| Show 11 II As I 1 have already remarked I 1 used frequently to take long rides into the counti and sometimes I 1 did not return till the following day M clerk cleric was always on duty and the work never nener appeared to make him round shoulder dei del td cd I 1 had ridden hot boises sea for years but to throw a leg over a good mount was to me one of the greatest pleasures in the corll I 1 delighted in stopping at the old feudal inns of studying the stolid german peasant of drinking atom steins these hundred oura ears of inspecting ancient armor nud and gat boling trifling roin romances ances fit attached thereto and often I 1 have had the coinage to stop at some quaint crumbling schloss or castle and aak for a nights night a lodging tor for myself and horse seldom it ever did I 1 meet w with ith ft A refusal I 1 possessed the whimsical habit of picking out strange roads roada and riding on night swooped down doun from the biow capped mountains I 1 bad naj a bit iron bar and pushed in fhe gate chlo following knowingly at my heels I 1 could feel the crumbling rust on my m gloves chloe whinnied tiled again and there came an answering whinny flout fiort somie somewhere where in the rear of the bistle somebody must be inside I 1 reasoned there were lights in the left wing hut but this part of the castlo castle was inas sur rounded by an empty moat damp and weedy this was not to be entered save by a ladder there was a gibat central door ho however weNer which had a modern appearance the approach appi was a broad graveled walk I 1 tied lady chloe to a bee knotted the bride reins above her neck to prevent her from putting her restless feet into them and proceeded toward the door of all the nights this N was as the one on which my usually lively imagination reposed I 1 was hungry and tired and I 1 dare say my little mare was I 1 gasn wasn t looking for an adventure I 1 t want any I 1 wanted nothing in the world but a meal and a bed dut but for the chill of the night air tho the breath of tho the mountain Is cold at night I 1 should have been perfectly willing to sleep in the open down drawbridge up lip portcullis I 1 boldly climbed the steps and groped around for the knocker it N was as broken and useless like the lock on the gate arid and ne or er a bell could I 1 find I 1 swore softly and became impatient people in Dais Baisch chIt dt did not usually live in slovenly fashion IN hat sort ot of place was thil suddenly I 1 diew erect every fiber in my body tense tenae and expectant A ow olce lifted in A great et mellow voice a so piano heavenly not to say ghostly coming coining as it did from the heart of this gloomy ruin of stone and iron th 1 jewel song from faust toot tool how the voice rose fell soared again with intoxicating ot of sound what permeating sweet I 1 stool stood there a sol solitary solitar listener as far a as I 1 I 1 knew bewildered wil Il roy my heart beahl beating ng hard and fast I 1 forgot my hunger bunger TO BE BB 0 ot of poetry in rny my system that had neveil been completely worked out and I 1 wai wa always imagining that at the very ver next schloss or inn I 1 was to hit upon some delectable adventure I 1 wa only 28 and inordinately fund fond of my dumas I 1 rode in gray whipcord breeches tan boots a blue serge coat white stock block and never a hat or cap till the snow blew I 1 used to laugh when the tha peasants asked leave to lend me a cap or to run back and find the one I 1 had presumably lost one night the delectable adventure for which I 1 was always alays seeking came my way aay and I 1 was as wholly unprepared for it I 1 had taken the south highway that which seeks the valley beyond the lake the moon flim lay misty upon eveith evett bing ing on the far off lake on the great upheavals of stone and glacier above me on oil the long white road that stretched out before me ribbon wise high up the snow enow on the mountains huge opals set in amethyst I 1 was easily 25 mills from the city that Is to say I 1 had been in the saddle some six hours nobody but a kings messenger will ride a horse more than five miles an hour I 1 cast about tor for a place to spend the tha night there was no lavein in sights sight and the hovels I 1 had dining the last hour offered no shelter or roy my horse suddenly a bend in the rot road d I 1 saw tho the haven I 1 was seeking it was a ain ambling bling old castlo castle standing in the centea of a cluster of ills flis and the tiles of the roofs and the ivy of tile the towels were shining with bilth the heavy fall of dew lady chloe sniffed tier her kind whinnied han and bloke binko into a trot she knew sooner than I 1 that was life beyond ond the he tin n wo we rode up to the gate and I 1 dismounted and ni ili self I 1 tried the ecale ate the lock hung loose like a paralytic hand evidently those inside had nothing to foai feat fj bioni om those outside I 1 gi asbed an |
