private office, the night Superin- 
 tendent of the local telegraph company. 
 
 ' ' You say you owe the place you now hold to me, Harris. 
 You can more than repay me now ! I do not ask myself to see 
 a single dispatch. You control all the messenger boys 
 after twelve o'clock at night. I only want to trace this 
 man's movements, by his dispatches. Where he was, for 
 two days before the fire, where he was, 011 that day, and 
 the day after, in short, his actual location for that whole 
 week. The contents are nothing. He is a liar, and his 
 dispatches are only cipher lies. But, I would like to know 
 who handled them and answered him from here." The 
 young man stood with eyes still shining in gratitude. 
 
 < ' To-morrow night you will have it all, Mr. Strong, 
 only mum's the word." 
 
AFTER THE STORM. 243 
 
 " First step," muttered Strong as he caught up his pa- 
 pers and raced away to court. "I will get him by and 
 by, and by God! I will hound him down to ruin." 
 
 "Where's Haley now?" sharply demanded Wyman, as 
 he lit a cigar and sized up the new foreman, McManus, 
 timidly standing "at attention" before him. 
 
 " Sooprintindent Hale and Norcross, sir," jerked out 
 McManus. "They put him on the very moment he got 
 back. Best man in the Comstock, if I do say it, sir," 
 added the rough miner. 
 
 "That's true," coolly replied Wyman, "and, the biggest 
 fool to leave the place he had, I would have made a man 
 of him." 
 
 "Ah sir, his heart's broken over the dead boys," simply 
 answered the new foreman. 
 
 "Well, let us look at matters now on this new deal," 
 cried Wyman, drawing up to his maps. "Do you know 
 the 'Lone Star' thoroughly?" 
 
 "Every inch, night and day for nine long years. I 
 could put my hand in the dark, on every yard of it," 
 fondly replied the foreman. 
 
 "Good!" briefly answered Wyman, " Sit down now, 
 and tell me how you would go to work and connect it on 
 the south; your own plan for reopening it, and all the 
 future work, as well as your ideas of cost and all that. 
 Your place depends on it. I'll keep you in the mine any- 
 way, as you are. If you stand right with the Miners' 
 Union, and can meet my ideas, Haley's place is yours! 
 One condition I always make, absolute obedience, and, a 
 shut mouth." 
 
 "I can fill the last part of the bill," resolutely answered 
 McManus; "as for the opening of the mine, and the plan, 
 I'll give a plain workman's idea. After that, as it's your 
 mine, Mr. Wyman, tell me what to do, and I'll go ahead 
 
244 MISS DEVEEEUX OP THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 and do it. " Wyman was astonished at the clear practical 
 views of the man, when in fifteen minutes McManus had 
 covered the whole subject. The millionaire (no philoso- 
 pher) did not reflect that a man's one subject of knowledge 
 naturally showed him up in the best light. 
 
 "Now that's my whole idea of the underground situa- 
 tion," concluded the speaker. " As for the rest, you 
 must direct above ground, for I'm a fool when I'm out of a 
 mine." 
 
 "All right, McManus," cheerily said Wyman, "you'll 
 do. I'll keep you down there, and save your complexion." 
 
 McManus grinned, " I'll do my best." 
 
 "You will have Haley's place, power, and salary, from 
 date. Let me know what you want! I'll give you now a 
 formal letter of appointment. I'll then, telegraph the book- 
 keeper and give you also, my letter to the Miners' Union, 
 telling them that you will open the rnine to suit 
 them, so you'll have no trouble. Now, my man, I 
 will introduce you to Mr. Brown, who will have my 
 power of attorney, and Clarkson, the bookkeeper at 
 the mine, will make all reports to him. One thing 
 I insist on, not a human being must ever enter that 
 mine, without my written order or Brown's, with the day, 
 name, and date, and a specification of what part of the 
 mine, and how long; these cards to be all turned into 
 Clarkson. I am going away to Europe, for a couple of 
 years." The big miner stared with open eyes. "Things 
 will be very dull here, and I want to let the two bank 
 gangs chew each other to pieces before I come back and 
 speculate. Do you think I ought to coma over to Vir- 
 ginia, as I go East?" The young man eyed the foreman 
 keenly. McManus was very manly. 
 
 "There's a good deal of bitter feeling yet against you, 
 personally, about the loss of life. Men all say that a safety 
 
AFTER THE STOEM. 245 
 
 gallery would have saved all the lives. It's true, but, we 
 are all wiser after the fair," said the brave Irishman, heav- 
 ing a last sigh for the dead. * ' You can do no good ; it 
 might rouse up the men again. If Mr. Brown represents 
 you, then Clarkson and I will run the mine to a dot,, on 
 your orders. When you come back, I may have a ' big 
 bonanza ' for you, if you will let me open the dead ground 
 to the north. I suppose you would run over anyway if 
 we would make a big strike?" 
 
 "What do you know of the six hundred feet on the 
 north?" sharply queried Wyman. 
 
 4 'Oh, only the seeress, that's Mrs. Bowers, you know," 
 said the simple miner, ' ' swears that there's a heavy ore 
 body in there, rich, and a 'stayer,' too; a great ore 
 body; but the boys are afraid of it." McManus hesi- 
 tated. 
 
 "What's the yarn? Some more of the old woman's 
 fancies?" angrily cried Wyman. 
 
 " She says two men were killed to get it, and, she 
 swears it is cursed the curse of innocent men's blood, an' 
 no good will ever come to you, of the money that's in there. 
 ' Blood money! ' she calls it." The millionaire laughed as 
 he cried, "Bosh!" But, Wyman's teeth chattered as he 
 filled a glass of brandy. 
 
 "McManus! don't let that old hag's croaking get the 
 men into any foolish notions, I know the old lunatic." 
 
 "Ah, sir," solemnly said McManus, "them two men 
 that have just jumped from a pick handle to twenty mill- 
 ions apiece, would sooner have the old girl's opinion, than 
 any two wise men's on the Lode." 
 
 "Don't you mind her crazy jabber. I'll open the north 
 end, all in good time," good-humoredly said Wyman 
 "Now, come in to see Mr. Brown, and he will fix you all 
 up. When you are done, let me see you again. You may 
 
246 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 think of something that you want to say. I would like 
 you to get back as soon as you can." 
 
 "To-night's train, sir," answered McManus, touching 
 his forelock, 
 
 When Frederick Wyman was alone, he muttered, "I 
 wish that old crone was in hell. Where did she pick up 
 her notions? I hope to God she will not take a walk under 
 ground in her dreams, and talk with the fellows down at 
 the bottom of the shaft." And yet, he was alive, and they 
 were all pale shades. They were harmless! 
 
 So, rosier thoughts came soon to the man who began to 
 miss the daily sparkle of Vinnie Hinton's electric con- 
 versation. McManus went away, and at sitting down to 
 his work, Mr. Wyman coldly examined the whole business 
 situation. In a week, he made up his mind that the 
 "shaking down process" had ceased. The great banker 
 was at last laid away at rest. The echoes of his pompous 
 funeral slowly died away, and men then turned in relief to 
 patching up their leaky birch canoes of credit so as to sail 
 out beyond these depths once more. Admirable 
 American adaptability! The wholesale ruin was al- 
 ready a coarse standing joke. New faces shone in 
 millionaire circles, and several robust and hot-blooded 
 plebeian women bounded out into the arena of fashion, 
 displaying their aspiring souls and bedizened bodies to the 
 multitude who surged in, eager for this new opening of 
 champagne and ladling out of terrapin. The maelstrom 
 swung around as of yore, only, different positions marked 
 the wreckers, the wrecking and the wrecked! In other 
 words, to borrow the snug style of the "Stock Report," 
 " The market has already assumed a healthy tone, based 
 upon real values. " In this survival of the luckiest, the 
 minor chord wailing of misery, woe, penury and heart- 
 break died away at last, and * ' society " began to grow 
 
AFTER THE STORM. 247 
 
 casually familiar with the names, faces and brief " ex- 
 cerpts " of the past history of the new czars and czarinas 
 of moneyed California. 
 
 "I'll not stay here to nave this new ruck and truck 
 rule over me! " said, with some dignity, Mr. Frederick 
 "Wyman, whose patent of financial nobility now dated 
 back " before the failure of the Bank of California," to 
 the solid pyramid of wealth, builded upon a forger's skill 
 and two bloody graves. He, for "certain reasons," de- 
 cided, like Lord Bateman, "to go abroad, strange coun- 
 tries for to see!" These "cogent reasons" were all 
 wrapped up, a fleecy bundle of charms, in the embodied 
 loveliness of Miss Gladys Lyndon, who was now on her 
 w r ay home from the long line of country side mansions 
 where her talent had at last timidly made its way in "on 
 trial." 
 
 It was in obedience to a little perfumed note, that 
 Wyman, in his most careful form, repaired to the man- 
 sion on the avenue. He was the bearer of the promised 
 diamond ring, a sparkling pledge of amity. " It will keep 
 till after dinner," he mused, "and, I will only give her 
 the stock which I premised, when she has tied Gladys' 
 hands for me with the white bow of promise. " The little 
 note sounded pleasantly. He read it over and over with a 
 secret joy: 
 
 DEAR FRED: 
 
 Come up and dine "with me alone, to-night. Gladys comes back 
 to-day. We must arrange all before you see her. I will probably 
 meet her to-night. You may also, if you are a good boy, and como 
 to Yours always, 
 
 MILLY HAMMOND. 
 
 < < I have now my whole plan ready to submit to your 
 ladyship," said Wyman, two hours later, as the delighted 
 hostess was still examining the peerless diamond, Hashing 
 
248 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 on her finger, while she toyed with her cigarette, in the 
 " sanctum," her own especial " place of arms." " I will 
 be brief, as you may wish to see Gladys to-night. It is 
 just as well to surprise her a bit. Now! I am going East, 
 ostensibly to New York, and the South, < to revisit my 
 old home,'" he sneered. "I fear this fellow Strong's re- 
 sentment. I wish to get our blue-eyed friend out of here, 
 at once. My reasons are my own." Milly Hammond 
 modestly dropped her eyes. " Now, how to remove her 
 at once, out of Strong's reach! There's only one way. 
 What do you say to a little trip to Europe? Take her 
 along with you. You can impart to her that your 
 * physician ' orders a ( change of air ' and a ' sea voyage. ' 
 Ask her if she will not go on with you at once. Tell her 
 you will make an appeal to a friend to guarantee her two 
 year's musical instruction, in the best style, in Paris. You 
 can stay over there for a year. That gives me, another 
 year there. She will then be alone. You will have soft- 
 ened her feelings. I am the mysterious benefactor, etc., 
 etc. ; gratitude later, and all that." 
 
 " But, Fred, my house? " the lady gasped. 
 
 " Rent it furnished. I will make it all up to you," her 
 friend calmly said. 
 
 11 I've no money < for the trip,' " the fair dame persisted, 
 daintly turning imaginary pockets inside out. Mr. Wyman 
 smiled and pulled out a handful of twenties. 
 
 4 ' Presto, change! " he laughed, as he dropped them, 
 one by one, in her lap. Their tinkle was most delightful. 
 
 "My husband!" she murmured. For the first time, 
 Wyman frowned. 
 
 "You'll have to fix ttfat up with him," he gloomily 
 said, as he beat a tattoo on the window in a sudden fit of 
 abstraction. 
 
 " All right. I can do it. I see the way," said the 
 quick-eyed Milly. 
 
AFTER THE STORM. 249 
 
 " I thought you would find a way to surmount that ob- 
 stacle," drily said Wyman, as he now drew near, very near, 
 to her. 
 
 " When must we start? " faltered Mrs. Hammond. 
 
 " Not later than two weeks," resolutely said the capital- 
 ist, who was now eager to see the beautiful face of Gladys 
 light up in the glow of happiness, a realized happiness, 
 her dream come to pass, in all its bright fruition. "It 
 will make me so happy," he murmured aloud. "A 
 double happiness, the crowning good deed of my life." 
 
 "But, Fred, I know so few people in Paris, I will 
 be so lonely," Milly Hammond cried, <as she 'dung to his 
 arm. 
 
 "Listen, you pretty fool," he amusedly said. "Do 
 you think I am only a great < moral engine,' puffing 
 away, ( pro bono publico? ' Haven't you some respectable 
 friends in New York, where you can leave her, while 
 you visit * your family friend?' ' 
 
 "Oh, certainly," and Milly began a long catalogue. 
 
 "Spare us! Good v Lord," ejaculated Wyman, smiling. 
 "That's all right, she will be safe. The 'family 
 friends,' . . here they are." Milly Hammond's eyes 
 sparkled with a vicious dancing light, as she clapped her 
 hands. 
 
 "And, and?" she panted. "By accident, we meet on 
 the steamer," he complacently murmured. 
 
 "I have suddenly business in London, and so take 
 the same boat." 
 
 "Fred, you are a genius," the velvet-eyed siren cried. 
 
 1 'And when she is settled, you can travel on the continent, 
 and in the United Kingdom, with a l cousin.' Here he is!" 
 The cool villain laughed, as he untwined her clinging 
 arms from around his neck. 
 
 "And when my year is up? " she pouted, in a pretty 
 mock sorrow. 
 
252 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 member, half -past ten." The lips which met Gladys 
 Lyndon's were warm with her intended lover's kisses. 
 
 "What has happened? " cried the agitated girl. "I 
 feared that you were ill." 
 
 "Ah! Gladys, I am beside myself with happiness," 
 laughed Milly Hammond, as she drew the graceful girl 
 into her little gilded spider-web sanctum. 
 
 While Mr. Frederick Wyman, having caught up Varick, 
 glared critically at the inimitable Billy Florence in his 
 "Bardwell Slote" rendition, Mr. Waldo Strong, closeted 
 in his lonely office, eagerly ran over a schedule of Wy- 
 man's telegraph dates, given to him by Harris. "My 
 boy," he cried, "you have more than repaid me." The 
 lawyer's hand went out filled with a generous sample of his 
 few remaining golden twenties. 
 
 " Not one cent from you, now or ever," heartily cried 
 Harris. i ' I must get away. They watch us night and 
 day." 
 
 Bending over the papers, after a half hour's study, Mr. 
 Waldo Strong made a few notes in his own private journal 
 with the appropriate dates. "Either to pay you off for 
 this villainy, or the triple money swindle on the banks, 
 and to avenge Hooper's victims, for this I will break in 
 upon your rosiest, happiest hour, you cold-hearted 
 scoundrel," cried Strong, as he threw his head down upon 
 his hands. 
 
 ' 6 His letters ! His letters ! Yes, I must watch them, too ! 
 He may be posting this fellow Hooper. I will see In- 
 spector Stanton. Yes. I have it. If the banks will only 
 state to him their suspicion of Wyman's complicity in 
 this Hooper fraud, Stanton will secretly watch his mail, 
 nnd also, do a bit of private tracing for me. Yes, when 
 the cup is the very sweetest, I will dash it from your 
 lips." Strong, now tired, careworn and wearied, snapped 
 
AFTER THE STORM. 253 
 
 the covers of his private note-book, swung his safe door, 
 and, dreaming not of law but of love, began to roll his 
 stone of Sisyphus up the hill again to where he first saw 
 Gladys Lyndon's eyes shining down on him. 
 
 The pale blue stars gleamed down depreciatingly on Mr. 
 Frederick Wyman, through a classic San Francisco fog, as 
 he deftly dodged into the summer house on his return, at the 
 appointed time. "I hope the gardener or the policeman 
 will not take a stray pop at me as a burglar," Wyman ex- 
 claimed, but he was soon taken into custody by the 
 clinging arms of a woman, who Avas, woman-like, already 
 at the trysting place, for the charming daughters of Eve 
 are always either greatly in advance, or fearfully behind, 
 the fated hour. This strange variation in such little con- 
 fidential matters, changes of ten, depending upon the warmth 
 of the amatory currents, the duration of the intrigue, and 
 the supposed relative advantages of the little fall from 
 grace. 
 
 4 'Fred, it is all settled with Gladys, and she is so shaken 
 with joy, so overcome, that I must go in to her at once." 
 
 Wyman's voice quivered with emotion as he whispered, 
 straining his guilty ally to his breast: 
 
 "When shall I come?" 
 
 "Dinner to-morrow," she cried, "and let it be the last 
 time till we meet in New York." 
 
 "Good, "answered her new master. "You told her that 
 I had consented?" 
 
 "Yes. You will not have any reason to complain of 
 her lack of gratitude, she will speak for herself." 
 
 "Ah!" murmured Wyman, " there is but one thing left 
 then. I will depart secretly in two days then, but you 
 and I, will surely have something to say to each other, last 
 arrangements to conclude. I am afraid of being observed 
 by Strong, coming up here too often; come up to supper 
 
 ' s 2 
 
254 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 at my rooms, nine o'clock, day after to-morrow. I will 
 send my own carriage for you ; Morani will then bring you 
 home. I shall leave the next morning at eight o'clock, 
 and must be over the Sierras, and out of Nevada, before 
 any ona up there knows." 
 
 ".i.'jist it be?" the fearful woman questioned, nestling 
 in his arms. "Oh, Fred! the risk!" But, the promise 
 was finally made, and so, once more, her light foot was 
 fated to echo on the stairs of this Bluebeard's tower. 
 
 Two weeks later, Inspector James Stanton gazed with a 
 deep concern in th Q ,-yes of his old friend, Waldo Strong, 
 after a long official conference in the gloomy old post- 
 office. 
 
 "You see, Waldo, I would gladly do anything for our 
 friendship of twenty years; our college days are not for- 
 gotten, but, Wyman is now beyond our reach. He left 
 here ten days ago, and is now at Louisville, Ky. So, at 
 least, his cashier says, but, all his mail is still delivered 
 at the office. His stay in the East is indefinite. We 
 must await his return, we cannot get at him now." 
 
 Baffled ax/.d wearied, Waldo Strong, returning from a 
 park drive, paused at Mrs. Hammond's residence on Van- 
 Ness avenue. "She may perhaps know; they are old 
 friends, and I may see Gladys Lyndon, if she has returned." 
 
 The old gardener outside smiled at Strong's futile efforts 
 to ring up the house. 
 
 1 ' I thought every one knew that Mrs. Hammond and 
 Miss Lyndon had gone to New York for the summer," he 
 stolidly said. 
 
 And thus, a darkness, deeper than the evening shades, set- 
 tled down over Waldo Strong's heart. " She is lost to me 
 now, for her up ward steps will lead her far away forever," 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 255 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman v/us the envied of many 4 e*;.yas- 
 eyed cavaliers, when he proudly escorted Mrs. Hammond 
 and Miss Gladys Lyndon, to the decks of the " Britannic, " 
 on the lovely August day which he had chosen for their 
 departure. In all the bustle of this departing fashion, in 
 this year of grace, no happier faces wera turned to\r.ii : d the 
 dim reaches of the ocean. An involuntary twisting of 
 heads and craning of necks proved that the too susceptible 
 youth of Gotham would at once crown Miss Lyndon, by a 
 rising vote, as queen of love and beauty ; and truly, a radiant 
 delight sparkled in her splendid eyes lit up now with bright 
 hope; for, though parted for a fortnight by Mrs. Ham- 
 mond's important " family duties," Miss Lyndon had for 
 two days, been under the renewed " personal guidance" 
 of ' ' dear Mrs. Hammond. " Wyman breathed a sigh of 
 relief as the "Britannic" forged slowly down the noble 
 river. 
 
 "By Heavens! It has been a most wonderful cam- 
 paign," he murmured. "Milly is, after all, one woman 
 in a thousand. Stole away, and, Mr. Waldo Strong has 
 lost his innings. " Wyman cheerfully paced the deck, and 
 gaily communed with himself over his first cigar. The 
 ladies were below directing the final arrangements of their 
 flower-decked cabins by the peerless Morani. The little 
 Gallic valet's heart was light as he chanted at his work: 
 " Paris! Paris! Enfin je te revois! " for, iie regarded the 
 base pursuit of lucre in the western world, while certainly 
 
256 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 effecting magical results in his exchequer, as, after all, 
 time lost in the bright pages of his inner life. He had 
 more than justified the dependence of his patron. 
 
 Wyman gazed not upon the varied beauties of the splen- 
 did harbor, as the staunch liner swept along. In the 
 happy fortnight spent in a gay revel at Long Branch with 
 Mrs. Hammond, he had realized, to the full, the growing 
 opulence and love of luxury of the great Eastern communi- 
 ties, new to him. The sea-side summer seemed to him, a 
 tyro, to be a mingling of the old Olympian games, the Arab- 
 ian Nights, and Vanity Fair. His curiosity as to the fate of 
 the Kentucky family which he had once adorned, had been 
 easily satisfied with two or three days at Louisville. He 
 made no dutiful pilgrimage to the sandy "lines," where 
 his warlike father rested by the glory memorable hills of 
 Atlanta. With a new sense of the concrete power of 
 money, and his mind now attuned to every luxury of the 
 "rushing" life of the golden West, he muttered, " The 
 South is only a land of past shadows, and of dawning 
 future hopes." The very people there were alien to him 
 in spirit, for, they still clung to what was valueless to this 
 nobleman of Nature character, always a certain self-im- 
 posed burden of the varied attributes of the ' ' Southern 
 gentleman." 
 
 It was only when sheltered at a great Long Branch hotel 
 that he tasted to the full the first sweet fruits of his potent 
 wealth. Nothing at the "West End "was too fancifully 
 luxurious for the soft-eyed lady who gracefully peeped out 
 at the rattling sea-side life with him as his spouse, under 
 the convenient name of Mr. and Mrs. Armytage. Said 
 Milly, with a merry laugh, < ' Fred, we will begin with the 
 alphabet, for we may wear it all out before we return ! " 
 Busied during the day at New York, Wyman, driving 
 along the sea-beach where the silver stars hung low over 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 
 
 the throbbing sea, found sin sweet, pleasure to be a nt 
 daily life elixir, and, had not yet wearied of his dashing^ 
 and witty companion. 
 
 Morani, stationed conveniently in New York, kept a 
 close watch upon the unsuspecting girl who must be mysti- 
 fied for the nonce. The occasional appearance of Mrs. 
 Hammond served to check any suspicion of the girl unfa- 
 miliar with the babel of New York. On the night before 
 their departure Mrs. Hammond had given to Gladys Lyn- 
 don the promised letter of credit, which Wyman, with a 
 keen eye to business, had made available in Europe only, 
 and for the sum of five thousand dollars a year, for two 
 years. "This will tie her up there, under my eye," he 
 mused. 
 
 He now looked forward to his first evening walk on the 
 great sweeping decks with a fluttering anticipation, for Mrs. 
 Hammond had duly laid her injunctions upon her protegee 
 in New York not to offend Wyman's "delicacy" by per- 
 sonal reference to the great obligation. ' ' Of course, 
 dear Gladys, once at sea, you may then express your sense 
 of his kindness to Mr. Wyman, alone! He is of a very 
 singular and retiring nature. He has lived very much 
 alone. His own family were all swept away in the South- 
 ern war; a sad, sad loss! He never refers to them." 
 
 Gladys Lyndon's gentle heart beat in kindly sympathy 
 with her benefactor, as she softly said, "Ah, he has had 
 a lonely and unhappy childhood, like my own." One 
 strange feature in Miss Lyndon's unsounded character had 
 singularly impressed Wyman, and his woman fellow-con- 
 spirator. Even in the hours of their jolly masquerade at 
 Long Branch, Wyman had found time to urge upon Mrs. 
 Hammond his wish to gradually find out all ihs hidden 
 heart-history of the talented novice. 
 
 "Fred, I will do all I can," she most heartily pledged 
 
256 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 i 
 
 effecting magical results in his exchequer, as, after all, 
 time lost in the bright pages of his inner life. He had 
 more than justified the dependence of his patron. 
 
 Wyman gazed not upon the varied beauties of the splen- 
 did harbor, as the staunch liner swept along. In the 
 happy fortnight spent in a gay revel at Long Branch with 
 Mrs. Hammond, he had realized, to the full, the growing 
 opulence and love of luxury of the great Eastern communi- 
 ties, new to him. The sea-side summer seemed to him, a 
 tyro, to be a mingling of the old Olympian games, the Arab- 
 ian Nights, and Vanity Fair. His curiosity as to the fate of 
 the Kentucky family which he had once adorned, had been 
 easily satisfied with two or three days at Louisville. He 
 made no dutiful pilgrimage to the sandy "lines," where 
 his warlike father rested by the glory memorable hills of 
 Atlanta. With a new sense of the concrete power of 
 money, and his mind now attuned to every luxury of the 
 "rushing" life of the golden West, he muttered, " The 
 South is only a land of past shadows, and of dawning 
 future hopes." The very people there were alien to him 
 in spirit, for, they still clung to what was valueless to this 
 nobleman of Nature character, always a certain self-im- 
 posed burden of the varied attributes of the ' ' Southern 
 gentleman." 
 
 It was only when sheltered at a great Long Branch hotel 
 that he tasted to the full the first sweet fruits of his potent 
 wealth. Nothing at the "West End "was too fancifully 
 luxurious for the soft-eyed lady who gracefully peeped out 
 at the rattling sea-side life with him as his spouse, under 
 the convenient name of Mr. and Mrs. Armytage. Said 
 Hilly, with a merry laugh, Fred, we will begin with the 
 alphabet, for we may wear it all out before we return ! " 
 Busied during the day at New York, Wyman, driving 
 along the sea-beach where the silver stars hung low over 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 257 
 
 the throbbing sea, found sin sweet, pleasure to be a new 
 daily life elixir, and, had not yet wearied of his dashing 
 and witty companion. 
 
 Morani, stationed conveniently in New York, kept a 
 close watch upon the unsuspecting girl who must be mysti- 
 fied for the nonce. The occasional appearance of Mrs. 
 Hammond served to check any suspicion of the girl unfa- 
 miliar with the babel of New York. On the night before 
 their departure Mrs. Hammond had given to Gladys Lyn- 
 don the promised letter of credit, which Wyman, with a 
 keen eye to business, had made available in Europe only, 
 and for the sum of five thousand dollars a year, for two 
 years. "This will tie her up there, under my eye," he 
 mused. 
 
 He now looked forward to his first evening walk on the 
 great sweeping decks with a fluttering anticipation, for Mrs. 
 Hammond had duly laid her injunctions upon her protegee 
 in New York not to offend Wyman's "delicacy" by per- 
 sonal reference to the great obligation. " Of course, 
 dear Gladys, once at sea, you may then express your sense 
 of his kindness to Mr. Wyman, alone ! He is of a very 
 singular and retiring nature. He has lived very much 
 alone. His own family were all swept away in the South- 
 ern war; a sad, sad loss! He never refers to them." 
 
 Gladys Lyndon's gentle heart beat in kindly sympathy 
 with her benefactor, as she softly said, "Ah, he has had 
 a lonely and unhappy childhood, like my own." One 
 strange feature in Miss Lyndon's unsounded character had 
 singularly impressed Wyman, and his woman fellow-con- 
 spirator. Even in the hours of their jolly masquerade at 
 Long Branch, Wyman had found time to urge upon Mrs. 
 Hammond his wish to gradually find out all the hidden 
 heart-history of the talented novice. 
 
 "Fred, I will do all I can," she most heartily pledged 
 
258 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARlQUITA, 
 
 him. "The truth is, Gladys is a strangely unmanageable 
 girl in some things. I have not yet won her entire confi- 
 dence. I have again and again delicately probed her upon 
 the very points you refer to. With no trace of irritation 
 she has only frankly and simply said, 'I have never had a 
 childhood, save in the convent of the term. The little 
 I do know, is only a fragmentary record of my private sor- 
 rows. My very name, Gladys Lyndon, even, is a legacy of 
 an humble friend, who was all in all to me, before your 
 goodness came to brighten my life;' 
 
 "So, Fred, I did go out and tamper a bit with the 
 Sisters; smooth-browed and sly they are, for, I threw away 
 my time at the Visitation Convent, for a prolonged chat 
 with an oyster would be j ust as productive of news. I do not 
 know what the seal is on these passionless lips, but, nuns 
 are not flesh-and-blood women as we others are." 
 
 Mr. Wyman, on the general principle of a "wholesome 
 variety," slyly congratulated himself that there were 
 many other women in the world than the Milly Hammond 
 type. The lurking traitor already did full justice to the 
 unstained womanhood of the fair-browed, clear-eyed 
 singer. He had not yet seen any flaw in her bright armor. 
 "I must be very careful with her, and warn Milly, too;" 
 for the "roses and ruptures," had led on Mrs. Hammond 
 into a decidedly dashing "lionne" style, which might, by 
 one single unfortunate danger signal settle all his nefari- 
 ous hopes, his now madly-increased longings. " You now 
 play your part, and leave her to me. Have her for my 
 own, I will,' he finally said. " I don't care a bit for her 
 past. What it has been is self-evident. It is her future 
 years, which I demand, and I will yet, lead her up to see 
 life as it is." Mrs. Hammond winced under Wy man's 
 thrust, and was wisely silent, for, even careful as she was, 
 the record of her own life was written on her face. She 
 
FEOM SHORE TO SHOfcE, 250 
 
 could not understand the watchful reserve which locked 
 up in the proud girl's innocent bosom, a world of womanly 
 ambitions, so far-soaring that she only whispered them to 
 her pillow. 
 
 And that first night, on the great waste of green waters, 
 the orphaned beauty was thankful in her murmured prayers 
 for the delicate generosity of the princely miner. Her 
 startled heart beat quickly for a few frightened gasps, 
 when she learned of Wyman's purpose to sail on the same 
 steamer. It was the first note of alarm. "A little finan- 
 cial business in London, and he may then, run over to 
 Paris and see us there, before he goes home again. Such 
 a man's time is not his own; alas!" sighed Milly Ham- 
 mond, in a dark premonition of parting, "his varied 
 duties make him a factor in many lives." It was truly 
 Wyman's cheerful purpose to- fulfill the latter statement, 
 in every sense. 
 
 He found time, however, to whisper to Milly Hammond 
 as she came on deck with the glowing Gladys to see the last 
 glimpse of Fire Island, "We must be wise as serpents 
 and harmless as doves, Milly. Now, as I came up the 
 steamer gang plank, one of our Long Branch friends 
 slapped me on the back. ' Hello, Armytage, going over?' 
 I was so startled that I could only bow in silence. ' And 
 Mrs. Armytage, does she, too, go with you? ' I managed to 
 make sure that he was not a passenger, and then, declined 
 his eager offer of several introductions to fellow passen- 
 gers. My heart was frozen in fear of a scene. So, you 
 see, the sword hangs over us by a single hair." 
 
 He realized in saucy Milly Hammond's half amused 
 "moue" of pretty dismay, that she would simply " trust to 
 luck " to appease her by no means exacting lord who was 
 ever flitting between Alaska and the City of Mexico, on some 
 shadowy "business," presumably "mines." It was in 
 
260 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQtTITA. 
 
 fact, a jolly proverb among the " initiated" that Hammond 
 only touched foot occasionally, for a brief rest at the rock 
 of his family altar, and then soared away again, out into 
 the unknown. Whether it may have been the result of 
 accident or design, this great mystery long remained "one 
 of these things that no fellow can find out." It had, of 
 course, its due explanation, the riddle was capable of solu- 
 tion, but, even the fashionable circles which the velvet- 
 eyed lady adorned so gracefully, could not quite "make it 
 out." It was a charming example of how attenuated the 
 marriage bond could be drawn, out in the far West, and 
 yet hold two hearts legally together. Probably, it was 
 also a result of that "glorious climate," which figures so 
 often as a " piece de resistance" in the tourist's guides, and 
 other rose-colored local literature of California. 
 
 Wyman grimly realized that the embarrassment of de- 
 tection would be his alone, that the loss of Gladys Lyndon, 
 would be the certain penalty he would pay in the event of 
 discovery. He left the ladies to make a charming sunset 
 group, as he wandered quietly away, to think his passion- 
 sketched programme over, alone. He had already observed 
 the great ship's company and noted the varied social 
 characteristics of this summer pilgrim band, a typical 
 American outre-mer delegation. Many of the types he 
 well knew already, and yet, others were revelations. The 
 bustling Hebrew partners "going over to buy the goods;" 
 the prosperous returning foreigners, who had found a 
 fortune in free America; the blase tourist; a few con- 
 sequential office-holders, and, a horde of business men on 
 special missions. All these, were forms he well knew. 
 But, for the first time, he saw the crystallized knots of first- 
 class eastern American pleasure seekers; a few earnest- 
 eyed teachers; various passive-looking students; a few 
 pale-browed men, going over on a settled plan of travel, 
 
PROM SHORE TO SHORE. 201 
 
 " limited to the expenditure of one hundred and thirty-six 
 dollars and seventy-five cents, in ninety days;" several rep- 
 resentative cranks, freaks, and also, a good many sharpers 
 and gamblers. All these things amused him. The line of 
 the social caste began with the buxom unattached married 
 women, with or without their daughters of varied national 
 ear-marks, all going abroad alone. Their distant husbands 
 were safely cut off now, by a fifty-mile chasm of roughening 
 water. Whether persuaded or outwitted, it was too late to 
 " call back " these heterogeneous woman pilgrims to their 
 hearths and homes, or even to the lonely "flat, "which 
 " might " or " might not" mourn the vanished footsteps! 
 These cheerful ladies varied from those of "a sternly seri- 
 ous purpose," indicated by their "homemade hoods and 
 waterproofs," up to the dashing dames whose furtively 
 sparkling eyes and evident generous money provision, shone 
 out their set purpose ' l to have a good time, " while they were 
 abroad. 
 
 " All this, I suppose, makes up the great national Ameri- 
 can character," sneered Wyman. " I suppose that staid 
 Europeans must think America is composed of shoddy 
 palaces, with workshops in the basements, dime museum 
 attachments, and 'song and dance' extras, thrown in." 
 And, for the first time, it dawned upon him that five 
 hundred traveling Americans, of any social or moneyed 
 grade, are a most queerly assorted lot. Wyman had not 
 yet dabbled in Herbert Spencer. "Heredity, environ- 
 ment, and heterogenity " were so far, unmeaning shib- 
 boleths to him, so he merely murmured, "Well, they 
 are a queer old lot, and they do not seem to belong to- 
 gether by any earthly rule, save that of the first cabin 
 ticket." 
 
 The thronging daughters, with bright expectant eyes, 
 filled all the different grades, from the "underdone and 
 
2t>2 MISS DEVEKEUX Ol 1 THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 overdressed" to the supremely indifferent "society" rose- 
 bud. A hovering nimbus of men glared furtively at the 
 wondrous feminine goods the Gods had provided. Cer- 
 tain family groups were being quickly rallied as if to 
 verify "the tally of the tribes." These were well defined 
 nuclei of various hostile factions, whose horns, now "mighti- 
 ly exalted," would soon be locked in the deadly struggle 
 for "precedence," and the small triumphs of the Captain's 
 table. They classed up from the overjoyed "newly pro- 
 moted" on their first trip, usually surrounded with hordes 
 of partly developed progeny of the most baleful activity, 
 and the frankly buoyant successful speculators, to the 
 mighty mining magnate, a scowling bank president ; the 
 last, with "I won't," written in every line of his puffy, 
 bagged eyelids. Faded aristocracy, fragile health, the 
 chaise lounge, the yard-stick eyeglass, with the attendant 
 bran-new "maid," and the too evident "valet d'occa- 
 sion," dated these lords and ladies back to the days of gas- 
 pipe muskets, paper shoes and tin swords, provided at the 
 fattest contract rates, for the suppression of the rebellion. 
 Discordant Daisy Millers of diverse types, jostled each other 
 on the slippery cabin stairs, with their dreamy, voluptuous 
 young eyes hungry for the first sight of those slim-waisted 
 military dandies of Europe, who go so far for the first 
 sandwich, a glass of wine and the pioneer smile. 
 
 "Wait till I get her home, at Schloss Pumpernickle," 
 glowers the Baron Ernest Von Pumpernickle of the Second 
 Hanoverian Chasseurs. " She shall to sing then, of a dif- 
 ferent song. " Two of these bright-eyed young falcons, 
 with entangled wings, exchanged mutual glances of hatred 
 a la Sioux and Pawnee. " Shoddy," exclaimed the pretty 
 assailant. "Ah! No, oil!" replied her victim, neatly rising 
 to the occasion. There was an evident desire here to 
 "draw the line," a perpetual operation, daily repeated, 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 263 
 
 whenever traveling Americans meet, which proved to Wy- 
 man that there was " one glory of the moon, and. another 
 of the stars," among these restless samples of resultant 
 American social life. ' Fin de siecle ' had not yet swept 
 in with its "baby stare," ignoring the useful past, and 
 only glaring onward and outward, into the glittering 
 summer sea of the newer "American aristocracy." 
 
 Already, the great break for vantage points in the smok- 
 ing room had occurred, but, rising pyramidal above all the 
 meaner throng, Wyman noted General Hiram Buford and 
 family, of California. These autocrats long had hovered 
 upon one of the pinnacles of " Nob Hill," where the getting 
 up process, had been successfully achieved in days of yore. 
 The staying up, was to be a triumph of time ! It was there, 
 on Nob Hill alone, that the invisible line was drawn, which 
 so far, had excluded Frederick Wyman, Esq., from the 
 loftiest revels of San Francisco. There were but two re- 
 maining feats yet to achieve, in order to finish his labors of 
 Hercules. The first was to obtain the entree to that Calif or- 
 nian Royal Table Round, the next, to lead agerman there, in 
 triumph, with one of the fairest flowers of SanFrancisco love- 
 liness, etc., etc. This now mysterious cotillion was to be an 
 affair of secret and furtive future study. The cast-iron 
 lions, zinc tigers, and plaster statues of " Nob Hill," had 
 so far, fiercely barred his upward path, as he grasped that 
 banner with the strange device, " Lone Star." He had 
 truly reached a lofty financial height, but never yet, had 
 dared to deem that he could safely enter the doors of these 
 unseasoned redwood palaces, " on the level." 
 
 " Milly! There are theBufords," he whispered eagerly, 
 as Mrs. Hammond and the dainty Gladys moved along the 
 deck, at his side. 
 
 The errant wife, who had herself, once upon a time, 
 trifled away a few forgotten hours with General Hirani 
 
264 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 Buford, most keenly inspected Mrs. Pauline Buford's semi- 
 reception toilet, in which she was most royally arrayed for 
 promenade, dinner and the mal-de-mer. Her diamonds 
 were all there, as usual, distinctly visible to the naked eye. 
 In 'deference, however > to Father Neptune's hoary beard, 
 Mrs. Buford had not worn a decollete 1 costume. That was 
 reserved, " the most unkindest cut of all," for the august 
 eyes of the Empress of India. 
 
 Neither General Hiram Buford, of a most rugged health, 
 (gracefully described by a San Francisco paper of opposite 
 politics, as " an overgrown loafer,"), nor his sturdy wife, 
 justly famed once for her activity in the practical depart- 
 ment of a small country hotel, had given aught but royal 
 descent and the possibility of wealth beyond the dreams of 
 avarice, to their petted and anaemic daughter, Minnie. 
 
 This young lady, whose attitude indicated an entire ab- 
 sence of spinal column, languidly stared at that young 
 blooming Diana, Miss Gladys Lyndon. 
 
 " Rather a pretty girl," moped out Miss Minnie. 
 
 Mrs. Pauline Buford returned Milly Hammond's stare, 
 with a rooted aversion, and compound interest. They were 
 secretly, set enemies. The one sorrowed, envying the solid 
 substratum of Buford's shekels; the other, with a dull, 
 burning hatred, stood glowering there, recognizing those 
 meretricious charms of mere physical beauty, which, with 
 her outwardly better selected adornments of dress, carried 
 the Hammond far beyond her haughty sister of fashion. 
 As regarded " style" and "go," Mrs. Pauline Buford was 
 outclassed, nay, distanced. She therefore, handicapped 
 Mrs. Hammond with a cold cut. 
 
 " Do you know those two women, Pauline? " roughly 
 demanded General Buford. 
 
 "Yes, Hiram; one is that Hammond woman, you 
 know" the General winced and reddened as he looked at 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 205 
 
 a passing coal schooner with a sudden interest "'the 
 other, is the sweet, pretty singer girl who made such a sen- 
 sation at the Athelings' down at Menlo. I suppose she is 
 going to P^urope to study." 
 
 General Buford was now weighing a mighty matter in 
 his mind. lie had so far, allowed Frederick Wyman to pass 
 on with a half nod of recognition, but the young man was 
 now really a rising financial star. He twinkled in a fixed 
 glory, a veritable "Lone Star." Buford, who admired 
 success in every form, had a vague idea that Wyman had 
 " scalped his enemies " to the very frontal bone, "in the 
 last great deal." Buford always idolized " smartness" in 
 all its phases, from a cheap horse trade, up to a bold bluff 
 at " poker." 
 
 "Pauline," he said, sotto voce, as the trio reached the 
 far limit of their walk, " this young fellow is anew power 
 in western money circles. He is now worth a cool mil- 
 lion. Wyman is also a bachelor. He can't be traveling 
 with these people. Suppose that I ask the purser to put 
 him at our table?" 
 
 " What do you say, Minnie?" whispered Mrs. Pauline, 
 who secretly feared the "washed-out" looking daughter, 
 "who had been through a seminary." This fact was im- 
 pressed very frequently on the mother by the shrewish and 
 spoiled one child of their later grandeur. Miss Minnie 
 Buford secretly surveyed Frederick Wyman, whose outer 
 man was a tribute to the sartorial reforms of * ; Mr. Bell 
 of New York." Wyman's get up was entirely on Bell's 
 classic lines. f'No visible effort; general effect; that is 
 my motto, sir," Mr. Bell had grandly said, as Wyman 
 had left his hands simply perfect. It strangly happened 
 that the rugged health, glowing eyes, and robust outlines 
 of Wyman pleased the thirsty-looking maiden 
 
 "He's not so bad looking, if he's not too rough; you 
 
266 MISS .DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 can introduce him, papa," decreed the young virgin, whose 
 general effect was that of a human glass of absinthe. 
 
 Hence and therefore, pride beamed in the glowing eyes 
 of the sole owner of the "Lone Star," when General 
 Buf orcl boomed into the smoking-room and grandly accosted 
 him. "Mr. Wy man," said he, " we are members of the 
 same club. I would be most happy to present you to my wife 
 and daughter. You and I, don't see much of each other 
 at home. Our lives lie in different places; so, I've asked 
 the purser to put you at our table. " A general lifting of 
 heads, and the rise of Wyman's social stock to fifty per 
 cent, above par, followed this imposing announcement, as 
 the young man proceeded to "open a bottle." 
 
 One bright hope blossomed here, destined to shine 
 illusive. A couple of card sharpers promptly marked Mr. 
 Frederick Wyman down as rich, young, and innocent, 
 and, the protege of the great capitalist. It was only after 
 several nights of stout battling, that the two dismayed 
 sons of Mercury "gave it up, as a bad job." TKey had 
 skillfully drawn Wyman into a "four-handed" game. 
 He " stood out," when the " painted ladies " turned away 
 their pretty faces, but, he " smote those Egyptians," hip 
 and thigh, whenever the cards ran his way. It was a 
 simple transfer of coin from the other man they were 
 successfully fleecing, to the lucky Wyman. 
 
 "Where did you ever learn this game?" dejectedly 
 asked one of the professionals at last. 
 
 "In off nights, during the long winter months on the 
 Comstock," modestly said Wyman, who had now "gath- 
 ered in" about all he intended to allow Milly Hammond. 
 
 "I owe you an humble apology, sir," said the frank 
 professional plunger; "I took you for a 'sucker!" Mr. 
 Wyman was still wearing the triumphant smile which had 
 adorned him since he sat by the side of Miss Minnie 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE* 267 
 
 
 
 Buford, the unapproachable. She was always surrounded 
 with a chevaux-de-frise of acid sharpness, a morally de- 
 praved bundle of physical reticence, misnamed innocence. 
 
 It had been singularly fortunate for Fred Wyman, cool- 
 headed in his gloomy game of the future, that he did not 
 wish to identify the young diva with his name. The 
 "personal attendance" of the happy Milly Hammond, 
 who frolicked secretly in her delightful double life, en- 
 abled her to mark the chart of sweet Gladys Lyndon's social 
 life. "All at sea" were the travelers, as the good 
 " Britannic " sped on. Buford had at last gained a vague 
 idea that his daughter might find a very fair husband in 
 Wyman. The self-made "general " had the same aesthetic 
 ideas in marrying off daughters as in yoking calves, though 
 his blundering indulgence of his disagreeable child's whims 
 was carried to the extreme of folly. He rather liked 
 Wyman in the rapidly growing traveling acquaintance. 
 Their lives were really different. The General's special 
 line was stealing ranches, and grabbing all exposed proper- 
 ties, where need or ignorance gave him play for his peculiar 
 talents. Wyman confined himself only to robbery, pure 
 and simple, with the little background of second-hand 
 "murder," as a Itirid scenario. 
 
 In their "heart of hearts," they were both the same. 
 General Buford allowed his wife a fair pull at the family 
 "pagoda tree" undisturbed, while she prudently allowed 
 him "carte blanche" in his drinking, poker playing and 
 what he was pleased to term "his private life!" While 
 not exactly of the wildest " Bonanza days " school, Gen- 
 eral Hiram Buford, to use his own comprehensive term, 
 "had made his life a pretty fair picnic." So, the new 
 friends were both " shining ones " in the " staccato " style 
 of modern Calif ornian elegance. If they had not "the 
 repose which stamps the caste of Yere de Vere," they had 
 
268 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 
 
 both very definite ideas as to "waking up" London and 
 Paris. 
 
 "Wyman, my boy," said the General, upon the final 
 cementing of their friendship, "you and I, must go around 
 a little in London and Paris together. By the way, your 
 friend Mrs. Hammond over there, ought to remember me. 
 She is a mighty fine woman." It was tacitly agreed, 
 through the delicate intercession of Wyman, that General 
 Hiram Buford and Mrs. Hammond "knew each other," 
 when the rosy and watchful Mrs. Buford was below. This 
 fortunate juncture aided Wyman in the long and earnest 
 daily conferences with Gladys Lyndon, when, under the 
 stars, " lost in the night and the light of the sea," the girl 
 poured out her hopeful imaginings to the man her grateful 
 heart had ennobled. A hero of nature's making ! 
 
 For, she had spoken to him words which were of promise, 
 when, out on the lonely sea, she felt herself freed from the 
 sound of all earthly jars, of all the fret and bustle of a 
 great unfamiliar city. It had been easy for Gladys 
 Lyndon to free her happy heart to Mrs. Hammond. To 
 do that easy-going western dazzler justice, she was really 
 constitutionally good-hearted. She did not like to see 
 any empty glass near, when the wine of life was to be had 
 for the asking. It had been so many years that she had 
 softly glided down the stream of her gay lifej padding her 
 ears against the voice of Conscience with jeweled fingers, 
 that she realized no special treachery in her behavior 
 toward Gladys Lyndon. It seemed as if she were only a 
 new female Talleyrand, arranging the easy turning of a 
 sharp social corner. In fact, she regarded the judicious 
 and confidential use of womanly charms, as only the avail- 
 ing of a certain natural capital, most fortunately always 
 at the secret disposal of struggling womanhood. 
 
 In her own inmost soul, she debated not the propriety of 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 269 
 
 I 
 
 the marketing of beauty,' either in the bud, blossom, or full 
 flower. She had no inmost soul, and her only daily care 
 was the tasteful decoration of her external body. Intro- 
 spection was not her strong forte, but, in circumspection, 
 she was a very Vidocq. A perfectly balanced tempera- 
 ment, she abhorred scenes and all strong emotions, as pro- 
 ductive of wrinkles, which, on brow or dress, were her 
 especial earthly tormentors. Whenever she had felt the 
 rosy charms of love tighten, to avoid an undue strain, she 
 had either slipped them, cut them, or gently loosened 
 them. "Never struggle for Empire," she had confided to 
 a practical young occidental femme galante. "When- 
 ever you reach that phase, let the man at once go. He 
 is gone already! " 
 
 As marvelously adaptable as most middle class American 
 women are, she steered her frail bark safely past the rocks 
 of Scandal, for, the gordian-knot of the long tow rope of 
 her husband kept her in the thread of the open channel, 
 lie was not much of a husband, still, he was a visible 
 entity, and had "a local habitation and name," both of 
 which she availed herself of, and she "pointed with 
 pride " to the fact that she had very few enemies among 
 the fair sex, and kept her name out of the newspapers. 
 In this well-chosen course, she moved safely along, always 
 selecting her favorites from those who had more to lose 
 by a public clamor than herself. A wise Griselda! 
 
 The frank kindness with which she had won Gladys 
 Lyndon's heart, was supplemented with a really delicate 
 consideration, in not forcing herself upon the girl's soul- 
 confidence; and so, the orphan had easily unburdened her 
 heart to the sympathetic schemer. 
 
 It was far different when Gladys spoke out with falter- 
 ing accents to Wyman. They were alone on the deck, 
 and the girl's failing voice and broken accents told him of 
 
 delicate feelings new to him. 
 
 T 2 
 
270 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 
 
 < ' You shall never repent your kindness ! I will show to 
 you how I can return your noble generosity ! There is a 
 great world on whose threshold I stand. It is lit up with 
 the rays of art. It throbs with the sweetness of song. 
 When I have earned a place in the hearts of the great 
 generous public, if I am not beaten in this race of life, I 
 can return your present help, but my grateful heart will 
 always hold you sacred, as a brother, as one who has lifted 
 me out of darkness." " Don't speak of it, Miss Lyndon, I 
 am confident of your future success, but, you are agitated. 
 Let me conduct you below. Some other time, we can talk 
 of all this; when you are settled in Paris; when you have 
 had the opinions of the great experts upon your voice." 
 And, he was really honest, at the moment, for the girl, 
 clinging to his arm, was now looking up at him with softly 
 shining eyes, and it smote his heart that she trusted him 
 so implicitly, so fearlessly. She would have been fairer 
 game if she were rusee, and had touched the cup of Life. 
 
 Wyman learned to interpret that strange feeling later 
 when he strayed alone into great silent cathedrals, where 
 his foot waked the echoes of God's hallowed temples. 
 The half-fledged borderer, silent in awe, paused there 
 frightened at the audible proof of his own presence on the 
 threshold. ' ' I have no business to be here, " he humbly and 
 involuntarily, admitted; and so, on this first night of the 
 proud girl's shy avowal, he felt that he stood upon the 
 threshold of a new womanhood, one too fair, too pure, too 
 holy to be prof aned by his presence. And yet, the fatal 
 glamor of her beauty, the thrill of her witching voice, the 
 magnetic thrall which, unknown to herself, she cast over 
 him, the banked fires of his passion, all these held him on 
 the course which marked her as his future prey. But 
 awed by her virginal trust in his manhood and honor, 
 startled at her blind belief in his being the man he 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 271 
 
 claimed to be, he muttered as he walked the deck alone. 
 " By God! she is truly a human icicle. If I ever hear 
 that girl say, ' I love you,' I will have to marry her," and 
 his feet, unfamiliar with the paths of rectitude, and the 
 mazes of high life, stumbled often as he went on his way, 
 borne over the rude Atlantic billows. 
 
 He had long been subjected to rough half -confidences 
 of the doughty western financial "general." " Wyman, 
 my dear boy," Buford had boomed out, " I know that 
 you have some money scheme in London and Paris. You 
 are not merely here for a good time. You are much too 
 young to retire ! I don't care how much money you have got. 
 Now, I am a bit lonely, you see," he became confidential 
 over his fourth brandy and soda. ' ' To be nailed always 
 to my wife and daughter, is a little, just a little, too wear- 
 ing. They both want to rush off to Paris, millinery and 
 all that ; but, I have some important private affairs in London. 
 Come over there with me. Go out into society a bit. 
 Look around a little. I'll make you all solid with the 
 American minister. He's going to present my people at 
 Court, by and by. I can give you a clear footing in busi- 
 ness and moneyed circles. Then, when we are done, you 
 and I can slip off, and have a little racket together, on the 
 continent." 
 
 The new candidate for Nob Hill favor, thought instantly 
 of the "very present help," in his schemes for marketing 
 a portion of the " Lone Star." He was conscious of the 
 future advantages of an entry of his own name, in the 
 "Librod'oro" of San Francisco. "I might do worse than 
 marry that Buford girl! " he thought. 
 
 It seemed that the house of Buford was "securely 
 planted" on the great hill, where a budding Californian 
 autocracy now wore divided crowns, and, it ehowed no 
 present symptoms of "sliding down." " I think I'll see if 
 
272 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 loneliness and a little hard work, will not warm up my 
 Snow Queen. It may bring her to reacon;" so he thought 
 and hence, promptly answered: l 'General, I will thank- 
 fully accept your kind offer." He mused, "lean leave 
 Milly Hammond to knock about Paris alone a bit, arid 
 Morani can have her little secret game easily watched for 
 me." 
 
 The rapprochement of the two rich men did not in- 
 clude Mrs. Hammond and Gladys Lyndon. The matron 
 was airing her most charming graces, and Miss Lyndon's 
 voice had already betrayed itself. Thus, while the 
 steamer passed on, in smooth seas, under mellow summer 
 skies, there were those of the passengers who lingered in 
 delight to watch the rapt face of the happy girl at the 
 piano in the ladies " Social hall." 
 
 Seated in a quiet corner, Mr. John Wayne Otis, whose 
 card bore the words " Tremont Club, Boston," while veil- 
 ing his growing interest, keenly studied the peculiar tie 
 binding the beautiful Miss Lyndon to Wyman, whom he in- 
 stinctively extremely disliked. Otis, ' ' Jack " or ' ' Wayne, " 
 to his friends, was now returning to the continent, to fin- 
 ish certain delayed researches in Paris, which had busied 
 him since he had left Harvard a dozen years before, with 
 the still illusive purpose of finishing his great work 
 upon "Modern Architecture." An easy future, a large 
 acquaintance, an all round aptitude at athletics, hunting 
 and yachting, and a varying purpose, enabled Mr. Jack 
 Otis to drift easily along in life, taking current notes of 
 men and things, in a delightfully lotos-like way. He had 
 long ago, finished all his globe trotting, and the great "pur- 
 pose of his life" had so far returned to him, that he was now 
 casting out a sheet-anchor for a considerable stay in Paris. 
 Jack had achieved a " very good time " in New York and 
 Boston, during the past winter, and was, therefore, now 
 
FRO3I SHORE TO SHORE. 273 
 
 hoping that a sudden plenitude of ideas would graft him 
 on the French stock, long enough for the American blos- 
 soms of his vicarious studies to bear golden fruit. 
 
 He had been startled, on the night of the girl's first 
 earnest avowal of gratitude to Wyman, to be the involun- 
 tary spectator of her clinging to Wyman's arm in an ap- 
 pealing manner, and her evident agitation as the nouveau 
 riche led the excited orphan girl to the companionway. 
 
 "Well, I'll be hanged if I can make it out!" cried Otis, 
 the next evening, as he tossed his half smoked cigar over 
 into the boiling wake of the liner,and then sullenly "turned 
 in." Old Orion " sloping slowly to the west," told him 
 none of the secrets of the long evening walks of Wyman 
 and Gladys Lyndon. " If this is any ' Romance of the 
 Nineteenth Century,' I'll jump overboard," growled the 
 Bostonian. ' l This is a noble woman, if there is any seal of 
 nature which can not be counterfeited. It is, however, a 
 strange trio. The handsome, giddy dame, a Queen of Dia- 
 monds; this blue-eyed beauty with brows of light, a queen 
 of Hearts, to be; the Westerner, a lucky Jack of Spades, 
 and queerly shuffled into this pack of Life's cards. They 
 are diverse in every way. They should soon naturally 
 drift apart, and yet, there is evidently some hidden pur- 
 pose; and this young ' Bonanza star,' he seems to be himself 
 in some way, attached to that 'wild ass of the wilderness,' 
 General Hiram Buford. He is devotedly nursed, too, by 
 the reigning Queen of the House of Buford, and, moreover, 
 is not inimical to the Princess Buford, she of the green eyes, 
 and molasses-candy colored hair. And these and those, are 
 divided " by the dark tide of royal blood," which cuts off 
 the Golden Ass and his brood, from all people of slimmer 
 exchequer." 
 
 Jack Otis had early "pasted in his hat" the adage, 
 " Mind your own business," and yet, his soul was drawn 
 
274 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 to Gladys Lyndon by the matchless witchery of her voice, 
 by the proud reserve of her manner, by the nameless charm 
 which lingered around her stately presence. In vain he 
 sought for a fitting key to the enigma, and the discovery of 
 several furtive tete-a-tetes between General Buford and 
 the vivacious Mrs. Hammond, at night, near the jungles 
 of the "torrid zone " of the smoke stacks, only increased 
 his wonder. "Ah! the General makes incursions into 
 Wyman's unguarded lines, while the young capitalist 
 worms himself into the bosom of his family." It was a 
 strange tangle, and Otis, who had himself spent a winter 
 " on trial" in San Francisco, and had experienced that 
 peculiar environment, known as a " hearty Calif ornian wel- 
 come," blushed to own that he was forced to ascribe this 
 singular state of affairs again to " the climate," that poor 
 oft-burdened scapegoat, which meekly suffereth much 
 aspersion by the Golden Gate. 
 
 The accidental fall of a book enabled Mr. Otis to win a 
 smile, and a low-murmured "Thank you," from Miss 
 Lyndon, a few days after leaving New York. The prepar- 
 ation for a mid-ocean concert, in which Mr. Jack . Otis 
 was "de rigueur,"the Master of Ceremonies, brought him 
 also formally into the circle of Gladys Lyndon's "steamer 
 acquaintance." Youth, time, and opportunity did the 
 rest. The little companion volume, Thomas a Kempis, 
 the girl's sweet, serious, stately womanhood, the sympa- 
 thetic reaching out of her troubled heart, to meet his own 
 soul, yearning toward her, made the middle and closing 
 days of this voyage memorable in the life of the man who 
 was destined by Fate never to complete that monument of 
 midnight toil, the magnum opus, " Modern Architecture." 
 Its completed title and some fragmentary chapter headings 
 will be handed down for many generations in the Otis 
 family, as a visible proof of how near Uncle Jack came to 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 275 
 
 being known over the whole thinking world, as an orig- 
 inal genius and a mind of the first order! The necessity 
 of frequent rehearsals of the musical program, the rapid 
 growth of the mystic fibers knitting these two drifting 
 souls together, the long conferences over art and music, 
 the placing of a really solid Parisian experience at the dis- 
 posal of Miss Lyndon, and much star-gazing, brought them 
 very near in heart, searching the horizon while around them, 
 "all unheeded, the waste of waters drifted by," had its 
 charms, and, it also developed Mr. John Wayne Otis into a 
 first-class builder of " Castles in Spain." He had learned 
 all the simple story of her future hopes, and had divided 
 the thrill of her noble womanly ambition. Side by side 
 on the swelling tide, they glided along unwittingly into 
 the delicious confidential intimacy of nature's own selec- 
 tion. And, the shy girl, now unfolding, in the quiet of 
 this congenial heart companion, leaf after leaf of her 
 nature, glowed as a conqueror through her timid heaving 
 bosom, showing out the rosy life and love gleaming there 
 within in the alabaster lamp of her pure heart. It seemed 
 so strange, it seemed as if the viewless spirits of the air 
 had breathed some awakening upon these two stranger 
 hearts, for, they were all alone out on the sea, and the 
 cultured mind of the young Harvard man found its sup- 
 plement in the delicate, dreamy enthusiasm of the pure- 
 hearted girl. There was neither haste nor hurry. There 
 was no kindling of a passion-fanned glow. The current 
 of their lives flowed together in the mingled tide of a 
 common sympathy and aspiration, for, they were in the 
 very morning time of life, and only to be near each other 
 seemed to be the dearest boon of the friendly stars which 
 found them so often now lingering on deck in late con- 
 verse. 
 
 It was not strange that the confident Wyman noted not 
 
276 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 the growing intimacy of the man and maid, for his own 
 appetite for pronounced "high life," of the pictorial 
 order, grew daily, and in a certain general loose way, 
 that pompous financial Boanerges, Hiram Buford, devoted 
 much of his valuable time to past reminiscences and 
 keen future plot-weaving with the keen, fresh-brained 
 young speculator. 
 
 Happy Milly Hammond was also constrained, by mere 
 prudence, to allow Frederick Wyman, Esq. , a free field in 
 the presence of her redoubtable secret enemy, Mrs. Buford, 
 whom she feared, and she also nourished a budding revenge 
 in planting a little crop of fern seed, to surround with an 
 invisible charm, a brilliant future campaign in San 
 Francisco. It was fenced in with a hedge to be forever 
 impregnable to the argus-eyed Mrs. Buford. 
 
 " The fact is, General," the fair Hammond whispered, as 
 she leaned heavily on the arm of this " Strong man in 
 Israel," "you need a daily congenial companionship. A 
 man of your prominence," and here, the General swelled 
 visibly, l i should have a little eyrie of his own where he 
 can have the company of a friendly soul, unknown to all 
 the cold schemers of every-day life." 
 
 Milly Hammond had located that same " eyrie" in her 
 own cosy house on her return, and the "bald-headed 
 eagle" who now blinked under her honey words, was both 
 hopeful and complaisant. ' ' I have long thought of such 
 an idea. It fills a long felt want ! Wait, only Wait, till 
 we are home again, in San Francisco," the thick-voiced 
 old Romeo whispered, and so, the star of hope shone very 
 brightly out for him over the future years to be, for, in 
 her unprejudiced mind, Milly Hammond had decided that 
 some strong wave of fortune might sweep her off her 
 present safe perch, far away from Wyman, whose vanity 
 and egoistic conceit she had recognized with judicial calm- 
 ness, the light of long experience in varying manhood. 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 277 
 
 1 He is young and also dead gone ' on himself. Young 
 men are also so much harder to handle than men of a cer- 
 tain age, sensible men, like the General," and Mrs. Milly 
 Hammond thus closed her eyes on this night of most 
 pleasant prognostications with a dreamy far-away look, 
 which boded no good for the future peace of that highly 
 illustrated fashion plate, Mrs. General 'Hiram Buford, 
 for she had sworn to get even." 
 
 Mr. Jack Otis bore a furrowed brow, as the steamer 
 gradually neared the Old World. He now walked the 
 swaying decks, often alone, when sheer prudence kept him 
 from the side of Gladys Lyndon, with the instinctive 
 jealousy of a lover. He also avoided Mr. Frederick 
 Wyman, but his care was altogether unnecessary. 
 
 The daily additions to a higher pedestal whereon to 
 worship himself, was Wyman's continual work. He was 
 now the " observed of all observers," and a mantle of the 
 newest dignity settled upon his shoulders, for the compan- 
 ionship of Hiram Buford had made him a steamer notable. 
 He already saw his triumphal sweep up Nob Hill as a 
 conqueror, in his own carriage. A fair-faced wife gazing 
 out from the palace windows, with waiting smiles for her 
 returning lord. This would have splendidly completed 
 the picture of this Virginia City Claude Melnotte. And 
 yet, it liked my lord not, to fancy the ' ' spirit of human 
 absinthe " hovering over him in the guise of that alert and 
 passionate-hearted, spoiled child of fortune, ' ' Minnie 
 Buford. " God knows, she is bright enough," Wyman 
 muttered. But, she has only a steel wedge in place of a 
 heart. Now, if Gladys !" And, though the feet of Minnie 
 were "beautiful upon the mountains" of the sacred 
 western aristocracy, there was a burning drift of passion's 
 boiling tide which carried him back to the side of Gladys, 
 the friendlesss child of genius. 
 
278 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MA.RIQUITA. 
 
 " Milly, this ' young Yankee prince ' seems growing very 
 devoted to Gladys," at last, remarked Wyman; for Jack 
 Otis seemed to him to be a lofty specimen pattern of Boston 
 coldness, and, by common consent, he was the "Prince 
 Charming, " of the voyage. "I don't see what there is in 
 that chap. He's a sort of draughtsman, or ' rising con- 
 tractor,' is he not?" 
 
 1 ' Ah ! Fred, let him alone. He has taken a good deal 
 of friendly interest in Gladys' musical plans. He is a 
 swell in his way, and, there's a good deal, too, in a Yan- 
 kee swell, of his class," mused Mrs. Hammond." "He is 
 unexceptionable, and, he knows his Paris. Now, the very 
 delicacy of Gladys' position toward you, makes her very 
 anxious that gossip should not connect your two names. 
 He will soon drift away when we are all settled in 
 Paris." 
 
 Mr. Jack Otis, contemplating a tired sea bird perched 
 on the yard arm, whistled, " There's a sweet little cherub 
 who sits up aloft," and he secretly resolved not to drift very 
 far away from the woman whom he was learning to love. 
 He thought of her queening it in a certain old home near 
 Cambridge, when he was lord and master of its fringing 
 shade trees and fragrant lawn, where King George's 
 officers had taken their dish of tea in stately form, long be- 
 fore the baby stars gleamed on the world's brightest flag! 
 " Gladys, with her exquisite face, and her wild voice peal- 
 ing out to the sunny sky," he murmured. The possible 
 picture was a thrill to every nerve. " But, my mother," 
 he paused and ominously gazed at a black storm cloud 
 driving down upon them, " What would she say?" He 
 thought, with a sudden start, that he was the last of his 
 line. His stately mother had held up her head with Roman 
 pride when her eldest son was brought home from his 
 country's war, his sword lying on the flag covering his 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 279 
 
 gallant breast, cold forever in death. He had fallen a 
 bright sacrifice in the awful conflict 
 
 " That was waged with fiendish mania, 
 On the field of Spottsylvania." 
 
 She had guarded the proud silence of the grief of a mother 
 of heroes, and yet, Jack Otis knew she would sooner see 
 him, too, laid away in the grave than to have him break 
 the "even current" of the honor of the old family by a 
 mesalliance. "What do I really know of this girl? "a 
 gnawing fiend of prudence whispered. "Her obscure 
 youth, her silence as to her family name, the close cramp- 
 ing wall of a convent education, confining her splendid 
 mind, her western point of social departure (my mother's 
 especial aversion), and, the company I find her in ! " 
 
 Jack Otis recognized that flaring light, Mrs. Milly Ham- 
 mond, as a star member of the * ' Executive Committee of 
 the Us Girls' Society." He trusted not to the sleek and 
 decorous exterior of this tiger in ribbony chains, for, in 
 sooth, "playing propriety," was galling to Milly, and, 
 she now promised herself secretly a " horrible revenge" in 
 an " out and out" Parisian frolic with Fred, and also a little 
 " exploring tour" with the buoyant Hiram Buford, "on 
 the strict Q. T. " The General felt himself quite a Lothario 
 in moving on this little sly game along, under the very eyes of 
 the partner of his bosom. Mrs. Hammond was "evening 
 up, " daily for the cold cuts of the wife. t , 
 
 " But, there is nothing in common between them," de- 
 cided Jack. He only saw beneath the silken armor of 
 Milly a very fallible nature. He murmured as he gazed 
 on her gyrations around the deck, in the words of his old 
 Professor, the beloved Holmes: 
 
 " We've seen a deal of life, my boy, its varnish and veneer, 
 Its stucco fronts of character flake off and disappearl " 
 
280 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQTJITA. 
 
 " Oliver Wendell Holmes was right," gaily cried Jack, his 
 heart lightening. "It is only her character which is all 
 'stucco,' for, her figure and complexion are nature's prod- 
 igal gifts. This much of Mrs. Hammond, is real." It 
 was even so, and the fair delegate from California thanked 
 God for it, too, nightly, as she stood before the diminutive 
 glass in her lonely cabin. 
 
 "But, there's no stucco in Gladys. She is real and all 
 that I would have her," he stoutly murmured, and yet, 
 he knew there was still the silent citadel of her heart to be 
 r,tormed. Her unawakened nature might glow in a rose 
 light under some other man's touch than his own. " She 
 cannot design a present marriage with that Jack of Spades, 
 now in training for the entry as ' Golden Ass, No. 2 ! ' 
 No! He will probably marry Miss Minnie, and become a 
 member of that great 'moral show' of agglomerated 
 eminence, known in Californian lingo as ' the Buford out- 
 fit.' I wonder if he is a relative of this bright-eyed 
 kestrel, Madame Hammond, the free companion." 
 Horrible memories of vanished men he had known, who 
 had "gone wrong," at the altar, now haunted him. 
 
 Alas ! Of all the boys whose ' ' faith had blinded their 
 eyes," not one, had " lived happily ever afterwards." On 
 the contrary, the men of his own grade who had married 
 "interesting orphans," " wandering Russian princesses," 
 "rising artists," "stray Italian Contesses," watering 
 place ' ' Marquises, " or ' 'Hungarian nobledames, " with dark 
 flashing eyes, and a "pathetic smile," had been afterwards 
 seen, in search of either the most available divorce courts, 
 or else, sought shops where cheap revolvers were within 
 the reach of the-most modest purse. A few, had sullenly 
 drank themselves to death. In theory, Jack Otis con- 
 temned all romance. He was a most practical landlord, also, 
 and very acute in casting up his own bank account. He had 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 281 
 
 grimly smiled at all these uncanny social happenings of 
 the past. He had sighed 
 
 " They go! The festive cusses go! " 
 
 as these men, " shot madly from their spheres," and, had 
 often laughed, "No, sir! No King Cophetua part in the 
 play of Life for me. " The shrewd remark of his old Scotch 
 nurse haunted him : ' ' Marry a cat of your ain kind, an' 
 she'll no' scratch ye." In fact, his own negro factotum, 
 Mr. Jackson, " a gentleman of color," who " carried the 
 banner," for the Otis family, in feudal style, had re- 
 marked, as Jack's own college chum had "bet the queen 
 to win," in a singular alliance, founded upon the sudden 
 discovery of a "peerless beauty" of strange antecedents, 
 " The most prettiest snakes, has often, the most pizenist 
 skins!" 
 
 Mr. John Wayne Otis held the Admiralty Court of 
 Love in solemn session,for some time, as he walked the deck, 
 the secret admiration of certain shy sisters, and falling even 
 under the approving eye of Mrs. Hammond. "All that 
 boy needs, is a little drawing out," murmured Milly, gaz- 
 ing at the neat form of the young athlete, whose clustering 
 brown curls, bright gray-blue eyes, sweeping brown mus- 
 tache, and sunny face, gave a cheering brightness to the 
 resolute character shown by his broad brow. Thew T ell-cut 
 classic head, with its regular features, square jaw and 
 carven soldierly chin, showed a man, not a mere mask of 
 life. Deceptive were his "summer grays," for with a 
 crimson handkerchief knotted over a forehead under which 
 gleaming eyes set in the frenzy of America's Olympian 
 games, Jack Otis had shown the finest gleaming brown 
 torso, and sternest whipcord muscles, in the whole crew, 
 when the captain of the eight had yelled "Now, "and, un- 
 
282 MiSS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 der the eyes of his sweet " college girl," he had helped to 
 thrash Yale, in a never forgotten victory. To use the 
 words of that pretty girl, long since drifted far away on 
 matrimonial seas, ' ' Jack Otis was all there. " 
 
 In his moody unrest, the young man felt himself drift- 
 ing into the grip of the rosy God. He murmured, "I 
 can't give her up. I will not. It is Kismet ! ' The honey 
 dew has been dropped upon mine eyes. ' His dainty work ! 
 
 Cupid, 
 
 " The God of Love, and, Benedicite, 
 How mighty and how great a lord is he!" 
 
 A sudden interruption caused the adjournment of the 
 Admiralty Court, sine die. Miss Gladys Lyndon ap- 
 peared upon the deck, " a daughter of the gods, divinely 
 tall, and most divinely fair." Jack, the prudent, at a 
 glimpse of her wind-blown golden hair, as he saw the will- 
 ing breezes take her in fee, when his eyes rested upon her 
 glowing face, and the winds swept her robe into gracefully 
 clinging folds, abandoned entirely the judicial view of the 
 case; for, Samuel Taylor Coleridge must have had in his 
 poetic eye the vision of a pretty woman, the beloved of the 
 elements, the sister of the nodding roses, a graceful god- 
 dess striding on the deck, when he daintily hymned : 
 
 " Whatever stirs this mortal frame, 
 All are but ministers of love, 
 And feed his sacred flame." 
 
 Your roguish Dan Cupid is even yet, a great lover of 
 high winds and rainy days, "when the rain it raineth 
 every day." 
 
 Jack, the deceitful, rather over-vaunted his knowledge 
 of the musical circles of Paris, on this very afternoon. 
 When the stars slowly swung past them that night, Mr. 
 John Wayne Otis treasured the banker's address of the 
 
FROM SHORE TO SHORE. 283 
 
 young lady in Paris, "and, had formally tendered his serv- 
 ices," having a vague idea too, of developing his own voice! 
 The " sacred flame " was so plenteously fed, that the Bos- 
 tonian's brow was gloomy indeed, as he glowered at Mr. 
 Frederick Wyman, in triumph aiding the ladies at the 
 Liverpool landing float in the " usual formalities." 
 
 The night before their arrival Otis had taken counsel of 
 his heart. With a singular originality of mind he reflected 
 that his own personal status and history was nebulous 
 enough to the woman, whose eyes now bade him hope, for 
 it was the summer-time of life to them both, and, they 
 strayed away on different paths, that last night, in the 
 Irish sea, to secretly meet in Dreamland. ' ' I would only be 
 a mad fool to thrust myself upon her, now," the anxious 
 Bostonian was forced to decide. " But, I will watch over 
 her. I will be near her in the strange land of her new 
 residence. Behind the cloud of her prudence, there is no dark 
 hidden story of the past. This is the one fair maid, of all 
 the world for me," he swore, in his loving heart of hearts; 
 "and, she shall know yet, though parted, that my heart 
 goes out to her, God bless her! in her lonely fight for 
 fame, and I may yet be all in all to her, for, fame alone 
 never filled the heart of any loving woman! " Still, he saw 
 certain things, only as through a glass darkly, and his 
 note book bore these lines, expressive of the state of a 
 mind, vowed solemnly once to architectural research^vhen 
 he saw her disappear from his sight at Liverpool, for they 
 went different ways : 
 
 LIKE SHIP8 THAT PASS. 
 
 Your soul, its fluttering signal showed, 
 My darling, in those dreaming eyes; 
 
 "Whose fringing lashes could not hide ' 
 
 The depths of Love's sweet Paradise. 
 
 Far from the world, you came to me, 
 A sea born vision, memory's glass, ^ 
 
284 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Will bring you back, though swept away, 
 Like ships that pass, like ships that pass. 
 
 I may not read the blushes, sweet, 
 
 Which mantled on your glowing cheek; 
 I dare not linger at your side, 
 
 'Twere vain to hope, 'twere mad to speak. 
 Gray distance hides you now, afar, 
 
 My griefs, a love-racked heart harass; 
 Good-bye; hope's ensign flutters down, 
 
 Like ships that pass, like ships that pass. 
 
 Perchance some favoring gale of life, 
 
 On the uncertain, heaving sea 
 Of Fate, may blow from happier shores, 
 
 And, waft you, dearest, back to me. 
 Your head at rest upon my breast, 
 
 Your eyes, twin guiding stars, alas! 
 'Tis vain to dream; their light is lost, 
 
 Like ships that pass, like ships that pass. 
 
 A raw, sloppy day in London welcomed the arrival of 
 the travelers by the Britannic. Brave, defiant Milly 
 Hammond finally extracted a frozen smile of recognition 
 and adieu, at the station, from Mrs. Pauline Buf ord. < ' Ah ! 
 I will pay you off yet," the fair condottieri muttered, for 
 the vociferous General Hiram had found time enough to 
 secretly squeeze her hand, and then murmur: 
 
 " Don't forget, it only rests with you, to keep Wyman 
 safely out of the way." 
 
 She demurely whispered : < ' Trust me. I'll fix all that. '* 
 
 He roared out a genial horse laugh, as he debouched to* 
 ward the Langham, with his tribe. 
 
 Miss Minnie Buf ord enjoyed a most vicious pleasure in 
 tying up some of Frederick Wyman's future days, with a 
 galling half -confidence, half -promise, murmured in words 
 which, while insinuating her ownership of the candidate 
 for Nob Hill honors, still left her free. 
 
PROM SHORE TO SHORE. 285 
 
 "And now, for Paris!" gaily cried Wyman, who had 
 privately arranged with the imposing Buford for a speedy 
 return, after the financial launching and the subsequent 
 good time. 
 
 In the wilds of the Charing Cross Hotel, Mrs. Milly 
 Hammond severely matronized Gladys Lyndon, while 
 Wyman, piloted by the accomplished Morani, visited the 
 city in search of the hard golden portraiture (slightly 
 flattered), of the estimable Queen Victoria. 
 
 Gladys Lyndon, vaguely reminded of the loss of Otis, 
 was depressed and nervous, as she gazed out on the smoky 
 sky. The cheerless Thames, the unfamiliar surroundings, 
 reminded her of the coming " fight to the finish " against 
 both fate and obscurity. 
 
 " I hope that I shall see him again soon," she murmured, 
 with a sudden flood of tears, as she turned away from the 
 window pane, sheeted with a driving rain. It would have 
 made Jack Otis' heart leap up in joy, 011 his lonely way, 
 had he known the personal pronoun was relative to him, 
 alone, of all the world. 
 
 A strangely startled man was Mr. Frederick Wyman, 
 jolting along to the bank, when Morani slyly whispered: 
 "I saw that man Hooper, the runaway broker, on the 
 street when I went out, but, lost him in the crowd. I tried 
 to follow him." 
 
 < ' Your fortune is made if you can find that man, when 
 we come back," cried Wyman. 
 
 And, the valet smiled, " Then, I'll run him down for 
 you." 
 
 But, Wyman was lost in a new fear. 
 
 17 2 
 
$ DEVEREUX OF THE MA2IQU1TA, 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 TRYING THE TITLE. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES 
 
 " How shall we manage to slip away from Gladys, for 
 the fortnight before you go over to London? " merrily 
 queried Mrs. Milly Hammond, as she sat in the very pret- 
 tiest morning costume, at breakfast, with Mr. Frederick 
 Wyman a few days later at the Grand Hotel in Paris. It 
 was only a brief time after their arrival, but Miss Lyndon 
 was already absent,making a final selection of her "pension," 
 and definitely arranging the details of her finishing musical 
 course with the greatest of living vocal masters. Wyman 
 was now contented and happy, for the girl seemed here to 
 realize to the full the great bond of obligation between 
 them, and the as yet, unpaid debt of his great generosity. 
 " She will come around all right soon. A little loneliness 
 will melt her," thought Wyman, twisting his mustache 
 with quite the air of a ' ' flaneur. " 
 
 " Bless your simple soul," answered the sybarite miner, 
 to the anxious Milly, < ' nothing is easier. Gladys is 
 music mad, and, her eyes are turned in on herself. Now, 
 
FRESH FIEL^ AND PASTURES NEW. 287 
 
 I have been down at the American Exchange. I have 
 found a very snug nest out at St. Cloud. All that you 
 must do, is to receive a sudden telegram that one of your 
 most intimate San Francisco friends is very ill at Neuilly, 
 and, you must go and stay a few days with her. Once out 
 there, you are all right. I will drop in and see our bud- 
 ding prima donna myself, every day or so, and, as I will 
 have received letters from you, I will bring her all the 
 news." 
 
 "Good! Good," cried the fair flower of Van Ness 
 avenue, as she blew him a kiss over the crystal rim of her 
 wine glass. " She goes to her pension to-night, and we 
 can go to Saint Cloud then; but," the fair frolic- 
 some dame continued, "suppose we should meet her in 
 the street? " A sudden alarm shook the lady's nerve. 
 
 * ' All that you will want is a veil handy for our town 
 excursions," lightly answered Wyman. " Besides," he 
 gaily cried, as he leaned towards her, with glowing eyes, 
 " I am tired of all this make-believe life. You are not 
 likely to ever meet her where I will take you. Milly 
 you shall now see Paris, in style," he ardently cried, 
 " fresh fields and pastures new! Now, I can give you 
 just two weeks, and it is for you, little woman, to set the 
 place, for, I have really some important business in Lon- 
 don." 
 
 His brow clouded as he thought of the forger Hooper's 
 presence in London. " The one man on earth I have a just 
 cause to fear, and, I suppose he has that she-devil still with 
 him. He must be trying some clever new dodge, for, if 
 recognized, he might be called on from Scotland Yard; 
 and, there are always plenty of San Francisco men in Lon- 
 don who might recognize him. " The capitalist strolled 
 out of the breakfast-room, and entering his apartment, rang 
 for Morani. A few whispered directions caused that 
 smart sou of Belia,! tQ grin in a, furtive manner, 
 
288 MISS DEVEEEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 " All right, sir! " he smiled, but, I must know the name 
 to use for the luggage, you know." Wyman laughed. 
 
 " Clean off all the old marks on our traps, both hers 
 and mine." He indicated the breakfast-room, where a 
 thrilling voice was caroling away in glee. The Burgundy 
 was excellent. " By the way, Tony," questioned the 
 master, " how was this fellow Hooper got up?" 
 
 "Oh! quite the city gent, sir; English business style, 
 smooth shaven, London togs, sir; looked quite at home 
 and was taking it very easy. He didn't look afraid, but 
 like a regular business man." 
 
 ' ' Ah! " mused Wyman, as he rejoined Milly Hammond, 
 "I suppose that Vinnie and Hooper are going in now, too, 
 'for fresh fields and pastures new,' with a safe change of 
 names also." And, he laughed as he kissed Milly's wine- 
 burdened eyelids. 
 
 "Who are we to be, anyway? that is, at St. Cloud. 
 What is our royal name? " His velvet-eyed companion 
 blushed, and then smiled demurely. 
 
 "Fred," she said as she readjusted the flowers in her 
 corsage, "let it be 'Mr. and Mrs. Burnham.' We will 
 yet, need to use the whole alphabet, I am sure." 
 
 " All right! " rejoined her friend in need. "I'll be bap- 
 tized so, through Morani. I'll send him now over with 
 the traps. We start, after Gladys goes to her ' ( musical 
 tread mill." 
 
 That night, in the wee sma' hours, as " Mrs. Burnham" 
 looked out on a pretty fragrant bower at St. Cloud, after 
 an exciting evening wherein the ' ' elephant " was slyly 
 peeped at, she smiled and said: 
 
 " Fred, this is life itself, and, you are a darling boy;" 
 whereat, Mr. Frederick Wyman smiled in the modest 
 consciousness of well doing, and gently answered : 
 
 " I think I, too, shall like Paris." He was now without a 
 
FEESH FIELDS AND PASTUKES NEW. 289 
 
 single care in the world. " That fellow Strong," he mur- 
 mured, "is left, left out in the cold; left * by a large 
 majority! ' ' And, he was wise in his own conceit. 
 
 It was a most peculiar irony of fate which had torn 
 Counselor Waldo Strong away from an increasing legal 
 business in San Francisco, to make some quiet private re- 
 searches in Virginia City, on the subject of the Hooper 
 forgeries. There were some sturdy English directors 
 away in London who were greatly interested in the bank 
 which had been principally victimized. The San Fran- 
 cisco manager, too, nursed a vain hope of recouping some 
 of the heavy losses by future quiet researches into the 
 old affairs of Hooper, Bowen & Co. in the State of Nevada. 
 
 Waldo Strong, who had thrown himself back into his 
 professional work with a mad desire to Avin his way once 
 more to wealth, to where he might yet offer fortune and a 
 home to the vanished singer, accepted the representa- 
 tion of the powerful bank in this legal quest "I may 
 find out here some clue to this cold-hearted scoundrel 
 Wyman's dark deeds up there," he muttered, and so forth 
 he sallied, too, to graze "in fresh woods and pastures new." 
 His heart was very sore within him, for he had long un- 
 availingly tried to trace the pathway of the fair child of 
 promise, whom he worshiped with all the hidden ardor of 
 a fiery heart, burning under his cold exterior. Gladys Lyn- 
 don had come into his life " as comes the summer wind," 
 and now, there was only darkness in his soul! 
 
 There were new tenants in the Van Ness avenue man- 
 sion, and the cautious agent could only give him a bank- 
 er's address in New York City, for the forwarding of 
 letters. "I presume Mrs. Hammond will be traveling in 
 the East yet for some time, as the house is let for a year. 
 That, is all that I know. Her husband, " and then, both 
 men joined in Strong's involuntary laugh. 
 
290 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 On the first night, when Mr. Strong had obtained per- 
 mission to begin a search of the Virginia City mining 
 records, out of hours, his mind wandered far away in 
 search of the fair goddess with the shining eyes. He little 
 knew that she, herself, in the cold, cheerless sham comfort 
 of a Parisian pension, looked out at the moon shining 
 down there in alien skies. She was herself wandering "in 
 fresh woods and pastures new," and, had been most easily 
 restrained, by her promise to the adroit Mrs. Hammond, 
 not to write to California at present. l < It would never 
 do, my darling," said the very circumspect Mrs. Ham- 
 mond, "that we should be generally known to have voy- 
 aged, on the same steamer with Mr. Wyman! People 
 are so uncharitable," and, the good, circumspect lady 
 sighed. 
 
 Blessed be ignorance! Blessed be the veil drawn over 
 current events, by time and distance! Blessed be the 
 friendly shades which hide from so many aching and 
 throbbing hearts, that which it were a death-knell to hear, a 
 last crushing misery to know! There are griefs which thus, 
 in mercy, are delayed, to minimize the bitter pangs which 
 tear, the rending agonies which crush the soul forever! 
 Hope still shows its shining star to the absent one, where 
 often, knowledge would bow the proud head, and bring 
 the bitterest tears to loving eyes. So, blessed be the kindly 
 demon, who hides that which is known, often alas! too 
 soon, at the best awful certainty ! 
 
 Changed hearts, wayward fortunes, impending strokes 
 of fate, these "days of grace," this kind nepenthe of lov- 
 ing doubt, of hoping against hope, are blessed easements 
 in this weary world. So, the toiling, stern-hearted law- 
 yer knew not that the woman he loved leaned out from 
 the casement that night, and thought of a lover, in a sudden 
 flash of self-knowledge, but, only of the absent Jack Otis. 
 
FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 291 
 
 Paris was so lonely to the ardent girl! The mincing 
 formalities, the cold curiosity, the mechanical environment 
 of the musical coterie she had drifted into chilled her. She 
 hungered this night, for the clasp of Jack Otis' hand, for his 
 clear ringing manly voice, the frank glance of his honest eyes, 
 and alone, an ardent being touched with genius, " but yet 
 a woman," a very woman, she sought her pillow in a flood 
 of sudden tears. When ever did one loving soul suffice 
 itself? u I wonder if I shall see him soon again?" she 
 murmured, taking up the tender refrain of the loved and 
 longing, and her gentle heart was not comforted, but yet, 
 far out on the broken moon-lit waters of the broken Chan- 
 nel, John Wayne Otis of Boston, was conscious of a burn- 
 ing desire to hasten on the steamer, driving merrily 
 ahead. "I am a fool," he fretted. " I suppose that she 
 has half forgotten my face, but I'll very soon find out," he 
 vigorously and cheerfully concluded. 
 
 Two weeks after the beginning of the little ' < stolen nest " 
 lark at Saint Cloud, Mrs. Hilly Hammond sat in the rose- 
 bowered garden of the cottage, which had gaily sheltered 
 "Mr. and Mrs. Burnham." The lines in the lady's pretty 
 face were of the most sober cast of thought. She gazed 
 furtively at Morani, who was deftly arranging their joint 
 movables and assorting them for a special individual de- 
 livery; for, Mr. Frederick Wyman had driven over to 
 Neuilly to post a decoy letter, informing Miss Gladys 
 Lyndon of the convalescence of Hilly 's sick friend. 
 Screening herself in an arbor, the lonely chatelaine was 
 intently studying a brief letter of her own, with the Lon- 
 don post-mark. 
 
 " It will be such a jolly lark," she smiled, "but, I fear I 
 can only have half glimpses of London. Still, Buford is a 
 solid sheet-anchor," she laughed lightly at her intending 
 deception; " I will do as he wishes." Pretty traitress! 
 
292 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 In good truth, Frederick Wyman had well exhausted 
 the novelty of his hide-and-seek exploit. That very 
 morning, he had received an imperative letter from the 
 burly General Buford. The doughty, bloodless warrior 
 wrote forcibly, if without Chesterfieldian elegance. * * Tele- 
 graph me at the Langham,when you arrive. I'll wait for 
 you there. I have now seen all my financial people here, 
 and now's your time, to get in with them and, get solid. 
 I'll give you a rattling good send-off. My own people 
 want to get over to Paris, and, after 1 have fixed you up, 
 we can go back there together, and have that little ' racket. ' 
 My ladies will be very busy a month with their shopping. 
 That's our golden time, my boy." 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman was returning from sending a 
 telegram, announcing his departure for London on the 
 night train, when he accidentally stumbled over John 
 Wayne Otis, of Boston. It was not singular that the two 
 young men flashed glances of veiled, hostile inquiry, 
 pointed mutely at each other. But, a few words of com- 
 mon place decided Otis to probe the situation a little as to 
 the beautiful singer. 
 
 "Have you seen Miss Lyndon since her arrival? Do 
 you know her present address? " the Bostonian casually 
 demanded; and, Wyman, with a prompt politeness, too 
 ready for the truth, professed his entire ignorance. 
 
 "I leave myself for London to-night, and then, may re- 
 turn to California," said the miner, with half -veiled eyes. 
 
 "And, Mrs. Mrs. Hammond, her friend, do you hap- 
 pen to know where she is?" The mention of that name, 
 reminded the deceitful Wyman that he must quickly pre- 
 pare his bird of passage for her ostensible return to Paris. 
 With a murmur of polite negation, Wyman bowed and 
 then passed on. 
 
 "I do not propose to have that Yankee fool pick up 
 
FKESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 293 
 
 either of these two ladies. I will tell Milly some cock- 
 and-bull story about my being followed, and, she can stay 
 here and hover near Gladys in my absence. I can surely 
 trust her, and. she will post me if this " Yankee prince" 
 looms up near Gladys, on the musical horizon." 
 
 Frederick Wyman was in a very happy mood, as he 
 raced back to St. Cloud. His reports from Brown, the 
 cashier, Wilder, and the main office of the "Lone Star," 
 told him that all was well. * i If I can now only ' work 
 the London market ' rightly, I can unload on these fat- 
 witted Englishmen, and yet, have a practical control. The 
 General can help me. I wonder what terms he would 
 exact. There is a loose million dollars in the deal if it is 
 well swung." In some queer premonitory way, Wyman 
 felt that these "Lone Star" maneuvers were doomed to 
 include a final procession under the wedding bell of 
 orchids, with Miss Minnie Buford as his bride. "By 
 Heaven! I might do worse. The connection is a right 
 royal one for California," and the crafty Wyman mused 
 with a deliberately-planned rapid scheme, in which he 
 shone out as the Faust, and, lonely Gladys Lyndon was 
 cast as Marguerite! 
 
 "I have it," he smiled. "A long engagement with' 
 Minnie, say a year. Before then, Buford must be made to 
 do yeoman's work for me here. I can so be free to see 
 Gladys at will. The winter will bring to her the lonely 
 hours, and I'll send Milly Hammond home in the spring. 
 Then the coast is clear. Yes! That's my plan," he 
 smiled wickedly. The fruit was near his hand! 
 
 As Wyman enjoyed his cigar, gazing at the world's 
 circus of pleasure in the crowded Bois, the woman "he 
 could trust" was reading for the first time the letter 
 she had received at St. Cloud; for General Buford 
 knew the address of Mrs. Burnham, and they had their 
 
294 MISS DEVEBEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 little ''private game" of larks, such larks! "I will 
 telegraph you to your bankers' care the moment Wyman 
 actually arrives. Then, come on to London, quietly, at 
 once, alone. The address which I enclose will be your 
 home. I have a party there in charge who will expect 
 you. I will come there to you at once. Simply telegraph 
 to me at my bankers when you will arrive in London. 
 The people at the house will immediately notify me. 
 You must, however, be my close prisoner for this ' peep 
 at London ' trip. You will have some one, though, to 
 conduct you where we cannot be with each other, 'and thus 
 spare you lonely hours." 
 
 The locality, " St. John's Wood," was for the first time 
 made known to the daring western traveler by the address 
 slip. ' ' It is such a lark, " she smiled, ' and Fred, such a 
 joke if he should find out!" She smiled grimly. "No, 
 he will not, for the General has far more to lose than I 
 have that tiger-cat wife, but, I'll lead her a dance." 
 Milly's velvet eyes hardened. 
 
 When the rosy morning tinted the flowery close of St. 
 Cloud, Mrs. Hammond had deftly rejoined the girl whose 
 days of incessant professional work had begun. When 
 Wyman, returning ostensibly from Neuilly, had with a 
 forced solicitude, tenderly bade her a passionate adieu at 
 the station restaurant, where they dined together before he 
 departed for London, he felt for the first time, the slight 
 galling of the rosy chain. 
 
 "You will not be lonely without me, Milly," he said, . 
 " for you have Gladys here to watch over. Don't fail to 
 telegraph to me if you need anything, and throw that fel- 
 low Otis off the track, if you meet him by any chance." 
 As Mr. Wyman uncoiled himself from Milly's clinging 
 arms, and the train drew out, the gay dissembler laughed, 
 "What a lark! " as she drove back to her hotel. < What 
 a lark I will have!" 
 
FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 295 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman felt that he had now entered 
 upon a golden tide of good fortune, as he discussed his 
 plans, with the clear-headed General in a private room at 
 the ' Langham " the next evening. He was most charm- 
 ingly located under the social wing of his new friend. He 
 had long and deeply thought of the ugly problem of James 
 Walter Hooper, the one dangerous wolf on his blind trail. 
 "He would not dare to face me here, but, he might blab, 
 in his cups, something to hurt me later." 
 
 So a Parisian friend of the expectant Morani was now 
 temporarily installed as Wyman's valet. "What's your 
 plan, Tony?" the captalist had demanded, as he had con- 
 ferred while crossing the Channel with his alert man. 
 
 "I am going to earn my reward money," the servitor 
 emiled. " It's not so very hard, I hope, but, you must give 
 me a free hand and release me for every moment of your 
 stay." 
 
 ' ' Do all you will, spend all the money you want, only 
 find him!" cried the master. "Now, what's your final 
 plan?" Tony scratched his head in deep thought. 
 
 "This fellow, you see, looked as if he was got up 
 'strictly for business,' when I saw him. He was very in- 
 tent, eager, and, headed down toward the city. He was 
 well ' brushed up ' to a London city air. Now, sir, he 
 would not dare to show himself in any society. He would 
 not be able to hang around the hotels and exchanges, too 
 many Californians always there. He never was a sport, 
 and he could only use his clerky talents in some new 
 scheme here. I have an idea that if I watch Temple Bar 
 from nine till five for a whole business week, he will 
 surely fall under my eye. Pie does something in the city. 
 It's the only road in." 
 
 "By Heavens! you have it," cried Wyman, who had 
 just studied up his guide books and been coached by 
 
29C MISS DEVEREtTX OF THE MARIQITITA. 
 
 Morani for his London outings. "Follow him, follow 
 him to Constantinople, but, don't lose him from sight. 
 Here's a hundred pounds. Telegraph me at the < Langham. ' 
 You can go up, get your new man in trim and arrange my 
 affairs. Then, sir, you are only a detective, until you 
 succeed or I get tired." 
 
 "I'll catch him. That fellow will have something to do 
 around the banks, and with' money. He'll try and stay 
 here in London, for you tell me he speaks no foreign 
 languages. He would be lost on the Continent. His talents 
 would be lost there. " 
 
 Wyman himself would have lost his complacency, if he 
 could have seen the over joyed "pilgrim from Boston" now 
 seated at the side of Miss Gladys Lyndon in Paris on this 
 very evening. Mr. Otis had discovered a pressing neces- 
 sity for Miss Lyndon, indulging in out-door walks, "at 
 reasonable intervals," and, he had already promised to 
 point out to her the salient " architectural " features of 
 Paris! To further disconcert the smiling schemer, Mrs. 
 Hammond was even then, out of Paris, a new Cleopatra 
 speeding over on her voyage to meet a most prosaic An- 
 tony, in the person of General Hiram Buford, who had 
 promptly telegraphed to her the fact of her lover's arrival. 
 
 While Mr. Wyman had discovered the meaning of the 
 proverb "Toujours perdrix," still, he might have decided 
 not to implicitly trust the two people now nearest to him, 
 had his youthful vanity been tried by a knowledge of the 
 graceful Milly's artful escapade. Had he known! Had he 
 known! He would have been far more circumspect, for 
 General Buford proceeded at once to a frank statement of 
 his proposed attitude towards the " Lone Star" operation. 
 
 ' ' Of course, you are aware I can place you at once Adhere 
 a year of your own unaided efforts or any amount of 
 social posturing would not. Our own companions, our 
 
FRESH FIELDS AXD PASTURES NEW. 297 
 
 bankers, our connections here, are all powerful ! If you 
 thus successfully approach the great London promoters, 
 the men who float all the vast enterprises here, you must 
 let me in on the ' ground floor. ' I must be liberally 
 considered. I expect my own name to weigh in this as 
 far as the British capital, or your mine. 
 
 " But, you are new to London. You wish to look about 
 a bit; to see the general features. I have many private 
 things to attend to. You can now think this over. I will 
 go down to the city a couple of hours every day with you, 
 and gradually bring you into the upper money circles. 
 In the evenings, I will have to leave you to Mrs. Buford 
 and my daughter. You will naturally wish to see the 
 general amusements, and so, get a bit acclimated. It will 
 leave me my afternoons and evenings, for my 'own work;' 
 of which I have a vast deal before me! " 
 
 Wyman bowed assent as the General blushed one shade, 
 in a sudden realization that "St. John's Wood," and the 
 reception of the modernized " Cleopatra" was his most 
 exigent "piece of business" now "pressing on his over- 
 burdened mind." " The women will nail him down strictly 
 to escort duty," mused Buford, "but, we had better circu- 
 late cautiously, Milly and I, on the other side of the 
 Thames." 
 
 The days passed by in a realization of the drift of 
 several strange undercurrents in the life of the scattered 
 voyagers by the Britannic. A pleased twinkle in the eyes 
 of General Buford indicated a great internal mental satis- 
 faction, and his deference to and liberality with his watch- 
 ful spouse, enchanted that proud lady. Mr. Wyman was 
 daily weighing in the scales of his mental balances the 
 possibilities and advisability of delivering himself up, as a 
 pledged captive " to her own bow and spear," to the alert, 
 emerald-eyed Miss Minnie. 
 
298 MISS DEVEREuX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 The very j oiliest little episodes of all the night life in 
 shady St. John's Wood were the enlivening features of 
 Mrs. Hammond's "seclusion," and, the lynx-eyed Morani 
 gazed 'with an ill-concealed impatence daily on the thou- 
 sands streaming under Temple Bar. "Here, I must, and 
 will, hook my queer fish, right here," the wearied watcher 
 swore in his heart. 
 
 There were now few idle moments for the now efflores- 
 cent Calif ornian schemer in these days. Busied in the day 
 with General Buford, in worming his way into the ranks 
 of the London money ring, Mr. Frederick Wyman at 
 night superintended the preparation of the prospectus of 
 the "Lone Star Mining Company of London (Limited)." 
 When not dancing attendance upon the haughty ladies of 
 the Buford family in their vigorous search for new 
 pleasures, Wyman did not have time to miss General Bu- 
 ford, whose "affairs in St. John's Wood," now demanded 
 a great deal of his valuable evening time. 
 
 The new rising international speculator indited, now 
 and then, a brief note, simple but fervent, to Mrs. Ham- 
 mond at Paris. His brow was radiant as he learned that 
 Miss Lyndon's voice had been approved by the great Paris 
 singing master, and, that the "tall perfect blonde " was 
 feverishly studying, her heart fired with ambition. Mrs. 
 Hammond's replies to his letters, neatly remailed in Paris, 
 thankfully acknowledged all her remittances, and also de- 
 scribed herself as " going " around on little trips "with 
 q, California friend," and, "having a very good time." 
 oleneral Hiram Buford guffawed in a secret glee ovoi 
 these "artful dodgers." 
 
 The literary corps who were busied at the Langham, 
 with the formal preparation of the classic "prospectus" 
 of the " Lone Star," sat knee deep in maps, memoranda and 
 exemplars of similar kinds of prospectus word painting. 
 
FKESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 299 
 
 When the list of directors, with the proud roll of agents, 
 counsel, depositories, and other needed adjuncts, was 
 finally completed, with the fairy-tale sketch of the future 
 " workings of the mine," Wyman was almost led to be- 
 lieve a part of the artful story, so deftly had the pen em- 
 broidered the cold substratum of facts, with the poetic 
 flowers of financial bombast. A list of Members of 
 Parliament, retired Admirals and Major Generals, Queen's 
 Counsel, sons of Earls, and a sprinkling of Baronets, gave 
 a social tone to the names of the well-known bankers and 
 brokers, whose long togas were now stenciled with an- 
 other company title. Vive la Humbug! 
 
 The active campaign was soon to be left to the great 
 inner circle of human sharks, for, Wyman had now finally 
 agreed with General Buford upon a large aliquot share, of 
 what was known to him, as the "swag." 
 
 " You see, my dear boy, I furnish you all these 'shining 
 ones,' in a batch. You will then have free hands, and 
 you and I will swing the mine out West there, on our own 
 inside lines. In other words, all we get here out of this 
 'blooming British public,' is so much clear gain. We 
 will ourselves soak up the real output of the mine!" 
 
 Wyman was lost in admiration of the effective business 
 rascality of the keen-eyed General, who was only ludicrous 
 when he swam clumsily along, oiling the seas of society 
 with his unwieldly bulk, or else disported himself under 
 his absurd militia title, as an occidental Maiiborough. 
 When there was anything tangible to steal, in sight, 
 the General, however, became keen, eager, clear-headed, 
 and a most effective conspirator. 
 
 "All you have to do now, my dear Wyman, is to see 
 that the London expert is properly handled out there! As 
 soon as the ' prospectus ' goes out, we will dispatch him 
 West. From what you tell me, Horace Wilder, Brown, 
 
300 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 your private secretary, Hopkins, and your man at the mine, 
 will entertain him, and also, watch him day and night. 
 Don't let any hostile outside influences prejudice him. I 
 have had him secretly ordered to confer with the joint 
 manager of the Anglo- California Bank while he is out 
 there. I bank there myself, and, a word from me would 
 smooth away any little roughness. You can so write 
 Wilder and Brown to cable you, if all is satisfactory. 
 Your title is clear and without a flaw? " The General's 
 eyes were keen in their questioning. Wyman never 
 winced. 
 
 " Not a speck! not a break! I believe that I have the 
 clearest records of any property on the Comstock," heart- 
 ily replied Wyman, " and, what is more, I have a produc- 
 ing mine to show them, too. My mine is a fact, a solid 
 fact." 
 
 "I am glad of that," genially cried Buford, as he en- 
 gulfed a mammoth brandy and soda, and then prepared for 
 a flitting to join the piquant Milly, who now ruled him 
 lightly, holding him " by a single hair." Yet, that elastic 
 tie drew him, daily, to the bower where his " fayre Rosa- 
 mond " nightly did greatly disport herself, as they planned 
 at leisure the management of that little nest in San Francis- 
 co, that secluded bower, which would afford "the General" 
 "a retired place to think things over," and also, give him 
 such selected company as Mrs. Hammond might be enabled 
 to quietly gather; for, her little retreat was to be a sort 
 of palace of the Principessa Negroni, where Buford would 
 essay the "Maffio Orsini" role, and, Madame Hammond, 
 for those occasions, would gather in such local rosebuds as 
 pleased the wayward fancy of the mighty man of Nob Hill. 
 A pleasant bower! 
 
 Buford turned back at the door with a thoughtful brow. 
 "If there were the slightest chance of any delay or trouble 
 
FRESH FIELDS AND PASTUKES NEW. oOl 
 
 out there, I would go out myself with the expert if I were 
 you; but as you have the title and mine sound, we can 
 have our little fling in Paris and wait results in safety. 
 We'll make Rome howl! " 
 
 Wyman's only impending trouble now was the lurking 
 shadow of Hooper, somewhere buried in the vast 
 human Babel of London. "That scoundrel is sharp! 
 Mr. Jim the Penman is a cur at heart I do not think 
 that Vinnie would let him blackmail me. But, any anony- 
 mous letter, any veiled demand, any mean trick, might 
 cost me very dear now." These gloomy thoughts strangely 
 haunted Wyman as he drove by daily, and saw the tireless 
 Morani still lurking on his lonely watch at Temple Bar. 
 
 In their evening conferences, the cheery valet stoutly 
 maintained his pet theory. "He's a shy bird, but, I will 
 finally get him. He may watch for you, for the American 
 Register and the papers have bandied your name all 
 around in connection with General Buford's family party; 
 but me, he would despise and overlook." And so, Tony 
 stoutly kept his watch. 
 
 On a visit to the city a week later, Wyman was startled 
 one morning, to find his detective gone from his post. 
 " Ah! he has scented his game at last! " Wyman cried. 
 And it was true, for on his return, at four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, after a final conference with the "Inner com- 
 mittee," for, the great prospectus was now launched, the 
 valet was still absent. The miner's heart burned in im- 
 patience, until his dove should return from the stormy 
 human sea with tidings. " I shall know the whole truth 
 soon, reflected Wyman as the face of the missing forger 
 haunted him, during a dinner, charmingly tete-a-tete 
 with the ladies, into whose inner heart havens he had now 
 easily glided, for Vinnie Hinton and Mrs. Hammond 
 had so adroitly polished their western diamond, that 
 Wyman began to shine with a certain luster of his own! 
 
 X 2 
 
302 MIS3 DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 He was mistaken in the voice of his eager anxiety, for 
 it Avas very late when the tired Morani entered his master's 
 sleeping room, and the adroit little liar used the truth 
 very gingerly, doling out only a part thereof ! He scented 
 much future gold. "I may as well find out now, just how 
 much I am to get, when it will materialize, and begin to plant 
 my nest eggs a bit. Such a lucky turn won't come every 
 day." The sly valet dreamed of a snug little hotel in 
 Paris, with some roguish-eyed Parisienne to play -Madame 
 Boniface, as his assistant; and, he knew so many nice girls, 
 too! 
 
 That eventful morning, Antonio Morani had needed all 
 his cool nerve, as loitering in a doorway, for the ten 
 thousandth time invoking his patron saint, the holy 
 Anthony, the sturdy form of the fugitive criminal, James 
 Walter Hooper, passed under the old London landmark, 
 once a neat receptacle for hidden archives, and very 
 neatly topped off with dead traitors' heads. 
 
 Pie held his breath as he stood in a doorway, not two 
 yards from his human prey. It was the same old San 
 Francisco Hooper, only decorous, and, seemingly, an 
 average British citizen, in his exterior. The absence of all 
 ornament, the democratic Derby hat, and even the well 
 brushed clothes, suited to an upper clerk, bespoke the 
 ordinary business man, w T ho would not disdain a chop and 
 pot of beer. Hooper stalked along and he held his um- 
 brella as the average private in the great London work- 
 ing army. But, he was marching along with a directness 
 of purpose which indicated the man of fixed habits. 
 "You'll not give me the slip this time," murmured Mr. 
 Tony Morani, as he glided on in the wake of the penman. 
 
 It had been a very painful ordeal to Morani to part with 
 his natty mustache. He had sacrificed it on the altar of 
 Duty, and so the snug lines of his face took on the super- 
 
FRESH FIELDS AKD PASTURES NEW. 303 
 
 natural gravity *of an actor out of employ, or a priest 
 temporarily out of canonicals. Down Fleet street, along 
 they sped, and at last in a little side alley of High Hoi- 
 born, the man whom he followed entered a small office, 
 dingy and mean enough in its externals. The opening 
 door showed only a glimpse of a little back room. The 
 two windows allowed a plain desk and chair to be seen, 
 and the modest sign " Compton, Money Broker," orna- 
 mented the one door, on a dingy tin label. * * Ah ! at his 
 old trade," the valet murmured, as passing by at intervals 
 of every fifteen minutes, he satisfied himself by stolen 
 glimpses that he had at last located the working den of 
 the once brilliant San Francisco broker. A stolid-looking 
 office boy sat waiting orders, or moving around in answer 
 to his employer, who several times appeared from the 
 inner room in an "office coat," with pen behind ear. 
 
 Morani craftily surveyed the vantage of the ground, and 
 was delighted to observe a cheap public almost directly 
 opposite, from whence, seated at a convenient table, he 
 could observe the door of the humble den. The greasy 
 copy of "Bell's Life," a few judiciously timed pots of 
 beer, and a leisurely luncheon, beguiled some of the wait- 
 ing hours. " He is a close bird," mused Morani, for he 
 noted the lad bearing a comfortable tray from an ambitious 
 restaurant neari " But, I must track him to his home." 
 
 It was very easy for Morani to waylay the office lad, on 
 his return with the dishes an hour later. 
 
 "Ah, right in, on in there. Compton? yes! In the 
 back office. He's in there now." 
 
 The dull lad vouchsafed no reply to a casual query. The 
 valet kept his dreary watch up all day. 
 
 "A la fin! " joyously cried Morani, at half -past four, 
 when, to his great relief, he saw Hooper walk out of the 
 office, a top-coat and umbrella indicating his flitting. But, 
 
304 MISS DEVEEEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 instead of returning on his morning path, the ex-broker 
 walked most briskly down toward Blackfriar's Bridge. Al- 
 most within sight of the steamer landing, with the swing 
 of easy habit, Hooper entered the hallway of a neat lodg- 
 ing house, using a latch-key. 
 
 4 'Now I'm in for it," the wearied watcher growled, 
 " but, I'll plant a man on him to-morrow. If he lives here, 
 I will have him traced at both places, shadowed softly. 
 I'll have his whole game in a week. He's a fixture 
 here." 
 
 While the puzzled Frenchman studied various plans of 
 getting into the lodging house, his last, being to get a 
 garb and tray from a neighboring foreign restaurant, and 
 then, knock at every door in search of an imaginary lodger, 
 the street door briskly opened, and Solomon in all his 
 glory was no more richly arrayed than the transcendent 
 swell who passed the astonished valet unthinkingly! It 
 was Hooper, but lo! as a man of Hyde Park and Pall 
 Mall. From, an "every day young man," he had bloomed 
 into a " glass of fashion." His figure had even acquired a 
 certain military dignity, with his Albert frock, silk hat 
 and gold rimmed eye glasses. In his stride and bearing, 
 he was entirely another man. A neat wrap on his arm, a 
 richly mounted umbrella and gloves of pristine freshness, 
 gave him the air of a clubman. Tony stared, and yet, 
 there was no time for thought as Morani raced after the 
 elastic stride of the nc\vly born D'Orsay, and just brushed 
 into the line in time to get a ticket on the same up-river 
 steamer. 
 
 "So, my man, it's a little game of hide-and-seek with 
 the world is it?" muttered Morani, as he adjusted a pair 
 of dark-colored eye-shades, and stationed himself near the 
 wheel houses. 
 
 Landing after landing was passed, and it was only when 
 
FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 305 
 
 the boat ncared Chiswick, that the Frenchman saw signs of 
 expectancy in the elegant apparition of the fugitive forger. 
 In the bustle of making the landing, Morani only fixed his 
 eyes upon the back of his victim. He almost screamed 
 as he sprang behind a waiting fly, for there, in a pretty pony 
 phaeton, behind a very dashing team, in beauty more than 
 ever bright, sat Vinnie Hinton, the vanished queen of 
 light loves! A natty tiger, perched behind, gazed with 
 calm disdain at the stable lad giving the spirited horses 
 some chilled water. With a good-humored nod, Hooper 
 tossed the lad a coin, and then the resplendent parasol of 
 the Pacific beauty, lowly drooping, shaded the fleeing 
 lovers. 
 
 As the phaeton leisurely moved away, Morani sprang 
 out and seized the stable lad. 
 
 " Do you know that gentleman and lady? " he queried, 
 as he held up a florin. The youth extended his eager 
 hand. 
 
 "Heverybody knows the Hailey Osgoods. Bless you! 
 He's got an awful nice villa here. They're just back from 
 Australia, with heaps of tin. This man will drive you up 
 there." And thus in a few moments, Morani was trund- 
 ling on in pursuit, keeping easily in fair range. 
 
 In fifteen minutes, he had driven all round the confines of 
 as neat a villa as nestles on the banks of the silver Thames. 
 The family party had leisurely entered their own grounds. 
 A convenient hostelry enabled the artful Morani, under 
 the genial influence of the beer pump, to extract the needed 
 local details and family history. He was soon leisurely 
 occupied in his enjoyment of a cigar, in the gloaming. 
 
 " So, Mr. Hooper Compton Hailey Osgood, I will put 
 my chum, mon cher Alphonse, to watch this little nest. I 
 will mark you down. I will follow your wanderings my- 
 self the next day, and, if I mistake not, your little game 
 
80G MISS DEVESEtJX OF THE MARIQITITA, 
 
 is not ripe yet, neither is mine! Mr. Frederick Wyman 
 shall know only just what he pays for, bit by bit, and 
 when he knows a great deal, he will have paid a very great 
 deal. That's my motto, Cash upon delivery!'" 
 
 It thus fell out, that Wyman implicitly believed Morani's 
 untruthful evening report, that he had followed Hooper 
 into an office building, in Holborn, and, after shadowing 
 the entrance for a while, to his dismay he found there was 
 a front of the building on the other street. "But, you see, 
 sir, he is -here, and I will mark him down. He has some 
 business in the city." 
 
 Wyman, who pitlessly lied to the whole world, who was 
 himself a cheat and a villain, never for a moment fancied that 
 his own crafty valet was an humble brother of the craft of 
 traitor scoundrels. He bowed his head in thought, as the 
 valet ended his story. " I must get that fellow Hooper out 
 of the way. Even if I were to denounce him at Scotland 
 Yard. Fool I am to fret," he mused. " An anonymous 
 letter to the agencies of the bank here will do the business. 
 The banks which he swindled were two of them English, 
 with their head offices here. Transportation or state's 
 prison for twenty years awaits him. In either case, as a 
 felon, his future testimony is forever barred out. I must 
 find him and have him locked up before my deal is well 
 on, while I am preparing to attack the London market. 
 He reads all the journals. It would be a risk." 
 
 "Tony, "the miner said, " I have soon to go to Paris. 
 I'll give you six months if you need it to find this man! 
 A hundred pounds a month I give you for 'extras,' your 
 regular salary goes on, and a thousand pounds as a pres- 
 ent, if you locate him, so that I can get at him, without 
 exciting the least suspicion. I will leave you behind here. 
 I want you not to fail to run him down. There's your first 
 one hundred pounds, and a fifty for a starter as reward for 
 
FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 307 
 
 your week's work. Don't fail me now. Don't lose him 
 again." 
 
 "I'll have him for you, long before the end of the six 
 months," cried the happy valet, who softly chuckled as he 
 obtained his last orders. 
 
 At a neat little private supper, an hour later, Morani 
 opened the gate of Paradise, to a pretty dark-eyed French 
 waif whom he had found in those dim circles, where high 
 grade London servants often have more gay enjoyment 
 than the blase children of fashion whom they serve. 
 
 "I will now install my own household, very near 
 to the Hailey Osgood villa, and there, cultivate the graces 
 of country life," Morani decided. And it was true that his 
 days ran on in peace and plenty, as he carefully followed 
 the curious meanderings of Mr. Compton, the busy city 
 money broker by day, and his elegant twin brother ' ' Hailey 
 Osgood " of the evening, the whole-souled Australian 
 emigre. The snappy-eyed Parisienne deftly lingered on 
 the path of Mrs. Hailey Osgood who was blooming out as 
 a moss rose, a very dewy blossom of correct country life. 
 
 "But, for my life," the puzzled valet spy said two weeks 
 later, "I can not see the object of this fellow's attention 
 to such a petty little business; for, only a few occasional 
 foreigners, mostly Jews of humble appearance, or im- 
 pecunious-looking London clerks ever profaned the dingy 
 office of 'Compton, Money Broker."' 1 Yet, Morani gradu- 
 ally learned that all checks signed " Compton" were known 
 to be easily passable in the neighborly money exchanges. 
 There was some little activity now and then, and he 
 himself tracked the ex-broker to the General Postoffice, 
 where he often posted and sometimes received a large 
 mail. "Is this cool rascal already at his old work," 
 mused the spy. "I might warn and blackmail him." 
 He noted a variety of changes in the homeward journey, 
 
308 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 and a seasonable variation of "Mr. Hailey Osgood's" 
 dress, but always assumed at the same lodging-house. 
 
 Vinnie Hinton never left Chiswick. What held her 
 charms in obscurity? Hooper was known as "a nice, 
 quiet gentleman," at his lodging rooms, one who used the 
 room only for rest and convenience when in town, and 
 for his occasional down- town writing. " Visitors he has, 
 oh, yes, but always gentlemen, mostly strangers to Lon- 
 don." A reasonable flirtation with the slavey of that 
 lodging-house yielded Tony this report, and nothing 
 more. 
 
 "I will let this whole down-town thing go," decided 
 Tony in digust at seeing the daily prosaic honesty of the 
 fugitive's humble city life. " The villa life is the thing to 
 probe! There, I will find the key to the riddle. His 
 scheme lies there. What is it?" 
 
 Before Mr. Frederick Wyman had been carousing two 
 weeks longer in Paris, a curling black full beard began 
 to line out the face of his London representative. It 
 ilowed out in a hairy disguise which buried the delicacy 
 of the Frenchman's features, and his locks were Absa- 
 lomic. "When this is at its full growth, my own mother 
 would not know me," proudly declared the happy Gaul. 
 "I can very safely approach the mansion as a French 
 cook in search of employ. I can interview the servants, 
 but, ah! not Madame. Never!" 
 
 The great delegation of two, from San Francisco had 
 majestically crossed the Channel on pleasures bent, pre- 
 ceded by the fluttering winged dove, Mrs. Milly Ham- 
 mond, who flew out first by several days. The gentle eyes 
 of the unsuspecting Gladys Lyndon were not even lifted 
 in question as Mrs. Hammond artfully detailed her various 
 movements, for, in truth, the days had passed in a dream 
 to the girl whose unceasing studies were only broken by 
 
FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 309 
 
 the frequent visits of the " gentleman from Boston." In 
 a rapidly growing daily companionship, with the sweet 
 secretive sense of hitherto unknown feelings still in their 
 bud, the lonely orphan instinctively held Otis apart from 
 the two companions of her voyage. He seemed to fill a 
 separate niche in her heart. And in her own inner soul, 
 the sweet newer life, into which she was daily drifting, 
 seemed to have its sacredly-treasured secret. Her one 
 friend. 
 
 Frederick Wyman was overjoyed on arrival at the semi- 
 detached state of his renewed relations with the wanderer 
 from Van Ness avenue. It suited his newer secret game! 
 "You see, Milly," he confidentially murmured, "these 
 San Francisco people are all so sharp-eyed. It would 
 never do for us to be seen too frequently together." A 
 gleam of quiet happiness lit up Milly Hammond's eyes 
 when she gracefully yielded to her lover's suggestion that 
 she should inhabit the Hotel Athenee, while the new finan- 
 cial partners ornamented the Grand Hotel. "I can, in 
 this arrangement, always drop in quietly to see you," 
 pleaded Wyman. It was equally convenient for Hiram, 
 alas! "In the meantime go about, my little one, and 
 see all the world you can. Lose nothing, not a single 
 pleasure, on my account." 
 
 "I will not, Fred," modestly replied his friend! " But, 
 I will be a bit lonely, now and then." 
 
 In fact, the lady was lonely, so lonely that when Fred- 
 erick Wyman, Esq., was airing his new Poole dress-suit 
 at the opera, in charge of the haughty Buford ladies, or 
 engaged in other definite occupations, * * the dear old Gen- 
 eral " kindly took a short walk and cheered up the fair 
 pilgrim, Milly, who literally kept " a lamp in the window " 
 for him. It was a shining light for him, for Mrs. Ham- 
 mond would have distinguished herself in the ".signal 
 
310 MISS DEVEREtJX OF THE MAIUQUITA. 
 
 corps-" of an Amazonian army, and in this fashion, every- 
 thing was smoothly moving. All went merry as a mar- 
 riage bell! 
 
 The social courage of the parvenu, Wyman, had risen to 
 a considerable degree of audacity since he began work- 
 ing the London market. He copied Buford's dashing 
 pompousness. Nothing emboldens like strident success. 
 His every onward footstep had easily turned to gold so 
 far, and he had also found all women so pliant, so easy to 
 win, so light in the rein, so quickly tamed at his golden 
 touch. Feeling daily that he was drifting in triumph, 
 drifting toward the Golden Gate, where the mansion of 
 the mighty Buford hovered high planted there, lit up 
 with sparkling wedding lights in the happy, future days, 
 when the "London Market " had been scientifically worked 
 out, Wyman delicately shaded off his personal attentions 
 to Mrs. Hammond. "She might ruin me with Minnie," 
 he fancied. " I will go a little slowly, safely with her. 
 She cannot help me, save as to Gladys, and that she must 
 do. I can easily, by a handsome wardrobe and a pre- 
 tended sudden change of plans, suggest her early home- 
 ward flitting, perhaps even alone. " 
 
 He little dreamed that for the second time in Europe he 
 was being betrayed by one of his nearest " incumbrances." 
 He had also fallen, through over-confidence into a coarse 
 and almost proprietary view of regarding his charming 
 protegee, the Prima Donna of the future. She was in his 
 power, almost at his disposal! It was a suggestion of his 
 egoistic and brutal nature to often visit the musical stu- 
 dent alone. "She will have to get used to me," he 
 sneered. With no knowledge of the world, helpless and 
 socially inexperienced, the gentle orphan at last, was 
 forced to recognize the growing half -insolence of his man- 
 ner and the gradual cessation of that deferential and florid 
 
FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 311 
 
 courtesy which had marked all his behavior on the voyage. 
 She shuddered with an illy-defined fear which, as yet, 
 took no definite shape. 
 
 And so far, there was no open betrayal of the "inner man." 
 No frank unveiling of the Mokanna face. Before the 
 frightened girl, in her lonely hours, there always rose up 
 the great obligation which tied her to this man, more un- 
 welcome in his every visit, and, once viewed as only the 
 gateway to a golden future, his generosity seemed now to 
 hide behind it some lurking, baleful purpose. And so, tremb- 
 ling in her shrinking helplessness, she waited mutely and 
 only prayed for his early departure, and also that her new 
 friend, Otis, should not be made a witness of a growing 
 familiarity which she failed yet to view in its right light. 
 Fear tied her lips. She was young, so fresh in the world's 
 hard ways, and she had now not a single friend in the 
 world. She dared not speak to Mrs. Hammond. Waldo 
 Strong was far, far away, and penniless, she knew but too 
 well! 
 
 But there was a shadow from the West slowly creeping on 
 to darken the bright golden noon of the effulgent pros- 
 perity, which beamed in such torrid radiance on the 
 haughty young owner of the " Lone Star." 
 
 It had been the engrossing labor of a whole week for 
 Waldo Strong to trace back all the record entries, which 
 referred to the members of one Hooper, Bowen & Co.'s 
 syndicate, and he had extended the search of titles as re- 
 garded Wyman,back to the very beginning of the records. 
 Long and deeply, did the grave-faced San Francisco lawyer 
 ponder the history of the group of mines on the mountain- 
 side, which had been originally handled by the three oper- 
 ators. He was far too wise to attempt to show himself at 
 the " Lone Star" mine, but, he easily learned that the 
 mills would soon start up again, the disasters of the fire 
 
312 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 being at last remedied, and the main shaft properly con- 
 nected with the south end mines. 
 
 Seated alone, pondering over his note-book, Waldo 
 Strong was astonished at the shadowy irregularity of all 
 the holdings of Hooper and Bowen, under a mere assess- 
 ment work sale. The conveyances of the Mariquita mine 
 to Frederick Wyman by Robert Devereux, the original 
 discoverer, seemed all regular, and yet, the absent Devereux 
 had abandoned a large number of locations seemingly more 
 promising, at the same time. " And, he seems to have acted 
 very strangely. Wyman was his partner," the lawyer ex- 
 claimed. "Why did he not care for these interests of the 
 absent man, or buy them in?" The singularity of the final 
 transfer of Devereux's Mariquita interest at Truckee also 
 gave him a certain uneasiness. In furtive conversation 
 with several old timers, he finally discovered that Dever- 
 eux had vanished from Virginia City very suddenly, gone 
 away seemingly for a short stay, and had never returned, 
 and had abandoned some properties, selling the rest for a 
 mere nominal sum. 
 
 Strong had pushed his researches, and was now ready at 
 last to depart for San Francisco. He walked out alone in the 
 cool evening and wandered down to where he could see the 
 whole group of mines in their relation to the great central 
 vein. The whole debated property lay spread out before 
 him. A great mountain spur, with a lone pine tree on its 
 towering rugged crest, hung over the gloomy entrance to 
 Grizzly Caiion. He could trace the location of the lead- 
 ing mines on the Comstock by the lights of the stamp 
 mills pounding away night and day. Far below him, the 
 silent mill and hoist-works of the " Lone Star" were dimly 
 visible^ cnly watchmen's lights in sight, save at the clust- 
 ered offices and boarding houses. 
 
 The baffled counselor sat down on a boulder and mused 
 
FRESH FIELDS AND PASTURES NEW. 313 
 
 over the vanished past. " He seems to have got hold of 
 this mine in a strangely lucky way. This man Devereux 
 simply disappeared! It was even some time before the 
 Truckee conveyance was placed on record." The disaster 
 to the mine again returned to haunt him. The awful 
 death of the hapless men cooped up therein. The sky was 
 now overcast with clouds, and only a single bright star 
 hovered over the mountain before him. A strangely added 
 suspicion startled him as his eye rested on that star! ' The 
 mine, this very mine, the only rich one of all the Dever- 
 eux locations, was first named * the Mariquita.' Dever- 
 eux himself so called it, and Wyman has promptly 
 changed the name to the * Lone Star. ' Why did he do 
 this?" 
 
 There was a strange voice which now seemed to whisper 
 in Strong's ear the word " Murder!" He sprang to his feet! 
 His nerves were thrilling weirdly in an unfamiliar fear. 
 "I have over-studied myself into fantasies about this 
 thing," he resolutely decided, as he turned and wandered 
 back toward the hotel, " but, I will look up this whole 
 Devereux history. If that man died and left heirs, they 
 have a valuable interest in this Hooper-Bowen group. If 
 there has been any hidden fraud, then even the 'Lone 
 Star,' once the Mariquita,' is now a great stake to play 
 for! I will search the San Francisco records of the ex- 
 press offices, the postal records, perhaps advertise. Rob- 
 ert Devereux himself may be found alive later, unless, un- 
 less, he was made away with. His abandoning so many 
 locations looks very, very strange." 
 
 In his room, alone, the ruined lawyer speculator dreamed 
 of the strange malevolent influence of the victorious Wyman 
 over his own ruined future. * ' The scoundrel ! " he groaned, 
 "And, the very last I saw him, face to face, he was gaz- 
 ing at Gladys Lyndon; she is gone, but whither? The 
 
314 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 poverty, the defeat, he has inflicted on me, has lost her to 
 me forever, for fate has swept her form from my arms. " 
 And then the victim of adverse fortune lived over, in his 
 solitary watch those hopeless imaginings which haunt the 
 steadfast minds of the loving, those under the ban, who 
 are doubly desolate, in finding themselves in the dark- 
 ness, described by the one lone star shining down for them 
 on life's long pathway. When that beloved ray is lost 
 then all is wrapped in a two-fold gloom! His loneliness 
 voiced itself in words addressed to one now far away! 
 
 ALONE. 
 
 Yon star swims, singly, now, on high, 
 Which gleams upon the lone tree nigh, 
 Alone! I trust that whispering pine, 
 This message from my heart, to thine! 
 
 Beloved one! My soul's one star! 
 Veiled from mine eyes, where'er you are, 
 Alone! I breathe a name, in love, 
 Unto the star lamp, there above! 
 
 Blest be that spot, lost darling mine, 
 Where trembling rays upon you, shine! 
 Alone! 1 whisper in my heart, 
 We meet, one day, to never part! 
 
 Go! Happy star! and find my love 
 Your rays shall thrill her, from above! 
 Alone! There's yet one throb divine, 
 Which quivers from my heart, to thine! 
 
 Down the dark mountain sweeps the wind,* 
 And leaves me, lingering here behind, 
 Alone! Ah! Take these words in fee, 
 My greeting! Loved and lost! To Thee! 
 
 Strong, seated by his table in despondency, was sud- 
 denly reminded of the duty of his early departure for San 
 
FIELDS AND PASTUEES NEW. 315 
 
 Francisco, by the arrival of a telegram brought by a spe- 
 cial messenger, with orders to obtain an immediate answer. 
 
 " They asked me to say to you that the San Francisco 
 parties were anxiously waiting at the office, down there, 
 for your answer." 
 
 The counselor's fingers trembled, as he tore open the 
 yellow envelope. Some current of strange fates seemed 
 to drift his varying soul to and fro in wild eddies on this 
 strange night. The telegram was in cipher, and when he 
 had spread it out, as word after word was revealed under 
 the key given him by the bank manager, the blood leaped 
 to his forehead and throbbed wildly in his temples. It 
 read : 
 
 " Come back here at once. A full examination of the 
 " Lone Star " title is ordered by our home office. London 
 expert is now here to examine the mine. We name you to 
 examine the title. Secret instructions are waiting. An- 
 swer. ' ' It was marked, ' ' strictly private and confidential. 
 See Manager alone." 
 
 The weapons he had longed for, were now forged ready 
 to his hand! He sprang up. 
 
 " Now," growled Waldo Strong, " Mr. Frederick Wy- 
 man, I will soon find out where Robert Devereux went 
 to, and, the hidden secret doors of the past shall be all un- 
 sealed. " His fingers flew in the transcription of his prompt 
 reply, and once again the night winds seemed to wail 
 " Murder! " 
 
316 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 j CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 
 
 Two weeks after the arrival of the Buford menage in 
 Paris, that splendid chrysopolitan delegation, the Buford 
 family, ornamented the afternoon monthly reception of 
 the charming wife of the American minister. It was al- 
 most in the capacity of a declared lover, that the elegant 
 Wyman escorted Miss Minnie Buford. All American 
 Paris thronged the salons, for a happy chance had been 
 afforded the American colony to hear the voice of the 
 caged song bird, whose beauty and rising genius could not 
 be long hidden under the French substitute for a bushel. 
 Madame 1' Ambassadrice was the proud mother of a budding 
 daughter, one of the Columbian heiresses to all the arts 
 and graces. It was but a fitting tribute to the sympathetic 
 Californian singer, that the daughter of fortune, with a 
 girl's impetuosity, raved unceasing of the charms of this 
 hidden beauty. And so, after some protest from the 
 Maestro, as Gladys Lyndon was already a semi-professional, 
 the neophyte' s exquisite voice and wonderful beauty thrilled 
 and startled the self-classified aristocrats of traveling 
 America. 
 
 They were of all grades, from the wild untamed Texas 
 cattle man, the scientific Chicago pig assassinator, the 
 prononce " bonanza " western sample millionaires, faded 
 politicians, Generals of vast renown in the piping times 
 of peace, inventors, artists, schemers and literary men; a 
 motley crowd who all either had axes to grind, or else 
 had put such an excellent edge thereon that grinding was 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 317 
 
 with them a thing of the past, and further sharpening 
 would be impossible. The great literati, artists, and club 
 men were conspicuously absent, on other pleasures bent, 
 but the citizens present, were all i ' prominent in their own 
 communities." 
 
 This universal " prominence" is one of the blessed 
 attributes of our deliciously free country, and our remark- 
 ably active " personal journalism." Women of all grades 
 dressed "aquatre epingles," exhibited the multiflora of 
 our beloved country. They were assorted in type, but all 
 high in their own esteem; and were charming exemplars of 
 different forms of beauty, and styles of " modern art," for 
 the beauty mill of America grinds out jewels of varied 
 size, luster, sheen and gorgeous tint, suited to the most 
 fastidious (matrimonial) purchaser. 
 
 As we are all born "free and equal," it is according to 
 our elastic social laws, that among these dames were those 
 who haughtily claimed their right to be there, those who 
 were bidden, those who were glad to be there, and several 
 who had no especial right to be anywhere, and, hence, 
 ornamented Paris, for, up to a certain protective line of 
 some elasticity, Paris resembles San Francisco, where, as 
 a terse social philosopher remarked, " Everything goes!" 
 One and all, as the assembly dispersed, agreed, by a "large 
 majority," as to the brilliance of the golden future hover- 
 ing over the fair young singer, who was considered to 
 have cast an improving luster upon the "Eagle Bird." 
 
 Keenly watching Mrs. Hammond, and particularly 
 mindful of the basilisk eye of Miss Minnie Buford, Mr. 
 Frederick Wyman did not join the throng surrounding the 
 beautiful Gladys, who with gleaming, happy eyes, stood in 
 a circle of her generous countrywomen, half buried in 
 votive flowers impulsively offered. " I will see her later, 
 alone! " the capitalist promised himself, with a delightful 
 
 Y 2 
 
318 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 sense of mastership, which the unprotected girl could not 
 escape. But, his brow grew as black as night when he ob- 
 served his secret foe Jack Otis, bending over the girl's 
 hand in a respectful salute. 
 
 There is no shade of human expression which can es- 
 cape the cold, keen eye of jealousy. Wyman on the 
 watch caught at once the tender flash of Gladys' happy 
 eyes. There was no repression, no deceit in them. In 
 her hour of triumph, the girl's lofty soul shone out from 
 the Gates Ajar, to signal to the one whose mute sympathy 
 had thrilled her in all that glittering throng of the happy 
 children of Mammon, for she had sung to him, alone ! 
 
 "Damn it! I'll put a spoke out of that fellow's wheel," 
 was Wyman's rough mental soliloquy, and that one hftppy 
 glance burned in his resentful soul. To his horror, however, 
 on turning, after some routine attentions to the imperious 
 one, whose banner already waved over him, Mrs. Buford 
 herself was the most prominent and energetic of all Miss 
 Lyndon's worshipers. The queen of Nob Hill proposed 
 to "stagger all Paris," with some little festivities of her 
 own later, and her own royal voice, not to be gainsaid, 
 had decreed that this occidental star of music should shine 
 thereat. A new menace to Wyman's schemes! 
 
 " I will not take ' No,' for an answer. You must 
 promise me now, Miss Lyndon. You are our own repre- 
 sentative, you know," and as Wyman slightly bowed, in 
 passing, he heard -a delicate reference, "carte blanche as 
 to terms, you know. In London, in our set, you 
 would surely make the sensation of next season," and 
 now, he would be under a double fire. 
 
 Frederick Wyman groaned in rage as he moved on down 
 the great staircase, but, Vanity Fair's parade was around 
 him. He smiled and suffered* He muttered, "I must 
 stop this thing at once," for it suddenly dawned upon 
 
THE TURN OP THE TIDE. 319 
 
 his practical mind that, muzzled by the sharp-eyed heiress, 
 he could not so easily dominate Gladys Lyndon's future. 
 "She may get away from me," he reflected, "with her 
 chances of final success, and, that face! Some fool of a 
 manager, some rich idiot of a romantic turn, may bear her 
 away or, even marry her. And this damned fellow, Otis, 
 too, seems to bo really making up to her. I wonder if he 
 has got any money," for, Wyman regarded money the 
 key to every woman's heart! He was moody and thoughtful 
 as he drove away to the Grand Hotel. 
 
 The Bufords were about to take a splendid house, leaping 
 quickly into that sudden air of permanence which ready 
 gold can so gracefully arrange in Paris. A short, bril- 
 liant campaign there, a later one on far grander lines in 
 London. Such was the programme of this millionaire 
 feminine Alexander, who would thus conquer all the 
 worlds she cared to shine in. 
 
 "It would be devilish awkward to have this girl, Lyn- 
 don, as a sort of a show-fairy princess, knocking around 
 near us, all the while." Even in his " blissful ignorance," 
 as regarded the "adaptable" and adroit Hilly Hammond, 
 he feared the baleful influence of General Hiram Buford, 
 " on general principles." " It is a fatal mistake to mix up 
 love and business," gloomily soliloquized the discontented 
 Wyman, ' * and old Buford is no man to be trusted near where 
 a woman is concerned." In his preoccupation, Wyman for- 
 got to extend this verdict to his conduct, in all other sublunary 
 matters. " If I could only plant her in Italy, somewhere 
 out of the way," he dreamed, and as the carriage drove 
 into the court of the great caravansera, a suddenly formed 
 plan was evolved which he proceeded to elaborate over 
 several cocktails at the American bar. 
 
 The blood was bounding in his veins with rage and 
 jealousy, when he returned to dress for dinner, as an opera 
 
320 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 outing with the ladies, awaited him. The calm, passionless 
 face of Otis had taken on that glow of transparent shining 
 love and pride which lights up the face of a man, thrilled 
 with the one passion of his life. It haunted and enraged 
 Wyman! "I'll go around there night, for half an hour, 
 before the opera," angrily cried Wyman. "I must bring 
 her under my hand," he growled. He was in a mental 
 tumult, as a steward begged him to go at once back to the 
 bureau of the hotel. 
 
 ''This cablegram for Monsieur, to be repeated delivery 
 has just arrived. I have the honor," and, the beautiful 
 young Chef de Bureau looked over Wyman's shoulder 
 and ogled a pair of dashing American girls, whose 
 prettiness and " previousness " was the talk of the hotel. 
 They had already distanced Daisy Miller, by several laps 
 in the circuit of life's race, and were both well in hand, 
 with "lots of speed" left! Monsieur Bernard de Vaubec, 
 (the aforesaid picturesque clerk, who posed as a reduced 
 Marquis), for the first time in his existence, heard a verita- 
 ble Comstock cyclone of energetic, every-day cursing. He 
 started in unfeigned alarm, for Mr. Frederick Wyman had 
 read the dispatch handed him, with eyes whose malignant 
 fire fairly made the elegant official writhe. 
 
 "Send a man out with me to the nearest cable office. 
 A coupe, quick." Wyman was livid! 
 
 The very solid earth seemed to swing round under the 
 speculator's feet, as he read the dispatch signed " Brown 
 Wilder." Its very words seemed traced in living fire. 
 They were the first danger of ten long successful years. 
 They were as follows: 
 
 "Expert accepts mine, but the bank's counsel reject your 
 title. Advertisements are out, in all the papers, calling for 
 Robert Devereux or his heirs. Come home at once. Ut- 
 most importance. Standing of mine on Exchange abso- 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 321 
 
 lutely ruined until you come back. Work all going on 
 well. Answer, giving your date of sailing. Send instruc- 
 tions. Telegraph to our bank. BROWN- WILDER." 
 
 It was only when Wyman had delivered and paid for his 
 long reply that the blood returned in definite waves to his 
 brain. To consult the sailing tables, to decide instantly 
 upon departure, was only the work of five minutes. 
 
 " I think they will easily understand that," he grimly 
 said, as he looked at a copy he had made of his brief mes- 
 sage. It read: 
 
 "Sail to-morrow, Havre, La Bretagne. Come right on 
 through. Mail and telegrams, Hoffman House, New York. 
 Deny all reports. Infamous blackmail lie. Have tele- 
 graphed to the bank. WYMAN." 
 
 His cablegram to the Anglo-Californian bank was a 
 guarantee of his title by an offer to deposit, in escrow, nine- 
 tenths of the whole stock of the " Lone Star" against half 
 of the purchase price, and announced his immediate return. 
 
 " I have to work quickly," he decided, as he sprang 
 from the carriage in the Grand Hotel courtyard. Already, 
 his facile mind was at work. " The General, Mrs. Ham- 
 mond, Gladys, the tall, perfect blonde, whose day of tri- 
 umph had also brought to him this black storm cloud. His 
 eye rested on the clock as he called a halt and marshalled 
 his mental forces. " Let me see," he mused, " half -past 
 five! I can first see Mrs. Buford and Minnie. I dare not 
 tell old Hiram this, it would ruin all now. I must have 
 his influence and backing. I will not be bothered any 
 more with Milly Hammond. I will satisfy her, and then 
 leave her to work her way homeward alone." 
 
 At that very moment, the graceful chameleon of love 
 was gently working her way homeward to the Grand 
 Hotel, which trip involved two carriages, one for a drive 
 of circumlocution, with the sighing General, who was to 
 
322 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 arrive later, and the other, to bring her back, alone, from 
 her " shopping." 
 
 11 There is no time like the present, "quickly concluded 
 Wyman. His libations gave him a strange recklessness. 
 " Mrs. Btiford once on my side, and Minnie's word passed, 
 then, the General cannot very well recede, for I will 
 spread the news of the engagement as I go along! The 
 family cannot weaken. The "American Register" shall have 
 it at once, so he is tied to my interest. I'll do it!" 
 
 Satisfying himself that General Buford was really out, 
 the graceful adventurer, with a well-acted deference, with 
 a touching trust in Mrs. Buford's already established 
 friendship, in a few earnest sentences told her of a sud- 
 deii necessity for his secret departure for San Francisco. 
 "My general interests are so large," lie modestly said, 
 " that I do not dare trust any one man with my power of 
 attorney. I am so far alone in the world," he smiled. " I 
 will not feel that I am alone, if you will allow me to tell 
 your daughter what I am sure her own heart has already 
 whispered. My affairs will demand my writing nearly all 
 to-night. My man is already packing up my luggage, and 
 the opera, I fear, must await my return." He smiled. 
 He had trusted the outpourings of his heart first to the 
 flattered matron. "Now," the handsome miner concluded, 
 " my whole future, Madam, rests upon your kindness, and 
 I feel sure that you, my dear Mrs. Buford, have felt for 
 some weeks that I would soon come to you on this happy 
 matter. It is my whole life!" 
 
 Gently beguiled by "Wyman's easy flattery, and the 
 pleading of his submissive eyes, Mrs. Buford, startled, yet 
 pleased at heart, arose, and with kindly eyes, wished him 
 good fortune. "Trust to me," she graciously said, as 
 Wyman respectfully kissed her hand. 
 
 When the portiere of the splendid salon was swung 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDB. 323 
 
 aside at last, the piercing but coyly-expectant glances of 
 Minnie Buford bade him hope for the best. Those glit- 
 tering eyes, sentinels of her watchful soul, told him that 
 all was well. The queen of Nob Hill had softened the 
 sudden disclosure. No deceit hovered in his impassioned 
 words as he plead with the heiress, for Wyman felt now 
 that this ambitious marriage would be the long-needed 
 sheet-anchor of his stormy life. Society rank took on a 
 new value! "Hiram is a tower of strength," he 
 thought. General Buford's very influence in London, 
 in California society, with the courts, at the very bank, 
 the Anglo-Californian, where this little " hitch " was now 
 so awkward, this all-commanding influence was his only 
 present salvation! His impassioned, pent-up feelings 
 pointed the glowing eloquence of his earnest words. He 
 swept Minnie Buford's heart away. He was no laggard 
 lover, and in his tender vehemence, he once only forgot his 
 own cardinal rule, " not to mix up love and business." 
 
 But, the fates favored him. Minnie Buford, pale and 
 anaemic, really felt the reaction of his ardent, striving, 
 virile nature, and she gasped and murmured, "Well, he's 
 no fool anyway, a man who will make his mark in the 
 world," as the happy Wyman descended the stair to way- 
 lay General Hiram, and break the thing to him gently, 
 for, she had whispered "yes" to his prayer! 
 
 " It's all right, mamma. Fred and I, understand each 
 other perfectly," the really satisfied girl whispered in her 
 awakened excitement of nature, as she twined herself 
 around her mother's neck. Wyman was a strong, dashing 
 wooer, and she fondly fancied he was "all heart." In 
 which, the acute Miss Buford reckoned without her host, for, 
 like many others viewing the " practical business man," she 
 mistook low cunning for ability, unscrupulous greed and 
 untiring trickery for enterprise, sentimental varnish for 
 
324 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 honest emotions, and because the man was alert, practical 
 and active in his own interest, invested him with all the 
 attributes of superior, manly character taken upon trust! 
 
 Alas! the petted heiress was not the only woman at 
 home or abroad destined to be coldly traded upon in 
 Hymen's courts, and to be grossly deceived in her own 
 un trammeled choice of a husband, " either for use or orna- 
 ment." Life's eternal lottery! 
 
 "I hope now, that papa will not interpose any foolish 
 objections," mused Minnie, as she watched for the return- 
 ing carriage of her usually indulgent father. " He never 
 has so far denied me anything, it is true," she ruminated, 
 "and I presume this will be all right." She had been 
 drawn bodily under the spell of Wyman's exuberant 
 vitality and attractive manners. He had well been taught 
 to please. 
 
 It was all right, for General Hiram Buford was in a 
 golden good humor this very evening. He was also a lit- 
 tle startled with the suddenness of Wyman's " little run 
 home," as he expressed it. But, he had most cordially 
 received the half disclosure, and said genially to his ex- 
 pectant son-in-law, " I'll give you confidential letters to 
 all our own people, and they will take you in to the inside 
 ring, at once." So, the golden circle opened at the touch 
 of the lucky rascal! 
 
 " There goes a man to be proud of. A true, self-made 
 American," dilated Buford, as he engulfed two extra cock- 
 tails, as a solemn libation beyond his allowance. 
 
 Mr. Wyman added one more to his unusual stimulus 
 of the excited afternoon. It was his lucky day, and the 
 devil whispered to him to "rush things." He slipped 
 away, and in half an hour a neat private announcement to 
 the "American Register" was mailed, which contained 
 the cheering news that ' A matrimonial alliance had been 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 325 
 
 arranged between Miss Minerva Buford, the only daughter 
 of General Hiram Buford, the great San Francisco capi- 
 talist, and Mr. Frederick Wyman, the young Nevada 
 millionaire whose brilliant management of the 'Lone 
 Star' mine, had proved him one of the ablest of the 
 Comstock mining kings. The nuptials, in the early au- 
 tumn, would be followed by a series of magnificent enter- 
 tainments in honor of the happy pair, at General Buford's 
 Paris and London mansions, etc., etc." 
 
 "Now, that will pin the family down beyond any pos- 
 sible withdrawal," said Mr. Wyman, as he concluded a 
 careful toilet for a first "dinner en famille," in the 
 capacity of accepted lover. 
 
 He was still thrilling with the unexpected attack in the 
 West. l ' I must slip away for an hour, and give at most 
 ten minutes to Hilly Hammond, then, I will see Miss 
 Gladys !" His face grew black with an ugly passing scowl, 
 for the happy light in her eyes recalled the dangerous 
 Jack Otis, in his self-betrayal. " By God! He shall never 
 have her. She is mine," Wyman exulted. His blood was 
 pulsing with the pride of his dashing success. "I will 
 separate them forever," growled Wyman, as he settled his 
 tie and went down to lie to the young girl, whom he loved 
 "on strictly business principles," for, alia lover's light 
 gleamed in his eyes as he bent over Miss Minnie. 
 
 When his hour's grace was accorded, the lover arranged 
 to meet the partie de famille at nine o'clock, and, at ten, 
 General Buford and himself would conclude a last glimpse 
 at the " standing orders " for the vast enterprise of the 
 "Lone Star" deal. 
 
 "Thank God, Buford will never know that I have 
 forced this engagement on," mused Wyman, as he rapidly 
 arranged in his mind the details of his interview with 
 Mrs. Milly Hammond. * c I have a little panacea for all 
 
MISS DEVEEEUX OF TI!E MARIQUITA* 
 
 her woes," he smiled, for he had taken with him, his pocket 
 check-book. " And after all, it's the only happy way to part 
 in such an intrigue, quickly, with no warning. She will take 
 care of herself and go back happily, alone." In which, 
 Frederick Wyman, Esq., also was a poor prophet, for 
 it was written in the book of Fate that the " kind-hearted" 
 General Buford should "take care" of Mrs. Hammond, 
 in many bright future days to come, and that she should 
 return < < to her home " in San Francisco, nestling tenderly 
 "under the shadow of his wing," but, at a most discreet 
 distance from that energetic Juno, Mrs. Pauline Buford. 
 Cupid's little tricks still lead lovers' feet as far astray as of 
 old! 
 
 " Milly, you are a bright and manageable darling. The 
 only one reasonable woman I know," murmured Wyman, 
 as in his heart he counted the moments after he had deftly 
 "broken the ice," and, arranged Mrs. Hammond's affairs! 
 She bore up well, singularly well, and smiled and sighed. 
 But, the happy woman insisted on " breaking the ice" also 
 of a couple of bottles of champagne frappe, before she 
 would release her departing swain. He had played right 
 into her hand. The cards of life seemed to be all running 
 her way, and in her glee at the surety of a quiet sojourn 
 with none to now hamper her little " comeclie a deux" 
 with Hiram Buford, she was expansive, tenderly touching 
 and loving, loth to see Wyman go, for he had touched the 
 lost chord, with his check. 
 
 "Listen!" he said with a serious air. "My sudden 
 departure must not in any way hasten your return. Stay 
 here. Get up your new wardrobe leisurely, and write me 
 twice a week to my home address. Tell me all of Gladys 
 Lyndon's new triumphs, and if I wish any little confidential 
 matters attended to here, I will write or cable." 
 
 "You are so good, Fred," cried Milly. "Do you know 
 
THE TUEN OF THE TIDE. 327 
 
 I wish to see a little of London before I go home, espe- 
 cially as Mrs. Buford has now grown quite civil to me." 
 This little transformation act had been artfully worked by 
 good General Buford, -who desired to ''confer with Mrs. 
 Hammond from time to time," during the winter. 
 
 "Well, you will have a pleasant London season then," 
 slowly rejoined Wyman. "They will entertain hand- 
 somely, and both the ladies are to be presented." Wyman 
 was studying the future effect upon Mrs. Hammond of tho 
 coming news of his engagement, as he said "good-bye" in 
 a manner which called up the conservatory on Van Ness 
 avenue. "Ah! She is too game a woman to ever annoy 
 me," he decided, as he sadly unwound the white arms of 
 this Briseis, and hastened away to the pension where Miss 
 Gladys Lyndon lived "scion les regies." 
 
 It verged on being late and he hastened the fiacre driver 
 unduly. The warm rooms, the insidious gas-charged 
 wines, with his unwonted oratorical excitement and the 
 many confirmatory cocktails with General Buford, aided a 
 revulsion of his nerves, for the strong drink of the after- 
 noon now smote madly upon his brain. His resentment 
 against the unknown assailants of his interests in San 
 Francisco, his dull, burning hatred of the unasserted 
 superiority of Mr. Jack Otis returned, and he was in a 
 recklessly bitter mood when the polite servant informed 
 him that "Miss Lyndon begged to be excused." 
 
 In his stubborn purpose, quivering under the hammers 
 of the alcohol beating upon his brain, with an unsteady 
 hand he scrawled upon his card "Must see you to-night; 
 leave for California in the morning; important to you." 
 
 Some evil genius surely hovered over the pathway of 
 " Nature's nobleman " that night! It was the first time 
 that he had ventured to force himself on the vestal retire- 
 ment of the girl who now stood before him, wondering at 
 
328 MISS DEVEEEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 his flushed face and hostile eye. It was the turning of the 
 tide, a crisis, and, he was not sober. Unaccustomed to 
 the signs of social dissipation, the budding prima donna 
 was secretly alarmed. Never before* had she felt her help- 
 lessness so keenly. Unused to the reckless ways of the 
 insidious world around her she was not skillful enough to 
 prevent a tete-a-tete by bringing a dame de compagnie, as 
 garde d'honneur. She recoiled slightly in terror as he 
 swayed toward her with unsteady feet. This action of 
 simple surprise maddened him. 
 
 "You haven't a word for me, I suppose?" he roughly 
 broke out. " Now, if it was that loafer, Otis! " 
 
 The splendid woman flashed her eyes upon him! He 
 paused for a moment, for, it was a frozen Niobe that stood 
 there scornfully regarding him. Her heart had ceased 
 beating with a gasp at the violence of the direct insult. 
 Nature broke down the wall of her ignorance, and she loathed 
 his leering, handsome face. She essayed to pass him, but 
 his keen intelligence now told him that he had lost forever 
 the game of a life. Her conquest was now impossible. 
 He seized her by the wrist. 
 
 ' ' None of your tragedy queen airs with me, my pauper 
 beauty. I'm not fool enough to set a jewel for others to 
 wear. I'll stop your letter of credit, and then, your face 
 will be your fortune," he raved. But, as he looked around 
 uneasily to see where the whip-lash voice came from, the ex- 
 cited libertine felt that he was alone. Flying footsteps 
 sounding on the stair, the rustling of a robe, above echoed 
 for the last time on his ears, in which rang still her 
 one indignant cry: " Coward! " 
 
 It was all over, forever! Wyman struggled stupidly 
 out of the house, and passing, all unnoticed, the surprised 
 servant who heard the loud sounds of a railing voice, he 
 passed on into the cool night air which partly sobered 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 329 
 
 him. " I will ruin her. I will drive her out of Paris!" 
 he viciously swore. "All that I have to do, is to give 
 Milly Hammond a hint to drop a word in general society, 
 here and there, as to how this prude came over here." He 
 laughed brutally. " Then she can play her little game of 
 life, lone-handed." 
 
 It was only with a supreme effort of will that he con- 
 trolled himself by the thought of the final conference with 
 General Buford, for he felt he had faced a miserable 
 Waterloo. The driver, taken into counsel, suggested a 
 brief visit to a neighboring restaurant cafe. A few 
 moments in care of the head waiter, a snuffing up of a few 
 whiffs of absinthe, and the cooling draughts of some art- 
 fully prepared lemon juice and iced seltzer with some 
 decorative attentions, prepared him to trundle slowly down 
 to the Grand Hotel. 
 
 He but dimly realized the disaster of his intrusion upon 
 Miss Lyndon. The plea of weariness sufficed to blind 
 General Buford, who promptly agreed to forward all needed 
 papers by the next mail. 
 
 ' ' Nothing is wrong with you in California, my dear 
 boy?" that sturdy old millionaire queried. 
 
 * Not a thing. I must go home and watch some busi- 
 ness a little. Only some of my outside investments. All 
 is straight as a string," replied Wyman, but Gladys 
 Lyndon's scornful eyes followed his unsteady step. The 
 word "coward" rang on his ears. "Ah! Wait, wait," he 
 hissed. 
 
 In the solitude of his room, he threw himself with aching 
 head upon his couch. Still rang in his ears that word, ' ' cow- 
 ard," and, gloomy sprites watched over the tossing sleep of 
 the bridegroom to be. ' ' I was a fool to go at her so rough- 
 ly," he babbled. " It's too late now," and he fell away into 
 a wild melody of dreams. He was still wrestling with the 
 
330 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 grim demons of the night when his provisional valet 
 roused him by "shaking him thoroughly." 
 
 "Six o'clock, sir. You've been going on and crying 
 out loudly, and I have been watching you an hour," 
 the frightened man cried, for among the phantoms called 
 up by the " unloosening process" of his sharp indulgence 
 in drink, the pale shades of Robert Devereux and Steve 
 Berarcl had recalled a name forgotten for years, "The 
 Mariquita. " The defeated libertine, shuddered and growled, 
 "What devil has emptied their graves? My sleeping 
 partners ! " 
 
 " Get me in good shape at once. Ring up some break- 
 fast," ordered Wyman, who also applied " the hair of the 
 same dog," with more or less satisfactory effects. 
 
 "You told me to remind you about my orders for 
 Morani in London, moreover, a ring you spoke of, be- 
 sides," the valet proceeded. His past experience in " high 
 life" made him au fait in the "Grande Lever" of a 
 fashionable man. And, the word " coward " was buzzing 
 still in Wyman's ears as the insulted orphan's legacy of 
 shame. 
 
 When Wyman was ready for the business of the early 
 morning, he surveyed himself in the glass with a severely 
 condemnatory glance. Gazing moodily out of the window 
 in the dispiriting sloppy hour of the early morning, he 
 vigorously exclaimed, < ' I made a damned fool of myself 
 last night! " which verdict was applicable to the severance 
 of his present relations with the child of song and, also, to 
 the colossal folly of forcing his way against her will into 
 the pension, at so late an hour. "That jig is up," he 
 moodily cried, "but, I will break her heart and drive her 
 out of Paris." 
 
 His few remaining hours were devoted to a studied 
 adieu to the girl whose promised hand was now his only 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE, 331 
 
 safeguard, and to her mother. This haughty lady was 
 delighted at Wyman's private commission to purchase, and 
 transmit at once to her daughter, a diamond engagement 
 ring, which would have been colossal if quality did not 
 temper its luck, for the check entrusted to Mrs. Buford 
 was indicative of royal tastes. "I will have Minnie, at 
 any rate, sure and fast," he swore. A happy thought was 
 the provision for a daily offering of magnificent flowers. 
 The arrangements for cabling and mail transmission also 
 were imparted, as a trust of love, to Mrs. Buford. The 
 capitalist could hardly endure the half hour passed in 
 bright dreams of the coming time with the girl who 
 seemed to have stepped up on a pedestal of authoritative 
 dignity over night. 
 
 In a mad desire to embark, before the news of the unto- 
 ward stoppage of the ' ' Lone Star " negotiation could reach 
 Buford, Wyman threw himself into a studied play which 
 exhausted every fibre, and as he turned and saw her 
 fluttering handkerchief, a good-bye, love's last signal, he 
 heard a ringing voice cry again, "Coward!" 
 
 "Thank God! I've seen the last of them, for some time 
 at least!" growled Wyman, as he settled himself in the 
 Havre train. "I can fix up Morani's orders and get rid of 
 this fellow. Then, for a good rest at sea and vengeance 011 
 these blackmailing scoundrels at San Francisco. May 
 the fiends hold off till 1 reach home; then war to the 
 knife." With a bitter malignity, he had mailed a curt 
 note to the Paris bankers, stopping the balance of Miss 
 Lyndon's credit, and had cabled the New York bankers to 
 the same effect. < ; Let this pearl of virtue now try the shady 
 side of the street," he sneered, "I have done with her!" 
 
 As * ' La Bretagne " drew out of the harbor, he hurled an 
 imprecation in the direction of the supposed locality of 
 Miss Gladys Lyndon, and his hearty objurgation particu- 
 
332 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQTJITA. 
 
 iarly included Mr. Jack Otis. " Milly Hammond will 
 drop a bit of acid here and there, which will eat a hole or 
 two in "My Lady's spotless robe," he viciously laughed. 
 "I think I can see the pauper as she gets the news of that 
 money stoppage." 
 
 But, with all the power to punish and to follow the 
 friendless girl, whose innocence had persistently foiled hia 
 insinuating insults, Mr. Frederick Wyman, the epitome of 
 Nature's noblemen, started in sudden alarm more than 
 once on the steamer's deck, for the word < ' coward " seemed 
 still to hiss in his ears, in the swish of the salt sea waves 
 and the hoarse whisper of the unfriendly winds. "There 
 is some turn of the tide in this," he finally decided. "I 
 was always lucky with women, and I always found them 
 alike, all easy to handle before! " 
 
 Nemesis was shadowing him! 
 
 Waldo Strong, counselor-at-law, chafed inwardly as he 
 was swiftly borne away from the town of Truckee on his 
 return voyage to San Francisco, to answer the imperative 
 call of his most influential clientele, the directors of the 
 Anglo-Calif ornian bank. In the half hour allotted for a 
 hasty meal, at the boundary line town, he engaged the 
 landlord of the hotel in conversation. A cigar and a prof- 
 fered cocktail sufficed. to loosen the reminiscent frontier 
 Boniface's memory. 
 
 Waldo Strong had a neat little pocket note-book, full of 
 notes in a certain secret system of private notation, which 
 was the triumph of hours of leisure. The notary's name, 
 the man of many functions, occupied a place therein. He 
 had found it, on the main deed of the "Mariquitamine." 
 It was in consonance with that useful citizen's varied 
 functions and many occupations, that he was now absent 
 upon a grizzly bear hunt, for time hung heavy on the 
 hands of the forest-girdled citizens of Truckee. 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 333 
 
 "You see, squire," said the landlord, " the boys get sort 
 of tired of laying around here, and drinking whisky and 
 playing California Jack. They do punish a power of 
 whisky, and, they won't work. So they have their little 
 hunting and fishing trips. He's the very same man. Been 
 Notary Public here goin' on fifteen years. He writes a 
 splendid hand, when he ain't drunk," the cautious hotel 
 keeper said, hedging a bit. 
 
 "Well, I'll run up and see you some time. PIT a 
 fisherman myself," pleasantly rejoined the counselor, as 
 he sought the train. " I'll call up some of his old friends, 
 perhaps." And, as the train swung along over the Sierras, 
 the lawyer's brain was busied in algebraic exhaustions 
 of every possible solution of the puzzling case. "These 
 fellows had some motive in their long association," he 
 ruminated. " It all hinges upon Robert Devereux!" 
 
 In furtherance of his little private scheme, he indited a 
 neat advertisement, which ornamented, for several weeks, 
 the principal journals of California and Nevada. It was 
 attractive in its appearance. It promised to some stranger 
 a share of fortune's favors : 
 
 WANTED-INFORMATION OF THE DEATH OF 
 Kobert Devereux, who left Virginia City, Nevada, 
 in 1864. His legal heirs will hear of something greatly to 
 their advantage, by addressing X. Y. Z., Lock Box, 2901, 
 San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 A liberal reward for the information desired. 
 
 "That will do the business," confidently murmured 
 Strong. " Somebody always turns up, if there is any 
 property to be handed over. I think I will obtain photo- 
 graphs of Messrs. Hooper, Bowen, and Mr. Frederick Wy- 
 man. The notary may have been sober enough to re- 
 member this affair." And, Strong was impressed with the 
 mysterious current of fate which seemed to float the 
 "Lone Star" property, the source of his ruin, back to 
 him, on a refluent eddy of professional work. 
 
 2 2 
 
334 MISS DEVEREITX. OF THE MAR1QUITA. 
 
 With no waste of time, after a brief visit to his office, 
 he proceeded to hunt up the associate manager of the 
 bank, whom he found at his club. Suspecting the presence 
 of the expert, in a man of Anglican outward seeming, 
 Strong merely passed on into the card room, with a nod. 
 In a few moments, the manager joined him. 
 
 "That's the very man you have to avoid. I do not 
 want him to know of your present employment. Slip out 
 and go over to your office. I will have some friends tell 
 him 'bear and Indian' stories, with a few * lynchings and 
 murders' thrown in, till we have a quiet hour." This feat 
 was successfully performed, to the horror of the scientist! 
 
 In the security of Strong's office, the banker at ease, 
 with cigar, and stowed away in Strong's best leather chair, 
 relieved his mind. 
 
 "It flashed over me when this thing came to us, that 
 we might easily recoup some of those Hooper losses here. 
 We have been censured, as usual, from the home office. 
 They never do censure us if we make an extra two per cent, 
 annual dividend, but, I am tired of hearing of Hooper, 
 Hooper, Hooper. Now, I give you a free hand. I'll have 
 all the papers and detail work carried on by our usual 
 counsel. In this thing, I give you carte blanche and full 
 power. It would be a personal satisfaction to me, to stop 
 off this fellow Wyman here, for, I think he has used, and 
 then screened, Hooper; probably, Bowen and himself are 
 feeding Hooper along with money and intelligence now. 
 I wonder where he fled to. If we could only compromise 
 with him! 
 
 " Where's Wymaii? " shortly asked Strong. 
 
 " Oh! he's still in Paris, and by the way, Du Barry of 
 the French bank tells me he is flourishing around there 
 with Mrs. Hammond, you know," and the two men smiled 
 gently, an easy smile to understand. The way of the 
 world; always the same! 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 335 
 
 Counselor Strong's face was as merciless as that of a 
 duelist A la barriere, when he said: 
 
 "Post your expert to take it easy here a month. Send 
 him around to all the show places, the Almaden, and all 
 around the State. I want to have just a week to go back 
 to Virginia with the new light of these papers, and their 
 own showing. Let your counsel come over here and see me. 
 He might blunder in and meet me. If Wyrnan knew that 
 I was in this matter, he would build up new forts inside of 
 his present lines. I'll catch him for you, and perhaps 
 get hold of Hooper, too. I'll not spare your money, don't 
 you fear. I'll send for you, or come into your private bank 
 office when I wish to see you. We must be strangers on 
 this business, and let no one in the bank know. We will 
 trap Mr. Frederick Wyman yet, I swear it. " 
 
 " All right, counselor, trap the scoundrels, and I'll add 
 a private fee, to the professional one. By the way, lay it 
 on welL The Wyman syndicate will pay all preliminaries; 
 so, your enemy furnishes the sauce for his own roast- 
 ing.' 
 
 Waldo Strong smiled a grim smile, as he dismissed the 
 banker at the door. With the energy of desperation, he 
 toiled night after night at the papers until he had mas- 
 tered Mr. Wyman's London scheme in every detail. He 
 sprang up in precipitation as his friend, Inspector Stan- 
 ton, noisily rapped at his office door a week after his re- 
 turn. It was during one of the night seances, for his daily 
 office practice was increasing. The tide had turned his way. 
 His nerves were in a state of strange thrill, which recalled 
 the night when the winds had whispered "murder" to 
 him, there alone on the Comstock, with the lone star 
 hanging above him, and the Mariquita mine stretched out 
 there below. He was now awaiting the coming days 
 when he might receive an answering cablegram from Paris, 
 
336 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 for a busy fiend whispered in his heart that Gladys Lyn- 
 don was in Paris, in the toils of Mrs. Milly Hammond, 
 and Wyman, his enemy, was in Paris, too. "What would 
 she not do for money?" the agonized suitor thought, as he 
 remembered the society woman's record, and he cursed the 
 day when he had allowed the pure-browed girl to be swept 
 out of his life without warning her. 
 
 " She might have shared my misfortunes. She might 
 have waited for these brighter days," he mourned in his 
 sorrow, and then, too late, he remembered that he had not 
 trusted her womanhood far enough, to ask her to be his 
 wife, to make his heart known. "Have I, like the base 
 Judean, thrown a pearl away?" he groaned. It was almost 
 hopeless, but, to a visiting legal friend he had indited this 
 commission of the heart. "If she is in Paris, Eldridge 
 will surely find it out and cable," he reflected, as he bent 
 his brows over the paper. "The tide has turned my way 
 now. I may win her yet," he thought, and it was the 
 hope of offering her a new fortune and his life, that he 
 sternly toiled away. 
 
 Stanton laughed as he received the chilly welcome of 
 the busied lawyer. "Come now, Waldo," he good- 
 humoredly said, " Give me ten minutes, and you'll not re- 
 gret it. I come to do you a favor." Strong's brow cleared, 
 and he swept the papers all into a drawer. 
 
 "All right," he cried, offering the officer an open 
 box of cigars. 
 
 " By the by," smiled Stanton, "what does that mean?" 
 handing the astonished lawyer the Devereux advertise- 
 ment. - 
 
 " How did you come to know I was behind this?" cried 
 the mystified lawyer. 
 
 1 ' For this, are we inspectors," laughed Stanton. < ' Well, 
 hand over your money, for, I saw this Mr. Robert Dever- 
 
THE TURN OP THE TIDE. 337 
 
 eux murdered, myself." Strong bounded up from his 
 chair. His hand gripped Stanton's sinewy arm. 
 
 " You! you!" he gasped. "Where? When? Tell me 
 all." And, awed by Strong's excited state of mind, the in- 
 spector lit a cigar, and simply narrated the scene at the Cross 
 Roads, where the Mormon rancher, Holman, saw the last 
 gasp of the owner of the Mariquita, weltering in his blood 
 on the bar-room floor. Strong's hands covered his face, 
 and his frame shook with strong emotion. 
 
 Without raising his head, the lawyer asked question 
 after question. The description of the dead man, the 
 scene, all the details, the fate of the slayer, and even the 
 ghastly surroundings of the unavenged crime. ' i Did you 
 ever hear of what became of the man who murdered him?" 
 finally asked the lawyer. 
 
 "Oh! yes, I went up every three months then, till 
 Nevada became a State. This man, a notorious gambler, 
 was shot by the ' 101,' Committee of Regulators, in the 
 clearing out of the roughs. Strange to say, he left a good 
 deal of unclaimed property." 
 
 "And Devereux, the murdered man, what of his friends, 
 his body?" said Strong, quivering now with excitement. 
 Stan ton consulted an old pocket note-book. 
 
 ' I was told by the station keeper at the Cross Roads 
 that his widow in San Francisco wrote some very touching 
 letters, and spoke of his little fatherless girl. All these 
 letters were later turned over to Holman, the Mormon 
 bishop, who was the magistrate there. He went off to Salt 
 Lake later, and he's now dead. I was ordered to investi- 
 gate the fate of Devereux's letters, and all the mail sent 
 to Virginia City, and I even wrote on to Bishop Holman, 
 for so he bloomed out at Salt Lake later. He was only 
 Elder Holman then. He wrote me very civilly, that he had 
 turned all over to his successor as justice of the peace. I 
 
338 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 find I wrote also to him. He died suddenly, shot also in 
 a drunken row. All the archives and things were lost." 
 The lawyer sighed as he finished the notes he had made, 
 for now, he was keenly at work. His open memorandum 
 book lay beside him. 
 
 "And, you say itwasin the spring of 1865 when this man 
 was murdered? " mechanically repeated Strong, following 
 his own notes. 
 
 " I did not! " energetically answered Inspector Stantou. 
 "I said the spring of 1864, "he replied, turning over his 
 notes. "I did not go up there after 1864, when the State 
 was admitted. I have all the notes and dates here. I am 
 surely correct. " 
 
 "Give me that book! Let me see it!" shouted Strong, 
 as he eagerly grasped the old memorandum book. Stanton 
 gazed kindly at his friend. 
 
 "Waldo, you are really killing yourself with overwork. 
 This thing has got to stop." 
 
 "Tell me all that over again. Briefly, only what you 
 can prove and swear to," solemnly said the lawyer. "I 
 will explain later." When Stanton had finished, Strong 
 gazed earnestly in his eyes. "Are there any men up there 
 now who saw that murder? " Strong demanded. " I only 
 want the time fixed." 
 
 " Oh yes! I passed through this year. The store-keeper 
 is still there, and his old clerk is his partner now. The bar- 
 keeper, too, has a store of his own. I talked with all of 
 them, for I pitied the poor widow, who, by the way, I 
 learned from the records of the Postoftice, is now dead. 
 Her official letters from us were returned from the City 
 and County Hospital marked 'Dead.' 7 Strong's eyes 
 were filled with tears. 
 
 "And, the girl?" 
 
 1 ' ' Sent to some asylum. Could not be found later, ' 
 That was the carrier's report," 
 
THE TURN OP THE TIDE. 339 
 
 "I shall not leave you then, Stanton! " cried Strong, 
 " not lose you from my sight, till I have your deposition, 
 and I'll go up to Willows and see those men." 
 
 "Why so?" eagerly demanded Stanton, who saw Strong 
 quivering with an unwonted thrill of mental repression. 
 
 " Because! " cried Strong, as he sprang up and smote 
 the desk a mighty blow with his fist, "that scoundrel and 
 murderer Wyman recorded a deed of Devereux's priceless 
 mine, the ' Mariquita,' made six months after lie was cold 
 and under the sod. The stolen mine has made him a mill- 
 ionaire, and, that wandering orphan girl (if alive) is ' Miss 
 Devereux of the Marquita ' and a millionairess. He is an 
 arch villain." 
 
 "By God! you astound me!" eagerly shouted Stanton, 
 catching the excitement of the dark mystery; but who 
 signed the forged deed?" 
 
 "That is what I am going to find out," cried Waldo 
 Strong, as he wipad the beads of moisture from his brow. 
 "I know who recorded it," he grimly cried, and, before 
 the two men sought their pillows a new light had dawned 
 upon the "deep damnation of the taking off " of the in- 
 valid of Holman's Ranch. Robert Devereux had clearly 
 been trapped to his death, and killed for the mine! 
 
 On his way home, Waldo Strong paused before the huge 
 black mass of the old Cathedral church whose deep -toned 
 bell boomed out "two," on the chilly air. He saw again 
 the four crosses, glimmering sharp cut, against the sky. 
 " < Vengeance is mine. I will repay, ' saith the Lord," he 
 gravely said as he bared his head, and added: "God help 
 you, Frederick Wyman, your time has come!" 
 
 On the morning of Mr. Wyman's flitting from Paris, 
 Gladys Lyndon was awake long ere that time when " the 
 casement slowly grows a glimmering square." Her pillows 
 were wet with the bitter tears of dependence, and a woman's 
 keenest sorrows, for the mask thus off at last, the silver 
 
340 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 veil was lifted. The " generosity" of Wyman stood re- 
 vealed in its hideously loathsome light! She knew, at last, 
 the galling chain which binds debt and its humiliations. 
 She felt the meshes of her dark net closing around her. 
 
 As the cold, gray morning lit up the weary surround- 
 ings, the first hours of her awakening were bitter indeed. 
 Seated in her cheerless room, gazing into the fireless grate, 
 she saw the ashes of her life, the death of her fondest 
 hopes in the blackened embers there. All the gross fa- 
 miliarities of Wyman's later visits burned in her heart 
 as a hideous memory. The beautiful pure brows were 
 drawn into the sad lines of the sorrows which rend, but 
 her young life bounded indignantly in the pulsing veins of 
 womanly pride. She thought over the consequences of 
 the night's occurrence. " I can never see him again," she 
 murmured, and her white hands were clenched in her 
 flowing golden hair, as she paced the room in her lonely 
 grief. Her eyes rested on the river, cold and menacing in 
 its muddy flow between rock-built walls. "Better that, 
 better the oblivion of Pere la Chaise, than life under the 
 domination of this vile brute. " And, a strange uncanny 
 feeling crept into her heart in thinking of the flowery path 
 along which Milly Hammond had so gently guided her. 
 "False too! His tool! His instrument! No! " she warmly 
 cried. "No woman's heart could be flinty enough to 
 trap an orphaned girl. to shame. But away, away! I must 
 leave Paris. And how?" 
 
 She knew she dared not unfold the truth which shames to 
 Mrs. Hammond, the pet of fortune, a butterfly of a golden 
 life which she had only gazed at in its glow on the oc- 
 casion of her musical appearance. " I dare not trust her; 
 I will not tell her," she cried. 
 
 "Alone! My God! How sadly alone! No one to advise, 
 no one to help." And, as she saw her own tell-tale face 
 in the mirror, she turned away, for blushes there told of a 
 
THE TUEN OF THE TIDE. 341 
 
 glowing life hidden there in her chilly bosom. " Otis!" 
 His words of pride and tender cheering encomium, re- 
 turned. " If he were only my brother." And yet, bowed 
 in her sorrows those very blushes told her she would not 
 have it so! When her morning coffee was finished, one 
 practical thought filled her mind. " This Mrs. Buford is 
 a millionairess a representative California lady. She 
 will soon open her house in London. I must leave here. 
 The bread I would owe to him," she dared not speak the 
 name, "would be daily poison. I will leave here at once, 
 quietly. I will see this great lady. She may help me to 
 obtain some pupils in London. I might even sing in 
 parlors. " 
 
 And yet, in the silence of the room where her loveliness 
 and loneliness reigned as twin queens, she felt the slender 
 reed on which she leaned now bend beneath her. She 
 dropped her tired head upon her relaxed arms as she 
 thought with horror of the two thousand dollars she had 
 already drawn of the letter of credit, for the thrifty 
 rules of the Parisian " musical institution " had demanded 
 six months in advance. A few hundred dollars of this 
 borrowed money remained yet in her possession. "Ah! 
 My God! How shall I lift this debt? The badge of 
 shame, for he he may say ." And then, there was no 
 sound in the lonely room but the sobs which marked the 
 agony of her bright brave heart, now humbled to the very 
 earth. And the stricken woman prayed to the God of the 
 orphan! 
 
 As the hours dragged on, Gladys Lyndon sat awaiting 
 the time when she could approach the Californian million- 
 airess. Her senses were benumbed. Already, she had ex- 
 perienced many varied ingenious assaults upon her privacy 
 by the light-hearted Gallic flaneurs of the streets. In 
 vain, the plainest dress and severest mien, shadowed her 
 sparkling beauty. She was too fatally brilliant for the 
 
842 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 repose of womanly plainness, and the hunter had 
 brought her to bay at last in her own home. " Are they 
 all the same?" she wearily guessed, as she mechanically 
 received the letters held out by the wondering servant. 
 
 There was one which spurred her to instant action. It 
 was a curt note from the banker, announcing that any 
 further drafts on letter of credit No. 1086 of their New 
 York house would be dishonored. "He is an exact 
 and prompt business man! "the girl exclaimed, and her 
 soul rose in the mad revolt of an outraged womanhood. 
 The letter fell at her feet, and her eyes followed listlessly 
 the lines of the next, but it brought back white-winged 
 hope to the sealed portals of her dark heart. It was a 
 pleasant request from Mrs. Pauline Buford, to call at once 
 at her residence, at two o'clock. " 1 wish you to sing at 
 my first reception, and so, pray do not disappoint me." 
 
 "I will tell her of my needs. I will throw myself on 
 her mother heart. She, at least, is not a fashionable 
 automaton! She has a child. There must be some wom- 
 anly blood in her veins. She is above all meanness." 
 
 The dreaming girl sat arranging her plans for the proper 
 explanation of her changed plans. Too well she knew 
 that all a woman's movements, (when unprotected), have a 
 peculiar interest, for the casual and most critical observer. 
 A knock at her door was the precursor to a card. 
 
 "The gentleman is awaiting you in the parlor, madem- 
 oiselle," was the servant's announcement, and wonder- 
 ment filled her eyes as she read, 
 
 ERNEST THOMAS, 
 
 DIRECTOR, 
 ALBERT HALL CONCERTS, 
 
 LONDON. 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIEE. 343 
 
 U A stranger for me, on business! " Her heart was beat- 
 ing wildly, as she entered the salon below, and her spirits 
 were lightened as a bright, bustling, cheery man of middle 
 age possessed himself of her two hands. 
 
 " You don't know me, I am sure you do not; but I hope 
 you will know me very soon, my dear young lady!" cried 
 the English impresario. " I will be brief, for I am a man 
 of business, and always, come directly to my point. I 
 came on to Paris for a soloist. I have been most griev- 
 ously disappointed in one or two persons, whose voices I 
 heard last year. Now, Mario tells me that you are the 
 only one he knows who has had any previous experience. 
 He has promised me to speak to you after your lesson of 
 to-day. I am in an awful hole. Help me, I beg of you. 
 When our four months' season is over, you could return. 
 What do you say to the idea? You'll like London." 
 
 The breathless impressario paused, as Gladys Lyndon 
 sank into a chair, overcome with her excitement. Here was 
 a possible avenue of escape! Fate seemed to open a door; 
 but, the girl had no time to reflect. The busy man bent 
 his bushy brows, and with gleaming, kindly eyes said, "I'll 
 be very frank with you. Walsingham of our Embassy 
 heard you sing at the American minister's yesterday. 
 Nature made him a musician! Ah! an untoward fate 
 dooms him to a future peerage, and a huge fortune. An 
 artist spoiled! I am acting entirely on his dictum;" and 
 as Thomas danced about her genially, he exclaimed, "You 
 have the classic personality for high grade concerts] 
 Bless you! It's a great career! " and, Gladys timidly in- 
 terrupted a catalogue of all the royalties and nobility who 
 were patrons of these same high grade festivals of song. 
 "Nothing better in Britain; Her Majesty has graciously 
 and here, he dropped down to business. With a keen 
 twinkle in his eye, be cried, "What do you say now to fifty 
 
344 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 guineas a week and expenses? Two concerts ; two songs 
 and one encore! It leaves you perfectly free for private 
 house singing, only nothing in public, at any admittance 
 fee affair. Of course, your expenses to London and all 
 that. Now say yes, and I'll have you sing this very after- 
 noon at three, and then sign papers." 
 
 "I hardly know what to say, it is so sudden," pleaded 
 the startled girl. "I must consult my friends. (Alas! 
 the one maidenly fiction!) "And, you might not like me," 
 she modestly said. 
 
 '." Oh, I am quite sure of that. The whole town is talking 
 of your success. I'll trust Mario, too. I must. He cer- 
 tainly has confidence in you, for, he told me your lessons 
 were a paid credit, and you can finish your term when you 
 wish, without loss. He predicts a great future for you. 
 Now, that's why I want you. Bless you, Madame Patey," 
 and the girl in self-defense, cut off his reminiscent flow 
 by saying: 
 
 "I will meet you at three, then. If I please you, my 
 answer will be ready then. When would you wish my 
 services?" . 
 
 " Oh, you have a week or ten days yet," cheerily said 
 the director, diving for his hat, cane and gloves. " You 
 must come as soon as you can. Try .the hall and all. that. 
 Now, I rely on you alone. I had two very nice voices in 
 my control; sorry to say both faded off; overstudy, break- 
 ing down; don't dare to tell them so. Now, I depend on 
 you, and I'm sure we'll get on well together. My wife 
 will make you at home in London, at once. " The cheery 
 fellow was off like a shot. He only turned back to say, 
 " I refer to our ambassador, by permission." 
 
 A last little billet had escaped her eye! While the 
 tumult of her surprise was calming itself, she opened a 
 note, in which she recognized the never failing attention of 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 345 
 
 the "gentleman studying architecture." Mr. John Wayne 
 Otis' familiar handwriting strangely cheered and inspirited 
 her. His words were not of a romantic nature, but yet, 
 they brought the blood to her cheeks. Her decision in his 
 case was a favorable one before she had read the last lines. 
 They were: 
 
 "DEAR Miss LYXDON: May I call after dinner for a 
 walk, and to tell you how charmed I was with your mag- 
 nificent singing yesterday?" and the words, "Faithfully 
 yours, John Wayne Otis," seemed to bring with them 
 some peculiar mystic charm, for she hid the little note in 
 her robe, where it rested upon her throbbing bosom one 
 white blossom in sorrow's dark crown! 
 
 There were strange thoughts chasing themselves in the 
 lonely girl's disturbed mind. She sat down at the piano, 
 and essayed to lift up her voice in song. She felt the 
 storm in her heart break into tears which would not be 
 sung, and .she sought .again the refuge of her lonely room. 
 "I shall fail! I shall lose this one chance of safety; my 
 one visible chance of life, " she mourned, and yet some 
 good angel whispered of hope. . Great London; the sea 
 of strange faces, new scenes; a singer's crowned life, all 
 rose up before her. By a happy chance, her eyes rested 
 upon the mockingly handsome picture of Frederick Wy- 
 man, " one of Nature's noblemen. " With flashing eyes, she 
 rose, and its tattered fragments were cast into the black- 
 ened ashes of the dying fire. " I will succeed! It is the 
 one way out of bondage," she cried; and then the bitter 
 rain of a helpless woman's tears! 
 
 There was no trace of faint heartedness lingering in her 
 mind when she left Mrs. Pauline Buford's parlors at the 
 Grand Hotel. A new light gleamed now in her eyes! The 
 noble light of a proud woman's defiance, for, when the 
 enthusiastic millionairess had forced upon her a promised 
 
346 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 engagement to sing at the reception which was to dazzle 
 the American colony, she cordially said: "You must not 
 disappoint me, my dear child, for all our American friends 
 will hear you. The engagement of my daughter to Mr. 
 Wyman will bring our countrymen out in force. I see that 
 the < American Register ' of to-day has the whole news. It 
 is so strange." The room seemed to whirl around the 
 girl, to whom this day was one of the gravest of surprises 
 and of the strangest happenings. 
 
 "I do not wish you to feel that I am unmindful of your 
 talents and, my child, if twenty-five hundred francs is 
 not enough, let me know. You may, however, need a new 
 dress," and, the kind-hearted millionairess altered her 
 check to three thousand francs. "In four days, you sing, 
 so you will have a little time to think over your selections. 
 You must come as my guest." 
 
 Gladys Lyndon had bowed her grateful assent. * ' Thank 
 God! " she murmured, as she hastened back to the singing, 
 "No one dare now to connect my name with that man's, 
 if he marries this girl, and her own mother continues to 
 befriend me." It all seemed like an opportune rubbing 
 of Aladdin's lamp, these turns of Fortune's wheels Her 
 spirits rose, for Madame Pauline Buford had said," I will 
 present you to all my friends in London also, when you 
 come over there to sing for me, this winter. They will 
 be proud of the star of the West, our star of the Golden 
 State." 
 
 Mrs. Buford, in her own imperious way, did nothing by 
 halves. And, she had conceived a little scheme for her 
 own future social exaltation. In her mind's eye she saw 
 Gladys Lyndon, the great Diva of the future, and the 
 "cognoscenti" murmuring, "Yes, a wonder! Mrs. 
 General Buford discovered her and brought her out." 
 There was also a spice of feminine triumph, in bearing off 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 347 
 
 the roc's egg discovered first by her secret rival, Milly 
 Hammond, for, with the unerring instinct of woman's 
 bodily jealousy, Pauline recognized in the velvet-eyed 
 Hammond, a fair townswoman to be most keenly scrutin- 
 ized. Pauline suspected her humbler fashionable sister 
 of being no fixed star, no planet of stately orbit, but a 
 dashing and uncertain comet, given to quaint * ' apparent 
 motion," in her unsafe hyperbolic orbit, an interloper 
 in the golden skies of the West, and one, doomed never 
 to reach that blue and gold fretted zenith, which gleamed 
 down on the Buford mansion on Nob Hill. 
 
 "So it was needless disgrace, deliberate insult which this 
 wooer, fresh from the lips of a plighted bride, offered to 
 me;" thus Gladys reflected, for she had not fathomed the 
 secret of Wyman's mental excitement, due to the masked 
 battery in the West, and the " familar " spirits he had toyed 
 with. Ah! thou invisible spirit of wine! Many a 
 deftly laid plan hast thou deranged for ever and aye! 
 Yelling furies, snaky remorse, unceasing sorrows, horrible 
 crimes, sins past all repairing, griefs the most despairing, 
 hover around the "bright bowl" wherein the elixir of 
 death sparkles in its dancing pride! 
 
 An elastic resentment swelled in the girl's pure angered 
 breast as she swept into the room where Mario and Direc- 
 tor Ernest Thomas awaited her, "I will succeed! "she 
 pledged herself. Her mute eyes sought the maestro who, 
 without a word, catching the sparkle of her eye, beckoned 
 her to the Erard, over which his jeweled fingers strayed. 
 Music deftly chosen by the proud teacher was there. 
 " Sing," he said, cheerily, Fixing her eyes on the ceiling, 
 the girl sang boldly, her last appeal for liberty, freedom, 
 for a woman's life and honor in that one defiant song. 
 It was the crisis of her imperiled womanhood! 
 
 She was still rapt in a dream, as the Director cried, in 
 
 A A 
 
348 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 wild enthusiam, "not another single note. It would be 
 cruelty! You are to be mine! Glorious! Glorious!" 
 
 *' Softly, softly," said the maestro, as he kissed the 
 girl's fair, helpless hands, for the ' ' glow which in her 
 bosom dwelt, was fluttering faint and low." 
 
 ' 'I will arrange ze papaire. You shall sign, not to-night, 
 to-morrow. I have too, ze leetle condition. You come 
 back to me. " And he autocratically then prescribed rest 
 and "a leetle sleep," for the happy young diva. "He 
 shall a few more of the English guineas give," the great 
 singer whispered. "And, not to own you forevaire. I 
 study ze papaire. Brava! " 
 
 But, it was really as a prize to the overjoyed Thomas 
 that the triumphant girl left the salle de musique. "Ad- 
 mirable famille, homme de coeur of ze high standing, ze 
 friend of many years," her one reliable adviser had 
 whispered, in answer to Gladys' furtive question, for 
 since her rencontre at close quarters with the unmasked 
 private Wyman, she now feared all men, as Ishmaelites of 
 the baser sort. It was her first rough awakening to the 
 fatal dangers of a beauty which had not dawned upon her 
 own dreaming eyes. But, all men marked her down! 
 
 When the stars were shining down upon her again, 
 with a light which had gleams of a happier future than 
 the loneliness of these long days since she had left the 
 convent walls, Gladys Lyndon walked out with the young 
 gentleman from Boston. Seated in the Tuileres Gardens, 
 where so many trysts of men and maid have hallowed the 
 historic sward, the singer then told Otis of her intended 
 departure from Paris. The young Bostonian listened 
 gravely, with his head bowed, and was seemingly deeply 
 intent upon the construction of a peculiarly raffine English 
 umbrella in his hand; it was his particular pride! He had 
 thoroughly examined each stitch and joint, and the maiden 
 
THE TUBN OF THE TIDE. 349 
 
 had faltered out every detail that she fain would have 
 withheld, before he spoke. 
 
 Artful Jack Otis allowed her to spur herself gently on, 
 for, in some mystic way, he felt that she saw the pain of 
 this parting, written on his bowed face. In her own fond, 
 womanly way, she would have him know that he was not 
 to drop entirely out of her life. She had jealously 
 guarded all reference to Frederick Wyman. By some in- 
 tuitive feeling, the young millionaire's existence had been 
 ignored by them. Gladys Lyndon, holding in her hand a 
 cluster of bright, fresh roses, which the student of archi- 
 tecture has given her, knew that Otis yearned for even a 
 single glimpse behind the gateways of her girlhood. She 
 recognized his delicate chivalry in the way he had unfolded 
 his own family history, and had painted, the old home on 
 the far-away Charles, with the stately mother therein, her 
 heart filled with love, a living love for the graceful wan- 
 derer, and nursing a silent pride in the unreturning brave. 
 There is no fond woman who cannot read her own lover's 
 heart, and feel the mute pleadings, voiced only in the 
 throbbing pulses, bounding in the fever of waiting the be- 
 loved one's word! 
 
 " It may seem sudden, it may seem strange, this change," 
 she faltered, " but, I must go! I am not free to shape my 
 own life." 
 
 A quick turn of his head, caused her fond heart to cease 
 beating. There was a question in his eyes which her clear 
 glance answered, and, he again bestowed especial care upon 
 that wonderfully intricate umbrella construction. 
 
 A band was playing " Si vous n'avez rien a me dire," 
 near them. She earnestly continued, in a low voice: " You 
 know I am poor; alone in the world, and this engagement, 
 with Mrs. Buford's friendship in London, may insure tho 
 
 completion of my education. If Miss Buford's marriage 
 
 A A 2 
 
350 MISS DEVEKEtfX OF THE MA&IQUITA, 
 
 to Mr, Wyman occurs this winter, in London, it will enable 
 me to build up a good clientele among the Americans, who 
 entertain, as the Bufords will open their London house." 
 
 " When do you go?" said Mr. Jack Otis, in a smoth- 
 ered voice, and then he toiled, finishing with great care, a 
 diagram he was tracing with the point of his beloved um- 
 brella. 
 
 " As soon as Mrs. Buford's reception is over," softly 
 answered Gladys, a regret shaking her voice, in a sorrow 
 which she could not dissemble. " I will sign my contract 
 to-morrow, and Mr. Thomas, who returns at once, will 
 telegraph me the moment his wife has found me suitable 
 apartments. I have nothing then, to keep me here, for my 
 studies, if resumed, will be deferred until the next semes- 
 tre. I feel, though, as if I were drifting on to some new, 
 strange destiny." 
 
 "Will you make me one promise? " said the Bostonian, 
 "I have never asked you a favor yet." He was gazing very 
 frankly into her eyes. 
 
 "If I can grant it, certainly!" the singer replied, and 
 then, she started at the strange sound of her own voice. 
 
 " I feel as if I were a sort of brother in a way, to you 
 just now," the young man said, with a growing embar- 
 rassment, " Let me escort you down to Calais." 
 
 There were two very happy eyes shining on his, and a 
 gentle pressure of his arm was her only answer; for they 
 had now risen and were pacing homewards. 
 
 "There is one pleasant thing," very brightly and cheer- 
 fully said Jack Otis, finally breaking a silence which 
 seemed to be interminable, " I shall hear you in London, and 
 also see you, if you will allow me, as I am going to study 
 the special architectural features of modern London. It is 
 a subject which is vital to the proper extension of the 
 special ideas of my book." 
 
THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 351 
 
 Miss Gladys Lyndon was silent. There was a peculiar 
 brightness in the star-lit heavens just at that very moment! 
 The delightful woman, happy at heart, fondly fancied the 
 new light was in her own soul. Ah! graceful, loving 
 dreamer. It was the radiance of the passing wings of the 
 recording angel on his way to the pearly gates, to chalk up 
 two marks of gigantic dimensions in "the white lie col- 
 umn," against Jack Otis. "One for calling himself 
 brother," said the rosy angel, smiling in his work ; ' ' another, 
 for that very lame yarn about the modern architecture of 
 London." 
 
 "I'll leave places here for some more; that man is not 
 to be trusted." And, the angel, sitting on the edge of a 
 silvery sailing cloud, looked down upon the happy woman 
 trembling in a strange, new delight she dared not own as 
 love, a sweet unknown thrill. But, Jack Otis only lifted 
 his mendacious eye to the starry heavens and winked at 
 Venus, the splendid evening star. He saw in the dim far 
 future, a light shining out for him in the dreaming eyes, 
 whose glances seemed to signal, "Wait in hope." 
 
 Venus, amiable orb, sent down her silvery gleams of 
 distant approval upon " Brother Jack! " 
 
352 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQFITA. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 A FLAW IN THE DEED. 
 
 Two weeks later, Mr. John Wayne Otis sprang up, after 
 a long storm of applause had died away in the Albert Mu- 
 sic Hall of London. It was the emphatic verdict of that 
 most respected body, * 4 the select British public." When 
 Mr. Ernest Thomas had led off the blushing apparition 
 who dispatched a Parthian dart in Jack's direction, the 
 Bostonian edged his way quickly to the waiting-room door. 
 He had profited by the opportunity to intently examine 
 the construction of the Albert Music Hall, gazing upon its 
 roof with a wildly throbbing heart, while Gladys Lyndon 
 faced the Gorgon eye and hydra head of a strange audi- 
 ence. His pulses stopped beating, until, as the notes of the 
 lovely stranger died away, a spontaneous demonstration 
 showed that she had sung her way into the great heart of 
 London! John Wayne Otis, in that supreme moment, 
 turning his eager head, mentally photographed certain 
 kindred souls whose faces were treasured as dear and unf or- 
 gotten in later days friends of his soul. 
 
 His architectural progress had been vary rapid and also 
 satisfying. Several charming elevations of castles in 
 Spain, only now needed finishing touches, and, he was very 
 familiar with the external structure and internal arrange- 
 ment of the homelike nest which Mr. Ernest Thomas had, 
 with true fatherly care, sought out for the foreign song 
 bird. He had been successful in inspiring a certain inter- 
 est in his technical studies in the gentle bosom of Gladys 
 Lyndon, for at both palace and fane, parks, and even upon the 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 353 
 
 oft-bridged river, the lady of his dreams shared his fre- 
 quent voyages of exploration. The singular stimulus to 
 his studies and their improved regularity, seemed to be 
 entirely due to the appreciation of Miss Lyndon of his 
 varied personal comments. 
 
 These London outings were decidedly halcyon days to 
 Jack Otis the dissembler, who drifted, drifted very gaily 
 down the stream of time, and his solicitude for his gentle 
 companion was now crowned by her public triumph. 
 
 "I told you so," he smilingly said, as he grasped her 
 trembling hand in the waiting-room. 
 
 " They were all so friendly," the orphaned girl mur- 
 mured, as "she turned her grateful eyes to the overjoyed 
 director. She was tenderly grateful. 
 
 " Bless your dear heart, my dear child, they can't help lov- 
 ing you. You will be their idol, and the London rage, in a 
 month." Director Thomas had swelled visibly in happi- 
 ness. 
 
 Otis, still intent upon the ceiling, agreed heartily in 
 the last clause, with some private reservation as to whose 
 idol the dreaming beauty would be, but, all was well. At 
 a little supper, in the very bosom, as it were, of Direc- 
 tor Thomas' family, Mr. John Wayne Otis unloosed his 
 collegiate Pegasus, and made some singularly neat refer- 
 ences to the British Lion and the American Eagle, and in- 
 dulged in pleasing hopes, etc. , etc. , some of them judic- 
 iously international in their scope, and others, a mere side 
 issue, treasured in his own Yankee heart. 
 
 The arrival " on business," of General Hiram -Buford, 
 had enabled that mighty financial whale to float in, as a 
 gigantic escort to Mrs. Milly Hammond, who had strangely 
 "run over from Paris, to cheer and encourage dear 
 Gladys. 
 
 A brief but meaning whisper, as Mrs. Hammond left 
 
354 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 the waiting-room where she had penetrated with charac- 
 teristic dash, informed Gladys of some important business 
 which she must consult her upon. "At ten to-morrow, 
 then, at my rooms," said the triumphant singer, with a 
 vague new uneasiness. It had been the one cloud upon 
 the evening of triumph. 
 
 Gladys Lyndon had faced her London audience with a 
 trustful confidence, for the great success of her singing at 
 Mrs. General Buford's great Parisian reception had justi- 
 fied Director Ernest Thomas in blackening the ink, and 
 increasing the size of the posters which heralded the 
 American stranger upon the bill boards. The impulsive 
 generosity and warm-hearted hospitality of Mrs. Buford 
 had caused Gladys Lyndon to forget the gloomy shadows 
 of her last Paris days. In this hour of triumph, the 
 words of Mrs. Milly Hammond called up the brutally 
 menacing face of " Nature's nobleman," as he hurled his 
 last insult at her. 
 
 "He is capable of anything!" thought the shuddering 
 orphan, and a vague distrust of Mrs. Hammond haunted 
 her slumbers that night. 
 
 London fogs, cold and gray, wrapped the streets as Mrs. 
 Hammond rung the street bell on the next morning, at the 
 singer's residence. There was a business-like air in her 
 appearance, which was fitly accompanied by a face of 
 supernatural gravity. 
 
 "I wonder how she will take it," muttered the lady of 
 Van Ness avenue, as her foot slowly mounted the stair, 
 for the cable, and a letter from Havre, had busied her 
 again in Wyman's secret service, and that " nobleman of 
 Nature " had decided to strike down the gentle dove, be- 
 fore she could flutter far out of his reach. "I don't more 
 than half like this errand. It is dirty work after all," 
 Mrs. Hammond ruminated, as she listened to the rustle of 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 355 
 
 Gladys' robes, and her quick, buoyant step resounded in 
 the hall. 
 
 The girl was rosy in smiles, for a sheaf of London 
 papers had been sent in by that proud impressario, Mr. 
 Ernest Thomas. They were all marked to show the gen- 
 erous welcome of the musical critics to the lovely stranger. 
 A beautiful basket of roses had reminded her that morn- 
 ing that Jack Otis was also carefully studying "green- 
 house architecture," as well as his other special features, 
 and strange to say, several other floral offerings bearing 
 strange cards, with the most amiable anonymous inscrip- 
 tions came also, and their signatures varied from "Ardent 
 Admirer" to "Thine Only." With a passing sigh, the 
 lonely beauty had waked at last to the consciousness that 
 others besides Frederick Wyman had looked upon her face 
 and found it fair. The woman chase! Never ending, 
 always fierce. 
 
 "I called to see you, my darling, just to bring you a 
 roll of the San Francisco papers. I know you will be 
 very glad to see them, and - ," the hesitating woman 
 said, " to know that you are well rested after your ex- 
 citement. Ah! you are splendidly launched now," and in 
 a strange, feverish manner, Milly Hammond talked all 
 about the social field, until Gladys, who was still dis- 
 turbed by the words " important business," said simply: 
 
 " You wished also to speak to me of some affairs?" 
 There was a chilled frostiness in the reluctant words of 
 her visitor. 
 
 ' Yes, I am very sorry, but I received a letter yesterday 
 afternoon from the bankers, which has alarmed me. I 
 came to you at once, and I hope you may not be too much 
 annoyed by them. It has kept me awake all night." 
 Gladys Lyndon with a wave of self-protective feeling, 
 recalled the fact that Wyman's name had not crossed 
 
356 MISS DEVEBEUX OF THE MARIQTJITA. 
 
 their lips for some time. This brought his dark shadow 
 back. 
 
 "lam sure, I feel certain," stammered Milly Ham- 
 mond, " that he must be in sonic trouble of some kind. 
 You know that ' stock business ' is so uncertain. I do 
 not know either what has occurred between you two." 
 She ceased, as Gladys Lyndon raised eyes to hers which 
 showed a clear danger signal. She was a clear-eyed 
 woman, brave and alert in her own defense. 
 
 "I am astonished that these gentlemen should have sent 
 this through you, to me," the orphan girl coldly said, as 
 her face whitened to marble. "It seems they would like 
 to make up a public shame of a private obligation." 
 
 "But what will you do, my darling girl? Something 
 must be done! And, at once," eagerly continued Mrs. 
 Hammond, for once she had gone entirely too far. She 
 felt it, as Glad js arose, and coldly said : 
 
 ' 1 1 will condctar the matter, and then write to them 
 direct." The fashionable fraud dropped her gleaming 
 eyes, defeated. 
 
 "But, what has wen the cause of this unpleasantness 
 between you and Mr. Wyman," persisted Milly Hammond. 
 She would have been ^lad to have recalled this question, 
 at any cost, when the singer said : 
 
 "I have never mentioned any unpleasantness between 
 Mr. Wyman and myself. What do you know of any 
 such matter?" And then, Miss Lyndon steadily said: "I 
 must go now and write to these men." 
 
 The lady from Van Ness avenue felt that she had sadly 
 blundered. "I wonder if Strong has at last found out 
 her address, and written to her. This newspaper notoriety 
 and all this musical glory, has lost to Wyman the control 
 of this girl. Perhaps her manager will help her. She is 
 out of his power at any rate, in England." 
 
 As Milly Hammond stepped into her cab, sne reflected 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 357 
 
 that Gladys had not asked her to repeat ner call, and had 
 made no proffer of a return visit. * ' She has taken the alarm, " 
 she murmured. "My influence over her is forever at an 
 end." 
 
 In a somewhat resentful mood, Mrs. Hammond drove 
 back to the cable office and dispatched to Frederick 
 Wyman, San Francisco. Her reply was as follows: 
 
 "Orders obeyed. Too late. She remains silent. Can 
 do no more. Greatest musical success possible in Lon- 
 don." 
 
 ' ' I think Mr. Frederick Wyman is snarling himself up 
 badly," remarked the beauty to herself, late that night, as 
 she unloosed her girdle in the sacred privacy of her own 
 room. She was smiling softly at a beautiful diamond 
 bracelet which General Hiram Buford had clasped on her 
 rounded arm, " with a few appropriate remarks," on this 
 happy night, for in an abstracted moment, he had 
 damned Mr. Wyman up and down, to use his energetic 
 expression, "as, only a smart fool." 
 
 "The meanest kind of a fool is a man who is 'dead 
 gone on himself,' Milly," the millionaire said gruffly, in 
 explanation of his outbreak. " I have been entangled by 
 this smart lad, and led on into a false position. I fear he 
 has got out ' over his depth.' It may take me home sud- 
 denly, I am afraid. I must bring him 'into line.' 1 The 
 bank has wired to me for instructions. You can either go 
 with me, or else, stay here till I comeback." Whereat Mrs. 
 Hammond tenderly smiled. Patting him upon his rubicund 
 cheek, she gently called him "Old Reliable." 
 
 " I'll do anything you wish," she murmured, and then, 
 mentally nailed his colors to the mast. He clasped lier to 
 him in delight. 
 
 Four days later, Mrs. Hammond was astounded at the 
 reply of the Parisian bankers to a rather extended letter of 
 
358 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 official explanation she had written, in reply to the open 
 letter addressed to her. " Can it be Strong who has come 
 to the front ? " she muttered. " The game is up now. And 
 now, the girl hates me. I wonder if I shall answer Strong's 
 letter," for, the lawyer's letter of inquiry burned on her 
 bosom. "He was always devoted to me. He will soon 
 get on his feet again, and, I may need his legal advice some 
 day." Whereat, she indited a very friendly message to 
 Waldo Strong and enclosed clippings of the wonderful 
 success of the "California Diamond " at the American 
 Minister's and Mrs. Buford's in Paris, as well as a care- 
 fully drawn sketch of the girl's status on the Continent, 
 leaving out all reference to London. She also ignored 
 Wyman, whose < ' timely bridge over " was no longer needed; 
 for, was not that peaceful warrior, Hiram Buford, at her 
 beck and call? 
 
 The sharp snap of the bankers letter disturbed her. It 
 read: 
 "MADAM: 
 
 "As the matter you refer to has been settled in full, all 
 further correspondence is useless upon that subject, our 
 instructions having been duly fulfilled. We beg leave to re- 
 main," etc., etc. 
 
 " I suppose the manager has gladly come to the rescue," 
 decided the irritated woman, whose curiosity was destined 
 never to be satisfied, for, though she approached Miss 
 Gladys Lyndon, now a fully developed " star," and rap- 
 idly moving on to be " the rage," the young cantatrice was 
 equably and professionally polite, but, as distant as her 
 sister stars in the zenith. The stroke had failed, and yet 
 the rescue of Miss Lyndon's name had been effected by 
 another than the warm-hearted Ernest Thomas, Director, 
 etc. etc. 
 
 It had fallen about very strangely; for, an interval of 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEEfc. 359 
 
 stony despair and of stormy grief, the last, a tribute to her 
 womanhood, had been followed by the utter breakdown of 
 Miss Lyndon. The hunted girl had fled to her rooms and, 
 casting the roll of Californian papers on the table, read 
 again, with a sickening heart, the brutally direct words of 
 the letter which Mrs. Hammond had given to her. One 
 clause had pierced her heart with the bitter shame of pov- 
 erty; a galling chain which had cramped her soul in her 
 whole lonely life, the badge of dependent humiliation. 
 Her eyes were streaming as she read : 
 
 "Our principal, Mr. Frederick Wyman, has directed, 
 that in the event of Miss Lyndon abandoning the course of 
 studies marked out for her, and leaving Paris, she be re- 
 quested to replace at once, the sums expended upon her 
 travel and musical education, up to the time of such 
 abandonment. 
 
 "We regret to learn that such is the case, and, there- 
 fore, to avoid personal unpleasantness with a young per- 
 son, a stranger to us, beg you to acquaint her with the 
 immediate necessity of depositing the two thousand dollars, 
 eo far drawn, upon the canceled letter of credit. We 
 stand charged by our New York house with this sum. 
 Your immediate attention to this will greatly oblige us." 
 
 It was in vain that the sympathetic housemaid, Harriet, 
 endeavored, in the lapse of the afternoon, to arouse Miss 
 Gladys Lyndon to the necessity of descending into the 
 drawing-room, and meeting Mr. John Wayne Otis. That 
 "architectural expert" was also a man most fair and 
 comely to view. He had the "voice of a singing bird," 
 to the appreciative ears of the comely housemaid, who was 
 of a romantic turn of mind. She recognized in Jack Otis 
 the character of Cyril Brandt, the virtuous and good-look- 
 ing young artist, who rescues the heiress of too much good 
 looks, in a stunning novelette, * < The Earl's Plaything, or 
 
360 MISS DEVEEEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Webs of Doom," a serial which was now running contem- 
 poraneously with her daily household duties. Jack Otis was 
 shyly casting out all his ''ground tackle," and the august 
 face of Her Majesty had beamed with a fixed smile on 
 many half crowns, which had found their way into pretty 
 Harriet's apron pocket. Artful Brother Jack! 
 
 ' ' Don't you be cast down, sir. Wait a bit. Miss Gladys 
 will be down directly, I'm sure. I'll work on her a bit. 
 You see, sir, she's been cry in' steady all day. That there 
 American lady has been here with a letter and not even a 
 cup of tea will she take." The frank-eyed maid darted a 
 look of friendly encouragement from under her snowy cap 
 at Jack Otis, who stood irresolute. 
 
 "Damn that Hammond woman!" he cried savagely. 
 
 i 'Ah! I have it," he thought, as his curly head went 
 down over the center table, and he quickly penciled on his 
 card. " I must see you to-day, I may have to go home 
 to America at once. It is a vital moment.'* 
 
 " Now! give her this," cried Jack, and he deftly duplicated 
 his great "half-crown" act. "You shall have a Christ- 
 mas box, if you make her come down," he insidiously 
 promised as Harriet sped away; and the recording angel, 
 gazing down from the heavenly perch, then and there, 
 "chalked up a stunner, " in the white lie column, on this 
 last feat of mendacity, and "stood by, awaiting orders." 
 
 John Wayne Otis measured the drawing-room with wolf- 
 like strides, and he contemplated certain gloomy funereal 
 effects in case of failure; but, a foot as light as a snow 
 flake was soon heard upon the stair, soft as the dews 
 that fell that night. The frightened girl murmured, "I 
 could not let you go without one word." 
 
 The "brother " of the "architectural exploring" coterie 
 muttered, "and, I shall not let you go until I know what 
 is your sorrow." 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 361 
 
 The last whisper of his soliloquy sounded in his heart 
 of hearts very much like "My poor darling!" Very 
 brother-like, very! 
 
 Somewhere, Jack had read that a vigorous self-assertion 
 at the critical time was a "happy thought" in cases of 
 this kind. His finely vibrating voice belied the speechless 
 entreaty of his eyes, as he led her to a seat. 
 
 " I can not, and will not, leave London until I know 
 what troubles you. We are both alone in the world. 
 Now, I have no sister, of course, but I'm sure in your 
 place, you know, she would just tell me all. I don't know 
 what there is you could not say to me," and awed by the 
 suffering on her fair and gentle face, John Wayne Otis de- 
 liberately walked to the central arch of the rooms, and 
 turned his head away. "That will have its effect," he 
 prided himself, and the recording angel executed another 
 neat stroke in the list of Jack's peccadillos, waiting with 
 suspended stylus, for "more." But, the sound of sobbing 
 had drawn Jack Otis back to the girl's sid with rapid 
 strides. 
 
 "By the God of Heavens! I will know," he cried. 
 " Don't you see how I am suffering? " 
 
 And as the fair head was bowed before him, its golden 
 hair blinding her eyes, as Miss Lyndon murmured at last, 
 the source of her sorrows. His imperative assertion of a 
 shadowy brotherhood broke down the only remaining bar- 
 rier of her pride. 
 
 " It is that. I'll tell you all. With a little time, and I 
 can repay this." And the sobbing girl then began to falter 
 the acknowledgement of her once welcome obligation, but 
 which was now a galling chain. 
 
 Mr. Jack Otis deliberately stopped her with a "regular 
 whopper." He had possessed himself of her helpless hand, 
 the hand on which he saw the fair emplacement for a wed- 
 
SOfl MIHM DKVKHKI'X OK TIIK MAKKjriTA, 
 
 ding ring, <at) 'l ?IM he K (;r '^y poiMCWKwl hirnnelf of the letter, 
 ho k'lHMed tin! li.-iii'l in a brotherly fanhion, 
 
 ' I'll mark liini nothing for that," mimed the recording 
 ungel, far above. *' I would <lo the same myself, that in, if 
 I were not an :MJ'." I. " and tin- heavenly official shifted un- 
 easily upon his golden cloud. For once, he envied an erring 
 inorl.'il. 
 
 '* Now liHten to mi', 1 ' Hternly wi'nl th BoHtoniaD. '* Do 
 you H-iiirmlxT you liuvc to :-iii^ to morrow iiiyht. Now, I 
 luivr to run over to I'ariH toH.'iy ' 4 ( Jood-ly; " to the hcHt 
 nrt/iHt, follow I know. I happen to know thenc batikerH very 
 well, and if you will allow me, I will have, lliis affair set off 
 in a private aecount, whieh you can nettle an \n\> winh to. It 
 will at once relievo you, and, it'n jiiHt the Harm* you know." 
 There wan a ^leam of relief, a nhade of loving doubt, and 
 u world "I proud loving Nhame in her trembling eyes, as 
 nhe lixed t hem upon him. 
 
 ** You are not deceiving me. Vou are taking no bur- 
 don on yoursolf? " Hhc Haid. "I WJIH j^oing to ask Mr. 
 ThonuiH liiniHcIf to arrange; it that way, but, my child- 
 hood han Keen HO lonely, HO Had. 1 have so few friends. I 
 WEM afraid," llee.oidd have cruHhed her in hiH Htrong 
 nrniH. lie nmiled to himnelf, "Only wait." 
 
 " Hy ,love! M moHt e.heerfully cried Otis, as lie glanced at 
 th< r.loc.k, " I've only the time left to get my little traps 
 and make Hiiro of the train. Now, you mustproraise me three 
 thingH. I've not a moment to lose. " She smiled HO brightly 
 at him through her toarH. Jn her fond woman heart nhe 
 knew at hint, that her own will had gone out from her; 
 that, Jack Oti by a during escalade, had made a lodgment 
 in her heart. She felt by the quickened pulses throbbing 
 wildly, a melting glow in her bosom, that it were well he 
 should go now. And she trusted to him, to use his 
 victory so mercifully. 
 
 "What shall 1 do? " she murmured. 
 
A KLAVV IN TIN* DK1CI). JJfl;| 
 
 " Fii'Ht, r<-Hi and diMmiHH thin vexing matter entirely 
 from your mind. Secondly, allow m<- to take i In letter. 
 Thirdly, promise me to answer, an I wiwh, tiny dispatch I 
 might li;i\< t" -nl Iniin I'.H i on the formalities of thin 
 matter.' 1 
 
 ** I will trust to you to act for me," she H;iid an he row, 
 for, in hr- hone i. eye* she could *cc INK prayer that, she 
 would yield. "To act for me," she Huid nlowly, " ;IM if 
 you were in my place, and-- 1 were your own brother 
 Jack." 
 
 Air. Otin remained npell-bound at her Hide, lulled l>y Um 
 MWcc'tiicKH of her a;e,entH a* nhe faltered the lant wordn, 
 and when the youn^ knight, errant lifted IJJM eyex, nhe wan 
 gone. 
 
 A littje knot ol blue ribbon had fallen from her hrea*t, 
 an hhe had bowed her head in norrow at the table. ll< 
 picked it uj), kinned it with a wild ^J-e and Mped away, 
 but, at the door, intercepted by the liandhome Harriet, hn 
 rern<'inb<'red a half Kovereign which in \HH mind, he had 
 promined her Home time before. !!< whittled loudly and 
 merrily, to t.he dJHturbance of the pea/:e of good ^'wn 
 Vietx^ria, aM he daubed away to hJH hot^-l. " I think I t*w 
 t.he drift of thin thing. I will * knock out' one 'dragon,' 
 at any rate," confidently predicted Otin. 
 
 All the way over the Channel, he wan Ktill singularly 
 jubilant, and never gayer in hi life than when next day 
 at noon he entered the J'arin banking office. 
 
 He h(Jd MJKH Lyndon'H lettx^r in hi* hand. The grave 
 bank manager wan politerieKH itwjlf, and hi* f;i/xr xhowe/J 
 an amicable concern when the Bofttonian airily Ktate^J that 
 MU Lyndon'M ftligbt illne** prevented her writing; but, be 
 wan very careful t/> preserve the receipt for two thouKarjd 
 dollar*, arid *' in full of all demands," which he received 
 in exchange lor four hundred pouu/ln and more of good 
 Engiih. crifipy. crackling 
 
364 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 "We regret to have been obliged to address Miss Lyndon 
 in such positive terms," began the manager. 
 
 "Oh, I'm quite sure of it," cheerfully answered Otis, 
 giving him a cold stare, which caused the banker to mut- 
 ter, "That fellow is an American desperado;" but John 
 Wayne Otis did not care, for he was already spinning 
 away along the boulevard after he had sent a brief dis- 
 patch to Miss Lyndon, which stated: " All amicably ar- 
 ranged. Choose your own time. Back to-morrow evening. " 
 
 He wandered out in a most satisfied frame of mind. In 
 his room he carefully tied up the letter and the banker's 
 receipt, with the bit of blue ribbon which he had guarded, 
 and then deeply ensconced the packet in an inner pocket, di- 
 rectly against the corded muscles of his manly breast. 
 
 The genial recording angel smiled from above and 
 deliberately laid down his stylus. " Good boy, Jack!" he 
 authoritatively remarked. "Your current account is all 
 right. The end justifies the means," and the clerical seraph, 
 then cast his eyes in the direction of other erring mortals, 
 and made very light marks all day, in honor of the frank man- 
 hood of that i i genial malignant, ' ' brother Jack. * ' They're 
 not such a bad lot after all," mused the angel, looking 
 down with a charitable smile on us poor worms below. 
 
 There was a vast deal of conjecture on the San Fran- 
 cisco Stock Exchange as to the reported sale of the " Lone 
 Star " in London. The great financial storm had blown 
 over, and the eddies and whirls of speculation seethed and 
 bubbled as of yore in Pine street and upon California 
 street and in the alleys adjacent thereunto, as well as the 
 sidewalks, nay the very gutters. The journals and the 
 society columns were redolent of the perfections of the 
 "four kings," for the shadowy crown which dropped 
 from the brow of the 'dead banker, Ralston, was now 
 broken up. Its jewels divided, but undimmed in luster, 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 365 
 
 gleamed upon four alien brows. The losses " readjusted 
 themselves;" broken hearts were slowly vulcanized to a 
 contented poverty, or thrilled in the craze of drink. 
 Some, alas! ceased their agonized beatings in the suicide's 
 forgotten grave. On the whole, the market had entered 
 upon a healthier condition. An upheaval was confidently 
 predicted. The "funeral truths," turned end for end and 
 revamped, furnished forth the "wedding breakfast," for 
 King Bank of California was dead, and King " Bonanza" 
 reigned instead. 
 
 The "reaching forth" for the coin of the gullible was 
 deftly continued, and the swish, swirl and glitter of 
 society sparkled around the yawning man-traps of the 
 stock exchanges as of yore; new faces at the Western 
 Monte Carlo, but, the same old deadly unerring "deal " on 
 the unvarying principle, "heads I win, tails you lose." 
 The pepper box of fortune rudely shaken sifted out strange 
 and peculiarly aromatic grains, but on the ringing golden 
 wheels of twenty-dollar pieces, the car of civic progress 
 rolled along in its usual occidental fashion, with fits and 
 starts. 
 
 Mr. Waldo Strong was busied late in his office, and 
 divided his evenings between Inspector Stanton and the 
 genial bank manager. 
 
 "See here, Strong!" said the great financier of the 
 "Anglo." "You must get your guns soon ready for 
 action, I've a dispatch that Wyman himself will be here 
 in a week." 
 
 " I'll be ready for him then, double shotted," grimly 
 answered the lawyer. i i I have my cases arranged so I 
 can take a few days. I have also spotted him by telegrams 
 from Paris and New York. I will go up the road, lay 
 over at Truckee and at Reno, and let him pass me. Then, 
 I'll turn around and follow him down. I do not wish to 
 
 E B 2 
 
366 MISS DEVEEEUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 be in Virginia City when he is there. I will give you a 
 written opinion, a very brief one, on which you can 
 offically tell him why the title of his mine is rejected." 
 
 The banker mused: " It's a pity for us London men 
 that he does not own it. It is a magnificient property, 
 our expert says, and the north end is now giving wonder- 
 ful indications. There are five or six hundred feet of the 
 1 Lone Star' still unexplored in that direction." 
 
 "I'll find out the true inwardness of the whole affair,'' 
 grimly smiled Strong. "Give me that secret order to 
 Wells, Fargo & Co.'s bank and Express, to show me their 
 records in Nevada and at Truckee. That's all I want. 
 Stanton has obtained the pictures of these three worthies, 
 and, his postal clerks will telegraph him daily Wyman's 
 location on the overland railway. I will get the news at 
 the Truckee and Virginia City Postofiices, and my own 
 detective is now at Virginia City. Oh! I'll roast the 
 villain. " 
 
 The lawyer unlocked his safe. "Keep that till he 
 forces it from you. It has the key of the rejection in its 
 few words ; and if he falls into the trap, as I think he will, 
 then, we have him ready for prison stripes, "Waldo Strong 
 said, with a pitiless curl of his lips. 
 
 As the banker walked homeward, he muttered: "That 
 lawyer chap is a cold and unforgiving enemy. He has 
 got it in for Mr. Wyman. " 
 
 Inspector Stanton, strolling in to smoke an evening pipe, 
 electrified Strong, who was still pacing the office floor like 
 a panther. 
 
 He casually said: " By the way, I met that remarkable 
 party, Andy Bowen. He is down here on a little visit. 
 He is going to stay a few days. He is still ignorant of 
 this trouble, for he laughed out when I asked for Wyman." 
 
 "Oh! Having a jolly time in Paris. Guess he'll stay 
 
A PL AW IN THE DEED. 367 
 
 there all winter. He is opening up the mine slowly. He 
 made enough on his last cute deal, to last him several 
 years. " 
 
 The lawyer's eyes flashed fire as he thought of his 
 heedless ruin. Speculation had withered the fruit of ten 
 years' hard professional work. 
 
 "I asked him in an idle way about Devereux, " con- 
 tinued Stanton. 
 
 " ' He was a very nice fellow,' remarked Andy. 'A 
 sickly chap; oh yes, I remember him well. A kind of a 
 clerk or business man; and he had a nice little woman and 
 child, too, down here at the Bay. He was always talking 
 of his wife "Mary." I know he named the mine "Mari- 
 quita " for her. There was another claim with the English 
 name, and we put it into ' c greaser " Spanish. And he also 
 had a little girl named " Hope." That I remember, for he 
 showed me her picture.' ' 
 
 " Go on, go on '."cried Strong, now wild with excite- 
 ment. 
 
 " ' Oh, yes. He left Virginia in the spring of 'sixty-three, 
 and went down to Holman's Ranch. Never heard of him 
 afterwards,' so Andy finally said." After a drink had 
 warmed him up, the inspector slowly said, looking at some 
 memory notes: "And then, Bowen woundup, 'Wyman 
 followed him and bought out his three-quarter interest. I 
 wanted to get a hack at that mine myself, but Steve 
 Berard had a kind of an interest in it with Wyman when 
 he was killed.' ' Who?' said I, 'Berard or Devereux?' 
 'Bless you,' roared Andy, 'Devereux wasn't killed. He 
 went clown to 'Frisco and I guess went home East, or went 
 into some business. Leastways, he didn't die in Nevada; 
 not that I know of.' So you see, Brother Strong, this 
 big fellow never heard of Devereux's death." The in- 
 spector was now eager, "Who kept it quiet, and why?" 
 
3G8 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 " That is for me to find out! " replied the lawyer, as he 
 grasped the inspector's hand. " Now, Billy, I must do a 
 bit of writing, and get ready for my trip. I depend on 
 you to watch Wyman till I return. When he comes, your 
 men have all got your private tips." 
 
 Stanton nodded. "Good luck, old man. I'll go over 
 to Oakland with you in the morning." He disappeared 
 murmuring, "I'm glad this thing will come to a head 
 soon, for Strong will surely go crazy over this whole mys- 
 tery, unless we reach a crisis," and he then, disappeared in 
 the night. 
 
 But, the lawyer was still walking the office, an hour later. 
 "I see the whole villainy. Wyman robbed his murdered 
 partner, Berard, who had assassinated Devereux so as to 
 steal his mine for the two thieves. He was cut off by chance 
 in his tide of fortune, but, oh, my God! I must, I will 
 find Hope Devereux, the missing child. She must be 
 alive somewhere in the wide West, and she may need her 
 million. She shall have it, too! " 
 
 At that very moment Gladys Lyndon, in the quiet of 
 her London apartment, had been looking, with a strange 
 yearning, at the details of what has been her town life, in 
 the San Francisco newspapers, furnished by the hypocriticial 
 kindness of Mrs. Milly Hammond. The girl's mind now 
 was freed of its haunting money cares, and the shadow of 
 shame had been lifted from her future. * ( I can pay it all 
 off this winter, easily," she joyously cried. Jack Otis 
 had explained how "perfectly agreeable" it would be to 
 replace the funds ' ' at any reasonable future time. " "I 
 had it set aside for you as a special matter, and to relieve 
 you of uneasiness, I brought a full receipt on the Wyman 
 account; all you have to do is to simply ignore any letters 
 or references of those people." In some haste he had left 
 her, in the hope to find that a possible fortunate arrange- 
 
A FLAW IK THE JEED. 369 
 
 ment of his affairs might prevent a home voyage. He had 
 "his reasons" for remaining in London, to "complete his 
 studies. " So sitting alone, bright hearted and happy, the 
 girl's mind had drifted far away back to California. 
 
 An especially prominent advertisement attracted her eye 
 in the paper she read. Its head lines "Devereux! Dever- 
 eux. Information Wanted," were enough to bring the 
 blood rushing to her cheeks, and, when she had finished 
 reading it, amazement was written upon her face. "Can 
 this be truth or only a dream?" she said as her childhood, 
 with all its roll of sorrow, swept back upon her once more. 
 
 Long, long did the lonely woman pace the floor before 
 she could decide to face the uncertain seas of fate. 
 "Should she answer, or not?" "What can Fortune hold in 
 store for poor orphaned Hope Devereux, the child of con- 
 vent charity?" she cried through her tears and the words 
 i ' Mother, mother ! ' ' were lovingly murmured, as she 
 thought of a far-away grave. 
 
 Her singing name had been selected in deference to the 
 wishes of the good nuns who always piously discour- 
 aged all public careers for women, especially the unholy 
 art of music. The dance, song, and the tempting theater 
 were regarded by these unmolested good Samaritans as 
 only broad roads to the bottomless pit. She knew not 
 that her own mortal enemy had unwillingly placed his 
 very deadliest foe upon the lost trail, which led his banded 
 enemies back to the mystery of the "Mariquita" mine. 
 The Hammond woman had ruined her paramour in trying 
 to serve his cowardly revenge. 
 
 Mr. Frederick Wyman was a morose and moody man, 
 as he whirled along westwardly accompanied by his 
 gloomy thoughts. He was not an unmindful lover, for 
 at each principal city he daily dispatched his greeting to 
 Miss Minnie Buf ord by cable. * ' It will serve to make the 
 
370 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 General feel I am only a sighing, happy lover, not a man 
 fighting in the dark for a debated million. But," he 
 finally decided, "I have played my cards to win. What 
 in the devil is behind this matter? I don't know. 
 Wilder telegraphs me, there is nothing yet new. I sup- 
 pose it is only after all some pig-headed objection of this 
 Englishman, who demands Her Majesty's patent." 
 
 The cool young operator stopped suddenly. " By Jove 
 I have not yet myself obtained a United States patent. It 
 may be only that, perhaps a mere formality. Ah! I had 
 neglected that." He was thoughtful for a whole day. 
 Several tourists of his bowing acquaintance had already 
 decided "that Wyman had lost himself in a fit of puffed- 
 up vanity, since his Lone Star ' deal." 
 
 As the train rolled across the muddy Missouri, and be- 
 gan to race down the Platte valley, the borderer dropped 
 all memories of Milly Hammond, all vain regrets for the 
 chasm now dividing him forever from the beautiful Gladys, 
 and even ignored that human glass of absinthe, his 
 sprightly fiancee. 
 
 "I must not make one false step," he reflected. " In a 
 stock deal, the man who deliberates is a 'goner,' like 
 'the woman who hesitates.' I must be ready to fight 
 this with a cool nerve." 
 
 "That's the devil of American wealth," he sneered. "A 
 gamble, a struggle, a life and death intrigue to get it, and, 
 the devil's own job to hold it." 
 
 He strangely never suspected Waldo Strong. "It may 
 be some beach-combing journalist, some * smart Aleck' who 
 wishes to ' bluff' me into a fat compromise. But, suppose 
 they should really produce some one to represent the 
 shadowy Devereux title? I must have a good lawyer. I 
 absolutely must own the judge who tries the case. Now, 
 if Vinnie, damn her, were only here, I could use her. She 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 371 
 
 could twist old Merrick around her finger; and he is the 
 only lawyer in Nevada who will ' stay bought' when you 
 have ' bought him once.' Is her finger in this pie? No," 
 he reluctantly admitted. "She only makes a fool of her- 
 self over that drunken scoundrel Hooper. There's nothing 
 in it, but revenge for him. Bah! it surely can't be him. 
 He would be chased over the world." 
 
 After passing Salt Lake, Wyman who "faced the music " 
 now like a man, had decided to retain Judge Merrick, 
 that walking encyclopedia, as counsel, and then get a 
 "working lawyer" to assist under his own eye. "But, 
 but," the young conspirator owned to himself, "this thing 
 will at last depend upon the judge who tries it. Only one 
 human being can help me, and that is old Hiram, for he 
 and his great associates own the judge, body and soul." 
 
 Mr. Wyman was well aware of the inner light of this 
 poker-playing legal luminary, who might soon pass upon his 
 title to a hard won fortune. Strange whispers of the 
 malleability of this oily official were furtively bandied 
 about, but under the hushed breath. He played an even- 
 handed game with the bar, he practiced a little "before 
 it," and, if unscrupulous, his ability raised him above all 
 detailed attack, and a great banded money monopoly now 
 backed him up. "The quality of mercy " lingered not in 
 his cold, gray eye. " If the worst comes to the worst, I 
 will cable for Hiram, make a clean breast of it to him, and 
 have him buy this one man's decision." 
 
 Frederick Wyman decided to keep intact his parchment 
 piles of bond reserves. "They will have to go pretty high 
 to outbid me," he grimly smiled. And fearful of losing 
 prestige with Buford, as well as the ineffable happiness of 
 escorting Miss Minnie, resplendent in laces and orange 
 blossoms, into the Golden house on Nob Hill as his wife- 
 he decided to develop at once his unknown enemy. 
 
373 MISS JUBVKUKUX OF THE MAJUQUITA. 
 
 "They will find me silent in my breastworks, and have 
 to light to the death to blow me out of them," and HO t with 
 aii eagle eye, lie measured look uud deportment, as he 
 neared the Nevada line, "I ought to have Home oue to 
 depend on now/' he mused, Wilder, Brown, Hopkins, 
 any of thorn, might become dangerous, but, I was a tool to 
 leave Morani away there in London; and yet, it he can trace 
 down Hooper! 1 will be repaid it I can only l.m.l that 
 scoundrel in prison should a trial come on out here, There, 
 chained up, he is harmless, " 
 
 For, Mr. Wyman had made up his mind to reimburse all 
 the liberal "preliminary expenses," in London, placate 
 General Buford, and let the great scheme of "working 
 the London market" go by for a time. It I hold my own, 
 satisfy Buford, and win his daughter as my wife, 1 am 
 forever "one of the upper crust,' " he laughed, and 1*11 give 
 the old man a good show in the mine. By Jove! 1 can put 
 enough stock in his name, after 1 marry the girl. We can 
 open the north ground, and dig out enough extra to make 
 me forget this. So, Morani can come* home at once if he 
 can't trace Hooper out, but J am a wife, and a mighty 
 smart one, ahead anyway." 
 
 Wyman became excited as he neared Virginia City, for 
 the news of a wonderful discovery on the north end of his 
 mine, was heralded in the Klko newspaper, *an ore 
 body of surpassing richness and supposed to dip into the 
 < Lone Star.'" Shall I go to Virginia City or run on to 
 Ban Francisco V" he musud. After an hour's deliberation, 
 he decided that he would be at a great disadvantage alone 
 in Virginia City. u 1 will have all the gossips down on me. 
 Who knows what spies may dog me, and in my own 
 headquarters, I have a good working corps at hand, and 
 can calmly watch these fellows develop whatever game 
 they have. 
 
A. KI,AW IN TI|IC DlfiJCIJ. 
 
 So it WUH only two dayn later, with tliu *miling air <d a 
 
 M'tin-lied ; < l.il ,M- -.nidei . In |..| . <i 111 >lt ill IliH ' I'll, Jit 
 
 nee dent a brief noto to tho manager <>!' I, lie " Anglo " 
 lank unking for ati appointment, and then dinotiHHud a 
 r u Hint! dinner while (intoning <nr alter another 1<> lln* 
 skeleton ruporlM of Hrown, IIopkitiH, ami thu uunoycd and 
 diHtnrlH'd Wilder. 
 
 When the I, wo men were lel'l. alone lu iheir wiiH 1 , 
 Wilder Hiiid, j^nivrly: "Mr. Wyman, yon IIIUH! ^ive me 
 now Home definite ordern ;IH to vs hat haniH \ou want the 
 1 Loin- Slur' manipulated un * in the Board.* I've linked 
 my own eoin, to hold the furl, in yunr alienee." 
 
 kk What do you want me i< do? urc yun faint-hearted?" 
 Hiieered Wyman, who liad heard nothing oi any Iroiihlo 
 hut the mm pie udvurtiNtnont <jiier\ , and the derided rejec- 
 tion (without explanation), ol the mine'n title, ly tJio 
 bank. 
 
 " I want either a nouno* guarantee with a dcponit, or 
 coin daily paid at three o'clock, to Ncjuuroouch <lay ? M traiiH- 
 ac.t ions," Hlont ly naid llornce Wilder, who Meemed a hit, 
 irascihle. lie had felt the distance unooriHcioiiHly :m- 
 Niinicd by the new "Hocirty li^fht," for the 4t en^a^ement ' 
 ;',;iv'e u Hhiniiii/; aureole to Wymaii^H handHome head. An 
 ot her crowned nnoh. 
 
 " I'erhapH I had better c.hun^u my broker?" hai'Hhly 
 eried Wyman. 
 
 11 I'l'i'liitpn! " replied Wilder with a peculiar Hinile, aN he 
 promptly /.^ranped hin hat., cane and glovuH, and Nallied 
 forth alone. Wyman let him y,o away ntill unuiiNWored 
 and milled. 
 
 "Thuru HiiuukM away the lirnt frightened rat!" growled 
 Wyman, "but, the nliip *IH not ninkin^. Not yet! " AM 
 he threw him:, ell on IUM lux urioiiN bed after tin; hint of IMM 
 UiiderllngH had loft him, Wymun lay long with IHH gleam- 
 
374 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 ing eyes fixed upon the 'painted loveliness of Vinnie Hin- 
 ton floating there above him. The " half-cryin' eyes " 
 seemed to call back the days of love's witchery which 
 brought a sigh, for he murmured, " You were always my 
 luck, Vinnie. You swept the field for me, and, I would 
 sooner have you here, near me, in my arms to-night, than 
 all the paid advice that coin can give, for crooked as 
 your wild life has been, you are the only ' dead square ' 
 one in the whole lot," and, he drained a larger glass of 
 cognac than he knew, for the sun- was streaming through 
 his windows before the strange attendant dared to rouse 
 him from a sleep of exhaustion. 
 
 He was now on the field of action and within the enemy's 
 territory. "Who the devil can be behind this? That 
 fellow T Strong has had no mining practice. Wilder tells 
 me that he is in the courts every day, digging away for 
 his board money, and Jumbo, Boardman & Harrigan 
 have always been the bank's lawyers. I suppose they are 
 all at sea, sailing around a fly speck. Well, the manager's 
 letter will soon develop the game." He growled out for 
 his man, and, it was a first bad omen for him that he had 
 to send twice for Mr. Horace Wilder before the i ' Board " 
 opened. 
 
 "Why didn't you come as usual?" demanded Wyman. 
 
 "I thought that you were going to have another 
 broker," quietly said Wilder, and, for the first time in his 
 life on the "street," Wyman operated "under condi- 
 tions." It was check number one, to his rising vanity. 
 
 While he awaited his morning mail, Waldo Strong, 
 that eminent counselor, was seated on the piazza of the 
 Truckee Hotel, engaged in swopping "bear and trout" 
 stories with the genial landlord. 
 
 " I didn't reckon ye'd find yer way back," the host re- 
 marked, setting down his glass. 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 375 
 
 " Oh, I have to run up to Elko, and I wanted to see 
 about my next vacation hunt," the lawyer lightly replied. 
 He had left San Francisco on the positive telegram that 
 Wyman had passed Truckee, and when he strolled over 
 to the Postoffice, he had in readiness a secret ally there 
 in Stanton's confrere, an under official of the Postoffice 
 department. 
 
 "Let us walk around the town a bit," the secret friend 
 said, as they meandered among stumps and movable 
 creeks. < < We are at least free from being overheard. I 
 have had all the Wells, Fargo records looked over, and I 
 brought the one record book you wish to use, over to the 
 office. I have there a room where no one can see you for 
 I had it built of double two-inch planks crossed, to keep 
 out snow, bears, pistol balls, the drunken lumbermen, and 
 other all-around happenings. By the way, there's your 
 notary now, pointing to the i Blue Wing.' Better catch 
 him before you find him ' too full for utterance. ' v 
 
 Mr. Waldo Strong led in the "bear hunt" as a topic, 
 after introduction, and with judicious spiritual consolation, 
 was secretly delighted to find the man's mind and memory 
 still good. The Postmaster was an old friend, and with 
 genial bar-keeper to aid, Mr. Strong was speedily at home 
 in Truckee. But, it was the official himself, who led up to 
 the now living topic of the great rich strike on the north 
 end, and the greatly enhanced value of the " Lone Star." 
 The future fortune of Wyman, and the fame of his ap- 
 proaching marriage, filled the Virginia City papers. 
 
 " He's a rastler," the man of many fortunes said, nod- 
 ding for a refilling of his glass, "is that same Wyman. 
 I'm told he goes way into the millions now. And', as I 
 told Andy Bowen only the other day you know big Andy, 
 everybody knows Andy," the notary gulped his words 
 with his drink, < ' I certified the deed to that mine right 
 
376 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 here in Truckee, for five hundred dollars. By God, that's 
 luck! That's nigger luck ! " 
 
 "Pshaw! Nonsense! " defiantly remarked the Postmas- 
 ter. "You're blowing!" 
 
 Strong was quietly examining the handsome barkeeper 
 who, moving to the end of the bar, said sotto voce in 
 apology, ' ' Thut fellow's the damnedest liar in Truckee, 
 and that's saying a good deal." 
 
 " I have got the papers to prove it! " remarked the irate 
 notary, "and, I won a box of cigars, too, from Andy. He 
 said the mine's name was the ' Lone Star,' and I went to my 
 book, and showed it to be the ' Mariquita. ' I got the cigars, 
 too. You see the papers was sent to Virginia and recorded, 
 and they came back here, for Devereux went on down to 
 San Francisco first, and Wyman came back and got the 
 papers. I know it cost him a hundred dollars for the 
 record and the certified copy, and he kept the original. 
 Didn't want to lose it. I sent the papers up to Virginia 
 myself. " 
 
 " What's become of Devereux? I knew him once. I 
 suppose it's the same man. I've lost sight of him for a 
 year or so. I thought he was up here. I want to see him 
 myself about an old matter." Strong was very deliberate 
 in his casual remarks. 
 
 " I've never seen him since he went down to 'Frisco that 
 time. I'd know him among a thousand, for he could punish 
 more whisky than I can," laughed the stubborn notary. 
 
 "Was that the man?" said Strong, throwing down a 
 picture on the card table as he went to the glass case and 
 selected some cigars. 
 
 " Not by a jug full! " shouted the half drunken notary. 
 "Any damned fool would know that's Wyman, 'lucky 
 Wyman,' only, it's a heap better looking than he is. He's 
 too puffed up to patronize Truckee hotels now. I guess 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 377 
 
 he'll do the * private car ' act soon, like some men I knew 
 once swinging a pick at three dollars a day. Good God! 
 they're lords of the earth now. No, that's Frederick 
 Wyman, Esq." 
 
 " Ah! Now you are talking turkey, stranger! That's Mr. 
 Robert Devereux and I saw him get the clean stuff, five 
 hundred dollars in yellow twenties, for his interest. I know, 
 for I watched him and won one of them. Yes, that's him. 
 Devereux must have struck a streak of luck. He was pretty 
 shabby then, and I remember he wore a sailor cap with gold 
 anchor buttons on it. I found one of them in the office and I 
 was going to give it to Wyman, but the jewelers here told me 
 it was only gold washed. Why I've got the papers now, to 
 show for the record. Devereux signed the deed in my 
 very presence according to law. No, it was a square trans- 
 action. What a lucky stroke for Wyman. He's a big 
 man now." 
 
 "Well you picked out the right man," quietly laughed 
 Strong. " You have a very good memory." 
 
 " I remember it mighty well, and I've often talked it 
 over with the Wells, Fargo's agent. Old Schwartz was my 
 head agent then, I was only assistant, and he's right over 
 there now. We had a talk all three of us, about sending 
 up the certified copy to Virginia. " And so, the triumphant 
 notary dragged the two men over to H. Schwartz & Co.'s 
 store and later, exhibited his official books. It was true! 
 
 When Mr. Waldo Strong left Truckee' that afternoon it 
 was with a promise to return and join all the boys in a 
 grand outing. He was waved off by a friendly delegation, 
 for "bear and trout" stories and good old Bourbon 
 whisky had whiled away the golden afternoon. It was 
 with a joyful heart, the lawyer rait on to Carson and was 
 one of three or four, who descended from the train at the 
 straggling hamlet of Willows Cross Roads. 
 
3*78 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 " Seems to be an old timer and a very nice fellow," re- 
 marked the storekeeper the next morning, as Strong 
 boarded the Virginia City train. " lie looks prosperous. 
 I suppose he has made his pile since the old days. Dear 
 me! I had forgotten the dates. How time flies! " for over 
 a hot Scotch and good Havana, the circle around the box 
 stove had rehearsed the old story of the killing of the 
 friendless stranger by Steve Berarcl, in that very dingy 
 bar-room. 
 
 < ' I remember the boys were going to put him up a fence 
 and a headboard," said the one time clerk of the store, 
 " for, I wrote down the name and the date in the back of 
 our ledger. I was bookkeeper then. It was before I went 
 into business for myself. Their enthusiasm cooled off. 
 They soon forgot him." 
 
 With a bit of good-humored banter, the lawyer was one 
 of an amused crowd who saw the old books brought down 
 and the inscription found. " I wrote it myself, 'Robert 
 Devereux,' from a letter which we found in his pocket, 
 from his wife, too. I was on the Coroner's jury. She must 
 have been a very nice woman. It was a kindly, loving 
 letter," said the well-to-do middle aged man. 
 
 "What became of the letter?" said Strong, his eyes 
 sparkling. 
 
 "Squire Holman took away the whole thing," said the 
 casual visitor rising. 
 
 " And, I will tell yon it was a damned shame! " cried a 
 deep voice, as a big teamster knocked out his pipe, and 
 then slowly prepared to refill it, cutting off his tobacco from 
 a huge plug with a big bowie-knife. Everyone started as 
 " Big Aleck" chipped in; for, he was a man of very few 
 words. * ' I was only a raw boy then and hauling for old 
 Holman. I tell you that man Devereux never drew his 
 pistol. He hadn't none." 
 
 "What do you mean?" cried a dozen curious voices. 
 
A FLAW IX THE DEED. 379 
 
 "I had seen that old robber Holman carry that same 
 pistol himself, and he dropped it under the dying man. He 
 whipped it off the bar, and then lied about it. I seen him 
 carry it around the ranch afterwards himself." 
 
 11 Why did you not tell? " all cried, and Strong started 
 up. 
 
 " I was af eared to. I was only a timid boy and old 
 Holman used to whip me. He's dead and gone now, the 
 old scoundrel, but, I saw Mother Louisa, the dear,good,old 
 woman, often cryin' at this poor man's grave. It was a 
 dirty, put-up job. She used to steal out there alone when 
 Holman wuz away, and cry and pray. This yere Devereux 
 was a right decent man. I used to go a fishin' with him. 
 He was gentle and quiet an' sickly. I know where he's 
 buried now, and I've piled big rocks on the grave, to keep 
 the coyotes away, many a time." 
 
 " Well, Berard got it in the back the neck," cried a 
 wrathful one. 
 
 " It was a bloody shame," said the teamster, rising, as 
 his hungry mules outside, shook their brazen bells. 
 
 " Was that like Devereux? " said Strong, holding out 
 Hooper's picture, the "Truckee Devereux." 
 
 "No more'n I look like him," flatly cried the teamster. 
 " Devereux was a delicate kind of man, gentle and sickly 
 lookin'. This man's a sort of a sport, bigger, younger,, and 
 heaps better lookin'. No, siree! Devereux was a little 
 man, and light complexioned. Fetch me his real picture, 
 and a dozen men here, can pick him out as well as me. 
 That's not him, oh, no! " and big Aleck strolled away. 
 
 The lawyer was now eager to verify only his last vital 
 facts, at Virginia City. He busied himself with other mat- 
 ters and dared not pursue his personal inquiries too far, for 
 he might be spotted. Wyman wag yo fool. It was only 
 when nearing Virginia City that he finally cast up all his 
 
 c c 
 
380 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 new proofs. "The personation of the dead man by 
 Hooper is positive. By heavens! I will find Hooper. I 
 must find him." With a prudence suggested by Wyman's 
 growing prestige, the counselor had telegraphed to his de- 
 tective to meet him at Gold Hill. 
 
 Down on the neck of the divide the two men wandered 
 away, as the dying sun lit up the bare five miles of stony 
 spurs, embosoming there a thousand millions. 
 
 "You need not waste any more time here," the secret 
 agent said. "I have traced up all the Wells, Fargo & 
 Co.'s books. I found the transaction only after days of 
 search. This Steve Berard deposited ten thousand dollars 
 to the credit of Frederick Wyman a few weeks after the 
 murder, and just before he was killed himself, by the Vigi- 
 lantes. The returned checks and endorsements show that 
 Wyman built his first little works, with that same money." 
 
 After a half hour, Strong arose and gazed up at the 
 darkening skies. 
 
 "I will make it a cold day for you, Frederick Wyman, " 
 he fiercely cried. "Thief, conspirator, utterer of forged 
 documents, perjurer, and accessory to murder even a 
 robber of the game scoundrel, who killed Devereux." 
 
 "See here," he cried to his agent, "I must get into 
 Virginia, and then out of it as soon as possible. Index 
 and note all these papers for reference. How can I get to 
 town quickly?" 
 
 The quick-witted detective pointed to a lone pine a half 
 mile ahead .on the road. 
 
 "You can cut across lots over to that tree. I'll run 
 down, get a buggy and a smart horse and pick you up. 
 What do you wish to do to-night at Virginia City? " 
 
 " Only to see that record book once more, and then, 
 have you give the bank's lawyer a secret message. I 
 want also a certified copy of that Devereux deed sent down 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 381 
 
 to the manager of the bank, at once. Then, you can drive 
 me back here to Gold Hill and I'll take the morning train 
 down to Sacramento; for a throw-off, I will go down to 
 the city and then on the boat. 
 
 It was eleven o'clock that night, when the tired advocate 
 laid his head on the straw pillow of an obscure miner's 
 hotel in Gold Hill. "Somewhere in the world there is a 
 poor child who should be the owner of three-quarters of 
 this hidden treasure. I will find you! I will know you! 
 Miss Hope Devereux Miss Devereux of the Mariquita. 
 If I could only find Hooper, for I must get a correct 
 picture of the murdered man, the last link of the proof. 
 Then, I could prove by inspection the death of the real 
 Devereux. I must lead that cowardly fellow, Wyman, on 
 to trap himself." And all the long night Waldo Strong 
 wandered in cloud-land with the shadowy woman he 
 sought, "Miss Devereux of the Mariquita." 
 
 It was in perfect accord with the plans resulting from 
 his cautious visit, and following a cipher telegram, that 
 Strong directed the manager to have his openly recognized 
 attorneys now give him a formal written opinion, with which 
 to face Wyman. Strong was gliding down the farm-fringed 
 banks of the Sacramento river, while Mr. Frederick 
 Wyman, outwardly self-possessed, faced the manager of 
 the Anglo-Californian bank. The young millionaire was 
 suave, alert, watchful. 
 
 "I have consulted no attorneys in regard to the rejec- 
 tion of my hitherto unchallenged title," remarked Wyman, 
 * ' but, I simply called to frankly ask you the reason of the 
 rejection of it by your lawyers. Their action delays a 
 very important London transaction." 
 
 " I have no doubt," calmly said the manager, " and the 
 reasons are so simple that I can now give them to you. I 
 
 Jiave a note, by the way, from my counsel here. Perhaps, 
 
 c c 2 
 
382 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 you can remedy the delay at once?" The manager's head 
 was bowed over his papers, and he extracted an envelope, 
 on which Wyman's quick eye caught the office stamp of 
 those great legal luminaries, Messrs. Jumbo, Boardman 
 & H.irrigan. He smiled, "Ah! I see." 
 
 " First, no United States patent," the banker slowly 
 read off, and, then adjusting his gold-rimmed eye-glasses, 
 "Ah! yes, the Devereux deed itself. You claim from one 
 Robert Devereux the last deed for three-quarters of the 
 mine as recorded was only a certified copy. Such a docu- 
 ment should either have been a duplicate original, or else 
 the original itself. You see it's a very large transaction, 
 Mr. Wyman," pleasantly remarked the oily manager. < We 
 must be very conservative. Our bank here gains nothing, 
 only business in a general way, and, we are held morally 
 responsible for the extremest care in London." 
 
 "Is there no other alleged defect?" cried Wyman, his 
 eyes brightening, as his heart told him the advertisements 
 had so far, produced nothing of a formidable character 
 against his holding. " I can easily arrange to sweep this 
 little cloud away. First, I have the original deed, and I 
 will record that at once, or else exhibit it to your lawyers, 
 as they may decide. Secondly, I will at once apply for 
 and have a United States mineral land patent obtained. 
 If there is no notice of contest filed, then in thirty days, 
 the granting is only a pro forma matter. There'll be no 
 notice." 
 
 " You have never been contested in any manner, in your 
 holding? " blandly demanded the amiable banker. "Then, 
 my dear sir," heartily said the manager, rising. "I 
 must say that I shall write to London, that this cloud is 
 only a matter of a month's delay. I would proceed at 
 once with the patent, if I were you. " 
 
 "And, your attorneys," remarked Wyman, his heart 
 leaping up in joy, " shall I call in there? " 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 
 
 " They will write you at once as to an inspection of the 
 deed, but, in any case, I should record it, for my own pro- 
 tection. If you do not hear from me by four o'clock, 
 send it up to Virginia City, and have it spread on the 
 records. Our attorney there can examine it. Yes, on the 
 whole, I would do that." 
 
 There was a queer gleam of satisfaction in the banker's 
 eyes as Wyman disappeared. "Slick scoundrel," he 
 murmured, " and, he was quite excited, too, for his hands 
 trembled, as he grasped his hat and cane;" which proved 
 that the remarks of the late Steven Berard as to Frederick 
 Wyman's nerve weakness, were not unfounded, even after 
 the lapse of years of prosperity. Yet, the coward lived, 
 and, the man of iron nerves was ashes. 
 
 But Mr. Wyman was a very happy man as he sped away 
 to send by Wells, Fargo and Co., the original forged docu- 
 ment, to the Recorder at Virginia City. A half hour 
 with Mr. Horace Wilder, who was accustomed to such 
 simple formalities, enabled him to entrust to the mail, the 
 simple papers of application for the United States mineral 
 land patent, with the usual fees, directed to the Register 
 of the U. S. Land office at the mountain mining city. 
 
 " I will defy the devil himself, now," he laughed, as he 
 returned from these last formalities. " They have found 
 out nothing, not a scrap of paper to found a contest on. 
 It was a false alarm! " He drove gaily to the ocean beach 
 and finished up a happy afternoon, by a little victorious 
 dinner (not of a solitary nature) at the Cliff House, for 
 the rosy brigade were all now anxious to make the most of 
 the gallant bachelor, before the doors of ^he stately ' ' Nob 
 Hill " home hid him from their eyes, at least for a time. 
 
 Wyman was delightfully eased at heart, as he nodded 
 behind the clicking heels of his thoroughbred trotters, 
 speeding home over the jaspery roads of Golden Gate 
 
384 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Park. He cast his eyes down to the oval where he had 
 first met, in a near approach, the one lovely woman of all 
 the chase, who had so far escaped his passion's meshes. 
 Gladys Lyndon's face returned to him in all its freshness 
 of high-souled beauty. "Damn her cold prudishness," 
 he sneered. " She will live to regret it," which proved 
 in time to be a prophecy which notably failed. But 
 Wyman was in high glee. He had cabled to the august 
 Hiram Buford: " Only a slight delay, taking out United 
 States patent, thirty days ends all bother. Will join you 
 then, at once, in London." A softer daily message to Miss 
 Minnie was " de rigueur," and his orders to his Parisian 
 bankers submerged that waiting bride-to-be in daily 
 "floral offerings," whose mute increase spoke of the "mad 
 tide of love " swelling in his heart. 
 
 But one answer, he awaited with impatience. He had 
 dispatched to Morani "to return unless needed." On his 
 arrival at his bower of bachelor innocence, he bounded in 
 joy, for a cablegram awaited him. Its cipher soon told 
 the story of life's last triumph. "Found my man, settled 
 down in villa, gentleman of leisure. Vinnie here, too. 
 Have a daily watch kept. Shall I come? " The signature 
 "Tony" was a confirmation. "Now, I will make a king 
 stroke," swore Wyman, as he mused with an upward 
 glance. "I know what I will do, and Mr. James Walter 
 Hooper will not particularly fancy it. I will take him 
 away from Vinnie, as if by accident, and she shall be mine 
 yet, the keenest adviser of the whole lot." He smiled 
 softly, as he gazed up at the floating form of the absent 
 Venus, beaming down a promise in those passion-haunted, 
 " half cryiii' eyes." " I will make it an object to her, to 
 come back to me," he triumphantly whispered, as he 
 closed his eyes to dream that her clinging arms were 
 clasped around him once more. 
 
A FLAW IX THE DEED. 385 
 
 The single word "Come" had been flashed to Morani 
 under the Atlantic billows before Frederick Wyman gaily 
 awoke to the life appropriate to " Nature's Nobleman," and 
 he softly smiled upon her pictured beauty as the ' c sun 
 of Austerlitz " woke him, a conquering hero, the next morn- 
 ing. "I will see her soon again," he said, with a fierce 
 light in his dark eyes. 
 
 There are moments of fatuous blindness in which the 
 coming ruin sweeps down on us, finding us unguarded, like 
 Belshazzar at his drunken feast! While Wyman raised the 
 wine glass at the Cliff House and smiled into strange eyes 
 of a prof essional " bit of loveliness," Waldo Strong and 
 the bank manager sat in the gloomy California Street tem- 
 ple of Blackstone. Mr. Inspector Stanton was closeted 
 with them. The faces of the three men were sternly set 
 in that eager plan of a campaign to the death, for tfe* 
 hour of doom was nigh. 
 
 "I make but one condition," said Strong. "Mr. Stan- 
 ton is to have absolute control of filing the notice of con- 
 test. He has my cipher, and he will have my local assis- 
 ant here under his orders. You must keep Wyman here 
 and content until I get over to London." The manager 
 bowed. 
 
 ' ' Here is a carte blanche letter to our London house. 
 They will do all you ask and report to me. You can send 
 your own cablegram to Stanton." 
 
 ' ' Then there's nothing more, for I must spend three 
 hours with my junior on my office directions for a two 
 month's absence. I take the morning train," and Waldo 
 Strong rose with a gleam of triumph in his cold, cruel eye. 
 He said, " I will be back as soon as wheels, winds and 
 waves will bring me." 
 
 " Spare no money," cried the banker. "It is a villain- 
 ous scoundrelism from first to last." 
 
886 . MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MABIQUITA, 
 
 "Stanton," cried Strong, as the banker disappeared, 
 "Meet me and go up to Benicia, with me to-morrow, at 
 eight, for I am nearly worn out." 
 
 "Count on me," said the sturdy official, "I wish to gee 
 that innocent blood avenged after many years. 
 
 "You will see it avenged, by the God above us," sol- 
 emnly answered the lawyer. 
 
 When alone he read over again, a brief letter from Lon- 
 don. It was carefully drawn forth from his bosom. Its 
 arrival that afternoon, had changed his whole plan of attack, 
 for, on his way back from court to the legal den that day 
 he pondered over the silence of the great western public 
 as regarded Devereux. "People drop out of sight like 
 plummets in a dark sea, here," he sadly thought, "but 
 somewhere on earth, you are wandering, ignorant of 
 fortune, perhaps poor, friendless, the victim of untoward 
 events. But, I wirl find you, shadowy Miss Devereux." 
 As he spoke a drunken Irishman passed him shouting, 
 "Trust to luck, trust to luck and stare fate in the face." 
 He smiled. It was a good omen! " I will trust to luck," 
 he laughed. 
 
 The very first letter on his table, was a foreign one. He 
 noted the London postmark, and then, opened it with pro- 
 fessional care. As he read it, he sprang to his feet, 
 "Found at last, by God. Now, I have him," he shouted 
 in a strange excitement. His wondering clerks lifted their 
 heads, and one anxious one darted into the room. "Oh, 
 bother! It's nothing," Strong shame-facedly said, as he read 
 the note again. Thanks to Stanton, the "X. Y. Z." de- 
 livery was specially watched. 
 
 The words startled him. "Is it her own handwriting? 
 I must go over there at once, at all hazard," he decided, 
 for he read: 
 
A FLAW IX THE DEED, -387 
 
 LONDON, October 20, 1875. 
 "ToX. Y. Z., 
 
 "P. O. Box 2901, San Francisco, California. 
 tiir: The only living child, the orphan daughter of 
 Robert and Mary Devereux, can be communicated with 
 by addressing X. Y. Z., care Ernest Thomas, Director 
 Albert Hall, London. All proofs of her identity are here, 
 as well as her father's and mother's letters, and pictures. 
 They will not be parted with. Yourself or some reliable 
 agent, can see me here. I will remain here for six 
 months. Any letters or telegrams to the above address 
 will be properly answered by me. 
 * ' Respectfully yours, 
 
 "ROBERT DEVEKEUX'S DAUGHTER." 
 
 "Victory!" grimly cried Strong, as he hastened his 
 head clerk to the office, with a cable message. " Coming 
 to see you. Important property rights yours. Await me. 
 I bring your own letter, and leave to-morrow." The con- 
 nection would be made in one more day. 
 
 When he had revolved the whole subject in his mind, 
 Strong finally said to himself: "I must at once file a 
 notice of contest. If I can get this woman's permanent 
 attorneyship, I will apply also for the appointment of at- 
 torney of the absent heirs of Robert Devereux, and so 
 bring the unknown heiress on at once. Her letter be- 
 speaks some refinement. At any rate I will have time to 
 act, as I can block the mine transaction at the London 
 main office. If I get that dead man's picture, then God 
 help you, Mr. Frederick Wyman, if you force me to fight 
 in the open. Your doom is sealed." 
 
 There were few words wasted, as Stanton wrung Strong's 
 hands in parting at Benicia. "I'll keep your bird in 
 sight here. Find your fairy Miss Devereux, and your 
 fortune is made." 
 
388 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 The lawyer started in surprise, as the train rolled away, 
 for, with no second thought of money, his fee of the 
 future had been so far only a cold even-handed justice 
 meted out to the man, who, in plunging him in poverty, 
 had robbed him of Gladys Lyndon, the vanished song 
 bird. "Ah! It comes too late, if fortune's flood returns. 
 I am left alone." And, speeding over the rich fruited vale of 
 the Sacramento, he examined the last bundle of morning 
 mail brought down to the boat by a breathless clerk. 
 
 The first letter from Mrs. Hammond brought a sad 
 mile to his face, " I shall see her at any rate," for the 
 intelligence that ' ' Miss Lyndon was studying music in 
 Paris at Mario's conservatoire," was all that diplomatic 
 person would impart. i t Let him find out the rest him- 
 self," the gay matron had said, as she sealed her letter. 
 "I do not wish to get caught in deep water over the 
 Diana-faced prude. Strong and Wyman can fight for 
 her arctic smiles with this Yankee, Otis. Her bosom is a 
 locked-up ice chest, and, she's a fool." 
 
 Mr. Tony Morani was a prey to many misgivings with 
 regard to the final landing of the "thousand pounds," 
 when the sudden departure of his master from London 
 alarmed him. " By Jupiterre! " growled Monsieur Morani, 
 "I hope he does not go to pieces, boom, ah! like the other 
 California millionaires." Antoine Morani was puzzled as he 
 too enjoyed his " otium cum dignitate," with the bright 
 little Parisienne at Chiswick. He now had the daily life of 
 the Hailey Osgoods, ' < down to a dot. " In the easy retired 
 semi mercantile class around, their generous entertain- 
 ment, and Mr. Hailey Osgood's bonhomie, made them very 
 popular. Tradespeople and the shop-keepers had but one 
 word as to liberality and prompt payment. 
 
 "They are in 'Easy street' at any rate," decided 
 Tony. He had secretly watched the happy couple. A 
 
A FLAW IX THE DEED. 389 
 
 delightful English peachy bloom had refreshed the gloomy 
 cheek of Vinnie Hinton. The "guise of virtue" fitted 
 her well, and as to her form, and " outward woman" even 
 Tony, a carping critic, pronounced her to be "just right to 
 a hair." Not a shade of care lingered on the brows of 
 either in their open villa life. A fair mail, of a social 
 nature, was usually taken to the villa by the postman with 
 whom Morani was now " solid " in the American sense. " I 
 can't make it out," mourned Tony, "and, if I give this 
 thing up to Wyman by letter, I may not see that thousand 
 pounds. What is the game here?" 
 
 There were only two suspicious features in the un- 
 ruffled life of the " Hailey Osgoods." Mrs. Hailey 
 Osgood never showed Vinnie Hinton's blooming 
 face in London. Her maid seemed to be a 
 trusted "Abigail," and, she was absolutely proof 
 against all the occasional blandishments of the ' ' chere 
 amie " who shared Morani's comfortable Chiswick exile. 
 High pay sealed her lips. This woman was "com- 
 missionaire" in chief, for the handsome lady of the villa, 
 and, rarest of her sex, she would not talk! None but 
 Chiswick people ever crossed the garden lawns, and 
 Mr. Hailey Osgood himself always was alone in his town 
 trips, which were only broken by the Sundays. 
 
 A month of watching proved to Morani that the 
 fugitive forger had some powerful reasons for his regular 
 attendance at the little money broker's shop. Little 
 business was done there, but yet there was no flavor of 
 suspicion. A safe and a check book seemed to be the 
 arms of the taciturn money lender, Compton. He never 
 went to the exchanges, but his personal visits to the 
 General Postoffice, the foreign character of his cus- 
 tomers, and the visits of many continental gentlemen at 
 the lodging house dressing station, gradually forced 
 
390 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQITITA. 
 
 Morani to believe "Compton" was only a stool pigeon 
 for some desperate continental criminals. 4k \Yhat else 
 can it be? " Morani demanded of his puzzled brain, for the 
 stealthy change of ronte, and the slipping ont of the grub 
 "Compton" into the Chiswick butterfly "Hailey Os- 
 good," was attended with a hundred keen bright variations 
 in detail and the daily routes! He was an artful dodger, 
 4i Mr. Compton Hailey Osgood Hooper," and, the lady 
 always clung to the villa. 
 
 "By God! he's a smart devil, and he ought to succeed," 
 thought Tony one evening, as buried in his newspaper he 
 furtively watched the military-looking " gent," from Aus- 
 tralia. At Chiswick, Hailey Osgood was thought to be 
 some ex-mounted policeman, who had gone in for ' ; sheep 
 raising," or married some rich ki Sidney duck's " daugh- 
 ter. The valet's eyes ran over the journals, always in 
 anxious watch. He burned to find some clue to " Comp- 
 ton." Some events which would justify i% Hailey Osgood," 
 a cool, wide-awake scoundrel, in so braving the English 
 police. ki He may have saved a good lump of the plun- 
 der of his Californian forgeries, and so dreams along here 
 on the quiet, but he is all the while far inside of the 
 danger line. What makes him take this risk?" So, 
 Morani keenly searched the journals. 
 
 He started, and instinctively turned his eyes toward the 
 disguised Hooper, when he read an article which roused 
 him at last. The very heading, ' * Heavy Forgeries on 
 London Banks," was enough to excite the fox-like Morani. 
 When he had finished reading, he stole away to the stern of 
 the boat. " I have got your little game at last, 3ir. Comp- 
 ton," he chuckled. Lighting a cigar, he mused, "Yes, 
 small London checks on various banks, all very skillfully 
 raised to large sums; bills of exchange obtained from im- 
 migrants and others, most skillfully negotiated on the Con- 
 
A FLAW IX THE DEED. 391 
 
 tinent, with endorsements of the greatest London banks; 
 a very fine hand shown in these great swindles. Police 
 baffled." 
 
 Mr. Antonio Moraui laughed softly. He dared not 
 mutter the word " Jim the Penman,'' but, his eyes gleamed 
 in triumph, as he gazed at the easy elegance of the victim 
 now unconsciously spotted. "I'll have Wyman's money, 
 and, a sum equal to the Government reward, too/' Morani 
 had read the past history of Hooper in the San Francisco 
 journals, for they had "harked back" on his old exploits. 
 So with glee, the dapper little valet provisioned and 
 munitioned his bright-eyed garrison, and murmured certain 
 loving injunctions to the * Jessica"' of his house, and 
 heart, for well he knew that Wynian would now call him 
 back at once. 
 
 It so fell out, and before the seasick Mr. Morani 
 arrived at Xew York, he had discovered the reason for 
 Wynian" s pursuit of Hooper. If "truth lies at the bot- 
 tom of a well/' this discovery welled up while the " City 
 of Berlin '" was plunging into terrific seas, evidently try- 
 ing to stand on her head, if this nautical devilment were 
 possible. "Yes!" 1 ' groaned Morani, "Hooper ran off 
 with the luscious Viiinie Hiuton. She was Wyman's good 
 angel Mine belle ame damnt'e/ Better looking, better 
 dressed, more heart, more -go ' in her than all the 
 rest. It is * la revanche.' Well, he shall have it, if he 
 pays me.'" Morani, in singling out the Venus whose pic- 
 tured beauties floated on the ceiling, in raising her as 
 queen of light loves, far above all the women who had 
 ever stolen light-footed up the private stair of " The Den/' 
 had only done her charms simple justice. 
 
 Gay and debonnaire, she had been always 4 ' square " 
 to Wyman, and her quick wit, nerve, and unfailing cour- 
 age had bnilt him up. In straying into a life of reckless 
 
392 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 gallantry, she had not lost a certain fiber of character 
 which vivified her mad exploits under the flag of Venus. 
 " I belong to myself, at any rate," she had often cried, 
 with rosy lips and sparkling eyes. " I rule, and will not 
 bend." It amused her to see, prostrate before her pretty 
 feet, the "heavy men of the golden state." And she had 
 struck on the sounding brass of Frederick Wyman's 
 nature, and knew too well there was not a single golden 
 note in his harp of life. 
 
 "Fred, your own lack of heart, your absolute lack of 
 faith, will rob you of all friends," she had cried once, in a 
 fit of critical " sizing him up." " You will never make a 
 single true friend. Your lack of nerve may flurry you, and 
 remember what I tell you, all around you they will scamper 
 like rats, if you are in any trouble. So, my boy, play a 
 'safety game.' After all, it's only those who help others 
 who have a right to run up a distress signal. But, you 
 will go down alone, without mourners, too, if you don't 
 look out." 
 
 The golden tide of prosperity had swept "Wyman along 
 on summer seas, and yet, as he waited for Morani's re- 
 turn, he missed the keen-witted Vinnie daily more and 
 more. And in his lonely hours, the "half-cryin' eyes" 
 looked down on him, and wakened memories which made 
 the old passion burn again in scorching flames. She was 
 the queen, and her vacant throne awaited her royal foot- 
 step " Ah! so soon! Back again! " 
 
 There was a little fleck of growing cloud in the bright 
 sunshine of Miss Lyndon's pronounced London success. 
 Jack Otis noticed daily a graver shade on her bright brow, 
 and a cold self-protective manner in her daily intercourse. 
 The chilliness, however, did not reach the companion of her 
 "architectural excursions," and her answer to Jack's soli- 
 citous inquiries only told him that the professional life, 
 
A FLAW IX THE DEED. 393 
 
 was beginning to tell upon that reserve of vital force 
 which the stage world finally exhausts. 
 
 "I have so many engagements, and I see so many people, 
 so many strangers. I often wish I could get away from 
 it all," the noble woman confided to him, one evening as 
 they wandered in the friendly shades of Hyde Park. She 
 was now the pronounced London rage, and Otis knew that 
 she was amassing all her savings, the golden gains of 
 " extra appearances" in great private houses, to com- 
 plete her final training for the opera stage. 
 
 " Brother Jack " had a thousand times demanded of his 
 own heart, the reason of the unbroken silence she always 
 guarded as to her lonely youth and her family antecedents. 
 " If I knew! If she would only give me one word, a single 
 one, I would beg her to link her life with mine. But I can 
 wait " he said, for, Mr. Otis, recognizing the unsullied 
 womanliness of her noble nature, knew that she would 
 chose her time. i ' I think I would be far happier in the 
 regular career of the opera stage," she reluctantly admitted 
 at last. "This position is so transient, so varied in its 
 demands," and yet, she was a "fixed star" now, and Otis 
 had only been able by skillful maneuvering to delay her 
 sending back the two thousand dollars to the Parisian 
 bankers she still thought to be due her creditors. 
 
 "My poor darling," he murmured that night, and was 
 marshaling his soft-eyed soldiery of loving words to storm 
 the feebly defended walls of her heart, when Harriet, the 
 faithful abigail, gave him at last the key to the secret. "If 
 she has any secret grief, if she has trouble, I must find 
 out," he warmly soliloquized, and he was resolved now to 
 bear her away to the splendid old home on the Charles, if 
 love would show her the way. 
 
 And yet, loving and solicitious now knowing her whole 
 gentle heart, in all save the story of the past, he feared 
 
394 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE HARIQUITA. 
 
 " to put it to the touch and win or lose it all." " There 
 has been some sadness, some overhanging gloom," he 
 reasoned, and a thousand times he scorned the thought of 
 any previous episode of passion. " Ah! no, the breath of 
 life still sweeps the harp of her soul in free strains, un- 
 mingled with the higher notes of love, for, these chords 
 were silent. The sleeping music had never been waked bj 
 the great artist hand." He was startled when the bright- 
 eyed English maid burst out in indignation: 
 
 " It's just a shame, a cryin' shame, that's what it is, sir. 
 That dear blessed young lady. Why sir!" and Harriet dived 
 for her apron. " There's letters, and nosegays and baskets 
 of flowers, and such presents; and letters with crests and 
 big seals on 'em too. And, if you knew," her eyes glistened 
 in anger, 4 ' the way they try to trap her, the scoundrels ! " 
 
 "Who are they? Harriet, " cried Otis, with a sinking 
 heart, for now, he saw the drift of a portion of these public 
 attentions lavished on the unprotected girl. "Why! a 
 whole lot of the London swells. You know that idle, 
 wicked class, sir! all kinds, and some who ought to be in 
 better business old married reprobates." Harriet wiped 
 her eyes, but her left hand instinctively closed on a sover- 
 eign. 
 
 "You're a good girl, Harriet," said Jack Otis, moodily. 
 
 "Oh! sir, take her right away out of here. London's an 
 awful place, sir." Alas! John Wayne Otis, wandering 
 away disconsolate, saw no difference between New York, 
 Paris and London as "awful places;" nay, even his native 
 tri-mountain Boston, was not free of that cold deliberate 
 woman hunt, which in all its seductive luxury and cowardly 
 detail seems to be the one passion of the "unemployed," of 
 the aristocracy, the plutocracy, and all those waiting cuttle- 
 fish who can twist their slimy arms around the fair young 
 prey. 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 395 
 
 " It's the way of the world," broke out Jack Otis, and 
 then forgetting his Puritanism, he energetically added, 
 "a damned bad way, too. A woman ought to have at 
 least a chance to dwell undefiled in peace within the beauti- 
 ful tenement of a clean soul, if God gives her the mind to 
 so dwell." And he then thought of all the fair young faces 
 which lose the light of life, of all the beautiful ones "who 
 go down in the lost battle, borne down by the flying." "Ah! 
 me, if these poor women only knew the path to the gateway 
 of Pleasure was paved with the bones of those who had 
 gone before! " Mr. Otis threw away his cigar, and went home 
 sadly. "It would not make any difference," he mourned 
 "neither would they be persuaded, if one rose from the 
 dead, for, ever since the world began the unequal fight 
 goes on, and the soft white bosom of woman is still unarmed, 
 against Her Dearest Foe.' " 
 
 A little flattery, a little rose wreathed wine, a few jew- 
 els, a little brief hour of passion's devil dance, a little 
 heartbreak, a little lonely grave, a little moral! 
 
 Gladys turned queenly eyes on him that night, in the 
 starlight, as they walked home together. 
 
 "Yes, there is trouble always," she softly replied, "and 
 insult more or less covert, and continual cowardly intru- 
 sion. I fancy it is a sort of reflected vanity, this chase 
 after a strange face seen under the mocking footlights of 
 the stage, a vain desire to have and to hold, for a passing 
 time of mere brutal fancy." 
 
 " Is there no way out? " huskily cried Jack; " no way 
 to limit this wretched brutality? " 
 
 "I fear not, Brother Jack," with a hopeless voice, the 
 girl frankly said. " It is the reverse of the medal! I can 
 see no protection, except the absolute retirement of private 
 life, and, what woman is safe even there? But, here we 
 are," she sighed, and with a throbbing heart, the beautiful 
 singer dismissed her undeclared lover at the door. 
 
396 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 Long after she had loosened her golden hair, and stole 
 ^o the window, in a lonely reverie, she saw a lithe, manly 
 form pacing the brick pathway opposite. A gleam of red 
 fire showed that Mr. John Wayne Otis was pondering over 
 a little social problem, which had this evening aroused a 
 particular interest in his manly bosom. Architecture of a 
 local nature had suddenly lost all its charms, and, he fin- 
 ished his last castle in Spain, with a few sweeping masterly 
 touches. " I may not be worthy of her," he mused, as he 
 took one last fond look at her windows, " but, God bless 
 her! I have, at any rate, a safe nest for that dear song bird. 
 I will not always let her drift here, alone and unprotected," 
 he decided, and, he only sought a fitting time for the ap- 
 plication of that sterling old proverb, "Man proposes." 
 
 His tender heart was humbled and chastened by the 
 girl's dignified reserve, the proud isolation of her silence as 
 to her youth, and the patience of her new sorrow. He little 
 knew how weak and fond her woman's heart was, trem- 
 bling there behind the silken armor, for dear eyes he 
 loved, followed his retreating form, unseen that night, and 
 Hope Devereux pressed a slender white hand upon a wom- 
 anly bosom, rising and falling in the sweet, sad unrest of 
 love. 
 
 Her very last word, when murmured that night, was, 
 "Jack, if you only knew all, if you only knew all," for 
 in her heart of hearts, she would be worthy of him, and the 
 thought of that proud, lonely mother, seated in the classic 
 old home at Cambridge thrilled her with unrest. " I will 
 not bring her pain, a pauper orphan," she cried, through 
 her lonely tears. 
 
 A week later Jack Otis escorted Gladys Lyndon to 
 Chiswick. An afternoon concert and reception, gave Mrs. 
 Hailey Osgood an opportunity to have a nearer view of 
 the woman who had so enslavecl Fred Wyman. It was 
 
A FLAW IX THE DEED. 397 
 
 the only occasion, on which Miss Lyndon had gone out of 
 the list of the great houses. The Anglo-American colony, 
 headed by Mrs. Buford, was the theater of her most recent 
 triumphs, and Director Thomas narrowly inspected all the 
 town offers. 
 
 "It's a good idea, my boy, for you to escort Miss Lyn- 
 don there," he said. " These Australians are very queer 
 fish sometimes." 
 
 When the singer had won the hearts of the hundred 
 thronging Mrs. Hailey Osgood's drawing rooms, when the 
 throng had all departed, Miss Lyndon and her escort, re- 
 mained to dine en famille, and then go home on the tm- 
 romantic yet storied waters of the Thames. 
 
 Mr. Jack Otis was conscious of some hidden purpose, 
 for the hostess, superb in her robes, blazing with Mr. 
 Frederick Wyman's diamonds, exhausted all the womanly 
 arts to draw Miss Lyndon out upon the subject of her 
 early career. 
 
 Vinnie Ilinton bit her lips behind the filmy lace handker- 
 chief in her jeweled hand. "Sly! Sly! You are either 
 a very sly sister, a mighty keen one, or else a baby-faced 
 goose, an innocent!" and, the keen adventuress wondered 
 in her mind if Otis was an eligible " parti," or, only " the 
 man of the hour." The topics of public life, a stage career 
 and kindred matters, busied the ladies while Jack Otis was 
 astounded at the remarkable denseness of Mr. Hailey 
 Osgood on Australian matters. Otis had in his world 
 wanderings thoroughly "done" Australia. 
 
 As he returned from a long game of billiards he re- 
 marked to himself: "This easy, good-natured chap is 
 either a natural fool, or, has left some little record in 
 Australia of a local nature, which bothers him." 
 
 Jack Otis, gazing on the beautiful hostess, whose dash and 
 fire electrified him, murmured: "I suppose it's a case of 
 
 D D 2 
 
398 MISS DEVEBEUX OF THE MABIQTJITA. 
 
 some other man's wife, or some such little social irregu- 
 larity. Yes, that is what he declines to localize his old 
 Bushranger days for." As for money, a glance at the 
 splendidly appointed house proved that all ran on golden 
 wheels. "They are all very rich," he said. 
 
 Mrs. Hailey Osgood was not disposed at all to lose the 
 sudden acquaintance of Miss Gladys Lyndon. In laughing 
 banter, she pledged her visitors to accept of another Sun- 
 day dinner and outing on the Thames. 
 
 ' ' I shall have some garden parties later, and I count 
 upon you as a friend, you must have a life of your own 
 outside of the dreamland of song. And you, must come 
 too, Mr. Otis. Men are the pawns we must have in our 
 little social games. In all our bright plumage, we need 
 you as our background, for you we dress, for you we 
 drill in society's parade, for you we spread our feeble 
 nets, for," she laughed, "we are, after all, only what you 
 make us." There seems to be a defective quantity some- 
 where in womanhood, for never yet was there the woman 
 whose life was not rounded out and made integral in its 
 happy completeness by some one man, whom fate had 
 doomed to be her mate. "Yes, we do need your tyrant 
 sex. We wear your chains!" and she gaily shook Fred 
 Wyman's diamond bracelets, at her wondering-eyed lord, 
 Mr. Hailey Osgood. 
 
 He was mute as she declaimed. 
 
 "Look here, Vinnie, what the devil's your little 
 game? "said Hooper as his "alleged wife" and himself 
 strolled back over the lawn in the soft starlight. 
 
 "Jim," earnestly said Vinnie, " there's the one danger 
 signal for us in London. That's the woman Mr. Fred 
 Wyman went dead crazy on in the last days out there in 
 Frisco, you know. She's a deal too good for that cold 
 schemer. He tried to gather her into his fold." A danger- 
 
A FLAW IN THE DEED. 399 
 
 ous light gleamed now in her eyes. "Now! If he ever 
 comes to London, he will haunt this girl's very footsteps, 
 and I wish to keep in touch with her. It will give us a fair 
 warning, a chance to clear out. Do you know, Jimmie," 
 she said fondly and anxiously, "sometimes I don't feel too 
 sure here, you know. It's just too great a streak of luck 
 to last, for," she sadly said, "luck turns always at last." 
 She shivered with a sudden chill, and went in to the shelter 
 of the home w T hich was only a comfortable sham. 
 
 She dared not tell Hooper that she furtively purchased 
 all the San Francisco papers, and that she knew that 
 "nobleman of Nature," Mr. Frederick Wyman, would 
 soon come to London to claim a millionaire bride in a few 
 months. 
 
 "Poor old Jim," she sighed in the safety of her own 
 "sanctum sanctorum." "He's smart enough in his way, 
 Jim the Penman, but if he has a drop too much, then 
 'the days of Aranjuez are over,' and, we are lost. 
 Wyman will also hound down this pretty girl, but in 
 vain. She is dead square," decisively said Vinnie, "and 
 I hope she will not be sucked down in the whirl, for she 
 is too good to go my way," the vivacious Mrs. Hailey 
 Osgood remarked with a last sigh. 
 
 The danger of Wyman's visit to London returned again 
 to annoy her. "After all," she finally decided "Wy- 
 man won't dare go out of his way to hurt either of us. 
 He is a coward, and yet and yet coward curs snap!" 
 she sadly finished. 
 
 For once, Vinnie Hinton was ' ' all abroad' ' in her calcu- 
 lations, for, at that very moment, in San Francisco, Mr. 
 Wyman had achieved the crowning sneaking triumph of 
 his low life. The arrival of Morani, and the prompt 
 " crossing" of that ingenuous fellow's palm to an unheard 
 of extent, gave the disturbed speculator the means of a 
 
400 MISS DEV3REUX OP THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 groveling revenge. li That will seal his lips forever," he 
 cried, as he concluded the dispatching of a full anonymous 
 letter denouncing Hooper to the authorities of Scotland 
 Yard. It was intrusted to Wells, Fargo and Co.'s reliable 
 express, and every detail of Mr. Hailey Osgood Compton 
 Hooper's life and career was set forth, with a neat added 
 theory as to his being the wonderful penman of the great 
 international London forgeries. A picture of the most 
 accomplished scribe, in his palmy days of brokerage, ac- 
 companied the fatal packet. The writer rubbed his 
 jeweled hands in glee, as he winked at Vinnie's overhang- 
 ing charms. 
 
 " I am even with you, now! " grimly remarked Wyman, 
 " and, I'll let the iron trap drop on you. Tony can ju- 
 diciously reconduct the tempting Vinnie, to the only man 
 who fully appreciates her." il Nature's nobleman" then 
 gazed admiringly at himself in the glass, and, the picture 
 on the ceiling took on a new loveliness, that of the 
 coming queen. 
 
 For, the very walls of the " den " spoke of the vanished 
 days, and her springing footstep echoed once more in the 
 waiting heart of the man who had just merely given over 
 to a life-long transporation, the man whom Vinnie Hinton 
 steadfastly loved with all his faults, for, he was hers alone. 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEX PARTY. 401 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEN PARTY. 
 
 Jack Otis found the pursuit of his "architectural investi- 
 gations " a hopeless task in the first few days after 
 Harriet's disclosures. On three separate occasions, he 
 adorned himself " in Tyrian purple," and also bestowed an 
 unwonted care upon his personal appearance. The vainhope 
 that this formal " toilet of the condemned," would bring 
 him a courage, derived from these unusual splendors, 
 faded alas! away in a cold self-depreciation. It was to 
 him the ordeal of his life to approach the silent outworks 
 of that feebly-guarded fortress, a loving woman's heart, 
 for, it was the one woman of the world for him, his lovely 
 tyrant. 
 
 Otis did not realize the isolation of the woman he loved. 
 She distinctly distrusted Mrs. Milly Hammond, whose 
 growing influence over General Buford led her to become 
 now a familiar feature of all the open marts of swell Lon- 
 don in that magnate's company. " It was a time of roses" 
 for them, for Mrs. Buford and Miss Minnie were both 
 busily engaged in arranging their new London establish- 
 ment. 
 
 "Let us make hay while the sun shines," Buford gaily 
 whispered to Milly, with directness, if not with delicacy. 
 * * I may be obliged soon to return to California, but, thank 
 God, you can go on with me, but, very discreetly." Where- 
 at, the emboldened Milly only laughed and hummed, " J Tis 
 you, nor I, nor nobody cares." 
 
 "Do you know, 'Old Reliable,'" she laughed, "other 
 
402 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 people have their own little rackets. The whole world is 
 engaged now in a sort of hide-and-go-seek 'game.' At least, 
 it seems so to me, a casual onlooker;" for, the velvet-eyed 
 woman had recognized a number of cases in her voyage 
 where the threads of life were most queerly twisted. So 
 she happily sang " A waiting for a partner! A waiting for 
 a partner." 
 
 It suited her own "little game," to drift homewards 
 under the lee of that portentous financial "battleship," 
 General Hiram Buford. "He is a stayer, this old boy, 
 a rock, a very rock, whose mighty shade is very pleasant." 
 And so, she found it! He was a cooling shelter of grate- 
 ful rest, " in the arid desert of Phryne's life where all was 
 parched and hot." 
 
 Miss Lyndon, whose health and spirits faded visibly 
 under the unwonted strain of ambition, hard work, her 
 stage annoyances, and a vague unrest, became daily a more 
 and more white-faced Marguerite, whose brows were 
 shaded with an overmastering anxiety. She had neither 
 friend nor confidant. In the indignant recoil of her at- 
 tacked privacy, she distrusted all men and all women, 
 save only Jack Otis. 
 
 Ernest Thomas and his strictly British family were all 
 engrossed in their own family cares, and the girl shone 
 out a star, lofty, silent, alone. It was a matter which 
 caused the "lifting of eyebrows" at the clubs and in cer- 
 tain gay circles that the great concertist so sternly 
 " sported the oak." 
 
 "D'ye see?" said Lord Damfoolic, a gay young unem- 
 ployed peer to another "of that ilk," "there's an 
 American chap, rather a decent fellow by the way, Jack 
 Otis, who makes the inside running there. He's a kind 
 of First Attache, and I fancy, is the coming man." And 
 so, Damfoolie yawned over a B. and S. and definitely cast 
 
403 
 
 the handkerchief of selection in other and far easier direc- 
 tions. "For, by Jove, d'ye know," said he," this is a rare 
 one. Neither flowers nor presents ever seem to make their 
 way to her, and, I don't believe a Richmond dinner or a pri- 
 vate wine supper would convey any idea to her classic 
 mind. Not a bit! It's a case of 'No Thoroughfare.'' 
 And, he heaved a sigh, a giant sigh. 
 
 While Ernest Thomas, always sober and captious, could 
 find no fault with Mr. Jack Otis' attention, while he guarded 
 the professional life of Miss Lyndon with a real fatherly 
 care, the clear-eyed impressario felt that his hold upon Miss 
 Lyndon was but transient. His own verdict was summed 
 up with a sigh, "God bless her! She's a rare nice girl, 
 and lit for something better than the hunted life path of a 
 popular idol. What a wife she would make, for the right 
 man." Ah! Blind Bartimeus! The "right man" was 
 already "on deck." 
 
 An unusual rift in the cloud, in the way of an inspiring 
 morning, gave the long-needed key-note to Jack Otis. "I 
 will arise and go forth, and face the music to-day," he 
 cried in a defiant, manly spirit. He had tried for several 
 weeks to vary the lonely life of the girl. One Chiswick 
 Sunday had caused him, (keen-eyed enough as regarded 
 others) to see a growing desire on the part of Mrs. Hailey 
 Osgood to creep into very warm and close relations with the 
 singer, for flowers, baskets of fruit, game and sundry other 
 offerings were continued reminders of Mrs. Osgood's gen- 
 erosity and. good memory. Otis had also made himself a 
 committee of supply; books, nosegays, little trifles, jour- 
 nals, the bright American trifles of daily life, all these, he 
 purveyed in a secret tenderness, and afoot on the prosaic 
 banks of the Thames, in the shade of all the pleasant breath- 
 ing places of London, he tried to lead the girl out of her 
 growing seriousness. 
 
404 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Jack had arranged a very neat burst of lover-like elo- 
 quence, and was rehearsing it for the last time, when a 
 note interrupted this golden pyramid building. It was a 
 request for him to favor Miss Lyndon with an immediate 
 call, upon a matter of great importance. The winged 
 Mecury was not swifter than the love-awakened Bostonian 
 who, before he reached the royal presence of the queen of 
 his heart, was duly warned by the anxious Harriet. The 
 simple girl wanted to see the end of love's sweet story, 
 this living serial, under her own eyes. 
 
 "Miss Lyndon has had a telegram this morning, and is 
 wrought up a good deal, sir. Good luck to you, for a 
 bright-hearted young gentleman," murmured Harriet, as 
 her plump hand sought her pocket receptacle of Jack Otis 
 sudden largesse. These were offerings at the shrine of 
 roguish Dan Cupid. 
 
 Miss Lyndon was pacing her salon, in agitated expecta- 
 tion, when Jack entered. His first glance at her sweet 
 face dispelled his previously fixed intention < ' to attempt 
 the grand coup." 
 
 For, frankly holding out both her hands, she cried, "I 
 am so glad that you are here, now you are the only one 
 whom I can trust. I wish your aid, your serious advice 
 in a vitally important matter." 
 
 4 'There is a gentleman coming from America who has 
 arrived last night at Liverpool. I have received a tele- 
 gram that he reaches London to-night, and, he asks me to 
 fix an hour for an early interview to-morrow. I do not 
 know the person. I wish, therefore, some one to be pres- 
 ent as my witness, as my adviser, perhaps. I cannot ask 
 Mr. Thomas, especially as this business might change all 
 my professional plans. Can I count upon you?" 
 
 The Bostonian's heart froze within him. "Most cer- 
 tainly," he said with a vain attempt at cheerfulness. 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEN PARTY. 405 
 
 "That comes of the farce of the 'brother' business," he 
 gloomily reflected. "I am now too late and I might have 
 spoken in time." 
 
 " I can give you all my time to-morrow," he very glumly 
 said. " Shall I call on the gentleman and arrange for an 
 interview? Where will it occur, here?" 
 
 "I do not know," she doubtfully said. " I have tele- 
 graphed to the .address of the gentleman's banker, and I 
 neither know his name nor his hotel. I wish to advise 
 on that very matter with you, first. Any other place in 
 London would be suitable, but not here, not here, or 
 where the Thomas family would know. I do not wish this 
 person either to know where I live or who you are. Now, 
 where would be a suitable place for such an interview?" 
 she smiled brightly up at him in her implicit trust in the 
 genius of Brother Jack. 
 
 The Bostonian passed his hand dreamily over his brow. 
 "Oh! yes! I see, "he stammered. "A person whom you do 
 not know. Must not know either of us. I should say a 
 strange sort of business meeting. He has telegraphed you, 
 of course he knows your name?" 
 
 Otis was astounded, as Gladys smiled and said triumph- 
 antly, "Not at all. The message was sent to <X. Y. Z.,' 
 and he must not meet Mr. Thomas, who knows so far noth- 
 ing of this business." 
 
 The puzzled Bostonian dropped his saddened eyes. "It 
 would be as well to have such an interview at a lawyer's 
 office or a bank." 
 
 "Precisely what I wish to avoid," smiled Gladys, who 
 now secretly enjoyed Brother Jack's crestfallen humilia- 
 tion. A rosy little devil in her heart was teasing him. 
 "It is a personal matter and relates only to myself," she 
 vivaciously continued. 
 
 "If you could give me any idea of the nature of 
 
406 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA, 
 
 the business," Otis gloomily remarked, rising and pac- 
 ing the room. His funereal manner moved her to 
 secret laughter. The witch ! He stole furtive glances at 
 her sweet face in a distant mirror, and was singularly 
 near entrapping the woman he idolized, in one rash fleeting 
 glance of loving tenderness. Alas! for the opacity of the 
 man, whose foot was lingering on the portal of his longed 
 for paradise. 
 
 He could not read the hidden lesson of her sweetly shin- 
 ing eyes, the rapture of that loving, yearning bosom, 
 which was now stirred with thoughts of him alone. In 
 the supreme trial of her life, "forgetful of her sorrow, 
 unmindful of her pain," she turned with all a fond woman's 
 confidence to the one man she cherished, a chosen king to 
 rule in her fluttering heart, and, yet, a feeling that 
 she would not that he should steal upon her secret too 
 goon, " her timid words of maiden welcome " had chilled 
 his heart. 
 
 She knew well that he loved her. Miss Lyndon had long 
 since fathomed the guilty secret of the transfer of his 
 "architectural researches" from gay Paris to sober Lon- 
 don. " Brother Jack " was so anxious not to crush the 
 tender blossom of a love which had stolen unseen into the 
 growing light of their lonely lives, that he feared to cull 
 it. And yet, in his sudden alarm his cheeks betrayed the 
 rush of rapture her coming brought to him. 
 
 " I can tell you all later, but not until we have finished 
 this strange business, and that depends, too, so largely upon 
 you," Miss Lyndon smiled, "for I don't know anything 
 about it yet myself. Neither the man have I seen, nor do 
 I know the precise nature of his business. All I only do 
 know is, that it is all important to me, to my future life. I 
 have some valuable papers which I cannot allow to leave 
 iny possession, and only in your presence, will I exhibit 
 
MRS. IIAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEN PARTY. 407 
 
 them to this stranger, or allow him to -take them a.'Tay for 
 examination; but only in your presence, not to be cut, o f 
 your sight for a single moment. I cannot trust any one 
 but you, in London, and I need a friend now. I have only 
 you in the world. I am alone," she softly sighed. The 
 tell-tale blood leaped to Jack Otis' bronzed cheeks. His 
 heart was thrilled with that infinite surging tide of love 
 whose sweetness brings the most exquisite pain. 
 
 " I will do what you wish. I will guard your trust, with 
 my life." Their eyes met, and her hand in some strange 
 way, had stolen into his browned palm. The mighty oars- 
 man did not know that he almost crushed that slender 
 hand as he said, for their dreaming eyes had met : 
 
 "Now, to arrange at once for the meeting. Name to- 
 morrow at three o'clock, say in the parlors of my own 
 lodging-house. You can come there with your maid, and 
 my good landlady will give up to you the separate parlor, 
 and I, will await the gentleman in the froni room, so there 
 will be no chance either for him to get away or for you to 
 be surprised. I can follow him too, and see where his 
 haunts are." 
 
 The two young heads were dangerously near each other 
 several times, as Brother Jack concocted a telegram which 
 conveyed the required information. 
 
 The nervous haste with which Otis escaped to send the 
 message himself, was due to a sudden feeling of manly 
 generosity which forbade him to force himself upon the 
 confidence of the beautiful orphan. But, the stars were 
 shining in his ardent soul; her voice was singing in his 
 heart, as he hastened away to the telegraph office! The 
 pressure of her trembling hand, the loving glances of her 
 beautiful downcast eyes into which a strange, sweet light 
 had stolen, told the unselfish lover that the Rose of Life's 
 sweet mystery was slowly unfolding in the guarded temple 
 of her fond womanly heart. 
 
408 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 They were drifting dangerously near, and the recording 
 angel was on watch, with laughing eyes, looking at Otis' 
 overcrowded columns. "More lover's fibs," he smiled, 
 and waited! 
 
 " It's a clear, cool-headed young woman whom I have to 
 deal with," mused Waldo Strong, as he hurried out of the 
 head office of the Anglo-Californian that afternoon. He 
 had fortunately been able to catch the ear of the * * great 
 mogul " of the Anglo bank, for a few moments. Driving 
 from St. Pancras station, he obtained all his telegrams 
 and letters. 
 
 The "head manager," calling in a grave junior, said: 
 " Mr. Morton, Barrister Strong has the absolute confidence 
 of our San Francisco house. You are to do everything 
 he wishes, reporting only viva voce to me alone. He 
 wishes to be put in communication with Scotland Yard, as 
 he has a 'confidential London inquiry.' Now, give him 
 your time and every facility." 
 
 The travel-jaded lawyer was overjoyed as he drove back 
 to "Morleys," to open a brief note from Mrs. Hammond 
 giving him her London address. A sudden flush of hope 
 reddened his cheek. ' ' I shall perhaps meet Gladys Lyn- 
 don! At any rate, I will know all the details of her life. 
 If I can find time I shall go over to Paris, but first to 
 run down my trump card, Mr. Hooper. The X. Y. Z. ap- 
 pointment at three will give me time to get the Scotland 
 Yard detectives at work to-morrow." 
 
 He chafed in vain suspense, for three hours that night, 
 in the corridors of Mrs. Hammond's hotel, until that lady 
 returned, laughing with the lingering memories of a happy 
 theater supper, which she had vastly enjoyed under the 
 escort of General Hiram Buford. The two men ex- 
 changed greetings of surprise, as they met at the lift. 
 
 With a quick motion, she signaled to Strong, her dainty 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEX PARTY. 409 
 
 finger on her rosy lips. " I shall be at home to-morrow 
 evening," she whispered, under her breath. "Come at 
 eight," and so, the baffled lawyer returned to his hotel. 
 
 It was a little bit of social diplomacy on the part of 
 the quick-witted woman who weighed the two men in the 
 financial balance, and dared not offend the experienced 
 Buford. 
 
 " Strong has some important business of my husband's 
 in his hands," murmured Milly, " and, as he makes a short 
 stay, wished to get some signatures and papers from me." 
 
 The doubtful Hiram swallowed this ghost story. "I'll 
 keep a mighty close look out on that lawyer chap," he 
 glowered. General Buford was a stern monopolist! 
 
 A morning at Scotland Yard and the bank, prepared 
 Waldo Strong in very good humor for the business of the 
 afternoon. 
 
 When he had finished his story as regarded Mr. James 
 Vr./ter Hooper, the chief detective said with a quiet smile, 
 "I am not allowed, Counselor, to tell you what I know, but 
 the credentials you have from the Anglo bank, warrant me 
 in telling you that in a week you shall have an opportunity 
 to speak at your leisure with your man." The grim irony 
 touched the lawyer. 
 
 " Then, you know where he is? " Strong eagerly cried. 
 
 " Ask me nothing now," the good-humored official said. 
 ' ' Come back here in a week. On condition that you do not 
 mention this man's name to a living being till then, I will 
 show him to you." And, he made a motion illustrative of 
 the snapping of the " Queen's jewelry" on two wrists. 
 
 "I understand," the joyful lawyer said, as he gave his 
 pledge as an advocate. 
 
 " It is a very grave and quiet matter and you will know 
 all later," the chief inspector remarked, "for your addi- 
 tional information has largely aided me in solving one 
 misty point. I am your debtor, sir," 
 
410 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 " One stroke of good fortune! Now, for the crisis of my 
 life," mused Waldo Strong, as he deliberately proceeded 
 to the rendezvous with X. Y. Z. His professional caution 
 caused him to walk a dozen times past the house before he 
 pulled the well-polished bell handle, the slavey's pride. 
 
 His bank detective had also reconnoitered that very morn- 
 ing. " Bless you, sir, all square there. One of the most 
 respectable London apartment houses; all as regular as can 
 be. A very nice class of people always there. No shady 
 parties." 
 
 Waldo Strong was confronted at the door by a dapper 
 little man, Mr. Jack Otis' lightning English "gentleman's 
 man." 
 
 "Mr. X. Y. Z. to see Miss X. Y. Z. " 
 
 "Yes sir! This way! Front parlors, sir," and the cau- 
 tious lawyer soon stood open-eyed and hat in hand in the 
 presence of Mr. Jack Otis. 
 
 "Will you be seated, sir," cordially said Jack, who had 
 at once, sized up the respectable stranger. "A cool head, 
 a sharp legal file, a man who thoroughly knows his busi- 
 ness," thought Jack. 
 
 "Ah! an American, some go-between," was Strong's in- 
 stant judgment. 
 
 " I fully represent the young lady you wish to see," re- 
 marked Otis quietly, "and, she has requested me to be 
 present at your interview," Jack continued gravely. " As 
 she is an orphan and I am at present, her only adviser, I 
 will remain." 
 
 " I would prefer to have the young lady state so her- 
 self," said Strong. "There is no reason, however, that 
 we should not proceed at once to business." 
 
 * ' I have come from a far country to transact this aif air 
 as rapidly as possible. I will not delay you, Mr. X. Y. 
 Z.," smiled Jack Otis. " Will you kindly show me what 
 credentials you have with you from the young lady." 
 
411 
 
 u I have both your San Francisco cablegrams, and Liver- 
 pool dispatches." 
 
 " You should have her letter, and some dispatches also." 
 
 " Here they are! " briskly said the lawyer, and, the two 
 puzzled men examined the papers mutually exchanged. 
 The word "Correct," was a simultaneous exclamation. 
 
 "I will bring the young lady in, now," said Otis, "pre- 
 mising that I am to be present on her behalf, and to con- 
 trol in my own keeping all documents which she exhibits, 
 which articles, will not for the present be parted with." 
 
 "That's perfectly fair," answered Strong, whose nerve 
 tension of months of dreaming was maddening. His en- 
 emy was almost within the prison gates yawning for him 
 now. 
 
 Jack Otis lightly swept back the sliding doors, and led 
 the woman he loved out into the light of the front draw- 
 ing room. 
 
 The counselor had affected to gaze on the cream-colored 
 dullness of the narrow street vista, as he wondered what 
 manner of woman Miss Devereux might be. He slowly 
 turned as the doors slid apart. Dropping his hat and a 
 bundle of papers, he then cried with a shout of surprise, 
 "Miss Lyndon, Gladys Lyndon! My God! Why are you 
 here? What do you here? " 
 
 Jack Otis was standing between them, his eyes resting 
 eagerly on the face of his beloved, now marble in its 
 pallor. A thousand mad conjectures thronged his brain! 
 
 The splendid eyes sought his as the girl timidly said: 
 "Mr. Strong, I am X. Y. Z." 
 
 The lawyer sprang to her side, and grasped her two 
 hands, trembling in a wild excitement. 
 
 "And, your name is?" 
 
 Gladys fixed her eyes full on Jack Otis,, as she gently 
 released her slender hands. 
 
 E E 
 
412 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 "I am Hope Devereux, the only child of Robert and 
 Mary Devereux," she said, with a proudly uplifted brow. 
 
 Otis started and sprang to her side. 
 
 "And, your father was the owner of three-quarters of 
 the Mariquita mine at Virginia City." 
 
 The gates of the dim past were slowly swinging back. 
 
 "He was," faltered Gladys, who had now sunk into a 
 chair and covered her eyes with her hands. " I have his 
 letters up to the very week of his death, for all we 
 knew, before my mother's death, was that he had been 
 foully murdered by a ruffian, at Willows Cross Roads, on 
 his way home to us." 
 
 "And, he never sold it the Mariquita to your know- 
 ledge?" the lawyer cried, note-book in hand. 
 
 " His very last letter states that he was then negotiating 
 for the sale of his two-thirds to a rich rancher, named 
 Holman, for a very large sum of money, as both he and 
 his partner were penniless." 
 
 " What is the purpose of all this, sir? " demanded Otis, 
 who now saw the form of his beloved beginning to droop in 
 a sudden weakness. The agitation swept her soul in 
 storm! 
 
 "If what you say is true," Strong faltered, still amazed, 
 1 ' then, you are now a millionairess in your own right. 
 Miss Devereux of the Mariquita, otherwise known as the 
 'Lone Star,' and, stolen from you by Frederick Wyman." 
 
 One gasping sigh, and it was Jack Otis's strong arms 
 which raised the falling form of the girl who had tried 
 to spring to her feet. 
 
 He fiercely shook Strong off, and loudly cried "Har- 
 riet!" 
 
 The good-humored face of the abigail paled in a sudden 
 horror, as Jack Otis bore the senseless girl to a divan. 
 
 "Call Mrs. Quimby here! Do all you can. Quick! 
 
413 
 
 quick!" he cried, and then bidding his man bring the 
 nearest doctor, he rejoined the still astonished Mr. Waldo 
 Strong in the front parlor. 
 
 Jack Otis was surprised at the changed face he saw as 
 the lawyer raised his bowed head, for the tidings of her 
 good fortune, had also conveyed to the champion of her 
 rights in one brief moment the knowledge that he was to 
 be a wanderer henceforth in life, haunted only by hopes 
 that failed, and evermore sadly alone, for this bright- 
 browed young stranger was the man she loved! 
 
 There was no response by the Calif orni an, when Otis 
 said slowly. "This is indeed a strange, very strange 
 story. You know the responsibility of such representations 
 I presume, sir?" 
 
 The lawyer bowed his head again in a grave silence. 
 
 But, when Gladys Lyndon came forth, pale and trembling 
 to be met by both the excited men, the lawyer had found 
 fitting words at length. "It shall be the one crowning 
 happiness of my life that I brought to you, the glad news of 
 your splendid inheritance. It will be the first duty of 
 my life to restore it intact to you, and also, to punish the 
 thief who now stands as a dark shadow behind the murder 
 of your father. Wyman is a consummate villain!" 
 
 Hope Devereux silently placed the two men's hands in 
 each others. Through her happy tears she smiled. " This 
 is the one man here who has befriended me in my very 
 darkest days, Mr. John Otis," she said, awkwardly enough, 
 for the word "Jack" was trembling on her lips. A 
 peculiar smile flitted over the lawyer's face as she added: 
 "He is the only one on earth whom I trust, but you. 
 Mr. Waldo Strong, counselor at law of San Francisco," 
 she murmured, as she turned again to her wondering 
 comrade of the interrupted " architectural explorations." 
 "It all seems so strange." 
 
 E E 2 
 
414 MISS DEVE&EUX OF THE MARIQITITA, 
 
 Jack Otis suddenly bethought him the star of the 
 Albert Hall was obliged to sing on that very evening. 
 "I presume, Mr. Strong, you can briefly tell Miss Lyn- 
 don," he smiled, "what practical steps you would in- 
 augurate?" 
 
 " You must not forget that you sing to-night," he mean- 
 ingly said, with a glance at the newly born Hope Dever- 
 eux. 
 
 In a few words Strong learned of all the surroundings 
 of Miss Lyndon. He had already formulated his whole 
 plan. "You must simply be 'Miss Gladys Lyndon' here 
 until I release you," he said. "I presume you will allow 
 me to bring Mr. Frederick Wyman at once to bay. After 
 you are made administratix of your father's estate, you 
 can then, choose a permanent legal adviser. It would be a 
 too long story to tell what led me to the discovery of Wy- 
 man's vile rascality. Your own past life does not come 
 in question. All I wish to do, is to see enough of your 
 legal proofs to establish, beyond a doubt, that you are 
 Robert Devereux's only heir and only daughter. I wish, 
 also the names of any living witness who knew you all 
 three together alive." 
 
 "There is but one person, a widow, but happily now 
 living in San Francisco," said Miss Hope Devereux, her 
 eyes filling with tears. 
 
 " Good! " cried Strong, " Now, I want the picture you 
 wrote you had, and the papers. Let me simply glance at 
 them here? The next steps are all easy enough. I cable to 
 my Virginia City legal associate to apply openly for letters 
 of administration on your father's estate, in your own 
 name; also instantly, to file a contest in your name in the 
 matter of the issuance of a U. S. patent for the ' Lone 
 Star' mine, once the ' Mariquita,' to the robber Wyman. 
 We have nearly thirty days to act in each matter. I will 
 
MBS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEN PARTY. 415 
 
 thus be back in San Francisco ready to act and verify the 
 proofs. We will take the mine at once out of Wyman's 
 hands, and his own one-quarter, will pay the legal ex- 
 penses, and all that he has used in unpaid back profits. 
 The Mariquita has doubled in value in three months! 
 All you have to do is to authorize me to act so far as your 
 attorney." 
 
 44 But, I have no money to fight this desperate man 
 with," murmured Hope Devereux. 
 
 * * I have ! Plenty of it, too ! and at your service !" in a ring- 
 ing voice, cried Mr. John Wayne Otis enthusiastically for- 
 getting himself, as he sprung to his feet. ''Fight the mean 
 rascal out at once, Mr. Strong," he cried. ''Telegraph 
 at once your notice of contest, and the probate application 
 orders. Then, to-morrow, shall we all meet here at say ten 
 o'clock? for, Gladys you need rest," he said, and their 
 eyes met in a strange confusion. 
 
 Otis was in the full swing of a strange new-born sense 
 of power, for when he had vigorously referred to the 
 money backing, a little hand, stole into his, and it seemed 
 to him as if an angel near him had softly whispered, 
 " Jack." It was, in fact, an involuntary comment of Miss 
 Hope Devereux, who, at that particular moment, could not 
 see her gallant young backer standing there, proud and 
 thrilled, for very happy tears had blinded her gentle eyes! 
 
 It was a sweet surrender! 
 
 "We must not be seen by any Californians here, in our 
 apparent business conference. "Now, remember," said 
 Strong. You are positively still only Gladys Lyndon, to 
 all." 
 
 "lean keep a secret," smiled Miss Lyndon, "even Mr. 
 
 "Jack," promptly interpolated Otis, as she hesitated. 
 
 "Even Mr. Jack," she said with a wondrous s^ 
 " does not yet, know the story of my early life," \ 
 was an infinite promise to him in her tender smile\ 
 
416 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 "Good!" said Strong. "Now I will bring Mrs Ham- 
 mond down to hear you sing to-night at the hall. It will 
 be very natural that I should also call on you. The rest 
 is easy enough. I will, if you allow me, take these letters, 
 and the pictures away and have good negatives of all of 
 them taken, this very afternoon. Then they will be safe 
 beyond accident. I will study all the originals, and re- 
 store all to you to-morrow morning. They must at once 
 go into a bank vault for safe keeping. They are your 
 little deeds of fortune. A million is a great stake." 
 
 The girl was wrapped in a dream mist. "Is it possible! 
 Is it possible," she cried, " I am so rich? So needlessly 
 rich;" and a voice, soft as the falling dews of night whis- 
 pered: "My poor darling mother! My dear father." 
 
 The men's eyes met in a mute compassion! 
 
 " I will hasten away, send the dispatches and get to 
 work. " He then took Hope Devereux's hand in his. ' May 
 God bless you in all your good fortune," he simply said. 
 
 "You have implicit confidence, Mr. Strong," the 
 startled heiress replied, with a smile, which recalled to him 
 days when he wove dreams of a future, now fled forever. 
 "Alas! the smile that blessed one lover's heart, has also 
 broken many more," in other days than our later Bonanza 
 days, but, a seal was placed upon the stone rolled against 
 the tomb in Waldo Strong's heart. " I will be her friend 
 for life," he murmured. He might have said, her slave, 
 her bondman of old. 
 
 Most strangely, his departure left Hope Devereux, 
 shame-faced and blushing, standing silent there, before her 
 lover. With the speed of a swift Camilla, she "fell back 
 in good order" upon the anxious Harriet. 
 
 And so, it came to pass that Mr. John Wayne Otis, 
 whose " heart circulation " was very strangely affected, 
 only submissively, murmured a trifling question as the god- 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEN PARTY. 41 7 
 
 dess reappeared. "Shall I call a carriage? It is better, 
 and, you need immediate rest," and thus, under the watchful 
 .brown eyes of Harriet, the two hearts so drawn to each 
 other were still wary and watchful of an all too patent 
 double secret. 
 
 Jack already saw a line of breakers foaming ahead! His 
 own pride and reserve now tied his halting tongue, but the 
 sweet wonder in their eyes, had betrayed them both. 
 
 " I presume you will come to the hall as asual," fal- 
 tered Gladys. 
 
 " If you think best," humbly said Otis. 
 
 "I do think best," the glowing beauty softly said, as 
 they alighted. She turned upon him the sweetest face in 
 the world, glowing with a new happiness. " I must talk 
 to you to-night and I still need your advice." She paused 
 on the threshold of her home, and then gave him her hand. 
 " Good-bye," she murmured, "Jack!" and, the sudden 
 eclipse of her beauty left him standing there, alone, in a 
 speechless delight! 
 
 But before nine o'clock that evening, the precise hour 
 at which he would gaze again on that beloved face, the 
 Bostonian felt that the sudden unequality to be of wealth 
 lifted her now far beyond him! " Yes," he said gloomily 
 after pacing his rooms. " It is all over." He had stolen 
 into the lonely drawing-room, and kissed the very place 
 where her head had rested on the divan. His strong arms 
 were tingling'with the contact of that dear and beloved 
 helpless form, which fate had so strangely made a burden 
 of delight to him. " If I were only alone with her, out at 
 sea, only we two, and the stars hanging above us there!" 
 And so, he ran into the realms of cloudland and fancy, 
 dreaming that he was sailing off shore again with her, 
 sailing on forever on an unknown sea, far out of sight of 
 any land, to the soft music of their own beating hearts: 
 
418 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 OFF SHORE. 
 
 Around, a dark and starless sea, 
 Throbs in its wind swept minor strain: 
 
 The rising gale sings in the sail, 
 In varying tones, that ring again. 
 
 The vault unflecked by silvery star, 
 Domes high above! Ah! Lost we are, 
 
 Beyond all thralls of earthly calls! 
 The breaking surge at intervals, 
 
 Throws phosphor sparks of gold on high! 
 
 Here, with no lingering cares hard by, 
 We drift! Sweep on! Oh Happy sea! 
 
 My love is nestling near to me. 
 
 The land we knew is lost to view, 
 There's not one gleaming spark in sight, 
 
 Our heart throbs, golden moments note, 
 As, shadowed, in the night we float! 
 
 Sing on! Wild Winds! Sing in my heart! 
 
 Ah! Love! For never shall we part, 
 But sail on life's o'ershadowed main, 
 
 Till love shall waft us, " Home again." 
 
 For our love knows nor bounds, nor lines, 
 No stretch of Time, nor world's confines, 
 
 The heart which throbs alone for me, 
 Is mine to all eternity. 
 
 Waldo Strong was composed and grave-faced as he sat 
 down to rest in his rooms at Morley's that afternoon. He 
 had found a note from the Chief Inspector at Scotland 
 Yard, waiting in his rooms. "Don't leave town, may 
 want you now at any moment; will send for you." This 
 brought a new thrill of triumph to his heart. 
 
 He had sent an appropriate offering of flowers to Mrs. 
 Hammond, with a request for her kindly presence at the 
 concert under his escort. His photographic labors were 
 all over. 
 
 Sick at heart, he threw himself in a chair, and reviewed 
 
MES. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEN PARTY. 419 
 
 the situation.- He sat there until he had smothered down 
 the rising sobs of his saddened heart. " To bring this 
 vast fortune to her very feet, to see her happy, so happy, 
 in another's arms. It is the crucifixion of my heart." 
 
 One new idea haunted him. " I will closely watch Mrs. 
 Hammond. She has tried to throw this pure girl defence- 
 less under the influence of this robber, sneak, and second- 
 hand murderer. Did she know?" So, he was very wary 
 when Mrs. Hammond poured all her praises of Gladys 
 into his ear that night, when the thunders of applause 
 shook the crowded house. He was naturally bound in 
 duty to escort the velvet-eyed tourist to Miss Lyndon's 
 waiting-room to pour out once more her renewed enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
 " It brings us all, openly on the scene, at any rate! " he 
 murmured, as he left the ladies together for a few minutes. 
 
 In the lobby, he stumbled over that full-blown Nevada 
 giant, Andrew Bowen, Esq. To be dragged away for a 
 " drink," was the penalty paid for his recognition. After 
 he had learned of Bowen's hurried run over, on a daring 
 mining scheme, a sudden thought animated the lawyer. 
 
 " By the way, Mr. Bowen," he said, " whatever became 
 of Robert Devereux, your old Virginia City friend?" 
 
 "Blest if I can tell!" said Bowen, setting down the 
 glass, " I've often asked Wyman. He, too, has lost sight 
 of him." 
 
 " Does that look like him?" quickly said Strong, handing 
 him the picture given to him by Hope Devereux. 
 
 The florid Nevada capitalist said coolly "Certainly! It 
 is Bob Devereux, one in a thousand, certainly, a good 
 picture, too! His very self, but he was pulled down when 
 he left us. This picture shows him in good condition. 
 But, still any man who ever knew him in Virginia City 
 would swear flat on that picture. That's him! Where 
 
420 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 did you get it?" cried Bowen, turning his questioning eyes 
 on Strong. 
 
 " That's the picture of a man who was murdered at Wil- 
 low Cross Roads in 1864, not two months after he left 
 you, by that nend, Steve Berard, the noted gambler." 
 
 "I don't believe a damned word of it," roared out 
 Bowen, greatly astonished. "Why Wyman was Berard's 
 partner, and I knew them both very well then, neither ever 
 mentioned it to me. I ought to know. I fired, myself, one 
 of a dozen shots that killed poor Steve and his blooded 
 racer in the '101' uprising. And, I've always been mighty 
 sorry, too." 
 
 ' i I can bring you a man of the highest character in San 
 Francisco, Mr. Bowen," said Strong, solemnly, "who saw 
 Steve Berard shoot down this unarmed man. And, I know 
 also, where his grave is now, on Holman's Ranch." 
 
 Bowen was paralyzed. 
 
 "Well! If he was killed on Holman's Ranch then there 
 was some bloody rascality in it. Holman was an infernal 
 old cut-throat and, ' Jim Brown, the murderer,' always hung 
 out there. I'm blessed if Wyman, too, is not a mighty 
 close-mouthed devil. He never whispered Devereux's 
 death to me; and so, he has known it all these years?" 
 
 "He must have," coolly said Strong, pocketing the pic- 
 ture. 
 
 " See here, Strong," anxiously said the rough diamond, 
 "Come and see me at the Hotel Langham. I'm awfully 
 worked up about this disclosure of yours. It makes me 
 damned uneasy. I have some very valuable interests tan- 
 gled up with this son of a gun Wyman. I don't like the 
 looks of this old thing at all. You can put me right on 
 the stand! If that's the man was killed, then, that's Robert 
 Devereux." 
 
 "I will come in and see you, Bowen," said Strong. 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEN PARTY. 421 
 
 "I want your best advice, professionally, too," growled 
 the frightened Andy Bowen, who stood shaken at heart 
 over a second glass, and muttering, < ' Well, I'll be damned ! " 
 as Strong left him. There were ugly thoughts now throng- 
 ing across the startled miner's brain! 
 
 "That nails down your coffin, Mr. Frederick Wyman. 
 I have got you now," coldly decreed Strong, as he re- 
 turned to the ladies. " This mean sneak used the desper- 
 ate Hooper and this clumsy old Bowen, as mere catspaws. 
 With Stanton, Bowen, the notary, the record books and 
 this picture and the Willows' people, I fancy ' Miss Dever- 
 eux of the Mariquita ' is going to have simply a walk over. 
 And all I want now to close the circle of proofs, is Hooper. 
 It looks, too, as if Her Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, 
 would make me a present of him very soon. " 
 
 With all these professional triumphs, Waldo Strong's 
 heart still sank within him as he saw Jack Otis enter the 
 carriage, with Miss Gladys Lyndon and her attendant maid. 
 He was strangely sad as he rolled along on his homeward 
 way with Mrs. Hammond. A very neat supper awaited 
 them, and the man of parchments was also a bit of an 
 epicure, but, he had already shown involuntarily his distrust 
 of Mrs. , Hammond. 
 
 4 'Why did you not let me know that she was singing 
 here at Albert Hall?" he coldly said. " I was about to 
 wander off on a fool's trip to Paris, in search of her! " 
 
 Milly Hammond had finally determined to cleave alone 
 to the rock of refuge, Buford. She so, could afford the 
 malicious little cut she gave him. "I wished to spare you 
 what you can perhaps easily see. Gladys Lyndon will 
 surely marry this Yankee, Mr. John Wayne Otis, who has 
 a splendid place near Boston. He is of a fine old Revo- 
 lutionary family and an only son, independently rich. He 
 seems to be personally agreeable to her, does he not? " 
 
422 MISS DEVEREUX' OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 The lawyer bit his lip, and yet, Strong did the honors in 
 a most stately guise. 
 
 "I shall be leaving London at once. I only came over 
 on a land matter a large deal in some country ranches. 
 Can I do anything for you in San Francisco? " 
 
 And, the cat-like Milly smiled and said, /'Nothing, thank f 
 you. I, too, am coming home very soon. You see that I 
 have now lost my traveling companion." 
 
 Strong had enough of the supper and the running com- 
 ments! He marked Milly down, and swore to even up, 
 some day. 
 
 "I fancy I sweetened his supper for him," laughed 
 Milly, as she reached her own bower, for she had found 
 a " traveling companion" who pleasantly replaced both 
 Wyman, and the gentle girl whose feet had innocently 
 escaped her snares. "I have the only safe place in the 
 whole little chess game here," she laughed. "Everything 
 to gain, and nothing to lose," which was a perfectly cor- 
 rect statement of the case, and did credit to her head, if 
 not to her heart. A very thrifty and self-satisfied Messa- 
 lina! 
 
 Polaris looked down unwinkingly from the dim, blue 
 vault above them, as the two lovers stepped out of Miss 
 Lyndon's carriage at her door after the concert. Hope 
 Devereux was strangely agitated, for, Strong had whispered 
 to her in the waiting room, * ' I have luckily found the evi- 
 dence of my man Bowen here, which binds Wyman hand 
 and foot helpless at last before you! Andy Bowen, a rough 
 millionaire, one of his early partners in other matters, is now 
 here. I can easily prove the whole fraud by him, alone. 
 It is hence, a certain victory!" 
 
 "You really don't need me, Hope, I am sure now," 
 murmured Otis. "Your lawyer, your regular adviser can 
 safely conduct all." 
 
MRS. HAtLEY OSGOOD's GARDEtf PARTY. 423 
 
 A soft pressure on his hand led him captive by her side. 
 "Don't forget," said the singer merrily, "You alone are 
 to share my secret. I shall make no public avowal till all 
 is beyond doubt. So, we have a joint secret to guard. If 
 I remain * Miss Devereux of the Mariquita,' Mr. Waldo 
 Strong shall be my 'lawyer, but, you," and she fairly flashed 
 a glance upon him, a most provoking glance which made 
 him tremble in a new-born delight, "you, are to remain my 
 permanent adviser; I could not spare you," and, a malicious 
 pleasure tinged her voice as she closed, softly saying, 
 "Brother Jack!" 
 
 The Recording Angel then and there, started a small 
 ladies' column, for Miss Hope Devereux, and he promptly 
 chalked down one deliberate little white fib. " It seems 
 to be that same ' Brother Jack' business, all the time," mur- 
 mured the good angel, who was a bit drowsy. ' ' Will they 
 never stop that little fiction?" 
 
 As Otis walked home on that night of nights to him, he 
 pondered the last Portia-like words of the beautiful, 
 sweetly serious woman, whom he knew now, he loved madly. 
 "You alone, are entitled to know the whole story, the in- 
 nocent secret of my past life, and, you shall be the very 
 first to hear it! " A rosy, beloved face, her finger on her 
 smiling lips, was the last thing he saw that night, as a voice 
 now grown strangely dear whispered " Wait;" and, he set 
 forth to linger in a growing happiness which lifted his ardent 
 soul toward the overhanging stars. "So happy. She 
 loves me! " 
 
 It seemed a wild dream, a double happiness, for 
 the woman he blindly adored shared that happiness with 
 him, their two hearts beating only for each other, alone, 
 of all the sons and daughters of men. A blessed double 
 happiness! 
 
 Mr. Jack Otis snt chafing in the back drawing-room for 
 
424 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 an hour the next morning, while he listened to the grave 
 voice of the lawyer and the murmured replies of that fair- 
 est of clients, Hope Devereux. The scratching of the 
 lawyer's pen was only broken by his pacing the room, in 
 sudden fits of cogitation. When the sliding doors were 
 at last opened by Strong, the lawyer was radiant. 
 
 " There's not a single link missing now, Mr. Otis," he 
 heartily said. "I shall, I think, hasten at once back to San 
 Francisco and then, open every battery on Wyman. Public 
 shame will bring about a private panic soon in this fellow's 
 bosom. I shall take Andy Bowen's deposition here. I 
 can easily see that he is frightened, for he has an immense 
 separate property. He evidently knew nothing of Wy- 
 man's desperate rascality. My associate in Virginia City 
 has already cabled me that the papers will be filed to-day, 
 and a temporary injunction also asked for to tie up the 
 whole mine and the stock till the contest is heard." 
 
 " Now, sir, it is for you to guard Miss Devereux's pri- 
 vacy here. I have a little matter with the London police 
 of some importance. A couple of days will straighten 
 that out. I have no hesitancy in at once bidding the An- 
 glo-Californian bank to throw up any connection with the 
 proposed deal in the * ' Lone Star. " It would be a public dis- 
 honesty. General Buford will also hear of this move and 
 he will surely cable Wyman, so that our man may be all 
 ready to come to terms, when I reach San Francisco. But 
 one thing I do ask of you, both. Miss Devereux must 
 sign no paper, listen to no compromise, discuss nothing! 
 Frederick Wyman is capable of any sly double dealing. I 
 alone control the evidence to right Miss Devereux and to 
 place Frederick Wyman where he belongs, in State's pris- 
 on for life. That is my share of the work, in return for 
 the score of innocent lives he slaughtered simply to break 
 the market, for I shall always believe that in some sneaking 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEX PARTY. 425 
 
 way, he fired the mine himself! At any rate, his wretched 
 life is not worth a pin's fee, if he ever shows up in Vir- 
 ginia City. He is ruined!" 
 
 "We will absolutely obey you," the young couple cried, 
 in a strong, prompt chorus, which brought a mournful 
 smile to Waldo Strong's thoughtful face. 
 
 ''Will you need me to-morrow for anything? " said Miss 
 Devereux. " You know," she murmured, turning to Jack 
 Otis, " Mrs. Hailey Osgood's garden party is set for to- 
 morrow. " 
 
 " Do not vary your routine in one single hair," earn- 
 estly cried the advocate. " Sing the whole British public 
 into ecstacy, it will keep your mind busy! You are only 
 Miss Gladys Lyndon here, till I cry presto! change. But I 
 beg you to let Mr. Otis go down with me and deposit all 
 your family relics, all these proofs in the bank vault. Your 
 receipt for them in your own real name, is your whole title 
 to the Mariquita mine. Never forget that! The bank 
 will make common cause with you, against the swindler, 
 Wyman. Also, at the last, General Buford will join you, 
 too, for the expense bill of this costly attempt to float the 
 new company here must be met by Wyman alone! He 
 guaranteed his title. I will telegraph to each of you here 
 when I want you, for I shall to-morrow divide my time 
 between Bowen, the photographer, and Scotland Yard! " 
 
 "Then, we will go to the garden party? "said Hope Dev- 
 ereux, rising. 
 
 "Most certainly," answered Strong. "All I wish you 
 to do is simply to give me your power of attorney here, 
 and then, to avoid the society of all visiting Californians, 
 Mrs. Milly Hammond, in particular." 
 
 The meeting glances proved that all present had at last 
 fathomed the dark secret of Mrs. Hammond's wonderful 
 volunteer kindness. 
 
426 HISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA, 
 
 ''Could she, could Wyman, have fancied that I was 
 the heiress of the Mariquita? " timidly questioned Hope 
 Devereux. 
 
 " There were other reasons, I fancy," said the lawyer 
 dryly, as his eyes met Jack's meaningly. He bundled up 
 his papers. "I see no reason for my asking you to come 
 to California, unless Wyman fights to the last, but, he will 
 not. He cannot! And, you are far safer here. You know 
 what this man is. I count on you, Mr. Otis, to watch over 
 this young lady, day and night. " 
 
 Otis cast his eyes down in a sudden confusion, for Miss 
 Hope Devereux's face, too, was rosy with the glow of the 
 dawn of love's bright day, Waldo Strong's eyes were fixed 
 gravely upon the girl whose golden future now stretched 
 out far and fair before her. " With your letters to Mrs. 
 McCabe, the records, the assistance of the Catholic clergy, 
 and the sisters, not a moment's doubt can rest on your 
 identity. As for the title, Mr. Wyman's own rascality in 
 admitting and setting up a deed made six months after 
 your murdered father's death, has estopped him from any 
 new defense. No! he stands clearly within the shadow of 
 the prison door. I'll close and lock it on him forever. 
 Only death or flight can save him." And the advocate's 
 face was as pitiless as a Sioux chief firing the fagots around 
 a captive Pawnee brave, 
 
 Waldo Strong whistled cheerfully at his afternoon work, 
 carefully approving the photographer's prints of all the doc- 
 uments negatived. "Just as well to lock up the negatives, 
 too, and seal all my own documents." 
 
 On his table at the hotel, a brief scrawl had also told him 
 tidings of the gravest moment. The laconic inspector 
 wrote: 
 
 1 ' Come to me to-morrow evening. I'll have him there. 
 Keep your rooms all day." 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEN PARTY, 427 
 
 "In easel can get an open confession from this Hooper, 
 then my future work is only a walk over," said the lawyer. 
 His mind was exulting in the drawing of his meshes around 
 Wyman. "He ruined my life. I will make him rue that 
 day!" sternly cried Strong, as he dropped his wearied head 
 in his hands. 
 
 He sighed, "Ah! God, How happy she is! How ready 
 for love's sweet mastery! " And then, he dreamed of the 
 past days, before he had wandered away from his successful 
 professional walk, into the mad speculations which wrecked 
 his own rising fortunes. " It might have been! It might 
 have been!" he sighed. " God bless her," he softly said 
 at last in manly fashion. "This Otis seems to be a man 
 of men. A thoroughbred. Strange fatalism of love! " 
 
 Neither Hope Devereux nor Jack Otis, dreamed that the 
 man had under Minerva's cold-browed glances, nursed the 
 passion of a whole life, in his strong, silent heart, for, 
 "Love is blind," as blind to-day as in the olden days, when 
 nymph and goddess gleamed in the fair Castilian shades. 
 And blind, love will ever be! It is the will of the high 
 gods we should not see the sweet cup at our lips. 
 
 There was never a function in Chiswick-upon -Thames, 
 which excited as much attention as Mrs. Hailey Osgood's 
 never forgotten garden party. The grounds were gaily 
 decorated in a style which opened the eyes of the snug 
 "Britishers" clustered in the homelike villas. Booth and 
 tent; parti-colored flags, multi-colored lanterns, the pert 
 strains of provoking music, the gleam of gowns of all 
 rainbowed colors on the lovely lawns; the chatter of happy 
 voices, the bustle of moving crowds and all the unwonted 
 excitement of a "grand day," aroused the curiosity of the 
 external crowd gaping through the hedges, at the "swells 
 having no end of a good time." The violet-eyed, fresh- 
 faced English girls, " non angli sed angeli," cut wide 
 
 p F 
 
428 MISS DEVEREITX OF THE MARIQITITA. 
 
 swaths in the hearts of the beaux, who were calmly indif- 
 ferent in manner, but veritable Claude Melnottes at heart! 
 The ice and ices were broken rapidly. Flags waved, birds 
 twittered, the sun shone gaily and a particular hum of 
 grateful approval was murmured from group to group, as 
 Mr. Hailey Osgood and his bewitching wife moved around 
 among their guests on hospitable thoughts intent. 
 
 Miss Gladys Lyndon, leaning on the arm of Jack Otis, 
 was welcomed w r ith hushed whispers of tribute. ''The 
 beautiful American singer, Miss Lyndon," and sundry 
 descendants of hardy Norsemen, gallant Normans and 
 fair-skinned Saxons growled inaudibly, "I envy that 
 beggar his luck!" for a slight halo of proprietorship 
 already seemed to linger around the shapely head of the 
 Bostoniau. He was literally fulfilling Strong's injunction 
 to " take care of Miss Lyndon." The sun hung in loving 
 radiance over the delightful scene, and Jack Otis was 
 dreaming now only of a golden future, and furtively steal- 
 ing glances at Hope Devereux. 
 
 Mrs. Hailey Osgood was leaning forward at the head of 
 the table, proud and radiant in her social triumph, as an 
 enthusiastic guest toasted, " Our noble host, Mr. Hailey 
 Osgood, 'for he's a jolly good fellow,' and all join in." 
 
 But, Jack Otis sprang up in wild protest, as three 
 stern-faced looking men in plain clothes suddenly ap- 
 peared at the side of Hailey Osgood, who had made a wild 
 dash from his seat. The harsh snapping of clicking steel 
 bands was ominously heard! 
 
 Two men, blue-shaven and athletic in build, with 
 gleaning, earnest eyes, wrestled Mr. Hailey Osgood vio- 
 lently down to his seat as the third, a folded paper in one 
 hand, a revolver hidden in the other, gravely said, 
 "James Walter Hooper, alias Compton, alias Hailey 
 Osgood, I arrest you in the Queen's name for the crime of 
 forgery!" 
 
MRS. HATLEY OSGOOn'S GARDEN PARTY. 429 
 
 Screaming women fainted; men in angry throngs sur- 
 rounded the struggling officers, who stoutly bore their 
 frantic prisoner on through the surging crowd. 
 
 Mrs. Hailey Osgood, a wild light breaking the dream- 
 ing charm of her splendid eyes, had sprung at once to her 
 husband's side! 
 
 "It's all up, Vinnie!" he fondly said with clouded eyes. 
 " You have nothing to do with this. It's my own affair, 
 gentlemen, the lady is out of this matter. She knows 
 nothing of it, and took me for better or worse." 
 
 Jack Otis had darted to the side of the unhappy hostess. 
 Her form was tottering. 
 
 "Keep up a bright heart. You're all right," said Hailey 
 Osgood, with one last look of burning love, the parting 
 message of a life's devotion, as he was dragged forcibly 
 away. He twisted his head around and cried, " God 
 bless you, Otis! Look out for her. I won't forget you! " 
 
 The descent of Trenck's Pandours, or the irruption of a 
 pattern squad of Manteuffel's Uhlans, sword in hand, 
 could not have created a quicker panic. The sun dis- 
 creetly dove into a gray cloud. The wheels of vanishing 
 carriages were heard crunching on gravel and rattling on 
 stone, for, the affrighted guests fled to their appropriate 
 domiciles now loathing contamination, and so, stood not in 
 the order of their going. 
 
 In a half hour, nothing was visible save a dense crowd 
 peering through the hedges at the deserted scene of the 
 great fete, and struggling with the local " Bobbies" whose 
 loud cries of "move on" fell on deaf ears. 
 
 In the house a funereal quiet reigned. The servants 
 seemed all to be frozen at their posts, and some dozen de- 
 tectives were now carefully searching the house. In 
 "the banquet hall deserted" the untasted feast awaited 
 the " choice spirits" of the inner coterie who were bid- 
 den to stay and dine. 
 
 F F 2 
 
430 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQ17ITA. 
 
 It was a local sensation of the hugest dimensions, and 
 the " British public" eagerly awaited further develop- 
 ments, as per the reporter's notes. 
 
 " Do I consider myself, too, as under arrest?" asked 
 Vinnie Hinton, her eyes now streaming with tears. 
 ' ' Poor old Jimmy! " she gasped. " Loyal and game to the 
 last. His only thought is for me. God bless him. I 
 never knew him till now! " 
 
 Alas! She knew too well in her heart what awaited 
 Mr. James Walter Hooper. A life of "salutary restraint," 
 " moderate diet," "healthful employment," "a judicious 
 economy in raiment and creature comforts," and "vast 
 opportunities for moral reflections." In other words, 
 "transportation for life, in the Queen's name!" 
 
 "You are so far, only under surveillance, Madame," 
 said the police sergeant. "That is at present. I would, 
 however, suggest that you communicate at once with your 
 friends, and also your counsel." 
 
 The woman bowed her handsome head, and cried with a 
 stifled voice: "You have dragged away the only friend 
 I had in the world. Poor old Jimmy! If I could only put 
 my arms once more around your neck and say: l Jimmy, 
 I loved you at the last more than I ever thought to love 
 any mortal man.'" And, she wrung her hands. "He 
 thought only of me, only of me, poor old Jimmy." 
 
 By her side, stood Hope Devereux, her sweet eyes filled 
 with the friendly tears of innocence. f 1 1 am so sorry for 
 you. Can I do anything? You must be helped. This is 
 terrible!" 
 
 "God bless you! Do you know what you are saying? 
 Wait! Wait! I'll repay you some day. " 
 
 Jack Otis leaned over her, ' < Make it as easy as you can. 
 Say nothing. If you wish anything done, count on me!" 
 
 The blunt police sergeant was moved. He walked to 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEN PARTY. 431 
 
 the other end of the room, for Jim Hooper's last thought 
 of the woman he loved, had touched the oaken fibers of the 
 official's heart. "He is as game as they make 'em. A 
 right good one, an out and outer, a true blue, but he's 
 a lifer, if he lives to see the Judge," and, the burly 
 policeman sighed "Transportation!" 
 
 For, the stout sergeant well knew that Strong's San 
 Francisco data, and Mr. Frederick Wyman's cowardly 
 anonymous letter had enabled them to at last secretly trap 
 the head of the great international forgery conspiracy. 
 Even at this very moment the associates of Hooper, drifting 
 unwarned into "Compton's, " and the lodging-house, were 
 being one by one apprehended. Mr. Tony Morani had 
 well earned the gold paid him by Mr. Hooper's traitor 
 partner in crime. And the coward Wyman had done his 
 work only too well ! 
 
 "Mr. Otis, I will trust to you," whispered Vinnie of 
 the cry in' eyes. " ' ' You are talking to Vinnie Hinton . My 
 name has long been notorious on the Pacific coast." 
 
 Jack glanced quickly at Hope Devereux. Vinnie's eyes 
 followed his. 
 
 " That, is why I speak plainly! I would sooner die than 
 hurt a hair of that dear girl's head. She is a pearl, if 
 there is one under the dark waters of life. You'll make 
 no mistake," she smiled sadly. " I had to keep my eyes 
 on her. I feared that California millionaire, Wyman, 
 this girl's apparent patron. He was the only man whom 
 I thought could have given us away. But, this blow has 
 fallen suddenly, strangely. He is out in California. I 
 only watched Miss Lyndon in a friendly way, to be able to 
 safely change our location, when Wyman came out hereto 
 marry the millionaire Buford's girl." 
 
 " See here," said Jack, earnestly. " I do believe and 
 trust you. I am not here to sit in judgment on you. 
 
432 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 I will help you as I would any American woman alone in 
 distress here. Had this Wyman any reason to hate you? " 
 he asked, seriously. 
 
 "He feared me, and ' her head was bowed. "Jimmy 
 took me away from him! " 
 
 " I suppose he really wanted to get rid of you, and then 
 denounced you by telegraph or letter. You can't tell me 
 Wyman's wiles. I happen to know he's a scoundrel." 
 
 " Now, whatever Osgood has been mixed up in, his 
 last words to you were to keep silent, and, he has tried to 
 shield you. Now, we will both stay here till I know you 
 are in no immediate danger. I'll do anything I can for 
 you, and, I will go and see Osgood in prison. They 
 wouldn't let you, but I will give him any message or 
 letter that you give to me. I can reach Scotland Yard, 
 strangely, by a happy accident." 
 
 " God bless you," the humbled woman cried. "See 
 here! I only want you not to forget to tell him that I'll 
 make myself his widow! I've got money hidden away of 
 my own, no matter how I got it. It's mine! I'll follow 
 him, and I know that money will soften even a 'lifer's' 
 lot, in time." Her eyes flashed, and her carven breast 
 heaved. 
 
 Jack Otis gazed at her, in a frank admiration. He 
 sighed, ' ' you have too good a heart to have drifted along 
 in such troubled waters." 
 
 "Never mind the past! " said Vinnie. "I'll stand by 
 Jimmie Hooper tp the last, for old times' sake, and, because 
 he showed the game man, under fire. Poor old Jimmie! " 
 
 Before Otis led Hope Devereux away, he had agreed 
 upon a rendezvous with Vinnie for the morning. * ' You 
 will telegraph to me for counsel, if you, too, should be 
 arrested," said Otis. 
 
 "I will also see that you are warned, sir," said the 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEN PARTY. 433 
 
 sergeant, < < if you will give me your personal card. This 
 lady shall have all her legal rights, besides." The good 
 fellow fancied that the beauty of the " half-cryin' eyes," 
 was the victim of an ex-convict's matrimonial wiles. 
 
 When the startled lovers reached Hope Devereux's house 
 the papers were already announcing the arrest of the noted 
 Yankee forger, James Walter Hooper! There was much 
 particularity but no word was written to the international 
 forgeries. 
 
 "I must see Strong at once," Otis anxiously whispered 
 to Hope Devereux, as he gave her the evening journals at 
 her door. ' Wait for us. This arrest of Hooper is im- 
 portant. There is something hidden under all this which 
 deeply affects your future life. It is a strange mystery! " 
 
 It seemed almost incredible, that such currents should 
 waft Hope Devereux, here and there, on their troubled 
 waters, with no stain on her past life. "What is the 
 hidden history of her girlhood?" mused Jack as he 
 hastened away to Strong's hotel. But, two dear shining 
 eyes repeated their silent promise, "Wait in hope! All 
 will be well," and so he abided, strong in the faith builded 
 by a love now past all bounds. 
 
 Mrs. Milly Hammond sat astounded in her rooms when 
 her eyes fell upon the glaring headlines telling of Hooper's 
 arrest. "Shall I send for Strong? No!" she quickly 
 decided, and with a woman's interest for a lover, who 
 might yet be a sheet-anchor in days of storm, she penned 
 a cablegram to Mr. Frederick Wyman, at San Francisco. I 
 think that some way Strong is behind this. I know he 
 hates Wyman. And besides, he is useless to me. He has 
 no money! " She grimly smiled, and then wrote the fate- 
 ful lines: 
 
 " Hooper, the fugitive broker arrested to-day here for 
 forgery. A woman with him. Probably Vinnie H., 
 
434 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Waldo Strong here on secret business. Look out. What 
 does it mean?" Her signature "Milly," would be a key- 
 note to arouse him. 
 
 It did so arouse Mr. Frederick Wyman, who was raging 
 next morning at San Francisco, that he saw at last the 
 reason of the filing of the contest at Virginia City as well 
 as the bringing forward of an heiress of the murdered 
 Devereux. 
 
 A savage dispatch from General Hiram Buford, too, 
 notified him that the bank had publicly retired from all 
 connection with the ''Lone Star." 
 
 Wyman's first move was to cable to General Buford 
 begging him to return to San Francisco. "All depends 
 on you. Family interests saved if you come. Your per- 
 sonal interests largely increased. Victory easily in our 
 power! I assume all expenses." So the desperate game- 
 ster dispatched. 
 
 The -evening train saw Mr. Tony Morani on his way 
 back to London. As the master pressed the Frenchman's 
 hand in parting he said, "Remember, not a single word 
 unless Strong has visited Hooper in prison. If Hooper 
 will only keep his mouth shut, I will settle up everything 
 here, if he stands square. He won't be tried for a month 
 or so, till the proofs go on from here. I will watch over 
 all, and if there's nothing else against him, I can pull him 
 out. As for Vinnie, my letter will fix her all right, and 
 you can tell her, too, to spare no money." 
 
 Mr. Antoine Morani smiled, as his master's form was lost 
 to sight. " I have you now in my power," he grinned as 
 he thought of a happy reunion with his bright-eyed little 
 Parisienne. 
 
 But, the blackening clouds had burst in the great storm 
 upon Mr. Frederick Wyman's house built upon the sand. 
 He sprang, revolver in hand, from his bed, in alarm, as a 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEN PARTY. 435 
 
 belated dispatch was handed to him that very night. It 
 was from his great legal "battery" in Virginia City. The 
 winds were pregnant of a coming day of doom. 
 
 "Buford is my only hope now," he cried, "I must get 
 him to come here and square the judge," for a tempo- 
 rary legal injunction had been granted, which tied up the 
 whole stock and the priceless mine, until the Devereux 
 Estate hearing and the contest upon the patent had been 
 decided. 
 
 "It is this scoundrel Strong, who is behind this," raved 
 Wyman. Then, with a sudden sinking of the heart, he saw 
 the hidden source of the deadly enmity. " It's that damned 
 white-faced singing girl," he cried. "Miss Gladys Lyn- 
 don, she has been my ruin." 
 
 He had aged ten years in appearance, when one single 
 gleam of hope broke through the clouds in General 
 Buford's answering dispatch. It contained a few words of 
 hope. "Coming. Sail to-morrow. Stand firm." 
 
 "Ah!" sneered Wyman, " the General will fight like a 
 rat for his own pocket, and to save his daughter's name. 
 That marriage alone, will save me now!" and the nobleman 
 of Nature then expended a few golden twenties in words 
 which warmed the cable in their perfunctory tenderness. 
 They were directly addressed to Miss Minnie Buford, and 
 were the first sincere expressions of his troubled heart, for 
 the maiden was now his chosen Joan of Arc to drive forth 
 the enemies from his imperiled kingdom of the "Lone 
 Star." 
 
 " But, where in the devil did they scrape up the heiress 
 of Devereux?" Wyman sought an answer to this question 
 in the stars for many weary nights, but, the unpitying stars 
 were silent as they swung over Devereux's lonely grave. 
 
 Jack Otis found the Californian lawyer pacing his 
 rooms iu excitement, 
 
436 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 'Just the man I wanted," cried Strong. I am going to 
 see Hooper at Newgate, to-morrow, as I must get away to 
 California at once to protect the bank's interests, and crip- 
 ple Wyman. I do not wish him to have a chance to get 
 outside of American jurisdiction. Tell me all! " 
 
 When the Bostoniau had described the events of the 
 garden party, Strong said: 
 
 "Now I have all my points! A profound quiet is be- 
 ing kept for a week about the international forgeries. 
 The police wish to apprehend the scattered members of the 
 band of forgers on the Continent who have aided in these 
 great London frauds. Hooper only thinks that he has the 
 Californian matters before him. He may make a clean 
 breast to me! An American prison is a paradise compared 
 to English transportation. Now, if the authorities here 
 cripple and scatter the smartest band of swindlers in 
 Europe, they will give us Hooper. I wish to obtain his 
 confidence and get a clean breast as to the Wyman mat- 
 ter. His deposition before arraignment, is still admissible 
 in all our courts." 
 
 "I must see him with you," slowly said Otis. " That 
 woman loves him madly, and she wishes me to bear him a 
 message. Will you see her? " 
 
 "No," said the lawyer, after cogitation. " Vinnie Hin- 
 ton might warn Wyman. She will be watched, they tell 
 me, but not arrested. You can tell her she may as well 
 leave England. She can do nothing for Hooper. When 
 do you see her? " 
 
 "To-morrow, as early as I can reach Chiswick," said 
 Otis, "and I must see Hooper to-morrow." Rethought 
 of the lonely woman in the villa, fighting against fate to 
 soften her lover's hard future life. 
 
 "I don't see how it can be done," regretfully replied 
 Strong. " Now, if you were only a lawyer! " 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEN PARTY. 437 
 
 Jack Otis smiled. *'I was an humble light of Cam- 
 bridge Law School, and I have here both the sheepskins 
 of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, and of the highest 
 court of the United States! My mother's estate and my 
 own business have kept me out of public practice. I have 
 just money enough to rob me of the ambition to scrape up 
 dollars." 
 
 "So, architecture is then only a fad? " smiled Strong. 
 
 " One of my fads," Jack replied. " I intended to write 
 a book on that very subject. Most people now seem to 
 feel the internal summons to write to write something 
 or another. There is a vague expectation that we men of 
 University training will do something. Politics is a dirty 
 pool! We have no American civil or foreign device of 
 any continuity. I never liked the army or navy, as a mere 
 profession of elegant leisure. The church or medicine 
 never tempted me. I am neither fit to cure souls nor bodies! 
 I admire the beautiful theory of the law. The practice 
 of the profession in America is too often only a matching 
 of questionable expedients. So, the book, the book, has 
 loomed up, but there is absolutely no protection for an in- 
 dignant public against the book craze, so, I threatened to 
 write a book." 
 
 "Unfortunately, you are right," dryly said Strong. 
 "Now, shake off this drowsy sloth, death's counterfeit. 
 You will come to me with your sheepskins. Their exhi- 
 bition will qualify you. Technically, I'll ask Hooper to 
 send for you. You can then have a half hour with him, 
 and thus fulfill your generous purpose. Get back to the 
 warden's office at Newgate as soon as you can." 
 
 It was a happy thought which caused Otis to send his 
 man at once to Chiswick, with a warning letter to Mrs. 
 Hailey Osgood. 
 
 "My man is faithful. He will stay a day or so 
 
438 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 with you. You can trust him in anything," Otis wrote, 
 for Strong had told him of the possible vital importance of 
 Hooper's confession to the interests of Miss Hope Dev- 
 ereux. 
 
 * ' You can get some valuable material for your book in 
 considering the substantial construction of Newgate," 
 laughed Strong, "but I presume you will now abandon 
 architecture, for a time at least." 
 
 The hands of the two men met in a kindly grasp as they 
 said " Good-night." It was years before Otis understood 
 the secret of the manly self-surrender of the grave-faced 
 counselor. 
 
 Flashing eyed, tearless and coldly proud, Mrs. Hailey 
 Osgood had dismissed all her retinue, save her devoted 
 maid and one man. On the next morning, the house was 
 being dismantled and the sound of workmen packing and 
 casing the splendors of her home was heard, as Jack Otis 
 rosy and alert, received her last instructions. 
 
 " I'll keep your man with me," she said. "Now, if you 
 will only give poor Jimmy this letter. If you will only tell 
 him, that if it's ten years and all around the world, in his 
 saddest lonely hours to remember I am as near him as 
 money and love can bring me! I will be there, working, 
 watching and waiting, that is if I am alive. I'll find my 
 way to him, past all those bolts and bars! " 
 
 "I will come back to you the instant I am free," cried 
 Jack Otis, with a gleam of admiration at the dauntless 
 adventuress. "Wasted wine of life," he mused as he 
 drove to the river steamer. < ' What a woman if she had 
 only gone the right way!" And, he never paused to ask 
 himself if the lonely pariah of loveliness had ever been left 
 free to choose the right path! Whether man's cold 
 brutality had not dragged her down, or whether she was 
 only one of those marvels of nature's handiwork, which are 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEN PARTY. 439 
 
 doomed to be the collective property of all men of means 
 and vicious leisure. 
 
 Jack Otis started as the gloomy doors of the Newgate 
 corrider clanged behind him. 
 
 It was eleven o'clock, and Strong had hastily whispered, 
 "He knows now, who Hope Devereux is! Make notes of 
 what he voluntarily tells you as to the * Lone Star ' mine. 
 He knows nothing as yet, of the real cause of his arrest." 
 
 Jack Otis had a list of a dozen prominent London 
 barristers, solicitors and attorneys. His precaution was 
 useless, for when James Walter Hooper rose from his 
 coarse truckle bed within a six by ten stone cell where 
 one window only lit up a Bible and a copy of the prison 
 regulations, he said hoarsely as he grasped Otis' hands, 
 " You come to me from her. Moments are now precious. 
 You only have half an hour. Did you bring your note- 
 book? 
 
 Jack produced writing materials and then handed him 
 the letter, which the forger read greedily. The Bos- 
 tonian studied him as he stood in a corner, veiled from the 
 wicket opening. Great rings encircled the criminal's eyes, 
 in which, there now gleamed all the desperation of a hungry 
 wolf. 
 
 He handed the letter back. In the presence of the 
 American, he had covered it with kisses. "Take it back 
 to her. They would soon search me and take it away 
 from me. But, it is safe in my soul. God bless her, my 
 poor Vinnie! Tell her my heart, my life, my very soul went 
 out in these kisses where her hand has rested. That's 
 all!" 
 
 "Now write! I will dictate." And, to Jack Otis' as- 
 tonishment, Hooper named an attorney of national repu- 
 tation, and gave some simple directions as to his house 
 affairs, and as to her future course. "I have powerful 
 
440 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 friends," he whispered. "Now a single leaf of your 
 note-book." In ten minutes he gave to the wondering 
 Yankee a missive covered with strange figures and charac- 
 ters, unknown to ordinary correspondence. ' ' Now ! To 
 a man who is dead to the world, you can render the last 
 service due to the dead the living dead," sadly said the 
 forger. He leaned over to the Bostonian. "Get back to 
 her the very first instant you can! Our salvation depends 
 on it. Tell her to do what I have written, and instantly 
 get out of London, over the Channel this very night. It 
 may soon be too late. Then I will be able to sleep. I 
 only care for her now. Then I can face the future! But, 
 let her foot not linger a single moment. Leave all the 
 house trash, tell her, with any honest agent. It's all 
 bought in her own name, her very own. For God's sake, 
 go! And, to my dying day I'll love your brave name! 
 I'll cherish your manly face. Will you do this for me?" 
 
 Otis gazed at this villain transfigured by love. "You 
 love her? " he murmured. 
 
 "To the death, in life and death, in hell itself! Tell 
 her so! Tell her it was my -last spoken word." 
 
 As Otis grasped his hands and murmured, "I am sorry 
 for you," Hooper whispered: 
 
 * * Tell Hope Devereux that I have given Strong the whole 
 history of the false deed. He will have my legal deposi- 
 tion before you get back to Chiswick, and tell her also, to 
 remember that I was poor and desperate. I did not know 
 that I was robbing a helpless, orphaned child; but Wyman, 
 the scoundrel traitor, did, and thought to screen himself 
 behind me. The man was really dead when I signed the 
 name. There was then no such man, but the devil, Wyman, 
 uttered the deed, and traded on the dead man's name. 
 He recorded it, and for him, there is a heavier punish- 
 ment even than for me. As for the other deeds of my 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEX PARTY. 441 
 
 past life, that history of folly and crime I will have to 
 answer for, alone." 
 
 "Otis," said Hooper, "tell Miss Devereux that a convict's 
 contrite blessing will not harm her. Make her your wife. 
 For God's sake, remember always that she is a loving 
 woman, life and passion throbbing in her veins; not a 
 mere machine, to answer to your touch. Give her of your 
 best. Be true to her, and you'll have the best that lies 
 in her heart and soul. I'll trust a woman who loves me; 
 trust her to the death, without her oath or promise, far- 
 ther than any one bound down by cold orders! Look at 
 Vinnie, true in trouble! Tell her I trust her to the very 
 death; that I know, love will find the way! " 
 
 Jack Otis was misty-eyed as he wandered away down 
 the narrow, dark corridor where rude crosses, scratched 
 with a nail on the whitewashed wall, told of the men lying 
 there under the cold flagstones, whose last glance on high 
 had seen the black flag waving over the gloomy stone 
 tower of Newgate, and on whose faces, Mr. Calcraft's eyes 
 had rested last in perfect professional coolness, as he 
 wafted them out to the dark unknown, to lie later in the 
 burial corridor. 
 
 " I'm going to Chiswick," gasped Jack Otis, as he led 
 Strong out from under the shadow of the chilling New- 
 gate walls. " He has frankly owned up all to me, all about 
 the Truckee forgery." 
 
 "See here!" said Strong, "you must get back then to 
 my rooms as soon as you can, and also have Miss Dev- 
 ereux surely await us to-night. I must leave to-morrow 
 morning, for the slyboots, Mrs. Hammond, left suddenly 
 to-day for America. If I mistake not, she may try to 
 warn and help Wyman. That woman is a far different 
 being from what her social sign-post holds out. " 
 
 "By heavens! " said Strong looking at his time-tables, 
 
442 MiSS DEVEliEUX OF THE MAKIQUlTA, 
 
 " if I take the midnight train at Euston Square, I can get 
 on the very same boat with her." 
 
 * ' The British public will have to be disappointed then, 
 Strong," said Jack, "for, Miss Gladys Lyndon was to 
 sing as usual to-night. It is the regular concert day." 
 
 " It will only teach them to bear it all the better, in 
 future," good-humoredly said the lawyer, as he turned 
 back to get the deposition of Hooper duly executed on the 
 records before the felon taint attached to him, for 
 the whole miserable truth was now laid bare, and Frederick 
 Wyman was at lact, at the mercy of his relentless foe! 
 
 The steamer " Broad Arrow " was not quick enough for 
 Jack Otis. He chafed vainly as the little boat seemed to 
 dally at every landing, from Blackfriars along to Chis- 
 wick, but, he was not long delayed at the Hailey Osgood 
 villa. The house was closed, and his own man opened 
 the door. He had kept his horses in waiting. 
 
 By a presentiment of urgent affairs, Mrs. Hailey Osgood 
 was ready for instant action. Without a word, Otis drew 
 her into a little reception room and then closed the door. 
 She was dressed for travel, and her alert maid, similarly 
 accoutred, sat in the hall with a heavy traveling case, 
 bearing ear-marks of Chubb' s hideous ingenuity. 
 
 * ' Will you act for me in the proper closing up of 
 this house? I go on to Ostend to-night," cried Vinnie 
 Hinton, her cheeks very pale. Her hands trembled as 
 she thrust the two letters back in her bosom. "Come! 
 We can talk on the way," for, Jack had answered with a 
 nod. 
 
 Without turning her head, Mrs. Hailey Osgood walked 
 out of the house w r here her purest social triumphs had so 
 disarmed her, and where she had sadly found out that "the 
 dazzling luck was too good to last." "I'll send my own 
 maid back with tidings, from Dover," the 
 
443 
 
 woman said. "Let her attend then to all. She is 
 honest. Give me your own movements for the evening, 
 and remember that I may have to telegraph to you or Miss 
 Devereux. I will have something of importance also to com- 
 municate to her." The horses were now racing swiftly 
 toward the landing. 
 
 As the steamer sped down the river, Vinnie Hinton 
 said : ' ' You had better leave me at Westminster. I go 
 on farther." She spoke through the double folds of an 
 ash of rose veil, which hid the "half cryin' eyes" from the 
 curious. "Ask Miss Devereux to wait at home until I 
 come, at her own house. I will surprise her. It is im- 
 perative! " 
 
 Otis bowed his head and then, wondered where the 
 fugitive woman had learned of Gladys Lyndon's secret. 
 Ah! the cipher letter of her imprisoned lover. So he 
 promised to obey, and whispered, "I will be there also, 
 so, I shall surely see you again." 
 
 There was a grateful flash of her bright brave eyes 
 through the veil as the boat dove into the floating brown 
 shadows of the Parliament Houses. " If I only dared to, I 
 would say < God bless you both,' but I dare not." Her 
 tears were falling. Vinnie Hinton regretfully saw the past 
 for a moment as when she was unstained. 
 
 "One last favor. Will you keep these till I come? 
 my jewels," she sobbed in a voice of mingled shame and 
 sorrow. And so, she was whirled away with her throb- 
 bing burdens of head and heart, of vanished hopes, of 
 present fears, of saddest memories. 
 
 The Bostonian stood on the landing, his heart strangely 
 moved as the boat sped down the river. She was borne 
 away alone out on the troubled waters of a new life of 
 stormy adventure. In some strange vague way, he felt 
 the pity that thrills when a beautiful flower lies trodden 
 
444 MISS DEVEKEUX OF THE WARIQUITA. 
 
 down in the mire under the hurrying feet of the passing 
 crowd. Borne down, borne far away from the harbor 
 light, out into the stormy sea of passion, alone, out on 
 life's dark ocean once more, and driving along, whither? 
 
 He had not answered that question when he entered 
 gentle Hope Devereux's home with the sin won jewels 
 of the vanished Phryne still in his keeping. 
 
 The narration of the day' s doings was at last all over, and 
 Hope Devereux, with shaded eyes, had listened to Jack 
 Otis, who was the bearer of the grave tidings sent by Waldo 
 Strong. The girl' s face was strangely pale. She was robed 
 to-day in white, and the only fleck of color she showed, was 
 a bright knot of roses on her moulded breast, culled from 
 the morning offering of the "architectural student." The 
 tinge of a faint color on her pale cheeks deepened, as she 
 fixed her earnest eyes on the tell-tale face of her lover. 
 There was a strange brooding fondness in her glance, as 
 if a past wrong was to be atoned! In the room no 
 sound was heard save the hollow ticking of a hidden 
 clock. Something seemed to press upon their hearts! 
 
 "It is beyond all doubt, then, that this valuable 
 property will come down to me from my dear parents, 
 the fruit of my father's wasted years of privation, the 
 reward of my mother's patient suffering? That this man 
 has no shadow of an honest claim to my strange birth- 
 right?" Her voice trembled, in its wistful eagerness. 
 
 "It seems to be so, beyond any possibility of failure," 
 gravely replied her watching lover. ' * Mr. Strong tells me 
 also that the San Francisco bank has telegraphed back 
 their own lawyers' opinion, that the title is absolutely 
 vested now in you, to three-quarters of a property which is 
 worth to-day, several millions. It seems like a dream, a 
 fairy tale, but it is, thank God, true, and, this Wyman 
 also stands hugely in your debt, for back unpaid profits." 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD 7 S GARDEN PARTY. 445 
 
 The girl shuddered. " I care not for him! I only pray 
 God never to see him again. Listen," and a wondrous 
 sweet smile then stole over her face, as her dreaming eyes 
 were downcast. "I can now, tell vou the innocent secret 
 of my girlhood. " 
 
 "The death of my dear faithful mother, following the 
 disappearance of my murdered father, left me to the kind 
 friendship alone of poor old manager McCabe, who was 
 attached to a small San Francisco theater. He placed me 
 in the Visitation convent. His sudden death made me there, 
 simply a charity scholar, for, his wife, who lives yet, thank 
 God, to share my good fortune, was too poor to help me, a 
 defenseless child, further." There were bright tears of 
 gratitude falling now from her shaded eyes. They fell 
 upon Mr. Jack Otis' bronzed palms, for, he was kneeling now 
 before her, and, he was kissing the little white hands which 
 lay so confidingly in his own. 
 
 The story of her helpless childhood, the orphan's blank, 
 unloved girlhood, was told in her loving, hesitating words. 
 "God bless the dear sisters! It was the only return I 
 could make them when I left the shelter of the dear old 
 convent to promise them not to use my own name, in a 
 public life, for, I dreamed of a future success upon the 
 boards. I owed my humble story to no one. Mrs. 
 McCabe has always known my every movement. The dear 
 Sisters, too. But, they are always mute, the world drifts 
 by them unheeded." 
 
 Jack Otis' breast was heaving in a tempest of wild 
 emotions. 
 
 "When I received Mrs. Hammond's seemingly generous 
 offer of aid to come abroad, I eagerly embraced it. The 
 path only seemed to lead out to fame, to honor, to action, 
 and, to an honestly earned fortune. It was only in Paris 
 in Paris " the sobbing girl faltered, " that I knew at 
 
 G G 2 
 
446 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 last her apparent kindness, was only the mask of another's 
 basest motives. I could not tell youthen! I had no right 
 to appeal to you. Every woman has to make that fight 
 alone! But here, I am under my own little roof. You 
 know my daily life, and you alone, have the right to know 
 that I would not tell the history of my childhood's sorrows 
 to those who might not care to know. I could not tell 
 them how a mother died in a hospital alone, broken down 
 in grief, withering slowly in that horrible suspense, the 
 living death of my father's strange vanishing, and bowed 
 down with struggling to keep her little one from eating the 
 bitter bread of charity." 
 
 Hope Devereux's fair head was bent in sorrow. The 
 silence of that room was unbroken, and yet, to Otis it 
 seemed that some heavenly spirit of peace hovered in love 
 near them, for on his breast, " her head like some over- 
 wearied dove, came fluttering down to rest. " 
 
 She lifted her lovely face to gaze in his eyes, and 
 whispered, " That is my poor little life history, Jack! 
 You know the rest ! " 
 
 His strong arms were around her as he said, "You 
 knew my own dearest one I loved you madly all the while! 
 That I only waited but the moment when it was fair to 
 speak to you, when your success would have placed you 
 as far above me as you are now; when you could stoop 
 to conquer, for, in all those days, Gladys, you were my 
 Hope." He smiled. 
 
 1 1 1 wanted to have something more than myself to give 
 you! I wished to bring you a name, one worthy to mate 
 with your own," the happiest woman in London smiled, 
 looking up, in his arms. 
 
 "My own darling," cried Jack, "I will take away both 
 of your names and give you mine for life, and, my love to 
 eternity." The fair head was lifted from his breast. 
 
MRS. HAILEY OSGOOD'S GARDEN PARTY. 44*7 
 
 "I must say something to you, sir," she said, with a 
 last flash of returning womanly spirit. " I would have 
 spoken to you before, but, I did not wish Mr. Strong to 
 know of it. He told me I could have any money I wished! 
 I wrote to the bank in Paris to pay my debt of two 
 thousand dollars, for I had already one thousand of it 
 saved up. Do you know what they wrote me back, sir?" 
 
 Jack Otis' face was crimson as he answered "No," 
 another whopper! 
 
 Rosy fingers extracted a little billet from her bosom. 
 < Read that ! " triumphantly said the singer, as her spark- 
 ling eyes met his in a tender, witching, gleam. 
 
 The formal words were definite enough. "In reply to 
 yours, we beg leave to say that your agent, Mr. John 
 Wayne Otis, paid us on his first and only visit, the whole 
 sum of your indebtedness in cash, taking a receipt in your 
 name. You, therefore, are not in our debt! " There was 
 a brooding silence, but, he could feel her gentle heart beat 
 against his own. 
 
 "When will you marry me?" said Jack Otis, now facing 
 the ordeal of his life, with the very utmost unconcern. 
 
 Miss Hope Deveretix deliberately replaced the little doc- 
 ument in its mysterious hiding place. "Not until I have 
 paid you back that two thousand dollars," she softly said, 
 as her dreaming eyes met her lover's. "Then, I will know 
 and feel that I am indeed i Miss Devereux of the Mari- 
 quita.'" 
 
 And the gentleman from Boston was fain to be content 
 with the loving woman's gentle little subterfuge, for, as yet, 
 the fortune buried far away under the stony bosom of 
 Mount Davidson seemed to her to be only fairy gold! 
 
 In the shadows of the evening, a carriage drove up to 
 Miss Gladys Lyndon's door. The whisper of the maid in 
 the hall brought Otis out to the instant reception of the 
 
448 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 anxiously expected visitor. In the parlor, Yinnie Hinton 
 threw aside her shrouding veils and showed to them 
 a face as pale as marble, with two eyes glowing there, as 
 coals of steady blown tire. 
 
 "I have but a few moments! I am watched, followed. 
 Miss Devereux," cried the queen of light loves, ''here is a 
 packet of invaluable papers. They are yours alone! My 
 gift in contrite sorrow. They are the papers which were 
 taken from your father's dead body, for, Jim Hooper 
 learned from Andy Bowen that he had given all Steven 
 Berard's papers to this mean scoundrel, Wyman. Hooper 
 wanted an invincible hold on Wyman. I stole them from 
 Wyman myself, one time when he had drank too much 
 wine! I gave them to Jimmy. Wyman raged. He 
 feared to advertise for them. He never suspected me, 
 but, Jimmy was always afraid of him." 
 
 " You can thank only Mr. Otis for them. His manly 
 kindness to Hooper is the cause of this last visit. His 
 bringing me Hooper's message has saved all there is left 
 in life for me. I leave England forever to-night! I shall 
 never see you again, but, I shall hear of you. I have 
 sacredly promised myself to know in future years how 
 happy you are, as the wife of a man who so nobly stooped 
 to help the friendless." 
 
 She took the girl's hands in hers and then kissed them 
 dumbly. A little packet was pressed in the rosy palm of 
 the astonished girl. And then, she vanished as a flitting 
 shade of the night! 
 
 When Jack Otis returned from the sidewalk, the clang 
 of a carriage door and the rattle of wheels told that the 
 desperate woman was already on her way to where free- 
 dom lay in Belgium, far beyond the tossing Channel foam. 
 
 Mr. John Wayne Otis was debating in his mind the 
 legal morality of his actions of the day, as he returned with 
 
449 
 
 clouded eyes, for he locked up one secret of a life in his 
 breast. Vinnie Hinton had whispered as he gave back to 
 her the case of jewels: " Everything is safe! By to-morrow, 
 I will be out of England, and the price of his future liberty 
 too, is far beyond the control of the police." 
 
 " Promise me! " Jack had whispered, " you are too good 
 for the fate before you. Hooper has a wonderful real 
 ability, if he ever escapes 
 
 "I will lead a new life, so help me God," the sobbing 
 woman cried, "for, the cup of sin is bitter enough. I 
 have sworn to die or free him, and, I will!" 
 
 Jack Otis thought in amazement of the last flash of her 
 burning eyes, when six months later, far away, he learned 
 that Convict Hooper, "a lifer, "had, very strangely, fallen 
 overboard in the harbor of Ceylon, and there drowned, 
 or else his body was devoured probably by sharks, for, his 
 remains were not recovered. 
 
 It was on the shaded lawns of his old home by the 
 Charles in future happy days that a scrawl, " All right 
 now. We have not forgotten your advice! " reached him. 
 It had been mailed at Athens, under a double cover. The 
 signature of "Mrs. Hailey Osgood," recalled to him that 
 the great continental band of bank swindlers had been 
 later proved to have had extensive and influential cor- 
 respondents in all parts of the financial world. 
 
 "By Heavens! She is a brave one, is Vinnie! She 
 bought her way to him and then, unlocked his fetters 
 with a golden key," he correctly divined. 
 
 Miss Hope Devereux was standing waiting in her draw- 
 ing room as her lover entered it and a strange wonder 
 filled her eyes. In her hands the little packet of the de- 
 parting fugitive lay opened. A matchless ruby ring whose 
 pigeon blood flush filled the whole, room with its waves of 
 warm red light, lay there. Twisted around it, was a little 
 
450 MISS DEVEREUX OP THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 bit of parchment. The words, too, were strange, "It be- 
 longed to a great Empress once! Don't fear to take it! 
 I bought it myself with honest money, the fruit of the one 
 fortunate investment I ever made in stocks." It was the 
 thank offering of the vanished beauty with the half cry- 
 in' eyes!" 
 
 It was ten o'clock that night, when Counselor Waldo 
 Strong bade adieu to his beautiful client. ' ' There is noth- 
 ing more for you to do now, Miss Hope," he said, " but 
 to await my safe arrival in Virginia City. Of course, 
 Wyman will soon know that Hooper has ' peached ' in full 
 as regarded the false deed to the 'Mariquita.' This Hooper 
 is a singular fellow, and evidently has always feared some 
 sudden betrayal. He has called in one of the greatest Eng- 
 lish criminal lawyers, and one of their clerks was present 
 when Hooper's voluntary deposition was taken as to the 
 Truckee affair. The consent of his attorney and the Crown, 
 gives us all the more credit, in using that evidence. I fancy 
 that Hooper has hoarded away in some safe retreat on the 
 continent, his share of the profits of these great bank 
 forgeries. If I mistake not, Jim the Penman was the only 
 head man within the danger line here, and the powerful 
 gang of intelligent European criminals interested will help 
 him out, if they can. He told me to say to you, that every- 
 thing was all right. You are to see his lawyer and tell him 
 any news about Vinnie that you wish to reach Hooper. It 
 leaves you now, free to watch over Miss Devereux. I have 
 all the papers, and all the authority I need. My only fear 
 is that Wyman may discover your identity. He is or will 
 be soon, desperate! I do not wish you to come on to Vir- 
 ginia City and be exposed there, to his possible schemes, 
 without adequate protection." 
 
 Strong's face was twitching in some hidden storm of 
 feelings. " Your safest course is just now, to remain here 
 
MBS. HAILEY OSGOOD's GARDEN PARTY. 451 
 
 under your stage name and to continue your engagement! 
 I intend to bring criminal proceedings at once, against 
 Frederick Wyman. I will cable to you of his arrest. In 
 the meanwhile, Mr. Otis must be responsible for your daily 
 safety here. I forgot to say that I will cable to you de- 
 cisive news from New York, as I have instructed my asso- 
 ciate to report to me by wire there. There is nothing else. 
 I will have five days leeway, before the cases are called, 
 unless, some steamer accident should delay me." 
 
 " Once that he is safely under arrest, then, you must 
 come West at once. I forgot to say that if you wish any 
 money, Miss Devereux, the Anglo-Californian bank here 
 will honor your check to any reasonable amount. Don't be 
 afraid to call on them." 
 
 Jack Otis was astounded when Miss Hope Devereux then 
 resolutely said with a most determined glance at him, " I 
 wished very much to use a large sum of money at once, 
 Mr. Strong. I had intended to speak to you of this matter, 
 but, all seems so like a dream to me, and your departure is so 
 sudden." 
 
 "Is it a very large sum?" anxiously demanded Waldo 
 Strong. " I could give you my own check here! The 
 bank will pay it, and I will telegraph them from the sta- 
 tion. I would like to arrange it, if I can." 
 
 "It is a very larye sum, " said "Miss Devereux of the 
 Mariquita," as the lawyer and Otis exchanged startled 
 glances. The young heiress of Mount Davidson's millions 
 was already a spendthrift in thought. < ' Two thousand 
 dollars," she solemnly said with a frightened air, as she 
 turned her eyes resolutely away from the Bostonian, who 
 had started laughingly up, in eager protest. 
 
 "I can write you a check for that, very easily," smiled 
 the lawyer as he called for pen and ink. " Now, Miss 
 Devereux," he explained, "You must write your name 
 across the back, < Hope Devereux,' when you cash it." 
 
452 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 A trembling hand on which a great pigeon blood ruby 
 shone in fiery splendor traced that name which she was 
 fated to use in this way but once, in her life! 
 
 ''There, sir! " she cried triumphantly to John Wayne 
 Otis. He stood, his heart leaping up in a sudden joy, as 
 Miss Devereux of the Mariquita said to her lawyer. 
 " When you write to me from New York, you can address 
 your letters to ." 
 
 "Mrs. John Wayne Otis, at this same residence" cried 
 Jack. 
 
 " I have no further fears, then, for your personal safety, 
 God bless you both!" said the disciple of Blackstone,as he 
 went out alone into the night. 
 
 Before he had lost sight of Fastnet light, Counselor 
 Strong replied to a very hearty telegram which the tender 
 brought aboard at Queenstown. Its words were few, but, 
 they closed the pages of one of life's books to him forever! 
 
 "Married yesterday. Your full control of all Califor- 
 nia and Nevada affairs remains unchanged." 
 
 The signature told him of a new defiance to the powers 
 of fate and the storms of life, in the union of two loving 
 hearts, for there was no longer any such legal entity as 
 Miss Devereux, of the Mariquita. She was but a sweet, 
 provoking shadow of the past! 
 
 It was to Mr. and Mrs. John "Wayne Otis that the law- 
 yer's congratulations were dispatched, and the good ship 
 bore him out on the heaving deep, his heart lonely and 
 sorrowing, yet, filled with the consciousness of duty well 
 done. " It is hard to look at happiness, through another 
 man's eyes." 
 
 "There is something yet, awaiting me," thought Waldo 
 Strong. " It's to avenge outraged justice, to strip the 
 mask from this scoundrel's face, to revenge the innocent 
 blood shed in the man trap at Willows Cross Roads, and 
 
MES. HAILEY OSGOOD's GABDEN PAETY. 453 
 
 to fathom the dark mystery of the ' Lone Star' shaft. " Look- 
 ing back over the darkening waves, to where Fastnet light 
 gleamed out in the gathering gloom, he buried the one 
 love of a life, in the last sigh which he devoted to the 
 memory of the past. 
 
 " God bless you, my own darling! " he murmured, and 
 then, the peace of the brooding night entered the soul of the 
 lonely man, and wrapped him in-a mantle of happy dreams. 
 
454 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 
 
 < ' There is one thing which I had not thought of, dear- 
 est," said Mr. John Wayne Otis, as he presided with an 
 exaggerated sense of "the responsibilities he had as- 
 sumed," at a very jolly, if impromptu, wedding dinner. 
 " It seems as if I were stealing you from the public which 
 has after all been your true and faithful friend. Your 
 career, your present engagement," he said, thinking rue- 
 fully of Mr. Ernest Thomas. 
 
 "I have a permanent engagement for life, to sing for 
 you, sir," the bride gaily remarked, " and, you must try to 
 make me forget fame, in your love." 
 
 Her fair head was nestling low on his breast, when he 
 suddenly remembered a little business matter. * ' I cashed 
 your check to-day, to save appearances! It was drawn to 
 the order of Hope Devereux. Will you allow me, Mrs. 
 Otis ?" and, he handed her the firstlings of her recovered 
 inheritance, in a very neat packet of white Bank of England 
 notes. 
 
 " What is this for? " faltered his wife. 
 
 1 'Are you aware," he laughed, ''that we cannot carry 
 on this picnic honeymoon, forever! Mr. Thomas comes 
 here this very evening, to arrange for your reappearance. 
 It is only just, that he should provide in time, for his 
 vacancy. " 
 
 "And, what will you do with me, sir," demanded the 
 girl, who had not yet awakened from the dream which had 
 flushed a sudden life, into her splendid eyes. 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 455 
 
 ' ' I am going to first, show you the dearest old home on 
 the Charles, and, some one waiting to welcome you there. 
 Your new duties to the vast property in dispute will 
 soon take you westward, for, Hope, my darling, I see a 
 shadow floating on the hitherto bright future of the invinc- 
 ible Wyman. I will not risk you out there, till his fate is 
 determined, but, the avenging furies are already on his 
 trail. Depend upon it, Strong will show him no mercy! 
 You cannot. You must not! He will not, and, Wyman 
 is a human wolf, blood thirsty, ravenous, cowardly. You 
 cannot spare him. It would be compounding a felony." 
 
 The sudden arrival of the bustling Mr. Ernest Thomas 
 cut off this serious colloquy. l i Sorry to deprive you of 
 Miss Lyndon," said the genial manager; "but, you know 
 the public interests of the lady are now considerable. I 
 must arrange the programme for to-morrow evening." 
 
 Jack Otis took him kindly by the hand. " Mr. Thomas," 
 he said, " I wish now to thank you for all your generous 
 liberality, the honest family friendship as well, towards 
 my wife, but, as soon as you can find a fitting successor, 
 Mrs. Otis will devote herself, please God, to an extended 
 wedding tour. And, I am sorry for your sake, that it will 
 take her away from the cordial audiences who have honored 
 her with their warm appreciation." 
 
 Thomas gazed into the happy eyes of the great singer 
 now lost to him forever. He threw himself into an arm 
 chair. ' ' There is a fatality which wrecks every plan I 
 make! Good Heavens! What am I saying though?" and 
 the cheery old boy sprang to his feet. 
 
 " I'm sure, you know, I most heartily congratulate you 
 both! Oh! yes, I do!" he said, as an air of comical doubt 
 lingered on the faces of the delighted couple. "You 
 young rascal!" he cried finally, as laughter overcame his 
 managerial sorrows, i ' I will never again admit a wolf in 
 sheep's clothing, into my waiting rooms. " 
 
456 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MAKIQUITA. 
 
 "Ah! You could not help it, Thomas," said Jack Otis, 
 fondly. ' ' It was written in the stars ! I have had but 
 one thought since I met the sweet woman I am robbing 
 you of. It was to give her, in a happy life, a secure home 
 in a husband's love, some return, for passing by the cher- 
 ished laurels. 
 
 "Now, this is so far your secret alone! Your present 
 engagement will not be broken, but, my good friend," he 
 cordially said, "I will assume the whole management of 
 the lady, hereafter.'"' 
 
 " Will your wife continue to sing," said the open-eyed 
 Briton, still astounded. 
 
 "I hope so! I will permit her to sing for you, when 
 you visit us some day, on the Charles; and, always for my- 
 self," maliciously remarked Jack. "Yes, she shall sing 
 in the future, but only under my direction, and in my own 
 immediate vicinity. " 
 
 A compact was soon made which effected the manager's 
 forgiveness. 
 
 "You will take your first dinner in 'the state to which 
 it has pleased God to call you,' at my house? " 
 
 ' ' I certainly owe you that, in return for all your true 
 kindness," smilingly said the happy bride. . "In the mean- 
 time, I am yet, to all, only Miss Gladys Lyndon. " 
 
 " By Jove!" cried the now anxious manager, "I must 
 be off; for telegraphing, writing and exploring for a suc- 
 cessor to you, will make my life a fever, until, until I 
 have, I hope, the fortune to find some one who may replace 
 you on the stage, but, Miss Gladys," he sighed, " not in our 
 hearts!" And so, the good, bustling soul fled away, his re- 
 marks as to the trials of managerial life punctuating his 
 departure in wistful regret. 
 
 "Now, darling," said Jack Otis, as Thomas ruefully 
 departed, "we are facing the future fairly. When our 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 457 
 
 little masquerade is over, I will take you home, as soon as 
 Strong will allow us to sail. We must allow him time to 
 trap Wyman." 
 
 "And, the great book?" Hope said teasingly, standing 
 laughing at his side. 
 
 "< The History of Modern Architecture?' I have de- 
 cided to defer its completion, until until ' the bride- 
 groom hesitated; "until, you are so familiar with local 
 Boston architecture, that you can aid me in the completion 
 of that great and long-needed work. " 
 
 It is a matter of regret to chronicle that the life 
 achievement of Mr. John Wayne Otis remained, to the in- 
 finite sorrow of his inquiring friends, forever in embryo, 
 a magnificent fragment, a mere torso, and the eyes of his 
 beautiful wife never rested upon the concluding pages of a 
 work lost to the world by her own sweet perturbations. 
 And yet, Jack Otis never regretted the lost laurels of liter- 
 ature, as he demurely sported the myrtle of love! 
 
 A fierce-eyed man paced the silent halls of his bachelor 
 eyrie on Kearney Street, in far-away San Francisco, burn- 
 ing his heart out in impatient ejaculations. It was the 
 still defiant Mr. Frederick Wyman. He was attended only 
 by the mute old accountant, Brown, and his astonished 
 young secretary, Hopkins, for the man seemed to be breaking 
 up with ominous swiftness. 
 
 Mr. Horace Wilder, in vain, demanded intelligent 
 " Board orders." " I can do nothing now, Wyman, unless 
 you direct me," sternly said the broker to his chief. 
 
 "What can I tell you?" roared Wyman, in despair. 
 "The mine is shut down. Only the accountant, McManus, 
 my foreman, the watchman, and the official keeper are 
 there, now. There is no news for the market. Pending 
 this patent contest and the trial of this blackmail suit, let 
 the stock go where it will, no sales now, will hold." 
 
458 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA, 
 
 And so, the securities of the priceless "Lone Star" 
 stood at a mere nominal figure, no one daring to buy or 
 sell heavily. 
 
 The London expert had long since gone back to "per- 
 fide Albion," and the "Lone Star "deal was long since 
 publicly abandoned. ' ' The mine had been withdrawn 
 from the London market." Such, was the official state- 
 ment of record. 
 
 Wyman raged vainly at heart. His thieving hands were 
 now tied. He counseled with none save the prominent 
 lawyers to whom he had given a golden largesse of gi- 
 gantic dimensions. 
 
 "If I can hear from Morani before Buford arrives, I 
 may know at last how to act!" he fiercely growled. The 
 darkest forebodings filled his heart, for even Miss Minnie 
 Buford had ceased to write to him, the bright imaginings 
 of her heart. Here was a new danger the swamping of 
 his social ambitions! 
 
 It lacked but five days of the hearing when he received 
 General Buford's anxiously awaited telegram from Truckee, 
 " Meet me at my own house this evening." 
 
 "Where the mischief can Milly Hammond be linger- 
 ing? " muttered Wyman. "She might at least give me 
 the history of the London happenings." 
 
 Alas ! he knew not that by a singlular deference to ' ' local 
 opinion," Mrs. Hammond, the velvet-eyed, lingered art- 
 fully two weeks later in New York, than the robust, en- 
 amored capitalist of Nob Hill. And, she was already 
 selecting little articles to further adorn the "haven of 
 rest" for the disgusted and overwearied General. He 
 craved that rest! 
 
 "Marry my one daughter to that rash fool? Never!" 
 roared out th 3 old financier, who only respected success. 
 " A man who drags my own name in the London mire, is 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHOKE. 459 
 
 too great a fool ever to enter my family. I will let that 
 engagement just break itself," he added, with two or three 
 good, solid oaths, as anchors to the forcible remark. 
 
 Wyman's busy detectives had failed to even locate 
 Counselor Strong. None of them saw a watchful man, in 
 extremely opaque blue eye-shades, busied sorting letters in 
 the mail car, all the way from New York to Reno. 
 
 By a strange accident, Inspector Stanton met this very 
 postal clerk at Reno, and they were snugly ensconced at 
 Willow Creek station, on the evening when Buford and 
 Wyman met in the irate General's library on Nob Hill. 
 
 When Stanton saw the photographed picture which 
 Hope Devereux had given over to the London bank, he 
 quietly said, " That's the murdered man, Robert Dev- 
 ereux. Give it to me!" And, before they walked out to 
 find the lonely grave in the meadows, all the ' ' old-timers " 
 at "Willow Cross Roads," had unhesitatingly recog- 
 nized it. 
 
 "This puts the whole matter beyond the last doubt," 
 said Counselor Strong, as they plunged along through the 
 wet grass, guided by the loyal teamster, who had in his 
 boyish way, loved the poor invalid. 
 
 "I wonder what Wyman will do now," mused the 
 lawyer, aloud. 
 
 " I will tell you! He will kill you himself, if he gets a 
 chance," earnestly replied Stanton. "When he sees your 
 hand in this affair, he will be a dangerous man," 
 
 " He'll have to be pretty quick about it then, to escape 
 the detectives," grimly said Strong. "I will have war- 
 rants soon drawn to arrest him for forgery and perjury, if 
 he darea to come to Virginia City to contest the case. As 
 for my own < down -sittings and my up-risings,' I am not 
 unmindful of the chances." The stern lawyer flashed out 
 a pair of Colt's police revolvers with a most remarkable 
 
 H H 
 
460 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 dexterity. i 1 1 would kill that man as soon as I would 
 shoot a dog," remarked Strong, calmly. " Let him now, 
 beware. The days of hired murder are past. He might 
 be only a victim!" 
 
 " There's something else behind this, than mere money," 
 mused Stan ton, thinking of this deadly hatred, as the three 
 men walked home under the stars. 
 
 Waldo Strong had at last found his dead witness. With 
 prophetic care, he posted a secret watch on the grave of 
 Devereux until future orders. 
 
 " I wonder if there was ever a woman in the case!" 
 mused the inspector, for he strangely reflected that his 
 legal friend had been strangely mute as to the personality 
 of "Miss Devereux of the Mariquita." 
 
 "Who the devil is she anyway?" wondered Stanton; 
 for, Miss Devereux remained a myth to even him, so far. 
 
 Before Frederick Wyman climbed the tortuous plais- 
 ance drive to the lofty summit of Nob Hill on this battle 
 night, he had received a cablegram from Antoine Morani 
 at London, which told him that General Buford was his 
 Blucher in the last struggle of his life. 
 
 The valet himself was startled, and, for the first time, 
 began to doubt the permanence of his functions near the 
 person of that "glass of fashion and mould of form," 
 Frederick Wyman, Esq. , and as he wrote out his cable dis- 
 patch in good round English, he vigorously damned the 
 departed Vinnie Hinton. "This whole business is that 
 sleek she-devil's work" he swore. "The next good place 
 I get, I hope will be with a woman-hater. It is always a 
 woman who kicks the pot of gold over! By God! what a 
 sex ; " and then Tony smiled. * ' There are, after all, a good 
 many chances, around these fascinating little woman affairs 
 to pick up an honest dollar. They move the world along 
 with a jump, these women, after all," he relentingly said. 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 461 
 
 But, he wrote and telegraphed in Wyman's own cipher: 
 
 "They must know all now. Hooper made a full confes- 
 sion, before his hearing. Strong has sailed for America. 
 Must be now near you. Vinnie gone to continent. Too 
 late to do anything here. Some treachery on foot towards 
 you. Telegraph me funds. Will come home. Singer 
 still here." 
 
 " Who the devil can be always pushing this thing at 
 me," cried the now half -crazed villain. "Strong must 
 have been sent out there by the banks to promise Hooper 
 their help if he would restore some of the money." And 
 so, he cursed the day when he sent his ill-judged anony- 
 mous denunciation on to London. For, the local press had 
 also noised abroad with true western pride, the connection 
 of the departed "Jim the Penman," with the superbly exe- 
 cuted forgeries which had waked up sleepy London. 
 
 It was clear that the gigantic profits of their cool 
 swindler had been safely harvested on the continent. 
 "They may now even make terms with him, and, at any 
 rate, he has struck back at me like a rattlesnake. It was 
 my ruin." 
 
 "Vinnie, Vinnie Hinton," he apostrophized, as the sug- 
 gestive beauty of the vanished goddess glowed richly, 
 gloating there above him, meeting the glance of his wild 
 eyes. " She has simply cleared out. That's all! She 
 had no hand in this." 
 
 He vaguely called back his needless row with the 
 insolent and half drunken Hooper in these very rooms. 
 " Force is wrong," he cried. " It was a gross mistake," 
 he gloomily said. "Force is always a final mistake! I 
 ought to have just slipped a few grains of morphine in his 
 whisky, that night, and then, paid the coroner five thousand 
 dollars for a heart disease certificate." 
 
 "Yes, I have been a fool, and now now, I have to buy 
 
 H H 2 
 
462 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MABIQUITA. 
 
 my way out. I have but one hope left now. That is to 
 have General Buford to ' square ' the Judge! 
 
 "A hundred thousand for the Judge to throw the two 
 cases out of court. Fifty thousand to the Land Register, 
 too. I must stop them both off now, in the bud. Buford 
 can easily fool the departments at Washington later! But, 
 how much goes to him?" 
 
 When Mr. Frederick Wynian entered General Hiram Bu- 
 ford's library, he was ready to guarantee to him one-half 
 of the debated interest for successfully quashing the two 
 clouds in his hard-won title. " It's now a case of life and 
 death," snarled Wyman. With his hand on the door of a 
 Nob Hill mansion for the first time in his life, he was yet, 
 most unhappy. His eyes rested on all the storied splendors 
 of this dream of luxury. 
 
 "I must have the girl, too! " he muttered. "She is the 
 sine qua non. She will bring the money all back, and 
 more, too. Yes, it's a safe speculation. " And so, * ' the noble- 
 man of Nature " ventured boldly into the presence of the 
 fiery-faced Jephthah, whose sprightly heiress he would 
 fain like to take to his own innocent bosom. 
 
 A royal wooer! 
 
 The first greeting bitterly undeceived him, for, when the 
 disturbed wooer wrapped her name in his " more rawer 
 breath," General Hiram coldly remarked: 
 
 " Let us not speak now of my daughter, sir! We will 
 consider that little matter at an end, at least, for, the 
 present. I wish to know how you can repair the trouble 
 and damage, as well as shame of your blundering opera- 
 tions, in so far as they relate to me. 
 
 ' 4 1 have been made a damned fool of, in London, sir, 
 and by you, by your headlong stupidity. " 
 
 Wyman took his cue at once. He was desperate. 
 
 "You think so? Now, I came here to talk business, to 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 463 
 
 show you how you would be, at once, more than recouped 
 in every way; how you would get your own money and 
 time back in a royal profit, and, we would wind up with 
 the mine clear, and you, a clean half a million to the good. " 
 Wyman gazed fiercely at the pompous old man, who weak- 
 ened before the young speculator's resolute attitude. 
 
 "Xow^ou begin to talk like a man! Sit down and tell 
 me how you can do it," said the mollified Buford, holding 
 out his hand in a rough welcome. He rang for brandy and 
 cigars and then said, "Johnson, I am at home to no one!" 
 
 Frederick Wyman well plied his powers of persuasion. 
 He was dealing the greatest game of his life. His stolen 
 fortune and the heiress, hung on the cards. 
 
 One hour later the General was in a joyous mood. The 
 entente cordiale was restored. The brandy bottle too, was 
 half empty. The oil of gladness! 
 
 "It's a good scheme, Wyman, a good scheme, "merrily said 
 Buford, "I will take you up there on my own private car 
 as far as Truckee. We will be able to confer alone. I 
 will telegraph to the judge to meet me at Carson. You 
 can come down in the regular train and be ready to go up 
 with your own lawyers for the trial. You must show a 
 bold front," he mused. 
 
 "No, you had better stay down here," he said later, " I 
 will telegraph you when to come up, and then meet me at 
 Auburn, as if by accident." 
 
 The great man waved Wyman a most friendly adieu, with 
 his burning cigar, at the great portal of his palace. 
 
 He whispered at parting, "Of course, if this goes 
 through all right, the other little private matter can be 
 moved on, later." 
 
 For, General Hiram Buford believed in his own heart, 
 that ' ' circumstances altered cases. ' ' 
 
 "It will alter these two cases, unless the judge has 
 
464 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 changed very much since I met him last," said General 
 Buford, as he took his 'copious sleeping draught. "At 
 any rate, I must take no risk, a man of my position, "and then, 
 he laid a very contented head upon his downy pillow; for, 
 Mrs. Milly Hammond was on her way to these balmy 
 western shores to which her beauty would lend a new 
 light, a very grateful and pleasing light, to the enraptured 
 general, for that light, spoke of "the well -merited repose" 
 he looked for, in the future enjoyment of her "intellectual 
 companionship. " 
 
 There were friendly spirits, too, in the air, who minis- 
 tered that night to Wyman's repose. "If I only had Vin- 
 nie here, now," he murmured, and then, drifted away on a 
 sea of hopeful dreams. 
 
 It was the fate of General Hiram Buford, two days 
 later, to receive a most clear exposition of the law of de- 
 scent, and several other matters germane to the contest over 
 the "Lone Star" mine, from the eminent judge who was soon 
 to hear in court the matter of the Devereux estate. The 
 two men sat en petite comite at a dinner worthy of a moun- 
 tain Lucullus. The privacy of the place, the excellence of 
 the Burgundy and the warm friendship of the two men, 
 justified the coy judge in his lucid explanation of the wary 
 refusal of what General Buford effectively termed, "a 
 good chunk of boodle." 
 
 "Hiram," said the judge, with a fearful look at the doors 
 and windows, " I would like to help you, and to help my- 
 self. I am always willing to do a favor. I cannot, here! 
 ,^irst, there is a regular avalanche of Devereux reminis- 
 3ences now flooding the excited town. Trifles light as air,' 
 but, the straws all unfortunately point one way! Your 
 Friend, Wyman is in for it. Bob Haley is a great power on 
 ihe Comstock. He has roused up the whole Miners' Union, 
 and, they now swear vengeance for the men whom they be- 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 465 
 
 lieve Wyman burned in. the mine to break the stock 
 down to nothing. He is a cool chap, this Wyman, he 
 may have done that trick. Now, only a little one-horse 
 firm of young attorneys have so far, appeared in the case. 
 Waldo Strong, though, has just been entered as the at- 
 torney of record, and he has as counsel, Henry Edgerly, the 
 greatest speaker now alive, at our bar. There is no law to 
 fight over in this! Strong has only put him in to lash the 
 miners up to madness with a ringing speech. I would be 
 afraid of my own life if I dallied with justice. 
 
 "Andy Bowen is walking the streets too, heavily armed! 
 Pie is a pretty fair character for a rough miner. He swears 
 that Fred Wyman has ruined him, and that he will kill him on 
 sight. Now, that's lex talonis. You see, Hiram," aid 
 the judge, "as Allan Thurman remarked once, 'Law is 
 simply common sense, and you cannot refine it.' Here is 
 the whole thing, in a nutshell: Wyman never owned this 
 three-quarters of the mine,the'Lone Star, 'or the 'Mariquita.' 
 His whole honest holding, one-quarter, was really, a gift 
 from poor Devereux. Now, he sets up a transfer by this same 
 man Devereux to the other three-quarters. The facts 
 prove Devereux to have been dead fully six months, before 
 that deed was made. No matter who owns that interest, 
 Wyman does not! In possession of the mine, he was 
 really only a trustee for the real owners. He is account- 
 able to them for all back rents and profits. For the set- 
 ting up of the false deed, the forgery and subsequent per- 
 jury, he is accountable to the State. 
 
 < ' Now, his able lawyers cannot force Waldo Strong to 
 show his hand. He merely proves that a certain woman 
 child is the only legal heiress of the dead man. If he 
 should fail to get letters for her, the public administrator 
 then comes in, but, Wyman is nowhere. His incorpora- 
 tion, also, is void, and, he can get no United States patent. 
 
466 MISS DEVERETJX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 The stock now out, is worthless. Any holder can sue the 
 directors for the value of all his bonafide purchases. So, 
 as Strong can go either quickly or slowly, he is the abso- 
 lute master! He can push the patent contest, and dally 
 with the other suit if he wishes. He may also, cut across 
 lots, and simply begin criminal proceedings against Wy- 
 man. The hearing is soon coming on. I could delay it 
 a little, say twenty days, as a personal favor to you. Let 
 Wyman's lawyer ask for it. I am not speaking ex cathedra, 
 but, my advice to Wyman is, either to compromise, or skip." 
 
 The Judge washed down this little lecture with a huge 
 beaker of Burgundy. As he lit a Henry Clay, he smiled 
 benignly at Buf ord, * ' You see, my dear old boy, if there 
 was any shadow of a contest, I could lean your way and 
 then, decide in your interest no matter how barefaced, but, 
 Great Heavens, it decides itself. If I could get a chance to 
 weigh the weight of evidence, I could also decide for you, 
 and your own people have interest enough to sustain me, in 
 the final appeal. But, Wyman has no shadow of claim 
 save the foolish and clumsy trick. 
 
 "If he had simply held on as partner he would have had 
 a far better showing, for possession lapses; and limitations, 
 might have helped him. His own conduct has damned 
 him. He does not come into court with clean hands. The 
 town is now full of people waiting here for the first hear- 
 ing. If this Devereux child does not get this property, 
 every big claim north and south will then pitch in, and set 
 up a shadow title to it. The c swearing element' is all here, 
 waiting a rich harvest. My advice to you is to quietly 
 drop this fellow Wyman, for he will hurt even you in 
 public esteem. He is too heavy a load to drag." 
 
 < But, he owes me a lot of money. I want to get squarely 
 out of his clutches. He has tied me up, too, in the Lon- 
 don foolery." Buf ord was indignant. 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 467 
 
 " Ah! That's another thing," the oily Judge remarked. 
 "You then go back, and force Wyman at once, to a settle- 
 ment. Tell him I told you for him to apply for twenty 
 days. I'll give it! Put on all your thumbscrews, and when 
 you are ' clear out,' then telegraph me, in your own name. 
 Just say, ( All right.' So, you will be safe. Let him then, 
 go to the devil." 
 
 "I am a thousand times obliged to you," said Buford, 
 as the two cunning men parted. The General whispered, 
 "I'll stick five thousand dollars on the settlement for you. 
 I'll send to you a certificate of deposit, ' X. Y. Z,' at our 
 bank. You can drop in and dine with me, next time you're 
 in town, and I'll then cash it." 
 
 The Judge's eyes twinkled gratefully. " Hiram," he 
 murmured, "Don't make any mistake. Wyman is a dead 
 man if he ever shows up here. Tell him that! Tell him 
 I said so! I don't wish to see a bloody riot here. Let 
 him take the best terms he can. Perhaps you can make 
 a deal on him." 
 
 General Hiram Buford slept happily in his private car 
 as he rolled merrily along back to San Francisco. He had 
 already telegraphed to Wyman, ' ' Partly successful. Wait 
 for me in the city; coming down." 
 
 "That will keep him there," mused the drowsy 
 General. "I'll telegraph to Pauline to have Minnie now 
 dismiss him finally. There's an English fellow hanging 
 round her. A good match too ! When I have been well paid 
 
 for all my time and losses, he can go to ." The rest 
 
 of this soliloquy was lost in a profound snore due to a 
 mixture of very good law and, much better Burgundy. 
 
 A wise man in Israel was this ' 'prominent citizen " who 
 dreamed of Mrs. Milly Hammond's cosy retreat for his 
 over- taxed brain, wearied in doing good. 
 
 Wyman listened to the whole statement of the case in 
 
468 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 Virginia City, as artfully presented by General Buford on 
 his return. The evening was not far advanced when the 
 excited conspirator dispatched to his attorneys in Nevada 
 at once, to ask the delay of twenty days * t on the ground of 
 his own severe illness." 
 
 "You can easily go to bed, and then, send up a doctor's 
 certificate," practically said the General, "and I'll come 
 down to your office to-morrow and see how we stand." 
 
 "A very fair settlement," remarked General Buford 
 next day, when Frederick Wyman had drawn very heavily 
 upon his hidden cash reserve. " You see the judge will be 
 down here next week, and, your lawyers have a chance to 
 see him now. I will, of course, advise with you, Wyman," 
 said Buford, as 'he made a mental note to cash Wyman's 
 heavy check at once. " I will see the Anglo bank and 
 tell them you have acted uprightly in every way, with me. 
 That is all I can do." The great man beamed upon his 
 prospective son-in-law. 
 
 " Yes, General, it will help me if you will do so," grate- 
 fully replied Wyman. ' ' My chief counsel will be here 
 to-night, and I will come in and see you. " 
 
 " Certainly, certainly, always glad," murmured the 
 General, in his very grandest manner. " But, my boy, 
 make a judicious compromise. Remember, always remem- 
 ber, I tell you, the Judge, however well disposed, is tied 
 down by fact and statute." 
 
 "I shall try a compromise," said Wyman with already 
 clouded brow. "But, this fellow Strong hates me. 
 Where he is hiding his pauper heiress, I cannot say. He 
 has been seen at Virginia City lately, but he has no woman 
 with him." 
 
 " I really think, Wyman," said Buford, "that Strong 
 drifted into the case through his hunting up the old 
 Hooper frauds. You will find out yet, it is some one else 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 469 
 
 who has dug up the alleged heiress. You have no idea 
 who she is? " 
 
 " Not in the slightest," growled Wyman. "You see 
 we cannot call on them. They put their own proof into 
 the court. It's a blind lead, and so, the fight comes "butt 
 end on." We are right in the thick of it, before we know 
 where we are. I would not like to be left to this Waldo 
 Strong's tender mercies. I hurt him once sorely in a stock 
 deal," Wyman slowly said, "and, we were also a bit mixed 
 up in a little woman business. That is, I fear, I ran 
 against his hidden plans, in that regard." 
 
 Coming shadows upon the soul of Richard! 
 
 "Ah!" ejaculated Buford, "I see the veiled animus 
 then! But, Good God! Wyman!" roared Buford, "Strong 
 is no lady-killer. He is about as stylish as the outside of 
 one of his law books. Just about! " 
 
 "Women do take damned strange fancies into their 
 heads, sometimes," remarked Mr. Frederick Wyman, ener- 
 getically, as he "divided the luck," in a parting drink with 
 Buford. 
 
 "Right you are!" said the rotund General, as he but- 
 toned his Prince Albert over the liberal check. ' ' They 
 do, at times, play the very devil. Do you know, Wyman," 
 said the angry capitalist, ( ' I have even had trouble with 
 them, myself! And, yet," he sighed, "I don't see any way 
 to avoid it, unless you let them alone, altogether. They 
 are a gay and festive lot! " 
 
 With which invincible aphorism, the man who was 
 about to call on Mrs. Milly Hammond, and " inspect the 
 haven of rest," fled forth after the fashion of a dove from 
 the Ark, on troubled waters. 
 
 Mr. Wyman spent the next day closeted with Paul 
 Cadwallader, his leading counsel. The gray old advocate 
 smoked vigorously with his hat jammed over his eyes, as 
 
470 MISS DEVERETTX OF THE MABIQlflTA. 
 
 Wyman blundered along, from one semi-admission to 
 another. His story was a lame one in every leg, and, alas! 
 it had more legs than the law allows. 
 
 The round, full, moon face of the lawyer became as 
 grave as a Catholic priest's most austere visage. When ho 
 at last broke in, his voice was harsh and unsympathetic. 
 It was the verdict of a mental giant. ' See here, Wy- 
 man! You are like all my other clients. You tell me half 
 truths, at the wrong time, and then, pay me to pull you 
 out of the holes which you dig for yourselves. Why, 
 damn it, man! You've fought this fellow, Strong. Ho 
 has the age on you. He is of the * inner temple. ' You 
 are only a nervy speculator. When he commenced to dog 
 you, you should have nailed him, with a good bribe, 
 as a legal retainer. Taken him in! He would have then, 
 have smothered the whole thing. Bought up this little 
 freckle-faced pauper, who has been probably pulled out of 
 some back alley, and, you and he, would have been then, 
 joint owners of a good thing. 'Particeps criminis,' 
 That is to say, general partners," said the cool old coun- 
 selor. 
 
 "Yes, but, there was a woman in the case," urged 
 Wyman. 
 
 The lawyer snorted in disdain. 
 
 "Bother the woman!" roared Cadwallader. "You 
 should have let him have had her. For all you know, he 
 would have gladly made you a present of her, in six 
 months. 'Jam satis.' Enough of a good thing! Women! 
 Why the very woods are full of them out here! But, 
 you don't find a mine like the * Lone Star,' every day. 
 
 "Now, you tell me to make a compromise for you. They 
 will now cut and carve deeply, my boy, at the best, where 
 they would only have nibbled before! But, it's after all 
 yours to decide. 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHOEE. 4Yl 
 
 "I tell you plainly, in law, I can do nothing for you. It's 
 not your mine anyway, that is, the three-quarters, and, it 
 never was. What shall I do?" 
 
 " See what you can do with the Strong party," sullenly 
 growled Wyman. "Either ask their terms, or offer 
 them," he hesitated. 
 
 "How much?" said Paul Cadwallader, his little round 
 gray eyes now fixed on the hesitating man. 
 
 "Half," roughly said Wyman, as he rose wearied and 
 at last brought to bay. His very mind was giving away. 
 His nerve had deserted him. 
 
 " All right," coolly said his wary counsel. " I'll let you 
 know as soon as I hear from Strong. He is in the city 
 now. But, if it is no go then, I warn you! I won't go 
 back to Virginia City unless you go with us, and, it is my 
 duty to tell -you there is a good deal of local feeling up 
 there against you. They are a very rough lot in Nevada! " 
 
 "Can't you do anything with the judge?" ventured 
 Wyman. 
 
 Paul Cadwallader wheeled on him like a flash. "He is 
 nailed down to the cross. He can't squirm! No thor- 
 oughfare! No, my boy. This case unfortunately decides 
 itself! It all hangs on the document, and, you know, the 
 very execution of that document by Devereux was an im- 
 possibility. So, where's your title?" 
 
 "See what you can do!" cried Wyman, as he rushed out 
 of the office, for the lawyer's eyes were filled with a cold 
 scorn, which he could not disguise. 
 
 "Bah!" said Cadwallader as he took up "Holman on 
 Deeds." "A thief should never be a fool. What a gang of 
 upstart scrubs, and yet, they are my clients." 
 
 It was three days before the answer of the attorneys for 
 the claimant to the Devereux estate was formally received. 
 Mr. Waldo Strong, a stickler for professional etiquette, 
 
472 MISS DEVEBEUX OF THE MAEIQUITA. 
 
 cabled the proposition on to London, where Miss Gladys 
 Lyndon was now on the eve of her last < ' appearance on 
 any stage." The life partners were nestling in their love 
 hallowed masquerade frolic, and happier than the full 
 throated birds of spring. 
 
 " I will do as you advise, Wayne," the lady of the Mar- 
 iquita remarked. "I do not feel like disregarding Mr. 
 Strong's intimation. You see, he has said, ' Half offered 
 of the whole property, immediate possession and past ac- 
 counting. I, still, advise pushing the proceedings. No 
 honest connection with Wyman possible. He may be in 
 other trouble soon. If you order me to push the suit, then 
 come on here at once. No danger. Cable your decision. 
 Time presses. ' ' 
 
 "What shall I telegraph, Lady Mine," replied her hus- 
 band. "It is your sadly won birthright. I agree, of 
 course, with Strong's views, and your own decision, darl- 
 ing, shall end it. You know his vile character in the 
 past. You would not care to be his partner." 
 
 "God forbid!" the gentle singer said, " and I feel, too, 
 that I should make a great compensation, all that I can, to 
 the families of the men so strangely sacrificed in my mine, 
 for, it seems, " she brightly said, lifting her happy eyes to 
 her husband's, ' ' that my poor dead father did not toil in 
 vain! I could kiss the very threshold of the cabin door out of 
 which he passed to die for us." The fair head was bowed, 
 but the tears were only from the shadowy clouds of other 
 years. And, she was quickly strained to a loving breast. 
 
 " Then, Hope, my darling," said Jack Otis, "your voice 
 is heard, for the last time to-night, by your collective ad- 
 mirers, the dear old solid ' British public.' I will telegraph, 
 Go ahead with the suit, we come at once.'," 
 
 The gentle woman hesitated to say the word, but she 
 bowed her stately head in assent. 
 
 It was loosening the furies! 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHOBE. 473 
 
 "I shall give the extra share to the poor orphans; those 
 who may tread a far stonier path than the one which has 
 brought you to my side." 
 
 There was a grave crisis now approaching in far away San 
 Francisco ! 
 
 " I am sorry to say, Mr. Wyman, it is a fight to the bitter 
 end!" said Paul Cadwallader to his hastily summoned 
 client. Wyman started and then, noticed the formality 
 which is assumed at weddings, duels, funerals, public 
 dinners and, all other "festive occasions." The word 
 "Mr." indicated a last formal stage of the proceedings! 
 " Now, we have the law in our hands and the books. You 
 alone are responsible for the facts. The property in debate 
 is also yours. Put your own best foot now foremost! 
 You must have found out some friendly witnesses. You 
 have plenty of money. We have eight or ten days yet. 
 Come in to-morrow with all your papers and data. We'll 
 make you the very best fight we can," cheerfully said the 
 astute counselor. " But, you must go up there with us! 
 Without you, it is Hamlet without the Prince of Den- 
 mark." Paul Cadwallader 's eyes did not lie. 
 
 "Oh, certainly, certainly!" remarked Wyman, who rose 
 and left the office, in a dazed sort of way. 
 
 As he stepped out of the door, he noticed the changed 
 air of the passers-by, his very street acquaintances seemed 
 to him, to harbor only hostile glances, and the glare of 
 the sun itself looked cold and faded. The afternoon wind 
 too, smote him coldly. < ' Damn the Mariquita mine ! I wish 
 I had never heard of it," he muttered, as he ran against 
 his secretary, Hopkins, whose face was very anxious. 
 
 "I was just coming for you, sir," said the keen-eyed 
 clerk, who diagnosed his master as suffering "from a mind 
 diseased." "Tony is here, came right from the train, 
 and wants to see you, at once. He did not even dare to 
 
474 MISS DEVBEEUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 come down here." For, all but Wyman knew that his 
 harem fortress was watched day and night, by strange 
 detectives now. 
 
 "All right," said Wyman briefly. "I'll come up." 
 And he shivered slightly for the very wind seemed to 
 bring back the blasts, howling down the gloomy denies 
 of blood-haunted Grizzly Caiion. He slipped into the side 
 door of a great saloon, and stepping into a private room 
 ordered a "bonanza" cocktail. 
 
 " Put a little absinthe into it, Francois," he murmured, 
 as he gave the man a half dollar. The hum of voices on 
 the other side of a thin partition arrested his attention. 
 
 " They say," a rough voice remarked, " that this damned 
 scoundrel, Wyman, is pretty near to the end of his rope. 
 I will always believe he murdered those men in the ' Lone 
 Star.' He's capable of anything! " 
 
 The listener's very blood froze in terror! 
 
 " If he did, hanging is far too good for him," cried a rude 
 chorus, as glasses loudly clinked and Francois was stunned 
 and astonished, as his tray flew out of his hands, for, with 
 a white face, Frederick Wyman rushed out of his place of 
 rest. 
 
 " That man looks sick," cried the frightened French- 
 man, as he picked up the shattered glasses. 
 
 Away up the street, madly sped the * ' nobleman of 
 Nature," and he clashed the door of his den loudly behind 
 him, as he threw off his coat and tossed away hat and stick. 
 
 " None of that foolishness. Tell me your London news. 
 Sit down! " ordered Wyman, as Antoine Morani sprang to 
 aid his excited master. 
 
 "Well, what is it? out with it! "the desperate man 
 roughly cried. 
 
 "I found out, sir, that this forger fellow, Hooper, has 
 confessed all about some papers at Truckee. The deposi- 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 475 
 
 tion was copied, and, an extra certified original kept at 
 Newgate prison. I bribed the lawyer's clerk, and so, got a 
 copy of that copy. Here it is, sealed up, just as he gave it 
 to me." 
 
 Wyman reached out his trembling hand and took it 
 without a word. 
 
 "Hooper has already been found guilty of one of the 
 London forgeries and started off for the penal colonies. 
 Vinnie is clean gone, too." 
 
 The man stopped, and then, cast down his eyes. 
 
 "Anything else? Speak, speak out, man!" roared 
 Wyman, in a tone which admitted of no denial. 
 
 "Only this, I did not know if I should, but, last- 
 While the valet hesitated, Wyman snatched a blue-pen- 
 ciled paper from his hand. It was a London Court and 
 Society Journal. 
 
 His eyes swam as he read the marked article: 
 
 "MARRIAGE IN IIlGII LlFE." 
 
 "We understand that a marriage has been arranged be- 
 tween Claude Cecil, fourth Lord Templeton, of the Oaks, 
 Berkshire, and Major of Her Majesty's "Buffs," with Miss 
 Minerva, only daughter of General Hiram Buford of Cali- 
 fornia, the great millionaire, whose family are at present 
 residing in their splendid London mansion, recently pur- 
 chased from Lord Mossback,and lately refitted for the use 
 of the new owner. The wedding will occur immediately 
 on the return of General Buford from California, whither 
 he has been called, temporarily, by his vast local interests. " 
 
 " The damned scoundrel! I see it all. He sold me out, 
 and has fooled me all the while," yelled Wyman, forget- 
 ting the presence of the open-eyed Morani. He gloomily 
 buried his head in his hand. 
 
 i i 
 
47C MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 "Shall I get you anything, sir?" hazarded the fright- 
 ened servant. 
 
 " Yes, give me a good stiff drink, and get out of here! 
 Wait in your room till I ring for you. Don't go away. " 
 
 "Will you have dinner, sir? It's getting very- late," 
 inquired Tony, as he saw the wolfish way in which his mas- 
 ter swallowed the fiery brandy. The shades of night were 
 deepening gloomily around. 
 
 "No, I want to sleep. Don't wake me if I fall asleep," 
 and Wyman threw himself, dressed, on his couch. 
 
 The hours crawled on in silence, a brooding silence! 
 Once or twice in the early evening, the valet stole in and 
 gazed anxiously at the sleeping man. "I never saw him 
 look that way before," he said, filled with an unknown 
 fear. The lamp was glimmering low in the superb apart- 
 ment, and, over the sleeping man, the beauty of Vinnie 
 Hinton floating aloft, was hovering, an unearthly vision of 
 voluptuous loveliness, "with the lamplight gloating o'er." 
 Morani stilled his heart, as he gazed on the wonderful 
 form, dreaming above, in its sea-born beauty, the softly- 
 melting depths of the half -cry ing eyes, and the blooming 
 face where a long-fled innocence seemed to linger still, on 
 the rosy, dewy lips; to mock at time and vice! There, 
 around him, were the memorials of her witching presence, 
 the very chair she had made her throne in the halcyon 
 days of life and love. 
 
 " She has been his ruin. It is her work! " the French- 
 man sighed, for, even her vacant chair was a menace of 
 coming woe to him. " She made Hooper peach on him, 
 and, he is in danger now." 
 
 Mr. Antoine Morani resolved himself at once into a 
 "Committee of Ways and Means " as to a new place! 
 "In the near future," he saw storms descending upon the 
 lordly mushroom house of Wyman. " A nice little hotel 
 
THE ECIIOLESS SHORE. 477 
 
 in Paris," he thought of, as a final refuge, and the bright- 
 eyed, little soubrette he had left in London, figured there 
 as the ' ' dame clu comptoir. " 
 
 His noddings were interrupted by a sharp ring at the 
 front door, and there in the gloom, of the night, a diminu- 
 tive imp of darkness quickly shoved in a yellow telegraph 
 envelope and a dirty paper book. 
 
 " Double special. Answerback. Delivery only! Say, 
 Tony, " the boy leered as he rolled his cigarette, ' ' There's 
 no monkeying with that! There was five dollars came 
 down with it, for instant delivery. Get the old man to 
 sign it himself, that's my orders from the office! " 
 
 With a sinking heart, the valet entered the sleeping 
 room and roused Wyman, who started up with an oath. 
 "I had to get your own signature, sir. It's specially im- 
 portant ! " Frederick Wyman read it, and then, threw him- 
 self back on the couch, his staring eyes fixed on the pictured 
 beauties of the one woman who had ruled his heart with 
 her glowing charms. He grasped the pencil and scratched 
 his name! 
 
 Morani stole on tip-toe out of the room. He dared not 
 turn his head again, for something in Wyman's face awed 
 him. Dropping the heavy double curtain, he cast a glance 
 at him lying there, under the spell of the half crying eyes, 
 and then, went down to the side door. He was frightened 
 at Wyman's face. 
 
 He carefully locked the door after the boy had gone 
 away. He then, closed all the doors between his own 
 rooms and Wyman's apartment. "Is he going to skip?" 
 mused the valet. "I'll watch him!" He gave up his 
 worries and sat down to a neat little supper he had laid 
 privately away, for his long night-watch. "If he wants 
 me, he will ring for me," thought Tony, "but, I never 
 saw him in such a humor. Something must be wrong at 
 the mine." * l 2 
 
478 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 As he lifted his glass to pour a libation to the girl in 
 London, he dropped it with a crash, for, a muffled explosion 
 sounded upon his ears. The shock of a heavy fall fol- 
 lowed, and there was no settled purpose in the near 
 frantic rush of the frightened valet into his master's 
 room. There, upon the floor, Avith his hands clutching the 
 tufted Persian carpet and a smoking pistol at his side, lay 
 the defeated man who had played his last card in life! 
 His eyes were still staring upwards, as he lay there with 
 his arms wildly outspread in his crashing fall, but, a dark 
 pool of blood welled around his stiffening form. He had 
 died gazing at the mocking face smiling down over 
 him! 
 
 In fright, the valet turned up the light, and its glare 
 showed him above, great, red blotches staining the fair face 
 Of the woman's form hovering above, in an unearthly 
 mocking beauty, and on that ivory bosom where the dead 
 man's lips had so often pressed burning love kisses, was a 
 red stain of the last life-drops throbbing in Wyman's 
 heart. A horrible silence reigned in the room of the 
 dead ! 
 
 Morani's cunning eyes gleamed. The house was all silent. 
 He stooped and carefully picked up the opened telegram ly- 
 ing there by the side of the corpse. It was spattered with 
 gore. But, the Frenchman read it eagerly. It was signed 
 McManus. Its words were clear: 
 
 1 * Extradition proceedings begun here for forgery and 
 perjury. Strong is here. Warrants already issued. Offi- 
 cers leave to-night. See your lawyers. " 
 
 " Ah! " the valet muttered, as he dropped the blood- 
 stained paper. "I have but little time! " With the deft- 
 ness of old time practice, he moved around the rooms 
 busied in a ghoul's quest for five minutes. The double 
 curtains and the solid white enameled shutters which had 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHOKE. 479 
 
 hidden so much stray loveliness in the old days from 
 curious eyes, now shut off the street. Well he knew that 
 all the other lodgers in that seraglio block were now 
 busied with deeds without a name! There was a com- 
 posed gravity on his face as he sped out and first stopped 
 a moment at a blackened door near by, where a few whis- 
 pered words enabled him to quickly pass in a bundle. 
 "I got twenty thousand francs, anyway," he exulted. 
 "I'll get more yet! " But, his face was very solemn as he 
 accosted Officer Duffy in the act of emerging with all the 
 due ceremony of unconscious innocence, from a corner 
 saloon. 
 
 " Come up stairs, Duffy, come quickly!" said the 
 servant impressively. "My master has just shot himself, 
 and I fear that he is dead. I want you, and a doc- 
 tor!" 
 
 "Howly God! That's news," cried Duffy, as he sprang 
 up the stairs. 
 
 It was too true! "Well, he had the nerve," muttered 
 Duffy as he lifted the palsied right arm, which fell back 
 again with a dull sound. "The ball has gone clear 
 through his head." And so in the silent agony of defeat 
 and the darkness of shame, unloved and unregretted, 
 Frederick Wyman sought the echoless shore. 
 
 It was a month later when the Lady of the Mariquita 
 walked down through the bleak gateway of Grizzly Gallon, 
 where Steven Berard had once ridden to his death. Her 
 husband strode along in silence at her side. It was a pil- 
 grimage of tender love; for, there were now no shadows 
 on the pathway of that life of love that stretched before 
 her, so bright and fair. 
 
 The death of the dark survivor of the unhappy partner- 
 ship had left her free to assume, unchallenged, the owner- 
 
480 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARIQUITA. 
 
 ship of the property for which, her faithful father had 
 toiled in poverty and want. 
 
 Waldo Strong had consented to assume the general 
 management of her vast estate, while Captain Bob Haley 
 had already returned to break into the now easily located 
 treasures of the "Mariquita." 
 
 The first legal act of the happy heiress was to restore 
 the name once hallowed by a father's loving hopes. 
 
 There were sad duties resting upon the lawyer, which 
 Otis confided to his sympathy and judgment; for, side by 
 side, the long parted parents of the Lady Bountiful of the 
 "Mariquita" were to rest, in the peaceful shadows of 
 Lone Mountain, far away by the sounding sea. And 
 already, the widows and orphans of the sacrificed miners 
 blessed the name of the tender-eyed young wife. 
 
 "There is nothing more to keep us here now, Hope," 
 earnestly pleaded her husband. "I wish you to go away 
 with me, far out over the western seas, till we have fol- 
 lowed the sun's track around the world. We have much 
 to say to each other. There is a new life stretching out 
 before you. Fora time, I wish to bring you to forget that 
 you were once ' Miss Devereux of the Mariquita.' You 
 must be mine alone! Let the gray past sit veiled in its 
 palmer's robes by the milestones of life which we have already 
 passed. I wish to take you 'far away, my darling, where 
 these voices of the olden days do not echo." 
 
 Her face was, too, shaded with the sorrows of the old 
 time; those memories of the struggles for the buried 
 treasures had overburdened her gentle soul. 
 
 It was on the eve of their departure that they stepped 
 over the threshold of the ruined cabin, where Robert 
 Devereux had penned those now faded letters of love, 
 which she had kissed so often in grateful tenderness. The 
 letters which spoke of a father's toil for a loving wife and 
 
THE ECHOLESS SHORE. 481 
 
 his helpless child. The bright spriog still flashed out in 
 diamond drops there, and trickled away merrily down the 
 lonely canon. 
 
 Otis left her there alone for a time, her dainty foot hal- 
 lowing the old cabin, as her lips moved in words of a love 
 awakened after many long years. She came forth at last, 
 with a strange light on her loving face. Their eyes met as 
 they stood there, under the red light of the dying day. It 
 transfigured the face of the fair young wife as the gazed 
 around the lonely scene. The dim mountains rose far 
 beyond to the quiet sunset skies. Shadows crept up the 
 canon softly, and the warring owl sounded his lonely note. 
 The darkening shades had no terrors for her as they threw 
 a soft pall of light around the scarped walls of Grizzly 
 Caiion, for the man she loved, was tenderly watching at 
 her side. 
 
 She smiled through her tears as she broke off a sprig 
 from the tall pine growing beside that humble cabin, 
 which was to her a place of holy memories. The rude 
 hut which had sheltered the dear dead heart which had 
 throbbed there, in love for his little Hope. 
 
 "God bless his honored memory, after many years, the 
 harvest of his love is reaped. God be with them both." 
 She turned the beautiful wistful eyes to the lover of her 
 heart. 
 
 " I am so happy in these days," said Hope, "for, even if 
 this fortune comes to me, after many years of sorrow, you 
 share it with me, and it is a double happiness, for it comes 
 to us both, as one in heart, one in love's mystery, never to 
 be parted." 
 
 And then she bent her shining eyes upon him with a look 
 so full of promise for that future far beyond the sunset 
 shadows, that he simply raised her little hand and kissed 
 it in silence. 
 
482 MISS DEVEREUX OF THE MARTQUITA. 
 
 " May God bless you, my own darling," softly 
 said the man, who could not trust himself to break the 
 brooding spell of her loving memories. 
 
 And so, hand in hand, they wandered up the glen. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 BRAPBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 
 
ORIGINAL! BRILLIANT! SUCCESSFUL/ 
 
 MY OFFICIAL WIFE. 
 
 BY 
 
 RICHARD HENRY SAVAGE, 
 
 Author of "The Little Lady of Lagunltas," &c. 
 
 Publishers in Europe. 
 
 George Routledge & Sons . London . (English Edition) 
 
 Bernhard Tauchnitz .... Leipzig (Continental Edition). 
 
 J. Engelhorn Stuttgart (German Translation). 
 
 Messrs. Hachette .... Paris . (French Translation). 
 
 Reviewers' Remarks. 
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 Feb. 20th, 1892. 
 
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 24th, 1892. 
 
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 1891. 
 
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PRINCE SCHAMYL'S WOOING 
 
 A Story of the Kusso-Turkish War, 
 
 By RICHARD HENRY SAVAGE. 
 
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 :,ure to read to the end." Town Topics, Sept. 15, 1892 
 
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 " The best work Colonel Savage has yet done." San Francisco 
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 Guard 
 
 in Colville of the Guards 
 
 112 The Constable of 
 
 France 
 
 113 The Dead Tryst 
 
 114 Did She Love Him? 
 
 115 The Duke of Albany's 
 
 Highlanders 
 
 116 Dulcie Carlyon 
 
 117 Fairer than a Fairy 
 U8 First Love and Last 
 
 Love 
 
 119 The Girl He Married 
 
 120 The King's Own Bor- 
 
 derers 
 
 121 Laura Everingham 
 
 122 Letty Hyde's Lovers 
 
 123 The Lord Hermitage 
 
 HALIBURTON, Judge. 
 
 124 The Clockmaker 
 
 125 The Attach^ 
 
MOVE LS continued. 
 HUGO, Victor. 
 
 126 Les Miserables 
 
 127 Notre Dame 
 
 128 History of a Crime 
 
 129 Ninety-Three 
 
 130 Toilers of the Sea 
 
 131 By Order of the King 
 
 KINGS LEY, Charles. 
 
 132 Alton Locke 
 
 133 Yeast 
 
 LEVER, Charles. 
 
 134 Harry Lorrequer 
 
 135 Charles O'Malley 
 
 136 Jack Hinton 
 
 137 Arthur O'Leary 
 
 138 Con Cregan 
 
 LOVER, Samuel. 
 
 139 Handy Andy 
 
 140 Rory O'More 
 
 LYTTON, Lord. 
 
 Author's Copyright Kevised Editions eon- 
 taining Prefaces to be found in no other 
 Edition. 
 
 141 Pelham 
 
 142 Paul Clifford 
 
 143 Eugene Aram 
 
 144 Last Days of Pompeii 
 
 145 Rienzi 
 
 146 Ernest Maltravers 
 
 147 Alice ; or, The Mysteries 
 
 148 Night and Morning 
 
 149 The Disowned 
 
 150 Devereux 
 
 151 Godolphin 
 
 152 The Last of the Barons 
 
 153 Leila; Pilgrims of the 
 
 Rhine 
 
 154 Falkland ; Zicci 
 
 155 Zanoni 
 
 156 The Caxtons 
 
 157 Harold 
 
 158 Lucretia 
 
 159 The Coming Race 
 
 LYTTON, LORD continued. 
 
 1 60 A Strange Story 
 
 161 Kenelm Chillingly 
 
 162 Pausanias : and The 
 
 Haunted and the Haunters 
 
 163 My Novel, Vol. i. 
 
 l6 4 Vol. 2. 
 
 165 What will He Do with 
 
 it? Vol. i. 
 
 166 What will He Do with 
 
 it? Vol. 2. 
 
 167 The Parisians, Vol. i. 
 
 168 Vol 2. 
 
 The Set, in 28 Volumes, price 56/- 
 
 MARRYAT, Captain. 
 
 169 Frank Mildmay 
 
 170 Midshipman Easy 
 
 171 Phantom Ship 
 
 172 Peter Simple 
 
 173 The King's Own 
 
 174 Newton Forster 
 
 175 Jacob Faithful 
 
 176 The Pacha of many 
 
 Tales 
 
 177 Japhet in Search of a 
 
 Father 
 
 178 The Dog Fiend 
 
 179 The Poacher 
 
 180 Percival Keene 
 
 181 Monsieur Violet 
 
 182 Rattlin, the Reefer 
 
 183 Valerie 
 
 184 OHa Podrida 
 
 The Set, in 16 Volumes, price 32/- 
 
 MO UNTENE Y-JEPHSON, R. 
 
 185 Tom Bullkley 
 
 186 The Girl he left be- 
 
 hind him 
 
 187 The Roll of the Drum 
 
 PORTER, Jane. 
 
 188 The Scottish Chiefs 
 
 189 The Pastor's Fireside 
 
 190 Thaddeus of Warsaw 
 
N O V E LS contin ued. 
 REID, Captain Mayne. 
 
 191 The Scalp Hunters 
 
 192 The Rifle Rangers 
 
 193 The War Trail 
 
 194 The Quadroon 
 
 195 The Headless Horse- 
 
 man 
 
 196 The Tiger Hunter 
 
 197 The Guerilla Chief 
 
 198 Lost Lenore 
 
 199 The White Gauntlet 
 
 200 The White Chief 
 2or The Hunter's Feast 
 
 202 The Half Blood 
 
 203 The Wild Huntress 
 
 204 The Maroon 
 
 205 The Wood Rangers 
 
 206 The Lone Ranche 
 
 The Set, in 16 Volumes, 32/- 
 
 RICHARDSON, Samuel. 
 
 207 Clarissa Harlowe 
 
 208 Pamela 
 
 209 SirCharlesGrandison 
 
 SCOTT, Michael 
 
 210 Tom Cringle's Log 
 
 211 The Cruise of the 
 
 "Midge" 
 
 SCOTT, Sir Walter. 
 
 212 Waverley 
 
 213 Guy Mannering 
 
 214 Old Mortality 
 
 215 The Heart of Midlo- 
 
 thian 
 
 216 Rob Roy 
 
 217 Ivanhoe 
 
 218 The Antiquary 
 
 219 BrideofLammermoor 
 
 220 The Black Dwarf and 
 
 A Legend of Montrose 
 
 221 The Monastery 
 
 222 The Abbot 
 
 223 Kenilv^orth 
 
 SCOTT, Sir WALTER continued. 
 
 224 The Pirate 
 
 225 The Fortunes of Nigel 
 
 226 Peveril of the Peak 
 
 227 Quentin Durward 
 
 228 St. Ronan's Well 
 
 229 Redgauntlet 
 
 230 The Betrothed and 
 
 The Highland Widow 
 
 231 TheTalismanandThe 
 
 - Two Drovers 
 
 232 Woodstock 
 
 233 The Fair Maid of Perth 
 
 234 Anne of Geierstein 
 
 235 Count Robert of Paris 
 
 236 The Surgeon's Daugh- 
 
 ter 
 
 The Set, in 25 Volumes, price 5<>/- 
 
 S MEDLEY, Frank. 
 
 237 Frank Fairlegh 
 
 238 Lewis Arundel 
 
 239 Harry Cove rdale's 
 
 Courtship 
 
 240 The Colville Family 
 
 SMOLLETT, Tobias. 
 
 241 Roderick Random 
 
 242 Humphry Clinker 
 
 243 Peregrine Pickle 
 
 SUE, Eugene. 
 
 244 The Wandering Jew 
 
 245 The Mysteries of Paris 
 
 THACKERA Y, W. M. 
 
 246 Vanity Fair 
 
 247 Pendennis 
 
 248 The Luck of Barry 
 
 Lyndon 
 
 WARREN, Samuel. 
 
 249 Ten Thousand a Year 
 
 250 The Diary of a late 
 
 Physician 
 
 i 
 
 S 
 
Thirteenth] 
 
 Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser. 
 
 [Issue. 
 
 Gold Medals, Paris, 1878:1889. 
 
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Thirteenth] 
 
 Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser. 
 
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Thirteenth] Routledge's Railway Library Advertiser. 
 
 [Issue. 
 
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