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Show A Etory of DonaELza rsy in. : 2Y -. CrAIX I0":? ; -Nevada ; and an francisco. (Copyright by Bobbs-Merrlll Co.) v' A ) i i i i i, t ., . t f towdri u.a t.- , i -r...y . .ji.'i. ".f6r L: Jj-t th'rs . the i ce ot t;.e i.ill came aon?" ie '"leg, alir? fa rrounl thre. It a'.l f'rfwcj ui tnj'e'rtii and roou. There' quits a v.a.1 of ro . lrft br'and these bits of It tr Bil over. Js'ew en.s are 8jroutin evrywl -re. I suppose mxt'a what nok u.ere." lie rose and "C to a bookon.s took out a hand marmfjin r'nJ''. and return-In return-In to the 1 siit. Ftud.ei tr.e fragments through it. fcomethin? in his face as he bent over them, strut through the leth-arsrv leth-arsrv of her dejection. . "Father," sna eaid. drawing near, "what ara they? What's odd about them?" . j He lifted ft face transfigured with excitement, ex-citement, and lpanlng forward., laid a trembling hand on hen. - "It' float," he said, "undeniable float! If I'm not mistaken we've got the ledge at )gt." ' - ' ' - (To Be Continued.) ' . ', CHAPTER VIII." ' . : ' Prizes of Accident. . , It wu half-past fl the next morning when Kit- Cai son paced away from the hotel atablea into the usy daylight. With the freshness of the hour on his face the Colonel paused along the hushed street and then out into the red road between iu clumps of dasty foliage. - A he skirted what yesterday had been his own land he looked on it with a new-eye. new-eye. It could be made to surport them welJ.J Jfa matter how low Allen might sink they need never want again. The hilly part,' where the 'spring Was. could be sold or leased te some of the enterprising enter-prising city hotel' men. Or, if they (objected (ob-jected to that, they could increase their market gardening to the dimensions of a large agricultural enterprise. ' They could rent to a rancher a portion of the rich, uncultivated land now King Idle, and thua gain an income sufficient for them to develop their' own' particular domain. To people of thrift and energy the possibilities possi-bilities -of the tract were large. Alice could die In peace. Her glrla were provided pro-vided for.' . Aa the cottag came Into view' the rider reined up and gated at it.- No smoke issued is-sued from the. chimney. They .all atlll slept. In the crystal stillness of the morning it looked peacefully picturesque, half-vefled In its greenery of shrubs and vines. The air about It was Impregnated with the delicate breath of the roses that Uned the path from the gate to the balcony.' bal-cony.' , . -f He gave a alight shake to his rein, and Kit 'Carson, who had been impatiently pawing with sv proud forefoot, moved forward. for-ward. The rider's glance wandered to-a window undec. the sloping' roof, veiled by a blue curtain. Was that the girls' room? The girls I The two faces rose before his mental -vision and ha turned his eyes from the window and let them pierce, far-seeing and steady into the distance. Into the future. Before he came to Foleys be had not cared. - he bad not dared, to look -into the future. - He had cowered before its-emptiness. Now the faces of the sisters rose softly bright In its melancholy mel-ancholy obscuritv, the faces of Alice's daughters daughters that, should have been his. - , . - - , A week after .he reached San Francisco he had a letter from -Jane, a childish. Incoherent In-coherent letter, full of impassioned terms f gratitude, broken -lr.to. by- distressed comments on Tier mother's health. Then, in more sprightly vein, she told Mm of how Mr. Barclay was stopping over at Foleys for a few days and came nearly every day and helped them In the gar- waa bursting with sorrow, ended the bitterness bit-terness of the day with so wearisome a hunt. Finally, nuajsted by long hours of watcliing and the fatiKue-of rnef, sne burst into unrestrained sobs. With her face shining with tears, her breast convened, con-vened, she tore her way through thickets and .scrambled over rocky spurs, every ,now and then sending up a quavering cry for the strayed cow.. At length,. brushing through a uopse of bay and alder, she came on the torn face of the hill where the landslide had - taken place.' The ground . was covered- with' a debris of stones and dead trees. Nature, to repair the damage, was already hiding the rawness raw-ness of the lacerated "expanse under a veil of small sprouting vegetation. Here, through a'ecreen of leaves, she at last I caught sight of Bloss red and white side. She cried to the cow? who gave a lasy flip of her tall, but no other sign- of movement. move-ment. June's Irritated misery -gave way to a spaam of rase, and .stooping, she picked up a handful of the loose pieces of stone atrewn-about -her,-and threw-one at the runaway. It struck. with a thud. Bloss gave a surprised snort, and, wheeling, wheel-ing, brushed through the thicket. June followed her, the stones pressed In a clutching hand against 'her breast, one now and then launched Hn the . direction of the cow. . These missiles, combined with the thought o home, appeared to animate Bloss' leisurely movements, - and she hastened forward through the brush and over ; rock at a' lolloping, uncouth trot. The dusk was settling Into night when tbey reached the shed. June's tears had ceased, but the abstraction of grief held her. She fastened the shed door on the cow, and still absently clasping three or four pieces of stone, entered the house. The door from the balcony gave directly into the living-room. Here, just as she had left him, she found her father. The daughters of Beauregard Allen did not love him with the same fond blindness blind-ness to his faults that' had marked his wife. In the grinding poverty of their later years they could not but ,see his apathy, tke 'selfishness of his heavy discouragement, dis-couragement, the weakness of hie tendency tend-ency to drink. Though th filial sense was strong in them and the example -of their mother"! uncomplaining devotion one that they obediently followed, they realized that their father was more a tottering tot-tering pillar to support than a staff upon which to- lean.' Now, a vagus, dark bulk In the deserted de-serted room, so filled with memories of the dead women, he was a figure of heart-piercing desolation. His daughter moved to the table- sad said gently: "Why, father.-dear, are you still sitting lamp r .. He answered with an inarticulate "sound and did not move. Betting the stones on the table June drew the lamp toward her and lit It. The sudden flood of light seemed to rouse him. The chair creaked under his weight aa be turned.- His haggard hag-gard eyes - absently traveled over the lamp and the table near It and finally rested on the scattered fragments of rock. June bad bent dowa to look at the wick which she. was carefully adjusting, when she heard htm give a suppressed exclamation, ex-clamation, ,and bin long brown hand entered en-tered the circle of lamplight and gathered ' up the stones. The wick satisfactorily arranged, she settled, the shade and turned away.-Her fathers drew bis chair closer to the slanting torrent of light, and holding the stones directly under it, leaned forward, scrutinizing them aa he turned them about.- - - , "Where did you get these V bo said aen, ina jar.' Klon otcey,. rloin DacK from Foleys to ths Buckeye Belle one evening, bad dropped In for a visit, and stayed to supper. - -. The Colonel seemed to see her aa she wrote, laughing at one moment and then stopping- to dash the tears off ber cheek as she had done at the spring.' He heard from no one else. Beauregard Allen bad accepted the transfer of ths property, aa a business transaction, the manner-, in which his adversary had desired him to accept it. To his friends in San Francisco Francis-co the Colonel explained bis speedy return and the dropping of the case, as be bad done to Cuaack.lt was. not worth the time and trouble. - The land was remote, the spring a disappointment; he was glad to be rid of it alL - - Three weeks after this, sitting alone In his office, he received by -the afternoon mall a v newspaper. It was the Jally Clarion, an organ which molded public' opinion and supported a precarious existence exist-ence in Foleys. Unfolding the flimsy sheet he found a marked paragraph,- and turning turn-ing to it he saw It to be Alice's death notice," no-tice," She had died three days before "at the residence of ber husband, John Beauregard Beau-regard Allen." .', The -paper; slipped" from his hand to the floor and his head sank. He eat thus till the twilight fell, alone in the dim office where - the golden lettere that spelled bis name the name of the successful man shone faintly on the window. win-dow. ..-' - That same afternoon the' dead woman's husband and children returned to the cottage cot-tage after having committed all that remained re-mained of ber to. the grave.. Rosamund bad succumbed to the strain and sorrow of the last few days, and gone to bed prostrated with a headache. . Allen, morose mo-rose and speechless, had flung himself In a chair in the living-room and there sat. a beavy, .Inert figure..' He had drunk heavily during the last few daya of bis wife's ill-ess, for be had always loved her, and In his weakness of heart. bad fled from the sight of her suffering, and tried to find surcease for his own. ' It was left to June to prepare their supper sup-per and accomplish the toilsome domestio tasks that Rosamund, shared with ber. With- a dead heart she set out the meal, watered ths garden, and finally set fortn In a flare or sunset to find Bloss and drive her boms, . - ' Tbe cow had evidently . strayed far. June's search led her to the spots which Bloss was known to frequent, but she could find no trace of her. Sometimes the girl's voice, broken and hoarse -with weeping, weep-ing, rose on the rich stillness of tbe hour, calling to tbe truant.'- She became "irritable, "irrita-ble, exasperated against the animal, who, on such a nleht as this. "while her heart |