Part 33 (1/2)

”I can't tell. It seems days. I was buried here on December 1st, early in the morning.”

”Why,” cries Harry, joyfully: ”it's December 1st now. You haven't been there five hours.” Then he goes on: ”Kruger's only four hours ahead of me. You rest quietly. The miners will have you out in two or three hours. You make up your mind your daughter's safe, if it's in human power! She might die, but never marry Kruger.”

Here Ferdie, coming back with some miners, is very much astonished to hear Lawrence say hurriedly to him: ”Get the men down that incline.

Remove the rocks and get Tranyon out!”

”And you,” cries Chauncey, ”where are you going?” for Harry has already turned to leave the dump pile.

”To save his daughter!” And before the last word is out of his mouth, Lawrence is speeding down the trail to Eureka, where in twenty minutes he gets a fresh team, and driving through the storm, which has now become blinding, and through the night, which comes on too soon, and being compelled to go very slowly, for the snow is drifting heavily, he makes Salt Lake City early in the morning.

Going straight to the Townsend House, Harry says to the clerk: ”Don't make any mistake this time, young man, in your information. Miss Travenion is here?”

”No, not here!”

”Good Heavens!”

”She was here last night,” says the clerk, with a grin, ”but drove away, five minutes ago, to catch the train for Ogden,” and is astonished at the hurried ”Thank you” he gets, as Lawrence runs out to his wagon again.

Clapping a ten dollar bill into the sleepy driver's hands, Harry cries: ”That'll wake you up! Utah Central depot like lightning!”

He gets there just in time to board the train as it runs out of the station, to make connection with the Union Pacific that will leave Ogden this morning.

She is not in his car, but Harry looks into the next one, and seeing the young lady asleep, mutters: ”She is tired also. I'll not wake her,” then suddenly thinks: ”By George! How shall I begin the business? She must despise me now!” and wishes he had brought Ferdie with him; though he laughs to himself: ”I suppose it would have killed that future Harvard athlete--two nights' steady driving and no rest between!”

Sitting down to think over this matter, and being overcome with weariness himself, sleep comes upon Harry also, and he doesn't wake even after the train has arrived at Ogden, till he is roused by the brakeman.

Looking about him, he gives a start. Miss Travenion has disappeared.

Muttering to himself: ”I'm a faithful guardian--I keep my word to her father well! I have a very sharp eye out on my sweetheart!” he runs across to the Union depot, and is relieved to see that the young lady is in the office of Wells, Fargo & Co., expressing a package.

This has come about in this way: Erma Travenion had arrived safely in Salt Lake City at ten o'clock on the night before. Wells, Fargo & Co.

being of course closed, she could not deposit the Utah Central stock that night.

Knowing that speed is vital to her, and that she must have money for her trip East, she drives to the house of Mr. Bussey, the banker, and he very kindly rushes about town for her and gleans up from friends of his sufficient for her trip East, charging her for same on her letter of credit.

Asking his advice about an express package that she wishes to send--though Erma doesn't state its contents--he says: ”Take it with you, my child, to Ogden. At that time, before the Union Pacific train leaves, Wells, Fargo & Co. will be open. Express it from there. Their receipt will be just as good in Ogden as in Salt Lake City.”

This she is doing while Lawrence is looking at her. Her appearance makes him sigh. Not that she isn't as beautiful as when he last saw her, for she is more lovely, only so much more ethereal. Her eyes are too brilliant, and there is a little apprehension in them, and a few lines of pain on her face, some of which, Harry has a wild hope, are perhaps caused by him; though he grieves over them just the same.

As she comes out of Wells, Fargo's, having finished her business with the express company--which has taken some five minutes, the transaction being a heavy one, and the receipt very formal--Lawrence, with rapture in his heart, and love in his eye, approaches to speak to his divinity, and to his intense chagrin, gets the very neatest kind of a cut. The girl looks him straight in the face--with haughty eyes that never flinch, though there is no recognition in them.

So pa.s.sing on her way, she buys her tickets, and makes arrangements for her sleeping-car.

This catastrophe has been brought about as follows: While standing waiting for the receipt from Wells, Fargo & Co., Erma has caught the conversation of two men who are standing just outside its door.

One of them says: ”Who is she?” for Miss Travenion's beauty has attracted his attention.

The other, a mining man who has seen her with the bishop in Eureka, answers: ”Tranyon the boss Mormon's daughter.”

”Impossible!”