Snow-Bound at Eagle's

et her on the threshold of her room. Her face was quite pale,

sked Kate, her own colo

eir horses. Left befor

letter. The girl took

orning; we must go as we came, without warning, but not without regret. We leave a package and a letter for your husband. It is not only our poor return for your gentleness and hospitality, but, since it was accidentally the means of giving us the pleas

RGE

," said Mrs. Hale. "And the

y," said Kate drearily, "for I discovere

ld them about it," said

and, reading the significance of her speech in the glistening

er. For that package and letter to John means something, and we shall probably se

le of turning the whole thing into ridicule. I dare

e as unfair to him as you were t

er dark eyebrows knit

llow Falkner to say! And yet you believe he

o fast, Kate?" she called mischievously,

He may be coming at any moment now

hurriedly; "you do it. I'll

nd making the hollow shell appear doubly empty. What a contrast to the dear dark days of mysterious seclusion and delicious security, lit by Lee's laughter and the sparkl

pathetic word-picture of the two friends perishing in the snow-drift, without flannels, brandy, smelling-salts, or jelly, which they ha

eturned," sa

g the house. A single glance showed her that it w

mplete had been their preoccupation with the loss of their guests tha

nto the parlor, was evidently disconcer

John Hale yer," h

sed over their faces. "He has not y

s hed time to do it, I r

get over from the Summit," returne

I kem over it thi

asked Mrs. Hale timidly, w

N

t abatement of interest in himself, yet he still struggled politely to say

nly-the sta

jist to tell it to ye. Ye see John Hale, he sent a note to ye 'splainin' matters by a

Mrs. Hale

crawl inter the brush, whar I found him when I wa

OUR house?" inter

a house; but I brought him thar. Well, ez he couldn't find the note that Hale had guv him, and like ez not the

your house," repeated Mrs

d I never said LEE was thar. I mean

of silencing significance; "certainly-don't you remember?-that's the story we got from the Chinaman, you know, only muddled. Go

call Falkner. Yes, that

you have had a long ride, Mr. Thompson; let me offer you

with a hysterical laugh. Old Mrs. Scott did not move from her seat, but, with her eyes fixed on the door, impatiently waited

closing of the front door was followed by Kate'

the two women

alkner were undoubtedly the two men who took the

ure?" said

be no mista

inine logic, "I don't want anything more to

"To think," said Mrs. Scott, "what that poor boy must have suffered to have been obliged to do-that to-to-Bilson-isn't that the creature's name? I suppose we ought to send over there and inquire after him, with some c

one through while they were here-momentarily expecting

ny longer, they would have told

ch as they neared the house on their last walk; Josephine was recalling the remorse

at are we to tell him? And then

ted them exactly as we did if they had come without any message from John; so I do not know why we should lay any stress on that, or even speak of it. The simple fact is that we have opened our house to two strangers in distress. Your husband," continued Mr. Hale's mother-in-law, "does not r

er the men who had undoubtedly risked their lives for the sake of remaining with them. The best woman is not above being touched by the effect of her power over the worst man, and Kate at first allowed herself to think of Falkner in that light. But if in her later reflections he suffered as a heroic experience to be forgotten, he gained something as an actual man to be remembered. Now that the proposed rides from "his friend's house" were a part of the illusion, would he ever dare to visit them again? Would she dare to see him? She held her breath with a sudden pain of parting that was new to her; she tried to think of something else, to pick up the scattered threads of her life before that eventful day.

stranger, and as the little cavalcade wound its way up the slope he appeared to sit his horse and wear his hat with a certain slouch and absence of his usual restraint that strangely shocked them. Even the old half-condescending, half-punctilious gallantry of his greeting of his wife and family was changed, as he introduced h

ry of some remote Huguenot ancestor. "My friend, Judge Hale, must be a regular Roman ci

oking from Kate to her sist

een a very pleasant one," said Mrs. Hale

a week ago. The only scrimmage we've had has been with the detectives that were on the robbers' track. Ha! ha! The best people we've met have been the friends of the men we were huntin', and we've gen

e coach," explained Mr. Hale, with a slight

h had said, they understood enough to know that their late guests were safe from the pursuit of that party, and that their own conduct

a man trained to "stump" speaking, he gave an account of the robbery and his own connection with it. He spoke of the swindling and treachery which had undoubtedly provoked Falkner to obtain restitution of his property by an overt act of violence unde

ez we've done much towards it, except to keep tumbling in the way of that detective party of Stanner's, and so throw them off the trail-ha, ha! The Judge here, I reckon, has had his share of fun, for while he was at Hennicker's tr

m, and falling back for support on his old manner. "In its way, I think it was worse than the robbery by Lee and Falkner, for it was done in the name of law and order;

entlemen will stay to luncheon, and in the meantime excuse us for running away, as we are short of servants, and Ma

nd of the drawing-room, Kate said, earnestly, "A

u suppose they are in a hurry to tell us THEIR whole story? W

came in, and the vulgar familiarity o

ty of this man Clinch I never saw," said Kat

But their triumph was short-lived. At the end of the meal they were startled by the trampling of hoofs without, followed by lo

ire for his company elsewhere, he would hardly venture

an't make ME responsible for that. I'm here now on business-you understand-reg'lar bu

aid Hale hotly; "and if

ny! The matter stands like this. There's a half-breed Mexican, called Manuel, arrested over at the Summit, who swears he saw George Lee and Edward Falkner in this house the night after the

famous lie!

d, who claimed the shelter of your roof. As your mother I should have been unworthy to stay beneath it and have denied that shelter or withheld it until I knew

kindly tell these gentlemen that, as your son does not care to know who or what the stranger

ntlemen," said Mrs. Hale recovering her voice and color. "Pl

he table lay a letter and a small package. The eyes of Mr. Stanner, a litt

the letter. He opened it in

HN

family, where we DID get it, and were fairly vanquished. To the victors belong the spoils. We leave the package of greenbacks which we took from Colonel Clinch in the Sierra coach, but which was first stolen by Harkins from forty-four

al as the intrusion. You will find a pair of boots in the corner of your closet. They were taken from the burglarious feet of Manuel, your peon, who, bel

edient s

EE & EDWA

fe; Kate flew to the closet, where the muffled boots of Manuel confronted them. "We never knew

pproaching the table, "but as long ez the greenbacks are here he can make wh

is the package taken from Colonel Clinch. Is

" said

"The first restitution is to you, but I believe yo

g, "I've a warrant to seize that wherever

nd me better prepared to resist a SECOND robbery than I was the first. Your warrant, which was taken out by the Express Company, is supplanted by civil pro

followers he was obliged to keep up his bluster. "You sh

grimly, "but do I understand that

lawyers, sir," said Stanner turning

would be hard to call my young friend Falkner by that name for his first offence, committed under great provocatio

d her lids over her glistening eyes. "And this Mr. Lee,"

e of the oldest families of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. He never mixes himself up with anything but some of the biggest strikes, and he's an educated man. He is very popular with ladi

anything but a gentleman,

g a gentleman, understand me, Mrs. Scott, but perhaps too reckless for his own good. George played a grand game, a glit

d Mrs. Hale, lifting her

e that

somewhat ostentatiously, "appear to-er-er-corres

d not wear his trousers rolled up over his boots in the company of ladies, as you're doing now, nor did he make

moments of emba

ackage to Mr. Falkner yoursel

r Company," said the Colonel, "but I

"will you kindly take a

ou wi

a great favor, Colonel

superintendent of the Excelsior Ditch, to Eagle's Court. As he and Kate stood again on t

it did the first day I s

ate hurriedly. "That is why my brother thin

oin his cousin's corps at Richmond, were: 'If I'm not killed, Ned, I hope some day to stand