233 
 
 
" I want to pledge my life to your service my life and all 
 I am." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 
 
 being a neu> 
 and enlarged version of 
 
 "THE SPIRlTo/SWEETWATER" 
 by 
 
 HAMLIN GARLAND 
 
 author of 
 
 Wayside Courtships, 
 Main Travelled Roads, 
 Prairie Songs, Etc,Etc. 
 
 Neuo York 
 Doubleday Page r Company 
 
 1906 
 
 , 
 
Copyright, 1898, 1906, by 
 
 Hnr.ilm Garlanc 
 Published, September, 1906 
 
 All rights reserved, 
 
 including that of translation into foreign languages 
 including the Scandinavian. 
 
ZULIME TAFT GARLAND, 
 MY WIFE, 
 
 ffl 
 
 228620 
 
Author s Foreword 
 
 ONE August day some ten or twelve 
 years ago, I was riding over the 
 splendid road which leads from- Cripple 
 Creek to Colorado Springs, in the stage 
 which was at that time a three-seated moun 
 tain wagon. A woman sat with the driver, 
 and some person of no moment to me then 
 or now, occupied the place beside me; but 
 the rear seat was filled by two stalwart 
 miners or rather, a miner and a mining 
 engineer, who furnished the only conversa 
 tion during the trip. It was all about the 
 camp, new mines and old, shafts, upraises, 
 faulting veins and the like, and mightily 
 interesting to me it all was, for I, too, was 
 prospecting, seeking a "lead" with eyes 
 
viii AUTHOR S FOREWORD 
 
 open to any piece of "float" which might 
 indicate a vein higher up. 
 
 I had in mind to write a story showing 
 how a man of average moral sense might 
 find his conscience quickened by the thought 
 of approaching marriage with a good wom 
 an. I needed a situation wherein my hero 
 (to use the old term) would be quite within 
 the law and yet morally culpable. I had 
 dimly foreshadowed the scene where Rich 
 ard Clement felt the eyes of his bride-elect 
 contemplating with startled surprise a cer 
 tain dubious action of his business life, and 
 the mining engineer in the seat behind me 
 supplied the exact theme, in a story he told 
 of a certain mine filled with mysterious, re 
 fractory ore. 
 
 I began upon the story that night and 
 called it "Witch s Gold." Later, yielding 
 to the needs of a serial publication, I cut 
 
AUTHOR S FOREWORD ix 
 
 down the story and called it "The Spirit of 
 S\\ eetwater," intending to restore it to its 
 original form in the book edition. A com 
 bination of circumstances prevented this and 
 the story was put into a series of novelettes 
 in the same form and under the same name 
 as when serialized. 
 
 In this edition the tale opens precisely as 
 it was originally written, and the reasons for 
 restoring the original title will, I think, ap 
 pear in the text. The revision of the manu 
 script for this present, final form has re 
 sulted in considerable new material which 
 appears here for the first time, but the course 
 of the love-story and the situations remain 
 substantially the same as in the original 
 
 writing. 
 
 HAMLIN GARLAND. 
 
 March 14, 1906. 
 

 
 UJh 
 
 . 
 
 PAGF? 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 VII 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 i? 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 3 2 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 42 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 62 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 85 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 - 99 
 
 CHAPTER VIII . 
 
 , 121 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 I3 1 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 152 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 , 161 
 
 CHAPTER XII . 
 
 . 179 
 
 CHAPTER XIII . 
 
 . 218 
 
Characters in tfte Storp 
 
 ELLICE Ross, in search of health. 
 
 MR. Ross, her father. 
 
 SARAH Ross, her aunt. 
 
 RICHARD CLEMENT, her lover. 
 
 DAN McCARTY, who "grub-stakes" Clement. 
 
 BIDDY McCARTY, treasurer of The Biddy. 
 
 ELDRED, financier. 
 
 BODAVITZ, his lawyer. 
 
" I want to pledge my life 
 to your service my life 
 and all I am " . . Frontispie 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Her face was thin, and 
 
 her head shapely, but 
 
 her eyes burned like 
 
 rarest topaz deep and 
 dark and sad " 
 
 There was a s i- 
 lence, a very awe 
 some silence follow 
 ing the defiant ring 
 of the voice " 
 
THE MYSTERY OF MOUNTAINS 
 
 As the sun sinks 
 And the canons deepening in colour 
 
 Add mystery to silence, 
 Then the lone traveller, lying outstretched 
 Beneath the silent pines on some high range^ 
 Watches and listens in ecstasy of fear 
 
 And timorous admiration* 
 
 In the roar of the stream he catches 
 
 The reminiscent echo of colossal cataract*} 
 
 In the cry of the cliff-bird 
 He thinks he hears the eagle s scream 
 Or the yowl of far-off mountain-cat; 
 
 And the fall of a loose rock 
 
 Seems the menacing footfall of the grizzly bear; 
 While in the black deeps of the lower fords 
 His dreaming eyes detect once more 
 Prodigious lines of buffalo, crawling snake-wise 
 
 Athwart the stream, 
 And files of Indian warriors 
 Go winding downward to the distant plain, 
 
 Where the camp-fires gleam like tfars. 
 
y 
 
 WITCH S 
 GOLD 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 ONE afternoon in August a miner 
 came out of the red jaws of a tunnel 
 on the rounded hill-side of a Cripple Creek 
 claim. He looked old and haggard, and 
 was bent with digging and stained with soil 
 and powder-smoke but he was in fact 
 young. Taking a seat on a rock he gazed 
 away at the landscape with eyes which saw 
 nothing before him. 
 
 It was nearly sunset, and he had toiled all 
 day without food and was weak and pale 
 with hunger. Overcome by a blinding 
 weakness he had dropped his pick at the end 
 of his tunnel and staggered to the daylight 
 with only a dull despairing realisation that 
 he had come to the end. 
 
2 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 For weeks he had trodden his narrow way 
 like some incredibly patient subterranean 
 animal, picking steadily at the red rock and 
 breathing the close dank air of his burrow, 
 coming only occasionally to the light, his 
 mind set on penetrating ever deeper into the 
 hill. 
 
 The sun had gone down behind immense 
 clouds which rose in the west in shape like 
 a prodigious mountain range. Behind him, 
 luminous as moons, the smooth hills rose, 
 while far to the south a mighty rampart of 
 peaks lifted into the sky, cold and white and 
 stern as marble. Below him lay the camp 
 a straggling row of battlemented stores 
 with cabins of pine and aspen scattered 
 along the sod as a child might spill an apron- 
 full of pine blocks upon a parlour car 
 pet. The smooth slopes were everywhere 
 speckled with little red heaps of earth mark- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 3 
 
 ing the spots where other hopeful and untir 
 ing prospectors had tried for gold. 
 
 Down the converging trails which meshed 
 the blotched and ulcerated hills, men were 
 moving like ants, their shouldered tools and 
 swinging dinner-pails flashing in the sun 
 light. Blasts were booming from the 
 emptied deeper mines like leisurely siege- 
 guns, and a train was winding like a fleeting 
 serpent among the lower forests for all 
 this land was composed of grassy mountain 
 tops more than ten thousand feet above the 
 sea. 
 
 The miner s cabin which joined the tun 
 nel s mouth was a dug-out built of aspen 
 poles in the front and roofed with sods. It 
 contained a bunk, a small stove, a kettle, a 
 frying pan and a knife and fork. Once 
 it had contained a cup and saucer, but the 
 saucer had been broken the cup stood 
 
4 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 alone. It was not a home, it was a den 
 little better than that of a fox. 
 
 For weeks this tall young man had 
 lived upon a sort of batter made of second 
 grade flour and water, drinking coffee with 
 out milk or sugar and now at last he had 
 reached a depth when not even a spoonful 
 of this desolating fare was left him. His 
 money was gone much of it to the assayer 
 and the blacksmith and his head was swim 
 ming with weakness and hopeless pain. 
 
 He had thrown his pick aside at last. 
 All was ended. Nothing was left him now 
 but to beg a meal and to seek a job. He 
 had the foolish shrinking from this which 
 a man feels who has never borrowed without 
 returning promptly, who has always earned 
 every cent he spent and who owes no man 
 anything. All the security and repose and 
 plenty of his boyhood s home in the East 
 
WITCH S GOLD 5 
 
 came back to him with tantalising clearness. 
 It was all so far away. 
 
 Now that the last stroke of his pick had 
 been made he saw how foolishly persistent, 
 how insanely hopeful he had been. 
 
 " If I go I must go now," he said to 
 himself, and rose and stumbled down the 
 trail with no clear conception of what he 
 was doing or where he should find food 
 he only knew he was hungry and chill, and 
 there down there where the lights blazed, 
 was meat and fire but not friends. He 
 knew no one well enough to call them 
 friends. He had never been much given to 
 saloon life and had almost always taken his 
 glass of beer and his dinner alone, returning 
 to his hole in the hill with scarcely a word of 
 greeting to any other soul. 
 
 His heavy slumping step jarred his head 
 painfully, but he could not lighten it his 
 
6 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 will could do no more than guide his stag 
 gering feet down the path; he seemed about 
 to fall on his face like a drunken man. 
 
 His trail led him across a little flat where 
 on a negro was placer-mining, rocking 
 an old-fashioned cradle. Hitherto he had 
 spoken to this man pleasantly as he passed, 
 but now when he needed a cup of coffee 
 and some meat, he hurried unsteadily by 
 without so much as looking toward his hut. 
 He was afraid the man might know that he 
 was famishing. 
 
 As he entered the camp the smell of in 
 numerable suppers aroused in him a fury 
 of hunger. Through the open doorways of 
 the little poplar pole cabins he could see men 
 sitting at supper with their wives and chil 
 dren. The scant cheer, even of the tents, 
 seemed to be luxurious beyond the reach of 
 any one but a God-favoured mortal. The 
 
WITCH S GOLD 7 
 
 glimpse of a woman in a home seemed peril 
 ously beautiful. On the street he was 
 familiar only with the post office, one or two 
 restaurants, the bar room of the principal 
 hotel, and the grocery where he purchased 
 his supplies and he walked aimlessly on 
 past them all. 
 
 It was Saturday night and the street 
 swarmed with miners, gamblers, speculators 
 and cowboys, but was quiet and orderly in 
 spite of its throng. Talk was quiet and the 
 noise of the sidewalk came to him as a mur 
 mur and a slow bustle. Men filled the 
 saloons and gambling houses till they 
 seemed convention halls. Roughly clad 
 toilers sitting on nail kegs before the doors 
 seemed to be in slow rumination of their 
 evening meal. Others still had a hungry 
 look and a listless dragging gait like his 
 own. That they were tired and hungry 
 
8 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 too he knew. One man stopped another 
 and asked for money; and this seemed so 
 base that the miner hurried on out ofi 
 hearing as if the act might contaminate 
 him. 
 
 In the windows he could perceive without 
 turning his head, delicious brown loaves of 
 bread and boiled ham and pies. The 
 aroma of coffee allured from every open 
 doorway. The men he passed savoured of 
 roast pork and pudding. His nostrils, 
 made sensitive by need, had taken on the 
 keenness of a hound s, and his sufferings 
 sharpened with every step. Turning, he 
 reascended the street to the post office. 
 
 He had no expectation of a letter, but to 
 keep his mind from food to put off his 
 beggary for a moment, he turned in and 
 approached the window. 
 
 " Clement," he called hoarsely. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 9 
 
 " Richard? " asked the brisk clerk. 
 " One two cents due on it." 
 
 Clement recoiled as if the clerk had thrust 
 his fist at him. His face was livid as he 
 stammered : 
 
 " I I haven t a cent with me. Keep 
 it till to-morrow." 
 
 The clerk understood. He blustered a 
 little to justify himself. 
 
 " Well, all right pay it when you come 
 next time. Only it ain t business. I get 
 left about half the time." 
 
 Clement took the letter and opened it 
 with trembling fingers. It was from home 
 in his sister s writing, a beautiful un 
 shaded hair-line tracing, deliberate and re 
 fined. It was a message of peace and good 
 will, expressing the hope that he was turning 
 out the gold in nuggets as big as potatoes. 
 It was jocose and newsy and careful, and 
 
10 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 every word threw Clement s failure into 
 darker shadow. 
 
 He walked down the street again with 
 his shame still hot on his forehead. The 
 security and peace of the house from which 
 that letter came, and its allusion to nuggets, 
 made him groan with self -pitying emotion. 
 
 He halted before a saloon and stood 
 against an awning post to recover himself. 
 
 " Let me see let me see," he muttered 
 irresolutely like a man in a dream. " I 
 must eat or I ll be sick." 
 
 His dim eyes became aware of a splendid 
 young cowboy standing in the doorway. 
 He knew the man by sight as Black Mose, 
 a trailer and desperado. He was dressed 
 in a close fitting cutaway coat of black. 
 His shoes, tie, collar were all neat and in 
 good taste. He wore a broad rimmed 
 black hat, his face was cleanly shaven and 
 
WITCH S GOLD 11 
 
 his fine mustache waxed in his chin was 
 a fine dimple. 
 
 Clement thought, " Here is the man to 
 help me," and started toward the young 
 fellow, but at his first step he reeled and 
 nearly fell, and the cowboy caught him, and 
 looking down at him with a beautiful smile, 
 said indulgently: 
 
 "Careful! old man use both feet and 
 don t mix em up." 
 
 Clement went off down the walk as 
 guiltily as if he had in very truth drunkenly 
 lurched upon the friendly youth. 
 
 As he came opposite the " Dime Restau 
 rant " where he had eaten many meals, and 
 heard the clatter of dishes, he thought: 
 " Dan will give me a biscuit and a cup of 
 coffee," but he passed on irresolutely, 
 ashamed, afraid. As he turned and passed 
 the door a second time, He saw plump Mrs. 
 
12 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 McCarty waiting on the tables while Dan 
 sat at the desk in front selling cigars and 
 punching the tickets. He was passing the 
 door a third time when he heard Dan laugh 
 and this hearty roar decided him to enter. 
 
 As he stumbled over the sill and into 
 Dan s sight, the jolly little Irishman called 
 out: 
 
 " Good avenin , Mr. Clement. Howly 
 turf, man! " he cried, and caught Clement 
 by the arm. "Biddy here s a sick mon " 
 
 "Sick!" she called. "More like it s a 
 soak. Lave him go, Dan. Why Mr. 
 Clement is it yourself? " she cried with a 
 change of tone. What ails ye, sure?" 
 
 Clement muttered unintelligibly as they 
 led him to a chair at the nearest table. 
 
 Biddy studied him with experienced eyes. 
 "Dan, tis not drink it s hunger! Wait 
 till I bring him some soup." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 13 
 
 Clement looked up at them without a 
 word scarcely comprehending what they 
 said. He waited apathetically. His cheek 
 bones produced bluish hollows on his ghast 
 ly face, and his eyes were as piteous in ap 
 peal as those of a wounded dog. At last 
 he made an effort to speak. He whispered 
 huskily: 
 
 " I I came in, Dan, to ask you to to 
 grub-stake me for a week I ll strike it in 
 a few days I know " 
 
 " He wants me to grub-stake J im," Dan 
 explained to Biddy as she returned with a 
 bowl of hot soup : 
 
 " Grub-stake is ut? What he wants is a 
 beefsteak here drink this! " 
 
 Clement took the soup in his trembling 
 hands, and drank it like a thirsty child. 
 
 " Not too fast now," warned Biddy. 
 "Bedad, that ll run into his blood to beat 
 
14 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 any liquor in the world. See him hearten 
 up! He ll be himself in five minutes! " 
 
 There was only one man left in the room, 
 a large man with a wide, red, pleasant face 
 adorned with a big mustache. He had 
 sunny blue eyes and a winning smile. He 
 rose and came over to the table where 
 Clement sat waiting for the whirl of his 
 brain to cease in order that he might frame 
 a sentence of thanks and another of ex 
 planation. He knew the big man by sight. 
 He was a prospector by the name of Kelly 
 Kelly of Squaw Mountain. A man who 
 could trail up the float of a ledge as a 
 hunter follows the slot of a deer. 
 
 e Why Clement, what s the matter with 
 ye? " he heartily asked. 
 
 " I m used up," Clement made slow re 
 ply. " Hungry, dead broke and sick. I 
 guess I ve been crazy too." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 15 
 
 "Well that s tough luck," said Kelly. 
 " But don t give up. You re fur enough 
 down now to make a strike. All the big 
 strikes come when a man s worked his heart 
 into his boots and is just ready to give up. 
 Keep at it. Your chances are good on that 
 lead. If I hadn t more holes in the ground 
 than I ve dollars in me pocket, I d give ye 
 a lift on that deal." 
 
 " I think not, Kelly," put in Dan. " I 
 was jist arrangin to grub-stake Mr. Clem 
 ent meself." 
 
 Kelly winked at Clement as if to say: 
 "I ve fixed it for you," and walked away. 
 
 " Now thin," said Dan, "to bed ye goes, 
 and to-morrow we ll talk business." 
 
 That night was one of delicious, dream 
 less sleep, and when he woke Richard was 
 himself again. By noon of next day " The 
 Biddy Mining Company " was formed 
 
16 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 Richard Clement, president; Dan McCarty, 
 vice-president ; Biddy McCarty, treasurer 
 though Biddy was sceptical, as she had 
 reason to be from hard experience. 
 
 " Sure that lukes well but what shall I 
 be when the gould comes in a receiver? " 
 
 Clement smiled. 
 
 " We hope we ll never go into the hands 
 of any other receiver." 
 
 As he went back up the hill to the deso 
 late little cabin, the young miner s heart was 
 big with hope. Kelly s words, " Ye re low 
 enough now to make a strike " seemed to 
 have the significance of prophecy. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 -TyrOTWITHSTANDING Kelly s or- 
 -1- ^1 acular saying, the hill refused to 
 yield its treasure to Richard Clement, and 
 in his second descent to pennilessness he 
 carried the loyal Dan and Biddy with him. 
 They began by grub-staking him, they 
 ended by taking desperate chances with 
 him. All Dan s little store of ready money 
 went first, then a mortgage was put on the 
 eating house and its scanty furniture. 
 This was also very soon used up in cost of 
 tramway and tools and powder. 
 
 Clement accepted all these sacrifices with 
 a look in his face such as gamblers wear. 
 He knew he was stripping his friends to 
 the skin, but he believed (with the intensity 
 
18 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 of a maniac) that his mine would enable him 
 to give back thousands for every dollar they 
 put in. He toiled like a giant, and when 
 they could no longer help, he worked on 
 alone. 
 
 Dan had days when he utterly despaired, 
 but Clement never gave up. He slept only 
 to dream night after night of opening a 
 vein which should yield hundreds of dollars 
 to the ton. He struggled on, lending his 
 great strength to the most arduous, un 
 wholesome phases of the work sparing 
 himself in no regard. He seemed endowed 
 with the resolution of five men. His op 
 timism could not be called good cheer it 
 was grewsome like the grin of a madman. 
 So long as he could procure food he per 
 sisted. 
 
 His influence over Dan and Biddy was 
 sinister uncanny. When not in his pres- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 19 
 
 ence they sank into measureless depths and 
 not infrequently Biddy wailed in stormy 
 Irish fashion over their situation, but they 
 both rallied quickly to smiles when Clement 
 turned his rapt eyes on them, and Dan 
 would often take up his dinner pail after he 
 had set it down with a solemn word never to 
 climb the hill again, for when the money 
 gave out he had joined Clement at the 
 mine, leaving Biddy to run the eating 
 place alone. 
 
 At last the day came when they could not 
 meet the payment of the interest on the 
 mortgage, and the money lender curtly 
 said: " Very well I must take possession 
 then." 
 
 That night was a dark one for the three 
 partners of " The Biddy" The president 
 sat and stared blankly at the floor, the vice- 
 president groaned dismally and the treas- 
 
20 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 urer threw her apron over her head and 
 rocked and wailed in unassuageable grief. 
 
 In the morning the creditor would take 
 possession, but had promised to retain 
 Biddy as cook " Me that s been me own 
 boss fer over twelve years me to go back 
 in me own kitchen an work fer wages like 
 a Chinee Sure it s haird, Misther Clem 
 ent so tis not that I blame you but it s 
 haird." 
 
 Then Clement began to talk, and though 
 a man of few words ordinarily, he could at 
 need " Charm the bird in the bush," Biddy 
 said. He began with the cunning indirect 
 ness of a maniac. 
 
 " Dan did you notice that rock to-day? 
 It was getting softer and more moist, the 
 last two feet almost trickled with moisture. 
 Do you know what that means? It means 
 we re approaching The Golden Eagle s 
 
WITCH S GOLD 21 
 
 vein. I feel absolutely sure of it. The 
 rock is the same, and you know they struck 
 water about twenty feet before they 
 touched the vein." 
 
 He went on and on dilating upon all the 
 successes of the camp how men had struck 
 it rich with the last despairing stroke of the 
 pick. All the minute indications of change 
 in the rock he summed up, while Biddy for 
 got to weep and Dan lifted his head. It 
 was a marvellous address. It had in it the 
 allurement and the fascination of a gam 
 bler s plan for breaking a faro bank. At 
 last he said: 
 
 "All is not lost yet. Biddy can earn 
 enough to feed us on, if we keep to rye 
 bread and beans, and we can sleep in the 
 shack." 
 
 " But about powder and the black- 
 smithing? " said Dan. 
 
22 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 Clement smiled. 
 
 " You forget your little cocoanut bank." 
 
 Dan let out a shout. 
 
 " Sure go bring it, girl." 
 
 Biddy looked strangely perturbed. 
 
 "Now Danny darlin don t be fer 
 takin that which we laid up agin a rainy 
 day. Sure it s bad luck to use it fer this 
 hole in the ground May the divil fly off 
 widit!" 
 
 " Biddy, the silver s mine. I tuk it out 
 o meself it s the price of drinks I didn t 
 take. Go fetch it sure! " 
 
 " Dan, it s gone," Biddy faltered out, red 
 and nervous. 
 
 " Gone is it? Where gone? Who tuck 
 it?" 
 
 " I did, Dannie." 
 
 " Ye did? Fer what now? Spake 
 out!" 
 
WITCH S GOLD 23 
 
 " Sure Mrs. Mcllheny was wantin me 
 to go in wid her " 
 
 "Ferwhat?" 
 
 " A lottery ticket, darlin ." 
 
 "Howly turf!" gasped Dan. "A lot 
 tery ticket, an the two of us livin on bread 
 an water. How much was it? ye oma- 
 dhaun!" 
 
 " Twinty dollars wantin a quarter 
 which she lint me." 
 
 Dan went off into unintelligibility of 
 Irish invective, while Clement looked at 
 them both in silence. At last he said: 
 
 " Did you draw anything? " 
 
 " Faith, I don t know. I f ergot about it 
 entirely." 
 
 Dan flung his hat on the floor. This was 
 too much. 
 
 "Well of all the gawks in the warrld! 
 Where is it?" 
 
24 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 She brought the ticket out much cast 
 down. 
 
 Clement seized it. 
 
 " Let me take it. I ll find out what 
 you ve drawn." 
 
 He dashed out of the house and was gone 
 nearly half an hour. He returned in tri 
 umph. 
 
 "We re all right!" he cried. "One of 
 the tickets drew thirty dollars." He said 
 thirty dollars in tones which made it seem 
 like a thousand. " I got Kennedy to ad 
 vance me twenty dollars." He laid down 
 four shining gold pieces. " That will 
 carry us a long way into the rock." 
 
 His will was sovereign yet they ac 
 cepted his command, and Biddy went to 
 work in the kitchen as cook, and Dan went 
 back to the mine to slave at his pick. 
 
 In a few days they had only one of the 
 
WITCH S GOLD 25 
 
 coins left, and as they were going up the 
 trail one morning, Dan took it from his 
 pocket to emphasise some remark about their 
 final stroke of work, and in making a wild 
 gesture it slipped from his stiffened fingers 
 and rolled into the grass of the hillside. 
 
 They spent hours in agonising search for 
 that coin. They combed the grass with 
 their fingers, and at last literally lifted the 
 turf and sifted it. It was late in the after 
 noon before they found it, and Clement im 
 mediately used it in purchasing giant 
 powder in order to make sure of it. 
 
 By Saturday night their powder was 
 gone, they had no food, their tools were 
 worn out, and they were thin and bent with 
 their terrible labour. They were now at 
 their last ditch ; nothing remained but to se 
 cure another member of the firm or quit 
 one seemed almost as desperate as the other. 
 
26 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 To secure a fourth member of the firm 
 was very difficult indeed, for winter was 
 upon them and there were fewer " tender- 
 feet " in the camp, and no one but a very 
 inexperienced person would pay good 
 money to become a part owner in a damp 
 hole in the ground. 
 
 That night Dan and Clement started out. 
 Clement arranged it. 
 
 " Now Dan, I ll go down street, you go 
 up. Try every man you know. Don t 
 skip a soul. We must raise some money to 
 night. I hate to let anybody in now to reap 
 the reward of all our labour but it must be 
 done." 
 
 It was really a hard task which Clement 
 set for himself to admit even in thought 
 some other man into his mine when they 
 were so close upon riches. He had always 
 been a man of powerful intuitional percep- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 27 
 
 tion. Working alone deep in the earth had 
 made him still more subjective. All along 
 he had heard little voices call him from the 
 solid wall of rock. He had visions there in 
 the dark, and after they met and passed 
 the water vein, he imagined he could hear in 
 its plashing the words : " Merrily pick, 
 pick. Merrily pick, pack." He had spok 
 en to Dan of this conviction, but his belief 
 in their nearness to the pay-rock was so 
 strong he could not bring himself to speak 
 to a single one of his acquaintances about his 
 need of funds. For an hour he walked up 
 and down the street, silent, aimless, busied 
 with plans for going forward without tak 
 ing on another partner. 
 
 He dared not go back to Dan without 
 doing something, however, and at last wan 
 dered into a saloon before making final 
 choice of subject. It was nearly eleven 
 
28 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 o clock, and the crowd had thinned out and 
 the room was quiet. At one of the tables a 
 dark, small young fellow was playing rou 
 lette with four or five gamblers looking on. 
 He had gambled heavily and had already 
 won several hundred dollars. His face was 
 drawn with excitement and Clement stood 
 watching him, saying to himself, " He ll 
 lose it all. It ll all go back to the banker. 
 If only we had it! It might make him 
 thousands if he came in with us." The 
 sight of the money led to calculations of the 
 powder and tools it would buy and an im 
 pulse to speak to this little man came to 
 Clement. Laying his hand on the stran 
 ger s arm the miner said firmly: "Quit 
 right now. You will never have a better 
 chance." 
 
 His voice had the ring of command, of un 
 assailable integrity and good-will and in- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 29 
 
 stantly impressed the young fellow, for he 
 rose with a sigh of relief saying: 
 
 " I guess you re right. They say a man 
 never quits when he s a winner, but I ll 
 show em I can. I d about made up my 
 mind to do it." He cashed in, and 
 with a grin of triumph walked off with 
 Clement. 
 
 Neither spoke until they had passed to 
 the opposite side of the street. Then the 
 stranger spoke and in his tone was some 
 thing unpleasant. 
 
 " You look the right kind. Where do 
 you hail from? " 
 
 " I am from Iowa," assured Clement with 
 effort. 
 
 " Iowa? So do I. What part? " 
 
 Ultimately, much against his will, Clem 
 ent presented the case of ff The Biddy " and 
 offered a quarter interest therein. 
 
30 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 The young fellow, whose name was El- 
 dred, seemed taken with the idea. 
 
 " If your mine is what you say it is, I ll 
 go in. That s what I m out here for." 
 
 " You can ask Matt Kelly or any of the 
 best prospectors to-morrow, and if they 
 don t say it s all right, I won t say a word 
 more." And with this they said good night 
 and Clement went to Dan with the news 
 of what he had done. " I don t like the 
 man," said he, "but he is going to come 
 
 in." 
 
 Eldred was early over next day and Kelly 
 out of the goodness of his heart went with 
 the tenderfoot to show him the mine and to 
 give an opinion as to its value. " Without 
 doubt, if you push deep enough, you ll 
 tap The Golden Eagle vein," he said, " and 
 as for Clement, he s as reliable as anny man 
 with his mind set on finding gold." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 31 
 
 On the strength of Kelly s words Eldred 
 came in with four hundred dollars, and 
 ff The Biddy ** resounded again with ham 
 mer-strokes and with dull thunderings and 
 eruptions of smoke at intervals. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 FT! HEY had used up the four hundred 
 J- dollars and were again working on 
 credit, when one morning after the first 
 blast, Clement came out of the tunnel hold 
 ing in each hand a lump of ore. He stag 
 gered like a man paralysed with bad whis 
 key. His legs wobbled. There she is," 
 he whispered, offering a piece of the ore 
 to his partners. Dan snatched it from him 
 as a starving man seizes bread. 
 
 "There she is God bless her!" he 
 shouted, kissing the rock in very ecstacy of 
 faith. Rushing a sample to the assayer s 
 office they all hung about, forgetting time, 
 food, everything, till he yielded up the little 
 
WITCH S GOLD 33 
 
 shining button which lay in the cup s bot 
 tom. 
 
 " It yields about four hundred and sev 
 enty dollars to the ton," he said impassively. 
 
 The three men looked at each other and 
 crept away like a band of burglars caught 
 by the dawn. 
 
 " Boys," said Clement in a half whisper, 
 " we ve struck it heavy, but we ve got to 
 look out or we ll have a dozen contests to 
 fight. We mustn t let anybody know what 
 we ve got not now not till we ve sold 
 some ore! " 
 
 Thereafter they toiled and sweat to se 
 cretly mine a car load of the ore. They 
 sacked it and hauled it down to the car at 
 night. If they could but sell a car load, 
 they d have money enough to fight any 
 contest out for a few days at least. Night 
 after night when the moon was set they 
 
34 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 loaded their wagon with ore and drove 
 down to the railway moving stealthily, 
 seeking the shadow and at last they 
 shipped; and thereafter they counted the 
 hours till they should be able to hear from 
 the car. They could not work they could 
 scarcely eat they merely waited, waited. 
 
 At last the letter came and they all clus 
 tered around while Clement read off the re 
 sult so much gross weight, so much tare, 
 so much lead, so much silver and so much 
 gold. 
 
 "What s that?" asked Eldred. 
 
 Clement bent to the page again. 
 
 " That s what it says. Six dollars to the 
 ton." 
 
 " There s something wrong there." 
 
 " Wrong? " shouted Dan. " We re bun 
 coed. They stole it. Didn t every assay 
 show over four hundred? " 
 
WITCH S GOLD 35 
 
 " They couldn t do that. There s some 
 mistake," Clement stated. " Some clerk 
 has blundered." 
 
 But there was no mistake. The yield of 
 gold bore no ratio to the assay. For the 
 second car load they got hardly a sufficient 
 return to pay for the expense of mining. 
 Thereupon they sent a car load to another 
 mill the result was the same. Then they 
 tried the cyanide and other processes the 
 returns varied somewhat, but in general 
 each car load fell far below the assay. 
 There was not even day wages in the last 
 shipment they made. The assayer upon 
 whom they fell was unshakable. " The 
 gold was in the sample. I don t know 
 where you got that." 
 
 Biddy and Dan were deeply discouraged, 
 and Eldred was furious. He seemed to con 
 sider Clement culpable some way. 
 
36 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 Clement himself was mystified but by no 
 means defeated. At college he had been a 
 good student in chemistry and mineralogy, 
 and he now sat down and pondered the prob 
 lem. He consulted every expert he knew. 
 He went down and watched the ore go 
 through the mill, to see if he could not dis 
 cover the leakage. All to no purpose. 
 Some mysterious element in the rock pre 
 vented the gold from fusing kept it sol 
 uble, perhaps, so that it escaped with the 
 water. On the night of his return, they all 
 gathered around him while he told them of 
 his investigation at the mill. 
 
 " I couldn t see anything out of the ordi 
 nary in the amalgam," he said. " It lay out 
 there on the plates as fine as anything you 
 ever saw. I put some in a bottle to show 
 you." Here he produced the phial and 
 started away from it in amazement. In- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 37 
 
 stead of being the silvery semi-solid he had 
 expected, the contents of the bottle had 
 changed to a yellow-green liquid. 
 
 Dan laughed at first, but Clement s word 
 less astonishment and perplexity sobered 
 him. " Phwat is it, boy? Ye look like a 
 man bitten." 
 
 Clement solemnly answered: "Boys, I 
 swear to you when I put that in there it was 
 as fine a quicksilver amalgam as you ever 
 saw. Look at it now. It s green as grass. 
 See for yourself," he added holding it to 
 ward Dan. The big Irishman drew back 
 as if it were a rattlesnake. 
 
 " Go awn wid it! " he shouted. "It s be 
 witched!" 
 
 Biddy crossed herself and whispered 
 hoarsely : 
 
 "That s it it s witches gould that s 
 what it is! I ll have no more to do wid it. 
 
38 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 The divil s in it. Take it away. It s 
 witches gould." 
 
 They all sat about in blank despair, their 
 eyes fixed upon the mysterious element- 
 awed and baffled all but Clement, whose 
 eyes showed a mind at grapple with an in 
 ternal problem. 
 
 " I ll never give up," he quietly an 
 nounced. 
 
 " I m out of it," decided Dan. " I ll go no 
 more into that hole. The divil is in it sure! " 
 
 " I don t believe the gold was ever in the 
 rock," said Eldred, ever ready to criticise 
 to complain. * You ve been fooling us." 
 He was working himself into a fury when 
 Dan silenced him. 
 
 " I never give up," repeated Clement. 
 What will you take for your shares?" 
 
 "An old hat a pipe o tobaccy any 
 thing at all," growled Dan. " It s ill-luck I 
 
WITCH S GOLD 39 
 
 see fer the man that goes into that mine! " 
 But neither he nor Eldred believed that 
 Clement would or could go on. " Come 
 on Biddy, me darlin , it s us to the samp 
 heap again," Dan added tenderly and so in 
 silence and deep depression the three went 
 away leaving Clement alone with his green 
 mystery. 
 
 All night he sat pondering over his text 
 books, and examining the liquid. At last he 
 began to weaken. 
 
 " Am I never to succeed? Am I always 
 to follow close on my fleeing fortune, and 
 never grasp even the hem of her gar 
 ment? " he asked himself, and with the 
 asking his head drooped forward and lay 
 upon his arm. He was at the point where 
 nothing could help him but sleep. 
 
 Richard Clement was the strong stem of 
 
40 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 a decaying New England family tree. He 
 was not merely the head of his family, he 
 was its only producer, and it was because 
 of his feeling of responsibility that he had 
 taken up this venture in the mountain vein. 
 He had small credit, for the cautious old 
 farmers of his native village had no faith 
 in mines. His brother was just making 
 but a bare living and could not come to his 
 aid. There was but one thing to do. The 
 homestead must be divided and his own share 
 sold. 
 
 He had promised never to do this. He 
 liked to think that there was one place of 
 
 safe anchorage, one little rood of ground to 
 i 
 
 which he had a deep-laid right but firmly 
 believing in his ability to make this vein yield 
 up his gold he was prepared to make sacri 
 fice to his faith. A few days later he wrote 
 to his brother directing the sale of his share 
 
 
WITCH S GOLD 41 
 
 of the farm, and with this money bought 
 out Eldred, paying him back all he put in 
 with which sum he professed to be satisfied. 
 To Dan and Biddy he returned so much 
 as he could spare, and gave his note for the 
 rest, and so sole owner of the mystic vein 
 of ore, he sat down to the task of resolv 
 ing it. 
 
CHAPTER IV; 
 
 MANITOU SPRINGS is a village in 
 a canon, out of which rise two won 
 derful springs of water whose virtues are 
 known throughout the world. The canon 
 itself depends from the breast of Pike s 
 Peak like a fold in the robe of a king. Pike 
 is indeed a monarch, lord of the vast ram 
 part range and sentinel of a thousand miles 
 of plain. The clouds are seldom dense 
 enough to cloak his summit, and from the 
 hot scorching prairie to the east the toiling 
 husbandmen turn to the mountain s cool, 
 snowy heights with longing eyes. His 
 crest is a lighthouse of storms, a thing stead 
 fast in the midst of change. 
 
 The village and its life centres around 
 
WITCH S GOLD 43 
 
 the springs which have such quality that the 
 Utes who once drank of them called them 
 " Sweetwater." And each month in the 
 year, but especially in July and August, the 
 tired, weary and uneasy ones from the burn 
 ing land below come up to sit in the deep 
 shadow of the peak and to drink copiously 
 of the health-giving water. 
 
 Not all are sick and weary, for many 
 come because the mountains are beautiful 
 and because the canons call and the cloud- 
 shadows have tales to tell. Those who are 
 tired of the heat and light and monotony 
 of the plain, come in search of that which 
 completes their world the heights and the 
 union of the level lands with the great peaks 
 satisfies and heals. 
 
 Besides these good things there are other 
 and more compelling joys. Young people 
 meet around the spring to flash most inti- 
 
44 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 mate messages across their cups of sparkling 
 water, and love is ever present and ever ac 
 tive in the throngs and when the moon 
 shines on windless nights and music echoes 
 across the canon and the laughter of girls 
 drowns the ripple of the streams the springs 
 are in fairyland. Labour seems far away 
 and the world a perpetual love fete and 
 summer time. 
 
 Among the people thronging about the 
 spring that July night Richard Clement, 
 the big miner, felt out of place. He was not 
 at the springs for his health s sake, though 
 there were certainly signs of age in his hair 
 and lines of care on his strong, firm face. 
 His strength, his resolution, his perfect 
 health were noticeable qualities in fact, he 
 did not care to shout his reasons for coming. 
 For the first time since the installation of 
 the new machinery in his mine, The Witch, 
 
WITCH S GOLD 45 
 
 he had been able to lift his head and look 
 about him, and with this leisure came a sud 
 den longing to rest and to mix with his kind 
 once more, and in the trail of this desire came 
 pleasant memories of the life at the springs 
 which he had glimpsed once or twice on a 
 swift flight to the capital. 
 
 Deep in his secret heart rested a hope 
 (wordless as yet) that somehow, somewhere 
 among those who came to the springs, he 
 would see again a girl- face that had troubled 
 him for a year. He had arranged his vaca 
 tion for July not because it was ever hot at 
 the mine, but because it was in July that the 
 springs swarmed most alluringly with wom 
 en, and because it was in July that he had 
 seen, only for a moment, that beautiful 
 young visitor. It would have troubled him 
 had any one accused him of deliberately set 
 ting out to find a mate, and it had been much 
 
46 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 easier to think of mixing with his kind while 
 deep in his mine than here among the 
 laughing, bustling throng. There were so 
 many women in the world, and he was shy! 
 He had always been a self -unconscious 
 man, and hardly realised how widely his 
 name had gone over the land as the possessor 
 of millions. He supposed himself an unno 
 ticed atom as he stood there, a little outside 
 the flow of the stream of health-seekers and 
 pleasure-seekers, but in this he was mistaken, 
 for he really made a striking and very hand 
 some figure, and many asked about him. He 
 had the air of sombrely looking down upon 
 his kind of disdainfully studying them in 
 their trivial amusements, and yet, at the mo 
 ment, he was regretting his inability to meet 
 and speak with the girls whose beauty ap 
 pealed to him as of greater value than his 
 jnine, 
 
WITCH S GOLD 47 
 
 The sun had gone behind the high peaks 
 to the west, and a delicious, dry coolness was 
 in the canon, and the walks were closely 
 thronged with what seemed to him to be 
 a very fashionable and leisurely company 
 so long had he been absent from people 
 either modish or easeful. He felt himself 
 hopelessly outside all this youthful brilliancy 
 and merriment. The maidens were so 
 young, so care- free, so full of laughing de 
 fiance of the world that he feared them. 
 How could a man of his age and character 
 approach such delicate, flashing butterflies? 
 Their beauty rendered him wistful, their 
 youth made him sad. 
 
 " To them I am an old man," he said, and 
 a desolate feeling swept over him. " I have 
 waited too long," and turned his eyes from 
 the gay dress of the women to a study of 
 the men. 
 
48 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 He perceived at length that they were not 
 all of the same conditions. Rough, brown 
 cowboys from La Junta and Cajon were 
 among them, and miners in tall boots, down 
 from the gulches for the night, stalked side 
 by side with business men from Denver and 
 Chicago. 
 
 As he pondered them, his memory fresh 
 ened and he came to understand them better. 
 He analysed them into familiar types. Here 
 were a banker and his wife from Pueblo 
 the wife fussy and consequential, the hus 
 band coldly dignified. There a merchant 
 from some Nebraska town he rustic of ex 
 terior while his children, dainty of dress 
 and very pretty, seemed the bloom on the 
 gnarled limbs of an old tree. Occasionally 
 a group of college-bred girls came up with 
 out escort alert, self -helpful and serene. 
 They saw Clement at once, and studied him 
 
WITCH S GOLD 49 
 
 carefully as they drank their beauty cup at 
 the circular bench before the spring. No 
 good looking man escaped their notice and 
 frank comment. " He can have me/ said 
 one with humorous exaggeration of her 
 admiration and Clement who overheard 
 her did not know that she referred to him. 
 
 And so they came in varied stream, all 
 Western, and of the well-to-do condition 
 for the larger part, good-humoured, patient, 
 and on the whole quietly joyous, notwith 
 standing the invalids. 
 
 The deft boy swung the glasses of water 
 on his tripartite dipper with ceaseless splash 
 and clink. There was a pleasant murmur 
 of talk in which an Eastern listener would 
 have heard the " r " sound well-defined, the 
 lingering effect of the Scotch and German 
 pioneers. 
 
 A good many couples were seated about 
 
50 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 the pavilion on the benches and railings, and 
 old men in chin whiskers with noses pointed 
 toward each other could be seen discussing 
 governmental policies with that fiercely de 
 terminate quality which marks the local 
 politician, while their plump old wives in 
 rumpled black silk gowns kept at least one 
 alert eye upon their daughters. 
 
 Each loiterer had fed, had taken his 
 draught of healing water and this was the 
 hour of pleasant gossip and repose. 
 
 Clement fell at last to analysing the 
 action of the boy who supplied the water 
 at the pool, slamming the glasses into the 
 water, and setting them on the bench with 
 a click as regular as a pump. Occasionally, 
 however, he lost his mechanical indifference 
 and handled his goblets as if they contained 
 nectar, indicating thus his most generous 
 patrons. Once he stopped and dipped the 
 
"Her face was thin, and her head shapely, but her eyes! 
 They burned like rarest topaz deep, dark and sad." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 
 
 glass into the pool with his own hand a 
 doubtful action and extended it with a 
 bow to a young lady who said " Thank 
 you" so sweetly that he blushed and stam 
 mered in reply. 
 
 This drew Clement s attention, and as the 
 young girl lifted the glass in her slim hand 
 he wondered how she had escaped his notice 
 for a single moment so pale, so fragile and 
 so lovely was she. She had the purity, the 
 translucence of a mountain columbine. 
 Her face was thin and her head shapely, but 
 her eyes burned like rarest topaz deep 
 and dark and sad unutterably sad and in 
 a curious sense unseeing. 
 
 A woman at Clement s side murmured to 
 a companion, with a sigh : 
 
 " There s that consumptive girl again. 
 She hasn t long to live, but isn t she too 
 lovely to die!" 
 
52 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 At this moment the girl turned almost 
 as if having overheard the doomful words, 
 and fixing her eyes upon Clement looked 
 upon him for a long time impersonally as 
 if he were a shadow. He shivered with a 
 sudden wave of feeling which was not awe, 
 nor compassion, nor love, but a mixture of 
 all of these. In his soul rose the subtlest 
 sadness in all the world the sadness of a 
 strong man who looks upon a beautiful 
 young girl who is dying. 
 
 Extremest languor was in her every 
 movement. She was dressed in dark, soft 
 garments very simple and graceful in ef 
 fect, and her bearing was that of one accus 
 tomed to the willing service of others. 
 Someone spoke to her and she smiled in 
 reply, but her smile was sadder than her 
 eyes which had in them the death-shadow. 
 
 Clement s action, the unwavering self- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 53 
 
 forgetful intentness of his look, at last 
 seemed to draw her soul to her eyes and she 
 faced him for an instant longer with a look 
 that searched him like a flaming light, then 
 turned away and took the arm of an elderly 
 gentleman who stood beside her. She 
 moved slowly, as a convalescent walks when 
 for the first time she is permitted a short 
 stroll in the outdoor air, and so passed from 
 sight among the strollers in the street. 
 
 The big miner roused and tense stood for 
 a moment in doubt hesitating whether to 
 follow or not a sudden singular pain in his 
 heart, as if he were losing something very 
 close to his life. The face he had so long 
 carried in his heart was gone in an instant, 
 displaced by the melancholy charm of this 
 sick girl s smile and deep internal glance. 
 
 Obeying the impulse to follow, he moved 
 on into the path, keeping just out of ear- 
 
54 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 shot, careless of observation. As he made 
 way through the crowd he grew keenly 
 aware of his heavy limbs, of his great height, 
 of his swinging, useless hands, so long had 
 it been since he had mingled with those in 
 holiday attire. He grew more cautious as 
 he went on, fearing someone might suspect 
 him of following the girl and yet some 
 how he wished her to know. 
 
 Once she turned and looked back, but was 
 too far away for him to discern the expres 
 sion of her face. That she was vaguely 
 hoping to see him again he could not 
 know. 
 
 He followed the father and daughter till 
 they turned in at the ladies entrance of the 
 principal hotel. Not daring to follow them 
 there, he kept on to the main entrance, ar 
 riving in time to see the girl again as she 
 paused a moment before attempting the 
 
WITCH S GOLD 55 
 
 stairway. It was pitiful to see her making 
 light of her weakness even as she waited for 
 strength to lift her foot. She smiled at her 
 father while she pressed one slim hand 
 against her bosom gasping for breath. 
 
 Clement longed to take her in his arms 
 and carry her up the stairway it seemed 
 the thing most worth doing in all the world 
 at that moment but he could only lean 
 against the desk and see them go slowly 
 stair by stair out of sight, his hands clenched 
 in involuntary effort. 
 
 " Who are they? " he asked of the clerk 
 who was also watching the girl with deep 
 interest. 
 
 " Chicago merchant, G. B. Ross. That s 
 his daughter. She s pretty far gone con 
 sumption, I reckon. He didn t bring her 
 here none too soon. Her lungs are clean 
 eaten out, they say. It looks tough to see 
 
56 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 a girl like that go off. You d think 
 now " 
 
 Clement did not remain to hear the clerk 
 moralise, but went immediately to his own 
 hotel, paid his bill, and ordered his baggage 
 sent to the house in which Mr. Ross had 
 taken shelter. He wondered at himself for 
 this overpowering interest in a sick girl, and 
 at his plan to see her again, but when he 
 was interested, he was accustomed to move 
 largely and decide promptly. 
 
 He reasoned that he would be able to see 
 her at breakfast time, provided she came 
 down to breakfast, and provided he hit 
 upon the same hour of eating. He began 
 to calculate upon her probable hours. She 
 occupied his thought completely all his 
 other interests were swept away were as 
 if they had never been. 
 
 He struck off up the canon where no 
 
WITCH S GOLD 57 
 
 sound was, other than the roar of the swift 
 little stream which seemed to lift its voice 
 in wilder clamour as the night fell. Its 
 presence helped him to think out his situa 
 tion. He had grown self -analytical during 
 his life in the camp, and had come to believe 
 in many strange things which he said noth 
 ing about to any friend he had. 
 
 He had come to believe in fate and also 
 in intuition. A powerful wish to do he now 
 accounted higher than reason. That is to 
 say, if a strong impulse came to him to run 
 a shaft in a certain direction he always fol 
 lowed the impulse, no matter if his reason 
 declared against it. The hidden and un 
 controllable processes of his mind had given 
 him the secret of the " witches gold," had 
 led him right in his shafting as well as in 
 his selection of friends and assistants had 
 indeed made him a millionaire at thirty- 
 
58 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 seven years of age. Therefore he had 
 come to profoundly value perhaps to over 
 value the intuitional side of his nature, and 
 to put aside calm reasoning, which was a 
 strange habit of mind for a business man 
 and the employer of many men. 
 
 Fate was, with him, luck raised to a 
 higher power. What was to be would be; 
 the unexpected happened; the expected, 
 hoped for, laboured for, did not always hap 
 pen. All around him men stumbled upon 
 mines, while other men, more skillful, more 
 observant, failed. Therefore he had come 
 to believe that the man who depended on the 
 five ordinary senses alone, was a poor thing 
 gold could not be smelled or tasted or 
 reasoned from the hills but it could be 
 lured forth by this other finer sense which 
 is of the mind yet beyond the mind. There 
 fore was it quite in harmony with his nature 
 
WITCH S GOLD 59 
 
 that he should be absorbed in the singular 
 and powerful desire to seek an acquaintance 
 with the poor dying girl. 
 
 Dying! At that word he rebelled. God 
 would not take so beautiful a creature away 
 from earth; men needed her to teach them 
 gentleness and submission. He had a 
 vision of her lying still in her coffin, with 
 that sweet faint smile on her lips, and with 
 this vision came a powerful impulse to go 
 to her, and putting aside doctors to say to 
 her: 
 
 " I am the one to help you. Come with 
 me into the sunshine and be healed." 
 
 He had never had a desire to heal before, 
 but the fact that it was definite and deep- 
 seated and not to be reasoned with fitted 
 with his philosophy. He had no idle 
 thoughts. The further fact that nothing 
 like it had ever come to him up to this 
 
60 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 moment, became each moment more sig 
 nificant. 
 
 She must not die! The wind, the moun 
 tains, the clear air, the good, sweet water, 
 the fragrant pines, the splendid sun these 
 things must help her. Feeling the mystery 
 of the world all about him, with the flaming 
 white moonlight falling like a cataract from 
 the deep sky, he rose to his feet and in his 
 heart said resolutely: " I can help her and 
 I will." 
 
 Back in the glare of the hotel rotunda, 
 with its rows of bored men sitting stolidly 
 smoking, idly talking, his impulse and his 
 resolution seemed unmanly and most pre 
 posterous. It is so easy to lose faith in the 
 elemental in the midst of the superficial and 
 the ephemeral of our daily habit. 
 
 Since the coming of his great wealth he 
 had scarcely allowed himself a day s vaca- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 61 
 
 tion, and he had grown ten years older in 
 that time and yet he was still spoken of as 
 a young man, but he was a conscientious 
 man, and the possession of great wealth was 
 not without its gravities. 
 
 He had intended a visit to his home on 
 the prairies, but that, too, had passed from 
 his mind or at least had been indefinitely 
 subordinated to his new desire the desire 
 to know and to help this dying girl. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THIS miner was an early riser, and not 
 withstanding his restless night, was 
 astir at six. The whole world had changed 
 for him. The mine and its interests seemed 
 far away. Life was no longer a concern of 
 ore and amalgams, shafts and tunnels, it was 
 a question of when he should see again a cer 
 tain sad, slender woman with wan, hope 
 less smile. Her face was no longer strange 
 to him, so continually, so searchingly had 
 he thought of her during the night. It 
 seemed that he must have known her 
 through long years, so completely had 
 she come to fill his life and inspire his 
 thoughts. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 63 
 
 For all his strength and tenacity of pur 
 pose he was a mystic a poet, prone to take 
 what is contemptuously called a sentimental 
 view of man s purpose in the world, and now 
 his idealistic self was completely roused and 
 entirely dominant. 
 
 He was chilled by the thought that she 
 might not be able to come down to break 
 fast next morning, but as her coming was 
 his only hope of seeing her he clung to it. 
 Eight o clock seemed to him to be the latest 
 hour that anyone not absolutely bed-ridden 
 would think of breakfasting, and at four 
 minutes past the hour he entered the dining 
 room with studied air of unconcern. 
 
 The negro waiter motioned him to a chair 
 near the door, but Clement pushed sternly 
 on down the room toward a group seated in 
 the light of one of the sunny windows. 
 His keen eyes had instantly discerned the 
 
64 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 presence of Mr. Ross and his daughter at 
 this table. 
 
 Taking a seat at a table next to theirs the 
 miner brought the girl s profile between 
 him and the window, and the light striking 
 through her hair glorified her till she shone 
 like a figure in a church window. She was 
 of those whose profile is forever young. 
 She seemed a spirit, a being not concerned 
 with earth as she dreamily basked in 
 the morning glow. Occasionally her lips 
 moved in some slow, soft answer, but her 
 expression remained unchanged, unenliv 
 ened. 
 
 Clement was more deeply moved than 
 ever before in his life, and yet no one look 
 ing into his cold, rather stern face could have 
 discovered a trace of his passion, his pain. 
 Only in the tremor of his hands was his 
 emotion in the least degree visible. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 65 
 
 His eyes, accustomed only to rough 
 women, found in her delicate, sombre 
 beauty something sacred, something of the 
 seraph. 
 
 Her face was very thin, and her slender 
 neck seemed weary with the weight of the 
 heavy masses of her brown hair. Her 
 hands were only less expressive of suffering 
 than her face, so thin, so creamy- white were 
 they. 
 
 The father bluff, portly and irascible, 
 bullied the waiter, for lack of other vent to 
 his anxiety. 
 
 " Waiter, this steak is burned it s hard 
 as sole leather. My daughter can t eat 
 food like this. Take it back and bring 
 something fit to eat." 
 
 The girl s sweet, slow reproof reached to 
 Clement s attentive ear. 
 
 "Please don t, father." Then to the 
 
66 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 waiter she said: " The trouble is with me. 
 I have no desire for food," and the per 
 turbed attendant nodded as if to say, " I 
 don t mind him, Miss." 
 
 The father turned his attention to the 
 country, determined to take vengeance on 
 the weather at any rate. 
 
 "Yes, there is another fraud this cli 
 mate, this air. I was told it would help 
 your appetite, and here you are with less 
 than when you left Hot Springs. If I d 
 had my way " 
 
 She laid a restraining hand on his arm, 
 and when he turned toward her his eyes 
 were dim with tears. He blew his nose and 
 coughed, and looked away, ashamed of his 
 weakness, after the manner of men, and 
 thereafter suffered in silence, while the girl 
 picked at her steak listlessly and with pitiful 
 feebleness. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 67 
 
 Once she turned and looked at Clement, 
 and in her eyes lay a mystical, impersonal 
 glow, as though she saw him far off, not as 
 an individual but as a type of some admira 
 ble elemental creature. She wondered at his 
 health, his power. There was something 
 reposeful in his glance as well as in the lines 
 of his head. 
 
 He could not fathom her attitude toward 
 him, but he thought he perceived in her every 
 action the expression of a soul that had re 
 linquished its hold on things of the earth. 
 Her desire to live was no longer personal. 
 All that she did was for her father and her 
 friends. To please them she ate and drank 
 and slept for herself she was world-weary, 
 ready to lie down in her narrow earth bed 
 and sleep forever, free from effort, from 
 care. 
 
 The command to aid her came to Clement 
 
68 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 again came as clearly as if a voice spoke 
 to him. 
 
 "Speak to her. Help her. Of what 
 value is your strength, your health, if you 
 cannot aid her? " 
 
 He looked at his great brown hand, at its 
 veins throbbing with blood. His body was 
 a great reservoir of power he felt it to be 
 so. His will was strong to do. Why 
 should she die when he had so much life? 
 " I would open my veins for her anything 
 to arrest her in her sure descent to the 
 grave." Such was his secret thought. 
 
 Meanwhile his common sense had not en 
 tirely fled him. He perceived that they 
 were not poor, and he reflected that the 
 father had already tried all climates and 
 had exhausted all the resources of medical 
 science; and that he had quite as much red 
 blood in his veins as any other man ; and was 
 
WITCH S GOLD 69 
 
 as ready for its sacrifice as any stranger 
 could be. These considerations rendered 
 the miner irresolute and kept him to his seat 
 as they rose to go out upon the little veranda 
 which overlooked the village and the valley 
 to the east. He could see that the girl gazed 
 out upon the glory of the scene listlessly, a 
 tired droop in her shoulders, and a realisa 
 tion of this filled his throat with pain. 
 
 He was not a markedly humble person 
 under ordinary conditions, but he trembled 
 now under the weight of his purpose. He 
 could not formulate his address and he 
 dreaded being misunderstood, but he was 
 resolved to speak. Manifestly the first 
 step was to make the acquaintance of the 
 father. 
 
 There were limits to his insanity, for he 
 did not follow the invalid out upon the ver 
 anda, as he had thought of doing when she 
 
70 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 left the room. He contented himself with 
 waiting in the lobby till Mr. Ross came 
 down a few minutes later to get a cigar. 
 Here was the opportunity! Plucking the 
 proprietor of the hotel by the arm, Clement 
 said: " I want to know Mr. Ross, intro 
 duce me to him, won t you? " 
 
 The landlord beamed with pride and joy. 
 " Certainly, Mr. Clement." Catching Mr. 
 Ross by the arm familiarly, he began: 
 " Ah, good morning, Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross 
 shake hands with my friend, Mr. Clement; 
 Mr. Clement you may have heard of as the 
 owner of The Witch and Old Wiscome, 
 two of our really great producing mines." 
 
 Mr. Ross was not exactly uncivil, but he 
 was cool very cool. " I have heard of 
 Mr. Clement," he said, with calm inflection, 
 but he softened a little upon taking a sec 
 ond look at the powerful, clear-eyed young 
 
WITCH S GOLD 71 
 
 fellow. " You are a renowned miner, Mr. 
 Clement, and your mine is fabulous in its 
 reported wealth." 
 
 The landlord expanded like one who has 
 accomplished a good deed. " I thought 
 you d know him. Mr. Clement, let me say, 
 is a square business man. Whatever he 
 offers you is worth the price ! " He winked 
 at Clement as he turned away as if to say: 
 " Now it s up to you." 
 
 Clement began, " I beg your pardon, 
 Mr. Ross, for taking this liberty, but I 
 wanted to know you and was forced to take 
 the first chance that offered. Let me say 
 at beginning that I have no mine to sell I 
 want to know you that s all. I wanted to 
 meet somebody outside the mining interest. 
 I saw you and your daughter at the pavilion 
 last night and in the dining room this morn 
 ing. She seems to be not very strong." 
 
72 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 He hesitated in his attempt to describe his 
 impression of her. 
 
 The father s theme was touched upon 
 now. The hard, stern look passed out of 
 his face his eyes dimmed. " Yes, poor 
 girl, she is in a bad way, but I think she s 
 better. The air up here seems not to have 
 made her worse, at any rate. I haven t 
 much faith in climate, but I believe she has 
 improved since we left Kansas City and 
 began to rise. You see I was fool enough 
 to take her to Europe last year instead of 
 coming out here and the sea air did her 
 harm." 
 
 He had a marvellous listener in Clement, 
 and they consumed three cigars apiece while 
 he told of the doctors he had tried and of 
 the different kinds of air and water they 
 had sought, " all to no good purpose I fear. 
 In fact I don t know what to think. It s 
 
WITCH S GOLD 73 
 
 up and down with me, but she does not 
 change except to grow weaker it seems 
 to me." His eyes were wet and his voice 
 tremulous. 
 
 "The truth is, Mr. Clement, the girl 
 don t seem to care about living that s what 
 scares me. She s just as sweet and lovely 
 as an angel. She responds to all of my 
 suggestions by saying : Very well, papa, 
 and yet I can see she does it just to please 
 me. She has lost all hope or fear. She 
 don t seem to care whether she lives or 
 dies only as it affects me. She is going 
 away from me just because I can t rouse 
 her " 
 
 He frankly broke down, and as he wiped 
 the tears from his cheeks, Clement felt his 
 throat swell too tight for speech at the mo 
 ment. 
 
 They sat thus for a few minutes in 
 
74 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 silence till the young man was sufficiently 
 master of his voice to say : 
 
 " Mr. Ross, you don t know me except as 
 a lucky miner but I have a favour to ask: 
 I want to meet your daughter. I hope you 
 won t think me presuming but I I d like 
 to talk with her." 
 
 There was something very winning in 
 the young man s voice and manner, and the 
 merchant replied: " I see no objection to 
 that. It might interest her to meet a man 
 who has stumbled upon a gold mine. Sup 
 pose we go right up now. We ll find her 
 on the balcony." 
 
 Clement, profoundly moved by this con 
 cession, followed Ross up the stairs, not 
 knowing what he should say to the in 
 valid. 
 
 The girl was alone, seated in an easy 
 chair in the sun her head only in shadow. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 75 
 
 The father spoke in a cheerful and tender 
 voice, " Ellice, I want to present Mr. Clem 
 ent, a young miner of the neighbourhood. 
 Mr. Clement, my daughter Ellice." 
 
 The impossible had come to pass! As 
 Clement bent down and took her hand and 
 looked into her eyes, his heart throbbed with 
 pleasure and pain. Then once again that 
 inexplicable sense of power took posses 
 sion of him, and he stood before her calm 
 and clear-eyed. "Don t move," he com 
 manded, " I will draw a chair near you, if 
 I may." 
 
 She bowed slightly and he fetched a seat 
 while Mr. Ross continued: "Mr. Clement 
 is the man who owns The Witch which is so 
 rich that no one knows the greatness of its 
 wealth. We ve been together all the morn 
 ing, and I thought it might interest you to 
 talk with a man who hews gold out of the 
 
76 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 earth. Mr. Clement s career is very roman 
 tic indeed." 
 
 Ellice listened, smiling the while that 
 faint, hopeless smile, her wistful eyes fixed 
 on the powerful big brown man over whose 
 head the sunlight fell as if it loved him 
 found him akin. 
 
 " I m glad to see you," she said in a slow 
 murmur, and then fell into a muse. 
 
 The father looked at his watch. 
 
 "Where is Sarah? I want to go down 
 the street a moment." 
 
 The girl spoke in the quiet, tranquil voice 
 of one to whom such things have no im 
 portance. " I don t know, papa. A mo 
 ment ago she was saying something to me, 
 and now she is gone. That is all I know. 
 Never mind; she ll be here in a moment." 
 She seemed to have forgotten the stranger. 
 Her father said : " Perhaps Mr. Clement 
 
WITCH S GOLD 77 
 
 will tell you about how he found his mine. 
 You ll find it very interesting. I ll only be 
 gone a few minutes. I ll send Sarah." 
 
 " I am all right, papa. If I need any 
 thing Mr. Clement can ring the bell for me 
 but I shall want nothing." 
 
 After Mr. Ross went out she added in the 
 same gentle, emotionless way : " Poor papa ! 
 He is a martyr to me. He thinks he must 
 sit by me continually. He seems to fear 
 I may die while he is gone. All his worry 
 is futile. It doesn t really matter whether 
 I die alone or not, does it now? " 
 
 Clement leaned forward till his eyes were 
 on a level with hers, and his voice was vi 
 brant and penetrating as he said: "Yes, it 
 does matter. You must not die now. What 
 can I do for you, Miss Ross? I have the 
 profoundest conviction that I can do you 
 good. Let me help you." 
 
78 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 A look of faint surprise came into her 
 wide brown eyes. She gazed at him as a 
 babe might, striving to comprehend a new 
 word, while he went on with growing in 
 tensity: "Here I am, a strong young 
 man with heart full of desire to help you. 
 What can I do for you? " 
 
 " I think I understand you," she 
 answered slowly. " It s very good of 
 you, but you can do nothing. Nobody 
 
 can." 
 
 " You must not say that," he sharply re 
 plied, and his voice produced in her a per 
 ceptible shock. Her white hands clenched 
 a little and her eyes lost their vague stare. 
 He went on swiftly, each word a node of 
 electrical energy. " There must be some 
 thing I can do. If it will help you, there 
 is my arm " he threw out his hand " its 
 blood is yours. It isn t right that one so 
 
WITCH S GOLD 79 
 
 young and beautiful should die. We won t 
 let you die. You must summon back your 
 will. This wind and sun and the good 
 water will work with us to do you good. I 
 am at your service use me. Let me help 
 you." 
 
 His voice moved her, and she smiled with 
 small tears on her long lashes. " I thank 
 you indeed I do. You are very kind but 
 I despair of ever being well." She 
 paused a moment, then added disconnected 
 ly: "I saw you at the spring last night. 
 I liked you you were so big and brown. 
 It did me good to look at you. Perhaps I 
 have come at last " She coughed a 
 weak, flat sound which made him shudder. 
 He wrung his hands in helpless desire to 
 check each convulsion. His face was dis 
 torted with sympathetic pain. 
 
 She tried to reassure him. "Really, I 
 
80 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 have coughed less than at any time during 
 the last five months." 
 
 He faced her, full of strength again. 
 " Miss Ross, I felt last night a sudden 
 desire to help you. I believe I have the 
 power to help you I don t know why I m 
 not a healer." He smiled for the first time. 
 " But I am perfectly sure I can do you 
 good. It is absurd of course I never had 
 such a feeling toward any person before 
 It is just as strange to me as it is to you, but 
 something tells me that if you will yield 
 yourself into my hands I can give you of 
 my strength." 
 
 She was looking at him now with musing 
 eyes. 
 
 " That is the curious part of it," she said. 
 " What you say doesn t seem strange at all. 
 It is as if I had been wanting to hear your 
 voice as if I had known of you all my 
 
WITCH S GOLD 81 
 
 life " She tried again to suppress her 
 coughing, and he was in agony during the 
 paroxysm. The nurse came hurrying out, 
 and while he waited, Clement felt that if 
 he could have taken her by the hands he 
 could have prevented her attack. It was a 
 definite conviction, but not quite strong 
 enough to lead to action. But when she 
 was quiet again and the nurse had moved 
 away he approached and took her small thin 
 hand in his broad palm and said: " I ll go 
 now. I must not tire you. But remember 
 I m going to come and see you, and I m 
 going to do you good. Every time I see 
 you I am going to will to you some of my 
 vitality my love of life. For I love life 
 it is beautiful to live and it is unnatural that 
 you who are both young and beautiful 
 should be willing to die." Then with a sud 
 den change of tone he said in a tone of stern 
 
82 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 resolution: " I will not let you die. I am 
 in league with the winds and the waters of 
 these mountains and we will save you." 
 
 She lay quietly smiling after he went 
 away, a flush on her cheek which made the 
 pallor of her brow and temples the more 
 pitiful. It was all very startling and won 
 derful this big man s faith in his power 
 to heal her when all the great physicians 
 had failed. She liked him was mildly 
 glad of his coming. He was so unspoiled 
 and so direct of manner. She acknowl 
 edged a dim hope that he might come again, 
 his voice was so stirring and his hands so big 
 and strong. 
 
 She felt no deeper interest, for she had 
 gone beyond the reach of even the conjec 
 ture of passion. She had drifted far past 
 love and hate and ambition, to the attain 
 ment of a certain colourless resignation to 
 
WITCH S GOLD 83 
 
 her fate. The world once of so poignant 
 an interest, had become merely a gorgeous, 
 swift pageant like colours on the sky upon 
 which she was looking for the last time, too 
 tired, too indifferent to lift a finger to stay 
 it in its course, even had that power been 
 within her hand. Birth and death were 
 mere words faces, vague splotches of pink 
 and brown on a moving tapestry and yet 
 there were times when she rebelled when 
 
 ^ 
 
 a wish to live resurged. Sometimes in the 
 middle of the night as she lay alone in her 
 bed a great wave of longing swept upon 
 her, and she was forced to turn her face to 
 her pillow to stifle her mingled coughing 
 and sobbing. At such moments she prayed: 
 " Oh, Father, let me live ! I want to come 
 and go like other women. Oh, dear Father, 
 grant me a little life! I am too young to 
 die." 
 
84 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 These waves of passionate rebellion had 
 left her each time weaker, sadder, more in 
 different than before, and as coldly pallid 
 almost as if death had already claimed her, 
 and of late she could do nothing of her own 
 will. And yet she was so innately consider 
 ate of others that she tried to meet their 
 words of cheer, their offers of aid with 
 smiling thanks. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ON the night following Clement s talk 
 with her Ellice fell asleep while mus 
 ing upon the current theories of mental 
 therapeutics of which she had heard a good 
 deal in one indirect way or another. Per 
 haps if she could only believe, she might be 
 helped; perhaps this strong personality had 
 been sent to help her. It had been long 
 since a man so strong, so frank, had stood 
 before her indeed, his equal, in certain 
 forceful ways, had never touched her hand 
 or looked into her eyes. 
 
 His character could be read at a glance. 
 He came down out of the mountain heights 
 
86 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 with the elemental vigour of wind and sun 
 and soil about him like an aura. A man of 
 great natural refinement, he had grown 
 strong and simple and masterful in his close 
 contact with nature. The clay, the toil in 
 the darkness which might have brutalised 
 another nature had given him a distinct 
 majesty. Command was in his voice, in the 
 lift of his head. There was something 
 mysterious in his eyes, in the clasp of his 
 hand. 
 
 " The world is all inexplicable," she said 
 wearily. " I can only accept what comes. 
 Perhaps God has sent this man to help me 
 just as he sends healing water down from 
 the mountain peaks." 
 
 Worn with all this conjecture she fell 
 asleep, and in her dream it seemed that she 
 was perfectly restored to health and dress 
 ing for a walk. Clement had called for her 
 
WITCH S GOLD 87 
 
 to climb the mountains with him, and she 
 was making preparation to go, working 
 swiftly and unhesitatingly, moving about 
 her room deftly, lightly, as of old and 
 how deliciously sweet it was to step swiftly, 
 to find activity a pleasure once more! She 
 was dressed in a short walking-skirt with 
 leggins as if for a climb, and as she stood 
 before the glass to adjust her cap, she 
 thrilled to see how round and pink her 
 cheeks had become, she laughed and said: 
 " I am perfectly well and he is the cause 
 of it." 
 
 She heard his impatient feet pacing out 
 side on the veranda, and smiled to think how 
 typical their action was of all husbands and 
 wives he waiting, she at the glass and at 
 the thought her face grew pinker and she 
 turned away no longer caring to meet her 
 accusing eyes. 
 
88 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 But suddenly all warmth all flushing 
 all joy left her. With a familiar creep and 
 chill her weakness came back upon her. 
 She could not proceed. Her hand half 
 clothed, fell to her side, her strength no 
 longer equal to the task of drawing on the 
 glove. Every movement stopped, and look 
 ing within the glass again she saw her 
 self pale, hollow-eyed, despairing. She 
 could not lift her feet, and so, helpless as if 
 chained to the floor, she waited while his 
 impatient feet sounded heavily on the ver 
 anda. An agony of desire seized her a 
 wish to escape. She longed to go out into 
 the bright sunlight with him, no longer in 
 different. She struggled hard, but could 
 neither move nor whisper. At last all this 
 resolution, this rebellion, fell away. Her 
 heart grew heavy and sick and cold. It 
 was all over. He would wait for a while 
 
WITCH S GOLD 89 
 
 and then go away, and she would stand 
 there desolate, helpless, inert as clay, with 
 life dark and empty before her. 
 
 " Oh, if he would only call me! " was her 
 last breath of resolution. 
 
 Once, twice more the feet went up and 
 down the veranda then paused before her 
 door. She heard his voice. 
 
 "Are you ready? " he called cheerily. 
 
 She struggled to answer, but could not. 
 He spoke again and she whispered " Yes." 
 
 Then the door swung open briskly and he 
 stood on the threshold in the streaming sun 
 light of the morning so tall, he seemed to 
 fill the doorway, brown as spring time earth, 
 and with a smile of mastery extended his 
 hand. " Come," he said, " the sturdy old 
 mountains are wonderfully grand this 
 morning. They are waiting for us! " 
 
 His fingers closed over hers, and the sun- 
 
90 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 light fell upon her too, warming her to the 
 heart, and at this moment while lifting her 
 eyes to the shining peaks she awoke in her 
 room alone. The morning sun had stolen 
 its way through a half -opened shutter and 
 lay warm and golden upon her hand. 
 
 At first she was ready to weep with dis 
 appointment and renewed despair, but as 
 she pondered her dream she came to see in 
 it a hidden promise. It had been long since 
 she had even dreamed of perfect health, and 
 the touch of impotence at its close had been 
 put aside. And most significant of all a 
 man s hand had broken her bonds and led 
 her into the open air of the sunlit world. 
 
 This dream surrounded Clement with a 
 glamour, a poetry which no other person 
 possessed, and she met him thereafter in a 
 spirit of awe and wonder, such as a child 
 might experience upon finding one of its 
 
WITCH S GOLD 91 
 
 dream-heroes palpably beside its bed in the 
 full sunlight of the morning. The fear, 
 the agony and the joy of the night s vision 
 gave to his lightest word a changeful sig 
 nificance. Her heart beat faster at the 
 touch of his hand and by this she found her 
 self still susceptible still capable of being 
 moved by the sound of a man s voice this 
 was in effect a wave of returning life, and 
 for a moment she glowed with hope, but a 
 glance at her poor wasted fingers checked 
 her smile. Her feet did not respond to her 
 will. 
 
 And yet her heart quickened whenever 
 his eyes met hers for they were filled with 
 a light which was akin to the morning. 
 How handsome he was. How glorious 
 with health, how resolute with unconquer 
 able physical pride. Was there anything 
 so desirable in all the world? She did not 
 
92 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 attempt to deeply analyse the emotion thus 
 awakened in her, being well content to think 
 that his charm, his inspiration lay in his em- 
 Bodiment of health and happiness. 
 
 He was dressed for riding, a suit of light 
 brown corduroy with laced miner s boots, 
 and this costume seemed to accentuate his 
 brotherhood to the peaks. 
 
 He bent a smiling but penetrating glance 
 upon her. 
 
 " You are better this morning, I can see 
 that." He began exultantly. " You have 
 risen to-day with a new resolution. * 
 
 It was exactly as if he knew of her dream, 
 and that the walk had been actual, and a 
 flush crept into her face so faint it could 
 scarcely be detected yet it seemed to her 
 that her cheeks were scarlet. What magic 
 was this which made her flush she whom 
 Death had already claimed for his own? 
 
WITCH S GOLD 93 
 
 And with this question went a thrill of 
 subtly sweet pleasure close-linked with her 
 dream. 
 
 Mr. Ross invited Clement to sit with 
 them at breakfast as she hoped he would do. 
 The miner accepted with frankly expressed 
 pleasure. 
 
 " I m going for a gallop this morning," 
 he said in explanation of his dress. " I 
 wish you could go too," he added, address 
 ing himself to Ellice with purpose in his 
 tone. 
 
 " I wish so too," she replied, a little bit 
 terly. 
 
 Wish hard enough and you will get 
 your wish," he smilingly admonished her. 
 
 Mr. Ross introduced Clement to the 
 fourth person at the table, a plump and 
 handsome woman of middle age. " Mr. 
 Clement, let me present you to my sister." 
 
94 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 Miss Ross for all her plumpness was in 
 clined to be censorious like her brother. 
 She complained volubly of the food, of the 
 altitude and of the chill shadows, and Clem 
 ent could see that they were both very dis 
 heartening companions for a sick girl. As 
 siduous as they were in their attendance, 
 devoted and loving, they yet worried her 
 depressed her when they should have been 
 both comfort and encouragement. Even 
 the nurse had caught this spirit. 
 
 Clement set himself to be the antidote. 
 His whole manner of treatment was of the 
 hopeful, buoyant sort. He praised the 
 magnificent weather, dwelt upon the maj 
 esty of the mountains, and the purity of 
 the air and water. " I love to think that we 
 are sitting at this moment above the great 
 cities, above the miasmas. Almost all of 
 human kind are below us, think of that." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 95 
 
 His words were at once exclamation and 
 command. 
 
 " After I get back from my ride I wish 
 you d let me come and talk with you. Per 
 haps," he added, " you ll be able to walk a 
 little way with me. This is vacation time 
 with me and I m a little lonesome. For 
 years I ve been thinking only of getting 
 rich. I had no time to make any other than 
 business acquaintances. I want you to help 
 me forget business for a while." 
 
 He made the breakfast almost cheerful 
 by his presence, and went away saying: 
 
 "I ll be back by eleven o clock, and I 
 hope to find you ready for a walk." 
 
 Miss Ross astonished both at the miner s 
 assurance and at Ellice s silent, smiling 
 acquiescence, watched him as he strode out 
 of earshot, then broke forth: "Well, if 
 that isn t the most extraordinary piece of 
 
96 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 impudence! I wonder if that s the usual 
 western way of meddling with somebody 
 else s business. He seems to think he is in 
 charge of you. He positively ordered you 
 to walk with him." 
 
 " I wish I were able to obey," the sick 
 girl quietly answered. " I like him. He 
 interests me." 
 
 Her aunt gasped: "Well upon my 
 soul!" 
 
 Mr. Ross interfered. " Now don t be a 
 fool, Sarah. If she is interested in this 
 young fellow so much the better I rather 
 like him myself." 
 
 Ellice spoke again with more energy in 
 her voice than she had manifested for many 
 months : 
 
 " Aunt Sarah, I want you to help me 
 dress. I m going to walk a little by and 
 bye." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 97 
 
 " Not with that man? " the aunt inquired 
 in protest. 
 
 Yes, aunt." Her voice was vibrant 
 with fixed purpose. " If he is good enough 
 to ask a poor thing like me to walk with him 
 I mean to accept." 
 
 " But think how you d look leaning on 
 the arm of a stranger you d have to lean." 
 
 " Auntie, dear, I have long passed the 
 point of caring how anything looks. What 
 does it matter to me? I am not living now 
 to please the world. Mr. Clement is sin 
 cere in his desire to help me. I like him 
 He does me good, while you tire and fret me 
 with your endless complaining," she added 
 with a childish petulancy. 
 
 Mr. Ross again interceded: "Why, of 
 course, what harm can it do? I d let her 
 lean on the arm of Cherokee Bill if she 
 wanted to." They all smiled at this, and 
 
98 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 he added, " The trouble has been, she 
 didn t want to do anything at all, and now 
 she shall do what she likes if every other 
 woman in The Springs talks her tongue 
 as raw as beef." 
 
 This conference by these plump, grossly- 
 fed, elderly, practical people disturbed and 
 depressed the girl. They coarsened and 
 made commonplace the beautiful action of 
 a good man and she was ready to weep 
 with irritation and disappointment. She 
 could not tell them the secret of the dream 
 which had so poignantly impressed her, and 
 to speak of her suddenly developed faith 
 that this big miner could help her back to 
 health and happiness would have added to 
 her annoyance. Already they had worn 
 away her faint elation and she made her 
 preparation for the walk with languid ir 
 resolution. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 HE met her on the veranda at eleven, 
 clothed in a handsome frock suit of 
 grey, with a broad-brimmed grey hat to 
 match, looking like some of the pictures of 
 western Congressmen she had seen. His coat 
 was unbuttoned, and had the effect of drap 
 ing his tall, erect figure, and the hat suited 
 well with the large lines of his nose and 
 chin. It seemed to her she had never seen 
 a more striking and picturesque figure, and 
 another faint stirring of girlish admiration 
 came to her blood, as he said: " I was 
 afraid they wouldn t let you come. I ll 
 carry you down the stairs if you ll say the 
 word," he added as they paused a moment 
 at the topmost step. 
 
100 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 She lifted her big eyes to his and smiled 
 faintly. 
 
 " Oh, no. I can walk if you will give me 
 time." 
 
 " Time ! Time is money. I can t af 
 ford it." He stooped and lifted her in his 
 right arm, and before she could protest was 
 half way down the stairway. As he re 
 leased her they both smiled up into the hor 
 rified face of Aunt Sarah, and Clement re 
 marked: "We are following natural im 
 pulse now." 
 
 Mr. Ross came from the rotunda of the 
 hotel to say: " Don t go too far." 
 
 "Trust me," said Clement. "If she 
 gets tired I ll take her on my arm and carry 
 her home." 
 
 " Twould be simpler to call a carriage," 
 Ellice replied with a touch of humour which 
 delighted her father. And so they walked 
 
WITCH S GOLD 101 
 
 up the street side by side, up toward the 
 spring, slowly she with effort, he with re 
 strained power. Turning abruptly, he said 
 decisively, but tenderly: 
 
 " You must think you re better that s 
 half the battle. You must set yourself a 
 mark. A place to reach. See that stream? 
 Some day I m going to show you where it 
 starts. I know the place well. Up there 
 it is uncontaminated full of the properties 
 that cure. Down here it is only half as 
 good. Out there on the plain it is a dull, 
 corrupt ditch. The legend is that if you 
 drink at its source up there in the spring 
 above timber-line it will cure you of every 
 ill." 
 
 She saw his intent and said: "I m 
 afraid I ll be cured long before I am able to 
 get there." 
 
 " I m going to make it my aim in life to 
 
102 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 see you drink at that pool," he declared, and 
 his directness and simplicity pleased her 
 strengthened her faith. After this they did 
 not talk much until they were seated on one 
 of the benches near the fountain. 
 
 " Sit in the sun," he commanded. " Don t 
 be afraid of the sun. The sun s rays never 
 breed disease. The sun gives life. Beware 
 of the shadow," and by this she knew he 
 meant to rebuke her for indifference and 
 despair. 
 
 He went on vigorously: "The one 
 thing about mining which I do not like is 
 the sunlessness of its life. I never go into 
 my own mine without a pang of regret for 
 the sunlight which is lost to me. You can 
 not afford to lose any of this sun. Let it 
 permeate you let it burn you it will do 
 you good." 
 
 She asked him a languid question about 
 
WITCH S GOLD 103 
 
 his mine, and so encouraged, he told her of 
 himself of his family of his plans. 
 
 " No, I was not educated to be a miner. 
 My original intention was to fit myself for 
 teaching chemistry. My father was a drug 
 gist in a village not far from Des Moines, 
 and though it was a small business he man 
 aged to educate me, and, later, my brother. 
 But when he died I found it involved and 
 I tried to hold the trade he had built up 
 and pay up its indebtedness. I kept my 
 brother at college during his last two years, 
 and when he came home I turned the store 
 over to him and got out. You see he was 
 about to marry, and the business wouldn t 
 support two families. I was always in 
 clined to adventure, anyway. This Cripple 
 Creek camp was in everybody s mouth, so 
 naturally, I came here." 
 
 His eyes glowed. " Those were great 
 
104 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 days, the walk across the mountains was like 
 a story to me. I liked the newness of 
 everything in the camp, the smell of new 
 lumber, the creak of windlasses. It was 
 glorious to hear the hammers ringing, and 
 see the new buildings going up day by day. 
 Tents and shanties rose like mushrooms. 
 It was rough here then, but I had little to 
 do with saloons. I staked out my claim 
 and went to digging. I knew something of 
 mineralogy but very little about mining, 
 but as they were striking gold all around 
 me, I concluded my chances were good and 
 so I kept on. Besides " here he looked at 
 her with a touch of shyness in his smile 
 " I ve always had a superstition that just 
 when things were at their worst with me 
 they were about to be mended, so I dug 
 away. My tunnel went into the hill on a 
 slight upraise, and I was able to push my 
 
WITCH S GOLD 105 
 
 car alone. You see I had so little money 
 I didn t want to waste a cent. It was hard 
 work but I enjoyed my life till my money 
 was gone. Each day brought me nearer to 
 my strike, I thought." His face grew 
 grave. 
 
 " But my last dollar went at last for 
 powder and the sharpening of picks, and 
 for assaying and one morning, three years 
 ago, I found myself without money and 
 without food." 
 
 He paused there, and his eyes darkened 
 with remembered despair, till she was 
 touched with sympathetic pain. 
 
 " It must be terrible to be without food 
 and money." 
 
 " No one knows what it means till he ex 
 periences it. I worked all that day without 
 food. It seemed as if I must strike the vein 
 then. Besides, I took a sort of morbid 
 
106 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 pleasure in abusing myself as if I were to 
 blame. I had been living on canned beans, 
 and flapjacks, and coffee without milk or 
 sugar, and I was weak and sick but it all 
 had to end. About four o clock I dropped 
 my pick and staggered out to the light. It 
 was impossible to do anything more." 
 
 There were tears in her eyes now, for his 
 voice unconsciously took on the anguish of 
 that despair. 
 
 " I sat there looking out toward the 
 mountains and down on the camp. The 
 blasts were booming from all hills the men 
 were going home with their dinner-pails 
 flashing red in the setting sun s light. It 
 made me angry to think of them going 
 home to supper while I had none. It 
 seemed impossible that I should be sitting 
 there starving, while the grass was so green, 
 and the sunset so beautiful. I can see it all 
 
WITCH S GOLD 107 
 
 now as it looked then, the old Sangre de 
 Christo range was like a wall of glistening 
 marble to the west. 
 
 " Well, I sat there till my hunger gnawed 
 me into action. Then I reeled down the 
 trail. I saw how foolish I had been to go 
 on day after day hoping, hoping until the 
 last cent was gone. I hadn t money enough 
 to pay the extra postage on a letter which 
 was at the office. The clerk gave me the 
 letter and paid the shortage himself. The 
 letter was from my sister, telling me how 
 peaceful and secure life was at home ; they 
 had little money, but they had food, and it 
 made me crazy. She asked me how many 
 nuggets I had found. You can judge how 
 that hurt. I went down the street seeking 
 food I must eat or die, I knew that." 
 
 " Oh, how horrible! " the girl exclaimed. 
 
 " There was one eating-house at which I 
 
108 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 always took my supper. It was kept by an 
 Irish woman, a big, hearty woman whose 
 husband was a prospector or had been. 
 4 Biddy McCarty s was famous for its 
 home cooking. I went by the door twice, 
 for I couldn t bring myself to go in and ask 
 for a meal. You don t know how hard that 
 is. It s very queer, if a man has money he 
 can ask for credit or a meal, but if he is 
 broke he ll starve first. I could see Biddy 
 waiting on the tables the smell that came 
 out was a most delicious and tantalising 
 odour of beef stew it made me faint with 
 hunger." 
 
 His voice grew a little tremulous as 
 after a pause he resumed. "When I en 
 tered Dan looked up and said respectfully, 
 * Good evenin , Mr. Clement, and I felt so 
 ashamed of my errand I turned to run. 
 Everything whirled then and when I got 
 
WITCH S GOLD 109 
 
 my bearings again Dan had me on his arm 
 and Biddy was holding a bowl of soup to 
 my lips." 
 
 The girl sighed in relief. " Oh, how 
 good of them! " 
 
 "Wasn t it? They could see I was 
 starving. As soon as I could speak I told 
 them about the mine and, well, some way 
 I persuaded them to grub-stake me that 
 night." 
 
 " What is that? " 
 
 That is, they agreed to furnish me food 
 and money for tools and to share in the 
 profits. Dan went to work with me, and do 
 you know, it ended in ruining them both! 
 We organised a company called the Biddy 
 Mining Company. I was president, and 
 Dan was vice-president, and Biddy was 
 treasurer. Biddy kept us going by her eat 
 ing-house, but eventually we wanted ma- 
 
110 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 chinery, and so we mortgaged the eating- 
 house, and the money, every dollar of it, 
 went into that hole in the ground. But I 
 knew we would succeed. I was perfectly 
 sure of it. Whenever I was alone I could 
 hear little voices in the rocks calling me to 
 keep on. I wonder if that seems foolish 
 to you. Perhaps I am a miner after all 
 for miners, like railway engineers, have 
 queer fancies they feed on chance." His 
 eyes, turned upon her, were full of mys 
 tery. 
 
 " I have always felt the stir of life around 
 me in the dark, and there in that mine- 
 after we struck the spring of water I 
 thought I heard voices all the time in the 
 plash of the water. * Merrily pick, pick, 
 they seemed to say. I suppose it bordered 
 on insanity, for I ruined Dan and Biddy 
 without mercy. I couldn t stop. I was 
 
WITCH S GOLD 111 
 
 sure if we could only hold out a little while, 
 another day, we would open the vein. But 
 we didn t. Biddy had to go to work as a 
 cook, and Dan and I went out to try to bor 
 row some money. I couldn t bear to let a 
 stranger in after all the heat and toil which 
 Dan and Biddy and I had endured, but it 
 had to be done. We took in a fellow from 
 Iowa by the name of Eldred and went to 
 work again. 
 
 " One day after our blast I was the first to 
 enter, and the moment that I saw the heap 
 of rock I knew we had opened the vein. 
 My wildest dreams were realised!" 
 
 "And then your troubles ended," the 
 girl said with a tender smile. 
 
 " No indeed, for now a new complication 
 arose. The assayer tried our ore again and 
 again finding it very rich, but when we 
 shipped to the mills we got almost no re- 
 
112 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 turns. We tried every process, but the 
 gold seemed to slip away from us. Finally 
 I took a carload and went with it to see what 
 was the matter. I followed it till it came 
 out on the plates that is where they catch 
 the gold by the use of quicksilver spread on 
 copper plates and it seemed all right. I 
 scraped some of the amalgam up and put 
 it into a small phial to take home with me. 
 When I got home the company assembled 
 to hear my report, and when I took out the 
 amalgam to show it to them it had turned 
 to a queer yellow-green liquid. 
 
 " I was astounded, but Dan and Biddy 
 crossed themselves, their superstitious fears 
 aroused. It s witches gold, Biddy said. 
 * Dan, have no more to do with it. And 
 witches gold it remained to them. They 
 gave up all rights to me and went back to 
 work in the camp. Eldred cursed me for 
 
WITCH S GOLD 113 
 
 getting him into the hole and so they left 
 me to fight it out alone. I was like a mono 
 maniac I never thought of giving up. I 
 sold my share in the homestead to raise a lit 
 tle money and with that I bought in all the 
 stock of the Biddy Mining Company, and 
 went to work to solve the mystery of the 
 amalgam. You see I had been a good pupil 
 in chemistry at college, and I put my whole 
 life and brain into that mystery till I solved 
 it. It took me five months and left me deep 
 in debt, but I won. I found a way to treat 
 the ore so that most of the gold was saved. 
 I renamed the mine The Witch, and it has 
 made me rich." 
 
 " It is like a fairy tale ! What became 
 of your faithful friends, Dan and Biddy? " 
 
 " I made Dan the foreman of the mine, 
 and I built a big new hotel for Biddy. Dan 
 is with me yet, happy and prosperous." 
 
114 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 He had a sudden sensation of heat in his 
 face as he leaped the chasm between the 
 withdrawal of Dan and Biddy from the 
 firm and his solution of the amalgam. He 
 did not care to dwell upon the fact that 
 Eldred still had suits pending to recover 
 his stock, claiming that it was bought in 
 under false pretences. Neither did he care 
 to enter into the stormy time which followed 
 the sudden leap of The Witch from a 
 haunted hole in the ground to a cave of 
 diamonds. He hurried on to the end while 
 she listened in absorbed interest like a child 
 to a wonder story. Then she sighed in the 
 world-old manner of women, and in reply to 
 a question from him, replied: 
 
 "I? Oh, I have done nothing worth 
 telling. I ruined my health by over-study 
 and careless living at school, and here I am, 
 a cumberer of the earth. How perfectly 
 
WITCH S GOLD 115 
 
 inane and worthless I must seem to men 
 who dig in the hills as you do. You are 
 facts, factors. I am only a shadow soon to 
 pass away." 
 
 Some men would have hastened to be 
 complimentary, but Clement remained si 
 lent, trying to understand and meet her 
 mood in some helpful way, and she, feeling 
 the rebuke in his silence, added in a firmer 
 voice: 
 
 " But if I am permitted to live I shall be 
 different. I can t dig gold or build bridges, 
 but I will do something." 
 
 " First of all, get well," he said, and 
 again his words had the force of a command. 
 " Give me your hand." 
 
 She complied, and he took it in a firm 
 clasp. " Now I want you to promise me 
 that you ll turn your mind from darkness 
 to the light, from the canons to the peaks 
 
116 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 and that you will determine to live. Do you 
 promise? " 
 
 She smiled and the warm blood again 
 tingled in her cheek. " I promise." 
 
 He dropped her hand and rose. * Very 
 well. I shall see that you keep that prom 
 
 ise." 
 
 They returned to the hotel in silence, 
 threading their way through the throngs of 
 those who were converging to the sparkling 
 spring with bottles, jugs and cans, minded 
 to secure their noonday draught of water. 
 
 At the foot of the stairway he stooped 
 without a word and took her in his arm and 
 she rested her slim left arm upon his 
 shoulder like a tired trustful child. " How 
 pitifully light she is ! " was his thought. 
 
 As he put her down beside her easy chair 
 she exclaimed: "How strong you are! 
 You carry me as if I were a doll." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 117 
 
 " That s what comes from the use of pick 
 and shovel," he replied, with a downward 
 flashing glance. " You must sleep well to 
 night. I shall expect you to be better to 
 
 morrow." 
 
 And with that he left her. 
 
 Meanwhile Sarah Ross went to her 
 brother in restless indignation. " Ben, this 
 is scandalous. I don t see how you can think 
 of allowing Ellice to be taken possession of 
 like this. It s uncivilised." 
 
 " Well, let s try the uncivilised for a 
 while," he replied. We came here in com 
 plete despair. Just keep that in mind, 
 Sally. We had tried the civilised till Ellice 
 had no interest in anything on earth and no 
 fear of death. I ve heard you say a hun 
 dred times : Oh if we could only interest 
 the child in something and now " 
 
 " I know I have, but I didn t mean to 
 
118 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 have her scandalising us all in the eyes of 
 
 our neighbours " 
 
 " But these are not our neighbours and 
 if they were, what does it matter? " he slowly 
 replied. " I tell you I am grateful to this 
 young fellow; I d be grateful to a red In 
 dian if she were interested in him. She s 
 better. That s enough for me. The fact 
 that she remembers the man gives me hope. 
 Furthermore, Mr. Clement is a millionaire 
 a great catch whereas Ellice is a poor, 
 thin, pale daughter of a hard-working mer 
 chant who can ill afford to be here. I don t 
 pretend to understand his interest in our 
 poor child when he might take his choice 
 from the beautiful and rosy girls swarming 
 about here. Be reasonable now. I have 
 offered all I own to any physician who 
 would give me back my daughter. I ve 
 gone beyond any torn-fool notions of con- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 119 
 
 ventionality if this young fellow interests 
 her does her good makes her smile " 
 
 " But you don t know what he may de 
 mand." 
 
 " I don t care what he demands if only his 
 demand stirs her" 
 
 Sarah Ross admitted the force of this, 
 and yet she could not but wince and grow 
 hot with indignation when Clement joined 
 Ellice in the hall or helped her down the 
 stairway. She was sensitive to remark also 
 and there was plenty to overhear, for the 
 permanent guests soon knew them both by 
 sight and began to build a pretty romance 
 about them. 
 
 " They were lovers years ago, but he was 
 poor and they were separated. Now that 
 he is rich the father relents but too late. 
 She is dying of consumption, poor dear." 
 In such wise the story ran, and though Aunt 
 
120 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 Sarah struggled sharply to discredit it, the 
 fiction persisted. 
 
 As for Clement, he was a man reborn. 
 He was conscious of no other pursuit, no 
 other time. All his waking hours were 
 given to devising ways and means to inter 
 est and benefit his love. Each day they 
 met at breakfast, and each day at ten 
 o clock they walked, and then when the mid 
 day storm-clouds rolled round the great 
 peak, they sat on the little balcony and 
 watched the majestic struggle, till the 
 lightning ceased to flame, the thunder to 
 roll, and the sun broke forth once more, 
 then she went to her couch to sleep, while he 
 rode away on his swift horse into the cool, 
 rain-wet lower levels of the valley, too sub 
 limated in thought and purpose to speak 
 with any other human being. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SEEING his daughter s slow but sure 
 improvement in health, Mr. Ross took 
 a cottage which stood just above the hotel 
 and brought from home such of Ellice s fur 
 nishings as he thought would please her, and 
 in this home Clement was a constant visitor. 
 From the terrace they often sat to see the 
 sun go down. He took many of his meals 
 with them, and secure from observation 
 watched the colour come back to the sick 
 girl s face. Day by day a sweet content, a 
 delicious relaxation came to Ellice. She 
 began to take an interest in housework, 
 and this was a great joy to her father. 
 Once she said to Clement: " I must be get- 
 
122 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 ting well. The days go quickly now and I 
 feel so much stronger." 
 
 " Before I met you I was a miner. Now 
 I am merely your physician." 
 
 " It is a good thing you are not dependent 
 on your fees," she laughingly remarked and 
 asked: " How do you like your new pro 
 fession? " 
 
 " I find it absorbing," he replied. " I 
 think I have a call to it." 
 
 One by one the weeks went by and one by 
 one the cottages were closed and the hotels 
 emptied. Autumn was near and the peo 
 ple of the plain, fortified by their stay in 
 the high places, returned to their dull little 
 towns to talk of the air and water of the 
 peaks as those who have dreamed pleasant 
 dreams recount them in the midst of toil. 
 Clement could not find time nor resolution 
 to make the visit home which he had 
 
WITCH S GOLD 123 
 
 planned, and was hard pressed to find ex 
 cuses with which to answer his sister s re 
 proaches. 
 
 How could he leave now when every day 
 showed most fascinating increase of colour 
 and love of life in Ellice? She had come to 
 count upon him more largely than upon any 
 other human being that he could see. 
 And she to him was both sun and moon- 
 so all other concerns waited on this contest 
 between love and death. 
 
 Obscure reports of all this reached Biddy 
 and Dan and they had their jovial fling at 
 " the new member of the firm," but they 
 did not repeat their jokes, for his serious 
 ness awed them. Eldred made a visit to 
 the springs, shrewdly calculating that this 
 was the time to push his suit now while 
 his opponent was absorbed in a love af 
 fair. He had found allies in a firm of 
 
124 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 lawyers in Denver who were hardly bet 
 ter than blackmailers, and together, they 
 began their campaign of lying and vilifi 
 cation. 
 
 Hitherto Clement had paid but little at 
 tention to Eldred s attempt to blacken his 
 reputation, but he now became very uneasy 
 lest Ellice might be the recipient of anony 
 mous letters for his enemy was quite cap 
 able of such warfare. There was but one 
 paper in the state willing to publish articles 
 against him and that, happily, was one 
 which neither Mr. Ross nor his daughter 
 would see unless marked copies were sent 
 to them. 
 
 To warn Mr. Ross was his first action 
 after one of Eldred s abusive letters. He 
 told the merchant the substantial facts in 
 the case and said: " This man and his 
 partners say they are determined to bring 
 
WITCH S GOLD 125 
 
 the whole contention into court, but know 
 ing they have no case they are likelier to at 
 tack me in the hope of getting blackmail. 
 In case they send anything to you or to your 
 daughter remember that the facts are pre 
 cisely as I have stated them. I would not 
 have your daughter read these lying articles 
 for half my mine and yet, I dislike yield 
 ing to such rogues." 
 
 " Don t do it," protested Ross. " I be 
 lieve in opposing every such man and his 
 graft. We know and trust you perfectly. 
 Be quite easy on that score." 
 
 One day a short, stout, smiling man with 
 black beard accosted him in the hotel ro 
 tunda. " Are you Mr. Richard Clement? " 
 he asked. 
 
 " I am." 
 
 " I would like to have a talk with you. 
 My name is Wenowski Paul Wenowski, 
 
126 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 late of Chicago, now of Denver. You 
 have heard of me yes? " 
 
 Clement looked down upon him in silence 
 till the smile froze on the other man s lips. 
 " Yes, I ve heard of you. You are El- 
 dred s lawyer. No, I have nothing to say 
 to you. Nothing to talk about, nothing to 
 argue upon and no compromise to make. 
 I know your ways of business and if you 
 pluck me by the arm again or speak to me 
 again I will pitch you into the street." 
 
 He was very angry and the blackmailer 
 slipped away and troubled him no more. 
 
 It was not so easy to get rid of his own 
 sense of unworthiness as he went into his 
 love s pure presence that evening. " How 
 far away she is from all passion, all envy, 
 all deceit," he thought as she met him on the 
 terrace where she had been reading. 
 
 She had become marvellously acute in 
 
WITCH S GOLD 127 
 
 divining his moods and after a glance into 
 his face she said : * You re troubled. 
 You re not quite yourself to-night." 
 
 " A business matter," he answered. " It s 
 really nothing, but it did annoy me a little. 
 I will forget it. You shall be my physician 
 to-night." 
 
 :< That will be a privilege and besides I 
 am so nearly well now that I must begin 
 to do for those who have done so much for 
 
 me." 
 
 She was indeed beginning to glow again 
 with the warmth and colour which was hers 
 by right of youth. A delicate roundness 
 was coming to her cheeks. Her bosom was 
 borne with marked buoyancy and grace, 
 and as he looked upon her Clement s blood 
 stirred with an exultant realisation that she 
 was no longer an invalid and that to him 
 she owed some part of her miraculous re- 
 
128 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 co very. In this mood he said: "It is al 
 most time for us to make our pilgrimage 
 to the sweet water pool." 
 
 " I am ready any time," she replied. 
 "Let us go to-morrow." 
 
 " Perhaps not to-morrow but soon. It 
 is a long, hard climb and we must wait till 
 you are able to ride far. I do not think it 
 proper to approach it on a burro." 
 
 She coloured. " You think I cannot 
 ride a horse but I can. When am I to be 
 allowed to resume my habit? " 
 
 " Any time now," he said. " I have just 
 the horse for you." 
 
 " Oh, have you! Then let me begin to 
 
 morrow." 
 
 " Very well if your doctor and your 
 family consent." 
 
 " Are you not my doctor? " 
 
 " I will be your riding master." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 129 
 
 "I m not sure I like that riding masters 
 are very autocratic." 
 
 " I think we may begin to-morrow," he 
 said, and his tone was gravely tender. 
 You seem wonderfully well to-day. You 
 are so young and lovely I am afraid of you. 
 I cannot believe that you really are my 
 patient." 
 
 She laughed at him in comprehension. 
 " I am not the thing I was. I don t under 
 stand it myself but to-day as I woke from 
 my afternoon nap I fairly leaped to my 
 feet. I felt like dancing. I could dance 
 now " 
 
 " Don t please don t!" he called in 
 alarm. Her amusement deepened. " Oh, 
 I m not really going to try now but I 
 am going to dance with you some day just 
 to show you I can do it." 
 
 " You ll have to teach me first." 
 
130 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 "Can t you dance?" 
 
 " I could if I knew how, as Dan would 
 say ; I ve the strength f er it ! " 
 
 You teach me to ride and I ll teach you 
 to dance Is it a bargain? " 
 
 "A solemn pledge," he answered, but 
 something in his look caused her to say: 
 You think I m hysterical but I m not. 
 I m only gay. I know I m going to get 
 well. Hitherto I ve believed it because you 
 made me believe it, now I am believing it for 
 myself." 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 HEREAFTER as Ellice grew in 
 JL strength Clement lost in assertive- 
 ness in his feeling of command. His re 
 lationship with her was no longer simple. 
 So long as she wore the dress of the invalid 
 his motives had been simple, direct and very 
 lofty. She was then a soul under convic 
 tion of decay, but he began now to perceive 
 that she was a distinguished character, that 
 she stood in better social position with a far 
 wider knowledge of the world than himself. 
 The distinction of his newly acquired mil 
 lions grew to be a very poor possession in 
 his own opinion and at last as he acknowl 
 edged his love for her and his hope of win 
 ning her he finally reached such self -con- 
 
132 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 fessed poverty of mind, such grossness of 
 body that he wondered at her continued tol 
 eration of him. The part he now played 
 had an element of hypocrisy in it. He was 
 her lover in a very human way. A certain 
 guilt attached to the keen disturbing pleas 
 ure which the touch of her hand now gave 
 him. Once that hand was cold an object 
 of mournful beauty, now it was pink- 
 palmed, magnetic, with the feminine appeal, 
 
 He wondered whether she was aware of 
 his fall from the fine impersonal dispassion 
 ate attitude of his first meeting, and whether 
 it would not seem to her a base thing to know 
 how completely he had lost sight of the in 
 valid in her and how deeply she stirred him 
 as a woman. 
 
 Her returning sense of humour, her gen 
 tle raillery, disconcerted him. At times 
 she fairly bewildered him by a kind of girl- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 133 
 
 ish coquetry but these moods were not fre 
 quent, for the most part she kept to the 
 gentle gravity of her first manner. 
 
 As she no longer needed his arm for sup 
 port he found it a kind of treason to offer 
 it as an act of gallantry. In fact, in that 
 small act was typified the change which he 
 had now assumed. At first she had seemed 
 to him like an angelic child. Death s 
 shadow had made him bold had kept him 
 impersonal, high-natured, but now, having 
 come to love her in this indefensible absorb 
 ing fashion, every word he spoke seemed to 
 have a double meaning. He referred but 
 seldom to his mission and his visits grew 
 more and more measured, carefully ac 
 counted for. 
 
 As for Ellice, if she perceived this change 
 in him she remained serenely untroubled by 
 it. She spent many hours sitting with 
 
134 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 smiling lips and half -shut eyes, thinking of 
 her lover. She imagined herself drifting 
 back to life on a current of mountain air, 
 companioned by splendid clouds. Her con 
 tent was like to the lotus-eaters languor it 
 held no thought of time or tide. 
 
 That she idealised the young miner was 
 true. He was a constant source of surprise 
 to her. His grace, his dignity, his innate 
 delicacy charmed her. All the small ameni 
 ties of conduct which he had once possessed 
 came back to him. His thought rose easily 
 to the highest things. He never mentioned 
 business unless she asked a question. 
 
 He, on his part, studied now to please 
 her as he had once studied to bring back 
 her love of life. He did not exactly aban 
 don his business, but he came to superintend 
 his superintendents. His mine was a source 
 of deepest satisfaction and the fact that he 
 
WITCH S GOLD 135 
 
 could trust Dan to run it gave him con 
 tinued leisure. However, by means of a 
 telephone line he was able to direct each 
 day s doings from his hotel. He permitted 
 himself the luxury of a suite of cheerful 
 rooms and little by little assumed the posi 
 tion to which his income entitled him. He 
 set aside a certain time each day for books 
 and magazines, struggling hard " to catch 
 up " with the latest literature in order that 
 he might meet his love on common ground. 
 If she referred to any author, even in the 
 most casual way, he made mental note of 
 the name and ordered a set of his works at 
 once. 
 
 He apologised occasionally for this. " I 
 know something of chemistry and mineral 
 ogy, a smitch of geology, and a whole lot 
 about milling processes, but very little of 
 art and literature," he said to her once. 
 
136 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 " But give me time, I am not so hopeless as 
 you might think. My training at college 
 was not entirely bad. I can read and I can 
 remember what I read. So much for a 
 good habit." 
 
 "But think of it!" she answered. "I 
 know only books." 
 
 These were glorious days for them both. 
 She was able each day to walk a little 
 farther up the canons and to sit a little 
 longer in the sun. She ate with better relish 
 and at last Mr. Ross decided to purchase 
 a house in Colorado Springs in order 
 that his daughter might make herself per 
 manently at home. He was confident now 
 that she was going to get well, but the doc 
 tors all agreed that she must continue to live 
 in an atmosphere which was tonic. 
 
 She took decided interest in the house and 
 in the rearrangement of its furniture. The 
 
WITCH S GOLD 137 
 
 home stood on a bold bank overlooking the 
 valley and her own windows faced directly 
 upon the mountains. The dining room 
 also permitted a view of the peaks. Ellice 
 admired the house with its wide sunny 
 rooms, and said that her only objection to 
 leaving the cottage at Manitou lay in the 
 thought of the long miles it put between 
 herself and the magic pool. 
 
 To this Clement replied: "There are 
 the street cars to the foot of the trail." 
 
 " But wouldn t that take away the spell? " 
 
 " There are no wheel-marks on the trail," 
 he answered enigmatically. " It does not 
 matter in what luxury we cross the valley; 
 to reach the magic fountain we must climb." 
 
 The new house was of redstone, with a 
 tiled roof, a fine square, simple structure 
 in the " modified Mexican " style, and pos 
 sessed a broad piazza which gave a most glo- 
 
138 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 rious view of the range, and every afternoon 
 at five Clement took tea with Ellice, after 
 which they often went for a short walk be 
 fore dinner. Each morning, unless pre 
 vented by some unavoidable business, he took 
 her out on horse-back. Each day these rides 
 grew longer and her mastery of her horse 
 more noticeable, but Clement put off the 
 visit to the spring. " You must be able to 
 gallop hard for ten miles first," he kept re 
 peating, but in truth he had other and much 
 more important reasons for delay. 
 
 One by one the autumn flowers bloomed 
 and seeded and one by one the happy days 
 slipped by like golden beads on a silver 
 thread. The higher peaks whitened with 
 snow now and again each time a little 
 deeper, but the sunlight still fell warm and 
 yellow on the floor of the broad veranda. 
 The mountains seemed to grow in majesty 
 
WITCH S GOLD 139 
 
 as they took on their capes of ermine and 
 the air was each morning more crystalline. 
 
 Clement, with eyes to these changes, 
 knew that the visit to the spring could no 
 longer be safely postponed; therefore, one 
 especially beautiful warm morning he said: 
 
 " Are you feeling particularly well this 
 morning? " 
 
 She turned to him with glowing, expect 
 ant face. " Yes. Why? " 
 
 " Because this is the day we go to the 
 magic pool." 
 
 " At last! " she exclaimed, feeling the ex 
 citement in his own voice. " I m so glad." 
 
 " Very well. I will send the horses on 
 ahead and we ll drive to the foot of the 
 trail." 
 
 " Oh, no! I want to ride the whole way." 
 
 " I am afraid it will not be wise." 
 
 " I feel perfectly well to-day, please let s 
 
140 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 not spoil the trip by driving. I have a 
 sentiment against it." 
 
 " What would the doctor say? " 
 
 " The doctor do you still heed what he 
 says?" 
 
 He laughed. " I have a confession to 
 make I have deceived you. The legend 
 says that in order to have the water heal 
 you you must walk. But I will lead my 
 horse for you to ride on the downward trail 
 in case you feel the need of it. We will 
 ride to the foot of the trail, then, and walk 
 the rest of the way." 
 
 She drew herself up with a gesture of 
 physical pride. " I feel able to walk the 
 whole way to-day." 
 
 With a glance which rose from her proud 
 bosom to her sparkling eyes he exultantly 
 replied: "I believe you could do it but 
 all the same we would better ride to the foot 
 
WITCH S GOLD 141 
 
 of the mountain. There is no virtue in walk 
 ing through the highway." 
 
 In such spirit they galloped away side by 
 side, and they had lost none of their gaiety 
 as they set off up the mountain road. On 
 all sides the frost-painted foliage sparkled. 
 Above them the great snow-white crest of 
 the peak glistened in a cloudless sky. The 
 stream at their feet sang in a tumult of 
 laughter, a riot of rushing, sweet water, and 
 the girl s heart overflowing with rapture of 
 the beauties and love of mysteries about 
 her, performed prodigies of valour. She 
 fairly danced up the path, and Clement, 
 who was behind with her horse s rein over 
 his arm, became apprehensive and called 
 out: 
 
 " Not so fast! It is a long way up there. 
 I warn you the spring is almost at timber- 
 line." 
 
142 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 To this warning she paid small heed. 
 With shining face she replied: " I feel so 
 light, so active, it seems as if I could never 
 tire." 
 
 Yes, I know, but it is always harder to 
 come down the hill than to go up," he re 
 plied out of the fullness of his experience. 
 
 For a time they kept to the wide road 
 which climbed steadily, but at last he 
 called to her. 
 
 " Here we enter the trail," he said, indi 
 cating a narrow path. " Lead on and I will 
 follow." 
 
 " Not too far ahead," she exclaimed, the 
 least bit alarmed. 
 
 " Only two steps," he answered, amused 
 at her sudden timidity. " Just so I may 
 not tread on your heels." 
 
 You needn t laugh. I know you hunt 
 bears up here and I don t want to be eaten 
 
WITCH S GOLD 143 
 
 up especially not now when I am about 
 to be healed by the magic springs." 
 
 " I am just as anxious to save you from 
 the bears as anyone," he answered. " Be 
 sides the bears have all been killed more s 
 the pity." 
 
 They climbed for some time in compara 
 tive silence and at length came out upon a 
 pleasant grassy slope. 
 
 " Oh, how much prettier it is up here ! " 
 she exclaimed, her eyes bright with excite 
 ment. " Did you ever see more beautiful 
 colour? It is fairyland. See the jewels 
 under my feet." She pointed down at the 
 gold and bronze and scarlet and ruby of 
 geranium leaves and grouse berries. " I 
 didn t know the heights could be so beau 
 tiful." 
 
 He smiled indulgently. " You tourists 
 think you know Colorado when you ve 
 
144 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 crossed it once on the railway. This is 
 the Colorado which the traveller seldom 
 
 sees." 
 
 She was in rapture over the glory of 
 aspen, the waving yuccas of the hillsides, 
 and the radiant dapple of light and shadow 
 beneath the groves of firs. The cactus and 
 the ever-present sage bush of the lower 
 levels had disappeared, ripened crow s-foot 
 and blue- joint grasses swung in the wind 
 like golden grain. The bright flame of the 
 painted cup and the purple of clumps of 
 asters still lighted up the aisles of the pines 
 in sheltered places. 
 
 " There are many more in August," he 
 explained. The frost has swept them 
 all away. To know all the mountain s 
 charm you should come every day in the 
 year. There is a wonderful music here in 
 the spring when the snow begins to melt 
 
WITCH S GOLD 145 
 
 and the falling streams drip and tinkle and 
 roar. It s like the invisible movement of a 
 fairy army." 
 
 " Is this the stream from our spring? " 
 she asked. 
 
 " Yes, we cross it many times before we 
 come to the spring itself." 
 
 " How amber clear its ripples are! It 
 really looks like the elixir of life. May I 
 drink now? " 
 
 " Are you very thirsty? " he asked, re 
 luctantly. 
 
 " Yes may I drink? " 
 
 " Can t you wait? It will be so much 
 sweeter when you reach the spring." He 
 came closer to her and studied the heaving 
 of her bosom. " Are you tired? " 
 
 " Not at all." 
 
 You must not do too much," he tender 
 ly admonished. " If you find yourself out 
 
146 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 of breath, stop and ride. I feel my respon 
 sibility very deeply to-day." 
 
 " I want to be thirsty. I want to walk 
 and I m going to drink of the spring as 
 you prescribe it." 
 
 He laughed. " By the way you lead me 
 up this trail I begin to think you need a sed 
 ative. I never finish wondering whether 
 you are the same girl I first saw at the foun 
 tain." 
 
 She flashed a glance back at him. " I m 
 not, I assure you. I m another person. 
 I m made over entirely new." 
 
 That shows what three months of this 
 climate will do." 
 
 " Climate did not do it." 
 
 "What did do it?" 
 
 "You did," she kept marching steadily 
 forward, her head held very straight in 
 deed, " Doctor Clement." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 147 
 
 " I wish you would wait a moment," he 
 pleaded with eager wish to meet her eyes 
 at that instant. 
 
 " I am very thirsty I want to reach the 
 spring." 
 
 "But, dear girl, you can t keep this 
 pace." 
 
 " Can t I? Watch me and see." 
 
 She seemed possessed of some miraculous 
 strength for she mounted the steep trail into 
 the rarefied air each moment thinner as 
 lightly as a fawn, and Clement in an agony 
 of apprehension lest she should over-task 
 her lungs and fall fainting in the path, kept 
 close behind her checked and hampered by 
 his horse s bridle-rein. His own heart was 
 gay from the effect of her mystic glance, 
 her happy words, and his eyes followed her 
 lithe figure with the lover s pride and joy 
 mixed with the apprehension of the physi- 
 
148 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 cian responsible for the welfare of a pa 
 tient. 
 
 It was past noon when they came out of 
 the aspens and pines, into the little smooth 
 slope of meadow which lay between the low 
 peaks which were already crusted with 
 snow. In the midst of the orange and 
 purple and red of the grasses lay a deep, 
 dark pool of water as beautiful as his 
 sweetheart s eyes, it seemed to him. 
 
 " There is the spring," Clement called 
 to the girl. " There bubbles the water of 
 life." 
 
 " I knew it," she said, "and oh, I am 
 thirsty." 
 
 " Wait," he called out. " I must drink 
 with you. Only in that way will the 
 draught bestow health." 
 
 He hastened to the edge of the pool and 
 dipped a cup into the water and handed it 
 
WITCH S GOLD 149 
 
 to her. " Don t touch it till my own is 
 filled," he warningly repeated. Then rais 
 ing his own cup he solemnly added : " Now 
 let us drink confusion to disease." 
 
 She touched her cup to his and their eyes 
 met. Then she cried out: " Confusion to 
 every ailment in the world," and drank. 
 
 " Confusion to sorrow! " he said. 
 
 The flush on her cheek deepened as she 
 looked upon him, so strong, so handsome, 
 so confident and so tender. 
 
 " Oh, isn t it delicious? I must have 
 another." 
 
 He filled the cup again. " Now I want 
 to drink to you " he said, solemnly, " I 
 want to pledge my life to your service 
 my life and all I am." 
 
 She grew a little pale. His intensity of 
 emotion, his gravity awed her and she was 
 very serious as she answered: " I don t 
 
150 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 think you ought. I don t think I am quite 
 worthy." 
 
 " Let me be judge of that." He spoke 
 quickly, almost sharply. " Shall I drink? " 
 
 She drew back a little from the ardour of 
 his eyes and stood leaning against the 
 browsing horse. After a little hesitation 
 she answered archly: "If you are very 
 thirsty." 
 
 He drank, then came straight toward her. 
 " Henceforth I am entirely yours," he said, 
 and in his eyes was demand as well as 
 worship. 
 
 She shrank from him in sudden timidity 
 and weakness, saying a little hurriedly: 
 " Help me into the saddle, I think I must 
 ride down, I am tired I find." 
 
 His face took on lines of deep concern. 
 
 " You must not give way to that feeling. 
 Remember the magic draught." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 151 
 
 He placed her upon the horse and after a 
 little rest, with the bridle rein on his arm, be 
 gan the descent in silence, which she seemed 
 to desire. 
 
 Over them the great snow peaks took on 
 the golden light of afternoon, and the shad 
 ows deepened in the canons below, the 
 stream sang with a graver note and in the 
 man s heart was the uneasiness of one who 
 has yielded to an impulse to claim that to 
 which after all he has no right. On the 
 girl s face lay the smile of a musing sover 
 eign. She who had given up both love and 
 life was about to be wooed as other women 
 were, by a lover whose passion had no trace 
 of pity! 
 
 The realisation of his desire, his change of 
 attitude filled her with pride, with exulta 
 tion. Truly the world was a good place 
 after all and it was rapture to be alive. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 BUT this rapture did not last. She 
 went to the solitude of her room that 
 night troubled by a thought which she had 
 put aside till this moment as a bridge in the 
 distance a bridge which she might never 
 be called upon to cross. This decision in 
 volved a question of her right to be a 
 wife. Being a woman and a thoughtful 
 woman she could not go blindly, led by her 
 newly acquired rapture, into a relation that 
 might mean transmission of her weakness 
 to other and innocent little beings. 
 
 She awoke to the necessity of knowing 
 the exact character of her ailment. If it 
 were of such a kind as all the medical world 
 agreed could be inherited " Then I must 
 
WITCH S GOLD 153 
 
 go my way alone," she decided with a pang 
 of fear at her heart, and as she looked into 
 the future and saw herself growing old 
 alone and childless, the glow of health which 
 had come back to her seemed a mockery 
 an ironic punishment. 
 
 She revolted from this. " It can t be 
 that," she exclaimed. " I am well. I feel 
 health in every drop of my blood. What 
 ever my weakness I have conquered it. I 
 know I am to grow stronger." 
 
 It was hard to seek counsel on such a 
 point. She resented the necessity bitterly 
 and yet her mother had died early in life 
 perhaps from some inherited weakness. 
 Oh, that mysterious and potent law which 
 forces the child to partake of the weaknesses 
 as well as the strength of the parent! was 
 it to come now between her love and its ful 
 fillment? 
 
154 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 She met him at a dinner the next day, 
 outwardly the same but with an inward 
 difference. Her clear eyes confronted him 
 with the same confidence, but her lips be 
 trayed a new and subtle distraction. Her 
 thought was less collected, her mind fitful. 
 His near presence now brought a weakness 
 to her feet a sweet charm to her heart. 
 
 She spoke of the spring and the draught 
 of its water laughingly, but yet seriously 
 as making an epoch in her life. " I am no 
 longer an invalid," she said. " I do not in 
 tend to presume on my family and friends. 
 I am going to put all my sick life away. 
 I don t want anyone to ever remind me 
 of it." 
 
 To this he agreed with instant enthusi 
 asm. " Quite right. We will ride every 
 day and very soon I want you and your 
 father to come over to see my mine." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 155 
 
 "I should like to do that," she replied 
 sincerely. " When shall it be? " 
 
 " When you are quite recovered from 
 this trip," he answered. 
 
 He went away conscious of having been 
 precipitate and in a sense unwarranted and 
 base. He had descended from the high 
 plain of his pitying, impersonal love to the 
 level of the suitor and in this lay great dan 
 ger of misconception on her part. Might 
 she not properly accuse him of deception, of 
 having won her confidence as a physician 
 only to abuse it as a lover? " No mat 
 ter," he said shamelessly, " I will not let 
 her go." 
 
 As it had taken him a certain length of! 
 time to convince himself that the mine was 
 safely his own, so now it seemed (when ab 
 sent from his love) that someone, some mis 
 chance was about to rob him of this exquisite 
 
156 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 woman whose slender hand had power to 
 crown his life with laurel. There was some 
 thing in her manner which troubled him. 
 She was not less tender, but she seemed 
 more guarded more constrained. 
 
 His feeling of unworthiness deepened as 
 he studied her from this new angle. She 
 was so free from any stain of life s battle. 
 There were many questionable places in his 
 own life. 
 
 Silently, subtly and with a constantly 
 brightening glow, her radiant purity of 
 soul streamed in upon his brain, revealing 
 to himself his most hidden motives. He 
 had always been a decent and honourable 
 man, as the honour of business men is 
 measured, but an uneasy sense of wrong 
 doing began to disturb his complacency, 
 and just as he was dropping off to sleep at 
 night the question of moral right in connec- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 157 
 
 tion with his acquirement of The Witch 
 came into his mind. " I did not tell her all 
 the facts in the case," he admitted, and the 
 thought of laying bare all his calculations 
 and inferences at that point made him shiver 
 a little. Acts that seemed legitimate enough 
 in the world of men would not bear transla 
 tion into the terms of her world. 
 
 This feeling of dissatisfaction with him 
 self was intensified by a long letter from 
 Eldred threatening a new suit, and when he 
 met her next day he no longer assumed to 
 dominate her on the contrary, he seemed 
 merely the eager lover, anxious, consider 
 ate almost too considerate. He sought a 
 definite promise from her and held out to 
 her on his palm a beautiful ring. 
 
 She uttered a word of rapture: What 
 a beautiful ring! to whom does it belong? " 
 
 " To you if you will wear it," he replied 
 
158 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 with such meaning that her eye-lashes 
 dropped to hide her own emotion. 
 
 He went on hurriedly: " If you put that 
 on I must assume you are willing to take 
 me with it." 
 
 She grew very grave as she looked at the 
 little shining thing. " It seems very won 
 derful to me that you should want me to 
 wear it that I am here willing to wear it 
 for I am," she added, flashing into a 
 smile, " for I love you you know it- 
 Then before he could touch her hand she 
 shrank back and a faint flush crossed her 
 face, leaving her very pale and very tense. 
 " But I m afraid perhaps I ought not to 
 promise anything yet. The future fright 
 
 ens me." 
 
 "Why? What do you mean?" 
 Again the blood flushed her serious face. 
 " I mean," her voice died to a whisper 
 
WITCH S GOLD 159 
 
 " perhaps I ought never to marry. My 
 my weakness may be hereditary. Have 
 you thought of that? " 
 
 A look of relief crossed his face. " Yes, 
 I ve thought of that. I ve given it the 
 deepest study and I m not afraid." He 
 smiled at her. " You know my creed. 
 There s nothing evil in this world, but think 
 ing makes it so. You need not, you must 
 not give any more thought to your trouble. 
 All that we have left behind." 
 
 "But my mother " 
 
 He took both her hands in his. " Dear 
 girl, I know what you are thinking, but it 
 isn t true. Your mother s illness and death 
 have no physical connection with yours 
 only your morbid thought connected you 
 or can connect you in that way. Trust me 
 in this. Take my ring and wear it with all 
 it may mean. I am determined that you 
 
160 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 shall be well and happy; I want you to trust 
 me in this as you have in other things, in 
 anything." 
 
 Under the power of his words, his voice, 
 his glance, she lifted her lips to his and put 
 her arms about his neck in confident, fullest 
 reliance in his strength. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE month that followed her accept 
 ance of the ring was one of perfect 
 happiness for her. She had no wish to 
 have him reassume the role of healer she 
 was entirely content with him as lover, and 
 this being made plain to him encouraged 
 him to make peace with himself on that 
 score. He had no rebuke for the press 
 which gave large space to gossip concern 
 ing his " approaching nuptials," and though 
 he now knew that his visits to his bride-elect 
 were carefully numbered by the busy-bodies 
 he calmly pursued his way. 
 
 He bought ground for a house and or 
 dered the plans sent to Ellice for approval, 
 and when she drew back in dismay of the 
 
162 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 magnitude of the architect s estimates, he 
 asked: " Don t you like my plan? " 
 
 "It is very beautiful! But can we af 
 ford it? " 
 
 We can afford anything that will make 
 you happy," he made answer. 
 
 " But this is a palace! " 
 
 " Only the best is good enough for you." 
 After a moment he added : You see, I 
 know you can never live East again, and so 
 I want you to have all the comforts of a 
 palace in Colorado. So long as The Witch 
 holds out to burn every desire of your heart 
 shall be gratified." 
 
 " I am easily gratified, dearest. I d 
 rather have you than a palace." 
 
 " But you can have me and the palace 
 too, if you will." 
 
 She sighed. " I suppose I ll have to put 
 up with both," and then she laughed. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 163 
 
 They made the trip to the mine soon after 
 this, and her delicate shining face, her small 
 hand upon his arm deepened his sense of her 
 preciousness and his own rough ways. He 
 refused to take her into the dampness of 
 the mine s deep, but showed her all the 
 processes of sorting and crushing and wash 
 ing of the big mills. She asked to see Dan 
 and Biddy, and this request gave him a 
 sharper pang of uneasiness than he had yet 
 acknowledged. " They ll be very glad to 
 see you, but you mustn t expect too much 
 of them Biddy is especially flamboyant 
 good old soul." 
 
 Dan was instant and hearty in his praise 
 of Clement. " Sure, Miss, he s the best 
 man I ever knew. See the work he puts me 
 to. An me pay! Ye ll find Biddy uphol 
 stered like the parlour chairs and a gold 
 watch in every wan of the vest pockets 
 
164 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 and it s all the boss s work. He took the 
 mine when it was green with deceit and he 
 made it sprout pure gold." 
 
 They found Biddy quite as gorgeous as 
 Dan had reported her to be. She was about 
 to make a call on the saloon-keeper s wife 
 (in a green velvet gown and a lace hat) , but 
 she sat down in a smother of satisfaction 
 and friendliness and entertained her visitors 
 with stories of her triumphs over her neigh 
 bours. " Sure I have them all faded the 
 very ones that once wrinkled their noses at 
 me and it s all on account of Mr. Clement 
 sure it is." 
 
 Clement promptly forbade any more 
 talk of that kind, but Ellice interceded and 
 gently encouraged her. She perceived the 
 good heart of the woman, and was able to 
 understand the feeling she had for her hero, 
 who looked so strong, so handsome, and so 
 
WITCH S GOLD 165 
 
 distinguished as he sat amid the red and yel 
 low of the parlour furniture. 
 
 Mr. Ross had come to have a profound 
 respect for his future son-in-law, and this 
 visit to the mine deepened his sense of Clem 
 ent s power. " I can t say that he don t 
 make as much of a fool of himself as any 
 prospective bridegroom, but he is a good 
 business man at the same time. He don t 
 lose his head, by any means. It is perfectly 
 certain that he understands his business. 
 He is only reckless when buying things for 
 Ellice. I suspect he ll take care of her and 
 the mine, too." 
 
 It was in this period of waiting of service 
 that Eldred entered final suit against Clem 
 ent to recover his interest in the mine, and 
 the case was entered for the spring term of 
 court. At any other time Clement would 
 have put the summons aside as of no conse- 
 
166 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 quence, but now he was both angered and 
 alarmed. To go into court even with the 
 right on his side would expose him to slan 
 der and to impudent questions. It would 
 be quite like his opponents to drag Ellice s 
 name into the argument and the very 
 thought of that was intolerable. 
 
 On the other hand to compromise with 
 the persistent sneak was to lower himself 
 to admit that the claim was just and to in 
 vite a continuation of the attack, for so 
 long as a dollar could be won Eldred was 
 certain to demand and demand and still de 
 mand. "It is diabolical malice to bring 
 suit at this time," he said to Mr. Ross, to 
 whom he went for advice. 
 
 " If you have stated the facts cor 
 rectly, he has no case," declared the mer 
 chant. 
 
 " Certainly he has no case. I bought his 
 
WITCH S GOLD 167 
 
 stock and paid for it out of money drawn 
 from my share of the old homestead. I 
 made every sacrifice to repay him, and I 
 intend to fight him but I do not like to 
 have Ellice share in any way the anxiety 
 of the fight. Eldred is but a tool in the 
 hands of a powerful clique of men in Den 
 ver. Bodovitz has the claim and it is his 
 intentions to make a big killing. 
 
 " Retain a good lawyer and wear them 
 out with postponements. Why not retain 
 Bodovits or whatever his name is outbid 
 the other man? " 
 
 " I d thought of that," said Clement with 
 an answering smile, " but I despise the man 
 so that I can t do it." 
 
 "What can I do for you? I take it 
 you re in no need of money." 
 
 " Oh, no, there s nothing you can do ex 
 cept to help me keep the whole complication 
 
168 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 from Ellice and to advise me now and 
 then." 
 
 " You need not be alarmed about Ellice; 
 once she understands the situation, it will 
 not trouble her. A woman always sides 
 with the man, especially when he s right." 
 
 "I m glad you feel as I do about the mat 
 ter. I m sorry for Eldred and I would do 
 something for him, only he would take that 
 as a sign of weakness, and he and his people 
 would push the harder. The only thing I 
 can do is to keep absolutely clear of him 
 am I not sound? " 
 
 " Perfectly. The other people have 
 made no fight, I understand? " 
 
 " Dan and Biddy? No. They are hap 
 py and well. Dan is working for me and 
 is as rich as he can stand. He says he sold 
 to me gladly and has no kick coming. He 
 refuses to enter into any combination 
 
WITCH S GOLD 169 
 
 against me; that has been a great comfort 
 to me." 
 
 And yet for all this reassurance Clement 
 was not at peace with himself. He had 
 fought round the real question at issue, 
 seeking by giving aid to the library and to 
 the various educational institutions of the 
 town, to restore his entire self-respect. The 
 question that would not down was this: 
 "Am I not bound in honour to give to 
 Dan and Biddy an equal share in The 
 Witch?" 
 
 The answer complete and satisfying hith 
 erto had been this: "No, they threw up 
 their interests at a time when the mine was 
 a failure. J made it a success I alone. 
 Besides they have more money than they 
 know how to use now." 
 
 But this answer no longer sufficed him. 
 It was true that they had cheerfully sold to 
 
170 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 him, but it was in the belief that the ore was 
 too refractory to ever be solved. They 
 knew so little of Clement s resources. " Yes, 
 but they were entitled to your resources. 
 They had given of their slender material 
 stores and time when you were starving. 
 What moral right had you to withhold your 
 mental resources? " 
 
 " I did not know at the time positively 
 that I could solve the mystery of the ore." 
 
 True, but your inner conviction was 
 clear as a bell. You knew you could solve 
 it in time, and this you withheld from your 
 great-hearted partners." 
 
 Ellice perceived the change in him, for 
 he had become moody and changeable even 
 in her presence. This troubled her, and one 
 day she asked: 
 
 "What is the matter, Richard? You 
 don t seem yourself to-day." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 171 
 
 He brightened at once. " Business is 
 bothering me a little." 
 
 " I think you must be working too hard." 
 
 "Oh, no! work is a pleasure now," he 
 answered. 
 
 She persisted: "I m afraid you have 
 been too extravagant about me. That 
 house is so big and costly it frightens 
 
 me." 
 
 " Now don t you get any foolish notions 
 about economy into your head," he an 
 swered, genuinely amused, " the mine is get 
 ting bigger and richer every day. I m an 
 noyed by some little things, that s all 
 nothing important if they were I would 
 tell you." 
 
 " You must always do that," she very 
 gravely admonished him. " I want to feel 
 that I am sharing all your perplexities as 
 well as your good fortune." 
 
172 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 Here was the moment to tell her what 
 really troubled him, but he did not. He 
 put it all away and they went for a ride in 
 stead. 
 
 The wedding day had been set for July, 
 just a year from their first meeting, and 
 this was June and Ellice at least began to 
 regret the swift passing of these, her most 
 beautiful days. Life had been a rapture 
 deep and sweet since her lover came to 
 her and called her back to mental as well 
 as physical health, and she would have been 
 well content to have the days of courtship 
 linger on indefinitely. But to wait was not 
 the man s part, and once when she playfully 
 hinted at a postponement he grew a little 
 savage and quite alarmed. " I can t afford 
 to postpone," he exclaimed, "I m too old 
 to think of it." 
 
 He was disposed to be very generous 
 
WITCH S GOLD 173 
 
 during these days, and had Eldred shown 
 the slightest tact or consideration it would 
 have redounded to his advantage, but he did 
 not; on the contrary, he set to work to more 
 closely pursue and to more remorselessly 
 slander Clement. By the promise of large 
 fees he induced his attorneys to make the at 
 tack personal. It was not difficult to get 
 certain journals to pass from sly to open 
 censure they were, however, and happily, 
 the kind of papers which Ellice did not see, 
 and though she read in the better news 
 papers reference now and then to this unfa 
 vourable comment, she gave it little thought, 
 well knowing how easy it was for a public 
 man to be misunderstood. 
 
 Dan and Biddy were conspiring with the 
 men in the mines to buy a " whale of a 
 wedding present for the boss," at the same 
 time that Clement was turning over in his 
 
174 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 mind a plan to do something more for them 
 good faithful souls! Dan said to Biddy: 
 " It must be a big dish sure, so that we can 
 have our names all dug into it. Jack Hen- 
 nesy says a loving cup but I stand out for 
 a punch bowl. I don t know what a punch 
 bowl is, but tis a big dish wid a big broad 
 side f er writin on and that s the thing we 
 nade." 
 
 " A punch bowl," said Biddy, " is a bowl 
 to drink punch out of." 
 
 "Is it so?" replied Dan sarcastically. 
 " I thought it was for punchin lobsters wid. 
 Anyhow we ll soon know for I m a com 
 mittee to go to Denver and bring it back 
 wid me in toime f er the wake I mean the 
 ceremony." 
 
 " Be sure ye bring the punch wid the 
 bowl." 
 
 " I will and you be sure to have a civil 
 
WITCH S GOLD 175 
 
 tongue when ye meet Hennesy and the rest 
 of the boys," he replied. " Twill be the 
 biggest bowl in town be-dad! " 
 
 On the very day that Dan was in Denver 
 to buy this bowl he met Eldred on the street, 
 and in the innocence of his big Irish heart 
 he asked the little man to subscribe. 
 
 Eldred scowled. "You re a fool, Dan 
 McCarty. I d rather subscribe to a fund 
 to prosecute him for stealing our share of 
 the mine." 
 
 Dan s face lost its smile. " There is a 
 difference bechune us I may be a fool, but 
 I m not a villain and that s what you are, 
 and if you ask me to subscribe to YOUR fund 
 I ll break your face." And he passed on, 
 his sunny face clouded with a frown. 
 
 Eldred was not a coward he was rather 
 a rash, intruding fool, for he took train 
 that very day for The Springs to see Clem- 
 
176 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 ent personally. Even then had he taken a 
 reasonable tone he would have won some 
 substantial reward, but he did not; he en 
 tered the hotel with his small, dark rat-like 
 face set in a portentous frown, and his card 
 to Clement stated that he was present " to 
 talk business." 
 
 Clement sent for him to come up, and the 
 fine rooms which he occupied and the air of 
 cultivated leisure which the young miner 
 now possessed seemed to make the little 
 man more intolerantly bitter than ever. He 
 began at once: "I ve come to ask you 
 finally what you intend to do about my 
 suit?" 
 
 Clement sitting at a big mahogany desk 
 in a big, beautiful room, flushed with anger, 
 but controlling himself replied quietly: 
 " I don t know let it come to trial prob 
 ably." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 177 
 
 " You daren t let it come to trial. You 
 have got it set over twice and you ll do it 
 again but if you do I ll appeal through 
 the newspapers." 
 
 "Can you say anything that you haven t 
 said? " inquired Clement, his anger rising 
 to dangerous height. "I m glad you ve 
 come in, for I want to say to you that if you 
 don t drop your public abuse of me I will 
 give you a hiding in the street " Eldred 
 started to speak, but Clement sprang up 
 silencing him. "Not a word. I will not 
 argue this thing with you. If you were a 
 full grown man we would settle it out of 
 court, but as it is you d better walk out of my 
 room before I pitch you out. 
 
 Eldred retreated, but not in confusion. 
 " You re a big duffer. If you touch me I ll 
 shoot you." 
 
 Thereupon Clement lost his control and 
 
178 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 with a cuff sent the fellow reeling then 
 leading him by the ear cast him outside the 
 door and closed it with a bang. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE final stir, the deciding touch to 
 Clement s conscience came in a curi 
 ous way a few days before the day set 
 for his wedding and the little journey they 
 expected to make. He was in camp on a 
 final inspection of his mine, and was walk 
 ing the streets at night, silent, self-ab 
 sorbed and gloomy. He had grown mor 
 bidly self -critical in his thought. " I m 
 not fit to marry one so angelic, so sweet, 
 so forgiving," he said, all his self -exult 
 ant power gone. Like many another man 
 he began to realise the significance of mar 
 riage to woman to comprehend its power 
 to wreck or mar, and he spent far too many 
 hours in going over his faults of omission 
 
180 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 as well as those he had actually committed. 
 He was abroad now seeking the distraction 
 which crowds can sometimes bring to one 
 in troubled musing. The thought of El- 
 dred had come to be more and more dis 
 turbing and he wished a hundred times 
 that he had not laid violent hands on the 
 man. He was so small and mean as an 
 antagonist. 
 
 The street swarmed with sight-seers and 
 miners. A low, continuous hum of talk could 
 be heard at the base of all other noises, and 
 Clement standing aside from it all, was 
 thinking how far above all this life his beau 
 tiful bride was, when the voice of a street 
 orator attracted his attention. 
 
 There had been in the camp for some 
 weeks a certain sensational evangelist a 
 man of some power, but of most unhappy 
 disposition, one who had been in serious 
 
WITCH S GOLD 181 
 
 trouble with the city authorities. He had 
 been called a " hypocrite and fake " in the 
 public press, had been prosecuted for dis 
 turbance of the peace and threatened by 
 anonymous enemies. But he seemed to 
 thrive on such treatment and each night 
 flung his challenges to the four winds, 
 eager for battle. 
 
 Clement had paid very little attention to 
 him and his troubles, but as he looked down 
 the street at the crowd massing at the cor 
 ner, it occurred to him to wonder if the 
 speaker were " the fighting evangelist." 
 
 He was about to move that way when a 
 man and a woman paused near him in the 
 dark middle of the street and seemed to be 
 consulting together. 
 
 " This will do as well as anywhere," 
 the fellow said, and putting down a small 
 box mounted it as to a pulpit. He wore 
 
182 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 a broad cowboy hat, and a long coat 
 which hung unbuttoned down his powerful 
 figure. The woman, who stood beside him, 
 was tall and slender, and neatly dressed in 
 grey her face could not be seen, but she 
 carried her head proudly. Clement under 
 stood that these were the persecuted ones 
 and his interest was at once aroused. He 
 drew near and waited the coming of the 
 crowd. 
 
 The man began to sing in a powerful but 
 not very musical voice, a hymn full of pic 
 turesque cowboy allusions. His words, his 
 manner had a quality not usual in street ex- 
 horters, and a throng of miners quickly 
 gathered about him. The verses of his 
 song were many and not without a rude 
 poetry, and his audience listened with an in 
 terest which covered the delivery of his 
 prayer which was long, and eloquent too, in 
 
WITCH S GOLD 183 
 
 its rough diction. He began his address at 
 last by issuing a plain defiance to his 
 enemies. This would mean little in an 
 eastern village, perhaps, but in a mining 
 camp, even a degenerate mining camp, it 
 meant a great deal. Life or death seemed 
 to meet on equal ground as he stood there 
 uttering in vivid and powerful phrase his 
 challenge to the death. 
 
 " Now, gentlemen, I want to say some 
 thing as a preface in order to line every 
 body up. Some citizen of this town has 
 branded me by anonymous letters in the 
 public press as a fakir. It wouldn t be 
 healthy for any man to do it openly. So 
 these sneaks hide behind a fence. I want 
 them to know my plain opinion of them. 
 They are liars. I hope Doc is here to 
 night. I want him to step right up to me 
 if he is. He s my meat. I don t care 
 
184 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 about myself. It is only a little difference 
 of opinion between me and a coward, but 
 when he reflects upon the good name of my 
 wife I get red-eyed. Now let me remark 
 right here that any man who says my wife 
 is not a lady and a woman of the highest 
 character, insults the mother of my children, 
 and must answer to me for every word he 
 utters, and no assumed name is going to 
 protect him from my vengeance." 
 
 A thrill of deeper interest ran through the 
 crowd. The man s voice had a noble swell 
 in it a sound that meant battle, battle at 
 the mouth of the pistol. As he towered 
 there in the dim light surrounded by armed 
 men he presented a broad mark for the as 
 sassin s bullet. But there was no fear in his 
 attitude. He had come up through a wild 
 life, and knew his audience as well as he 
 knew his accuser and himself. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 185 
 
 His voice took a sudden change it grew 
 tender and sincerely reverent. " My friends, 
 I am here to preach the gospel of Christ and 
 Him crucified. I may not do it in the best 
 way always, but I do it as well as I know 
 how." His voice grew savage again, as he 
 added: " But I shall defend the honour of 
 my wife with my life. I will kill the man 
 who dares to malign her name." 
 
 His voice and pose were magnificent 
 lion-like and a cheer rose from those who 
 stood nearest him. " Good boy!" shouted 
 some loose-tongued fellow. 
 
 The preacher s manner again change.d 
 with dramatic suddenness. He now took 
 the whole street into his boyish confidence. 
 
 " I love my wife, gentlemen. She has 
 borne three children to me. She is a good 
 woman and a mighty sight smarter and 
 better preacher than I am, but she can t de- 
 
186 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 fend herself against sneaks and reptilious 
 liars. I can. That s part of my business. 
 I tell you, boys," he continued in a voice 
 whose tone was very sincere and winning, 
 " they ain t no man good enough to marry 
 a good woman; now that s the God s truth; 
 it s just her good, pure, kind heart gives a 
 man any show at all. We re a lot of dirty, 
 noisy coyotes, if anybody rides up and asks 
 you and I wonder the women put up with 
 us at all. I feel mighty grateful myself. 
 The more I see of men the better I like 
 women. They carry their own troubles and 
 ours too. I tell you the woman that bears 
 a child ought to be free from slander." 
 
 A sudden lump rose in Clement s throat. 
 The preacher s deep humility and loyalty 
 and manliness had gone straight to his own 
 heart and touched him in a very sensitive 
 place. " How true it all is ! Men go to 
 
WITCH S GOLD 187 
 
 women scarred with their battles, malodo 
 rous with their toil and their amusements. 
 They demand purity for their baseness, con 
 stancy for their fickleness and charity for 
 their selfishness." He turned away and 
 sought the deeper shadow with his head 
 bowed in such despair as Lincoln is reported 
 to have felt in the face of his approaching 
 marriage. The exhorter had brought con 
 viction of soul to one who was already 
 troubled but not about his future life. 
 
 " Oh, God! How pure and dainty and 
 unspotted she is, and I I am unclean." 
 
 He saw now as clearly as if a searching 
 light had been turned in upon his most secret 
 thought, that his ownership of The Witch 
 was in question. He had not been entirely 
 candid with his love he had concealed 
 something. 
 
 " I had no right to claim her till I had 
 
188 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 laid bare everything that was in my mind 
 about that transaction," he accusingly 
 groaned. " I did not know> but I was mor 
 ally certain that wealth was in it. The fact 
 that Eldred is a scoundrel and that Dan 
 and Biddy would be overloaded and per 
 haps injured by wealth has nothing to do 
 with the inherent justice of the case. I 
 failed to share my conviction with them 
 in a way I took advantage of their igno 
 rance and their superstition. Legally the 
 mine belongs to me morally I am now in 
 doubt." 
 
 All the way back to the Springs he 
 wrestled with himself about it. He ended 
 by reasserting the justice of his position, 
 and in the resolve to tell Ellice at once the 
 whole story with all his doubts and assump 
 tions and let her judge. He had in his 
 pocket the deed to the new house, which was 
 
WITCH S GOLD 189 
 
 to be his wedding present, but this some 
 how gave him little comfort on the con 
 trary he could not think of asking her to 
 accept it before passing upon his action in 
 buying in the mine. Once in the Springs he 
 went directly to her. 
 
 He found her surrounded with women 
 and gowns and flowers in what seemed to 
 him a chaos of preparation. The women 
 fled when he approached, but the gowns and 
 flowers remained, and he began by jocular 
 comment upon these evidences of " woman s 
 vanity but at last in sheer lack of any 
 further cause or excuse for delay he came 
 to the point. 
 
 " Ellice, here is something that I want to 
 turn over to you now. It won t be a sur 
 prise, but it is my wedding gift," and he 
 placed in her hand the deed of the house. 
 
 She looked at it. 
 
100 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 "Oh, what a formidable document! 
 What is it? " 
 
 " It is the deed to the new house, made 
 out to you." 
 
 Her eyes misted with quick emotion. 
 " How good you are to me, Richard! Why 
 do you do this? You are too generous." 
 
 " It s only precaution," he replied, as 
 lightly as he could. " This deed insures us 
 a home; that is if you don t lose it in some 
 wild speculation." 
 
 She put her arms about his neck, an in 
 frequent caress with her. " You don t 
 need to make such costly presents to me, 
 Dick, but I am glad. I never expected to 
 have so much, you and the house." Then 
 she added musingly: 
 
 " Isn t it nice to know that our good 
 fortune does not come from somebody else s 
 misery? Ore seems different from other 
 
WITCH S GOLD 191 
 
 wealth. It comes out of the earth like a 
 spring like the spring that made me well. 
 That is what makes me happiest. There is 
 no cheated one to be a spectre on our feast 
 is there, dear ? " 
 
 As he looked down into her face it seemed 
 lit from within by some heavenly light, and 
 her voice filled him with humbleness and 
 worship but her sweet words stung him. 
 He found it very difficult to begin upon the 
 words of his confession. He could not bear 
 to think of clouding her happy face and so 
 his resolution failed him and he sat listening 
 to her joyous account of the day. 
 
 She observed his silence at last and wished 
 to know what troubled him. Even then he 
 evaded the issue. 
 
 " Oh, nothing. I m a little worried about 
 a new piece of machinery." This gave 
 him a thought. " And by the way, I must 
 
192 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 be away from you this evening on business. 
 I can t take dinner with you after all. I 
 hope you won t miss me in the midst of your 
 dressmakers." 
 
 She was not one of those who worry with 
 expostulations or complainings; having a 
 mind of her own, she granted the same lib 
 erty of action to others. 
 
 " I shall miss you of course," she said, 
 " but I shall also be busy," and she flashed 
 a sudden roguish look at him. " Only 
 don t forget to breakfast with me! " 
 
 He had the grace to return her smile 
 with one almost gay as he said: 
 
 " Oh, I ll not forget. I ve charged my 
 mind with to-morrow s duty." 
 
 " I had hoped it was a pleasure," she re 
 torted. 
 
 His going was like a flight. His inner 
 cry was this : 
 
WITCH S GOLD 193 
 
 " Till I make restitution I cannot meet 
 her again. I must be absolutely worthy of 
 her. If I am dishonest I am unfit to 
 touch her hand." 
 
 " Saddle Susanna," he phoned sharply to 
 his Mexican hostler. " Put on the heavy 
 saddle I m going over the hill." 
 
 He returned to his room and there sat 
 with his face buried in his hands shutting 
 out the light of the splendid sunset, seeing 
 only his bride as she sat among her soft 
 silks and dainty flowers. Her lovely eyes 
 and the exquisite texture of her skin grew 
 each day more wonderful to him. The 
 touch of his lips to hers seemed now an act 
 of pollution, almost of envenoming, as he 
 brooded on his unworthiness. When she 
 was sick and hopeless of life or love, he had 
 been bold to offer himself Now that she 
 was well and an object of adoration, of 
 
194 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 seeking on the part of other and better men 
 than himself, he wondered at the arrogance 
 of his first assumptions. " Surely I have 
 rushed in where angels might fear to tread," 
 he groaned and on the impulse of the mo 
 ment wrote a note to her in which he said: 
 
 " I am not fit to see you, to touch you. The 
 reason why I am not to be with you at dinner is 
 this : I am going away across the Divide to make 
 restitution for a dishonest action. Until I do this 
 I cannot face you again. When I see you to 
 morrow I will be a better man and will be honest 
 with you, and if you think me worthy of forgive 
 ness but I will see you and ask this question 
 to-morrow. 
 
 " RICHARD." 
 
 He added as a postscript: 
 
 " I am well. I am not crazy, but I am not at 
 peace with myself. I can t kiss you again till I 
 am." 
 
 Upon reconsidering this missive he tore 
 it up, and hurrying down to the hotel en 
 trance where his horse stood he leaped into 
 
WITCH S GOLD 195 
 
 the saddle with a word to the hostler: " I 
 will not be home till morning, Aglar. You 
 need not wait for me." 
 
 The spirited little broncho, fresh and met 
 tlesome, went off in a series of sheeplike 
 bounds which her rider rather welcomed 
 and which made the Mexican smile and say: 
 " He can ride the senor! " 
 
 Clement drew rein at the telegraph office, 
 and there sent three telegrams. They were 
 all alike: 
 
 " Meet me at the office of The Witch at 
 midnight. Important." One was addressed 
 to Dan, one to his head clerk and one to 
 Eldred. 
 
 As he turned Susanna s head up the trail, 
 the mountains stood deep-purple silhouettes 
 against the cloudlessness of the sky. The 
 wind blew from the heights cool and fra 
 grant, and the little horse set her wide nos- 
 
196 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 trils to it as if she anticipated and welcomed 
 the hard ride. The way lay over a moun 
 tain pass eleven thousand feet above the sea, 
 and her rider was a heavy man, but Susanna 
 was of broncho strain with a blooded sire, 
 which makes the hardiest and swiftest 
 mountain horse in the world. What were 
 thirty miles to her? Her limbs had been 
 formed by races over the hills and her lungs 
 were expanded to this thin air. She moved 
 exultantly. 
 
 Clement s mind cleared as he began the 
 ascent cleared but did not rest. Over and 
 over the problem came, each time clearer 
 and more difficult. He must that night 
 give away one hundred and thirty-five thou 
 sand dollars terrible ordeal! Ninety thou 
 sand to go to an old Irishman and his wife 
 both ignorant, careless. 
 
 What would they do with it? It might 
 
WITCH S GOLD 197 
 
 drive them crazy. As they now lived they 
 were comfortable. Could they take care of 
 more? Would not the big fortune he was 
 about to give them be the ruin of them? 
 
 Would it not be better to give them a 
 few thousands such sum as they could 
 comprehend and take care of? "Dan will 
 quit work and go to pieces as so many others 
 of his type have done under the pressure of 
 too much wealth. Work is the normal life 
 to him and two hundred dollars each month 
 all he can really comprehend and use." 
 
 But this was easy compared to the sur 
 render to follow. Then there was another 
 big sum, forty-five thousand dollars to be 
 given to a cheap little rascal that was 
 hardest of all. " Yes, but " (his conscience 
 argued) " he saved the day. He put in six 
 hundred dollars when every dollar was a 
 ducat. Without him the mine would have 
 
198 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 gone to other hands or be lying undevel 
 oped." 
 
 True, but the reward is too great. 
 Forty-five thousand dollars for six hundred 
 was too much. How will he spend it? He 
 is a man without an ideal a common vul 
 gar little shop-keeper. To give him such a 
 sum was merely to enlarge the scope of his 
 mean influence." 
 
 Oh, yes, this was familiar ground! He 
 had gone over it in a more or less definite 
 way a hundred times, each time reaching an 
 apparently final judgment. It had been 
 quite settled when this slender little woman 
 first lifted her face to his, and now nothing 
 was settled yes, it was. It was settled that 
 he was to make restitution. 
 
 It became very still and very cold as he 
 rode. There was no stream to sing the 
 gorge, and no wind in the pines to answer 
 
WITCH S GOLD 199 
 
 should the stream call. Nothing seemed to 
 be stirring save the pensive man and his 
 faithful pony. 
 
 Reaching the upper levels he spurred on at 
 a gallop, finding some relief in the mono 
 tonous creak of the heather, in the rush of 
 air past his ears. The moon was late, but 
 when it came it seemed to help him, lighten 
 ing his mood as it illuminated the trail. The 
 big, towering peaks lifted weirdly into the 
 dark sky, their upper edges smooth and 
 graceful and definite as the rims of bubbles. 
 Solid rock seemed melted and transfused 
 with light and air. It was all miraculously 
 beautiful, and the sore-hearted man lifted 
 his eyes to the heights deriving comfort 
 from every moonlit rock and every pine- 
 clad ridge. 
 
 By the time he caught the gleam of lights 
 in the camp his mind was settled, his eyes 
 
200 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 clear, his brow calm. It was not yet mid 
 night as he entered the office, but he found 
 them all waiting for him. 
 
 Dan and Biddy greeted him with cautious 
 constraint, for Eldred had been filling their 
 simple souls with suspicion. " He wants 
 to compromise. He s afraid of our suit 
 against him," said the little man. 
 
 As a matter of fact Dan had refused to 
 put a dollar into the suit and yet he was 
 forced to confess that Clement was becom 
 ing an " a-ristocrat." And Biddy said " Tis 
 thrue, he sildom dairkens my dure these 
 days." Nevertheless they had always ac 
 knowledged his superiority, his mastery, 
 and as he entered they rose greeting him 
 with hearty hand-clasps. Their confidence 
 miraculously returned at the sight of his 
 face. 
 
 He wasted no time in preliminaries. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 201 
 
 " Sit down," he said imperiously, and his 
 face, when he turned to the light, was set 
 in lines of determination. He sat for a 
 moment with bent head while he strength 
 ened his heart to a bitter and humiliating 
 task, then abruptly began: 
 
 " Dan, you remember the time I brought 
 the amalgam home in a phial and it had 
 turned green? " 
 
 " I do. Yis." 
 
 " Do you remember how you gave it up 
 right then? Do you remember what you 
 said?" 
 
 " I do. I said it s witches gould. " 
 
 " So you did, and sure such it looked like 
 that day," said Biddy. " It scared me, so 
 it did." 
 
 " All the same, the thing which scared 
 you put a happy thought into my head. I 
 was something of a chemist and I felt even 
 
202 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 then that I could solve it in fact I knew I 
 could. My conviction came from knowl 
 edge. Your fear rose from ignorance. In 
 short, I took advantage of your ignorance 
 when I bought in your stock at ten cents on 
 the dollar. I knew it was worth par, for I 
 had already mentally invented a process for 
 treating that ore. That is what I am here 
 to say to you to-night." 
 
 There was a silence, a very awesome si 
 lence following the defiant ring of the voice. 
 His confession seemed at the moment a kind 
 of challenge. 
 
 Eldred was the first to comprehend the 
 full meaning of the confession. His eyes 
 glittered like those of an awakened rat. 
 
 1 You re a witness to what he says. You 
 hear him. He admits that he robbed us, 
 robbed us cold and clean." He sprang up. 
 " We ve got you now! You ll pay me " 
 
WITCH S GOLD 203 
 
 " Sit down," interrupted Clement harsh 
 ly. "I m not going to waste any words on 
 you. You re merely incidental. If I had 
 seen fit not to tell you of this how much 
 would you have known of it? Sit down 
 and keep your tongue between your teeth." 
 He turned to Dan and his voice was softer. 
 " Dan, when I was hungry you took me 
 in and fed me. You ruined yourself to 
 stake me. For that I ve given you two 
 hundred dollars a month. Is that debt 
 paid?" 
 
 " Sure, Clement, me boy, it was only a 
 sup of p taties an bacon, annyway. Don t 
 give it anny more thought. Tis all set 
 tled. I ve no kick coming." 
 
 Clement turned to Biddy and said: 
 
 " Biddy, I turned over two thousand dol 
 lars to you, and built you a big new eating- 
 house. You thought that paid the debt I 
 
204 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 owed you, didn t you? Your share of the 
 toil and trouble was repaid so you said." 
 
 Biddy was slower to answer. " For all 
 the grub an the loikes o that, indade yis, 
 Mr. Clement but " 
 
 Eldred prompted her. " But we were 
 partners and " 
 
 Clement interrupted. " I know. I m 
 coming to that. Now answer me. If it 
 hadn t been for me wouldn t you have 
 thrown up the sponge long before you did? 
 How many times did I hunt up means to 
 go on? Wasn t I the original discoverer 
 of the mine? Shouldn t I have been the 
 chief owner under any condition? Dan, you 
 gave up three times and Biddy, you were 
 against it after the first three months, now 
 weren t you?" 
 
 The silence of the little group answered 
 him. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 205 
 
 " Would any of you ever have worked out 
 the mystery of that ore? Weren t you all 
 anxious to sell for anything you could 
 get? " 
 
 They were all silent as before. 
 
 " It was I who made the mine productive. 
 I discovered the ore in the first place and 
 solved its treatment. It was an invention 
 like any other and it was mine. I raised 
 money to prosecute my researches by selling 
 my share in the old homestead and I paid 
 you four times what you put into it. I re 
 peat, the mine was worthless until I invented 
 a process for saving the gold. It was exactly 
 as if I had rediscovered it. I claim it as 
 my invention just as a man claims a patent 
 right. In this spirit and understanding I 
 bought in your stock before I had ac 
 tually solved the problem of the reduction. 
 I believed I was in the right at that time 
 
206 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 to-night I am not so sure; it don t matter 
 how I came to this conclusion, I ve changed 
 my mind, that s all you need to know, and 
 I now feel that I would rather err on the 
 side of generosity than lie under the sus 
 picion of having gone back on my partners. 
 I want my career to be above accusation. 
 I have come to-night to end all doubt. I 
 am ready to pay you ninety cents more on 
 every dollar of stock you sold me at that 
 time." 
 
 Biddy gasped: " Howly Saints! " 
 
 Dan leaped up with a wild hurrah. 
 " Listen to that now! " he cried, as he shook 
 Clement s hand. Ye re the whitest man 
 that iver stepped green turf." 
 
 Clement sat coldly impassive and un 
 smiling. 
 
 " You ll be satisfied with that, will you, 
 Dan?" 
 
WITCH S GOLD 207 
 
 " Satisfied! " shouted the foreman. " Sat 
 isfied is it, man? Indade I m crazy wid the 
 joy of it." 
 
 " And you, Biddy? " 
 
 Biddy was weeping and muttering wild 
 Irish prayers. " Mother o God preserve 
 us ! Dan, dear, do ye understand, it s forty- 
 five thousand dollars apiece to the two of us 
 Oh, the blessed heart! Oh, it s too good 
 to be true we must be dramin . What will 
 we do with it all? " 
 
 Clement looking upon the distracted man 
 and woman expanded and warmed with a 
 return of his self -righteousness. " I was 
 right after all. It will be the ruin of these 
 poor souls." He turned to Eldred, who 
 sat in silence. 
 
 " What have you to say? " 
 
 Eldred sneered. " I say you can t fool 
 me. These shares are worth a dollar and 
 
208 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 eighty cents in the market. I want their 
 market value, not their par value. I de 
 mand a quarter of the present value of The 
 Witch." 
 
 Clement s brow darkened and his eyes 
 burned with a fierce steady light. " De 
 mand! You talk largely. You have al 
 ways been modest in your pretensions. If 
 I served you right I d kick you out of the 
 door and let you do your worst. You can t 
 recover one dollar from me by any process 
 of law. You have no basis for such a de 
 mand and your threats to sue for recovery 
 haven t a straw s weight with me. My 
 reasons for putting up with your insolence 
 and repeating my offer are due to consider 
 ations which you could not comprehend. 
 Now listen carefully. I will pay you forty- 
 five thousand dollars and not one cent more. 
 The market value of The Witch to-day I 
 
WITCH S GOLD 209 
 
 have made by my management. I have 
 gone on improving the mine week by week. 
 As it stands it is a new property, and you 
 have no claim upon it. You were a quarter 
 owner in The Biddy. We capitalised The 
 Biddy at your own suggestion at two hun 
 dred thousand dollars, because we wanted it 
 big enough to cover all possible values. 
 When I render you your share of that sum 
 I am doing you full justice. Conly," he 
 said turning to the cashier, " make out three 
 cheques for forty-five thousand dollars each 
 to these three individuals and prepare three 
 receipts in full of account." 
 
 The scratching of the cashier s fateful 
 pen was the only sound that broke the si 
 lence for some time, and when Conly ex 
 tended the first cheque and called " Mrs. 
 McCarty," she went up and timidly took it 
 in her hands. " Is that little slip o white 
 
210 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 paper really worth all that money? " she 
 asked doubtfully. 
 
 " Call at the bank and get the gold 
 when you want it," said the imperturbable 
 cashier. 
 
 Dan studied his cheque, his face foolish 
 with joy. " Howly saints, phwat will I do 
 widit?" 
 
 " Give it to me, Dan, I ll buy a new house 
 in the Springs wid it." 
 
 Eldred said : " I take my cheque as part 
 payment only. I m going to use it to get 
 the rest of what you owe me. I serve no 
 tice of that right now." 
 
 Clement interposed. " You ll sign a re 
 lease of all claims on me before you take 
 your cheque. Conly, make out a paper to 
 that effect." 
 
 Eldred grew purple with wrathi. " I re 
 fuse to accept it." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 211 
 
 Clement coolly replied: "You d better 
 consider; forty-five thousand dollars is a 
 good deal of money." 
 
 The little man struggled over tHe ques 
 tion while Dan begged him to take it and 
 Biddy plainly said : : Tis more money 
 than you ll ever see again." 
 
 At last he yielded and as he signed and 
 took the cheque, he said: " This puts 
 money into my hands to fight for my 
 rights." 
 
 " Get out," said Clement sternly, and 
 Eldred went out with an evil final word. 
 
 When the door closed on him Clement s 
 face lost its sternness, and he became both 
 sad and tender. 
 
 His restitution was not yet complete. 
 His mind was clear about the man who came 
 in at the eleventh hour, but it was not clear 
 with regard to these true-hearted old 
 
212 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 friends who had been with him from the 
 first. 
 
 He recalled the time when Dan s big 
 arm had helped him to a chair, and Biddy 
 had put the steaming soup before him 
 food worth all the gold in the world at that 
 moment. He recalled her broad, kindly 
 face, hot and shining from the stove; he re 
 membered their share in his struggles, their 
 sacrifices for the mine, and a new and sweet 
 er tone was in his voice as he called to Biddy 
 who had risen to go home : 
 
 " Wait a moment, Biddy. Sit down a 
 moment, and you, too, Dan. I want to 
 talk over old times with you." 
 
 They came back slowly and took seats, 
 awed by the change in his voice and by the 
 look on his face. 
 
 " Biddy, do you remember the money you 
 squandered on the lottery ticket? " 
 
WITCH S GOLD 213 
 
 A slow smile broadened her face. " I do, 
 Mister Clement and I remember I won 
 the prize, sure ! " 
 
 " So you did, and at the moment saved 
 all our lives. Dan, do you remember the 
 day we lost our last five-dollar gold piece 
 on the hill? " 
 
 Dan slapped his knee. " Do I? I wore 
 me fingers raw as beef combin the grass 
 that day." 
 
 A musing smile came to Clement s face. 
 "Ah, those were great days! We had 
 times when ninety cents would have made 
 us joyous, and here you are with ninety 
 thousand dollars, and wishin for more." 
 
 Dan smiled broadly. " Sure, that s no 
 lie. "Tis human nature bedad." 
 
 " Spake for yourself, ye miser," said 
 Biddy. " I have enough too much. My 
 heart misgives me for it. I m afraid of all 
 
214 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 this gould. I m scared to carry it away wid 
 
 me." 
 
 You re safe, Biddy; nobody will steal 
 your piece of paper. Your trouble will 
 come after it goes to the bank," Clement re 
 assured her. 
 
 " Dan, you believed in me in those days 
 give me that cheque." 
 
 Dan slowly handed to him the cheque. 
 Clement took it and turned. " Biddy, you 
 fed me when I was starving, and you 
 pawned everything you had to grub-stake 
 me give me your cheque." She handed it 
 to him without hesitation. " I want you to 
 trust me now. Do you? " 
 
 " Av coorse we do," said Biddy. 
 
 " Gwan wid ye! " said Dan. 
 
 Clement tore the cheques in little pieces 
 while the two owners sat in amaze and a 
 chill of -fear. " Now you are each a quar- 
 
WITCH S GOLD 215 
 
 ter owner in The Witch" said Clement. 
 " As we shared and shared alike in the old 
 days when we hadn t a dollar, so now we ll 
 share alike when The Witch is giving us 
 gold in a stream. So hurrah for The 
 Witch!" 
 
 Nobody shouted, nobody spoke. Biddy 
 was weeping, with one arm flung around 
 her husband s neck. Dan sat nervously 
 turning his hat over and over in his hands 
 staring hard at Clement s face, intent to 
 understand his motive. It was all too high, 
 too wonderful for his imagination to seize 
 upon. Biddy understood it by reason of 
 the tremor in the big mine owner s voice, 
 and her love for him swept away the last 
 shred of the suspicion Eldred had put into 
 her heart. 
 
 Clement did not speak again for some 
 moments and when he did his voice was deep 
 
216 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 and his words musical with emotion. " You 
 notice I say quarter interest, Biddy that s 
 because there is to be a new member in 
 the firm. She comes in to-morrow. You 
 remember I take a wife to-morrow." This 
 gave Dan a new thought. " We do and we 
 have a present for her." 
 
 A smile of admiration broke through the 
 red of Biddy s broad countenance. 
 
 " Sure we know all about it, Mister Clem 
 ent. Didn t she call upon me, beautiful 
 as one of the saints in the church? " 
 
 Her husband resented this. " She s none 
 too good for him." 
 
 "Don t say that, Dan!" Clement pro 
 tested most earnestly. " All I ve done to 
 night you can thank her for. All the best 
 thoughts in me to-day I owe to her." 
 
 " Then praise be to her," said Biddy, and 
 she suddenly flung her arm around his neck 
 
WITCH S GOLD 217 
 
 and gave him a hearty smack. " There, 
 now ! tell her of that if you dare ! " 
 
 " I m going back to-night to tell her 
 every word of this," he said, " and when we 
 get back from our wedding trip you must 
 come down and take dinner with us and 
 we ll plan the future of The Witch to 
 gether." 
 
 " May the saints smile on ye both," Biddy 
 fervently exclaimed, "and may your chil- 
 der be as strong as their father and as 
 beautiful as their mother God bless her! " 
 
 "Amen to that, Biddy and now good 
 night and pleasant dreams." 
 
 " Dreams ! Not one wink o sleep will I 
 get this night." 
 
 And so they parted with the stars over 
 head and the silent town below. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 rTlHERE remained to the bridegroom 
 JL now the joy of riding back to tell his 
 bride of his penitential redress. The gloom 
 and doubt of himself had passed away, but 
 the sense of the sacrifice which was asso 
 ciated with her love for him remained. He 
 was returning to her honest, but a coarse 
 creature nevertheless, ill-suited to mate 
 with her beauty. " I must be henceforth a 
 different man," he said, and made his vows 
 to live for her alone, to make her happy. 
 " I will measure myself by the standards she 
 holds. I will take up the study of books 
 again, and strive for the finer graces of life. 
 Now that my struggle for a home is over 
 thank God it ended before I was too old 
 I can begin to think of other and higher 
 
WITCH S GOLD 219 
 
 things." In such wise, though less definite 
 ly, he planned his new life. 
 
 Leaving Susanna at the barn he saddled 
 a fresh horse and set off, riding fast toward 
 the east. The wind had risen and was blow 
 ing from the dim domes of the highest 
 mountains a cold wind, and he would have 
 said a sad wind had his heart been less light. 
 As it was, he was fortified against it and 
 lifted a bared forehead to it exultantly, put 
 ting behind him, so far as in his power lay, 
 all regret of the great wealth he had given 
 away. He galloped on, glad to feel the 
 strong heart of the horse beneath him, eager 
 to pour out the story of his night s ride, 
 eager to hear his bride say : Well done, 
 Richard." 
 
 Over and over again his thought ran: 
 "Now my hands are clean. My mind is 
 at rest. I am not worthy of her of course 
 
220 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 no man could be. But I love her and she 
 is generous. Henceforth she shall be my 
 altar of sacrifice. All I do shall be for her. 
 All there is of my money, my inventive 
 skill, my command of men, shall be hers. 
 She shall regulate every hour of my coming 
 and going if she will, and I will share with 
 her all the plans and purposes of my life." 
 
 As he passed Cathedral Crag the pale 
 lances of the coming sun had pierced the 
 dove-grey breasts of the soaring clouds, and, 
 behold, they had grown into birds of para 
 dise with wings of orange, and crimson and 
 purple. Soon the stars began to pale and 
 disappear one by one, drowned by the on- 
 rushing light of the dawn, the silence was 
 so profound he could hear the dropping of 
 twigs and the slender trickle of a stream. 
 As he came to the eastern slope where, 
 through a vista, the plain could be seen 
 
WITCH S GOLD 221 
 
 stretching away in dim splendour, like a 
 motionless sea of pale gold and purple, 
 the sun rolled above the horizon line a 
 mighty gleaming chariot wheel, red-gold 
 and burnished, and the beauty and joy of 
 the world reasserted its dominion over him. 
 The wonder of each day s return came to 
 him as to a little child. 
 
 The valley seemed lonely and barren of 
 life, so far below was it. All human action 
 and presence was lost in the mist of immen 
 sity houses were of the stature of ant hills, 
 men of the value of aphides but he thought 
 not so. "Down there in the pathway of 
 the morning is the sweetest woman of all 
 this world waiting for me," he sang, the 
 lover rising superior to the cynic. 
 
 As he rode into the town, the sun was 
 swinging, big in blazing splendour, high 
 above the horizon, and the citizens of the 
 
222 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 valley were astir finding the world compar 
 atively unchanged but to Clement it \\ 
 a fairer, sunnier world. It was the mo 
 radiant of all the days of his life his wed 
 ding day and he felt as young as twenty 
 as he slipped from his horse unwearied 
 and clear-eyed. 
 
 Notwithstanding his heart s high tension 
 his long ride had made him humanly hun 
 gry, and he permitted himself a roll and a 
 cup of coffee while dressing to go to his 
 bride. 
 
 At eight o clock He phoned to her: 
 
 " I have not forgotten. When do you 
 breakfast?" 
 
 She replied: 
 
 " All is ready; come over as soon as you 
 can. I am waiting. We are to breakfast 
 alone." And in her voice he detected some 
 thing new and sweet. 
 
WITCH S GOLD 223 
 
 He went to her with the heart of a boy, 
 
 tjt e presence of an athlete. He was at the 
 
 ^ime of his robust manhood, and even an 
 
 ail-night ride could not humble the physical 
 
 j^ride of his bearing. No one could have 
 
 guessed his night s adventure from his looks. 
 
 She took joy in his comely strength and 
 met him more than half way in tender greet 
 ing. Her face was still slender and deli 
 cate of colour, but in her eyes was a serene 
 brightness, and her lips were tremulous with 
 happiness as she led him to the little table. 
 " Now you mustn t call this a real break 
 fast," she smilingly explained. " This is 
 just a bite to sustain us through our ordeal. 
 We are to breakfast immediately after the 
 ceremony." 
 
 " I ve eaten one breakfast already this 
 morning." 
 
 She looked dismayed. " Have you ! " 
 
224 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 " At least a roll and a cup of coffee," he 
 hastened to explain. " However, I think 
 I could eat all there is here and not be in 
 convenienced." 
 
 They sat down and looked at each other 
 in silence. She spoke first. 
 
 " Just think, this is the last time you will 
 ever sit down to eat with Miss Ross. This 
 is the last of our She did not finish. 
 
 " You seem to be sad about it." 
 
 " I am and yet I am very happy. I 
 don t suppose you can understand how it is 
 that a woman can wish to marry the man 
 she loves and yet be sad, but it s so. She 
 can t forget that she is leaving girlhood be 
 hind," she brightened as to put away all 
 doubt. " Now let me see, you take two 
 lumps, don t you? I must fix that firmly 
 in my mind, it s very important if we are to 
 travel. It makes the waiter stare when a 
 
WITCH S GOLD 225 
 
 wife can t remember how many lumps of 
 sugar her husband takes." 
 
 " But we re not going to travel very far, 
 are we? You ought not to go out of Colo 
 rado. I thought we were to take a little 
 trip of a day or two and return to our new 
 house which I have made ready at the point 
 of the bayonet." 
 
 " I was only being funny, you serious 
 boy," she answered. " But you are not 
 eating. What is the matter? I m afraid 
 you ate a real breakfast at the hotel." 
 
 He felt his courage oozing away, and in 
 despair of any delicate approach abruptly 
 began : 
 
 " Dearest, I have a story to tell and 
 a confession to make to you before I can 
 eat." 
 
 She was a little startled by his change of 
 manner. " That sounds ominous, Richard 
 
226 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 like the husband in the problem play, only 
 he makes his confession after marriage." 
 
 He was very grave indeed now. That 
 is the reason why I make my explanation 
 now. I can t ask you to take me without 
 a fuller knowledge of me. I have told you 
 a good deal but not all. There is still a 
 dark spot in my business career." 
 
 She leaned her chin on her clasped hands 
 and looked at him with clear, calm, confi 
 dent eyes. " Tell me all about it. I am 
 not afraid to hear anything you tell me in 
 that spirit." 
 
 He did so. He began at the beginning, 
 and while it would not be true to say that 
 he was unsparing of himself (no man tells 
 all his faults) he nevertheless told the story 
 of the mine as it actually happened. He 
 concealed no essential, and he ended by say 
 ing : " All I did was legal but I now see 
 
WITCH S GOLD 227 
 
 that it was not just. As I came to measure 
 it by your standards I grew uneasy. You 
 would have shared your conviction with 
 Dan and Biddy had you been in my place. 
 You would not have taken advantage of 
 their ignorance would you? Well, last 
 night I came to a knowledge of my fault. 
 I could not sleep till I had made my peace 
 with my conscience, so I rode to the mine 
 and restored my self-respect by turning 
 over to Dan and Biddy and Eldred their 
 full share of The Biddy. I couldn t kiss 
 you again until I had made myself an 
 honest man. It came hard to put into the 
 hands of my only enemy the means to con 
 tinue his fight against me but I did it up 
 borne by thought of you." 
 
 She reached and took his hand a sudden 
 convulsive tender action. " You did this 
 last night? " 
 
228 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 " Yes, I ve been to the camp since I left 
 you last night. I couldn t stand with you 
 before all our friends, and ask you to wear 
 my ring till I could say I had no other man s 
 money in my pockets." 
 
 She patted his hand. "Poor boy, you 
 must be tired." 
 
 He sighed with sweet relief. " But I 
 am square with the world now. Dan and 
 Biddy are equal partners with us in The 
 Witch and they are both very happy." 
 
 She lifted his hand and touched her cheek 
 to his fingers. She was very deeply moved. 
 You did that because of me? " 
 
 And he though his voice choked fal 
 tered through: 
 
 "Yes, I gave it all back, to make my 
 peace with you and because it was right. 
 You had made me see that. I gave over to 
 Biddy and Dan their full share. I tried to 
 
WITCH S GOLD 229 
 
 withhold some of it; it was hard to give it 
 all I will admit that; but I did it because 
 I believed you would approve of it." 
 
 " It was a splendid thing to do," she said. 
 " Not many men would have done it I 
 fear." 
 
 They couldn t help it if they had a wife 
 like you to help them to be honest. Your 
 eyes were my accusers. I was only trying 
 to make myself worthy you. Will you 
 marry me now? Will you trust yourself 
 tome?" 
 
 For answer she rose and came to his side 
 and put her arms about his neck and laid a 
 kiss on his anxious upturned face. "It is 
 beautiful to think that I influenced you 
 but I m sure that your own heart has 
 prompted you to be honest just for the sake 
 of being honest. You are one of the great 
 est men I have ever known." 
 
230 WITCH S GOLD 
 
 He touched his lips to her hand which lay 
 on his shoulder. " I did see the justice of it 
 but I hadn t the moral courage to go to 
 them and say so the moving inspiration 
 came from you." 
 
 Well, it s all settled and now we must 
 begin to dress for our ceremony." 
 
 "Don t call it that!" he exclaimed with 
 startled face. " It was to be strictly pri 
 vate -- " 
 
 She laughed. " So it is but it s a cere 
 mony nevertheless." 
 
 The big bowl from Dan s committee oc 
 cupied a place of honour among the wedding 
 presents and Ellice was much touched by its 
 significance. 
 
 "The good faithful Dan! We must 
 have him and Biddy to dinner some day." 
 
WITCH S GOLD 231 
 
 " They shall be the first to break bread 
 in our new house," he answered with tender 
 gravity. 
 
 THE END 
 
LOAN DEPT 
 
Garland. 
 
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 "itch s g 
 
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 Sep 25, ?! Hodgki 
 " 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY