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Show oeeil' its own" destruction, n appeal to that life beyond where ail the baffled hope of this world may yet be made good. "She loved you more than I," murmured murmur-ed Amy, aadly. In time there came new that the political po-litical sky was brightening. It began to appear prolvablo that the treasure bed. in the Barranca of Cimarron and the gold buried on t ho shore of Lake Jornada might yet once ngatn be reached. , -f TUB KSD. '. &TH6 yellow spring. iW l?omarfic Mexican tofy: f BY WILLIAM HENRY BISHOP. "jS) ISWSajf Copyrighted by J. B. Lipphinott Company, and paxV V!"!!? Dahed by special arrangement with thunJ evatos. Their rooms, too, snowed some diadMec. "TJonot look at anything," protested Amy. "We are moving already. We hare danced, wept and prayed with joy and gratitude over oar good fortune, and are getting ready to reap the benefit of it without an instant's further loss of time." Don Walter met her mother, and her younger sisters and an older one also, with all of whom he was well pleased, while they were inclined to look npon him as if he were a god but very thinly disguised, instead of a common mortal He met, too, her friend Emily Winchester, Winches-ter, the "Dear Emily" of the letters from Mexico, and the one who had charged herself with re-mailing his letters when he" had pretended to be in New York. She also was rather pretty in her dark ' type, forming considerable contrast to that of Amy. She went away very shortly, leaving behind for Amy an ever-eo-lightly-meaniug smile, at which the latter blushed very deeply, though there was no chance that Walter could have seen it. . ...... ' Be found it a little difficult to conceive of Amy apart from the bloom, the fragrance, fra-grance, the stately terraces and plashing fountains of Las Doliciim, with which she seemed to be thoroughly identified; still, there was a now charm of domesticity domes-ticity about her in theao surroundings. "What a delight it is to me to see you again!" he exclaimed, with unavoidable enthusiasm, and taking her hand warmly. warm-ly. "Will you let me tell yon how botiu- : tiful you are?' I '.'If you can be so wholly reckless of ! the truth." j "We have been through so much to-' to-' gether, it seems as if we ought never to part again. How many other girls would have done j me all that you have done?" , "Some millions, I suppose." "No, no; not one." , "But what is this dreadful story I hear about your having nothing left for yourself?" your-self?" ' ' "It is true. With the shrinkage at the mint, the extraordinary expenses, the portion still left behind at Lake Jornada and the smaller portion that in spite of us fell into the hands of the enemy all is gone. The surplus I had countod upon has disappeared." "No, not I will not have it sol it is shame!" protested Amy, indignantly. ("I cannot answer even for the rest of the Colebrook family, who may be inclined to selfishness though they shall hear from me at once but do you think I, ! who saw your hardship, and your bravery, brav-ery, will take my share while you are in want? No, indeed; so much at least still remains to you." "It is no more than I might have expected ex-pected from your generous heart, but I assure you honestly I do not miss the gold; I never really felt that it was mine, and when I think of all the blood and suffering that rest upon it I am very certain cer-tain I shall be better off without it" "Such unselfishness is not quite in human nature. Take oarol X do not like people who are too unselfish ; they are apt to die young. If you are not moderately human, I shall not approve of you." "Of course, if I had known how it was coming out, I might have modo some different arrangement perhaps have paid only a part of the interest; but what is done is done, and I am not sorry." "No, it is too wicked. I will not have It SO." . "You see, I come here and talk of my woes, in spite of the obvious suggostive-ness suggostive-ness of the thing," pursued Walter, smiling. smil-ing. "There is just one way that oconrs to me: we might share it if you were I willim?" The tanfltet of her brtoht hair drifted against his templet. . . Walter Arroyo, now Ridgefield, seemed to make it a sad sort of luxury to keep away from Amy. He let her know of hi. arrival and of his safety, but nothing further. She was there in the same city, and he might go to her at any moment. If he went, it would be but for one purpose; and he did not wish to go till the money had been paid back to her family. But If he proposed to her now, would it not be exacting an unmanly un-manly advantage through some natural sense of obligation on her part ? Surely his fancy was a little overwrought and morbid. He doubted whether the disgrace dis-grace could ever really be got rid of, whether the name could ever be cleared of the stigma so long attached to it Then, too, one day he was greeted by a staggering blow: the entire sum he had brought had been nsed up in the payment of the debt He seemed to have made some sort of miscalculation: he was apprized from the mint that a considerable con-siderable portion of the metal had fallen below the standard roughly fixed upon it in his estimate. As a consequence, instead of having a liberal sum left to draw upon, after all the obligations were mot, nothing would remain for himself. He proceeded at once to find a more modest abode, and took steps to procure employment in his profession as an engineer. en-gineer. Nevertheless, for all bis holding back, and for all his juggling with the dearest passion cf his heart, he meant to see Amy, and was counting the very seconds sec-onds till the moment arrived. An article arti-cle appeared in one of the more temperate temper-ate and dignified of the newspapers, giving giv-ing some account of the whole affair. It was founded upon a statement by his counsel. That gentleman had only boon kept from giving it to the press hitbertc by his express prohibition, but now at last he boldly disregarded this. "I bold myself responsible," he said, warmly.' "I have doue it, perhaps, even at the risk of a violation of confidence. Have you not been defeating your own end by the unostentatious convse you have adopted, and by the obscurity in which yon have chosen to shroud the source of the reimbursement even from all those who have enjoyed its benefits? The atonement ought to have as much publicity as the original scandal." "But the terrible publicity of it," objected ob-jected the young man, though he was more than half convinced that the other was right - - "Oh, these things very soon pass over, and just leave a good general effect behind," be-hind," responded the lawyer, reassuringly. reassur-ingly. . "Those of ' our ' citizens who have reached middle life," said the newspaper in question, "will still recall the startling start-ling effect upon this community produced pro-duced by the failure and flight of the late Randolph Ridgefield. The magni' no mule Deila "Br" nls winding train tinkled through dark tropical forests that inspired reflection and awe, amid plantations of coffee and pineapple, beneath be-neath rich parasitio growths of orchid and bromelia, and post hatn'sts, with monumental decayed churohes, whore Indian women with trays of fruit on their head, ignorant of the wars, gave them smiling greeting. The second day after separating from the troops, they came to a small river, which they crossed cross-ed by means of a basket suspended en a rawhide cable, the animals swimming. Farther up could be seen an ingenious boldly arched foot bridge made of grape vines swung from tree to tree. At this place they heard some heavy cannon shots from the direction of Vera Cruz, to tho northward of which they had taken their course. They at first thought the city might have been attacked, but tne firing was of too short duration. Antonio Gassol acted in an odd way at the river, seeming, in Walter's nervous ner-vous fancy, to keep back on the rearward rear-ward bank with a number of the laden mules, while all the rest went forward. The young commander felt that his suspicions sus-picions were highly unjust, but broke up, notwithstanding, any possible project pro-ject of this kind. Ho was also warned by the agent of Carvajal of some peculiar pecu-liar doings; and he happened upou Gas-sol Gas-sol in a little group of men conferring earnestly, who slunk away at sight of him almost as if detected in something guilty. They seemed to be chiefly those who had been held as prisoners at Lake Jornada, and who might thus have discovered dis-covered the real contents of the bags; yot, if they had done so, why had there been no evidence of it before? After this, his nervous dread grew npon him, and he surprised himself repeating the motto, mot-to, "If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it bo not now, yet it will come." But there was nothing he could do, save to redouble his circumspection and diligence, dili-gence, and he endeavored to conduct himself in all respects just as usual. He sent Carvajal's lieutenant and two of las Own men to , look- out for the .. schooner, and if possible have her in readiness against - his arrival. Pray heaven there hfis been no "norther" to blow her off the coast, he murmured. By great good fortune they found her. The lieutenant boarded her and came ashore again with some of the sailors, and the men returned to say that she was standing off and on along the shore, ' ready to respond to their wishes. -That night, which was tnrbe his final one in Mexico, he retired late. He could have slept but a little while it seemed to him, so full of cares was he, that he had not slept at all when he was suddenly sud-denly awakened by the loud, discordant cry of a macaw in the branches over his There were shadowy forms of men lurking in the background, and Antonio - Gassol had bewi standing beside him with a machete, ready to strike. Don Walter had set up his camp lied under a hastily formed shelter of branches, near the piled up treasure, and in close proximity were some of the ' Bailors from the Bchooner. He had never blows, proposed to them a new affair. Unscrupulous runagates as they were, they were readily taken by the promise it afforded. It was very early in the morning. Don Walter, feeling it impolitio to give his men too much time for reflection, had summoned them to begin loading the boats even before the last stars had paled from the sky. A little creek afforded a i favorable point of embarkation and shelter shel-ter for the boats. At dawn all hands ' were actively engaged at work, watched i over only by a small guard. In this supreme su-preme moment of deliverance arose perhaps per-haps a more imminent peril than any that had yet been encountered. The confederates burst from the woods in su- i j perior force and charged with shouts ' that inspired dismay. By what beneficent happening was it, however, that a small body of sailors, who had ascended the creek to recover a boat that had drifted a little way up with the tide, were just then on their return? re-turn? They were in the thicket in such : ; away that it was possible for them to ! take the assailants at close quarters in ! both flank and rear. Their numbers were magnified by their concealment ! : Their wholly unexpected fire staggered ; the marauding ranks and stopped their progress. The men at the boats re- j formed behind treen, the mules, any-' thing and everything that afforded a semblance of shelter, and the tables were quickly turned; the fierce assail-1 ants were scattered right and left, and ! forced to fly in wild confusion, leaving a largo number of slain upon the ground. Don Walters heart sickened within him at the sight of dead bodies once more. Here lay many of those who had I fought bravely for him at Huetongo, at the Barranca, and at the lake. There lax. riddled with balls, the disfigured corse of Antonio Gassol. He could not but think that this man, of a naturally good disposition, had meant to be all that was faithful and honest in his mission, but he had fluttered like a moth into the candle and succumbed to a temptation beyond the strength of his weak human nature; this fatal gold had drawn him on to madness and crime. For him, truly might the old tradition of ill luck in the Yellow Snake have been deemed verified. There was no occasion now for further delay. The glorious light of rosy morning morn-ing filled the sky and flushed the sea that lay like a floor beneath it, giving to the ' latter tender tints of pink and green; and amid all these opalescent hues glowed the milky white sails of the schooner, gently swelled with a favoring breeze. I The violence of the winds and waves was yet to be encountered, it is true, but ' , these were of little moment compared to j the malevolence of men. 1 , For well nigh a month he was tossed hither and yon, was beset by all the obstacles ob-stacles by which winged craft, at the mercy of the great deep, may be detained. de-tained. Then, at last, he sailed up the long, beautiful bay, between the minor citieo on either hand, joined the illimita-, ble perspective of masts, and was at New j York. . . ;: His hearer colored again most deeply, this time with the best of reason. "After all, I do not foel poor," he continued, con-tinued, hopefully. "I shall be ridden by no more nightmare, I am a free man, I begin the world on even terms. If you thought well of the name of Ridgefield, now, I would like to say I would like to tell you how very dearly I love you. Had you ever suspected it might be so?" The tangles of her bright hair drifted against his temples, and her soft chook rested, a once before, against hi bronsed one that had known so many hardships. "When you kissed me in Mexico, I felt I hoped you were fond of me. But you tried me terribly, do you know?" - "Yes, yes, I must have done so. How can you forgive me?" Letters came to them from Mexico. The good aunts Arroyo wrote to Walter, "Yon will have a sweet bride; we remember re-member her very well; you are fortunate in your marrW.u, and when peace is declaredfor de-claredfor come some time it will you must bring her here to see us, child of our hearts." They wrote that the country was still torn by bitter strife, and neither of the great parties seemed strong enough to ; put the other down. The star of Capt , Perez, they said their tone about him ! was not disrespectful now was in the ascendant He had risen more and more : to prominence in th liberator's farces till he might be ranked a next ,in 1 authority to the commander himself. The Jefe Politico had been killed in a skirmish near the Barranca of Cimarron, ; over which district Peret had still main tained some supervision. The story recalled re-called the fate of the ancient King Will- lam Rufus in the New forest; his body had been found in the woods by a charcoal char-coal burner. Walter fancied ho divined the reason of the Jefe'. presence there, and he breathed frotir henceforth at the thought that thi. eager spirit was no longer to be feared a a prowler among I the cave, of the treasure. Not long after their wedding day there I came a letter from Dona Beatrie, for-: for-: warded by an intermediary. She wo dead. And her end, according to the report re-port of Bister Praxedis, had been very peaceful and edifying. The Kenorita Arroyo also wrote about her death, saying, say-ing, "She was regardless of hr health in the practice of her strict devotions. She fell ill jast about the time the new of your marriage came." Amy' eye were moist with tears as she in her turn read this lettor. It was the brief last message of one fueling that death was near. "I was not strong enough to withstand the temptation, of this world," it read, "and in leaving it I have but one regret that I may have been a stumbling block and ac evil influence in-fluence in your path. If God in his infinite in-finite goodnee should ever pardon my great tranagrtx aon, I would pray that my happiness in heaven might b to hover over you with th warmth of a : pure and hallowed affection, free from ; desire that you should ever know or re- 1 torn it, and to guard you from some pain ' or trouble that might otherwise come to you." ; It read like a .train of mournful music j It was a cry Jf.haple lovethatbad tude of the interests involved made it the most notable event of the kind in financial history, and it is doubtful if it has ever been surpassed, even with our larger way of doing things in these times. The unfortunate Randolph Ridgefield Ridge-field died in poverty in Mexico. His son, Walter Ridgefield, Esq., a young man of great ability and fore of oharaeter, has, meantime, by hi own unaided industry, in-dustry, acquired a Urge- fortune in that country. He lately arrived here, and, we learn upon the beat authority, has devoted de-voted not a part only, but the whole of it, to making good the losses occasioned by the transactions of his father. He has even employed the services of expert detectives de-tectives to find out remote and obscure heirs, to be reached in mo other way, that not the smallest fraction of the debt might remain uncanceled. "Within the past few days most of the money has beep paid out over the counters count-ers of the Excelsior bank, where it was deposited, with a peculiar fitness, as Randolph Ran-dolph Ridgefield was at the head of this institution at the time of the disaster. Several touching and pleasant incidents are reported in connection with the settlement set-tlement of these ancient, claims. Perhaps Per-haps the most interesting of all will prove to be the repayment of the numerous nu-merous depositor of theold Ridgefield Savings bank, the incidental collapse of which wa ome of the most painful features feat-ures of the disaster. We may easily imagine the elation of the bumble class of persons whose little all was swept away on that occasion to find their hard dollars restored to them. Many, no doubt, will find themselves raised from poverty and distress to comparative affluence. af-fluence. "When we consider the great lapse of time, the absence of any legal responsibility responsi-bility on the part of the giver, and the vaetnese of the sum, a step of this kind cannot but arouse our warmest admiration. admira-tion. No completed evil can ever be wholly repaired, it is true; but rarely can there have been so near an approach to entire reparation as that we chronicle today. The proceeding will no doubt seem quixotic to that interesting class of our fellow citizens who have betaken themselves just across the northern frontier fron-tier and bid fair by their numbers and wealth to found there a new aristocracy , based npon spoliation like that of medieval me-dieval barons, but we are free to confess that. In our view, no more generous action, ac-tion, and none more calculated to have an invigorating effect upon too lax nc Hons of commercial nnrality, has been ; performed in our times." : The day after thi there arrived for Walter, through bis backer, a note from Amy, saying: "Was it you, then? It eem too incredible. in-credible. Will you oat come, if only for a moment, to let Humk you for your great kindneesT - Then finally Walter went to the Bella Vista flats, near to park. The Bella Vista had on a small scale many tt the external adornment of more ccirtly and ambitious fiats, with none of their convenience. con-venience. It room were small and many of them dark, th Colebrook were high indeed to th. ix aod tiers wasjso anticipated any personal harm, but only at most that some of the animals might be ran off with their precious burdens; but now he woke to confront bold mur de.c. ... The sudden cry of - the macaw, as if s providential note of interposition, had nnsteadied the hand of the assassin for an instant, and in this brief instant again Walter found hitf opportunity. Catching the central support of his cot, already somewhat rickety from hard campaigning, he brought the whole to the ground, throwing himself with all his force at the same time to the outer lide. The blow had, therefore, to de-Icend de-Icend a much longer distance than calculated, cal-culated, and so mil carried. A second blow was resisted by muffling blankets, and resulted only in a flesh wound on his Ihoulder, and befow a third could be aimed Walter was on his foet with his revolver in his hand." The would be assassin escaped the shot and ran through the camp, rallying his compatriots, after him, and all fled together to-gether to the deeper heart of the woods. They were but a small minority of the force, the ringleaders having counted on winning over the rest after the first blows had been successfully struck and the advantage ad-vantage was apparent. The flight of Gassol would have ended the whole nefarious ne-farious attempt but that he was to receive re-ceive aid from a most unexpected quarter. quar-ter. . ; ; ' ' ' -'" , What it was can best be explained by returning briefly to the fortunes of Amy Colebrook. Sha entered "Vera Cruz just as the plot for its betrayal had broken out in some active manifestations among tho lower class. This plot was to fail, however, through lacking the co-operation of the time battered fortress of San Juan de TJIloa. The garrison, on their isolated rock in the roadstead, a mile or two from shore, mutinied according to the plan, but their efforts were baffled by the intrepidity of a single person, their commanding officer. He loaded a cannon with grape and discharged it into their ranks as they advanced upon him. Again and again they moved forward, but still he fired with telling effect Then, disheartened at their losses and unwilling to delay further, they took numerous nu-merous boats lying at the landing place and pulled off to aid their friends in the town. , But the government adherents had gained courage from this apparent rebuff re-buff to deal vigorously with the revolt around them. They were ready drawn up in force at the edge of the quay, and received the boats with a destructive fire. Some begged for quarter and were taken, others foundered outright, and a few of those in the rear made off to the northward and succeeded in landing on the shore. As Amy's steamer sailed out of port the fusillade of this combat was her last view of that country so blessed by the bounty of nature, but marred by the perversity of man. The mutineers from the boats took to the woods; there, after a brief season of wandering, they encountered the band of Gassol, who, having happily made their acauaintanco without corunjp-to CHAPTER XVHL I "GOLD IN THE BAR IS THE STILLNESS OP DEATH; MINTED GOLD IS LIFE." I New York, after unmeasured trial and tribulation I New York practically for the first time. . : The tall buildings of lower Broadway, ' with their fantastic sky lines, suggested again his Barranca of Cimarron. He recognized almost at once the gilded let- ters that spelled out the name of the -bank of which his father had been presi-! dent and which had been the principal scene of the disgrace. Who that did not know could have conceived any connec- . tion between this edifice amid the thick ; bustle of the great thoroughfare of the metropolis, with its ornate, facade, its polished mahogany and plate glass and j its affable officials behind the counters, "who had done business ever since, no doubt, upon strictly honest principles, and the dark, half ruined house at Ro-sales Ro-sales where his youth had been passed? His father had kept none of the embezzled em-bezzled funds for himself, it is true, but this, though often weakly urged by some as a palliation, was none to Walter. His rigid ideas of ideas of integrity told him that the money had gone in reckless speculations, of which others had had to take all the risks." Walter had first seen the name of the bank on some random old check blank at Rosales, found in a worm eaten cabinet that might almost have come down from the time of the ' flood. A slight memorandum, retained from among his father's paper's, had ' long been his constant companion. It had served as a sort of fetich and stimulus, stimu-lus, too, in his labors, and now furnished an indication where to begin his work of restitution. He secured eminent counsel, coun-sel, and the survivors and heirs of survivors sur-vivors of "the Great Ridgefield Defalcation" Defalca-tion" of years long gone by soon began to hear of legal measures and to receive queries that set many hearts beating with hope and pleasure. Walter's wound in the shoulder had been aggravated by . the voyage, but he allowed neither this suffering nor any other diversion to draw him away from his main object till every necessary step had been taken. The gold was conveyed from the hold of the schooner to the I United States Assay office. The rude smelting it had received would not do for , its final state, and it had to be subjected anew to treatment Pending this, however, how-ever, certificates to a large amount of ita value were issued, which could be used in the negotiations. At length, j when every possible . preliminary had been attended to, then, and then only, he succumbed to illness beyond his strength to resist He would have had himself taken to a hospital, but the head of the law firm to which he had committed com-mitted his" affairs would' by no means listen to this. He was impressed with admiration by magnanimity far beyond that met with in th ordinary range of practice, and conveyed him to his own home instead, where, during a short but dangerous illness that ' followed, h wa his only friend. .-- - . - ' - J |