75 C7 BRET HARTE CRESSY UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME FLIP; MARUJA: FOUND AT BLAZING STAR (i Vox..) SNOW-BOUND AT EAGLE'S ; A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS ; A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP; A GENTLEMAN OF LA PORTE (i VOL.) BRET HARTE th CRESSY LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1922 CHAPTER I As the master of the Indian Spring School emerged from the pine woods into the little clearing before the school-house, he stopped whistling, put his hat less jauntily on his head, threw away some wild flowers he had gathered on his way, and otherwise assumed the severe demeanour of his profession and his mature age which was at least twenty. Not that he usually felt this an assumption; it was a firm conviction of his serious nature that he impressed others, as he did him- self, with the blended austerity and ennui of deep and exhausted experience. The building which was assigned to him and his flock by the Board of Education of Tuolumne County, California, had been originally a church. It still bore a faded odour of sanctity, mingled, however, with a later and slightly alcoholic breath of political discussion, the result of its weekly occupation under the authority of the Board as a Tribune for the enunciation of party principles and devotion to the Liberties of the People. There were a few dog-eared hymn-books on the teacher's * B 2 CRESSY CHAP. desk, and the black-board but imperfectly hid an im- passioned appeal to the citizens of Indian Spring to 'Kally' for Stebbins as Supervisor. The master had been struck with the size of the black type in which this placard was printed, and with a shrewd perception of its value to the round wandering eyes of his smaller pupils, allowed it to remain as a pleasing example of orthography. Unfortunately, although subdivided and spelt by them in its separate letters with painful and perfect accuracy, it was collectively known as ' Wally,' and its general import productive of vague hilarity. Taking a large key from his pocket the master un- locked the door and threw it open, stepping back with a certain precaution begotten of his experience in once finding a small but sociable rattlesnake coiled up near the threshold. A slight disturbance which followed his intrusion showed the value of that precaution, and the fact that the room had been already used for various private and peaceful gatherings of animated nature. An irregular attendance of yellow-birds and squirrels dismissed themselves hurriedly through the broken floor and windows, but a golden lizard stiffened suddenly into stony fright on the edge of an open arithmetic, touched the heart of the master so strongly by its resemblance to some kept -in and forgotten scholar who had suc- cumbed over the task he could not accomplish, that he was seized with compunction. Eecovering himself, and re-establishing as it were the decorous discipline of the room by clapping his hands and saying ' Sho ! ' he passed up the narrow aisle I CRESSY 3 of benches, replacing the forgotten arithmetic, and pick- ing up from the desks here and there certain fragmentary pieces of plaster and crumbling wood that had fallen from the ceiling, as if this grove of Academus had been shedding its leaves overnight. When he reached his own desk he lifted the lid and remained for some moments motionless, gazing into it. His apparent meditation, however, was simply the combined reflection of his own features in a small pocket-mirror in its re- cesses and a perplexing doubt in his mind whether the sacrifice of his budding moustache was not essential to the professional austerity of his countenance. But he was presently aware of the sound of small voices, light cries, and brief laughter scattered at vague and remote distances from the school-house not unlike the birds and squirrels he had just dispossessed. He recognised by these signs that it was nine o'clock, and his scholars were assembling. They came in their usual desultory fashion the fashion of country school -children the world over irregularly, spasmodically, and always as if accidentally ; a few hand-in-hand, others driven ahead of or dropped behind their elders ; some in straggling groups more or less coherent, and at times only connected by far-off intermediate voices scattered on a space of half a mile, but never quite alone ; always preoccupied by some- thing else than the actual business on hand ; appearing suddenly from ditches, behind banks, and between fence-rails ; cropping up in unexpected places along the road after vague and purposeless detours seemingly 4 CRESSY CHAP. going anywhere and everywhere but to school ! So un- looked for, in fact, was their final arrival that the master, who had a few moments before failed to descry a single torn straw hat or ruined sun-bonnet above his visible horizon, was always startled to find them suddenly under his windows, as if, like the birds, they had alighted from the trees. Nor was their moral attitude towards their duty any the more varied ; they always arrived as if tired and reluctant, with a doubting sulki- ness that perhaps afterwards beamed into a charming hypocrisy ; but invariably temporising with their in- stincts until the last moment, and only relinquishing possible truancy on the very threshold. Even after they were marshalled on their usual benches they gazed at each other every morning with a perfectly fresh astonishment and a daily recurring enjoyment of some hidden joke in this tremendous rencontre. It had been the habit of the master to utilise these preliminary vagrancies of his little flock by inviting them on assembling to recount any interesting incident of their journey hither ; or failing this, from their not unfrequent shyness in expressing what had secretly interested them, any event that had occurred within their knowledge since they last met. He had done this, partly to give them time to recover themselves in that more formal atmosphere, and partly, I fear, because, notwithstanding his conscientious gravity, it greatly amused him. It also diverted them from their usual round-eyed, breathless contemplation of himself a regular morning inspection which generally embraced 1 CRESSY 5 every detail of his dress and appearance, and made every change or deviation the subject of whispered comment or stony astonishment. He knew that they knew him more thoroughly than he did himself, and shrank from the intuitive vision of these small clair- voyants. 1 Well ? ' said the master gravely. There was the usual interval of bashful hesitation, verging on nervous hilarity or hypocritical attention. Tor the last six months this question by the master had been invariably received each morning as a veiled pleasantry which might lead to baleful information or conceal some query out of the dreadful books before him. Yet this very element of danger had its fascina- tions. Johnny Filgee, a small boy, blushed violently, and without getting up, began lisping hurriedly in a high key, ' Tige ith got ' and then suddenly subsided into a whisper. ' Speak up, Johnny,' said the master encouragingly. ' Please, sir, it ain't anythin' he's seed nor any real news,' said Rupert Filgee, his elder brother, rising with family concern and frowning openly upon Johnny ; * it's jest his foolishness ; he oughter be licked.' Finding himself unexpectedly on his feet, and apparently at the end of a long speech, he coloured also, and then said hurriedly, * Jimmy Snyder he seed suthin'. Ask him ! ' and sat down a recognised hero. Every eye, including the master's, was turned on Jimmy Snyder. But that youthful observer, instantly diving his head and shoulders into his desk, remained 6 CKESSY CHAP. there gurgling as if under water. Two or three nearest him endeavoured with some struggling to bring him to an intelligible surface again. The master waited patiently. Johnny Filgee took advantage of the diver- sion to begin again in a high key, ' Tige ith got thix ' and subsided. 'Come, Jimmy,' said the master, with a touch of peremptoriness. Thus adjured, Jimmy Snyder came up glowingly, and bristling with full stops and exclamation points. ' Seed a black b'ar comin' outer Daves' woods,' he said excitedly. ' Nigh to me ez you be. 'N big ez a hoss ; 'n snaiiin' ! 'n snappin' ! like gosh ! Kem along ker clump torords me. Eeckoned he'd skeer me! Didn't skeer me worth a cent. I heaved a rock at him I did now ! ' (in defiance of murmurs of derisive com- ment) ' 'n he slid. Ef he'd kem up furder I'd hev' up with my slate and swotted him over the snoot bet your boots ! ' The master here thought fit to interfere, and gravely point out that the habit of striking bears as large as a horse with a school-slate was equally dangerous to the slate (which was also the property of Tuolumne County) and to the striker ; and that the verb 'to swot' and the noun substantive 'snoot' were likewise indefensible, and not to be tolerated. Thus admonished, Jimmy Snyder, albeit unshaken in his faith in his own courage, sat down. A slight pause ensued. The youthful Filgee, taking advantage of it, opened in a higher key, ' Tige ith ' but the master's attention was here diverted by the I CRESSY 7 searching eyes of Octavia Dean, a girl of eleven, who after the fashion of her sex preferred a personal recogni- tion of her presence before she spoke. Succeeding in catching his eye, she threw back her long hair from her shoulders with an easy habitual gesture, rose, and with a faint accession of colour said ' Cressy M'Kinstry came home from Sacramento. Mrs. M'Kinstry told mother she's comin' back here to school* The master looked up with an alacrity perhaps in- consistent with his cynical austerity. Seeing the young girl curiously watching him with an expectant smile, he regretted it. Cressy M'Kinstry, who was sixteen years old, had been one of the pupils he had found at the school when he first came. But as he had also found that she was there in the extraordinary attitude of being 'engaged* to one Seth Davis, a fellow-pupil of nineteen, and as most of the courtship was carried on freely and unceremoniously during school-hours with the full permission of the master's predecessor, the master had been obliged to point out to the parents of the devoted couple the embarrassing effects of this asso- ciation on the discipline of the school. The result had been the withdrawal of the lovers, and possibly the goodwill of the parents. The return of the young lady was consequently a matter of some significance. Had the master's protest been accepted, or had the engage- ment itself been broken off? Either was not improbable. His momentary loss of attention was Johnny FUgee's great gain. 8 CRESSY CHAP. ' Tige,' said Johnny, with sudden and alarming dis- tinctness, ' ith got thix pupths mothly jailer.' In the laugh which followed this long -withheld announcement of an increase in the family of Johnny's yellow and disreputable setter 'Tiger/ who usually accompanied him to school and howled outside, the master joined with marked distinctness. Then he said, with equally marked severity, * Books ! ' The little levde was ended, and school began. It continued for two hours with short sighs, corru- gations of small foreheads, the complaining cries and scratchings of slate-pencils over slates, and other signs of minor anguish among the more youthful of the flock ; and with more or less whisperings, movements of the lips, and unconscious soliloquy among the older pupils. The master moved slowly up and down the aisle with a word of encouragement or explanation here and there, stopping with his hands behind him to gaze abstractedly out of the windows, to the wondering envy of the little ones. A faint hum, as of invisible insects, gradually pervaded the school ; the more persistent droning of a large bee had become dangerously soporific. The hot breath of the pines without had invaded the doors and windows ; the warped shingles and weather-boarding at times creaked and snapped under the rays of the verti- cal and unclouded sun. A gentle perspiration broke out like a mild epidemic in the infant class ; little curls became damp, brief lashes limp, round eyes moist, and small eyelids heavy. The master himself started, and awoke out of a perilous dream of other eyes and hair I CRESSY 9 to collect himself severely. For the irresolute, half- embarrassed, half -lazy figure of a man had halted doubtingly before the porch and open door. Luckily the children, who were facing the master with their backs to the entrance, did not see it. Yet the figure was neither alarming nor unfamiliar. The master at once recognised it as Ben Dabney, other- wise known as ' Uncle Ben/ a good-humoured but not over-bright miner, who occupied a small cabin on an unambitious claim in the outskirts of Indian Spring. His avuncular title was evidently only an ironical tribute to his amiable incompetency and heavy good- nature, for he was still a young man with no family ties, and by reason of his singular shyness not even a visitor in the few families of the neighbourhood. As the master looked up, he had an irritating recollection that Ben had been already haunting him for the last two days, alternately appearing and disappearing in his path to and from school as a more than usually reserved and bashful ghost. This, to the master's cynical mind, clearly indicated that, like most ghosts, he had some- thing of essentially selfish import to communicate. Catching the apparition's half-appealing eye, he pro- ceeded to exorcise it with a portentous frown and shake of the head, that caused it to timidly wane and fall away from the porch, only, however, to reappear and wax larger a few minutes later at one of the side win- dows. The infant class hailing his appearance as a heaven-sent boon, the master was obliged to walk to the door and command him sternly away, when, retreating to 10 CRESSY CHAP the fence, he mounted the uppermost rail, and drawing a knife from his pocket, cut a long splinter from the rail, and began to whittle it in patient and meditative silence. But when recess was declared, and the relieved feelings of the little flock had vent in the clearing around the school-house, the few who rushed to the spot found that Uncle Ben had already disappeared. Whether the appearance of the children was too inconsistent with his ghostly mission, or whether his heart failed him at the last moment, the master could not determine. Yet, distasteful as the impending interview promised to be, the master was vaguely and irritatingly disappointed. A few hours later, when school was being dismissed, the master found Octavia Dean lingering near his desk. Looking into the girl's mischievous eyes, he good- humouredly answered their expectation by referring to her morning's news. ' I thought Miss M'Kinstry had been married by this time,' he said carelessly. Octavia, swinging her satchel like a censer, as if she were performing some act of thurification over her com- pleted tasks, replied demurely, ' Oh no ! dear no ! not that: ' So it would seem/ said the master. * I reckon she never kalkilated to, either,' continued Octavia, slyly looking up from the corner of her lashes. 'Indeed!' ' No she was just funning with Seth Davis that's all' ' Funning with him ? ' ' Yes, sir. Kinder foolin' him, you know.' I CRESSY 11 ' Kinder foolin' him ! ' For an instant the master felt it his professional duty to protest against this most unmaidenly and frivolous treatment of the matrimonial engagement, but a second glance at the significant face of his youthful auditor made him conclude that her instinctive knowledge of her own sex could be better trusted than his imperfect theories. He turned towards his desk without speaking. Octavia gave an extra swing to her satchel, tossing it over her shoulder with a certain small coquettishness, and moved towards the door. As she did so, the infant Filgee, from the safe vantage of the porch where he had lingered, was suddenly impelled to a crowning audacity ! As if struck with an original idea, but apparently addressing himself to space, he cried out, 'Crethy M'Kinthry likth teacher/ and instantly vanished. Putting these incidents sternly aside, the master addressed himself to the task of setting a few copies for the next day as the voices of his departing flock faded from the porch. Presently a silence fell upon the little school-house. Through the open door a cool, restful breath stole gently, as if Nature were again stealthily taking possession of her own. A squirrel boldly came across the porch, a few twittering birds charging in, stopped, beat the air hesitatingly for a moment with their wings, and fell back with bashfully protesting breasts aslant against the open door and the unlooked- for spectacle of the silent occupant. Then there was another movement of intrusion, but this time human, and the master looked up angrily to behold Uncle Ben. 12 CRESSY CHAP. He entered with a slow exasperating step, lifting his large boots very high and putting them down again softly as if he were afraid of some insecurity in the floor, or figuratively recognised the fact that the path- ways of knowledge were thorny and difficult. Eeaching the master's desk and the ministering presence above it, he stopped awkwardly, and with the rim of his soft felt hat endeavoured to wipe from his face the meek smile it had worn when he entered. It chanced also that he had halted before the minute stool of the infant Filgee, and his large figure instantly assumed such Brobding- nagian proportions in contrast that he became more embarrassed than ever. The master made no attempt to relieve him, but regarded him with cold interrogation. 'I reckoned/ he began, leaning one hand on the master's desk with affected ease, as he dusted his leg with his hat with the other, 'I reckoned that is I allowed I orter say that I'd find ye alone at this time. Ye gin'rally are, ye know. It's a nice, soothin', restful, stoodious time, when a man kin, so to speak, run back on his eddication and think of all he ever knowed. Ye're jist like me, and ye see I sorter spotted your ways to onct.' ' Then why did you come here this morning and dis- turb the school ? ' demanded the master sharply. ' That's so, I sorter slipped up thar, didn't I ? ' said Uncle Ben, with a smile of rueful assent. ' You see I didn't allow to come in then, but on'y to hang round a leetle and kinder get used to it, and it to me/ ' Used to what ? ' said the master impatiently, albeit f CRESSY 13 with a slight softening at his intruder's penitent ex- pression. Uncle Ben did not reply immediately, but looked round as if for a seat, tried one or two benches and a desk with his large hand as if testing their security, and finally abandoning the idea as dangerous, seated himself on the raised platform beside the master's chair, having previously dusted it with the flap of his hat. Finding, however, that the attitude was not conducive to explana- tion, he presently rose again, and picking up one of the school-books from the master's desk, eyed it unskilfully upside down, and then said hesitatingly ' I reckon ye ain't usin' Dobell's 'Bithmetic here ? ' ' No/ said the master. ' That's bad. Tears to be played out that Dobell feller. I was brought up on Dobell. And Parsings' Grammar ? Ye don't seem to be a -using Parsings' Grammar either ? ' 'No,' said the master, relenting still more as he glanced at Uncle Ben's perplexed face, with a faint smile. ' And I reckon you'ld be saying the same of Jones' 'Stronomy and Algebry ? Things hev' changed. You've got all the new style here,' he continued with affected carelessness, but studiously avoiding the master's eye. ' For a man ez wos brought up on Parsings, Dobell, and Jones thar don't appear to be much show nowadays.' The master did not reply. Observing several shades of colour chase each other on Uncle Ben's face, he bent gravely over his books. The act appeared to relieve 14 OEESSY CHAP. his companion, who, with his eyes still turned towards the window, went on ' Ef you'ld had them books which you haven't I had it in my mind to ask you suthin'. I had an idea of of sort of reviewing my eddication. Kinder going over the old books agin jist to pass the time. Sorter running in yer arter school-hours and doin' a little practising eh ? You looking on me as an extry scholar and I payin' ye as sich but keepin' it 'twixt ourselves, you know just for a pastime, eh?' As the master smilingly raised his head, he became suddenly and ostentatiously attracted to the window. ' Them jay birds out there is mighty peart, coming right up to the school-house ! I reckon they think it sort o' restful too/ ' But if you really mean it, couldn't you use these books, Uncle Ben ? ' said the master cheerfully. ' I dare say there's little difference the principle is the same, you know/ Uncle Ben's face, which had suddenly brightened, as suddenly fell. He took the book from the master's hand without meeting his eyes, held it at arm's length, turned it over and then laid it softly down upon the desk as if it were some excessively fragile article, ' Certingly/ he murmured with assumed reflective ease. 'Certingly. The principle's all there/ Nevertheless he was quite breathless, and a few beads of perspiration stood out upon his smooth, blank forehead. 'And as to writing, for instance/ continued the master with increasing heartiness as he took notice I CRESSY 15 of these phenomena, 'you know any copy-book will do/ He handed his pen carelessly to Uncle Ben. The large hand that took it timidly not only trembled but grasped it with such fatal and hopeless unfamiliarity that the master was fain to walk to the window and observe the birds also. 'The're mighty bold them jays/ said Uncle Ben, laying down the pen with scrupulous exactitude beside the book, and gazing at his fingers as if he had achieved a miracle of delicate manipulation. ' They don't seem to be afeared of nothing, do they ? ' There was another pause. The master suddenly turned from the window. ' I tell you what, Uncle Ben/ he said with prompt decision and unshaken gravity, ' the only thing for you to do is to just throw over Dobell and Parsons and Jones and the old quill pen that I see you're accustomed to, and start in fresh as if you'd never known them. Forget 'em all, you know. It will be mighty hard, of course, to do that/ he continued, looking out of the window, ' but you must do it. J He turned away again ; the brightness that transfigured Uncle Ben's face at that moment had brought a slight moisture into his own eyes. The humble seeker of knowledge then said hurriedly that he would try. 1 And begin again at the beginning/ continued the master cheerfully. 'Exactly like one of those in fact, as if you really were a child again.' 'That's so/ said Uncle Ben, rubbing his hands 16 CRESSY CHAP. delightedly, ' that's me ! Why, that's jest what I was sayin' to Koop ' ' Then you've already been talking about it ? ' inter- cepted the master in some surprise. 'I thought you wanted it kept secret ? ' ' Well, yes,' responded Uncle Ben dubiously. ' But you see I sorter agreed with Eoop Filgee that if you took to my ideas and didn't object, I'd give him two bits 1 every time he'd kem here and help me of an arternoon when you was away, and kinder stand guard around the school-house, you know, so as to keep the fellows off. And Eoop's mighty sharp for a boy, ye know.' The master reflected a moment and concluded that Uncle Ben was probably right. Eupert Filgee, who was a handsome boy of fourteen, was also a strongly original character whose youthful cynicism and blunt, honest temper had always attracted him. He was a fair scholar, with a possibility of being a better one, and the proposed arrangement with Uncle Ben would not interfere with the discipline of school-hours and might help them both. Nevertheless he asked good- humouredly, ' But couldn't you do this more securely and easily in your own house ? I might lend you the books, you know, and come to you twice a week/ Uncle Ben's radiant face suddenly clouded. 'It wouldn't be exactly the same kind o' game to me an' Eoop,' he said hesitatingly. ' You see thar's the idea o' the school-house, ye know, and the restfulness and the 1 Two bits, i.e. twenty-five cents. I CKESST 17 quiet, and the gen'ral air o' study. And the boys around town ez wouldn't think nothin' o' trapsen' into my cabin if they spotted what I was up to thar, would never dream o' hunting me here/ ' Very well/ said the master, ' let it be here then/ Observing that his companion seemed to be struggling with an inarticulate gratitude and an apparently inex- tricable buckskin purse in his pocket, he added quietly, ' I'll set you a few copies to commence with/ and began to lay out a few unfinished examples of Master Johnny "Filgee's scholastic achievements. 'After thanking you, Mr. Ford/ said Uncle Ben faintly, ' ef you'll jest kinder signify, you know, what you consider a fair ' Mr. Ford turned quickly, and dexterously offered his hand to his companion in such a manner that he was obliged to withdraw his own from his pocket to grasp it in return. ' You're very welcome/ said the master, ' and as I can only permit this sort of thing gratuitously, you'd better not let me know that you propose giving anything even to Eupert/ He shook Uncle Ben's per- plexed hand again, briefly explained what he had to do, and saying that he would now leave him alone a few minutes, he took his hat and walked towards the door. ' Then you reckon/ said Uncle Ben slowly, regarding the work before him, ' that I'd better jest chuck them Dobell fellers overboard ? ' ' I certainly should/ responded the master with infinite gravity. 18 CRESSY CHAP. I e And sorter waltz in fresh, like one o* them children?' 'Like a child/ nodded the master as he left the porch. A few moments later, as he was finishing his cigar in the clearing, he paused to glance in at the school- room window. Uncle Ben, stripped of his coat and waistcoat, with his shirt sleeves rolled up on his powerful arms, had evidently cast Dobell and all mis- leading extraneous aid aside, and, with the perspiration standing out on his foolish forehead, and his perplexed face close to the master's desk, was painfully groping towards the light in the tottering and devious tracks of Master Johnny Filgee, like a child indeed 1 CHAPTEE II As the children were slowly straggling to their places the next morning, the master waited for an opportunity to speak to Eupert. That beautiful but scarcely amiable youth was, as usual, surrounded and impeded by a group of his small female admirers, for whom, it is but just to add, he had a supreme contempt. Possibly it was this healthy quality that inclined the master towards him, and it was consequently with some satisfaction that he overheard fragments of his openly disparaging comments upon his worshippers. ' There ! ' to Clarinda Jones, ' don't flop ! And don't you? to Octavia Dean, ' go on breathing over my head like that. If there's anything I hate, it's having a girl breathing round me. Yes, you were ! I felt it in my hair. And you too you're always snoopin' and snoodgin*. Oh yes, you want to know why I've got an extry copy- book and another 'Eithmetic, Miss Curiosity. Well, what would you give to know ? Want to see if they're pretty ' (with infinite scorn at the adjective). * No, they ain't pretty. That's all you girls think about what's pretty and what's curious ! Quit now ! Come ! Don't ye see teacher lookin' at you ? Ain't you ashamed ? ' 20 CRESSY CHAP. He caught the master's beckoning eye and came forward, slightly abashed, with a flush of irritation still on his handsome face, and his chestnut curls slightly rumpled. One, which Octavia had covertly accented by twisting round her forefinger, stood up like a crest on his head. ' I've told Uncle Ben that you might help him here after school hours,' said the master, taking him aside. ' You may therefore omit your writing exercise in the morning and do it in the afternoon.' The boy's dark eyes sparkled. ' And if it would be all the same to you, sir/ he added earnestly, ' you might sorter give out in school that I was to be kept in.' ' I'm afraid that would hardly do,' said the master, much amused. * But why ? ' Eupert's colour deepened. 'So ez to keep them darned girls from foolin' round me and followin' me back here/ ' We will attend to that/ said the master, smiling ; a moment after he added more seriously, ' I suppose your father knows that you are to receive money for this ? And he doesn't object ? ' ' He ! Oh no ! ' returned Eupert with a slight look of astonishment, and the same general suggestion of patronising his progenitor that he had previously shown to his younger brother. ' You needn't mind him! In reality Filgee p&re, a widower of two years' standing, had tacitly allowed the discipline of his family to devolve upon Eupert. Eemembering this the master II CRESSY 21 could only say ' Very well/ and good-naturedly dismiss the pupil to his seat and the subject from his mind. The last laggard had just slipped in, the master had glanced over the occupied "benches with his hand upon his warning bell, when there was a quick step on the gravel, a flutter of skirts like the sound of alighting birds, and a young woman lightly entered. In the rounded, untouched, and untroubled freshness of her cheek and chin, and the forward droop of her slender neck, she appeared a girl of fifteen ; in her developed figure and the maturer drapery of her full skirts she seemed a woman ; in her combination of naive recklessness and perfect understanding of her person she was both. In spite of a few school-books that jauntily swung from a strap in her gloved hand, she bore no resemblance to a pupil ; in her pretty gown of dotted muslin, with bows of blue ribbon on the skirt and corsage, and a cluster of roses in her belt, she was as inconsistent and incongruous to the others as a fashion-plate would have been in the dry and dog-eared pages before them. Yet she carried it off with a demure mingling of the naivete of youth and the aplomb of a woman, and as she swept down the narrow aisle, burying a few small wondering heads in the overflow of her flounces, there was no doubt of her reception in the arch smile that dimpled her cheek. Dropping a half- courtesy to the master, the only suggestion of her equality with the others, she took her place at one of the larger desks, and resting her elbow on the lid, began to quietly remove her gloves. It was Cressy M'Kinstry. 22 CRESSY CHAP. Irritated and disturbed at the girl's unceremonious entrance, the master for the moment recognised her salutation coldly, and affected to ignore her elaborate appearance. The situation was embarrassing. He could not decline to receive her, as she was no longer accompanied by her lover, nor could he plead entire ignorance of her broken engagement ; while to point out the glaring inappropriateness of her costume would be a fresh interference he knew Indian Spring would scarcely tolerate. He could only accept such explanation as she might choose to give. He rang his bell, as much to distract the diverted eyes of the children as to bring the scene to a climax. She had removed her gloves and was standing up. 'I reckon I can go on where I left off?' she said lazily, pointing to the books she had brought with her. 1 For the present,' said the master drily. The first class was called. Later, when his duty brought him to her side, he was surprised to find that she was evidently already prepared with consecutive lessons, as if she were serenely unconscious of any doubt of her return, and as coolly as if she had only left school the day before. Her studies were still quite elementary, for Cressy M'Kinstry had never been a brilliant scholar, but he perceived, with a cynical doubt of its permanency, that she had bestowed unusual care upon her present performance. There was, moreover, a certain defiance in it, as if she had resolved to stop any U CEESSY 23 objection to her return on the score of deficiencies. He was obliged in self-defence to take particular note of some rings she wore, and a large bracelet that ostenta- tiously glittered on her white arm which had already attracted the attention of her companions, and prompted the audible comment from Johnny Filgee that it was 'truly gold.' Without meeting her eyes he contented him- self with severely restraining the glances of the children that wandered in her direction. She had never been quite popular with the school in her previous rdle of Jiancde, and only Octavia Dean and one or two older girls appreciated its mysterious fascination, while the beautiful Kupert, secure in his avowed predilection for the middle-aged wife of the proprietor of the Indian Spring Hotel, looked upon her as a precocious chit with more than the usual propensity to objectionable 'breathing.' Nevertheless the master was irritatingly conscious of her presence a presence which now had all the absurdity of her ridiculous love experiences superadded to it. He tried to reason with himself that it was only a phase of frontier life, which ought to have amused him. But it did not. The intrusion of this preposterous girl seemed to disarrange the discipline of his life as well as of his school. The usual vague, far- off dreams in which he was in the habit of indulging during school hours dreams that were perhaps super- induced by the remoteness of his retreat and a certain restful sympathy in his little auditors, and had made him, the grown-up dreamer, acceptable to them in his gentle understanding of their needs 24 CEESSY CHJLP. and weaknesses now seemed to have vanished for ever. At recess, Octavia Dean, who had drawn near Cressy and reached up to place her arm round the older girl's waist, glanced at her with a patronising smile born of some rapid freemasonry, and laughingly retired with the others. The master at his desk, and Cressy, who had halted in the aisle, were left alone. ' I have had no intimation yet from your father or mother that you were coming back to school again,' he began. 'But I suppose they have decided upon your return V An uneasy suspicion of some arrangement with her former lover had prompted the emphasis. The young girl looked at him with languid astonish- ment. ' I reckon Paw and Maw ain't no objection,' she said with the same easy ignoring of parental authority that characterised Kupert Filgee the day before, and which seemed to be a local peculiarity. ' Maw did offer to come yer and see you, but I told her she needn't bother/ She rested her two hands behind her on the edge of a desk, and leaned against it, looking down upon the toe of her smart little shoe, which was describing a small semicircle beyond the hem of her gown. Her attitude, which was half-defiant, half-indolent, brought out the pretty curves of her waist and shoulders. The master noticed it and became a trifle more austere. ' Then I am to understand that this is a permanent thing ?' he asked coldly. II CKESSY 25 'What's that?' said Cressy interrogatively. ' Am I to understand that you intend coming regu- larly to school ? ' repeated the master curtly, ' or is this merely an arrangement for a few days until ' 'Oh,' said Cressy comprehendingly, lifting her un- ahashed blue eyes to his, ' you mean that. Oh, that's broke off. Yes,' she added contemptuously, making a larger semicircle with her foot, 'that's over three weeks ago.' ' And Seth Davis does he intend returning too V 'He!' She broke into a light girlish laugh. 'I reckon not much ! S'long as I'm here, at least.' She had just lifted herself to a sitting posture on the desk, so that her little feet swung clear of the floor in their saucy dance. Suddenly she brought her heels together and alighted. ' So that's all?' she asked. 'Yes.' 'Kin I go now?' 'Yes.' She laid her books one on the top of the other and lingered an instant. 'Been quite well?' she asked with indolent polite- ness. ' Yes thank you. ' You're lookin' right peart/ She walked with a southern girl's undulating languor to the door, opened it, then charged suddenly upon Octavia Dean, twirled her round in a wild waltz and bore her away; appearing a moment after on the playground demurely walking with her arm around her companion's 26 CRESSY CHAP. waist in an ostentatious confidence at once lofty, ex- clusive, and exasperating to the smaller children. When school was dismissed that afternoon and the master had remained to show Eupert Filgee how to prepare Uncle Ben's tasks, and had given his final instructions to his youthful vicegerent, that irascible youth unburthened himself querulously 'Is Cressy M'Kinstry comin' reg'lar, Mr. Ford ?' 'She is/ said the master drily. After a pause he asked, 'Why?' Eupert's curls had descended on his eyebrows in heavy discontent. ' It's mighty rough, jest ez a feller reckons he's got quit of her and her jackass beau, to hev' her prancin' back inter school agin, and rigged out like ez if she'd been to a fire in a milliner's shop.' ' You shouldn't allow your personal dislikes, Eupert, to provoke you to speak of a fellow-scholar in that way and a young lady, too/ corrected the master drily. 'The woods is full o' sich feller -scholars and sich young ladies, if yer keer to go a-gunning for 'em/ said Eupert with dark and slangy significance. 'Ef I'd known she was comin' back, I'd ' he stopped and brought his sunburnt fist against the seam of his trousers with a boyish gesture, ' I'd hev' jist ' 'What?' said the master sharply. ' I'd hev' played hookey till she left school agin ! It moutn't hev' bin so long, neither/ he added with a mysterious chuckle. ' That will do/ said the master peremptorily. ' For the present you'll attend to your duty and try to make H CRESSY 27 Uncle Ben believe you're something more than a foolish, prejudiced schoolboy, or/ he added significantly, ' he and I may both repent our agreement. Let me have a good account of you both when I return/ He took his hat from its peg on the wall, and in obedience to a suddenly-formed resolution left the school- room to call upon the parents of Cressy M'Kinstry. He was not quite certain what he should say, but, after his habit, would trust to the inspiration of the moment. At the worst he could resign a situation that now appeared to require more tact and delicacy than seemed consistent with his position, and he was obliged to confess to him- self that he had lately suspected that his present occupa- tion the temporary expedient of a poor but clever young man of twenty was scarcely bringing him nearer a realisation of his daily dreams. For Mr. Jack Ford was a youthful pilgrim who had sought his fortune in California so lightly equipped that even in the matter of kin and advisers he was deficient. That fortune in prospect had already eluded him in San Francisco, had apparently not waited for him in Sacramento, and now seemed never to have been at Indian Spring. Never- theless, when he was once out of sight of the school- house he lit a cigar, put his hands in his pockets, and strode on with the cheerfulness of that Youth to which all things are possible. The children had already dispersed as mysteriously and completely as they had arrived. Between him and the straggling hamlet of Indian Spring the landscape seemed to be without sound or motion. The wooded 28 CRESSY CHAP. upland or ridge on which the school-house stood, half a mile farther on began to slope gradually towards the river, on whose banks, seen from that distance, the town appeared to have been scattered irregularly or thrown together hastily, as if cast ashore by some overflow. The Cosmopolitan Hotel had drifted into the Baptist Church, dragging in its tail of wreckage two saloons and a blacksmith's shop ; while the County Court-house was stranded in solitary grandeur in a waste of gravel half a mile away. The intervening flat was still gashed and fur- rowed by the remorseless engines of earlier gold-seekers. Mr. Ford was in little sympathy with this unsuccess- ful record of frontier endeavour the fortune he had sought did not seem to lie in that direction and his eye glanced quickly beyond it to the pine-crested hills across the river, whose primeval security was so near and yet so inviolable, or back again to the trail he was pursuing along the ridge. The latter prospect still retained its semi-savage character in spite of the occa- sional suburban cottages of residents, and the few outlying farms or ranches of the locality. The grounds of the cottages were yet uncleared of underbrush ; bear and catamount still prowled around the rude fences of the ranches ; the late alleged experience of the infant Filgee was by no means improbable or unprecedented. A light breeze was seeking the heated flat and river, and thrilling the leaves around him with the strong vitality of the forest. The vibrating cross-lights and tremulous chequers of shade cast by the stirred foliage seemed to weave a fantastic net around him as he II CRESS Y 29 walked. The quaint odours of certain woodland herbs known to his scholars, and religiously kept in their desks, or left like votive offerings on the threshold of the school-house, recalled all the primitive simplicity and delicious wildness of the little temple he had left. Even in the mischievous 'glances of evasive squirrels and the moist eyes of contemplative rabbits there were faint suggestions of some of his own truants. The woods were trembling with gentle memories of the independence he had always known here of that sweet and grave retreat now so ridiculously invaded. He began to hesitate, with one of those revulsions of sentiment characteristic of his nature : Why should he bother himself about this girl after all ? Why not make up his mind to accept her as his predecessor had done ? Why was it necessary for him to find her inconsistent with his ideas of duty to his little flock and his mission to them ? Was he not assuming a sense of decorum that was open to misconception ? The absurdity of her school costume and any responsibility it incurred, rested not with him, but her parents. What right had he to point it out to them, and above all how was he to do it ? He halted irresolutely at what he believed was his sober second thought, but which, like most reflections that take that flattering title, was only a reaction as im- pulsive and illogical as the emotion that preceded it. Mr. M'Kinstry's 'snake-rail* fence was already discernible in the lighter opening of the woods, not far from where he had halted. As he stood there in hesitation, the pretty figure and bright gown of Cressy 30 CRESSY CHAP. M'Kinstry suddenly emerged from a more secluded trail that intersected his own at an acute angle a few rods ahead of him. She was not alone, but was accom- panied by a male figure whose arm she had evidently just dislodged from her waist. He was still trying to resume his lost vantage ; she was as resolutely evading him with a certain nymph-like agility, while the sound of her half-laughing, half-irate protest could be faintly heard. Without being able to identify the face or figure of her companion at that distance, he could see that it was not her former betrothed, Seth Davis. A superior smile crossed his face; he no longer hesitated, but at once resumed his former path. For some time Cressy and her companion moved on quietly before Mm. Then on reaching the rail-fence they turned abruptly to the right, were lost for an instant in the in- tervening thicket, and the next moment Cressy appeared alone, crossing the meadow in a shorter cut towards the house, having either scaled the fence or slipped through some familiar gap. Her companion had disappeared. Whether they had noticed that they were observed he could not determine. He kept steadily along the trail that followed the line of fence to the lane that led directly to the farm-building, and pushed open the front gate as Cressy's light dress vanished round an angle at the rear of the house. The house of the M'Kinstrys rose, or rather stretched, itself before him, in all the lazy ungainliness of South- western architecture. A collection of temporary make- shifts of boards, of logs, of canvas, prematurely decayed, II CKESSY 31 and in some instances abandoned for a newer erection, or degraded to mere outhouses it presented with singular frankness the nomadic and tentative disposition of its founder. It had been repaired without being improved ; its additions had seemed only to extend its primitive ugliness over a larger space. Its roofs were roughly shingled or rudely boarded and battened, and the rafters of some of its ' lean-to's ' were simply covered with tarred canvas. As if to settle any doubt of the impossibility of this heterogeneous mass ever taking upon itself any picturesque combination, a small build- ing of corrugated iron, transported in sections from some remoter locality, had been set up in its centre. The M'Kinstry ranch had long been an eyesore to the master : even that morning he had been mutely wonder- ing from what convolution of that hideous chrysalis the bright butterfly Cressy had emerged. It was with a renewal of this curiosity that he had just seen her flutter back to it again. A yellow dog who had observed him hesitating in doubt where he should enter, here yawned, rose from the sunlight where he had been blinking, approached the master with languid politeness, and then turned towards the iron building as if showing him the way. Mr. Ford followed him cautiously, painfully conscious that his hypocritical canine introducer was only avail- ing himself of an opportunity to gain ingress into the house, and was leading him as a responsible accomplice to probable exposure and disgrace. His expectation was quickly realised : a lazily querulous, feminine out- 32 CRESSY CHAP. cry, with the words, ' Yer's that darned hound agin ! ' came from an adjacent room, and his exposed and abashed companion swiftly retreated past him into the front yard. Mr. Ford found himself alone in a plainly- furnished sitting-room confronting the open door, leading to another apartment, at which the figure of a woman, preceded hastily by a thrown dish-cloth, had just appeared. It was Mrs. M'Kinstry ; her sleeves were rolled up over her red but still shapely arms, and as she stood there wiping them on her apron, with her elbows advanced, and her closed hands raised alternately in the air, there was an odd pugilistic suggestion in her attitude. It was not lessened on her sudden discovery of the master by her retreating backwards with her hands up and her elbows still well forward as if warily retiring to an imaginary ' corner/ Mr. Ford at once tactfully stepped back from the doorway. ' I beg your pardon/ he said, delicately addressing the opposite wall, ' but I found the door open and I followed the dog/ 'That's just one of his pizenous tricks/ responded Mrs. M'Kinstry dolefully from within. ' On'y last week he let in a Chinaman, and in the nat'ral hustlin' that follered he managed to help himself outer the pork bar'l. There ain't no shade o' cussedness that or'nary hound ain't up to/ Yet notwithstanding this ominous comparison she presently made her appearance with her sleeves turned down, her black woollen dress ' tidied/ and a smile of fatigued but not unkindly wel- come and protection on her face. Dusting a chair with II CRESSY 33 her apron and placing it before the master, she continued maternally, 'Now that you're here, set ye right down and make yourself ter home. My men folks are all out o' door, but some of 'em's sure to happen in soon for suthin'. That day ain't yet created that they don't come huntin' up Mammy M'Kinstry every five minutes for this thing or that.' The glow of a certain hard pride burned through the careworn lankness of her brown cheek. What she had said was strangely true. This raw-boned woman before him, although scarcely middle-aged, had for years occupied a self-imposed maternal and protecting relation, not only to her husband and brothers, but to the three or four men who as partners, or hired hands, lived at the ranch. An inherited and trained sympathy with what she called her ' boys ' and her ' men folk ' and their needs had partly unsexed her. She was a fair type of a class not uncommon on the South- Western frontier ; women who were ruder helpmeets of their rude husbands and brothers ; who had shared their privations and sufferings with surly, masculine endurance rather than feminine patience ; women who had sent their loved ones to hopeless adventure or terrible vendetta as a matter of course, or with partisan fury ; who had de- votedly nursed the wounded to keep alive the feud, or had received back their dead dry-eyed and revengeful. Small wonder that Cressy M'Kinstry had developed strangely under this sexless relationship. Looking at the mother, albeit not without a certain respect, Mr. Ford found himself contrasting her with the daughter's D 34 CRESSY CHAP. graceful femininity, and wondering where in Cressy's youthful contour the possibility of the grim figure before him was even now hidden. ' Hiram allowed to go over to the school-house and see you this mornin',' said Mrs. M'Kinstry, after a pause ; ' but I reckon ez how he had to look up stock on the river. The cattle are that wild this time o' year, huntin' water, and hangin' round the tules, that my men are nigh worrited out o' their butes with 'em. Hank and Jim ain't been off their mustangs since sun up ; and Hiram, what with partrollen' the West Boundary all night, watchin' stakes whar them low-down Harrisons hev' been trespassin', hasn't put his feet to the ground in fourteen hours. Mebbee you noticed Hiram ez you kem along? Ef so, ye didn't remember what kind o' shootin' irons he had with him ? I see his rifle over yon. Like ez not he'z only got his six-shooter, and them Harrisons are mean enough to lay for him at long range. But/ she added, returning to the less important topic, 'I s'pose Cressy came all right? 1 ' Yes,' said the master hopelessly. 'I reckon she looked so,' continued Mrs. M'Kinstry, with tolerant abstraction. ' She allowed to do herself credit in one of them new store gownds that she got at Sacramento. At least that's what some of our men said. Late years, I ain't kept tech with the fashions myself. 1 She passed her fingers explanatorily down the folds of her own coarse gown, but without regret or apology. * She seemed well prepared in her lessons,' said the master, abandoning for the moment that criticism of his II CKESSY 35 pupil's dress, which he saw was utterly futile ; 'but am I to understand that she is coming regularly to school that she is now perfectly free to give her entire attention to her studies that that her engagement is broken off?' ' Why, didn't she tell ye ? ' echoed Mrs. M'Kinstry in languid surprise. 'She certainly did,' said the master, with slight embarrassment, ' but ' 'Ef she said so/ interrupted Mrs. M'Kinstry ab- stractedly, ' she oughter know, and you kin tie to what she says/ ' But as I'm responsible to parents and not to scholars for the discipline of my school/ returned the young man a little stiffly, ' I thought it my duty to hear it from you' * That's so/ said Mrs M'Kinstry meditatively ; ' then I reckon you'ld better see Hiram. That ar' Seth Davis engagement was a matter of hern and her father's, and not in my line. I s'pose that Hiram nat'rally allows to set the thing square to you and enquirin' friends/ *I hope you understand/ said the master, slightly resenting the classification, ' that my reason for inquiring about the permanency of your daughter's attendance was simply because it might be necessary to arrange her studies in a way more suitable to her years ; perhaps even to suggest to you that a young ladies' seminary might be more satisfactory ' 'Sartain, sartain/ interrupted Mrs. M'Kinstry hurriedly, but whether from evasion of annoying sug- 36 CRESSY CHAP. gestion, or weariness of the topic, the master could not determine. 'You'ld better speak to Hiram about it. On'y/ she hesitated slightly, ' ez he's got now sorter set and pinted towards your school, and is a trifle worrited with stock and them Harrisons, ye might tech it lightly. He oughter be along yer now. I can't think what keeps him.' Her eye wandered again with troubled preoccu- pation to the corner where her husband's Sharpe rifle stood. Suddenly she raised her voice as if forgetful of Mr. Ford's presence. '0 Cressy!' '0 Maw!' The response came from the inner room. The next moment Cressy appeared at the door with an odd, half- lazy defiance in her manner, which the master could not understand, except upon the hypothesis that she had been listening. She had already changed her elaborate toilet for a long, clinging, coarse blue gown, that accented the graceful curves of her slight, petticoatless figure. Nodding her head towards the master, she said 'Howdy?' and turned to her mother, who practically ignored their personal acquaintance. 'Cressy/ she said, 'Dad's gone and left his Sharpe yer, d'ye mind takin' it along to meet him afore he passes the Bound- ary corner. Ye might tell him the teacher's yer, wantin' to see him/ 'One moment/ said the master, as the young girl carelessly stepped to the corner and lifted the weapon. 'Let me take it. It's all on my way back to school, and I'll meet him.' II CKESST 37 Mrs. M'Kinstry looked perturbed. Cressy opened her clear eyes on the master with evident surprise. ' No, Mr. Ford/ said Mrs. M'Kinstry, with her former mater- nal manner. 'Ye'd better not mix yourself up with these yer doin's. Ye've no call to do it, and Cressy has ; it's all in the family. But it's outer your line, and them Harrison whelps go to your school. Fancy the teacher takin' weppins betwixt and between ! ' ' It's fitter work for the teacher than for one of his scholars, and a young lady at that/ said Mr. Ford gravely, as he took the rifle from the hands of the half- amused, half-reluctant girl. ' It's quite safe with me, and I promise I shall deliver it into Mr. M'Kinstry's hands and none other/ 'Perhaps it wouldn't be ez likely to be gin'rally noticed ez it would if one of us carried it/ murmured Mrs. M'Kinstry in confidential abstraction, gazing at her daughter, sublimely unconscious of the presence of a third party. 'You're quite right/ said the master composedly, throwing the rifle over his shoulder and turning towards the door. ' So I'll say good-afternoon, and try and find your husband/ Mrs. M'Kinstry constrainedly plucked at the folds of her coarse gown. ' Yell like a drink afore ye go/ she said in an ill-concealed tone of relief. ' I clean forgot my manners. Cressy, fetch out that demijohn/ ' Not for me, thank you/ returned Mr. Ford, smiling. ' Oh, I see you're temperance, nat'rally/ said Mrs. M'Kinstry, with a tolerant sigh. 88 CRESSY CHAP. 'Hardly that/ returned the master. 'I follow no rule ; I drink sometimes but not to-day/ Mrs. M'Kinstry's dark face contracted. * Don't you see, Maw/ struck in Cressy quickly, 'teacher drinks sometimes, but he don't use whisky. That's all.' Her mother's face relaxed. Cressy slipped out of the door before the master, and preceded him to the gate. When she had reached it she turned and looked into his face. 'What did Maw say to yer about seein' me just now?' ' I don't understand you.' ' To your seein' me and Joe Masters on the trail ? ' ' She said nothing.' ' Humph/ said Cressy meditatively. ' What was it you told her about it ? ' 'Nothing/ ' Then you didn't see us ? ' ' I saw you with some one I don't know whom.' 'And you didn't tell Maw ? ' ' I did not. It was none of my business/ He instantly saw the utter inconsistency of this speech in connection with the reason he believed he had in coming. But it was too late to recall it, and she was looking at him with a bright but singular expression. ' That Joe Masters is the conceitedest fellow goin'. I told him you could see his foolishness/ 'Ah, indeed/ Mr. Ford pushed open the gate. As the girl still II CRESSY 39 lingered he was obliged to hold it a moment before passing through. ' Maw couldn't quite hitch on to your not drinkin.' She reckons you're like everybody else about yer. That's where she slips up on you. And everybody else, I kalkilate.' 'I suppose she's somewhat anxious about your father, and I dare say is expecting me to hurry,' returned the master pointedly. 'Oh, Dad's all right/ said Cressy mischievously. ' You'll come across him over yon, in the clearing. But you're looking right purty with that gun. It kinder sets you off. You oughter wear one/ The master smiled slightly, said ' Good-bye/ and took leave of the girl, but not of her eyes, which were still following him. Even when he had reached the end of the lane and glanced back at the rambling dwelling she was still leaning on the gate with one foot on the lower rail and her chin cupped in the hollow of her hand. She made a slight gesture, not clearly intelligible at that distance ; it might have been a mischievous imitation of the way he had thrown the gun over his shoulder, it might have been a wafted kiss ! The master, however, continued his way in no very self-satisfied mood. Although he did not regret having taken the place of Cressy as the purveyor of lethal weapons between the belligerent parties, he knew he was tacitly mingling in the feud between people for whom he cared little or nothing. It was true that the Harrisons sent their children to his school, and that in 40 OEESST CHAP. H the fierce partisanship of the locality this simple courtesy was open to misconstruction. But he was more uneasily conscious that his mission, as far as Mrs. M'Kinstry was concerned, was a miserable failure. The strange relations of the mother and daughter perhaps explained much of the girl's conduct, but it offered no hope of future amelioration. Would the father, ' wor- rited by stock ' and boundary quarrels a man in the habit of cutting Gordian knots with a bowie knife prove more reasonable? Was there any nearer sym- pathy between father and daughter ? But she had said he would meet M'Kinstry in the clearing : she was right, for here he was coming forward at a gallop | CHAPTEK III WHEN within a dozen paces of the master, M'Kinstry, scarcely checking his mustang, threw himself from the saddle, and with a sharp cut of his riata on the animal's haunches sent him still galloping towards the distant house. Then, with both hands deeply thrust in the side pockets of his long, loose linen coat, he slowly lounged with clanking spurs towards the young man. He was thick-set, of medium height, densely and red- dishly bearded, with heavy -lidded pale blue eyes that wore a look of drowsy pain, and after their first wearied glance at the master, seemed to rest anywhere but on him. 'Your wife was sending you your rifle by Cressy/ said the master, ' but I offered to bring it myself, as I thought it scarcely a proper errand for a young lady. Here it is. I hope you didn't miss it before and don't require it now,' he added quietly. Mr. M'Kinstry took it in one hand with an air of slightly embarrassed surprise, rested it against his shoulder, and then with the same hand, and without removing the other from his pocket, took off his soft felt hat, showed a bullet-hole in its rim, and returned 42 CEESSY CHAP. lazily, ' It's about half an hour late, but them Harrisons reckoned I was fixed for 'em and war too narvous to draw a clear bead on me.' The moment was evidently not a felicitous one for the master's purpose, but he was determined to continue. Yet he hesitated an instant when his companion, who seemed to be equally but more sluggishly embarrassed, in a moment of preoccupied perplexity withdrew from his pocket his right hand swathed in a blood-stained band- age, and following some instinctive habit, attempted, as if reflectively, to scratch his head with two stiffened fingers. ' You are hurt,' said the master, genuinely shocked, ' and here I am detaining you.' * I had my hand up so/ explained M'Kinstry, with heavy deliberation, 'and the ball raked off my little finger after it went through my hat. But that ain't what I wanted to say when I stopped ye. I ain't just kam enough yet,' he apologised in the calmest manner, 1 and I clean forgit myself,' he added with perfect self- possession. 'But I was kalkilatin' to ask you' he laid his bandaged hand familiarly on the master's shoulder ' if Cressy kem all right ? ' ' Perfectly,' said the master. * But shan't I walk on home with you, and we can talk together after your wound is attended to ? ' 'And she looked purty?' continued M'Kinstry, with- out moving. 'Very.' ' And you thought them new store gownds of hers right peart ? ' Ill CRESSY 43 'Yes/ said the master. 'Perhaps a little too fine for the school, you know/ he added insinuatingly,