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 5TAR 
 
 (HKRUS 
 
 (RftDDOCK
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 BOOKS BY 
 
 C&arles fiert Crafctoork." 
 
 (MARY N. MURFREE.) 
 
 IN THE TENNESSEE MOUNTAINS. Short 
 Stories. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 DOWN THE RAVINE. For Young People. Illus 
 trated. i6mo, Ji.oo. 
 
 THE PROPHET OF THE GREAT SMOKY 
 MOUNTAINS. A Novel. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 IN THE CLOUDS. A Novel. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 THE STORY OF KEEDON BLUFFS. For 
 Young People. i6mo, $1.00. 
 
 THE DESPOT OF BROOMSEDGE COVE. A 
 Novel. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 WHERE THE BATTLE WAS FOUGHT. A 
 Novel. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. A Novel. i6mo, $1.25. 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES EGBERT CRADDOC 
 
 K/& 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK. 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 re0?, <Cambribge 
 1894
 
 Copyright, 1894, 
 BY MARY N. MTJRFREE. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghtou and Company.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 IT was a great property, reckoned by metes and 
 bounds. A day's journey might hardly suffice to 
 traverse the whole of his domain. Yet there was 
 no commensurate money value attaching to these 
 " leagues of mountain wilderness, that bore indeed 
 a merely nominal price, and Kenneth Kennistou's 
 j was hardly the temperament to experience an 
 * aesthetic gratulation that his were those majestic 
 domes which touched the clouds and withstood the 
 lightnings and lifted up an awesome voice to an 
 swer the thunder, or that his title-deeds called for 
 all the vast slopes thence down to the unimagined 
 abysses of the abandoned mine in the depths of 
 the gorge. It was the spirit of speculation that 
 informed his glance with a certain respect for 
 them, as he turned his eye upon the mountains, 
 and bethought himself how these austere craggy 
 splendors were calculated to impress the shallow 
 ^- gaze of the wandering human swallow. He even 
 ^ appraised, in the interest of possible summer so- 
 ta journers, the rare, pure, soft air with which his
 
 2 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 lungs expanded. Science was presently set a-pry- 
 ing about the margins of rocky springs, hitherto 
 undiscovered and unnoticed save by oread or deer ; 
 a few blasts of dynamite, a great outgushing of 
 exhaustless mineral waters, a triumphant chemical 
 analysis ensued, and an infusion of enthusiasm 
 began to pervade his consciousness. Such re 
 sources infinitely smaller resources elsewhere 
 in the world meant a fortune ; why not here ? 
 
 He was an architect by profession, and the as 
 pect of the world seemed to him parceled out in 
 available sites. It cost his imagination, trained by 
 study and enriched by travel, no conscious effort to 
 perceive standing in fair proportions, turreted and 
 terraced, finished to the last finial, the perfected 
 structure of his projected summer hotel, on that 
 level space above craggy heights, facing the moon 
 and the valley, with the background of still greater 
 heights, ever rising, heavily wooded, to the peak 
 towering above. He saw it, as a true architect, in 
 completion ; as the wren sees his builded nest, not 
 as the single straw or wisp of hair. Yet the day 
 of small things must needs be overpassed, of 
 straws and wisps, of struts and purlins, plates and 
 tie-beams. His day of small things was full of 
 wrangling and bitter bafflings, heart-burnings and 
 discouragements. His partners in the undertaking 
 had not been induced to cast their lot with his save 
 by the exercise of infinite suavities of crafty elo 
 quence, overpowering doubt and fear, and indispu 
 table demonstrations of disproportionate profits in
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 3 
 
 the very air. One was a seer in a commercial sort, 
 an adept in prognosticating unexpected expenses 
 for which no covenant of provision had been en 
 tered into, and he beheld full-armed disaster men 
 acing every plan save that of his own preference. 
 The other had no imagination whatever, architectu 
 ral or otherwise. He recognized no needs which 
 required adornment, and measured the taste of the 
 public by his own disposition to spend money to 
 gratify it. That Kenniston's plans should have 
 come through the ordeal of their councils, with the 
 ever lopping-off incidents common to the moneyed 
 non-professional, retaining any element of sym 
 metry or grace or beauty argued much for their 
 pristine value. He regarded them for a time with 
 a sort of pity and affronted tenderness for their 
 maimed estate, but little by little the original in 
 tentions faded from his mental view, and he could 
 see with renewed satisfaction the flag flying from 
 the tower without remembering that he had held 
 this octagonal gaud upon the building by main 
 force, as it were, against the iconoclastic grasp of 
 the practical men. 
 
 Nevertheless he was relieved to be free from their 
 presence. He felt that it was well that their legiti 
 mate business one as a stock-broker, the other a 
 real-estate agent held them to their desks in the 
 city of Breton ville. The manifest purpose of their 
 creation, he thought, was fully served in their fur 
 nishing forth their quota of the sinews of war. He 
 was much younger than either, but he had learned
 
 4 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 something beyond their knowledge in this interne 
 cine strife, and when it became necessary to provide 
 for them occupation, to prevent further interference 
 in the venture which had come to be of most hope 
 ful interest to both, he wrote to them touching the 
 finding of a suitable man to keep the hotel when built, 
 certain that in this quest for a Boniface he had set 
 them by the ears, and relying on their different 
 temperaments to keep them wrangling together and 
 to leave him in peace. 
 
 Every sylvan detail of the scene pleased his artis 
 tic and receptive sense, as he stood on the great 
 natural terrace, the site of the future building, and 
 surveyed the landscape. It was a phenomenally 
 felicitous opportunity. This plateau projected from 
 a lateral spur of the Great Smoky chain, and faced 
 the southeast. Thus the main body of the moun 
 tain range, diagonally across the Cove, seemed 
 strangely near at hand ; one could study its chasms 
 and abysses, its jungles of laurel and vast forests, 
 as it were from mid-air ; it was the point of view of 
 a bird. Through a gap lower down, the parallel 
 lines of the eastern ranges became visible, elsewhere 
 hidden by the great boundary ridge, a wonderful 
 fantasy painted in every gradation of blue, from 
 the slaty grayish hue near at hand under the 
 shadow of a cloud, the velvet-like tones of ultrama 
 rine beyond, and still further the metallic hardness 
 of tint as of lapis lazuli, till the most delicate azure 
 outline of peaks faintly obliterated its identity 
 against the azure eastern sky. All unflushed the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 5 
 
 sky was here, although to the right the clouds were 
 red above the western mountains. They closely 
 hemmed in the Cove, heavy, massive, purple and 
 bronze and deeply green, in such limited latitude of 
 color as their lowering shadows would permit. Far 
 down their slopes the river ran, threading the deep 
 forests with elusive steely glimmers. He could not 
 hear its voice, but from great cliffs hard by the 
 silvery melody of the mineral springs beat upon 
 the air with a rhythm inexpressibly sweet and wild 
 and alluring. So definite it was that it seemed 
 odd that one did not " catch the tune." In an 
 open space some scattered sheep were feeding, the 
 effect pastoral and pictorial. The whole scene, 
 with its blended solemnity and beauty and dignity, 
 would well accord with the castellated edifice his 
 fancy had set in its midst. It might indeed be a 
 mediaeval world upon which the windows should 
 look, instead of the prosaic nineteenth century, so 
 far it would appear from sordid to-day, so well 
 would the fashion of the building aid the illusion, 
 were it not for a section of the foreground imme 
 diately below the cliffs of the terrace, where there 
 stood, bare and open and unsheltered, a primitive 
 log cabin, a stretch of cornfields, a horse-lot, a 
 pig-pen, and all the accessories of most modern 
 and unimpressive American poverty and ignorance. 
 Being near, and bearing human significance, the 
 prosaic little home seemed the most salient point, 
 in its incongruity, in the whole magnificent land 
 scape. The methods of the mountaineer furthered,
 
 6 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 too, the effect of antagonism. Along the side of 
 one of the ranges near at hand, a great gaunt 
 blackened area bore token of a " fire-scald." Ken- 
 niston's eyes rested frowningly on this deep burnt 
 scar upon the face of nature. It came from the 
 pernicious habit of " setting out fire in the woods " 
 in the autumn, to burn away the undergrowth and 
 dead leaves, in order to give freer pasturage to 
 wandering cattle. Here, as is not unfrequently the 
 case, the fire, instead of merely consuming leaves, 
 twigs, and shoots, had gathered strength and fury, 
 burning the giant trees to great blackened, dead 
 ened skeletons, bleakly standing, and had devas 
 tated kome hundred acres. He could see in the 
 sparse shadows the cattle feeding on the lush herb 
 age, and he ground his teeth to reflect upon the 
 alarm any future conflagration would spread among 
 the autumnal lingerers of summer sojourners and 
 the catastrophe that might ensue to the chateau on 
 the rocks. 
 
 " We must buy him out," he muttered. " He 
 must be made to go." 
 
 Kenniston's heart was as heavy with presage as 
 if his flimsy chateau stood on the cliffs behind him ; 
 for it was not to be mediaeval in. point of strength 
 of materials. 
 
 The project of buying out Luther Terns seemed 
 hardly so feasible as when first presented to the 
 minds of the company. The proposition to this 
 effect had already been made to the astounded 
 mountaineer, and rejected with a plump No. A
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 7 
 
 second and better considered effort, coupled with a 
 disproportionately large pecuniary consideration, 
 had fared no better. There Luther Terns was, and 
 there he meant to stay, as his father and his grand 
 father had before him to a great age, till Death 
 bethought himself at last of these loiterers in so 
 obscure a corner of the world, and, although be 
 lated, gathered them in. The company was now at 
 its wits' end. The place was an eyesore, a trail of 
 the serpent in this seeming Paradise. It was, too, 
 a source of danger and discomfort, and to seek to 
 remove it was one of Kenniston's errands here, as 
 well as to confer with the contractor, in his dic 
 tatorial character as one of the company rather 
 than the architect. His visit was so timed that he 
 was on the ground a day or so in advance of his 
 coadjutor, and in furtherance of his project had 
 asked for quarters in Luther Tems's house. 
 
 Far was it from Luther Terns, the fear of being 
 over-persuaded. He was a lugubrious presentment 
 of obstinacy, as he sat at his hearthstone. The 
 immovable determination expressed in the lines of 
 his face and the curve of his lips was incongruous 
 with the other characteristics of his aspect. He 
 was not of the gigantic build common among the 
 mountaineers. He was singularly spare and alert, 
 and there was something in his movements and in 
 the lines of his figure which betokened that when 
 endowed with more flesh it had expressed an unusual 
 grace. His features were absolutely regular, and 
 although the eye, sunken amidst a multitude of
 
 8 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 wrinkles and half hidden by the beetling eyebrow, 
 no longer showed the fine lines of its setting and 
 its pristine color and brilliancy, and his jaw was 
 lank from the loss of teeth, and his well-cut lips 
 were contorted over his quid of tobacco, he still 
 exhibited to the discerning gaze of the architect 
 enough traces of the beauty of his younger days to 
 justify the feminine sobriquet of " Lucy." A good 
 joke it had been in the Cove forty years before, but 
 custom had dulled its edge and hallowed its use, 
 and now he would have had to think twice before 
 he saw aught incongruous in the appellation. It 
 was a convenience in some sort, too, and averted 
 misunderstandings, for his son bore his name of 
 Luther. Although inheriting a share of his fa 
 ther's good looks, it had been admixed with the 
 " favor " of the Tates, his mother's people, who 
 were a tall, burly folk. He was heavier far than 
 his father, and slower at twenty-four than " Lucy " 
 Terns would be at eighty. The strong resemblance 
 in their faces ended there, for naught could be 
 more unlike the elder than the meditative com 
 posure with which the younger man sat and smoked 
 his pipe, and now slowly rose and replenished the 
 fire and seated himself anew. He had nothing in 
 look or motion of the panther-like, dangerous in 
 timation that informed the old man's every gesture 
 and glance. But this expressed itself with, a cer 
 tain supple, feline effect in his daughter, a tall girl, 
 in whom the beauty of his youth was duplicated. 
 She had the chestnut hair, the exquisitely fair com-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 9 
 
 plexion with its shifting roseate suffusion, the large 
 beautifully set dark blue eye, the high narrow 
 forehead from which the hair grew backward, but 
 lying on the temples in delicate fibrous waves, 
 all the fine detail that had graced her father's 
 youth, and that had seemed so wasted on the wild 
 scapegrace boy of the mountains, merely attaining 
 the recognition of ridicule among his fellows, and 
 unvalued by its possessor. She wore a dark blue 
 homespun dress that enhanced her fairness, and 
 she sat in a low chair in the firelit log room and 
 busied herself, with a monotonous gesture and a 
 certain sleek aspect, in carding cotton. Kenniston 
 had seen her previously, and in his preoccupied 
 mind she roused no interest, neither then nor now. 
 
 He sat down by the fire, among them, much net 
 tled to observe that there was a stranger, a man 
 whom he had never before seen here, ensconced 
 on the opposite side of the hearth. The shadow of 
 the primitive mantelshelf obscured his face, and 
 even when the fire flashed up it barely sufficed to 
 show his burly figure in an attitude of composed 
 waiting and observation. 
 
 His presence added an element of doubt and dif 
 ficulty to the already troublous negotiation, and 
 Kenniston, accustomed to civilized methods, and 
 having expected to carry all before him, felt a 
 sinking of the heart out of proportion to the value 
 of the property he coveted. He had, in his experi 
 ence, conducted delicate and difficult negotiations, 
 involving large considerations, many parties in in-
 
 10 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 terest, and conflicting claims, to a successful issue. 
 And yet, what enterprise so unpromising as to buy 
 from a man who will not sell ! So did the half- 
 masked presence of the stranger in the shadow 
 shake his confidence that he did not at once open 
 the subject nearest his heart. A short silence 
 ensued upon the greetings, and he was fain to lay 
 hold upon the weather as a subterfuge. 
 
 " It holds fair, colonel," he said. 
 
 He used the title in secret derision, as the usual 
 sobriquet of men of dignity and substance in the 
 lowlands. He had scant faith in the existence of 
 any discerning perceptions and delicate sentiments 
 in the minds or hearts of people in homespun ; it 
 had served to amuse him at his first meeting with 
 old Terns, when he had not dreamed that so un 
 couth a character had a part to play upon the elab 
 orate stage of his own future, which was a-build- 
 ing with such care and thought and hope, and he 
 had laughed in his sleeve to observe the simplicity 
 and acquiescence with which the fine title was ac 
 cepted. He intended its use in no military sense, 
 and he did not learn till afterward that old Terns 
 bore a veritable title, which he had earned on 
 stricken battlefields, and had later commanded a 
 band of guerrillas whose name was a terror and a 
 threat. 
 
 Terns took his pipe from between his lips. " It 
 holds fair," he echoed drawlingly ; then, " Dunno 
 fur how long," as if to admonish any speculator in 
 the weather to be not too happy in a vale of such 
 incertitude.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 11 
 
 " All signs favor ! " A sudden singing feminine 
 tone pervaded the conversation. 
 
 Keimiston glanced up. In one corner, a stair 
 way from the attic above came down into the room. 
 A young girl, whom he had not before noticed, was 
 sitting on the steps midway. From this coigne of 
 vantage she overlooked the room, and participated 
 in the conversation when moved to do so. 
 
 Kenniston fancied that from some real or affected 
 rustic shyness because of his presence she had 
 sought this retirement, for she flushed deeply at his 
 glance, and bent her head over a piece of rough 
 mending which she seemed to be perpetrating on a 
 jeans coat with a gigantic needle and a very coarse 
 thread. She could hardly have seen very well to 
 set the stitches, and as her side was toward him he 
 could ill distinguish her face for the shadow and 
 her industrious attitude and her falling hair. 
 
 Julia Terns looked up at her with a laughing 
 glance, half raillery, half sneer. But the brother 
 took up the question with an air of contention ; he 
 wanted rain for his corn crop, and he believed the 
 clouds must surely hold it in trust for him. 
 
 "The fog war a-getherin' along the mountings 
 this evenin', an' I seen 'bout a hour ago a thunder- 
 head a-loafin' round over Piomingo," he averred 
 with a certain bitterness, as if to protest against 
 the arguing away of these prospects. 
 
 "Waal," the singing voice, curiously vibrant, 
 broke forth once more, " we air likely ter git a good 
 full rain, ez would holp up the crap 'fore long, but
 
 12 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 we ain't goin' ter hev no steady set o' bad weather 
 now. Signs don't favor it." 
 
 The old man again took his pipe from his mouth. 
 
 " Ye-es. An' a body m ought b'lieve from yer 
 talk that ef Satan war ter cotch us by the right leg 
 this week, he 'd be mighty likely ter turn us loose 
 by the lef leg nex' week." He laughed sarcasti 
 cally. " All of us air s'prisin' apt ter be suited, 
 no matter how things turn out." He replaced his 
 pipe, adding, with the stem between his teeth, 
 " That 's Ad'licia's notion," and then smoked imper- 
 turbably. 
 
 The little optimist looked at him with an indig 
 nant, affronted gaze for a moment, then bent once 
 more to her sewing. 
 
 She had forgotten Kenniston, and her face was 
 fully revealed in the moment that she had turned it 
 on her critic, an oval face, with a little round 
 unassertive chin, a thin, delicate, aquiline nose, a 
 small mouth with full lips, the indenture in the upper 
 one so deep as to make it truly like a bow, and 
 widely opened gray eyes that resembled nothing so 
 much as moss agates. They were veiled by long, 
 reddish lashes, and the hair that hung curling down 
 about the nape of her neck was of a dull copper 
 hue. Her complexion was exceedingly white, and 
 she had that thin-skinned look which is incompati 
 ble with freckles as annuals ; in those milk-white 
 spaces about the eyes were sundry tokens of the 
 sunny weather which even the dark days of winter 
 would not obliterate. Her figure was slender, and
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 13 
 
 she did not look strong. She wore a brown home 
 spun dress, and she bit the coarse thread with a 
 double row of small perfect white teeth as she ad 
 dressed herself to threading her big needle anew. 
 
 " Studyin' 'bout the weather, an' gittin' onhappy 
 'bout yer buildin' ? " demanded old Terns of his 
 guest. 
 
 There was a slight twist of the lips, suggestive of 
 covert ridicule on his part, as he asked the ques 
 tion. 
 
 Kenniston was totally unaware of furnishing in 
 his proper person amusement to the mountaineer, 
 but to his host he seemed a fool more bountifully 
 endowed with folly than any other specimen of the 
 genus with whom Terns had ever been brought into 
 contact, and the projected hotel was accounted a 
 ludicrous impossibility. It was Tems's secret per 
 suasion that most of the population of this country 
 had been slain in the war; he had himself seen 
 much slaughter in its grim actuality. The idea 
 that there were people who would wish to come 
 long journeys to fill that vast projected structure 
 seemed the most preposterous vaporing of imbecility. 
 
 "Ain't they got nowhar ter bide?" he would 
 demand, in incredulous pity for the homeless sum 
 mer birds. 
 
 He had come at last to treat it in his own mind 
 as a bubble, a mere brainless figment, and only his 
 courteous instincts prevented this from becoming 
 apparent, although now and again it was perilously 
 near revelation.
 
 14 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Well, no ; I think the weather won't affect my 
 building for a good while yet," answered Kenniston. 
 Then, with a sudden afterthought, and perceiving 
 the opening, " I 'in troubled, though, about the 
 blasting for the coal cellars and wine cellar. There 
 will of necessity be quite an avalanche of fragments 
 of the rock falling into the valley, and I wanted to 
 give you warning of it before it begins." 
 
 The look of attention deepened on the old face. 
 The thin old head suavely nodded. 
 
 " Thanky, sir. I feel obligated." And old Terns 
 relapsed into silence. 
 
 Kenniston was baffled for a moment, but pres 
 ently he returned to the charge. 
 
 " You and your family could leave the premises 
 while the blasting was in progress. It might be 
 inconvenient, but " 
 
 " Yes ye-es ef so minded," the ancient house 
 holder acquiesced. 
 
 " By all means," Kenniston pursued with more 
 energy, stroking his brown whiskers with one hand, 
 while he looked, keenly interrogative, at his inter 
 locutor. " There might be danger, positive danger, 
 in remaining." Then, seeking an ally, and taking 
 hope from the quiescent silence of the stranger in 
 the corner, " You agree with me surely ? " 
 
 The stranger laughed, a round, vigorous, elastic 
 tone. 
 
 " Waal, I reckon old Cap'n Lucy is about ez 
 good a jedge ez ter the dangers in dealin' in gun 
 powder ez ye '11 meet up with this side o' Jordan. 
 I 'd be willin' ter leave sech ter him."
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 15 
 
 " Of course of course," Kenniston agreed has 
 tily. " Only I am anxious to have no sort of respon 
 sibility, moral responsibility, I mean, in case 
 of an accident to members of his family." 
 
 He reflected that two of these were feminine, 
 that the sex is to a unit a coward by open confes 
 sion, and he sought to play upon their fears. 
 
 But once more Adelicia interfered to show the 
 more hopeful side of things. 
 
 " It 's toler'ble fur from hyar, a right good 
 piece," she turned her head to say before she again 
 bit the thread. 
 
 " Not from the site of the first blasting ; the wine 
 cellar will be under the billiard-room, which will be 
 in the pavilion at this end of the bluffs." He had 
 waxed warm, excited. " The rock could easily be 
 flung as far as this, and even if no human life were 
 endangered, might kill horses or cows, or crash 
 through the roof, or break down the chimney." 
 
 " Waal, the comp'ny is a good, solid, solvent 
 comp'ny, ain't it?" said the man in the corner 
 unexpectedly, " respons'ble in damages ? " 
 
 Kenniston recoiled suddenly, and Terns pricked 
 up his ears, like the old war-horse that he was. 
 The prospect of conflict in whatever sort was grate 
 ful to his senses, and he snuffed the battle from 
 afar. In this, too, he saw his defense and his op 
 portunity. Kenniston would hardly have conceived 
 it possible that, with such inconsiderable adversa 
 ries, he could be routed in diplomacy. It was not, 
 however, to bring matters to this point of view that 
 his schemes were designed.
 
 16 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " I hope there will be no need for a demand for 
 damages," he said stiffly. Then, driven back upon 
 his last resource, the simple truth, he continued, 
 turning toward the man in the corner, " It has been 
 partly to avert all dangers and troubles that the 
 company has been trying to buy out Mr. Terns, at 
 his own price." 
 
 " My h'a'thstone hain't got no price," said old 
 Terns acridly. 
 
 Kenniston had thrown himself back in his chair 
 with a dogged exasperation of manner. His hands 
 were thrust into the pockets of his short flannel 
 coat. His square chin, glimpsed in the parting of 
 his full beard, was deeply sunken in its lustrous 
 fibres. His lowering blue eyes were fixed on the 
 fire, all aglow, for at this altitude the chill summer 
 nights cannot dispense with the smouldering back 
 log. His legs, in their somewhat worn integu 
 ments of dark flannel and long boots, for there 
 are penalties to footgear and garb in clambering 
 about these rough mountains, were stretched out 
 before him, and Adelicia's cat found them conven 
 ient to rub against, as she arched her back and 
 purred in the dull red light. He felt at the mo 
 ment irritated beyond measure. This idea of a 
 lawsuit, craftily interjected by the stranger whom 
 he himself had called into the conversation, might 
 seriously embarrass the proceedings of the com 
 pany. It could be held in terrorem at every point. 
 Nay, it might incite Terns to seek out occasion to 
 make a pretext of injury. It added a prospect of
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 17 
 
 indefinite discomfort and jeopardy to the already 
 harassed present. 
 
 " I kin b'lieve that, Cap'n Lucy, I kin b'lieve 
 that," said the stranger, with a sudden outpouring 
 of his full, mellow, rich voice. Its sonorousness and 
 sweetness struck Kenniston only vaguely then, but 
 he remembered it afterward. " Ye want yer home, 
 an' the company wants yer hut." 
 
 " I don't want thar money, ain't got no cu- 
 r'osity 'bout the color of it," old Terns said tartly. 
 
 Neither of the younger Temses uttered a word. 
 Luther smoked imperturbably, and Julia, as sleek, 
 as lithe, as supple as a panther, bent her beautiful, 
 clear-cut, distinct face above the cards, which she 
 moved with a flexible elasticity that made it seem 
 no labor. Every line about her was sharply drawn ; 
 the very plaits of her glossy hair showed their sep 
 arate strands, over and under and over again, in 
 the coil at the back of her head. Against the dark 
 wall, she had a fixity, a definiteness of effect, like a 
 cameo, in contrast with the somewhat tousled head 
 which Adelicia held back to observe her completed 
 industry. She lifted the mended coat in both 
 hands before her, and contemplated the patch, set 
 on indeed as if it should never come off again, 
 but with what affront to the art of fine needle 
 work ! 
 
 She was not so absorbed, however, as to be un 
 mindful of the disaffected state of feeling in the 
 room below, and she must needs seek to improve it. 
 
 "We ain't so mighty easy tarrified, nohow," she
 
 18 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 remarked, suavely addressing the information more 
 directly to Kenniston's pretended fears for their 
 safety. "An' ez ter rocks fallin' an' sech," she 
 turned her head askew to better observe the effect 
 of the flagrant patch, "I hev tuk notice ez trees 
 streck by lightning mostly falls whar thar ain't no 
 house." 
 
 " 'Kase thar be mighty few houses whar the trees 
 be lef','' observed old Terns, whose contradictory 
 faculties were called into play every time she 
 spoke. 
 
 " Waal, fower hev fell, lightning-streck, sence 
 we-uns hev been a-livin' hyar, an' nare one teched 
 us," she argued. 
 
 Kenniston caught his breath. " How long have 
 you been living here, colonel ? " The secret gibe 
 came back to him with the sudden secret renewal 
 of his hope. 
 
 " Five year, or thereabout," growled old Terns. 
 
 " Five year this comin' fall," put in Adelicia, 
 with exactitude. " We-uns lived then nigher sun 
 rise, on the flat o' the mounting, over thar." She 
 nodded with her wealth of bronze curls toward the 
 east to indicate the direction of the locality. 
 
 " And if you would move then, colonel, why not 
 now ? " demanded Kenniston. 
 
 It seemed as if old Terns would not reply. So 
 deep a scowl had corrugated his face that in its 
 wizard-like aspect not the faintest vestige of his 
 famous ancient beauty remained. 
 
 " Burnt out," he growled at last.
 
 NTS VANISHED STAR. 19 
 
 "The fire-scald, ye see," explained Adelicia, 
 turning her oval face upon Kenniston. 
 
 It had an old-fashioned, even a foreign cast, was 
 his superficial thought, as he gazed up at her in the 
 dusky shadows of the staircase ; it reminded him 
 of some antique miniature. But his recognized 
 idea was expressed in the words, echoed in surprise 
 and with a touch of dismay, " The fire-scald ! " 
 
 " Fire war set out in the woods ter burn the bresh ; 
 but the wind sprung up, it did, an' the fire tuk the 
 house an' fence an' all. Ye mus' hev noticed the 
 fire-scald over yon ? " Once more she nodded her 
 head in intimation of the direction. " Then we-uns 
 moved hyar an' raised this house." 
 
 Old Tems's surly, disa*ffected look caught her at 
 tention. " But this hyar house air a heap better 'n 
 the burnt one ; that war old, fur true, an' I tell ye 
 the wind used ter shake it whenst stormin'. Roof 
 leaked, too. Roof war so old that the clapboards 
 war fastened on with wooden paigs stiddier nails. 
 My great-gran'dad Cap'n Lucy's gran'dad 
 did n't hev much modern improvemints, leastwise 
 in blacksmith's gear, when he kem hyar ter settle 
 from old Car'liny." 
 
 She glanced down, smiling. Her strangely old- 
 fashioned little face was lovely in smiling, but Ken 
 niston did not heed ; he did not even hear her 
 words ; he was absorbed in a train of thought that 
 came to him as she talked. 
 
 She looked slightly ill at ease for a moment, 
 perceiving the defection of his attention ; then,
 
 20 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 as if to make the best of it, she turned her head 
 and glanced over her shoulder at the man in the 
 corner. 
 
 " Ye hev hearn that? " she said. 
 
 He nodded. She saw the gleam of his full blue 
 eye. " They called East Tennessee the 'Washington 
 Deestric',' arter them days," he said, his big voice 
 booming out. Then he went on to tell of an old 
 house which he knew, in which wooden pegs also 
 served as nails, as a set-off, it might seem, to the 
 ancient dwelling that perished in the " fire-scald," 
 and presently he was wrangling with old Terns as 
 to the precise route that certain early settlers were 
 said to have taken through the mountains, in which 
 discussion even the silent Luther joined, and Ken- 
 iiiston was left undisturbed to his thoughts. 
 
 These thoughts were significant enough. He 
 had seen this vast property of his only once before 
 in all the years that it had been in his possession. 
 It had descended to him in due course, with the 
 rest of the paternal estate, at the death of his 
 father, who had been a successful merchant of Bre- 
 tonville. He had had some little but well-restrained 
 inclination for speculation, and these miles of moun 
 tain fastnesses were a single instance of it, looking 
 to the future development of mineral resources. 
 The abandoned mine in the gorge expressed the 
 failure of hopes of silver and lead, which had led 
 him only for a little while and only a short dis 
 tance. He himself had never laid eyes 011 his pur 
 chase ; but once, in a college vacation, the son, on
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 21 
 
 a pedestrian tour, had explored to some purpose 
 the woods up and down these steeps and across 
 the line. Kenniston remembered now for the first 
 time how the face of the country had impressed 
 him then, for the fire-scald had so altered its aspect. 
 The slope where the quaint little ante-Revolution 
 ary house was perched had then seemed high and 
 steep. In building anew, Luther Terns had selected 
 a site on more level ground, considerably removed 
 from the area of the burnt district. Possibly the 
 fear of disaster when those blackened and decaying 
 trees should finally complete their doom and fall, 
 or the vicinage of springs for the essential water 
 supply for man and beast, had served to influence 
 his decision ; but he had certainly made a very con 
 siderable journey from his former situation, and cut 
 a large cantle out of the Cove in his present settle 
 ment. 
 
 Kenniston's mind was hard upon the trail of the 
 boundary lines, as his absorbed eyes dwelt on the 
 red fire. They were ill defined in his memory, for 
 when the great body of a man's land, numbering 
 thousands of acres, bears a merely nominal price, 
 a few furlongs amiss here or there in the wild 
 jungle of the laurel are hardly worth the counting. 
 In this particular instance the accuracy of metes 
 and bounds made a difference all apart from actual 
 values. It was his recollection that his lines in 
 cluded all those slopes to the "backbone," a high 
 craggy ridge that ran like a spinal column adown 
 the mountain mass. If this were the case, old
 
 22 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Terns had inadvertently set up his staff of rest on 
 his neighbor's land, was himself a mere trespasser, 
 and might be ejected without difficulty in due pro 
 cess of law. 
 
 Kenniston stirred uneasily as he contemplated 
 this possibility. In its extreme unpopularity there 
 was a very definite menace. He could ill afford 
 to antagonize the whole countryside. The lawless, 
 illogical mountain population would be arrayed as 
 a unit against his interests. Even single-handed, 
 old Cap'n Lucy seemed formidable, when active 
 aggressions were contemplated. And he could 
 appreciate, too, the seeming injustice, from the 
 rustic standpoint, that, for the frivolous and flip 
 pant desire of keeping the landscape sightly for 
 the fastidious gaze of the gentlefolk, an old man 
 and his family must be turned out of house and 
 home. Kenniston knew that although he might 
 pay the full value of Cap'n Lucy's improvements, 
 the popular censor would account this naught if the 
 mountaineer were forced to quit his home against 
 his will. 
 
 Nevertheless law is law, and Kenniston could 
 easily forecast the triumphant result of a legal ar 
 bitrament. Terns had not been ensconced here, 
 within his own inclosures, claiming as his own, 
 long enough to acquire any title under the 
 statute of limitations, even if he could establish 
 adverse possession. The property was his own, 
 and he would satisfy even every moral claim 
 upon him in paying the interloper the full value of
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 23 
 
 his improvements. At all events he would have 
 the line run out, and perhaps the land formally 
 processioned. 
 
 At the idea of prompt action in the matter, his 
 full red lips, only partially visible through his 
 beard and mustache, were pressed together firmly ; 
 his teeth met with a certain stiffening of the jaw 
 into a hard, determined expression ; his eyes were 
 cast up suddenly over the primitive humble interior 
 of the cabin with a certain impatience of its un- 
 couthness, so at variance with the gala trim of 
 modern comforts, so homely, so American, so hope 
 lessly, desperately, the presentment of the unpro- 
 gressive backwoods. Built five years ago, said 
 they ! It might have graced the " Washington 
 Deestric'." His white teeth showed, as he half 
 sneered and half laughed. He would, if he might, 
 with a wave of the hand, have swept it and all it 
 represented out of existence ; nay, into oblivion. 
 As his eyes came once more to their former point 
 of rest, the fire, they suddenly encountered the in 
 tent gaze of the man in the corner. It discomfited 
 Kenniston in some sort, although he could not have 
 said why. His glance fell ; he nervously uncrossed 
 and recrossed his legs, and thrust his hands deeper 
 into his pockets. A vague sense of sustaining 
 covert enmity had begun to pervade his conscious 
 ness. He could not say whether this were induced 
 by the mere inception of the unpopular idea of 
 eviction, or whether it were a subtle perception of 
 something antagonistic in the mental attitude to-
 
 24 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ward him of the composed, watchful man who sat 
 in the corner. It was not a furtive observation. 
 It dwelt upon him openly, deliberately, steadily. 
 It held no element of offensiveness ; it was so calm, 
 so incidental, so apparently, so naturally, the con 
 comitant of the thoughtful, contemplative pipe, 
 which now and again his hand steadied, or removed 
 to release a wreath of the strong tobacco smoke 
 which pervaded the apartment. Yet Kenniston felt, 
 oddly enough, that it was not an incidental obser 
 vation. It was charged with much discernment. 
 A discriminating analysis was, he instinctively 
 knew, coupled with it. He began, on his part, to 
 more definitely gauge the two or three fragmen 
 tary contributions which the stranger had flung into 
 the talk. The allusion to the solvency of a com 
 pany and its responsibility in damages savored of a 
 knowledge far beyond the ken of the Cove, this 
 region of primitive barter where there is neither 
 currency nor commerce ; where the operations of 
 far-away courts are but faintly echoed, as of retri 
 bution overtaking some reckless and unwary crim 
 inal, and the provisions of the law seem merely 
 futile and disregarded devices of lawyers who seek 
 to live upon the people by their enforcement. 
 Then the crafty contrast of the differing estimates 
 of the house, the one as a home, the other as a hut, 
 intimated some definite capacity to play upon the 
 springs of human emotions. He wondered if he 
 had ever before seen this man. He had a good* 
 memory, but he did not charge it with the various
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 25 
 
 mountaineers he met, and sometimes he forgot their 
 names and occasionally their personality. He was 
 restive under this slow, reflective gaze, and he pushed 
 back his chair suddenly and walked away to the 
 door. It was open and widely flaring, and he stood 
 there as if scanning the weather signs. 
 
 For so long he had seen the castellated walls of his 
 new building rise upon the great natural terrace of 
 the mountain, above the series of crags, that he expe 
 rienced a sort of subacute surprise to mark the lone 
 liness and melancholy of the landscape. Only the 
 pinnacles of the mists glimmered in the moon, as 
 unsubstantial as the turrets of his fancy. Below 
 were all the darkling spaces of the night-shadowed 
 forests. Above, the heavily wooded slopes loomed 
 vaguely in the dim light, for the moon was in her 
 first quarter, here showing the gaunt face of a crag, 
 and there a ravine made visible by thronging 
 spectre-like vapors. The stars were bright. Near 
 the great dome he marked the scintillating circlet 
 of the Northern Crown ; its splendors seemed en 
 hanced, he thought, by the vicinage of that tower 
 ing densely dark mass beneath. So still it all 
 was ! He heard the silvery tinkle of the liberated 
 mountain springs near his own site sounding with 
 such freshness, with such elfin spontaneity, with 
 such flexible fantasies of cadence, that one would 
 have imagined he must surely have bethought him 
 how f eatly the chorusing oreads were singing ; it 
 only brought to his mind anew the chemical analy 
 sis, and the hordes of valetudinarians waiting to
 
 26 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 bring all their ills, real and imaginary, to lay them, 
 with more valuable considerations, at the shrine of 
 his Spa. 
 
 His sense of difficulties and discouragements 
 took on a new lease, and as he turned impatiently 
 away from the door he almost ran against young 
 Luther Terns, who had come to gaze upon the 
 clouds with that humble, expectant wistfulness 
 characteristic of those votaries of the weather, the 
 farmer class. 
 
 " Would you-uns jedge thar war rain in that 
 batch o' clouds settin' ter the south ? " he drawled 
 seductively, as if he sought to influence favorably 
 the unprejudiced opinion he asked. 
 
 " I 'm no judge of weather signs," Kenniston re 
 turned succinctly, although in another mood it 
 would have suited well his satiric bent to invent 
 and promulgate a formula of fictitious barometrical 
 science. 
 
 As he glanced loweringly toward the fireside 
 group, thrusting his hands into his pockets and ad 
 vancing with long steps to his former chair, he was 
 quick to observe that the man in the corner seemed 
 to have determined on a leisurely departure. He 
 had risen, and was returning to his pocket a brier- 
 root pipe, taking the sedulous care to knock all 
 the ashes out,pf it on the jamb of the fireplace, 
 which betrays him whose pocket linings have more 
 than once been the scene of an incipient conflagra 
 tion. Kenniston regarded him, as he stood in the 
 full light, with a disaffected interest, a sort of re-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 27 
 
 sponsive enmity. And yet there was nothing of it 
 self inimical in this man's bearing. On the contrary, 
 suggestions of good fellowship predominated in his 
 open manner and clear blue eye. He was exceed 
 ingly tall, not judging by Cap'n Lucy's elegant and 
 slight proportions, nor by the burlier Luther's 
 height, but by actual measurement. It had been 
 long since he had shaved, his full yellow beard 
 hung like a golden fleece far down over the breast 
 of his brown jeans coat; his long, straight yellow 
 hair, of the same tint, had its edges upturned in the 
 semblance of curl by the obstacle of his collar. He 
 had a large, bony, hooked nose, which gave a cer 
 tain strength to his countenance. The fashion of 
 the feature was such as to suggest sagacity in some 
 sort, as of keen instinctive faculties, but its expres 
 sion was as ferocious as that of an eagle's beak. 
 His mustache hid his lips and was lost in his 
 beard. He wore great spurred boots drawn high 
 over his brown jeans trousers, and a wide-brimmed 
 black wool hat. A faded red handkerchief about 
 his neck now and again showed amidst the hirsute 
 abundance, for he turned his head quickly and vigi 
 lantly. He had an air of self-confidence which was 
 somewhat imposing. It constrained in his interloc 
 utor a sort of reluctant acceptance of his own es 
 timate of himself. Kenniston, looking at him with 
 an unacknowledged respect for the untrained natural 
 forces his personality expressed, felt him to be for 
 midable ; how, or why, or when it was not manifest, 
 nor in what sort his conciliation might be com-
 
 28 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 passed, nor how it should be worth the effort. His 
 bland phrases of departure set the man of etiquette 
 ill at ease. Keuniston was accustomed to uncouth- 
 ness in the mountaineers, even to lowering looks 
 and open expressions of enmity when he or his plans 
 impinged on their prejudices ; polite duplicity, the 
 native of drawing-rooms, seemed strangely out of 
 place in this region of paradisaic simplicity of feel 
 ing and manner. His own acute social sense and 
 his valued commercial acumen had given him an in 
 tuition of this man's aversion to him or his projects, 
 or both ; but his hand was feeling yet the stranger's 
 cordial grip, and the sonorous invitation, " Obli 
 gated ter hev a visit over at Lost Time," was ring 
 ing in his ears. 
 
 " Who is that man ? " he abruptly demanded of 
 his host, as soon as the jingle of the spurs and the 
 sound of the horse's hoofs were silent on the air. 
 Then, seeking to make his question more incidental, 
 he added, " Seems to be a friend of yours." 
 
 Cap'n Lucy and Luther looked at each other, 
 exchanging a grin of derision. The two girls seemed 
 unaccountably embarrassed. 
 
 "Waal, stranger," said the old man, "he's a 
 widower, a sort of perfessional widower." 
 
 Luther broke out laughing with a hearty jovial 
 ity. It surely was not he who had been deluded by 
 the clouds and made the sport of the winds ; it 
 hardly seemed possible that he could take so much 
 pleasure in aught save good prospects of the fruits 
 of the earth.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 29 
 
 " He hev gin me an' Luther a heap o' trouble, 
 an' we-uns hev tuk a power o' counsel tergether ez 
 ter what we-uns war goin' ter do 'bout it," old 
 Terns continued. 
 
 Kenniston, conscious that he had roused some 
 standing joke, cast his slightly satirical glance from 
 one to the other, and with a sort of scornful patience 
 waited their pleasure to enlighten him. 
 
 Adelicia, with heightened color and an affronted 
 aspect, was making a great show of inattention ; 
 while Julia, with her sleek, deft grace, went on im 
 passively carding cotton. 
 
 " He kerns hyar a-visitin' the whole fambly, an' 
 thar he sets an' sets ; an' Luther loses his sleep, 
 till, follerin' the plough nex' day, he dunno the 
 share from the ploughtail, nor Gee from Haw; 
 mighty nigh fit ter fall in the furrow, jes' walkin' 
 in his sleep." 
 
 Once more Luther's crude boyish laughter rang 
 against the rafters ; this was at all events no som 
 nambulistic demonstration. 
 
 " Ef thar was jes' one gal in the fambly, Luther 
 an' me would git off gyard jewty : but ez fur ez he 
 lets on he jes' kerns ter visit us all, all ; an' hyar 
 we hev got ter set, an' watch him cast sheep's-eyes 
 fust at one gal, then at t'other, till Luther an' me 
 air plumb cross-eyed, looking two ways at once." 
 
 It was a great mutual possession to have so witty 
 a father and so appreciative a son. 
 
 " A' fust," continued the old man, when the filial 
 hilarity had somewhat subsided, " I jes' felt like I
 
 30 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 could n't spar' either o' the gals. Whenst my dar 
 ter was born, the fust thing I done war ter buy me 
 a shootin' iron, express fur the fust feller ez kem 
 a-sidlin' round, talkin' 'bout marryin' her, an' takin' 
 her away, an' tryin' ter make her b'lieve ez he was 
 a finer feller 'n her own dad : an' I did n't know 
 the insurance o' some folks is powerful survigrous 
 but he mought set up ter purtend ter be better 
 lookin'f " 
 
 His daughter might seem to have shown her 
 appreciation of his famous good looks by adopting 
 them all. As she lifted her eyes and smiled upon 
 the narrator, the brilliant and spirited beauty of her 
 face might indeed be a welcome reminiscence of the 
 time when he, too, wore so fair a guise, and might 
 impart a zestful relish of the resemblance. 
 
 " An' then Ad'licia, she kem hyar when her mo 
 ther, my sister Amandy, died. My sister hed mar 
 ried a second time, a mighty mean man, an' whenst 
 I tuk Ad'licia she war 'bout three year old I 
 jes' said, ' Yer mam did n't hev much jedgmint in 
 marryin', an' I reckon ye '11 take the failin' arter 
 her ; an' ye '11 show sech jedgmint ez ye kin 1'arn 
 in marryin' nobody.' An' she agreed : she war n't 
 very young at three, jes' sorter j^oungish ; an' though 
 people mought think she hed n't hed a chance ter 
 view the world on sech a p'int, she hed her senses 
 powerful well in hand. So we made a solemn prom 
 ise. An' I felt plumb sot up till lately. I don't 
 want nare one of 'em ter marry. A fust-rate man 
 ain't wuth a fifth-rate woman, much less a fust-rate
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 31 
 
 woman," he declared chivalrously. " Leastwise, ye 
 can't git the gals' daddies ter think so. An' now, 
 jes' ez we air all so sot an' stiddy in our minds, 
 hyar kerns this widower, this perfessional widower ; 
 fur he don't show no signs o' bein' nuthin' else ! An' 
 we dunno whether he kerns ter listen at Julia hold 
 her tongue, or Ad'licia talk, or hear Luther praise 
 God fur the weather, or ter git my best advice on 
 politics. We 'd do ennything ter git shet o' him. 
 He mought hev air one o' the gals, ef he 'd only 
 say which." 
 
 And he chuckled as he gazed into the fire. 
 
 " What 's his business ? Farmer, I suppose ? M 
 suggested Keimiston. 
 
 " Naw ; he hev got a leetle store, powerful lee- 
 tie trade, 'count o' the cross-roads store at the set- 
 tlemint, though he trades right smart. Liberal, too. 
 He '11 take ennything, load o' corn, load o' wood, 
 sech like heavy truck ez thar ain't no sale fur 
 ginerally, 'count o' the wagonin' an' roads bein' 
 so heavy. Whenst you-uns git yer railroad put 
 through," he gave him a rallying wink at this 
 aberration, as he esteemed the projected narrow 
 gauge, " ye '11 mend all that." 
 
 " Oh, yes ; you '11 be in touch with the markets 
 of the world then," said Kenniston, with his satiric 
 laugh. " Only a little question of freight rates be 
 tween you and New York." 
 
 This sarcasm did not cut so deeply as one might 
 imagine. It would have been impossible to insert 
 the idea save with an axe into old " Lucy "
 
 32 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Tems's brain that New York was more important 
 and metropolitan than Colbury, or essentially more 
 remote. 
 
 " This Lorenzo Taft ain't been so sociable till 
 lately. That 's what makes me call him a perfes- 
 sional widower," old Terns went on, with a peculiar 
 relish for the designation. " He hev two childern, 
 gal an' boy, an' the gal hev been with her gran'marn 
 down in Blount County till the old woman died ; 
 an' now he hev got ' Sis,' ez he calls her, with him, 
 an' he wants a step-mammy fur her ! He ain't 
 a-courtin' a wife fur hisself ; he 's courtin' a step- 
 mammy fur ' Sis.' An' in course his sheep's-eyes 
 would go cornsider'ble furder with the gals than 
 they do, ef they did n't know that he air jes' out 
 a-trappiu' fur ' Sis.' " 
 
 " Waal," said Adelicia suddenly, " I dunno ez 
 folks oughter think hard of him fur that, 'kase ' Sis ' 
 did look powerful lonesome an' pitiful, settin' up all 
 by herself 'mongst all the men at the store." 
 
 " Thar, now ! " exclaimed Cap'n Lucy triumph 
 antly, " makin' excuses fur folks agin ! I told ye 
 ez ye could n't hold out till bedtime 'thout excusin' 
 this one fur that, an' t'other one fur which." 
 
 "Waal," said Adelicia, "it's a mighty late bed 
 time." 
 
 She was rolling up the coat as carefully as if a 
 first-class triumph of needlework had been accom 
 plished upon it. 
 
 " ' Sis ' did n't 'pear ter me ter need enny lookin' 
 arter whenst I seen her," said old Terns heartlessly.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAK. 33 
 
 " She 'peared ter be some fower or five hunderd 
 year old, an' stiddy an' settled ter accommodate." 
 
 " She be 'bout ten year old," said Adelicia 
 gravely. 
 
 " I wonder," said Cap'n Lucy, with a twinkle of 
 the eye, " I do wonder ef that thar pernicious way 
 o' makin' excuses fur folks's faults would hold out 
 ef Ad'licia war ter set out ter be somebody's step- 
 mammy ! " 
 
 Luther suddenly held up his hand with an intent 
 look, bespeaking silence. The rain was coming. 
 From far away one could hear the steady march of 
 its serried columns, now amongst the resonant woods, 
 and now through open spaces, and again threading 
 narrow ravines. A bugle blast of the wind issued 
 suddenly from a rocky defile, and was silent again, 
 and once more only the sounds of that resistless 
 multitudinous advance pervaded the mountain wil 
 derness. Already the influx of air from the open 
 door was freighted with dank suggestions commin 
 gled with the odor of dust. For a panic was astir 
 in the myriad particles that lay in heaps in the 
 sandy road ; they seemed to seek a futile flight in 
 some inadequate current of the air, and were wafted 
 a few paces along, to fall again upon the ground, 
 and finally to be annihilated by the vanguard of the 
 great body of the torrents. A tentative drop here 
 and there on the clapboards of the roof, increasing 
 presently to a brisk fusillade, and then all individ 
 uality of sound was lost in the tumultuous down 
 pour under which the cabin rocked.
 
 34 BIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Perhaps it was because he had seldom been 
 brought into such close intimacy with the elements 
 that Kenniston found little sleep that night under 
 the reverberating roof. He could touch it by lift 
 ing his hand in the tiny shed-room beneath the 
 eaves, which was devoted to his use as a guest- 
 chamber. At arm's length, too, with but the thin 
 barrier of the clapboards intervening, was the wild, 
 riotous rain. He seemed in the midst of its contin 
 uous beat and thunderous splash, as its aggregations 
 swept from the eaves into the gullies below, so en 
 tirely did its turmoils dominate his senses. Now 
 and again the shrill fanfare of the triumphant wind 
 sounded, and a broad, innocuous glare of sheet 
 lightning illumined the little apartment through 
 the multitudinous crevices between its unplastered 
 boards ; for this addition to the house was not of 
 logs, like the main structure. He could see, too, at 
 intervals, as he lay in indescribable discomfort on 
 the top of the big feather bed, the landscape with 
 out through the open door ; for the heavy, close air 
 had induced him to set it ajar. He found a certain 
 interest for a time in these weird illuminations : the 
 great mountains, slate-tinted in the searching yellow 
 glare, with clouds of white vapor hanging about 
 them; the rain, visible in myriads of fine lines 
 drawn perpendicularly from zenith to valley, ap 
 parently stationary, as if it were some permanent 
 investiture of the atmosphere ; the little porch, 
 low-browed, on which the door of his room opened, 
 and which leaked with a heavy, irregular pattering.
 
 SIS VANISHED STAR. 35 
 
 Half a dozen dogs were lying there, having taken 
 refuge from the storm. A scraggy cedar-tree close 
 beyond held down its moisture-freighted branches, 
 and amongst them he saw once a great owl, busi 
 ness interrupted for the nonce, staring at him with 
 big yellow eyes, as it ruffled up its feathers against 
 the rain. 
 
 He was conscious of sustaining the steady, sedate 
 gaze of the nocturnal fowl even when the whole 
 world would disappear as with a bound into the depths 
 of darkness. As if the sound had been restrained by 
 the presence of light, the tumult of rain would seem 
 redoubled upon the roof. The unmannerly ele 
 ments evidently disturbed no one else in the house. 
 It was as silent as if no life beat within the walls. 
 The very dogs were still. One of them, a fat, cal 
 low fellow, with an ill-appreciated sense of a joke, 
 roused them once by facetiously snapping at a sleep 
 ing confrere's tail, set wagging by the propitious 
 happenings of dreamland. Whether it was that 
 he had interrupted the gustful gnawing of a vision 
 ary bone, or simply that his elder was of a vicious 
 temperament, he was soundly cuffed, rolled over on 
 his fat, round sides, and sent shrieking under the 
 house. He came out after some indulgence of vocal 
 woe on a piercing key, and, perceiving Kenniston, 
 sought to make his acquaintance. Being a shaggy 
 shepherd, his rain-laden hair diffused a peculiarly 
 canine odor throughout the little room ; he was used 
 to rebuffs, and it required but a single tweak of the 
 ear to send him, depressed and discouraged, to pro 
 saic slumbers among his kindred.
 
 36 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 The lightnings failed. The world was plunged 
 into unbroken gloom. The hours wore on into the 
 deeps of the night. Once, as Kenniston was on the 
 point of losing himself in sleep, he heard a shrill 
 blood-curdling cry, searching out every nerve of re 
 pulsion in his body, a panther shrieking from the 
 terraces of his castle in the air. Even the fierce 
 dogs, lifting their heads to listen, only whined and 
 huddled closer together. When at last he dreamed, 
 his mind clung close to the theme that held his wak 
 ing thoughts. It was of processioning those wild 
 acres of mountain fastnesses, and the serpentine 
 lengths of the surveyor's chain seemed alive as the 
 chain-bearers dragged it writhing through the grass. 
 And again he was taking off the hospitable roof 
 beneath which he slept, and riving off the doors, 
 and somehow Cap'n Lucy was curiously helpless to 
 resist this desolation of his roof-tree. But the man 
 in the corner was plotting against him, and seeking 
 to excite public animosity ; and while he was busy 
 in counterplotting, suddenly Julia appeared, with a 
 strange face, subtle and insidious and sinister, lead 
 ing the panther which he had heard filling the night 
 with terror. And he was frightened, and awoke.
 
 II. 
 
 LORENZO TAFT met the rain halfway to his own 
 dwelling. He pulled his hat over his eyes and 
 bent to his mare's neck before its fury, and al 
 though the animal now and again swerved from the 
 bridle path at the glare of the lightning, she car 
 ried her master steadily and fleetly enough ; and it 
 was not far from his reckoning of the hour that 
 they should pass the Lost Time mine when a broad 
 illumination of the skies revealed the great portal, 
 gauntly yawning in the side of the range, where a 
 tunnel had been made in the search for silver, and 
 abandoned. He pulled up his dripping steed and 
 seemed to listen. Water had risen within, evi 
 dently, from the infinite enmeshment of the under 
 ground streams and springs that vein the great 
 range ; he heard it lapping upon the rocks, as 
 it came pouring along its channel in the tunnel. 
 It played around the mare's fetlocks, and now 
 and again the animal fretfully lifted her forefoot. 
 Another flare of the weird, unearthly yellow light, 
 more lingering, brighter, than the last, showed the 
 swift clear flow of the current, the great bleak beet 
 ling rocks of the oval aperture, the trees on the 
 mountain side high above it, and beyond, three 
 hundred yards or so, a little log cabin set upon the 
 
 353172
 
 38 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 slope, which was a gentler declivity here, sur 
 rounded by a few acres of cornfield, and the appur 
 tenances of beehives, hen-house, and rickety barn 
 common to the humbler dwellings of the region. 
 He could even see, between the house and the steep 
 ascent immediately behind it, the far-away crags, 
 as the range rounded out, glimmering in the light 
 ning down the vista thus formed. 
 
 It seemed the simplest of domestic establish 
 ments, and a forlorn little family group met his gaze 
 as he opened the door and stepped within. The fire 
 had dwindled to a few embers ; a flickering flare 
 from a handful of chips fluug on in anticipation of 
 his return, heralded by the sound of the mare's 
 hoofs, showed the unplastered log room of the re 
 gion, more unkempt than is usual, and betraying the 
 lack of a woman's hand. The slight preparation 
 for his reception was not the work of a boy of 
 twelve, who sat soundly sleeping in a splint-bot 
 tomed chair, his whole attitude one of somnolent 
 collapse, as if he had not a bone in his body, his 
 round face white and freckled, his curly red hair 
 growing straight up from his forehead, his slightly 
 open red mouth of a merry carelessness of expres 
 sion even in unconsciousness. On the opposite 
 side of the fireplace a little girl was staidly seated. 
 She had a narrow, white, formal little face ; thin 
 light brown hair, short and straight and smooth, 
 put primly back behind her ears ; a small mouth, 
 with thin, precise lips ; a meek eye, with a gentle 
 lash. Her father looked at her with a sentiment
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 39 
 
 of awe rising in his stalwart breast. " Consider'ble 
 older 'n the Newnited States, an' I hed ruther 
 keep house for a regiment o' pa'sons," he com 
 mented silently. 
 
 She wore a checked homespun dress, spotlessly 
 clean, a dark calico apron, high-necked, buttoned 
 to the nape in the back, shoes and blue stockings, 
 which are rare among the children in the mountains 
 at this season ; and despite her limited inches, she 
 was as formidable a spectacle of perfect precocity 
 and prim perfection as ever a man who liked to 
 go his own gait had the pleasure of looking upon. 
 Miss Cornelia Taft was entirely competent to see 
 all that might be going on in her small world, and 
 she had brought her own unalterable standards 
 with her, in her pocket as it were, by which to 
 judge. 
 
 There was a little unacknowledged weariness in 
 her expression, and a certain stiffness as she got 
 down out of her chair, which intimated that she was 
 not quite equal physically to her resolution to sit up 
 for him. He was about to requite this after the 
 usual manner of those favored with this feminine 
 attention, but she had begun to rake out some Irish 
 potatoes roasting in the ashes, and Lorenzo Taft's 
 remonstrance was subdued from his original inten 
 tion. 
 
 " Look-a-hyar, Sis," he said, "why n't ye go ter 
 bed ? Ye must n't sit up waitin' fur me this time 
 o' night. I don't eat no second supper, nohow." 
 
 But he was presently disposing of the refection
 
 40 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 of potatoes, corn bread, and buttermilk in great 
 gulps, while she looked on with her inexpressive, 
 unastonished eye. 
 
 "Why n't ye make Joe go to bed?" he de 
 manded, his mouth full, as he nodded at the sleep 
 ing boy. 
 
 The vaguest expression of prim repudiation was 
 on her face. " He 'lowed he war n't sleepy," she 
 said, with some capacity for sarcasm. She would 
 have mended Joe as if he were a rag doll, but for 
 his stalwart resistance. She did not expend her 
 self in vain regrets. She had cast him and his 
 tatters off forever, unless indeed he should come 
 some day and sue to be made whole. 
 
 " Waal," said Lorenzo Taft, bending a perplexed 
 brow upon her, " jes' let him be, an' ye go on up- 
 steers an' go to bed. Ye '11 never grow no higher 
 ef ye set up so late in the night." 
 
 She turned obediently toward the stairs, or 
 rather a rude ladder that ascended to the loft, 
 while Lorenzo Taft paced back and forth in the 
 room with a long, elastic stride, troubled and ab 
 sent, and only conscious at the last moment that it 
 was a look of the keenest curiosity that the little 
 girl's placid eyes cast down upon him as she disap 
 peared amongst the shadows of the loft. 
 
 He stood still, disproportionately perturbed, it 
 might seem. Then he sought to reassure himself. 
 
 " I reckon I ain't much similar ter old Mis' 
 Jinaway, nohow ; an' ez she air useter a quiet, per- 
 cise old 'oman's ways an' talk, I mus' seem toler'ble
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 41 
 
 comical, bein' so big an' hearty, an' take big bites, 
 an' talk loud, an' ride in the storm." He paused 
 in the midst of his sophistry. Her look was so in 
 telligent, so keenly inquisitive. " She 's mighty 
 leetle, but" his caution had returned "a 
 ca'tridge o' giant powder ain't so powerful bulky. 
 I hev got ter git somebody ter take keer o' her, 
 or ter take keer o' me, sure ! " 
 
 If the small Cornelia Taft's curiosity had been 
 excited by what she had already observed, she 
 would have thought his subsequent proceedings 
 very strange indeed, could she have supervised them. 
 But her placid little eyelids had closed at last upon 
 her calm little eyes, and a very few gentle homesick 
 tears for a place where they washed the dishes, and 
 swept the floors, and slept in an airy room with the 
 firelight flickering, and mended their garments; 
 if amusement must be had, what gay times she 
 and her grandmother had enjoyed, to be sure, when 
 they raced as they knit their stockings, pausing 
 twice or thrice in the evening to compare speed and 
 measure the accomplished hose! A very strange 
 man she thought her father, and she would have 
 thought him stranger still if she could have seen 
 him presently take a lantern and cross the open 
 passage to the other room of the log hut, which 
 served as store. There were embers here as well, 
 and as he locked the door again they showed the 
 array of gear needed for a country trade, knives, 
 shoes, shears, saddles, harness, rope, a little calico, 
 sugar, coffee, salt, and iron. There was a counter
 
 42 HIS VANISH JED STAR. 
 
 at one side, on which stood the scales. It seemed a 
 very commonplace structure, unless one should see 
 him open a door into it on the inner side. This 
 was not a cupboard, which might have been con 
 venient ; it gave upon a door in the puncheon floor, 
 which, lifted, showed a ladder leading to the cellar. 
 He went through, feet foremost, closing the counter 
 door after him as well as the other. He lighted 
 his lantern, not with a coal or flint, as is usual, 
 but with the more modern and progressive match, 
 and then down the ladder he went very warily, for 
 it was a somewhat slight structure, and he was a 
 heavy man. It could be removed, too, in a mo 
 ment, which added to its insecurity. 
 
 And still there was naught apparent which could 
 justify so much caution. The lantern, now fairly 
 alight, revealed empty boxes and barrels, and a 
 scanty reserve of stock similar to the goods which 
 the shelves above showed. He pushed a few boxes 
 aside, took down a board or two of the wall in the 
 rear, and in another moment was in one of the 
 tunnels of the abandoned mine, the wall replaced 
 behind him. 
 
 Surely, a man was never more ingeniously secure, 
 he thought, as he went at a brisk pace into the 
 depths of the mountain, and it would all be jeop 
 ardized by the influx into the Cove of a horde of 
 tourists and summer sojourners that the projected 
 hotel might bring. No exclusive aristocrat was 
 ever more jealous of his seclusion from the roving 
 of his kind than Lorenzo Taft. And then this
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 43 
 
 danger of his own household, his own hearthstone ; 
 this silent, disapproving, prying, perfect little prim 
 ness ! 
 
 He crossed water once. He never crossed it 
 without remembering the instinct of the deer pur 
 sued to put a running stream between its flight and 
 the hunter. The rivulet, very narrow here, flowed 
 in a rocky bed at a swift rate. This was a tribu 
 tary of the larger torrent that had flooded the 
 mine, and, together with the small output and the 
 inadequate prospect, had caused the work to be 
 abandoned. Two of ,the miners had been drowned 
 in the catastrophe, and this circumstance had doubt 
 less contributed to the solitude of the locality. It 
 was a place of strange sounds, with the forever- 
 echoing rocks, and few curiosity seekers had ever 
 ventured farther than the great outer portal of the 
 Lost Time mine. Into this tunnel, with which 
 Taft had joined a tunnel of his own secret work 
 manship, the water had not risen, albeit the lower 
 excavations were all submerged ; and as he went 
 dryshod, he heard the deft patter of his tread on 
 the well-beaten " dirt " path multiplied behind him 
 by the echoes into the semblance of many a follow 
 ing footfall. This illusion might have jarred less 
 accustomed nerves, but Taft had heard this impal 
 pable pursuit so long with impunity that he was 
 hardly likely to heed it now. Something, however, 
 that he sometimes heard, and that was more often 
 silent, he had learned to watch for, to fearfully 
 mark the sound when it came, and to note its
 
 44 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 absence with a shuddering sense of vacancy and a 
 chill suspense. It was like the sound of a pick 
 continually striking into the earth, not with a hur 
 ried or fitful stroke, but timed with a composed 
 regularity characteristic of the steady workman. 
 Sometimes it seemed far away, sometimes imme 
 diately overhead, and again just underfoot. Those 
 who heard it accounted for it readily enough. Who 
 had set the ghastly superstition afoot none might 
 say, but the belief widely obtained that the two 
 lost miners thus wrought continually in the depths 
 of the mountain, digging the graves that had been 
 denied them on the face of the earth. To Taft, 
 the familiar of the dark, the weird, and the un 
 canny, it seemed a likely enough solution of the 
 mystery, and he nothing doubted it. He could not 
 account for another phenomenon, not so frequent, 
 but often enough forced upon his contemplation 
 to bring him to an anxious pause. Sometimes he 
 heard, or thought he heard, voices, loud, resound 
 ing, distinct, hailing, hallooing voices ; and again 
 so uncertain, so commingled, were these vibrations, 
 so repetitious and faint, that he could not be sure 
 that they were not merely echoes, echoes of the 
 talk and mirth of the group of moonshiners whom 
 another turn of the underground passage showed 
 him at their work in the broader space of a cham 
 ber of the mine, where the great timbers still 
 stanchly supported the roofing masses of earth, and 
 the walls of sandstone bore freshly the gaunt 
 wounds that the blasting had wrought in their rug 
 ged sides.
 
 THE gloom of the place had a unique under 
 ground quality which could hardly be compassed 
 elsewhere by the mere exclusion of daylight. The 
 yellow flare from the open door of the furnace 
 seemed chiefly to serve to render visible the sur 
 rounding darkness. The masses of shadow were 
 densely black. Where the firelight smote them 
 they merged reluctantly into expositions of the 
 darkest possibilities of umber and burnt sienna and 
 dismal gradations of duskier brown. The clay 
 wall facing the furnace door at one side, how 
 ever, glowed with the reddest of terra-cotta hues. 
 Against this the group was outlined, motionless, 
 all eyes turning upon the black aperture of the 
 tunnel along which the faint, wan gleams of Taft's 
 lantern had preceded him. The moonshiners had 
 an air of pretermitting work, and the expectant, 
 receptive attention which characterizes the secluded 
 in colloquy with him from the world without. 
 
 There is a certain rapacity in this demand for 
 developments. Withdrawn from the scene of ac 
 tion, it seems as if anything definite and decisive 
 might have happened in the interval of time, when 
 perhaps only combinations of causes are slowly and 
 imperceptibly tending toward the precipitation of
 
 46 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 the event. When the full-voiced greetings were 
 supplemented by the inquiry for the news, Lorenzo 
 Taft stood for a moment at a loss, conscious of a 
 need of caution in the recital of his suspicions and 
 doubts and indeterminate fears. He sat down on 
 the side of a barrel, looking, in the flickering dusk 
 and the vivid gleams from the furnace, like some 
 able-bodied, overgrown Bacchus, with his flowing 
 yellow hair and beard definite against the terra 
 cotta wall behind him, his reckless, jovial blue eyes 
 full of life and vigor, and his fair and florid com 
 plexion wearing already the deeper flush painted 
 by brush whiskey. 
 
 "I dunno 'bout news, edzac'ly." He hesitated, 
 wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, as if 
 he could hardly summarize so few experiences and 
 impressions for the benefit of the debarred. 
 
 " That 's always the way," sarcastically ex 
 claimed Jack Espey, a slight, eager-eyed young 
 man, the impersonation of impatience. " 'Renzo 
 don't never hear no news in the Cove ; leastwise " 
 he cast a keen, significant glance at the others 
 " none ez he air aimin' ter tell agin." 
 
 The facial expression of the other men changed 
 subtly, unmistakably. Some strong sentiment of 
 disaffection had evidently been set astir in Taft's 
 absence. As he slowly recognized it, a deep, dis 
 mayed gravity fell upon his features, which were 
 as incongruous with his expression for the moment 
 as if they were merely component parts of some 
 jovial mask. It was a petrified look, as if he had 
 suddenly beheld the Gorgon Head of Trouble.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 47 
 
 The other men said nothing, maintaining a sort 
 of wary attention inimical in its close receptivity. 
 The suggestion had communicated instant fire to 
 certain inflammable suspicions and antagonisms. 
 All the work about the still was given over for the 
 nonce, and Lorenzo Taft had a certain overpower 
 ing realization of being brought suddenly to judg 
 ment, without a moment in which to take account 
 with himself and his agile duplicities and perfect 
 his defense. 
 
 There were four of the moonshiners besides 
 Lorenzo Taft. Their aspect had so little in com 
 mon that one might wonder at the cohesive prop 
 erty of the enterprise to hold them together, were 
 it not for the opportunity of profit so rare in these 
 mountain communities, and the great and ever- 
 present dangers of the law that served to cement 
 their association when once they had fallen into 
 the toils of the illicit worm. One, in his shirt 
 sleeves, was somewhat beyond middle age, bearded 
 and grizzled and grave, with a sedate eye, callous 
 hands, and a steady look as if he might be trusted 
 to do a good deal of hard work by sheer force of 
 industrial momentum when once about it. He had 
 distilled much liquor against the law in his time, 
 and even had an experience in such matters ante 
 dating the unpopular whiskey tax. His was a 
 sober, trusted judgment in questions of pomace 
 and mash, singlings and doublings, and the suc 
 cesses of the manufacture were his. Another had 
 a downy lip. full, petulant, passionate ; a large
 
 48 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 blue eye, deeply bloodshot ; a tousle of light 
 curling hair ; an overgrown, large-jointed look, 
 a mere boy, despite his thickened utterance, 
 his shaking hand, and his frequent reference to a 
 jug down amongst the shadows which the others 
 left almost untouched. A far more dangerous 
 personality was exemplified in the keen-eyed man, 
 of about twenty-five, called Jack Espey. He 
 had a wild, alert, aggressive look, widely opened 
 bluish-gray eyes, full of reflections of the world 
 without, straight black hair, a drooping mustache, 
 a fair complexion, a square jaw, and about him 
 was the unmistakable intimation of recklessness. 
 He wore a white wool hat set far back on his 
 head, a blue shirt, and blue jeans trousers, and he 
 clasped both his hands across one knee above 
 his long spurred boot, while he sat on a shelf 
 of the rock, half in the shadow and half in the 
 light. The gleam fell on the handle of the knife 
 in his belt and his pistols, which he did not lay 
 aside to assist in the work. Yet it was not toward 
 him that Taft, surprised and overtaken, cast the 
 first covert glance of anxiety and deprecation. A 
 smiling, dark-eyed gaze fixed upon his face shook 
 his confidence, in that moment of detection. The 
 smile was not one of pleasure, but Larrabee's eyes 
 were seldom without it. It was tinged with a sug 
 gestion of contempt ; it was habitually slow ; it 
 seemed rather an unintentional emanation from 
 the spirit within than a means of communication 
 with others of his kind. He smiled, as it were, to
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 49 
 
 himself. He had a pale, clear-cut, intelligent face, 
 with fine straight features, dark eyes, and short 
 auburn hair. He was about twenty three or four 
 years of age, lean but strongly built, and tall, and 
 was dressed in brown jeans, with great rough 
 boots. He had a certain inactive, lounging aspect, 
 and laid aside with a reluctant gesture the worn 
 New Testament which he had been laboriously 
 reading as he sat close to the door of the furnace 
 and caught its glimmers. 
 
 " Naw," reiterated the keen, eager Espey, with 
 what he intended to be a sneer, but which was 
 instead a snort of indignation, " ef 'Renzo hears 
 enny news, he ain't rememberin' ter sheer it with 
 we-uns ; he keeps it from us, moles o' the yearth 
 that we be ! " 
 
 He dropped his voice dramatically. The others, 
 with a hot sense of injury, gazed with glowing 
 eyes upon Taft. 
 
 "Why x look-a-hyar," Taft felt impelled to de 
 fend himself, "what is it I ain't told ez ye want 
 ter know ? " 
 
 There was a close understanding among the 
 " moles o' the yearth," for the united accusation 
 about to be voiced was withheld as Larrabee fixed 
 his ever-smiling eyes upon him and held up his 
 warning hand. 
 
 " Waal, 'Renzo, what is the news ye hev tole 
 hyar?" 
 
 It was the pride of intellect which illumined Lar- 
 rabee's face, that ineffable sense of power which a
 
 50 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 conscious mental superiority bestows. The smile 
 in his eyes extended to his lips ; he laughed a 
 little, showing his strong white teeth, and there 
 was something craftily brilliant in his expression 
 as he looked down and turned the Testament in 
 his hands, and looked up and laughed again. 
 
 " Yes," exclaimed Espey rancorously, " ye pur- 
 tend ter go out an' see nuthin' an' hear nuthin'. I 
 reckon ye air 'feared we '11 git skeered too easy, an' 
 light out an' leave the still, an' sech ; so ye tell 
 we-uns nuthin' 'bout sech ez ye meet up with. Jes' 
 ondertake ter jedge fur us an' gin us no warnin' 
 nor nuthin' " 
 
 Larrabee broke in suddenly : " We '11 ondertake 
 ter tell you-uns the news, 'Renzo Taft, though we 
 do be ' moles o' the yearth ' ! Thar 's a stranger in 
 the Cove!" 
 
 A large, imposing personality is at a peculiar 
 disadvantage when overtaken by disaster. Lo 
 renzo Taft felt detected in every fibre, and he was 
 conscious of comprising a good many pounds avoir 
 dupois of culprit as he sat arraigned before them 
 all. He could only look from one to the other in 
 flushed doubt and anxiety as to how much they 
 knew of what he had his own reasons to conceal. 
 
 " He air 'bidin' down at old Lucy Tems's house ; 
 an' ez ye sot out ter go thar this evenin', ye air 
 'bleeged ter hev viewed him," persisted Larrabee. 
 
 " Oh, I viewed him," said Lorenzo Taft, the 
 steadiness of his fixed gaze beginning to waver 
 somewhat as he sought to assume a more incidental
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 51 
 
 manner, in the midst of his amazement to hear the 
 details of his visit to the Terns cabin from these 
 " moles o' the yearth," miles away in the rain and 
 the mist and the darkness, and locked up in the 
 denser medium of the depths of the solid ground. 
 
 " I '11 tell ye his name," continued Larrabee, his 
 eyes still smiling, but the curves of his mouth 
 fierce, and his breath coming fast. " His name is 
 Kenn'ston, or sech." 
 
 A wild, confusing fear of supernatural agency in 
 this knowledge had begun to pervade Taft's con 
 sciousness. Then he caught himself suddenly. 
 
 " Ye mus' hev hearn on him whenst lie war hyar 
 afore," he said. 
 
 " Hyar afore ! " exclaimed the anxious-eyed men 
 in concert. 
 
 " He be the man ez 'lows ter build some sort'n 
 tavern in the Cove, or sech like. Ye mus' hev 
 hearn 'bout him." 
 
 A silence ensued. " That war 'way las' year," 
 the elder moonshiner said at last. 
 
 " He 'pears ter go powerful slow," said the boy, 
 disaffected and incredulous. 
 
 As the grizzled elderly distiller pondered on the 
 matter, the perplexed wrinkles and lines of his worn 
 face were painful to see. " Ye be right sure he 
 ain't no revenuer nor nuthin' ? " he asked anx 
 iously, subordinating his own judgment. 
 
 " Great Gosh, naw ! " exclaimed Taft, with a 
 resonant, confident note. This idea, so at variance 
 with his knowledge of Kenniston's plans, had not
 
 52 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 occurred to him. He broke out into a sonorous 
 laugh at the fears which for the first time he com 
 prehended. " Revenuer ! " he cried contemptu 
 ously. "Moonshining would be a powerful slick 
 bizness ef revenuers war sech ez him ! " 
 
 The sense of relief induced a slackening of 
 the tension among the others. They too laughed, 
 albeit a trifle constrainedly, and glanced consciously 
 from one to the other. But Larrabee turned the 
 Testament back and forth doubtfully in his hands, 
 and asked suddenly, without looking up, " Then, 
 why n't ye tell 'bout him a-f ust, ef ye did n't want 
 us not ter know 'bout him, jes' ez news ? " 
 
 Taft was silent for an instant. But the sense of 
 partial success is a prophetic element in the com 
 pletion of triumph, and, with an ir reflective dash 
 at the nearest means of exculpation without full 
 disclosure, he replied precipitately : 
 
 " News ! I did n't count Mm no news. Sech 
 ez him don't count much whenst a man 's a-goin' 
 a-courtin'." 
 
 The silence with which this was received was 
 expressive of extreme surprise. The crackle of the 
 furnace fuel, the roar of the flames, the rush of 
 the air along one of the unseen shafts near by that 
 had some immediate communication with the outer 
 atmosphere, and sustained a strong current through 
 the connecting drift, even the continuous dripping 
 from the worm, each made itself conspicuous in the 
 absence of other sound. 
 
 Jack Espey had suddenly lifted one spurred
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 53 
 
 boot to his knee, and was affecting to examine the 
 rowel. " Who be ye a-courtin' thar at old Cap'n 
 Lucy's ? " he gruffly demanded, but with an obvi 
 ous effort to assume an off-hand manner. 
 
 The steady look which Larrabee fixed upon Taf t 
 was, evidently, not incidental. The blood rushed to 
 Taft's head. He had not dreamed of this compli 
 cation. He saw that his answer meant far more 
 to each of them than to him. And yet it was a 
 difficult answer to give. He could not even seem 
 to hesitate, and he must needs decide his fate at 
 chance medley. 
 
 " Ad'licia ! " he blurted out at a venture. Then, 
 as the recollection of the handsome, silent Julia 
 came over him with the inevitable sense of compar 
 ison, a pang seized his utilitarian heart ; for since 
 an excuse for his silence as to the details of his 
 visit must needs be framed, and a stepmother be 
 chosen in such haste, why could he not have be 
 thought himself of the beauty? The fact that 
 others were touched by this matter, of which he had 
 so suddenly a subtle perception, rendered his deci 
 sion extra hazardous. His own natural interest, 
 his swift i-egret for his choice, which was likely to 
 ensue in any event since his feelings were not in 
 volved, dulled his observation for the moment. It 
 was the least fraction of time which he had failed 
 to improve, but when his discerning, covert gaze 
 sought the faces of the other two men it could tell 
 him naught of what he wished to know. Jack 
 Espey still sedulously examined the rowel of his
 
 54 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 spur lifted to his knee, and Larrabee's eyes were 
 fastened upon the worn book which he turned in 
 his hands. 
 
 " I reckon I 'm mighty welcome ter my ch'ice 
 of Ad'licia," Taft said ruefuUy to himself. " Ad'- 
 licia 'd stand no sort'n chance with young fellers 
 sech ez them, alongside o' sech a lookin' gal ez 
 Julia." 
 
 The instinct strong in ambitious human nature 
 to enter the lists for a prize stirred within him, 
 albeit it was merely his own fancy that rated Julia 
 at this phenomenal value. Fictitious though it was, 
 it belittled Adelicia in his estimation. However, 
 the die was cast. He had openly avowed his pref 
 erence, and it was hardly to be presumed that the 
 arrogant Julia would suffer herself to be second 
 choice to one of her own household. The possi 
 bility of defeat from any objection to him on the 
 part of the lady never occurs to a man of that 
 type. In his bluff vanity, a concomitant of his 
 other hardy attributes, he thought he had only to 
 choose. And he had chosen. He began to seek 
 to reconcile himself to his selection. It would not 
 be judicious to have a rivalry in a matter of this 
 sort of which young men are apt to make so 
 much between himself and members of his 
 gang; more especially Espey, who was dangerous 
 because of his hot head, and Larrabee, who was 
 dangerous because of his cool head. And then 
 Adelicia was of an easy, acquiescent, optimistic 
 temperament, and was likely to put up more readily
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 55 
 
 with the two children, Joe and Cornelia. He as 
 tutely reflected that it would probably require all 
 the optimism attainable in the Cove to put up with 
 " Sis." He began to feel that he was very lucky, 
 or rather instinctively and intuitively sagacious, to 
 have made such a choice at a snap shot. A trou 
 blous household would the determined and doubt 
 less exacting beauty make of it. " Sp'iled ter 
 death, I expec', by Luther an' old Lucy ; nare one 
 of 'em dunno how ter say ' no ' ter nuthin' Julia sets 
 her head ter, I reckon. An' I ain't no young fel 
 ler, nohow, to go danglin' arter the purtiest gal in 
 the kentry, pickin' out a second ch'ice fur a wife. 
 Ad'licia hain't got no home, bein' jes' Cap'n Lucy's 
 niece, an' I reckon she 'd be glad an' pleased ter 
 hev a house o' her own, with nuthin' ter do but ter 
 keep blinders on Sis 'bout'n the still an' sech, an' 
 set her a-sewin' or a-hoein' till she gits some growth 
 an' jedgmint." He began to pluck up. " Purty 
 is ez purty does. Air one o' them boys is welcome 
 to Julia ! " 
 
 Then a sudden thought smote him. 
 
 " 'Pears ter me I oughter hev a cornsider'ble 
 gredge agin you-uns," his big voice boomed out 
 with all its sonorous confidence once more. " I 
 kem hyar arter goin', ez ye knowed, ter Tems's, an' 
 durned ef ye don't haul me over the coals like ez 
 ef I hed hearn suthin' ez I did n't want you-uns ter 
 know." 
 
 " So ye did, so ye did ! " said Espey eagerly. 
 " Ye did n't 'low fur we-uns ter know ez that man
 
 56 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 war hyar agin surely settin' out ter build his tav 
 ern or sech. 'Kase ef sech a many folks war stir- 
 rin' in the Cove, we-uns would be 'feared they 'd 
 nose us out 'fore long, an' quit the still." 
 
 Lorenzo Taft's face once more grew stony, as if 
 he beheld some petrifying prospect not included in 
 the range of vision of the natural eye. 
 
 " I reckon I hev got ez much call ter be 'feared 
 ez you-uns," he protested. " I dunno ez enny o' 
 you-uns hev sarved out a prison term fur illicit dis- 
 tillin' but me." 
 
 The others stirred uneasily at the mere mention 
 of the possibility, their faces, stricken with a deep 
 gravity, all illumined by the brilliant flare of the 
 flames springing up anew ; for the grizzled elderly 
 man was busying himself in replenishing the fire. 
 The wall of red earth on one side, on the other the 
 wall of dark gray rock, alternating with lighter 
 tints, where the blastings had riven its close tex 
 ture ; the heavy supporting timbers made of great 
 tree boles (what sordid translation from the noble 
 forests without, where the unstricken of their kin 
 dred still towered toward the stars, and sang with 
 the winds, and received glad gifts from the seasons 
 in springing sap and spreading leaf, in acorn and 
 cone, and kept a covenant with time registering 
 the years in mystic rings in their inmost hearts !) ; 
 the black aperture of the tunnel on one hand, and 
 opposite a mysterious recess leading beyond ; even 
 a rat, and his elongated shadow, which, augmented 
 into frightful proportions, sped after him in a
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 57 
 
 mimic chase across the trampled red clay floor, 
 all became visible in detail. The disorder of the 
 immediate surroundings, the barrels, the tubs, the 
 sacks full of meal, the great woodpile, the rotting 
 refuse of the pomace in heaps waiting to be cast 
 down into the half-submerged shaft close at hand, 
 the copper still, itself, and the spiral worm and its 
 adjuncts made a definite impression hitherto lost 
 in the gloom. The shadows of the mountaineers 
 doubled their number, as they sat, grave and ab 
 sorbed, and gazed at the deep red and yellow and 
 vivid white flare within the furnace. They seemed 
 to wait in silence until the ill-fitting door clanged 
 again, as if their senses recognized an added safety 
 in the gloom which was not approved by their 
 judgment. 
 
 As the door closed the elder distiller spoke. 
 
 " I dunno ez I hanker ter sarve no prison term," 
 he said lugubriously. " An' I kin see full plain 
 ez this hyar still will hev ter quit ef the Cove gits 
 full o' valley folks. We-uns will hev ter move, 
 sure ! " 
 
 "Move whar?" demanded Taft. "I been 
 a-movin' afore. That 's how kem I lef ' Piomingo 
 Cove, whar the revenue folks knowed me better." 
 
 There was another long silence. 
 
 " Burn him out ! " exclaimed Jack Espey vio 
 lently, bringing the foot which he had held on his 
 knee down to the ground with a vehemence that 
 made the spurs jingle. " Let him move ! Burn 
 his shanty every time he gits it started."
 
 58 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Lorenzo Taft recoiled. The glimmer from the 
 crevices of the furnace door made a dull red twi 
 light about him, as he sat on the barrel against the 
 red wall. The suggestion was not new to his 
 mind. He had not intended, however, that it 
 should take root amongst the moonshiners and 
 augment their jeopardy. He thought that, if he 
 were any judge of character, Kenniston would 
 soon have enemies enough here. The stranger 
 was already busy in antagonizing Cap'n Lucy, 
 an early collision was inevitable. This catastrophe 
 to the building might be presumed to be the natu 
 ral outcome of their wrangles, and he would fain 
 have silently awaited this interpretation of the 
 event. As to the old mountaineer he felt no 
 qualms of conscience ; Cap'n Lucy was amply able 
 to take care of himself. 
 
 This was the trend of Lorenzo Taft's plan, 
 the reason of his avoidance of the subject of the 
 stranger. How or why his expectation should 
 have miscarried he could not for the life of him 
 see. The man had before been in the Cove. His 
 presence would soon be an ordinary accepted fact. 
 Fate merely would seem to harass Kenniston and 
 his plans. Fire is a dangerous element in build 
 ing, nevertheless requisite, in the tinner's, the 
 plumber's, even the paper-hanger's art, and a con 
 flagration in remote places is a terrible thing. 
 Kenniston would become discouraged after a time, 
 and desist. 
 
 But Lorenzo Taft had never intended that this
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 59 
 
 work should be through the united means of moon 
 shiners. Five men were too many to keep the 
 secrets of arson. The art of moonshining is neces 
 sarily worked with numbers, but the fire-bug's 
 must needs be a solitary trade. He could not see 
 the rift in his logic. How had they taken the 
 alarm. ? 
 
 He marked with secret fear how the suggestion 
 fared. Larrabee, who had begun again to read by 
 the knifelike gleam from the crevice of the furnace 
 door, caught upon the page on his knee, as he sat 
 close beside it, looked up with a keen, pondering 
 face, his finger still on the line along which it was 
 wont to guide his wavering comprehension. Surely 
 he found no thoughts in its wake responsive to the 
 idea now astir in his active, untaught brain. Law- 
 breaking is a progressive evil. If he had not been 
 engaged in the crime of illicit distilling, which 
 has, however, its apologists from the mere stand 
 point of economics, who plead the inherent right 
 of a man to use his own corn and fruit to serve 
 his own advantage, this further iniquity of the 
 destruction of the property of another could not 
 have found lodgment in his consideration, for he 
 was not naturally a cruel man, nor wicked. But 
 in the depths of the earth, working at an unlawful 
 vocation, in jeopardy of his liberty and in fear 
 of his life, viewing the world only in transient 
 glimpses in the midst of a backwoods community, 
 and sustaining in effect an assumed character, 
 that of a slothful farmer, an ignorant man's mind,
 
 60 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 however good the native essence, is not likely to 
 develop fairly ; and he may read the New Testa 
 ment, as indeed those wiser and better than he 
 have done, as a matter of literary interest and 
 excitement, with not a thought of personal appli 
 cation. 
 
 The half-drunken boy pulled himself out of his 
 semi-recumbent position on the floor. 
 
 " That's the dinctum, by Gawd ! " he exclaimed, 
 his solemn red face swollen and somnolent of 
 expression. " Burn him out ! Burn him out ! 
 Make him move ! Kindle up a leetle hell around 
 him ! " 
 
 He broke out with a *wild, hiccoughing laugh, 
 singing in a queer falsetto, 
 
 ' ' Ladybng, Ladybug, fly to yer home ! 
 Yer house is on fire ' " 
 
 ending in a shrill cackle of derision and a quaver 
 ing whoop. 
 
 " Shet up, sonny ! " said Copley, the veteran 
 moonshiner, who seldom interfered save upon a 
 question of work. Even he turned from the exami 
 nation of the fermentation of a tub of mash which 
 had been in question, his lantern in his hand, and 
 a slow smile of discovery in the perplexed, anxious 
 wrinkles of his wooden face. " I reckon our fire 
 would last ez long ez his buildin' timber." 
 
 There was not a protest from among them. Lo 
 renzo Taft, more dismayed than he could at once 
 realize, again marveled how they had taken the 
 sudden alarm.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 61 
 
 " Ye ain't never tole me yit how it air ez you-uns 
 fund out, sence I been gone this evenin', ez thar 
 war a stranger in the Cove, an' how ye kriowed 
 't war this hyar Kenn'ston down at Tems's." 
 
 There was a sudden volley of laughter, and 
 Larrabee closed his book with a bang of triumph. 
 
 " Our turn now ! Jack, he wants ter hear the 
 news! " he called out to Espey. 
 
 " Ye mought ez well s'arch the hen-house fur 
 teeth ez ter kem hyar ter we-uns, 'way down in the 
 ground, axin' fur news ! " protested Jack sarcas 
 tically. 
 
 A frown was gathering on Taft's face. He no 
 longer had the incentive to self-command which the 
 welfare of a plot requires. His plot was shattered ; 
 the event was out of his control, at the uncovenanted 
 mercy of the future. It was almost sheerly from 
 the force of curiosity that he pressed the question : 
 
 " How did ye know, ennyhow ? " 
 
 Perhaps he might not have been enlightened save 
 for Larrabee's relish for detailing the circumstances, 
 in the paucity of incident and interest in their un 
 derground career. 
 
 " Waal," he began in a narrative tone, and they 
 all composed themselves to listen. Even the elderly 
 drudge decanted a jug of doublings into a keg with 
 marked speed of manner, and shuffled up into the 
 circle, where he seated himself on a broken-backed 
 chair, which, since he could not lean backward, 
 rendered him fain to lean forward, his elbows on 
 his knees, " waal, this evenin', it bein' sorter lone-
 
 62 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 some down hyar, I knowed 't war goin' ter rain, 
 I felt sorter like 't would be toler'ble pleasant 
 ter read in my book." 
 
 He paused in pride ; the respect of the others for 
 this accomplishment was visible on their faces ; it 
 might be said to be almost tangible. 
 
 " I could n't find it, though, nowhar ; an' I 
 s'arched an' s'arched. An' suddint I 'membered I 
 hed lef ' it on the counter in the store. So knowin' 
 't war nigh dark, an' nobody likely ter be stirrin', I 
 went up inter the suller an' listened ; an' ez I hearn 
 nuthin', I went up the ladder inter the room. Ye 
 know I felt plumb safe, fur I thunk the door war 
 locked on the outside." 
 
 " Waal, war n't it ? " asked Taft, with a swift 
 look of alarm. 
 
 " It war n't locked at all ; fur, ez I stood thar, 
 I hed jes' by accident shet the door o' the counter 
 up an' the suller, the door of the room opened." 
 
 Taft's breath was fast. He had himself unlocked 
 the door before he came down to the still. He could 
 have sworn it. 
 
 " The door opened, an' a leetle gal kem in," 
 Larrabee went on. 
 
 Taft's dismayed eyes were fixed unblinkingly 
 upon him. 
 
 " Ye did n't tell her nuthin' ! " he exclaimed, for 
 he recognized the avenging " Sis " without descrip 
 tion. 
 
 Larrabee laughed at the reminiscence of the hu 
 mors of the situation.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAB. 63 
 
 " 1 war fit ter drap down dead with plumb skeer 
 at the sight o' her ! But I sorter held up by the 
 counter, an' I say, ' I kem ter see 'Renzo Taft, 
 yer dad, I reckon.' An' she owned up ter it. An' 
 I say, ' I 'lowed he kep' the door o' the sto' locked.' 
 An' she say, ' He do. I think 't war locked.' ' I 
 reckon not,' I say, ' fur I could n't hev walked 
 in ef he hed locked it.' An' she say, ' I could n't 
 hev locked it good, agin. I onlocked it this evenin' 
 with my grandmam's key what I brung from her 
 house.'" 
 
 Lorenzo Taft gasped. The idea of old Mrs. 
 Jini way's keys unlocking his helpless doors gave 
 him a sense of the futility of concealment from the 
 prying feminine eye which nothing else could so 
 adequately compass. 
 
 "An' then," continued Larrabee, with another 
 burst of laughter, Taft did not think " Sis " half 
 so funny, "I axed her what ailed her ter open 
 the door of her dad's store whilst he war gone. She 
 looked like she hed a mind not to say another word. 
 But she tuk another notion, I reckon she did n't 
 like ter be faulted, an' 'lowed ez a strange man 
 hed rid by ; an' his horse bein' turrible fractious 
 and hard-mouthed, the bit hed bruk in the critter's 
 mouth, an' he wanted ter buy another. So Sis tried 
 ter open the door, and done it, with her granny's 
 key. An' she sold him a bit. She said he war 
 powerful saaft-spoken an' perlite, ez ef she 'lowed 
 / war n't ! An' that gin me a chance ter ax her 
 what he said. An' she tole his name, an' the word
 
 64 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ez he war 'bidin' at Tems's, fur Sis axed him. 
 He got away with mighty leetle news that Sis hed 
 enny cur'osity 'bout." 
 
 Lorenzo Taft listened in silent despair. Disaster 
 seemed closing about him. Certainly this was a 
 field for a stepmother. Adelicia could not take the 
 enterprising " Sis " in hand a moment too soon. 
 
 " How much did she want to know 'bout you-uns 
 that ye did n't tell ? " demanded Taft. 
 
 " Waal, I fell in line, an' wanted ter buy suthiu', 
 too. I purtended I wanted ter buy a pound o' nails. 
 Sis weighed 'em out fur me, gin me mighty scant 
 measure, an' then I 'lowed I would wait ter see 
 you-uns, an' I sot down in a cheer. An' she sent 
 Joe ter set with me, ter see I never stole nuthin' 
 o' the gear, I reckon, an' went off in the t'other 
 room ter spinnin', ter jedge by the sound o' the 
 wheel. An' Joe drapped off ter sleep, an' arter a 
 while I croped down hyar agin. I reckon she 
 'lowed, when she missed me, ez I got tired an' went 
 away." 
 
 Taft, anxiously canvassing the probabilities, 
 could but deem this more than likely. He began 
 to breathe freely. The girl was too young to criti 
 cally observe any departure from the usual routine, 
 or to reason about the matter. He doubted if she 
 would know what moonshining was, or could draw 
 any inference from the fact of concealment should 
 their precautions chance to fall under her notice. 
 Not that he intended, however, to submit them to 
 this jeopardy. The finding and fitting of old Mrs.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 65 
 
 Jiniway's key to the door, in order that the sale 
 of the bit might not be lost, savored too much of 
 a precocious intelligence to be needlessly trusted. 
 " Sis will bear watchin'," he said to himself, un 
 aware that this was a mutual conclusion. 
 
 For early rising was one of the virtues inculcated 
 in old Mrs. Jiniway's rule of life. Cornelia Taft 
 was awake betimes the following morning, a dawn 
 full of rain, of gray mist veiling the mountains, of 
 low clouds, of heavy, windless air. She saw its 
 melancholy gleams through the crevices of the clap 
 boards of the roof above her head and the batten 
 shutter close by her bed. She knew that these 
 fugitive glimmers were brighter than the dull day 
 slowly breaking without, from the contrast with the 
 deep tones of intervenient shadow. She lay looking 
 at them for a time with this thought in her mind, 
 and then she leaned forward and opened the shutter. 
 It was as she had fancied : the dusk was almost 
 visible, like a brown mist that seemed subtle and 
 elusive, and always vaguely withdrew whenever the 
 eye would fain dwell upon it. A great elm grew 
 just without the window and hung high above the 
 roof. Its leaves were all lustrous and deeply green 
 with the moisture ; the graceful bole and branches 
 were darker and more definite than their wont. A 
 bird's-nest was in a crotch. She turned her head to 
 hear the sleepy chirp of nestlings. She wondered 
 that Joe had not rifled it, only because he had not 
 observed it, she felt sure. " That boy don't take 
 notice o' nuthin'," she commented acridly upon her
 
 66 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 senior. The next moment her own powers of obser 
 vation were brought into play. She heard steps, 
 voices, a loud laugh, and before she could experience 
 either fear or surprise very definitely two or three 
 men passed out of the house, under the elm-tree, 
 and down the road, vanishing in the mist. She 
 recognized one of them as the man who had so sud 
 denly appeared in the store the day before ; another 
 she had never seen ; the third was very young and 
 very drunk. 
 
 Despite the sanctimonious atmosphere that had 
 characterized Mrs. Jiniway's domicile, the doings of 
 the unregenerate had always been commented upon 
 with the freedom affected by those who are subject 
 neither to the temptation nor the transgression. 
 Few gossips were better informed upon current 
 affairs than she and her youthful charge ; and it 
 might be safe to say that, to all intents and pur 
 poses, a United States marshal knew no more 
 about the revenue laws as applied to illicit distill 
 ing than did Miss Cornelia Taft. 
 
 Her small mind received a great enlightenment as 
 she watched the young moonshiner reel down the 
 road with his two companions, and then she leaned 
 forward and softly and deftly closed the shutter as 
 before.
 
 IV. 
 
 THE day proved of variable mood. The mists 
 clung sullenly to slope and ravine for a time ; the 
 clouds hung low, full of menace ; even a muttering 
 of thunder afar off now and again stirred their 
 dense gray masses. The veiled mountains were 
 withdrawn into invisibility. Below, the earth lay 
 as if it consisted only of dull levels, limited, silent, 
 comatose, for the dank, drowsy influence pervaded 
 all energies alike of the animate and the inanimate ; 
 there was no sound of beast or bird, no stir of wind 
 or rustle of leaf, and a lethargy dulled pulse and 
 muscle and brain. 
 
 The sunburst came with the effect of revelation. 
 A vague tremor pervaded the tissues of the gray 
 mists, and all at once a great white glory was on 
 the green mountain sides. The vast spaces to the 
 blue zenith were filled with radiant flying fleecy 
 forms as the transfigured vapor took wing. Far in 
 the south the gray cloudage still held its consistency, 
 and trembled with thunder and sudden elusive pal 
 pitating veins of yellow lightning. But the lithe arc 
 of a rainbow presently sprang athwart it, and the 
 wind came gayly piping down the gorge. In the 
 actual perceptible jubilance of the earth, it might 
 seem that the miracles of the goodness and the
 
 68 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 gladness of the sun were no common thing. There 
 was a visible joy among the leaves as they fluttered 
 together, and lifted up their dank fibres, and lus 
 trously reflected the pervasive sheen, and tremu 
 lously murmured and chanted in elfin wise beneath 
 the breath. How was it that the plaining river 
 should suddenly find its melodies again as if light 
 and song were interdependent ? A tumultuous, rol 
 licking stave it flung upon the air ; and so, faster 
 to the valley ! The benignant revivification was on 
 the very flocks ; the dull, submissive sheep, huddled 
 drowsily together in the gray menace of the morn 
 ing, were astir once more, and dispersed here and 
 there as they browsed. Even Luther was singing 
 in the barn as he mended his ploughgear. All day 
 the swift upward flights of the sheeny white figures 
 continued at intervals, and when Adelicia set forth 
 to drive the cows home, in the afternoon, only the 
 more radiant aspects of the world gave token of the 
 storm of the night. She hardly left the print of 
 her shoe in the wild woodland ways through which 
 she wandered, so had the warmth and the light 
 dried the dank herbage. She was out betimes. 
 There was something in the long, meditative strolls 
 that harmonized with certain moods, and Cap'n 
 Lucy sometimes sourly commented, " Ad'licia gone 
 ter fotch home the cows ? Waal, who be a-goin' 
 ter fotch home Ad'licia ? " 
 
 It might be an hour before Spot would think of 
 turning her crumpled horns homeward. The sun 
 shone aslant through the vast forests, but still hung
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 69 
 
 well up in the western sky. Through the deeper 
 gloom amongst the gigantic trees the rays hardly 
 penetrated. She stopped once to gaze from the 
 midst of the dark green shade of the umbrageous 
 tangle at the strange effects of the light where it 
 fell into an open space cleared long ago by " gir 
 dling " the trees, which betokened collapsed agri 
 cultural intentions, for the ground had never been 
 broken by the plough. The enormous dead trees 
 were still standing, and time and rain and wind 
 had worn them to a pallid whiteness. She could 
 see the successive clusters of columns, one after an 
 other, rising in the sunlight, until the roofing foli 
 age nearer at hand cut off the view. To Keunis- 
 ton's cultured experience they were reminiscent of 
 the colonnades of some great cathedral, when he had 
 observed the place and the same effect. She had 
 naught in mind to which she could compare them, 
 but those white, silent, columnated aisles in the 
 midst of the savage fastnesses of the great wilder 
 ness always impressed her with a certain solemnity 
 as she passed, and she was wont to pause to gaze 
 at the spot in awe and with a vague sinking of the 
 heart ; for, despite her optimism, Adelicia's heart 
 was not always light. She was sensible of its weight 
 this evening, as she wandered on, leaving the still, 
 white sanctuary in the midst of the forest glooms. 
 Her face was wistful and pale. Her dark gray 
 lustrous eyes were dreamy. She walked slowly and 
 aimlessly, her brown dress brushing the under 
 growth aside with a gentle murmur, her yellow
 
 70 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 calico sunbonnet hanging on her shoulders and 
 leaving her auburn head bare. Her errand was 
 far from her mind. She did not even bethink her 
 self to call the cow, until suddenly she noticed how 
 high upon the great boles of the trees the slanting 
 sunlight registered the waning of the day. Then, 
 as she set the echoes vibrating with the long- 
 drawn cry of " Soo, cow ! soo ! " she turned at right 
 angles, following the trend of the mountain stream, 
 invisible in the labyrinth of the woods, but not far 
 distant she knew by the vague murmur of waters 
 borne by the wind. She had looked for no other 
 listener than the somewhat arbitrary Spot, who 
 would heed or not as she listed, and who might now 
 be standing knee-deep in the limpid ripples near at 
 hand, hearkening, but making no response, intend 
 ing to fare home at her own good pleasure. But the 
 long, musical, mellow call, with its trailing echoes, 
 attracted other and more receptive attention, and as 
 Adelicia turned suddenly into a straighter section 
 of the path she saw at the end of the vista, before 
 it curved again, standing beneath a tree and with 
 his face toward her, a man apparently listening and 
 waiting for her. 
 
 He had dismounted from his horse, a light-tinted 
 yellow roan, who stood as still as if he were of 
 bronze, while his master leaned against the saddle, 
 with his hand on the bridle. He held the other 
 arm akimbo, with his hand on the belt which sup 
 ported a knife and a pair of pistols. They were 
 unconcealed by a coat; he wore a blue shirt and
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 71 
 
 blue jeans trousers, with heavy boots drawn to 
 the knees ; and she recognized him rather by his ac 
 coutrements than his face, for his wide white wool 
 hat was pulled far over it. From under the broad 
 brim he gazed at her with sullen, lowering eyes. 
 
 " I hearn ye callin' the cow, an' I knowed yer 
 voice," he said. " I been waitin' fur ye." 
 
 She faltered for a moment; then, with an evi 
 dent effort, quickened her step and went forward 
 to meet him. She apprehended the anger in his 
 face, apparently, for there was a disarming, depre 
 cating look in her clear dark eyes as she cast them 
 up at him. Her yellow sunbonnet hardly served 
 more for shelter than an aureola might have done, 
 a background for her auburn head; her dark 
 brown dress and the green shadows of the trees 
 added a pallor to her white oval face with its small 
 delicate chin. He did not heed her appealing 
 gaze. It was with a stern, hard voice that he 
 spoke, and a fiery eye. 
 
 " I hev got a word ter say ter ye, Ad'licia," he 
 began, walking slowly by her side and leading his 
 horse, the reins thrown over his arm and his up 
 lifted hand near the bit. 
 
 The animal's head was close above his shoulder, 
 and as Adelicia met the ci-eature's large-eyed and 
 liquid gaze it seemed to her as if she were doubly 
 arraigned before them both. 
 
 "Ye needn't ter try ter fool me," said Jack 
 Espey between his teeth. 
 
 " I ain't tryin' ter fool ye," protested Adelicia.
 
 72 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 He looked at her narrowly, taking note of her 
 evident discomposure, and placing disastrous con 
 struction upon it. 
 
 " Ye 'low ye kin fool me 'thout tryin', I reckon," 
 he said, with a sarcastic smile. 
 
 "I ain't a-foolin' ye," gasped Adelicia. "Ye 
 know why, ye know I ain't ! " 
 
 He hesitated, half constrained to believe her. 
 He still gazed searchingly at her from under the 
 broad brim of his hat. Her wild, agitated look 
 made him doubtful. 
 
 " Now, ye jes' ondertake ter fool me," he con 
 tinued, with an accession of angry jealousy, " an' " 
 he laid his hand on the pistol in his belt "I '11 
 ondertake ter shoot ye dead on the spot." 
 
 The color surged to her face. The tears rushed 
 to her eyes. A sharp conflict waged in her heart 
 for a moment, and then she walked on beside him, 
 pale, composed, silent, as if she were alone in the 
 depths of the primeval wilderness. 
 
 Only the sound of the stir of the saddle with the 
 breathing of the horse as the animal tramped on 
 behind them, their muffled footfalls barely percep 
 tible on the thick herbage of the cattle path, the 
 light whisper of the wind in the leaves, broke the 
 pause, while Jack Espey's touch trembled on the 
 handle of the pistol as he walked beside her. 
 
 Her calmness shook his own composure. 
 
 " Ad'licia ! " he exclaimed petulantly, but with 
 an evident softening of his fierce mood, " why n't 
 ye say suthin' ? Why n't ye say suthin' ter me ? "
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 73 
 
 " I dunno what ter say," she responded coolly. 
 
 " Ye know what I want ter hear," he declared 
 passionately. 
 
 " 'T ain't no use ter say it agin." She turned 
 upon him her eyes, soft and lustrous, like some 
 brownish-greenish moss in the depths of a crystal 
 spring. " I done said it an' said it." 
 
 His hand released the pistol, and pushed his hat 
 far back on his dark hair with a hasty gesture 
 of impatience. Then, with a sudden calmness, 
 " Ad'licia, ye ought n't ter git mad with me ! Ye 
 ought n't ter git mad so dad-burned easy ! " 
 
 " Mebbe I ought n't," she said, with a note of 
 sarcasm in her vibrant voice. Her eyes were 
 bright, her cheek flushed. 
 
 " 'T ain't right," he continued didactically. 
 " 'T ain't religious." He looked at her with grave, 
 admonitory eyes. 
 
 " Mebbe 't ain't," she responded. She laughed 
 a little, unmirthfully, and her lip quivered. 
 
 He strode on a few steps in silence, at a loss for 
 words for explanation. He dreaded and deferred 
 it, and yet he longed for its possible reassurance. 
 As his thoughts canvassed its probabilities, he 
 broke out tumultuously once more : 
 
 " I hev got good reason ter b'lieve ye air foolin' 
 me, good reason, I tell ye, now, Ad'licia ! " 
 
 " Good reason agin my word ? " she demanded, 
 her pride in her eyes. 
 
 He stared at her. " A gal's word ! " he said 
 lightly, and then he laughed. As a guaranty it
 
 74 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 struck him humorously. " I reckon thar ain't 
 many men ez would be willin' ter stand or fall by 
 sech." 
 
 " Ye set store by it wunst," she said humbly. 
 
 " 'T war when ye promised ter marry me," he 
 declared precipitately, unconsciously showing that 
 it was the prospect which he had valued without 
 trusting the promise. " An' I want ye ter 'bide by 
 it, too," he sternly added, suddenly perceiving that 
 it was not policy to adduce too freely precedents as 
 to the friability of feminine promises. 
 
 She shook her head, regardless of his keen, fiery 
 eye. " I ain't goin' ter marry nobody, I reckon," 
 she said slowly. " Ye '11 shoot me dead fust, some 
 day, in one o' yer tantrums." 
 
 " Ye ain't a-goin' ter marry 'Renzo Taft, an' that 
 I tell ye, now. I '11 shoot ye fust, sure ! " he cried 
 furiously, his eyes blazing upon her. 
 
 The look in her face checked his passionate rage. 
 An utter wonderment, a deep bewilderment, over 
 spread it as she echoed, " ' ' Renzo Taft ! The man 
 over yander at Lost Time mine ? War ye a-talkin' 
 'bout him ?" 
 
 He controlled himself instantly, although his 
 eyes were all ashine and alertly restless. 
 
 " Who war you-uns a-thinkin' 'bout, Ad'licia ? " 
 he asked gently and incidentally. 
 
 " Jasper Larrabee, o' course," she answered in 
 nocently. 
 
 He could only grind a curse between his teeth, 
 and then he was speechless for a moment.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 75 
 
 " I dunno nare nuther good-lookin' young man 
 in the Cove," continued Adelicia, girlishly talking 
 on, oblivious of the significance of her disclosures. 
 " Though I b'lieve Jasper ain't studyin' 'bout sech 
 ez marryin'. He jes' kerns thar toler'ble frequent 
 ter read out'n his book ter uncle Lucy. He kin 
 read powerful well. Uncle Lucy 'lows he senses 
 the Gorspel better from Jasper's readin' 'n the 
 rider's, 'kase whenst he don't onderstan' he kin 
 make Jasper stop an' spell it out an' read it over. 
 An' sometimes " she broke into a little dimpling 
 laugh " whenst the Gorspel goes agin uncle 
 Lucy's policy an' practice, he makes Jasper spell 
 an' spell, an' yit them times he can't spell it out to 
 suit uncle Lucy. But it's plumb heartsome ter 
 hear Jasper read of a stormy night," she added, 
 recalling the one spiritual pleasure of her stunted, 
 starveling spiritual life. 
 
 As she glanced at his face, there was something 
 so gruesome, so strange, in its expression that she 
 was fain to remonstrate. " Ye 'pear powerful 
 techy, Jack," she said. " Ez ter 'Renzo Taft, it 's 
 jes' old uncle Lucy's foolishness ; an' I wish he 'd 
 quit it, too ! Though 't ain't no harm, nuther. 
 Uncle Lucy jes' makes out ez 'Renzo Taft air arter 
 me or Julia fur a stepmammy fur his leetle gal, an' 
 it tickles him ter talk 'bout'n it, it 's so foolish ! 
 Why, Jack, 'Renzo Taft is old enough purty nigh 
 ter be my dad ; an' he ain't ugly, edzac'ly but, 
 but nowise desirable. Uncle Lucy air always 
 peckin' at me fur puttin' myself out ter obligate
 
 76 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 other folks, but I ain't so powerful meek-tempered 
 ez ter marry 'Renzo Taft ter be a stepmammy. 
 Though he ain't axed me, nor nobody else ez I 
 knows on. An' I ain't got nuthin' agin him." 
 
 He walked on beside her, hardly listening, and 
 scarcely caring what she said or thought of Taft. 
 For him, at the moment, Jasper Larrabee, and his 
 gift of reading the Scriptures and interpreting them 
 to Cap'n Lucy's satisfaction and her humble and 
 incidental pleasure, filled all the horizon. His jeal 
 ousy had taken a new lease on life with this more 
 promising object, and with the surer foundation of 
 what she said of Larrabee rather than of what Taft 
 said of her. He hardly heeded her presence as he 
 sought to gather together his faculties. He did 
 not even feel the clumsy caress of the horse now 
 and again rubbing his head against his master's 
 shoulder, as he minced along behind him, accommo 
 dating his long stride to the shorter compass of the 
 human step. The young man's eyes were hot ; 
 they seemed to burn the dry lids, as he gazed down 
 through the cool leafy vistas of the forest; but his 
 voice was calm enough when he suddenly said to 
 her: 
 
 " Ad'licia, ef ye keered ennything 'bout me wuth 
 talkin' 'bout, ye 'd marry me now." 
 
 The placidity which her face had resumed as she 
 had talked disappeared abruptly. She was once 
 more anxious, disquieted, on the brink of tears. 
 
 "Ye know, Jack," she expostulated, "I can't 
 marry agin uncle Lucy's word."
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 77 
 
 " Ye would ef ye keered a straw, a bare straw." 
 
 " Uncle Lucy jes' say, ' Wait awhile.' It 's jes' 
 ' awhile,' else I would go agin his cornsent." 
 
 "Ye don't keer," he reiterated dolorously, for 
 her protest was welcome to him. 
 
 "Uncle Lucy jes' say," she went on very fast, 
 " jes' wait till that man ez you-uns shot in Tangle 
 foot Cove gits well. He '11 git well, I reckon. Ye 
 said he war powerful hearty an' big. Uncle Lucy 
 say he ain't goin' ter lemme marry a man ez 
 mought be tried fur his life, ef he kin holp it." 
 
 " Ef ye keered fur me, ye wouldn't gin that fur 
 Cap'n Lucy's word ! " he asseverated, as he lifted 
 his arm high in the air and snapped his fingers res 
 onantly. 
 
 The horse shied suddenly at the sound, and pulled 
 heavily on the hand that held the bit. 
 
 Her eyes were full of tears. 
 
 "Jack," she said in deep humiliation, "I can't 
 'low at this time o' day ez I don't keer fur uncle 
 Lucy's word. I never eat none o' my own bread 
 in my life." 
 
 She knew that he had turned and was staring at 
 her, although she could not distinguish him through 
 her tears. If she had never loved him, her heart 
 might have warmed to him now, for the vehemence, 
 the partisanship, with which he protested her inde 
 pendence. 
 
 " Eat yer own bread ! " he cried in a ringing 
 voice that made her shrink. " Ye never eat nuthin' 
 else ! Who churns, an' sweeps, an' mends, an'
 
 78 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 cooks, an' milks cows, this many an' many a day? 
 That thar dough-faced Julia ? " 
 
 To his amazement she burst out laughing, but 
 the next moment she was sobbing in good earnest, 
 and he hardly knew whether she was glad or sorry. 
 
 He scarcely paused to wonder. He went tumul- 
 tuously on to repudiate the obligations that so low 
 ered her pride and her title to self-respect. " Who 
 hoes, an' sews, an' weaves, an' spins, an' raises the 
 chickens an' tur-rkeys an' sech, an' answers old 
 Cap'n Lucy's call ' Ad'licia ! Ad'licia ! ' all day long? 
 That thar long, lank, limp Julia ? Ef I war ter 
 marry ye an' take ye away from thar, that house 
 would fall down, I reckon, an' old Cap'n Lucy 
 knows it." 
 
 His well-set bluish-gray eyes had brightened as 
 he spoke ; he smiled genially ; his face was hand 
 some and intelligent with this expression. The 
 next moment it clouded heavily. He could not do 
 this as almost any other man might, marry a 
 wife and take her home. He was a fugitive and an 
 exile by reason of the jeopardy of the man whom 
 he had shot in Tanglefoot Cove, and who still hung 
 between life and death, his own fate involving that 
 of his enemy. Jack Espey felt sure that he could 
 have proven self-defense, had he permitted himself 
 to be apprehended at the time. But from the cir 
 cumstance of his hasty flight, uncertain what he had 
 done and animated by ignorant terrors of the law, 
 the lapse of time, the dispersion of witnesses, he 
 feared to submit his action to a legal arbitrament 
 now.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 79 
 
 The suspense was in itself a terrible retribution, 
 but it is safe to say that Espey had hardly appreci 
 ated its rigors till now, when it hampered his every 
 prospect in life. He had been a man of some sub 
 stance in his native place, according to the humble 
 rating of the mountaineers, and the lowering of 
 pride involved in his present situation was very 
 bitter to him. He could not ask to be received 
 under Cap'n Lucy's roof, and its hospitalities cer 
 tainly would not be offered. He repented of his 
 candor in making known his circumstances when 
 he had " asked for " Adelicia, for in the probation 
 on which he had been placed he recognized the 
 crafty hope of her uncle that the affair would soon 
 blow over. He felt it a poor reward for his frank 
 ness, and he determined that it should not go 
 without requital in turn. " Jes' lemme fix up that 
 cussed bother in Tanglefoot, an' durned ef Cap'n 
 Lucy ever shell see Ad'licia's face agin ! " he often 
 said to himself. 
 
 Meanwhile he hung around as best he might, 
 fraternizing secretly with the moonshiners ; for here 
 was the best opportunity of earning enough to pro 
 vide for his simple wants, and to keep him out of 
 the observation of the law, while awaiting the result 
 in Tanglefoot, whence the news had lately become 
 more hopeful. 
 
 He had fallen in with Jasper Larrabee at the 
 blacksmith's shop at the cross-roads, where he had 
 paused in his flight for his horse to be shod ; the 
 two had " struck up " a mutual liking, and Espey
 
 80 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 had come with Larrabee to the Cove, where he 
 divided his time pretty equally between his new 
 friend's home and the Lost Time mine. His frank 
 ness had not extended to these acquaintances, who 
 knew no reason why he should shun observation 
 except that which they shared with him concerning 
 the still. His utility there and its financial advan 
 tages were ample to justify the continuation of his 
 stay in the Cove ; and thus, but for his own attack 
 of conscientiousness in revealing his true circum 
 stances to Adelicia and Cap'n Lucy, he might have 
 seemed as advantageously placed as any of his 
 compeers. 
 
 " Waal," said Adelicia, unaccountably bright 
 ened, " we-uns hev ter 'bide by uncle Lucy's word 
 an' wait awhile, bein' ez he hev tuk keer o' me all 
 my days, mighty nigh. An' ye better be toler'ble 
 perlite ter Julia, too," she added, with a radiant 
 smile. " Julia 's cornsider'ble apt ter take notice 
 o' slights." 
 
 He promised humbly, swallowing his pride with a 
 mighty gulp ; and as they came out from the woods 
 into the more open spaces shelving to the great 
 crags, they encountered Kenniston, a cigar in his 
 mouth, a memorandum in his hand of the bounda 
 ries of his land, taken from the calls of his title- 
 deed, a good-humored triumph on his face, and 
 a gay, kind voice as he instantly recognized and 
 greeted Adelicia. 
 
 He called her to come and observe the splendor 
 of the view from a certain craggy point where there
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 81 
 
 would be an observatory, and his enthusiasm was 
 not dashed even when she gazed off wonderingly 
 into space, seeing nothing to which she was un 
 accustomed, and evidently apprehending naught of 
 what he said. He wondered a trifle, subacutely, 
 how much the perception of beauty may be pro 
 moted by the sense of contrast. Since she knew no 
 dull levels or discordant scenes, the sublime was 
 merely the natural daily presentment of creation, 
 no more a marvel than the rising of the sun, and 
 thus she was bereft of its appreciation. He won 
 dered, too, if the converse of the proposition were 
 true, if those to whom nature is expressed in a 
 meadow, or a series of knobs, or a pond, can have 
 no mental conception of the austere splendors of 
 the craggy heights or the stupendous area of infi 
 nite detail spread before the eye within a wide hori 
 zon piled with mountains. He showed her, too, a 
 small drawing of the projected hotel, which she 
 held awry and almost reversed to gaze upon it. 
 His good humor extended to her companion, whom 
 he had never before seen. Although usually aloof 
 and averse to strangers, Espey found the suave 
 words a salve to his sore heart. He did not know 
 how much less pleasant Kenniston could be when 
 not pleased. Just now even this new acquaintance 
 harmonized most aptly with his gracious mood. Ar 
 tistically viewed, poor Espey might have graced the 
 romantic stage, as he stood, in his dark blue shirt 
 and trousers and great spurred boots, defined 
 against the yellow-bronze horse which he held by
 
 82 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 the bit, his belt full of weapons, his broad white 
 hat far back on his black hair, and his defiant face 
 at once wild and eager and wistful. The man of 
 the alert pencil was moved to wish that he had the 
 art to do him justice. 
 
 Kenniston's kind and ingratiating manner as he 
 explained his plans and expectations, which could 
 not interest the mountaineer, who was as foreign to 
 such considerations as deer or bear, secured never 
 theless Espey's attention and respectful silence. 
 He looked now and again with a sort of reluctant 
 liking at Kenniston's face as he talked, regretting 
 that, since he attached so much hope and conse 
 quence to the project, it would be necessary to burn 
 the buildings down as fast as they were erected. 
 
 In the plenitude of his access of amiability, 
 Kenniston lagged behind and let them stroll away 
 homeward together, as pretty a pair of rustic 
 lovers, he thought, as one could wish to see. 
 
 The sun was well down ; the sky was red ; the 
 evening star was in a saffron haze; the nearest 
 mountains had turned a deep purple, with a vague, 
 translucent, overlaying gray hue like the bloom on 
 a ripe grape ; the distant ranges had vanished in 
 the mystery of night. It was not dark, but the 
 flare of the fire within the door of Cap'n Lucy's 
 cabin was visible as it rose and fell on the pun 
 cheon floor in transitory flickers. It was a poor 
 place, but it was home, and to the exile it looked 
 like paradise. Julia had come to the door, and 
 stood there half in the soft outer light, and half
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 83 
 
 in the firelight within. Schooled and docile, Es- 
 pey remembered his monitor's bidding, and roused 
 his unwilling, flagging energies and his tired, sad 
 heart to evolve some pleasantry as he called out a 
 greeting from the bars. She turned her sleek head 
 and smiled at him. There had never been such 
 eyes in the Cove, except perhaps those which 
 Cap'n Lucy had opened there first some sixty years 
 before, nor such long, dark, curling lashes. She 
 might, however, have been no more comely, for all 
 Jack Espey cared, than old " T'bithy," Adelicia's 
 cat, who arched her plebeian scantily furred back 
 in the door, and surveyed the landscape with her 
 yellow eyes, and yawned from sheer mental vacu 
 ity. He got through the interview with what poor 
 grace he could, and from a sense of duty ; and as he 
 was about to mount, he offered, unobserved by the 
 others, to take Adelicia's hand. To his amaze 
 ment, she looked him full in the face with hard, 
 angry eyes, struck down his hand with a petulant 
 gesture, passed him like a flash, and disappeared 
 within the door. 
 
 Jack Espey, who had no more recognition of the 
 aspect of jealousy than if he had never felt its 
 power, could but mount and ride away in angry 
 bewilderment ; and Kenniston, hearing the furious 
 speed of his horse's hoofs as he went headlong down 
 the dark, rocky road, looked wonderingly after 
 him. 
 
 " He '11 break his neck, at that rate," he said.
 
 V. 
 
 KENNISTON'S gracious mood was not of long con 
 tinuance. He was of the temperament which de 
 mands a prerequisite for good nature. Given an 
 adequate reason to be happy, and he could show 
 you a fine article of felicity. But his heart would 
 not bubble with gratitude on general principles for 
 ordinary blessings enjoyed in common by humanity 
 at large. It was not enough for him that the fried 
 chicken was fat ; that his cigar was good ; that 
 as he smoked after supper on the little porch, the 
 air was so fragrant, so fine, so dry ; that the stars 
 were brighter for the great dark amphitheatre of 
 mountains above whose summits, serrated against 
 the horizon, his far-reaching gaze sought them ; 
 that Julia, as she sat on the step of the threshold, 
 had an outline and a coiffure that he would have 
 discriminated as classic in marble; that every 
 trace of the battered beauty of old Cap'n Lucy's 
 countenance vanished, leaving it a unique ideal for 
 a gargoyle, when his guest chanced to intimate that 
 he had written to the register in the county town, 
 who had furnished him with the calls from his title- 
 deeds, and that he felt very sure that Cap'n Lucy 
 had inadvertently trespassed on his neighbor's do-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 85 
 
 main. Harmoniously ugly as his countenance was, 
 Cap'n Lucy's conduct was more so. 
 
 " Waal, sir," he said, after an interval of stunned 
 dismay, during which Kenniston leaned forward, 
 drawing with his cane an imaginary line on the 
 floor, and repeating the measurements for the boun 
 daries from the paper in his hand, " ye an' the 
 register may go to hell, sir, an' brile, sir ! " 
 
 Cap'n Lucy's face was very distinct in the light 
 from the fire within the door, as he sat tilted back 
 in the chair against the post of the porch, and 
 a sudden sensation ensued amongst his household 
 as they gazed upon him, astounded by this unpre 
 cedented breach of all the canons of hospitality. 
 There was silence for a moment. Luther stirred 
 uneasily, the legs of his chair rasping harshly on 
 the rough flooring of the porch. Even Julia gave 
 signs of having heard by turning her head slowly, 
 with a certain interest and excitement on her im 
 passive face. Adelicia's eyes dilated with alarm 
 as she half rose from her seat on the step of the 
 porch ; she had grown pale ; her delicate, fine little 
 chin and her lips quivered with the agitation of the 
 moment. 
 
 " Oh, uncle Lucy, ye don't mean that, ye don't 
 mean that, now ! " she urged. 
 
 " Oh, I ain't partic'lar ez ter when ! " the old 
 man blurted out. And then he paused to chuckle 
 in sinister fashion over his play upon the double 
 meaning of the word " now " in this connection. He 
 had a satisfaction, too, in thwarting the ever-ready
 
 86 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 peacemaker and apologist, and in her look of balked 
 surprise as she cogitated upon his answer. 
 
 His grimly jocose pride in his cleverness re 
 lieved the tension of the moment. It suddenly be 
 came more practicable for Kenniston to overlook 
 his rude rage, when the circumstances rendered it 
 hardly possible for him to take cognizance of it. 
 His indignant repugnance to the situation was 
 sharply manifest in his face, however, which was 
 of an expressive type, but he compassed an offhand 
 manner as he said, 
 
 " Oh, the register and I may be burned indefi 
 nitely and to your heart's content, in due course of 
 spiritual justice ; but I fancy it won't be the direct 
 consequence of anything in the nature of muni 
 ments of title, and it won't change the metes and 
 bounds of this land by one rod, perch, or pole." 
 
 Another voice broke into the discussion abruptly : 
 
 "What reason hev ye got ter 'low ez Cap'n Lucy 
 be on yer land ? " 
 
 The dull irradiation of the porch from the flicker 
 of the fire within the house barely sufficed to show 
 Lorenzo Taft's burly form standing beside the 
 post. His approach had been unnoticed by the 
 group, but his question apprised them that he had 
 joined them some moments previously, and the 
 pawing of his mare at the gate showed that she 
 had been hitched in anticipation of passing the 
 evening there. In the excitement of the situation 
 the usual greetings were dispensed with, and Ken 
 niston not unwillingly recited anew the calls of the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 87 
 
 title papers, again sketching the boundary line 
 with his cane on the floor, and even taking from 
 his pocket a letter, and drawing upon the back of 
 the envelope a miniature plat of the irregularly 
 shaped body of land. Even in his preoccupation 
 he could but note the intelligence of the attention 
 which the visitor closely bent upon his exposition 
 and the rude draught, the receptivity of his mind, 
 the pertinence of his questions. Taft stood lean 
 ing over the back of Kenniston's chair, his blue 
 eyes fixed on the paper in the slim deft fingers of 
 the draughtsman, his own brawny hand laid medi 
 tatively on his long yellow beard. 
 
 " Of course," said Kenniston, folding the paper, 
 and by way of concluding the matter, " I am ready 
 to pay the colonel the full value of his improve 
 ments. He has only to name his price." 
 
 The irate glance which Cap'n Lucy shot at him 
 served to steady him a trifle, to tame his buoyant 
 sense of triumph. He had an ample fund of phy 
 sical courage ; that is, in his fresh, healthy, normal 
 mental impulses he never thought of fear. But he 
 had seldom been brought into actual personal 
 danger, and the details of sundry lawless and fu 
 rious feuds that had come to his knowledge during 
 his stay in the mountains were brought suddenly 
 to his remembrance by that swift, scathing look ; 
 he was further reminded that few of these bloody 
 chronicles recounted so definite a provocation as 
 the effort at eviction. Nevertheless, the sense of 
 proprietorship was strong within him, and the
 
 88 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 active aggressiveness of a man with the coercions 
 of that weapon in his hand, the law of the land, 
 made his blood stir when Cap'n Lucy, wagging 
 his arbitrary old head, retorted, " An' s'pose I 
 say like I hev said ez my h'a'thstone ain't 
 got no price ! S'pose I won't sell, an' I won't gin 
 in, an' I keep my line whar I know my line hev 
 got a right ter be, whut then, hey? " 
 
 But for his gray head, so did his manner and ex 
 pression reach the climax of aggravation, it might 
 have seemed righteousness to smite him. Kettniston, 
 held in the bonds of such considerations, controlled 
 himself with difficulty. He was unused to self- 
 restraint, or to occasions that necessitated it. The 
 color had overspread his face; he was hot, im 
 patient, indignant. " Why, then, there 's nothing 
 for it but to procession the land and establish the 
 boundary," he declared. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy stared in amazement. This possi 
 bility seemed never to have occurred to him as a 
 solution. 
 
 " Percession my Ian' ! " he cried at last, as if the 
 extremity of insult had been offered him. " Per 
 cession my Ian' ! " His face was scarlet ; his eye 
 blazed ; his hand, held out with a gesture of insist 
 ence toward Kenniston, shook with fury. 
 
 " Or my land," Kenniston sneered. " 'T is n't 
 capital punishment. Plenty of men have survived 
 the processioning of land, thriven on it ! My 
 land, then ; the process won't hurt it. Get the 
 line, that 's what I want."
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 89 
 
 Once or twice Adelicia sought, in her agitation, 
 to interpose. Now she rose and came to Cap'n 
 Lucy's side, taking hold of the shaking hand which 
 he brought ever nearer to Kenniston's face, who 
 would not draw back, nor mitigate nor postpone his 
 demand, in the front of this threatening gesture. 
 " Oh, uncle Lucy don't don't ! Sweet uncle 
 Lucy, don't ! Thar 's room enough in the mount 
 ings fur all o' we-uns ! Look at the mountings 
 how big they air toler'ble roomy fur sure ! Don't 
 quar'l 'bout lan\ uncle Lucy, -7- whenst we-uns hev 
 got all out o' doors fur Ian', an' git in a fight, 
 mebbe, an' git hurt, an' " 
 
 "Ad'licia," snarled "sweet uncle Lucy," with a 
 gasp, pretermitting his attentions to Kenniston to 
 turn upon her his corrugated face, " Ad'licia, I tole 
 that man ez war so dead set ter marry ye ez I 
 would n't let him hev ye. But I hev changed my 
 mind. I '11 tell him he kin cart ye off from hyar 
 ter-morrer, an' welcome, mighty welcome, ef so be 
 he ain't changed his mind ; fur I can't abide ye 
 an' yer ' peace talks,' like a Injun, an' yer interferin' 
 with yer elders, an' yer purtenses, no mo' ! Thar, 
 now!" he exclaimed in triumph, as she fell back 
 quite speechless because of this disclosure of the 
 matrimonial proposition. " I reckon ye '11 set down 
 now, an' stay set ! " 
 
 Then he turned to Kenniston with an accession 
 of fury, the fiercer for the momentary stemming of 
 the tide. 
 
 " An' I say, hyar I be, an' yer percessionin' don't
 
 90 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 tech me nowhar. An' hyar I '11 'bide, no matter 
 whut ! An' I won't sell out, an' I won't take no 
 price fur my h'a'thstone, no matter whut ! " 
 
 " Then," said Kenniston hotly, " you '11 be ejected 
 in due process of law, that 's all." 
 
 He changed color the next moment and bit his 
 lip, for he had put himself in a false position. 
 
 " That 's toler'ble tall talk ter a man under his 
 own roof," said Cap'n Lucy, suddenly cool, and not 
 without dignity. 
 
 Kenniston was out of countenance for the nonce. 
 He felt that there was scant grace or utility in forc 
 ing the matter, which was beyond the control of 
 either, to this unseemly issue. He had been hur 
 ried by his impatience of contradiction and Cap'n 
 Lucy's illogical and arbitrary temper far beyond his 
 intention, which was originally merely to propose 
 to have the surveyor run out the boundary line in 
 order to demonstrate for the old man's enlighten 
 ment the fact that he was a trespasser, and to offer 
 to pay the full value of the improvements. But he 
 was not of the type from whom penitents are devel 
 oped. The acknowledgment of being in the wrong 
 was inexpressibly repugnant to him. Perhaps he 
 could not have constrained himself to make it but 
 that he foresaw the reversal of their mutual posi 
 tion. 
 
 " You 're more than half right, colonel. I am 
 out of place here. I feel that. And, under the cir 
 cumstances, I think I had better take myself off." 
 
 He had intended to get the better of his host.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 91 
 
 But his most cruel desire could never have sought 
 to compass the deep humiliation of vanquishment 
 which had befallen poor Cap'n Lucy. The im 
 plied reflection upon his hospitality, the conscious 
 ness that his own hasty words justified it, the re 
 ceding and diminishing aspect of the provocation 
 common to the mental vision at such moments, 
 with the magnifying of the offense, all combined to 
 render him a chopfallen and lugubrious old non- 
 combatant in the space of a second. But Cap'n 
 Lucy's talent for open confession and repentance 
 was not more marked than Kenniston's. He sat 
 grum, crestfallen, afflicted of mien, but silent. His 
 keen eye had no longer an alert interest ; it was 
 fixed with an absorbed, reflective stare on an inter 
 mediate point some two feet from the floor, with 
 the air of insight rather than outward vision. Ken- 
 niston was not prepared, either, for the protest from 
 the younger and ordinarily acquiescent members of 
 the family. 
 
 " Thar, now ! " exclaimed the apathetic Luther, 
 rising to the occasion like a man of this world. 
 " Ye hev actially got ter the p'int o' quar'lin' over 
 yer old land an' worldly goods an' sech. An' what 
 diff 'unce do it make ? The line is thar, no, matter 
 what air one of ye say, an' I reckon the county 
 surveyor air man enough ter find it. Mebbe ye 
 'low ye air powerful interestin', but I ain't list- 
 enin' much, through wantin' to interjuice this hyar 
 plumb special apple-jack I got this evenin' from 
 the cross-roads. Ye 'lowed ye hed never tasted
 
 92 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 sech, Mr. Kenniston. Now try this, sir, an' ye '11 
 feel good enough ter set out an' sing psalms an' 
 hymes an' speritchul chunes the rest of the evenin'." 
 
 Adelicia took a pitcher which the languid Julia 
 had alertly fetched. She spoke for her, as if Julia 
 were dumb. She looked up at Kenniston, with 
 her delicately tinted old-fashioned oval face set in 
 smiles. 
 
 " Ef ye want ter temper it enny ? " she suggested. 
 
 " Git out'n the way, Ad'licia, with that pernicious 
 jug o' cold water ! " exclaimed Luther, shoving her 
 aside. " Take it straight, stranger ; don't spile the 
 good liquor." 
 
 The feminine members of the family had ob 
 served that Kenniston's glass was usually diluted, 
 and in their eagerness to facilitate peace they gave 
 him no excuse. He hardly liked to nullify his 
 bluster of incipient farewell by accepting this 
 show of good fellowship and further hospitality, 
 and yet he could not rudely repel it. He felt that 
 both he and his host had gone too far, much far 
 ther than he had intended. Yet nevertheless his 
 was not the nature nor the practice to overlook an 
 affront. He took the glass, with a slight laugh 
 and the outward show of amity, but he was deter 
 mined to adhere to his threat of departure. Their 
 interests were too adverse to make a longer sojourn 
 appropriate ; time would render them even more 
 inimical, and he was under no obligations to put 
 up with indignities at the hands of Cap'n Lucy 
 or any other man. Could he have thought any-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 93 
 
 thing humorous that affected his interests, he must 
 have been moved by the serio-comic aspect of the 
 old man, sedulously silent lest his tongue escape 
 him, solemnly sampling the new liquor, for his 
 son had filially and with great show of courtesy 
 waited upon him, a sort of aged pallor upon the 
 wrinkles of his face, where erstwhile his rage had 
 glowed so ruddily. In drinking, Taft had uncon 
 sciously a knowing and discriminating air. He 
 was comparing the quality of the beverage with 
 the apple brandy of the Lost Time still. He looked 
 very thoughtful as he lowered the glass, and let the 
 flavor permeate his palate,, and once more took a 
 careful, considerate draught. It was more like 
 business than pleasure. Luther himself did not in 
 dulge beyond the merest swallow for form's sake. 
 He was occupied in guiding the conversation clear 
 of difficulties and bellicose suggestions; and, con 
 sidering his limited and uncouth experience, his 
 efforts to reestablish the decorums of peace were 
 worthy of praise. He evidently considered that 
 he had failed utterly when Kenniston rejoined him 
 in the porch, after the rest of the family had re 
 tired for the night, and communicated his intention 
 of immediate departure. "I can make the cross 
 roads by daylight or breakfast time, no doubt," he 
 said, " if you will let me have my horse ; and I can 
 rest there an hour or so, and then ride on and reach 
 the train, the night express, as it passes the tank 
 and stops for water, about sundown." 
 
 In vain Luther protested. Kenniston declared
 
 94 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 this his original intention. He would save time, 
 and prevent making both journeys by daylight. 
 " I don't believe I could stand the sun two days in 
 succession, at this season. And if I like, I '11 lie 
 over at the cross-roads, and make another night 
 ride." He urged Luther to say nothing to Cap'n 
 Lucy or the other members of the family, as he 
 did not want to combat any objections to his de 
 parture. " The old cap'n will think I bear malice, 
 and really I must go." 
 
 Luther's hesitation in the matter was a trifle net 
 tling to a free agent. He evidently hardly liked 
 to take the responsibility of acting without the 
 autocratic paternal concurrence. Kenniston him 
 self felt the irking of leading-strings. " Cap'n 
 Lucy or no Cap'n Lucy, I 'm going," he said to 
 himself, making a dash for liberty, as it were. " I 
 believe the man thinks Cap'n Lucy owns the 
 earth." 
 
 Luther's obduracy gave way presently, although 
 he persisted in saddling his own horse, also, and 
 accompanying his guest as far as the cross-roads. 
 Kenniston was oppressed with the sense of so punc 
 tilious a host, and the long ride in the dewy night, 
 along the deserted roads, under the white silent 
 stars, would have accorded better with his humor 
 had he been solitary. But the freshening wind 
 that came with the daybreak had a sense of liberty 
 in the broad spread of its wings. Under the slow 
 revelation of the clear gray skies of dawn, he 
 marked how far the tumult of its flight extended
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 95 
 
 in the stirring of the forests on the mountain sides, 
 awakening from the lethargies of the night. He 
 experienced a certain quickening interest in the 
 unrolling of an unfamiliar landscape from the ob 
 scurities of the darkness. He had a keen zest for 
 its beauty, the splendid symmetry of its setting 
 amidst a new and strange conformation of the 
 mountains ; he was responsive, too, to that touch 
 of pensive melancholy, that sense of loss, which one 
 must feel in noting the day-star fade, the quench 
 ing of that white, tremulous, supernal lustre in the 
 midst of the roseate mists ; but his strong mundane 
 heart stirred to see the sun sail majestically up 
 amidst the full argosy of scarlet and amber clouds, 
 freighted with the future, and the breathless expec 
 tation of the quiescent landscape merge into the 
 certainty of largess to the present moment. And 
 he had a yet deeper satisfaction : he noted the in 
 feriority of the magnificence about him to the scene 
 he had left, his own, his very own, and he dwelt 
 upon the recollection of it with a personal triumph, 
 as if he had himself designed and built it. It 
 was with an influx of hopefulness, of content, of 
 renewed interest in the world, that he shook hands 
 with Luther, glad enough to part with him. 
 
 The mountaineer looked after him with a certain 
 wistfulness. His experience was too limited, his 
 idea of the world beyond too vague, for his thoughts 
 to follow the traveler. It was only the sudden dim 
 perception of that fresh, vital, alert turning to 
 fields beyond his ken that smote upon him with a
 
 96 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 sense of deprivation or of discontent, too subtle to 
 be definitely discriminated. 
 
 It was, fortunately, fleeting. Luther's satisfac 
 tion to discover that old Cap'n Lucy approved of 
 his course, and in fact was secretly pleased to be 
 rid of Kenniston's presence, dominated every other 
 consideration. As the day wore on, the old man's 
 jaunty self-importance returned. From various 
 meditative pauses, in which he evidently argued 
 anew the situation, he visibly derived self -justifica 
 tion. He was altogether at ease and himself again 
 in an indefinitely short time, for the father was 
 hardly more worldly-wise than the son. He consid 
 ered Kenniston's departure final. He assumed 
 that his taunt and his sturdy resistance had bluffed 
 the man off from the design of processioning the 
 land, which, being a thing undreamed of hitherto, 
 Cap'n Lucy vaguely feared, albeit sure enough 
 that he stood well within his own boundaries. As 
 time went by without incident or news, he began 
 even to speak of the projected hotel as a thing of 
 the past, a sort of mental mirage of a crack- 
 brained visionary. 
 
 It came upon him, therefore, with the force of an 
 unexpected blow when Luther one day burst into 
 the house with a paper in his hand giving notice of 
 the proposed processioning, and blurted out that 
 he had seen the public notice posted, according to 
 law, at the voting-place of the district, which was 
 the gristmill on Tomahawk Creek. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy, lapsed in the soft securities of
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 97 
 
 peace, was stunned for a moment. That valiant 
 essence, his temper, of all his faculties recovered 
 its vitality first. He mounted his horse and rode 
 to Sawyer's Mill, where, confronting the obnoxious 
 notice, conspicuous upon the doorpost, he stood for 
 an instant the centre of a curious group of idlers, 
 frowningly contemplating it ; then, with a single 
 irate gesture, he promptly tore it down, in defiance 
 of the law. He silently got upon his horse and rode 
 away, leaving Luther and the kindly miller to patch 
 the fragments together, and to replace the notice as 
 before, where, the fractions not perfectly adjusted, it 
 haltingly and disconnectedly continued to proclaim 
 the date, some twenty days hence, when said Kenneth 
 J. Kenniston designed to cause his land to be pro 
 cessioned, stating the corner at which he intended to 
 begin, to ascertain and establish its boundary line. 
 Kenniston's absence, however, Cap'n Lucy still 
 appreciated as a boon. He was free to flounder 
 about amongst the dense jungles of the laurel, 
 "huntin' fur the line ez ef 't war hid 'mongst the 
 bushes like a rattlesnake, an' he mought find it by 
 hearin' it rattle," Luther observed, with his first 
 unfilial criticism. Since the full value of the 
 improvements would doubtless be paid, should it 
 be ascertained that the land was Kenniston's, the 
 son could only think it a matter of inconvenience 
 to be obliged to move, and a misfortune to that 
 extent. But he regarded the contingency as un 
 tenable as a casus belli, having no realization of 
 the reserves of obduracy in Cap'n Lucy's mind,
 
 98 BIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 or of that aversion to change so characteristic of 
 the home-loving aged. He deemed the surveyor 
 the fit discoverer of the line, and deprecated his 
 father's long jaunts up and down the mountain 
 from one " monument of boundary " to the other ; 
 for since there was no adversary to relish the spec 
 tacle, Cap'n Lucy's pride did not preclude him 
 from daily patrolling the extent of his possessions 
 so far as his strength and his horse's legs might 
 serve. But Luther came to think this a frivolous 
 objection indeed, in comparison with his view of 
 his father's standpoint later. 
 
 One day Cap'n Lucy rode up to the side of the 
 cornfield, a late planting, where Luther, with a 
 bull-tongue plough, was industriously engaged in 
 " bustin' out the middles," since the land had been 
 planted, in view of the backwardness of the season, 
 without the preliminary " breaking up." The 
 young man reluctantly came to the fence, his ruddy 
 countenance shadowy, glimpsed beneath his broad- 
 brimmed hat. . 
 
 " Mount an' kem along straight," commanded 
 his father. 
 
 Obedience, implicit and unquestioning, had been 
 Luther's lifelong habit. He looked with despera 
 tion at his suffering corn. " Why, dad, I ain't got 
 on no shoes," he ventured to urge. 
 
 " I aint keerin' ef ye ain't got on no skin," the 
 arbitrary elder declared. " Git on yer beastis an' 
 kem along with me." 
 
 The surprised old plough horse was released, and,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 99 
 
 with his clanging gear still rattling about him, and 
 his owner on his saddleless back, began to take his 
 way, following Cap'n Lucy's lead, up the precipi 
 tous slope of the mountain. The dark forests closed 
 high above their heads. The change from the 
 glare of the noontide of the open field to the chill 
 twilight of the shade was grateful to the senses. 
 The undergrowth and the jungle of the laurel 
 seemed well-nigh impenetrable, except indeed for 
 the traces in broken boughs and bruised leaves of 
 Cap'n Lucy's former transits. They had jour 
 neyed nearly to the summit, and Luther was rue 
 fully meditating on the loss of two good hours of 
 farming weather, when the old man turned his 
 head, glanced over his shoulder, and drew rein. 
 
 " Luther," he said, excitement shining in his 
 blue eyes and the color rejuvenating his face, " ye 
 know that Kenn'ston 'lows his southeast corner air 
 at that boulder, ' known ez Big Hollow Boulder,' " 
 he quoted from the notice with a sneer, " ez 
 ef it could hev been known ez a peegeon-aig boul 
 der or sech." 
 
 Luther nodded in surprise. 
 
 " Waal, he gins notice ez he begins thar." 
 
 Luther nodded again in assent. 
 
 " "Waal, sir, that thar boulder hev been moved." 
 
 The young man stared for a moment. Then a 
 blank alarm settled on his face. 
 ' " Why, dad, it 's onpossible ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Kem an' see ! Kem an' see." And Cap'n 
 Lucy rode on as before.
 
 100 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Luther was never sure whether he really came 
 upon the old landmark earlier than he expected to 
 see it, or whether the anticipation of something 
 novel and incongruous colored his mind. There it 
 was, presently, lying on the steep slope in the 
 midst of the wilderness, as he had always known 
 it, a vast boulder, weighing many tons, with a 
 cavity in it which almost pierced through its bulk, 
 and was large enough to accommodate a man 
 standing at full height. The slope above was bare, 
 for it was near the bald of the mountain, and with 
 outcropping ledges of rock ; athwart these several 
 trees were lying, one apparently old and lightning- 
 scathed long ago, the others freshly storm-riven, for 
 the winds had raged in a recent tempest, and in 
 stances of its fury were elsewhere visible in broken 
 branches in the woods. 
 
 " The wind could n't hev done it," observed Lu 
 ther, as his father pointed at the boulder with a 
 wave of the hand. 
 
 " Wind ? ye sodden idjit ! " 
 
 " 'Pears like ter me it air whar it always war," 
 said Luther, seeking refuge in conservatism from 
 the hazards of conjecture. 
 
 " Luther," said his father impressively, " I know 
 that thar rock war the fust thing my gran'dad 
 viewed in Tennessee, whenst he wagoned 'crost 
 the range ter settle. I hev hearn him say that 
 word time an' agin. He said he camped by it, 
 'count o' the spring close by, up over thar. I hev 
 knowed it familiar fur better 'n fifty year, an' I
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 101 
 
 tell ye ez it useter war around the curve o' the bend 
 o' the mounting up over thar, a-nigh the spring." 
 
 " Hev ye viewed that spot lately ? " asked 
 Luther, drawing his horse to one side, and gazing 
 blankly at the big hollow boulder. 
 
 " Nuthin' ter view, jes' rock an' laidges an' 
 sech." 
 
 " Why, dad, how could it hev kem down hyar ? " 
 demanded Luther. 
 
 Old Cap'n Lucy broke into a high, derisive 
 laugh. 
 
 " Ax Mr. Kenn'ston ; don't ax me. I ain't 
 'quainted with them things he talks 'bout by the 
 yard medjure, 'splosives an' giant powder an' 
 daminite." (Thus Cap'n Lucy profanely denom 
 inated a certain cogent compound.) " Enny one o' 
 them would be ekal ter fetchin' the rock ' known 
 ez Big Hollow Boulder ' down hyar whar he wants 
 it to be." 
 
 " Whut fur, dad ? " demanded Luther. 
 
 " Whut fur, ye fool ? Ter make the line run ter 
 suit him, ter take my house an' lot an' sech in his 
 boundary, ter turn me out 'n house an' home ter suit 
 his pleasure. He can't buy it, so he 's a-fixin' ter 
 take it, take it by changing the corner fur the 
 start o' the survey." 
 
 His eyes dilated with anger, and his chin shook 
 with the weakness of age and the vehemence of his 
 emotion. 
 
 Luther's face grew grave. " That 's agin the 
 law, ain't it?"
 
 102 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Ter move corner lan'marks or monimints o' 
 boundaries air a felony, that 's whut," said Cap'n 
 Lucy, cavalierly swinging his feet in his stirrups. 
 "Mr. Kenn'ston hed better gin keerful heed ter 
 his steps." 
 
 He grinned fiercely as he took up the reins, and, 
 followed by the astounded, dismayed, and ruminat 
 ing Luther, fared cheerfully enough down the 
 mountain.
 
 VI. 
 
 THE roof beneath which Jack Espey had found 
 shelter was the readiest expression of hospitality. 
 Its several expansions beyond its builder's original 
 gambrel design were betokened by the incongruity 
 of the additions, and the varying tints and fashion 
 of the warped and worn old clapboards. Two 
 shed-rooms were obviously of a later date than the 
 dank and mossy covering of the main building ; a 
 queer projection above a modern porch exhibited 
 an aboriginal inspiration correlated to a dormer 
 window, albeit lacking the aperture ; a section of 
 the limited porch itself was boarded up to serve 
 further as house-room ; and a valiant disregard of 
 the possibility of leakage characterized the intrepid 
 domestic architect. It further differed from the 
 conventional roofs of the district in its surround 
 ings. In lieu of the bare dooryard and the neigh 
 boring fields, or the low tangle of peach and apple 
 orchards, great forest trees loomed above it, the 
 gigantic poplar and white oak of the region ; for 
 the space about it was rugged with the outcropping 
 rock that sheered off further down into the great 
 precipice on the mountain slope, precluding the 
 possibility of cultivation. An exhaustless freestone 
 spring burst out from the rocks close at hand, the
 
 104 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 reason of the selection of its vicinity as a building- 
 site, and the " gyardin spot " and the cornfields were 
 lower down the slope at the side, out of view amidst 
 the clustering foliage. So little industrial were the 
 suggestions that hung about this roof, so allied was 
 it in its rough, gray, mossy aspect to the rugged 
 bark and gnarled boles of the great trees, that it too 
 might have seemed some spontaneous production of 
 the soil, as it rose from the ledges of the rock, mossy 
 and gray and rugged, too, like the rest. It had an 
 intimation, also, of an aspiration toward higher 
 things, as it, like the trees, gazed out upon the 
 environing lofty seclusion of the mountains, the 
 very inner sanctuary of nature ; for, save the mystic 
 mist, or the sun and the pursuing shadow, or the 
 vagrant wind, naught ventured into that vast semi 
 circle of mountains and intermediate valleys that 
 lay before it, refulgent with color, massive, mul 
 titudinous, illimitable, the compass of the human 
 vision failing to trace further than the far horizon 
 the endless ranges still rising tier upon tier. 
 
 Whether the inmates of the house consciously 
 derived aught from the scene, from its calm, its 
 splendor of extent that might serve to widen the 
 imagination, its vast resources of suggestion, one 
 of them spent many idle hours in gazing upon 
 it. Often Jack Espey lay all the forenoon upon 
 the hay in the loft of the little barn, watching 
 through the bare logs, guiltless of " chinking," the 
 shadows dwindling on the hazy indented slopes, 
 blue in the sunshine, amethyst in the shade. The
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 105 
 
 white clouds would sail when the wind was fair, 
 or in still noontides would lie at anchor off the 
 great shimmering domes. Sometimes these loiter- 
 ings were prolonged till the pageants of sunset-tide 
 were on the march along the great purple western 
 slopes, and from the shipping of the skies floated 
 every pennant of splendid color ; the sun, with the 
 burnished dazzling quality quenched in the great 
 blood-red sphere, would go slowly dropping down 
 behind the western ranges, leaving the sky of a del 
 icate amber tint with scarlet strata, amongst which 
 incongruous gorgeousness the evening star would 
 shine with a pure, pensive white radiance. The 
 loft of the flimsy little barn, but now all aglow 
 with bars of gold alternating with brown shadow 
 as the sunlight fell between the logs, gilding even 
 the tissues of cobweb and the masses of hay, would 
 sink into a dull, dusky monochrome. A shadow 
 would seem to fall upon his spirit. The anxiety to 
 which the contemplative, languorous idleness had 
 granted surcease roused itself anew ; the voices 
 from the house, never silent, were reasserted upon 
 his attention, and the necessity would supervene of 
 joining the family circle, a necessity sometimes 
 infinitely repugnant to his troubled soul, craving 
 solitude for its indulgence of woe, and hardly able 
 to maintain the cheerful disguise which must needs 
 screen it. 
 
 So poor were his arts of deception that perhaps 
 they would scarcely have served his purpose else 
 where, but here he and his peculiarities were given
 
 106 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 scant heed. He could not have found another dom 
 icile, in all the length and breadth of the country, 
 where he could have been installed and have excited 
 so little attention and curiosity. And indeed, to 
 Mrs. Larrabee, the head of the house, he was only 
 one more in addition to the rest of the tribe that 
 must be warmed and fed and housed, or, as she ex 
 pressed it, " tucked away somewhar." She always 
 was equal to the emergency, although whenever 
 Espey entered the large circle about the fireside it 
 seemed to have been recruited somewhere, and more 
 numerous than at his last survey. 
 
 " Ye 'pear ter hev a cornsider'ble head o' hu 
 mans hyar, Mis' Haight," he observed on one occa 
 sion to the old grandam who sat in the corner, the 
 stepmother-in-law of Mrs. Larrabee, and whose re- 
 pro val seemed the natural incident of all that her 
 daughter-in-law did. The world had gone much 
 awry with her, after the mundane manner, and in 
 the evening of her days she had neither the soften 
 ing influence of religion nor the resources of cul 
 ture to mitigate the asperities of the result. 
 
 " In course, in course ! " she exclaimed rancor- 
 ously, gazing at him over her spectacles with little 
 dark eyes, the brighter for exasperation. " Thar 's 
 me an' my old man, he 's got the palsy," as if this 
 rendered him more numerous ; " an' thar 's Jerushy, 
 my darter, an' her chil'n, five, an' her husband ; an' 
 S'briny Lar'bee herself, an' her son Jasper. An' ez 
 ef that war n't enough, she hearn ez Henrietty Tim- 
 son's husband war dead, an' they war burnt out an'
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 107 
 
 hed no home, so S'briny Lar'bee jes' wagons down 
 the mounting an' brung 'em hyar ter stay, seben 
 of 'em, seben with thar mammy makes eight. 
 S'briny jes' tucks 'ein away somehows, ez she 'lows, 
 in this hyar leetle house ! " She sneered tooth 
 lessly, then laughed aloud. Suddenly she leaned 
 forward, and, with her knitting-needle in her hand, 
 pointed at the group of floundering children. " See 
 that thar brat, the leetlest one ? " 
 
 Espey, turning in his chair, descried a tow-head 
 bobbing not far above the floor. The significant 
 eye of the old woman fixed him as if reciting an 
 enormity. 
 
 " He war a infant whenst he kem, a ill-con 
 venient infant in arms, with the rickets ! " 
 
 As the subject of this criticism scampered out of 
 the crowd, with a single unbleached cotton garment 
 on, very rotund as to trunk, very fat and cherubic 
 as to legs, very loud and blatant as to voice, very 
 arrogant and impudent as to manner, the young 
 man was moved to remark that he " 'peared toler'- 
 ble hearty now." 
 
 " Course he do," she assented, " through a-gor- 
 mandizin' of so much fat meat ; scandalous, impi- 
 dent shoat, ez well ez a bear ! " 
 
 She loved a quiet life, did Mrs. Haight. She had 
 been an only daughter. She had had only two chil 
 dren. She had always had her house to herself ; 
 and in this congregation of incongruous elements 
 around her widowed daughter-in-law's hearth she 
 beheld only inconvenience, perversity, and an un-
 
 108 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 filial disregard of her own very sage advice. It had 
 even been advanced to exclude her own daughter. 
 
 " Let Jerushy's husband take keer o' her. She 
 would marry him, spite o' all. Let her 'bide by 
 her ch'ice." 
 
 But poor Jerusha's husband was a drunkard, and 
 the forlorn household had suffered hardship and 
 very nearly grazed starvation before they made 
 their happy advent into this populous haven. 
 
 There were certain sensitive thrills of pride and 
 shame in the fugitive's heart, as he listened to this 
 arraignment of the numbers crowded about the hos 
 pitable hearth. He said to himself, in justification, 
 that he was only one more among so many, but he 
 felt that he was an imposition. There was no such 
 thought, however, in Mrs. Haight's mind. She re 
 garded him only as a visitor, a personable young 
 man, and moreover as possessing a certain unique 
 interest for her ; for in her youth she had spent 
 some days in Tanglefoot Cove, and, despite the wide 
 diversity of their age, occupation, and outlook at 
 life, they passed sundry companionable hours in 
 gossiping of the people of that locality, and detail 
 ing the various chances that had befallen families 
 known to both. During these sessions he was wont 
 to hold her yarn for her to wind. She never slipped 
 the hank across his wrists that he did not bethink 
 himself of other wristlets destined for him, per 
 chance, and made of sterner stuff. He was prone 
 to be silent for a time during the winding of the 
 skeins, but she improved the opportunity to talk to
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 109 
 
 an attentive listener ; for Sabrina was too liable to 
 interruptions from her various charges to meet her 
 somewhat exacting demands as an interlocutor, and 
 she was at scornful variance with the other elders 
 of the family. 
 
 "Mis' Lar'bee 'pears ter be fond o' comp'ny,' 
 said Jack, as he leaned forward, with his submissive 
 hands outstretched for the yarn. 
 
 The old woman, peering keenly through her spec 
 tacles as she sought to find the end of the thread, 
 she had a cautious, skillful, alert air, as of a trap 
 per, paused suddenly, her knotted, withered hand 
 poised like a claw. 
 
 " 'T ain't that ! " she exclaimed scornfully. " No- 
 thin' like it ! Ye reckon enny 'oinan in her senses 
 likes sech ez that ? " 
 
 She nodded acrimoniously, and Jack, following 
 the direction of her eye, glanced over his shoulder 
 at the turmoil of towheads scuffling together in the 
 flickering firelight. Supper was in course of prep 
 aration, and they were even noisier at this glad 
 prospect than their wont. One of them, under 
 cover of Espey's preoccupation, had approached, 
 and, slipping his hand under the arm held out for 
 the skein, was venturing slyly to touch the pistols 
 in his belt, with all the greed of the small boy for 
 deadly weapons. Espey, his white hat far back on 
 his head, looked down upon him, his suddenly scowl 
 ing face all unshaded, and the little mountaineer 
 fell back affrighted and in dismay ; for, despite his 
 humble estate in life, he had encountered few 
 frowns.
 
 110 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Naw, S'briny's reason ain't got 110 reason in it." 
 Mrs. Haight had begun the winding now, and the 
 red ball was whirling, ever larger, in her nimble 
 fingers. " She jes' hed a son kilt in the wars. 
 Leastwise the tale ez kem back war that he war 
 wounded in a scrimmage, turrible ; an' his folks 
 war all on the run. An' he crawled ter a house 
 nigh by, an' the 'oman tuk him in. An' he died in 
 her house stiddier on the groun' or in a fence cor 
 ner. That war the tale. S'briny never could find 
 out who war the 'oman, nor edzac'ly whar it hap 
 pened. But sence then, ter pay back her debt, she 
 takes 'em all in, an' whenst they gits too crowded 
 she knocks up a shed or suthin' an' packs 'em in ; 
 whenst like ez not the 'oman lef Alvin ter die on 
 the hard, cold groun', an' mebbe sot the dogs on 
 him ter hurry the job." 
 
 There was a silence for a few moments, while the 
 firelight flickered upon Espey's absorbed eyes and 
 intent, listening figure. The wrinkled, parchment- 
 like face of the old woman was partly in the shadow 
 as she sat in the corner, but her spectacles gleamed 
 with unwonted brilliancy as she actively moved and 
 nodded her head under her big ruffled cap. 
 
 " S'briny say, too, ez old pa'son Jenks say ez ye 
 mought entertain angels unaware. An' /say, then 
 agin ye mought n't! Fur ef enny o' these hyar 
 that S'briny hev entertained air angels, they air 
 powerful peart at hidin' it, sure ! " 
 
 Once more she cast a caustic glance at the group, 
 and her sarcastic laughter fell upon the air, sharply 
 treble.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. Ill 
 
 If celestial visitants, these were certainly well 
 disguised. Espey glanced at the bloated face of the 
 inebriate husband of Jerusha, tremulous, full of sud 
 den fits and starts ; at Jerusha herself, slatternly, 
 slothful, and down at the heel, a snuff brush in her 
 mouth, and her forlorn discontent with life in gen 
 eral on her weak, flabby face ; at the old, feeble 
 minded man dozing and muttering in the corner, 
 he had once in his life worked in the Lost Time 
 mine, and he sometimes gave Espey a sudden start 
 by bringing out the name with a deep, full, blood 
 curdling curse. Henrietta Timson's thankfulness 
 had merged into a suspicion that too much grati 
 tude was expected of her, and she was prone to 
 magnify the lighter tasks which she selected, and 
 went about with an overworked drudging air, and 
 with some distinct proclivity for the role of martyr. 
 It was a furtive, jealous eye which she cast upon 
 Mrs. Larrabee, at home, competent, and emphati 
 cally in command. The children, nevertheless, were 
 disposed to take undue advantage of their protec 
 tress ; and the smaller they were, the more capa 
 ble, by reason of her leniency, of imposing upon 
 her. This disposition characterized even an infant 
 turkey, which had contracted some disease by ex 
 posure to the inclemency of the weather, and, being 
 put into a basket of cotton to recuperate, found its 
 way out, from time to time, with a cotton girdle ad 
 hering about its middle, and, with a fifelike voice, 
 made the grand tour of the hearth, in* imminent 
 danger of catching fire in its cotton gear, causing
 
 112 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 her acute anguish lest it should be baked alive and 
 before its time. 
 
 Even Mrs. Larrabee herself, if there were 
 aught spiritual about her, it must have been in the 
 ends of her fingers. She was much given to wear 
 ing a sunbonnet, in the depths of which her thin, 
 pallid face had a look like marble, with its keen, 
 straight features. Her busy eye had not casual 
 observation : she looked at the children to see if 
 they were sick or cold or hungry ; at Jerusha's 
 husband to descry if perchance he were drunk 
 again; at Jack Espey to discover if he wanted 
 aught, and if he had no want or ailment she no 
 ticed him not at all. He could hardly have been 
 more free to come and go as he would, and the long 
 hours when he and Larrabee were away at the still 
 passed altogether without remark. It was never 
 theless to her that he resolved to open his heart. 
 The door was ajar, and he could see that the long, 
 loitering summer night had come at last. Through 
 the gap in the trees the stars were visible, glowing 
 white above the sombre mountains in the distance ; 
 he could not distinguish a constellation, only a 
 whorl of brilliant stellular points of light in the 
 scant interval where the black leaves of the oak, as 
 distinct and as dark as if cut of bronze, failed to 
 fill the space between the threshold and the zenith. 
 It was not long now before she would be at leisure, 
 and sleep would silence the juvenile members of 
 the family, except indeed the turkey, which, though 
 unclassified amongst nocturnal fowl, was wont to
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 113 
 
 pipe lugubriously in the dead watches of the night, 
 necessitating the uprising of the mistress of the 
 house with a draught of water and a light lunch of 
 corn-meal batter to compose it once more to slum 
 ber. As Espey observed it gadding about on its 
 long legs, disproportioned to the size of its body 
 even when begirt with the cotton batting, he 
 sagely thought that Mrs. Larrabee's tolerance 
 toward its exacting idiosyncrasies was the result 
 of no sense of obligation to it or its kind. " She 's 
 a powerful good-hearted woman, and smart, too," 
 he said to himself ; " she 's got enough sense ter 
 hev some feelin's." 
 
 The evening, passed in winding the yarn, wore 
 slowly away to him after his resolve. He was very 
 taciturn and still, and Mrs. Haight, finding so ac 
 quiescent a coadjutor, grew industrious, and hank 
 succeeded hank upon his motionless and submissive 
 wrists. His silence did not discourage her flow of 
 words. On the contrary, it assumed the narrative 
 form in lieu of their usual dialogue; and as the 
 fervor of reminiscence waxed, her small black eyes 
 grew brighter, her parchment-like cheek flushed, 
 and, with her red " shoulder shawl " and big white 
 cap and snowy hair and blue apron, she looked 
 like some fairy godmother. And indeed, as she 
 briskly wound the thread, now blue, now red, and 
 again gray " clouded " with white, it might have 
 seemed that she wielded some sorcery to reduce to 
 this humble fireside utility this wild-eyed, defiant 
 spirit. The young desperado, his belt stuck full of
 
 114 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 weapons, was oddly at variance with the solicitude 
 which he now and again exhibited when a trou 
 blous tangle developed, and the thread perversely 
 knotted and broke. The firelight that flickered on 
 his face, the fairer from his sojourn in the sunless 
 depths of the Lost Time mine, his great boots and 
 spurs, his pliant attitude and submissive gestures, 
 and his aged and incongruous companion served 
 also to show what speed was made in disposing of 
 the youthful gentry for the night. With that per 
 verse disinclination for bedtime which betrays the 
 old Adam in the youngest infant, they severally re 
 sisted, each to the best of his very respectable capa 
 city. One or two of tender years, having been hus 
 tled up the ladder to the loft, came down again in 
 scant attire, and he who had triumphed over the 
 rickets, and whose bed was in a box, resuscitated 
 himself from amongst the bedclothes whenever he 
 was stowed away, but finally was overtaken, and 
 fell asleep on the old house-dog's neck as he lay 
 snoring on the hearth. 
 
 Espey was of that type of man to whom juvenil 
 ity is neither comical nor alluring. Duty was re 
 vealed to him in graduated doses adapted to the 
 age of the taker, and he was disposed to make no 
 allowance to infants for delinquency. It seemed to 
 him that Mrs. Larrabee's patience was much mis 
 placed, and he now and again gazed with disap 
 proving eyes at the group. He was obliged to 
 linger long before she was at leisure and sitting in 
 front of the hearth with the shovel in her hand,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 115 
 
 ready to heap the ashes over the coals to keep the 
 fire till day. The two beds in the room were edged 
 with the tow-heads of the children, sleeping cross 
 wise ; the baby's box-crib and the turkey's basket 
 had each its wonted occupant; and if the dreams 
 that went up from the conclave could have been 
 materialized, what wild display of phantasmagoria 
 they would have made ! The door had been barred 
 up against the possible marauder of the elder's ap 
 prehension, and the black bear of juvenile dread. 
 The shadows of the two loiterers were on the red, 
 dully illumined ceiling, two gigantic, distorted 
 heads of dusky brown. 
 
 " I war sorter waitin' fur Jasper," observed Es- 
 pey disingenuously, having noticed that Mrs. Lar- 
 rabee looked inquiringly at him. " I reckon he be 
 a-visitin' down at Tems's." 
 
 " Mebbe so," she acquiesced succinctly, rasping 
 the shovel on the hearth. She seemed indisposed 
 for conversation. 
 
 " Mis' Haight 's mighty good comp'ny," he con 
 tinued, leaning sideways in his chair, with his 
 elbow on its back as he supported his head in his 
 hand. " Talkin' 'bout old times, an' her courtin' 
 days, an' sech." 
 
 For, according to Mrs. Haight's own account, 
 she had been a truculent heart-breaker in her hey 
 day. There were few names that one might men 
 tion, native to her locality, which she could not 
 have worn had she chosen. She always alluded 
 cavalierly to the husband she had and to the one
 
 116 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 she had lost as "toler'ble samples o' the whole 
 b'ilin'." 
 
 Mrs. Larrabee's immobile face was more inex 
 pressive than before, as the red light sought it out 
 in the depths of her sunbonnet. She had her 
 secret doubts as to this wholesale destruction of 
 the peace of youth a half century ago. 
 
 " Toler'ble interestin' ter me ! " protested Espey 
 suddenly. "I hev been sorter in love myse'f 
 leastwise " He did not continue to qualify, for 
 Mrs. Larrabee turned her face, illumined by ma 
 ternal interest, upon him. " It 's gin me a heap o' 
 trouble, too," he broke out impetuously, divining 
 her sympathy. 
 
 She was looking at him tenderly, remembering 
 her own youth and her own young lover, dead and 
 gone this many a year. Jacob Larrabee had, in 
 happier days, laughed retrospectively at his own 
 lackadaisical woe and wakeful nights and anxious 
 doubts. " Sech a funny fool I war. Thar may 
 hev been ez big fools, but I '11 swar I war the fun 
 niest" But his woe had always appealed to her 
 commiseration, and she was glad she had con 
 sciously been no factor in it. " I would n't hev 
 hed ye so tormented fur nuthin', Jacob, ef I hed 
 knowed," she would say gently. 
 
 Jack's young face, worn with fiercer griefs and 
 turmoils and keener fears, was appealing in its anx 
 ious lines ; her warm motherly heart went out to 
 him. He leaned his hands on his knees, and as 
 sumed a confidential tone.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 117 
 
 " Now, Mis' Lar'bee," he said, " I 'lowed I 'd ax 
 ye what this hyar gal means. I hev done every 
 thing I knowed how ter please her, even whenst 
 she tole me ter go a-perlitin' around another gal. 
 I done jes 1 like she ordered, an' what ye s'pose she 
 done?" 
 
 " What ? " demanded his partisan confidante an 
 grily, knitting her brows heavily. 
 
 " She hit me." 
 
 "Did she hurt ye?" exclaimed Mrs. Larrabee 
 sympathetically, dropping her voice in contempla 
 tion of the enormity. 
 
 Remembering the relative proportions and force 
 of Adelicia and himself, Espey and his woe were 
 out of countenance for the nonce. He laughed a 
 little sheepishly. " Naw," he admitted reluctantly. 
 " She did n't hurt me none ter speak on." 
 
 Mrs. Larrabee's brow cleared. " Sonny, 't war 
 jes' love-licks," she suggested, in old-fashioned ma 
 ternal phrase. 
 
 " Naw, sir ! Naw, sir ! " Espey shook his head 
 with grave protest. " She war too leetle ter hurt 
 me, she war bound ter know. She jes' wanted ter 
 hurt my feelin's. An' she done it, too." 
 
 Mrs. Larrabee's face was all commiseration ; 
 and suddenly a truly feminine curiosity became 
 manifest. " Whar do the gal live ? Hyarabouts 
 or in Tanglefoot ? " 
 
 However far a man may trust a woman, he never 
 trusts her completely. Jack Espey caught himself 
 sharply. "It's fur off, mighty fur, 'pears like
 
 118 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ter me," he said mendaciously. " Now, Mis' Lar'- 
 bee, I wants ter git yer advices. What ails the 
 gal ter treat me that-a-way, jes' 'kase I done her 
 bid an' gin the t'other gal good-evenin', full perlite 
 like she told me ter do ? What ails her ? " 
 
 " Pride," said Mrs. Larrabee sternly. She could 
 be severe enough with people whom she did not 
 see, and her mental image of a buxom termagant 
 was far enough removed from the fragile and 
 shrinking Adelicia. 
 
 Espey looked at her with doubtful, troubled 
 eyes. " Jes' turned on me an' smit me ! " he pro 
 tested. " I feel like I '11 never git over that lick. 
 I '11 die of it yit ! " 
 
 " Pride ! " fiercely reiterated Mrs. Larrabee. 
 " An' ef ye wanter make her repent it, ye jes' perlite 
 up the t'other gal fur true ! Whenst I went back 
 ter Tanglefoot Cove, I 'd show sech manners ez it 
 ain't used ter, ye 'd better b'lieve I would. That 
 thar gal 'lows she kin git ye too easy, too powerful 
 cheap. T'other gal good lookin' ? " 
 
 " Waal," drawled Espey uneasily, evidently con 
 templating apprehensively this heroic treatment for 
 the small smiter, " nobody don't look purty ter me 
 but one, an' she 's plumb beautiful, ter my mind." 
 
 " Oh, shucks ! " Mrs. Larrabee exhorted him 
 scornfully. 
 
 " T'other gal hev got the name of it, though," 
 he said reluctantly, plainly jealous for the preemi 
 nence of his lady love. " T'other gal is named a 
 reg'lar gyardin lily fur beauty."
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 119 
 
 " Waal, then, perlitin' 'round her won't go so 
 turrible hard with ye," said Mrs. Larrabee discern 
 ingly. " Though mebbe ye hed better let the 
 ' gyardin lily ' inter the secret, 'kase she mought 
 fall in love with ye an' yer perliteness." 
 
 But Jack Espey shook his head ; he had bit 
 ter cause to distrust candor. " I can't go 'round 
 warnin' the gals against me," he said sturdily. " Ef 
 she falls in love with me, she '11 jes' hev ter fall 
 out agin, that 's all." 
 
 He sat for a little time gazing moodily at the 
 fire, and contemplating the details of this scheme 
 of reprisal. Then, with a curt good-night, he rose 
 and tramped off to the roof-room, which he shared 
 with Jasper and a delegation of the larger boys ; 
 leaving Mrs. Larrabee covering the embers, and 
 pausing now and again, as she knelt on the hearth, 
 with the red light on her statuesque features, to 
 ponder on the lover of her past youthful days, and 
 the sensible advice she had given Jack Espey to 
 reduce the inordinate pride of the arrogant, ar 
 bitrary damsel of his heart in Tanglefoot Cove. 
 
 But the bars so stoutly made fast against the 
 door were not destined to keep their place that 
 night. The moon had long before slipped from 
 the vaguely illumined limited space of the sky, 
 which her own light had rendered faintly blue, 
 down behind a jutting crag of the western moun 
 tains ; it glowed a sombre purple as the crescent 
 passed, with a pearly gleaming mist half revealed 
 against the black summits about it. The white
 
 120 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 stars, whiter still, pulsated in the darkening sky. 
 So pervasive a sense of silence was in their mute 
 splendor that even the benighted mountain wilder 
 ness seemed to assert many voices, strange, mur 
 murous, unknown to the light. Espey, stretched 
 upon his pallet in the recess of the dormer win 
 dow above the porch, with his wakeful, troublous 
 thoughts, languidly sought to differentiate the 
 sounds. He heeded the rustle of a vagrant zephyr, 
 the twitter of a nestling, the murmur of the spring 
 in the rocks near at hand, the never silent chirring 
 of the cicada of the Southern summer night. But 
 what was it in the insensate world of crag and 
 forest and mountain and chasm that drew a long 
 breath, and paused, and once more sighed heavily, 
 and again resigned itself to silence ? He could see 
 in the rifts of the clapboards above his head a pal 
 pitating white star, how its heart of fire beat ! 
 He felt his own pulses throb heavily, and the next 
 moment they seemed to cease. A new sound in 
 truded into the monotony of the mountain stillness. 
 He heard it once far away, and then silence. 
 He lifted himself upon his elbow and listened, with 
 dilating eyes. Only the sense of the noiseless 
 dewfall, the cracking of a sun-dried clapboard, the 
 swift scurrying of a mouse amongst the rafters, 
 and once more silence, or that mysterious voice of 
 the night which rose and fell in the cadence of 
 sighs. He was about to lie down when the sound 
 came again, distinct this time, unmistakable, so 
 close at hand that it seemed the very malice of fate
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 121 
 
 that he should not have distinguished it earlier. 
 It was the hoofbeat of horses, and they came at a 
 swift gallop, so swift that he had hardly a mo 
 ment to take counsel with himself, in a turmoil of 
 doubt and fear ; his foot was barely on the stair 
 way when a heavy tread fell upon the little porch, 
 and a sturdy fist thundered at the door. 
 
 Into the dusky red darkness of the room below 
 for the glow of the embers could hardly be reck 
 oned as light a feeble white glimmer was steal 
 ing. Mrs. Larrabee, without her sunbonnet for 
 once, had hustled on her homespun dress, buttoned 
 all awry, and was striking a light for a tallow dip. 
 Perhaps its dim flicker revealed the young man 
 standing high in the deep shadows on the stair that 
 led to the roof-room, or perhaps she only distin 
 guished his step in the midst of the clamor at the 
 door, for she called out suddenly to him, " Open the 
 door, Jack, open the door, sonny, no matter who it 
 be ! Every chile in the house will be a-swarmin' 
 up d'rectly ef that thar bangin' be 'lowed ter go 
 on, an' I reckon we '11 never git the baby inter bed 
 agin ! " 
 
 The turkey was already awake and alert, its pierc 
 ing pipe adding to the confusion and nervous stress 
 of the situation, as Jack Espey, after one irresolute 
 moment, strode to the door, and Mrs. Larrabee rose 
 from her knees on the hearth and stood in the dusky 
 brown background, shading with her hand the tim 
 orous flame of the candle. 
 
 Perhaps it was well for Jack Espey that the bars
 
 122 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 went down with so resolute and hearty a clangor, 
 for, as he confronted the men at the door, they did 
 not doubt that they faced the son of the house. 
 
 " Widder Lar'bee lives hyar ? " said a keen, tall, 
 dark-eyed man, with high cheek-bones and a hooked 
 nose, above which his thick black eyebrows met. 
 His soft black hat had a sort of peaked crown, and 
 he wore a suit of plaided " store clothes," as befitted 
 one having access to the towns, but which were 
 much creased, and his boots were drawn, country 
 fashion, over his trousers to the knees. 
 
 " Air that enny reason ter bust the door down ? " 
 demanded Espey, looking at the stout battens as if 
 expecting to discern injury as it swayecHn his hand. 
 
 Mrs. Larrabee interposed blandly, " I be Widder 
 Lar'bee. 'T ain't no use ter talk loud. I got some 
 mighty fractious chil'n hyar 'sleep." 
 
 The fractious turkey stood upon the hearth and 
 piped till the end of its tail quivered with the en 
 ergy of its vocalization. A cricket was shrilling 
 keenly. The trivial sounds seemed to throb in Es- 
 pey's brain when the visitor said, " I be dep'ty 
 sher'ff o' this county, Mis' Lar'bee, an' I hear ez 
 thar war a stranger in the Cove a-puttin' up hyar." 
 
 The two men behind the officer looked over his 
 shoulder, their bearded faces sharply inquisitive. 
 
 " Naw, sir, I ain't got no stranger hyar ; not but 
 whut I would take 'em in, me an' my son hev 
 made a rule o' that, but we-uns bide too fur off'n 
 the road." She did not account Espey a stranger, so 
 accustomed a figure had he become in the domestic 
 circle.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 123 
 
 There was a definite disappointment in the offi 
 cer's keen, high-featured face. 
 
 Mrs. Larrabee turned to Espey. " Ye ain't hearn 
 o' enny stray man hyarabouts, hev ye, sonny ? " 
 
 " Thar be a stranger down at Tems's," said Es 
 pey ; " though I reckon he ain't done nuthin' agin 
 the law, saaft-spoken an' perlite an' peaceable." 
 
 The high-featured face was contorted in a jocose 
 grimace, to which the meeting of the black eyebrows 
 gave a singularly sinister effect. Espey felt his 
 heart sink as the official winked at him. 
 
 " Perliteness would have been wuth mo' ter this 
 man ef he could hev showed manners sooner. War 
 mighty onpolite indeed in Tanglefoot Cove, Mis' 
 Lar'bee, an' shot a man." 
 
 " Kilt him ? " she demanded in a bated voice, and 
 turning pale. She held the candle awry, as she 
 spoke, and the flickering light as the tallow melted 
 and dripped heavily on the floor showed only her 
 own straight features and masses of brown hair, 
 dulled with gray, coiled at the back of her head. 
 
 Espey's overladen heart thumped heavily. The 
 cold drops stood thick on his face, all in the shadow, 
 white and drawn with suspense. 
 
 " In an' about, a sorter livin' death. An' sence 
 he hev got so much worse his folks want the male 
 factor apprehended straight. We hearn ez he air 
 hyarabouts or in Persimmon Cove, one. An' ez the 
 constable o' this deestric' air sick abed, ailin' old 
 cattle like him ought n't ter be 'lowed ter hold 
 office ! the high sher'ff sent me ter look arter him,
 
 124 BIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ef I could come up with him. Waal," he was 
 turning away, " I 'm sorry I hed ter roust ye 
 and yer son up this time o' night." 
 
 Mrs. Larrabee took no note of this misdescrip- 
 tion. Her thoughts were engrossed by a sudden 
 hospitable intention. 
 
 " Would n't a bite an' a sup hearten ye up 
 sorter, arter so much ridin' in the night wind ? " 
 she drawled amiably. 
 
 The deputy, despite his lean, lank, ill-nourished 
 air, was susceptible to the allurements of the pleas 
 ures of the table. He hesitated, and a very little 
 urgency sufficed to induct him into a chair by the 
 side of the fire, while Mrs. Larrabee ransacked her 
 stores for the bite and sup, which were more easily 
 promised than provided. 
 
 He was new to his office, and disposed to mag 
 nify its dignities and difficulties, as he and his two 
 companions waited for the refection, while Espey 
 stirred up the fire and rescued the turkey, which had 
 burrowed into a mound of dead ashes, still per 
 meated, however, with the grateful warmth of the 
 embers. 
 
 " Ye 'd be plumb s'prised, Mis' Lar'bee, at the sly 
 ness o' sech malefactors, an' the trouble they '11 gin. 
 Now I be a stranger ter this e-end o' the county, an' 
 what with the constable sick everybody sorter holds 
 back 'bout informin' the officer o' the law ; turri- 
 ble 'fraid lest the folks in gineral takes it out on 
 them, ye know. Some 'lows I be a-trappin' moon 
 shiners ; an' that ain't my business at all. I got no
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 125 
 
 mo' agin moonshiners 'n I hev agin whiskey. It 's 
 all one ter me. I don't c'lect the tax, an' I don't 
 pay it nuther. I drinks mos'ly on treats, sech ez 
 this." He held up his glass, for Espey had prof 
 fered the product of the Lost Time still, and it 
 seemed to him at the moment that the very jug 
 looked conscious. " I could n't git a critter ter kem 
 with me ter-night 'thout reg'lar summonsin' a 
 posse : one man ailin' ; t'other man, sick wife ; an 
 other man, sore foot; another man, lame horse. 
 Course /could hev made 'em kem," waving the hand 
 with the glass in it with a capable gesture ; " but I 
 did n't want ter be harsh an' requirin' with the citi 
 zens, 'kase, ye know," with a sudden sly geniality 
 illumining his countenance, " I mought want ter 
 run fur sher'ff myse'f some day, that is, ef the 
 old man was ter git done with the office," he added, 
 mindful of his tenure through the favor of the high 
 sheriff. " Now this hyar man," pointing out one of 
 his followers, who bore with a sort of wooden equa 
 nimity the united gaze of Mrs. Larrabee and Espey, 
 " he be a stranger hyarabouts, too, kerns from 
 my deestric', f rien' o' mine, so o' course he war n't 
 acquainted hyarabout, nuther." 
 
 Mrs. Larrabee's perceptions detected something 
 embarrassing to a sensitive nature in this invited 
 survey of the silent, bearded mail, who had not 
 opened his mouth except to put a biscuit into it. As 
 amends, she handed him the plate anew, and the 
 second biscuit silently went the way of the first. 
 
 "Now this hyar other man," the officer indi-
 
 126 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 cated a short, square-set fellow, " he war powerful 
 leetle 'quainted round hyar, though he kem from 
 neighboring ways, the Gap; so he ondertook ter 
 p'int out yer house " 
 
 The short man interposed in great haste, and 
 with his mouth full : 
 
 " Though I hev never hed nuthin' agin you-uns, 
 Mis' Lar'bee, an' I hope ye won't lay it up agin 
 me, marm. I knowed 't war mighty safe, 'kase 
 you-uns war n't the sort ter harbor evil-doers 'gainst 
 the law an' sech ez that, hevin' been powerful 
 well 'quainted with yer husband whenst he war a 
 boy ; an' this hyar dep'ty war so powerful partic'lar, 
 an' I did n't see how ter git out'n it, an' " The 
 crumbs in his throat and the scruples in his heart 
 combined to choke his utterance, and as the climax 
 came in a paroxysm of coughing Mrs. Larrabee 
 turned to the officer. 
 
 " I got nobody hyar wuss'n yerse'f, sher'ff," she 
 drawled, with a slow smile. 
 
 " Waal, now, Mis' Lar'bee," said the officer, prob 
 ably mindful of political hopes, " ef ever ye want 
 enny thing of me, ye jes' lemme know. I wanter 
 show ye how I '11 remember this hyar squar meal 
 ter-night. I ain't one o' them ez can't remember 
 dinner till it 's dinner time agin." He smiled gal 
 lantly upon her from under his superabundance 
 of brows. Then he turned to Espey. " I been so 
 
 well treated it makes me plumb bold ter ax another 
 
 . 
 favior. I want ye ter git on yer horse an' ride with 
 
 me ter set me in the road ter Tems's. Nare one 
 o' these men air 'quainted with the way."
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 127 
 
 His dark eyes hardened under his sinister black 
 brows, and Espey, who had taken heart of grace, 
 felt his hope of escape annihilated in the instant. 
 His eyes were fastened with a fixed stare on the 
 officer's face ; his nerves were all a-quiver ; his 
 heart seemed to stand still ; a cold, insidious thrill 
 crept along the fibres of his skin. The conviction 
 seized him that the conversation which had seemed 
 so incidental was merely a blind devised for the 
 purpose of getting him apart from the women and 
 children, that he might be captured with less ado 
 or less danger to the bystanders, perhaps further 
 from the chance of rescue. He thought of rescue, 
 himself, of Jerusha's husband blind drunk in the 
 shed-room, of Jasper away at the Lost Time mine. 
 Through some other sense than that of conscious 
 sight he was aware of the movements of the deputy's 
 comrades : that one, seated in the chair, was care 
 fully examining his revolver ; that the other was 
 standing beside the door with his hand on the latch. 
 But Espey's eyes never quitted the face of the sher* 
 iff, who apparently took note of this fixed, unrespon 
 sive gaze. 
 
 " Air he deef ?" he demanded of Mrs. Larrabee, 
 and was about to repeat his demand in a louder 
 key, when his hostess interposed. 
 
 "No deefer than them in gineral be who ain't 
 willin' ter hear," she muttered. " Go saddle yer 
 critter, Jack. 'T won't take ye long." Then, in a 
 lower aside, " Ye '11 jes' hev ter guide 'em ez fur ez 
 Tems's, ennyhow."
 
 128 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Her insistence constrained him ; and indeed no 
 alternative was definite to his mind. He turned 
 with a bewildered, submissive mien toward the 
 door. 
 
 The chill midnight air, blowing freshly on his 
 face as he held it open and the draught rushed 
 through, revived him like the very breath of free 
 dom. The obvious opportunity flashed through his 
 mind like an inspiration. He could give them the 
 slip while saddling the horse. He would have the 
 start of them even if by only a few paces. Let 
 him but once get foot in the stirrup again, with 
 the kindly shield of the darkness about him, and 
 he would give them a good run through this path 
 less mountain wilderness. He caught up his sad 
 dle that lay upon the floor, and made for the door 
 again with a sudden eager alacrity. 
 
 He heard an abrupt clanging noise, as one hears 
 a sound in sleep, muffled, unreal, distant. It was 
 only when he saw one of the men stoop and rise 
 again and follow him that he realized what had 
 happened. One of the stirrup irons had fallen 
 from the saddle, unbuckled perhaps in the unwar 
 ranted juvenile curiosity of the meddling young 
 sters of the house. The deputy sheriff also fol 
 lowed. " I '11 put that on agin whilst ye air 
 a-ketchin' an' a-bridlin' of the nag," he said. 
 
 Espey heard the loud, strident tones of his hasty 
 farewells as he took leave of Mrs. Larrabee, he 
 evidently intended to return no more, and then 
 he was by the young man's side in the barn, fol-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 129 
 
 lowed by his two companions. For the horse was 
 not in the pasture lot ; he had repaired to the shel 
 ter of the barn, and had stretched himself on his 
 bed of straw. At the first indication of the pros 
 pect of journeying the roan struggled up, and, with 
 a sound of greeting that was almost articulate, came 
 out from the stall, ready and willing to be saddled 
 and bridled. Espey experienced a sort of animos 
 ity toward the creature for his unreasoning alacrity. 
 He was even denied the poor respite which the 
 usual delay in catching the horse might have given. 
 In his numbing, silent despair as he buckled the 
 girth and slipped the bridle over the horse's head 
 and the bit into his mouth, he took no definite heed 
 of his surroundings, and yet they were all impressed 
 upon his consciousness. He noted, uncaring, how 
 the horse tossed up his head askance at the stran 
 ger's touch, when one of the men laid his hand on 
 the powerful shoulder and opined that he must be 
 a " toler'ble good goer." He was aware, somehow, 
 of the blue-black, translucent gloom of the air, and 
 the differing darkness with its effect of solidity, of 
 the fodder stack looming close by, of the fantastic 
 roof of the little log cabin against the stars, and of 
 a vague sense of motion where the invisible smoke 
 curled up from the chimney, faring off into the 
 dense shadow of the foliage of the great trees. 
 The door was still open, and the yellow light fell 
 far out into the darkness ; in the interior he could 
 see the gaunt, tall form of Mrs. Larrabee walking 
 back and forth, and in her arms the baby, who had
 
 130 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 been roused by the falling of the spur. The child 
 needed little tenderness, in his robust self-suffi 
 ciency, and was elderly indeed for such infantile 
 coddling. His fat legs stuck far out of her arms, 
 and his bawling objections to the interruption of 
 slumber attested temper rather than delicacy. Es- 
 pey realized how her heart would go out to a real 
 trouble, how she would feel for him if she only 
 knew ! Somehow the thought of that fictitious an 
 guish of sympathy soothed him for the moment, and 
 he was resigned to say to himself that it was best 
 as it was. She could have done naught. He was 
 no child like the others to cling to her in a sort of 
 fervid faith in her omnipotence. No ; resistance 
 would only have endangered her and hers. And so 
 he was strengthened to put his foot in the stirrup 
 and ride away, with the sheriff at his right hand, 
 and the other men close behind, all looking alertly 
 forward into the gloom. The roan horse, fresh 
 from slumber, was beginning to feel his hay and 
 corn, snuffing the quickening wind, pulling on the 
 bit, and forging on at a more speedy gait. The 
 other men noticed this, for now and again, with 
 a touch of the spur, they closed up, and the roan 
 horse was in the centre of the squad.
 
 VII. 
 
 As they went, the deputy sheriff's manner was 
 little characterized by an official decorum. He 
 seemed rather some bold roisterer who himself 
 might have had ample cause to dread the law that 
 he was sworn to administer. The rough humor of 
 his sallies affected Espey as an incongruous sort 
 of fun, taken in connection with his interpretation 
 of their errand, and his recollection of the keen, 
 sinister, thin face, with its piercing dark eyes, and 
 its sharp hooked nose, and the straight, menacing 
 eyebrows meeting above it. He had this mental 
 vision distinctly before his contemplation, as it 
 had impressed him in the flicker of Mrs. Lar- 
 rabee's tallow dip, instead of the undistinguishable 
 equestrian shadow that in the black night pressed 
 close to his horse's flank, and now and again 
 laid a sinewy hand upon his arm. For the officer, 
 in a spirit of mock confidence, was detailing, much 
 to that worthy's discomfort, the spectral fears of 
 his friend from " the t'other e-end of the county," 
 a believer in ghosts, and making an elaborate 
 pretense of sharing them. Now and again, with a 
 sepulchral voice and an agitated manner, he would 
 conjure Espey to say if he saw nothing flickering, 
 waving white, in some open stretch of the road that
 
 132 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 lay vacant and vaguely glimmering in the starlight 
 before them. Then, hardly waiting for an answer, 
 he would burst into a whoop of derisive laughter, 
 startling the solemn silence of the night-bound 
 mountain wilderness, and rousing strange echoes of 
 weird mirth from rock and ravine. More than once 
 the uncanny tumult of these wild, insensate cries 
 moved the staid comrades of the deputy sheriff to 
 remonstrance. 
 
 In the distance and the night and their repeti- 
 tiousness, the sounds seemed curiously unrelated 
 to those that had evoked them. 
 
 " That ain't no rocks a-answerin' back," said the 
 man from the Gap. " I b'lieve somebody is a-hol- 
 lerin' at ye." 
 
 The officer turned alertly in his saddle to look 
 back over his shoulder. " That would n't s'prise 
 me none," said the capable deputy, whose large ex 
 perience would seem to furnish precedent for any 
 given phenomenon. " I knowed a man out our way, 
 
 mighty loud talker and a toler'ble active cusser, 
 
 whilst callin' hawgs, hed n't tuk no special notice 
 o' the rocks answerin', till one day whenst he war 
 * dad-burnin' ' an' ' all-firm' ' round till the very 
 shoats looked blue. He stopped ter take breath, an' 
 he hearn a voice, powerful coarse, out'n the woods 
 jes' yellin' like sin, 'Fire-burn!' 'Fire-burn!' an' 
 he knowed that minit who 't war. An' in course 
 he jes' hed n't no mo' interes' in nuthin', an' jes' 
 dwindled away." 
 
 He paused abruptly.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. . 133 
 
 " But but who war it ez said ' Fire-burn ' 
 with a coarse voice?" breathlessly demanded the 
 believer in spectral manifestations. 
 
 " Why, Satan, to be sure, ye fool," replied the 
 deputy. " I useter hear him myself a-callin' in the 
 woods, ' Fire-burn ! ' whenst Ad Peters would git ter 
 cussin' his hawgs ! Jes' so " He lifted his voice 
 in a wild, fantastic cadence, and throughout the 
 long stretches of the mountain fastnesses the words, 
 as of some demented incendiary, echoed and re 
 echoed, varied presently with mocking cries of un 
 pleasant falsetto laughter, set astir when the officer's 
 gravity failed. 
 
 The patience of his friend had given way. 
 " Look-a-hyar, 'Dolphus Ross," he broke out angrily, 
 " this hyar ain't no way ter go ter apperhend crim 
 inals, a-hollerin' like a plumb catamount through 
 the woods." 
 
 " I don't want ter s'prise nuthin'," said the crafty 
 deputy sheriff, " that is nuthin' unyearthly, on its 
 yerrands what no mortial knows about, an' mebbe 
 git s'prised myself plumb down ter the doors o' the 
 pit. Ye know them ez sees harnts either draps 
 down dead or loses thar minds, one. They 'low 
 now'days ez all the crazies kem so from seein' 
 sperits. An' ye know yerse'f, an off'cer of the law 
 needs brains." 
 
 " Ef ye don't know yer bizness no better 'n that, 
 I be goiu' ter 1'arn it ter ye. Ye 'pear mo' like a 
 jay-hawker 'n a off'cer o' the law," retorted the other 
 tartly.
 
 134 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 But not even with this rude touch upon the sen 
 sitive nerves of official pride could he control the 
 elusive and slippery deputy. " That 's a fac', Pearce. 
 But the truth is, I be all-fired 'feared in these hyar 
 lonesome places, whar humans air seldom an' few, 
 o' seein' suthin' or hearin' suthin' what no mortial 
 eyes or ears air expected ter see an' hear. So I 
 like ter hear the sound o' my own voice, let 'em 
 know I 'm a-comin'. Even with two or three men 
 with me, it 's so darned fur an' lonesome ! I 'pear 
 less like a harnt myself, an' less apt ter meet up 
 with one, ef I make myself sorter lively. I 'm a 
 mighty quiet cuss in town. I 'm a What 's 
 what 's that ? " he broke off sharply. 
 
 He drew rein suddenly, throwing his horse back 
 upon the haunches. The two men behind him, 
 coming forward at the swift pace he had set, col 
 lided heavily with the obstacle thus furnished 
 them, a reckless proceeding here on the narrow 
 rocky road, on the verge above the abysses of the 
 valley on one side, and with the inaccessible 
 heights of the mountain rising sheerly on the other. 
 They stood between heaven and earth, on this 
 craggy beetling promontory, with the pulsating 
 white stars above and the dark depths of the gorge 
 below. His sight becoming more accustomed to 
 the night, Espey could distinguish through the 
 clear darkness the fringed branches of a pine-tree 
 clinging to the heights above and waving against 
 the instarred sky, and below a vague moving 
 whiteness which he knew to be the involutions of
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 135 
 
 the mist in the valley. He too had drawn up his 
 horse, slightly in advance of the others, and was 
 looking forward in keen expectation of develop 
 ments. 
 
 " What 's what ? " he demanded of the deputy, 
 who was managing his rearing horse with consid 
 erable skill. 
 
 " Something white beckonin'," gasped the 
 officer of the law. 
 
 Espey, with all the ignorant superstitions of his 
 class, felt his blood run cold. Nevertheless he 
 sought to reassure himself and his comrades. 
 
 " Jes' these elder-flowers, mebbe," he said, break 
 ing off a great bough from a bush rooted in a 
 crevice of the crag, and so profusely blooming 
 that the black night itself could hardly nullify its 
 whitely gleaming graces. He received full in his 
 face the cool spray of the dew and the sweet breath 
 of the flower, all unheeding, for the officer again 
 protested in a loud, broken voice : 
 
 " Beckonin' beckonin' Oh, my friends, 
 somebody in this crowd is a sinner ; somebody hev 
 done wrong ! An' he may be a saint in the church- 
 house, or leastwise familiar with the mourner's 
 bench, an' he may escape jedge an' jury, an' 
 he may cheat hemp, but in the dead o' the night 
 an' in the lonely paths o' yearth he '11 be betrayed 
 by a v'ice, or he '11 see a beckonin' " 
 
 " Oh, shucks ! " interrupted the believer in 
 " harnts." " I 'm a-goin' back ter Mis' Lar'bee's." 
 He was essaying to wheel his horse on the narrow
 
 136 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ledge. " 'T ain't my bizness ter go 'long with ye, 
 ter apperhend crim'nals in the middle o' the night. 
 Ef ye can't take 'em in the daytime, go 'thout 'em, 
 I say." 
 
 " Some truth in that. I wisht I could jine ye," 
 said the deputy. " But my jewty lies ahead. I 
 be bound ter go on ; an' I reckon it can't be so fur 
 from Tems's now, air it, frien' ? " he asked, 
 turning to Espey. 
 
 With a sinking heart, Espey replied that it was 
 not very far, and the wonder as to what lay before 
 him in the unknown scenes to which he sped in 
 such haste reasserted itself in his mind, as the 
 deputy rode briskly up alongside once more. 
 
 It required, perchance, only a moment's reflec 
 tion on the inexpressible loneliness of the miles of 
 mountain woods, that must of necessity be trav 
 ersed before the shelter of Mrs. Larrabee's house 
 could be reached, to change the design of the deserter 
 from the little party. The beat of his horse's 
 hoofs annotated his continued presence, which was 
 soon made even more indisputable by his raucous 
 voice again lifted in remonstrance. 
 
 " Ye mus' see, now, 'Dolphus, ez n'ise an' 
 ribeldry an' gamesomeness don't purvent ye from 
 viewin' sech ez ye air intended ter view. Sech 
 goin's-on ain't lawful fur citizens, much less off 'cers 
 o' the law." 
 
 " Ye ain't gone back, then ? " commented 'Dol 
 phus over his shoulder.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 137 
 
 There was no answer to this, and after a pause 
 the facetious deputy went on : 
 
 " / ain't fur hollerin' an' rampagin' an' sech. 
 / be a mighty quiet cuss in town, like I said, 
 a mighty quiet cuss indeed. The old man," he 
 alluded thus to the high sheriff, " he sez ter me 
 sometimes, ' I dun no, 'Dolphus, whether ye air in 
 yer skin or no. Ye jes' 'pear ter be settin' thar, 
 'sleep or dead.' Wunst he tole me ez I war n't 
 mo' lively 'n jes' a suit o' clothes hangin' outside 
 the store door, an' a suit would cost less 'n my pay 
 ez a dep'ty. I tried ter brace up arter that." 
 
 He had braced up considerably from the quies 
 cent state he described if the sudden yell that he 
 emitted might be received as evidence of his more 
 stalwart condition. The sharp exclamations of 
 surprise from the rest of the party afforded him 
 intense delight, which was not mitigated by a 
 blood-curdling shriek, as it were in response, set up 
 by a catamount on the opposite heights, so close at 
 hand by the direct line across the spaces above the 
 valley through the air, despite the intervening 
 miles of trackless mountain desert below, that they 
 could hear the creature snarl before it lifted its 
 thin, keen, inarticulate voice shrilling again into 
 the black night. 
 
 There was no definite remonstrance, for he fore 
 stalled their outbreak, beyond a few words, by de 
 claring tumultuously that he saw it again, some 
 thing a-waving, a-beckoning.
 
 138 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " No use talkin' ! " he exclaimed. " The guilty 
 sinner is 'moiigst us, an' hyar he be ! " 
 
 He leaned out of his saddle and passed one arm 
 around Espey, pinioning the young fellow's right 
 arm to his side. Espey, startled beyond control, 
 despite his expectation of this contingency, with 
 which, however, hope and suspense had juggled 
 painfully, detected with sharpened senses the dull 
 clanking of handcuffs. He hardly knew how it 
 came there, he had no definite intention of resist 
 ing arrest, but a pistol was in the hand over which 
 the rude wristlets dangled ; a jet of red light that 
 showed the dark-eyed, laughing, grimacing face 
 near to his own, the whizzing of a bullet so close 
 between the officer's side and arm that the blazing 
 powder singed and burned his " store clothes," an 
 abrupt report, and once more the night, rent by the 
 sound, clamored with echoes. 
 
 From the dense darkness the officer's voice, with 
 a changed tone, a sharp note of surprise, was cry 
 ing, " Look out ! Look out ! " 
 
 The other men were stunned with amazement. 
 They had only a vague sense of struggling mounted 
 figures which the darkness did not suffer them to 
 descry. And suddenly a second swift funnel- 
 shaped glare for an instant invaded the gloom, 
 it came from the officer's pistol this time, a sec 
 ond clamorous report rang amongst the rocks. 
 The frightful, almost human scream of a wounded 
 horse, a wild plunging on the side of the rocky
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 139 
 
 bridle-path, and Espey and the yellow roan disap 
 peared over the verge of the cliff. The three men 
 standing in the road, hearing with sickening hor 
 ror the dull thud far below, might judge of the 
 terrors of the fall by the time elapsing before the 
 sound reached their ears.
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE household at the Terns cabin were keep 
 ing late hours that night. Except for a certain 
 reserve of cogitation, which at times held him silent 
 with a burning thought in his eye, his superficially 
 moving lips framing unspoken words, and occa 
 sionally a keen, sarcastic smile irradiating his 
 features with the light of some satiric expectation, 
 Cap'n Lucy had resumed his wonted aspect and 
 mental attitude and the habits of his simple 
 existence. 
 
 " Ye fetch yer book out'n yer pocket," he said 
 imperatively to Jasper Larrabee early in the 
 evening, when the young man had joined them on 
 the porch. " The gals ain't goin' ter run away, 
 leastwise 'thout cornsider'ble mo' incour&gemint 'n 
 they hev hed. They '11 keep ! Ye jes' sot awhile 
 by that thar taller dip in thar an' read yer book, 
 an' I '11 listen out hyar." 
 
 The penalties of the acquisition of knowledge, 
 from the days of the Garden of Eden to those of 
 the hero of the horn-book, have not been few. 
 They fell somewhat heavily on Jasper Larrabee, 
 debarred the fresh air, heavy with perfumed dew ; 
 the vicinage of dank vines; the glimmer of the 
 firefly in the bosky gloom ; the scintillating stars
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 141 
 
 in the sky above the massive mountains ; the 
 sweet, low voices of the two girls, silenced now; 
 and the trivial chatter so dear to the heart of 
 youth. The room, with the low red glow of the 
 embers, was warm to-night ; the tallow dip melted 
 and sputtered and cast a wan, melancholy, ineffec 
 tive radiance into the dusky spaces, rendering the 
 aspect of the familiar furnishings strange and 
 spare and dull, instead of all ruddily a-flicker with 
 the dancing firelight in which he was accustomed 
 to see them. Even the dogs had deserted the 
 hearthstone, and went in and out with lolling 
 tongues, and hot, sleepy eyes, and an inattentive 
 manner. Moths and strange winged fire-worship 
 ers, unknown to his observation hitherto, would fly 
 in from the cool darkness without, circle swiftly 
 about the white jet of the candle, and now and 
 then, with a sudden dart, would fall, shriveled cin 
 ders but for the convulsive throes of lingering life, 
 on the page of the volume. 
 
 He wondered sometimes, as he droned on and 
 on, if Adelicia were listening, or if Julia could see 
 him from where she sat. From the lighted spaces 
 he could not distinguish their shadowy figures, 
 albeit Cap'n Lucy, close at hand and with the 
 red glow of his pipe, was plain enough. Some 
 times Larrabee felt the vague sense of a gaze fixed 
 upon his clear-cut face, all etherealized, illumined 
 by the soft pallid white light within against the 
 brown shadows. He was unaware of any valid em 
 bellishment of his aspect from the pensive gleam,
 
 142 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 the irradiated square of the window, the ascetic 
 gravity of his expression, intent and pondering on 
 the longer words, which it was his pride that he 
 need not pause to spell. On the contrary, he was 
 often conscious of cutting a sorry figure when 
 Cap'n Lucy, with the rigor of a most rational rea 
 son and all the fervid insistence of a personal in 
 terest, would plunge at him, and require him to 
 recant, to spell out syllable by syllable some ques 
 tioned dogma, and at last, with all the nonchalance 
 of a sophisticated theologian, take refuge in the 
 equivalent of a plea of mistranslation. 
 
 " Ye can't haffen read, boy ! " he would exclaim 
 roughly. " Ye don't read ekal ter what ye hev 
 done. Keep on goin' back'ards, an' ye '11 git thar 
 arter a while. * Agree with thine adversary ! ' 
 My stars ! ef ye war wuth a grain o' gunpowder, 
 ye could see ez that air obleeged ter be 'dis 
 agree with thine adversary.' It stands ter reason ! 
 ' Z)is-agree ' with him, early and often, else the 
 dad-burned critter will git up the insurance ter 
 disagree with you-uns. I know thine adversary ! 
 Been 'quainted with him this many a year ! Read 
 on, read on, Jasper ; git shet o' thine adversary." 
 
 Thus it was that, with the shadowy, snarling, 
 intent old face vaguely visible in the dusk, just at 
 his elbow, outside the window, ready to spring for 
 ward at the first intimation of an unacceptable doc 
 trine ; with the sense of responsibility for all the 
 biblical dogmas irreconcilable with Cap'n Lucy's 
 tenets and the tenor of his way ; with the spectacle
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 143 
 
 of glamour, lure, catastrophe, and death furnished 
 by the unrestrainable moths, Jasper Larrabee 
 found his preeminence of learning a comfortless 
 pinnacle, and even the wonted sweet solaces of com 
 placence in his superiority were denied him. He 
 was forced to appear before the eyes of his lady 
 love as an ignorant pretender, of ridiculous and 
 inadequate assumptions, and that by a man who 
 could not read his own name, humiliated and 
 browbeaten ; for how dared he answer Cap'n 
 Lucy? More than once he wished himself back 
 at the Lost Time mine, where he knew Espey 
 thought him to be, and where Lorenzo Taft needed 
 him. The work, unpalatable as he often found 
 it, would be welcome indeed, and his untutored, 
 unquestioning, often inattentive audience there a 
 happy exchange from Cap'n Lucy in the charac 
 ter of polemic. He made some effort to shift the 
 subject, to turn from the preceptive and doctrinal 
 pages upon which he had chanced to fall to the 
 chronicle of events in the nature of historical 
 detail, as less liable to elicit Cap'n Lucy's 
 contradictory faculties. It availed him naught. 
 Cap'n Lucy's interest was fairly roused, and he 
 imperatively negatived the proposition. The guest 
 felt, still later, that it was not hospitality in its 
 truest sense which so flatly declined to heed the 
 suggestion of departure. And thus constrained, 
 he read on, so conscious of the shadowy face at his 
 elbow that he seemed to see it, with the light of 
 excitement in the wide blue eyes, the alertness in
 
 144 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 every line, the lips intently parted, the glow of the 
 pipe dying out as it was supported motionless by 
 the uplifted hand. 
 
 " Hey ! " shrieked out Cap'n Lucy suddenly, as 
 if he had been poignantly pinched. " Ef he takes 
 yer coat, gin him yer cloak ! Jasper, ye air de 
 mented ! Ye ain't 'quainted with the dad-burned 
 ravelings out o' the alphabit, let alone the weft of 
 it ! My sakes ! " in an outraged falsetto, " ye 
 tell me that 's sot up ez Christian doctrine in the 
 Book ! Take yer coat, gin yer cloak ! Whar 's 
 the man ez hev done it ! Trot him out ! Great 
 Moses an' Aaron ! I 'd like ter look at him ! Take 
 yer corner-stone an' monimint o' boundary, an' gin 
 him yer line an' yer Ian' ! ha ! ha ! ha ! Let 
 him take yer rock known ez Big Hollow Boulder, 
 an' gin him yer corner-stone ! ha ! ha ! " 
 
 Luther rose precipitately. The significance of 
 the paternal discovery of the removal of the cor 
 ner-stone was fraught with great perplexity and 
 foreboding, and he hardly knew what ill-judged 
 disclosure was to follow. He had intended to in 
 terpose, albeit he scarcely had a pretext. It came 
 to him at the moment. 
 
 "What's that? I 'lowed I hearn suthin'!" 
 he exclaimed. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy turned upon him with the breath 
 less acrimony of one interrupted in some cherished 
 pursuit. 
 
 " Hearn suthin' ? Jes' the rustlin' o' yer own 
 long ears, that 's all. I " He stopped ab 
 ruptly.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 145 
 
 In the midst of his strident raised tones an alien 
 sound smote his attention. There was an approach 
 of horsemen from down the road. Cap'n Lucy's 
 acrimony was merged in curiosity and excited 
 expectation. Still holding his pipe, filled with 
 dead ashes, as stiffly and cautiously before him as 
 if its wonted coals glowed in the cob-bowl, he rose 
 from his chair, and advanced a pace or two nearer 
 the rude steps, peering out into the darkness. The 
 two 1 girls had turned their heads toward the sound. 
 Larrabee was leaning on his arms in the window, 
 and Luther had started down the path to the bars. 
 His deep bass voice sounded in a bated, thunder 
 ous mutter, as he rebuked the barking dogs, whose 
 menace subsided into low growls, punctuated now 
 and then by a clamorous yelp. Perhaps the insist 
 ent tone of these canine threats influenced the new 
 comers, for it was at a goodly distance that the 
 party called a halt and hailed the house. 
 
 Luther returned the halloo with a ringing re 
 sponse in kind, but Cap'n Lucy added a genial 
 " ' Light and hitch " to the unknown guest that 
 the midnight had convoyed hither, his habit of 
 broad hospitality all unmindful of the individ 
 uality or intent of the new-comers. " Me an' 
 Luther air ekal ter all sorts," he would sturdily 
 answer to the occasional remonstrance that times 
 were not what they once were, and that he might 
 thus " at sight unseen " be inviting in the marau 
 der or the devil. "Me an' Luther air ekal ter 
 'em."
 
 146 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 The tone of this hospitality seemed a sore-needed 
 encouragement in this instance. Rodolphus Ross 
 had flung himself, metaphorically, upon the frater 
 nal bosom of Luther, as he hastily sought to sum 
 marize the misfortunes that had befallen him; 
 the slow young mountaineer, all unprepared for 
 so dramatic a recital, staring, uncomprehending 
 and amazed, at his interlocutor, hardly knowing 
 whether to ascribe his fluent diction to drink or to 
 histrionic talents ; as fact he did not take it into 
 account. 
 
 " Yes, sir ! " the wild-eyed Ross was saying as he 
 came up the steps, " flung over the bluffs, horse an' 
 all, dead or alive, I dunno ! Cap'n Terns, yes, 
 sir; plumb proud ter shake hands," mechanically 
 acknowledging the introduction to the head of the 
 house. " Jes' purtendin' ter handcuff the fool, 
 jes' fur fun, an' he fired at me ! Yes, sir, fired 
 at the off'cer o' the law ! I dunno what ailed him, 
 'thout he thunk I war in earnest. But Lord ! he 
 war bound ter know I war arter another man. I 
 tole him so. I hed nuthin' agin this hyar Lar'- 
 bee. I war jes' purtendin' ter handcuff him, jes' 
 shuck the bracelets at him, jes' fur fun, ye know, 
 Cap'n Terns, it 's powerful dull an' drowsy a-ridin' 
 so stiddy arter malefactors 'thout no sort'n enter 
 tainment or enjyemint, an' this hyar Jasper Lar'- 
 bee jes' ups an' fires at the off'cer o' the law, jes' 
 scorched my clothes." He held up his arm, and 
 caught the pallid light of the candle on his coat 
 and powder-singed sleeve. " Not that I keer fur
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 147 
 
 the josie, 'ceptin' it 's too durned near the meat fur 
 thar ter be enny fun in shootin' through it." 
 
 He laughed in a constrained falsetto tone, his 
 wonted laugh, but with all the mirth eliminated 
 from it. It had a sort of wooden quality, and 
 ended with a nervous catch in his throat. The 
 light falling through the window showed his dark 
 eyes, set a trifle too close together, and the straight 
 black brows meeting above them. His teeth 
 gleamed, for the laugh left his lips mechanically 
 distended. Larrabee, leaning on his folded arms 
 in the window, a mere silhouette upon the pallid 
 lustre of the aureola of the candle behind him, 
 gazed silently on the stranger's face. 
 
 One is apt, in thinking of a man of experience, 
 to associate sophistication with the idea. But life 
 presents varied aspects of mental development, and 
 the caution, the silence, the reserve of judgment, 
 with which Cap'n Lucy hearkened might have 
 seemed gleaned from the observation of the juggle 
 of cause and effect in a far wider sphere. The two 
 comrades of the deputy sheriff said not a word, and 
 once more the officer began to elaborate the justifi 
 cation of his conduct. 
 
 " It takes a toler'ble stiff backbone ter set on a 
 saddle an' let a man shoot at ye fur nuthin'. It 
 'stonished me powerful. I war jes' funnin', an' 
 purtended ter be aimin' ter handcuff this young 
 rooster, an' he jes' whurled roun' an' let the bullet 
 fly. I b'lieve he 'lowed I war in earnest, yes, sir. 
 This hyar Lar'bee hev been up ter suthin' agin the
 
 148 HIS VANISHED STAB. 
 
 law, moonshinin', I reckon, else he would n't 
 hev been so dad-burned handy with his fi'crackers." 
 
 " Why why " blurted out Luther, amazed at 
 the lack of symmetry in the situation, and incapable 
 of the paternal wisdom of silently awaiting develop 
 ments, with the incongruity of the sight of Larra- 
 bee in the window mutely hearkening to the reflec 
 tions upon the " Larrabee " who took so vehement 
 a part in the officer's reminiscences " 't war n't 
 Lar'bee, mebbe ; some other fellow." 
 
 " Naw, sir," returned the deputy. " This hyar 
 man," laying his hand on his bulky companion's 
 shoulder, " knowed whar Lar'bee's mother, a wid- 
 der lady, lived, an' we-uns called him ' Lar'bee ' an' 
 ' Jasper,' an' he answered ter 'em both ; an' his 
 mother called him ' Sonny.' He 's a wild-catter, 
 sure. He 's " He caught himself suddenly, re 
 membering the prepossession against the revenue 
 force which often animates even law-abiding citi 
 zens of this region. " But he need n't hev fired at 
 me I I got nuthin' agin moonshiners. I b'long ter 
 the County, not ter the Nunited States, to the 
 County I" 
 
 " Whar 's this man now ? " demanded Cap 'n 
 Lucy circumspectly. 
 
 The alert, sinister face of the deputy changed. 
 But he sought to bluff off the anxieties and con 
 scious criminations which crowded upon him. He 
 swung his hat, which had a bullet-hole in it, gayly 
 in his light grasp, and his dark eyes twinkled as he 
 met the gaze of his host.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 149 
 
 " Ye air a powerful good hand at axin' riddles, 
 but this 'n air too hard fur me ! I dunno, an' 
 these men dunno ! I fired back in self-defense at 
 the miser' ble fool I hed been funnin' all along, 
 cap'n. I shot his horse, I know, an' the critter 
 slipped, an' the whole caboodle went back'ards 
 over the bluffs an' an' he mought be dead 
 or alive Air air that a cheer? " 
 
 He had suddenly lost his self-control ; he sank 
 back into a seat and seemed gasping for breath. 
 
 The details of their immediate errand thus de 
 volved upon his comrades, a lantern and a guide 
 to search the slope where the victim of the deputy's 
 pleasantry had fallen. 
 
 " 'Dolphus air sech a tumble bouncin' wild 
 buck," said his friend from " the t'other e-end o' the 
 county," who had begun to resume his remonstrant 
 air, as of " I-told-you-so." He was a slow and 
 serious-minded man, with a scant appreciation of 
 even the most symmetrical jest, but when the joke 
 seemed furnished with such distortions of sequel 
 his gravity grew aggressive. " 'Dolphus kin crack 
 a toler'ble funny joke wunst in a while, but this 
 hyar one air goin' ter make him laff on the t'other 
 side o' his mouth." 
 
 " Who war it ez ye war arter, sure enough ? " 
 asked Cap'n Lucy. 
 
 "A stranger what they 'lowed war puttin' up 
 with you-uns, Cap'n Terns." 
 
 " Hey ? " cried Cap'n Lucy, with a high quaver 
 of excited delight. " He hev gone ; but, my stars !
 
 150 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 what a hearty welcome ye mought hev hed with 
 him!" 
 
 " What 's he done ? " demanded Larrabee, speak 
 ing for the first time, addressing the friend of the 
 deputy. 
 
 " Shot a man in Tanglefoot Cove," he replied, 
 looking somewhat intently at the silhouette in the 
 window. 
 
 " What did ye 'low his name war ? " asked Lar 
 rabee, placing one hand behind his ear as if he had 
 not heard what indeed they had not disclosed. 
 
 " Espey, John Espey from Tanglefoot, o' 
 course. He hev been hidin' out cornsider'ble 
 time." 
 
 There was a sudden significant silence which the 
 stranger felt, but did not comprehend. Then 
 Cap'n Lucy, recovering his poise, remarked : 
 
 " Waal, the stranger ez we-uns hev hed hyar air 
 named Kenneth Kenn'ston, from Bretonville. He 
 air a town man, an' aimin' ter build some sort'n 
 tavern in the Cove." 
 
 The three men for the officer was himself 
 again looked at one another with the pathetic 
 helpless disgust of hunting dogs on a false trail. 
 
 It seemed that their quest was hopeless from the 
 beginning, and in its interests they had deeply in 
 volved themselves in the toils of the law which 
 they sought to aid. 
 
 " Waal," said the deputy's friend, " we-uns hed 
 better git the lantern, an' take ter the woods agin 
 an' find the corpse," the deputy winced at the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 151 
 
 word so palpably that even his sturdy, literal- 
 minded companion was moved to seek some euphe 
 mism ; " leastwise find out what 's the damage 
 we-uns hev been an' done." 
 
 His stolid, unflinching shouldering of such re 
 sponsibility in the matter as might fall to his share 
 was oddly contrasted with the nervous excitement 
 and agitation of the man from the Gap, who had 
 served as guide to the party to Mrs. Larrabee's 
 house. 
 
 " Waal, I ain't done none o' the damage," he 
 protested, nodding his head emphatically. " I 
 thunk I hed ter kem along o' the off'cer o' the law 
 whenst required. I hed no idee o' junketin' 'roun' 
 with the wildes' buck this side o' hell, a-caperin' 
 like a possessed lunatic, an' a-shootin' of 'spectable 
 citizens off'n the bluffs. Jasper Lar'bee done 
 nuthin' ter me, never laid eyes on him afore. / 
 done none o' the damage. I call ye ter witness, 
 Cap'n Terns, ez I hed nuthin' ter do with his takin' 
 off." 
 
 Cap'n Lucy, always adorning the opposition, gave 
 a high, fleering laugh. " Me ter witness ! Me ! 
 Why, man, I been settin' hyar sence dark, a-readin' 
 o' the Holy Scriptur's. I hev no part in yer ridin' 
 an' raidin'." 
 
 That repulsion to the idea of taking life, and all 
 its ramifications of moral responsibility, apart from 
 the legal consequence, natural to the civilized man, 
 had yielded in the deputy sheriff to his habitual 
 mental impulses. His wild, fierce, shallow person 
 ality was in the ascendant once more.
 
 152 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " I '11 guarantee ye, Bob," he declared, with his 
 wonted swift smile of dark eyes and red lips and 
 lifted meeting eyebrows. " Ef the g'loot is dead, 
 he died resistin' arrest by the off cer o' the law. 
 Ef he be 'live, I be durned ef he don't hev cause 
 ter resist the off'cer o' the law, fur I '11 swar ter 
 glory I '11 nose out what this hyar Jasper Lar'bee 
 hev been a-doin' of ter be so monst'ous afeard o' 
 the bracelets bein' put onto him, murder or 
 moonshinin', it 's all the same ter me. I '11 set 
 the bloodhounds o' the law onto him, sure ! He 
 hain't gin me sech a skeer ez this fur nuthin' ! " 
 
 As the blood came surging hotly along its ac 
 customed channels, his fury mounted higher. It 
 jumped with his humor to threaten as living the 
 man who he feared was dead. He sought to spurn 
 that possibility from his consciousness. It re 
 newed his confidence in himself, too, to protest so 
 jauntily that if the man had lost his life it was 
 in resisting the law legitimately enforced. He re 
 viewed, with a burst of anger, the fright of the 
 other two men and his own anxiety that had suf 
 fered this lapse of attention to his own interest, 
 and allowed the true detail of the case to be re 
 hearsed here publicly. Naught could obliterate 
 this ; naught could justify him save to prove that 
 the surprised Jasper Larrabee had been guilty of 
 soirie offense against the law, and was resisting 
 arrest legally attempted. 
 
 " I '11 fix him ! I '11 follow him like a blood 
 hound ! I '11 nose him out and pull him down !
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 153 
 
 Bless God, I will ! " he cried out with sudden 
 vehemence. Then he turned roughly to his two 
 companions. " Kem on, ye two mud-turkles ! Ye 
 got jes' about ez much life an' sperit ez a couple o' 
 old tarripin. Stir yer stumps, bubby," to Luther. 
 " Git yer lantern, an' bring yer slow bones along 
 ter aid the off'cer o' the law! An' ye, too, my 
 frien' in the winder, ez quiet ez a cat stealin' 
 cream ; ye 'pear ter be young an' able-bodied. I 
 summons ye ter kern an' aid the off'cer o' the 
 law ! " 
 
 The tallow dip, which had been for some mo 
 ments sputtering in the socket of the candlestick, 
 suddenly flared up with a wide illumination, then 
 sunk as suddenly almost to extinction, feebly rose 
 again, and, in a gust of wind, was extinguished, 
 leaving a tuft of red sparks on the drooping wick, 
 and a pervasive odor of burning grease in the 
 room and porch. Perhaps it was because of the 
 brighter light for the moment, perhaps because of 
 the keener observation of the officer, whose facul 
 ties were once more well in hand, but no one else 
 had noticed a strange stillness in the figure of 
 Adelicia, as she sat in her wonted place on the 
 edge of the floor of the porch, leaning back against 
 the post. 
 
 " One o' yer darters hev fainted, I b'lieve," he 
 said to Cap'n Lucy. " Suthin' ails her." Then, 
 turning away, " Kem on, fellers ; mount an' git 
 out'n this. We-uns hev been hyar too long 
 now."
 
 154 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 As Jasper Larrabee rode away in the little troop 
 toward the scene of the disaster, to search for the 
 body of the supposititious Jasper Larrabee, his 
 mental faculties began to recover from the torpor 
 of surprise which had benumbed them. That 
 cautious self-control which sometimes seems an 
 added faculty in a certain type of law-breaker had 
 held him mute as he watched the development of 
 events. Now, as he began to take cognizance of 
 the disclosures of the evening, he adhered of sober 
 intention to the policy he had intuitively adopted. 
 He feared the acknowledgment that he had re 
 ceived and harbored Jack Espey, a fugitive from 
 justice, more than the acrimonious search of the 
 deputy sheriff for the misdeeds of Jasper Larrabee. 
 This, indeed, might result in his apprehension for 
 the violation of the revenue laws, and the discovery 
 of the moonshiner's lair, and this would mean 
 many years of imprisonment ; but the other might 
 involve him, and possibly his mother as well, in a 
 trial for murder, as accessories after the fact. It 
 might be impossible to establish their ignorance of 
 Espey's crime, and their lack of connivance in his 
 escape. He had that pervasive terror of the law, 
 as of technical and arbitrary construction of crime, 
 common to the unlearned. His heart burned with 
 rancor against his whilom friend. He would not 
 recognize Espey's share in these ignorant terrors 
 of the law. He argued that if his friend had been 
 open with him, he would at least have been a free 
 agent in receiving him, have had some voice in the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 155 
 
 degree of responsibility he assumed. As it was, 
 his open-handed hospitality had been grossly iin- 
 posed upon, and as a return he was given the 
 choice of the jeopardy of a charge as accessory to 
 a murder, or of an infringement of the revenue 
 laws. He realized the whole drama as it had been 
 enacted. He understood that Espey, conniving at 
 the officer's mistake, and allowing him to suppose 
 him to be Larrabee, had thus shielded his own 
 identity as the fugitive from justice whom they 
 sought. And this ruse Espey fancied was dis 
 covered, when the deputy, in his wild horse-play, 
 had facetiously endeavored to handcuff him; he 
 had therefore strenuously resisted, and thus had 
 possibly come to his death. This possibility did 
 not soften Larrabee toward him ; perhaps he did 
 not altogether accredit it at once, for death is 
 difficult to realize even when a certainty. He 
 dwelt upon his own danger, even more upon his 
 mother's possible jeopardy ; upon her untiring and 
 laborious hospitality; upon his own labors which 
 had rendered such entertainment practicable, for 
 the money earned without her knowledge at the 
 still went, much of it, to this pious use. 
 
 The sharpest sting of ingratitude is often the 
 sense that the giver has been a fool. Larrabee 
 harbored a surly grudge against himself as he 
 rode silently on, and Luther, uncomprehending his 
 friend's reason for not disclosing his identity, and 
 suspecting that Jack Espey was the man they 
 sought, was silent too. The loud voices of the
 
 156 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 others in acrimonious criminations and recrimina 
 tions accented the stillness of the night, and the 
 sound of their horses' hoofs as they filed along the 
 mountain passes, multiplied by rock and ravine, 
 and far echoes from distant heights, might have 
 seemed the march of squadrons of cavalry. 
 
 The skies had taken on that unfamiliar aspect of 
 the hours which straitly precede the dawn. Far, 
 far, on their pauseless way the constellations fared. 
 Stars were low in the west, which on these summer 
 nights had seemed the familiars of the meridian. 
 A strange sense of loneliness, of silence, pervaded 
 the firmament. The breathless pause that heralds 
 the miracle of dawn bated the pulses of nature. 
 No more song of cicada, no more stir of wind. 
 Once a meteor, with an incongruous irrelevance of 
 effect, shot athwart the sky with its gleaming trail 
 as of star-dust ; the motion was like a sacrilege in 
 the holy stillness and breathlessness of the world. 
 
 And suddenly in the midst of the myriad scin 
 tillations a brilliant white jewel was ablaze, which 
 Jasper Larrabee could have sworn was not there 
 before ; pellucid, splendid, tremulous, a star of 
 stars. He knew the skies only as the herder or the 
 shepherd knows them in lonely, lowly paths of 
 earth, but even an ignorant man may feel that the 
 circuit below is narrow and the ways above are 
 wide, and the heart is lifted up. Not the name of 
 one of the stellular glories visible to the naked eye 
 could he syllable, but he had marked them all; 
 he was wont to dwell for hours upon their contem-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 157 
 
 plation ; he knew the contour of their most bril 
 liant whorls and scintillating arabesques as he knew 
 the intricacies of the woodland ways in the wilder 
 ness. He had drawn his horse hastily back upon 
 the haunches, and again his eyes sought the align 
 ment of the stars as his fancy had marshaled them. 
 There was one more, one that he had never be 
 fore seen ; one unknown to all the splendid nights 
 that had ever shone upon the earth. 
 
 The voices of the men patrolling the slope below 
 the point, where they had paused, rose excitedly on 
 the still air. The horse was found, he gathered 
 vaguely, dead, shot through the brain. The man 
 was gone. The officer, in a frenzy of energy, beat 
 the bushes far and near, lest the fugitive, wounded 
 and disabled, might have crept away in the midst 
 of them, and still lay hidden in the leafy covert. 
 The hour wore away ; the dawn came on apace, 
 and, with the quest still fruitless, the officer pres 
 ently mounted his horse and rode speedily off, 
 fearing less, perchance, the review of his conduct 
 by his superiors in the county town than the arbi 
 tration of the few citizens of the scantily settled 
 region, who might take an inimical view of the 
 disappearance of the guide of the jocose officer. 
 
 Only when the gray day came with the tremulous 
 wind over the mountains, and the craggy ranges 
 grew darkly distinct, and the unpeopled wooded 
 valley distinct and vaguely drear, and the deep 
 blue sky faded and was colorless, and one by one 
 the stars noiselessly, invisibly slipped away without
 
 158 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 a trace, like some splendid promise never to be ful 
 filled, did Jasper Larrabee turn rein, perplexed and 
 disquieted and greatly awed. For in his unlettered 
 ignorance he had never heard of that simple fact 
 known to astrononiy as a temporary star.
 
 IX. 
 
 IN the days that ensued, no trace of the fugitive 
 was developed. Cap'n Lucy experienced a certain 
 relief in the fruitless result of the extended search 
 instituted by the friends that Espey had made in 
 the Cove. In their opinion the conclusion was 
 inevitable that, despite the lack of his horse, he 
 had made good his escape, and did not lie wounded 
 or dead in the jungle of laurel, awaiting their 
 humane succor, or burial at their hands. He was 
 glad that Espey was gone, doubtless never to return, 
 and that the matrimonial problem was gone with 
 him. He was not quite frank with Adelicia in 
 regard to this expectation. Her constitutional hope 
 fulness instantly adopted the general belief of Es- 
 pey's safety as fact, and she fixed her expectant 
 eyes on the future with such fidelity of certainty 
 that it seemed they must constrain the return she 
 so definitely awaited. 
 
 " He '11 find out ez them off'cers 'lowed 't war 
 Jasper Lar'bee, an' never knowed they hed Mm. 
 An' then, uncle Lucy, he won't be 'feared ter kem 
 back," she said many times a day. 
 
 " Course not," assented Cap'n Lucy. "He '11 be 
 hyar afore long, jes' ez good lookin 'ez he knows 
 how ter be."
 
 160 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 It was perhaps a pious fraud, for the girl's de 
 spair and grief had been so wild that Cap'n Lucy 
 was glad for her optimism to be reasserted on 
 whatever termsf and to have the pleasant thing in 
 the house once more. 
 
 Luther had necessarily been enlightened by the 
 recent events as to the sentimental phase of the 
 matter ; for Cap'n Lucy had hitherto sedulously 
 kept it secret, since he did not favor a fugitive 
 from justice as a suitor for his niece, and was de 
 termined to break off the affair at all hazards. 
 Luther looked with disapproval upon his father's 
 crafty methods. 
 
 " I dunno what ails ye ter make Ad'licia b'lieve 
 ez Espey will kem back," he once ventured to say 
 aside to his father. " He air sure ter 'low ez they 
 never tuk him fur Lar'bee, else he would n't hev 
 tried ter break away." 
 
 " Luther," said Cap'n Lucy, " I hev noticed ez a 
 man air obleeged ter hev a powerful strong stom- 
 mick ter be able ter tell the truth at all times. An' 
 ez I git old, I hev sorter got the deespepsy." 
 
 The son merely gazed at him with a sort of 
 literal-minded bovine stare, as he sought to enter 
 tain this statement of the moral effect of debility. 
 
 " An' then, whenst I war a leetle boy," continued 
 Cap'n Lucy, " I war bit by a rattlesnake ; an' 
 sometimes whenst I hear myself sayin' sech ez air 
 agin the actial fac' it don't s'prise me none, fer I 
 know it air jes' a leetle meanderin' o' the venom o' 
 the sarpient in me yit, 'kase, ye know, he war a 
 deceiver from the beginning."
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 161 
 
 What impression the strange and unexpected 
 events had made upon the impassive and reserved 
 Julia, none had taken thought to observe. The 
 demonstrative, expressive characteristics of the 
 other members of the household filled the domestic 
 stage. It was only when the poignancy of Ade- 
 licia's grief and anxiety had given way to a reso 
 lutely patient and hopeful waiting, and Cap'n 
 Lucy's vehement interest had subsided into a triv 
 ial occupation with the passing details of life, that 
 it chanced to be noticed that Julia was wont to 
 sit idle at her spinning, the thread in one hand, 
 the other lifted as if to regulate the whirl of the 
 motionless flax-wheel; her wonderful blue eyes 
 fixed upon the distant purple mountains, glimpsed 
 through the parting of the gourd vines above the 
 porch ; her head, with its smooth plaits of glossy 
 hair, held up and alert ; some unspoken thought 
 upon her marble face that filled every still line 
 with meaning. 
 
 " Ye 'pear ter be palsied, Julia," said the unob 
 servant Luther, smoking his pipe on the porch one 
 evening. " Ye hain't moved hand or foot fur a 
 solid hour." 
 
 She started slightly at the sound of his voice, 
 fixing her attention on him with obvious effort. 
 Her mind was evidently coming back from distant 
 removes, and Adelicia, with vague curiosity, de 
 manded suddenly, 
 
 " What air you-uns studyin' 'bout, Julia, whenst 
 ye air lookin' like that ? "
 
 162 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Studyin' an' a-studyin'," said Julia, dropping 
 her hands in her lap and leaning back in the chair, 
 her eyes once more turning to the high, massive 
 mountains afar off as if they possessed some mag 
 netic attraction, " 'bout'n whar pore, pore Jack 
 Espey kin be now, an' how powerful cur'ous 't war 
 ez ye would n't marry him whenst he axed ye." 
 
 The fore-legs of Luther's tilted chair came down 
 to the floor with a thump. With a hand on either 
 knee, and the cinders and burning tobacco dropping 
 from his pipe unheeded to the floor, he sat fixedly 
 staring at his silent sister. To his comprehension 
 she was speaking her mind very unequivocally now. 
 Despite the vaunted feminine quickness, Adelicia 
 heard in it only personal upbraiding, for a certain 
 remorse had made her sensitive on this score, and 
 prone to protest her constraining dutifulness. 
 
 " I hed uncle Lucy's word agin it ! " she ex 
 claimed, with a rising flush and angry bright eyes. 
 
 Julia slowly shook her head, her eyes, her 
 thoughts, far, far away. " I would n't hev keered 
 fur no ' uncle Lucy's ' word," she declared icono- 
 clastically. " I reckon, ef the truth war knowed, 
 dad hisself married ter suit his own taste. Least 
 wise, I ain't never hearn o' no old uncle or aunt 
 or dad, or sech kinfolks, ez ondertook ter make a 
 ch'ice in marryin' fur him." 
 
 "Waal, sir," Luther interposed, in a tone of 
 shocked propriety, " settin' up hyar an' talkin' by 
 the yard medjure 'bout marryin' an' men-folks, an' 
 I 'd bet my best heifer that Jack Espey ain't gin
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 163 
 
 air one o' ye a single thought sence he lef hyar. 
 No, nor nare 'nother man. Ef the truth war 
 knowed, ye hain't got a haffen chance apiece, 
 without it air 'Renzo Taft, down yander at the 
 Lost Time mine, an' he can't make out which air 
 the hardest favored 'twixt ye ! Ye hed both better 
 go ter work. Jack Espey '11 never kem back agin. 
 Dad jes' say he will ter pledjure Ad'licia. An', 
 Julia, ef ye don't spin up that thar truck," he 
 pointed with fraternal imperiousness at the wheel, 
 " ye '11 be toler'ble scant o' new clothes, an' 
 ye '11 look wuss like a skeercrow 'n ye do now." 
 
 Julia received this taunt to her beauty with the 
 equanimity of one whose title is unimpugnable ; 
 but Adelicia, all unheeding any subtler sense than 
 the obvious meaning his words conveyed, protested 
 against even this conjectural banishment of poor 
 Jack Espey. He would come back, she declared. 
 He had doubtless found out by this time that he 
 was mistaken in supposing the officers cognizant 
 of his true identity, and that they were jesting, 
 thinking him still Larrabee. And now that the 
 nine days' wonder had blown over, and people were 
 interested in it no more, and so much was going on 
 in the Cove to usurp public attention, she looked 
 for him any time just to slip back in his old place. 
 " I never kem out on the porch but I look ter see 
 him in that thar cheer whar Luther be. I hev 
 'peared ter see him thar." 
 
 " That ain't the way I 'pear ter see him," said 
 Julia suddenly. " I dreampt he war a-kemin' on
 
 164 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 his claybank horse, a-lopin' down the road, a-wavin' 
 his big white hat at we-uns like he done that day he 
 kilt the wolf an' fotched home the pelt. That 's the 
 way I view him ever sence I dreampt that dream." 
 
 " Then ye hev the nightmare," said Luther, surly 
 and helpless to stem the tide of sentiment, " an' ye 
 hain't got no mo' sense sleepin' than wakin' ; fur 
 that claybank roan will lope down these rocky roads 
 no mo', partly through bein' dead, an' partly through 
 old Miser Miggins hevin' gone down the gorge an' 
 tuk off the critter's shoes. Ye better content yer- 
 self with the claybank roan ez a nightmare, fur ye 
 ain't goin' ter view Espey an' the critter a-lopin' 
 round no mo', no matter how much be a-goin' on 
 in the Cove." 
 
 For the Cove was indeed in a phenomenal fer 
 ment. To the astonishment of the leisurely and 
 dilatory mountaineers, the work on the new hotel 
 had begun, and was being pushed forward on paral 
 lels inconceivable to their ideas of progress. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy, his mind recalled to his more im 
 mediate personal interests, watched it with a sort 
 of avidity of observation from the porch of his own 
 house, where he was wont to sit with his pipe. 
 His sneer, his silent laugh, his acrid enigmatical 
 phrases, grew frequent as the blasting for the cel 
 lars proceeded, and the flying fragments of rock, 
 which had elicited such formidable prognostication, 
 fell far short of his cabin or his inclosures, indeed 
 seldom coming to the ground beyond the jungle of 
 laurel at the base of the great natural terrace, the 
 site of the work.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 165 
 
 " He did n't git the edzact range, Luther," he 
 would say in affected surprise ; or, sarcastically, 
 " This hyar Kenn'ston would hev made a powerful 
 spry gunner in the old war times, sech a eye for 
 distances ! " 
 
 Adelicia, observing the circumstance, also re 
 membering Kenniston's expressions of fear for their 
 safety, only saw cause for gratulation. 
 
 " Mr. Kenn'ston 'lowed ez we-uns mought hev ter 
 move an' leave home whilst the blastin' war goin' 
 on ! " she exclaimed. " An' he made a powerful 
 mistake, uncle Lucy." 
 
 " So he did," said Cap'n Lucy, with a twinkling 
 eye. " He air a great man fur movin' ginerally. 
 He b'lieves in movin' things." 
 
 Luther, remembering the peripatetic corner-stone 
 and the impending processioning, understood the 
 allusion, but he had a foreboding of trouble, and 
 his heart sunk within him. He was glad when the 
 blasting was concluded, which it was shortly ; for 
 he feared a premature or ill-advised accusation, and 
 it seemed to him that the meaning of those thinly 
 veiled sarcasms must presently be revealed to others 
 as well as to himself. The foundations were laid, 
 and the framing of the building followed promptly ; 
 soon the gaunt skeleton of the hotel, an outline of 
 modern frivolity and summer pleasuring and flimsy 
 vastness, was incongruously imposed upon the si 
 lent, solemn mountain behind it, with the rugged, 
 austere crags below it ; with the unfamiliar mists 
 shifting through it and drifting along corridor and
 
 166 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ball-room and scaling the tower ; with its prophetic 
 shadow, like a line engraving, flung by the moon 
 light on the dark surface of the top of the dense 
 forest below. More than once furious mountain 
 storms assailed it ; but its builder's philosophy had 
 taken account of these inimical forces, and it held 
 fast. 
 
 The unbroken mountain wind, however, played 
 havoc with the light shanties of the workmen in 
 this exposed situation on the promontory of rock, 
 and when rebuilt the camp was moved below the 
 terrace, down in a sort of gorge, shielded and safe, 
 albeit the distance from the work was a matter of 
 some inconvenience. 
 
 They proved civil folk, the town mechanics, and 
 answered gravely many a queer question put from 
 a vast distance in civilization and sophistication, 
 albeit at arm's length from the natural body ; for 
 from far and near the mountaineers visited the 
 unfinished structure. Often a wagon with a yoke 
 of oxen would stand, the patient beasts humbly 
 a-drowse, for an hour or so in the sandy road, while 
 the jeans-clad owner would patrol the new build 
 ing, solemnly stepping from timber to timber over 
 the depths of the cellar, or with the utmost sim 
 plicity of assurance make a critical circuit about 
 the whole, and offer suggestions looking toward im 
 provements. Sometimes the visitor was of shyer 
 gentry : a red fox was glimpsed early one morning, 
 with brush in air, speeding along the joists of the 
 ball-room ; it might seem they would never know
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 167 
 
 the weight of aught more graceful or agile ; a deer, 
 doubtless a familiar of the springs, was visible once, 
 leaping wildly down the rocks in great elastic 
 bounds, evidently hitherto unaware of the invaders 
 of these preempted sylvan wilds. Others, too, of 
 the ancient owners of the soil came on more pro 
 saic quest, but in the dead hour of darkness or the 
 light of the midnight moon. A young bear, who 
 had long harbored predatory designs upon a cer 
 tain fat shoat, a denizen of that pig-pen of Cap'n 
 Lucy's upon which the owner and Mr. Kenniston 
 looked with such differing eyes, was brought to a 
 pause, in a cautious reconnoitre, by the fragments 
 of food, scraps from the workmen's dinner, which 
 might be found by nosing about among the shav 
 ings. Perhaps it was this alone that led him 
 about the angles and turns of the building; but 
 as he went between the sparse substance of the 
 timbers and their scant linear shadows that, in 
 the sorcery of the moonlight, appeared hardly less 
 real, he seemed as censorious a critic as Cap'n 
 Lucy himself. Sometimes he would pause in his, 
 clumsy shamble, and, with the moonlight a-glitter 
 in his small eyes, lift himself on his hind feet and 
 gaze about the solitary building, indescribably mel 
 ancholy in the loneliness and the wan, pensive 
 sheen ; grin with his white teeth, a-gleam with a 
 sarcastic, snarling contempt ; fall to all fours again ; 
 and, shrugging his heavy shoulders to his ears, scud 
 along with the aspect of clumsy sportiveness com 
 mon to his kind.
 
 168 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 It chanced that a light, portable forge had been 
 in use that day, in the process of the work ; the 
 foreman had himself looked to the extinction of 
 the fire, albeit the scene of the operation was upon 
 the solid rock, and far from any possible communi 
 cation with the building. The wind could never 
 have turned over the low apparatus set in the hol 
 low of the ledges, but the bear could, and did. 
 Then he sat down suddenly to 'lick his singed paw, 
 for the metal was still hot. The fuel had been 
 charcoal; it still sustained heat, and even com 
 bustion. There was a steady spark in a few of 
 the scattered cinders, quickening, reddening, as 
 the eager night air touched them. The shavings 
 amongst which they had fallen, further down the 
 slope, were slightly astir for a moment; then a 
 timorous blaze sprang up along the more tenuous, 
 lace-like, curling edges. 
 
 How the destructive element fared, whether by 
 slow, insidious, fearful degrees, as of conscious but 
 furtive evil intent, or as animated by a wild, tu- 
 jnultuous, riotous impulse, more and more rapacious 
 with impunity, as of some turbulent, maddened 
 thing escaping control, none but Bruin might say, 
 for, save the impassive, neutral night, the event 
 had no other witness. Before the flames had fairly 
 taken hold of the studs and joists his cowardly 
 fears had gained the ascendency over his gluttony. 
 More than once he paused, in gnawing his trophy 
 of a beef bone, to growl fiercely, his remonstrant, 
 surprised eyes illuminated by this alien flicker. As
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 169 
 
 the skies began to redden, and the pale moonlight 
 to fail, and the great massive mountains to appear, 
 dark and weird, from the deep and silent seclusions 
 of the night, he left his booty and retreated toward 
 the verge of the woods, pausing now and again in 
 the dun-colored shadows, all veined with shifting 
 pulsations of red and white, to look with eyes aglow, 
 reflecting the fire, upon its ravages, growling 
 fiercely at times; then, with his recurrent fears, 
 setting out once more on a lumbering run. 
 
 Perchance the reflection flung upon the clouds, 
 all lurid and alight, before which the stars shrank 
 away invisible, apprised the traveler journeying in 
 far-away coves and ranges, or the herder of the 
 lofty solitudes of the balds, or the hunter in distant 
 coverts, of the disaster in progress before the near 
 est neighbors were roused. The angry glare of the 
 conflagration seemed to pervade the world, like the 
 vivid searching terrors of the red day of doom, 
 when the workmen, down in their sheltered nook 
 beneath the crags and the dense shadows of the 
 forest, discovered the untoward fate of their handi 
 work. Into the crevices of the batten shutters of 
 Cap'n Lucy's glassless windows the keen rays at 
 last pierced, like some sinister, pestilential, daz 
 zling sunburst, illuminating the homely scenes with 
 an uncanny flare, and displacing the broken dreams 
 with a terrified awakening. 
 
 Naught could be done. It might be accounted 
 a spectacle in some sort, to watch the airy acro 
 batic feats of the lithe flames leaping from beam to
 
 170 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 brace, from joist to rafter, of the three tall stories, 
 seeming of vaster proportions with all their detail 
 illustrated in these living tints upon the subsidi 
 ary, flickering night. There was a series of wild, 
 dancing, tangled blazes a-whirl in the lengths of 
 the ball-room, white and red and orange and blue, 
 an uncanny rout. High up on the battlemented 
 turret a vermilion banner flaunted suddenly out to 
 the moon, and then it was struck amidst a myriad 
 of sparks, and the echoes clamored out against the 
 crashing of the tower. 
 
 For days thereafter the smoking, charred ruin 
 was the terminus of many a pilgrimage amongst 
 the simple folk of the region, who had never beheld 
 wreckage on such a scale. The idle workmen 
 hovered about it, dispirited and anxious, awaiting 
 orders. There was much mysterious talk of incen 
 diarism, and a rumor pervaded the Cove that the 
 matter had already been reported in this light to 
 the authorities, and that Rodolphus Ross was on 
 his way to the scene of action. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy, seated on the rocks about the lim 
 pid spring, at a comfortable distance from the hot, 
 smouldering mass, smoked his pipe, as he contem 
 plated it, in more placidity of mind than had for 
 some time fallen to his share. He was not a man 
 who would deliberately seek to injure his enemy in 
 person or property ; but Cap'n Lucy was eminently 
 human, and he could but admire the wisdom of the 
 uncovenanted dispensations of Providence, through 
 which Mr. Kenniston's game was, as he conceived
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 171 
 
 it, so handsomely blocked. He had a most buoy 
 ant sense of irresponsibility in the matter. 
 
 "I ain't so much as once spoke to the Lord 
 'bout'n that man," he said privately to Luther, as 
 if his prayers must needs have been inflammable. 
 
 He was not the only one of the spectators who 
 thought, in view of the magnitude of the ruin, that 
 the whole project was necessarily ended, and who 
 looked on Kenniston's invasion of the Cove as a 
 thing already of the past. It was a matter of very 
 general surprise when the " town man " suddenly 
 reappeared upon the scene in a bounding fury, and, 
 in the metaphorical phrase of the mountaineers, 
 " primed and loaded for b'ar." They little dreamed 
 how literal a reason he had to hold a grudge against 
 Bruin.
 
 X. 
 
 THE season seemed full of menace to the troglo 
 dytes of the Lost Time mine. The work went on 
 about the still as hitherto, but with added precau 
 tion various and vain, for the limits of their 
 ingenuity had already been reached and with 
 a heavy sense of presage. The old moods that had 
 prevailed here were gone, whether of brag and 
 bluster, or wild hilarity, or jocose horse-play, or 
 the leisurely and languid spinning of yarns to help 
 the hour to pass. Even the industry of old Zeb 
 Copley, the veteran of the force, was mitigated by 
 sudden long pauses and a disposition to hearken 
 fearfully for unaccustomed noises, and by eager 
 and earnest urgency that the work should be pre- 
 termitted for a time. The youngest moonshiner of 
 all felt it a dreary world to look at with sober eyes, 
 and, despite his morose abstinence and surly staid- 
 ness, a less discerning judgment than Taft's might 
 have foreseen the brevity of this enforced drought 
 and the danger of a relapse, with all his reminis 
 cences at his thick tongue's end, were he free to 
 fare about the world without. Espey's vacant 
 place was ever significant of the reason for it, and 
 Larrabee would sit for hours brooding over the 
 untoward chances of his own fortunes ; his gloomy
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 173 
 
 eyes on the ever-glinting line of light playing 
 through the furnace door, his motionless pipe full 
 only of dead ashes in his heedless hand. 
 
 " Ye air a toler'ble dangersome neighbor," Taft 
 remarked one day ; for the complication of the mis 
 taken identity had come to his ears during a sortie 
 from his stronghold, and the threats of the deputy 
 sheriff against the supposed Jasper Larrabee 
 coupled with his suspicions as to moonshiriing. 
 
 Larrabee looked up fiercely. " Move, then, ef 
 ye don't like yer neighbor." 
 
 He was like a fox run to earth ; he had no fur 
 ther resource. His one idea of dealing with the 
 law was by evasion and subterfuge and concealment. 
 He had no remote expectation of justification. By 
 a series of deceits he had persuaded his mother to 
 go on an immediate visit to a bedridden great-aunt 
 who lived in an adjoining county. The horse she 
 rode belonged to a neighbor of the aged relative, 
 who chanced to be in this locality, and who was 
 taking home with him a led horse, a recent pur 
 chase. Jasper himself was to go after her in the 
 indefinite period when the corn should be laid by 
 and her own horse at leisure. The infant con 
 queror of the rickets went with her, mounted 
 behind her, his chubby arms stretched at their ut 
 most length clasping her gaunt waist, and with as 
 unchastened a vainglory and pride in the earnest 
 of this great journey and the envious wonderment 
 of the other children as if his bourne were the north 
 pole. Thus Mrs. Larrabee set out, with the grim-
 
 174 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 visaged neighbor of the aunt in advance, and with 
 a frisky, dapper colt already en rapport with 
 the pilgrim youth by reason of mutual juvenility, 
 irresponsibility, and frivolity kicking up his ad 
 mired heels in the rear. And Henrietta Timson 
 reigned in her stead under the queer little sylvan 
 roof that seemed no more made with hands than 
 the cups of a triple acorn. 
 
 Thus it was that Jasper Larrabee was roofless 
 for the nonce, save for the strata of the Lost Time 
 mine. 
 
 That Lorenzo Taf t would fain be rid of him he 
 saw grimly enough, and this he grimly refused to 
 heed. He had incurred the suspicion of moonshin- 
 ing by reason of Espey's choosing to wear his name 
 for an hour or so. He had incurred it through no 
 fault of his own. The infringement of the law 
 was common to them all, and involved a danger 
 which they should share. 
 
 At all events, there would be nobody to answer 
 for harboring the fugitive, should Espey's true iden 
 tity become known to the law, and Rodolphus Ross 
 find his way again to the little house on its airy 
 perch. Taft had thought it wise that Larrabee, 
 already tainted with suspicion in the mind of the 
 officer of the law, and thus a source of great dan 
 ger, should follow Espey to parts unknown. But 
 the world, to the unlodged of earth, is doubtless 
 of aspect like the face of the waters to the dove 
 when first loosed from the ark, without foothold 
 or friendly sign.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 175 
 
 Larrabee replied even to the innuendo : 
 
 " Go whar ? An' leave you-uns a-cuddled down 
 hyar so snug in the groun' that the devil hisse'f will 
 sca'cely nose ye out on the Jedgmint Day ? Naw, 
 sir. I see nuthin' but resk fur me on all sides, but 
 less hyar 'n enny whars. I hev stood in ez much 
 danger ez enny of ye. I hev tuk my sheer o' the 
 resk 'thout wingin', but I won't be kicked out like 
 a stray dog an' gin up ter the law 'kase you-uns air 
 'feared 'Dolphus Ross 'lows I be a moonshiner. He 
 can't find or hear o' me hyar. I got ez much right 
 hyar ez you-uns, 'Renzo Taft. I own my sheer in 
 the business, an' hyar I be goin' ter 'bide." 
 
 The other two moonshiners, Copley and young- 
 Dan Sykes, regarded him askance and with sullen 
 eyes. This minority might seem to be fraught with 
 no small danger. His chief fear lest Espey should 
 be overtaken, and the details of his refuge with the 
 Larrabees be elicited, involving himself and his 
 mother as accessories to the crime, he never men 
 tioned. It so absorbed his thoughts, however, that 
 for a time he did not observe a symptom of the 
 antagonism of his confreres which deeply augured 
 its seriousness. 
 
 A shaft hard by the still-room, if such the nook 
 where the apparatus was worked might be called, 
 which was sunk into the very deepest limits of the 
 mine, came near relieving them of their perplexity 
 on this score, one day. Larrabee's foot slipped in 
 the rotting refuse of pomace on the verge while he 
 was handling the bags of grain, and as he came
 
 176 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 heavily to the floor, barely saving himself, he saw 
 like a flash a sudden irradiation of hope on the 
 flushed, foolish face of the boy, a keen expectation 
 in Taft's eyes, and even in the elderly drudge's 
 wooden wrinkles a sort of disappointed resignation 
 as he scrambled to his feet, that daunted him more 
 than the immediate danger. 
 
 His precious book he read no more by the light 
 of the furnace flicker, after this. Not that he now 
 brooded over his cares, but his watchfulness never 
 flagged. Whether the accident suggested the idea 
 to Taft, or whether it were the flimsy fiction of the 
 inimical atmosphere and his own alert apprehen- 
 siveness, Larrabee thought that he was given several 
 opportunities to take leave inadvertently of the 
 world. Once, in cleaning a pistol said to be un 
 loaded, the ball in the last chamber whizzed sharply 
 by his head. Again and again he was set to handle 
 the heavy bags of grain on the slippery verge of the 
 shaft. After a time a new cause of alarm was de 
 veloped. Despite his crafty vigilance in his deter 
 mination to remain at all hazards, he did not notice, 
 until it became very marked, their unwillingness 
 that he should leave the still at all, and Taft's ex- 
 pertness in disallowing every pretext. The truth 
 dawned upon him at last, with its most valid rea 
 son. Although they would be glad were he to quit 
 the country, yet, since his permanent absence could 
 not be compassed, any chance excursion into the 
 Cove or neighborhood was fraught with danger, as 
 he might be seen, identified as Larrabee, and fol-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 177 
 
 lowed by the man who had spotted him as a moon 
 shiner to Taft's house, where, spending days and 
 nights, the mystery would soon be unfolded. 
 
 Larrabee came upon this discovery with a suffo 
 cating sense as of a prisoner. Instantly he was pos 
 sessed by a wild urgency for the outer air and the 
 freedom beyond that seemed as if its own impetus 
 might break through the barriers of a thousand feet 
 of the solid ground. He almost felt the wind blow 
 in the strength of his keen desire ; and when he set 
 himself instantly to compass his deliverance, eager 
 ness outran tact in his first demonstration. 
 
 " Hello, 'Renzo," he said in a cheerful, incidental 
 voice, strikingly at variance with the gruff tones 
 that had of late served him in the absolutely essen 
 tial colloquies between them touching the work. 
 
 Taft's keen senses instantaneously apprehended 
 the difference. He glanced around with a quick 
 eye, illumined by the feeble white gleam of the 
 lantern in his hand, for he had but just emerged 
 from the tunnel. He did not simulate. He looked 
 as he felt, interrogative, expectant, as he sat down 
 on the side of a barrel without pausing to extin 
 guish the lantern. Its pallid glow suffused his 
 florid face and yellow beard, and brought out the 
 tint and effect of translucency in his blue eyes. 
 They were fixed steadily on Larrabee, who was 
 suddenly out of countenance. He had intended a 
 more casual disclosure of his project than the im 
 pending interview permitted, a sort of unpre 
 meditated announcement of his determination, as
 
 178 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 of being free to do as he would. He felt that his 
 face had changed, and he knew that the change 
 was noted. A new rush of alarm seemed to surge 
 through his nerves. For, guarded as Taft evi 
 dently was, he too had betrayed somewhat the im 
 portance which he attached to the plans, even the 
 words, of his employee, or his partner, or his pris 
 oner, as Larrabee might be variously regarded. It 
 daunted Larrabee : the latent ferocity that lurked 
 in Taft's character, repudiated in his burly good 
 comradeship of manner and in his florid face, 
 save for a certain beaklike outline of the nose that 
 gave a rapacious, cruel intimation, was instinc 
 tively known to the young mountaineer, who was 
 not skilled in the craft of a knowledge of his kind, 
 and had no habit of analysis. He somehow flinched 
 to be made anew so definitely aware that he was a 
 factor, and a troublous one, in Taft's schemes. He 
 felt no match for the elder tactician. He wished 
 he had gone long before, when the moonshiner 
 sought so openly to be rid of him. At all events, 
 he would go now, and without chicanery or subter 
 fuge. He blurted out his plan, which he had in 
 tended to trench upon with great care and circum 
 spection, and which should have appeared a natural 
 evolution and outcome of the conversation. 
 
 " 'Renzo," he said, with a distinct abatement of 
 his former genial inflections, but still with a pliable, 
 amiable tone, and for his life he could not sup 
 press an intonation of appeal, " 'Renzo, I 'm 
 a-studyin' 'bout takin' yer advice. Ye air old'n me 
 an' hev got mo' 'speriunce an' "
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 179 
 
 " What advice ? " Taft interrupted succinctly. 
 The sentence seemed very short in his big, mellow, 
 sonorous voice ; it was like a key struck inadvert 
 ently on some great organ ; the heavy vibrations in 
 themselves seemed to promise continuity. 
 
 " 'Bout goin' out'n the Cove. I been studyin' it 
 all out, an' I 'low 't would be safer fur all consarned 
 ef I war ter cut an' run." 
 
 Taft remained silent. His illumined eyes were 
 glassy and fixed ; somehow, the absorbed, introspec 
 tive thought seemed to eliminate their expression. 
 
 " Jes' cl'ar out," said Larrabee, as if in explana 
 tion ; he could not repress the manner of asking a 
 permission, although he raged inwardly at himself. 
 
 " Whar'bouts ? " Taft's great voice boomed out 
 once more as it were inadvertently. 
 
 " Ter Buncombe County in old Car'liny, whar I 
 got some kinfolks a-livin'," said Larrabee. " That 's 
 what I war a-studyin' 'bout," he added, still striving 
 for a more incidental effect. 
 
 The furnace door was open, for the fire was low, 
 the still but just emptied, and the work intermitted 
 for the nonce. The bed of red coals filled the place 
 with a dull glow. In its dreamy light he saw sud 
 denly the broad, flabby face of Dan Sykes, the 
 youngest of the moonshiners, distorted with silent 
 mirth, like the face of a caricature. He sat upon 
 a billet of wood in a lowly attitude, frog-like with 
 his upturned head which was supported by his two 
 hands, his elbows resting on his knees drawn high 
 under his chin. His distended grin of evident
 
 180 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 delight in Taft's answer showed that it was not 
 unexpected. 
 
 " Why, law, Jasper," exclaimed Taf t, but the 
 unctuous tone would not mix with the lie of the in 
 tent, and floated in its midst like oil on water, 
 " I could n't make out now, jes' now, 'thout you-uns. 
 I be short-handed now, 'count o' Espey, an' I got 
 word ter-day from the cross-roads fur two barrels o' 
 corn juice quick ez it kin be got thar. Yer kin in 
 Buncombe," his eye twinkled, for he suspected 
 the kin in Buncombe to be of that airy folk known 
 only to dreams and deceits, " they '11 keep. Ye '11 
 hev jes' ter put off goin' fur a leetle spell, bein' 
 so short-handed, ye know." 
 
 " What air they aimin' ter pay fur them bar'ls? " 
 demanded Larrabee calmly. 
 
 Thus he drew the conversation aside to the com 
 mercial aspects of the situation, as if he acquiesced 
 in Taft's view, and recurred to his proposition no 
 more. He controlled his voice, but his heart sunk 
 like lead. He had not dreamed but that they would 
 be glad to let him go if he quitted the region. He 
 had not even feared that this resource was in jeop 
 ardy. He could not imagine the turn of events 
 which must needs preclude his flight abroad, as well 
 as his familiar appearance in his wonted haunts 
 about the Cove. He cursed his fatuity again and 
 again that he had not escaped when he could. 
 What were the dangers of the world at large in 
 comparison with the mysterious menace that envi 
 roned him here ? He dwelt continuously on these
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 181 
 
 thoughts for a time, and it was only gradually, and 
 chiefly by reason of Sykes's leering grin and secretly 
 gleeful eye, that he became aware that this Benja 
 min amongst them had been specially deputed to 
 watch him. In the days of his own terrors of the 
 world without, he had ceased to go out for his meals 
 or to sleep. He subsisted on " snacks " which Taft 
 fetched down from his own table, which abstrac 
 tion caused no surprise to his small housekeeper, 
 for Miss Cornelia Taft had long since exhausted 
 her capacities for astonishment at any prodigies of 
 food consumption on the part of her father, who 
 took such big bites in comparison with old Mrs. 
 Jiniway's custom, and he slept at broken inter 
 vals, as his uneasy thoughts permitted, on the empty 
 meal sacks in the shadow of the piles of barrels. 
 This life continued now of necessity, as formerly of 
 choice. Larrabee's apparent acquiescence, he had 
 a vague idea, surprised and perturbed the others. 
 They were evidently prepared for resistance and 
 harsh measures. They had lost their balance in 
 some sort ; their attitude was like that of one who 
 makes ready for a running leap, and stops short of 
 the jump. Thus, their unsteady, balked surprise 
 bore scant relation to their persistent, unchanged 
 purpose, for their watch upon him was not for one 
 moment relaxed. Even in the network of wrinkles 
 about the sunken eyes of the elder distiller, a sort 
 of staggered, dumf ounded suspicion expressed itself, 
 in conjunction with an observant heed of Larrabee's 
 every movement which hitherto would not have
 
 182 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 been allowed to absorb so much of the attention he 
 was wont to bestow on the still. 
 
 At first the discovery came near to breaking 
 down Larrabee's reserve of endurance. His heart 
 thumped so loudly, so heavily, that he sometimes 
 thought they must hear its treacherous clamors as 
 he sat and smoked in the dull red glow, assuming 
 a calm and somnolent, satisfied aspect. Occasion 
 ally, with that terrible sense of the key turned, the 
 door closed, the realization of restricted liberty, so 
 overwhelming to the free habit of the mountaineer 
 and the woodsman, with a charter to wander as 
 wide as the wilderness, the blood would surge to his 
 head, the copper boiler spin round and round, his 
 companions slowly wheel about in that dim space of 
 shadow and light ; and he thought he lost conscious 
 ness at these times. But always when he came to 
 himself he was sitting as before, calmly smoking in 
 his wonted place, seeming a trifle disposed to shirk 
 his work, perchance ; and latterly he had begun to 
 drink heavily, as it were upon the sly. He could 
 not have said how the idea had come to him : it was 
 not gradual ; the scheme was full fledged in an in 
 stant. He knew that his every movement was un 
 der surveillance, and that he was under the special 
 guard of the young drunkard, who had been longer 
 sober now, perhaps, than for many a month. Dan 
 Sykes watched with glistening eyes Larrabee's fur 
 tive hand reaching for the jug of whiskey, the trick 
 of the hasty swallow aside, and presently Larrabee 
 had a companion in his covert potations. He
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 183 
 
 trembled lest the young fellow's scanty powers of 
 self-restraint should not be adequate to conceal long 
 enough to serve his plan the swift ravages of drink 
 in his recent abstinence. He seemed insatiable and 
 frantically keen of thirst, and the necessity of con 
 cealing his indulgence from Taft, who had evidently 
 sent forth some fiat against it, developed an almost 
 incredible deftness of craft. On the day that the 
 liquor was barreled and removed, Sykes had been 
 drinking almost without cessation. His share in 
 the work was scant, his duties as guard serving 
 in substitution. Perhaps for this reason, perhaps 
 because of the absorption in the enterprise, neither 
 of the two elder moonshiners noticed his condition ; 
 and indeed he had become singularly skilled in 
 assuming a sort of veneer of sobriety. It passed 
 muster in this instance. 
 
 Taft got away early in the night with his load, 
 taking note, apparently, of nothing beyond some 
 extra hazard of the enterprise, as Larrabee gathered 
 from the caution with which he loaded his revolvers 
 and his frequent conferences aside with Copley, 
 who enjoyed his special confidence, being his near 
 kinsman as well as coadjutor. The barrels were 
 to be concealed in the wagon under bags of feath 
 ers, dried fruit, ginseng, and other strictly rural 
 commodities of barter. Two barrels of innocent 
 and saccharine sorghum found themselves, too, in 
 the unholy company of those barrels that the still 
 had furnished forth. It was somewhat difficult to 
 make out the load. Copley was eager for it to be
 
 184 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 off, notwithstanding, but Taft persisted until all 
 the probabilities had been satisfied. There was 
 much passing back and forth in the tunnel; 
 through its long lengths Larrabee could hear 
 the commotion in the room beneath the store. 
 When the preparations were completed at last, 
 he knew as well as if he had seen it how the great 
 white canvas-covered wagon looked, standing with 
 its two stanch mules before the door of the store, 
 under the early dusky night sky and the burly 
 overhanging purple heights, the yellow light 
 streaming out from the open door upon it, and 
 all the cheerful bustle of departure rife as it were 
 in the very air. Taft came back at the last mo 
 ment for his coat. As he swung himself alertly 
 into it, and crushed his big hat down on his big 
 yellow head, he had all the breezy impetus of one 
 who is about to start on a pleasant and successful 
 journey. 
 
 " All loaded ! " he cried cheerfully. " A kentry 
 merchant a-goin' ter buy goods can't be too keer- 
 f ul oughter take along all the gear he kin ter 
 trade ha ! ha ! ha ! Good-by ! Take keer o' yer- 
 se'fs!" 
 
 And thus he strode out with his light, elastic 
 tread. Larrabee listened as it beat on the dirt 
 path, and then to the echoes that duplicated its 
 progress, till it ceased to sound. 
 
 Somehow the void about the circle was not with 
 out melancholy intimations, the normal incident of 
 departure, whether it be regretted or cause for grat-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 185 
 
 ulation. Perhaps because of the sudden disordered 
 quiet and loneliness in the quitted scene, the un 
 occupied mind must needs always reach forward 
 into the unknown journeyings, meeting in specula 
 tion the varied events denied to the home-abiding. 
 Larrabee sat still for a time in the low red glow of 
 the furnace fire, exchanging now and again an in 
 cidental comment with his companions on the sub 
 ject of the journey and its chances. The intervals 
 of silence grew longer ; the shadows gathered and 
 deepened; the younger man's head occasionally 
 nodded grotesquely in sleep, but more than once, as 
 Larrabee was about to rise to his feet, he saw in the 
 obscurity the large bloodshot eyes opened and fixed 
 soberly upon him. He had waited long ; long for the 
 certainty that Taft would not return on some for 
 gotten errand ; long for the drunken sleep that must 
 needs overcome the inimical vigilance of the young 
 moonshiner. He could wait no longer. With 
 an abrupt, shrill cry like that of a savage pan 
 ther, he flung himself upon his elder companion. 
 Copley was a man of powerful physique, and his 
 every muscle was developed by the heavy labor 
 in which it was exercised. In his undiminished 
 strength his age gave no advantage to his adversary, 
 whose slight bulk he might have flung from him 
 with a single arm but for the surprise and sudden 
 ness of the attack in which he was borne to the 
 ground. All Larrabee's strength hardly sufficed to 
 hold him there for a moment. There was a fierce 
 struggle ; a pistol ball whizzed by Larrabee's head,
 
 186 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 and the narrow precincts were filled with the 
 echoes and with Copley's hoarse calls upon Sykes 
 for help. The young fellow rose in response, 
 stupidly echoing the cries of his own name, took 
 one tottering step forward, and fell like a log, 
 flabby, nerveless, helpless, on the floor. Larrabee 
 wondered afterward that it could all be so quickly 
 done. It was by virtue of surprise, desperation, 
 sleight of hand, deftness, and quickness rather 
 than by strength or courage. A meal bag served 
 as a gag, and a rope, used in transporting the 
 heavy barrels up the steep incline to the store, to 
 pinion the arms and shackle the feet. Larrabee 
 was almost exhausted by the capture of the first 
 prisoner, and it was perhaps auspicious for his 
 freedom that the young drunkard, beyond an ill- 
 directed blow or two, could make no resistance. 
 The rope was made fast around the solid masonry 
 of the furnace ; and as Larrabee contemplated his 
 work, he felt sure that the two prisoners, one yet 
 vainly struggling, the other already sleeping the 
 sleep of the very drunk, would find no means of 
 deliverance till Taft's return the next day. 
 
 Again and again in his durance Larrabee had pre 
 figured how swift would be his flight along the tunnel 
 to the free outer air. Now he feebly plodded, and 
 trembled, and faltered, and again went groping along 
 the densely black way, essaying to keep a straight 
 line, but feeling himself continually touching the 
 wall, now on the right, and again on the left, in 
 his zigzag course. Once he paused with an alert
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 187 
 
 start. A sound of human voices had struck his 
 ear, and at the merest possibility that his escape 
 was not complete, certain, every flaccid, exhausted 
 muscle was tense again. He lifted up his head, 
 hardly breathing, that he might listen, but heard only 
 the uncontrolled motion of his own heart plung 
 ing like an unruly horse. All else was silent in the 
 black stillness of the deeps of the earth, save for the 
 slight purling of the thread of a stream which farther 
 on intersected the tunnel. No stir, no sound from 
 the still-room, his late prison-house, where his jail 
 ers lay bound hand and foot ; and yet he had thought 
 he heard voices human voices words he 
 could almost have sworn it. And suddenly the 
 sound came again. This time he recognized it, 
 louder than its custom, more distinct, for he had 
 heard it before, the sound of the strange, unex 
 plained voices that at long intervals were wont to 
 reverberate along the tunnel of the Lost Time 
 mine, and that were accounted by the moonshin 
 ers echoes from their own wrangles or mirth or 
 talk as they toiled. He was certain that it did not 
 come now from the still ; his fear that his work had 
 been slack, and that his comrades were liberated, 
 was without foundation, but an earthly rational 
 fear is a wonderful exorcist of a ghostly terror. 
 Otherwise, when he thought of it afterward, he 
 felt that he must have been struck dead with the 
 horror of it, when he suddenly heard, close at 
 hand, the sound dulled by the dense medium of 
 the earth, a word of command, as it were, in a
 
 188 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 queer, strained, false-ringing voice, and then the 
 regular strokes of a pick cleaving the earth with a 
 workmanlike steadiness and precision. His blood 
 ran cold ; for his credulity harbored no doubts. 
 It was the sound of the drowned miners, lost in 
 the flooded shafts, still vainly digging the graves 
 that the niggard earth denied them. The thought 
 mended his speed ; he flew like a shuttlecock from 
 side to side of the narrow passage, where he could 
 but grope, for the lack of a lantern ; and although 
 he often put forth his hands expecting to touch the 
 boards of the partition at the further end, he 
 thrust into his palms a score of the hairy splinters 
 of the reverse side of the rude puncheons long be 
 fore he could have reasonably expected to reach his 
 goal. He observed none of the precautions and 
 silence common to the moonshiners in their exits 
 from the still ; and indeed the feat was hardly ex 
 pected to be attempted in the dense darkness. He 
 dropped one of the boards, and the deep, cavern 
 ous, clamorous echo coming up from the hollow 
 vaults below almost overwhelmed him, as it re 
 sounded again and again. He had lost control of 
 his nerves. He stumbled over the empty boxes and 
 barrels in the room beneath the store, tumbled up 
 the ladder, and as he clambered from the door 
 beneath the counter he realized for the first time 
 that the room was built, as were many of the 
 meaner cabins of the region, without a window, 
 depending on the door for ventilation and light. 
 This was a matter of precaution with Taft, and
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 189 
 
 being a not uncommon feature in the district 
 occasioned no surprise ; but Larrabee trembled as 
 he remembered that it was Taft's cautious habit 
 to lock the door when he himself was not in the 
 store. Feeling that the bars were in place against 
 the battens, he was apprised that it had been thus 
 secured by the worthies down at the still, and 
 perchance the key was now in Copley's pocket. 
 His only resource would be to retrace his way, all 
 the toil and risk of his escape to be repeated. But 
 no, the bolt turned' in his hand, and as he stepped 
 into the passage outside his eyes were dazzled almost 
 to blindness by a tallow dip blazing in the hand 
 of little Cornelia Taft, summoned by the noise to in 
 vestigate its source. Behind her, looking over her 
 head, was Joe's round, careless, plump face. Lar 
 rabee was little less staggered by the monition that 
 there might be other persons at hand in the house 
 than by the expression of Cornelia's prim, disap 
 proving, unfriendly, intelligent little countenance. 
 The next instant he cared for neither ; a salient 
 change in the aspect of the cabin claimed his at 
 tention. The open passage between the two rooms 
 had been boarded up, and a stout door fitted in, 
 barred and bolted, on which gleamed a strong new 
 lock. There was no key visible. He gazed at the 
 lock with greedy eyes, silent, till the girl's question 
 had been twice repeated. 
 
 "Me doin' hyar? Oh, I been doin' some 
 work fur yer dad," he said, more at ease, for he 
 had seen her occasionally as he came and went,
 
 190 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 presumably in the character of customer, and he 
 detected recognition in her calm and non-commit 
 tal countenance. " I got shut up in thar, mought 
 hev been noddin', an' I war 'feared the door war 
 locked." He advanced upon the outer door. 
 
 " Ye can't git out'n that one," said the little girl 
 coolly ; " hit 's locked on the outside, an' dad hev 
 goned away ter the cross-roads with the key in his 
 pocket." 
 
 Larrabee's first impulse was to try his strength to 
 burst it open, and once more that salutary monition 
 of the probable presence of others in the house con 
 trolled him. He turned toward the door of the op 
 posite room, partly to settle this doubt, and partly 
 to discover it had never before occurred to him 
 to notice whether it had a window. The room 
 was vacant, and his eager eyes ranged the walls in 
 vain for an aperture. 
 
 " It 's like a trap," he muttered, as he sunk ex 
 hausted into a chair. " What ails 'Renzo ter lock 
 up the house an' make off with the key, an' leave 
 you-uns inside by yerse'fs? " he demanded. 
 
 The two children had followed him into the room. 
 Joe stood by the door, holding by the frame, sway 
 ing back and forth, attempting some distortion of 
 attitude impossible to the human configuration ; 
 but the little girl had seated herself staidly in a 
 chair opposite, and showed herself not averse to 
 conversation. 
 
 " 'Kase thar be sech a lot o' strange, idle folks 
 in the Cove," said the prim Miss Cornelia, with an 
 expression of strong disapprobation.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 191 
 
 Larrabee could not restrain an exclamation of 
 surprise. It was indeed like a new world, the fa 
 miliar Cove, so long he had been shut out of it. 
 
 " What folks ? " he asked succinctly. 
 
 "Them ez hev been building the new hotel," 
 said Sis. " Them, in course." 
 
 " What they doin' now ? Ain't they buildin' ? " 
 he hazarded tentatively. 
 
 " Naw," the small Cornelia Taft pursed up her 
 lips contemptuously, "jes' a-roamin' round the 
 Cove in gangs, a-foolin' an' a-idlin', an', my sakes, 
 a-drinkin' whiskey, thick ez bees ! " 
 
 A new light was breaking in on Larrabee. Taft 
 had at first desired that he should leave the Cove, 
 slip away quietly ; now, since it was infested with 
 a troop of scattered workmen, apparently out of a 
 job, all of whom had doubtless spent an idle hour 
 agape over the story of the supposed Jasper Larra 
 bee, the last nine days' wonder of the Cove, the 
 facetious freak of the pretended arrest, the miracu 
 lous escape of the fall from the cliffs, the mysterious 
 disappearance, the suspicion of moonshining, and 
 the threatened vengeance of the deputy sheriff, 
 it was scarcely probable that he could get away 
 without exciting notice which might lead to recog 
 nition, pursuit, and arrest. He was safer at the 
 still, this he himself admitted now, far safer 
 in the depths of the earth ; except, indeed, for Taft 
 and his fellows. 
 
 " Did you-uns see the fire ? " demanded Joe sud 
 denly, still writhing and twisting against the door 
 frame. " /did ! " in triumph.
 
 192 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Ye would n't ef I hed n't a-woke ye up," said 
 Sis, with acerbity. " I 'low ye did n't see much 
 nohows, bein' so sleepy-headed." 
 
 Larrabee sat looking in surprise from one to the 
 other, his questions anticipated by their eager rel 
 ish of the subject. 
 
 " Dad never seen nuthin' ! " cried the boy tri 
 umphantly. 
 
 " Dad would n't b'lieve thar war a fire till he 
 went an' viewed the cinders of the hotel," said the 
 girl. 
 
 The hotel ! A sudden suspicion smote Larrabee, 
 a recollection of the threat to burn the building 
 which had originated amongst the moonshiners be 
 fore a stone was laid in mortar or a timber lifted. 
 He did the craft injustice in this instance ; Taft 
 and his associates had no part in the conflagration. 
 But with Espey out of control, and Larrabee 
 touched with the suspicion of moonshining, a chance 
 word might fix upon the distillers this far more 
 serious crime known to them both to have already 
 been broached here. There was much reason for 
 his detention, too much. He must be going, and 
 that shortly.. 
 
 " I wonder ye all ain't 'feared o' burnin' up in 
 hyar, locked up," he said suddenly, the catastrophe 
 seeming to render the danger of fire more imminent, 
 although he knew it to be the habit of the country 
 folk to lock small children in when convenient to 
 leave home without them. 
 
 The little girl's thin lip curled.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 193 
 
 " Ef we-uns hain't got no mo' sense 'n ter set the 
 house or ourse'fs afire, I reckon we 'd be wuth ez 
 much roasted ez raw," she replied. 
 
 " Dad, he locked the door so we-uns kin tell them 
 stragglers ez he be gone, an' they can't git in ter 
 trade fur drink," put in Joe. 
 
 Larrabee said nothing more. He knew full well 
 that the children were not so alone as they seemed, 
 since Copley, who was their mother's half-brother, 
 was wont to be in the store, in Taft's absence, often 
 enough to be at hand should he be required to sup 
 press any disturbance ; and being a near relative, 
 he had a personal interest in their safety. Miss 
 Cornelia Taft was a fine combination of her father's 
 shrewdness and her grandmother's preciseness. As 
 Larrabee felt her small, discerning eyes studying 
 him, he became conscious that he was looking 
 about wildly and with manifest anxiety as to his 
 next step. He made an effort to allay her dawning 
 curiosity. 
 
 " Things look powerful nice an' cle'n up in hyar," 
 he remarked casually. 
 
 He was unprepared for the effect of his words. 
 If Miss Cornelia Taft had a soul, it was expressed 
 in her housewifely instincts. In a dozen frantic 
 and funny juvenile misconceptions, the precepts 
 brought from Mrs. Jiniway's domicile were put 
 into practice here. The basis of them all, cleanli 
 ness and an effort for order, was plainly apparent, 
 and Sis spent the better part of her days in seeking 
 to impress upon Joe's unwilling mind the value of
 
 194 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 an occasional dish-washing, and the utility of wood 
 ashes in scouring. An evil day, Joe considered it, 
 when she came into his ragged, soapless, happy-go- 
 lucky life ; but Taft connived at their wranglings 
 over their primitive housekeeping and Joe's subjec 
 tion. " Keeps Sis busy, an' lets me git on her blind 
 side, ef she hev got enny blind side," he added 
 grimly. 
 
 Her pallid face flushed, her eyes sparkled ; she 
 cast a glance of triumph at Joe, who had seated 
 himself in a chair, and was twisting his bare feet 
 in and out of the rungs in a way painful to witness, 
 if not to experience, writhing his body to and 
 fro, and rolling his head from side to side over the 
 high back of the chair in a restless frivolity of 
 motion that certainly had no family resemblance 
 to the staid " manners " which Mrs. Jiniway's 
 disciple exhibited. 
 
 She had entered volubly upon a detail of her 
 exploits here in reforming Joe's misrule amongst 
 the pots and pans and kettles. 
 
 " Dad 's so 'way from home, an' Joe 's so tur'ble 
 shif'less," she complained. 
 
 The task of redding up the Augean stables was 
 slight in comparison, one might believe, to judge 
 from her show of horror now and then, and there 
 was considerable difference between the size of Sis 
 and of Hercules. She had succeeded in reaching 
 some sense of culinary propriety in Joe, or pride, 
 for he now and again became sufficiently still to 
 look poutingly sullen, and to ejaculate, " 'T ain't
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 195 
 
 true ! " " 'T war n't ! " and similar disaffected 
 negations. 
 
 "1 1'arnt all that whenst I lived with my granny," 
 she concluded her exposition of the true methods 
 of dealing with the trivet and the skillet and set 
 ting the house in order. " An' when we war done, 
 we 'd knit stockings an' tell tales." 
 
 " Tales 'bout what ? " asked Larrabee, seeking to 
 conciliate her, for he began to have a shrewd suspi 
 cion that she could aid him if she would. His 
 interest was the more easily simulated, for he had 
 a literary taste himself. 
 
 " Oh," she cried, with a little bounce forward, 
 not unlike Joe's elasticity, " them in gineral we-uns 
 hearn the rider read, 'bout Sam'l." 
 
 " I hev read 'bout Sam'l," said Larrabee quickly, 
 with an air of playing willingly to her lead ; 
 and indeed she had struck him on his strong suit. 
 " An' old Eli. Eli war an able man, but he never 
 'peared ter me ter hev much jedgmint." 
 
 " I jes' lo-o-oved ter hear 'bout leetle Sam'l an' 
 his mother, an' her a-bringin' of him new clothes. 
 He wore a white shut, an' she brung him a leetle 
 coat every year," continued Sis, with placid eyes 
 shining with the delighted reminiscence of the little 
 prophet's fine gear. 
 
 " Eli never could hev led the children of Isrul 
 through the wilderness like Moses done," said Lar 
 rabee meditatively, reverting naturally to the elder 
 character ; whereas with Sis the personnel of the 
 Bible was chiefly juvenile, rarely attaining a greater 
 height than four feet.
 
 196 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Jes' ter think," she cried, " they put Moses 
 whenst a baby in a leetle dug-out, an' anchored him 
 'mongst the willows under the ruver bank, an' lef ' 
 him by hisself ! Don't ye know, he hollered an' 
 hollered! An' he wondered whar all the folks 
 war gone." 
 
 " An' Dan'l I hev read about," continued Lar- 
 rabee. 
 
 " In the painters' den ! Oo oo ! " The little 
 girl shivered with a sort of enjoyment of the terror 
 of the situation, drawing up her shoulders, and 
 holding both hands over her mouth. 
 
 " He war n't 'feared. I reckon he mus' hev been 
 a powerful hunter whenst young. I wonder ef he 
 ever hed enny 'speriunce with wolf an' bar, an' 
 sech ? " Larrabee speculated. 
 
 " Them bars ! War n't that awful, plumb tur- 
 rible ! " exclaimed Sis suddenly, her scanty brows 
 knitted as she frowningly recoiled into the back of 
 her chair, and her small eyes grew large. " Them 
 two bars what eat them forty childern, though 
 't ain't manners, an' it never war, ter make game o' 
 yer elders." 
 
 " 'T ain't true ! No two bar ever eat forty chil 
 dern. They 'd hev bust ! " Joe interposed realisti 
 cally. " Sis jes' made that up out'n her own head." 
 
 " It air true," protested the little Biblical student. 
 "I hearn the rider read it myself." 
 
 " Them childern war obleeged ter be sorter siz 
 able ter hev quit bein' bald-headed tharse'f s, ef they 
 war able ter run an' p'int thar fingers. An' shucks !
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 197 
 
 I hev been sassier 'n that a many a time, an' no bar 
 hev eat me yit," said Joe hardily. 
 
 " Ye air savin' up fur Satan, I reckon," retorted 
 Miss Taft, with acerbity. " I hev a heap o' trouble 
 with this boy," she added, turning a dreary, dis 
 gusted little face toward Larrabee. 
 
 Their unity of literary interest had fostered a 
 degree of sympathy for her. " Ye oughter go 
 down sometimes an' set at Tems's," he suggested. 
 " He hev got a darter an' a niece, though they air 
 older 'n ye be." 
 
 " I don't mind old folks," said Cornelia, evi 
 dently with no idea of the gradations of age. " I 
 be used ter granny. I wisht dad would marry one 
 of 'em at Tems's," she added. 
 
 Larrabee glanced keenly at her. 
 
 " What ails ye, ter say that ? " he asked jealously. 
 
 " I 'd like ter see a tuck took in Joe," said Sis 
 bitterly. 
 
 She obviously spoke without further information 
 or meaning. Larrabee rose restlessly, the interest 
 of the literary symposium at an end. 
 
 " I wisht ye could let me out'n hyar somehows," 
 he said, glancing uneasily about. Then, with a sud 
 den recollection, " Ain't you-uns got a key ez would 
 open the sto' door, what ye brung from yer granny's 
 house ? Mebbe 't would open t'other." 
 
 " Dad took it ; he did n't want the sto' do' opened 
 whenst he hed locked it." 
 
 "Hain't you-uns got no mo' keys, no kind o' 
 keys?"
 
 198 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 She hesitated, but he had won upon her some 
 what obdurate predilections ; his acquaintance with 
 the heroes of the tales that she had learned at her 
 grandmother's home was a pleasing and fresh bond 
 of interest. She divined his sympathy, and had 
 seen his approval of the works she had wrought in 
 the service of order and cleanliness ; he saw in her 
 little prim face that she had keys at hand^and 
 presently she nodded brightly. 
 
 " Let 's try 'em," he urged, as if the experiment 
 had a mutual interest. 
 
 It was a bunch of two or three rusty old keys 
 which she produced, held together with a rough 
 leather string, but they meant liberty and life to 
 Larrabee. He coulH hardly be still long enough to 
 clean and oil them before the attempt which should 
 be decisive. The little girl rubbed one with a will, 
 while he busied himself with the other. She held 
 the candle as he knelt tremulously on the floor and 
 applied them successively to the lock. One slipped 
 in and turned f utilely all round, too small. The 
 other would not even enter the keyhole. 
 
 As he knelt there, the tallow dip showed a white, 
 set face. He was remembering his comrades, bound 
 hand and foot down at the still, and prefiguring 
 Taft's alarm, which was in itself formidable in its 
 valiant disregard of all but his own safety, his 
 resentment and revenge, when their imprisoned es 
 tate should be discovered to him. Whatever might 
 betide in the world without, it was death, indubi 
 tably, to remain. He rose suddenly, almost over-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 199 
 
 turning the child at his elbow, starting toward the 
 door of the store to get some implement to serve to 
 break the lock. 
 
 " Try a file," said Sis reasonably, misunderstand 
 ing his intention. 
 
 She was still holding the candle as he came back, 
 its white light on her precise little face and smooth 
 hair put primly behind her ears, and a tall wo 
 manly caricature of her aped her gestures as her 
 shadow stretched up on the new poplar weather- 
 boarding of the partition. 
 
 Her suggestion worked like a charm. A few 
 moments of a sharp, rasping noise, while she set 
 her little teeth, a second essay at the lock : the bolt 
 slipped back as if made for the rusty old key that 
 had worked no miracles before save that of open 
 ing old Mrs. Jiniway's " chist ; " the door swung 
 open. A glimpse of the windy night, the clouds, 
 the tossing woods, and Sis, putting up the bars 
 again, heard the last echo of Larrabee's swift step 
 as he strode away.
 
 XI. 
 
 THE day fixed for processioning Kenniston's land 
 dawned with an element of perplexity all its own 
 to add to the troublous questions which it was ex 
 pected to decide. The weather was the aptest il 
 lustration of uncertainty. The first gray light came 
 with a rolling cloud and a dank wind sweeping 
 along quick gusts of rain ; then the sun rose, dif 
 fusive, promissory, with a great lavishness of red 
 and yellow suffusions, a range and degree of rank, 
 heavy color that seemed nearer to the hues of sun 
 set than to the luminous purity and delicacy of 
 wonted matutinal freshness. The slate-tinted clouds 
 were massed once more, the beams failed, the wind 
 brought the rain anew, and when it ceased at last, 
 light mists were stealing along the heavy purple 
 mountains, and rising from every chasm and de 
 pression ; even far away amongst those vague con 
 tours, gray and dun-tinted and brown, that were 
 like the first lifeless sketch of the dazzling azure 
 ranges that the sunny days were wont to paint with 
 such brilliant softness upon the fair field of the 
 horizon, these vapors, white, soft, opaque, flocculent, 
 could be seen. So from the furthermost reaches to 
 the nearest limits invisibility was visibly garnered. 
 
 As Kenniston, perturbed because of the weather
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 201 
 
 signs, turned ever and anon in his saddle, as he rode 
 up and up the mountain to the tryst at the Big 
 Hollow Boulder, he saw now the great outward bend 
 of the mountain, with heavily wooded green slopes 
 under the gray sky, all the coloring heightened by 
 the impending tufty white of the masses of silent 
 approaching vapor ; the surly crags of the terrace 
 dark with the moisture and the shadow ; and the 
 great black mass of the charred wood still sending 
 up a slow, melancholy thread of smoke where the 
 hotel lay in ruins. And again, looking over his 
 shoulder to verify some half-forgotten detail of the 
 scene, the trees twenty feet away were barely vis 
 ible in the encompassing medium, so fleetly did 
 the impalpable cloud press upon them. To him, 
 unversed in mountain weather, the enterprise of 
 the day seemed impracticable ; and he was half 
 surprised to see the surveyor, with his Jacob's 
 staff and his chain-bearers, already waiting at the 
 boundary corner. The figures of the group of 
 men, with their horses picketed hard by, stood out 
 against the inexpressive whiteness about them with 
 the distinctness of sketches on otherwise blank 
 paper. They were easily recognizable even from 
 a distance, and Cap'n Lucy's slim proportions and 
 grace of movement further served to differentiate 
 him from the burlier forms of the others. 
 
 " Ah, colonel," called out Kenniston as he dis 
 mounted, " you here ? " 
 
 It might hardly be believed by one who had ex 
 perienced its causticity, but Cap'n Lucy's tongue
 
 202 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 was blunted of much of its capacities under his own 
 roof-tree by the exactions of hospitality. Now he 
 felt the franchise of the free outer air. 
 
 " I 'm a mighty confidin' young critter, I know," 
 he replied, advancing a few paces with his hands 
 thrust in his pockets, " but this hyar man " he 
 nodded at the surveyor and affected to lower his 
 voice confidentially " hev got the name o' bein' 
 sorter tricky, an' I 'lowed I hed better kem along 
 like a good neighbor ter holp ye some, else he 
 mought cheat ye out'n a passel o' Ian'." 
 
 The surveyor, a tall, saturnine, businesslike body, 
 took not the slightest notice of this fling, but his 
 two young chain-bearers grinned their appreciation, 
 and the other men laughed outright with evident 
 enjoyment, notably a tall, dark-eyed fellow, whom 
 Kenniston presently recognized as the deputy 
 sheriff, with whom he had already had some slight 
 colloquy touching the possibly incendiary origin of 
 the fire that had destroyed the new building. The 
 recollection furnished him with a retort. He had 
 flushed darkly, and his eyes were angry. 
 
 " I should n't be surprised to be ill treated in any 
 way now in the Cove after what has happened." 
 
 The laughter was checked by his tone. The 
 men glanced at one another constrainedly. Before 
 his coming, the event had promised to the volun 
 teer assistants an episode of sociability affording 
 the interchange of ideas and jocular converse, the 
 interest of the developments sufficiently great to 
 repay them for the hardship of the steep scramble
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 203 
 
 down the mountain side. The significance of the 
 proceeding was reasserted, and the silence was un 
 broken until the surveyor, busily adjusting his com 
 pass, remarked to Kenniston that he had noted 
 one or two blazes indicating an old line, as he came 
 up the mountain. 
 
 " Ye won't go a-nigh them blazes ! " cried Cap'n 
 Lucy sarcastically, waving his hand along an 
 imaginary line. " Ye take my word fur it, ye won't 
 see them blazes 'twixt hyar an' the mounting's 
 foot." 
 
 Kenniston detected a covert meaning in the tone, 
 and glanced keenly around at the speaker. But 
 Cap'n Lucy's face was as enigmatically satiric 
 as his laughter ; and as Kenniston 's questioning 
 stare sought out the son, Luther turned away to 
 avoid meeting his eyes, lowering, anxious, and it 
 seemed somehow conscious. Conscious, too, was the 
 hang-dog manner with which the usually bluff 
 young mountaineer spoke to the deputy sheriff 
 Ross, observing that he did not see how the sur 
 veyor could get his bearings such a shut-in day as 
 this. 
 
 The deputy sheriff had found it easily compat 
 ible with his interpretation of his duty to spare 
 the time to assist as idle- spectator at anything 
 promising so much interest and excitement as the 
 processioning of the Kenniston tract. For the 
 antagonism between the disputants had already 
 been noised abroad, and Rodolphus Ross, albeit a 
 "peace officer" within the meaning of the statute,
 
 204 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 was not so attached to the service of the white- 
 winged goddess that he did not cherish a lively 
 expectation of whatever sport could be extracted 
 from Cap'n Lucy's and Kenniston's belligerent 
 idiosyncrasies. He protested now so clamorously 
 that it might seem he feared that this unique op 
 portunity would be wrested from him, and, assum 
 ing the role of a trustworthy weather prophet, 
 maintained that whenever it rained before twelve 
 o'clock, noon, an early clearance was the certain 
 sequel. The discussion and the aspect of the 
 weather diverted the general attention from Cap'n 
 Lucy's singular words, and from Luther's unwill 
 ingness to proceed and surly disaffection. 
 
 But Kenniston, whose already keen observation 
 was whetted by the appreciation of the enmity he 
 sustained and the magnitude of the disaster that 
 had befallen him, followed Luther's motion with 
 an alert, apprehending eye, and hardly lost sight 
 of him even when the mists swept between them 
 and gave him but a distorted looming presentment 
 of the young mountaineer; though thus carica 
 tured, Luther never lost for a moment his unchar 
 acteristic and already significant demeanor. Small 
 as the group was, the figures of two or three were 
 now and again abstracted from it, as if literally 
 caught up in the clouds, slowly materializing again 
 as the mists shifted. The horses hard by were 
 sometimes invisible in the dense white medium, 
 and anon only their heads would appear here and 
 there in various attitudes, like studies for a cav-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 205 
 
 airy subject. Even the Big Hollow Boulder, the 
 corner of the lines, seemed to recede, and again was 
 near at hand, in a manner altogether inconsistent 
 with its accepted attributes of immovability as a 
 monument of boundary. The great felled trees, 
 lying close by athwart the outcropping ledges of 
 rock, traces of the mountain tempest, were 
 obliterated and invisible in the encompassing white 
 ness. The chilly sound of the rain beating heavily 
 below in the valley rose on the dank air, and more 
 than once the white gauzy suffusions of the encom 
 passing vapor were pervaded with a transient yellow 
 glow, broad and innocuous reflections of the light 
 ning of the storm cloud of the lower levels. 
 
 The surveyor was a tall, well-knit man of forty- 
 five or fifty, with a square, short, grizzled beard 
 decorating his chin, high cheek bones, a blunt nose, 
 a far-seeing gray eye, and a quid of tobacco that 
 seemed to render him indifferent to the joys of 
 conversation. His high boots were drawn to the 
 knees over his trousers, a style affected by the 
 rest of the party; Kenniston's correct equestrian 
 garb being sufficiently dissimilar to give him that 
 air of peculiarity and modishness that somehow 
 seems so unworthy and flippant among plain and 
 humble folk, as if they cared for better things than 
 fashion. It made him a trifle ill at ease, and he 
 had a sense of being out of his sphere, added to 
 the conviction of the vicinage of enemies. He stood 
 with his riding-whip in his hand beside the sur 
 veyor as he adjusted his instrument, conscious of
 
 206 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 sustaining the curious attention of the chain-bear 
 ers, two stalwart young fellows arrayed in brown 
 jeans and heavy boots, amply competent for the 
 task of carrying the chain through that rugged 
 wilderness ; conscious, too, of C'ap'n Lucy's bril 
 liant, laughing, handsome eyes, the doubtful, fur 
 tive glances of the others, and Luther's anxious, 
 troubled gaze. 
 
 Suddenly, with an infinitely light, elastic effect 
 that permeated all its vast area, the cloud began to 
 uplift ; the great grassy bald of the mountain tow 
 ering above them showed its vast green dome as it 
 were between precipitous white cliffs of still higher 
 cloud mountains. An eagle's wing caught the sun 
 light as he soared above, beyond rifle range, and as 
 he felt the rising wind his keen, exultant cry floated 
 down to them. A tempered white glister suffused 
 all the clouds about them ; the sun was out, and 
 as the illumined masses parted, the blue mountains 
 afar off now glimmered with a dusky section of the 
 quiet valley below, and again were veiled with the 
 gleaming gauze. Between its shining folds a glit 
 tering green avenue opened out down the woods, as 
 the surveyor, bending first to take sight, then hold 
 ing his Jacob's staff stiffly before him, set out from 
 the Big Hollow Boulder with a fair start and a 
 long, elastic step; the two chain-bearers in file 
 alertly followed, alternately bowing down and 
 rising again, while the chain writhed through the 
 grass between them like some living sinuous thing, 
 ever and again drawn out tense and straight, and
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 207 
 
 the echoes rang with the strophe and antistrophe 
 of their sudden short cry, "Stick!" "Stuck!" 
 "Stick!" "Stuck!" 
 
 It might seem that all the oreads of the Great 
 Smoky were set to flight by this invasion of their 
 sylvan haunts, so many a flitting white robe flut 
 tered elusive among the dense shadows of the trees, 
 gone ere you could look again ; so often a glisten 
 ing white arm was upflung in the deepest green 
 jungle of the laurel. They sprang up by every 
 shadowy cliff and lurking chasm, by every hidden 
 spring and trickling stream, and fled with tattered 
 white scarfs streaming in the wind behind them. 
 All the way the rout continued as Science came 
 down the slope, led by a compass rather than the 
 sun or the shadow, and with her votaries to mete 
 out the freedom of the wilds, and the grace of the 
 contour of the slopes, and the beauty of herbage 
 and flowering growth, and the largess of the gra 
 cious earth, and to reduce all to an arbitrary scale, 
 and juclge it by the rod or perch or pole. 
 
 The grizzly old surveyor saw naught of this, 
 not even when, in advance of all the company, he 
 threaded the sun-glinted green glade, and strode 
 almost in the midst of a bevy of white gauze-draped 
 fleeing figures. Nor his chain-bearers, young though 
 they were, and presumably impressionable, not 
 even when they rose from their alternate genuflec 
 tions, and their sudden call " Out ! " resounded on 
 the air, though they stood idle and looked about 
 them while the surveyor paused to mark the " out."
 
 208 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Nor Cap'n Lucy, as light and swift on his feet as 
 the youngest, fierce, jaunty, with his clear, defiant 
 eye. Nor Rodolphus Ross, finding great opportunity 
 for mirth behind Cap'n Lucy's back as he scuffled 
 along amongst the knot of spectators, keeping 
 up as best they might, skirting the barriers that 
 the surveyor and his chain-bearers, constrained by 
 duty, went over, and tumbling, pulling, and strug 
 gling with each other now and then for the best 
 and foremost place. " Look at old Cap'n Terns ! " 
 cried Ross. " Ain't he the very model of a game 
 rooster? He ain't big, an' he ain't strong, an' 
 he ain't heavy, but Lord ! how he thinks he is ! " 
 Nor Kenneth Kenniston, beginning to pause now 
 and again, albeit he did not flag, despite the 
 hard pull over the impracticable ground, for he 
 was a man of stalwart physique and a practiced 
 pedestrian, to look instead at the memorandum 
 of the calls of the title-deed, which original pa 
 per the surveyor held in his hand, in doubt at 
 first, in growing dismay, then in hot and mounting 
 anger. At the next " out," when the surveyor 
 set down his Jacob's staff, Kenniston strode over 
 and tapped him somewhat imperatively on the 
 shoulder. 
 
 " My good friend," he said, with an evident effort 
 at self-repression, " are you not making some mis 
 take ? You surely are not following the calls as 
 they are set forth in these papers ? " 
 
 To the professor of an exact science the sugges 
 tion of mistake is an imputation of incapacity.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 209 
 
 The claims of the quid of tobacco were disregarded 
 for the nonce. The surveyor spoke, albeit with his 
 mouth full, and spoke to the point : 
 
 " I reckon I know what I 'm about, Mr. Kenn's- 
 ton. If you don't like the way I 'm runnin' this 
 line, run it yerse'f." 
 
 " The blazes on those trees on the side of the 
 mountain, that you called my attention to, indicat 
 ing the old line, are away over yonder on that sharp 
 ridge." Kenniston waved his hand with the paper 
 in it toward a high rocky crest to the left ; then he 
 fixed insistent eyes on the surveyor, and stroked 
 his full brown whiskers mechanically with the other 
 hand. 
 
 The surveyor followed with perplexed eyes the 
 direction pointed out. He gave a little puzzled sniff, 
 as if he sought to smell the line. Then he reverted 
 to that prop of common sense, his Jacob's staff. 
 
 " D 'ye want me to run the line according to the 
 compass and the calls of the title papers, or by 
 the old blazes scattered about in the woods on the 
 trees ? " he demanded. " You don't know whether 
 they ever were intended to mark the line, nor who 
 put 'em thar, nor for what. I know they ain't no 
 kin ter the line I 'in runnin' now, 'cordin' ter the 
 calls an' the compass." 
 
 Once more he took his bearings, and, holding his 
 Jacob's staff before him, walked steadily forward 
 into the deeps of the wilderness ; the two sworn 
 chain-bearers, who had listened with indignant, 
 sullen brows to the wrangle, and reflection on the
 
 210 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 work, again began diligently to bow down and rise 
 up, as they ejaculated their " Stick ! " " Stuck ! " 
 " Stick ! " " Stuck ! " the clanking of the chain 
 sounding loud and metallic in the sylvan quiet. 
 The other men, with their shadows, all pressed for 
 ward in a close squad, for the pause had given the 
 stragglers time to gather. 
 
 Kenniston was aware that Cap'n Lucy carried 
 the sympathies and good wishes of all the company, 
 save perhaps the impartial surveyor, who would 
 suffer himself to be influenced by nothing less just 
 than his compass. He realized that he was looked 
 upon as the "town man," and a rich one, desirous 
 of wresting, by a slight technicality of the law, a 
 very little land from a poor man who had in good 
 faith built his house upon it. He had grown ex 
 tremely bitter in his sentiment toward the people of 
 the section because of the fire in which so much of 
 value had perished, for he believed its origin incen 
 diary. He was conscious of sustaining much an 
 tagonism, and he had fiercely resolved to deserve 
 it. He had, in his first uncontrolled rush of anger, 
 declared that he would punish somebody, the 
 true culprit, if possible ; but somebody should kick 
 his heels in jail for a while, and go to the peniten 
 tiary if might be. He did not in reality go so far 
 in feeling as in expression, but his was not a pru 
 dent tongue. He earnestly desired success in the 
 matter of the processioning ; the scheme of the new 
 hotel had grown very close to him ; it seemed to him 
 that one log cabin might serve the mountaineer as
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 211 
 
 well as another, and that, moreover, in justice to 
 himself, he should claim his own. He had felt sure, 
 perfectly sure, that his deed called for the land that 
 Cap'n Lucy held. For the first time, as he clam 
 bered with the rest down the rugged slopes, a doubt 
 of this entered his mind. It made him wince from 
 the probable result. He was not prepared to oc 
 cupy the position of having sought to despoil a 
 man, and a poor man, of his own, his very own, and 
 fail. He knew that if he succeeded the country 
 side would wish that he had failed, and Cap'n 
 Lucy would be a popular and picturesque object 
 of commiseration. But he could not endure the 
 idea of the rejoicings in his failure. To work a 
 hardship to another was bad, indeed, and he had 
 never contemplated it without the salve of an ample 
 money compensation. To futilely seek to work a 
 hardship was far worse. Again and again he knit 
 his brows, as he gazed at the treacherous annota 
 tions in his hand, while the interchange of glances 
 behind him commented on his attitude and his evi 
 dent state of mind. Cap'n Lucy, who could not 
 have read a word of the notes, strode on, apparently 
 indifferent to fate, the " very model of a game roos 
 ter," esteeming Kenniston's show of anxiety the 
 merest subterfuge ; for would that monument of 
 boundary known as the Big Hollow Boulder have 
 become so nimbly peripatetic, despite its tons of 
 weight, if the line run out therefrom were not to be 
 materially altered for the betterment of the claim 
 ant at whose instance the processioning was held ?
 
 212 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 And still the chain clanked and writhed its 
 length along the ground, and the cries " Stick ! " 
 " Stuck ! '.' of the chain-bearers alternated as be 
 fore, until the sudden call " Out ! " resounded, and 
 the surveyor paused to mark the " out " once 
 more.
 
 XII. 
 
 As the surveyor planted his Jacob's staff anew 
 he drew a long sigh of fatigue, and gazed out dis 
 cerningly at the weather signs from over a craggy, 
 jutting precipice at one side, which in its savage 
 bareness disclosed from the midst of the dense 
 forest a vast expanse of the tremulous mountain 
 landscape below. The uncertain flicker of the sun 
 shine was now on the green of the wooded valley, 
 which presently dulled to the colorless neutrality 
 of the persistent shadow, albeit the summits of the 
 far horizon line gleamed delicately azure, as if the 
 tint possessed some luminous quality and glowed 
 inherently blue. To the right hung masses of 
 vaporous gray ; and beneath, fine serried lines 
 were drawn in myriads against the darker tints 
 of half-seen slopes, where the rain was falling. 
 Still beyond, a great glamourous sunburst appeared 
 in the mist, with so rayonnant an effect of the 
 divergent splendors from its dazzling focus that it 
 might seem a fleeting glimpse of the actual wheel 
 of the chariot of the sun. It rolled away speedily. 
 A rainbow barely flaunted its chromatic glories 
 across the sky, and faded like an illusion, and all 
 the world was gray again ; from a dead bough 
 starkly thrust out of the wooded slopes half way to 
 the valley a rain crow was calling and calling.
 
 214 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 The other men, too, were looking over the val 
 ley, so long obscured by the dense forest trees and 
 still denser undergrowth through which they had 
 taken their way. It seemed much nearer than 
 when they had last seen it from the dome, even 
 allowing for the distance they had traversed, and 
 they noted, with that interest always excited by a 
 familiar scene from a new standpoint, the aspect 
 of the well-known landmarks, all changed and 
 strange. Kenniston had drawn near the verge ; 
 he stood sharply outlined against the sky, a field- 
 glass in his hand, which again and again he 
 brought to bear upon the smouldering black mass 
 on the cliffs far below that once was the new hotel, 
 only to be located now by the thinly curling smoke 
 from its ruins. The instrument was familiar 
 enough to the mountaineers, who had most of them 
 observed its use during the war ; but to a certain 
 type of rustic an affectation of ignorance is the 
 prettiest of jests. 
 
 " Say, mister," Rodolphus Ross adjured him, 
 with a show of eager anxiety, " air yer contraption 
 strong enough ter view enny insurance on that thar 
 buildin' ? " 
 
 The echo caught his laughter and blended it 
 with the rain crow's call. He was not sensitive 
 himself, and he could not appreciate sensitiveness 
 in others. The fact that the building had perished 
 in the flames, without insurance, was well known 
 to the community ; and how could it help or hinder 
 that he should sharpen his wits by a little exercise 
 on the theme ?
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 215 
 
 Kenniston made no reply, still sweeping the 
 landscape with his glass. As the surveyor bent to 
 take sight, Kenniston suddenly turned. 
 
 " Stop," he said ; " you will stop this farce right 
 here. This is a conspiracy ! " 
 
 The surveyor, still in his stooping posture, looked 
 at him in amazement. 
 
 " Hey ? " he exclaimed, as if he did not believe 
 his senses. 
 
 " A conspiracy ! " Kenniston reiterated. 
 
 The surveyor, in the course of his brawny career, 
 had been offered few insults, and these he had 
 promptly requited with stout blows. But the sight 
 of a man who has lost reason, temper, and policy 
 together has sometimes a steadying effect on the 
 spectator. Besides, he was in the performance of 
 a sworn duty, and, being a faithful and efficient 
 officer of the county, he had a high ideal of the 
 functions of his office. He was nettled by Kennis- 
 ton's self-magnifying attitude, but it was obviously 
 in order to give him the correct measurements, 
 not of himself, but of his land, and although he 
 retorted, it was in good enough temper. 
 
 " Conspirin' with the meridian line ? " he de 
 manded, with a sneer, thrusting his quid of to 
 bacco into his leather jaw with a tongue grown ex 
 pert by long practice in thus clearing the way for 
 its own utterances. " Or maybe ye think the points 
 o' the compass have got in a mutiny against ye ? " 
 
 Cap'n Lucy came alongside the Jacob's staff, 
 and gave Kenniston a rallying wink, sly, malicious,
 
 216 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 sarcastic, and altogether unworthy of the fine eye 
 that it eclipsed. " Conspirin' with a monimint o' 
 boundary knowed ez Big Hollow Boulder?" he 
 said. 
 
 Luther turned away suddenly, with an accession 
 of hang-dog furtiveness in his manner, and Kennis- 
 ton's fury was stemmed for the moment by his sur 
 prise and doubt and bewilderment. Still with chol 
 eric color mantling his face, his eyes bright and 
 wide, his white teeth pressing on the lip which he 
 was biting visibly despite the thick abundance of 
 beard, with all the fire eliminated from the angry 
 facial expression that he yet retained, he stared 
 silently at Captain Lucy, who was scornfully laugh 
 ing. The surveyor took advantage of the seeming 
 lucidity of the interval to seek to rehabilitate 
 pacific relations. 
 
 " I can't help how ye expected the line ter run 
 out, Mr. Kenniston. I 'm runnin' it 'cordin' ter 
 the calls an' the compass. Ye an' Cap'n Terns are 
 here as owners o' the adjoinin' tracts, ter see it 
 done fur yerselves." 
 
 " Not me ! " cried Cap'n Lucy. " I ain't looked 
 at yer durned bodkin " (thus he demeaned the mag 
 netic needle) " sence I kern out. It mought wag 
 gle todes the north pole, like ye sez it do, 'pears 
 onstiddy enough fur ennything, or it mought 
 waggle todes the east pole. I ain't keerin'. It 
 may know the poles whenst it sees 'em, though I 
 dunno ef that needle hev got an eye. My main 
 dependence air in that monimint o' boundary
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 217 
 
 knowed ez the Big Hollow Boulder corner rock 
 corner o' the lines oh my ! yes ! " 
 
 The significance of this was hardly to be over 
 looked. 
 
 " See here, Cap'n Lucy," said Kenniston, sud 
 denly dropping his aggressions even to the unusual 
 point of giving the old man his accustomed title, 
 " what do you mean by that ? " 
 
 Cap'n Lucy gave him a broadside of big bright 
 eyes. 
 
 "Why, don't you-uns know that monimint o' 
 boundary knowed ez Big Hollow Boulder corner 
 mark been thar so long ? " 
 
 " Well, what about it ? " demanded Kenniston 
 impatiently. 
 
 "Why, it's known ez Big Hollow Boulder, 
 'cordin' ter yer own notice posted up at the mill," 
 said Cap'n Lucy tantalizingly. 
 
 Kenniston still stared, and the surveyor, seeking 
 to cut short a futile waste of time, bent once more 
 to take sight. " The only way ter git things settled 
 is ter run out the line 'cordin' ter the calls an' the 
 compass, an' I 'm a-doin' of it fair an' square." 
 
 " There is something radically wrong," persisted 
 Kenniston angrily. Then turning to Cap'n Lucy, 
 he continued vehemently, " I know and you 
 know that Wild Duck River is on my land, and 
 does n't touch yours in any of its windings ; and 
 look there ! Wild Duck Falls ! " 
 
 He pointed diagonally across a ravine, where, 
 amidst the dusky depths of green shadows, and
 
 218 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 close to a gray cloud that came surging through 
 the valley, a narrow, gleaming, white, feathery 
 mountain cataract, with an impetus and a motion 
 like the flight of an arrow smartly sped from the 
 bow, shot down into the gorge. 
 
 It transfixed Cap'n Lucy. He stood staring at 
 it, motionless, amazed, it might seem aghast. For 
 the boundary line that the surveyor was running 
 according to the compass and calls had thrown 
 within his tract this mountain torrent, this wayward 
 alien, which he had known for many a year as the 
 native of the Kenniston woods. 
 
 " It makes no difference, gentlemen, what ye hev 
 'lowed ye owned, an' what ye did n't," interposed 
 the surveyor : " this boundary line I 'm runnin' out 
 will show ye the exac' extent o' yer possessions." 
 And once more he bent to take sight. 
 
 Then he rose and stalked forward, his Jacob's 
 staff held before him, his eyes intent and fixed, the 
 links of the chain once more dully clanking as it 
 writhed through the grass, and the chain-bearers, 
 with their cabalistic refrain, " Stick ! " " Stuck ! " 
 bowing down and rising up, as they ever and again 
 drew it out taut to its extreme length between them. 
 
 The spectators followed on either hand, plunging 
 into the deeper forest, which, as it interposed 
 before the cliffs, cut off the view of the wide land 
 scape, that seemed lifted into purer light and more 
 transparent color by the contrast with the bosky 
 shadows as it disappeared, and again was vaguely 
 glimpsed between the boles and hanging branches,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 219 
 
 and once more vanished, leaving the aspect of the 
 world the bare breadth of the herder's trail through 
 the laurel. 
 
 Two of the men shaggy of beard and of hair, 
 and shabbier far of garb than the others gazed 
 at the proceeding with the eyes of deep wonderment 
 and reluctant acceptance, as if it were some formula 
 of necromancy which revolted credulity. They 
 were denizens of a deeply secluded cove near by, 
 lured hither by the report of the processioning, and 
 looking for the first time upon the simple parapher 
 nalia of land-surveying, the chain, the Jacob's 
 staff, and the compass ; even the surveyor and the 
 chain-bearers were only the verification of wild 
 rumors that had reached them. They were not 
 unintelligent ; they were only uninformed. The 
 knowledge and experience of the commonplace pro 
 cess which the others possessed might hardly be 
 considered an adequate set-off against such fresh 
 and illimitable capacities of impressionability. 
 Few people can so enjoy a day of sight-seeing as 
 fell to the share of these denizens of " Painter Flats." 
 
 Kenniston lingered for a few minutes, still sweep 
 ing with the field-glass the rugged ravine where 
 Wild Duck Falls gleamed white, swift, amidst the 
 deep, dusky green shadows : disappearing beneath 
 the approaching gray cloud as its filmy gauzes ex 
 panded and floated into the larger spaces of the ra 
 vine, then piercing its draperies with a keen, glim 
 mering shaft of white light, and vanishing again 
 as the cloud thickened and condensed in its passage
 
 220 ffIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 through the narrowing limits of the gorge. He 
 turned away at last, the glass still in his hand, fol 
 lowing hard on the steps of the surveyor, marking 
 all the successive stages of the proceedings with a 
 keen, alert, inimical observation. He wore a grim, 
 set face, and his manner expressed a sustained abey 
 ance, watchfulness, and a dangerous readiness. 
 
 The landmarks were such as were easily common 
 to any line. When the deed had called for four 
 hundred and fifteen poles northwest to a white oak- 
 tree, the chain-bearers had brought up, without 
 a link amiss, at the gnarled foot of one of a clus 
 ter of such trees. A half-obliterated indentation 
 upon it the surveyor accepted as the specific mark 
 of identification, although others considered it an 
 old " blaze " indicating an ancient trail, and Ken- 
 niston declared it merely a " cat-face." Again, the 
 line, diverging, ran due north eight hundred poles 
 to a stake in the middle of Panther Creek. The 
 chain found the middle easily enough, though not 
 the stake, which was, of course, in the nature of 
 things, a temporary mark, and liable to be carried 
 away in a freshet, or broken down by floating logs 
 or other obstruction. The stream, however, kept 
 an almost perfectly straight line barring the 
 slight sinuous meandering inherent to a natural 
 channel which did not affect the general direction 
 for more than a mile through a grassy glade al 
 most free of undergrowth, purling along under the 
 shadow of the great trees and rocks. Thus, if the 
 previous markings were correct, this of necessity
 
 BIS VANISHED STAR. 221 
 
 depended upon them. The surveyor had a stub 
 driven down, in place of the missing stake, in the 
 middle of the stream, re-marking the line accord 
 ing to the law. Once more the chain-bearers, drip 
 ping like spaniels from their excursions into the 
 water, began their series of genuflections and their 
 ringing outcry, " Stick ! " " Stuck ! " 
 
 All had observed Kenniston curiously during the 
 halt, and the doubt and discussion as to the missing 
 mark, expectant of some wrathful demonstration. 
 If he did not coincide with the surveyor's opinion, 
 he made no sign. In one sense, his demeanor 
 balked them of the amusement which they had 
 ravenously looked for. He made no protest, which, 
 reasonable or unreasonable, they would have rel 
 ished. His attitude, his face, his words, were con 
 strained to a stern neutrality and inexpressiveness. 
 He seemed only grimly watchful, waiting. The 
 change itself afforded food for speculation, an 
 entertainment more subtle and of keener interest 
 than his previous outbreaks, although less alluring 
 to the maliciously mirthful spectator. It seemed, 
 however, to disconcert the surveyor more than active 
 interference and aggression. Submissiveness is so 
 abnormal a trait in a man of Kenniston's type that 
 its symptoms indicate a serious moral crisis. Now 
 and again, the surveyor, pausing to mark the " out," 
 appealed directly to him. To be sure, the remark 
 was in relation to the weather, for the clouds were 
 gathering overhead, a slate-tinted canopy, seeming 
 close upon the summits of the tall trees, till a
 
 222 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 white lacelike film scudding across it in contrary 
 currents of the wind served to show, by the force 
 of comparison, the true distance of the higher 
 vapors. Kenniston had only monosyllables for 
 reply, and the man of the compass could but mop 
 his brow, and listen anxiously to the distant rum 
 blings of thunder, and wish this troublous piece of 
 work well over, and take his bearings anew. When 
 the call in the deed for a girdled and dead poplar- 
 tree was found to have no correspondent mark on 
 the face of the earth, being, as he observed, a mark 
 bound to be obliterated in the course of time, since 
 the tree was dead when the deed, which was of re 
 mote date, was written, Kenniston's silence had 
 evidently an unnerving effect. 
 
 " Why, look here," the surveyor broke out in 
 self-defense at length. "I ain't got no sort o' 
 interest in the line except to run it according ter 
 the calls an' the compass. I '11 git my fees, whether 
 or no. 'T ain't nuthin' ter me which gits the most 
 Ian', you or Cap'n Terns." 
 
 As Kenniston still continued silent, he looked 
 appealingly at Cap'n Lucy, and, receiving no 
 encouragement, set his teeth, addressed himself 
 to his work, and communed thenceforward with 
 naught more responsive than his Jacob's staff. 
 
 But what, alack, had befallen Cap'n Lucy? 
 Did ever a gamecock, that had never so much 
 as felt his adversary's gaff, drop his feathers so 
 suddenly? He was all at once old, tired, anxious, 
 troubled. He tugged along at the rear of the party,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 223 
 
 lagging and flagging as he had never done on cer 
 tain forced marches that had seemed a miracle 
 of endurance. For Cap'n Lucy's frame had been 
 upborne by his spirit in those ordeals, and now 
 that ethereal valiance had deserted him. For 
 what mystery was this ? The moving of the monu 
 ment of boundary "known as the Big Hollow 
 Boulder " he thought of it thus for the first time 
 without the sneer of inscrutable offense which the 
 rotund phrasing had occasioned had, instead of 
 stripping him of his possessions, resulted in throw 
 ing much land, which he doubted not belonged to 
 his neighbor, within his own lines. That Kennis- 
 ton had himself moved the corner landmark or 
 connived at the commission of this felony, if not 
 otherwise preposterous, was thus rendered abso 
 lutely incredible. But who, then, could have moved 
 it ? When ? How ? For what unimaginable rea 
 son ? How strange that he should have discovered 
 the change ! And what mad freak of fate was it 
 that it should be he, he himself, who should profit 
 by it, acquiring the legal title to hundreds of acres 
 at Kenniston's expense ? Cap'n Lucy was an 
 honest man, and the thought made him gasp. Had 
 it been possible, he would at that moment have 
 flung all the Great Smoky Mountains at Kennis 
 ton's feet. No recantation was too bitter, no renun 
 ciation was too complete, rather than be suspected, 
 with any show of reason, as he had suspected Ken- 
 niston. Not that he cared for the groundless sus 
 picion, but for its justification. This consideration
 
 224 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 summoned his tardy policy. He must needs have 
 time to think. Were he bluntly to declare the 
 corner-stone to have been moved, it might seem to 
 criminate himself ; for albeit the line was running 
 to his advantage here, who could say how its diver 
 gences might affect his possessions lower down 
 on the mountain ? " Windin' an' a-twistin' like 
 the plumb old tarnation sarpient o' hell ! " Cap'n 
 Lucy vigorously described it in a mutter to his 
 beard. 
 
 Moreover, even if the later results were also to 
 his benefit, as it had been notoriously contrary to 
 his wishes that the land should be processioned at 
 all, it might seem that moving the boulder had 
 been his scheme to thus thwart any definite estab 
 lishment of the line of boundary, and this was 
 a felony. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy experienced a sudden affection of 
 the spine which seemed to him abnormal, and, at 
 the moment, possibly fatal, so curious, so undreamed 
 of heretofore, were its symptoms. A cold chill 
 trembled along its fibres; responsive cold drops 
 bedewed his forehead. His hand had lost its nor 
 mal temperature, and was cold to the touch. For 
 the first time in all his life Cap'n Lucy's nerves 
 were made acquainted with the shock of fear. He 
 did not identify it ; he could not recognize it. He 
 was spared this acute mortification. He only felt 
 strangely ill and undecided and tremulous, and he 
 doubted his survival. He began to wonder if Ken- 
 niston suspected aught. He no longer questioned
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 225 
 
 the genuineness of his enemy's demeanor earlier in 
 the day, when each unexpected divergence of the 
 line had seemed by turns to perturb and to anger 
 him. Cap'n Lucy noted the cessation of the pro 
 testations, the grimly set jaw, the smouldering fire 
 of the eye, the attitude of tense expectancy and 
 waiting. He wondered if Kenniston were " laying 
 for " him now as he had been " laying for " Kennis 
 ton. He thought of the intention deferred from 
 " out " to " out " to loudly proclaim his discovery 
 of the removal of the corner landmark, of his relish 
 of his enemy's fancied security in outwitting him. 
 He had only given Kenniston a little line, a little 
 more, as it were, that he might hang himself with 
 it, and now, forsooth, this noose was at his own 
 service. 
 
 He felt a moderate and tempered gratulation 
 that he had not been precipitate in the matter, that 
 as yet no one knew of his discovery ; but suddenly 
 he remembered his ill-starred confidence to Luther. 
 For the first time he marked his son's furtive, 
 skulking, downcast manner. 
 
 "Like a sheep-killin' dog!" said Cap'n Lucy 
 to himself, in a towering rage. " What ef he do 
 know it 's been moved : did I move it ? " 
 
 He remembered, too, his reiterated allusions to 
 the perambulatory boulder, and Kenniston's amaze 
 ment, which then he had thought affectation, but 
 which he now believed to be quite genuine. Were 
 they the exciting cause, so to speak, of that grim 
 air of abeyance and biding his time ?
 
 226 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " The boulder can't be put back," said Cap'n 
 Lucy to himself, suddenly on the defensive. " No 
 body could make out whar it kern from fust, 'kase 
 it never lef ' a trace on the rock ; an' a dozen horse 
 could n't haul it up sech a steep slope. It mus' 
 hev been blowed down by dam-i-nite." 
 
 It was a fine illustration of a moral descent, 
 impossible to be retraced ; but Cap'n Lucy did not 
 think of that. His mind was full of the complica 
 tions of his position, the dangers of disclosure, and 
 the impossibility to him of accepting the boundary 
 line, thus taking possession of another man's land, 
 even if the owner would compose himself to sleep 
 upon his rights. Judging from Kenniston's looks, 
 it was easily to be argiled that he would prove very 
 wide awake in this emergency. 
 
 But for the changing weather signs the old man's 
 altered demeanor might have encountered other no 
 tice than Kenniston's keen watchfulness. Now and 
 again the thunder pealed among the mountain tops, 
 and the slate-colored cloud had spread until it over 
 hung all the visible world, when they once more 
 drew so near to the verge of the precipice as to have 
 glimpses of the densely wooded cove and the cir 
 cling mountains. The ranges were all sombre gray 
 or deeply purple, save far away, where some rift in 
 the clouds admitted a skein of sunbeams suspended 
 in fibrous effect over a distant slope that was a 
 weird yellowish-green in this scant illumination 
 which had fallen to its share, rendered more marked 
 by the dull estate of its dun-tinted and purple com-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 227 
 
 peers. Nearer at hand, the shadows were deepen 
 ing momently in the forest. Once or twice, when 
 the sharp blades of the lightnings cleft them, the 
 lifeless bronze aisles of the woods sprang into a 
 transient glare of brilliant green that was hardly 
 less dazzling, and again the thunder pealed. 
 
 Two or three of the mountaineers left the party, 
 evidently with no mind to be drenched. A man 
 with a hacking cough remained, animated by that 
 indisposition to self-denial, that avidity of enjoy 
 ment, that determination to seize all which niggard 
 life holds out, characteristic of a type of consump 
 tive invalids. " 'T ain't goin' ter rain," he de 
 clared buoyantly. It might seem that nothing less 
 potent than powder and lead could wean from the 
 sight of processioning the land the two denizens of 
 Panther Flats. They patrolled every step that the 
 surveyor took. Whenever he paused, they came 
 up and stared, fascinated, and at close quarters, at 
 the Jacob's staff. They counted the chains from 
 " out " to " out." As one of them observed to the 
 other, he " was just beginning to get the hang of 
 the thing." He could keep under shelter at a more 
 convenient season. 
 
 A sudden flash that seemed to pierce the very 
 brain, so did it outdazzle the capacity of vision, a 
 simultaneous deafening detonation, beneath which 
 the mountains appeared to quake and to cry out 
 with a terrible voice, while again and again the 
 echoes repeated the thunderous menace, and then 
 all the air was permeated by a swift electrical illu-
 
 228 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 mination, visibly transient, but so instantly suc 
 ceeded by a similar effect that it seemed perma 
 nent, in this weird glare the surveyor bent once 
 more to take sight. 
 
 " Old man sticks ter his contrac' like a sick 
 kitten ter a hot brick ! " cried Rodolphus Ross to 
 one of the chain-bearers. 
 
 But the chain-bearers had scant sympathy for 
 the spectators, and visited upon the company in 
 general their displeasure because of the reflections 
 upon the " old man's " work, for which Kenniston 
 alone was responsible. 
 
 " Why n't ye wear yer muzzle, 'Dolphus ? " the 
 one addressed retorted gruffly. 
 
 Most of T;he party had now deserted the spec 
 tacle, in deference to a timely admonition as to 
 the fate of the horses picketed on the " bald," and 
 their peculiar susceptibility to the fear of lightning. 
 When the progress of the surveying again brought 
 its adherents to the verge of the mountain and an 
 extended outlook over the valley, there remained 
 only the two men from Panther Flats, Rodolphus 
 Ross, Cap'n Lucy, the chain-bearers, the surveyor, 
 Luther, and the owner of the tract at whose instance 
 the processioning was made. 
 
 As they looked out over the gray valley, distinct 
 under the sombre sky, as though only color, and 
 not light, were withdrawn, Cap'n Lucy's cabin, 
 the inclosures, the grim black crags beyond, 
 the smouldering mass of the ruins of the burnt 
 building, even the shanties of the workmen in the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 229 
 
 gorge at the foot of the cliffs, all perfectly distin 
 guishable in their varied interpretation of gray and 
 brown and blurring unnamed gradations of neutral 
 tones, all overhung by the storm-cloud definitely 
 and darkly purplish-black, with now and again, one 
 knew not how, fleeting lurid green reflections, 
 Kenniston, brisk and dapper, lightly tapping his 
 spurred boots with his riding-whip, smiling debo 
 nairly, but with a dangerous sarcastic gleam in his 
 fiery eyes, stepped up to the surveyor. He carried 
 his field-glass in one hand. 
 
 " Now, if you will come a few paces this way, 
 and you, colonel," in parenthesis to poor Cap'n 
 Lucy, " and use your telescope, you are obliged 
 to see that if you run out the line seventeen hun 
 dred poles to the north, according to the deed, you 
 will go beyond the site of the hotel. I seem to 
 have built my house on the colonel's land. It was 
 your house that was destroyed, colonel. Let me 
 beg you to accept my condolences, ha, ha, ha ! " 
 
 A flash brighter than all that had preceded it, 
 and his satiric laughter was lost in the roll and the 
 reverberation of the thunder. A sudden darkening 
 overspread the landscape, like a visible thickening 
 of the clouds ; the form of a horse darted along the 
 verge of the precipice, so swift, so gigantic, defined 
 against the green suffusions of that purple-black 
 storm-cloud, that it seemed like the materialization 
 of the hero of some equine fable. A wild cry went 
 up that the horses had broken loose, and were 
 stampeding through the woods. A terrible wrench-
 
 230 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ing, riving sound followed another flash, and they 
 could see a stricken tree on the slope below, in the 
 instant before the blinding descent of the torrents. 
 The wind rose with a wild, screaming cry ; the for 
 ests bent and writhed ; no one of the party could 
 discern his neighbor's face ; and, despite the pluck 
 of the surveyor, the processioning of the Kenniston 
 tract remained unfinished.
 
 XIII. 
 
 CAP'N LUCY enjoyed in his own family an im 
 munity from interference, criticism, and filial in 
 surgency that was truly patriarchal. His word was 
 law ; his every thought was wisdom ; all his deal 
 ings embodied the fullest expression of justice. 
 Until his unlucky disclosure to Luther of his dis 
 covery of the strange removal of the Big Hollow 
 Boulder, and the interpretation he placed upon it, 
 imputing to Kenniston a crime of such importance, 
 involving consequences so grave, his son had never 
 entertained a moment's doubt of the sufficiency of 
 his prudence, the absolute infallibility of his judg 
 ment, the integrity of all his prejudices, notwith 
 standing his arbitrary temper, his high-handed meth 
 ods, and his frequent precipitancy. Such remon 
 strance as ever was ventured upon usually emanated 
 from Adelicia, in the interest of her pacific proclivi 
 ties ; or to sue uncle Lucy's clemency for some object 
 of his most righteous displeasure ; or to prevail upon 
 him to blindly consider some untoward chance a 
 blessing in disguise. Now and then, too, she in 
 dulged in some solicitude lest the affluence of his 
 courage should lead him into danger. But to his 
 own children " dad " had always seemed more than 
 capable of coping with all the forces of nature, ani-
 
 232 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 mate and inanimate ; and as the day of the proces 
 sioning of the land wore on, Julia listened, with 
 her silent smile of sarcastic comment, to Adelicia's 
 monologue of argument of alternate fears and re 
 assurance for uncle Lucy's sake. First, lest Mr. 
 Kenniston succeed in unjustly wresting some of 
 his land from him. " But," she declared buoyantly, 
 " the surveyor won't let him ! " Then, lest a per 
 sonal collision ensue, to her bellicose relative's 
 injury. " But uncle Lucy ain't been often tackled ; 
 ennybody kin see he 'd hev a mighty free hand in a 
 fight." And again she was reduced to fear simply 
 that things in general might fall out to the mag 
 nate's dissatisfaction. " But uncle Lucy 's been 
 mighty mad a heap o' times before, an' 't ain't set 
 him back none," she argued blithely. And so the 
 atmosphere within cleared as the sky without 
 darkened, and the domestic industries went forward 
 apace. 
 
 It was during one of the deceptive withdrawals 
 of the lowering storm-cloud, revealing great ex 
 panses of blue sky, when the sunshine was a-flicker 
 once more over the landscape, albeit somewhat wan 
 and tremulous, and a wind had sprung up, faint and 
 short of breath, and disposed to lulls and sighs, but 
 still setting mists and clouds astir, that Julia went 
 forth upon an errand some distance up the Cove. 
 It had chanced that a hen, with the preposterous 
 hopefulness of the species, had gone to " setting " 
 in the orchard upon an unremunerative assemblage 
 of fallen apples, in default of more appropriate
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 233 
 
 material ; for, in ignorance of the fowl's intention, 
 Adelicia had fried the last eggs for breakfast. Her 
 momentary dismay was dispelled by the recollection 
 that Mrs. Larrabee had promised her a " settin' of 
 special an percise tur-r-key aigs," and, equipping 
 Julia with a basket, she sent her forth to claim this 
 pledge. 
 
 But in lieu of the hospitable welcome and the eager 
 fulfillment of the promise, the reminder of which 
 Mrs. Larrabee would have regarded in the light of 
 a courtesy and a favor, Julia encountered at the 
 door of the queer little house Henrietta Timson, 
 her snuffbrush, her small unlighted eyes, her nar 
 row discontented face, and her little brief authority 
 oppressively in evidence. 
 
 " Waal, I do declar'," she said, regarding Julia 
 sourly, when the errand was made known. " I 
 dunno what Sist' Lar'bee means," for Mrs. Tim- 
 son was unfailing in the appellation of church- 
 membership, and enjoyed no closer relation to Mrs. 
 Larrabee. " She done gone off a-pleasurin' an' 
 a-jauntin', an' lef me hyar with this whole house 
 ful ter 'tend ter, an' ter work fur, an' ter feed, an' 
 ter mend, an' the neighbors ter pervide with aigs 
 an' tur-r-key aigs at that ! " 
 
 Julia Tems's experience of life had been crude 
 and scanty and monotonous. She had lived the 
 successive uneventful years since her infancy at the 
 little cabin down in the Cove in the humble domes 
 tic routine, without education of any sort, except 
 perchance such as might be gleaned from the ser-
 
 234 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 mon of a stray circuit rider; without the oppor 
 tunity of observation ; with the simplest, most 
 untutored, most limited association. It was to be 
 doubted if she knew a score of people in the world. 
 But this was her first encounter with discourtesy. 
 
 She flushed scarlet under the shade of her brown 
 sunbonnet, not with anger, but with shame : she 
 was ashamed for Mrs. Timson. She hardly felt the 
 affront to herself at first ; the flout at the proprie 
 ties in the abstract nullified for the moment all per 
 sonal consideration. She was not conscious of a 
 retrograde movement, for her instinct was to termi 
 nate the interview. She found herself murmuring, 
 "It's jes' ez well, jes' ez well," in an apologetic 
 cadence which would have befitted Mrs. Timson's 
 voice, and moving backward continuously, in her 
 eager haste to be gone. Rather than prolong the 
 ordeal for a moment she could with philosophy 
 have beheld every hen that had ever owned the 
 Terns sway in the grotesque catastrophe of patiently 
 seeking to hatch apples. 
 
 But Henrietta Timson had hardly anticipated 
 routing the invader so promptly. Noting Julia's 
 eagerness to be gone, she perversely thwarted it by 
 stepping briskly down out of the door, remember 
 ing to put her hand to her side, with a suffering 
 look and an affected limp. 
 
 " I 'lowed ez I hed Tied tribulation, but I never 
 seen none sech ez now. Sist' Lar'bee gone, tuck 
 one o' my chil'n with her ! " She shook her head 
 with a dolorous accusation that might have become
 
 nrs VANISHED STAR. 235 
 
 her if " Sist' Lar'bee " had been a kidnapper, and 
 if the hero of the rickets had gone for aught but to 
 insure being properly fed and provided for. " Jas 
 per Lar'bee 's disappeared ; an' old man Haight I 
 do b'lieve hev gone deranged, sets an' cusses the 
 Lost Time mine all day ; an' Jerushy's husband 's 
 drunk, 'pears like a rat-hole, ye can't fill him up ; 
 an' hev ye seen Jasper Lar'bee down yer ways ? " 
 
 "Not fur a long time," faltered Julia, still re 
 treating a few steps at intervals down the rocky, 
 ledgy dooryard. 
 
 " Waal, I '11 tell him ez ye war hyar, an' 'lowed 
 it 'peared like a long time sence ye seen him," said 
 Mrs. Timson perversely, with the air of taking a 
 message. "An'" her small eyes narrowed 
 "ef I find enny tur-r-key aigs, I '11 let ye know." 
 
 She looked with a sour smile after the girl's light 
 figure, for Julia was now fairly routed. 
 
 "I'll let ye know, too," she muttered, "ez we 
 ain't got none o' Mis' Lar'bee's slack-twisted ways 
 hyar now, givin' away a settin' of tur-r-key aigs, 
 I say ! Ef I find enny tur-r-key aigs, I '11 send 'em 
 down ter the store ter trade. I be mos' out o' snuff 
 now." 
 
 Then she meditated swiftly upon her theory that 
 Mrs. Larrabee had reasons of her own for all her 
 good works ; that they were subtle investments, 
 as it were, sure of a return in better kind, and 
 quadrupled in value. She could evolve no view 
 in which the promised " settin' of tur-r-key aigs " 
 could figure as assets save for a general conciliatory
 
 236 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 purpose ; and then she remembered that Cap'n 
 Lucy was a widower. A sneering smile stole over 
 her face, arrested suddenly by a grave afterthought ; 
 if for this reason the family were worth conciliating 
 for Mrs. Larrabee's sake, surely more for her own. 
 " Lord knows, I need a house, an' home, an' land, 
 an' horse critters, an' cows, an' sheep, an' hawgs 
 he hev jes' two childern, an' them growed, an' that 
 niece gal could be turned out " (she hastily went 
 over the list of Cap'n Lucy's earthly gear, omit 
 ting only that important possession, himself) "a 
 sight more 'n Mis' Lar'bee do, ennyhows." 
 
 With a sudden change of heart, she ran to the 
 road, holding her hand to the level of her eyes to 
 shade them from the glare of the sun ; but look 
 as she might, there was not a flitting vestige to 
 be seen of the dark brickdust red, the color of the 
 dress which Julia wore. She called again and 
 again without response. She thought the girl 
 must surely have heard ; then she reassured herself 
 by the reflection that the wind was blowing a gale, 
 and doubtless the sound of her voice went far 
 afield. 
 
 Its shrill pipe might have been easily enough 
 distinguishable to ears that would heed, although 
 the surges of the wind beat loud on every rock and 
 slope. Julia took angry note as she went swiftly 
 on and on, her skirts flying, her bonnet blown 
 back, her heart hot with wrath against Mrs. Tim- 
 son, against herself, against Adelicia who had sent 
 her on so ill starred an errand. Her eyes and her
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 237 
 
 gesture were singularly like Cap'n Lucy's, as, 
 threading the narrow path above the precipice, she 
 paused and flung the empty basket into the wil 
 derness below, and then walked on less swiftly, 
 her tense nerves relaxed by this ebullition of rage. 
 Like Cap'n Lucy, too, she felt the better for it, 
 albeit she realized as he never would have done 
 that the basket would be sorely missed at home. 
 With the riddance she somehow discharged her 
 mind of the thought of the Larrabee threshold, of 
 her inhospitable reception there, of the whole igno 
 ble episode. She looked out with a sort of enjoy 
 ment at the muster of the clouds, the gathering of 
 rank after rank ; ever and again her un affrighted 
 eyes followed the swift yellow lightnings darting 
 through the gray masses, and she seemed to be 
 just opposite them as she stood on the verge of 
 the precipice on the mountain side. Lower down 
 on the wooded slope across the narrow valley, she 
 could see the track of the wind, which never touched 
 those silent, vaporous congregations, motionless, or 
 coming with contrary currents from opposite di 
 rections. The trees below bent and sprang back 
 into place, and she could hear the sibilant shouting 
 of the leaves. It was like a myriad of shrill tiny 
 voices, but they combined into a massive chorus. 
 The growths hard by were adding a refrain ; the 
 wind was winning new territory as it came up the 
 mountain. She could see far away a cloud torn 
 into fringes, and presently the rain was falling. It 
 was coming nearer and nearer ; she would meet it
 
 238 HTS VANISHED STAE. 
 
 long before she could reach home. She quickened 
 her steps at the thought. Sometimes the growths 
 intervened on both sides of the path, and shut out 
 the observation of the coming storm. Whenever 
 she emerged, she noted the darkening aspect. More 
 than once the thunder shook the very mountains. 
 Suddenly, a searching, terrible illumination, the 
 rising of the tumultuous wind, a frightful succession 
 of peals, brought her to a pause. She hardly dared 
 to face a storm like this, shelterless, and the store 
 at the Lost Time mine was close at hand. Never 
 theless she hesitated for a moment. Cap'n Lucy's 
 well-worn jest as to the " perf essional widower" 
 was hardly so funny to her as to him. She stood, 
 disconcerted, conscious, averse, in the teeth of the 
 storm, her dress fluttering, her bonnet tossed back 
 from her shining coiled hair, her eyes bright and 
 wide and wistful, and the breath almost blown back 
 from her lips. Then she noted suddenly the portal 
 of the Lost Time mine. She did not pause to 
 reflect ; to dread the long, darkening, solitary after 
 noon in its dim recesses ; to remember the terrors 
 of its traditions, and what ghastly presence she 
 might meet, and what sepulchral voices she might 
 hear, in the awful isolations of the coming storm, 
 when all the laws that govern the outside world 
 seemed set at naught ; for if ever the supernatural 
 should break bounds, it might be at a place like 
 this. She ran against the wind as swiftly as she 
 might; skirted the water on the stones in the 
 channel at the mouth of the cave, now more deeply
 
 SIS VANISHED STAR. 239 
 
 submerged than their wont, for the stream was 
 rising visibly, its underground tributaries already 
 fed by the rains falling elsewhere ; felt with a shiver 
 the chill of the place, as the high, grim, rough-hewn 
 rocks towered above her head ; climbed up on the 
 inner ledges ; and as the first floodlike outbreak of 
 the torrents came down with a crash of thunder, 
 and a glare of lightning, and a wild shrieking of 
 swirling winds, she sat down, high and dry, and 
 drew a breath of relief. 
 
 The next instant her heart gave a great plunge, 
 and then seemed to stand still. She was not alone. 
 A man in a further recess appeared suddenly, ap 
 proaching cautiously. He evidently had not seen 
 her. Her entrance into the place had preceded his 
 appearance only by a few seconds. He was watch 
 ing the rain with intense interest. She would have 
 said that he had been apprised of it by the rise 
 of the water within. He bestowed an eager, care 
 ful, calculating scrutiny upon the stream below 
 the high shadowy point where he stood ; then he 
 looked toward the portal where the descending 
 sheets of rain cut off all glimpse of the world 
 without. He was turning away, with the furtive, 
 skulking, cautious air that had characterized his ap 
 proach, when his eyes fell upon her. He dropped 
 out of sight as if he had been shot. 
 
 She sat there, silent, trembling, her eyes fixed 
 upon the spot where he had disappeared, her heart 
 beating wildly. She heard the flow of the stream 
 below, its volume and momentum continually in-
 
 240 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 creasing, and the foaming turmoil where the cur 
 rents met the dash of the rain at the outlet of the 
 mine ; now and again she was conscious that light 
 ning flashed through the gray and white descend 
 ing torrents without, and lit up this dreary sub 
 terranean recess with its uncanny glare for a space, 
 till distance annulled its power, and she heard the 
 thunder roar. But she did not withdraw her eyes, 
 and she wondered if he had known her in that 
 short moment as she had recognized him. For it 
 was Jack Espey. 
 
 It seemed so long while she sat there, waiting for 
 some sign, or token, or further intimation, that she 
 might have thought the apparition a mere illusion, 
 had she ever heard enough of the tricks of the 
 imagination to learn to doubt her senses. She was 
 trembling still, although her voice was calm enough 
 as at last she called his name. 
 
 " Jack Espey ! " the echoes cried out, as promptly 
 as if it were a familiar sound and long ago conned. 
 They fell to silence gradually. She did not call 
 again, but, with her slow and composed manner, 
 she waited for him to answer. 
 
 When he finally approached, apparently ascend 
 ing an incline from depths below, he met her intent 
 gaze fixed upon him ; but she seemed to him as 
 impassive and as unmoved of aspect as if this were 
 a daily occurrence in her life. 
 
 " I war in hopes ye did n't know me, Julia," he 
 said, dully sad, as he came up near her. 
 
 He stood leaning his elbow on one of the shelves
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 241 
 
 of rock, looking up at her, mechanically shielding 
 himself behind the jagged ledges from observation 
 without, although it might seem naught could 
 stand in the storm that raged beyond. 
 
 His plight was forlorn. His clothes were worn 
 and torn, and miry with clay ; it adhered in flakes 
 and smears to his long boots, incongruously spurred. 
 His face was lined and white. His hat was pushed 
 far back on his black hair, as of yore, and his long- 
 lashed grayish-blue eyes had an appealing look 
 which she had not seen before. 
 
 " What fur ye wished I would n't know ye ? " 
 
 He looked hard at her. " 'Kase it 's danger- 
 some. I 'm a man hunted fur my life, I reckon. 
 It 's dangersome fur me, an' fur ye too, ter know 
 I be hyar." 
 
 " It 's jes' ez well I ain't one of the skeery kind, 
 then," said Julia hardily. "I be powerful glad 
 I seen ye hyar." 
 
 She seemed curiously unfamiliar to him in some 
 sort. So alert had his faculties become in the sus 
 pense of jeopardy that this slight point perturbed 
 him, until he bethought himself that he had hith 
 erto heard her speak so seldom, and had observed 
 her so little, that the very inflections of her voice 
 were strange. It was of a different timbre from 
 Adelicia's. It did not vibrate. It had a conclu 
 sive, flutelike quality, without a trailing sequence 
 of resonance. 
 
 " Waal, I 'lowed ez mos' ennybody mought be 
 sorry ter see me in sech a fix as this," he said dol 
 orously.
 
 242 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 The deliberate, impassive Julia was almost in 
 haste to avert this apparent misconstruction. " Oh, 
 I war glad ter view ye, 'kase a heap o' folks 'lowed 
 ye couldn't hev got away 'thout yer horse, him 
 bein' kilt, an' ez ye war a-lyin' in the laurel some- 
 whar, dead, yit." 
 
 She turned her head, and looked steadily at him. 
 Her deep, dark, translucent eyes were full of shoal 
 ing lights of variant blue, like the heart of some 
 great sapphire. The long, curling lashes flung a 
 fibrous shadow on her cheek ; its texture, as the 
 light fell upon it, was so fine, so soft, its tints so 
 fair, its curve so delicate. Her lips, chiseled like 
 some triumph of ideal beauty, but that no sculp 
 ture could express their mobile sweetness, parted 
 suddenly in her rare and brilliant smile. 
 
 Many a man, under its glamours, might have 
 taken heart of grace to be glad that he was alive ; 
 but Espey's face hardened. 
 
 " 'T would be jes' ez well, jes' ez well, lying 
 dead in the laur'l," he said bitterly. Then, with 
 an afterthought, "Let them folks stay 'feared. 
 They won't spile thar health quakin' an' shudderin' 
 'bout me," he added cynically. As he marked her 
 expression change, her smile vanish, he realized 
 the necessity to please, to propitiate. He knew 
 her so slightly ; his temper must not be too savage 
 and surly with so complete a stranger, and perhaps 
 earn her antagonism, especially since he and his 
 refuge were at her mercy. 
 
 " Course," he went on, with a clumsy effort at
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 243 
 
 amends, " I don't mean Ad'licia. Ye knowed we- 
 uns war keepin' comp'ny ? " 
 
 She nodded gravely. 
 
 t "I know Ad'licia hev quaked an' shuddered 'bout 
 me a heap mo' 'n I be wuth," he added. 
 
 Was the day darker outside, or how was quenched 
 that subtle brightness of aspect that had made the 
 girl's face radiant ? It was beautiful still, that stat 
 uesque contour, but as chill and unresponsive as if 
 indeed its every line had been wrought with a chisel. 
 The smooth hair, with its sheen of silken fineness, 
 caught the light on its coiled and plaited chestnut- 
 tinted strands. One hand rested on her brown sun- 
 bonnet, laid on the ledge of the gray rock, and she 
 leaned her weight upon it. Her head and her fair 
 complexion so fair that it transmitted to the sur 
 face an outline of the blue veins in her temple and 
 throat, and even her eyelids and the roseate fluc 
 tuations in her cheek were very distinct against the 
 yellow clay of the bank of earth behind her. Her 
 little rough low-quarter shoes and the brown stock 
 ings showed a trifle beneath the skirt of the brick- 
 dust-colored homespun dress she wore, as they were 
 placed on a boulder that stood out of the tawny 
 rushing stream below. 
 
 He noted the change. He could not account for 
 it other than as a vicarious resentment. 
 
 " I ain't faultin' Ad'licia," he said, more emphat 
 ically. " She war tormented powerful 'bout me, 
 war n't she ? " 
 
 " A-fust," said Julia veraciously. Her voice was
 
 244 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 as inexpressive as her eyes. " But Ad'licia is one 
 ez always hopes fur the best." 
 
 He drew back with a sudden recoil. " Waal, 
 now, by the Lord ! " he cried furiously, " she 's 
 welcome ter her hope ! Settin' thar in the house, 
 warm, an' dry, an' fed, an' clean," he looked down 
 with a sort of repulsion upon his miry garments, 
 " a-hopin' fur the bes', an' makin' herself mighty 
 comfort'ble an' contented, an' me hyar, freezin' in 
 this cold hole, an' mighty nigh starvin', in rags an' 
 mis'ry, an' sick, an' sorry, an' lonesome enough ter 
 die, an' shet out o' the light ! My God, ef I war n't 
 'feared o' my life, I 'd let the off 'cer take me ! The 
 State hain't got no sech term o' imprisonment ez 
 this ! " 
 
 Julia was leaning forward, each line of her im 
 passive face replete with meaning, reflecting his 
 every sentiment, but with the complement of S3 r m- 
 pathy and acquiescence and responsive anger in his 
 anger. 
 
 He turned suddenly, lifting his arm with a scorn 
 ful gesture toward the low vault with its dank, 
 earthy odor, the ledges of barren, inhospitable rock, 
 the cold stream rushing forth from the darkness 
 within, seen in an appalling blackness adown the 
 tunnel, against which his white-lined face looked 
 whiter, his form taller in his closely belted garb 
 and with his long boots drawn up to the knees. He 
 waved his arm as if to include it all. " An' Ad'li 
 cia, she hopes for the bes'." 
 
 He broke out into a harsh laugh, which the echoes
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 245 
 
 repeated so promptly, and with apparently so ma 
 lignant an intent, that he checked it hastily, and the 
 sound died on his colorless lips ; but far down the 
 black tunnel something uncanny seemed to fall to 
 laughing suddenly, and as suddenly to break off ; 
 and again a further voice still was lifted in weird 
 mirth, and the laughter failed midway. 
 
 He waited for silence, and then he leaned against 
 a higher ledge near which she was sitting, and, 
 resting his elbow on it, looked at her once more, 
 wondering how he might best revert to his object of 
 propitiation. He was remembering that Adelicia 
 had told him how prone was Julia to notice slights, 
 and how quick to take offense. He felt hardly 
 equal to the effort of repairing the damage of his 
 outbreak against her relative, so spent was his 
 scanty strength by the violence of his anger and his 
 agitation. He could only look at her silently, more 
 forlorn, more pallid, more appealing, than before. 
 
 " I ought n't ter think hard o' Ad'licia," he said 
 at last. "Nobody else would, I know. Would 
 they?" he added. 
 
 For, with Julia's silent habit, conversation was 
 somewhat difficult without a direct appeal. It was 
 a direct appeal. She liked to remember that after 
 ward. 
 
 "Waal," she said, slowly and judicially, as if 
 weighing matters submitted for arbitrament, " I 'low 
 Ad'licia treated ye right mean, fust an' las'." 
 
 " Why ? " he rejoined, in genuine interest, his 
 face resuming its normal expression before flight
 
 246 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 and hardship and darkness and loneliness and fear 
 and privation had so marked it. 
 
 " 'Kase," she went on in that soft, unfamiliar 
 voice that the echoes seemed hardly to follow, so 
 complete, so indivisible, was every flutelike tone, 
 " she oughter married ye whenst ye axed her 
 ef she liked ye." 
 
 A faint surprise was dawning in his eyes. 
 
 " Cap'n Lucy would n't gin his cornsent," he said 
 succinctly. 
 
 " I reckon he 'lowed 'twar his jewty ter say no. 
 But ef Ad'licia hed married ye ennyhows, do ye 
 reckon dad would hev let that leetle fice o' the law, 
 'Dolphus Ross, jail his nephew-in-law 'kase a man 
 he fought in Tanglefoot Cove mougJit die ef he 
 did n't hev the industry ter git well ? Naw, sir : 
 ye 'd hev hed dad an' Luther fur backers, an' they 
 air toler'ble stiff backers, fur enny man. Dad 
 would hev fixed a way out'n it fur ye, fur sure, 
 count o' Ad'licia. She war a turr'ble fool not ter 
 marry ye, an' I tole her so." 
 
 The surprise, the doubt, and at last the convic 
 tion successively expressed in Espey's face might 
 have been easily discriminated by one skilled in 
 reading the human physiognomy. But Julia pos 
 sessed no such craft, and when he spoke she appre 
 ciated no change in his manner, albeit it was not 
 guarded ; for he did not conceive it necessary to 
 closely screen the discovery of a secret of which 
 he perceived that Julia was herself unconscious. 
 
 " Julia," he said appealingly, " ye see how I be
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 247 
 
 hunted an' harried, an' nobody keers fur me. Jes' 
 let the folks shudder an' quake fur a while longer 
 'thout knowin' what 's kem o' me. Don't tell no 
 body ez ye hev seen me hyar." 
 
 She was gazing out at the steely lines of the rain 
 curtain, so dense as to be like a veritable fabric, as 
 it swayed in the wind at the rugged mouth of the 
 mine, and its foaming white fringes that seemed to 
 trail upon the brown water where the continuous 
 downfall splashed into its currents. The peculiarly 
 clear, colorless light of a gray day, which, in its 
 adequacy for all the purposes of mere vision, would 
 seem to point the munificence and splendid lavish- 
 ness of the sun's bestowals in the interests of beauty 
 and growths and the gladdening of the heart of 
 man, was upon her face, which responded with a 
 sort of subdued glister like marble. Her eyes and 
 the shadowy long black lashes were meditatively 
 downcast. She was evidently -re vie wing the course 
 of action which she had just sketched for him, for 
 Adelicia, for Cap'n Lucy. He did not hold her 
 undivided attention, and he realized that it was 
 only a mechanical assent as she nodded, her face 
 still reflective, absorbed. 
 
 "Not even Cap'n Lucy," he urged eagerly. 
 " Not Jasper Lar'bee " He paused suddenly. 
 
 The word seemed to arrest, to enchain, her elu 
 sive attention. The delicate roseate tints of her 
 fair complexion deepened from throat to brow ; 
 her cheek was vividly red. She was remembering 
 the Larrabee threshold, the greeting she had en-
 
 248 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 countered there, the grotesque indignity of Henri 
 etta Timson's affronts. But hers was a reticent 
 habit, and she had a reserved nature. She only 
 said, conclusively, slowly, " Ye may be sure I won't 
 tell Jasper Lar'bee." 
 
 Somehow Espey felt a sense of loss ; and he had 
 so little to lose, poor fellow, that albeit her affec 
 tion was unsought, uncared for, unsuspected till a 
 moment ago, the doubt of it afflicted him as if 
 his heart were cruelly rifled. That flush at Larra- 
 bee's name ! To him it was conclusive. He had 
 no other indication by which to judge. He had 
 mistaken her sympathy, her idle talk ; she was 
 wont to talk so seldom that it was not surprising 
 that he hardly knew how to take her words ; he 
 knew so little of her and her mental processes. 
 She cared for Larrabee, not for him. Nobody 
 cared for him. And Adelicia was hoping for the 
 best. 
 
 " This be a mighty pore shelter an' home an' 
 hope," he said, grimly looking about him. "I 
 hed prayed I mought crope inter a hole ter hide or 
 die, like a hunted fox or bar or painter be 'lowed 
 ter do sometimes. That did n't 'pear ter me much 
 fur a man ter ax of the Lord." 
 
 He stood off from the rock for an instant, his 
 big white wool hat in one hand, the other in his 
 leather belt where that formidable array of weap 
 ons still gleamed. His head was thrown back 
 from the loose collar of his blue-checked shirt ; his 
 straight hair was tossed from his brow ; his gray
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 249 
 
 eyes, scornfully bitter, surveyed the dripping walls, 
 so dark that in the recesses here and there 
 clusters of bats hung head downward, dimly de 
 scried, awaiting the night, the rugged obtrusion 
 of rock through the clay, the chill, chill flowing of 
 the brown water in the channel below, as ceaseless, 
 as cold, as heedless, as relentless, as in the days 
 of yore when it broke its allotted bounds, rose 
 into alien hewn-out caverns, and flooded the mine, 
 wrecking the humble industry of man, wresting 
 away with its grasping currents two struggling hu 
 man lives, and carrying not even a gruesome mem 
 ory or token of its deeds upon its sleek waves out 
 into the sunshine, and the free air, and the genial 
 warmth of the upper world. 
 
 " 'T ain't much I hev axed, this hole ter 
 starve an' die in, but mebbe it 's too much ! " 
 Then, turning, with an eye alight, and a furious 
 flush that made him look all at once well and 
 strong and alert and reckless again, " But tell whar 
 I be hid out tell tell who ye want ! Tell 
 ennybody everybody ! Cap'n Lucy ! the sher'ff ! 
 Taft ! Jasper Lar'bee ! " 
 
 And what miracle was this ! The silent, impas 
 sive, reserved, reticent Julia fixed her eyes upon 
 him for a moment, amazed, troubled, and then, as 
 she suddenly comprehended, full of a keen but 
 tender reproach. And until that moment he had 
 not known how beautiful those much-vaunted eyes 
 could be. The next they were full of tears, and 
 Julia, leaning back against the wall behind her, 
 had burst into sobs.
 
 250 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 "Tell! Why, Jack Espey, how kin ye think I 
 could be made to tell whar ye be hid out? " She 
 turned her head to look at him again with hurt and 
 indignant amazement. " I 'd die first ! Powder 
 an' lead " she hesitated for hyperbole that might 
 express this impossibility " all the powder and 
 lead the men shot away in the war times could n't 
 git a word from me o' what I hev fund out this 
 evenin' ! " 
 
 " I know it ! " he protested, coming up close to 
 her, as she sat on the ledge. " I ought n't ter hev 
 said that, but ye see, Julia, I feel so s'picious, 
 sometimes ; I be so hunted an' harried, an' nobody 
 keers fur me or whar I be 'ceptin' the sher'ff." 
 He lifted his eyebrows, with a fleering laugh at his 
 own forlorn estate. 
 
 " I keer," said Julia stoutly. " I won't tell 
 nobody whar ye be hid out, not even dad, nor 
 Luther, nor nobody, 'ceptin' Ad'licia." 
 
 He gasped in haste for utterance. He caught at 
 her hand as if he were drowning, as if she might 
 be gone before he could stay her for a word. 
 
 " Not Ad'licia ! Oh my Lord, no ! Jes' leave 
 her a-hopin' fur the bes' ! " He had hardly real 
 ized how deeply he had resented Adelicia's opti 
 mistic resignation to his fate. His sarcastic laugh 
 was broken off halfway in his eager resumption 
 of his argument. " Ad'licia mought feel obligated 
 ter tell Cap'n Lucy, an' 'bide by his word. With 
 her a-hopin' fur the bes', an' Cap'n Lucy's foolin' 
 long o' his jewty ter his orphin niece, I '11 git the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 251 
 
 sher'ff's bracelets locked round my wrists ; an' the 
 jail ain't ez sightly a place ez this beautisome spot. 
 I be a man fur myself, an' I can't ondertake ter 
 cut out all my cloth with Cap'n Lucy's scissors. 
 Ad'licia 's contented. Leff her be ! She '11 hope 
 fur the bes' with a twenty horse power." 
 
 He did not remember Mrs. Larrabee's astute re 
 mark in the advice she had given him to the effect 
 that " perlitin' round the t'other gal would n't go 
 so hard with him," if she were really a " gyardin 
 lily " for beauty. He only felt vaguely that he 
 had not heretofore appreciated the radiance of the 
 face that Julia bent upon him ; he did not under 
 stand that it was the moment, the unrealized 
 thought, which so embellished it, as she said cogi- 
 tatingly, "Naw, 't won't do ter tell Ad'licia. I 
 won't teU her." 
 
 " See ter it that ye don't," he sternly urged her. 
 And once more he was impressed with the idea that 
 he really had not before known how singularly 
 beautiful she was. 
 
 " Ye see, Julia," he said, lowering his voice con 
 fidentially, " I can't git away, 'kase I got no horse ; 
 an' ef I hed one, I hev got no money, an' I 'd jes' 
 be tuk somewhar, now that the folks hev got sot 
 onto the trail of me. So I 'lowed I 'd hide hyar- 
 about till I git' news from Tanglefoot ez that man 
 hev got better. Ye see I be hopin' fur the bes', 
 too," he added, with a pathetic smile. " It 's all I 
 kin do." 
 
 " How do ye git suthin' ter eat ? " she asked sud 
 denly.
 
 252 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Espey looked embarrassed. " Oh, I makes 
 out," he said evasively. " I gits out at night 
 sometimes." 
 
 She assumed that he hunted or trapped at night 
 for provisions. He noted that she did not argue 
 nor contend, as Adelicia was wont to do. She 
 accepted his arrangements as intrinsically the best. 
 
 " I could fetch ye suthin' wunst in a while," she 
 suggested. 
 
 He looked aghast at the idea. 
 
 " Don't ye do that, Julia," he said warningly. 
 " It mought git ye or Cap'n Lucy liable ter the 
 law. Don't ye do it. I '11 make out somehows." 
 Then seeing her reluctance, " Ef I need enny thing, 
 or want ter git communication with folks outside, 
 I '11 let ye know. I '11 I'll put this hyar pipe 
 in a nick in them rocks, jes' west, clost inter the 
 freestone spring nigh yer dad's house." 
 
 She listened, breathless, and beamed with de 
 light at the feasibility of this plan. 
 
 " An' whenever I pass hyar," she said, with 
 wide, illumined eyes and a flickering flush of ex 
 citement, " an' I '11 kern frequent, I '11 drap 
 wild flowers in the road. An' ye will see 'em, an' 
 know I hev been by an' been a-studyin' 'bout you- 
 uns. An' that will be plumb comp'ny fur ye. " 
 
 " 'T will that ! " he cried. His eyes were soft 
 and bright and dewy. Somehow it seemed to bind 
 him that chain of flowers to the fair world 
 without, which had been slipping away, away for 
 ever.
 
 BIS VANISHED STAR. 253 
 
 He turned, and looked out toward the rocky 
 egress of the cave as if he almost expected to see 
 already a cardinal flower flaming in the sun on the 
 gray rock. 
 
 There was no sun. The rain fell, dense still, 
 dense enough, doubtless, to preclude all observation 
 from without ; but from among the shadows within 
 his practiced eyes descried through the shifting, 
 shimmering veil, now white and gray in shoaling 
 effects, all blown aslant by the wind, a canvas- 
 covered wagon lumbering by, albeit for the rush 
 of the stream and the fall of the torrent she could 
 not hear the slow creak of its wheels. His heart 
 was a-flutter, although he knew that the danger of 
 observation was past, as the swaying white hood 
 had disappeared. 
 
 "That's 'Renzo Taft," he remarked. "He's 
 gittin' back late from the cross-roads. I reckon 
 the storm cotch him an' kep' him." 
 
 He hesitated. Then, with a sort of falter of 
 humiliation, " I reckon I 'd better go back ter my 
 hidin' place, Julia. The rain 's slackening so some 
 body passin' mought view me. Ye jes' set hyar 
 right quiet an' wait fur the rain ter hold up." 
 
 He turned away ; then looked back over his 
 shoulder. 
 
 " Good-by," he said. 
 
 The girl's luminous eyes dwelt smilingly upon 
 him. 
 
 " Good-by," she answered softly. 
 
 He took his way along the ledges above the
 
 254 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 treacherous stream to that blacker recess where the 
 way deflected and the light failed ; he turned once 
 more. 
 
 " I '11 be a-watchin' fur them flowers," he said. 
 
 Her smile itself was like a bloom ; he, unaware, 
 treasured the recollection. He seemed to reflect it 
 in some sort. He was smiling himself, as he went 
 down into those sunless depths. 
 
 He could not forbear partly retracing his way 
 once, and looking at her as she sat, quite still, gaz 
 ing out with her eyes of summer and sunshine upon 
 the rain, and the dreary, sad, tear-stained aspect of 
 the world without, whence sounded the sobbing of 
 the troubled wind. 
 
 When he came yet another time, the rain had 
 ceased, and she was gone.
 
 XIV. 
 
 LORENZO TAFT'S arrival at his home, that after 
 noon, might have seemed to the casual observer 
 an event of the simplest significance. It is true, a 
 country trader, on his return from a bout of barter 
 at that emporium the cross-roads store, seldom 
 casts about him so vigilant an eye, or sustains so 
 controlled and weighty a manner, or wears a coun 
 tenance of such discernment, its alert sagacity 
 hardly at variance with certain predatory sugges 
 tions, on the contrary, finding in them its com 
 plement of expression. But these points might 
 only have argued ill for the profits of the bargainer 
 with whom he had dealt. As the great lumbering 
 canvas-hooded wagon came to a halt in the space 
 beneath the loft of the log barn, under partial 
 shelter, at least, and he began to unharness and 
 turn out the two mules, the anxious glances he cast 
 toward the house might have betokened impatient 
 expectation of assistance in unloading the ponderous 
 vehicle, and carrying into the store the cumbrous 
 additions to its stock represented in saddles, cutlery, 
 sugar, bolts of calico, stacks of hats, the integ 
 rity of all more or less endangered by the weather. 
 But no one emerged from the house, and after 
 feeding the mules he turned hastily, took his way
 
 256 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 in great strides through the rain across the yard, 
 which was half submerged in puddles and running 
 water, and unlocked the door. As he entered, big, 
 burly, and dripping with rain, prophetically at odds 
 with the falling out of the yet unknown events, he 
 gazed about the dim interior with a dissatisfied, 
 questioning eye. All was much as usual, save 
 dimmer and drearier for the storm without. Here 
 the unseen rain asserted its presence by the fusil 
 lade on the roof and the plashing from the eaves. 
 The wind rushed furiously in recurrent blasts 
 against the windowless walls. Since the denizens 
 within could not mark how it bent the greatest 
 tree, they might thus judge of its force, and quake 
 beneath its tempestuous buffets. Now and again 
 the writhen boughs of the elm just outside beat 
 as in frantic appeal on the clapboards of the roof. 
 The chimney piped a tuneless, fifelike note, and 
 occasional drops fell a-sputteriug into the dull blaze 
 of the fire. Cornelia Taft herself was dull and 
 spiritless of mien, as she sat on a low stool on the 
 hearth knitting a blue yarn stocking. The room, 
 lurking in a state of semi-obscurity, seemed the 
 dreariest possible expression of a dwelling ; only as 
 the fitful blaze flared and fell were distortions of 
 its simple furniture distinguishable, the table 
 with its blue ware, the bed and its gaudy quilt, the 
 spinning-wheel, and the old warping-bars, where 
 now merely skeins of cobwebs were wont to hang 
 from peg to peg, since Cornelia Taft's precocity did 
 not extend to weaving. A black cat sat blinking
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 257 
 
 her yellow eyes before the fire. She had so con 
 versational an aspect that it might seem that Taft 
 had interrupted some conference, of a dismal 
 nature, doubtless, for there were traces of recent 
 tears on the little girl's face, and a most depressed 
 expression. 
 
 " Whar 's Copley? Whar 's yer uncle Cop ? " 
 he demanded, looking hastily about the shadowy 
 place. 
 
 She paused to roll up her work methodically, 
 and thrust the knitting-needles through the ball of 
 yarn. 
 
 " He ain't hyar," she said, lifting reproachful 
 eyes ; " an' he ain't been hyar since ye been 
 gone." 
 
 He stared down at her in silent surprise. 
 
 " Ye jes' went off an' lef ' me an' Joe hyar by 
 ourse'fs, an' we been mos' skeered ter death," she 
 added, with a sob. 
 
 A sudden apprehension crossed Taft's face. 
 
 " I lef Cop hyar. Ain't he been in ter git his 
 vittles?" 
 
 She shook her head. 
 
 " Did ye call him in the store ? " 
 
 She nodded. 
 
 " Mebbe he war in the barn." 
 
 "I blowed the hawn fur him; he ain't eat a 
 mite sence ye been gone." 
 
 Taft turned hastily toward the door, his florid 
 face paling. Then he turned back. " Whar 's 
 Joe?"
 
 258 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " He Lev runned away ! " cried Sis, with a burst 
 of sobs. " Las' night we-uns hearn sech a cur'ous 
 hurrah somewhar I dunno sech cur'ous talk 
 an' hollerin' 'way down in the groun' an' an' 
 diggin' an' " 
 
 He had paused, looking amazed at her. Then 
 his face changed, with a sort of aghast certainty 
 upon it. "Jes' some boys diggin' in the Lost 
 Time mine," he urged, however, plausibly. 
 
 " But but " she protested " Joe, Tie say, 
 they they air dead." 
 
 She looked at him, hoping for some sufficient 
 adult denial of this terrible fantasy ; but his face 
 betokened only its confirmation, and she fell to 
 shivering and sobbing afresh. 
 
 " Whenst it got so turrible in the middle o' 
 the night, Joe, he looked out'n the winder upsteers, 
 an' the moon hed riz. An' he clomb down by 
 the tree. He 'lowed he would n't bide no mo' an' 
 listen. So he jes' skun the cat out'n the winder. 
 He war 'feared." 
 
 And once more she covered her face with her 
 hands and wept. Nevertheless, between her fingers, 
 as the tears trickled down them, she furtively sur 
 veyed him. 
 
 " Wunst," she said tentatively, " I 'lowed 't war 
 revenuers. An' then I wisht 't war. I hed ruther 
 hev hearn them 'n 'n dead ones." 
 
 His countenance did not change a muscle. 
 
 She was now alarmed by her own temerity. In 
 the long ordeal of solitude and fright she had lost
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 259 
 
 control of her small nerves, or she would not have 
 overstepped her habitual caution so far. " Rev- 
 enuers arter what ? " he demanded. His incidental, 
 unconcerned manner reassured her. 
 
 " Arter the ' wild-cat,' I reckon," she hazarded. 
 
 He affected to consider the suggestion. 
 
 " Some boys mought be talkin' 'bout startin' a 
 still down thar in the Lost Time mine. I '11 roust 
 'em out mighty quick, ef they do ! Ef thar 's enny 
 whiskey sold round hyar, I 'm countin' on doin' it 
 out'n my store, sure. I got a license ter sell." 
 
 She looked at him narrowly, suspiciously, hardly 
 more credulous than he himself. 
 
 " I won't hev my profits sp'iled. Whiskey 's 
 the best trade I got," he added, as he turned 
 about. " Waal, I 'lowed Copley would be in hyar 
 ter holp me tote the truck in ; but, howsever, set a 
 rock afore the door ter hold it open, Sis, whilst I 
 make a start, ennyhow." 
 
 His show of industry as he toiled across the 
 rainy yard, now with a keg, now with a box, on his 
 shoulder, of anxiety for the safety of his goods, 
 his sedulous care in displaying them to the best 
 advantage on the shelves to lure customers, might 
 have deceived a wiser head than Cornelia Taft's. 
 Her long-cherished suspicions were gradually dis 
 pelled, as she ran hither and thither, carrying the 
 lighter packages in her arms, eagerly helping to 
 bestow them, making place for them when she 
 could do no more. It was not until she had gone 
 back briskly to her task of preparing an early
 
 260 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 supper that he ventured to descend from the store 
 to the room below, and take his way along the dark 
 tunnel to the still in the recess of the mine. He 
 paused surprised at the disordered and careless dis 
 array about the entrance to the tunnel : some of the 
 boards of the partition were on the ground, others 
 aslant, none as they were habitually adjusted. With 
 a steady hand he rectified this, and went forward 
 forthwith, his lantern swinging in his grasp. Once 
 he paused to listen : no voice, no stir ; only the 
 heavy windless silence. As he progressed, the 
 faint tinkling of the running water smote his ear, 
 and presently he had crossed it. No sound came 
 from about the still ; there was no suffusion of red 
 light on the terra-cotta walls that sometimes glowed 
 at the terminus of the tunnel when the furnace 
 door stood open. He could hardly be said to have 
 had a premonition. He was prepared for disas 
 ter by the previous events ; but he could scarcely 
 realize its magnitude, its conclusiveness, when the 
 timid flare of the lantern illumined the dreary walls 
 of the moonshiners' haunt, the dead cold furnace, 
 the tubs of mash, on the margin of one of which 
 a rat was boldly feeding, scarcely pausing to look 
 around with furtive, sinister bright eyes, and 
 his two lieutenants, whom he had left to guard Lar- 
 rabee, bound and gagged upon the floor. 
 
 The craft which characterized Lorenzo Taft was 
 hardly predicable of so massive an organization. 
 It was an endowment of foxlike ingenuity, sinu 
 ous, lithe, suggestive of darting swiftness and of
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 261 
 
 doubled tracks. The expression of blunt dismay 
 on his big jowl dropping visibly beneath his broad 
 yellow beard, the widening stare in his round blue 
 eyes as he gazed about the dismal place, his heavy, 
 lumbering motion as he carefully set the lantern 
 down upon the cold masonry of the fireless furnace, 
 gave no intimation of the speed with which his 
 mind had canvassed the situation, accepted the in 
 evitable, and fixed upon his future course. It was 
 hardly a moment before he was on one knee beside 
 the prostrate form of the elder moonshiner, and 
 had drawn from over his head the grain sack that 
 had served both to obscure his countenance and 
 more completely secure his gag. The glimmer of 
 the lantern, like a slow rill of light trickling feebly 
 through the darkness, illumined the expression of 
 eager appeal in the haggard, wild face and eyes of 
 Copley. An instant longer was too long to wait, 
 yet wait he must ! Taft jerked his thumb over his 
 shoulder at the other prostrate form, convulsed 
 now in a frenzied effort to attract the attention of 
 the new-comer, whose footsteps had brought the 
 only hope of speedy deliverence. 
 
 " Drunk agin ? " he asked, in a low voice. 
 
 Copley made shift to nod his head affirmatively. 
 Then again that frantic plea for release illumined 
 his eyes and contorted his anxious features. 
 
 Taft, regardless, rose, with the swinging motion 
 which was characteristic of him, and, with the 
 lantern swaying in his hand, made his way to 
 the opposite side of the furnace, where the young
 
 262 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 drunkard lay very sober now, in good truth 
 cramped in every hard-bound limb, racked with 
 the tortures of thirst, and half famished. Taft 
 had partly unbound the ropes from about the fur 
 nace and cut them in twain, thus dissevering the 
 companions in misery ; he swiftly knotted those that 
 held the elder moonshiner, while the ends of Dan 
 Sykes's bonds lay loose along the floor. 
 
 "Why, Dan," he cried roughly, "what sort'n 
 caper is this ? " 
 
 The prostrate young fellow made an effort to 
 rise, so strong that the already loosened cords re 
 laxed ; and as Taft emphasized his demand by a 
 sharp kick in the ribs, and an urgent exhortation to 
 the young sot to " quit this damned fooling," the 
 sack which Sykes had worn some twenty hours as 
 hood and gag, and which, since his wakening 
 from his long drunken sleep, he had strained in 
 every fibre by his mad lurches of fright and efforts 
 for freedom, rolled off, his pinioned arms were at 
 liberty, and it seemed he had naught to do but to 
 sit up and untie his craftily bound feet and legs. 
 
 " Ye demented gopher ! " cried Taft angrily, as 
 Sykes sat up stupidly, blinking in the gleam of the 
 lantern. " What ails ye ? Drunk agin ? " 
 
 If his bursting skull were admissible testimony, 
 but he shook his head stoutly in pious negation. 
 Taft kicked him once more in the side with a scorn 
 ful boot. 
 
 " Then the worse fool you-uns ! Look-a-hyar ! " 
 he cried furiously, as he caught the young man by
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 263 
 
 the collar and pulled him to his staggering feet, 
 cutting with one or two quick passes with the knife 
 the ropes about his legs. " Look-a-hyar, ye gallus- 
 bird, what ye hev done in yer drunken tantrums ! 
 Murder ! murder ! or mighty nigh it ! " 
 
 He swung the lantern round, so that its flick 
 ering gleams might rest on the figure of Copley, 
 whose genuine bonds so closely resembled the 
 plight which Sykes had thought his own. His 
 bloodshot eyes distended, as he groped bending 
 toward it in the darkness. 
 
 " Who 's that ? Lar'bee ? " he said. 
 
 " Lar'bee ! " exclaimed Taft scornfully. " Lar' 
 bee 's been out'n the still ever since yestiddy 
 evenin'." 
 
 It was Sykes's drunken recollection that Larra- 
 bee was here when Taft departed ; but alack ! in a 
 cranium which is occupied by a headache of such 
 magnitude, memory has scarce a corner to be reck 
 oned on. Nevertheless he blurted out : 
 
 " Ye tole me ter watch him," he set his teeth 
 in a sort of snarl, and glanced up under his eye 
 brows with a leer still slightly spirituous, " ter 
 gyard him like, a dog. ' Hold fast ! ' ye said, ' hold 
 fast ! ' " 
 
 Taft suddenly shifted the lantern, to throw its 
 full glare upon his own serious, grim, threatening 
 face as he loomed up in the shadows. 
 
 " Sykes," he said, " this is a bad business fur 
 you, an' ye '11 swing fur it, I 'm a-thinkin'. No 
 body never set sech a besotted cur ez ye ter watch
 
 264 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 nobody. I let Lar'bee out myse'f . Ye an' Copley 
 war lef ' hyar ter keep sober an' run the still ; an' 
 what do ye do ? Ye murder him ! " 
 
 As he lowered his big, booming, dramatic voice, 
 the young fellow's blood ran cold. 
 
 " Ye murder him, an' tie him up like that, an' 
 then do yerse'f up sorter fancy with bags an' a 
 rope. Ye '11 hev closer dealin's with a rope yit ; I 
 kin spy out that in the day that 's kemin'." His 
 eyes gleamed with a sinister smile. 
 
 Sykes's knees shook. 
 
 " Oh, my Lord ! " he exclaimed wildly. " Air 
 air he dead ? 'T war n't me ! God A'mighty 
 knows 't war n't me ! " The ready tears rushed to 
 his eyes. " 'T war Lar'bee ! 'T war Lar'bee ! " 
 
 " Shucks ! " Taft turned wearily away. " Ain't 
 I tole ye I seen Lar'bee set out 'fore I did? 
 Blackenin' Lar'bee won't save ye, Dan ! Drink 
 drink ! I tole ye drink would ruinate ye ; always 
 brings a man to a bad e-end. Pity ye hed n't put 
 some water in the jug beforehand, stiddier all them 
 tears in the dregs o' yer spree." He shook his 
 head. " So it is ! So it is ! " . 
 
 " Oh, is he dead, air ye sure he is dead ? " 
 cried the young fellow in a heart-rending voice of 
 appeal, flinging himself upon his knees beside the 
 still, stark, motionless form of the elder moon 
 shiner. 
 
 Taft swung the lantern slightly, and its lurid 
 gleams played over the haggard, cadaverous face, 
 ghastly with fatigue and the pallor of anxiety.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 265 
 
 The boy drew back, with a shudder of repulsion. 
 " Oh, I never went ter do it ! I never went ter do 
 it ! I war drunk ! crazy drunk ! devil drunk ! 
 Oh"- 
 
 " They say," Taft interrupted suddenly, 
 " leastwise the lawyers do, ez a man bein' drunk 
 in c'mittin' a crime ought n't ter influence a jury, 
 the law makes no allowance; but," with an en 
 couraging nod, "they say, too, ez it do influence 
 the jury every time. An' the court can't holp it. 
 The jury will allow suthin' fur a man bein' drunk." 
 
 The white face of the boy, imposed against the 
 darkness with all the contour of youth, had hardly 
 a characteristic that was not expressive of age, so 
 pinched, so lined, so drawn, so bloodless, was every 
 sharpened feature. The natural horror of his sup 
 posed deed, his simple, superficial repentance of 
 the involuntary crime, were suddenly expunged ; 
 his whole being was controlled by a single impulse ; 
 a passion of fear possessed him. Jury, crime, 
 lawyer, these words looking to a legal arraign 
 ment first brought to his horror-stricken mind the 
 idea of a responsibility other than moral for his 
 deed. What slight independence of thought he 
 had, what poor capacity for sifting and judging 
 and weighing the probabilities his easily influenced 
 mind might have exerted as he more and more re 
 covered from his recent inebriation, became nulli 
 fied upon the instant. He did not look once again 
 back to the past, but to the future, wild, quaking, 
 frenzied, as Taft elected to foretell the event.
 
 266 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " That 's why," Taft coolly said, nodding sagely, 
 and inclining his head toward the breathless, fran 
 tic, almost petrified creature, " I 'd leave it ter 
 men." 
 
 Sykes recoiled, with a shudder. 
 
 "Yes," reiterated Taft, weightily and slowly. 
 " The jury would take yer drunk inter account ; 
 an' on the witness-stand I 'd testify ez ye war gin 
 over ter the failin'." 
 
 The young fellow's gray, stony face did not 
 change as Taft ceased to speak. Taft felt its fixed 
 look upon him as he stood, his head bent, and his 
 big hat thrust back on his yellow hair ; one hand 
 was laid meditatively on his long beard, as he gazed 
 down on the prostrate figure of Copley ; with the 
 other hand he held the lantern, whose spare white 
 glimmers of light thrown out into the surrounding 
 obscurity seemed very meagre in the darksome 
 place, which was never cheerful at best, but without 
 the roar and heat of the furnace, the keen, bril 
 liant glinting from the crevice of the door when 
 closed or the red, suffusive flare when it was swung 
 ajar, the still-room was the dreariest presentment 
 of subterranean gloom. 
 
 " Yes," Taft continued thoughtfully, " I 'd 
 
 ruther leave it ter men ter the courts, ye know 
 
 - 'n ter hev the folks round hyar ez war frien'ly 
 
 ter Copley ondertake ter settle ye fur it ; they 'd 
 
 Hey?" he interrupted himself. 
 
 For the young fellow had reached out his arm 
 and laid his hand with a vise-like grip upon Taft's
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 267 
 
 wrist. His head was thrust forward ; he seemed 
 about to speak, but his parted lips, drawn tight 
 across his large, prominent teeth, emitted not a 
 sound, although his wild, dilated, bloodshot eyes 
 looked an eager protest. His voice had failed in 
 framing the obnoxious words, which, however, Taft 
 spoke patly enough. 
 
 " Why, ye know, they would they would. 
 Jedge Lynch is the only court fur this kentry. 
 What sati'f action is it ter the folks hyarabout, ter 
 hev a man kerried ter jail, thirty mile away, ter 
 stan' his trial in the courthouse year arter nex', 
 mebbe, an' then arter all 's come an' gone cheat 
 hemp at las' ? Yes, that 's yer bes' chance ; set 
 out fur Colbury straight, an' s'render yerse'f thar." 
 
 He paused, apparently thinking deeply. 
 
 " Ef ye hed enny kin, though, in enny out'n-the- 
 way place, my advices ter ye would be ter cut an' 
 run, an' bide along o' them ; fur this hyar air a 
 mighty bad job, an' it 's goin' ter go hard with the 
 man ez done it." 
 
 Once more the pallid, evasive light flickered 
 in feeble vibrations across the long, motionless, 
 rope-bound figure, and the stark face curiously dis 
 torted and painfully repulsive with the gag in 
 its stretched jaws. 
 
 " Ye ain't got no kin in no'th Georgy ? " Taft 
 demanded. 
 
 " Naw," replied the boy huskily. 
 
 The suggestion seemed to have restored his 
 voice, albeit muffled and shaken; into his eyes,
 
 268 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 staring, wide and bloodshot, into the gloom, was 
 creeping a definiteness of expression, as if he be 
 held, instead of the vacant black darkness, some 
 scene projected there as a possibility and painted 
 by his expectation. His grip on Taft's arm had 
 relaxed. It had been close and hard, and Taft 
 rubbed the wrist a trifle with the hand that still 
 held the lantern, setting the feeble glimmer 
 a-swinging swiftly about the dark walls. 
 
 " That 's a pity, that 's a tur'ble pity," Taft 
 averred gloomily ; then, with an air of rousing 
 himself, " Waal, ye '11 jes' hev ter leave it ter men. 
 That's the bes' ye kin do." He was turning 
 briskly toward the tunnel. " I '11 ondertake ter 
 gin ye the matter of a two hours' start of the folks 
 'bout hyar by not tellin' 'bout old Copley till then. 
 But ye hed bes' ride with speed, fur they '11 be hot 
 shod on yer tracks, sure." 
 
 As he went forward with his swinging, elastic 
 stride, swaying the lantern back and forth, accord 
 ing to his wont, to illumine the path, his manner, 
 his words, his expression, so tallied with the situ 
 ation he had invented and the role he had played 
 that even the most discerning might have descried 
 no discrepancy in point of fact. The young moon 
 shiner, barely sobered and wholly frightened, was 
 easily to be deluded by a verisimilitude far less 
 complete. He followed, his clumsy feet stumbling 
 and stepping awry, as if his gait were still subject 
 to spirituous influences from which his brain was 
 freed. His cramped limbs yet felt the numbness
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 269 
 
 of their long constraint and the pain of his bonds, 
 for Larrabee's ropes had not been adjusted with 
 due regard to the free circulation of the blood. 
 His progress was far slower than his host's, who 
 paused from time to time and waited to be over 
 taken. On these occasions it soon became appar 
 ent that there was something in his mind on which 
 he had begun to ponder deeply ; for whereas at 
 first he had visibly hastened to join Taft on seeing 
 him whirl around, the lantern describing in the 
 distance a wheel of pallid white light against the 
 dense darkness of the tunnel, he now continued to 
 plod heavily, slower and slower, even when the 
 light settled to a shining focus, again motionless. 
 Taft lifted it once as Sykes approached, throwing 
 its force full upon the swollen, mottled, absorbed 
 face, the fixed introspective eyes, the heavy slouch 
 ing shoulders and bent head. At that moment of 
 careful reconnoitre a genuine expression was on 
 Taft's face, keen, furtive, triumphant ; it passed 
 unobserved. He whirled around again, leading 
 the way with the lantern, and it was with a per 
 fectly cloaked satisfaction that he began to observe 
 the young fellow's convulsive haste to depart as 
 they neared the exit from the tunnel, his flimsy 
 pretense of heed to his elder's advice, and finally 
 his heedlessness altogether, no longer able to main 
 tain attention or its semblance. 
 
 He was gone at last, and Taft, returning to his 
 prostrate comrade in the still, dismissed him from 
 his mind, and thenceforward from his life, with a
 
 270 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 single comment. " That drunken shoat hev got an 
 uncle in north Texas," he said, as he placed the 
 lantern on the cold brick-work of the dead and 
 fireless furnace. " I knowed that, so I fixed it so 
 ez he 'd light out fur them furrin parts d'rec'ly. 
 He ain't dawdlin', I 'm thinkiii'." 
 
 Then, as he addressed himself to removing the 
 gag and cutting the bonds of the elder distiller, 
 his brow darkened. 
 
 " That cuss Lar'bee's work, hey ? " he demanded 
 gruffly ; and as the liberated Copley gasped out an 
 assent Taft growled a deep oath, his face scarlet, 
 his hands trembling with rage, his anger unleashed, 
 and his whole nature for the nonce unmasked. 
 
 " That kerns from sparin' powder an' lead," 
 he declared vindictively. " Why n't ye or Sykes 
 shoot him ? " 
 
 " He war too suddint," gasped Copley. " Ye 
 never see a painter so suddint an' sharp." 
 
 " An' why n't ye be suddint, too ? " retorted Taft 
 aggressively. 
 
 Copley might have protested that in his own in 
 terest he had been as " suddint" as he could, and 
 had done his best. He evidently felt, however, 
 much in fault, and as, in silence, he ruefully rubbed 
 his numb limbs, just free from their ligatures, tin 
 gling painfully with the renewal of the circulation 
 of the blood, he gazed about, crestfallen and hum 
 bled, and even grief-stricken, at the scene of his 
 wonted labors. It was but faintly revealed by the 
 lantern on the masonry of the furnace, the dimly
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 271 
 
 white focus with divergent filaments of rays weav 
 ing only a tenuous web of light in the darkness 
 which encompassed all. The great burly forms of 
 tubs and barrels were but vaguely glimpsed as 
 brownish suggestions in the blackness ; a yellow 
 gleam from the copper still gave the effect of an 
 independent illumination rather than the resources 
 of reflection, so dull and unresponsive was all else 
 upon which the lantern cast its glimmer. Taft sat, 
 according to his habit, upon the side of a barrel, 
 his legs crossed, his elbow on one knee, his head 
 bowed upon his hand, his big hat intercepting all 
 view of his face. Copley gave a long sigh, as his 
 spiritless glance noted the dejection of his friend ; 
 but his grooved and wrinkled face seemed as in 
 capable of expressiveness as before, and, with its 
 tanned tints and blunt, ill-cut features, resembled 
 some unskillful carving in wood or a root. His 
 thoughts swerved presently, almost with the mo 
 ment of re-attaining his liberty, from the immediate 
 disaster to the details of his drudgery which so 
 habitually occupied his every waking faculty. 
 
 "That thar mash must be plumb ripe by this 
 time," he remarked, his eyes fixed upon a spot in 
 the darkness where presumably the tub in question 
 was situated. " 'T war nigh ripe whenst Lar'bee 
 jumped up demented, it 'peared like, an' tuk arter 
 we-uns." 
 
 Taft lifted a red face and a scowling brow. 
 With an air of reckless desperation he strode to 
 the tub, and the next moment Copley heard the
 
 272 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 splash as the contents were poured out down the 
 shaft. 
 
 " Laws-a-massy, 'Renzo ! " with the decisive ring 
 of anger in his voice and all the arrogations of the 
 expert, " why n't ye let me examinate it ? Ye ain't 
 got my 'speriunce ; ye ain't ekal ter jedge like me. 
 Why n't ye " - 
 
 " Ye miser'ble mole ! " Taft retorted angrily. 
 " Ye may be a jedge o' fermentin' an' stillin' an' 
 sech like, but ye hev got powerful leetle gumption 
 'bout'n the signs o' the times. Thar ye sit, a-yawpin' 
 away 'bout yer mash, ripe or raw, an' I 'm lookin' 
 fur the shootin' irons o' the marshal's men under 
 my nose every time I turn my head." 
 
 He suited the action to the word at the moment, 
 looking down with a sudden squint which gave a 
 frightfully realistic suggestion of the muzzle of a 
 weapon held at his very teeth. 
 
 " The thing 's busted ! " Taft cried desperately. 
 *' It 's done ! Kin ye onderstan' that ? We-uns 
 hev got ter the jumpin'-off place ! " 
 
 The bewildered Copley looked vaguely at the 
 verge of the deep shaft, perilously near. 
 
 " That Lar'bee 's loose now, full o' gredges fur 
 bein' helt hyar," Taft continued. " We-uns 
 oughter shot him, or let him shoot himself. An' 
 the dep'ty sher'ff's on his track, 'lowin' ez Es- 
 pey be Lar'bee an' s'picionin' moonshinin'. The 
 dep'ty sher'ff ain't got nuthin' ter do with sech 
 ez moonshinin' hisse'f, but he air tryin' ter find 
 Lar'bee, an' settle his gredges with him ; so he '11
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 273 
 
 gin the revenue dogs the word 'bout Lar'bee 
 an' distillin', an' whenst Lar'bee 's tuk he '11 take 
 a heap o' pleasure in guidin' 'em hyar, I'll be 
 bound. He mought even turn informer hisse'f, ter 
 git even." 
 
 He sunk down suddenly on the barrel. 
 
 " It 's powerful hard on me ! " he cried. " I hev 
 treated them boys like they war my own sons." 
 He had forgotten, in this arrogation of age and pa 
 ternal feeling, his recent youthfulness of matrimo 
 nial pretensions. " I hev tuk 'em in," - he did not 
 say in what sense, " an' divided fair with 'em ; 
 an' they hev gotten mo' money out'n me than they 'd 
 ever elsewise view in thar whole lifetime. An' I 
 hev been keerf ul an' kep' the place secret an' quiet. 
 I hev tuk good heed ter all p'ints. An' we-uns 
 mought hev gone on peaceful an' convenient till the 
 crack o' doom, ef it hed n't been fur them. Oh, 
 thar never war sech a place ! " He looked round 
 with the eyes of gloating admiration on the grue 
 some, shadowy den about him, so singularly suited 
 to his vocation. " An' even the danger 'bout'n the 
 hotel is done with, an' the Ian' ' percessioned by 
 now, I reckon, an' thar won't be no mo' packs o' 
 strangers in the Cove ; an' yit an' yit all fur 
 iiuthin' ! " 
 
 He took off his hat, and rubbed his corrugated 
 brow with his hand with a gesture of desperation. 
 
 It is a singular trait of what might perhaps be 
 called sentimental economy that every individual 
 in this world should be the object of the hero wor-
 
 274 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ship of some other. It may be submitted that there 
 are no conditions so sterile as to induce a dearth of 
 this perfectly disinterested, unrewarded admiration 
 and acceptation of some embodied ideal. It is fa 
 miliar enough in the higher walks of life and with 
 worthy objects. But there may be a champion 
 among beggars. It is a potent agent. Its pur 
 blind flatteries have advanced many a dullard to a 
 foremost place. The plainest face has some dev 
 otee of its beauty ; and even the most unpromising 
 infant is a miracle of grace and genius to a doting 
 grandmother. Hardly a hero of the world's history 
 is more dignified on his elevated plane than was 
 Lorenzo Taft in the eyes of his humble coadjutor. 
 His wiliness was wisdom ; his dictatorial aggressive 
 ness, the preeminence of a natural captaincy ; his 
 self-seeking a cogent prudence ; and his natural 
 courage with which, indeed, he was well endowed 
 the finest flower of the extravaganza of valor. 
 
 Copley looked at him now with the respectful 
 sympathy which one might well feel in witnessing 
 the fall of a very great man. He scarcely remem 
 bered his own interests, inextricably involved. 
 Every inflection of the mellow, sonorous voice 
 raised to a declamatory pitch found a vibrating ac 
 quiescence in chords of responsive emotion. Every 
 unconscious gesture of the massive and imposing 
 figure as histrionically appropriate as if ac 
 quired by labor and tuition, since it was indeed 
 the nature that art simulates was marked with 
 appreciative eyes. A rat in a trap is hardly es-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 275 
 
 teemed a fit object for sympathy by civilized com 
 munities, but consider the aspect and magnitude 
 of the catastrophe to his friends and neighbors, 
 consider the emotional melodrama within the small 
 circuit of the wires ! 
 
 " Don't take it so tur'ble hard, 'Renzo," expostu 
 lated Copley, still seated on the floor. 
 
 For Taft was standing motionless, his eyes star 
 ing and fixed, his hat far back on his head, expos 
 ing his set, drawn face with its teeth hard clenched, 
 one hand mechanically clutching his flowing yellow 
 beard, the other continually closing and unclosing 
 on the handle of a pistol which he had half drawn 
 from his pocket, a habit of his in moments of 
 mental perplexity, as if he instinctively appealed 
 to this summary arbiter to decide on questions far 
 enough removed from its jurisdiction. 
 
 " Don't be so tur'ble desolated ; some way out'n 
 it, sure ez ye air born," urged Copley in a consola 
 tory wheeze. 
 
 The sound of his voice seemed to rouse Taft. 
 He caught himself with a start and turned hastily 
 away, looking about as if in search of something. 
 He took the lantern presently to aid him in this, 
 and when it came back, glimmering through the 
 dusk, he carried a box of tools in the other hand. 
 
 " Thar 's one way out'n it, sure," he said in a 
 muffled, changed voice, " though it 's gone powerful 
 hard with me ter git my own cornsent ter take it." 
 
 He placed the lantern upon the furnace, and, as 
 he went vigorously to work, the astounded Copley,
 
 276 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 still upon the ground, began to perceive that he 
 was taking the apparatus carefully apart; he was 
 disconnecting the worm from the neck, when his 
 amazed coadjutor found his voice. 
 
 " Hold on, 'Renzo," he remonstrated ; " ye ain't 
 a-goin' ter take the contraption down, surely " 
 
 "Ruther hev the revenuers do it?" said Taft, 
 showing his teeth in a sarcastic smile as he looked 
 up. " They '11 make wuss slarter with the worm 'n 
 I will." Then, pausing, with a frown of rancorous 
 reminiscence, " I hed a still o' bigger capacity 'n 
 this one over yander in Persimmon Cove, an' they 
 cut it up in slivers, an' the worm war lef ' in pieces 
 no longer 'n that," measuring with both hands, " an' 
 the furnace all tore up. I never seen sech a sight 
 ez whenst I croped back ter view the wreck. I 
 'lowed I 'd never git forehanded enough ter start 
 ter manufacture sperits agin in this worl'." 
 
 He stood idly gazing down these vistas of mem 
 ory grimly enough for a moment ; then, turning 
 back to the still, " I '11 make a try ter save the 
 property this time, so when the storm blows over we 
 kin git started agin another way an' another day. 
 I '11 fix it so ez when Lar'bee tells, his words will 
 be cast back in his teeth fit ter knock 'em all down 
 his own throat. He '11 be sorry enough, sure 's ye 
 air born. They '11 be hard swallowin'." 
 
 The natural fortitude of Taft's character, the 
 elastic quality of his strength, his big, bluff mental 
 methods, combined to support him in this ordeal 
 to a degree which contrasted advantageously with
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 277 
 
 the weak, almost supine grief that Copley mani 
 fested. Perhaps, too, Taft's dinner was a material 
 element which gave cohesion and decision to his 
 mental resolves. Now, Copley, half starved, ner 
 vous, wild with anxiety, dread for the future, regret 
 for the past, doubt of the present, would angrily 
 protest, even while he aided in dismantling the ap 
 paratus ; and then, after a word or two of argument, 
 would admit its necessity, its urgency, and again 
 lament it as futile. He almost wept when the ob 
 ject of his solicitude, which he had served as if it 
 were a fetich, was finally dismembered, and he 
 found only a partial consolation in being himself 
 permitted to pack it, secure from injury, in boxes 
 which Taft brought down from the store. This 
 scanty satisfaction was short-lived, for, despite his 
 objection, Taft poured out upon the ground the 
 liquor which remained after the shipment of the two 
 barrels to the cross-roads. The tubs were cut into 
 pieces in true " revenuer " fashion, the mash was 
 poured out, the furnace was demolished out of all 
 semblance to its former proportions and uses, before 
 Taft began to lay the train to blow the place up, 
 and thus effectually silence its testimony forever. 
 
 " S'pos'n' s'pos'n' " Copley shivered 
 "s'pos'n' somebody war in the Lost Time mine 
 down thar " 
 
 Taft paused, with a lot of tow in his hands which 
 he was arranging for a fuse ; he glanced around, 
 the lantern swinging on his arm, as if waiting for 
 the sequel to the unfinished sentence ; then, as
 
 278 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Copley remained vaguely staring as if at a vision 
 of possible laborers in the Lost Time mine, " Skeer 
 'em powerful, I reckon," he said casually, and bent 
 once more to his work. 
 
 " But but " Copley recommenced, in a tone so 
 urgent that Taft once more desisted to listen, with 
 an inquiring look on his half -turned face " but 
 but s'pos'n' the a 'splosion o' the powder 
 war war ter bring down the rocks an' the timbers 
 in some o' them tunnels an' open shafts, an' some 
 body war in thar, hey ? hey ? " with eager insist 
 ence. 
 
 " Shut 'em in thar fur good an' all, I reckon, 
 git buried a leetle before thar time, that 's all," 
 said Taft coolly, and went on with his work as 
 before. 
 
 Perhaps some vague premonition, perhaps an 
 intuition of subterranean proximity to an unsus 
 pected wanderer in the Lost Time mine, perhaps 
 only a morbid aversion to the whole project, induced 
 by the lack of that conscience-fortifying force, din 
 ner, actuated Copley, but for the third time he 
 sought to disaffect Taft's mind toward it. 
 
 " Mebbe somebody mought be passin' an' hear 
 the 'splosion ; mought n't they 'low 't war cur'us ? 
 What would they make of it ? " 
 
 Taft did not now pause in his work ; he answered 
 still bending down to the ground laying the train. 
 
 " Yearthquake," he said composedly, " or else 
 jes' some o' the rottin' timbers o' the mine settlin' 
 an' givin' way. Besides," he added, straightening
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 279 
 
 himself up, " nobody 's passin' at this time o' night, 
 nohow." 
 
 " Night ! " exclaimed Copley. " Is it night ? " 
 
 " Midnight," replied Taft laconically. 
 
 He stood silent, thinking, a moment, and resting 
 after the labor of cautiously adjusting the charges 
 of powder ; and then, so quiet it all was, not the 
 stir of a breath, not the whisper of a word, not the 
 silken rustle of a ribbon of flame in the demolished 
 furnace, he heard, what he had never before heard 
 so far as here in the still-room, the reiterated strokes 
 of a pick echoing down the tunnel, and cleaving the 
 ground with the regularity of a practiced workman. 
 He said not a word to Copley ; he walked along the 
 tunnel toward the sound, a chill thrill stealing over 
 him despite the fact that his temerity was a trifle 
 more pronounced than usual because he was about 
 to leave the place forever. The strokes continued, 
 now growing louder, now more muffled, always ac 
 curately timed ; and suddenly the faint clamors of 
 that high, queer, false-ringing voice that seemed to 
 seek out and shock every nerve within him. He 
 recoiled with fright and an unreasoning anger. He 
 turned himself about, and swiftly changed the posi 
 tion of a can filled with powder which was to aid in 
 the demolition of the place, arranging it in a niche 
 in the earth close to the wall whence the sound 
 came. 
 
 " I make ye my partin' compliments," he said, 
 with a sarcastic smile and a mocking wave of the 
 hand to the gruesome unknown. The next moment
 
 280 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 his expression changed to a frightened gravity, and 
 he ran through the black tunnel as if he consciously 
 had the devil at his heels, pausing not until he was 
 safe in the cellar beneath the store. 
 
 The paroxysm, if so it might be called, passed in 
 a moment, and he was laughing as he stood at 'the 
 aperture of the tunnel, holding the lantern, red- 
 faced and a trifle shamefaced, when Copley, left far 
 behind, came hobbling up slowly and painfully. 
 Taf t was quite restored ; it was with his own as 
 sured, definite manner and elastic stride that he 
 presently took his way along the tunnel again and 
 applied the match to the fuse. He evidently accom 
 plished his work thoroughly, for he had no doubts 
 of its efficacy when he returned and stood leaning 
 against a pile of boxes, waiting quite carelessly as 
 here and there tiny stellular lights sprang up along 
 that darksome way that was not wont to blossom out 
 such constellations. 
 
 Stars ? No ; lines of fire, vermicular, writhing, 
 growing, serpentine, swiftly gliding, armed with 
 venom, with destruction under their forked tongues ; 
 for suddenly a flare, a frightful clap as of thunder, 
 a wrench as if the foundations of the earth were 
 torn asunder, and the two men were thrown to the 
 ground and the lantern extinguished in the jar. 
 
 The reverberations were slow to die away ; only 
 gradually quiet came. A stillness ensued, stifling 
 with dust, and with such strong sense of alternation 
 with that moment of deafening detonation that the 
 pulses quivered with expectancy, and the slightest
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 281 
 
 movement set the nerves to jarring. Taft had 
 groped for a light, and as the faint coruscation of 
 a match, then the steadier gleam of the lantern, 
 pierced the darkness, the nearest results of the ex 
 plosion were open to view. The timbers roofing 
 the tunnel had been shaken down, and close at 
 hand masses of earth had fallen with them and lay 
 banked at the very door. If Taft had been warned 
 in a dream, he could hardly have made his defense 
 more perfect. He and his one trusted adherent 
 worked there the rest of the night. The old origi 
 nal timbers of the house, partly rotten and time- 
 stained, were replaced as formerly, leaving no trace 
 that there had ever been an entrance into the 
 abandoned mine ; and when at last Taft clam 
 bered through the aperture of the counter into the 
 store, he left the door broadly flaring after him. 
 
 "Trust Sis ter notice it," he remarked. 
 " She '11 git used ter it in ten minits, an' it '11 'pear 
 like she always knowed 't war thar." 
 
 The still was conveyed some miles away and 
 buried in a marked spot, and thus the business of 
 moonshining was abandoned at the moment when 
 the project of the summer hotel, from which it had 
 so much to fear, was pretermitted amidst its varied 
 entanglements, and the Cove, which certainly could 
 not have comfortably contained both, was left with 
 out either for the nonce.
 
 XV. 
 
 As Julia entered her father's house, quite fresh 
 and dry after the tumults of the storm, each of the 
 group gathered about the fireside was too insist 
 ently preoccupied at the moment to notice the dis 
 crepancy between her spotless attire and the aspects 
 of the weather, except indeed Luther. The details 
 of their attire she marked at once, and dimpled at 
 the sight. These rain-lashed victims of the proces 
 sioning had hustled themselves into their cast-off 
 gear ; and albeit the fashions of the day were not 
 exigent in the Cove, very forlorn appeared these 
 ancient garments, having long ago seen the best of 
 their never very good days. Cap'n Lucy's brown 
 coat was like a russet old crinkled leaf, as it clung, 
 out of shape and ruffled by unskillful folding, about 
 him ; Luther wore one of his own of former years, 
 far too small now for his burly shoulders that threat 
 ened to burst out of it at every seam, and his long 
 arms that protruded their blue shirt sleeves only 
 half covered from the elbow. He met her glance 
 with a resentful glare, as if he could imagine now 
 no cause for mirth, which was untimely in its best 
 estate. His Sunday coat graced the form of Jasper 
 Larrabee, who sat on the other side of the fire, and 
 who albeit not of the processioning party, had been
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 283 
 
 caught in the rain in coming hither. Although 
 as tall as Luther, he was much more slender, and 
 he seemed to have shrunk, somehow, in the ampli 
 tude of his host's big blue coat. He gave Julia 
 a formal greeting, and was apparently much per 
 turbed by the untoward state of mind in which he 
 found Cap'n Lucy. And indeed Cap'n Lucy's 
 face seemed to have adopted sundry wrinkles from 
 his coat, so old, so awry, so crinkled, so suggestive 
 of better days, had it suddenly become. Julia was 
 reminded all at once of the business interests at 
 stake. 
 
 " How did the percessionin' turn out, dad? " she 
 inquired, as she stood with her hand on the back of 
 a chair, and looked across the fire at him. 
 
 If any eyes might watch Fortune's wheel undis 
 mayed, whether it swing high or low, one might 
 deem them these surely, with perpetual summer 
 blooming there, as if there were no frosts, no 
 winter's chill, no waning of time or love or life. 
 What cared she for land or its lack ? 
 
 The forelegs of Cap'n Lucy's chair came to the 
 floor with an irascible thump. He turned and 
 surveyed the room ; then, looking at her, " Air yer 
 eyesight good ? " he demanded. 
 
 " Toler'ble," she admitted. 
 
 " D' ye see that thar contraption ? " he contin 
 ued, leaning forward, and pointing with great em- 
 pressement at a spinning-wheel in the corner. 
 
 " I see it," she said, meeting his keen return 
 glance.
 
 284 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " D' ye know what it 's made fur ? " he inquired, 
 dropping his voice, and with an air of being about 
 to impart valuable information. 
 
 " Fur spinnin','' she answered wonderingly. 
 
 " Oh, ye know, do ye ? Then mind it." 
 
 And thus he settled the woman question, in his 
 own house at least, and repudiated feminine interest 
 and inquisitiveness in his business affairs, and 
 spurned feminine consolation and rebuke as far as 
 he could, poor Cap'n Lucy ! 
 
 Larrabee had that sense of being ill at ease 
 which always characterizes a stranger whose un 
 happy privilege it is to assist at a family quarrel. 
 He was divided by the effort to look as if he un 
 derstood nothing of ill temper in the colloquy, 
 and the doubt as to whether he did not appear to 
 side with one or the other, to relish Julia's rel 
 egation to the spinning-wheel, or to resent Cap'n 
 Lucy's strong measures ; or perhaps he might seem 
 lightly scornful of both. 
 
 He gazed steadily out of the open door, where 
 a great lustrous copper-tinted sky glassed itself in 
 myriads of gleaming copper-tinted ponds made in 
 every depression by the recent rains ; between were ' 
 the purplish-black mountains cut sharply on the 
 horizon. He heard a mocking-bird singing, and 
 what a medley the frogs did pipe ! Then rushed 
 out into the midst the whir of Julia's spinning- 
 wheel, which made all other songs of the evening 
 only its incidental burden. She sat near the door, 
 her figure imposed upon those bright hues of sky
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 285 
 
 and water as if she were painted on some lustrous 
 metal. Their reflection was now and again on her 
 hair ; she might have seemed surrounded by some 
 glorious aureola. Not that he definitely discerned 
 this. He only felt that she was fairer than all 
 women else, and that the evening gleamed. The 
 bird's song struck some chord in his heart that 
 silently vibrated, and the whir of her wheel was 
 like a hymn of the fireside. He wished that he 
 had never left it for Taft and his gang, and the 
 hope of making money for a home of his own, since 
 his mother's hospitality had well-nigh left him 
 homeless. The thought roused him to a recollec 
 tion of his errand. 
 
 " I kem hyar ter git yer advices, Cap'n Lucy," 
 he began. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy turned upon him a silent but 
 snarling face. He needed all his " advices " for 
 himself. 
 
 " I ain't got nuthin' ter hide from you-uns," Lar- 
 rabee continued, after a pause for the expected re 
 ply. " Ye know all I do," a fleeting recollection 
 of the still came over him, " that I 'm able ter 
 tell," he added ; for the idea of betraying the se 
 crets involving Taft and the other moonshiners 
 had never entered his mind. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy's scornful chin was tossed upward. 
 
 " We-uns feel toler'ble compliminted," he averred, 
 " ter hev it 'lowed ez we-uns knows all you-uns do, 
 fur that 's a heap, ez ye air aimin' ter tell." 
 
 " I mean I went ter say, Cap'n Lucy "
 
 286 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Jasper Larrabee's words, in their haste, tripped 
 one over the other, as they sought to set their 
 meaning in better array. 
 
 " He jes' means, uncle Lucy, ez it ain't no new 
 thing," Adelicia interposed to expound, touched by 
 the anxious contrition of the younger man, who was 
 leaning eagerly forward, his elbow on his knee, 
 toward the elder, and to allay the contrariety of 
 spirit of " uncle Lucy." 
 
 " An' meddlin' ain't no new thing, nuther, with 
 you-uns, Ad'licia," snarled Cap'n Lucy, much 
 overwrought. " I wish ter Gawd, with all the 
 raisin' an' trainin' I hev hed ter gin ye, I could 
 hev larnt ye ter hold yer jaw wunst in a while 
 whenst desir'ble, an' show sech manners ez ez 
 T'bithy thar kin." He pointed at the cat on the 
 hearth, and gave a high, fleering laugh, in which 
 the sarcastic vexation overmastered every sugges 
 tion of mirth. 
 
 A slight movement of Tabitha's ears might have 
 intimated that she marked the mention of her name. 
 Otherwise she passed it with indifference. With 
 her skimpy, shabby attire, her fur seemed never 
 to flourish, her meek air of disaffection with the 
 ways of this world, her look of adverse criticism 
 as her yellow eyes followed the movements of the 
 family, her thankless but resigned reception of all 
 favors as being less than she had a right to expect, 
 her ladylike but persistent exactions of her prerog 
 atives, gave her, somehow, the style of a reduced 
 gentlewoman, and the quietude and gentle indiffer-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 287 
 
 ence and air of superiority of the manners on which 
 Cap'n Lucy had remarked were very genteel as 
 far as they went. 
 
 Adelicia seemed heedless of the mentor thus 
 pointed out. She noisily gathered up her work, 
 somewhat cumbrous of paraphernalia, since it con 
 sisted of a small cedar tub, a large wooden bowl, 
 and a heavy sack of the reddest of apples which 
 she was paring for drying, and carried it all around 
 the fireplace to seat herself between the two parties 
 to this controversy. * 
 
 " Now, uncle Lucy, ye jes' got ter gin Jasper yer 
 advices, an' holp him out'n whatever snap he hev 
 got inter." 
 
 Her deep gray eyes smiled upon the young man, 
 as the firelight flashed upon her glittering knife and 
 the red fruit in her hand, although her delicate 
 oval face was grave enough. Ever and again she 
 raised her head, as she worked, to toss back the 
 tendrils of her auburn hair which were prone to fall 
 forward as she bent over the task. There was a 
 moment's silence as Jasper vainly sought to collect 
 his ideas. 
 
 " Tell on, Jasper," she exhorted him. " I 'm by 
 ter pertect ye now. An' ennyhows, uncle Lucy's 
 bark is a long shakes wuss 'n his bite." 
 
 She smiled encouragingly upon the suppliant for 
 advice ; her own face was all unmarred by the per 
 ception that matters had gone much amiss with the 
 processioning of the land, for uncle Lucy was a 
 man often difficult to please, and sometimes only a
 
 288 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 crumple in his rose leaf was enough to make him 
 condemn the queen of flowers as a mere vegetable, 
 much overrated. The girl's aspect was all the 
 brighter as she wore a saffron-tinted calico blouse 
 and apron with her brown homespun skirt, and she 
 seemed, with her lighted gray eyes, her fair, color 
 less face, and her ruddy auburn hair, a property 
 of the genial firelight, flickering and flaring on the 
 bright spot of color which she made in the brown 
 shadows where she sat and pared the red apples. 
 She reverted in a moment to that proclivity to 
 argue with Cap'n Lucy which was so marked in 
 their conversation. 
 
 " An' who is the young men ter depend on in 
 thar troubles, uncle Lucy, ef not the old ones ? " 
 she demanded. 
 
 " On the young gals, 'pears like," promptly re 
 torted " uncle Lucy," pertinently and perversely. 
 
 Then he caught himself suddenly. In the im 
 possibility, under the circumstances, to concentrate 
 his mind exclusively on his own affairs, his interest 
 in correlated matters was reasserted. It occurred 
 to him that it behooved him to foster any predilec 
 tion that Adelicia might show for any personable 
 man other than the fugitive Espey. He could see 
 naught but perplexity and complication of many 
 sorts to ensue for 'himself and his household should 
 Espey return ; and although Cap'n Lucy selfishly 
 hoped and believed that this was, in the nature of 
 things, impossible, still he had reluctantly learned 
 by bitter experience the fallibility of his own judg-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 289 
 
 merit. It seemed to him a flagrant instance of in 
 constancy on Adelicia's part, but Cap'n Lucy gave 
 that no heed. Few men truly resent a woman's 
 cruelty to another man. Adelicia might have 
 brought all the youth in the county to despair, for 
 all hard-hearted Cap'n Lucy would have cared. 
 And thus her appeal for Jasper Larrabee was not 
 altogether disregarded. 
 
 " Goin' ter set thar an' chaw on it all day, 
 Jasper ? " he demanded acridly. " Why n't ye spit 
 it out?" 
 
 " Why," said Larrabee, " it 's 'bout this hyar 
 Jack Espey." 
 
 The apple dropped from Adelicia's hand, and 
 rolled unheeded across the hearth ; the spinning- 
 wheel was suddenly silent, and Julia, all glorified in 
 the deeply yellow glare about her, sat holding it 
 still with one hand on its rim. Cap'n Lucy's head 
 was canted to one side, as if he were prepared to 
 deliberate impartially on some difficult proposition. 
 
 " This Jack Espey, I met up with him at the 
 cross-roads store, an' struck up a likin' fur him, an' 
 brung him home an' tuk him in, an' he hev been 
 thar with me fur months an' months an' an' 
 he never tole me ez he hed enny cause ter shirk 
 the law." 
 
 " He war 'feared ter, I reckon, Jasper," said 
 Adelicia. 
 
 " He never meant no harm, Jasper," the silent 
 Julia broke in from where she sat in her dull red 
 dress against the tawnily gilded glories of the west 
 ern sky.
 
 290 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Beyond a mechanical " Hesh up, Ad'licia," Cap'n 
 Lucy gave them no heed, but Luther glanced 
 sharply from one to the other. 
 
 Jasper Larrabee replied in some sort : " Then 
 he never treated me with the same confidence I 
 done him. An', Cap'n Lucy," he continued, " ye 
 yerse'f seen the e-end o' it. He purtended ter the 
 sher'ff ter be me, an' tuk advantage o' my mother's 
 callin' him ' sonny,' an' wore my name, an' went 
 with 'em a-sarchin' fur hisse'f ; an' whenst he got 
 skeered, thinkin' ez they knowed him, he resisted 
 arrest, an' kem nigh ter takin' the off'cer's life, 
 whilst purtendin' ter be me, in my name ! " 
 
 " He never meant no harm," faltered Adelicia, 
 aghast at this showing against her absent lover. 
 
 " None in the worl' ; he never went ter harm 
 nuthin'," protested Julia's flutelike tones. 
 
 " Did ye kem hyar ter git my advices fur Jack 
 Espey ? " demanded Cap'n Lucy sourly. " He 
 needs 'em, I know, but " 
 
 " Naw, Cap'n Terns. I kem ter git 'em fur my- 
 se'f, fur I dunno which way ter turn. You-uns 
 hyar saw the e-end o' it, the night the dep'ty 
 kem a-sarchin' fur Jasper Lar'bee, who he 'lowed 
 he hed flung over the bluffs, an' I went along at 
 his summons, knowin' 't war Espey ez hed got 
 away from him, purtendin' ter be me." 
 
 Cap'n Lucy nodded. 
 
 " Now I have hearn that dep'ty air in the Cove 
 agin." 
 
 Cap'n Lucy remembered the dark, facetious,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 291 
 
 malicious face that the officer had borne as a spec 
 tator of the processioning of the land. He nodded 
 again. " I hev seen him hyar ter-day." 
 
 " Ef I war knowed ter him ez Lar'bee, whenst 
 he finds out 't war Espey ez escaped that night, I 
 mought be 'rested fur harborin' a fugitive, ez holpin' 
 out the murder arter the f ac' an' an' my mother 
 Espey gin me no chance, no ch'ice ! Would n't 
 ye 'low ez ennybody ennybody would hev tole 
 me that, Cap'n Lucy, ter gin me the ch'ice o' dan- 
 gerin' myse'f afore he tuk so much from me an' 
 mine ? " 
 
 Cap'n Lucy changed countenance. This was a 
 new view of the matter. He had not judged from 
 Larrabee's standpoint ; for he himself had had full 
 knowledge of the circumstances and the fact that 
 they were withheld from Espey's entertainer. This 
 was made suddenly manifest. 
 
 " Why, Jasper," expostulated Adelicia, her eyes 
 full of tears, her vibrant tones tremulous with emo 
 tion, " he 'lowed ter we-uns ez he war sure the man 
 would n't die o' the gunshot wound, bein' powerful 
 big an' hearty ; but he tuk out an' run, bein' tur- 
 r'ble 'feared o' the law, and arrest an' lyin' in jail 
 fur a long time, waitin', an' uncle Lucy said " 
 
 She paused suddenly, for Jasper Larrabee had 
 leaned forward in his chair, scanning the faces 
 about him with a blank amazement so significant 
 that it palsied the words on her tongue. 
 
 "Espey tole you-uns! An' Espey tole yer 
 uncle Lucy ! Why, then ye all knowed him ter
 
 292 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 be a runaway, an' ye knowed ez he war a-playin' 
 his deceits on nobody but me an' my mother ez hed 
 got him quartered on us, an' mebbe war liable ter 
 the law fur it." 
 
 Adelicia, trembling, leaned back in her chair. 
 Cap'n Lucy cast an infuriated glance upon her, 
 and then, with a hasty, nervous hand, rubbed his 
 brow back and forth, as if to stimulate his brain 
 that offered no solution of the difficulty. Jasper 
 Larrabee still sat leaning forward, his clear-cut face 
 full of keen thought, a flush on his pale cheek, a 
 fire kindling in his brown eyes, and a sarcastic 
 smile curving his angry lips. 
 
 " My Gawd ! " he exclaimed, " it is a cur'ous 
 thing ez my mother ain't got a frien' in this worl' ! 
 She says she don't work fur thanks, an' I '11 take 
 my livin' oath she don't git 'em. That thar door 
 o' the widder's cabin on the Notch hev stood open 
 ter the frien'less day an' night since I kin remem 
 ber. Her table 's spread for the hongry. Her 
 h'a'th 's the home o' them ez hev no welcome else- 
 wise an' elsewhere. An' her nigh neighbor an' 
 old frien' sees a s'pected murderer quarter himself 
 thar, an' bring s'picion an' trouble ennyhow, an' 
 danger mebbe, on her an' hern. Ye mought hev 
 advised Espey ter gin her her ch'ice, or leave. Ye 
 mought hev done ez much ez that ! My mother 's 
 a old 'oman ; an' she 's a proud 'oman, though ye 
 mought n't think it, an' the bare idee o' sech talk 
 ez that, of s'picion, an' arrest, an' jail, it 
 would kill her ! it would kill her ! "
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 293 
 
 Cap'n Lucy sat almost stunned, as under an 
 arraignment. He pulled mechanically at his pipe, 
 but his head was sunk on his breast, and his face 
 was gray and set. The circumstances so graphic 
 ally placed before him seemed to have no relation 
 to those of his recollection ; they wore a new guise. 
 He had known all his life instances of collision in 
 which powder and lead had played more or less a 
 tragic part ; but the role of the law had always 
 been subsidiary and inadequate in the background 
 of the scene, sometimes represented only by an out 
 witted officer, and the jollity of details of hair 
 breadth escapes. This construction of crime was 
 beyond his purview of facts. He did not know, 
 or he did not remember, that aught that others 
 than the principal could do subsequent to a crime 
 might render them liable as accessory after the fact. 
 Espey had, in a fight, shot his antagonist, 
 such things were of frequent occurrence in Cap'n 
 Lucy's memory. He never expected to see or to 
 hear of the beagles of the law on the trail of the 
 fugitive ; his care, and his only care, was to prevent 
 his niece from marrying an expatriated man while 
 expatriated. 
 
 He thought now with a grievous sense of fault 
 of old " Widder Lar'bee," her softness, her 
 kindness, her life of care for others ; and then he 
 thought of Rodolphus Ross and his crude brutality, 
 his imperviousness to any sanctions, his rough inter 
 pretation of fun, his eagerness to shield his own 
 lapses of official vigilance, his grudges against the
 
 294 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 supposed Larrabee, and his threats. What mis 
 chief might a chance word work ! 
 
 The dusky red of the last of the evening glow 
 was creeping across the floor. All the metallic 
 yellow glare was tarnished in the sky. Instead 
 were strata of vaporous gray and slate tints alter 
 nating with lines of many-hued crimson, graduated 
 till the ethereal hue of faintest rose ended the 
 ascending scale of color. Still the frogs chorused 
 and still the bird sang, but shadows had fallen, 
 and they were not all of the night. Something of 
 melancholy intimations drew his eyes to the purple 
 heights without as Jasper Larrabee spoke. 
 
 " Waal, I 'm her friend, ef she ain't got nare 
 nother." And then, as if he felt he were arrogat 
 ing unduly to his purpose, " An' I s'pose I 'm a 
 friend o' my own, too, an' I know / ain't got nare 
 nother. I kem hyar ter-night fur yer advices, 
 Cap'n Terns ; but ez ye don't 'pear ter have none 
 ter gimme, I b'lieve I '11 take my own. I '11 settle 
 this thing for myse'f . I '11 find Jack Espey ! I '11 
 track him out. I '11 run him down. I '11 arrest 
 him myse'f, an' I '11 deliver him ter the law. An' 
 let the door o' the jail that he opened fur me be 
 shut an' barred on him ! " There was a concen 
 trated fury in his face as he said this. " I won't 
 hide no mo' like a beast o' the yearth in a den in 
 the ground, consortin' with wuss 'n wolves an' bar 
 an' painters. I won't skulk homeless like a harnt 
 no mo' through the woods. I won't shirk the sher'ff 
 no mo' fur Jack Espey's crimes, an' 'kase I done
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 295 
 
 him nuthin' but good an' kindness ! I '11 find him, 
 the yearth can't kiver him so I can't find him, 
 an' I '11 deliver him ter the law ! " 
 
 He stood for one moment more, and then he 
 strode across the room to the door, his shadow blot 
 ting out the last red light of the day, leaving the 
 circle about the fire gazing wistfully and aggrieved 
 after him, except Luther, who was picking up the 
 borrowed coat which Larrabee had tossed aside as 
 he passed. 
 
 Outside the night had fallen suddenly. The 
 west was clouded, despite the lingering red strata, 
 and the twilight curtailed. He looked through 
 purple tissues of mists that appeared to have the 
 consistency of a veil, to where yellow lights already 
 gleamed through the shadows. They came from the 
 shanties of the workmen beneath the cliffs, on which 
 the ruins of the hotel had at last ceased to smoke. 
 He hardly knew whither to turn. What pressure 
 for explanations, what unbearable inquisitive in 
 sistence, would meet him at home, where Henrietta 
 Timson reigned in the stead of his mother, he could 
 well forecast ; to venture near the Lost Time mine, 
 within reach of Taft, was, he knew, as much as 
 his life was worth. He hesitated now and again, 
 as he went aimlessly up the road ; regretting his 
 outbreak at the Terns cabin ; coveting its shelter, 
 its fireside, the companionship of the home group ; 
 half minded to return thither ; but resentment 
 because of their half-hearted friendship, as he 
 deemed it, pride and anger and shame, conspired
 
 296 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 to withhold him. Once again, as he ascended the 
 mountain, he turned and looked down at the cluster 
 of orange-tinted lights from the workmen's shanties 
 that clung so close together in the depths of the 
 purple valley, and he hesitated anew. White mists 
 were abroad on their stealthy ways; a brooding 
 stillness held the clouds ; the mountains loomed 
 sombre, melancholy, against them, indistinguishable 
 and blent with them toward the west, save when 
 the far-away lightnings of the past storm fluctuated 
 through their dense gray folds, and showed the 
 differing immovable outline of the purple heights. 
 In the invisible pools below these transient flashes 
 were glassed, shining through the gloom. The re 
 flection of stars failed midway, because of the mist. 
 There were few as yet in the sky, but as he lifted 
 his eyes he beheld again, immeasurably splendid in 
 the purple dusk, that sudden kindling of ethereal, 
 palpitating, white fire which he had marked once 
 before, that new and supernal star, strange to all 
 familiar ways of night hitherto, shining serene, 
 aloof, infinitely fair above the melancholy piping 
 mountain wilds and the troublous toils of the world.
 
 XVI. 
 
 JASPER LAREABEE stood transfixed, gazing at 
 that tremulous, luminous astral presence with a 
 strange superstitious thrill at his heart. It hardly 
 seemed merely a star, so alien to his mind was its 
 aspect in the erst untenanted spaces whence it 
 blazed, so freighted with occult significance. Had 
 the moment been charged with some wonderful 
 apotheosis, some amplification of its pure white 
 lustre into the benignant splendors of a vision of 
 angels, the transformation could scarcely have ex 
 ceeded the capacities of that breathless, insistent 
 expectation which the ignorant mountaineer lifted 
 toward it. For his was a simple faith, and his 
 untaught mind had learned no doubts. And had 
 never these nights of ours communion with ce 
 lestial pursuivants? Did never the flutter of an 
 angel's wing illumine far perspectives that darkle 
 heavily over the earth? Was this rare fluid, 
 which we call the air, so dense ; were its sensitive 
 searching vibrations, known as waves of light and 
 sound, so dull, that it should feel naught, reveal 
 naught, when the angel of the Lord flashed through 
 the stars and the wind, through blossoming woods 
 or bleak snows of deserts, and into the haunts and 
 the homes of men ?
 
 298 HIS VANISHED STAE. 
 
 So many had come ! He did not know that 
 they were alien to the nineteenth century, and 
 that the most spiritual-minded of to-day would 
 account for their sudden vision as from prosaic 
 natural causes, as mental aberration, or the dis 
 tortions of a diseased fancy, or the meaningless 
 phantasmagoria of somnolent cerebration. To him 
 it seemed that they had been with man from the 
 very beginning ; and why should their presence 
 here be stranger than his own ? Their very num 
 bers served to coerce credibility. So many had 
 come ! To kings, to wanderers in the wilderness, 
 to prophets, to shepherds, in dreams and in the 
 broad daylight, they came : to stand with a gleam 
 ing sword before the gates of Paradise, and to 
 sing in the starry advent of a new day, On earth 
 peace, good will toward men ; to bring the immor 
 tal lilies of the Annunciation, and to tread the 
 ways of the fiery furnace ; to touch the bursting- 
 bonds of saints in prison, and to roll away the 
 stone from the sepulchre of all the world ; to min 
 ister to the Christ alike in the shadows of Geth- 
 semane and amongst the splendors of the Mount of 
 the Transfiguratipn ! 
 
 Larrabee was trembling in every limb, as the 
 scenes trooped out before him in the vivid actual 
 ity of his recollections of the pages of the much- 
 thumbed volume which he had left behind him 
 when he had fled from the still in the Lost Time 
 mine. He sank down upon the rocky verge of 
 the precipice, amongst the clinging verdure of its
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 299 
 
 jagged crevices. Some sweet-scented herb sent out 
 its delicate incense under the pressure of his hands. 
 A drowsy twitter of half-awakened nestlings came 
 from the feathery boughs of a cedar-tree that a 
 niche in the cliff hard by half . nourished, half 
 starved. The melancholy antiphony of the voices 
 of the wilderness rose and fell in alternating 
 strains, and at long intervals in a vague undis 
 criminated susurrus the night seemed to sigh. 
 
 He heard naught ; he heeded naught. His 
 unwinking gaze was fixed upon the wondrous star 
 in the heavens, with that thronging association of 
 angelic ministrants so definitely in his mind that he 
 might have thought to see an amaranthine crown 
 expanding from the rayonnant sidereal points, or 
 the outline of a nearing pinion stretched strongly 
 to cleave the ether. For so many had come ! 
 
 But no ! His imagination could compass no 
 such apotheosis. The star remained a star. The 
 exaltation of that moment of wild, vague, and 
 breathless expectation exhaled slowly. A poi 
 gnant sense of loss succeeded it. The prosaic 
 details of the actual outer life pressed once more 
 on his realization. He looked about him on the 
 sombre wilderness, the black surly mountains, the 
 itinerant mists, heedless whither, the steely glim 
 mer here and there of the ponds where the water 
 made shift to catch the reflection of the sky amidst 
 the dun shadows, and sighed drearily with the 
 sighing night. 
 
 He was penniless, shelterless, his life at the
 
 300 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 mercy of any chance that might favor his crafty 
 enemy, his confidence betrayed by the fugitive 
 whom he had succored, his liberty endangered, 
 already a criminal in the eyes of the law, an 
 outcast, in truth, within a league of his home. 
 From the nullity of the begloomed landscape the 
 glance naturally rebounded, and the very obscura 
 tion of the earth lent- glister and definiteness to 
 the wonderful precision of the march of the con 
 stellations, as, phalanx after phalanx, they de 
 ployed, each in its allotted space and sequence, 
 toward the west. And again his eyes dwelt upon 
 that new splendor in the midst of them. How 
 strange that it should suddenly blossom whitely 
 forth among these old, old stars that had lighted 
 the bosky ways of the garden of Eden ! How 
 strange that the sight of it should be vouchsafed 
 to him and why ! 
 
 His pulses were tumultuously astir. All at 
 once the thought that had been slowly framing 
 itself in his mind took definite form. He won 
 dered if it could be a sign for him, and of what ! 
 
 In the arrogations of poor humanity of the 
 higher things, in the infinite breadth of the claim 
 of an immortal soul, vast incongruities meet. The 
 extreme might seem reached in the ignorant moun 
 taineer, the moonshiner obnoxious to the law, the 
 poverty-stricken laborer, seeing with the wild 
 preemptions of fancy this star, all newly and mi 
 raculously alight in the sky, as charged with some 
 mysterious relation to his infinitesimally petty and 
 
 V
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 301 
 
 restricted life. But once admit the idea of an 
 immortal spirit, heir of all knowledge, made a 
 little lower than the angels, to be crowned with 
 glory and honor, the climax of development, and 
 even the splendors of the star are as naught. 
 
 Larrabee had no cultivated sense of comparison. 
 His tenacious nature laid hold upon the idea of an 
 intimate personal intention, a sign in the heavens, 
 with a blunt and stalwart appropriation. 
 
 He rose swiftly to his feet. So different a spirit 
 animated him that it seemed a different path from 
 that which he had trod as he had plodded slowly 
 up the mountain, with hesitating steps and frequent 
 uncertain pauses. Now he went deftly down the 
 rugged and far darker way, brushing amongst 
 bushes and vines, and be-showered with the per 
 fumed drops that his hasty transit shook from their 
 boughs ; swiftly slipping through the shifting mists 
 that now hid the sky, and again revealed the glister 
 of that great star amidst a myriad others at the 
 vanishing point of a perspective of seemingly pre 
 cipitous white ascents, as the uncertain light cleft 
 the glimmering vapors. He looked up to it, as it 
 were, through a defile between these impalpable 
 white cliffs, from the dark abysses of the night ; 
 and then the gauzy medium interposed, and with 
 out the faint light of the stars the night was black 
 again. His pace did not slacken. He went for 
 ward as confidently in the darkness as if he were 
 led by the definite capacity of sight, trusting to that 
 instinct of woodcraft almost as keen as sense itself.
 
 302 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Sometimes, indeed, his foot struck against a branch, 
 torn by the wind from the trees and left to wither 
 in the rugged path ; or the splash of a pool beneath 
 his inadvertent step broke the silence of his journey, 
 as these unaccustomed incidents of the way asserted 
 their presence as obstacles. He never hesitated, 
 nor doubted, nor deviated. He seemed led through 
 the darkness by his will. He was aware in some 
 mysterious sort of the looming propinquity of great 
 trees or the locality of jagged rocks ; he avoided the 
 verge of cliffs and abysses with that keen, accurate 
 discernment of an unascertained faculty, as a som 
 nambulist might have done. As far as his recognized 
 intelligence was concerned, he was down in the 
 Cove before he knew it, for the way was still slop 
 ing, the footing rocky and uneven. A long slant 
 ing burnished gleam of orange light appearing sud 
 denly before him, revealing the white mists, and 
 making the darkness a definite visible blackness 
 rather than merely charged with a sense of sightless 
 ness, he deemed only one of those transient lines 
 of lightning reflected in the temporary ponds that 
 he had marked earlier in the evening. It did not 
 flicker, however, and die away. As he stared for 
 ward, he perceived, beyond a darkly lustrous inter 
 val, a parallel line of yellow brilliance, another, 
 and still another ; and he became aware that he was 
 amongst the workmen's shanties, the lights of which 
 were mirrored in the water. Presently illusory 
 shimmering squares were visible in the mists which 
 marked the open doors. A croaking frog by the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 303 
 
 waterside ceased suddenly, as, with more decided 
 step, Larrabee skirted the pool and approached. 
 He felt rather than saw the shadowy creature's leap 
 from before his foot, again an elastic spring along 
 the margin, and a splash as the frog jumped into 
 the water, and the long lines of gilded light were 
 broken into a thousand concentric shoaling curves. 
 Voices sounded close at hand, and then the whole 
 little settlement became vaguely visible, the cab 
 ins further apart than they had seemed at the dis 
 tance ; a banjo was strumming at the most remote, 
 and as Larrabee walked up to the nearest, boldly, 
 in the avenue of light that the open door blazed out 
 in the darkness, he saw within the man whom he 
 sought, bending his frowning brow over a paper in 
 his hand. In the other hand Kenniston held a cigar, 
 which at long intervals he put between his lips ; 
 then he pulled energetically at it as if merely to 
 keep it alight, and with no definite experience or 
 expectation of nicotian solace. The county sur 
 veyor, on the contrary, on the other side of the 
 table, puffed his pipe systematically, his eyes half 
 closed, his grizzled bearded face showing in repose 
 amongst the wreaths of smoke, his conscience dis 
 charged of every detail of the great science of men 
 suration which he sought to apply to the various 
 parcels of land owned or claimed by his fellow-man. 
 He had answered so much at random the occasional 
 remarks of his host on the subject of the proces 
 sioning that it became very apparent to Kenniston 
 that he did not propose to work at his vocation out
 
 304 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 of office hours, as it were. From the consideration 
 of futility as well as decorum, Kenniston had re 
 lapsed into silently comparing the calls of the deed 
 with the notes he had made of the day's work, and 
 only unconsciously did an interjection of irritation 
 and disgust escape him. 
 
 " I ain't responsible for any disputed p'int, Mr. 
 Kenniston," said the surveyor, sibilantly sucking 
 his pipestem, his eyes quite closed, his feet upon 
 the fender of the little stove. " Ye kin hev a jury 
 o' good and lawful men ter examinate an' decide 
 upon it ; my business is ter run the line 'cordin' 
 ter the calls an' the compass. That 's all ! " 
 
 Kenniston looked up, a sarcastic comment in his 
 eyes ; the mere possibility of submitting the ques 
 tion of the boundary of his land to the wild will of 
 a jury of mountaineers, qualified by the surveyor, 
 according to the law of processioning land, and met 
 in those tangled precipitous woods to discriminate 
 in matters mathematical and to settle questions of 
 topographical fact, seemed to him so happy a trav 
 esty of the theory of law and justice that he could 
 not forbear a scornful smile at his own probable 
 plight when he should come forth from such unique 
 adjudication of his interests. 
 
 " There 's no disputed 'p'lntl " he said, laughing 
 satirically. " It 's the whole confounded line from 
 the Big Hollow Boulder to Wild Duck Falls ! " 
 
 " 'Cordin' ter the calls an' the compass," muttered 
 the surveyor, fast succumbing to the unholy fascina 
 tions of a dream in which he found that in seeking
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 305 
 
 to ascertain the area of a triangular body of land 
 he achieved the petrifying result of transforming it 
 to a square. Reason revolted ; he woke with a snort, 
 filliped off the ash from his pipe, adjusted himself 
 anew in his chair, looked very wide awake, to be 
 overtaken again by the same irreconcilable process 
 and result. 
 
 In the diversion of Kenniston's attention he had 
 lost the run of his ideas ; he paused, puffed his 
 cigar into a glow, pushed his chair slightly back 
 from the table, glanced with lowering disaffection 
 at the slumbering surveyor, and then mechanically 
 about him at his surroundings. 
 
 The house was the roughest of shells, and hardly 
 compact enough to withstand the floods of rain that 
 had descended upon it to-day. In one corner the 
 floor was still damp, the eaves outside dripped. Be 
 yond a cot, a table, and a few chairs there was no 
 furniture save Kenniston's valise, his gun in its 
 case, which was never opened, and a monkey stove, 
 an object of aversion to its aesthetic owner; for, 
 despite its utility, its outline and atmosphere were 
 a continual affront to him, and it suffered grossly 
 from the comparison with the great open fires of the 
 mountaineers' hearths, the incense of hickory and 
 ash and pine, the flash and flame and sparkle of 
 those humble illumined interiors. 
 
 The shadowy figure of a man standing in the 
 doorway Kenniston did not immediately notice. 
 Beyond a slight start, a mere matter of nerve (for 
 he could hardly be surprised by aught that the
 
 306 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 mountaineers could say or do), he did not betray 
 the unexpectedness of the apparition. He smoked 
 silently, eying the intruder without salutation, as 
 if he sought to shift the discourtesy of the lack of 
 formality upon one who merely paused at the door 
 of his domicile and surveyed its occupant ; it was 
 his rule not to encourage the mountaineers to come 
 about, and he felt at liberty, with so untutored a 
 folk, to depart from the decrees of decorum in such 
 small matters, which were, however, exigent even 
 with them. In this instance no offense seemed to 
 be taken, no intentional lack perceived. Larrabee 
 stood, his smiling dark eyes scanning Kenniston 
 with a steadiness which apparently had other actu 
 ation than mere curiosity, his pale clear-cut face, his 
 auburn hair, his alert strong pose, distinct in the 
 crude white light of the unshaded kerosene lamp. 
 Whether it were the natural commendation of a 
 face and figure regularly handsome by the line and 
 rule by which Kenniston was wont to apportion 
 beauty ; whether the exaltation of the discovery of 
 the star, the spiritual audacity of the arrogation 
 of a personal intimation in its manifestation, had 
 touched Larrabee's expression with something 
 strange, something aloof from the day, the time, 
 and the people, Kenniston's jaded interest was 
 stirred. 
 
 " Did you want to see me ? " he demanded, at 
 length. " Then come in." 
 
 Larrabee remained at the threshold, but he 
 leaned against the wall, his big brown hat on the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 307 
 
 back of his head, as it rested against the rich 
 veined amber and creamy tints of the yellow pine 
 wood. 
 
 " Air you-uns the stranger-man ez hev been 
 hyarabouts, buildin' the hotel an' sech?" he asked 
 slowly. 
 
 Kenniston's eye became intent, hardening as he 
 nodded. His thoughts flew instantly to that fair 
 edifice and the collapse of all his plans, with the 
 quick inference that here was information to come 
 touching the incendiary. He felt his blood leap ; 
 by his pulsing veins he knew how it was burning 
 into his face. He had that desire toward justice 
 which should animate every civilized man, but 
 although he sought to hold himself impartial, calm, 
 circumspect to receive what might be a false ac 
 cusation, it would have fared ill with Larrabee's 
 enemy had he an old score to settle thus. 
 
 As he remained silent Kenniston spoke, with a 
 view of urging forward the disclosure. " Have I 
 ever seen you here before ? " 
 
 Larrabee shook his head. " I hev never viewed 
 you-uns ez I knows on." Then, after a pause, 
 " Air you-uns a book-1'arned man ? " 
 
 " Reasonably so," Kenniston said, with a slight 
 laugh. He leaned his elbows on the table, hold 
 ing his chin in his hand, which was half obscured 
 by his full beard, and while he looked impatiently 
 at his visitor his white teeth gnawed his underlip. 
 
 Larrabee hesitated. " Hev ye met up with the 
 stars in yer readin' ? " he finally blurted out.
 
 308 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 A sudden look of blank disappointment crossed 
 Kenniston's face. 
 
 " Stars ! " he echoed in dismay. " Why, I 
 thought you had come to give me some informa 
 tion about the cur that set fire to my house." 
 
 (It was a different kind of brute, but the fact 
 of Bruin's agency was relegated to the state of 
 things not revealed, which we denominate mys 
 tery.) 
 
 It was Larrabee's turn for impatience, and an 
 affronted sense of interruption. 
 
 " I dunno nuthin' 'bout who burnt yer hotel " 
 He paused suddenly, the conviction all at once 
 fully fledged in his mind that it was the deed of 
 the moonshiners, to rid the Cove of its prospect of 
 troublesome invaders. The recollection of Espey's 
 threat rang in his ears as if the very vibrations 
 of the words were audible upon the air : " Burn 
 him out ! Burn his shanty every time he gits it 
 started ! " 
 
 Larrabee suffered the sense of a nervous shock, 
 so great was the revulsion from the subject that 
 had engrossed him ; for this reminiscence of all 
 things he had least expected to meet here. He 
 could hardly cope with it in the free outer air. It 
 belonged so essentially to that other life of his, 
 that underground world where he bore so different 
 an identity, that it seemed to have thoughts and 
 intentions and a conscience peculiar to itself. He 
 had realized the dangers of the isolation in which 
 he stood amongst those of his association, but he
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 309 
 
 had thought himself safe here. Kenniston knew 
 him neither by name nor face, and he was a 
 stranger to all the workmen ; since their advent 
 into the Cove he had been held a prisoner in the 
 Lost Time mine. Even a chance encounter with 
 Roclolphus Ross he did not dread, for the officer 
 had not been apprised of his identity on the night 
 he had summoned him to search for the escaped 
 Espey masquerading under the name of Larrabee. 
 The abrupt pause, the introverted look, the sud 
 den recollection advertised in unmistakable char 
 acters upon his unguarded face, did not escape 
 Kenniston's observation, now keen and all on the 
 alert. For his heart was in this reprisal. If he had 
 had naught to gain and much to risk, indeed much 
 of certain loss, he would have pursued this injury 
 to its ultimate and bitterest requital. All that was 
 manly in him his courage, his pugnacity, his te- 
 naciousness, his self-respect, his vehement, insistent, 
 vigorous personality, that could neither make nor 
 keep covenant with concession, compromise, or de 
 feat rose to the occasion. He had cursed in his 
 heart the lukewarmness of the authorities, who had 
 opined that the mountaineers were mighty rough 
 folks, mighty hard to catch, lived in a mighty diffi 
 cult country, and who had offered him the half- 
 veiled advice that they were mighty bad to run 
 against, in lieu of the formulated and disciplined 
 suspicions which he had expected, the canvassing of 
 possible " fire-bugs," involving as sequence war 
 rants for arrest, indictments, and other fierce and
 
 310 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 formidable engines of the law, set to work with 
 full intent and expectation. 
 
 Here was a clue, the first ; and fortunately it 
 had fallen into his own hands. However, it be 
 hooved him to be cautious, or the suggestion might 
 be of as little ultimate value as if it were already 
 given to the turbulent, ill-advised, precipitate dep 
 uty, or to his unsanguine, dubious, dilatory princi 
 pal, with his wise saws about the lack of prudence 
 involved in running against mountain folks, who 
 were mighty hard to catch in the wilds of their 
 difficult country. 
 
 Now and again the family of Cap'n Lucy had 
 had an intimation of how pleasant Mr. Kenniston 
 could be when he chose. It was reserved for Jasper 
 Larrabee to experience the fascination of the full 
 and ripened flavor, the bouquet, so to speak, of his 
 geniality and good will. A second rapid covert 
 survey from that altered point of view which one 
 is apt to adopt when a personal interest looms in 
 the background convinced Kenniston that his vis 
 itor was no fool. Although he intended to drop 
 the subject for the present, he did not quit it ab 
 ruptly. 
 
 " I was in hopes you could name some suspicious 
 characters, or had heard some threatening talk, 
 or" 
 
 Once more he saw from his visitor's face that, 
 inadvertently, he had again struck the nail on the 
 head. His secret self-applause aided his self-denial 
 in relinquishing so promising a line of investiga-
 
 SIS VANISHED STAR. 311 
 
 tion. The man must be made to talk freely, to dis 
 close ; his confidence must be secured. 
 
 " I have had heavy losses in this matter, and the 
 officers seem of mighty little account. Every now 
 and then I hope I '11 hear of something some other 
 way. I 'm afraid to build again unless I know the 
 fire-bug is somewhere else, or discover what I 've 
 done to set people against me" 
 
 Larrabee's face was at once softened and trou 
 bled. " Burn his shanty every time he gits it 
 started," quoth Espey. And he that would work 
 ill to one man would work ill to another : witness 
 his own plight. His conscience began to stir. If, 
 he thought, the whiskey tax were not in itself so 
 tyrannical, so impracticable and obnoxious a thing, 
 he might have admitted for the nonce that moon- 
 shining was in itself wrong. 
 
 Kenniston's eyes were studying his unconscious 
 countenance. " Well," he said suddenly, " since 
 it 's nothing about my affairs, what can I do for 
 you ? Won't you have a chair ? " 
 
 Larrabee shook his head silently. He stood for 
 a few moments undecided. It might seem that his 
 enthusiasm, so ruthlessly dragged down to earth, 
 might hardly make shift to rise again ; but it was 
 strong of wing, as behooves that ethereal essence, and 
 in his ignorant assumptions he thought that he had 
 seen a sign in the heavens, a sign for him. The 
 fervor of all that he had half doubting believed, and 
 half believing doubted, fired his pulses once more. 
 He cared naught for Espey and his troublous usur-
 
 312 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 pations, the officer of the law, the moonshiner and 
 his deadly feud, the incendiary, the necessity of heed 
 to his words. He cared for naught under the moon. 
 Once more his face had that illumined, exalted ex 
 pression. As he leaned suddenly forward, with a 
 keen anxiety, and said, " Air ye 'quainted with the 
 stars by name, bein' a book-1'arned man ? " Kennis- 
 ton had a swift doubt of his sanity. 
 
 " Yes," he replied. And after a pause he asked 
 the counter-question, " Are you interested in the 
 stars ? " 
 
 But Larrabee, still under the influence of the 
 strong excitement that possessed him, did not answer 
 directly. 
 
 " I kin read, but I hain't got but one book. The 
 teacher what 1'arned me ter read 'lowed ez the stars 
 air named ; they air numbered in a book. Hev ye 
 1'arned sech? " 
 
 " Oh yes ; I have studied astronomy," replied 
 Kenniston capably. " I know their names." 
 
 " I know them ; I dunno thar names," said Lar 
 rabee, making a definite distinction. " That 's the 
 reason I kem ter you-uns, hearin' ez ye air a book- 
 1'arned man." 
 
 He turned his head and looked out into the night 
 as he stood on the threshold. The mists had gone 
 their ways. The clouds were far in the west. Above 
 all, the clear, sombre field of the sky was thickly 
 bespangled with stars, chill, keenly glittering, for 
 below the night was very dark. 
 
 " Thar's a new one," he declared excitedly, " a
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 313 
 
 new one never viewed afore ! I seen it kindle up 
 a matter of three week ago, three week an' better, 
 an' it 's thar now ! " 
 
 Kenniston sat in silent amazement, looking stead 
 ily at him. 
 
 " Kem out ! " Larrabee insisted, in tones strangely 
 urgent. " Kem out an' see ! " 
 
 Some subtle monition apprised Kenniston that 
 there was something in the man's disclosure with 
 held ; that it was not merely to bring his book-learn 
 ing to bear upon the array of the stars that he was 
 asked to step out of his door at this hour of the 
 night. How often he had heard, as the climax of 
 a feud, of a man in these mountains being sum 
 moned on some pretext out of his door to meet a 
 murderous bullet fired by an enemy hidden in the 
 dark ! He was momentarily ashamed of this recol 
 lection as he glanced at the surveyor asleep close at 
 hand ; as he heard the rhythmic beat of feet on the 
 shaking, ill-laid floor, and the patting of hands as 
 some jovial young blade danced a " break-down " in 
 one of the workmen's shanties to the strumming of 
 the banjo, finding this far more congenial an oc 
 cupation than shoving the jack plane. 
 
 Nevertheless, he had enemies, virulent, unscrupu 
 lous, powerful, as his short stay here might seem to 
 attest, and what strange, fantastic vagary was this 
 touching a new star ! He would not refuse ; that 
 would impugn his courage even to himself, and he 
 held it dear ; and as he looked at Larrabee's face 
 with its ever-smiling eyes, despite the intimation of
 
 314 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 something withheld, of trafficking with a mere sub 
 terfuge, he doubted as causeless his prudence. More 
 over, this was a man of whom he must keep track, 
 of whom he must know more. He was looking 
 about the room as he rose. " Wait a minute," he 
 said. " I have a strong glass here that may be of 
 use." 
 
 The door of the maligned monkey stove standing 
 ajar emitted a ruddy glow of embers upon the yel 
 low pine walls of the room, and toned down the 
 white glare of the kerosene lamp. A deep, restful 
 red hue might have attracted the eye from the far 
 ther side amongst the shadows, as Kenniston tossed 
 a rug aside upon a chair to obscure a quick search 
 through his valise. A pernicious habit, that of 
 carrying his pistols at the bottom of his luggage, 
 amongst his clean shirts, and he promised himself 
 this should be the end of it. At the moment that 
 he thrust the revolver into his pistol-pocket he 
 picked up the field-glass from the cot. " Here it 
 is," he said, and he followed his guest out of the 
 door and into the dusky night. 
 
 It was still all vibrant with the twanging drone 
 of the cicada and the windy note of the booming 
 frogs. The air, damp and of clarified freshness, 
 was pervaded with indeterminate fragrance, the 
 blent perfume of some flower and the pungent aroma 
 of weed and shrub and the balsamic fir. A cluster 
 of great trees rose just outside of the little shell, 
 and though many a star shone down in the inter 
 stices of the black fibrous foliage, Larrabee led the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 315 
 
 way out beyond them and into an open space. It 
 was nearer the other cottages instead of farther 
 away, as Kenniston had half expected. The suspi 
 cion, the half-dormant fear, the doubt in his mind, 
 were giving place anew to his determination to keep 
 his hand on this man, to win his confidence or to 
 surprise his secret. All those genial arts of ingra- 
 tiation dt his command were once more brought 
 into play. It was he who introduced the subject 
 of their mission, as they paused on a slight eminence, 
 with a clear view of the great fields of heaven before 
 them. 
 
 " Now which is the star that you want to know 
 more about? " he demanded, lifting the glass with 
 a free gesture, and adjusting it to his eye. 
 
 "Don't ye see nuthin' oncommon?" the moun 
 taineer asked, in a tense voice. 
 
 The strained tone struck Kenniston's attention, 
 and he lowered the glass and looked through the 
 baffling darkness at his companion, whose form could 
 only be discriminated by some fine sense from the 
 surrounding darkness by an effect of solidity, given 
 one could hardly say how. 
 
 Kenniston, the glass swaying useless in his hand, 
 gazed upward once more. 
 
 "No, I can't say I do," he replied wonderingly. 
 
 Larrabee suddenly came up close to him, taking 
 him by the arm. 
 
 " Now, hyar, todes the east, an' yit a leetle todes 
 the north, sorter slanchwise todes Big Injun Mount 
 ing, setting a mite ter the west from that, an' plumb
 
 316 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 west from Chilhowee, a bright, bright star, with," 
 he added, in a surprised tone, as if he had not before 
 discerned this, " a sorter silver shine onto it." 
 
 Kenniston laughed slyly in his sleeve. One can 
 hardly better appreciate the immense distance that 
 mechanical appliance has brought man from his 
 normal state of natural, unassisted faculties than 
 in the effort to point out, with such accuracy as to 
 enable another to distinguish, an object in those 
 fair and foreign fields of heaven, by the unaided 
 means of the index finger. A suffusion of self- 
 gratulatory pride is apt to ever spread the conscious 
 ness, the unit assuming the credit of all that the 
 genius of invention has achieved in the generic 
 name of mankind. Kenniston had not even a 
 slight expectation of being able to distinguish the 
 particular star, but the affectation of effort, in his 
 own interests, in some sort constrained his will. 
 He looked about the skies with that vague sense 
 of recollection which animates one who turns the 
 leaves of a volume written in a half -forgotten lan 
 guage. He had not been the familiar of the stars. 
 His choicest ambitions had lifted him no further 
 than a reasonably safe height for an attic, or those 
 fantastic simulations of turrets, with which the new 
 architecture apes Jiaud passibus cequis the old. 
 He had naught in common with the full-pulsed 
 aspiring audacity of those architects of eld who 
 builded in the plain of Shinar ; his was but a low- 
 studded Babel. He had not cared for a higher 
 outlook, and his building had no definite designs
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 317 
 
 touching heaven. It had been so long since he 
 had regarded the upper atmosphere other than 
 barometrically that he hardly made shift to see the. 
 Swan arch her snowy neck from those great lakes 
 of ether, whose indented shores seemed marked 
 and foliage-fringed by the wooded summits of the 
 Great Smoky Mountains. The assertive brilliance 
 of Lyra he noted near the meridian, with the harp- 
 strings all vibrant, doubtless, with that music of the 
 spheres which we are told by the scientist is no 
 longer a mere figment of poesy. The Cor Caroli 
 gleamed pure and splendid amongst the mists of a 
 struggling recollection. And where was Scorpio? 
 how low in the sky, how far to the southwest, 
 how near to its setting ! Through a water-gap of 
 Chilhowee, cloven to the very heart of the range, 
 he marked the gleaming coils. Of strangely mel 
 ancholy intimations were the stars, seen so far 
 through the steep wooded defile, dark and rugged 
 on either hand ; but he only remembered the rela 
 tion of its early setting and the season, for it was 
 near the end of September. How little building 
 weather the year might spare him yet ! How 
 heavy the rains of to-day, and the west still har 
 bored portents! Unless he relinquished all and 
 left the field, baffled and beaten, he must have the 
 incendiary behind the bars. To jail a suspect, at 
 all events, would intimidate the lawless population, 
 and point the moral of " Hands off ! " 
 
 " I don't see it," he said, reverting to the prose 
 cution of his intention to win the mountaineer's
 
 318 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 secret information as to the origin of the fire. 
 " I 'm sorry I can't see it, Mr. Excuse me, 
 what did you say your name is ? " 
 
 His visitor had not said, but all thrown off his 
 guard the young man replied promptly, " Lar'bee, 
 Jasper Lar'bee. Ef ye look jes' a leetle ter the 
 right of that thar batch o' stars ez 'pears some 
 similar ter a kyart- wheel " He raised once more 
 the futile inefficiency of his index finger. 
 
 But Kenniston was not looking. This name, 
 he placed it at once. In the short interview which 
 he had had with the deputy sheriff touching the 
 incendiary, without whose apprehension he feared 
 to recommence the building, it had recurred re 
 peatedly to Rodolphus Ross's lips coupled with 
 many an imprecation. Kenniston had paid scant 
 heed at the time to the story of the search for Es- 
 pey, of the pretended arrest, of the escape of the 
 supposed Larrabee and the inference of some crime 
 which his flight fostered. It had all happened dur- 
 ring his absence from the Cove, and shortly before 
 the beginning of the building of the hotel. He 
 could not conceive of any reasons for connecting 
 one with the other ; but this man indubitably knew 
 something of the crime ; his long and mysterious 
 disappearance had baffled all the devices of the 
 officers, and surely it was a strange subterfuge 
 which had brought him hither. Strange to the 
 minds of others as well, for sundry figures were 
 detached now and again from the illumined thresh 
 olds near at hand ; presently the foreman had
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 319 
 
 joined the two, and several of the workmen ap 
 proached, all pausing at intervals and craning 
 their necks up toward the sky, having noticed the 
 intent scrutiny of it, and expectant of some lusus 
 naturae, comet, or aurora borealis, or other phe 
 nomenon, the observation of which might serve 
 to break the monotony. The resonant tone of the 
 banjo now and again sounded loud in the damp 
 air, as the musician who carried it under his arm 
 jostled against one of the other men. Their atti 
 tudes and faces expressed an alert curiosity, for 
 they were not altogether indistinguishable, the two 
 star-gazers having insensibly changed their posi 
 tions, and come within the line of light falling from 
 one of the open doors. 
 
 " Some ter the right o' that batch o' stars ez be 
 some similar ter a kyart-wheel," repeated Larrabee 
 urgently. 
 
 " I don't know which you mean," replied Kennis- 
 ton, drawing himself back to the subject with diffi 
 culty. 
 
 " Don't ye view one ez ye never viewed afore ? " 
 demanded Jasper breathlessly. " Ef ye know 'em, 
 ye air 'bleeged ter see that thar one air strange ! " 
 
 " Mr. Jackson," - Kenniston turned to the fore 
 man, "do you see anything unusual in that 
 sky?" 
 
 The foreman answered with a prompt and busi 
 ness-like negative, and then appealed in turn to 
 one of the workmen. None of them could per 
 ceive aught amiss, although they all turned about
 
 320 BIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 and critically surveyed the majesty of the heav 
 ens. 
 
 " It 's a new star," protested Larrabee, uncon 
 sciously adopting the scientific term of description. 
 "I seen it kindle up myself 'bout three weeks 
 ago." 
 
 There was an astounded silence ; then a resonance 
 broke out abruptly as the young musician smote his 
 bullet head with the banjo, apparently inadver 
 tently, but with the view of intimating to his fel 
 lows that all was not accurately adjusted in the 
 cranium of their queer visitor. 
 
 Kenniston hesitated for a moment. There lay in 
 his mind the residuum, so to speak, of an impres 
 sion that new stars or temporary stars are not of 
 infrequent occurrence in the economy of worlds, 
 rating time by the long astral lengths. He could 
 not say at once, such scant commerce he had had 
 with the stars of late years, to be sure ! His mind 
 had reverted instantly to the question upon what 
 pretext he should seek to detain the man. He only 
 saw rather than noted the workmen slowly turning 
 aside, the long lane of yellow light streaming through 
 the door, the lustrous mirror-like suggestions in the 
 darkness hard by where the pools lurked and the 
 frogs were still croaking, the outlines of the cluster 
 ing roofs of the other little buildings, shadowy in 
 the deeper shadow, the dense woods surrounding- 
 all, and above the great amphitheatre of the moun 
 tains on every side. The voice of the foreman re 
 called him :
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 321 
 
 " That 's a queer customer. First crank I 've 
 seen here." 
 
 " Where is he ? " cried Kenniston, with a start, 
 the freedom of the criticism notifying him of the 
 absence of its subject. " Stop him ! Call him ! 
 Hold on to him ! " 
 
 But the effort was vain. Larrabee had departed 
 as suddenly, as tracklessly, as if the night had swal 
 lowed him up.
 
 xvn. 
 
 IT was a buoyant, elated spirit that Jasper Lar- 
 rabee bore as he slipped swiftly away through the 
 darkness and the woods, unaware of the sudden 
 vehement search for him, unhearing the hue and 
 cry. He had put his discovery to the test, the 
 most searching that he could devise. And not the 
 man learned in letters, who even knew the stars by 
 name, not the clear-headed, prosperous, efficient 
 foreman, not the humbler handicraftsmen, could 
 see that gracious, splendid stellular presence still 
 shining, shining down into the wilderness, doubt 
 less with some message, some token, some personal 
 relation, that would be in due season made known. 
 He had no uncertainties ; he had said to himself 
 that if it were invisible to others he would accept 
 it as a revelation to himself. For had he not seen 
 it even as it first kindled in the blank spaces of the 
 midnight sky ? 
 
 He felt with a sort of surprise that his limbs 
 were trembling as he went, his breath was short ; 
 more than once he paused, with a reeling sense as 
 if he should fall, and he beheld the summit line 
 of demarkation where the dark woods touched the 
 clear sky describe a long curve upward, and once 
 more sink to its place. He had not known the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 323 
 
 physical exhaustion that ensues upon strong and 
 long-continued mental excitement. Beyond the 
 moment's impatient realization he gave it no heed. 
 He was glad, glad beyond all power of analysis, 
 expectant, breathless, his eyes continually fixed 
 upon the star, unmindful whither his failing feet 
 carried him. He passed without a thought the 
 door of the store of the Lost Time mine, from 
 which so lately he had escaped as it were with his 
 life in his hand. He might have seen, if he had 
 chosen, the twinkle of Cornelia Taft's fire through 
 the chinking, as she nodded on the hearth and 
 vainly waited for her father's return to supper. 
 He heard naught, no voice from the woods, no 
 stir of leaf, no sigh of wind, no lapsing of the 
 alien sheets of water, not even the full rush of the 
 stream from the portal of the Lost Time mine, 
 loud, sinister, seemingly charged with cavernous 
 echoes from those hidden haunted recesses whence 
 it came, wild, turbulent, with thrice its normal 
 volume hurling out into the black night. Only 
 once he paused. The unseen air and the invisible 
 moisture were at their jugglery again, weaving 
 from nothingness wondrous symmetries of scrolls 
 tenuous to the eye, marvelous winged suggestions 
 endowed with the faculty of flight and airy poise, 
 graces of fabric, tissues, fold on fold of impalpa 
 ble pearl-tinted consistencies ; and now a floating 
 film passed before the star, and again it shone out 
 more splendid still, and anon dimly through the 
 gathering haze, and so was lost to sight.
 
 324 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Larrabee stood for a time spellbound, still gaz 
 ing up into heaven. But winds were astir in the 
 region of the clouds. Heavy purple masses, with 
 here and there flocculent white drifts in their midst, 
 and showing lines of white at their verges, were 
 spreading over the sky ; the temperature had fallen 
 suddenly ; he was shivering. Vagrant gusts seemed 
 to issue from defiles of the mountain, and he heard 
 the awakening of the pines. Out of sight of the 
 star his flagging energies failed. The definite 
 realization of his fatigue, his hunger, his faintness, 
 pressed upon his aroused senses. He could hardly 
 support his tottering limbs to the door of the Lost 
 Time mine, and drag himself up on the rocks, out 
 of the reach of the water, to rest, as he waited till 
 the clouds should pass, till the sight of the star 
 should be renewed to his longing gaze. Even in 
 its eclipse, in a certain yearning sense of bereave 
 ment, in his disappointment, he had a patience and 
 calm acquiescence begotten of confidence. For he 
 should see it again. Was it not his own, his very 
 own, charged with some unimagined significance to 
 him ? He shifted his posture once, reckoning upon 
 its position in the sky, that it might not fail his 
 sight the moment the baffling clouds should with 
 draw. He was conscious of a high degree of hap 
 piness despite his tremulous thrills of suspense. 
 He gazed upward, as he reclined on the ledge 
 of rock, with smiling eyes and a heart full of 
 deep content. He had gone far enough within to 
 have an upward view through the jagged portal of
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 325 
 
 rough-hewn rocks. Beyond their edges the sky 
 seemed of lighter tint, so black it was within. He 
 could mark here how the clouds made sail, how 
 swiftly the wind sped them. He watched a section 
 of a branch close at hand sway in sight, and swing 
 back on the wind, and once more wave, nodding, 
 plumelike, into view. He heard the sharp bark of 
 a fox outside in the woods ; it roused far-away bay 
 ing of drowsy hounds, and again all was still, but 
 for the reverberation of the water loud against the 
 echoing: walls of the darksome place. The sound 
 
 O A 
 
 affected his nerves ; he was dizzy for a moment. 
 Then something cold, clammy, suddenly struck 
 him in the face. His heart seemed to stand still 
 with the recollection of the spectral terrors of the 
 place. The soft chill buffet came again and again, 
 and the air was vaguely fanned about his brow 
 before he recognized the noiseless flight of bats on 
 their way to the outer darkness. He lay back upon 
 the ledge, finding a solace in the mere posture of 
 rest in his extreme fatigue, and once more watched 
 the jagged black portal and the purple clouds with 
 their hoary drifts, as in endless unbroken folds 
 they rolled before the serene white splendors of 
 that wondrous star. Again and again he would 
 lift himself upon his elbow, fancying that the cloud 
 textures waxed thin, and that presently, when they 
 shoidd fall away from before it, he would behold 
 anew the sidereal incandescent glory that meant so 
 much, that should mean more to him. Not once 
 did his faith fail him. Not once did he doubt
 
 326 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 that the white fires of this star, which none else 
 could see, were miraculously kindled and charged 
 with some deep significance for him, with the 
 vouchsafed will of God. For were not stars mes 
 sengers in the olden time ? Had he not read of 
 one, supremely blessed and brilliant, which had led 
 men, the wisest men, to the cradled Christ? As 
 he lay back in the dense darkness, with the gather 
 ing clouds outside, and the air freighted with the 
 sense of black noiseless invisible wings of creatures 
 of ill favor and ill omen, he seemed to have a 
 vision of that guiding star, not a chill splendid 
 crystalline glitter like his own, high, high in the 
 sky, but low down in the dark east, and of a soft 
 supernal silver sheen in the purple shadowy mist 
 above the shadowy purple hills of Judea, that 
 stretched out in ever-lengthening perspectives, as 
 it fared on and slowly on its mystic way, for Beth 
 lehem might still be far to seek. 
 
 And suddenly, with a start, Larrabee became 
 aware that it was a real light at which he was 
 gazing far down in the Lost Time mine. He had 
 slept he knew not how long, nor in what danger, 
 for the lantern whose starry lustre shone so far in 
 the dark cavernous depths was swinging in the 
 hands of one of two men who must have passed him 
 as he lay dreaming and unconscious. He hardly 
 dared move at first, so far those slanting, divergent 
 rays extended from the white focus into the dark 
 ness. He lay still, struggling for a moment with 
 the idea of the traditional spectres of the place,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 327 
 
 whose grisly renown had served to make it so 
 solitary. It was the lantern which proved so re 
 doubtable an exorcist. The sight of the little 
 mundane contrivance appealed to his logical faculty 
 as no mere theory of the impossibility of spectres 
 could have done. He lifted himself cautiously on 
 his elbow, and gazed down the vistas of the gloomy 
 place with a suspicious, inquisitive worldly pulse 
 beating in every vein. These were men in truth ; 
 and what was their mission here? One of them 
 was singularly gesticulatory of manner. The 
 other slouched heavily. It was the latter who had 
 just lighted the lantern, for he was evidently 
 throwing away a match, an article which the Lost 
 Time store had made common in the Cove. Sud 
 denly they were joined by a third figure, somehow 
 detached from the darkness, for Larrabee could 
 hardly have said whence he had approached, and 
 who turned with a light, lithe motion, swinging to 
 his shoulder an implement which the thickset man 
 had handed him. It was a pick. How often Lar 
 rabee had heard its vibrations ring through these 
 storied depths while he threaded the dark tunnel 
 to the still, and shivered at the thought of the two 
 dead miners digging and digging the graves these 
 thirty years for their bones which only the waters 
 had buried I 
 
 The lantern swayed, the shadows all flickered, 
 the group was on the move. Larrabee sprang has 
 tily to his feet to follow. 
 
 He could not easily judge how far the feeble
 
 328 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 glimmer led them, so rugged and winding was the 
 way. Once, as the mouth of a submerged shaft 
 yawned suddenly before his unprescient feet, he 
 hesitated, half deterred ; he was fain to skulk with 
 the skulking shadows, lest the light should reveal 
 his presence, and thus the dangers which his pre 
 cursors braved menaced him doubly. He marveled 
 that they dared the possibilities of the place, as he 
 noted that the half-fallen timbers in a cross-cut 
 through which they passed barely supported the 
 masses of earth which any jar might dislodge. 
 Everywhere was the sound of water working its 
 secret will still on the ruins that it had made, and 
 its tone added to the awe of the place, and the 
 desolation, and the darkness, and the eerie effect 
 of the bats that flew after the lantern and smote 
 blindly against it. 
 
 The light was set down presently, and as the 
 men seemed stirring about their work Larrabee 
 ventured to approach nearer behind a pile of 
 broken rock in the darkness, and mopped the cold 
 perspiration from his brow. He caught his breath 
 at the sight of the faces which the lantern revealed. 
 
 For they were all recruited from his mother's 
 hearth. Some crazy folly, doubtless, of old man 
 Haight had drawn him here. He had been one 
 of the miners before that catastrophe which had 
 closed the work forever ; Larrabee remembered in 
 what deep, blood-curdling tones he was wont to 
 curse the Lost Time mine. And his daughter Je- 
 rusha's husband, it had always been a marvel
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 329 
 
 where and how he obtained the whiskey he so in 
 dubitably consumed ; perhaps, in consideration of 
 his age and infirmities, Mrs. Larrabee furnished a 
 too ample allowance of liquor to old man Haight, 
 who, for services rendered in this wild enterprise, 
 furnished his son-in-law. 
 
 " We-uns hev been toler'ble good customers o' 
 the Lost Time still," Larrabee muttered sarcas 
 tically. 
 
 And there was Jack Espey ! The sanity of his 
 presence here was easily demonstrable ; nowhere 
 else could he so safely be. How he had chanced to 
 cooperate in this strange work with the dotard and 
 the sot was soon explained. 
 
 " Gimme a holt o' that thar grub," he said 
 gruffly, with a look of poignant hunger on his thin 
 face. 
 
 Old Haight, with a deprecatory expression and 
 shaking hand, made haste to give him a small 
 basket, of the queer shape and aspect which bespoke 
 the work of the Indians of Quallatown. The young 
 man voraciously thrust his hand into its narrow 
 mouth, and as he drew forth its meagre contents 
 gave vent to his disappointment. 
 
 " My Lord ! " he exclaimed, " is that all? An' 
 ye expec' me ter kem hyar night arter night from 
 from " the effort of his heavy flight of imagi 
 nation showed in his face " from 'way over yan- 
 der whar I live now, an' holp ye dig an' sech, an' 
 gin me sech forage ter work on ez that ! " He 
 pointed contemptuously at the food, albeit his 
 mouth was full.
 
 330 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Now, now, Jack, now, bubby, lemme tell you," 
 expostulated the old man, his jaw quivering pain 
 fully as he spoke, and his wrinkled face showing, 
 in the glimmer of the lantern, at once grotesque 
 and piteous, encircled as it was by the brilliant 
 hues of a little shawl of Mrs. Larrabee's, in which 
 his head was tied up for protection against the 
 weather, and which was surmounted by his hat. 
 " Ye dunno how durned hard it war ter git that 
 much. This hyar Henrietty Timson hev got us 
 down on half rations, mighty short commons. 
 'T ain't like 't war whenst you-uns lived with us, 
 Jack. Oh my ! Oh my, no ! " and he shook his 
 queerly upholstered head as he sat quaking and 
 shivering on a ledge of the rock. He impressed 
 Larrabee as much out of place, so habituated 
 was he to the sight of the old man in the chimney 
 corner, as the oven, or pot, or crane, or any other 
 naturalized appurtenance of the fireside might have 
 been. He let his veinous old shaking hands fall on 
 his knees with a gesture deeply significant of grief. 
 " I wisht ter Gawd," he cried, " ez S'briny war 
 hyar ! " 
 
 He pronounced her name as if she were a sort of 
 minor providence, as indeed she had been to him. 
 
 " Leetle as ye hed, ye mought hev brung it 
 sooner," grumbled Jack, stuffing the half of a very 
 fat, very heavy biscuit into his mouth. 
 
 " Law, Jack," cried the old man, " we-uns air 
 plumb 'feared ter leave the house sooner, even 
 arter all war bedded up for the night. That thar
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. . 331 
 
 'oman hev got her pryin' nose in every mortal 
 thing ; 'pears ter me the longest, sharpest nose I 
 even seen," he added injuriously, and with sudden 
 sprightly interest, " ain't it, Tawm ? " 
 
 His fellow-sufferer from its pointed inquisitive- 
 ness had seemed about to fall asleep in a heavy, 
 shapeless lump, but he roused himself at this to 
 add his testimony with some sincere acridity. 
 
 "Longes' an' sharpes' /ever seen," he protested 
 thickly, " an' I hev known 'em p'inted an' drawn out 
 to de-s traction." His snore followed so promptly 
 that one might have doubted whether he had spo 
 ken at all ; his remark presented the phenomenon 
 of a waking parenthesis, as it were, in the midst of 
 the somnolent text. 
 
 " I tell ye, it 's good fur S'briny ter go, ter let 
 we-uns savor how we miss her," said the old man. 
 " Sech a house, Jack, sech quar'lin' an' scufflin' 
 an' tormentin', f 'om mornin' till night, crowdin' 
 Me up on the h'a'th stone, an' shovin' my cheer, an' 
 talkin' 'bout useless cumberers, whenst I hev been 
 treated with sech re-spec' by S'briny Lar'bee ez ef 
 I hed been her own dad, stiddier jes' her husband's 
 step-dad, sech re-spec' an' hot vittles, an' the 
 fus' sarved, an' the bes' o' everything!" His old 
 face flushed with the recollection of the recent in 
 dignities offered him. " The pa'son tells ye ter 
 lean on the Lord. Ef ye ain't got the grace ter do 
 that, S'briny Lar'bee 's a mighty good help ! " 
 
 For the life of him, Jasper Larrabee could not 
 harden his heart.
 
 332 . HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Her pet tur-rkey air dead," old man Haight 
 presently observed disconnectedly. 
 
 " Glad of it," said Jack callously. " I never 
 seen a beast so pompered, an' fairly hanker ter git 
 stepped on, forever flusterin' 'roun' the floor under 
 foot." 
 
 " She '11 be powerful sorry. She sot a heap o' 
 store by it, an' doctored it cornsider'ble. She 'lowed 
 it hed the quinsy." Then after a pause, " Whenst 
 I gits my money back," said the old man medita 
 tively, " I be goin' ter buy S'briny Lar'bee suthin' 
 ez will s'prise her, I dunno what. I studies on 
 it some mighty nigh every day. A spry young 
 filly, mebbe, or a good cow an' calf, I dunno. 
 I 'd gin her the money, ef she would n't be sure ter 
 fool it away on them wuthless triflin' cattle of chil'n 
 an' folks she contrives fur all the time. I 'd gin 
 S'briny half o' the cold cash, an' ennyhow I lay off 
 ter spend half fur a presint fur her." 
 
 Espey, his energies recruited by food, and per 
 haps willing to postpone the evil hour of shoveling 
 and digging, looked up with a satiric eye and a 
 rallying laugh. 
 
 " Whar 's my sheer, ef ye be goin' ter gin Mis' 
 Lar'bee haffen the money ? Ye 'lowed Tawm hed 
 hed his pay in whiskey," he cast a side glance at 
 the bloated slumbering face and collapsed figure in 
 the shadow, " an' he 's hed a plenty, too, fur he 's 
 nuthin' but a cag o' liquor set a-goin' on two legs ; 
 but I 'm durned ef I '11 take my pay out in Mis' 
 Timson's sour yeast an' raw dough." He twirled
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 333 
 
 the empty basket over contemptuously. " Ye 
 'lowed that night, three weeks ago, whenst I ye 
 
 whenst we run on one another, an' s'prised one 
 another, ez ye 'd pay me solid silver ef I would n't 
 tell nobody, but holp ye ; now did n r t ye ? " 
 
 Espey's tone was so obviously that of one who 
 speaks in flagrant jest that Larrabee perceived he 
 gave the unknown enterprise no serious support or 
 credence, and that he was only utilizing some pre 
 posterous delusion of the old man touching his work 
 in the Lost Time mine to secure food to sustain him 
 while he evaded the pursuit of the law. 
 
 " Ye 'low ez 't ain't enough money ! " screamed 
 the old man shrilly, and Larrabee recognized the 
 clamors of the queer cracked voice which he had 
 been wont to shudderingly mark in the tunnel that 
 led to the still. " Ain't I done tole ye what I ain't 
 never tole no other livin' man I don't count Tawm 
 
 it air eighty-seben dollars ! Yes, sir, nigh on 
 ter a hundred, what I hed done sold my cabin an' 
 Ian' fur on Big Injun Mounting whenst I kem over 
 hyar ter settle, eighty-seben dollars in hard sil 
 ver " He broke off abruptly. Then, in the 
 deep, hollow, blood-curdling tone which Larrabee 
 had so often heard about the fireside, he cursed the 
 Lost Time mine. His excitement was painful to 
 witness, as Larrabee, still looking round the pile 
 of broken rock, noted his feverish illumined eyes, 
 the flush on his withered parchment-like cheek, the 
 aimlessness and the quaking of his fluttering nerve 
 less hand. Espey was gazing at him calmly, his
 
 334 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 face lighted by the lantern placed on the ground 
 between them, and evidently believing that not a 
 syllable he uttered had any foundation in fact. 
 
 "'T war the day o' the floodin' o' the mine," 
 old Haight mouthed and gesticulated vehemently. 
 " Every durned thing went wrong that day ! I war 
 hyar a-workin'. I hed worked in mines over in 
 Car'liny, an' war ekal ter all. I war toler'ble young 
 an' nimble, knowed ter be ez nimble ez a painter ! 
 An' one o' them durned buzzards workin' of the 
 windlass drapped the whole contrivance, winch, rope, 
 bucket, man, an' all, down inter the bottom o' the 
 shaft ; an' they could n't make the man answer, an' 
 'lowed he war kilt. An' I the devil's own fool 
 mus' ups an' volunteer ter go down an' git the 
 windlass an' let 'em hoist it out, an' then let down 
 the bucket agin an' fetch up the man (I f urgits 
 his name, dad-burn him ! Tom, Jim, Pete, cuss 
 him, whatever he be ! ) An' ez they war a sort o' 
 harnessin' me up with ropes under my arms an' 
 around my middle, I felt my leetle bag o' money 
 a-poppin' 'bout in my pocket, an' 'peared ter me it 
 mought pop out down in that deep onhandy shaft. 
 An' I handed it ter the foreman ter keep fur me in 
 his pocket, he war a clever trusted man ; I never 
 tole the t'others, kase they war toler'ble hard cases, 
 an' some men would kill a man fur a dollar an' a 
 half ; an' bless Gawd eighty-seben dollars ! An' 
 down I goes ! I hed about teched bottom when 
 hell broke loose ! I 'lowed I hearn thunder : 't war 
 the water on a plumb tear, breakin' down the walls
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 335 
 
 an' cavortin' like a herd o' wild cattle through the 
 mine. Sech screechin's ! The men ez helt the rope 
 drapped it on my head an' run fur thar lives ! " 
 
 With open mouth and shaking jaw, he rose up, 
 and gazed eagerly about, while Espey wearily 
 yawned and passed his hands across his eyes. 
 
 "It bust through about thar." He pointed 
 about in real or fancied recognition of the course of 
 the flood. "But over yander the whole thing 
 hev fell down an' caved in sence then, mighty nigh 
 't war higher 'n the level o' the overflow, an' I 
 stayed down thar in the shaft dry ez a bone. I 
 stayed two days along o' that dead man. I furgits 
 his name," he broke off in peevish irritation. 
 
 He sat down, readjusted his plaid shawl about 
 his head, surmounted it again with his big broad 
 hat, and recommenced : 
 
 " Wall, they 'lowed at fust they 'd work the mine 
 agin, did n't know what the damage war ; an' ez 
 they war pokin' 'bout, somebody 'membered me, an' 
 when they fished me out'n the shaft I hed these 
 hyar jiggets." He held up his shaking hands, 
 and looked in exasperation from one to the other. 
 " Some calls it the palsy, but the doctor, he 'lowed 
 it kem from the narvous shock. An' the foreman, 
 he hed done hed ter git drowned with my leetle bag 
 o' money in his pocket." He rose to his feet, with 
 a sudden steady blazing fire in his eyes. " But it 's 
 silver, eighty seben dollars ! " He pro 
 nounced the words as if they expressed the wealth 
 of the Indies. " They air silver, silver metal.
 
 336 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Water can't hurt 'em, an' the leetle leather bag 
 kep' 'em from scatterin'. The foreman 's got 'em 
 in his pocket. Mebbe he hain't got no pocket by 
 this time, but he hain't got rid o' all his bones. 
 The money '11 be nigh his bones, an' I be goin' ter 
 foller the wash o' that flood, afore the walls fell in 
 on it, till I find 'em." 
 
 There was something pathetic to Jasper Larra- 
 bee's sympathetic gaze in the record of the gradual 
 failure of the old man's mental powers registered 
 on the walls. He could easily distinguish, of 
 course, the difference in the work wrought by num 
 bers and with the expectation of valuable ore and 
 this unique subterranean burrowing with only the 
 object of old Haight's search in prospect. But at 
 first accepted methods of mining had been held in 
 regard with a due consideration of safety. The ex 
 cavations had been carefully timbered, the debris 
 of the ancient lumber serving for the purpose ; the 
 nature of the earth and rock all capably recognized 
 either in the avoidance of obstacles or the seizure 
 of advantage ; the exact location of an old cross-cut 
 definitely ascertained and intersected by the new 
 tunnel, and utilized to further him on the way to 
 some objective point, doubtless once definite in his 
 mind, but now hazy and intermittent, or possibly 
 lost altogether, for here and there, evidently at ran 
 dom, great vaults had been hollowed out and aban 
 doned, and for a long time every precaution or 
 thought of safety had been discarded. His plan 
 and its feasibility were gone, and only his inade 
 quate intention remained.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 337 
 
 Larrabee started violently as the walls rang sud 
 denly with the weird old voice, which, with its keen, 
 false intonation, had so often struck terror to the 
 stout hearts of the moonshiners of the Lost Time 
 still. It was a voice of insistent command. He 
 was urging his comrades to the work, and pres 
 ently the regular strokes of the pick wielded by 
 the stalwart " Tawm " set the echoes of the place 
 to a hollow, melancholy iteration dreary to hear, 
 and dismally blent with the rush of the cruel tor 
 rent. Espey's stroke seemed, in comparison, inci 
 dental and ineffective ; but albeit both men worked 
 apparently with a will, it was evidently quite at 
 random, obeying implicitly now and again a ges 
 ture or command given in pursuance of some weak, 
 wavering intention, and changed in a moment. 
 
 The accident which had put the secret into Lar- 
 rabee's hands seemed to him now so natural that he 
 marveled that it had not been earlier revealed. 
 But doubtless the vocation of the lost miners had 
 served to connect the stroke of the pick with their 
 gruesome fate, and thus the very fact of the sound, 
 which must otherwise have betrayed the enterprise, 
 aided the spectral traditions and the consequent 
 avoidance of the place to preserve it. Would 
 Espey have dared, he asked himself, to venture 
 within, had he not feared the living more than the 
 dead? And but for his own recognition of the 
 humble lantern and its necessarily human uses he 
 woiild, for fear of the spectral miners, hardly have 
 tracked the old miner to his new ,lead.
 
 338 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 And suddenly, with the very thought, notwith 
 standing the perfectly natural solution of the mys 
 tery, he was solicitous as to the means of departure. 
 He could not wait to follow that feeble lantern far 
 enough in the background to insure his invisibility. 
 He would not issue upon them now and advertise 
 his discovery, and dismay the old dotard with his 
 hopeless scheme. " I don't want to torment the 
 pore old man," he said. He felt a keen thrill of 
 savage joy to have discovered Espey's lair, but he 
 would need some thought to secretly entrap him. 
 " Fur ye air a mighty slick shirk, brother Jack," 
 he said, with scorn. He was feeling some matches 
 in his pockets, and judging of their number. 
 Should they fail him before he reached the outer 
 air, he could step aside and wait till the men 
 should pass with the lantern. Its glimmer served 
 now as long as the passage was comparatively 
 straight ; when it turned, himself out of the possi 
 bility of view, he struck the first match. The way 
 was shorter than he had fancied. His store was not 
 yet exhausted when he felt the warmer temperature 
 from without, and saw the jagged outline of the 
 portal and heard the melancholy dash of the rain ; 
 for it was once more " falling weather," and the 
 sky was cloaked and gray. 
 
 As he hesitated outside, his mind intent upon 
 Espey and the incidents of his career since he had 
 been among them, there came to him the thought 
 of the barn in which his whilom friend had been 
 wont to spend so many idle and meditative hours.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 339 
 
 A good refuge, to be sure, for a fugitive from the 
 law. The idea of comforts allured him as he rec 
 ollected the great fragrant elastic masses of hay. 
 A hiding-place as well. Here even Henrietta Tim- 
 son would hardly find him, for the rotting ladder, 
 from which many a rung was missing, afforded 
 scant footing for a barn swallow, or a flying squir 
 rel, or an athlete like himself or his friend. Sleep 
 would recruit his energies, quiet solace his mind, a 
 vacant interval of time clarify his intentions and 
 fortify his resolves. He started up the mountain 
 briskly ; the thought of home, even in this humble, 
 secret, half-outcast guise, warmed his heart. He 
 did not feel the rain dash in his face. A prescience 
 of October was unheeded in the melancholy ca 
 dences of the midnight wind. He hardly noted 
 the deep gloom of the Cove, where an owl was 
 wailing at intervals, and whence all the orange- 
 tinted lights had vanished. As the chill of the 
 failing season struck him, he shivered, but uncon 
 sciously. He had forged on past the Lost Time 
 store almost to the crest of the ridge, where the 
 homeward way diverged, when suddenly a dull sub 
 terranean thunder shook the air, and the earth 
 seemed to tremble. He paused in astonishment. 
 
 " Why, they air a-blastin' down thar in the 
 Lost Time mine. Espey ought n't ter let two be 
 reft folks tech sech ez that ; 't ain't safe." 
 
 Then he reflected that Espey himself had doubt 
 less superintended the charges with due regard to 
 their safety and his own. Nevertheless, he shook
 
 340 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 his head as he stood looking over his shoulder into 
 the blank, unresponsive darkness. He heard no 
 more, and presently he turned again and went his 
 homeward way in the dark persistent dripping of 
 the early autumn rain.
 
 XVIII. 
 
 THE anomaly of administering upon one's own 
 estate Lorenzo Taft was permitted in some sort to 
 experience. A definite realization of finality at 
 tended his meditations, at he sat bending over the 
 embers in the great fireplace of the store, in the 
 rain-clouded morning that rose upon the conclusion 
 of his labors of removing the still and destroying 
 all its approaches. His vocation was gone, and 
 naught remained. He had no more affinity than 
 a fox or a wolf for a law-abiding occupation. The 
 possible profits that might stick to his hands in 
 the process of the conversion of the goods upon the 
 shelves from the wholesale ratio to the retail failed 
 to allure him, for the store had never been aught 
 but a "blind." The furrow was no thoroughfare. 
 That wild gambling with the chances of the sun 
 and wind and the rain in its season, and often out 
 of its season, known as farming, and doubtless per 
 mitted by the law only because it insures its own 
 punishment, was risky enough to jump with his 
 humor, but the stakes were hopelessly inadequate. 
 He could not look forward, and the glance back 
 ward over the shoulder needs a good conscience to 
 commend the prospect. 
 
 Now and again he lifted his heavy boot and
 
 342 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 kicked the embers together fiercely, as if at great 
 odds with his thoughts and his own counsels. 
 Like many another, he undervalued his success, its 
 hairbreadth jeopardies and its difficulty of attain 
 ment, now that it was fairly secured. It seemed 
 to him a slight thing, the device of his quick wits 
 to insure his safety, and his satisfaction in its 
 triumphant exploitation had already evanesced. 
 Had it been possible to reestablish the status of 
 yesterday, doubtless he would have hardily risked 
 the discovery of the still, the disclosure of Larra- 
 bee, the capture of Espey, Dan Sykes's drunken 
 tongue, and, as a result of these, the "shootin'- 
 irons " of the " revenuers " and the sentence of the 
 federal court. But gunpowder as a factor in a 
 scheme admits of no second thoughts. 
 
 He even upbraided his own acumen that, in the 
 emergency, he had sought with an eye single the 
 safety of himself, his one remaining comrade, and 
 the apparatus, regardless of all considerations of 
 enmity. But now that judgment was satisfied and 
 escape certain, vengeance clamored. 
 
 Whenever he thought of Larrabee outside, tri 
 umphant, free, enjoying an absolute immunity from 
 the law by reason of the destruction of the moon 
 shiners' lair, which rendered the discovery of his 
 complicity impossible, Taft frowned heavily and 
 swore beneath his breath, and kicked the unoffend 
 ing embers into a new adjustment, so bitter was the 
 fact that his own safety made Larrabee's protec 
 tion complete. Even poor Dan Sykes's exile and
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 343 
 
 doubtless the young sot was well on the way to 
 Texas by this time was as necessarily a measure 
 taken in Larrabee's behalf as if it were the dear 
 est desire of Taft's heart to shield and screen him. 
 The realization that, despite himself, Larrabee 
 shared his security cheapened it. Less and less he 
 realized its value. A turbulent pulse began to 
 stir within his veins. His heavy cheek was red 
 and pendulous beneath his yellow beard. Occa 
 sionally he dropped his lower jaw with an expres 
 sion of angry dismay, so ill had the event fallen 
 out with his liking. The sight of Copley wan 
 dering about the half-darkened house, lighted only 
 by the fire and the pallid grayness from the door 
 ajar opening upon the rainy outside world, as un 
 easy as a homeless cat, able to settle to nothing, 
 his face a palimpsest of care and trouble and fail 
 ure, overwritten again and again above the half- 
 obliterated script of years agone, irritated him 
 vaguely. Taft eyed him loweringly, as the two 
 children in the opposite room besieged him for the 
 detail of the adventures and dramatic " taking off " 
 of a certain " black b'ar," a vanquished enemy of 
 his earlier days, which he recounted as aimlessly 
 as if the story were elicited by a wooden crank ; 
 but responding to a spirited encore, he plucked up. 
 heart of grace to add new and fresh particulars. 
 His worn and not unkindly face did not ill become 
 the armchair and the propinquity of the juvenile 
 heads. His serenity, as the two resorted from con 
 tradiction to blows, srnartly administered across
 
 344 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 him to his own great jeopardy, bespoke a grand- 
 fatherly tolerance, nearly related to affection, for 
 the combatants. Without more masterful leading 
 than his own mind could originate or his own pro 
 pensities could furnish, he might spend the rest of 
 his life at the plough-handles, and ask no better 
 society, and hope for naught beyond his coarse 
 garb and his coarser fare. He was growing old, 
 and this might be a better prospect than the still 
 could promise, with always the possibility of a fed 
 eral prisoner's cell at the vanishing point of the 
 long perspective. 
 
 Taft could preempt no such demesne of mild 
 content. His rankling regret for all that he had 
 done, and done so well, in that it served his enemy 
 perforce as one with himself, deepened as he began 
 to realize that in escaping so great and imminent a 
 danger none sustained appreciable injury but him 
 self. He alone seemed at the end. He could not 
 for years, perhaps, safely rehabilitate the still. A 
 new place must be sought, a new trade established, 
 new dangers guarded against ; and complicated by 
 his relations with Larrabee, at large and at enmity, 
 a removal unobserved and a reestablishment with 
 out pursuit seemed impossible. He dwelt with fu- 
 . tile persistence on the peculiar adaptability of his 
 hiding-place, now demolished forever. Nowhere 
 else could he have commanded such advantages of 
 seclusion. Surely nowhere else could his dangerous 
 vocation have been so safely plied. He enumerated 
 the varied precautions that he had observed, the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 345 
 
 dangers that he had successfully balked. All the 
 chances of the world outside had run in his favor ; 
 even the mysterious burning of the hotel was 
 strangely calculated to aid his design in prevent 
 ing the advent into the Cove of summer sojourn- 
 ers, that might lead to the discovery of his lair. 
 Doubtless, too, by this time, in addition, Kennis- 
 ton's plans were definitely and forever baffled by 
 the untoward result of processioning the land. 
 And as the thought of it recurred to him he started 
 suddenly, the color deepened in his face, and he 
 beheld the events of which he had elected to play 
 the motive power in a new and baleful light. 
 
 Certainly the,re was no flaw in his reasoning that 
 stormy night when he had betaken himself in com 
 pany with the wind and the rain, high up into the 
 solitudes of the "bald" of the mountain. A wild 
 night, with none else abroad save perchance a stray 
 marauder of the furry gentry. Only the mists 
 dogged his steps, and only the lightnings searched 
 out his path. The gigantic boulder that seemed 
 immovable, grim, gaunt, forbidding, the agency of 
 giant powder set astir easily enough ; and although 
 the charge, accurately calculated for the purpose, 
 was not sufficient to fracture the great mass, its 
 equilibrium on the steep slope was destroyed. A 
 wild turbulent dance it had as it hurled down the 
 slope from the spot where the ebbing seas of cen 
 turies agone had left it stranded. A thunderous 
 crashing voice it lifted as it went, and the thunder 
 of the clouds seemed to reply. In the pallid dawn
 
 346 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 of the rainy day, Taft had crept back through the 
 wet clouds of the summits and the spent winds lin 
 gering in the dank woods, to behold it lying there in 
 this alien stop, as immovable of aspect as of yore, 
 with great trees uprooted by the tempest athwart 
 the rocky ledges about its path, and every trace 
 of the action of powder effaced by the persistent 
 rain. It marked a new corner for the beginning 
 of Kenniston's survey ; on a line with the old, it is 
 true, but full five furlongs distant. It was a north 
 westerly line to be run out thence ; the greater 
 divergence would occur in the Cove, which fact 
 Taft had learned as Kenniston made a swift plat 
 of his irregularly shaped land with his cane on 
 the floor of Cap'n Lucy's cabin porch. A simple 
 scheme enough, this, that the one available site 
 for the hotel should be thrown within the lines 
 of Cap'n Lucy, who would not bargain, sell, or 
 convey, and thus the ill-omened caravansary 
 crowded out of the space it was expected to oc 
 cupy ; for as yet Bruin's intervention as incendiary 
 was among the uncovenanted things, and since 
 the unlucky threat to burn the building had origi 
 nated among the moonshiners Taft feared discovery 
 should he apply the torch himself. A simple 
 scheme, well planned and carried out with full 
 effect, and how should its completion so ill please 
 its projector ? 
 
 The fact that Cap'n Lucy should profit by it 
 Taft had heretofore hardly heeded, since this was 
 the necessary incident of his own greater profit.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 347 
 
 Now, however, that treachery, as he esteemed it, 
 had riddled the whole finespun web and brought 
 it to naught, a turmoil of rage possessed him. It 
 seemed some currous chicanery of fate that he alone 
 should sustain loss, and that to others should ac 
 crue all the advantage of his subtle weavings of 
 chance and fact, as if the threads still held fast. 
 Cap'n Lucy was in possession, doubtless, of many 
 hundred acres of Kenniston's land. He suddenly 
 grudged them to Cap'n Lucy as he had never 
 bethought himself to grudge them to Kenniston. 
 Jealousy is an intimate passion, and insistently of 
 the soil. The neighbor, the associate, the friend's 
 friend, it makes no far casts. Kenniston was 
 beyond its restricted bounds. 
 
 Cap'n Lucy's causticity, his arrogance, his in 
 sulting courage which belittled the possibilities of 
 another man's Vrath, his intrenchment in the sub 
 servience of his household, and his preeminence in 
 the esteem of his small world did not serve to com 
 mend him to his unwilling benefactor, who stood in 
 immediate contemplation of his own loss. And 
 as the radiant face of Julia appeared in the dim 
 midst of Taft's recollection, he rose to his feet, his 
 resolution taken in the instant. He had not forgot 
 ten the look in Larrabee's eyes when Espey had 
 demanded of him whom he had been " a-courtin' at 
 Tems's." Now, with Espey gone, and Larrabee 
 foot-loose and free, it might chance that these hun 
 dreds of acres of which he had bereft Kenniston 
 would one day fall into Larrabee's possession as
 
 348 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 his wife's inheritance, when Cap'n Lucy should go 
 to his account, which Taf t doubted not would 
 be a long one. 
 
 " I '11 be dad-burned," he cried, " ef I '11 stand 
 by an' see Kenniston choused fur old Lucy or 
 Lar'bee, air one ! " 
 
 Few human motives are simple. The travesty of 
 restitution served to cloak even to himself jealousy 
 and grudging and revenge, and that mad impulse 
 to hurl down and wreak woe upon those who had 
 chanced to prosper in the dispensations which he 
 had ordered himself, and which had wrought per 
 versely to his injury. He had, however, nothing 
 of the appearance or the manner of a subtle villain 
 when he was on horseback in the slanting lines of 
 rain, that mutiplied till they hid the mountains 
 near at hand, and erased the Cove, and nullified all 
 the conditions of the familiar worlds On the con 
 trary, his bluff, bold, open aspect was of a reassur 
 ing geniality, notwithstanding its overbearing inti 
 mations, and served to identify him to Kenniston, 
 as he lounged in his unsubstantial domicile, and 
 looked out ruefully at the dull day with the gray 
 rain and the grayer mist and the ochreous pools of 
 water, seeing naught else till this massive equestrian 
 figure materialized in its vaporous midst and 
 seemed to ride straight out of it. Taft flung him 
 self from his saddle with a decision which implied 
 a mission ; and despite Kenniston' s intention to 
 discourage the visits of the mountaineers, he could 
 not, with so assured a guest, have withheld the
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 349 
 
 customary greeting of hospitality without more 
 definite rudeness than he had expected to adventure. 
 
 The new-comer was the more welcome since 
 Kenniston's companion in keeping the monkey 
 stove warm was Rodolphus Ross, who had come to 
 the Cove for the purpose of examining the scene of 
 the fire, and ferreting out the incendiary. He had, 
 under the guise of questioning Kenniston on the 
 subject, inflicted his society upon his restive host 
 for the better part of an hour, now and then desist 
 ing from the discussion to work away at the damper 
 of the monkey stove, which he patronizingly denom 
 inated a " smart little trick," albeit by reason of 
 the heavy air and ill adjustment and the lack of ad 
 equate draught it was doing itself no credit. Ross 
 experimented with an ardor and uninformed energy 
 which threatened the total wreck of its constitution. 
 The clatter of the metal was hardly more grating 
 upon Kenniston's educated nerves than were his 
 guest's speech and bearing. There was something 
 in the exaggeration of the deputy's urban boorish- 
 ness, the plaid of his ill-fitting garments, the hilar 
 ity of his vulgar townish impudence, that daunted 
 a charitable acceptation of his foibles. So distaste 
 ful to Kenniston's cultured taste was the degree of 
 sophistication acquired by the deputy sheriff, and 
 with many a misconception adapted to his person 
 ality, that the absence of it seemed dignity in the 
 mountaineer, and Taft's unvarnished address the 
 unpolished substratum of good manners. 
 
 " How 's ducks in the hills ? " Ross greeted him,
 
 350 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 dropping the small f>oker, and looking up with 
 bright dark eyes, the two prominent front teeth vis 
 ible beneath the short upper lip. There was a mo 
 ment of rabbit-like expectancy of expression ; then 
 his lips widened to a laugh as the burly stranger 
 turned his serious, impressive face toward him. 
 
 " Air you-uns speakin' ter me, sir? " demanded 
 Taft, in a grave, direct manner, his steady eye full 
 upon him. 
 
 The airy deputy shifted ground for once. " Good 
 day fur ducks," he modified his speech. 
 
 " Cornsider'ble fallin' weather," admitted Taft 
 incidentally, and, seating himself in the chair in 
 dicated by Kenniston, he proceeded to take part in 
 the conversation, his big booming voice rendering 
 interruption impossible save as he listed. 
 
 " I hev viewed you-uns afore at old Cap'n Lucy 
 Tems's house," he said to Kenniston, crossing his 
 legs, and eying the steam casually as it rose from 
 the damp boots under the persuasive heat of the 
 stove. " Yes, sir, Taft is my name." 
 
 " I remember you very well," said Kenniston 
 affably. " Won't you light your pipe ? " He 
 pushed a match holder and tobacco pouch across 
 the table to him. 
 
 Taft, without comment, filled his pipe from an 
 inexhaustible supply of tobacco that seemed always 
 loose in his pocket ; it was far stronger than that 
 of his host, as the rank odor which rose on the 
 air presently demonstrated. Rodolphus Ross had 
 looked at him with a grin of hopeful anticipation,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 351 
 
 which shrunk at once when he recognized and 
 adapted to his own needs the uses of the lucifer 
 match. 
 
 " Yes, sir," Taft resumed, " I war toler'ble sorry 
 ter hear 'bout'n yer hotel bein' burnt. I did n't 
 view it at the time." He puffed the coals into a 
 glow, and pulled away comfortably. 
 
 " Meanes' people on yearth, these hyar mountain 
 eers ! " cried Ross. " They jes' so durned ignorant 
 they don't know sin from salvation, nor law from 
 lying." 
 
 " Then they ain't 'sponsible," remarked Taft 
 coolly. He pressed down the burning tobacco in 
 the bowl with a callous forefinger indurated by 
 long practice to crowding his pipe, and resumed : 
 " I 'lowed it mought gin ye a start ef I war ter tell 
 ye I hearn sev'ral men talkin' 'bout burnin' it, 
 long time ago, 'fore it war begun." 
 
 Kenniston was leaning back in his chair, much 
 at his ease, noting with a sort of languid interest 
 the intimations of force and ferocity in his visitor's 
 face : the keen sagacity, rather as of the instinctive 
 endowment of one of the lower orders of creation 
 than an enlightened intelligence ; the beaklike nose ; 
 the contradictory geniality of the full blue eye and 
 broad floridity. He brought his tilted chair sud 
 denly to the floor, leaned forward on the table, with 
 a slight exclusive gesture toward Rodolphus Ross, 
 which, although it escaped that worthy, caused Taft 
 a sharp regret for his precipitancy. 
 
 The deputy sheriff was all a-clamor.
 
 352 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " Why, now, my big bull o' Bashan, ye hev got 
 ter make that statement under oath with full par- 
 tic'lars, names, dates, and place !" He rose up 
 on the opposite side of the monkey stove, with the 
 lifter in his hand, with which he gesticulated im 
 peratively. 
 
 Kenniston could hardly repress his impatience. 
 
 " Of course, Mr. Ross, of course, all in due 
 season," he said irritably. 
 
 " But abuse the authorities, in season an' out, an' 
 'low the devil will ketch the officer, in due course o' 
 jestice, 'fore the officer '11 ketch the malefactor. I 
 ain't a-goin' ter lose you, Mr. Durham, ye bet high 
 on that ! " he added, turning to Taft. 
 
 " Mr. Taft expects to swear to the facts, of 
 course," said Kenniston. He paused abruptly, 
 meditating a remonstrance with the tumultuous 
 brute ; but Ross's very vulgarity, his clamorous 
 brutality, the impossibility of reaching through his 
 hardened exterior any sensitiveness, or pride, or 
 sense of decorum, or whatever sanction may control 
 the heart of a man who is a gentleman in jeans, 
 gave him an advantage over a man of breeding 
 which no culture could compass. Kenniston could 
 not cope with him ; his training had prepared him 
 for no such encounter. 
 
 Only Taft's great sonorous voice could overbear 
 the deputy's words, which sounded in his first utter 
 ance with the disjointed effect of Christmas fire 
 crackers enlivening the booming of Christmas guns. 
 
 " I '11 make oath ter statements ez ter date an'
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 353 
 
 person, but not place, I hev no call ter drag 
 other folks inter sech. I dunno ez they fired the 
 hotel ; I only heard 'em threat it." 
 
 " But why ? " demanded Kenniston eagerly. 
 
 " Deviltry, deviltry, o' course," protested Ross. 
 He had contrived to smirch his face in the careless 
 handling of the poker of the monkey stove, which 
 added a certain grotesque effect to his appearance, 
 if one were in the mood to be amused by it. 
 
 Kenniston's mood was far from such influences. 
 
 " I must ask you to be quiet, sir," he said, with 
 acridity. 
 
 " Ye must ? " sneered Rodolphus Ross. " An' 
 who war that ez 'lowed ef the local force war so 
 ' torpid,' torpid, ye hed it, ye 'd hev up pri 
 vate detectives from Bretonville ter settle the hash 
 o' these kentry varmints ? " 
 
 He threw up his eyebrows almost to the smirches 
 obliquely laid across his forehead, laughed with a 
 gleam of white teeth and an intent widening of the 
 dark eyes, the whole facial expression gone in an 
 instant. 
 
 " Waal, we ain't ' torpid ' no longer. ' Wake 
 up, snakes ! ' Now, old buck, answer my questions, 
 an' tell me why they war n't willin' ter let Mr. Ken 
 niston build his hotel in the Cove." 
 
 Kenniston folded his arms as he tilted himself 
 back in his chair, and resigned the conversation to 
 its unique leadership. The ceaseless motion of the 
 falling lines of rain gave a spurious effect of motion 
 to the great monastic forms of the mountains cowled
 
 354 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 with mists and robed in dreary hue, seeming con 
 tinually in sad processional along the horizon. The 
 ochreous pools near at hand had lost all capacity 
 for reflection, although the dark green branches of 
 the firs here and there bent above them, and the 
 gray rain dripping from the fibrous fringes upon 
 the unquiet tremulous surface took its color, and 
 was seen no more. His returning glance met 
 Taft's eye as he was about to speak, and somehow 
 in that momentary contact a quiet understanding 
 was established between them. 
 
 " The reason, I reckon, they did n't want Mr. 
 Kenniston ter build his hotel hyar war 'kase 't would 
 bring too many strangers round." 
 
 " An' what 's the objection to strangers ? " asked 
 Kenniston anxiously. It was not merely a retro 
 spective interest that the question served. He 
 asked for the future. 
 
 " Waal, I reckon they hed some moonshinin' or 
 sech on hand," returned Taft coolly. 
 
 " Thar, now ! what did I tell ye ? " vociferated 
 Rodolphus Ross, appealing to Kenniston. " An' 
 I '11 bet this hyar Larrabee war one of 'em." 
 
 Taft nodded, and Kenniston meditatively eyed 
 the dull flashes from the stove, recollecting the 
 strange conversation of Larrabee here, and his sud 
 den significant betrayal of secret knowledge of the 
 origin of the fire when it was mentioned. 
 
 " Strangers air powerful onhealthy fur the moon 
 shinin' business," said Taft, as a sort of corollary 
 of his former statement.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 355 
 
 "Speak from experience?" sneered Rodolphus 
 Ross. ' 
 
 " I do so," declared Taft unequivocally. Then 
 turning to Kenniston, " I sarved a prison term fur 
 illicit distillin' whenst I war a young man. I 
 'lowed, like all these other young rnuskrats, ez I 
 could do what I pleased with my own corn an' 
 apples. But whenst I traveled all through six or 
 seben States goin' to the North, an' seen this big 
 kentry an' sech, I knowed I war n't ekal ter runnin' 
 agin its laws ; an' whether thar 's reason in 'em or 
 no, I ondertook ter keep 'em arterward." 
 
 This unexpected confession disconcerted Ross in 
 some sort. He silently eyed Taft, whose criminal 
 experience seemed rather an error of an unripe 
 judgment than the turpitude of law-breaking, and 
 his candor in admitting it bluntly did not detract 
 from the serious impression he had evidently made 
 upon Kenniston. With Ross nothing was serious 
 long. There was a sudden breaking up of the 
 gloss of intentness in his round dark eyes, and as 
 they shifted they fell upon the poker of the stove, 
 and he once more thrust it through the bars and 
 rattled it smartly. 
 
 " I oughter say," said Taft, meditatively sucking 
 his pipestem, " that 't war Espey ez fust 'lowed ter 
 burn ye out. ' Burn his shanty ! ' he say." 
 
 A picture as definite as if it were the reality of 
 pigments and canvas glowed suddenly before his 
 contemplation, the red walls of his den a-flicker 
 in the flare of the furnace fire, the burnished gleam
 
 356 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 of the copper, the burly forms of the tubs of mash, 
 familiars of the brown gloom, and the circle of 
 faces, definite with those sharply marked shadows 
 and striking high lights that a strong artificial glow 
 elicits from the darkness. For his life he could 
 not repress a long-drawn sigh, and then he shifted 
 his position and cleared his throat raucously. But 
 the picture, like many another masterpiece of the 
 painter Memory, was not on general exhibition. 
 For all its close detail and strong salience and bril 
 liant reality of hue, it was invisible to Kenniston. 
 As to the regretful sigh, fat men are often wont to 
 sigh for very fatness, and it passed without signifi 
 cance. 
 
 After a meditative pause, " Did it ever occur to 
 you that this Larrabee is a crank," asked Kennis 
 ton, " what you call, and very aptly, touched-in-the- 
 head?" 
 
 " Who ? Larrabee ? " exclaimed Taft vehe 
 mently, all alert once more, his eyes on fire, his 
 angry breath quick. " He 's smart ez the very 
 devil ! Don't you let him pull the wool over yer 
 eyes with the lunacy purtense." 
 
 Rodolphus Ross gave a final rasping clatter of 
 the poker between the bars ; then flung it, resound 
 ing, down upon the floor. He rose to his feet, 
 stamping with first one and then the other to shake 
 out his trousers from their persistent kneed effect, 
 and, turning to Taft, he said, with an off-hand 
 manner, " Now, look-a-hyar, Prize Beef, when did ye 
 an' this sca'ce buzzard Lar'bee meet the last time ? "
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 357 
 
 The " Prize Beef " apparently perceived no sort 
 of offense in this form of address. 
 
 " I ain't viewed him in I dunno when. I 
 'lowed he hed lef the kentry till he war up at my 
 store, a few nights ago. I war n't thar, but my 
 leetle gal, she seen him." 
 
 The sly, predatory look was in Rodolphus Ross's 
 eyes. He lifted his knee and smote it as if he had 
 discovered a very apt coincidence. 
 
 Taf t hesitated ; then he said, " Ye 'd better go 
 up yander an' talk ter my leetle darter 'bout'n it." 
 He hesitated once more. He feared that Copley 
 might be inadequate to the situation, but, with his 
 ever alert suspicions, he would doubtless fly at the 
 very sight of a stranger ; and as to Sis, he could 
 rely upon Rodolphus Ross's address and manner to 
 arouse the enmity of old Mrs. Jiniway's disciple in 
 etiquette, and he knew of old that Sis was wont to 
 give her adversary no quarter. A dozen of such as 
 Rodolphus Ross would hardly be a handful for Sis. 
 He would learn naught from her which he wanted 
 to know. " Take my mare out thar, bein' ready 
 saddled," he said hospitably. " I '11 wait hyar till 
 ye kem back." 
 
 Contrariety was the breath of the deputy's life. 
 The congeniality of his vocation lay much in the 
 opposition of his duties to the desires of those of 
 his fellow-men with whom he was brought into offi 
 cial contact. He earnestly wished to negative 
 Taft's suggestion, but the possibility of getting at 
 closer quarters with Larrabee, of once more finding
 
 358 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 his trail, which had seemed to disappear from the 
 face of the earth, was stronger for the moment. 
 His enmity had not grown cold ; it was the more 
 vehement the more it was baffled. He lingered a 
 moment ; then, turning up his collar, and pulling 
 down the broad rim of his hat all around to afford 
 eaves to conduct the rain from his head, he plunged 
 out into the steady torrents with a discordant yawp 
 that made the little shanty ring. 
 
 Taf t gazed thoughtfully after him as he vaulted 
 into the saddle and rode off with a good deal of 
 unnecessary heel-and-toe exercise in the region of 
 the animal's ribs. The restive mare apparently 
 resented the ungentle treatment, for the last that 
 was seen of mount and rider was a profile rampant 
 against the blank white expanse of the closing 
 mists ere they were enveloped in the opaque multi 
 tudinous folds. 
 
 " They tell me that Gawd made man,'' said 
 Taft at last. " 'Pears ter me ez the Almighty 
 slighted that job, sure." 
 
 Kenniston was a man of painfully orderly 
 instincts. He could not satisfactorily resume 
 the conversation without gathering up the poker, 
 the lifter, and other appurtenances of the stove 
 which Ross had scattered about the little zinc 
 square on which it sat, replacing them, rearrang 
 ing the writing materials, newspapers, tobacco, and 
 cigars on the table, and stirring the fire to bright 
 ness and a possibility of burning. As he threw 
 himself into his chair he marked how the encroach-
 
 HfS VANISHED STAR. 359 
 
 ing mists had invested the house. Not half a 
 dozen paces of the path remained visible from the 
 door ; even upon the threshold the vapor hung in 
 vague white wreaths, to vanish in the heat, and be 
 replaced by white clouds floating in with a rolling 
 motion, never disappearing utterly, but ventur 
 ing no further. On the roof and in the invisibili 
 ties of the white mists outside they could hear the 
 chilly rain still steadily falling. The seeming 
 isolation gave a certain confidential character to 
 the conversation even before its developments war 
 ranted this. 
 
 "How did the percessionin' turn out?'' Taft 
 demanded. 
 
 " The rain stopped it," returned Kenniston, 
 gloomily eying the thickening mists, while Taft 
 critically but covertly observed him. 
 
 ''Satisfied ez fur ez it went, I s'pose?" Taft 
 flicked off the ashes from his pipe, and pressed 
 down the remainder of its contents with that sala 
 mander of a forefinger. 
 
 " No," said Kenniston irritably. " It is a great 
 surprise to me." 
 
 " Mr. Kenniston," said Taft, with that blunt 
 directness which so commended him to the experi 
 enced man and so warped his judgment, "that 
 thar Big Hollow Boulder, the beginning o' yer 
 survey, hev been bodaciously moved." 
 
 Kenniston lifted his head suddenly, the excite 
 ment of the moment showing red in his face. A 
 half-scornful incredulity was in his eyes, almost on
 
 360 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 his lips. He was about to speak ; then paused 
 doubtfully. The testimony of his recollections of 
 Cap'n Lucy's significant insistence on the phrase 
 " Big Hollow Boulder " and a thousand satiric allu 
 sions to the stationary functions of a monument of 
 boundary overwhelmed him for the moment ; for 
 their incongruity with a culpable knowledge or 
 agency in the fact was more than inexplicable ; 
 it was mysterious. There needed no dexterous 
 jugglery with phrase and fact, however, to account 
 for Luther's furtive, hang-dog manner and averted 
 eye. 
 
 " It seems impossible ! But I will not believe 
 that old man Lucy had anything to do with mov 
 ing it," Kenniston began. He suddenly caught 
 his lip and bit it hard. It was evident from his 
 flaunting remarks that the old mountaineer had 
 not been similarly generous to his neighbor. 
 
 "A heap o' land," suggested the politic Taft. 
 " But then I s'pose ter run yer eastern line out 
 would show whar yer corner is ? " He asked the 
 question eagerly. 
 
 " Oh no. Calls for permanent natural objects 
 usually control calls for distance. I suppose that 
 rule would hold fast in this instance. My east 
 ern line can only run to the boulder, which is pre 
 sumably immovable." 
 
 Taft's countenance fell. He had thought that 
 the further survey of the eastern boundary would 
 serve to reestablish the corner where the boulder 
 should be ; on the contrary, Cap'n Lucy was invested
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 361 
 
 with many hundred acres for which he had given 
 no equivalent in goods, or money, or even occu 
 pancy. 
 
 " I saw that something was mighty wrong with 
 the line that the surveyor was running ; and so did 
 Cap'n Lucy, for that matter," said Kenniston, 
 revolving the events of the processioning. " He 
 looked dumfounded when he saw Wild Duck 
 Falls in his boundary, and the hotel, or rather 
 the place where the hotel ought to be." 
 
 Taft caught a quick inspiration. " That 's it, 
 them boys is a-moonshinin' fur true. They must 
 hev moved the boulder ter crowd ye out of a 
 buildin' site. An' then they burnt the hotel." 
 
 " Well, they 've got me pretty badly crowded, 
 I '11 say that for them." 
 
 Kenniston was looking out of the door, with 
 that sullen sense of injury and hopelessness 
 which oppresses a city man in the country in bad 
 weather. The world had slipped away, somehow ; 
 he was left to the vague unresponsiveness of the 
 inexpressive white mists ; the rain would probably 
 continue forever ; the day was of a longevity 
 known to no other that had ever dawned ; with 
 out the prompting of his watch he could not have 
 said if jt were morning or afternoon. The roof 
 leaked ; the boots of his uncouth visitors tracked 
 up the floor with red clay mud. A saddle in one 
 corner gave out an obtrusive odor of leather, and 
 the monkey stove, despite all this dankness, filled 
 the room with that baking, dry, afflicting aroma
 
 362 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 common to all its kindred. His pugnacity was 
 abated under these untoward conditions ; his en 
 thusiasms were overwhelmed beneath the depres 
 sion of the rain. He thought wistfully of Breton- 
 ville, and of a cosy corner in the reading-room of 
 a certain club, and of his office, and sighed as his 
 mind reverted to the jeopardy of the present, the 
 futility of the money and thought he had spent 
 here, and the froward tangle which must needs be 
 untwisted if these unpromising assets were to be 
 utilized at all. 
 
 "Mus' hev been Lar'bee an' Espey a-moon- 
 shinin'." Taft once more sought to prompt that 
 inimical sense of injury. " An' moved the boulder 
 bodaciously, the corner landmark." 
 
 " A felony," said Kenniston thoughtfully. 
 
 The patter of the rain came heavily through the 
 silence, and in that bleak whiteness without they 
 heard far away the wind rousing from its lair in 
 furthest defiles. The terrors of its voice did not 
 shake the mists ; only the sound touched a respon 
 sive chord of feeling, and the day was the drearier 
 for the broken stillness. 
 
 "A felony," he said, and fell a-musing. He 
 vaguely repudiated the idea, and then bethought 
 himself, contradictorily, of the strange subterfuge 
 with which he had been summoned to the door. 
 For no harm, surely, he argued. There was a 
 certain fascination in the thought of the new star 
 that the mountaineer had brought to his con 
 templation. Not a bad face, this star-gazer's,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 363 
 
 and with a coloring which had always commended 
 itself to his artistic sense. A good face and finely 
 cut, he would have said but for that association of 
 ideas, " a felony," that sudden conscious expres 
 sion as of some guilty knowledge of the burning 
 of the hotel. He could not believe it of his star- 
 gazer, with his elated upward look! He remem 
 bered afterward that he thought then that the 
 dankness of the weather, in relaxing all manner of 
 tension, had slackened his rigid standards and his 
 taut personal exactions. He was morally limp, 
 doubtless, as well as physically ; but he shrunk 
 from the phrase in this application, and he consid 
 ered that the most definite sensation of that most 
 indefinite day was the relief he experienced when 
 Rodolphus Ross came plunging out of the mists. 
 
 In high dudgeon the deputy was with the events 
 and results of his mission, and he had wreaked his 
 resentment on the unoffending animal which he 
 rode. The mare's sides showed the marks of his 
 stinging lash, and she had retaliated as well as she 
 could by perversely refusing to pause where he 
 wished to dismount to avoid the pools. A false 
 start or two dragged him through water knee-deep, 
 and as he came into the house his eyes were flashing 
 with his various anger, and his lip curled scornfully. 
 
 " I tell ye," he said to Taft, with his fractious 
 mirthfulness, "thar 's money in that brat o' yourn, 
 that Cornelia Taft ! Buy her a muzzle an' a chain 
 an' jine a show, an' she '11 draw a crowd ez the 
 Leetle She-B'ar o' Persimmon Cove ! Bless my
 
 364 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 boots ! I 'm glad I 'm all hyar. The leetle b'ar 
 like ter tore me ter fringes ! " he exclaimed met 
 aphorically. He canted his head mockingly to 
 one side as he threw himself into a chair beside the 
 stove, seized the poker, and administered a rousing 
 shake. " I tell you what," he said, eying Taft 
 gloweringly, " I 'd keep her nails an' teeth well 
 pruned, my friend." 
 
 For Miss Cornelia Taft and Rodolphus Ross 
 had failed signally to hit it off amicably. Copley 
 had watched the interview through the open door 
 of the store with varying emotions of anxiety : 
 first, lest Ross was a " re vernier " or a spy ; then, 
 lest, as an officer of the state law, he had some 
 charge against them ; again, lest he cause Sis some 
 apprehension ; and lastly, lest the temerity of the 
 doughty Sis bring woe and wreck upon the devoted 
 household. Joe cowered in a corner of the fire 
 place, leaning against the great jamb, essaying only 
 a few of the wri things and twistings of his anatomy 
 which he affected, and sometimes sitting still al 
 together, so did the interest of the colloquy over 
 master the tendency of his muscles. 
 
 " Hello, youngsters ! " was Ross's affable greet 
 ing as he tramped in when Joe opened the door. 
 He flung himself into a chair before the fire, then 
 turned and surveyed Cornelia, whose prim, pale, 
 precise face looked more unfriendly and forbidding 
 and negative than usual, as she sat, her hands de 
 murely crossed on her lap, on the opposite side of 
 the fireplace.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 365 
 
 " My Lord ! is this all ? I 'lowed yer dad bed 
 a heap bigger gal 'n you. Some similar ter a 
 shrunk-up gran'mammy ; ye look like ye mought 
 hev lasted sence the flood. How 's yer fambly, 
 ma'am ? " 
 
 The juvenile heart resents a scoff. Cornelia 
 Taft's faculties were limited, but she gathered her 
 self for revenge. 
 
 " Waal, then," he demanded, as she sat stiffly 
 silent and insulted, " how 's rats ? " 
 
 " I could n't jedge," she piped up suddenly. 
 " We-uns hain't hed a terrier happen in hyar afore 
 now fur a consider'ble time." 
 
 He was fairly silenced for the nonce. Elated by 
 the execution of her sally, and not propitiated by 
 his subsequent effort to ignore this passage at arms, 
 she took full advantage of the opportunity to harass 
 him which was presented when he announced him 
 self an officer of the law, and demanded to know 
 when and where she had seen Larrabee the last 
 time. No perverse adult witness could have more 
 dexterously baffled him with indefinite statements ; 
 and when he appealed from her to Joe, whose 
 clumsy efforts to remember were hopelessly inade 
 quate, her open glee was peculiarly tantalizing to 
 Ross ; for none can so resent a jest as a confirmed 
 joker. Then it was that he made his fatal false 
 step. 
 
 " Look-a-hyar, Small Female, leetle ez ye be, 
 I '11 arrest you-uns an' kerry ye off ter jail, ef ye 
 don't spry up an' answer my question."
 
 366 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 And then it was that Sis, bracing her small 
 back, defied the majesty of the State of Tennessee 
 as exemplified in Rodolphus Ross. So it came to 
 open war. She was animated, too, by a partisan 
 spirit for Larrabee. She remembered, with her 
 infrequent approval, how he had conducted himself 
 on the occasion in question ; how quiet, how gentle, 
 he was, how observant of the graces of her house 
 keeping, how commendatory of her dominion over 
 Joe. Their conversation had since been often in 
 her mind ; she had rehearsed it, as she sat in the 
 gloaming on her stool before the flickering fire, 
 with the history of the Biblical worthies of which 
 it was redundant. With no one else could she talk 
 of these things. With quick adulation she had 
 transformed Larrabee into a hero, and she longed to 
 see him again. Her tongue, being feminine, could 
 not be held altogether, but she told Ross naught 
 which he desired to hear. She sounded the praises 
 of Larrabee on many a key, and " disremembered " 
 persistently whether it was Friday or Monday, or 
 last week or week before, when she had seen him. 
 
 " Waal, what war he a-doin' of hyar, ennyhows ? " 
 queried Ross. 
 
 " Talkin'." v 
 
 " 'Bout what, gal ? " 
 
 " 'Bout no gal," Miss Taft responded, with a 
 flash of the eye. 
 
 " Waal, then," even he was fain to concede, in 
 the hope of finding some thoroughfare in thus beat 
 ing about the bush, " 'bout what boy ? "
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 367 
 
 She hesitated. She had not intended to cheapen 
 the subject of her interest and enthusiasm by men 
 tion in this queer symposium. The talk with Lar- 
 rabee had been in the nature of a confidence, as in 
 the admiring canvass of mutual friends ; she had a 
 sense as if it were not the thing for general public 
 and unworthy conversation. Nevertheless, her af 
 finity for the subject constrained her. There was 
 a light in her face, a placid softening of feature. 
 Her flabby little colorless cheek mustered up a 
 dimple. 
 
 " 'Bout Sam'l," she said, with a smile. 
 
 " Sam'l who ? " he demanded keenly. 
 
 Sis hesitated, suddenly posed. "I I disre- 
 member his his surname," she admitted. 
 
 " Did ye see him with Lar'bee?" he asked, his 
 big pertinacious eyes on her face, expectant of im 
 mediate developments. 
 
 "I I ain't never seen him. I I reckon " 
 it seemed too terrible to contemplate "I reckon 
 he mus' be daid." She had never before looked 
 upon it in this light, and her heart sank. 
 
 " Friend o' Lar'bee's ? " he persisted. 
 
 " I reckon so ; he hed read 'bout him." 
 
 "Read 'bout him? Whar? In the 'Colb'ry 
 Gazette ' ? " He lowered his voice respectfully, for 
 to him personal mention in the ' Colbury Gazette ' 
 meant fame. 
 
 " Naw. In the Bible, o' course," said Sis, stiffly 
 reproving. 
 
 He stared at her in blank amaze for a moment ;
 
 368 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 then he smote his leg a sounding thwack, and 
 burst into a howl of derisive laughter. 
 
 "Ye an' Lar'bee hed a pray'r-meetin', did ye? 
 An', my son," he continued through his nose with 
 a sanctimonious whine, turning to Joe, " did ye 
 lead the saints in supplication, or raise the hyme- 
 chune ? " 
 
 Joe responded with a fat chuckle of delighted 
 laughter, rejoiced to see his Mentor, the professor 
 of many novel and distasteful arts of household 
 economy, put to ridicule and out of countenance. 
 
 It was only for a moment. She turned acridly 
 against the domestic insurgent. 
 
 " He tuned up arterward. Joe done his quiriri' 
 arter Lar'bee war gone, an' the wind riz, an' the 
 rain kem down. He wisht an' wisht Lar'bee hed 
 bided. He fairly blated fur skeer ! " 
 
 " I never ! " protested Joe in pouting indignation. 
 " /war n't 'feared o' the wind an' rain, nare one ! 
 'T war the racket them dead ones kep' up in the 
 Los' Time mine diggin' thar graves. This hyar 
 house air right over the mine." 
 
 Ross's great shifting wild eyes widened as he 
 looked from one to the other. 
 
 " Thar ain't no dead ones diggin' thar graves ! " 
 cried Sis didactically. She must needs spend too 
 many lonely hours here for that suggestion to be a 
 welcome one. " Them ez dig ain't dead. Dad say 
 jes' some boys, he reckon, a-moonshinin' or sech of 
 a night in the Lost Time mine." 
 
 Rodolphus Ross rose to his feet. He was elated,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 369 
 
 confident. He snapped his fingers noisily in the 
 air as he took two or three of the sideway paces 
 usually preliminary to a clog dance, which accom 
 plishment he had acquired by viewing what he 
 termed a " minstrel show." He had long suspected 
 Larrabee of moonshining, and here was the locus 
 in quo. He had said that Larrabee's trail had 
 seemed to disappear from the face of the earth; 
 with what literal reason he had not dreamed. Not 
 withstanding his haste, however, he must needs 
 tarry for a fleer. 
 
 " Gran'mammy Taft," he said, leering at the 
 little girl, with her prim, antique aspect, " I never 
 thunk ter find ye hobnobbin' with moonshiners." 
 
 "Lar'bee ain't no moonshiner," she protested, 
 with swift alarm. 
 
 He joyed in her evident flutter. 
 
 " Ah, gran'mammy Taft, ye kin consider yerse'f 
 under arrest fur aidin' an' abettin' in moonshinin', 
 ye an' all yer fambly." 
 
 " Ye ain't no revenuer ! " cried Sis, moving back 
 a step, however. " Ye ain't 'lowed ter purtend ter 
 be one, nuther. I hearn o' a man in Persimmon 
 Cove ez purtended ter be a off'cer o' the law, an' 
 got 'rested hisse'f. An' I would hev thunk enny- 
 ways ez ye lied hed enough o' arrestin' folks fur 
 fun, sence that time ye flung Lar'bee over the 
 bluffs, an' nigh kilt him. Ef ye be so sharp set 
 ter 'rest ennybody, go find Jack Espey an' 'rest 
 him." 
 
 Ross was out of countenance. Nevertheless
 
 370 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 " How many j'ints hev her tongue got ? " he de 
 manded of Joe, with a feint of serious interest. 
 
 But Joe had deserted to the enemy. He thought 
 that Sis was in the ascendant, and Ross's threat at 
 once angered and terrified him. He received with 
 pouting silence the officer's aside, while Sis went on 
 triumphantly : 
 
 " Dad say my granny Jiniway air kin somehows 
 ter the high sher'ff's wife; an' whenst I go ter 
 Colb'ry nex' week with dad, I be goin' ter go ter 
 her house an' ax the high sher'ff ef he 'lows his 
 dep'ties ter arrest people fur joke, an' purtend ter 
 be revenue off'eers, an' skeer leetle gals by arrestin' 
 'em, an' 'lowin' he'll take the whole fambly fur 
 moonshinin'. My granny Jiniway's third cousin 
 air the high sher'ff's wife ! " 
 
 In the face of this genealogical detail, it was 
 with a somewhat subdued spirit that Ross mounted 
 the mare and set forth on his return ; for the high 
 sheriff was a man with a most attenuated sense of 
 humor, a literal interpretation of the duties of his 
 office, and notwithstanding the fact that Ross's 
 willingness to ride long distances, in all manner of 
 weather, relieved him of this the most irksome of 
 duties to an inert temperament, he had begun to 
 look doubtfully upon him, particularly since the 
 untoward result of the facetious arrest of the sup 
 posed Larrabee, and Ross felt that his tenure was 
 not altogether secure. As he passed the portal of 
 the Lost Time mine, the thought of his quest re 
 curred to his mind, and the important clue which he
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 371 
 
 deemed he had obtained from the little girl's con 
 versation. He no longer considered it important, 
 for from the rough-hewn portal of the cavern 
 poured forth the compressed stream of the divers 
 subterranean currents, gathered together and hurled 
 forth in a great spout, and with a plunging force 
 that astonished him, remembering as he did the 
 far tamer flow of the earlier season. He ascribed 
 the change to the persistent autumn rains flooding 
 some watercourse that doubtless pierced the hidden 
 chambers. It filled the outlet within a few feet of 
 the summit of the arch. Any entrance here was 
 impossible ; as for another opening to the mine, he 
 looked about him upon the limitless tangled wil 
 derness of wood and rock, the shifting beclouding 
 mists, the endless skeins of the rain, and he swore 
 between his big front teeth an oath which, despite 
 the grotesque humor of its phraseology, had within 
 it all the bitter" profanity of his baffling disappoint 
 ment. And in default of aught else on which to 
 wreak his anger, he cruelly lashed Taft's mare ; 
 and so he went down to join the others at Kennis- 
 ton's quarters amongst the shanties of the workmen 
 in the Cove.
 
 XIX. 
 
 THAT night, the rain, beating out its strong 
 staccato rhythm on the old clapboards roofing the 
 barn, made scant impression on Jasper Larrabee's 
 senses ; he slept soundly amongst the great elastic 
 billows of the hay. As by degrees the downpour 
 slackened, the comparative silence affected his 
 half-dormant consciousness as sound had failed to 
 do. He roused slightly from time to time, and 
 presently was broad awake, to hear only the mel 
 ancholy drip from the eaves and the chorus of 
 far-away frogs beginning to pipe anew along the 
 pools. He did not welcome his other self, that 
 mysterious essence of thought and 'will that was 
 torn with hopes and fed on regrets, and was prone 
 to hold troublous disputations with yet another 
 inner self, which on its part was always keen to 
 find out every fault, to upbraid each cherished sin, 
 and had an ugly trick of unmasking and setting 
 in a strong unflattering light motives which might 
 otherwise seem to be above suspicion. The hum 
 bler obvious entity known as Jasper Larrabee 
 would, he often thought, be happier without so 
 definite a development of either of these endow 
 ments, his mind or his conscience ; for thus he 
 learned from their functions to differentiate them.
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 373 
 
 When this Jasper Larrabee was well fed, he was 
 hearty and happy. The sun shone on him, and 
 he sang till the woods rang. When he went down 
 into the sunless depths of the Lost Time mine, 
 every strong muscle rejoiced in the work, and his 
 steady nerve, which is called courage, gave a zest 
 to danger, whether the menace were of the law, or 
 of the wild beast in the wilderness, or of the civil 
 ized savage amongst his own associates. If it had 
 not been for his mind forever asking " Why ? " 
 and his conscience grimly protesting " Because," 
 what a thriving, well-balanced physical organization 
 Jasper Larrabee might have been ! He knew 
 others who were little more than body, who asked 
 no questions and heard no answers ; he held them 
 far the happier for it, and he did not realize how 
 much the duller. And so he hated the " Why ? " 
 and flinched from the " Because." And here they 
 were in company, these choice spirits, in the sud 
 denly silent midnight, with only the melancholy 
 drip at long intervals from the eaves, the vague 
 piping of frogs sounding afar off and failing again, 
 and that strange preponderating sense of the prox 
 imity of the mountains although enshrouded and 
 invisible in the mist. The sibilant rustle of the hay 
 was loud in the stillness as he shifted his posture. 
 He shifted it often, being anxious and restless, 
 for his brace of companions were more censorious 
 even than their wont as to that limited cheerful 
 physique which he accounted Jasper Larrabee. 
 He had had naught to eat but a few handfuls of
 
 374 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 grapes from the vines that clambered over the 
 gable of the barn, and some unpalatable raw eggs 
 found among the hay ; and this fact of hunger 
 gave a mighty grip to the poignancy of " Because." 
 He had had naught to do all the long rainy day 
 but to lie in the hay and look out through the 
 crevices of the logs at the queer acorn-like roof of 
 his mother's house, that had welcomed so many, and 
 had no place now for him or for her. He watched 
 with all the grief of an exile the children coming 
 and going, and the gaunt Mrs. Timson wielding an 
 unbridled authority, making the most of her usur 
 pations ; he heard, with the indignant objection that 
 naturally appertains to the heir to the throne, her 
 raucous raised voice in objurgation or command. 
 Again and again these sounds came from the opaque 
 blankness of the mist ; for often the clouds obscured 
 the little house altogether, and crowded through 
 the crevices of the barn, and shifted back and forth. 
 For the reason of the continuous fog he had delayed 
 to inform the officer of the law and deliver Espey to 
 him. Doubtless, in the idleness of his solitary day 
 in the mine, Espey would be alert and hear an ap 
 proach, and might escape through some aperture of 
 the cavern other than the main entrance ; the thick 
 mists would then conceal him indubitably, and fur 
 ther his flight without the slightest scruple as to 
 responsibility as accessory after the fact. Larrabee 
 was waiting for the darkness that he might take 
 Espey the more certainly, while his vigilance was 
 relaxed in working at the forlorn enterprise of old
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 375 
 
 Haight and his lieutenant " Tawni " in the mine. 
 But in waiting Larrabee had fallen asleep, and the 
 iteration of the steady rainfall was somnolent in its 
 effects, and the hours drowsed by. He knew that 
 it was past midnight before he noted the slant of a 
 late-risen moon, golden, lustrous, dreamlike, softly 
 shining through the crevices of the logs in one cor 
 ner of the ramshackle old place. The sky was 
 clearing, then. He rose hastily to his feet, and 
 leaned out of the window. Clear ! It was of a 
 deeply limpid and definite blue, with white and 
 gray clouds, moon-illumined, drawing back swiftly 
 from vast expanses of this lucid ether all a-sparkle 
 with the whiteness of the stars. With the dank 
 earth so dark below, and the dully glamourous 
 light of the moon in her last quarter, it seemed to 
 him that he had never seen the stars so splendidly 
 white. The next moment a sudden pang of sus 
 pense, of fear, that was like a bodily throe had 
 wrested away his breath. He hardly realized that 
 he had moved ; he only knew that he had sprung 
 down the rotting rungs of the old ladder and through 
 the barn below, because he was standing outside 
 the door upon the ground, gazing up, bareheaded, 
 wild-eyed, in a frenzy of doubt, of anxiety, of a 
 sort of unreasoning terror, at the skies. For the 
 star his star was gone ! It had vanished ! 
 Again and again, with the strong pulse of hope, he 
 swept the heavens with eager search. Afterward 
 he thought he remembered a dull leaden-hued mi 
 nute object in the place of that splendid silver shin-
 
 376 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 ing that had made his heart so glad. It had van 
 ished, its message withheld, its mystery unre- 
 vealed, like an illusion, like a fagged-out enthusiasm, 
 like the futile words of a prayer without the fervor 
 of faith. He could not believe it. Again and 
 again he sought a new posture, a new hope. He 
 followed its closer neighbors along the steeps of 
 the mountain as they journeyed toward the west in 
 the sky above. The tint of the heavens was chang 
 ing presently, a lighter blue. The golden moon 
 grew of a pearl-like lustre. The stars waxed faint. 
 The clouds were red. And here was the gray day 
 hard upon him, and in the earth naught of value, 
 for in the sky he had lost a star. How strong, 
 how resistless of advance, was the riding up of the 
 great sun ! Get ye away, illusions, and glamours, 
 and dreamers of dreams ! Such a definite visible 
 world ! How full of fixed facts ! He saw, as he 
 stood, the shanties of the workmen in the Cove, 
 where the mists were hustling off in great haste, 
 as if too tenuous, too unsubstantial, too inutile, to 
 hold ground in the face of the strong practicalities 
 dawning over the horizon. The smoke was curling 
 up from the chimney of Cap'n Lucy's cabin, 
 where breakfast was cooking. The cows were at 
 the bars. All the woods were lustrous with moist 
 ure, and splendidly a-glint with the yellow sun 
 beams striking aslant through them. The distant 
 mountains were blue and amethyst and violet and 
 purple, a rhapsody of color. Here and there, as 
 if the rain had painted them, boughs of sumach and
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 377 
 
 sourwood were scarlet in the woods ; the sweet-gum 
 showed flecks of purple leaves, and the hickory had 
 occasional flares of yellow. The goldenrod had 
 burst into bloom, and with this seal of the autum 
 nal season stamped upon the land came Julia along 
 the road, her bonnet hanging on her shoulders, her 
 head bare, her face like spring itself, her hands 
 full of flowers that she scattered as she sang. How 
 her fresh young voice rang against the turmoil of 
 the current from the Lost Time mine, like some 
 sudden burst of joy from out the fretted tides of 
 a troubled life ! As she tossed the flowers, and 
 glanced over her shoulder to see where they fell, 
 Larrabee crossed the log laid from one deeply gul 
 lied bank to the other side of the road, to serve foot 
 passengers when the water was high in wet weather. 
 She paused, and looked at him with a frown. The 
 unwonted corrugations in her fair young brow 
 changed her inexpressive face almost out of recog 
 nition. He stood in silent deprecation for a mo 
 ment. His heart was sore. His life was full of 
 trouble of many sorts and degrees. That aesthetic 
 loss, that sense of bereavement because of his van 
 ished star, outrankled them all. 
 
 Courage is of the nature of an essence ; one may 
 not judge how it will pull the beam, nor is it dis 
 pensed by dry measure. Something seemingly in 
 adequate, a breath of wind, a change of mind, or 
 the chilling of the fervors of some futile and foolish 
 enthusiasm, and behold the volatile element is dis 
 persed throiigh the air. The strain on Larrabee's
 
 378 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 nerves had been great. His sensibilities had waxed 
 tender. He faltered before the definite bending of 
 those delicately marked brows. 
 
 " Ye air out betimes, Julia ? " he ventured pro- 
 pitiatingly, as she stoutly maintained silence. 
 " What be ye a-doin' of with them flowers ? " 
 
 " Sowin' 'em," said Julia instantly. " I expec' 
 'em ter bloom thar in the road ter mo' purpose 'n 
 they ever did afore." 
 
 He cast a glance of wonderment at her. But 
 her unfriendly manner, her cold eye, disconcerted 
 him afresh, and nullified his surprise at her words. 
 
 " Air you-uns mad at me down at yer house ? " 
 he demanded eagerly. 
 
 " What fur ? " she asked, with a keen, belligerent 
 look that was mightily like Cap'n Lucy. 
 
 "'Bout my speakin' so free 'bout Espey, an' 
 Cap'n Lucy not warnin' me an' my mother, knowin' 
 him ter be sought fur murder ? " 
 
 " Oh ! " she cried, with airy causticity. " I hed 
 furgot it." 
 
 He felt the covert fleer of this speedy dismissal. 
 But with him pride was at a low ebb. He silently 
 looked at her as she held a cardinal flower to her 
 red lips, while her long-lashed blue eyes scanned 
 the dewy bunch of jewel-weed and mountain snow 
 and wild asters that filled her hands. The wind 
 swayed her dark blue skirt as she stood on a great 
 fragment of rock beside the running stream. It 
 gave a certain volant effect to her pose, her flower- 
 laden hands, her singular beauty ; she seemed the
 
 HfS VANISHED STAR. 379 
 
 very genius of the flowering season, its perfect per 
 sonification. 
 
 " Waal, I 'm glad o' that," he said humbly. " I 
 need all my friends, an' all the comfort I kin git." 
 
 He paused, daunted in a measure by her unre- 
 sponsiveness. But she was always silent, always 
 undemonstrative, and perhaps her manner in this 
 instance went for less than its worth. 
 
 "Julia," he said, " I hev hed a powerful strange 
 'sperience lately. An' it hev cast me down might 
 ily. Not religious, though I expected suthin' 
 leadin' an' speritual out'n it. I viewed a new star 
 in the sky." 
 
 She was looking at the flowers on the soggy road 
 as if she cared for no other radiance than their 
 gleam of earthy hue, albeit an evanescent glow. 
 
 " Nobody but me viewed it," he went on after a 
 moment of unfruitful expectation. " I tried other 
 folks, an' they seen nuthin'. An' by that I 'lowed 
 it hed some charge fur me, some leadin'. Stars hev 
 been messengers afore this." He interposed this 
 affirmation of precedent for proof. His senses were 
 keen. He had not failed to note the ring of incre 
 dulity in Kenniston's voice. He paused, thinking 
 again of the wise men of the East, and the blessed 
 path to the cradled Christ as the Star guided them. 
 He sighed deeply as he plucked off the yellow plumes 
 of a wayside spray of goldenrod. The fragments 
 floated away on the stream, and he drearily lifted his 
 haggard eyes to the broad whiteness of the day bright 
 ening over all the purple mountains and bronze-
 
 380 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 green valleys ; here all miracles exhaled with the 
 mists of the night and the evanescence of the stars. 
 The atmosphere of the practical, the prosaic, the 
 recognized and thrice-tried forces of nature was par 
 amount. Naught seemed to exist that man in his 
 ignorant cognoscence had not explored. But he had 
 expected no miracle ; he had sought no wonderful 
 worldly gifts or graces. True, the will of God is 
 much to know, but he had thought that with so sig 
 nal an intimation a leading might be vouchsafed. 
 Had not other men followed a star to Christ ? And 
 was there naught for him, no little thing for him 
 to do ? Did that gracious supernal stellular pres 
 ence shine on him, and him alone, only to amaze, to 
 baffle, to dismay him, to find his life but poorly 
 furnished, and to leave it empty ? 
 
 " I got no leadin' out'n it," he said drearily. " It 
 jes' disappeared somehows. I dunno ef ez suddint 
 ez it kem or no, bein' ez several nights war rainy 
 and clouded over. It 's gone ! " 
 
 Something in his dreary tone smote upon Julia's 
 preoccupied faculties. Whether she harbored ran 
 cor against him for Jack Espey's sake, whether she 
 resented his criticism of her father, whether she re 
 pelled the intrusion of the consciousness of any 
 other emotion than the paramount emotion which 
 possessed her, and love crowded out and trampled 
 on pity, she spoke with a keen fling of satire. 
 
 " Waal, ef yer star hev petered out, ye hed bet 
 ter go an' get Ad'licia ter hearten ye up by tellin' 
 ye ter take notice how many stars thar be lef. 
 Ye '11 be lighted full well on occasion."
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 381 
 
 He flushed at the taunt, but love is of long pa 
 tience. 
 
 " Air ye mad at Ad'licia ? " he queried, interested 
 in aught that touched Julia. 
 
 " Naw yes " She hesitated, interested her 
 self. "That is, I can't holp bein' mad with the 
 idjit fur bein' sech a idjit." 
 
 " How is she a idjit ? " demanded Larrabee. 
 
 " Fur not marryin' Jack Espey whenst she hed 
 the chance. Dad an' Luther would hev stood off 
 Ross an' sech cattle, or gin bond fur him an' patched 
 up things somehow. Ye know they would, Lf I 
 hed been in her place, now, an' ef he hed axed 
 we" 
 
 She paused abruptly, with a sort of appalled 
 recognition of the sentiment that animated her. A 
 sudden illumination had broken in upon her ; her 
 heart throbbed tumultuously with pleasure, or was 
 it pain ? For she loved Jack Espey ; and he oh, 
 was it true that he loved Adelicia still ? She hardly 
 heeded or realized her self-betrayal. She did not see 
 so little did she care the pallid dismay, the 
 heartbreak, on Jasper Larrabee's face. He could 
 not deceive himself, it was too patent. He 
 turned away with a bitter sense of resentment, 
 another grudge toward Jack Espey for thus slyly 
 and completely supplanting him. At that moment 
 his eye fell upon the jagged rock about the entrance 
 of the Lost Time mine, and he drew back in amaze 
 ment. 
 
 " Why, where does all this water come from ? " he
 
 382 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 exclaimed sharply. He wondered that he had not 
 marked it before, despite his preoccupation. For 
 the flow of the stream was quadrupled, its momen 
 tum every instant greater. Naught could enter 
 now. The interior must be flooded anew. As he 
 gazed at it, wide-eyed and dumfounded, a sudden 
 enlightenment as to the phenomenon broke upon 
 him. The blasting which he had heard, he re 
 membered it now ; doubtless the concussion had 
 brought down some mass of rock or earth, damming 
 an underground current, and forcing its waters into 
 the channel of the stream which partially emptied 
 here, while the residue backed up and filled the 
 spaces. He thought that Espey and the old man 
 and " Tawm " had possibly made good their escape 
 before it happened ; but if not and Taft He 
 remembered how close were the ghostly voices when 
 he had last heard the false, cracked tones of com 
 mand ring through the tunnel. Those ill-timbered 
 galleries would fall to a certainty. He turned pale 
 at the very thought of a living burial in the den of 
 the still-room. 
 
 He did not hesitate. Without a word he sprang 
 upon the log, crossed the water, and sped away like 
 the wind, leaving Julia gazing in astonishment after 
 him. He thought his worst fears were realized, 
 when he reached the store of the Lost Time mine. 
 His hasty question elicited from the children only 
 the fact of the absence of Taft and Copley. He 
 ran down into the cellar, to find the obliteration of 
 the traces of the old door, which he recognized only
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 383 
 
 as an added precaution since his departure. Doubt 
 less some other method of entering the tunnel had 
 been devised. An axe hacking through the chink 
 ing served to reveal the ruin of the tunnel, and to 
 admit a strong and pervasive odor of gunpowder. 
 
 Lorenzo Taft's plans were very perfectly calcu 
 lated and adjusted to the probabilities. There had 
 been no rift in his judgment. Nowhere could he 
 find fault or flaw in his reasoning. A lucky chance 
 had fired the hotel, and freed his hands from the 
 smirch of the firebrand and the possible penalties 
 of arson. The moving of the great monument of 
 boundary had thrown the only available site for the 
 hotel on the Kenniston tract well within Cap'n 
 Lucy's lines when the land was processioned, and 
 thus the summer swallow must needs alight else 
 where, and the commercial interests of moonshining 
 would thereby be promoted. Each detail had fallen 
 out exactly as he had planned. Success seemed the 
 essential sequence. Only Espey's frantic fear of 
 arrest had precipitated all the untoward events 
 which had advanced parallel after parallel, and 
 forced him to his last defenses. And these one 
 might think were most sagacious and adequate. 
 The foolish drunken boy, whose tongue might work 
 mischief, was within the hour hustled out of the 
 country. Every trace of the forbidden vocation 
 was demolished beyond the possibility of detection. 
 If Larrabee should seek revenge by informing, he 
 could prove naught, not even his own complicity. 
 It would seem but the groundless accusation of
 
 384 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 malice. And Taft had even taken time by the fore 
 lock by avowing his former illegal practices, his 
 prison record, his familiarity with the motives and 
 manoeuvres of moonshiners, and insidiously casting- 
 suspicion on Larrabee, ascribing to him an ade 
 quate motive for moving the Big Hollow Boulder, 
 in the eyes of the law a felony. 
 
 No possible flaw in his reasoning from the prem 
 ises from which he argued. He had guarded him 
 self logically, boldly, with great perspicacity, from 
 enmity, from revenge. It never for one moment oc 
 curred to him to devise protection from good will ! 
 
 Kenniston and Ross, even in the excitement of 
 the emergency, and the tumultuous tide of Larra- 
 bee's eager explanations when he suddenly burst 
 in upon them as they sat smoking together after 
 breakfast, could but take heed of the subtler sub- 
 current of significance in his disclosure. More than 
 once they exchanged glances charged with a mean 
 ing deeper than he wot of. 
 
 " Thar 's a shaft," he cried, " an old air-shaft, 
 a-nigh that thar tunnel ! Ef ye '11 rig up a wind 
 lass, or let yer men put me down with a rope, I '11 
 find Taft, an' the t'others too, ef they be thar yit." 
 
 " You '11 drown yourself, or fall, or suffocate with 
 gas," Kenniston said tentatively, looking about for 
 his hat, and pausing to cast a keen glance at Lar- 
 rabee. 
 
 " I '11 resk it I '11 resk it fur him and Espey 
 too an' I dunno what my mother would do ef old 
 grand-daddy Haight war ter kem ter sech an e-end 7
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 385 
 
 Oh, I '11 resk it ! An' Taft, he ain't a bad man when 
 all 's said. Taft 's mighty clever sometimes." 
 
 " I think he's the worst man I ever saw," said 
 Kenniston, as he flung away his cigar. 
 
 A call for volunteers and the offer of a reward by 
 Kenniston secured no companion to Larrabee in his 
 venture when the workmen looked down into the 
 dark shaft, with its crumbling sides, and sound 
 of tumbling waters, and chill dank foul breath. 
 They only manifested their good will in their alac 
 rity in adjusting and adapting such appliances as 
 they could to insure Larrabee's safety as far as 
 possible. Kenniston doubted at the time whether 
 he ought to permit the jeopardy; being assured, 
 however, that the effort would be made at all 
 events, but without the advantage of the heavy 
 cables and pulleys which had been used in build 
 ing the hotel, and which his compliance offered, 
 he yielded. Afterward he was disposed to take 
 great credit to himself for several devices which 
 facilitated the enterprise, and from his knowledge 
 of mechanical resources he doubtless insured its suc 
 cess ; he bore the honors of the rescue, which 
 Larrabee at the peril of his life achieved, with 
 all the unblushing effrontery of an officer whose 
 command has won a battle. 
 
 He was in a glow of enthusiasm for the nonce, 
 and he continued the role of benefactor with more 
 genuine pleasure than had lately fallen to his jaded 
 susceptibility. He placed eighty-seven silver dol 
 lars in a worn leather bag, a tobacco pouch of one
 
 386 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 of the workmen, to be given to old Haight when 
 he should be sufficiently recovered, with the pious 
 fiction that his own money had been found in the 
 shaft. " This will keep the old mole from burrow 
 ing again," he said. 
 
 His abounding good nature was very thorough 
 when once aroused. His heart was touched by 
 Espey's forlorn plight, as he lay panting on the 
 grass, and the pallor of his young face marked by 
 the dread of life that had just succeeded the dread 
 of death. 
 
 " Can't you make out to let up on Espey, some 
 how ? " he said aside to Rodolphus Ross, whose 
 clumsy pranks of delight at the successful outcome 
 of this most exciting episode were like the extrava 
 gant joviality of a gamboling Newfoundland dog, 
 and not unpleasing to his interlocutor from their 
 common bond of sympathy. 
 
 "Who? Espey?" He paused, turning his 
 lighted dark eyes on Kenniston, his peaked hat 
 shading his elevated eyebrows and surprised face. 
 " I ain't hyar arter Espey no more. I 'm arter the 
 fire-bug, ye know. That thar man ez Espey shot 
 in Tanglefoot Cove hev got well o' the pip, or the 
 gapes, or whatever the weak-kneed chicken took 
 from the bullet; an' this hyar warrant fur ar 
 rest hev been kerried round in my pocket till it 's 
 mighty nigh wore out." He took the ragged pa 
 per from his pocket and shook out its tatters, 
 and laughed and grimaced in the very face of 
 its august authority. " Go on, boy, go on ! I
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 387 
 
 wouldn't put the county ter charges ter board ye ! " 
 he said to Espey. 
 
 A supply of whiskey was on hand, for the osten 
 sible purpose of reviving the victims of the Lost 
 Time mine, as they were drawn up one by one from 
 those treacherous depths, limp and pallid and 
 fainting. But the quantity was sufficient to en 
 able the company of rescuers subsequently to re 
 fresh themselves, and Kenniston genially treated 
 the crowd. Some of the men now and then began 
 to coil up the ropes, and again fell to discussing 
 the jeopardy and the disastrous possibilities; and 
 much hilarity and gratulation prevailed amongst 
 the group in the dewy woods, still filled with the 
 slant of the early morning sunshine, when Espey 
 slipped away from it. His heart was still sore, as 
 if it had forgotten to beat except with a dull throb 
 of pain, unrealizing his change of fortune except 
 to sullenly rebel against all the unnecessary woe 
 that had fallen to his lot. As he went along the 
 road, he scarcely noted a flower here and there on 
 the soggy ground. The dash and fret of the 
 stream from the portal of the Lost Time mine 
 caught his attention. He marked its added vol 
 ume, and, with his familiarity with the terrible 
 subterranean chambers, he could picture to himself 
 the obstacles which lay in its course, and which 
 the blasting from the tunnel or the still-room 
 had brought down. He trembled and grew cold 
 with the thought of his jeopardy. He mechan- 
 ially cursed anew Taft's name, as he had done
 
 388 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 again and again since his voice, his " partin' com 
 pliments," had been audible before the charge in 
 the tunnel had been fired. He shuddered again as 
 he recalled the sound of the water backing up ever 
 higher and higher through those black dungeons, 
 lisping and hissing its insidious threat through all 
 the long night. How woeful it had been with 
 the wild terror of his companions to contemplate, 
 till he was as wild with the terror of them as of his 
 own fate to look momently to meet death here, 
 without a soul on earth to truly care, to anguish 
 for him as he was anguished He paused, the 
 tenor of his thought breaking abruptly. Had he 
 seen it before, or had he only fancied that cardinal 
 flower lying in the sun on the gray rock by the 
 water ? Was it not thus that he should know that 
 Julia had passed and had thought of him, was 
 not this their covenant ? He doubtfully picked up 
 the delicate spray another ; still, it might be an 
 accident, a coincidence. A cluster of jewel-weeds 
 lay caught in the bark of the log that served as 
 footbridge, and swayed and glowed in the sun; it 
 was in his hand when he reached the further bank. 
 As far as one might hope to command a glimpse 
 from the mine, the fragile tokens were scattered. 
 They were full of dew ; their breath allured him. 
 They trembled as with some shy, timorous thought 
 in his trembling hand. The color had come into 
 his face ; a light was in his eyes ; his tired, troubled 
 pulses were beating fast, strong, with a new 
 rhythm. And as Julia, still loitering homeward,
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 389 
 
 her head bare, her hands empty, heard a footstep 
 behind her and turned, she saw him, all her gar 
 nered blossoms in his grasp, and all his heart in 
 his eyes. 
 
 Kenniston, still elated, but somewhat tired out 
 with the morning's excitements, upon reaching 
 his quarters among the workmen's shanties, found 
 Cap'n Lucy there awaiting an audience, and all 
 unaware of the progress of events of so much 
 moment elsewhere to-day. A rousing " cock-a-doo 
 dle-doo " might be a fair summary of Cap'n 
 Lucy's discourse. His perplexities had vanished 
 with the tangled twists of the rain, and he set 
 forth boldly and with much detail his discovery of 
 the moving of the boulder, the corner monument 
 of boundary, his anxiety and doubt as to his proper 
 course, and his realization that the surveyor's line 
 had thrown much land which he knew was Kennis- 
 ton's within his own domain. 
 
 A man of tact was Cap'n Lucy in his own way. 
 He so glossed over his suspicions of Kenniston 
 that albeit the latter' detected them rather through 
 the correlated circumstances than through the ve 
 neer of that section of his mind which it pleased 
 Cap'n Lucy to present, he did not look upon them 
 seriously. He was a stranger ; the old man was 
 densely ignorant, and his experience of life and 
 comparative knowledge of men were limited in 
 deed ; and in truth it was apparently impossible 
 to deduce from the facts any other interest than
 
 390 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 Kenniston's to be served by the moving of the 
 boulder. Thus he silently forgave Cap'n Lucy 
 for his suspected suspicions. 
 
 And Cap'n Lucy was heartily ashamed of them 
 now. 
 
 " I know it air moved bodaciously Big Hollow 
 Boulder corner mark monimint o' boundary ; 
 an' now what air ye an' me goin' ter do 'bout that 
 thar dad-burned line what 's gone an' coiled itself 
 like the plumb old Scorpion o' the Pit? " 
 
 "Procession the land again, and prosecute the 
 man who moved the boulder," said Kenniston 
 coolly. 
 
 And indeed justice had hardily overtaken Lo 
 renzo Taft, for Kenniston's unwonted leniency did 
 not hold out to include his offending. It seemed 
 to him a very pretty play of cause and effect that 
 so close upon the heels of Taft's accusations of 
 Larrabee, and his subtle and successful hoodwink 
 ing of the practiced man of business, who made a 
 point of knowing men, Taft should be hurrying to 
 Colbury and the county jail, under the escort of 
 the jubilant Rodolphus Ross and a posse of two or 
 three stout fellows, to answer these very charges of 
 arson and of feloniously moving a corner monument 
 of boundary, all because of Larrabee's volunta 
 rily putting his life in jeopardy for his sake. 
 
 Nevertheless, Kenniston listened mildly enough 
 to Adelicia's earnest intercessions for Taft that 
 evening, when he sat as of yore with the family 
 circle around Cap'n Lucy's fireside ; he seemed to
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 391 
 
 find a certain fascination in the incongruities of 
 her ingenious palliations and extenuations of his 
 crime. 
 
 " He mought n't hev been acquainted with the 
 boulder ez a monimint o' boundary," she urged ; 
 and when the fallacy of this was demonstrated, 
 " He mought hev been sorry an' wanted to put it 
 back, but it war too heavy an' the hill war too 
 high." 
 
 Whereupon Kenniston burst into satiric laugh 
 ter. 
 
 " He 's sorry enough now, I '11 warrant you ; and 
 he '11 be sorrier still before I 'm through with him." 
 
 But although Adelicia's expertness in excuses for 
 other people failed in this instance, Kenniston's 
 purposes were frustrated by a wholesale jail deliv 
 ery which occurred at Colbury shortly after, and 
 Taft was among the jail-birds who took flight thence. 
 He was never heard of again in the Cove. The 
 thought of him at large and at enmity served to 
 postpone the building of the hotel for a time. 
 The plans for a great public edifice in Breton- 
 ville absorbed Kenniston in the immediate future, 
 and finally he grew indifferent to the project of the 
 mountain resort, and it was definitely abandoned. 
 
 Larrabee profited by Kenniston's advice, and 
 availed himself of the " amnesty " proffered by the 
 government to moonshiners about that time, and 
 thenceforward the still knew him no more. The 
 manufacture of " brush whiskey " was never re 
 sumed at the Lost Time mine. The store there be-
 
 392 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 came truly a centre of barter under the ministra 
 tions of old Copley and the power behind the 
 throne, his niece, Cornelia Taft, who developed 
 much of her father's decision and definiteness and 
 shrewdness of character as she grew older, always 
 tempered by Mrs. Jiniway's precepts, to which she 
 rigidly adhered. She received much countenance, 
 and guidance too, in these early years, from Ade- 
 licia, who persisted in following the bent of her 
 own lenient inclination toward others, making the 
 most of their good qualities and light of their foi 
 bles. It was a certain solace in the bitter loss of 
 other illusions for which she was less charitable. 
 She never could be brought to believe that Julia 
 had not intentionally wiled her lover's heart away 
 from her. It was a relief when these strained re 
 lations were at an end, when Julia and Espey were 
 married, in defiance of Cap'n Lucy's opposition, 
 and had gone to Tanglefoot Cove. Cap'n Lucy 
 argued their much-mooted points of difference with 
 Adelicia less than before, and deferred in silence to 
 her. It was only when, in the winter evenings, 
 Jasper Larrabee was wont to come and read aloud, 
 as in the old days, that Cap'n Lucy rose to his nor 
 mal temperature of contradiction, and controverted 
 sundry hard sayings difficult to be incorporated in 
 the life of a willful man, and contemned Jasper 
 Larrabee's learning, and accused him of ignorantly 
 perverting the Scriptures. Then it was that Adeli- 
 cia's talents of optimism became transcendently ap 
 parent. She developed a wonderful craft of inter-
 
 HIS VANISHED STAR. 393 
 
 pretation. Leaning over one arm of Cap'n Lucy's 
 chair, while Jasper Larrabee leaned over the other 
 with his book and page to show, Cap'n Lucy, 
 flustered and red-faced, acrid and belligerent, vo 
 ciferating between them, Adelicia would demon 
 strate that this doubtless meant the other, or it was 
 plain to see that the reference was not general, thus 
 including Cap'n Lucy, but was made directly to the 
 character under discussion ; whereby Cap'n Lucy, 
 perceiving that no added burden of meekness or 
 other Christian grace was to be laid upon him as 
 essential to salvation, would permit himself to be 
 pacified. And Adelicia's gifts grew by much ex 
 ercise. Even Cap'n Lucy, always acute, became 
 reluctantly aware of this, in some sort. " Ad'licia 
 hav got so durned smart she kin mighty nigh ex 
 plain away the devil," he fretted, unaware that this 
 feat had already been accomplished by other and 
 more pretentious theologians than Adelicia. The 
 gossips said, in the Cove, that it was in the process 
 of trying to " ' square ' Cap'n Lucy to the Scrip- 
 tur's, or ter square the Scriptur's ter Cap'n Lucy," 
 that Adelicia and Jasper fell in love with each 
 other. Certain it is the days came in which nei 
 ther had aught to regret, and Adelicia's optimism 
 was triumphantly justified. 
 
 Even his vanished star came to be a tender mem 
 ory to Larrabee rather than a poignant bereave 
 ment. Sometimes thinking of that dread descent 
 into the crumbling old shaft of the Lost Time 
 mine, with the chill sound of the tumbling waters
 
 394 HIS VANISHED STAR. 
 
 below, the thick foul air in his every breath, the 
 desperate straining of the ropes that so shook his 
 nerves, the fragments of rock falling about his 
 head, and his heart fairly failing him for fear, he 
 deemed he had found the " leading " he had asked 
 and had followed it. For since he could do naught 
 for Christ, whose humble humanity is merged in 
 the majesty of the great King of heaven, he might 
 do somewhat for man whom He died to save. 
 
 He did not know that his star remained for a 
 time a faint telescopic object and interested the 
 speculation of astronomers, whose outlook from 
 their wisdom was also limited as his from his igno 
 rance. They merely accounted it one of those 
 mysterious, unwonted apparitions, a stranger to all 
 the astral hierarchy, prettily called " guest-stars " 
 in the ancient Chinese records, and they knew after 
 a time that the " Ke-sing dissolved." They did not 
 dream that this celestial visitant could be charged 
 with a moral mission ; for in all the discoveries and 
 advances of science, what mystic lens might serve 
 to reveal the amaranthine wreath and the nearing 
 pinion ?
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
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