The Parting By The Waters

: An Apache Princess

"Some day I may tell Miss Angela--but never you," had Mr. Blakely

said, before setting forth on his perilous essay to find Angela's

father, and with native tenacity Miss Wren the elder had remembered

the words and nourished her wrath. It was strange, indeed, that Plume,

an officer and a gentleman, should have bethought him of the "austere

vestal" as a companion witness to Blakely's supposed iniquity; but,

between these two natures,--one strong, one weak,--there had sprung up

the strange sympathy that is born of a common, deep-rooted, yet

ill-defined antipathy--one for which neither she nor he could yet give

good reason, and of which each was secretly ashamed. Each, for reasons

of her or his own, cordially disliked the Bugologist, and each could

not but welcome evidence to warrant such dislike. It is human nature.

Janet Wren had strong convictions that the man was immoral, if for no

other reason than that he obviously sought Angela and as obviously

avoided her. Janet had believed him capable of carrying on a liaison

with the dame who had jilted him, and had had to see that theory

crushed. Then she would have it that, if not the mistress, he dallied

with the maid, and when it began to transpire that virulent hatred was

the only passion felt for him by that baffling and detestable

daughter of Belial, there came actual joy to the soul of the

Scotchwoman that, after all, her intuition had not been at fault. He

was immoral as she would have him, even more so, for he had taken base

advantage of the young and presumably innocent. She craved some proof,

and Plume knew it, and, seeing her there alone in her dejection, had

bidden her come and look--with the result described.



His own feeling toward Blakely is difficult to explain. Kind friends

had told him at St. Louis how inseparable had been Clarice and this

very superior young officer. She had admitted to him the "flirtation,"

but denied all regard for Blakely, yet Plume speedily found her moody,

fitful, and unhappy, and made up his mind that Blakely was at the

bottom of it. Her desire to go to far-away Arizona could have no other

explanation. And though in no way whatever, by look, word, or deed,

had Blakely transgressed the strictest rule in his bearing toward the

major's wife, both major and wife became incensed at him,--Plume

because he believed the Bugologist still cherished a tender passion

for his wife--or she for him; Clarice, it must be owned, because she

knew well he did not. Plume sought to find a flaw in his subordinate's

moral armor to warrant the aversion that he felt, and was balked at

every turn. It was with joy almost fierce he discovered what he

thought to be proof that the subaltern was no saint, and, never

stopping to give his better nature time to rise and rebuke him, he had

summoned Janet. It was to sting Blakely, more than to punish the girl,

he had ordered Natzie to the guard-room. Then, as the hours wore on

and he realized how contemptible had been his conduct, the sense of

shame well-nigh crushed him, and though it galled him to think that

some of his own kind, probably, had connived at Natzie's escape, he

thanked God the girl was gone. And now having convinced herself that

here at last she had positive proof of Mr. Blakely's depravity, Aunt

Janet had not scrupled to bear it to Angela, with sharp and surprising

result. A good girl, a dutiful girl, was Angela, as we have seen, but

she, too, had her share of fighting Scotch blood and a bent for revolt

that needed only a reason. For days Aunt Janet had bidden her shun the

young man, first naming Mrs. Plume and then Elsie as the cause and

corespondent. One after another Graham had demolished these

possibilities, to the end that even Wren was ashamed of his unworthy

suspicions. Then it was Natzie who was the prey of Blakely's

immorality, and for that, Janet declared, quite as much as for

stabbing the soldier, the girl had been sent to the cells. It was late

in the day when she managed to find Angela away from her father, who,

realizing what Natzie had done and suffered to save his own ewe lamb,

was now in keen distress of mind because powerless to raise a hand to

aid her. He wondered that Angela seemed so unresponsive--that she did

not flare up in protest at such degrading punishment for the girl who

had saved her life. He little knew how his daughter's heart was

burning within her. He never dreamed that she, too, was

suffering--torn by conflicting emotions. It was a sore thing to find

that in her benefactress lived an unsuspected rival.



Just before sunset she had left him and gone to her room to change her

dress for the evening, and Janet's first swoop was upon her brother.

Once before during the exciting day she had had a moment to herself

and him. She had so constantly fanned the flame of his belief in

Blakely's gallantries as even to throttle the sense of gratitude he

felt, and, in spite of herself, that she felt for that officer's

daring and successful services during the campaign. She felt, and he

felt, that they must disapprove of Blakely--must stamp out any nascent

regard that Angela might cherish for him, and to this end would never

in her presence admit that he had been instrumental in the rescue of

his captain, much less his captain's daughter. Hurriedly Janet had

told him what she and Plume had seen, and left him to ponder over it.

Now she came to induce him to bid her tell it all to Angela. "Now

that, that other--affair--seems disproved," said she, "she'll be

thinking there's no reason why she shouldn't be thinking of him," and

dejectedly the Scotchman bade her do as seemed best. Women, he

reasoned, could better read each other's hearts.



And so Janet had gone and had thought to shock, and had most

impressively detailed what she had witnessed--I fear me Janet scrupled

not to embroider a bit, so much is permissible to the "unco guid" when

so very much is at stake. And Angela went on brushing out her

beautiful hair without a sign of emotion. To the scandal of Scotch

maidenhood she seemed unimpressed by the depravity of the pair. To the

surprise of Aunt Janet she heard her without interruption to the

uttermost word, and then--wished to know if Aunt Janet thought the

major would let her send Natzie something for supper.



Whatever the girl may have thought of this new and possible

complication, she determined that no soul should read that it cost her

a pang. She declined to discuss it. She did what she had not done

before that day--went forth in search of Kate Sanders. Aunt Janet was

astonished that her niece should wish to send food to that--that

trollop. What would she have thought could she have heard what passed

a few moments later? In the dusk and the gloaming Kate Sanders was in

conversation on the side veranda with a tall sergeant of her father's

troop. "Ask her?" Kate was saying. "Of course I'll ask her. Why, here

she comes now!" Will it be believed that Sergeant Shannon wished Miss

Angela's permission to "take Punch out for a little exercise," a thing

he had never ventured to ask before, and that Angela Wren eagerly

said, "Yes." Poor Shannon! He did not know that night how soon he

would be borrowing a horse on his own account, nor that two brave

girls would nearly cry their eyes out over it, when they were barely

on speaking terms.



Of him there came sad news but the day after his crack-brained,

Quixotic essay. Infatuated with Elise, and believing in her promise to

marry him, he had placed his savings in her hands, even as had Downs

and Carmody. He had heard the story of her visiting Blakely by night,

and scouted it. He heard, in a maze of astonishment, that she was

being sent to Prescott under guard for delivery to the civil

authorities, and taking the first horse he could lay hands on, he

galloped in chase. He had overtaken the ambulance on Cherry Creek, and

with moving tears she had besought him to save her. Faithful to their

trust, the guard had to interpose, but, late at night, they reached

Stemmer's ranch; were met there by a relief guard sent down by Captain

Stout; and the big sergeant who came in charge, with special

instructions from Stout's own lips, was a new king who knew not

Joseph, and who sternly bade Shannon keep his distance. Hot words

followed, for the trooper sergeant would stand no hectoring from an

equal in rank. Shannon's heart was already lost, and now he lost his

head. He struck a fellow-sergeant who stood charged with an important

duty, and even his own comrades could not interpose when the

infantrymen threw themselves upon the raging Irish soldier and

hammered him hard before they could subdue and bind him, but bind him

they did. Sadly the trooper guard went back to Sandy, bringing the

"borrowed" horse and the bad news that Shannon had been arrested for

assaulting Sergeant Bull, and all men knew that court-martial and

disgrace must follow. It was Shannon's last run on the road he knew so

well. Soldiers of rank came forward to plead for him and bear witness

to his worth and services, and the general commanding remitted most of

the sentence, restoring to him everything the court had decreed

forfeited except the chevrons. They had to go, yet could soon be

regained. But no man could restore to him the pride and self-respect

that went when he realized that he was only one of several plucked and

deluded victims of a female sharper. While the Frenchwoman ogled and

languished behind the bars, Shannon wandered out into the world again,

a deserter from the troop he was ashamed to face, an unfollowed,

unsought fugitive among the mining camps in the Sierras. "Three stout

soldiers stricken from the rolls--two of them gone to their last

account," mused poor Plume, as at last he led his unhappy wife away to

the sea, "and all the work of one woman!"



Yes, Mrs. Plume was gone now for good and all, her devoted, yet

sore-hearted major with her, and Wren was sufficiently recovered to be

up and taking the air on his veranda, where Sanders sometimes stopped

to see him, and "pass the time of day," but cut his visits short and

spoke of everything but what was uppermost in his mind, because his

better half persuaded him that only ill would come from preaching.

Then, late one wonderful day, the interesting invalid, Mr. Neil

Blakely himself, was "paraded" upon the piazza in the Sanders's

special reclining-chair, and Kate and Mrs. Sanders beamed, while

nearly all society at the post came and purred and congratulated and

took sidelong glances up the row to where Angela but a while before

was reading to her grim old father, but where the father now read

alone, for Angela had gone, as was her custom at the hour, to her own

little room, and thither did Janet conceive it her duty to follow,

and there to investigate.



"It won't be long now before that young man will be hobbling around

the post, I suppose. How do you expect to avoid him?" said the elder

maiden, looking with uncompromising austerity at her niece. Angela as

before had just shaken loose her wealth of billowy tresses and was

carefully brushing them. She did not turn from the contemplation of

her double in the mirror before her; she did not hesitate in her

reply. It was brief, calm, and to the point.



"I shall not avoid him."



"Angela! And after all I--your father and I--have told you!" And Aunt

Janet began to bristle.



"Two-thirds of what you told me, Aunt Janet, proved to be without

foundation. Now I doubt--the rest of it." And Aunt Janet saw the big

eyes beginning to fill; saw the twitching at the corners of the soft,

sensitive lips; saw the trembling of the slender, white hand, and the

ominous tapping of the slender, shapely foot, but there wasn't a

symptom of fear or flinching. The blood of the Wrens was up for

battle. The child was a woman grown. The day of revolt had come at

last.



"Angela Wr-r-ren!" rolled Aunt Janet. "D'you mean you're going to

see him?--speak to him?"



"I'm going to see him and--thank him, Aunt Janet." And now the girl

had turned and faced the astounded woman at the door. "You may spare

yourself any words upon the subject."



The captain was seated in loneliness and mental perturbation just

where Angela had left him, but no longer pretending to read. His back

was toward the southern end of the row. He had not even seen the cause

of the impromptu reception at the Sanders's. He read what was taking

place when Angela began to lose her voice, to stumble over her words;

and, peering at her under his bushy eyebrows, he saw that the face he

loved was flushing, that her young bosom was swiftly rising and

falling, the beautiful brown eyes wandering from the page. Even before

the glad voices from below came ringing to his ears, he read in his

daughter's face the tumult in her guileless heart, and then she

suddenly caught herself and hurried back to the words that seemed

swimming in space before her. But the effort was vain. Rising quickly,

and with brave effort steadying her voice, she said, "I'll run and

dress now, father, dear," and was gone, leaving him to face the

problem thrust upon him. Had he known that Janet, too, had heard from

the covert of the screened and shaded window of the little parlor, and

then that she had followed, he would have shouted for his German

"striker" and sent a mandate to his sister that she could not fail to

understand. He did not know that she had been with Angela until he

heard her footstep and saw her face at the hall doorway. She had not

even to roll her r's before the story was told.



Two days now he had lived in much distress of mind. Before quitting

the post Major Plume had laboriously gone the rounds, saying good-by

to every officer and lady. Two officers he had asked to see

alone--the captain and first lieutenant of Troop "C." Janet knew of

this, and should have known it meant amende and reconciliation,

perhaps revelation, but because her brother saw fit to sit and ponder,

she saw fit to cling unflinchingly to her preconceived ideas and to

act according to them. With Graham she was exceeding wroth for daring

to defend such persons as Lieutenant Blakely and "that Indian squaw."

It was akin to opposing weak-minded theories to positive knowledge of

facts. She had seen with her own eyes the ignorant, but no less

abandoned, creature kneeling at Blakely's bedside, her black head

pillowed close to his breast. She had seen her spring up in fury at

being caught--what else could have so enraged her that she should seek

to knife the intruders? argued Janet. She believed, or professed to

believe, that but for the vigilance of poor Todd, now quite happy in

his convalescence, the young savage would have murdered both the major

and herself. She did not care what Dr. Graham said. She had seen, and

seeing, with Janet, was believing.



But she knew her brother well, and knew that since Graham's impetuous

outbreak he had been wavering sadly, and since Plume's parting visit

had been plunged in a mental slough of doubt and distress. Once before

his stubborn Scotch nature had had to strike its colors and surrender

to his own subaltern, and now the same struggle was on again, for what

Plume said, and said in presence of grim old Graham, fairly startled

him:



"You are not the only one to whom I owe amende and apology, Captain

Wren. I wronged you, when you were shielding--my wife--at no little

cost to yourself. I wronged Blakely in several ways, and I have had to

go and tell him so and beg his pardon. The meanest thing I ever did

was bringing Miss Wren in there to spy on him, unless it was in

sending that girl to the guard-house. I'd beg her pardon, too, if she

could be found. Yes, I see you look glum, Wren, but we've all been

wrong, I reckon. There's no mystery about it now."



And then Plume told his tale and Wren meekly listened. It might well

be, said he, that Natzie loved Blakely. All her people did. She had

been watching him from the willows as he slept that day at the pool.

He had forbidden her following him, forbidden her coming to the post,

and she feared to wake him, yet when she saw the two prospectors, that

had been at Hart's, ride over toward the sleeping officer she was

startled. She saw them watching, whispering together. Then they rode

down and tied their horses among the trees a hundred yards below, and

came crouching along the bank. She was up in an instant and over the

stream at the shallows, and that scared them off long enough to let

her reach him. Even then she dare not wake him for fear of his anger

at her disobedience, but his coat was open, his watch and wallet easy

to take. She quickly seized them--the little picture-case being within

the wallet at the moment--and sped back to her covert. Then Angela had

come cantering down the sandy road; had gone on down stream, passing

even the prowling prospectors, and after a few minutes had returned

and dismounted among the willows above where Blakely lay--Angela whom

poor Natzie believed to be Blakely's sister. Natzie supposed her

looking for her brother, and wondered why she waited. Natzie finally

signaled and pointed when she saw that Angela was going in

disappointment at not finding him. Natzie witnessed Angela's theft of

the net and her laughing ride away. By this time the prospectors had

given up and gone about their business, and then, while she was

wondering how best to restore the property, Lola and Alchisay had come

with the annoying news that the agent was angered and had sent

trailers after her. They were even then only a little way up stream.

The three then made a run for the rocks to the east, and there

remained in hiding. That night Natzie had done her best to find her

way to Blakely with the property, and the rest they knew. The watch

was dropped in the struggle on the mesa when Mullins was stabbed,

the picture-case that morning at the major's quarters.



"Was it Blakely told you all this, sir?" Wren had asked, still

wrong-headed and suspicious.



"No, Wren. It was I told Blakely. All this was given me by Lola's

father, the interpreter, back from Chevlon's Fork only yesterday. I

sent him to try to persuade Natzie and her kinsfolk to return. I have

promised them immunity."



Then Plume and Graham had gone, leaving Wren to brood and ponder, and

this had he been doing two mortal days and nights without definite

result, and now came Janet to bring things to a head. In grim and

ominous silence he listened to her recital, saying never a word until

her final appeal:



"R-r-robert, is our girlie going daft, do you think? She solemnly said

to me--to me--but a minute ago, 'I mean to go to him myself--and thank

him!'"



And solemnly the soldier looked up from his reclining-chair and

studied his sister's amazed and anxious face. Then he took her thin,

white hand between his own thin, brown paws and patted it gently. She

recoiled slowly as she saw contrition, not condemnation, in his

blinking eyes.



"God forgive us all, Janet! It's what I ought to have done days ago."



* * * * *



Another cloudless afternoon had come, and, under the willows at the

edge of the pool, a young girl sat daydreaming, though the day was

nearly done. All in the valley was wrapped in shadow, though the

cliffs and turrets across the stream were resplendent in a radiance of

slanting sunshine. Not a whisper of breeze stirred the drooping

foliage along the sandy shores, or ruffled the liquid mirror surface.

Not a sound, save drowsy hum of beetle or soft murmur of rippling

waters among the pebbly shadows below, broke the vast silence of the

scene. Just where Angela was seated that October day on which our

story opened, she was seated now, with the greyhounds stretched

sprawling in the warm sands at her feet, with Punch blinking lazily

and switching his long tail in the thick of the willows.



And somebody else was there, close at hand. The shadows of the

westward heights had gradually risen to the crest of the rocky cliffs

across the stream. A soft, prolonged call of distant trumpet summoned

homeward for the coming night the scattered herds and herd guards of

the post, and, rising suddenly, her hand upon a swift-throbbing heart,

her red lips parted in eagerness or excitement uncontrollable, Angela

stood intently listening. Over among the thickets across the pool the

voice of an Indian girl was uplifted in some weird, uncanny song. The

voice was shrill, yet not unmusical. The song was savage, yet not

lacking some crude harmony. She could not see the singer, but she

knew. Natzie's people had returned to the agency, accepting the olive

branch that Plume had tendered them--Natzie herself was here.



At the first sound of the uplifted voice an Apache boy, crouching in

the shrubbery at the edge of the pool, rose quickly to his feet, and,

swift and noiseless, stole away into the thicket. If he thought to

conceal himself or his purpose his caution was needless. Angela

neither saw nor heard him. Neither was it the song nor the singer that

now arrested her attention. So still was the air, so deep was the

silence of nature, that even on such sandy roads and bridlepaths as

traversed the winding valley, the faintest hoof-beat was carried far.

Another horse, another rider, was quickly coming. Tonto, the big hound

nearest her, lifted his shapely head and listened a moment, then went

bounding away through the willows, followed swiftly by his mate. They

knew the hoof-beats, and joyously ran to meet and welcome the rider.

Angela knew them quite as well, but could neither run to meet, nor

could she fly.



Only twice, as yet, had she opportunity to see or to thank Neil

Blakely, and a week had passed since her straightforward challenge to

Aunt Janet. As soon as he could walk unaided, save by his stick, Wren

had gone stumping down the line to Sanders's quarters and asked for

Mr. Blakely, with whom he had an uninterrupted talk of half an hour.

Within two days thereafter Mr. Blakely in person returned the call,

being received with awful state and solemnity by Miss Wren herself.

Angela, summoned by her father's voice, came flitting down a moment

later, and there in the little army parlor, where first she had sought

to "entertain" him until the captain should appear, our Angela was

once again brought face to face with him who had meanwhile risked his

life in the effort to rescue her father, and again in the effort to

find and rescue her. A fine blush mantled her winsome face as she

entered, and, without a glance at Janet, went straightway to their

visitor, with extended hand.



"I am so glad to see you again, Mr. Blakely," she bravely began. "I

have--so much--to thank you--" but her brown eyes fell before the fire

in the blue and her whole being thrilled at the fervor of his

handclasp. She drew her hand away, the color mounting higher, then

snuggled to her father's side with intent to take his arm; but,

realizing suddenly how her own was trembling, grasped instead the back

of a chair. Blakely was saying something, she knew not what, nor could

she ever recall much that anyone said during the brief ten minutes of

his stay, for there sat Aunt Janet, bolt upright, after the fashion of

fifty years gone by, a formidable picture indeed, and Angela wondered

that anyone could say anything at all.



Next time they met she was riding home and he sat on the south veranda

with Mrs. Sanders and Kate. She would have ridden by with just a nod

and smile; but, at sight of her, he "hobbled" down the steps and came

hurriedly out to speak, whereupon Mrs. Sanders, who knew much better,

followed to "help him," as she said. "Help, indeed!" quoth angry Kate,

usually most dutiful of daughters. "You'd only hinder!" But even that

presence had not stopped his saying: "The doctor promises I may ride

Hart's single-footer in a day or two, Miss Angela, and then--"



And now it was a "single-footer" coming, the only one at Sandy. Of

course it might be Hart, not Blakely, and yet Blakely had seen her as

she rode away. It was Blakely's voice--how seldom she had heard, yet

how well she knew it! answering the joyous welcome of the hounds. It

was Blakely who came riding straight in among the willows, a radiance

in his thin and lately pallid face--Blakely who quickly, yet

awkwardly, dismounted, for it still caused him pain, and then,

forgetful of his horse, came instantly to her as she stood there,

smiling, yet tremulous. The hand that sought hers fairly shook, but

that, said Angela, though she well knew better, might have been from

weakness or from riding. For a moment he did not speak. It was she who

began. She thought he should know at once.



"Did you--hear her singing--too?" she hazarded.



"Hear?--Who?" he replied, grudgingly letting go the hand because it

pulled with such determination.



"Why--Natzie, I suppose. At least--I haven't seen her," she stammered,

her cheeks all crimson now.



"Natzie, indeed!" he answered, in surprise, turning slowly and

studying the opposite willows. "It is only a day or two since they

came in. I thought she'd soon be down." Obviously her coming caused

him neither embarrassment nor concern. "She still has a notecase of

mine. I suppose you heard?" And his clear blue eyes were fastened on

her lovely, downcast face.



"Something. Not much," she answered, drawing back a little, for he

stood so close to her she could have heard the beating of his

heart--but for her own. All was silence over there in the opposite

willows, but so it was the day Natzie had so suddenly appeared from

nowhere, and he saw the hurried glance she sent across the pool.



"Has she worried you?" he began, "has she been--" spying, he was going

to say, and she knew it, and grew redder still with vexation. Natzie

could claim at least that she was not without a shining example had

she come there to spy, but Blakely had that to say to her that

deserved undivided attention, and there is a time when even one's

preserver and greatest benefactor may be de trop.



"Will you wait--one moment?" he suddenly asked. "I'll go to the rocks

yonder and call her," and then, almost as suddenly, the voice was

again uplifted in the same weird, barbaric song, and the singer had

gone from the depths of the opposite thicket and was somewhere farther

up stream, still hidden from their gaze--still, possibly, ignorant of

Angela's presence. The brown eyes were at the moment following the

tall, white form, moving slowly through the winding, faintly-worn

pathway toward the upper shallows where, like stepping stones, the big

rocks stretched from shore to shore, and she was startled to note that

the moment the song began he stopped short a second or two, listened

intently, then almost sprang forward in his haste to reach the

crossing. Another minute and he was out of sight among the shrubbery.

Another, and she heard the single shot of a revolver, and there he

stood at the rocky point, a smoking pistol in his hand. Instantly the

song ceased, and then his voice was uplifted, calling, "Natzie!

Natzie!" With breathless interest Angela gazed and, presently, parting

the shrubbery with her little brown hands, the Indian girl stepped

forth into the light and stood in silence, her great black eyes fixed

mournfully upon him. Could this be their mountain princess--the

daring, the resolute, the commanding? Could this be the fierce,

lissome, panther-like creature before whose blow two of their stoutest

men had fallen? There was dejection inexpressible in her very

attitude. There was no longer bravery or adornment in her dress. There

was no more of queen--of chieftain's daughter--in this downcast child

of the desert.



He called again, "Natzie," and held forth his hand. Her head had

drooped upon her breast, but, once again, she looked upon him, and

then, with one slow, hesitant, backward glance about her, stepped

forward, her little, moccasined feet flitting from rock to rock across

the murmuring shallows until she stood before him. Then he spoke, but

she only shook her head and let it droop again, her hands passively

clasping. He knew too little of her tongue to plead with her. He knew,

perhaps, too little of womankind to appreciate what he was doing.

Finding words useless, he gently took her hand and drew her with him,

and passively she obeyed, and for a moment they disappeared from

Angela's view. Then presently the tall, white form came again in

sight, slowly leading the unresisting child, until, in another moment,

they stepped within the little open space among the willows. At the

same instant Angela arose, and the daughter of the soldier and the

daughter of the savage, the one with timid yet hopeful welcome and

greeting in her lovely face, the other with sudden amaze, scorn,

passion, and jealous fury in her burning eyes, stood a breathless

moment confronted. Then, all in a second, with one half-stifled,

inarticulate cry, Natzie wrenched her hand from that of Blakely, and,

with the spring of a tigress, bounded away. Just at the edge of the

pool she halted, whirled about, tore from her bosom a flat, oblong

packet and hurled it at his feet; then, with the dart of a

frightened deer, drove through the northward willows. Angela saw her

run blindly up the bank, leaping thence to the rocks below, bounding

from one to another with the wild grace of the antelope. Another

instant and she had reached the opposite shore, and there, tossing her

arms wildly above her head, her black tresses streaming behind her,

with a cry that was almost a scream, she plunged into the heart of the

thicket; the stubborn branches closed behind her, and our Apache queen

was gone. As they met, so had they parted, by the waters of the pool.




WITH THE SPRING OF A TIGRESS BOUNDED AWAY"]



When Blakely turned again to Angela she, too, was gone. He found her a

little later, her arms twined about her pony's neck, her face buried

in his mane, and sobbing as though her heart would break.



On a soft, starlit evening within the week, no longer weeping, but

leaning on Blakely's arm, Angela stood at the edge of the bluff,

looking far out over the Red Rock country to the northeast. The sentry

had reported a distant signal fire, and several of the younger people

had strolled out to see. Whatever it was that had caused the report

had vanished by the time they reached the post, so, presently, Kate

Sanders started the homeward move, and now even the sentry had

disappeared in the darkness. When Angela, too, would have returned,

his arm restrained. She knew it would. She knew he had not spoken that

evening at the willows because of her tears. She knew he had been

patient, forbearing, gentle, yet well she knew he meant now to speak

and wait no longer.



"Do you remember," he began, "when I said that some day I should tell

you--but never your aunt--who it was that came to my quarters that

night--and why she came?" and though she sought to remove her hand

from his arm he would not let it go.



"You did tell me," she answered, her eyelids drooping.



"I did!--when?"



Though the face was downcast, the sensitive lips began to quiver with

merriment and mischief.



"The same day you took me for--your mother--and asked me to sing for

you."



"Angela!" he cried, in amaze, and turning quickly toward her, "What

can you mean?"



"Just what I say. You began as though I were your sister, then your

mother. I think, perhaps, if we'd had another hour together it would

have been grandmother." She was shaking with suppressed laughter now,

or was it violent trembling, for his heart, like hers, was bounding.



"I must indeed have been delirious," he answered now, not laughing,

not even smiling. He had possessed himself of that other hand, despite

its fluttering effort. His voice was deep and grave and tremulous. "I

called you anything but what I most longed to call you--what I pray

God I may call you, Angela--my wife!"









L'ENVOI





There was a wedding at Sandy that winter when Pat Mullins took his

discharge, and his land warrant, and a claim up the Beaver, and Norah

Shaughnessy to wife. There was another, many a mile from Sandy, when

the May blossoms were showering in the orchard of a fair old homestead

in the distant East, and then Neil Blakely took his bride to see "the

land of the leal" after the little peep at the lands that now she

shared with him. There is one room in the beautiful old Colonial

mansion that they soon learned to call "father's," in anticipation of

the time when he should retire and come to hang the old saber on the

older mantel and spend his declining years with them. There is

another, sacred to Aunt Janet, where she was often welcomed, a woman

long since reconciled to Angela's once "obnoxious," but ever devoted

admirer. There were some points in which Aunt Janet suffered sore. She

had views of her own upon the rearing and management of children, and

these views she did at first oppose to those of Angela, but not for

long. In this, as in her choice of a husband, Angela had to read her

declaration of independence to the elder woman.



There is another room filled with relics of their frontier

days,--Indian weapons, blankets, beadwork,--and among these, in a

sort of shrine of its own, there hangs a portrait made by a famous

artist from a little tintype, taken by some wandering photographer

about the old Apache reservation. Wren wrote them, ere the regiment

left Arizona, that she who had been their rescuer, and then so long

disappeared, finally wedded a young brave of the Chiricahua band and

went with him to Mexico. That portrait is the only relic they have of

a never forgotten benefactress--Natzie, their Apache Princess.