Part 13 (1/2)

Those four hours watching the clock were the h and the waiting passengers were stirring about, the man in the ticket office came out and wrote upon the blackboard, ”East bound Express two hours late”

Again the sloinging penduluirl, and when the train rolled into the yards she felt as though she had lived within sound of that clock for a year

The green valley changed to the red earth of the foothills, still showing signs of the gold hunters of 1849 The puffing and wheezing of the engine told they were clirades, and soon they were in the snows of the Sierra Nevada mountains The train entered the forty-two h struck a hand car, derailing the engine

It was day without, but dark within the sheds A kindly wohter occupied the berth opposite Hattie She noticed the troubled look on the girl's face and from that ti she could to make the journey pleasant But there was the ever present suspense and doubt

It was ten hours before the train was again under way, but they had lost the right of way on the road and were cos to allow other trains to pass

As the train skirted the Great Salt Lake with its bleak and desolate islands of rock rising in silhouette against the cold grey skies, Hattie co of utter desolation within her soul

A stor on the Laramie plains and when the sno, driven by the treine in front, stuck fast in the snow, she began to have sohty force of an avalanche, and the difficulty of reaching iht

The railroad ended at a little station in the San Luis valley and then followed irl met with the ers She was always given the best seat in the coach, and otherwise made as coallantry of thesealone

At the last stage station before reaching Saguache, she heard re de Christo mountains, but she was unable to learn any of the particulars other than that the relief party was still working When, at last, she alighted at the hotel in Saguache her first question was concerning the imprisonedhappens was the assurance given by the landlady ”They are alive, we know, for we can see the s out from under the rock”

The two men under the snow slide had been the talk of the town for days Every day a new party went to the scene to relieve those who had worked the day and night before, tunneling up the steep h snow of an unknown depth

When Hattie reached the tunnel she begged to be allowed to go to the end of it where theShe was assisted up thehands and when she reached the workers one of theht for we can hear their voices”

It was then she gave an exclamation of joy, and when Buchan said to ht

XXVI

WHEN THE DEATH GLOOM GATHERS

Aroped his way to the door He took the center of the street reeling as he went, and made his way to his honified in his whisky-crazed brain He raved in wild deliriuathered around his bedside The doctor ca that lared wildly from his bloodshot eyes when a lass in his hand ”Have a cocktail, Amos,” said the ht it in another glass Amos' throat was parched and he wanted the cocktail, but thethrough the wall and looked at him with its leaden eyes The monkey tossed the cocktail into the wide open mouth of the rhinoceros, who smacked his lips and said to the ht,” replied the et his eye,” exclaimed the rhinoceros

The monkey crept forward and plucked out one of Aroaned and yelled For awhile the rhinoceros was on one side of the dresser and thehis eye to and fro between the down a steep rocky road lined with trees on either side; pythons and rattlesnakes reached out fros at his head There was the for about his neck as little devils came out from behind the trees and shouted: ”You did it; you did it” The horse was now plunging over a snow-covered country He felt the icy winds chill his heart He was trying to shake off the dead ar to his neck, when the horse stopped in a wild spot aer, with the flesh of face and arms dried to the bone, appeared ”We will bury her here,” he said as he sunk his spade into the earth As the grave digger threw up the clods they turned to little devils, the size of frogs and yelped, ”We are the sins of Arave” The vision passed and another appeared Three Sisters of Charity stood at the footboard of his bed They were looking down on him with sorrowful eyes One of them lifted her hand and all was a livid flaed shriek A shriek of death

When Auache after his spree with Rayder his first act was to purchase a ranch in the San Luis valley and deed it to his wife He then went to his assay office and dren the blinds and sat in the shadows like a cunning old spider in hiding waiting for the unwary fly for which he had wove his web His life had been that of the iconoclast who creates nothing to adorn the world's great gallery of Gods But he was not philosophical enough to evolve an idea that would disrupt existing beliefs

It was some weeks after his arrival ho down the street towards his office He cautiously turned the key in his office and slipped over to the Bucket of Blood and returned with some beer and two quart bottles of whisky When Rayder returned an hour later he was maudlin drunk

Rayder was still pale from the effects of his recent debauch and when he found A to stay and talk with hiet drawn into another spree Meanwhile, Carson had arrived and spread the news of the imprisoned miners under the snow slide Rayder learned that this was the h the connivance of Amos and concluded to wait and see what tiht Amos, but the latter was too drunk to talk with any sense He then sought Carson and offered financial assistance in the rescue work, but the iven duty and to receivetheir manhood Such was it then and such is now the spirit of the West He called at the Amos home, and while he was received by the ht he detected an air of distress in the surroundings, and attributed it to A that he was at their home at an inopportune time, he went away and started out to find A him at his office he took a nearer route and entered the Bucket of Blood by the back door He passed two or three hoboes sitting on beer kegs on the outside ”Say, old ti into ye for two bits?” asked one Thehis own recent condition Rayder handed the fellow a dollar andto the others, said: ”Divide up” The men jumped to their feet with alacrity and followed the first man to the bar

Rayder walked to the faro table where Aold pieces on theto anotherout the cards from the box ”Bet yer life,to the dealer ”Got skads of it anyhow, and when that's gone I knohere to get athe player tossing twenty after twenty in gold and tapping a tiny bell now and then when a waiter came and took the orders froame They all called for whisky except the dealer, he took a cigar It requires a clear head to deal faro