THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 f
 
 Copyright, 1888, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
 
 PS 
 
 //oo 
 LIPPINCOTT'S 
 
 MAGAZINE 
 
 JULY, 1888. 
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 A YOUNG AMERICAN GIRL. 
 
 IN a small valley, on the southward slope of the great table-land 
 . of Mexico, lay an hacienda, fair as an earthly paradise. "Well was 
 this hacienda the property of General Mariano del Prado called Las 
 Delicias, the Delightful, or the Place of Delights. 
 
 " Well is it called Las Delicias," said Amy Colebrook, writing back 
 to her family an account of her journey in a distant land. 
 
 And " Well is it called Las Delicias," thought young Walter Ar 
 royo, of the neighboring town, particularly when the beautiful young 
 American girl from New York had come there to make a visit. 
 
 " The mansion itself," continued Miss Amy Colebrook, " has the 
 most peculiar of situations. What will you say when I tell you it 
 stands in the open side of a volcano ? There, there, don't tremble for 
 me ; wait till you hear me explain. It is an extinct volcano, and the 
 past terror but gives greater zest to the present security. 
 
 " We came down to it first from a great height," she wrote. " The 
 dillgentia that brought us from the city of Mexico had bumped and 
 shaken us terribly, but I forgot it all at the view of that valley. We 
 seemed to hang in mid-air, on the rough pass, and the colors of the 
 glorious prospect below us were pale like those of a dream. 
 
 " ' Cuernavaca !' cried Luz, making out some domes near a tract of 
 sugar-cane of a more vivid green than the rest. 
 
 " Her eyes filled with tears at the sight of her home, then she fairly 
 broke down and sobbed on her father's shoulder. Never had I felt more 
 warmly towards the child. You know we thought her rather slow 
 and dull at school. The other girls at Mrs. Rush's ridiculed her for 
 stupidity, but I felt, even then, that much of it was the shyness due to 
 separation from her own country and also lack of facility in our language. 
 
 3 
 
 1211698
 
 4 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 And, indeed, on this long journey of ours from New York she has de 
 veloped many sweet and attractive qualities. I am sure Luz unlike 
 as is her name to her dark skin and over-developed figure has the 
 makings of a charming woman about her yet. Lucky for me, was it 
 not, I took this enlightened view of her, or I should never have been 
 here. And now I am only too delighted to find I was right. Her 
 gratitude for what little consideration I showed her is really quite 
 moving, and so is her father's too. The General is just the nicest 
 old gentleman in the world, somewhat stolid and formal, his daughter 
 takes after him in disposition as well as in his dark, heavy type, but 
 occupied only in thinking what kind-hearted thing he can do for us 
 next. 
 
 " You know of old my habit of digressing : so don't expect a 
 straight story from me at this late day. I meant to tell you about the 
 house first, and then about the people. At a little hamlet, of a few 
 cane and adobe huts, with a ruined church, like an ancient abbey, in 
 the midst of them, we were met by a lively cavalcade, consisting of 
 Don Angel, the son of the house, and the dependants of the hacienda, 
 come out to welcome us. Don Angel is a mere boy, of perhaps eigh 
 teen. They had dismounted, and were resting under a pleasant shade, 
 where some Indian women had oranges and lemons from their own 
 trees for sale, but the moment of our arrival they leaped into the saddle 
 again and began to dash along beside us in gallant style. They fired 
 pistols in the air and made demonstrations of joy that were almost 
 terrific. Their accoutrements well, I am sending you herewith an 
 aspiring attempt in water-colors, together with some photographs, to 
 show the costumes of the country. The heavy spurs, the bauds around 
 their hate, and the rows of coins down the legs of their trousers are all 
 silver. 
 
 " I can't get over even the old men's wearing short jackets : you 
 should see the rotund General in his ! 
 
 " One of the party, whose name I learned was Don Walter Arroyo, 
 looked particularly spirited on horseback. He was only an acquaint 
 ance, it appeared, who happened to be there at the time, and came along 
 with the rest. But my attention was drawn away from their eccen 
 tricities by our coming to the Cerro. We rode through flowering 
 hedges and shaded lanes, and presently there was the stately, long, low, 
 white mansion before us. 
 
 " The Cerro is a truncated cone of three or four hundred feet in 
 height. One side has been torn away, probably by the force of some 
 ancient flow of lava, and discloses to view what was once the crater, and 
 is now a natural bowl of exquisite verdure, with soft and pleasing slopes. 
 In the centre of this open side, at the top of a gentle rise of ground, where 
 it receives the breeze only from the most favoring quarters, and is 
 sheltered against every inclemency, stands the imposing residence, spa 
 cious, sculptured, battlemented, and loop-holed against attack, and with 
 a gabled belfry in which hang two tiers of old bronze bells, to summon 
 the family to chapel or other domestic purposes. 
 
 " The emerald bowl around it, perhaps half a mile in diameter, 
 which had once been so terrible, fertile now with crops and gardens,
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 5 
 
 merging near the top into the darker green of rich forest, presented a 
 scene of peculiar and quiet beauty. At one place only was a trace of 
 roughness to be seen, in some basaltic cliffs, with hot springs at their 
 foot, from which wavered up thin wreaths of steam. Behind the Cerro 
 rose tall and savage mountains, of which it made a part. Up there 
 among them, at a great distance off, you could see the white thread of a 
 waterfall. There was a beautiful light over everything, the herds were 
 coming home, and the bells of the hacienda struck with a musical 
 chiming. 
 
 " I marvelled to find this palatial abode set down in the very jaws 
 of destruction as it were. A most intelligent young man, the one who 
 happened to be here by accident, who rode beside me, explained to me 
 something of the character of such a site. He spoke English, though 
 with a good deal of accent, and was made interpreter by the others. 
 
 "'There are a great many such hills scattered about here : you will 
 often see them/ he said. * They are probably offshoots of old Popo 
 catepetl [the great peak towering snowy white on our horizon], thrown 
 up by the elemental fires that had begun to abate there. I have not 
 been abroad, but I have heard from travellers that there are plenty of 
 them in French Auvergne and near Naples. A king of Naples, when 
 there was one, used to keep his deer in a crater- ring something like the 
 Cerro: he had only to shut in one side with a gate, and there was his 
 deer-park complete. And these old volcanic cinder-heaps, as we know, 
 make the very choicest of soil for vineyards and gardens/ 
 
 "'Yes,' I answered, sighing, I am afraid, 'I have never been 
 abroad either, but I have often heard my father tell about drinking the 
 delicious Lacryma Christi wine, grown on the slopes of Vesuvius/ 
 
 " Yes, my dear family, I had to admit at once that this was my first 
 venture into that great world of travel and romance after which my 
 vagrant spirit has long had such a hankering. However, this is an 
 opportunity that bids fair to make up for all my past deprivations. 
 You will think it shocking in me, but I have hardly had time as yet 
 even to be homesick. I am not sure but I am grateful for the ailments 
 that reconciled you to letting me come home with the kind General and 
 his daughter, to try the effect of their milder climate. I am far better 
 already; you would hardly know me. 
 
 " I stop a dozen times a day at the loveliness all around me to cry 
 in involuntary wonderment, ' Oh, beautiful !' 
 
 "What a sweet and perfumed air! What delicious gardens, what 
 terraces and statues, in the old-fashioned formal style of the foreign 
 palaces! What fish-ponds, with carp in them! What fountains, 
 labyrinths, and clipped alleys ! What thickets of laurel and cypress, 
 with rose-trees flaming in their midst, and oranges starring the dark 
 breadths like golden lamps ! My dear, commonplace, poverty-stricken 
 family, how am I ever to go back to you ? Have you an hacienda some 
 ten miles wide by twenty long, lying upon the mountain-slopes in such 
 a way that it possesses a number of different climates of its own, vary 
 ing from temperate to torrid, and grows the choicest productions of 
 each ? Have you herds on a thousand hills, and employees like a small 
 army ? Have you a mayor-domo, and a book-keeper, and a half-dozen
 
 6 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 other principal subordinates before the ordinary servants even begin ? 
 Have you an establishment the granaries of which alone are like monu 
 mental halls, and the various buildings of which cover acres of 
 ground ? 
 
 " No, I should say not. You have only a sweet little flat near the 
 Park, with almost the prettiest portieres and blue china in town, it is 
 true, but still very high up in the air, and lacking bedrooms enough for 
 the comfortable accommodation of all my numerous brothers and sisters. 
 But I love it, just as it is, and, in spite of what I have said, I only wish 
 I were back there with you, this very minute. Not one of you but de 
 serves the pleasure I am having now much better than myself. Ah ! 
 well, perhaps, better things are in store for us yet. Ah ! why must there 
 have been people so cruel and unscrupulous ? Why could not dishonest 
 trustees have taken some other people's money instead of ours ? Not 
 that I want anybody's to be taken, but there are so many that put it 
 only to vulgar and ostentatious uses. Do you know I often think we 
 are just the ones to have money ? disinterested of me, isn't it ? We 
 like nice things, we have refined tastes, haven't we ? I am sure we do 
 more now, with our wretched little makeshifts, to keep up a figure in 
 the world, than many with large incomes. Of course it isn't so hard for 
 me, because I have always been used to it, the troubles happened before 
 my time ; but I often think how you, dear mamma, must suffer, who once 
 had everything so very different. Why are there not benevolent rich 
 people who find out about the cases of nice, deserving families whose 
 money was made away with by faithless trustees, and in some artful 
 way set them on their feet again ? That would be true charity. I am 
 sure, in their case, I should like nothing better than playing the good 
 fairy in that way. Well, well, this is a long way to come to write you 
 on matters we have discussed a thousand times at home. You will 
 think your daughter and sister could- hardly have gone farther and 
 fared worse, if she is going to be impressed' in this way by the opulence 
 of her hospitable Mexican hosts. 
 
 " I asked ' Don' Walter Arroyo their Don means only the same as 
 our Mr., though it always seems as if it ought to mean a great deal 
 more if we were all likely to be blown up some fine day, living reck 
 lessly in the crater of a volcano," the writer continued. 
 
 " ' I hardly think so/ he answered, smiling at my idea. f You see 
 the rather permanent look of things around us, and I believe Popocate 
 petl has had no eruption for some thousands of years.' 
 
 " ' So much the more reason why it should happen now,' I said, 
 flippantly, for there was a slight irony in his tone, though I declare it 
 to you I have only lately begun to get over breathing gingerly on this 
 account, and waking up of nights to think about it. 
 
 " ' You will not deny that such things can happen and have hap 
 pened ?' I went on, more seriously. i I am sure before Vesuvius broke 
 out and swallowed up Pompeii the ancients had looked upon it as wholly 
 extinct, and never thought of it in any other way. I remember, too, 
 that Spartacus was besieged there by a Roman army, on a plain that 
 then existed in the top of it. The wonder to me is that people ever 
 get up confidence enough to do anything in such insecure places.'
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 7 
 
 " Don Walter Arroyo looked as if he were a little surprised at my 
 reading, as, to tell the truth, I was myself. 
 
 " ' These are some of the small risks one takes in life,' he said, 
 appearing by no means overcome with terror. ' And you do the poor 
 earthquake and volcano injustice, too. They have many good points 
 about them.' 
 
 " ' Such as what, I should like to know ?' 
 
 " ' They are a vent for surplus heat, and they keep up the neces 
 sary inequalities of the earth's surface, which would otherwise soon be 
 polished down by the elements as smooth as a billiard-ball.' 
 
 " ' The earthquake ought to honor its able defender, if possible, by 
 special exemptions,' I rejoined. 
 
 " It was a long time since I had teased anybody, and I felt rather 
 like it. 
 
 " He only bowed, in his smiling way, however, and concluded with 
 this, which I thought quite striking : 
 
 " ' For my part, I am not so much surprised at the instability of the 
 earth as its real solidity. It is one vast net-work of cracks and active 
 disturbances, and the amusing thing is the way men and their civilized 
 works keep on it, in spite of all its efforts to shake them off. We ride 
 it a good deal as a vaquero rides an obstinately bucking pony, and we 
 but rarely come to grief.' " 
 
 To another person, one nearly of her own age, a certain Emily Win 
 chester, this sprightly correspondent repeated substantially the same 
 account, dwelling a little more fully on the young man who had looked 
 so particularly well on horseback. 
 
 " There is to be very little society here, it seems," she said ; u the 
 places are so far apart, and the people have had so many feuds and revo 
 lutions. He has some kind of surveying to do for the General : so I 
 suppose he will come back again, and is likely to be one of our few vis 
 itors. He is really very handsome, and you know your friend Amy's 
 penchant for good looks. Will you ever forget our silliness over Mon 
 tague ? How many of us were there who used to adore his photograph 
 and post ourselves in front seats at the matinees ? Seilor Don Walter 
 Arroyo I like the solid air of the simple ' Walter* added to the roman 
 tic surname is half or even wholly American. I don't understand all 
 the circumstances, but he was brought up by relations, three old maiden 
 ladies, in the neighboring town. They live on a small income, and he 
 looks after some of their property. He has had a scientific education, 
 but I believe does not practise any profession regularly. 
 
 " When I say he is handsome I do not mean that there is anything 
 finical about him ; on the contrary, he has a strong and manly air ; 
 there is a certain plainness, if you can see what I mean, in the midst of 
 his good looks. Is this enough about a man whom I have met only 
 once ? What should you think if I should marry a Fra Diavolo sort 
 of husband and settle down here in the tropics for good and all ? But 
 what is the use of being girls if we cannot be nonsensical together once 
 in a while? Not that society, to be serious again, is of the least conse 
 quence to me, for, besides this heavenly place, I have all the surround 
 ing hamlets and all the little provincial city to explore, and the few
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 months of my visit will pass only too quickly. I Lave not left the 
 hacienda as yet, but to-morrow or next day we shall go to Cuernavaca. 
 A small village lies between, and it is about four miles away." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE IS FIRST HEARD OP. 
 
 ON the next day but one, in fact, the family drove into town, in 
 their ramshackle conveyance, with two mozos, or outriders, both as 
 servants and guards, behind them. It was ramshackle not for want 
 of a better, since they had the most modish of everything in their 
 stables at Mexico, but on account of the condition of the roads, and 
 because most of the travelling of the country was done on horseback. 
 
 The del Prados sat in it beaming with an air of benevolent con 
 tentment. There were various commissions to be accomplished. The 
 market-arcades, gay as a scene at the opera, the bizarre figures, the 
 great, ruddy water-jars, drew forth the admiration of Amy. For her 
 the most ordinary details of common life were full of interest, the 
 theatre, the hotel, the municipal building, a few soldiers practising on 
 their bugles before it, and particularly some prisoners working on the 
 pavements, under guard, who frightened her. 
 
 The Madre (Mother), as they called the Senora del Prado, often 
 varying it with the affectionate diminutives of Madrecita and Mamatila, 
 assisted by her daughter, explained everything. She was an old 
 lady, with bright eyes, a large mouth, iron-gray hair, and, at a first 
 glance, a rather stern look on her dark face ; but this was misleading, 
 for there was really no unpleasant sternness about her. She was of a 
 more conservative cast than the General, coming from one of the old, 
 aristocratic " Mocho" families, and having her sympathies still strongly 
 bound up with them, while her husband though he too, to be sure, 
 was of just as ancient lineage was an enlightened member of the 
 party of progress and liberal ideas. Such intermarriages are not in 
 frequent in the country, and, needless to say, the feminine conservatism 
 has to give way, though making itself much felt under the surface. 
 
 They stopped at the drug-store, with its colored bottles, the grocer's, 
 with his long rows of white tapers suspended before his door, and then 
 turned down a side-street to find a little shop where dried rose-leaves, 
 and all kinds of dried herbs, medicinal and culinary, were exposed for 
 sale. Just coming out of this shop as they reached it were two women 
 in a garb resembling that of nuns and yet retaining about it something 
 secular. One of them had a perfectly charming face, young, roseate, 
 and demure, under a dark shawl, much heavier than the usual mantilla. 
 The other was middle-aged, plain, raw-boned, an entirely matter-of- 
 fact-looking person. 
 
 The Sefiora del Prado spoke to them very kindly, and made Amy 
 acquainted w T ith them, introducing the younger one as Sister Beatriz, 
 and the other as Sister Praxedis. 
 
 " And what brings you to town to-day ?" she asked them.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 9 
 
 " We have sold some of our embroideries and dried herbs," answered 
 Beatriz. 
 
 " I am sorry we have not room for you in the carriage : I would 
 like so much to drive you home." 
 
 " We do not mind the walk, we are so well used to it. Besides, 
 we are not going yet," said Praxedis. Her eyes wandered, as if in 
 voluntarily, to the belfry clock of an old, half-ruined church across 
 the way, beautiful in its decay, as are a myriad more throughout the 
 country. 
 
 " Ah, yes, you go and pray sometimes in the garden of your former 
 convent ?" 
 
 " Yes, but before that we are going to breakfast with the Sefloritas 
 Arroyo. Many of our friends are very kind to us." 
 
 " They are the aunts of Don Walter. There are three of them, and 
 three of the Sisters, Dofia Cataliua is left at home, and they consort 
 much together," said the Madre, after the others had gone, smiling as 
 if with a feeling of humor about it. " The Sefloritas Arroyo are good 
 women. They must have been very hard to suit in their youth, or 
 some say their father did not wish them to marry, and used all his 
 influence against it. They have rather spoiled their nephew by want 
 of firmness. He is too wild a colt for them to manage, though he's a 
 favorite of mine, too, and has many fine qualities." 
 
 " There is Don Walter himself," exclaimed Luz, pointing him out. 
 
 " Yes, with Captain Francisco Perez again. That man will bring 
 him to no good." 
 
 They saw Walter riding into the street in dusty attire, beside a man 
 much older than himself, who was mounted on a large, powerful charger, 
 and looked back from time to time after a number of half-clad peons 
 bringing along some agricultural implements. 
 
 " That man looks like a bandit," said Amy ; " but so did they all at 
 first : I suppose he is no worse than the rest." 
 
 " He has been," responded the Madre, " and I can't conceive why 
 Walter will associate with him." 
 
 "I've seen the time, during my term as governor, when I should 
 have had him shot at a moment's notice, if I could have laid hands 
 upon him," said the General, rousing himself from his taciturnity for 
 the nonce to confirm this view. 
 
 "And now just because he pretended to devote himself to the ser 
 vice of the existing government in the last part of the troubles, it was 
 always one for them and two for himself, I'll warrant, they let him 
 settle down as a respectable ranchero and honored member of society. I 
 declare it's too bad to see him allowed to lead a young man astray. 
 There's no telling what mischief they are up to together." 
 
 Don Walter now discovered them, and rode forward and greeted 
 them with a fine, deferential, yet easy air. Sefiora del Prado shook 
 her finger at him at the first opportunity, and taxed him with his bad 
 company. 
 
 " On the contrary," said he, " I have been away finishing the survey 
 of the northern boundary of your estate, ever since I saw you last, and 
 I only met Captain Perez just here by accident. The return of the Gen-
 
 10 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 eral reminded me of my negligence : I should have had the work done 
 before." 
 
 " Then I hold you excused," said the Madre, holding out her hand 
 to him in a friendly way. 
 
 " Shall I do myself the honor of waiting on you to-morrow to present 
 my report, General ?" 
 
 " To-morrow or when you please ; my house is always yours." 
 
 Don Walter, before riding away again, apologized for his travel- 
 stained appearance. His work, he said, had been in a very rough part 
 of the country, in the thick mountain-forests and along the Barranca 
 of Cimarron, a place seldom visited. His eyes roved with a respectful 
 admiration, which he seemed to make efforts to check, over the fair face 
 of Amy as he talked, and he paid her, with the other ladies, some well- 
 turned compliments, by which even the most decorously brought up of 
 young women could hardly have failed to be gratified. 
 
 " Do not be ensnared by him," said the General, however, by way 
 of playful warning : " the blonde type of beauty is rather rare among us, 
 and you may expect plenty of floras compliments, literally flowers 
 while you are here." 
 
 They stayed quite a while at the herb-shop, and then stopped to 
 buy shoes at a shop advertising itself under the sign of " The Boot of 
 Venus," which consumed a good deal more of their time. 
 
 Meanwhile Don Walter dismounted at a small new fonda or restau 
 rant under the columned portals that ran round the principal square. 
 This place had lately been opened by one Antonio Gassol, a former 
 employee of the hacienda of Las Delicias, as a rival to the fonda of the 
 Bella Union, in the opposite corner. 
 
 " What can you give me in the way of a bite of breakfast ?" demanded 
 the customer, sliding easily into a chair by a small table. 
 
 The landlord assured him that everything in the earth, air, and sea 
 was at his command, but the best dish he had ready at the moment was 
 a very fine pucker o, or general stew. 
 
 " Bring it on, then. And what is the news here of late?" 
 
 " For one thing, General del Prado has returned from the United 
 States. He drove through the plaza here awhile ago." 
 
 " Yes, I knew he was back." 
 
 " And he has brought with him the handsomest young girl in all 
 the Norte, a friend of his daughter's, so some old acquaintances at the 
 hacienda tell me. Her hair, down her back, is as bright as so many 
 sunbeams. My, but she's a beauty ! She's prettier than that picture 
 over there." . 
 
 "Hombre!" (Man!) exclaimed Walter, in affected astonishment. 
 The picture referred to was a wretched daub of the Mexican goddess 
 of liberty on the wall back of the counter, whence pulque, the native 
 beverage, was chiefly dispensed. 
 
 " I swear it by my head and the merits of all my defunct relations," 
 cried Antonio Gassol, enthusiastically. 
 
 "And how is it with yourself?" pursued the visitor, affably, think 
 ing perhaps he had heard sufficient on this subject. 
 
 " Oh, I ? I am having much trouble just now on account of my
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. \\ 
 
 sign, which I'm expecting the men here every minute to put up. Are 
 you a good judge in those matters ?" 
 
 " Not very, I'm afraid." 
 
 " Well, you see, I want the title of my place to give satisfaction, 
 and it's cost me many a good night's sleep to pick out just the right 
 one. A title may make or mar a man ; I've known it to be done." 
 
 "And what did you settle upon?" 
 
 "La Alma de Mexico (the Soul of Mexico), but there are so many 
 others that might have been chosen. How would ' The Ancient Glory 
 of Mexico' strike you ? That has a more sonorous sound. Then there 
 was the 'Sun of May;' 'The Spring;' 'The Diana;' 'The Great Mis 
 sissippi;' 'The " ; 
 
 But here the men arrived with the sign, and he broke off, and 
 rushed out to meet them. Don Walter, having finished his repast, fol 
 lowed in a more leisurely way. By that time a little crowd had gath 
 ered round. General del Prado was passing again, and Antonio Gassol 
 ran into the street, challenged the attention of the carriage, and brought 
 it to his door almost by main force. 
 
 " Will you do me the great favor, my General," he cried, " to give 
 us your honored opinion on this point? Some of the boys object to 
 my new sign. There it is up there, and a neat bit of work too, if I 
 dare say so myself." 
 
 "So it is neat," said the General, with a sort of fatherly interest in 
 the fortunes of his late servant that was pleasant to observe. 
 
 " There, you see, boys ! I couldn't please you all, could I ? I 
 wanted to do what was right and fair all round, but you can under 
 stand that for yourselves." 
 
 " What is the question at issue, friend Antonio ? we shall never get 
 on, at this rate." 
 
 " Some of them objected that La Alma de Mexico was too old, and 
 that many fondas have that name already." 
 
 " So they have," spoke up a voice from the crowd in a disgusted 
 way : " there are more than a million Alma de Mexico's in the country 
 now." 
 
 " Ah ! that is you, Perfecto Ponce ; you are there, are you ? You 
 were the principal one. What do you think he wanted ? Why, that I 
 should take a tradition of the district he and I come from, and call the 
 place ' The Famous Yellow Snake.' He argues that this would be some 
 thing especially appropriate, as belonging to our own part of the country. 
 I say it would bring us bad luck." 
 
 " There was a little fonda of that name up there at 5uetongo that 
 did very well, and you know it. Many's the drink of pulque we've 
 had there together. Besides, if there's any evil influence afloat you 
 want to conciliate it, don't you? Politeness is not thrown away, I 
 suppose, even on bad traditions." 
 
 " I don't see where -the novelty comes in, then ; and in a city some 
 thing more civilized is needed. But one of you chooses one thing, and 
 another another : even if I agreed with you, the rest would still have 
 their own ideas." 
 
 " I prefer ' El Demonic,' or ' El DelirioJ " spoke up a new voice.
 
 12 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " I have known those titles to succeed finely. They have a bold sound, 
 and give a place an air of excitement like." 
 
 " There, you see " 
 
 But at this moment the Jefe Politico, an officer somewhat corre 
 sponding to our mayor, but with a wider jurisdiction, came up. He 
 was a pompous, self-sufficient, stupid person, and the subject of con 
 troversy had to be re-stated for his ears. He had, in truth, an interest 
 of his own in the Bella Union, opposite, and looked with no favor 
 whatever upon the new enterprise. Nevertheless, feeling the eyes of 
 his fellow-citizens upon him, he assumed a weighty, judicial air, as if 
 considering a case of important bearings. 
 
 " The point is right here ; here is the issue," he began, placing a 
 forefinger in the palm of his hand. " I can tell you absolutely every 
 thing in these matters. For instance names were invented in early 
 times names come down to us from historic ages." 
 
 If the point were in the palm of his fat hand, it stayed there ; for 
 he made little further progress with his argument. The crowd began 
 to murmur with impatience. 
 
 " I had many other names," said Gassol, seizing an opportunity, in 
 his eagerness. " There was ( the Aurora/ the ' Fountain of Love.' " 
 
 " Why not ' the Fountain/ pure and simple ?" interposed Don 
 Walter, mockingly. " A great future awaits the tavern-keeper or the 
 milkman who honestly confesses to baptizing his liquids." And he 
 hummed, in the words of a popular air, 
 
 "El pulquero que lo intiende 
 Mas agua que pulque vende." 
 
 (" The pulque-dealer who understands himself more water than pulque 
 sells.") 
 
 The Jefe almost seemed to take this levity as an offence levelled 
 directly at himself. 
 
 " * Bella Union' is the most excellent of titles for a fonda ; there 
 is none better; you might learn of your neighbors," said he, with the 
 nearest approach to coherence he had yet made. 
 
 He strode out to mount his horse, thereupon, with such- rough in 
 advertence that his heavy spurs struck the naked legs of Trinidad Jos, 
 one of the mozos accompanying the del Prados, and caused that worthy 
 servant to wince with pain. 
 
 " Old fraud ! old ruffian !" murmured Trinidad JosS, looking after 
 him indignantly ; " but I know something that will make me even with 
 you yet," 
 
 " Well, now your sign is all nicely painted and put up, isn't it ?" 
 said General del Prado conciliatingly to Antonio Gassol, preparing to 
 drive on. " What if it has been heard a good deal before, and isn't 
 exactly original ? You know there are a great many people who will 
 only like it all the better for that." 
 
 " There, you see ? I told you so," Gassol could be heard saying, 
 behind them. 
 
 " What is all this about a Yellow Snake? It seems as if I recol 
 lected hearing something of the kind before," demanded the General.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 13 
 
 " I am the one to apply to ; I am just from that locality," responded 
 Walter, riding beside the carriage. " The story prevails chiefly among 
 the poor Indian population of charcoal-burners on the way to the deso 
 late Barranca of Cimarron. They believe some ancient deity appears 
 in that gorge under the form of a serpent and brings bad luck to who 
 ever sets eyes upon him." 
 
 Sefiorita Luz crossed herself, her New York education not yet having 
 changed her simple ways to any great extent. 
 
 " I suppose it is only a vestige of the worship of the god Quetzal- 
 coatl," Walter continued. " One of his titles was ' The Shining Snake.' 
 He is the god in whose day the cotton used to grow ready dyed with 
 gorgeous hues, and a single ear of corn was provision enough for a 
 large family." 
 
 " Those people are half idolaters yet," said the General, in a fatigued 
 way, " though they ought to have been Christians these last three hun 
 dred years." 
 
 " To be sure they are. They have caves with altars in them that 
 divide their worship with the churches; and how often idols are found 
 in the maguey-fields, to which they furtively pay their devotions !" 
 
 " Dios mio /" murmured the Seflora, piously. 
 
 " The secret of keeping up the tradition so long is probably that 
 scarcely any one has ever been down there to test it, for the place is all 
 but inaccessible," said Walter Arroyo. 
 
 The mozo Trinidad Jose 1 , who had worked as near as possible to hear 
 the conversation, upon this touched his hat respectfully, and ventured, 
 
 "I have been there, and I know it is unlucky." 
 
 " You have been there, you, Trinidad Jos6 ?" they exclaimed. 
 
 " I blundered into it once on a hunting-trip, when I was a young 
 man, from the other end, near the lake." 
 
 " And what happened to you ? 
 
 " Nothing happened to me, but the day after my return the Eng 
 lish governess and many of the animals were killed by lightning." 
 
 " Was she governess of your family ?" 
 
 " No, she was educating the children at the hacienda, you know 
 it very well, General," returned the mozo, reproachfully, " but she died 
 under a tree near my corral." 
 
 The family told Amy about this young Englishwoman. She had 
 arrived to begin her labors but a few weeks before her death, and she 
 was buried under the same tree where she had met her fate. 
 
 After that Amy would hear more about the nun or half-nun, Bea- 
 triz, whose sweet face had interested her. 
 
 " You know of course that all the convents were abolished here ?" 
 began Seflora del Prado. 
 
 " No, I am sorry to say I did not know it." 
 
 " Not even the Sisters of Charity were exempted. Our odious, so- 
 called ' Laws of Reform ' " 
 
 " Lucetta !" expostulated her husband. 
 
 " Well, they permit no more than three of the ex-nuns to live to 
 gether even in secular life," she continued, more temperately. " Dofla 
 Beatriz, only a novice, just beginning her religious life when this cruel
 
 14 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 edict was enforced, was one of those thrown out into the heartless world. 
 Two others live with her at Campo Florido. We do all we can for 
 the poor things/' sighing, " and but for our husbands, who make the 
 laws Well, amor de Dios !" 
 
 Don Walter Arroyo, after leaving the party, had ridden to his own 
 home in the quiet plazuela of San Ysidro. The two ex-nuns, having 
 breakfasted there, were just coming out as he entered the great green 
 door leading to an inner court-yard. 
 
 " Ah, if I had only known what company was here, I should not 
 have been so late," he said, applying even to them the tone of courteous 
 compliment that was natural to him with women. 
 
 Dofia Praxedis was no doubt beyond the reach of all such blandish 
 ments, but the younger, Dofia Beatriz, gave him a smile of much favor, 
 and even colored a little. 
 
 " We can hardly expect you to arrive at a fixed hour after so long 
 a journey, my dear Walter," said Miss Concepcion, the eldest of the 
 three Arroyo sisters, " and you shall still have your breakfast." 
 
 " I have already breakfasted, so as not to put you out." 
 
 He went to his chamber, which the kind care of the spinsters had 
 made perhaps the pleasantest in the house, and passed some hours there 
 nervously arranging the notes of his survey and other papers. When 
 he issued forth again, he threw himself at full length upon a settee in 
 the large, cool, brick-floored parlor, and began to talk in a discontented 
 way, that by degrees grew more feverish, of his prospects in life. 
 
 " I sometimes think it might be a little better if you hunted less 
 with Captain Perez," began Miss Martica, the second sister, with mild 
 reproach. 
 
 " He is the best shot and boldest rider in the district," he answered, 
 .as if that were a quite sufficient response. 
 
 " But really such a companionship must have a certain unsettling 
 influence," she pleaded, gently, " and make you less energetic in busi 
 ness." 
 
 " Captain Perez is the very best fellow in the world ; if others will 
 talk against him, I never wish to hear it. His kindness to me com 
 menced even when I was a poor, unfriended little chap living in the 
 gloomy ruin at Resales ; and he has done me many a good turn ever 
 since." 
 
 " And you still remember Resales so well ?" inquired Miss Ysabel, 
 the youngest, and there was a certain spice of curiosity in her tone. 
 
 " How can I ever forget it ? Nothing will ever again be so stamped 
 upon my memory as that. Do I not know why we lived that way, 
 why my father had fled from the United States and concealed himself 
 there?" 
 
 " It was a great misfortune, it was a great misfortune," she sighed, 
 " but I have always thought your father should never have told you : 
 there was no need of his doing so." 
 
 " Should he have left me to discover it for myself, then ? No, in 
 deed, it was plainly his duty, if he could not put me in a position to 
 redeem the crushing disgrace, to at least keep me from intruding upon 
 the scene of it. Oh, they hissed him there in the streets !" he went on,
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 15 
 
 fiercely : " some of his victims, whose fortunes he had wrecked, would 
 have killed him if he had not escaped. He told me all, all !" 
 
 He groaned aloud as he drifted along with less and less control upon 
 a flood of painful recollections to which he rarely committed himself so 
 fully. 
 
 " No, no, do not talk of it ! Why will you recall it, and who knows 
 the story here ? No one can ever say it was any fault of yours. All 
 will come right in due time," the listeners expostulated, keenly suffering 
 with him. 
 
 " Three millions of money to be made good, and even as much more, 
 with the interest accrued in the mean time ; and all that wrong and suf 
 fering to be undone before I can stand squarely on my feet and face the 
 world like other men !" he exclaimed, as if summing up all his griefs in 
 one final statement. 
 
 He was one much given to alternate moods of brightness and de 
 pression, but rarely had they seen him so downcast as now. No more 
 words were spoken, but Miss Concepcion went over to the gloomy figure, 
 with his head deeply buried in the pillows as if to shut out the world 
 for evermore, and sat by him a long time, stroking his hair soothingly. 
 
 " What a misfortune ! What a misfortune !" the three sisters mur 
 mured to one another very sadly that night as they made their modest 
 preparations for slumber. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IDYLLIC TIMES AT LAS DELICIAS. 
 
 WHEN Walter arrived at Las Delicias on the morrow, he surprised 
 a little scene not meant for the public view. In the long drawing- 
 room, a noble, simple apartment furnished in the style of the First 
 Empire, Luz and some younger sisters were trying upon Amy the 
 effect of the graceful mantilla, which in Spanish countries replaces the 
 bonnet. The black lace contrasted charmingly with her bright hair 
 and a fawn-colored gown which fitted very smoothly over her nice 
 shoulders and round arms. 
 
 At sight of Walter she would have hastily pulled off the veil ; the 
 others would not have it, but invited his criticism instead, and so she 
 left herself helpless, as it were, in their hands. 
 
 Walter was downcast and quieter than usual, and it was the General, 
 just then coming in, who paid the compliments. 
 
 " She can give our little Mexicans lessons in wearing their own 
 costume," said the General. 
 
 They kept Walter to dinner, and then his spirits revived. 
 
 "After all," he said, "why not enjoy the pleasures fate provides 
 for me?" 
 
 After dinner the papers were spread out upon a table placed in an 
 open corridor around a central court, in which a fountain played. The 
 family gathered there also. While the reading of the report progressed, 
 one might glance over at the opposite wall, ornamented with a pattern 
 not unlike that of the Ducal Palace at Venice, with carven gargoyles,
 
 16 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 and a strip of blue sky above it, or catch, through the rear portal, 
 alluring glimpses of the greenery of the gardens. At that place was a 
 sunny parterre, enamelled with flower-beds, and planted but thinly with 
 fragrant lemon and limoncillo. At a tall, clipped hedge began the 
 grateful shade of the gardens proper. The hacienda was like those 
 characters which do not display themselves wholly to the first comer, 
 but reserve their choicest qualities for their intimates. 
 
 " I find, General, that your line follows the lava-bed along to the 
 hither edge of the Barranca of Cimarron, and does not take in that 
 chasm," said Don Walter. 
 
 "Are you sure of that?" 
 
 " I have verified the survey very carefully." 
 
 " Well, a good riddance to bad rubbish. So the Yellow Snake 
 does not belong to us after all, eh ? The right goes over to Neighbor 
 Garcia, I suppose?" 
 
 " Why, no, not to him either. I did the same sort of work for him 
 a couple of years ago, and his boundary stops short of the other side of 
 it. So the space covered by the Barranca, and a little more, is a sort of 
 No Man's Land, to be contended for most likely by the state and general 
 government, if they want it." 
 
 " It isn't at all strange : a little land more or less has been of no 
 great account here," said the General, turning to Amy in an explaining 
 way. " I will tell you how the titles were chiefly established in the 
 first place. A viceroy would ride up on a hill with a friend or client 
 of his, and say, ' I give you all the laud from here as far as your eye 
 can reach.' Then he would ride up on another hill, not so very far 
 remote from the first, with another friend, and say to him, ' I give you 
 all the land from here as far as you can see,' or perhaps, ' as far as you 
 can go in half a day's journey.' Thus, you observe, there could easily 
 be some confusion." 
 
 General del Prado was so well pleased with the result shown him 
 that he desired to have Walter next undertake an accurate plotting of 
 many irregular parcels of cultivated ground and pasture into which the 
 hacienda itself was divided. The young man .was delighted to embrace 
 the opportunity : he could not himself have planned anything that would 
 have better gratified the wishes of his heart. 
 
 This employment gave him association with Amy in the freest, most 
 natural way. He often remained over-night, and in the evening there 
 was informal dancing in the long parlor, or she played for them the 
 national airs of her country or their own. She commended herself to 
 her hosts by her ready enthusiasm ; they were genuinely pleased to hear 
 her declare many things in Mexico much better than in the United 
 States. 
 
 " You particularly understand how to make life stately," she told 
 them, "and that the Americans, with all their expenditure, rarely 
 arrive at." 
 
 The leaning to the picturesque and decorative was a strongly- 
 developed factor in her life. She went about with little sketch-books, 
 in which she put down odd bits, with no great success, but with tangi 
 ble enjoyment to herself.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 17 
 
 " It is like living in picture-land," said she. " Fancy my waking 
 up in a room with a saint and cherubim in the corner, and the bed 
 standing on a dais with steps ! Sometimes I get up very early in the 
 morning and climb a low staircase to the bells. I like to sit there and 
 look off at the fresh lovely landscape, with the great bell just over my 
 head helping to frame it in. Even the kitchen has a hooded chimney 
 and blue tiles. I feel as if something historic, or rather fairy-like, 
 ought to happen to me here." 
 
 " I can hardly appreciate the differences you dwell upon, scarcely 
 ever having been used to anything else," said Don Walter. 
 
 And he was led into questioning her with interest on the appear 
 ances of things in the United States, about which his recollections of 
 infancy were so exceedingly vague. He was evasive, and checked him 
 self, however, when there seemed any approach towards a need of de 
 claring who his connections were there, and under what circumstances 
 he had left it. 
 
 They also rode together a good deal about the hacienda, the young 
 women sometimes accompanying Walter, and sometimes repairing, under 
 proper guard, to the curious points, some distant corral, or an aqueduct, 
 or an irrigating pond, large enough for a lake, where he was at work. 
 Amy had looked forward to mounting into the saddle in which she 
 had had but slight experience with a kind of longing dread, but, the 
 ice once broken, she made up in courage what she lacked in skill. 
 
 Young Walter thought her masculine-looking English habit, with 
 her high silk hat, from which floated a blue gauze veil like a light 
 smoke in autumn, even more becoming than her costumes of every-day 
 life. 
 
 They two, as Americans, to whom all things are permitted, were 
 allowed to be together with more freedom than might otherwise have 
 been the case. The family thought good to warn Amy on the score of 
 Don Walter's rather improvident character, and that he would not be 
 at all a good match in the pecuniary way, but they were reassured by 
 her smile, and felt that this companionship was only another of her 
 ways of enjoying with a keen zest the novelty of the country. Besides 
 this, too, their attention was drawn away from it by something of 
 especial interest to themselves. 
 
 The Jefe Politico, Sefior Corcovedo, it appeared, had been taken 
 by the looks of Sefiorita Luz, young as she was, and, though he him 
 self was a widower of even more than middle age, was coming there to 
 pay her his court. 
 
 " He is too ugly ; he has odious high cheek-bones and great yellow 
 teeth like a gorilla, and he is stupid and without manners," objected 
 Senorita Luz, aroused on this score at least to plenty of vivacity. 
 
 There were traditions, too, of repulsive cruelty he had used in the 
 wars. He was an ignorant, self-made man, who had pushed himself 
 well to the front and feathered his nest in the political troubles. Still, 
 he was a person of much consideration, he stood high with the gov 
 ernment, being sustained by the favor of prominent persons of the more 
 radical wing at Mexico, and General del Prado, moved by grounds of 
 worldly policy, thought well to give ample opportunity for his suit, and 
 VOL. XLIL 2
 
 lg THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 to see if the reluctance of his daughter might not be overcome. The 
 daughter, too, since he was her first suitor, even though a repulsive 
 one, was not so wholly uncivil to him as might have been supposed. 
 
 Meanwhile, Amy had not forgotten the sweet-looking young mm 
 she Irad met at Cuernavaca. This was a figure by whose appearance 
 and unusual history she had been particularly struck. Sefiora del 
 Prado took her to see the embroideries of the ex-Sisters, and she some 
 times returned there alone. They lived in a pleasant, one-story house, 
 of the rural sort, in the hamlet of Campo Florido, not far from the 
 hacienda. Their principal room was of large size, brick-floored, and 
 cool, and looked out on one side into the grass-grown, principal street, 
 and on the other into a charming, simple garden. 
 
 Amy, whose imagination was easily kindled, said to Beatrix, as she 
 sat there with the latter one day, learning a new lace stitch, 
 
 " How charming and peaceful your life is ! It seems ideal. Some 
 times I cannot help envying you." 
 
 " Ah, no, I am very unfortunate : I am neither of the world nor 
 out of it," returned the recluse, sadly. " How many of its distractions 
 and temptations are thrown in upon us here ! I am not strong enough 
 to withstand them : I often feel myself falling away from a high ideal 
 and growing worse daily." 
 
 Dofia Beatrix returned the liking of the pretty American, so novel 
 a person for her, and was sometimes also at the hacienda, to repay her 
 visits. They were all assembled in the corridor on one occasion just 
 after she had left them, when the Jefe Politico, wholly without tact, 
 and riding rough-shod over the favorite leanings of those whom he 
 was making a pretence to conciliate, began, 
 
 " Bah ! they're a fine lot, the nuns, these mincing, genteelish 
 ones of the order of Santa Rosa as well as the rest. I'd send them all 
 packing if I had my way, many or few." 
 
 " Sefior Corcovedo !" protested the Madre, flushing strongly with 
 indignation. This was the day that finally settled his case, so that after 
 that they would have nothing more to do with him. 
 
 " I speak only for myself," said the Jefe. " The point is here, 
 immediately here. Well, then, for example does it not seem so to 
 you ? I have many excellent ideas. I discuss from the point of view 
 of science. In science I can tell you everything, absolutamente every 
 thing. I have made many orations, as is necessary for a public official 
 for example, at banquets you understand what I mean." 
 
 Amy tooted an imaginary trumpet behind him. 
 
 " They pull poor faces," he went on, " these women, like the one 
 who has just gone away, but I'll bet the three have the treasure that 
 used to belong to their convent comfortably hidden somewhere. I have 
 had a notion more than once to employ detectives and look it up." 
 
 " It was probably taken out of the country by the Mother Superior 
 and others who went abroad," suggested the General. 
 
 " I don't believe it no, sir. Somebody has brought me the story 
 that it was not. Besides, it was too bulky. Why, they had a solid 
 silver railing across their altar, and golden candlesticks higher than I 
 am, and as thick through the body. I say nothing of all the crowns,
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 19 
 
 bracelets, necklaces, and rings, set with precious stones, they had on 
 the images, with the rain of emeralds, rubies, pearls, and diamonds, 
 scattered over their silken garments, and the solid cash in the treasury. 
 And now they make the government pay some hundreds of dollars a 
 year to support them." 
 
 He was much more direct in his talk on such a point as this. 
 Indeed, in all matters involving a rough sort of executive ability, 
 especially in the directions of greed and persecution, he was not lack 
 ing in spite of his foggy speech. 
 
 The Sefiora del Prado and her daughter had already gone away in 
 dudgeon. This talk, in fact, broke up the group. Don Walter and 
 Amy went to the garden. It was in the great gardens that perhaps 
 their pleasantest hours of all were spent. They passed along a bosky 
 walk, opening into a sort of Pantheon of clipped foliage, in niches of 
 which were set Flora, Bacchus, Apollo, and the like. The path hence 
 was narrow, and at the end of it you came, quite by surprise, upon an 
 immense, oblong fish-pond, with a straight avenue of noble trees lead 
 ing upward with a gentle -undulation from its farther end. At one 
 side of the fish-pond were most ornate flower-gardens ; on the other, 
 extending its whole length, was a broad flight of steps with rows of 
 broken columns along them, and at the top, little corner pavilions 
 looking down over a miniature barranca. The couple sat down upon 
 these steps, near the water. 
 
 " When I first saw all this," said Amy, " I realized the enchanted 
 gardens of Armida." 
 
 In the fish-pond were six little formal stone islands, which served 
 as a place of support for roses. They were to be reached by boats, 
 high-pooped, green and gilded, such as indeed might have been found 
 in the gardens of Arraida. Nor was all this too carefully kept ; it 
 was treated in practical, every-day fashion that but added to its charm. 
 Some of the luscious superabundance of mango and guava lay rotting 
 along the terrace walks, and appetizing odors coming forth from the 
 corner turrets showed that they, too, were used for the storage of fruit. 
 
 Amy had grown rounder and plumper since coming to Las Delicias ; 
 her health was better than before, and she had probably never looked 
 so well in all her life as now. Her companion was drawn, perhaps by 
 some unusual appearance of bloom, to refer to it. 
 
 " Yes," she said, welcoming the reference brightly, " I got old Trini 
 dad Jose" to weigh me on his scales the other day, and the result is, 
 after calculating your kilograms into pounds which is no easy matter, 
 I weigh a good one hundred and forty." 
 
 " No? really?" A Spanish girl would not have talked to him like 
 that. There was about her an entrain, a thorough freedom of character, 
 together with a range of intelligence to which he had never been used 
 in women, that continually delighted him. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I was such a thin, forlorn-looking person," she continued. 
 " I had a cold one spring I believe they thought I would never recover 
 from. It is not so very long ago since my brother used to call me the 
 Rag-baby." 
 
 " Rag-baby ? I don't think I understand."
 
 20 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " I didn't suppose you would. Oh, a nerveless, boneless, limp sort 
 of object, don't you know ? I used to wear a very large white necktie 
 in a bow-knot, it was a fashion just then, and my brother pretended 
 that my head was tied on with it, and would fall off if I pulled out 
 the ends." 
 
 " Our Mexico has at least so much to commend it, that it has done 
 all this for you." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE DARK MYSTERY OF THE EARTH. 
 
 THEY drifted next in their talk to the boorish Jefe Politico, and 
 then to a subject his last remarks naturally called forth. 
 
 " The air is full of such stories, if you will listen to them," said 
 Walter. " According to veracious authorities, our soil is perfectly sown 
 with treasure, from the golden calendar-wheels of Guatimoziu down to 
 the pesetas of the latest stage-robber. The .old mines abandoned in the 
 wars are one great resource, the ruined haciendas another, to say noth 
 ing of the peons, who, having no savings-banks, are in the habit of 
 burying their earnings in the ground." 
 
 "All that has a fascinating sound; but you speak in a sceptical 
 way." 
 
 " I have had my fair go at those elusive hoards ; I will admit that 
 Captain Perez and I have set out in search of more than one of them." 
 
 " And you don't believe they exist ?" 
 
 " Oh, I suppose one might, after infinite pains, get a few beggarly 
 thousands. The chances are about as good as in playing in the Havana 
 lottery. There was a chance for Destiny to aid a person who very much 
 needed it, but she by no means embraced it. I have aspirations," he 
 went on, throwing some singular inflection into his tone that was more 
 than humor ; " I want an incredible sum : no mere ordinary affluence 
 will do for me." 
 
 " Such moderation is really quite astonishing." 
 
 " It may surprise you to know that I often go about with a head 
 full of unpractical ideas. I want to go deeper than the deepest mine. 
 Look at the earth lying below us, dark, massive, untouched for thou 
 sands of miles : there is a subject to strike the imagination. We have 
 reached to the stars and gone down into the sea, why can we not go 
 down thither ?" 
 
 " Yes, it is impressive, truly : that dark interior has often seemed to 
 me the greatest of all our mysteries." 
 
 "We have gone down perhaps a picayune half-mile at most, as 
 against some four thousand in all. I dream of sending electric currents 
 along the mineral veins to melt out their contents. I want to pierce to 
 the central reservoirs of treasure. It is wealth like that which I need ; 
 less will hardly suffice me." 
 
 Amy was pained as by a certain earnestness and genuine greed in 
 these wild and monstrous ideas. 
 
 " Why do you want so much money ?" she asked him.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 21 
 
 " To rival your Vanderbilts and Astors, your great magnates of New 
 York/' he answered, turning it off, laughing. 
 
 "But is there no way? You are so young yet. If you are dis 
 contented here, why not go back to your own country, where opportu 
 nities and a career naturally await you ?" 
 
 " I want an incredible sum ; I will never go there without it." 
 
 " You do not do yourself justice in these ideas," she said, simply. 
 
 They got up and walked on to a spot perhaps the most quaint and 
 curious of all. The princely founder of the hacienda, father of the 
 present occupant, had spared no expensive caprice. He had built here, 
 beside a warm spring, a small pavilion made of solid blocks and col 
 umns of clear glass. This coquettish structure was but the better for 
 being greened and broken by time. 
 
 " I often come here in the afternoon, when it is in shade, and sit 
 either in it or on the bench beside the spring," said Amy : " it is a 
 favorite place of mine." 
 
 It was not to be wondered at. The view, too, had its peculiar 
 charm : a vista had been cut through the trees, and before the eye was 
 spread like a dream a prospect of agreeable solitude, ending in the vast, 
 twin snow-crowned peaks. 
 
 " Try it now, in the sun," begged Walter ; " let me see the effect." 
 
 His companion, amiably complying, mounted into it and stood in 
 the centre. Opalescent and silvery gleams fell upon her and enhanced 
 the brightness of her hair and the distinct blue of her eyes. She was 
 like some priestess of light in her temple, or there was a mysterious 
 effect about the whole, like a flame burning in the sunshine. 
 
 " The basin is a singular one," said she, coming down. " Some 
 times, as I sit beside it, it ebbs or flows before my very eyes. I 
 have heard them say its level can be affected even by the human voice." 
 
 " Some of the water is that coming down from the hot springs above, 
 but it has much more than their singularities." 
 
 " I have not yet seen those springs." 
 
 They started to go to them, when Trinidad Jose", lately detailed to 
 look after that part of the place, came along with a large dog that was 
 much his companion trotting at his heels. 
 
 " What is his name?" asked Amy, stopping as they passed to give 
 the animal a friendly pat. She had a pleasant word for everybody, by 
 which she had gained already no small popularity on the estate. 
 
 The man, before replying, looked cautiously this way and that, and 
 then at both of them in a searching way that seemed to reassure him. 
 
 " ' Corcovedo/ " he answered. 
 
 " ' Corcovedo' ? " repeated Walter in surprise. " If you despise a 
 man in this country," he explained to Amy, "the most insulting thing 
 you can do is to call an animal after him." 
 
 " I wouldn't want to have it known," said the gardener. " Do you 
 like the Jefe Politico ?" he asked. 
 
 "No, /think him an odious man," returned Amy. 
 
 " Ah, that is it, you don't find him an admirable person ? Well, I 
 think him a devil and the son of a devil : that is why I call my dog 
 after him."
 
 22 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " But such a nice dog ! it isn't fair to him." 
 
 " I can't help it ; it's the only way I have. I just call him Corcovedo 
 over to myself a few times every now and then, and it does me a world 
 of good. The old scoundrel don't know it ; if he did he'd be too strong 
 an enemy for me." 
 
 While they were still smiling with amusement at this simple way 
 of revenging one's self upon an enemy, the young brother Angel came 
 up. He had the hobby of chemical experiments at present, and he was 
 in search of Don Walter, to go with him to the upper sources of the 
 spring, and help him find among the mineral substances, encrusted 
 about those waters, some proper specimens for analysis. 
 
 Accordingly, they all went on together, following the little stream, 
 which smoked, over a clear bed, among thickets of luxuriant tropical 
 plants. At the upper level nature, as usual; had been much supple 
 mented by art. The springs broke out at the foot of a cliff formed of 
 columns like those of Fingal's Cave. A portion of the upper part of 
 the cliff had been rudely carved in the shape of a human face, and had 
 a balustrade and cypresses on the top. The waters hot, cold, and im 
 pregnated with various mineral elements ran out upon a terrace, with 
 heavy ramps and stairway, and were led along to a place where bathing- 
 tanks, discreetly veiled with charming shrubbery, were arranged. 
 
 " Here, indeed, one may rather appreciate that he is in a crater. 
 This rock is a part of the denuded wreck of the very heart and nucleus 
 of the old volcano, wind and weather having ground all the rest to pow 
 der. It came up molten hot in its time ; that's what made it cool off 
 in these hexagon columns. You can find them of all sizes, some as fine 
 as a needle." 
 
 " And haven't the hot springs something to do with those same inter 
 nal fires ?" inquired Amy, her voice not quite free from a trace of anxiety. 
 
 " There can't be much doubt of it, considering the peculiarities they 
 present. Or they may be only indirectly connected with it through 
 those on a far greater scale in the Barranca of Cimarron. The bottom 
 of the Barranca, I believe, is higher than this point, and possibly they 
 work through. At any rate, the same formation belongs to the two 
 places ; the same rent made in the mountains when the Barranca was 
 formed, tapering off to an infinitesimal crack, can be traced over the 
 country to very near here." 
 
 "And you still persist that you are not afraid? It will probably 
 not be in my time, but when I go away from here I shall have to look 
 back on you all with a good deal of misgiving." 
 
 " Not I, your ladyship," he returned. " It frightens me very much 
 more to think you are going away, even though the date be remote." 
 
 Angel, who heard the question, laughed loudly. 
 
 In haste to be at his work below, Angel was gathering his speci 
 mens flowers of sulphur, white vitriol, sulphide of arsenic, and what 
 not with all speed, and he soon left the others to themselves. 
 
 " You tell me that the volcanic lava is still boiling and bubbling in 
 the gorge, that it is still an active crater, as it were," said Amy. " Seri 
 ously now, it occurs to me speaking of treasure as you were that 
 places in which such violent turmoil is going on ought to be promising.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 23 
 
 It seems as if nature ought to throw out there complete specimens of 
 everything she possesses in the heart of the earth, including the most 
 valuable of all." 
 
 "It's a rather striking idea, but it must have been tried yes, 
 I'm sure it has been tried. My recollection is that, though volcanic 
 districts are rather favorable generally to the precious metals, the active 
 craters have not yielded anything of consequence." 
 
 " Have you been to the gorge ?" 
 
 " No ; and yet I hardly know why I haven't, since I have often been 
 hard put to it for excitement." 
 
 " ' Excitement :' are you sure you make the most of yourself?" 
 asked Amy, taking him to task. " Do you know they give you some 
 thing of a bad character ?" she said, frankly, " consorting with unprin 
 cipled revolutionists, ex-brigands, and the like." 
 
 "They mean Captain Perez, of course," taking it quite good-na 
 turedly. " The General here does not like him because he did not be 
 long to the same political faction. I can truthfully say I have never 
 seen anything wrong with Perez. For my part, I find no great differ 
 ence between the factions : all alike are ready to tear their country to 
 pieces at an instant's notice. My small experience with revolutions 
 has made me acquainted with some bold fighters and good sportsmen, 
 that's all." 
 
 " And you take part in them ? Is this a career for a young man 
 who ought to take a leading position ?" 
 
 " What is the use of trying under such a state of things, where first 
 one ambitious chief upsets the government, then another ? There is no 
 stability, no certainty. They promise us peaceful times at present, and 
 that more railroads are to be built ; perhaps some opportunities will 
 open in them, but I think it will be long enough before we shall see 
 them, and they will hardly furnish places to all." 
 
 " Then why not go to the United States, I ask you once more ?" 
 
 " It takes much money to live there among you American Croesuses." 
 
 Such perverse answers as this tended to confirm the account she had 
 heard of him as an unsettled, improvident person. But when have 
 women required that those in whom they interest themselves should 
 possess all the cardinal virtues ? 
 
 Seeing a disappointed look on her face, Walter added, however, as 
 they were going down, " It is for a purpose worthy of your approval : 
 I have a great burden resting upon me." 
 
 He was accomplished in woodcraft. In a season of leisure he 
 headed an expedition in which all the children of the house were 
 included to explore the woods on the slopes behind the hacienda. 
 He put a machete in his belt, the half-sword, half-sickle of the country, 
 useful to open a path, cut an orange or coffee-stick, or lop off an orchid, 
 for whoever wanted it. He had the gift, among others, of making him 
 self agreeable to the children, and they enjoyed the day highly. They 
 liked to run, to shriek, to pretend to be afraid. 
 
 " Los toros ! los toros !" (the bulls) they would cry, finding purely 
 imaginary resemblances to some fierce animal, and then tear back madly 
 to bury their faces in the skirts of Amy or Luz.
 
 24 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 Walter pointed out the mahogany-tree, the white camphor, the 
 quinia-bush. 
 
 " It is like a growing drug-store," said Amy. " How do you come 
 to know so much about them all ? For my part, I am surprisingly 
 ignorant of the country, and it is now too late to learn." 
 
 He did not tell her that his father perpetrator of the greatest 
 defalcation of his day, which had shaken the money centres to their 
 depths had turned, in his refuge, to such pursuits, and made him the 
 companion of all his walks, implanting thus a taste which his later 
 manner of life had served to confirm. He turned the question aside in 
 some easy way, as he often had occasion to do. 
 
 They grouped themselves for luncheon on a large rock, near which 
 a cool brook ran forth, and the children went and waded merrily in the 
 water, mingling their laughter with its babbling. 
 
 There was one place where broken arrow-heads and fragments of 
 earthenware remains of the Aztecs could be picked up. Amy was much 
 pleased to find these antiquities herself, but Walter treated them indif 
 ferently, promising her better. 
 
 " I beg your permission to bring you a little image I found awhile 
 ago in the ruins of the temple at Xochichalco," said he. " It is of 
 chakhihuitl, the green stone once considered sacred : it is of no sort of 
 use to me." 
 
 " Xochi ? and dial ?" 
 
 " The mouths of some charming foreigners are too small to pro 
 nounce such long words all at once." 
 
 "Oh, avee ga! It will be large enough to say something pretty 
 severe if you make such absurd speeches." 
 
 On the very crest of the ascent was found a tall tree, in the top of 
 which was a neglected seat, reached by steps, which was a lookout 
 place. There could be seen a part of the Escorial-like roofs of the 
 hacienda, with a glint of statues, and of waters in the fertile expanse 
 spreading out before it. 
 
 Gazing down the outward slope, you saw as it were a field of newly- 
 ploughed earth, which was in fact a vast lava-field, cutting off access 
 to the mountains on that side. Very far away and high up was had a 
 glimpse of the white and splintered wall of a chasm. One fancied 
 also he saw a film of steam rising from it, such as hovers over Popo 
 catepetl. 
 
 "There is the Barranca of Cimarron, and of the traditional Yellow 
 Snake," said Don Walter, pointing it out. " I dare say those cliffs are 
 three thousand feet high." 
 
 " Always the Yellow Snake. Did you tell me you had never been 
 there?" 
 
 "Why, no, not to penetrate to it. It is all but inaccessible, you 
 know." 
 
 " There is so little enterprise here in your Mexico. If we Ameri 
 cans had it, we should have had railroad excursions and guides, patent- 
 medicine signs painted on the rocks, and a score of very large and 
 very bad hotels which would have taken most of our worldly substance 
 for the privilege of seeing all those wonders."
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 25 
 
 " But you forget how sparsely settled the country is, and the diffi 
 culty of getting about ; and it has by no means always been safe. 
 There are extremely few persons who would want to make such an 
 excursion. And there must be plenty more places as well where man 
 has hardly ever yet set foot." 
 
 " I am just dying for adventures," continued Amy, wilfully, " but 
 what is there poor women can do ?" 
 
 " They can inspire everything in men," returned her companion, 
 with a rather determined air. 
 
 " Oh, I did not mean that : I am not so silly. I only meant 
 
 Well, I think I only like to hear myself talk." 
 
 These were the days of which she wrote to her friend Emily, 
 
 " I seem to be living in a kind of heaven upon earth, everything 
 around me so beautiful, everybody so good to me, that I appreciate it 
 with an over-fulness of the heart, and all the sin and trouble of the 
 world apparently removed to an infinite distance." 
 
 Don Walter brought her the little green image of which he had 
 spoken. It made a pretty ornament, and she attached it to her watch- 
 guard. Soon after this Don Walter's labors at the hacienda came to 
 an end. Then he disappeared, and was neither seen nor heard from 
 again for a considerable time. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " GOLD, THE SUN AMONG METALS." 
 
 THE first proceeding of Don Walter during this interval of absence 
 was to set off for his hatiendita or little hacienda of Cruce Vivo. 
 This was a small property given him by his guardians, perhaps to the 
 end that he might be made more contented through the possession of 
 some estate of his own. 
 
 His course lay first through the village of Campo Florido, and 
 thence by a detour to the right to avoid the lava-beds w r hich consti 
 tute an almost impassable obstacle on that side up the long, thickly- 
 wooded slope into the dominant mountain-range. 
 
 The path, in the early stages, was crossed by occasional fences, 
 having rude gates, which he managed to open without dismounting. 
 A part of it was cut out of the solid rock. There were brooks to be 
 forded where the swift water ran breast-high on his horse, and places 
 to be climbed and descended more like precipitous stairways than a 
 road. Now and then he saw some mild Indian Daphnis minding cattle, 
 or a peasant coming down the trail, bending low under heavy burdens 
 for the market. 
 
 He turned off to the right, by a connecting trail, and reached his 
 place after about half a day's journey. He raised some stock and coffee 
 there, it appeared, but there were no great signs of life about it. How 
 ever, it was not his intent to remain ; he ordered a servant, named 
 Pablo, to collect a few articles he had need of and prepare to accompany 
 him. 
 
 The man started back in energetic refusal when the object was made
 
 26 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 known, and it was only after the most positive injunctions were laid 
 upon him that he submitted and then in only a sulky way to go 
 along. 
 
 They passed through the little hamlet of El Jasmin, where a her 
 mitage stood, and where the inhabitants were found weaving fabrics 
 of coarse blue stuff and making red earthenware pottery. Some of the 
 jars were large enough to have held Aladdin's forty thieves. Then 
 they reached Huetongo, a hamlet of much more gloomy aspect, the 
 rendezvous of a sparse population of charcoal-burners. Here was 
 found, in fact, a " Caf6 and Cantina of the Yellow Snake," a dark, 
 forlorn little interior, with but few customers at that time of day. It 
 was the most promising place for negotiations, however, and Don 
 Walter left the horses there, and, with great difficulty, secured a guide. 
 A second was afterwards employed in addition to the first, who pro 
 fessed to have no great confidence in his ability to point out the way, 
 after all. 
 
 " You say neither of you has ever really been in the cafion, and you 
 cannot mention a person who has actually seen the Yellow Snake ; then 
 how do you know there is one ?" said Walter, arguing in a scofiing way 
 with these men, when they stated their apprehensions. " How do you 
 know it isn't a green dragon or a blue monkey, instead of a yellow 
 snake?" 
 
 " No, sefior, it is a yellow snake," answered one of them, mourn 
 fully. 
 
 " Is it the centoatt, that shines in the dark ? is it the saltttlo, that 
 leaps at you all of a sudden ? Will it devour a man ? Come, tell us 
 all about it." 
 
 " No, seflor," in a tone of pained reproach at this bold scepticism, 
 "it runs away before a man. They say its home is on a rock, and 
 whenever it sees any one coming it glides swiftly into a boiling-hot 
 fountain." 
 
 " Pretty tough, isn't it, to stand that ! And now, if it runs away, 
 why are you afraid of it ?" 
 
 " It is very bad luck to see it, my Patron ; that is well known." 
 
 " Oh, there you go again, always the same old story of bad luck. 
 Well, I venture to say we shall not have any." 
 
 But with this he dismissed the controversy, which was apparently 
 having a still further demoralizing effect on Pablo. 
 
 The way abounded in scenes of wild grandeur. These grew more 
 savage as they progressed, till the mind was divided between admira 
 tion and fear. They reached a certain notable cave, and paused there 
 briefly. Though but a hundred feet from the path, it might have been 
 passed undetected. Within it were an ancient platform and a heathen 
 altar and image. So noiseless, as it happened, was their approach that 
 they were not discovered by a man within engaged in worship. He was 
 in the act of placing a small piece of copper money in the mouth of 
 the idol. 
 
 " Listen to what he says," said Pablo. 
 
 " I suppose you cannot do us any great good ; your day is over 
 now," the poor peon was saying naively to the god, a combination of
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 27 
 
 serpent and human figure almost laughable in its grotesqueness ; " but 
 I'll give you a trial, anyway ; I don't want you to do me harm." 
 
 At this place one of the guides deserted the expedition. The re 
 maining guide watched the more closely thereafter led them on by 
 thick and devious paths till they soon came to the long-looked- for 
 chasm. 
 
 Few could stand without an involuntary shrinking on that dizzy 
 verge. The Barranca stretched out several miles in length, its more 
 remote end hidden from view by a turn in its course. The vast ada 
 mantine walls narrowed darkly together at some points, and at others 
 spread apart, affording a view of the bottom, full of smoking springs 
 and sul/ataras. Portions of the cliff were green with a verdure of 
 poisonous acids. Some oaks of a peculiar toughness clung to the 
 crannies of the rocks, and down on the slopes, such as form a glacis at 
 the foot of precipices, could be seen, scattered sparsely, tall stems of 
 organ-cactus, like spears of the gods hurled down from the sky. 
 Wreaths of steam drifted out from the precipitous sides, and occasion 
 ally formed a veil, shutting off the whole from sight. 
 
 The guide led up, then down, in a very irregular way, and finally 
 brought them to where the path ended abruptly on a ledge with almost 
 measureless altitude above and depths below. There was absolutely no 
 possibility of going further. 
 
 " What does this mean ?" demanded Walter, sternly. 
 
 The man, changing countenance, replied, confusedly, " I have for 
 gotten." 
 
 He could not be made available for any further service. They 
 climbed back again, and he escaped like the other. 
 
 But Walter, meantime, had had a glimpse of a place, perhaps a 
 mile farther on, where a practised eye, arguing from continuous vege 
 tation that found a foothold there, might infer that a path descended. 
 Their way was hewn thither through the thick forest growth, and he 
 proved to be right. Over almost insuperable obstacles, they at length 
 entered the valley, strewn with the wreck, as it were, of another world. 
 
 The cyclopeau processes of nature, elsewhere discreetly hidden, were 
 here openly at work. The ground smoked from a hundred fumaroles 
 and other vents, and around them the fragments of rocks granite, 
 sandstones, limestones, and slate, brought up by the resistless force that 
 had torn through them from the lowest depths were crumbling in 
 whitish flakes under the attack of powerful escaping gases. A great 
 sunken bowl which Walter proceeded to call at once La Caldera 
 burned luridly with molten lava in violent ebullition, and strange lights 
 appeared in some crevices of the side-walls, as if the cliffs themselves 
 were on fire within. The tall cliffs vanished in long winding perspec 
 tives, inspiring awe, and here and there stood out from them vast but 
 tress-like projections. Across the blue sky arching above, often passed 
 such billowy masses of vapor as if the cafion were the manufactory of 
 the very clouds also. 
 
 It was nightfall when they reached this place, and they encamped 
 on the spot where they found themselves, under an improvised shelter. 
 Next morning they began their explorations. Pablo, a fat little man
 
 28 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 of no great character or stability, finding himself fairly inside the 
 gorge and safe enough thus far, seemed less disturbed in mind than 
 before. They ranged first down towards the lower end of it, where a 
 difficult access could be had through a defile to a large volcanic lake 
 without. They passed a night there, then turned back to the other end, 
 the head, where the monster crags drew together and joined at an obtuse 
 angle. 
 
 They passed over mounds of smooth volcanic sand, heaps of scoria? 
 and ashes, and floods of solidified lava. Strange, hut-like projections 
 with openings were met with on the lava, which had once been simply 
 air-bubbles in the tide. 
 
 But there were not wanting some gay and pleasing effects also. 
 Nothing more joyous could be imagined than a mammoth warm spring, 
 in a circular bowl, they fell in with on the morning of the second day. 
 
 " Look ! look ! the water is smoking in a basin of snow !" cried 
 Pablo, so surprised that for the moment he forgot his misgivings. 
 
 The water, warm like that of the basin at Las Delicias, Walter's 
 fancy turned towards Amy sitting there flowed down from the prin 
 cipal receptacle over a succession of terraces, each containing a subsidiary 
 basin. The whole was made of travertine, white as the purest marble, 
 formed from the calcareous deposit of its own waters. 
 
 Don Walter explored this spot thoroughly : it might well be the 
 home of some stately god, and ought by all the probabilities to be the 
 locality of "the Yellow Snake." In a random way he rolled some 
 heavy stones into the basin. These, perhaps choking the mouth of 
 some subterranean vent, produced, as happens in geysers, a formidable 
 ebullition, quite out of proportion to the cause. But nothing whatever 
 appeared that could be construed as supernatural. 
 
 Going on, somewhat after mid-day, he came to a curious heap, or 
 cairn, of boulders, thrown together as by Titanic hands, around which 
 surged a white flood of furiously-heated water. The mozo, smitten by 
 a nameless panic, would not approach, and his master, leaving him, 
 went on alone. 
 
 The cairn could not be reached at all from most directions, on ac 
 count of the heat of the boiling water, but, searching round it, he found 
 an accessible point on one side, where ran another brook, this one, strange 
 to say, of gelid coolness. He clambered up to a sort of platform whence 
 he could overlook all that was below. 
 
 The shadow sides of the rocks were of almost velvety blackness, 
 but they were touched with spots of vivid light, where sunshine 
 reflected from the opposite wall of the cafion fell upon them. The 
 mad-hot torrent disappeared under a large flat rock, slippery with the 
 constant spray, as if it had plunged downward into unfathomable 
 depths. 
 
 Walter, tired with his work, threw himself down to rest. He fell 
 to musing upon his labors in the Barranca and what he had expected 
 to find there. He had broken off specimens of all the rocks, and he 
 had tested all the powders and solid deposits encrusted round the borders 
 of the springs, and had met with no success. 
 
 His musings were broken in upon after a while he hardly knew
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 29 
 
 in his abstraction how long a time had passed by a sense as of some 
 thing moving under his eye ; it was such a sense as one is conscious of 
 when an unseen bird or animal stirs in the bushes near by. He aroused 
 himself and looked downward to the slippery flat rock immediately 
 below him. There was motion ; there was life. What a strange ob 
 ject held his fascinated gaze, and set his heart wi Idly beating ! 
 
 A yellow reptilian head had peeped forth. It was round, smooth, 
 and seemed to have neither eyes nor mouth. The head was gently 
 followed by a body. Slowly, deliberately it came forth. Sinuous and 
 rather slender at first, it gradually gathered bulk, till it grew squat 
 and broad. When the whole shape had emerged, it was some three 
 feet in length. 
 
 It was a yellow serpent without spot or speck of any other color 
 upon it. 
 
 " Have I lost my senses ?" cried Walter. " Does some misshapen 
 old Aztec divinity then really exist in this lonely spot, and has he 
 chosen to show himself to me, the greatest of sceptics?" 
 
 Sensible, even while this confused fancy passed through his mind, 
 that the phenomenon would be accounted for in some natural way, he 
 could not free himself nevertheless from a definite awe and dread. 
 Following his first hasty impulse, he detached a fragment of rock to 
 throw down upon it. 
 
 " If it be some rare specimen," he went on in his cogitations, " why 
 has no naturalist made it the choicest of his treasures? why has no 
 hunter made it the most remarkable of his trophies ?" 
 
 His missile fell with a crash beside it, but the creature did not stir. 
 Then he hastily whipped out his revolver and fired. Still, whether he 
 had hit or missed it, only the same result. No faintest semblance of 
 haste or alarm ; the same slow deliberate gathering motion on the part 
 of the Yellow Snake continued. Finally, steadying his hand securely, 
 for surely his aim must have been confused by the tremors of his 
 heart, he fired once more. 
 
 While he still watched keenly for the effect, the Yellow Snake 
 suddenly swelled to its utmost bulk, moved rapidly down the smooth 
 rock, and shot off like lightning into the boiling flood. No mortal 
 creature could survive such a temperature, and yet the ancient tradi 
 tion was on record. 
 
 He hurried down from his post, sought a new coigne of vantage, and 
 saw the appearance recommence. Again the yellow head peeping forth, 
 again the sinuous body, again the thickening and broadening. Had 
 it crept back miraculously through some crevice from the spring, or 
 was this yet another Yellow Snake, and was a whole family of them 
 about to pass before his eyes? Again it darted along the rock and 
 took its wild plunge. This time it seemed to burst into a hundred 
 scintillations as it touched the surface of the spring. 
 
 In feverish haste, the bold explorer laid hold upon anything at 
 command to make a temporary foot-way. Some small cedars, of a 
 tough variety flourishing even there, made a principal resource. Con 
 structing with his blanket and some twigs a sort of buckler against the 
 heat, he passed over to the flat rock. He fired at a new materialization
 
 30 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 of the form even as he went. This time it was surely hit, for some 
 bright splashes flew into the air, as if its very life-blood too were 
 shining yellow. 
 
 It was not a spot where one could stay long, but fortunately no long 
 stay was needed. He found splashes of a yellow metal on the rock, 
 and picked up his flattened bullets thickly encrusted with the same. 
 Returning, confused by the wreaths of steam circling round him, his 
 foot slipped, and it was little short of a miracle that his toils had not 
 ended then and there. 
 
 But he bore away the peculiar yellow flakes for examination. He 
 established himself in a place of safety by the cool brook, and proceeded 
 to test them with acid, by trial of their weight, and other convincing 
 means known to the assayer. What did he find ? Ah, what indeed ? 
 
 The splashes of metal scattered over the rock by his fire, and 
 encompassing his bullets, were pure gold. The Yellow Snake was but 
 a molten stream of the purest gold. 
 
 " Merciful heaven be thanked !" he cried, in unutterable gratitude, as 
 this discovery with all its far-reaching consequences was borne in upon 
 him. 
 
 Yes, it was true ; subsequent investigation only served to confirm it. 
 A thin stream was forced up by tremendous pressure from the inmost 
 depths of the earth. The conditions of a gigantic crucible were present ; 
 some fierce volcanic heat, perhaps, had come in contact with veins of 
 the precious ore, tried out their contents, and formed a hidden reservoir. 
 And the peculiar movement that had been observed was, no doubt, 
 nothing more than the slow accumulation of the issue till it should have 
 attained body enough to overcome the inequalities of the rock and 
 make the plunge by its own momentum. 
 
 Pablo had heard the shots, and now called out from a distance in 
 alarm. Walter shouted back to him reassuringly, more afraid to have 
 him come near than he had before been annoyed at his lack of 
 co-operation. Nevertheless, he did not speed well in the affair alone, 
 and so went and summoned Pablo to his assistance after all. 
 
 " There is some sulphur deposit here, of curious scientific interest," 
 he said, " and I want you to strengthen the foot- way I have made to 
 yonder slippery rock to get access to it." 
 
 Pablo worked at this task with averted eyes, crossing himself 
 frequently and hardly even once looking at the place. Finally he 
 refused to do more, and Walter kept him at it by presenting a pistol at 
 his head, a harsh measure no doubt, but one somewhat excused by the 
 circumstances. The man was of a sullen, revengeful nature, and con 
 ceived from this a malevolent hatred that was to have deep and long- 
 enduring consequences. He was next made to fetch a quantity of 
 thick, adhesive clay, of which a large supply existed at no great distance, 
 and after that a capacious maguey satchel and some other things from 
 among the baggage. Then he was effectually got rid of for a while on 
 pretext of bringing up part of the provisions from the point where they 
 had entered the cafion. 
 
 Don Walter, as if acting upon keen mechanical intuitions, crossed 
 again to the flat rock, exposing himself to danger in a daring way, and
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 31 
 
 laid a rough line of stones and filled in their interstices rudely with 
 clay, smoothing this afterwards from a distance with a long pole. He 
 thus established both a dam which would check the metal in its flow to 
 the spring, and a sort of conduit to lead it in a new direction. Then 
 at the hither side of the rock, where the conduit ended, he fixed the 
 maguey bag in a crevice, with its mouth well spread open, and lined the 
 interior with a heavy coating of wet clay. 
 
 Soon he had the unspeakable satisfaction of seeing the deposit 
 follow his new channel. He dragged out the bag, to which he had 
 attached a stout rope, plunged it into the cool water, and tried its con 
 tents. The result was of the same amazing character as before : the 
 whole was of pure gold. 
 
 Pablo returned, and was sent off again on some new pretext. Don 
 Walter worked with tremendous diligence at making a long, low trough 
 of stones and clay, capable of holding a large quantity of the deposit, 
 and well hidden from sight. He also cast fragments loosely about the 
 platform, to give a more natural look, in case any other " which a 
 righteous heaven forbid !" he murmured should come to look upon it 
 during his absence. 
 
 He with his servant crept for lodging, that night, into one of the 
 hut-like protuberances mentioned. He went back for a last look next 
 morning, then set out on his return home. 
 
 On the upward climb he met with an accident which caused him a 
 slight lameness. The gossips above, who knew them for the men who 
 had ventured into the cafion, shook their heads sagely over it as con 
 firming the traditions of bad luck. 
 
 " Yes, it's an exhausting, thankless journey," said Don Walter, by 
 no means desirous to dispute the impression. " I would never advise 
 anybody else to take it, with so little to repay the trouble." 
 
 Pablo, for his part, had no more informing report to offer. At the 
 first opportunity, too, he left his master entirely and sought service else 
 where, at which Don Walter, with certain new projects revolving in his 
 head, was not at all displeased. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A MOMENTOUS TALK IN THE STATELY GARDENS. 
 
 AMY had gone to the town with Dofia Beatriz to see the convent to 
 which the latter had once belonged, and whither the three nuns liked 
 to go sometimes and pray. 
 
 The quaint, spacious establishment, uniting, like many others of its 
 class, peculiarities derived from the Moors with a florid Renaissance 
 architecture, had been occupied by turns as a warehouse and barracks, 
 and the main tower of its church was cracked by an earthquake. 
 
 In the cloister garden, for the most part overgrown, disorderly, and 
 even squalid, a small spot was cleared, where a stone seat was placed. 
 This was before a wall on which, by some good fortune, two or three 
 fragments of what had once been extensive frescos still remained. The 
 plastered wall showed traces of target-practice, or perhaps the fusillade
 
 32 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 of a siege. Some pious hand had lately put fresh carnations and roses 
 in the pits left by the balls that had pierced a figure of Christ. 
 
 " Don Walter did this," said Dona Beatrix, indicating the improve 
 ments. 
 
 " How, Don Walter ? Is he, then, of a religious turn ?" 
 
 " On the contrary ; or rather, like his father, he has the religion of 
 the Americans, which is different from ours. He has even given me 
 some books to prove that mine is false." 
 
 " But I do not understand why he takes such pains here." 
 
 " It was for our pleasure. I think he had heard we had said some 
 thing about it to the Sefioritas Arroyo. He has a bold heart as well as 
 a kind one : he is afraid of nothing. We should not have dared to do 
 it, for fear of offending the authorities." 
 
 She walked away to a little distance, where there was a very thick 
 tangle of shrubbery near some old tombs, knelt upon a slab as to engage 
 in prayer, yet at the same time seemed to scan the vicinity with an anxious 
 and furtive eye. Amy, in looking at her and the desolation around, could 
 not but think of the fairy legend of the young nun who, at prayer in her 
 garden, paused to hear a bird sing, and, on turning, found everything 
 about her decayed and a hundred years gone by. 
 
 " We liked it here because these pictures are the only ones that are 
 preserved," said Dofia Beatriz, returning, " and there are many old 
 associations connected with this place." 
 
 It might have been noted that she liked to dwell upon Don Walter 
 and his doings, and Amy, now that he had been gone a week, was glad 
 enough to have some one to converse with on this subject. The recluse 
 asked with interest, too, after the little details of her daily life at the 
 hacienda. 
 
 " I live so much in the mad world I sometimes fear I shall acquire 
 a taste for it," she said, deprecatingly. 
 
 " And why should you not ? Why should you not be of it ? You 
 are too young and attractive to bury yourself thus, and you have no 
 permanent vows to bind you." 
 
 " That is what Don Walter, too, has told me : he says I ought to 
 go back to my family and marry," she rejoined, timidly. 
 
 Amy was startled ; for the first time she reflected upon the attrac 
 tion such a handsome young man might not unnaturally have for the 
 demure novice, balancing between the gravest obligations towards an 
 unreal world and the frivolities of life. But before she had time to go 
 far in this direction she was yet more startled by a sudden question : 
 
 "Will you marry Don Walter?" 
 
 " Oh, no ; we are only good companions," she replied, coloring and 
 embarrassed to the point of hardly knowing what answer she made. 
 
 " You are so much together, and you are so beautiful." 
 
 " Don Walter will marry when it seems good to him, but he has 
 need of much money, and I am poor. And, besides, it is rather cus 
 tomary in these matters to wait till one has been asked," she concluded, 
 turning it off laughing. 
 
 The Sister appeared naively convinced by these confused dis 
 claimers.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 33 
 
 " Is it truly so, captivating as you are? Your hair is like so many 
 threads of spun gold." 
 
 "No, no; it is you that have lovely hair, Dofia Beatriz. How 
 heavy and fine it is ! and dark hair is far more attractive." 
 
 On the return home, just at the point where the trail from the 
 mountain joined the road, they met Walter himself. A great, glossy- 
 leaved amape-tree, with a bench of brick and stone around its base, 
 spread its ample shade there, and the street was not unlike that of a 
 New England village. 
 
 Never before had Amy seen Walter so joyously animated, so full 
 of a singular fire, though he was also haggard and wan, and a tired, 
 sullen-looking mozo rode behind him. He stopped for but brief parley. 
 
 " I have been at the Barranca of Cimarron," he said, bending down 
 from his saddle towards her in the carriage, and not at once discerning 
 Beatriz, who was beside her. 
 
 " You look weary and careworn." 
 
 " It is nothing. I have something to tell you. I want your I 
 want I will go to the hacienda to-morrow to explain." 
 
 He had checked himself at sight of Beatriz, but she had seen already 
 that burning ardor in his glance, that fervid meaning in his whole man 
 ner, which could have but one interpretation. 
 
 " He thinks much of you : if you do not love him, be my friend, 
 speak to him of me !" she exclaimed, turning from red to pale in nerving 
 herself to a desperate effort. " If he must have money, I can make him 
 very rich. He does not know that. Oh, will you tell him ? ' Can I 
 trust you with so wicked a confession ? I dare not look at you. Can 
 I hope you will aid me in this ?" 
 
 " It does not become a woman to sue," replied Amy, with not a 
 little disdain. 
 
 She abated her involuntary coldness, however, and again treated the 
 giver of this impulsive confidence with affection before their parting. 
 " But I speak in your own interest," she said. " If it is to be, it will 
 be ; heaven orders all things for us well." 
 
 She found no great cause for surprise in what she had heard ; on 
 the contrary, it seemed natural enough ; but she went away changed, 
 embittered somehow towards Walter, herself, and all the world. 
 
 Was the poor little recluse insane when she spoke of conferring 
 treasures, or was there rather some ray of truth in the surmises of the 
 Jefe Politico? 
 
 When Walter came to see her he had almost the same ardor as on 
 the preceding day, but an element of misgiving seemed to have crept 
 into it. A coldness, too, on her part made itself felt even against all 
 his impetuosity. 
 
 " Is there not some other who better deserves this confidence ?" she 
 asked him. 
 
 "I do not quite understand." 
 
 " I have talked of late with Dofia Beatriz. She tells me of your 
 friendship, of the profound influence you have had upon her life." 
 
 " The poor little thing ! It is a pity to see her waste her existence 
 in a cloister, still more in a mere imitation of one," he responded. A 
 VOL. XLIL 3
 
 34 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 certain abstracted air appeared even in this reply, and he seemed about 
 to be carried along by the overwhelming engrossment of a much more 
 important topic. 
 
 " It appears that she is very unhappy on your account. She has 
 even asked me to intercede for her. Will you bear witness that I have 
 done so ?" she concluded, almost disdainfully. 
 
 He looked at her astonished, and rejoined, 
 
 " I have exchanged but a very few words with her in all our acquaint 
 ance. Whatever influence I may have exerted upon her is apart from 
 my own doing. I did not suppose a single worldly idea had ever entered 
 her innocent little head." 
 
 There was a hearty sincerity in this that carried conviction with it. 
 
 " Oh, how awkward I have been !" said Amy, ashamed of her girlish 
 conduct, and alarmed for the inferences he might naturally draw from 
 it. " It was only that I felt a little hurt, I think, at at not having 
 been informed of such an affair, if it were so. You must punish me by 
 not telling me what you had in mind to tell." 
 
 " On the contraiy, I have come expressly to offer you a confidence 
 I would not intrust to any other human being." 
 
 "That is a compliment indeed. How shall I show my appre 
 ciation ?" 
 
 " I have penetrated to the heart of the ancient mystery and super 
 stition : I have seen the Yellow Snake." 
 
 " Is it such an extraordinary secret? It really exists, then ?" 
 
 " It really exists ; and it is as different from what you may imagine 
 as anything can possibly be." 
 
 " I trust it has not brought you the traditional ill luck ?" 
 
 " That remains to be seen ; perhaps it depends upon you." 
 
 " Upon me ? You do me great honor." 
 
 " It was your suggestion that sent me there, so honor to whom honor 
 is due. I have scarcely eaten or slept since I saw you last," he broke 
 out, in great excitement. " What do you think the Yellow Snake is ?" 
 
 " How can I tell ? Is it the principal feature of all those wonders, 
 that you are so disturbed over it ?" 
 
 " It is a periodical deposit of pure molten gold." 
 
 " This from you, so sceptical of all treasure-stories !" she exclaimed. 
 " You used to consider them mere fairy-tales." 
 
 " It is true. Oh, do not doubt it. A kinder fate seems to have 
 smiled upon me. It is, perhaps, a treasure incalculable. See here !" 
 And he drew forth some singular fragments of yellow metal. 
 
 At the view of these, some of his own excitement was communi 
 cated to her. She gazed upon them and held them in her fair hands 
 with fascinated eyes. Walter Arroyo began an account of all that had 
 happened. He had two objects in view, and it was apparently his pur 
 pose to interweave them. His discovery permitted him to plan for a 
 happiness that had heretofore been hopelessly beyond his reach. 
 
 " I had never before been consumed by so desperate a thirst for 
 fortune," he said. " Why do you think it was ?" he asked, pointedly. 
 
 All indications seemed to point to his answering that it was for her 
 sake ; but so chagrined was she by her recent conduct, and fearful lest
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 35 
 
 he should think her forward, that she caught confusedly at every pre 
 text for diverting the conversation from the subjects that might have 
 offered him his opportunity. 
 
 " Come, let us sit down by the spring/' she said. " Do you know, 
 one day while you were gone, by the way, the basin bubbled and surged 
 in a way it had never been known to do before ?" 
 
 "Did it, indeed?" He was much struck by the statement, and, 
 on verifying dates and time of day, it appeared that the disturbance 
 coincided with the time of his troubling the great travertine basin. 
 
 " It establishes the direct connection between the Barranca and the 
 hacienda I have often fancied," said Don Walter. " This is, indeed, 
 strange. There will undoubtedly be some way of turning it to account 
 in the work of getting out the millions that may at last render it possi 
 ble for me to become a humble citizen of your opulent United States." 
 
 " How absurdly you choose to talk of your own country, as though 
 everybody there were rolling in fabulous wealth !" 
 
 " All the women are not, at any rate," she added, impulsively. 
 
 "For example?" 
 
 Her remark was evidently not thrown away upon uninterested ears, 
 and they drifted, as people will in talk, into a side-issue, which soon, 
 however, became as momentous as the leading one. 
 
 " You see before you, without going any further, one striking exam 
 ple. You may have thought, from seeing me here with people who 
 live in such splendor, that I had everything on an equal footing : did 
 you not?" 
 
 " Perhaps I had some such impression." 
 
 " You were wrong. They tell me we were once in rather fine cir 
 cumstances, but that was before my time. I have never known any 
 thing but a trying sort of poverty. I do not like to talk about my 
 self; but, then, I do not like to be the subject of misconception, either. 
 Now that you are so rich, you will hardly have any tolerance for so 
 indigent a creature." 
 
 " Tell me all about it," he said, in a caressing way he had. 
 
 " Our property was in the hands of a man who had been universally 
 respected, and he appropriated it to his own uses, without suspicion being 
 aroused till it was too late." 
 
 Her companion suddenly grew agitated in a different way, and 
 uttered a sort of exclamation. 
 
 " Oh, we were not the only ones to suffer," she went on, taking this 
 for indignation. " He left universal wreck. Banks, corporations, and 
 private fortunes went down under his touch. He was a financial 
 magnate whom everybody trusted, and everybody that trusted lost." 
 
 "And what became of him?" asked Don Walter, as with difficult 
 utterance. " What did he do with the money ?" 
 
 " He fled from the country, or, some say, committed suicide. It 
 was given out that he did not keep much for himself, but lost it all in 
 his speculations : I believe that is the usual way. Oh, it was a very 
 great affair, I assure you, if there's any comfort in that. Perhaps you 
 may have heard of it even here. I sometimes see references to it in the 
 newspapers still as ' The Great Ridgefield Defalcation.' "
 
 36 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 "Good God! no, not that?" 
 
 "What is the matter?" 
 
 " To tell the truth, perhaps I have not heard all that you have been 
 saying. My brain is in a whirl with this new discovery. They say 
 men often go mad in such events as this. Do not let me go mad ! I 
 have come to you for aid." 
 
 " Tell me what I can do," she demanded, alarmed at his gloomy 
 change of manner, and desiring to soothe him. He moved about really 
 in quite a mad way. 
 
 " Where a man's treasure is, there his heart is also," he said. " I 
 am always thinking the supply may give out. I do not know why 
 that did not occur to me at first." 
 
 " Oh, I hope not, I hope not. Let us not think it can." 
 
 " The next thing to do is to arrange the best course for securing this 
 treasure, such as it may prove to be." 
 
 " What will you do?" The rdle of Amy, with her small experi 
 ence, was evidently to be hardly more than a listener in the discussion. 
 
 " There are three plans. The first is to acquire title to the place, 
 and regularly work it as a mine. It would not be safe, under our va 
 rious distracted governments, to do this. The second is to associate a 
 number of influential people in the enterprise, pledge them to secrecy, 
 and under their protection secure as much of the valuable deposit as 
 possible. But, naturally, I do not wish to share it ; and so nervous 
 and distrustful of human nature have I become that I cannot think of 
 even a single person whom I would want to help me in the matter." 
 
 " Not even your friend Perez, whom you esteem so highly ? Surely 
 here is a case where his peculiar characteristics ought to find exactly the 
 right field." 
 
 " I do not admit that I believe anything bad of him, but I have 
 not quite got up the necessary confidence even in his case. Captain 
 Perez is my peculiar property, you see : I allow no one either to defend 
 or abuse him without contradiction." 
 
 " And your third plan is ?" 
 
 " To go alone into the Barranca and collect the deposit, and convey 
 it out piecemeal as best I can. It is the one upon which I had deter 
 mined in my own mind. My irregular way of life will give me a cer 
 tain advantage in passing back and forth without suspicion." 
 
 "But if you are discovered?" 
 
 " It is one of the chances of war. I trust I can easily hide the 
 source of the treasure, and I will account for my own presence there 
 by pretending to search for peculiar chemical deposits or fertilizers for 
 my haciendita." 
 
 " There is one thing I have been thinking of from the first," said 
 Amy. " If this supply has been going on for a long time, as the exist 
 ence of the tradition would indicate, there must be somewhere an im 
 mense accumulation of the deposit, in comparison with which the present 
 product is a mere nothing." 
 
 "All that must come later. Yes, that is something that at once 
 occurs to mind. But the quantity that falls into the stream at present 
 seems to disappear in the very bowels of the earth, as no doubt has all
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 37 
 
 before it. To reach such an accumulation would be like moving moun 
 tains or disrupting the very Barranca itself. It could not be done 
 secretly, and it is beyond the strength of a single person." 
 
 " Yes, yes ; I see well it is." 
 
 " Besides, the problem is whether it has flowed continuously, or 
 only made a rare appearance from time to time. My heart is in my 
 mouth when I reflect that the latter is most probable, and that it may 
 stop at any moment." 
 
 " How do you account now for the tradition of bad luck attached 
 to it, when it really is so lucky a thing ?" 
 
 " Only by supposing it was the interest of some one to conceal it, 
 and the superstition has been kept up by the ignorance and apathy of a 
 race that has changed very little even in a couple of hundred years. It 
 was in ecclesiastical hands, and connected no doubt with the worship of 
 the idols in the caves above, and the ancient priests thought it wise to 
 keep so good a thing to themselves." 
 
 Was it uneasiness arising from the cause indicated that had thrown 
 him into the deep depression by which his elation seemed succeeded ? 
 Amy asked herself. She marvelled silently at the change that had 
 come over him. He had been tender and lover-like; he had even 
 taken her hand, and she could hardly find it in her heart to withdraw 
 it, lingeringly, there had been something so benumbing and dreamy 
 in the contact. 
 
 " When I made my good luck dependent upon you," he said, as if 
 feeling that explanation was demanded, " I meant I needed some one 
 to unburden myself to, some one who should know of my whereabouts. 
 In you alone I am not afraid to confide. You are good, true, wise, and 
 capable of keeping counsel. I felt that with you to aid, I should be 
 fortunate indeed." 
 
 " No, no," his hearer protested ; " I am frivolous and shallow. 
 You are mistaken : I have none of those fine qualities." 
 
 Walter Arroyo smiled sadly, and, with this, went away from the 
 Eden that had seemed so near realization, to carry his new plan into 
 eifect. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HOW DON WALTER ARROYO SET OUT FOR THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 HE began at once a series of furtive excursions to the Barranca, 
 finding many different ways of getting there. At one time he would 
 go by way of Campo Florido, as if setting out simply for Crnce Vivo ; 
 again he started up from the other side of Las Delicias, and succeeded 
 in picking a path over the almost insuperable lava-beds ; and sometimes 
 he would fetch a compass even as far away as Bio Frio, a large town in 
 another district, where he pretended to sell some of his horses or mules. 
 From Bio Frio he got access to the gorge by way of Lake Jornada, a 
 body of water some fifteen miles in its longest dimension. There was 
 a settlement at its lower end, with a rude glass- factory. The end near 
 the Barranca was entirely desolate, frequented only by a few lonely
 
 38 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 alkali-gatherers, who collected the alkali to be sold to the glass-factory 
 aforesaid. 
 
 In this new way of life he had to shun Perez as well as others, so 
 that at last the worthy captain was piqued at the rebuffs he met with. 
 
 " The fact is," said Walter, " my guardians are a little dissatisfied 
 with our friendship. You know how it is : we have spoken of it 
 before. Women will get whims into their heads. Let each go his 
 way separately a little while. The notion will not last long, and it 
 will be all for the better for us when it is over." 
 
 The same circumspection was used by Walter in disposing of the 
 product he collected in his watchings. A part of the metal he con 
 cealed in the gorge itself, part of it became a growing hoard at Grace 
 Vivo, and another part still, at his home with the unsuspecting Arroyo 
 ladies ; and, finally, one more repository was established at a lonely spot 
 on the alkali- whitened shores of Lake Jornada. 
 
 During this time no words of more than merely friendly import 
 passed between the pair who should have been lovers. Walter did not 
 return to that mood the meaning of which had seemed hardly equivocal. 
 
 " Ah, well," reflected Amy, " I am the sole confidante of his secret. 
 I am his copartner in so great and hazardous an enterprise. Ought not 
 that to be enough for the present? When this is over, who can there 
 be to whom he will owe more gratitude than to myself? When it is 
 all over, who knows? Perhaps perhaps." 
 
 It was agreed between them that whenever Walter was absent he 
 should every day at a certain hour trouble the waters of the travertine 
 basin, that the effect might appear in the spring at Las Delicias. The 
 actual existence of such a connection had been established by sufficient 
 trials, and Amy went as often as possible she could not do so quite 
 without fail to see her basin thus strangely surge and splash. This 
 singular means of communication, rude as it was, was a source of much 
 reassurance to her. By it she could at least tell his whereabouts, assume 
 that he was well, and be sure he thought of her. " Why," she often 
 sighed, " can I not send a message to him also ?" 
 
 The golden flow, according to the best estimates to be made, was 
 producing every day many thousand dollars, but neither of them could 
 realize this as solid and tangible value. It seemed rather some game 
 of splendid dreams and figures purely mythical at which they were 
 playing. 
 
 At last Walter came and mooted a wholly new plan. 
 
 " I am overpowered with uneasiness ; I do not have one moment's 
 peace," he said. " When I am away from the Barranca I am con 
 stantly tortured by the fear that the flow has stopped, that somebody 
 else has got access to it, that I am not doing the utmost to secure it, or 
 that I have been or shall be followed in going in or out." 
 
 It was but too evident in his looks how mental turmoil and bodily 
 labor were wearing him out. 
 
 " The last time I went up by El Jasmin I met our Seflor Jefe Po 
 litico, with two evil-looking atguazils of office behind him. That coun 
 try is all in his district, of course, and he has a perfect right to be there, 
 and he is probably not spying after my movements, but it gives me a
 
 TEE YELLOW SNAKE. 39 
 
 nervous feeling all the same. I must end this. I must go to the 
 Barranca, and stay there till the work is done." 
 
 " Alone in that dismal place? It would be too dreadful ! Suppose 
 you should be sick ?" 
 
 11 A la guerre comme a la guerre !" he responded as before : " that is 
 one of the least considerations when there are so many more important 
 things to think about. If anything should happen now by my fault 
 when only these few poor thousands have been realized, a mere drop 
 in the bucket to the sum I must have, with what bitter regrets I 
 should be overcome !" 
 
 " But how will your absence be accounted for ? how long will it 
 be? what if you should meet with any accident?" expostulated Amy, 
 in pain, a thousand obstacles and dangers rising before her fancy. 
 
 " I must appear to go to the United States for a visit ; that will 
 divert attention from me entirely, and I may then do as I please in my 
 retreat. But letters would naturally be expected from me. Will you 
 help me in this also, or have I exhausted the measure of your aid?' 7 
 
 " You have not yet even begun to draw upon it." 
 
 " Suspicion will thus be allayed, and without them it would be cer 
 tain to arise, to say nothing of its being a civil thing to do. Let us say 
 a letter once in three weeks ; that will answer for my good au-nts. I 
 can plead being extremely busy, you know. Other people will hear of 
 me through the postmaster." 
 
 " You speak of being gone for so long a time !" exclaimed Amy, 
 dismayed at the prospect he opened before her. 
 
 " I can estimate it almost exactly, if the luck holds good, allowing 
 of course a liberal margin for contingencies. I have never given you 
 more than the merest inkling of a burden and obligation that rests upon 
 me, and I am not now prepared it is not best to do so. But of this 
 I assure you, by whatever force you may attach to a solemn assertion 
 of mine, that the object is a most worthy and honorable one. It is one 
 that you may well feel glad and even proud to have assisted." 
 
 Amy recollected with sympathy the hint he had once let fall of an 
 adequate cause for his recklessness, and her heart smote her at the in 
 justice she had more than once done him in thinking him possessed of 
 mercenary greed. 
 
 " The sum is a great one," he continued, " but till the last cent of 
 it is realized I must hold it as a sacred trust : before heaven ! I seek 
 no advantage of my own." 
 
 He named it. 
 
 " Millions ?" cried Amy, aghast ; " how can they ever be realized ?" 
 Still, in her heart she felt reassured, for had he not on a former occasion 
 demanded the entire contents of the heart of the earth ? 
 
 " There are two things to be done," said Walter. " In the first 
 place, will you give me a few points about New York, the hotel at 
 which I may be supposed to stop, for instance, and the theatres, palaces, 
 noble monuments, and galleries of pictures and sculpture I may see? 
 so that I can write as if I were actually there." 
 
 " Alas ! our poor noble monuments and galleries of sculpture ! 
 However, I will put our best foot foremost."
 
 40 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " In the second place, will you be capable of so much duplicity as 
 to find some one in New York to receive the letters and remail them 
 from there?" 
 
 " It is in a good cause, and I undertake it." 
 
 She sent one, in fact, to her friend Miss Winchester, another to her 
 family, and another again to Miss Winchester, explaining it in each 
 instance as a joke, the key to which they should have later. 
 
 The composition of the first letter was entered upon at once, and so 
 much amusement was caused by mistakes arising out of Walter's pre 
 conceived ideas of things in the United States that a humorous light 
 was cast, for the time being, over the sadness of parting. It was pro 
 posed that Amy should prepare for him after each letter a few particu 
 lars, to give a sort of contemporaneousness to the next, and he was to 
 endeavor to steal out, in disguise, once a month, to get these notes, 
 and leave his letter and also one with some account of his own doings. 
 
 " Where shall we put the letters ?" asked Amy. 
 
 " You know the cross set up at the spot where the English governess 
 was killed by lightning : that is an excellent place. A natural, easy 
 path goes by it, and there is a short cut across the fields to Campo Flo- 
 rido. You can easily make an excuse for going there. A number of 
 earthen pitchers are hung to the cross by leathern thongs, and it is 
 always in order to fill them with flowers. The letters must be put in 
 one of these and well covered with leaves." 
 
 Don Walter had already sounded his guardians on the subject of a 
 voyage to the United States, and when he finally announced his deter 
 mination to go they were not too much astonished. They thought it 
 might not be a bad thing for him to see a little more of the world : 
 perhaps he would settle down more contentedly at home on his return. 
 He had no desire to hunt up his relations in New York, but he made 
 this an occasion for finding out as much as possible about them. The 
 Sefioritas Arroyo, in fact, knew but little. They were distantly re 
 lated to his mother, and it was through this fact that their adopting 
 him had come about ; but his mother was dead before his father had 
 brought him to Mexico, and nearly all the rest was befogged and lost 
 in the non-intercourse the odium of disgrace had occasioned. 
 
 The kind spinsters made a pleasant reunion for him at their house 
 to bid him God-speed. He was of so essentially frank a nature that he 
 could with difficulty carry off" the imposition. Amy was there, and at 
 the moment of farewell his eyes gazed long and lingeringly into hers, 
 while her own were veiled and swimming with tears. 
 
 " If you do not come back," she suggested. 
 
 " Yes, the worst side also ought to be thought of, it is true. Why, 
 then then go to Perez and tell him about it. But that is to be only 
 a last resort; give plenty of time." 
 
 Then he set out on horseback, by a long journey, to take the rail 
 way for Vera Cruz. It was his plan, he said, to visit some neglected 
 business correspondents on the way.. He meant to dispose of his horse 
 at Puebla to pay part of the expense of his voyage. 
 
 Some of his young acquaintances accompanied him part of the way 
 on his road in lively fashion. After leaving them, he went on with a
 
 THE FELLOW SNAKE. 41 
 
 single servant, who carried his baggage. On the second day he insisted 
 that the horse this mozo rode was lame and looked badly. 
 
 " I would not for anything that so good an animal should be per 
 manently disabled," he said. " Give me here the baggage on my own 
 horse," he had purposely made it very light, " and you go back : I 
 shall get on perfectly well by myself." 
 
 The man hesitated in surprise, but the order was peremptory, and he 
 went back. When the Sefioritas Arroyo heard of it they said, " It is 
 exactly like his warm heart, considerate both of beast and man." 
 
 As soon as the servant had disappeared up the road, Don Walter 
 plunged into the woods. There was no one in sight in either direction 
 to observe this unusual proceeding. Within an hour afterwards he re 
 appeared as a peon, of the usual copper-colored skin and in the cotton 
 shirt and drawers of the class. He emerged from the woods near the 
 same spot and took the road back towards Cuernavaca. The animal 
 he rode was also considerably changed in appearance, and seemed to 
 have been a victim of wanton neglect. 
 
 He passed the night at the same meson with his own servant, who 
 was dallying on the road. He set out much earlier in the morning than 
 the latter. When he reached a but-little-used trail, penetrating his own 
 mountain-district, he struck off into it. A wild babbling brook ran 
 down the same course, disputing the right of way. When he had gone 
 a certain distance he dismounted, took off the more necessary articles, 
 and with a sad but resolved air led his horse into a thicket. The poor 
 animal seemed to have a sense of the fate that was impending. He trem 
 bled and drew back, and when the revolver was aimed that, as a pre 
 cautionary measure, should have put an end to his existence, he made so 
 resistless a bound that he escaped to the bed of the brook. Don Walter 
 scrambled after him over the rough stones, but pursuit was useless. 
 
 " Go, then, in heaven's name. I am glad I did not do it," he 
 breathed aloud, rejoicing in the chance that had stayed his hand from a 
 cruelty so repulsive, even with all the danger of detection involved. 
 
 Then he shouldered his effects in a bag, peasant-fashion, went on 
 on foot, and disappeared. Surely his acquaintance would have thought 
 this an extraordinary way in which to start for the United States. 
 
 After Don Walter had gone, Amy Colebrook felt far more than be 
 fore the seriousness of her position. It was a weighty responsibility 
 indeed for her, an inexperienced little American girl, to be down there 
 in the far-off wilds of Mexico, the confidante of a secret of life and 
 death and a monstrous treasure with all its far-reaching interests. At 
 times it seemed too formidable to bear, and she had to struggle not to 
 betray her preoccupation to those about her. Nor was it of one sort 
 only. Looking at the prospect of success from the hopeful stand-point, 
 she would say, 
 
 " When he is very rich he will have other interests, other friends, 
 and then ah me !" 
 
 If she had been fond of him before, her affection took a far greater 
 intensity now that he was away, engaged in his arduous struggle with 
 the powers of nature in the lonely canon. She often dreamed of him, 
 fancying she looked down upon him from the towering walls and saw
 
 42 TEE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 him there, a small, sun-scorched and storm-beaten figure amid the vast 
 surroundings. 
 
 Soon a startling episode happened. Don Walter's horse made his way 
 back to the haciendita, and was recognized there by an old servant who 
 staked his veracity upon it, since he had had something to do with raising 
 the colt. The report went out that Don Walter had been murdered. 
 This again in the mountain-region was laid to his ill luck in having 
 seen the Yellow Snake, and tended to keep people away from the gorge 
 more than ever. The mozo who had accompanied him towards Puebla 
 was put under arrest. The Jefe Politico, who personally would not 
 have greatly mourned the loss of a forward young man given to laugh 
 ing at him, was nevertheless stirred up by the frequent fainting-fits of 
 the Arroyo ladies to do something. Captain Perez too was on the war 
 path. Amy was full of consternation, not because she believed Don 
 Walter had come to harm, but lest this excitement should cause his 
 discovery. 
 
 She thought, in a helpless way, of appealing to Captain Perez to 
 stop the hue and cry, as if this would not have been equally fatal. 
 
 In the midst of it came a letter from Walter, apparently, safely 
 arrived in New York. The old servant was discredited :' the Misses 
 Arroyo recovered from their fainting-turns. Amy had a guilty feeling 
 when they told her about Walter's travels. He wrote a most interest 
 ing letter, they said ; he described Broadway, Central Park, and the 
 Brooklyn Bridge so that it was almost like being there ; but the excite 
 ment and fatigue of exploring a foreign country were great, and he would 
 not have time to write often. 
 
 At the appointed time, she left her communication for Walter as 
 they had agreed. She watched, and found it soon replaced by one from 
 him, a sort of journal of some of his doings in the Barranca. What 
 a mysterious feeling it gave her to think he had been so near her in 
 disguise! it was like the visitation of a spirit. The second month 
 he did not come at all : no doubt the risk was too great. But the 
 troubling of the spring still continued. 
 
 Then all at once, after a while, the spring was not troubled. A 
 second day this concerted signal was lacking, a third, a fourth, a fifth, 
 a sixth, for eight days the waters gave no sign of disturbance. Amy 
 was in an agony of fear. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IN THE BAKBANCA OF CIMABBON. 
 
 DON WALTER utilized a bright night of the tropics for his final 
 march to the cafion. A radiant moonlight still whitened all its strange 
 features when, in the small hours of the morning, he arrived there. 
 
 He had already conveyed thither many things that would be useful 
 to him, and his first care was to make something like a permanent home 
 in one of the lava huts he had used temporarily. These were in reality 
 a kind of rude glass, the eifect of imprisoned steam forcing its way 
 through the vitreous mass. They varied in size from a bee-hive to a
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 43 
 
 cottage. Many were of snow-white pumice, and they looked like tents, 
 from his door-way. 
 
 He took up his own abode in an inconspicuous, mud-colored one, 
 near the place where the treasure flowed forth, yet not so near as to 
 establish any direct connection with it. It needed only an enlargement 
 of the natural opening near the bottom, and the cutting out of a port 
 hole-like window or two, to make it habitable. He spread some petates 
 mats of the maguey fibre on the floor, and constructed a rude table 
 and shelves for his scientific apparatus. Then, finding it gloomy, as he 
 lay on his camp-bed, to gaze up into the Cimmerian darkness in the 
 top of the tall cone, he made an opening for light there also, and later 
 placed a ceiling, which divided the hut into two stories. Then he 
 fitted rustic gratings to his door and windows, to keep out wild birds, 
 or perchance even wild beasts, at night. 
 
 He had a natural taste for the ornamental, with all his masculine 
 habits, and when this was done he set some plants in his window- 
 openings, so that there was a certain hardy air of comfort about it. 
 Just .as the edelweiss is found in Alpine snows, so he brought back 
 from his explorations small flowers symbols, perhaps, of headstrong 
 passion that throve as close as possible to the burning heats. 
 
 But he did not complete this work of installing himself till he had 
 put the signal of communication with Amy upon a more stable footing. 
 
 " It had been my habit," he said in his journal, " to throw into the 
 basin large stones and pieces of stalagmite broken oif around its own 
 borders. These anger it and thus cause a disturbance in some central 
 chamber that finally reaches to you. But the ebullition seemed daily 
 to decrease, and I feared there might be danger of choking up the tube 
 and putting an end to it altogether. So I cast about for some less 
 hurtful means, and found it by rigging up a long beam rested on a 
 fulcrum, and with another short, heavily-weighted beam, hung on like 
 a flail at one end." The sketch he drew of this device showed it not 
 unlike an old-fashioned well-sweep of rural New England. " I can let 
 down this flail end into the water, and stir up a more or less furious 
 protest as I wish, and then move it away again, to await the next 
 occasion." 
 
 While the strange, dumb messages were going, he sat on the steps 
 of the travertine terrace, dreaming of her to whom they were sent, 
 having but scant leisure for dreaming at other times. He thought good 
 to occupy a hut at this place also as a sort of spring-house. Indeed, 
 he ultimately removed most of his apparatus here, and made it the 
 head-quarters for his analyses of the abundant material found in his 
 researches. In addition to the other pretexts in mind, he might aifect, 
 in case of discovery, to be taking baths for rheumatism, or to be a rapt 
 devotee of science. They would set him down for a visionary, or even 
 a lunatic, but this would only the better withdraw attention from the 
 vital interest at stake. 
 
 " When other needed preliminaries were accomplished," he wrote, 
 " I had to inaugurate extensive improvements in my way of gathering 
 and protecting the deposit. I felled some trees, where the lower margin 
 of the forest encroaches on the cafion, slid them down, and drew them
 
 44 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 along on a kind of sled. My idea was to erect an efficient barrier 
 against the searching heat and deleterious fumes from the boiling stream, 
 one behind which I might have secure access to the golden spring. I 
 therefore made two very large, heavy frames of wood. I nailed cross- 
 pieces upon these, and smaller pieces again crossing the first. Then I 
 bethought me what material, strong enough for the ordeal it would 
 have to endure, would be suitable for filling the interstices. 
 
 " In making my way along a ledge at the top of the lower slope of 
 talus, I came upon a strange substance, in strata white, reddish, or green, 
 embedded amid serpentine rock and soapstone. It was apparently a 
 mineral, and yet it was soft, even silky, to the touch, and elastic and 
 pliable as any vegetable fibres. Surely this was the far-famed asbestos, 
 a material indestructible even by the fiercest heat or flame. Nothing 
 could have been more opportune for my purpose. I conveyed large 
 quantities of it to my cabin, prepared the fibres, and with this thoroughly 
 interwove the lattice-work of my frames, which were then ready for 
 use. 
 
 " To put them in place I hoisted them with a small derrick to the 
 top of the platform that had been my first look-out point, and from 
 there let them carefully down. I secured them above by supports 
 weighted with stones, and below the sharpened feet of the posts were 
 let into holes by degrees prepared for them in the rock. 
 
 " I next made an improved course for the flowing metal, the first 
 one having more than once given way at weak points. I made it 
 longer, too, arranging an even grade for it across a considerable yawning 
 interval, and I removed the receiving-trough to a greater distance. 
 The new receiving-trough was larger and more smoothly finished 
 within than the former, and I was even capable of lavishing a little 
 ornament upon it, for what did apparatus so closely identified with the 
 garnering of this wondrous treasure not deserve? For a while I set 
 up a small wheel in the cold brook, capable of sending a stream into 
 the trough to quickly chill its contents, but this I afterwards removed 
 for fear of detection. Furthermore I scattered rough fragments of 
 volcanic slag about in every direction, to artfully conceal, as I hoped, 
 all traces of human handiwork. 
 
 " Nor was this enough. I felt it necessary to form around all the 
 works and the entire place, including my hut, a covert of heavy stones 
 resembling those in the central cairn. The dread of discovery is never 
 absent from my thoughts, and, if discovered, the most desperate energy 
 of one man could not expect to avail against such fierce cupidity as must 
 be aroused by the temptation here presented. 
 
 " ' It is true/ I say to myself, ' that the spot is not on the route to 
 anywhere, it is utterly desolate, nothing is to be gained by coming here, 
 and the strongest prejudice exists against it. And, yet, other men may 
 come as I have done ; other men have come, as witness the supersti 
 tion, and the accurate account of the phenomenon given even by my 
 guides.' 
 
 " I brought down my derrick, set it up again, and placed with it 
 numerous cyclopean blocks, resembling those of the central cairn, leaving 
 a winding, irregular path among them. When this was done, I thought
 
 THE FELLOW SNAKE. 45 
 
 the whole too formal, and spent much time in giving it a more random 
 effect. I look with longing, envious eyes on all the tongues of flame 
 and strong steam-jets going to waste here : were I quite free from con 
 straint, how I would make these natural forces work for me !" 
 
 These passages of the journal against the bare chance of their 
 being found by any third party were but fragmentary and half dis 
 guised under the form of a fairy-tale, and he made mention of no defi 
 nite locality. The journal was intended in good measure for the eye 
 of Amy, but it would have been hard to say just when any particular 
 portion of it came into her hands, and whether it was early or very 
 much later that she saw even those here quoted. There were many 
 important circumstances the writer could not set down in his account 
 for her out of common prudence, and others that he would not out of 
 native modesty. Thus his journal contained but little, for instance, 
 concerning his own painful labors, which were often really herculean. 
 
 His various tackles were wofully inadequate, compared with the 
 tasks he imposed upon them. He quite dismissed the ordinary standard 
 of human achievement, and performed prodigies of strength and Archi 
 medes-like miracles of invention. His muscles, always powerful, re 
 sponded grandly to the tax upon them, and he developed new powers 
 unsuspected in himself. Yet, driven on by his fervid zeal, he was 
 always dangerously near some of those violent strains or shocks that 
 would have put an end to all and crippled him for life. He was con 
 stantly, by turns, cold, wet, hungry, scorched by excessive heat, or 
 weighed down by almost unendurable fatigue. 
 
 " The earlier Croesus," he said, " offered a prize for the discovery 
 of a new pleasure ; I, the later Croesus, might almost offer one for ex 
 emption from a new pain." 
 
 Nevertheless, he by no means complained, but, on the contrary, 
 even rejoiced in his hardships. They seemed to give him a more valid 
 title to the treasure. They were a mere nothing compared to the life 
 long drudgery to which most men are condemned, not only to amass 
 wealth, but even to obtain a bare subsistence. The slightness of his 
 real claim was one of the causes of his nervous dread lest all should be 
 snatched from him even at the last moment. 
 
 " It is the destiny of man to win his bread by the sweat of his 
 brow," he often exclaimed, " and woe to him who tries to escape it ! I 
 am reaping a good fortune far beyond what is granted to the ordinary 
 lot of mortals, and I ought to be glad of any small semblance of 
 earning it." 
 
 Paths were traced over the cinder-heaps and purple-black emery- 
 sand by his frequent goings and comings. They grew as familiar to 
 him as the streets of Cuernavaca, and he could follow them as well by 
 night as by day. It seemed to him he had been there a* very long 
 time; former periods of existence became visionary, the world of men 
 grew small in contrast with this world of elemental forces. He had 
 dedicated himself to Vulcan ; he was communing directly with that 
 mysterious heart of the earth towards which his fancy had been so 
 strongly drawn. He felt its throbbing pulse in earthquake-tremors; 
 he heard its breathing in the issuing steam, and sometimes a mysterious
 
 46 THE YELLOW SNAKE, 
 
 sound like a heavy plaintive sigh came forth and pervaded all the place. 
 He might have thought, as the simple natives say of Popocatepetl, that 
 wicked chiefs were imprisoned below for their crimes, and their groans 
 and murmurs were often heard. 
 
 At night he had around him lights and sounds as of a great city, 
 while in truth there was only unbroken lonesomeness on every hand. 
 He thought upon his last end and the brevity of life, as one could 
 hardly help doing amid such surroundings. Still, he was not often 
 gloomy. He was full of aspiration for love, power, display, for all 
 those things that an ardent young man may desire, and for which his 
 desire seemed now to stand no small chance of gratification. 
 
 " My apprehension," he related, among other things, " has led me 
 to take a lesson out of the book of nature, and imitate certain animals 
 whose safety lies in being of the same color as the objects around them. 
 I have easily reduced my clothing to the general dusty hue of the Bar 
 ranca, and thus glide about very little distinguished from my back 
 ground. There is steam generally floating in the air, and this is, 
 perhaps, an efficient protection against being seen from above; but I 
 have often fancied I saw troops of animals and men peering down from 
 there." 
 
 It was vagaries of the crags and fringing bushes for the most part 
 that produced these illusions, but occasionally he may have been right, 
 for some of the lonely charcoal-burners who inhabited the district may 
 have stopped a moment to gaze downward in passing by. However, 
 there was never any indication that he was seen, and no harm came to 
 him from this source. 
 
 He had a quick eye for natural scenery, and did not soon lose his 
 interest in the striking original effects offered him in the Barranca. 
 From his hut he saw the sun rise and set like a flaming beacon on the 
 towering cliffs. These cliffs, broken into a thousand fantastic or cas 
 tellated shapes, were at some places sheer, uncompromising, terrible, 
 leaving no rest for the eye as it scaled their heights in search of lodge 
 ment. Elsewhere they showed basaltic columns, some tossed at random 
 by eccentric force, others standing upright, and many broken off as if 
 for pedestals for gigantic statuary. Small lateral cations, too, opened 
 from the cliffs, curious nooks, of sharp fracture, forever hidden from 
 the sun. 
 
 If Walter found any beautiful thing, he laid it aside in his cabinet, 
 hoping some day it might delight the eyes of Amy. He put away for 
 her arnygdaloids, almond-shaped crystals formed in air-cavities of the 
 lava, specimens of scoria? and pumice filled with crystalline deposit, and 
 fossils that had once been under the sea. And how many a bulky mass 
 of pudding-stone he broke asunder with his hammer to search in this 
 promising matrix for diamonds ! 
 
 " Such a laboratory affords all the conditions for the formation of 
 precious stones," he argued. " The diamond is only carbon, the ame 
 thyst silica, and the ruby and sapphire alumina, all crystallized slowly 
 under enormous pressure. Why should I not find some of them ?" 
 
 Nevertheless, his efforts in this direction did not meet with success.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 47 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PERILS AND ALARMS IN THE BARRANCA. 
 
 " WHAT do I believe is the origin of it all ? What theory shall I 
 set down?" the journal ran. "Ah, with what good reason I now 
 regret the lost opportunities of my school-days, that might have made 
 me a thorough master of such an exceptional situation as this ! I know 
 only what I could not help knowing. Is there a central ocean of heat ? 
 I cannot think so. In that case my refreshing cold spring must have 
 been as hot as the perfervid one alongside of it, and all springs alike 
 must be hot. The tides of such an ocean, if it existed, would soon 
 rack this frail crust of earth to pieces. No, no ; the heat that comes to 
 us in such irregular places and degrees is of local origin. As I con 
 ceive it, our black and solid earth is a mass of virgin elements to most 
 of which water and air have not yet got access. When they reach any 
 part of it, it slacks like lime, and a heat is set up sufficient to melt the 
 hardest rocks. Or, again, different chemical elements being thrown 
 together by movements of the outer crust would set up a fierce energy 
 in their combination. No need to go down to an internal ocean for 
 heat, and to suppose my thin stream of beneficent treasure comes from 
 there. It would have cooled and solidified, like other veins of metal, 
 long since. 
 
 " The rich veins that miners love, the wedge-shaped ones, increasing 
 in breadth as they go down, are formed by injection from below. The 
 metallic stream has run or the metallic vapors cooled in some chance 
 crevice of the everlasting rocks, and there was my vein. 
 
 " There was my vein, good ! Now, what has happened to make 
 this my crucible and bring the gold up to me in molten form ? One of 
 three things, as it seems to me. A jet of gas or superheated steam, 
 like a blast from a blow-pipe, may have touched the vein ; or violent 
 chemical action may have broken out close to it ; or what if one of the 
 liquid sheets of lava that, unable to reach to the surface, force them 
 selves between the strata sideways for long distances, and are hundreds 
 of years in cooling, had obtained access to it ?" 
 
 So he went on with his speculations. He cut thin laminae of the 
 lavas, and, examining them under his microscope by transmitted light, 
 could tell the depths from which they came. The great caldron of 
 boiling lava he had named La Caldera seemed a veritable mouth of 
 the infernal regions. It gave out an almost continuous roar, and from 
 time to time shot forth fiery bombs with showers of scintillating drops, 
 and fan-like tails of beautiful spun glass, as fine as hair, streaming 
 behind them. With microscope and spectroscope he found these bombs 
 from the still active crater made of native sodium, calcium, mag 
 nesium, and potassium, the precise materials of the wandering mete 
 orites that fall to us from trackless space. He found the heart of the 
 earth identical in composition with the illimitable stars. The result of 
 all these studies, though they should never have any other, was to 
 vastly increase his reverence for the sublimity of creation.
 
 48 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 In the neighborhood of his dwelling he had found a series of 
 caverns, and these he turned to use as receptacles for his garnered 
 treasure. They were of various shapes and sizes, some connecting too 
 among, themselves, others standing singly. They were formed, like 
 his hut, of a shell of lava which had cooled, while an inner stream, 
 still fluid, had passed on, leaving them high and dry above it. 
 
 Every day Walter collected and stored away its own accumulation 
 and instalment. How slowly the amount seemed to grow, to the view 
 of his ardent impatience ! The normal return was liberal, and even 
 princely, but there were days when the stream did not flow pure, being 
 mingled with, or even almost wholly composed of, a lava imitating its 
 color. These drawbacks, which seemed to follow especially some of 
 the volcanic tremblings and oscillations in the valley, reduced the ex 
 pected average of value. He made an an-astra, or crusher, of large 
 revolving stones, to break up the bulky pieces, and a smelting appa 
 ratus, to reduce the portions thus alloyed to the condition of the 
 rest. 
 
 His caution led him to do much of the storage-work at night : so 
 familiar was he with the ground that he could carry it on then almost 
 as well as by daylight. The fragments of rough slag along the way 
 took every variety of eccentric shape, and often startled him at first 
 with the vivid likeness to crouching wild beasts or human figures with 
 weapons in their hands, but no real peril arose. 
 
 One night he returned late from a visit to his caverns. Jupiter 
 was shining very brightly at the time, and he was looking up at a 
 nebulous halo about the brilliant planet. Suddenly there flashed be 
 fore him something like a lantern swinging in a man's hand. It came 
 from behind a rock directly into the path, and was too near for him 
 now to retreat. 
 
 "Who goes there?" he asked, at the same time raising his re 
 volver. 
 
 With the commingled voices of the valley in his ears, he thought 
 he heard murmured words, but no definite answer was vouchsafed. 
 The light approached nearer, so near that its gleam fell directly upon 
 him. He fired once ! twice ! the bullets singing to their mark as in 
 a vicious way. The appearance merely lifted, shot up into the air, and 
 exploded with a bright effulgence and slight crackling sound. It was 
 a sort of will-o'-the-wisp or St. Elmo's fire. 
 
 After this such vagrant dancing flames were not infrequent : they 
 were perhaps connected with the beginning of some new period in the 
 weather. Walter was not superstitious, but he had heard many old 
 wives' tales, and one had need to be stout of heart indeed, for if goblin 
 shapes and spectral visions ever appeared this place should be more 
 favorable to them than most others. 
 
 The time came round for him to convey his letters to Amy. He 
 prepared the missive for his aunts, using in it the points she had given 
 him. If these lacked a little freshness, they, in their small experience, 
 would never detect it. He had thought he would employ his long 
 periods of leisure at the Barranca in writing pages upon pages to Amy, 
 laying open every thought before her ; but when his labors were over
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 49 
 
 he dropped half dead with fatigue, and somehow nothing was ready for 
 statement ; the time had not yet arrived. She reproached him afterwards 
 for the lack of fulness in his intelligence, saying, 
 
 " You might just as well have been in New York, for all I really 
 know of you." 
 
 He stole out in disguise, made his trip to Las Delicias, and returned 
 almost like a man walking in his sleep, so little did he seem now to 
 belong in the upper world, and so engrossed was he with what he left 
 behind. He could hardly have told it was not a dream, except for one 
 awakening shock of alarm he had in coming face to face with his former 
 servant Pablo. It was near the village of La Madalena, west of the 
 hacienda, in the morning, and the eyes of this stupid man who was 
 driving some young stock marked with the brand of the Jefe Politico 
 opened wider and wider at him in growing recognition. Don Walter 
 stumbled and fell as by accident, gave one of the cattle a sharp thrust 
 that threw the troop into confusion, and, amid the dust and turmoil, 
 slipped into a cloister, whence the sing-song hum of urchins reciting 
 their spelling-lesson to the schoolmaster was heard, and so out on the 
 other side, and escaped. 
 
 The account, too, he had from Amy's letter of the hue and cry 
 raised about his horse was a further awakening influence. He mar 
 velled at the danger he had narrowly escaped, and at the sweetness and 
 kindness of her who must have been so sorely tried for him. The con 
 sequence of all this was that the risks seemed too great, and he missed 
 entirely the next date set for his venturing forth. 
 
 The subsistence problem was a simple one ; his fare in the cafion 
 was even more than frugal. Yet sometimes a youthful stomach would 
 crave a sustenance more suited to maintain the vigor of the body in the 
 arduous labors in which it was engaged, and then he put his gun on his 
 shoulder and went along the lower ledges of the enclosing walls. Most 
 wild creatures would naturally have a salutary dread of the place and 
 give it a wide berth ; nevertheless, some game was to be had. Once he 
 killed a deer, of which there were plenty in the forests above. He had 
 no fear about the reports being heard, for they would easily be confounded 
 with the detonations of the place itself. 
 
 One eventful day, a dread that had long haunted him at last came 
 true. To him, as to Robinson Crusoe, there appeared a man within 
 his peculiar domain. It was on the return from one of his hunting- 
 trips that he saw this stranger, near the lava-basin. The man had at 
 first sight the miserable aspect of one of the poor alkali-gatherers ; but 
 presently Walter found in him a familiar look. He fancied he recog 
 nized Kaufmann, the foreman of the glass-works at the lower end of 
 Lake Jornada, a workman of much ability in his line, brought over 
 originally from famous Murano. 
 
 Walter had been told in visits paid there that it was upon the 
 skill of Kaufmann that the success of the manufactory chiefly de 
 pended. 
 
 " What is he doing here in such a guise ?" murmured Walter. " He 
 has the air rather of searching for some outlet than of making discov 
 eries ; yet there is no surprise or treachery that I ought not to be pre- 
 VOL. XLIL 4
 
 50 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 pared for ; there is no telling what he may stumble upon by accident, 
 if not by design. I must not let him get out of my sight for a 
 moment." 
 
 He stole along at a distance, keeping a parallel course to that of the 
 visitor, while screening himself behind intervening obstacles. 
 
 His heart throbbed faster and faster, and began to be fairly in his 
 mouth as the invader moved on, and it was evident that the arrange 
 ments though, to be sure, expressly made to throw dust in the eyes of 
 the public were about for the first time to receive inspection. Instead 
 of keeping straight on, however, the foreman, whose course was a mean 
 dering one, and who might really have had no more intention in entering 
 the valley than to get out of it, bore to the left. 
 
 This line, converging upon that furtively pursued by Walter, 
 crowded the latter into yet more secure hiding. Crawling over a slope 
 of debris between two parallel rocks, near the side-wall of the gorge, 
 his eyes still cast about for the enemy, he did not at once perceive an 
 even more formidable danger that awaited him. He looked up, to dis 
 cover a large, powerful wild beast, reddish brown, with white throat, 
 poised before him, ready to spring. 
 
 " The lion ! the lion !" was his startled exclamation mentally. His 
 faculties were all but paralyzed for a moment at this sudden peril. 
 
 He had recognized the formidable animal known as the cougar, the 
 American lion, though in reality it is more like a panther than a lion. 
 But even in the midst of his panic he could not help recalling a ridicu 
 lous story wont to be told by a boasting friend of his, of how he had 
 once met one on the Cumbres, near Boca del Monte, with no weapon 
 but an umbrella in his hand ; he had thrust the umbrella down its 
 throat, and, thanks to this distraction, got off unharmed. For his own 
 part, he had never got nearer one than very long range, though he had 
 often tried to do so, nor had he seen any other wild adversary since 
 coming to the valley more dangerous than an occasional red wolf 
 prowling at a distance. 
 
 His stealthy, unconscious approach, so different from either fear or 
 hostility, had perhaps puzzled the animal : it may have regarded him 
 with an element of curiosity. It stood with one paw raised to strike ; 
 its greenish optics gave out that glint of elusive expression that is the 
 essence of untamable savagery, and the lips of its whiskered visage were 
 drawn back from its savage jaws. 
 
 Walter, by nature quick in action, had his rifle already in position 
 and a finger placed on the trigger. But to fire would be to betray his 
 whereabouts to the stranger and his secret to the world : better any risk 
 than that ; he must not shoot till it was imperatively the last resort. 
 With the other hand he slowly drew his sharp machete from his belt. 
 The same absence of shock that had kept the animal quiet thus far 
 availed him in this, but when the shining blade was fairly out it seemed 
 to act as a challenge. 
 
 Walter felt the bound as of a heavy body made of whalebone and 
 steel, felt the violent collision as it impinged upon his weapon, firmly 
 set like a bayonet to receive a charge, felt the ground give way beneath 
 him with a crackling and crunching sound, knew he was falling and
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 51 
 
 being buried, and finally came to his senses in the bottom of a deep pit 
 on a bed of snow. 
 
 What had happened ? A thin roof-crust had broken through, and 
 he was in one of those cavities on the side of the sunless north, over 
 hung by the tallest of the brooding cliffs, where the snows of some phe 
 nomenal season, or perhaps even of some past geologic epoch, were per 
 manently hidden and preserved. The city of Catania, in Sicily, is 
 thus supplied with ice preserved under the lava-floods of .ZEtna. 
 
 He must have fallen some twenty feet : how was he to get out ? 
 Jarred, bruised, and benumbed as he was, there at first seemed no way 
 of scaling the rough walls. There was danger, too, of his sinking lower, 
 and even being buried out of sight in the soft snow. He tied one end 
 of his lasso to his rifle, then, nerved by desperation, inserted his machete, 
 which had fallen with him, into a crevice of the rock, stepped upon it 
 for a support, and laid hold of some opportune projections above. He 
 repeated the process till, little by little, he reached the top, and then 
 drew up his rifle after him. 
 
 It was a work of no speedy accomplishment. The moon was 
 shining over the edge of the Barranca when he emerged. The wan 
 dering invader of his realm, and the ferocious animal, had alike dis 
 appeared. No trace remained of either. It had all transpired in a 
 flash, like some of the absurd things he had seen in pantomimes by the 
 zarzuela companies at the theatres. 
 
 The vividness of the episode passed away in time, as that of others 
 had done, but it served as a reason for increased alarm and new pre 
 cautions. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FAILURE IS ADDED TO HARDSHIP. 
 
 WALTER by no means used the more obvious places of concealment 
 in his caverns, but sought the inmost penetralia. His plan was to fill 
 stout bags, he had brought with him, like those of the sulphur-gatherers 
 of Popocatepetl, full of the treasure, and, after depositing them, to heap 
 them over with black sand and scatter loose fragments on the top. 
 When this supply of bags was exhausted, he made little heaps of about 
 the same cubical contents, that he might keep the basis for his general 
 estimate unimpaired, and covered them with sand in like manner. 
 
 Standing in one of these caverns where he had piled the bags several 
 tiers high, he would liken himself fancifully to the famous Inca of 
 Peru in his room full of gold which the remorseless Pizarro had de 
 manded as ransom. 
 
 His over-anxiety even led him to make his precautions too elaborate. 
 He connected together the different depositories by means of a system 
 of clues, all leading to a centre, and carefully hidden from sight, but 
 somehow his clues became disorganized and thrown into such confusion 
 that he himself had much difficulty in finding many of the places 
 again. A more serious matter still was the falling in of some of the 
 roofs upon the bags, which it cost him severe labor to recover from their 
 interment.
 
 52 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 All this put him upon seeking yet more secure hiding-places, and 
 these he found in caverns of greater extent and stability in the side- 
 walls of the Barranca. There was unmelting snow near some of them, 
 too, as in the pit into which he had fallen, and this served his purpose 
 quite as well as sand for covering up his ingots. 
 
 In exploring these, he entered one opening behind a small grove of 
 trees from which all vegetation was blasted, leaving only bare whitened 
 limbs, rattling together like skeletons. No sooner was he a few feet 
 from its mouth than he felt his head benumbed by an overpowering 
 heaviness and his limbs sink under him. With an instinct to fly that 
 seemed the last expiring effort of consciousness, he crawled out on his 
 hands and knees and reached the free open air again. He lay for a 
 considerable time with the blood beating loudly in his temples, gasping, 
 and unable to rise. He had got into a new Avernus, or a place like the 
 famous Grotto del Cane at Naples, which no animal can enter and live. 
 
 Returning to this spot afterwards, and examining it with a caution 
 which the adventure induced him to extend to all his other researches 
 as well, he found it a vent of deadly carbonic acid gas. There was 
 even a sort of natural tank without, which was filled by the gas pouring 
 down from it. In this Don Walter, with his youthful taste for novelty, 
 managed to bathe, keeping his head well above the gas, so much 
 heavier than air, and he thought he found a peculiar refreshment in it 
 for his tired bones. The transportation of his hoard and rearrange 
 ment of it in the new quarters was another work that occupied no 
 small time. 
 
 He kept a careful diagram of all the places of deposit, and a rude 
 tally-book with the contents of each. The amount grew apace ; he had 
 freight for many mules, and, still attaching no definite ideas of value 
 to it, he was always vaguely troubled by the speculation as to how he 
 should get it out of the country : that he felt was likely to be an even 
 more difficult undertaking than the other. 
 
 To really go to New York and enlist some American capitalists 
 who should make it a sort of international enterprise ; to confide in 
 General del Prado ; to pretend to engage in the business of dealing in 
 stock between this part of the country and the coast, and, in his various 
 trips, convey away the treasure depending upon an arrangement with 
 some irregular vessel afterwards to transport it over-seas, all these 
 projects passed through his mind, and their attendant obstacles followed 
 close behind them. He could not reconcile himself to bringing in out 
 side assistance at this late stage; yet he was two hundred miles from 
 the coast by the nearest line, and the country abounded in unscrupulous 
 characters, not to say positive brigands. 
 
 " But I will not cross the bridge till I reach it," he said to himself: 
 " there is time enough and to spare, heaven knows, and some way will 
 surely be presented." 
 
 Meantime, he determined at last to prepare a statement for Amy 
 containing such a full explanation of his identity, his depressed views 
 of life, and the real nature of his mission in coming here, as would set 
 all that she ought to know or might naturally be supposed to be in 
 terested in knowing clearly before her. If he failed she would at least
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 53 
 
 comprehend what he had tried to do, and though if he failed life con 
 tained nothing but blackness, and he looked forward in no pharisaical 
 way to winning her on his good intentions alone there would be a 
 certain mournful satisfaction in that. He wanted her to have this be 
 fore he saw her again, that she might have had time to be thinking it 
 over. He included in the confession no more of his love for herself 
 than might be inferred : all that would come later. 
 
 The whole was disguised as before, purporting to be only an account, 
 by one Ignacio Gomez, of what had happened in the ancient land of 
 Cibola. 
 
 There were two things in the valley that greatly affected the imagi 
 nation of Walter. The one, which, as it came to nothing, may first be 
 briefly dismissed, was the question, what had become of all the deposit of 
 the golden spring in times gone by ? Pressing almost unwarrantably 
 close to the boiling stream in defiance of the fierce heat, he found an 
 ancient inscription on one of a number of great stones that seemed to 
 have been tumbled into it, as it were, above its very source. Perhaps 
 these stones had come there not by accident but design. The stream rose 
 in its greatest strength from immediately beneath them, being bent down 
 by them like a stout sapling, and thus forced over to impinge violently 
 on the rock whence the Yellow Snake leaped forth. They certainly 
 changed its course. What if the accumulation of treasure did not lie 
 deep in the bowels of the earth, but only in the bed of this stream, which 
 had been turned over it by those who would preserve the secret from 
 the general eye? And they, heathen priests or whoever they might 
 have been, what had become of them if his fanciful surmise was right 
 that the secret was lost ? But that was now out of the reach of any 
 human divination. 
 
 Walter Arroyo continually regarded the stones with tantalized and 
 hungry eye, but to displace them was beyond the force at his disposal. 
 And then, too, could he command the mechanism and materials for the 
 powerful explosions necessary to bring about such a result, the effect 
 upon the present source of supply must be greatly dreaded. The shock 
 might disturb an equilibrium no doubt very delicate, and so put an end 
 to the goose that laid the golden egg. 
 
 The other subject by which he was haunted But let it be stated 
 
 in his own words : 
 
 " Cannot the source be enlarged upon and improved ? Perhaps 
 there is a much larger quantity of the metal than appears. It may be 
 pushing for exit in large supply just behind the face of the rock there, 
 and only checked by a too narrow orifice." 
 
 He had observed that the flow was freer on days of low barometer, 
 and the fact gave credibility to his surmise. 
 
 These ideas were present to him whenever he went near the source. 
 In his feverish haste to secure more rapid returns, the temptation was a 
 most seductive one. Little by little he yielded to it. 
 
 Very cautiously, very delicately, he removed a small portion of the 
 rock, and slightly enlarged the opening. Joy ! the flow distinctly 
 rounded itself out to the larger bore. Again, and yet again, he broke 
 off with his hammer and short drill some further portions of the rock.
 
 54 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 It was apparent it would stand even more. He probed the opening, 
 always with the same delicacy, using a long crow-bar, and this had a 
 most excellent effect : the stream still expanded to its increased oppor 
 tunities. Visions of a speedy end to the rest of his arduous task swam 
 before the warm fancy of the experimenter. 
 
 It seemed as if a very small, inoffensive blast with powder might be 
 tried. A hopeful ardor put down the voice of prudence. The blast was 
 placed and fired. 
 
 Ah, heaven ! who could have foretold, who could have believed 
 credible, so hideously painful a result ? The flow ceased instantly, abso 
 lutely, and no subsequent efforts could recover it. The goose that laid 
 the golden egg was slain indeed, and by Walter's own hand. 
 
 At first he felt that only some insignificant fragment had blocked 
 the way, which could easily be removed, but he cleared away the debris 
 without result. Then with breathless increasing haste he began to work, 
 with short drill and long drill, with mattock and pick. He fell upon 
 the recalcitrant rock with the energy, the fury of coming despair. Mere 
 tools would not answer, but he would still reach back to where the elu 
 sive golden stream had hidden its head. So he fired blast after blast in 
 increasing quantities, till most of the rock was shattered away, and the 
 whole appearance of the place was changed. 
 
 " Oh, immeasurable dolt ! Oh, ineffable madman !" 
 
 So he called himself, and in the first access of his dismay and dis 
 appointment he drew his revolver, purposing to end his days ; but even 
 then some vestige of fine old Stoic philosophy and courage remained and 
 stayed his hand. 
 
 " If the stream be checked here, it must come out somewhere else 
 in the vicinity, or at least in the Barranca/' he cried. " I will not be 
 baffled so ! I will have it !" 
 
 He knew in his heart, however, that it might be at no more accessible 
 a spot than the bottom of the boiling torrent. 
 
 He nowhere found any indication of it. Then he began to go over 
 again, with redoubled painstaking, all his former researches for treasure 
 in some other form. He said to himself that they had been only super 
 ficial, when, in fact, they had already been most thorough. Once more 
 he broke the pudding-stone for diamonds, once more washed the sands 
 of the brook and the alluvial earth, holding up his pan to the light, 
 that the sunbeams might catch with a glitter on any chance particles of 
 gold, and once more made small chambers over the respiradores and 
 fumaroles to condense the sublimated mineral vapors. He was more 
 like a crazy man than one in the full possession of his faculties. 
 
 The most daring attempt of all he made was to actually descend 
 into the open lava-caldron. He wished to secure some of the glowing- 
 ruddy liquid always boiling there, with flame and smoke, on the bare 
 wild chance that it might contain gold in its composition. 
 
 With the apparatus he had prepared, he got to windward of the 
 fumes, and descended one of the steep, rocky slopes of the crater. Here 
 was a sort of terrace, or narrow ledge of black and loamy soil, like 
 dried-up mud, within which, as in a vast black melting-pot, and at a 
 lower level, was the hellish, seething broth that he would test.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 55 
 
 He proceeded to let down an earthen jar made fast with an iron 
 chain. The bucket struck the surface, filled, and disappeared. Walter 
 attempted to pull it up on the instant, but the incandescent flood had 
 already melted off bucket and iron chain, the latter as far as its fiery 
 chaps had reached, and he staggered back with only a useless remnant 
 of the chain in his hand. 
 
 " What shall I do next ?" he demanded. 
 
 He bethought him of his asbestos, with which he had had in other 
 ways so successful an experience. He procured a new supply of it, con 
 structed a sort of dipper-box of this fireproof material, and also twisted 
 a rope of the fibres, to be attached to it. Thus prepared, he returned 
 to the crater another day. He let down the asbestos bucket and secured 
 the specimen he wanted. But, after all this, it proved to be only lava, 
 differing but little from what lay about him on every hand. 
 
 This was his last resort. He might be said to return from it like 
 another Orpheus returning from Hades, for, in his consciousness of fail 
 ure, he, too, seemed to leave behind him the dear Eurydice who had 
 been his promised reward. His own danger had been great throughout, 
 but he made nothing of that. Perhaps he would not have cared over 
 much if fate had there seen fit to put an end to his existence after so 
 miserably balking his plans. 
 
 There was every reason to believe that all was now at an end, 
 and nothing more remained for him to do in the Barranca. He had 
 only to secure what he had, and invent that plan for getting it out 
 of the country which he had so long kept in abeyance. Consolatory 
 mental voices tried to persuade him that even his present success was 
 not to be despised ; but he would have none of this. 
 
 " To give back some millions that nobody had expected might be 
 thought to have a fine effect," he said, " but there would still remain 
 people to whom other millions were due. How could I hold up my 
 head and take the world in a bold fashion so far as they are concerned ? 
 No, it would only be said that a part of the robbery had been made 
 good by way of a compromise with conscience for keeping the rest. It 
 would never be believed that one who had so much had not the whole." 
 
 These reflections, quixotic perhaps from the shrewd, practical point 
 of view, may have aided his reluctance to leave so hard-fought a field. 
 He could not bear to give it up. A pertinacious obstinacy and linger 
 ing hope kept continually springing to life even now. 
 
 " What if I go out to one of the larger cities, even as far as Mexico," 
 he said, " get a new supply and better blasting-material, return, and try 
 again This dynamite, of which they talk so much lately, would, no 
 doubt, suit my purpose here. With plenty of good explosives, I will 
 shatter every stone in the place, if necessary, till I come to the Yellow 
 Snake. And then I can look for the lost deposit, too, without hurting 
 any other interest." 
 
 So ran his final decision. Every day until now he had sent the 
 message of his safety to Amy by the spring. With what suffering the 
 dumb current would have pulsed, could it have conveyed his own 
 feelings, in these later days, to her ! But for a while the signal must 
 be abandoned. The third period set for the exchange of letters had
 
 56 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 also come around. He determined, therefore, to stop on his way at 
 Las Delicias, both on account of the letters and to reassure Amy as to 
 the cessation of the signal and the beginning of his wanderings. 
 
 " Was she well ?" At first thought it seemed almost absurd to fancy 
 anything could happen to one so tenderly cared for in the midst of 
 every luxury ; all dangers rather were reserved for his own lot. But 
 he knew that pale death, with sickness and calamity as well, knocks 
 equally at regal palaces and at the hovels of the poor, and no small 
 anxiety about her was added to the sum of all the others. His 
 letter to her breathed, even though he tried to guard against it, a sense 
 of his discouragement, fatigue, and uncertainty about the future. He 
 hesitated much as to whether he should put in the confession he had 
 prepared for her, but decided in the affirmative. Was there not now 
 all the more reason for it, since the prospect of success had grown so 
 remote ? 
 
 All was made ready for departure ; he left his belongings in as 
 wild a state as possible, and began to climb the craggy wooded path. 
 Here, as once before, he met with an accident. A large stone rolled 
 from its place under his touch and bore him down. It pinned him to 
 the earth, yet was stopped by several small obstacles from crushing 
 him with its full weight. He managed to extricate himself, but was in 
 great pain and unfitted to proceed. 
 
 A forlorn wounded creature, he dragged himself back to his hut, 
 and, his hurts stiffening and taking an even more aggravated form be 
 fore they got better, he lay there for many days capable only of the 
 efforts necessary to secure such food and drink as would maintain life. 
 He seemed abandoned by heaven and earth ; his lonely unbefriended 
 condition made a scornful mockery of the golden dreams in which he 
 had so lately indulged. Nevertheless, no bones were broken, nor was 
 any lasting injury wrought, and, though the torment of mental activity 
 retarded his recovery, he slowly regained sufficient of his forces to be 
 about again. 
 
 Then he went back to look at the locality of the Yellow Snake, 
 beset by the secret hope that in this long interval it must have come 
 forth again. But there lay the scene made desolate by his imprudent 
 labors, as still and devoid of any trace of it as ever, and so once more 
 he set out for the.upper world in a state of great depression. 
 
 In all this time he had not once touched the signal, nor could he 
 now renew it. He only bestowed upon it a sad smile in passing to 
 think how far beyond his strength it was to replace the apparatus 
 which by precaution he had unshipped. The visit to the hacienda 
 therefore was all the more imperative. These were the days that had 
 wellnigh broken Amy's heart. He thought often of her anxiety, but 
 he could not help her. There was nothing to be done ; he could only 
 hope for the best. 
 
 There was something revivifying in the air of the higher levels 
 and in having to use his powers of strategy, and he began to improve 
 at once. He reached the vicinity of Las Delicias, concealed himself a 
 part of the day in the Pedregal, or lava-field, and went at night to look 
 for his letter. He was right in supposing Amy would go often to the
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 57 
 
 trysting-place under such unusual circumstances. He found a letter 
 from her, full of alarm at the prolonged rupture of communications. 
 For the rest, besides the collected news from New York, she gave him 
 some of the uneventful gossip of the hacienda. 
 
 " I told you all of it before," she said, " in the letter I left for you 
 a long time, and then had to take back, because you did not come. 
 Now I tell you again ; perhaps I shall have to take this back also. 
 There is little to say about our quiet life ; you could almost invent it 
 all for yourself. But it may interest you to hear that our exemplary 
 friend the Jefe Politico, Senor Don Tomas Corcovedo, has formally 
 proposed for the hand of Luz, and has been rejected. You would 
 have learned it from my former letter, for it happened a good while 
 ago. Seflor Corcovedo has shown himself very indignant in conse 
 quence, and has tried to be disagreeable in various ways. I hear that 
 he has let fall to the General grumbling, half-threatening expressions 
 about people who are lukewarm in their devotion to the government. 
 But this surely could not have been intended for our dear General ; for 
 nobody is more truly patriotic than he. 
 
 " But why do I talk of other things ? Where are you ? what has 
 happened ? I come to look, so often, and find nothing. Am I wrong 
 to be so oppressed and anxious ?" 
 
 Walter replaced it with his own, as on a former occasion, adding a 
 few words to the effect that he would not go at once, but would try to 
 wait about to receive some little further communication from her. He 
 found the ancient corral, that had been Trinidad Josh's, deserted, and 
 took refuge there for the night. There would have been an excellent 
 view of the memorial cross, in the morning, from behind its low ram 
 bling walls, except that a number of yellow straw-stacks were scattered 
 over the space between, the faces of some of them rudely sculptured, 
 after a not unusual custom, into bas-reliefs of saints. 
 
 He saw Amy go by from a distance, however, with a group of the 
 family about her. The children sported in advance, and with the elders 
 among others was Sister Beatrix. How his heart beat as Amy went by ! 
 He fancied, from his remoteness, she looked pale. She leaned on the 
 arm of Sefiora del Prado, too, as if she were not very strong. 
 
 " Can it be in any degree on my account?" he wondered. " If so, 
 she is soon to be reassured." 
 
 The company remained an hour or more, it was a pleasant rural 
 spot where they might well enough pass a little time, though it in no 
 way compared with the garden, and then he watched them on their 
 return. As soon as the coast was entirely clear, he slipped out, and, 
 shielding himself behind one straw-stack after the other, daringly risk 
 ing detection, went and inspected the depository. 
 
 Nothing. He hid again in the corral, hoping she might make 
 another visit in the afternoon, but looking once more in the evening, 
 and yet again in the morning, he still found nothing. He thought she 
 had not been able to secrete an answer before her companions in the 
 first instance, nor to return alone in the second. What was more 
 natural ? But now he could wait no longer : another day at the corral 
 was not to be thought of.
 
 58 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 Just as he was about to begin his de'tour of retreat, he saw issuing 
 from the principal gates of Las Delicias a numerous cavalcade. There 
 were armed servants commanded, by the Caporal, or principal herds 
 man, a man who wore a red handkerchief about his head in bandit 
 fashion and was wont to claim to be the titular cacique of some ex 
 tinct tribe, and there were peons carrying the implements needed to 
 clear the road. Mules, bearing provisions for the company for some 
 days, had the name of the hacienda embroidered on the broad crupper- 
 bands in bright colors. A small escort of the leather-jacketed Rurales, 
 or country police, furnished by the Jefe Politico, was also in attendance, 
 whose arms and silver trappings jingled as they rode. 
 
 In the midst were seen General del Prado, Amy, Luz, Dofia 
 Beatriz, the Sefioritas Arroyo, and some other persons of note from the 
 town. 
 
 Several of the party wore such badges as were used on the occasion 
 of the pilgrimage to El Jasmin. Walter bethought him that this was 
 the date of it. If it were a pilgrimage to El Jasmin on which they 
 were bound, then let him turn back and pause a little in his vague 
 plan. 
 
 He discreetly followed their course, his skill in wood-craft standing 
 him in good stead. Time was really no great object with him now ; an 
 opportunity would surely present itself, on such an excursion, to speak 
 to her, and many things could be settled by word of mouth which 
 could not be by a fitful, enigmatic correspondence. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE FAMILY BIDE TO EL JASMIN. 
 
 BUT two days after the impulsive disclosure of her affection for 
 Walter, Dofia Beatriz had sought at the .hacienda to disavow it, in a 
 passion of confusion and remorse. 
 
 " My conscience was dead to every consideration that should have 
 restrained me when I talked so," she said. " I had neither self-respect 
 nor shame. I come to beg you to think no more of it, and never to 
 breathe a word of it to any other person. Does he know ?" 
 
 Amy was as non-committal as possible, to save her feelings, but she 
 had to admit some portion of what had taken place. 
 
 " I hoped to be in time," said Beatriz, with a quivering sigh, and 
 flushing deeply red in her sliamefaceduess. " It is a part of my pun 
 ishment, then, that he knows. I must never see him again." 
 
 She shut herself up for a long time after this, in peculiarly close 
 seclusion, keeping away from all those she had known. The Arroyo 
 ladies she naturally avoided most. Thus it resulted that she knew 
 nothing of Walter's departure for the United States. Her sincere 
 effort to do right in this struggle with herself was shown in her never 
 making any inquiries for him. It was only by accident that she learned 
 of it, and soon after that, the two older Sisters, her companions, began to 
 report that they.feared her health would give out, and urged her forth 
 to take more exercise.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 59 
 
 Then she occasionally came again to the hacienda. It did not con 
 sist with the magnanimity of Amy to feel the jealousy that is said to 
 be entertained by women who are rivals for the affections of the same 
 man. 
 
 " Walter has traits to make him any woman's hero," she said : " he 
 unites strength and courage with physical beauty, a generous heart, a 
 frank and open character, and a considerate nature. He is a man such 
 as all men ought to be when the race is perfected. What more natural 
 than that she should feel so ? Besides, what claim have I to vaunt my 
 self over her ? We are both in the hands of Providence, which will 
 dispose of us in its own good way." 
 
 They spoke of him no more ; but it was plain to Amy whither her 
 companion's fancies often wandered. 
 
 The trying days came when the basin by the glass pavilion no longer 
 bubbled. As each one passed without the signal it was to Amy as if a 
 definite portion of her vitality were daily subtracted. She would go 
 many times in the day instead of one, to see if it might not take place 
 at some different hour. She got Trinidad Jos6 and the little children 
 also to watch the basin for her, alleging a great interest in the bubbling 
 as a phenomenon. 
 
 As often as she deemed it safe, and oftener too, for she forgot her 
 prudence in her anxiety, she went to the place of deposit for letters. 
 
 " Why do you go so much to the cross of the English governess ?" 
 the family asked her. 
 
 " Her fate interests me, and the walk is a change from the gardens, 
 which sometimes seem too splendid, and there are plenty of maravillas 
 [a pretty blue wild flower] there." 
 
 On one occasion as they the women over their embroidery sat by 
 the basin that did not bubble, the Madre said, casually, 
 
 " It seems a long time since Don Walter went away : he is an ac 
 quaintance that one misses." 
 
 Amy could hardly forbear crying out, " He is dead ! his bones are 
 \vhitening in a terrible place ! Or he is in danger, and nobody will 
 help him, and I am to blame because I will not tell what I know !" 
 
 It was the tenth day since the basin had given any sign. The 
 effort to keep back the agony of her mind was growing almost impos 
 sible. She was continually arguing with herself, 
 
 " Surely time enough has now been allowed to go by. Why did he 
 not fix an exact limit ? Now I will write to Captain Perez ; but no, 
 what horror to betray his plan and ruin all, if there should be no need 
 of it ! A dozen things that could not have been foreseen may have 
 taken him away. Why did we not talk more fully and arrange all 
 that in advance?" 
 
 The lengthened suspense had made her so pale and wan that all 
 noticed it. 
 
 " You are not well," said the General ; " you are not keeping up to 
 the standard. We must find some new distraction or change of air for 
 you. What would you like ? Suppose we run up to Mexico for a few 
 days." 
 
 " No, no," she protested, in a panic : " I am perfectly well."
 
 60 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " Then we might ride up to this pilgrimage at El Jasmin, near the 
 Barranca of Cimarron. The anniversary has come round, and the 
 Madrecdta here," slightly mocking at the opinions of his wife, " will 
 tell you that it is a very important occasion." 
 
 Amy brightened at the mention of the Barranca of Cimarron. 
 
 " Would you like it?" he asked. 
 
 " Very much," she answered. 
 
 That would be life, movement. Anything was better than the 
 torture of stagnation. She would leave Trinidad Jos6 to watch the bub 
 bling of the spring for her, and she vaguely hoped if she approached the 
 Barranca some providential way of hearing from him might be found. 
 
 It had been talked of before. Dona Beatriz and her companions 
 had desired to go if they could place themselves under efficient pro 
 tection, and she was here this very morning to learn the decision of the 
 Sefiora. The General being thoroughly enlisted, it required no long 
 time to make the necessary preparations. Swift messengers were de 
 spatched to town, to do what was needed there, and all was got ready 
 for an early start next morning. As the group went back through the 
 garden-mazes, Amy turned almost involuntarily for her usual walk out 
 through a side-gate in the hedge. One and then another of them de 
 cided to accompany her, though it would have been much more to her 
 liking to have the children alone. 
 
 Beatriz, too, had noticed her devotion to the walk, and even her 
 peculiar proceedings at the cross. This time, while Amy, not to seem 
 to go there too directly, led the children away a little distance, Beatriz, 
 whether out of pure goodness of heart and desirous to be first in deco 
 rating the cross, or obeying some secret suspicion, went to it before her. 
 The cross was of wood, with a rude canopy, and had vines running up 
 the post, on which hung three red earthen-ware pitchers. 
 
 She had in her hand a bunch of the beautiful white flowers of St. 
 John. She was about to put them in the largest of the pitchers, when, 
 she knew not by what extraordinary intuition, she first thrust her hand 
 down into it. A crisp paper crackled to her touch. With great self- 
 control, she gathered it up with her white nosegay, which she carried 
 then by a natural gesture to her breast. Acting upon a second thought, 
 she left no flowers behind her in the pitcher except some faded ones 
 already there, and it was all done with such deft rapidity that when 
 Amy turned around she was with the others at a large ceiba-tree, and 
 no indication of what she had done remained. 
 
 Amy's own visit was made with more difficulty. She waited a good 
 half-hour before she could feel sufficiently free from observation. She 
 looked in. Nothing there. That was singular, for she recognized with 
 an exulting throb that her own had gone. Perhaps Walter had been 
 surprised at the moment of effecting the exchange, perhaps he had been 
 obliged to leave his missive behind him, or had been unable to write 
 one in the wanderings in which he might now be driven about. She 
 had no reason to suspect anybody : had not her former letters, and this 
 one too, lain there week in and week out undisturbed ? At any rate, 
 hers was gone, Don Walter had it, he had been near her, she \vas re 
 assured as to his safety, and in tolerable peace of mind she could await
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 61 
 
 the clearing up of the rest. She was no longer so eager for the expe 
 dition, but no pretext could now be found for abandoning it. As for 
 Dofia Beatriz, she assured herself, singularly moved, 
 
 " Where Amy is, he will not be far distant." 
 
 The procession moved slowly up the mountain. Now and again 
 there was a halt while the advance made some parts of the way more 
 practicable for ladies than they had been. Walter hung on the skirts 
 of it, but the opportunity of which he was in search did not present 
 itself before the village was reached. He fell back, therefore, to await 
 his chance. He mingled with other peasants going up. In the course 
 of talk with them he became sensible that there was an uneasy political 
 feeling in the air : people were dreading that something was about to 
 happen, they hardly knew what or why. The government at Mexico 
 was committing many unwarranted and arbitrary acts, a sign of weak 
 ness and by no means of strength, and vague rumors of revolution came 
 from the North. 
 
 The pilgrimage church of El Jasmin had a few arches remaining 
 of what had once been a beautiful sculptured gate- way. It had perhaps 
 been established where it was as a counteracting influence to pestilent 
 local superstitions, and especially to the worship of a serpent-idol in a 
 large cave near there. 
 
 It stood on a gentle rise of ground, facing the plaza, and there was 
 attached to it a chapter-house, or kind of sacred hostelry, for the ac 
 commodation of pilgrim guests. In this last a few camp-beds, that had 
 been brought for the more delicate travellers, were set up, while the 
 hardy were fain to be content with spreading their blankets and some 
 disused carpets on the brick floor. The long rooms had scarce any 
 other furniture, save very dark old paintings which it had not been 
 thought worth anybody's while to take away. 
 
 The glimpse of a half-mediaeval life she had at this place would 
 have charmed Amy, if her anxiety had suffered her to take her usual 
 interest in such things. As it was, there was need of all its strange 
 ness to make it a distraction. Sometimes she looked on at the pilgrims 
 in their devotions, sometimes rode with Don Angel short distances 
 round about, her fancy galloping faster than the steed towards the un 
 attainable Barranca of Cimarron, and sometimes strolled with Beatriz 
 a little into the village street. The men of the village were highly 
 respectful to all those who wore the insignia of pilgrimage, and most 
 of the women and girls were taking part in it themselves. 
 
 Don Walter took up a lodging in a wattled hut, furnished only with 
 a few large earthen jars and a charcoal-fireplace in the centre, and slept 
 on mats like any peasant. For some reason, the religious observances 
 were much better attended this year than usual. Delegations of In 
 dians, in their distinctive local dress, were present from a number of 
 remote points. Walter prowled among them, looking from a distance 
 at his nearest friends and connections, like one from the dead. He 
 came inadvertently upon Amy and Beatriz face to face, as they were 
 issuing together from behind the sculptured arches. Changed though 
 he was by long exposure in the caflon and by his disguise, Dofia Beatriz 
 recognized him at once.
 
 62 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " Don Walter !" she exclaimed, with an impulsive cry. " Don 
 Walter, it is you?" 
 
 " I call myself Ignacio Gomez. There is some mistake here. I 
 am in search of cattle that have strayed in these parts," he responded, 
 endeavoring to retreat. 
 
 " No, no, you are Don Walter : I cannot be mistaken. You have 
 not gone to the North : you are here and in hiding. Perhaps you are 
 in trouble and danger. Oh, can I not help you ?" 
 
 " Do you not see that this good man is a mere peasant ? What a 
 singular idea you have got in your head !" said Amy to her, severely. 
 " Do not be offended with us, good friend : my companion here some 
 times likes to talk at random." And she took her gently by the arm to 
 draw her away. 
 
 She checked her own feelings with wonderful calmness, in order to 
 protect him. 
 
 But one of the painful thoughts by which Walter immediately 
 began to be troubled was that she also had not recognized him. He 
 had clearly seen the surprise dawn and grow on her face. The intuition 
 of Beatriz was the quicker. They separated, but it is certain that all 
 looked forward to another interview that might gratify the special desire 
 of each. 
 
 Sister Beatriz, struggling with a strange mixture of motives, being 
 there partly to pray against her own weakness and partly drawn on by 
 her heart, would not absent herself from the presence of Amy. 
 
 The second day of their stay was coming to its close : they were to 
 leave on the morrow, and Walter had made no progress. He called to 
 him an Indian woman, bearing a jar of water on her head. 
 
 " Amiguita, there are some Sisters of Charity over there, or Sisters 
 of some kind or other," said he to her. " You have a great deal of 
 respect for them, have you not, though the government treats them so 
 roughly ?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed I have," replied the woman, sturdily. 
 
 " And you would like to hold some improving conversation with 
 them, would you not?" 
 
 " Yes, I would like that too ; but they can't be expected to pay 
 much attention to such as I." 
 
 " I think it would have a good effect upon your soul's salvation. I 
 am so anxious to have you enjoy this benefit that I will give half 
 a dollar if you will go and select the handsome young Sister sitting 
 on the bench yonder at the door of the chapter-house and engage her 
 in talk for ten minutes. I will double the amount if you make it 
 fifteen." 
 
 " They have no worldly ideas. Well, you are a forward one, you 
 are." 
 
 " That's it, that's it : I see you understand what I mean," in a 
 hearty confidential way. " This is a perfectly straight affair." 
 
 The woman was puzzled, but there was the silver awaiting her, and 
 even a portion of it already in her hand as an earnest. 
 
 " At the same time, if the moment you begin to talk to her you 
 carefully drop this note in the lap of the lady sitting next to her, the
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 63 
 
 one with the bright hair, that is another dollar. You see, I can afford 
 it, as I act for somebody else. Who it is makes no difference either to 
 you or me. These comfortable caballeros can pay well for their non 
 sense." 
 
 The woman went and set down her jar, reappeared with a small 
 tray of fruit, and proceeded on her mission. Amy was presently aware 
 of a robust Indian woman in reboso and petticoat of the blue stuff 
 woven in the place pushing almost rudely between her and Dofia 
 Beatriz and addressing some affecting appeal for sympathy to the 
 latter. At the same moment a note fell in her lap. It was of about 
 the following purport : 
 
 " Can the Seilorita see for a moment the poor man she has some 
 times aided, who speaks a little English ? He is at the bells, and they 
 are- easily reached by passing through the house and out the main door 
 of the church." 
 
 Amy slipped within on the instant. Beatriz was detained behind 
 by the mystery in the woman's manner and then by a persistence that 
 amounted almost to force. 
 
 The bronze bells of the quaint rococo church had been taken down 
 from their tower, which had been ruined by an earthquake, and set up 
 temporarily in a low rustic pavilion. Walter was there. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE PASSION OF DOSfA BEATRIZ DE RIVERA. 
 
 " How worn and ill you look !" said Amy at once on greeting him. 
 " Is it real, or only a part of your disguise ?" 
 
 " Some of it may be real but let us not talk of that ; time is too 
 short : let us talk of yourself." He was looking at her with timidity 
 and misgiving, aided by the effect of the poor peasant attire he wore, to 
 see if perchance he might divine some results from the confession he 
 had made her. 
 
 " Pobre /" using the Spanish word of sympathy, caught up famil 
 iarly from her companions, " no, we must talk of you. Oh, what a 
 strange way to meet ! Tell me at least that you have been successful, 
 that all is going well." 
 
 " No, at present it is going very ill ; the end seems put off to a very 
 long time," he said, with the despair of failure in his heart. " It was 
 for that I wanted to see you, to arrange for the future, to make some 
 new little plan of action." 
 
 " But you speak of failure and of these millions you have gained in 
 the same breath ?" she said, repeating the figures he gave her, and catch 
 ing at this as something tangible. " The amount is one that makes my 
 poor brain dizzy. It is already a magnificent success." 
 
 " It is a mere drop in the bucket," he rejoined, bitterly, after his 
 usual way of looking at it. "Surely the state of affairs and the 
 reasoning presented in my letter can have made but little impression 
 upon you." 
 
 Thus the letter came to be spoken of, and its loss was discovered.
 
 64 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 Amy raised her small hand to her forehead in a gesture of conster 
 nation. As is a common experience, they could not at once verify the 
 exact date and fix all the attending circumstances through which it 
 might have been accounted for. With Walter there was one redeeming 
 feature in it. He had felt a little involuntary resentment when she 
 tried to comfort him by representing his defeat as victory, and he was 
 glad, after all, the confession had not reached her. He experienced 
 a proud revulsion of feeling on the whole subject, and something more 
 of his self-esteem returned to him, now that she did not know who he 
 was and to what tragic history he was bound. 
 
 " Yes, as events have turned out, it will be best that nothing of it 
 should ever be known till success is certain," he mentally decided. 
 
 Still, the letter had gone astray, and, though unsigned and in some 
 respects enigmatic, there was no telling what new element of danger 
 might not be involved in its loss. 
 
 While they were still animatedly discussing the loss of the letter, 
 the Indian fruit-seller came around the corner and sent Walter a shrill 
 warning in the form of a snatch from a ballad. 
 
 " Time is passing, time up," she sang : " those who do not buy my 
 fruits when they are ripe may regret them when they are withered." 
 
 " Where next where next can we meet ?" demanded Walter. " Is 
 there no way ? In another moment we may be watched, interrupted." 
 
 " I can think of only one plan. I might come down to the church 
 very early in the morning, even before the devotees, and pretend to be 
 one of them. You could kneel near me, and we could talk in English 
 without appearing to be communicating with each other." 
 
 " Then, quick ! to-morrow, if you will : I shall be there even be 
 fore daylight." And they parted. 
 
 His messenger followed him to claim her reward. Afterwards, 
 she went and talked about him to an arriero, Perfecto Ponce, whom 
 we have briefly seen as the friend and critic of Antonio Gassol in the 
 first chapter. This man had come up among the bands of pilgrims. 
 
 " Is he one of the schoolmates ? Does he know the time of day, 
 since he does such peculiar things ?" she asked, in mysterious phrase 
 ology. 
 
 " I'm not quite sure that he is of the society," replied the other, 
 equally obscure. " We must look him up ; we must keep an eye on 
 him." 
 
 Afterwards who should come up to Walter but his old servant, the 
 dismissed Pablo ! This fellow, so stupid otherwise, had some animal- 
 like scent for identities, and began to peer at him in the same investi 
 gating way as before. 
 
 " You look like a better man," said he, suddenly, meaning no doubt 
 to test him. 
 
 " I wish I could say as much for you, my friend, though we are all 
 made in God's image and likeness. You will find that in your cate 
 chism." 
 
 Walter thoroughly understood the ways and speech of the lower 
 class, and could adapt himself to them at need in humorous, rollicking 
 fashion. He had a gift of mimicry, too, with which in gay moods he
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 65 
 
 would amuse his friends, and he drew upon this in disguising his 
 voice. 
 
 Pablo was apparently puzzled, but not convinced. But twilight 
 was drawing on, and at this moment, from under the wide curtain 
 draping the main door-way of the church, issued forth the saint's pro 
 cession, which was the main feature of the festival. A large female 
 figure, in black velvet gown, silver-adorned, with joined hands and a 
 tearful, pleading expression, was carried around the plaza on a plat 
 form amid a multitude of attendants with lighted candles. She tottered 
 under the unsteady motion of the shoulders that bore her, and the coun 
 tenance, looking down, had a very real and human aspect. 
 
 Amid such a melee, for they were near the front, it was not difficult 
 to slip away, and for the morrow he made some further changes in his 
 personal appearance. 
 
 He was in the church at the very first gray of morning. Amy did 
 not come down for a long time. He grew impatient, alarmed. The 
 sky was pink instead of gray, and their last opportunity was passing. 
 
 " I could not get away before without arousing suspicion," she said, 
 when, panting with haste, she finally appeared. " Luz, her mother, and 
 Beatriz were in the same room with me ; some of them were awake, 
 and I had to wait till they slept again. I doubt if Dofia Beatriz had 
 slept all night ; and you saw yesterday how quick she is to penetrate 
 one's plans." 
 
 " Could it be anything more than quickness ?" queried Walter, and 
 they returned to the subject of the letter gone astray. 
 
 Amy repudiated the idea. They could discuss nothing thoroughly, 
 but dashed from one topic to another. Walter repeated hurriedly the 
 same account of events in the caflon which he had before written, and 
 then spoke of the uncertain future. 
 
 " Do not look any more for the regular bubbling of the spring," said 
 he. " I have told you of my present plan, and there is no saying 
 henceforth where I shall be or what I shall do. Nor will it do to 
 trust to letters again." 
 
 "And I shall not hear from you? You will disappear utterly?" 
 
 " If my new attempt does not succeed, perhaps I shall soon reap 
 pear in my own person ; concealment would be no longer of any use. 
 But I will try to find some means of keeping you in mind of me. It 
 may be possible to use a messenger. By those whom it is delightful 
 to remember we do not wish to be forgotten." 
 
 Amy was burning to tell him feelingly of her sympathy and dis 
 tress for him in his hardships, her warm belief in his final triumph, 
 and her desire to be patient and strong for his sake, but it was too 
 late ; people came and interrupted, and Walter went away with a little 
 impression of coldness on her part. The horses were already stamping 
 without, and he overheard Don Angel summon her with boyish im 
 patience, saying, 
 
 "Well, are you not ready? The sun is half an hour high: we 
 ride early here in the tropics, and we must be off." 
 
 The Arroyo ladies were among the other worshippers by this time, 
 and it seemed to him he could not escape detection should those familiar 
 VOL. XLIL 5
 
 66 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 eyes fall upon him. To avoid them, he went out by a small door 
 through which the flaming eastern heavens could be seen above the 
 vegetation of a court-yard. His investigations had already shown him 
 there was an exit to a lane. Around the court-yard was an arcade of 
 the usual sort, and on the top of one of the stuccoed walls, stained lees- 
 of-wine color, was a small belvedere. 
 
 Dofla Beatriz, who might just have come in or might have been 
 obscured by a column, glided into the cloister after him, and, touching 
 his arm, addressed him in a most agitated way. As before, he was 
 disposed to deny his identity, but she persisted. 
 
 " Do not be afraid of my betraying you," she said. " I am prudent. 
 I pass my whole time here only in praying for your welfare and safety ; 
 could I then be capable of endangering you ? You have trusted your 
 secret to her ; oh, I beseech you, let me, who would do so much more 
 for you, who would give my heart's blood for you, let me also have 
 some share in serving you." 
 
 "This from you, Sister Beatriz?" 
 
 " It cannot be wholly a surprise to you, for Amy has told you of 
 my feelings." 
 
 " She has ; but I could not find it in my heart to believe it of 
 Dofla Beatriz, whom I have always looked upon as the sweetest and 
 most perfect of saints." 
 
 " Call me saint and perfect no longer, unless it be saintly to wor 
 ship an earthly hero and type of gallant boldness who well deserves it. 
 I am changed ; your words have sunk deeply into my mind : I believe 
 nothing or everything just as you would have it. I belong no more 
 to the religious life, and in the great world what can I do if you are 
 not with me?" 
 
 " Tell me, Dofla Beatriz," said her companion, gently, touched, 
 as what man could fail to be by such an all-pervading, uncalculating 
 affection? "how you knew I had confided my secret to Dofla Amy?" 
 
 She blushed with the ingenuousness of one little used to duplicity, 
 yet replied, boldly, 
 
 " I found the letter at the cross of the English governess. I did 
 not know what or from whom it was at first, but I suspected. It was 
 not till I heard you declare yourself Ignacio Gomez that it was all clear 
 to me beyond a doubt." 
 
 " And you openly avow that you took a letter that was not yours 
 and did not return it even when you knew to whom it belonged ?" 
 
 " There was one excellent reason why I did not return it," she per 
 sisted. " No, I could not. My heart bled for you on divining that 
 confession. I could not bear that you should humiliate yourself before 
 her. Dear Don Walter, you are too high and noble to be an object 
 of condescension to any one in the world." 
 
 Walter winced before this commendation, this touching of the sore 
 spot even by such as she. 
 
 " As for me," Dofia Beatriz went on, " it brings you but the nearer 
 to me. This painful secret needs no apology for me : to know you have 
 suffered makes you only the dearer." 
 
 Surely here was a strong appeal ; there was a great sense of rest to
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. $7 
 
 him in knowing his secret shared and yet no odium falling upon him 
 on account of it ; but more was to follow. 
 
 " You have suffered her to aid, and yet it was I who was far the 
 stronger. Listen, dearest Don Walter : you are in want of very great 
 resources ; I now know the reason why. Well, I, even I, might give 
 them to you. If I could command a treasure sufficient for all your 
 needs, would you share it with me ?" 
 
 " Does all the world think of nothing else but treasure?" he cried, 
 as if this were only a kind of spectre conjured by her out of his own 
 thoughts. " And you, poor Sister Beatriz, what have you to do with 
 such things ?" He looked at her commiseratingly, and began to doubt 
 her sanity. 
 
 " It is in my power, poor and weak as you think me. Nobody can 
 hear us : I speak of the treasure of my convent, buried securely away 
 against the greed of the selfish men who would have robbed us of that 
 as of everything else." 
 
 She no doubt saw his face change, and went on hurriedly, ardently, 
 as if she saw him yielding : " I trust you at once, though no one else 
 knows it : I can have no fear of you. It is close by the spot you 
 cleared for us in our old garden of Santa Rosa. It is buried in the 
 foundation-wall, and made a part of it, so that they might dig the 
 whole place over and never find a trace of it." 
 
 " Is it yours to give, Dofia Beatriz ?" 
 
 Again she flushed most deeply. " To use it for your mission would 
 be right," she replied. "To whom, indeed, does it really belong? It 
 can never again be used for the religious purposes for which it was 
 designed. The survivors of the convent who are very few have no 
 right to use it in luxurious living, even if their inclinations did not 
 forbid. If it be seized it will not go to the service of the state, but to 
 feed individual rapacity. Then to what better end than the one you 
 have in view is it ever likely to be devoted ? Take me with you," she 
 pleaded. " You have always been so good to me, I belong to you and 
 not to myself." 
 
 Walter was convinced that her statement was true : many small 
 circumstances from the past wove themselves together to strengthen the 
 conviction. It needed a strong motive, indeed, to resist so dazzling 
 a temptation. Nor was it purely mercenary, for the charms of Dofia 
 Beatriz were great, and one could foresee how she would develop under 
 freedom, which she would enjoy with the zest of an escaped bird, and 
 but now he had thought Amy cold. But motive somewhere there was 
 that gained the victory even over so many combined allurements. A 
 crippled beggar, from the church-door, here shuffled up closer to them, 
 asking for alms. Walter motioned him away, and they two moved 
 somewhat farther on, in the cloister. 
 
 " I cannot share it with you ; I cannot take it," he responded. 
 " Give up these strange ideas, and be again the unworldly little Beatriz 
 I have always liked." 
 
 " You cannot take it ! Oh, I felt it would be so. But tell me why, 
 why ?" she besought. 
 
 A worse man would perhaps have been kinder on the surface, but
 
 68 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 Walter was master, even in such a case, of some of that Spartan firm 
 ness which fits one for great things. 
 
 " It is best to say it plainly : to accept it, I ought to love you," he 
 replied ; " and, while I admire and esteem you most warmly, as no 
 man could help doing, I do not love you." 
 
 She bent as if before a heavy blow, covering her face a moment 
 with both hands. 
 
 " There are those who hate if they are not loved," she said, with a 
 touching pathos, after commanding herself again. " I am not one of 
 them. I can never wish to be revenged, nor think bitterly of you. 
 Then take it without me. I can die. It shall never be said I imposed 
 myself as a condition upon a means that may secure your happiness." 
 
 Walter advanced towards her to take her hands and speak some 
 kinder, more reassuring words. But at this time, though the sky was 
 blue and the sun bright, a strange, calamitous wind arose. The belve 
 dere above the wall toppled into the court with a crash ; the ground 
 swayed and oscillated beneath their feet, and in some places was seen 
 to open : one of the most severe earthquakes known in that district for 
 years had ensued. 
 
 " It is a judgment," cried Beatrix, who seemed stricken by a mortal 
 terror. " The voice of heaven has spoken against me." 
 
 Walter had to look on from a distance at the departure of Amy 
 like the merest stranger. He saw that she had come to no harm. The 
 company, recovering from their panic, more in haste to be off than ever, 
 went away in a somewhat disorderly manner, many very anxious to see 
 if any damage had been done at the hacienda. 
 
 In the shock several curious things had happened. The cripple in 
 the corridor with Beatriz and Walter, for instance, had shown sur 
 prising .activity. He made quite a normal use of his legs thereafter, 
 and on returning to Cuernavaca reported to the Jefe Politico that Dofia 
 Beatriz had talked in a very animated way with a man who, though 
 wearing peasant's dress, did not appear to be a peasant. Upon his 
 heels came Pablo, who had identified this peasant as the same one he 
 half suspected to be Don Walter. 
 
 " Pooh ! pooh ! it is not probable," scoffed the Jefe Politico. 
 " Nevertheless, we will keep an eye out for these birds too." 
 
 And so it happened that if the first remote glance of scrutiny began 
 to be cast towards Walter's own treasure it was because Beatriz had 
 offered him hers. 
 
 He had got but a little way out of the place, in starting upon a 
 renewal of his own journey, when he heard rumors that the disturbance 
 had been particularly violent over in the direction of the Barranca of 
 Cimarron. One informant, just down from Huetongo, said he had 
 seen a mighty column of smoke arise from there and mount a pro 
 digious distance into the air. All other anxieties were swallowed up 
 in the thought that he had better turn back and look to the safety of 
 the property left behind. 
 
 He therefore took again to his devious routes. But, proceed cau 
 tiously as he would, he met a number of people prowling about in this 
 district wont to be so lonely.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. QQ 
 
 "Why is there such an unusual beating of the woods just now?" 
 he asked, entering into confidential relations with one of them near 
 Huetongo. 
 
 " The kidnappers are at their tricks again. Awhile ago they car 
 ried oif Kaufmann, the foreman of the glass-works, around at Lake 
 Jornada, and a reward is offered. It is said he has been seen over this 
 way lately." 
 
 " If Kaufmann has been carried off he keeps very cool about it," 
 commented Walter. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CAPTAIN PEKEZ AND HIS REVOLUTION. 
 
 ON re-entering the cafton, Walter saw at once that a cliff near his 
 head-quarters had fallen. It might have been from this that the great 
 cloud had gone up, which was dust rather than smoke. 
 
 The jar had acted chiefly along the central line of the chasm, 
 opened new rents, dried up the bubbling lava of La Caldera, shaken 
 his spring-house to ruin, and altered the aspect of the travertine basin 
 and terraces. His cliff-caverns, with their treasure, were hardly dis 
 turbed. 
 
 It was only by his habitation, still intact, that he could recognize 
 the place of his principal labors. What a wholesale change had taken 
 place there ! The central cairn was toppled over. There was no 
 longer any cold spring. There was no more any hot spring ; or at 
 least the stream that now existed at a little distance could not be 
 identified with the flood of boiling waters that used to surge so wildly 
 around the spot. 
 
 The ever-rising hope in Don Walter's breast prompted him to look 
 again to see if the Yellow Snake had not come back as one of the 
 vagaries of the convulsion ; but nowhere was any glint of its dull 
 golden lustre to be seen. It was not for some little time he realized 
 that another haunting dream of his had actually come to pass : the hot 
 stream was turned out of its course. Its fierce caloric had no longer 
 to be guarded against. There lay the wreck of his timber barricades 
 and his conduit ; there lay the flat rock on which the Yellow Snake 
 had been wont to sun itself, free and open now to whoever would ap 
 proach. Below it was a cavernous depression filled with irregular 
 fragments resembling those usually found in the vacant bed of a stream, 
 some blackened with slime, others party-colored with chemical incrusta 
 tions. But over the surface could be made out certain sinuous lines 
 and vague suggestions of shapes that caused Don Walter's heart to 
 stand still for a moment, then to beat with a force that made him dizzy. 
 
 He clambered down to the spot. It hardly needed his hammer and 
 acids to verify what he found there. Everything pointed to the belief 
 that he had discovered a large part, at least, of the nuggets formed by 
 all the past plunging-over of the golden stream. Let the Yellow 
 Snake go now without a thought, for here was its progeny in limitless 
 supply. Never, even at the time of the first discovery, had Walter 
 been so overcome. The possibility that he might secure riches for him-
 
 70 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 self, even after his honorable ambition was attained, now greeted him. 
 Figurations seemed to dart before his eyes. He fell upon his knees 
 in a mood of the sincerest piety. 
 
 " If I have been often rebellious under the scourging hand of 
 heaven/' he prayed, " let me now give devout thanks and the most 
 heart-felt gratitude when it is so good to me. Hereafter I will mend 
 my ways." 
 
 In two days he was able to take out enough from this new source 
 to complete the coveted amount, and not a little over. From each of 
 his trips to the caverns he brought back sections of dried trees and 
 branches and threw them upon the deposit to give an appearance of 
 natural wreckage. The bed would hardly have attracted the attention 
 of a superficial eye as it was ; but he wished to make assurance doubly 
 sure. 
 
 The evening of the second day, he thought he saw armed men and 
 horses silhouetted on the lofty verge of the Barranca, like the gods of 
 Walhalla riding in the sky. He fancied this must be only a deceptive 
 appearance of the bushes, as before ; but this time it was a portent that 
 was to be corroborated by extraordinary events. 
 
 What was his amazement, on returning from his usual mission the 
 following day, to see two armed men in the caiion on the very field of 
 his operations, and two horses picketed at a little distance ! One of 
 the men climbed up to him from the cavernous bed of the stream, the 
 other appeared from behind his hut. 
 
 He recognized the first as Captain Perez, the other as Antonio 
 Gassol, keeper of the Alma de Mexico restaurant at Cuernavaca. 
 
 These are the shocks that shorten men's lives ; and Walter had had 
 so many of them crowded into his late experience that he showed clearly 
 the effects of the rack and strain. 
 
 Captain Perez advanced towards him in a hearty way with extended 
 hand. Walter was inclined to lay his own upon his revolver instead. 
 He drew back repellently, and kept on the defensive. 
 
 " Ah, you do not like our intruding ?" said the Captain. 
 
 " Oh, as to that," shrugging his shoulders, " we don't have a great 
 many visitors here, and it was a trifle unexpected." 
 
 He felt the impolicy of his conduct, yet had been too flustered and 
 was too tremblingly alive to the magnitude of the interests at stake to 
 have adopted any other. 
 
 " So you are not in the United States, after all ?" 
 
 " Good-day, Sefior Arroyo ! We do not see you often at the Alma 
 de Mexico nowadays, Seflor Arroyo," interrupted Antonio Gassol, 
 coming up with a most obsequious politeness. Walter turned fiercely 
 towards him. 
 
 " He is all right," interposed Perez, assuming a confidential relation. 
 " Antonio is one of those persons whom it is perfectly proper to trust." 
 
 " I am from this part of the country," explained Gassol ; " so I 
 return once in a while to see how my native village is getting along. 
 We have come down " 
 
 " Yes, to see if we could get some sulphate of copper, to use in my 
 arrastra at La Fortuna," said his principal, cutting him short. " I pound
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 71 
 
 out a few dollars from the ore on my place when I have nothing else 
 to do. Antonio, will you kindly go and take a look at the horses ? 
 The roan seems to have tangled himself up in his lariat." 
 
 " You do not appear surprised to find me here," said Walter. 
 
 " I make it a rule not to be surprised. So many remarkable things 
 are always happening, I have left myself little capacity for it. You 
 were quite mysterious in your goings and comings for some time, then 
 your horse turned up, giving us all a scare lest you had been murdered, 
 and finally I learned the other day that a peasant corresponding to your 
 description had been heard earnestly talking English with the fair 
 American of the hacienda of Las Delicias. I put this and that together, 
 and made up my mind you were not in the North American Republic, 
 but still in our own. I did not know where, of course ; but in the hut, 
 just now, I recognized some of your property, pardon me for entering 
 it without permission, but I thought it deserted, and presently I saw 
 you walking towards me as natural as life." 
 
 Somewhat confused at this calm way of taking it, Walter muttered 
 something about a scientific mission that had had no great results. 
 
 " Yes, a bright, hard metal that looks even finer than the real gold ?" 
 suggested Perez. 
 
 " But goes off chiefly in fumes and turns out to be only sulphuret 
 of iron. I don't mind admitting that my search was partly for treasure." 
 
 " And again, the bluish galena, containing silver, but in too small 
 supply to be worked, and then the yellow grains scattered through some 
 of the limestone, but still in too slight quantities to pay for extraction ?" 
 
 " How do you know all that ?" 
 
 " Bless you, I've been through it myself. I could have posted you 
 if you had come to me. You may not recollect my telling you I had 
 been here once, long before you were born. But, now, how about this 
 bed close by ? it seems to contain some very good nuggets. Are they 
 of the same sort as those I noticed on the shelves in your cabin ?" 
 
 Walter, in fierce agitation and resolve, here drew forth his revolver 
 without further hesitation. The secret was out : he was betrayed. 
 
 " What I have found I have a special use for. I cannot give it up, 
 nor even share it. If you have come here with design upon it, let us 
 settle it once for all. Do you take your pistol, as I will mine, and 
 stand off at twelve paces. Gassol will make as good a second as an 
 other. Whatever of value is here shall belong to the survivor." 
 
 " Have you then no more confidence in me than this, my old friend ?" 
 inquired the Captain, showing no trace of resentment. "You who 
 knew my devotion to you should have treated me better." 
 
 " No, not in such an affair. I feared the temptation might be too 
 great, not for you alone, but for any man. I had an object. If it had 
 been an ordinary matter " 
 
 " But it is precisely in extraordinary matters that I am most to be 
 trusted. You should have known me better than my enemies. What 
 ever else I have done, my integrity has never been impeached. In all 
 my campaigning, I have never once engaged in plunder. A man's 
 virtues are much according to his temperament, I suppose ; and my 
 weakness does not lie in that direction."
 
 72 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 Don Walter began to breathe more freely, and even to be a little 
 ashamed. 
 
 "See here, now, what claim have you on me? What service did 
 you do for me when you were the merest kid?" went on Perez, with 
 cordial bluffness. 
 
 " I don't remember," answered the young man, evasively. 
 
 " Well, I will remind you. I was a captive in the hands of my 
 bitterest foes, who were taking me along to certain execution. They 
 camped over-night alongside the ranch where you lived then with your 
 father. You were a lad and allowed to run freely about the camp. I 
 asked you if you had a knife and could cut leather. You said you had, 
 and used it upon the thongs with which I was bound, I feel their 
 infernal, cramping knots now, so that at a favorable moment I was 
 able to escape." 
 
 " It was no trouble to me." 
 
 " But it was a way of sparing me such a very considerable trouble 
 that I have wanted to do you a good turn ever since. Putting you in 
 the line of a little hunting does not fill the bill. Estimate the thing as 
 I do. Now, here you are in a difficult and dangerous box, perhaps 
 even more dangerous than you know : let me help you out of it." 
 
 His hearer struggled with a lurking doubt whether this were not, 
 after all, only a specious means of throwing him off his guard. 
 
 " I put myself at your disposal squarely, honestly, without a shadow 
 of reserve : I will aid you to the best of my ability and by every means 
 in my power." 
 
 " I am conquered ; I am overwhelmed with shame," said Walter. 
 " I trust you entirely. Forgive me ! And see, Perez, what I have 
 gained here is destined for a high and worthy end, in which my enjoy 
 ment has no part, but after that end is accomplished there will be 
 something over, which you must share. And, further than that, much 
 more of this liberal bounty of nature still remains, to become available 
 at some future time." 
 
 " We will do nothing of the kind. Believe it who will, money has 
 never had any temptation for me, and it is now too late to change. 
 Look at me : what I most wanted in youth I could not have, and after 
 
 that Well, suffice it to say I am a rude fellow, and at present I 
 
 have other affairs. You may hear more of them anon." 
 
 " You knew my father, and, as I have reason to think, the cause of 
 his coming here," said Walter, huskily. " Well, I want to pay it all 
 back." 
 
 " I did not ask your object. I was willing to help you, no matter 
 what it was." 
 
 To Walter, lonely and buffeted about as he had been, there was a 
 blessed relief in having this strong shoulder to lean upon ; and never 
 was he to have any reason to regret the confidence he now bestowed. 
 
 He summed up the vague plans he had thought of for getting the 
 treasure out of the country, feeling only the more clearly how hopeless 
 it would have been for him to attempt it alone. In answer to a sug 
 gestion that it should be safely buried to await some change of govern 
 ment that might be more favorable to them, he said,
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 73 
 
 " I haven't a single moment's peace while it remains in Mexico. 
 My idea is that, without waiting to secure any more at present, I ought 
 to reappear in my own proper person, as if returned from my trip, and 
 take every measure to get it to the United States at once." 
 
 " To the United States ? that is a long way. Still, I suppose a ton 
 or two of the commodity might be run through to the coast." 
 
 " A ton or two ? but, my dear friend, a single million weighs nearly 
 two tons, and I have over six millions. There will be freight enough 
 for seventy or eighty mules, allowing twelve arrobas, of twenty-five 
 pounds each, per mule." 
 
 " Six millions ? Well, that is something," cried the Captain, open 
 ing his eyes widely at the unexpected amount, but making a prodigious 
 effort to hide his surprise. " In fact, it is a very pretty sum. And all 
 that has to go for a benevolent object ? It does not seem treating your 
 self quite fairly. If it had been my case, I think I should have drawn 
 off' a little more of the golden milk for my own benefit." 
 
 " You are forgetting that the supply gave out, though there is no 
 telling what there may be in these beds beneath us yet. I may have 
 half a ton or so extra for contingencies. You must certainly take a 
 liberal share of this, and no doubt in better times the beds can be 
 worked, when the product shall be as much yours as mine. I cannot 
 tell you what a source of chagrin it is to me now not to be able to offer 
 you one-half of the whole." 
 
 " No more of this, my boy. Nothing shall be deducted from the 
 amount except for necessary expenses. Take your treasure for which 
 you have toiled in such an unheard-of way ? not I, indeed !" 
 
 " We will discuss that point afterwards." 
 
 " It's a clear case," said Perez, resuming a blunt, peremptory 
 manner ; " there is just one thing to be done, and nothing else. We 
 must get up a revolution." 
 
 " How ? A revolution ?" protested Walter, in complete repugnance 
 and alarm. 
 
 " And carry it away under cover of the ensuing difficulties." 
 
 " I would never consent to anything so infamous for a scheme of 
 private advantage. It would be worse than to lose it all." 
 
 " Well, that is my way ; I am at home there, and speak only of 
 what I know," rejoined the Captain, coolly. " Why, to convoy such a 
 train of animals as you need requires a regular military operation." 
 
 l( Say no more : it can never be done. This is the sort of morality 
 that might have justified my distrust of you, Perez." 
 
 " Wait a little, friend Walter : what if, instead of starting a revo 
 lution, we found one already made?" 
 
 "How can that be? Please explain." 
 
 " You have given me your confidence, and I will give you mine, 
 just as sure it will be held sacred. Why do you think I am here ?" 
 
 " One might guess fifty times and never strike it." 
 
 "Ostensibly to look for Kaufman n, the abducted foreman, for 
 whose recapture a reward has been offered, but really to see what kind 
 of place this would be for keeping out of sight a body of men till they 
 were wanted."
 
 74 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " If Kaufmann has been abducted he takes it very easily," said 
 Walter, as he had thought before, describing his adventure with that 
 person not long ago. 
 
 " To be sure he does : he is one of the society, one of our college 
 chums, as it were. His disappearance was only a piece of diplomacy, 
 and he has his work to do elsewhere." 
 
 Walter gave a slight whistle. 
 
 " It kindles still more the flame of discontent against the govern 
 ment at Mexico, on the ground of the prevailing lack of security for 
 person and property. Though, to be sure, there are valid complaints 
 enough without inventing them. What do you think it did the other 
 day ? broke into Mr. Wharton's house, at the capital, and took from 
 his coffers, though they were under the seals of the British legation, 
 seven hundred thousand dollars. Just before that, their general at 
 Tepic seized twenty mule-loads of silver, under pretext that it was being 
 clandestinely exported. Another time a whole conducta of two mil 
 lion dollars, on the way to Tampico, was confiscated ; repayment was 
 promised when the troubles in that part of the country were settled. 
 It will be a long time, I can tell you, before that day comes. Things 
 are in a desperate way, and no mistake." 
 
 " And the meaning of all this is ?" 
 
 " That a new era is dawning for our unhappy country. Our central 
 committee at Mexico has long been pulling the wires ; the proclama 
 tions are prepared ; the blow is about to be struck. My old general, 
 my hero, my idol, has returned." He looked cautiously around, hardly 
 daring to breathe the secret even in such a place. " When we fought 
 for him before, he did not have a fair chance, but this time he will suc 
 ceed. He will put an end to these wretched dissensions, and give 
 Mexico at last a government worthy of the name." 
 
 " When ? When is it to be ? for I have those to whose safety I 
 must look. In my hermit life here I have heard nothing of all this." 
 
 " You would have heard scarcely more if you had been outside, for 
 the secret has been excellently kept. Nothing is yet felt here beyond 
 a vague uneasiness. The besotted government itself, rushing from one 
 folly to another, does not appreciate the importance of the crisis. But 
 I have means of knowing that the States of Durango, Jalisco, and 
 Michoacan are already aflame, and the signal may be expected here at 
 almost any moment." 
 
 " With such pressing interests awaiting you, I can hardly expect 
 your attention to my affair." 
 
 " On the contrary, your affair is likely to be a godsend to us : you 
 see the obligation will not be all on one side. The appointed date has 
 been postponed on account of the sickness of our chief, and to give time 
 for the ferment at the North. I was left at Rio Frio with a large 
 force of men who had been gathered in ready for the outbreak, and with 
 nothing for them to do. I sent part of them in various bands on the 
 pretext of making the pilgrimage to El Jasmin, and with another part 
 I have affected to take service under the Jefe Politico and search for 
 Kaufmann. Don Tomas Corcovedo and I are, for the nonce, better 
 friends than we used to be," he added, with a laugh.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 75 
 
 " He is a dangerous man, not so stupid as he seems, and in dealing 
 with him you are running a great risk." 
 
 " He is nervous about the state of the country just now, and seems 
 glad of any even apparent accession to the armed force of which he is 
 the head. He will be more arrogant again when he receives the re 
 inforcements he expects to keep his district in order." 
 
 " I shall be extremely grateful for any aid you may give me con 
 sistent with your own project. What do you propose?" 
 
 " While my men are idle they are likely either to desert or get into 
 some serious mischief that will betray us. I propose that they give up 
 the farce of playing at pilgrims, come down here, and transport your 
 property on their backs. We may bring down a few mules, too : our 
 horses showed that the path was practicable. My idea is that the gold 
 ought to be outside the Barranca at some point where it could be easily 
 accessible, if an opportunity should offer, for a rapid dash to the coast." 
 
 " What point would you suggest ?" 
 
 " You say you have some of it hidden on the shore of the lake, 
 and more of it at Cuernavaca. Why not collect it all at Rio Frio ? 
 That is my head-quarters, beyond the jurisdiction of your treacherous 
 Jefe Politico, the scene selected for the uprising, and a convenient point 
 of departure for a military movement to the sea." 
 
 "And after that?" 
 
 " The rest will naturally need planning somewhat as we go on. I 
 have a friend, Captain Carvajal, who has a schooner on the coast, en 
 gaged in our business. I don't mind telling you that he brought back 
 the Liberator from his exile. He himself must be somewhere near 
 Puebla now, having come up to visit his family. I will open commu 
 nications with him and try to see him personally. Carvajal is a Bis- 
 cayan by birth, a bold fellow who has been in all sorts of hazardous 
 undertakings, and if we can get him he will be just our man." 
 
 " Good !" assented Walter, heartily. " The difficulties of the enter 
 prise seem to be already clearing away. But, naturally, it cannot be 
 conveyed openly all at once : it must go piecemeal, by strategy. And 
 are you sure your men can be trusted ? Will it do to let them know 
 what they are dealing with ?" 
 
 " Of course not. They must never see a sign of it. They are only 
 to think they are transporting arms and supplies for the cause, dis 
 guised as sulphate of copper. They are not up in fine points of weight 
 and the like. We must keep the boys well paid, and then they can 
 be depended upon. It will be a delightful novelty for them, and no 
 body will get ahead of us on that score." 
 
 Perez charged himself with turning some of the ingots into cash 
 for the expenses of the expedition. They began at once to make their 
 preparations and plan the necessary subterfuges. 
 
 " And Gassol ?" inquired Walter, with some concern. 
 
 " He has seen nothing of consequence, I feel sure. I kept my dis 
 coveries to myself. I will make him think your being here is a part 
 of the plan. He is true as steel, and has been with us all along. His 
 place was a convenient point for reunions, and he has been the means 
 of bringing in some of his old cronies, for instance, Perfecto Ponce
 
 76 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 above, to whom, with your permission, we will now send up a few 
 signals." 
 
 He and Gassol thereupon set up some flags. 
 
 A messenger hastily came down, and was sent off again. Almost 
 immediately after there began to steal into the canon a number of peons, 
 such as had been seen about El Jasmin. They brought with them the 
 various cages and other contrivances used by the charcoal-burners, 
 potters, and market-people generally for carrying their burdens : it was 
 intended that the valuable freight should be disguised under a variety 
 of forms. 
 
 The men who came from another part of the country, with the ex 
 ample of their bold leaders before them, and being gathered for a pecu 
 liar purpose, were far less troubled by the superstition of the Yellow 
 Snake than those of the immediate neighborhood. Captain Perez, too, 
 made a strong point in Don Walter's favor by representing that the 
 latter had come there for the express purpose of destroying the abode 
 of the monster, and pointed out the effects of the blasting to show that 
 he had succeeded in doing so. 
 
 A good supply of maguey-fibre bags was also brought in, and 
 Walter, with Perez, guardedly found means to pack all the treasure 
 that had been piled in loose heaps into them in person. Under the 
 eyes of so many witnesses they could take out no more treasure from 
 the exposed bed. On the contrary, they devoted themselves to cover 
 ing it up as much as possible. Nor could they have delayed for any 
 further mining, since the conditions demanded the utmost haste. 
 
 " I think we shall do well to begin with a procession," proposed 
 Captain Perez. " Religion has been used before now as a cloak for 
 many a less worthy object." 
 
 " A procession ?" repeated Walter, puzzled. 
 
 " Yes ; our pilgrims will now naturally be going back to their homes. 
 For a consideration, we can borrow a number of the figures of saints 
 at El Jasmin. We will fill the hollow interiors with our gold, and 
 the figures can be conveyed in public parade to Rio Frio. There must 
 be some pretext of a celebration, or, say, prayers for rain. It is a good 
 while, in fact, since we have had rain enough in Rio Frio." 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AN ORIGINAL PBOCESSION FOB BAIN. 
 
 ANTONIO GASSOL and Perfecto Ponce, as citizens of the district, 
 took upon themselves to negotiate with the euro, at El Jasmin for the 
 loan of the statues. When the application was backed by the promise 
 of a handsome present guaranteed by Captain Perez for the repair 
 of the shrine, it was readily granted. 
 
 They took but a few of the best images, while a large number of 
 old battered ones found in a lumber-room were utilized. 
 
 " It is desired to have the display as imposing as possible," explained 
 Gassol : " anything whatever from this esteemed locality will be most
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 77 
 
 highly appreciated, and our friends fear the choicer figures might possi 
 bly come to some harm on the journey." 
 
 A great deal of mystery was made about the preparations, which 
 took place chiefly under cover of night. Only a small number of men 
 were admitted with Perez and Walter to work in the court-yard of the 
 chapter-house, reserved exclusively for this business. All was not 
 complete till near morning. In the course of the night many mules 
 stopped at the outer gate, and there was not a little bustling back and 
 forth also by the other peons. 
 
 When the procession moved, many of the images were covered up 
 with petates, a kind of burlap, some even sewn up entirely, so that 
 only a vague suggestion of the forms remained. The pretext for this 
 was to hide their battered condition while on the way. Though they 
 were made of but thin metal, and therefore light, it was to be noted 
 that their bearers carried them with sedate and labored tread, which 
 observers might have taken for reverence. 
 
 There were women as well as men in the procession, and little knots 
 and files of pretended market-people were scattered along before, behind, 
 and mingling with it. The mountaineers carried large wooden crates 
 on their backs, and aided their steps with long poles. Some staggered 
 under heavy burdens of the home-spun goods of El Jasmin. The 
 potters had loads of their great, ruddy jars piled high above their heads, 
 the tops carefully covered that the contents might not be seen. Others 
 were almost concealed in bales of secate, or green fodder, like the 
 Birnam wood that came to Dunsinane. Only a few armed men covered 
 the movement, bat under the dress of all were weapons concealed that 
 would have made them most formidable adversaries if attacked. 
 
 The present train carried something like two-thirds of the treasure. 
 Had there been force enough, Walter would have divided it, and 
 moved the rest at the same time from the other end of the Barranca, 
 picking up also on the way what he had hidden on the shore of Lake 
 Jornada. Now, however, all that portion must be returned for and 
 brought off by another trip. 
 
 " If all goes well," said Perez, " suppose I stay at Rio Frio to attend 
 to my affairs, and communicate with Carvajal, while you come back for 
 the remaining portion ? Provided no suspicion is excited this time, it 
 will be quite in order to use the same route again." 
 
 " A second procession ?" 
 
 " Not at all ; but bringing back the statues will give a sufficient 
 excuse for getting some of the men here once more, and they must be 
 fitted out as ordinary market-people, and the like. Keep me posted by 
 trusty messengers, and I will meet you as you are coming down the 
 pass. Then, if agreeable to you, I will take charge of the train, and 
 you may go and bring off the portion left at the lake, for which we 
 will have boats provided." 
 
 So it was determined. Perez, as knowing his men the best, as 
 sumed the general command ; Walter rode near the middle of the line. 
 Brooding solicitously over the safety of his treasure, he would have 
 wished, had it been possible, to be in all places at once. He had now 
 a new disguise, wearing a beard, but otherwise appeared in the usual
 
 78 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 costume adopted for adventurous expeditions. He wore a short jacket, 
 a sombrero with silver braid, carried a carbine on his knee, pistols in 
 his belt and holsters, and a long sabre clanking by his side. He passed 
 for a lieutenant or superior mozo of Perez, hailing from another part 
 of the country. 
 
 It was a gala day at Campo Florido when they debouched into 
 that little hamlet. There was afesta dcflores, or flower-festival, going 
 on in honor of the patron saint, and traces of this were found almost 
 all along the road to Cuernavaca, where the regular market-day was in 
 progress. The trees were belted or garlanded with flowers, little trellises 
 were set up here and there, music played, and small tables were laid out, 
 on which, for the occasion only, gambling was allowed, the municipality 
 drawing a revenue from its exercise. 
 
 Amy, with some of the others, had come from the hacienda to see 
 the novel sight. When the procession appeared, she was standing 
 under a little pavilion by the great amape-tree near Dona Beatriz's 
 home. The nuns' house was closed, with an unusual air of seclusion. 
 Naturally, they would not wish to look out on the gayety going on 
 before them. Some of the rustics in good faith hailed Perez's troopers 
 as coming back from the search after Kaufman n, and inquired what 
 success. 
 
 " None ? why, then the country is going to the dogs indeed," they 
 said : "these villains of plagiaries kidnappers have everything their 
 own way again." 
 
 Amy turned to General del Prado to ask their meaning, but he 
 was evasive, as he was wont to be about all the political troubles, so as 
 not to alarm her. 
 
 Nodding hedges of freshly-cut banana-plants adorned the sides of 
 the street. Behind these the extraordinary defile of images presently 
 hove in sight. Amy, in a certain consternation, at first thought it was 
 dead bodies the men were carrying so solemnly in the stretchers on 
 their shoulders, but as they drew near she was undeceived. She found 
 the spectacle quaint and original. The church-bells rang in honor of 
 the festival, sometimes turning over and over as in ecstasy, and the 
 gayety on the surface formed a contrast indeed, had one known the 
 truth, with the real object of the burden-bearers, sweating under their 
 heavy loads. These had a certain quiet enjoyment in their duplicity. 
 They uttered in a sing-song way the usual peasant salutations as they 
 went along : 
 
 " How do you do ? How is the family ? Did you pass a pleasant 
 night ? May you pass a pleasant night this time ! Until a little 
 while ! Adios !" 
 
 Trinidad Jos6, who was there, with his dog behind him, took upon 
 himself to answer these salutations for the General's party, ignorant of 
 the spice of derision they contained. Presently the parade rested, and 
 many of the men scattered from their ranks among the various attrac 
 tions of the festa. Some of them had already judiciously taken an 
 upper road leading eastward, but the main body were to proceed boldly 
 through the city itself, us a course less likely to excite suspicion. 
 General del Prado was called away for a moment on some matter of
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 79 
 
 business. While flower-sellers particularly engaged the attention of 
 the rest, a horseman found opportunity to approach Amy and let fall 
 guardedly a few words in English. 
 
 " You again, Don Walter ?" she exclaimed. " Is not this too dan 
 gerous ? What plan have you adopted now ?" 
 
 " Everything is going well," he answered, reassuringly. " I hope 
 soon to reappear in my proper person. Keep up good courage I" 
 
 Amy asked the General, thereupon, to take her to Cuernavaca also, 
 and in the market-place of that town a few more words of similar pur 
 port were exchanged. Her recent depression was shaken off, and her 
 heart beat with a kind of fearful gladness at the turn things had taken. 
 
 " What is the use of all this, anyway ?" said the Jefe Politico, com 
 ing up to some of the men with the statues, with perhaps a little more 
 than his customary insolence, to impress the group from Las Delicias. 
 
 " When we have had no rain for some time over there," replied a 
 spokesman, demurely, " we bring out the saints, and that always suc 
 ceeds. Besides, we expect these from the holy place to have a pecu 
 liarly good effect." 
 
 " Don't you know the saints don't make the weather, you ? There's 
 a people for you !" in great disgust. " The weather is made by it is 
 er for example, now the full moon the rotation of the sun when 
 you want to know anything about those matters, come to my office. I 
 can tell you everything on science, absolutely everything." 
 
 " Yes, Excellency, henceforth we shall always do so." 
 
 " And, you know, you take a very lazy gait, you men, as if these 
 things were heavy. You cumber up the market-place with them. I 
 
 would guarantee to carry a whole one myself Ah, ten million 
 
 devils ! shoo ! get away with you !" 
 
 He jumped back and made a cut with his whip at his namesake, 
 Trinidad Josefs " Corcovedo." The animal, either well trained in his 
 master's hostility or sharing it by instinct, had taken advantage of the 
 dignitary's bending posture to make a longing snap at his legs. 
 
 General del Prado apologized for the animal's misconduct, but the 
 Jefe was furious and would not accept any apology. 
 
 " I can tell you it won't do to have your dogs snapping at the legs 
 of a high official in times like these," he exclaimed, savagely. " It 
 behooves everybody to be thinking how he stands with the government, 
 instead of causing it annoyance and suspicion." 
 
 As the cackling of the geese saved Rome, this trivial incident pre 
 vented his making a discovery that might have resulted in very serious 
 consequences. The men picked up their load again, and especially as 
 they had been enjoined to do so vacated the plaza as soon as possible. 
 They melted away insensibly, as it were, sloping down the side-streets, 
 stopping at various places to refresh themselves, and then taking to the 
 road in small detachments. Antonio Gassol entertained many of them, 
 and the Alma de Mexico was for a time a scene of crowded animation. 
 So also that no invidious distinction might be remarked was the 
 Bella Union. 
 
 The market-people who had accompanied them vanished in like 
 manner, not easily missed among the unusual throng in the place that
 
 80 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 day. The make-believe devotees had a particular head-quarters at a 
 corral engaged by Perez, and from this corral just at dusk, and for 
 some time after, a considerable number of mules issued forth, lighten 
 ing the loads so that the march could be pressed with greater speed. 
 
 Needless to describe all the small incidents, delays, and well-grounded 
 fears, that attended such a march. The general rendezvous was about 
 ten miles to the east of Cuernavaca. The party camped there for the 
 night, under some large forest trees. They were astir again at dawn, 
 went on that day, and, waiting discreetly till the shades of the second 
 night had fallen, entered Rio Frio. Their loads were deposited in a 
 thick-walled meson, or caravansary, retained by Perez, around which a 
 strong guard was posted. A semblance of a procession for rain was 
 held the next day, and then the men, a few at a time, were sent back 
 with the figures to El Jasmin. 
 
 Meanwhile, General del Prado, stung by the insulting words he 
 had endured for a second time from the Jefe Politico, started next 
 morning for Mexico, to observe the complexion of affairs there, see how 
 he stood with the government, and how he had best adapt himself to 
 the coming troubles. 
 
 Thus two-thirds of the treasure was safe at Rio Frio. Don Walter 
 Arroyo waited only to see it carefully bestowed, and then set out with 
 a single servant behind him, and at nightfall entered Cuernavaca, as 
 having returned from the United States. 
 
 The aunts received him with open arms. They accepted all his 
 excuses with full confidence. He had come by a trading-vessel, it ap 
 peared, instead of the regular steamer, a more favorable bargain having 
 offered in this way, and he had not written, in order to surprise them. 
 
 " But, this in confidence, " he said, " I must soon be off again 
 to the United States. I hope it will not be for long. A business con 
 nection is open to me there which it would be injustice to myself to 
 neglect." 
 
 Alas ! their wild bird had flown from the nest, and they feared it 
 would be long indeed before he returned to it. To acquaintances Walter 
 said he had little good to report of the United States, knowing this 
 was the way in which he could best escape embarrassing questions, but 
 excused himself from entering into much detail, on the score of pressing 
 affairs awaiting his attention. Letting a day or two elapse for the sake 
 of appearances, during which he found means of despatching the small 
 hoard from his own house to Perez, he declared he must be off to visit 
 the country property and his neglected ranch. 
 
 On the way he stopped to see Amy : now at last he could visit her 
 openly. He had hardly been able to check his burning impatience till 
 the time came. What a long and delicious talk they held, in one of 
 their fragrant bowers in the garden, on all the aspects of the case ! 
 They sat again by the spring that had befriended them, and looked off 
 at the distant mountain-peak which seemed covered with powdered 
 sugar in the warm tropical landscape. Since the earthquake the basin 
 no longer bubbled, but in all other respects Las Delicias had escaped 
 intact. How often had Amy sat there alone, a prey to the terrors of 
 her imagination ! how often had she fancied her friend lying dead in
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 81 
 
 the wild Barranca, his hapless corpse fitfully illumined by the lava- 
 flames ! She was rapt with enthusiasm now at his magnificent success. 
 But all danger was by no means yet over, as appeared when, without 
 betraying the secret of the political movement, he gave her an outline 
 of his plans. 
 
 " We shall march in force from Rio Frio," he said. " There we 
 shall have mules, and our porters will be transformed into fighting- 
 men. You used to profess a fancy for the romantic. Well, now I 
 ask you to look at us a little in that way, for surely there is an element 
 of romance in an expedition like ours." 
 
 "But you will be in danger ah, you smile; I could never make 
 that have any weight with you ; but but you do not wish to fight and 
 sacrifice lives ? Think how badly you will feel when you reach New 
 York if anything of that kind has happened." 
 
 " None but villains will try to stop us, and they will deserve what 
 ever happens to them. The country will be all the better for their 
 taking off. No one shall have this treasure while I live." 
 
 " Oh, why will you talk so ?" she appealed, lamenting. " Is it not 
 true that ' all that a man hath he will give for his life' ?" 
 
 " Till this is over I do not feel that I have even begun to live," 
 he replied, gloomily. " But let us not discuss that. Before long, I 
 trust, we shall meet in New York. When we meet there I shall have a 
 
 wonderful story to tell you ; but till then " 
 
 Amy speculated tremblingly whether this was to be at last a dis 
 closure of his love for herself, a love she so greatly craved. 
 They spoke of Dona Beatriz. 
 
 " She has hardly been seen in public since the return from El Jas 
 min," said Amy. " She seemed terribly alarmed by the earthquake ; 
 she was even more depressed on the way down than I was, though I 
 had all my other troubles besides to think of. She is living in strict 
 seclusion. I went there to try to find her the day of the festa, but 
 Sister Praxedis brought me word she would see nobody. How she 
 recognized you at El Jasmin remains the greatest of mysteries." 
 
 Walter told her of the intercepted letter, suppressing its purport, 
 and then, little by little, as to one to whom all confidence is due, of 
 the whole interview', except as to the place where the riches of the con 
 vent were buried ; for this knowledge belonged to no one, not even to 
 himself. 
 
 " And why did you not take this treasure, and this true affection ?" 
 asked Amy, genuinely marvelling at him. 
 
 He remained stubbornly silent as to his motive. 
 He was asking himself speciously if it were not really his duty now 
 to ask the right to throw his protection round her and watch over her 
 during the approaching troubles. 
 
 "No, no," his fixed conviction still answered, "the time has not 
 come : all may yet fail. No danger can come to her under the guar 
 dianship of this most influential family." 
 
 How peculiarly fair she was, even in spite of her worn look, after 
 his long deprivation of the sight of her ! how small a victory it would 
 have seemed for him to have overcome even far greater blandishments 
 VOL. XLIL 6
 
 82 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 for her sake ! Their hands trembled with agitation as they touched in 
 parting. 
 
 What madness ! what utterly unwarrantable conduct ! what a yield 
 ing to temptation after all the severe resolutions he had but just now 
 registered ! Swayed by an impulse he could not control, and one that 
 seemed to extend as well to her, and hardly knowing what he did, 
 Walter took Amy fairly in his arms, held her form for one delicious 
 instant against his own, kissed her peach-like cheek, her brow, her 
 lovely hair. 
 
 " Don Walter !" she protested, in an indescribable murmur of gentle 
 resistance that haunted him many a long day like a refrain of the 
 sweetest music, or one of those exquisite aromas that are sometimes 
 blown across the track of the traveller on a mountain-road. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A FIERCE ENEMY SWOOPS DOWN UPON THE TREASURE. 
 
 WHILE he was still hesitating after the tremors of this blissful 
 experience, uncertain whether the effort to go were not too great, a hue 
 and cry was raised at a distance, and Trinidad Jose" came running to 
 them for protection. His offence in naming his dog had been discov 
 ered by the Jefe Politico, or, at least, by some of his men. A number 
 of swashbucklers of the newly-arrived Third Battalion had met him 
 on the road and resented the insult to their chief. They had set upon 
 him violently, but he had been able to give them the slip through his 
 acquaintance with a short cut across the fields. 
 
 " Even if I get off now, I shall never dare show myself outside the 
 hacienda again," he said. 
 
 " Then join me to-night at my rancho of Cruce Vivo," Walter pro 
 posed to him. " I will give you some work to do up there that will be 
 better, at any rate, than hiding here. Meantime, stow yourself away, 
 and I will deal with these pursuers." 
 
 Trinidad Jose 1 took refuge in one of the corner pavilions above the 
 great fish-pond, where he buried himself under the fruit. Some of the 
 ribald soldiers immediately came rushing up the garden alleys. Walter 
 rebuked them sternly, and Don Angel, a youth of hot spirit, whose ears 
 the disturbance had also reached, arrived with a band of employees 
 hastily mustered. The intruders upon this retired, but muttered impu 
 dently something about coming again. One said to another, 
 
 " Very pretty pickings such a place as this would make. My idea 
 is that all these top swells ought to be laid under handsome contribu 
 tions." 
 
 The times were growing troublous indeed, and it were well if the 
 General were home again. He returned, in fact, within two or three 
 days, and his manner disclosed no small uneasiness. He was a man 
 rather slow to action and far better adapted for the peaceful arts of 
 civilized life than for the turmoil of a revolutionary period. Himself 
 upright and honorable, no very ardent admirer of the present admin 
 istration, and yet, on the other hand, by no means ready to counte-
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. . 33 
 
 nance the pretensions of the so-called Liberator, he had perhaps perse 
 vered in a policy of inaction much too long. He confided to his wife 
 that he had been met only by an offensive rebuff by the ruling powers 
 at Mexico, no employment had been offered him, and he had come back 
 alarmed even as to his own safety. He had adopted a resolution on the 
 way home. To Amy he said, 
 
 " I will not conceal from you that this is no ordinary crisis. Nor 
 is the trouble likely to be soon over. I should not be doing my duty 
 either to you or your family if I allowed you to be subject to any dan 
 ger. I propose to take my family to Jalapa to remain quietly away 
 from the centre of the disturbances. Then I will return to defend the 
 hacienda. Angel, who is a brave boy, will take care of it meantime. 
 WQ must set out at once." 
 
 " Whatever you think is best, General. I am quite willing to go to 
 Jalapa." 
 
 " Oh, no : I was coming to the point. The disturbances may break 
 out there too. I have been obliged to make another plan for you. The 
 American minister is to sail from Vera Cruz immediately with a num 
 ber of families who are fleeing from the country, and I have arranged 
 to place you also under his charge. We will meet him at the railway- 
 junction of Apizaco. There is no immediate cause for alarm, you 
 know," he said, soothingly, " but we shall do well to make all possible 
 speed while things are still quiet." 
 
 But to the family he spoke much more frankly. He told how the 
 dread insurgent chief Socorro Reyes had broken out again in the State 
 of Michoacan, and Nufiez in the Canton of Tepic. The British man- 
 of-war Amethyst had landed troops to save Colima from a forced 
 loan imposed upon it by brigands. The mayor-domo of a large haci 
 enda on the Plains of Apam had pronounced with about a hundred 
 men, and been cut to pieces by the government troops. On the other 
 hand, a government force of twice the same number had been massacred 
 by the Indian population of Guerrero. 
 
 " There is a growing conviction," he said, " that most of this is in 
 the interest of a noted revolutionist about to return from his exile at 
 New Orleans. Some even think he is in the country already." 
 
 His words at first caused astonishment and dismay in the household, 
 but this soon came to an end. In countries where armed strife is fre 
 quent, women and children are often quiet and self-contained even under 
 fire. The hacienda was also put in its best state of defence. " Jalapa 
 is a charming place, such a fresh green landscape," said the Madre, 
 cheerfully, trying hard to be reconciled, " and the women are so pretty. 
 * Las JalapeUas son halaguenas,' " repeating a proverb meaning that 
 the maids and dames of Jalapa are an unusually captivating race. 
 
 " Yes, we have some cousins there, and it will be very nice," added 
 Luz. 
 
 "Nothing can ever be so charming to me as Las Delicias," said 
 Amy, with a sigh. 
 
 The news of their preparations was brought to the Jefe Politico, and 
 he gathered a band to stop their departure. As often happens in revo 
 lutionary countries, he seized upon the political troubles as an oppor-
 
 84 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 tunity to gratify his private malice. Events had moved rapidly in the 
 past few days. Sen" or Corcovedo also had his special intelligence from 
 Mexico. An unusual force was now placed at his disposal to keep his 
 district quiet, and he assumed dictatorial powers. He was sustained at 
 the capital by two persons high in authority, whose creature he was. 
 They were no friends of General del Prado, and doubtless he took his 
 cue from them. 
 
 While on his road he was met by Pablo, who had been engaged 
 in various odd jobs in his service since leaving that of Walter, and 
 who now besought an interview. 
 
 " Well, be quick about it : don't mumble your head off," said the 
 Jefe, offensively. 
 
 " I was right in what I told you before : Don Walter Arroyo is not 
 at the Norte : he is in this country. He is very bold about it, too, and 
 I have just seen him." 
 
 " Have you, indeed ? remarkable, isn't it, considering he returned by 
 the steamer some days ago," indulging in a sarcasm which was very rare 
 for him. 
 
 The informant was quite chapfallen at this. " I have been up the 
 pass for some time," said he, " and I didn't know what was going on 
 here." 
 
 " No, I'll warrant you didn't, nor anywhere else either. Awhile 
 ago you told me you had seen a peon you suspected to be Don Walter. 
 At the same time another of my men had heard a peon who seemed to 
 be something more than a peon talking with Dona Beatriz. Between 
 you, you made out that it must be the same one. I set a watch for him 
 on your recommendation at Dofia Beatriz's house, but he has not turned 
 up there. If you can tell me anything useful about that mysterious 
 person, and where and when he is going to dig up the nuns' treasure, 
 go ahead, in God's name. If you can't, be off with you before I warm 
 you with this whip. Don't give me any more prophecies of Peregrullo." 
 
 He half raised his whip, but, relenting, went on : 
 
 " What a fine pair you were, anyway, to let your interesting indi 
 vidual give you the slip and vanish out of sight entirely, while you 
 took time to refresh yourselves and bring back the news of his presence 
 to me !" 
 
 " It was the earthquake, your most exalted Excellency, that broke 
 up everything. The man seemed to be swallowed up in it, and we 
 were all terribly alarmed, because it was the worst known in many 
 years." 
 
 " Am I one to be talked to of your alarms, I to whom fear is 
 absolutely unknown ?" 
 
 " I don't know how it is, but somehow I still think I was right 
 about him." 
 
 " About whom ?" 
 
 " Don Walter. He's coming down the mountain now with a lot of 
 men carrying off heaven only knows what, though he will probably 
 affect not to belong to them." 
 
 " What is all this to me, you ? W T hat have I to do with your Don 
 Walter or Don devil, anyway ?"
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 85 
 
 " He is a man who ridicules your Excellency," responded Pablo, 
 artfully, seeking a sting. 
 
 " Caramba ! I am not a person to be ridiculed, and I have noticed 
 the young sprig is much given to ridiculing people. Well, then, what 
 do you say he is carrying off?" 
 
 " Being on the mountain again, with my eyes about me, a few days 
 ago, I saw Don Walter come up with Trinidad Jose 1 . I had followed 
 them to Cruce Vivo, and thence to the Barranca of Cimarron. I had 
 much difficulty, on account of many men who seemed to be on guard, 
 but still I had an opportunity to see that some mysterious operations 
 were going on at the Barranca. Numerous persons came up carrying 
 heavy bags. I managed to mingle with them at El Jasmin, and found 
 that they were the same ones that had been engaged in the procession. 
 They had brought back the statues, and they now pretend that there is 
 a scarcity of provisions at Rio Frio, and they embrace the chance to 
 carry there what is needed. But it is my opinion that this is only a 
 blind and they are taking away something valuable from the Barranca." 
 
 " But you have told me yourself the Barranca is an utterly dis 
 agreeable, useless place. It is because he forced you to go there that 
 you hate him." 
 
 " Yes ; but I have sometimes thought since that he might have found 
 something worth while in it." 
 
 " Then why the devil didn't you go down and see ?" 
 
 " The Yellow Snake is very unlucky, your illustrious Excellency." 
 
 " Ah, bah ! Well, I'll take a look into the baggage of these worthies, 
 at your risk, do you understand : if I find you've been deceiving me 
 it will be worse for you. Just now, you observe, I have other things 
 to do." 
 
 " But they are only just behind me. I hurried on in advance to 
 warn you. They may get off with their plunder if you do not look 
 well to it." 
 
 At the junction of the main road with that to Las Delicias and 
 the mountain-path lay a group of roofless buildings, the vestiges of 
 a country-house ruined in former wars. Fortunately for Seflor Cor- 
 covedo, who could not fully make up his mind to change his plan of 
 going to play the ruffian and tyrant at the hacienda, the small cortege 
 of the del Prado family was approaching, and already near this point. 
 Corcovedo drew up his force across the road and intercepted them. 
 
 Almost at the same moment Captain Perez dashed up, on his way 
 to rejoin Walter. This was the first semblance of danger he had yet 
 fallen in with, but he felt it might have been much worse when he 
 came to learn the intention of the Jefe Politico. Though he had no 
 great interest in General del Prado, he had not a little in Amy on 
 Walter's account. With an insinuating, politic way he well knew how 
 to employ at need, he begged to offer his mediation, but this Seflor 
 Corcovedo brusquely rejected. 
 
 " I demand your passport," he had said, roughly, to the General, on 
 halting him. 
 
 " My passport ? What need have I of a passport, who am so well 
 known to you ?"
 
 86 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " I have received orders that all persons travelling without passports 
 are to be arrested, and the laws concerning conspiracy applied to them." 
 
 " Such a law was indeed talked of while I was at Mexico, but it 
 has never been published here. In any event, such laws are not for 
 me," rejoined the General, haughtily. 
 
 " We will see about that. I will hold you as my prisoner for 
 attempting to leave the district without authority." 
 
 With what ineffable contempt the lustrous orbs of Sefiorita Luz 
 blazed at this man who had once aspired to call himself her lover ! 
 
 " But I am an American citizen, and General del Prado has only 
 set out to place me under the protection of the minister of my country. 
 I demand that we shall not be interrupted," interposed Amy, astonished 
 at her own temerity. 
 
 " Oh, very well ; I have no means of knowing about that, but I 
 suppose we may take your word for it," responded the Jefe, sneeringly. 
 " You may go on by yourself." 
 
 But now the head of an irregular column of market-people was 
 seen coming down the mountain-path. There seemed an unusual 
 number of women among them, dressed in the Egyptian-like blue 
 reboso and skirt. The foremost ones came swiftly on, making little of 
 their burdens, as their way is, and the soldiers opened slightly to let 
 them pass through. Don Walter appeared riding only as if with and 
 not of them. The real and false market-people were mingled together. 
 
 A whistle was heard, and nearly all stopped where they were. No 
 great number had yet come in sight. Captain Perez dreaded the ill 
 eifect on Walter of the situation of affairs, and he pushed over towards 
 him to counsel prudence. 
 
 "Surely there can be no reason for detaining or annoying these 
 friends from the hacienda of Las Delicias," said Walter to the Jefe : 
 " there must be some mistake here." 
 
 " Oh, of course we shall account for it to you at leisure. Mean 
 while, you are my prisoner too," presenting a revolver at his head. 
 
 " I your prisoner ?" he returned, calmly, thrilled through every fibre 
 with a sense of the danger, yet desirous to retain his utmost coolness on 
 account of the vastness of the interests at stake ; " and pray on what 
 account ?" 
 
 " You are charged with converting the public domain to your own 
 use, and I demand an account of what your followers here are taking 
 away." 
 
 He had signalled to a part of his men to guard the first prisoners, 
 and to the rest to close up around himself. The two groups were not 
 a little mixed together. At the sight of the pistol aimed at Walter, 
 Amy Colebrook, whose anxious eye had been upon all this, was so 
 wrought upon by an intensity of dread that she gave utterance to a 
 most piercing feminine shriek. She saw not only the personal danger 
 of her hero, but the ruin impending over his grand project. So pene 
 trated with exquisite agony was this shriek, so vivid and startling, that 
 it irresistibly drew the attention of every one. 
 
 In this instant of diversion, while the eyes of the Jefe Politico 
 unwittingly turned with the rest, a figure which appeared to be a
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE g7 
 
 woman, but was in reality Trinidad Jose, sprang swiftly upon him, 
 caught his extended arm, and dragged him down from the saddle. 
 Captain Perez at the same time made his broad-breasted charger wheel 
 and plunge roughly among the crowd, and cried, in a stentorian voice, 
 
 " A mistake ! a mistake ! Stand back ! do not fire ! Some mistake 
 is here !" 
 
 " Pin him, Corcovedo ! pin him, boy !" called Trinidad Jos6 ; and 
 the dog devoted himself with a gusto to helping at last a sweet, long- 
 deferred vengeance. 
 
 The men, disorganized by the fall of their chief and the cry of 
 Perez, knew not at first what to do. But they were regulars, and soon 
 recovered their equanimity. They fired at Jos6 and his dog, though 
 both miraculously escaped unhurt, set the Jefe again on his horse, 
 then formed in good order and sent a telling volley after the scattering 
 peasants. They began to follow them, but soon, realizing that discre 
 tion was the better part of valor, they retired to the ruined country- 
 house, still keeping the del Prado family as prisoners. 
 
 A loud, shrill call summoned into sight a much larger force of the 
 peasants. Those in disguise threw off their women's costumes, and all 
 prepared for the attack. In the mMee some shouts for the Liberator 
 had inadvertently been raised : the war-cry was thus heard, and the 
 movement identified henceforth with that of the revolution. 
 
 "The campaign has begun," commented Perez, philosophically. 
 " Very well, it can't be helped ; we are in for it, and we'll take the 
 consequences." 
 
 It was clearly necessary, in the sequel, that they should retreat, but 
 they determined first to cripple the enemy, to prevent a too speedy pur 
 suit. Still more important in Walter's eyes was the rescuing of the 
 prisoners. A plan of attack was quickly arranged : one body was to 
 advance along the road, another to make a feint in flank, while a third 
 should steal round under cover of a thick field of bananas and take 
 the enemy in the rear. But these latter were no novices in this kind 
 of warfare, and, as without the help of artillery every adobe wall may 
 become a redoubt, they stoutly held their own. It was not till another 
 force under young Don Angel who had been notified at the hacienda 
 of what was going on came hurrying and yelling across the fields that 
 they finally gave up. They broke from their intrenchments and fled 
 in wild confusion, with much loss. 
 
 Amy Colebrook had a brief glimpse of Walter under a guise in 
 which it is rarely given to women to see their heroes. She hardly 
 knew him, and was almost afraid of him. The rage of battle was still 
 upon him, he was bleeding from a slight bullet-wound across the cheek, 
 and a revolver smoked in his hand. He was bursting in a gate, at the 
 head of a storming-party, when the enemy took to flight. 
 
 But this in no way interfered with his affectionate consideration for 
 her. He was inclined to retire from view, as if his appearance were an 
 offence against etiquette. He quickly detailed Captain Perez to guard 
 the General's party to Rio Frio, leaving him, Don Walter, to his own 
 resources. Perez strongly expostulated at this, but the other would 
 not be gainsaid.
 
 gg THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " Go at once !" insisted "Walter, almost imperiously. " They must 
 be conveyed to a place of safety. Now that they are supposed to be 
 identified with the insurrection, there is no telling what penalties they 
 would suffer if captured. You are light, and can keep the start you 
 have got." 
 
 " And you ?" 
 
 " We shall retire up the pass again to the Barranca, and go out by 
 Lake Jornada. Be sure you see we have some boats and what aid you 
 can spare available there. I shall contest every inch of the way if 
 necessary, but we know our route better than they do now, and, heavily 
 loaded as we are, no other would be possible." 
 
 Meanwhile, all the bells in the town pealed out a hoarse and jang 
 ling alarm, the shops and churches were closed, and good citizens 
 barred their doors at the bursting of this sudden war-cloud. 
 
 The Jefe Politico had been within an ace of capture himself; he 
 certainly could not have escaped if his opponents had had but a little 
 more time to follow. He was furious with rage, and choked with 
 chagrin at the ignominious fate that had befallen him, and yet, inspired 
 with a salutary dread, too, by the lesson he had received, he made none 
 too active preparations to revenge himself. 
 
 But Pablo thrust under his nose some specimens from one of the 
 bags of treasure let fall during the flight. 
 
 " See here," said he, " this is the kind of stuff they pick up at the 
 Barranca : it ought to be good enough for us. Better give the nuns' 
 treasure a rest for a while." 
 
 From that moment it was no question either of pursuing General 
 del Prado or of attacking just yet Las Delicias: he gathered his 
 whole force and set out in hot chase after Don Walter, fired by the 
 keenest zest for gain. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 BATTLES FROM CAMPO FLOBIDO TO LAKE JORNADA. 
 
 CORCOVEDO counted by a rapid pursuit, if not on capturing the 
 fugitives, on forcing them to throw down their burdens, the securing of 
 which was far more important for him. But Don Walter pressing 
 into the service, besides, all the mules he could lay hands on along the 
 way got an extraordinary speed out of his heavy-laden men. He 
 hurled great rocks down into the path behind him, and covered his 
 march with a small rear-guard which kept the enemy in continual 
 dread of being ambuscaded. 
 
 The district was practically deserted, the native laborers having fled 
 for fear of being seized for military duty ; all doors in El Jasmin were 
 tightly closed, only a few dogs came out and barked at the heels of the 
 retreating warriors. At night the rain came down heavily, and they 
 went on in a soaked and sodden condition, often knee-deep in mud, their 
 fire-arms rusting even as they bore them. At midnight, overcome with 
 fatigue, they camped at some deserted huts, but next morning an ample 
 breakfast and the renewed splendor of an unclouded sun restored their 
 spirits.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. g(j 
 
 Retreating in this masterly manner, it was not till the hamlet of 
 Huetongo was reached that they were overtaken by the enemy, and 
 even then only because Walter permitted it. He thought best to make 
 a stand at this point, and he fortified himself by levelling some of the 
 small houses and throwing a barricade across the entrance of the main 
 street, from the fonda on one side to the parish church on the other. 
 He felt the necessity of striking a blow and holding the adversaries 
 severely in check, otherwise* they would press too closely upon the ex 
 pedition at the critical moment of entering the Barranca, which could 
 not but have a disastrous effect. 
 
 Corcovedo advanced three times and was as often beaten back, and 
 when he finally made himself master of the position having at last 
 adopted the policy of setting fire to the buildings and moving by slow 
 and cautious approaches he found it had been deserted some time be 
 fore. Straight sticks, simulating musket-barrels, and hate stuck upon 
 twigs had been arranged to mislead him. So enraged was he at the 
 deception and at his loss that he brutally despatched a few of Walter's 
 wounded who had been left behind. 
 
 He came up with the retreating party anew at the borders of the 
 Barranca. But, thanks to the stout defence at the breastworks, the 
 greater part of the treasure was already at the bottom of the trail. 
 Again a skilful rear-guard hotly contested the way. Here, too, a new 
 subterfuge was employed. Mules with mock loads of treasure and 
 loudly-tinkling bells were sent down by misleading paths, and also 
 through the jungle along the edge of the chasm. These were eagerly 
 followed, and served to distract attention from the real movements. 
 The valiant rear-guard, directed by Walter, having accomplished all 
 that was possible above, now plunged down the steep descent. They 
 took refuge in nooks and crannies, and, aided by skilful sharp-shoot 
 ing from below, still fired back with telling effect upon the aggressors. 
 Now and then one on each side fell in his tracks. The enemy rolled 
 down huge fragments of rock, as in some battle of the giants ; but these, 
 after all, were more terrifying than dangerous. 
 
 The train was well on its way again along the bottom of the 
 Barranca before Corcovedo's men fairly entered it. As they formed 
 and began to press forward, they were startled and given pause for 
 a while by a dire explosion. Walter had concentrated all his remaining 
 explosives at a single point, and now fired the mine. Its effect was to 
 remove the artificial dike thrown up by the late earthquake and allow 
 the boiling stream to rush in over its old bed once more. The accumu 
 lated treasure was now safely hidden from every human eye. Up to 
 this last moment he had cherished a lingering hope of being able to 
 take out a still further amount. 
 
 Pablo, for his part, stared round the cailon with greedy and fearful 
 eye, but nothing was as it had been on the occasion of his visit with 
 his master. The superstition of the Yellow Snake still held good with 
 his companions, and it was only with great difficulty that some of them 
 were urged forward. Those who had objected most strenuously were 
 joined to a body of reinforcements which had come up and were sent 
 to skirt along the margin "of the Barranca. What with the difficulties
 
 90 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 of the ground and the caution inspired by the prowess of the pursued, 
 the advance below was necessarily slow, but Corcovedo said, with savage 
 glee, 
 
 " We shall take them presently like rats in a trap." 
 
 He counted on pushing them from behind while the co-operating 
 force should cut them off on their exit in front. Walter, too, saw 
 this danger, and he began to be weighed down by a heavy depression. 
 His men had effected prodigies of valor, bat as likely as not defeat and 
 destruction finally awaited them. Then, too, all these desperate deeds 
 had been done, these lives had been lost, and he felt that the treasure, 
 even if saved, must be tinged for evermore as with the lurid stain of 
 blood. But this mood was not of long duration : his indomitable 
 courage reasserted itself. There was hope in the fact. that the force 
 above, making their way by a route which they opened for the first 
 time, progressed at a slower rate than his own. He urged on his com 
 mand yet faster, doubling and again tripling their pay as an induce 
 ment; but after a while the enemy above disappeared from sight, and 
 then the result was only a matter of conjecture. In this march fell at 
 last poor Trinidad Jos6 ; and his faithful dog, who had been the cause 
 of so much amusement, having stayed behind, pining over his master's 
 body, came to be despatched by a cruel blow from a sabre. 
 
 The caflon narrowed rapidly towards its termination. At this 
 point, to which the mules were only got with great difficulty, extended 
 across a formidable natural mound or palisade. As Walter neared it, 
 he feared every instant to see the heads of foes appear above it from 
 the other side, but he was not yet intercepted. The barrier was an 
 excellent place behind which to withstand an enemy either from within 
 or without, but, naturally, could not be made available on both sides. 
 He determined to hold it against the pursuers while awaiting the return 
 of a reconnoitring-party sent out to look for the expected boats and aid 
 from Captain Perez. Failing these, he would march on, and, if need 
 were, perish on the shore of the lake. 
 
 From the top a scene of peculiar beauty and grandeur presented 
 itself. The lake, in a great crater ring, formed perhaps by the same 
 agencies that had rent the grim Barranca through the mountain, spread 
 out from a desolate alkali-whitened shore in front to vast mountains 
 beyond. A stepping-stone as it were to the mountains, rose a green 
 table-land so high as to seem almost inaccessible, and among the peaks 
 was one topped with snow of which Walter had sometimes caught 
 glimpses during his labors. 
 
 The lake was not an unbroken stretch of water, for, besides a little 
 rocky island of conical form, it had frequent expanses of the extraordi 
 nary growth known as chinampas, a kind of amphibious meadow more 
 or less free from attachment to the bottom, and often so light as to be 
 driven before the winds. Near the shore, irregular channels extended 
 among them, connecting one open space with another. 
 
 The crack of rifles in a new attack of the pursuers had already 
 begun when the searching-party returned. They brought back with 
 them a gruff sort of individual in a fur cap, who proved to be an 
 American named Barnley. He belonged to a command, chiefly com-
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 91 
 
 posed of foreigners, which was secreted with the runaway Kaufmann in 
 the mountains, waiting to take part in the expected rising. Captain 
 Perez had communicated with Kauftnaun, who had detailed Barnley 
 with perhaps a corporal's guard of men to assist in the matter of the 
 boats. He had lately come down from the wind-swept mining gorges 
 of Pachuca, where a fur cap was not out of place, and he chose to 
 wear his just the same in the tropics also. 
 
 " A little time's been lost by my coming back with your men to see 
 if you were the right parties," said he, " but that's better than making 
 a mistake. You can have two canoas, one big one, pretty heavy and 
 slow, the other smaller and medium fast, but they'll carry you, and they 
 were the best we could do in these times. This end of the lake is 
 pretty well skinned of boats, and it has mighty few at any time : so I 
 don't see how any one's going to follow you." 
 
 " And yet we had no time to lose," rejoined Walter. " Hark ! 
 there's the enemy's other division cheering now. They have heard the 
 firing, and are probably coming down on us. We may be even now 
 too late to escape them." 
 
 " They've got another division, have they ?" 
 
 " Yes : the principal one is above there." 
 
 " I'm glad to know that," said Barnley. " It would be mighty 
 inconvenient for Kaufmaun to have them come on him unawares after 
 you've given them the slip. I'll tell you what I'll do : if you'll take 
 care of these I'll agree to stop the others with my own squad. If I 
 can get to the Cajones the Boxes in time, I can hold them as long as 
 you please. The Cajones is the most elegant place to corner a com 
 pany you don't want to bother you. As like as not those parties won't 
 get here before to-morrow morning." 
 
 " But we cannot sacrifice you to our convenience." 
 
 " Oh, don't you be afraid about me. I know plenty of holes around 
 there to hide in afterwards." 
 
 Encouraged by the distant cheering of their friends, the pursuers 
 made a new onset. There was another battle, many more lives were 
 lost, but the rear-guard stood firm as before, and under cover of its 
 defence and the gathering dusk Walter embarked with all his goods 
 and chattels on the boats. There was no time now to think of un 
 earthing any other treasure, and the portion he had buried on the shore 
 was abandoned to wait till who could say what distant day in the dim 
 future before it should see the light. 
 
 Snap ! snap ! from the pistols, and crack ! crack ! crack ! from the 
 rifles of the baffled Corcovedo, who was left in impotent rage on the 
 darkening strand. The men, sheltering themselves behind the piled-up 
 bags, plied their paddles with all speed. 
 
 The canoas were clumsy but capacious flat-boats of but a few inches' 
 draught. When the night settled down, all lights were put out, that their 
 whereabouts might not be disclosed to the enemy if by any chance they 
 were followed. Walter remained in the last and heaviest of them, 
 which was the post of danger. Towards midnight, when trying to get 
 a little sleep in a low cabin amidships, he was aroused by a dull thud 
 and all-pervading jar.
 
 92 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 " The chinampas ! the chinampas !" called out the alarmed voices 
 of the watch. 
 
 The wind had changed and insensibly enclosed them in the clogging 
 embrace of this strange vegetation. A hail from the smaller boat in 
 advance, almost immediately after, showed that it had met with the same 
 fate. They were not completely surrounded, and the men worked strenu 
 ously with long poles to free themselves, but all this could effect nothing. 
 
 The chinampas were formed of a nucleus of water-plants closely 
 interwoven. Upon this a thin soil had formed by decomposition ; the 
 mud of the lake, washing over them in storms, and the dust blown 
 by the winds, had added to it ; then flowers, reeds, and grasses had 
 sprung up ; the thickness varied from a few inches to several feet, and 
 below them was deep water. 
 
 Don Walter found himself condemned to pass the rest of the night 
 listening to the frogs and watching the twinkling fire-flies in the marshes. 
 He was like one in a nightmare, who feels the imperious need of strain 
 ing every nerve for flight yet is benumbed and cannot raise hand or 
 foot. Once a bluish flame danced on the high top of the small cone- 
 shaped island of La Copa which lay in his course. His fears made 
 it seem some signal of the enemy, who he fancied had already got in his 
 van, but he heard one of the men say it was only " the witches' fire," a 
 kind of natural will-o'-the-wisp that often burned there and indicated 
 a breeze in the morning. 
 
 When morning came, however, a gray mist hung for a while over 
 everything, which was a fortunate circumstance. Walter recalled the 
 voyagers shut in amid the ice-floes of the Arctic. The boat was sur 
 rounded on three sides, but on the other were floating islands and ir 
 regular tongues and fragments, which, though numerous, still afforded 
 prospect of escape. The men were got out and put in a kind of towing- 
 harness, and a mule also was landed, for the surface was sometimes 
 strong enough even to support grazing cattle and the native huts. But 
 these assistants floundered painfully along, one of the men being only 
 saved from sinking out of sight by the personal bravery of Walter, 
 and very slow progress was made. 
 
 Meantime, the boats had been put in as good a state of defence as 
 possible. Suddenly the fog lifted and showed that this was a precaution 
 by no means thrown away, for the enemy were approaching. They had 
 by some means secured three bateaux of their own, besides a number 
 of small boats. Their large craft could not approach closely, it is true, 
 for the same reason that prevented Walter's progress, but no such limi 
 tation hindered the light proas and chalupas ; these darted hither and 
 thither at will. 
 
 Corcovedo disembarked on the chinampa a large force, in charge of 
 experienced guides. His men avoided the weaker spots, screened them 
 selves in the tall rushes, and, when they had come within range, even 
 crawled on their hands and knees. Don Walter's foremost boat, making 
 a desperate push under dread of impending capture, finally broke 
 through her embarrassments and escaped into the open lake. He 
 signalled her not to attempt to render him assistance, but to look out 
 for her own safety.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 93 
 
 The combat could have only one possible issue. Adversaries 
 swarmed on nearly all sides in the light boats, and those on the land 
 presently sprang up and charged with fierce yells ; they entered at the 
 bow, the stern, and amidships, all at the same moment. If thrown 
 back, they were driven on again by the swords of their leaders, whom 
 a taste of the treasure had made like ravening wolves. So this strange 
 combat raged in the marshes, and many men fell in death among the 
 fragrant flowers through which they had crawled in their energy of 
 pursuit. Don Walter recognized some of the very men, of the Third 
 Battalion of the Line, who had made the insolent foray into the garden 
 the day he was with Amy. Pablo drew himself stealthily to his feet, 
 among the bodies on the deck, and attempted to stab him, but was cut 
 down in the act, and thus that revengeful servitor finally met his end. 
 
 When the young commander saw that no further shred of hope re 
 mained, he caused a white flag to be raised on an oar from behind a 
 portion of the cabin which he had kept clear as a last refuge. Having 
 taken this step in the hope of preventing the effusion of more blood, 
 he himself, as in supreme despair, plunged overboard. 
 
 The victors waited for him to come up, with pieces at their shoulders 
 ready to fire. But he did not reappear at all, and they made up their 
 minds that in the disappointment of his utter overthrow he had put an 
 end to himself. 
 
 Don Walter, however, a powerful swimmer, having dived beneath 
 the surface, had remained there so long a time that he was all but 
 bursting, and then came up among the sedges on the border of a piece 
 of the terra infirma many rods away. He presented but the merest 
 fraction of his visage to the upper air, and even then shots were being 
 fired in his direction in an experimental way. 
 
 When his lungs were full once more, he dived again, this time with 
 an original, almost incredible, plan. It was his purpose to swim directly 
 beneath the chinampa, as legend related that bandits had sometimes 
 done when pursued after their attacks on commerce in similar lakes. 
 
 It was naturally an undertaking full of great peril. He propelled 
 himself swiftly through the dark and murky waters; vine-like tendrils 
 and roots reaching nearly to the bottom caught him and impeded his 
 progress; above could be dimly made out convoluted masses like the 
 Gorgon's snaky locks. On first rising, he had miscalculated his dis 
 tance : his head touched something viscid and trammelling. Conscious 
 ness grew vague ; surely now the end had come and so he had ended 
 thus ! the terrible drumming in his temples grew fainter, the suffoca 
 tion less painful ; his motions were weak. And then, and then with 
 gasps that seemed as if they must rend a human frame asunder, he 
 breathed again; he no longer strangled; he saw the dear sun: never 
 had he thought to look upon it more. 
 
 Lilies yellow and white, scarlet poppies, and the scarlet water-pepper 
 spangled the surface on which he dragged himself out to rest his weary 
 limbs, and the broken spaces of water reflecting the blue sky contrasted 
 tenderly with the soft green of the vegetation : how could heaven ever 
 permit lust of gold, suffering and slaughter, in so smiling a prospect? 
 
 When Don Walter was finally received on board the remaining
 
 94 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 boat, he was more like one from the dead than a living man. They 
 had been about to turn away and abandon the scene, believing not a 
 soul had escaped, when he came swimming and hailing them, a long 
 distance out from the so-called land. 
 
 This boat, commanded by Antonio Gassol, had also a consort. Perez 
 in person had come out with another boat, of small size, and containing 
 few men, but these were all that could be spared from Rio Frio. They 
 put in to the little island of La Copa, a solid granite rock containing a 
 cup-like crater. The enemy could be seen transferring the bags of gold 
 and their prisoners to one of their craft, leaving their unwieldy prize 
 where it lay. Perez was for abandoning what they had lost, great as 
 it was, and retreating to save what still remained to them. 
 
 " I regret it beyond measure," said he, " and I am the last man in 
 the world to give it up while a single chance offers, but I bow to the 
 inevitable, and there is not a thing we can do." 
 
 " No, no ! I will never give it up! I cannot give it up !" cried Walter, 
 in an agony of protest. " It is easy for you to advise, you who have 
 nothing at stake. I will die first ! it is my life. Oh, why did I not 
 die when I was so very near it?" 
 
 He wished to fortify the island and await attack there till Kauf- 
 mann could be communicated with in the mountains and brought to 
 join them in an offensive movement. 
 
 " They will not attack us," said Perez. " In my opinion, they will 
 go down the lake, content for the present with what they have, and will 
 take no more risks upon it." 
 
 All the indications seemed to confirm what he said. The hamlet at 
 the foot of the rocky peak was a peaceful place, with a couple of ancient 
 palm-trees growing beside its small church, and the water off the shore 
 deep and clear. Its principal industry was the making of mats from 
 the rushes of the lake. Walter saw an Indian girl go in a chalupa and 
 deposit some of these in a canoa of a much swifter build than most 
 of its class already partly loaded with them. Instantly a daring new 
 conception flashed into his craving mind. 
 
 "Let us lure them on," he proposed to Perez, "tempt them with 
 the prospect of getting the rest of the treasure also. You and Gassol 
 must pretend to fly and draw the others after you, and I in the swift 
 boat will play the lame duck with Corcovedo and then fall upon him 
 by surprise and capture him." 
 
 " They will see through the trick," rejoined Perez : " they won't be 
 taken in by it." 
 
 He gave in his adhesion, however, to a plan of which he disap 
 proved, and prepared to carry out his part in it with a kind of gloomy 
 cheerfulness. He was right in his predictions. Corcovedo, flushed 
 with victory, was in fact drawn after them by the surprising spectacle 
 of the much weaker party awkwardly coming out as if to attack him. 
 He baffled them by keeping his small flotilla well together, however, 
 and then they had really to fly. 
 
 At nightfall, wholly discomfited, they reached the landing-place 
 from which they were to start for Rio Frio. 
 
 But under cover of the dark night Walter made one last desperate
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 95 
 
 unheard-of attempt. With a picked crew, who could hardly have 
 known how mad their enterprise was, and rowing with muffled oars, 
 he pulled away and found Corcovedo's bateau at some distance from 
 the others. He fell upon it with such valor and fury, born of his 
 despair, that nothing could stand before him. In the uncertainty as to 
 whom it was they had to deal with, the other boats fell into a panic 
 and were unable to render any assistance. Don Walter, scarcely able 
 himself to credit so great a good fortune, found himself once more 
 the master of all his treasures, together with the prisoners who had 
 been taken. No wild, unreasonable enterprise was ever crowned with 
 happier success. 
 
 Sefior Corcovedo unless drowned in the attempt had escaped to 
 one of the remaining craft. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE LAST CAMPAIGN, AND EMBARKATION. 
 
 THE tragic hostility drawn out by Don Walter's expedition had 
 precipitated the revolution. The hour had struck at Rio Frio, the 
 pronunciamiento had been issued, and the populace had ranged them 
 selves for the struggle. It was an extraordinary proof of friendship 
 for Walter on Perez's part to have absented himself from affairs of the 
 greatest moment at such a time, but he was found with his hands trebly 
 full to compensate for it. 
 
 " I had hoped to accompany you part of the way," he said, " but 
 that will now be impossible. There is not, however, the least need of 
 it. You have developed the true military instinct : it is you who 
 ought to lead, and I to follow." 
 
 He had in his head an idea of a sort of Pratorian guard, of for 
 eigners, Kaufmann's force might be the nucleus of it, which should 
 support the Liberator when he was fairly established, to serve as a solid 
 alliance against the instability of his own countrymen, and he proposed 
 to Walter a high command in it. 
 
 " No, no," responded the younger man : " all that I have done has 
 been only a desperate sort of invention inspired by my necessities. It 
 is not likely I could repeat it in any other cause. I should have no 
 stomach for military life as a profession." 
 
 " Well, well, everybody to his taste." 
 
 The arrangements with Captain Carvajal had been successfully 
 made. It was expected that Carvajal himself would be met near 
 Puebla, and from there he would send with them an accredited agent 
 of his own to put them in possession of the vessel, to which a swift 
 messenger had already been despatched with orders. General del 
 Prado and his party had safely reached Rio Frio under the guidance 
 of Perez, and after but brief delay had continued on their journey. 
 Perez said that the General had shown himself much enraged at his 
 involuntary identification with the revolution. 
 
 " It was really a pretty good joke on the old fellow," he said, laugh-
 
 96 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 ing. " Oh, he was very abusive and insulting about it. He was even 
 disposed to refuse the safe-conduct I offered him. ' I will not join your 
 cause; I am not of you; I want nothing to do with it/ he cried. 
 ' Join whom or what you please/ answered I, ' but at present this 
 young lady must meet her ambassador.' I think I should not have 
 stood it so well had there been no one but himself; but of course every 
 thing had to be put up with for the young lady's sake." 
 
 " And how were they likely to get on the rest of the way ?" 
 
 " First-rate : the road offered no danger then, though I should not 
 like to promise as much now." 
 
 Walter's cavalcade was semi-attached to the train of a large military 
 force moving towards the coast. It was surrounded with a peculiar 
 consideration through the efforts of Perez. It was supposed, somehow, 
 to be especially destined for the Liberator, whom the eyes of his par 
 tisans were every moment expecting in this part of the country. In 
 any annoying or tedious situation it was only necessary to cry brusquely, 
 " Arms for the General ! Supplies for the General !" to have room 
 promptly made for it and a commodious place opened to the front. 
 
 There were plenty of wild spirits in the command, however, upon 
 whom it was necessary to keep an ever-vigilant eye. They would have 
 been glad at any moment to plunder the haciendas along the way, but 
 such license must have resulted in disaster, and Walter repressed it with 
 prudent severity. A hot fire of revolution began to flame up around 
 the treasure-train as it proceeded. It had to be almost constantly in 
 line of battle, for there was no telling at what point the danger would 
 break out. Puebla had expelled its garrison and declared for the in 
 surrection ; Tlaxcala was in a state of siege ; and more or less successful 
 revolt was heard of all along the line as far as Orizaba and even Cordoba. 
 
 The lovely peak of Orizaba at length hove in sight, its snowy top 
 showing above a rugged mass of rosy red amid a fertile green landscape. 
 At the station of Esperanza Walter overtook most unexpected friends. 
 General del Prado had indeed got himself into trouble by his abusive 
 tongue. It appeared that the enterprising Captain Carvajal had em 
 ployed his leisure in a small operation on his own account. He had 
 seized the railway-train on one of its last downward trips, in spite of 
 a semi-agreement between the contending parties that it should be ex 
 empt from capture, and held the passengers for ransom. Most of them 
 were let go, but General del Prado and his party were held, the Gen 
 eral acting upon the theory that even the reticence of common prudence 
 in his talk would be construed as acquiescing in his apparent treachery. 
 
 It required but a word from Walter to Carvajal, in the peculiar 
 relation in which they now stood to each other, to have them released. 
 It was not yet too late : the American minister had not sailed, and they 
 were sent on to him with some apologies and a strong escort to Cordoba. 
 He was awaiting at that pleasant town, situated on high ground above 
 the dangerous heats of the Tierra Oaliente, the departure of the steamer. 
 
 Amy had again but a brief glimpse of Walter. She saw him, 
 resolute, martial-looking, leading his men, and was impressed to the 
 utmost with a sense of her own feebleness at the sight of that strong 
 masculine energy. Ever since they had parted in the garden she had
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 97 
 
 been thinking, thinking, thinking. Was she to go back to New York 
 and sum up, as the result of it all, simply that she had been kissed by 
 a handsome man in Mexico ? She tingled with shame and blushed with 
 pleasure at the same moment. 
 
 " Did he kiss me as men will kiss almost any silly girl who will 
 
 let them?" she demanded of herself, "or can I expect -expect 
 
 Surely he is too honorable to have treated me so, unless he meant to 
 express a tender affection." 
 
 As to Don Walter, a sort of sternness had settled upon him, as a 
 result of his incessant battles, labors, and hair-breadth 'scapes, and he 
 had at the moment little earnest thought for anything outside of his 
 project. So great were the difficulties that had risen all around him, 
 and so great those that might easily yet remain, that he thought it im 
 possible he should ever get out of the country with his gold. It was 
 like a presentiment. He knew he should be stopped, if even at the last 
 moment, and wrecked as it were in port. He only said, at parting, 
 "If anything should happen to me, if I should never come back " 
 but, seeing her face blanch, " What nonsense ! we shall meet very 
 soon in New York." 
 
 What real warrant had he for such uneasiness, now that he was so 
 near the coast ? The most definite one he could formulate was that his 
 men, finding he delivered no supplies and had no connection with any 
 real strategic movement, might at last divine the truth, and fall upon 
 him to despoil him of his treasure. What meant the evasive uncanny 
 look he thought he surprised sometimes in the eyes of Antonio Gassol ? 
 Treason had no part in the expedition thus far. Surely Gassol, the 
 trusty lieutenant and efficient helper, had not learned the secret and 
 begun to cherish thoughts of playing him false? 
 
 As to supplies, why should they not appear to be delivered on 
 shipboard, to be used in operations along the coast? He soon showed, 
 in fact, an order from the Liberator to this effect, procured for him by 
 the good offices of Perez and brought by a courier. This was offered 
 as his reason for separating from the expeditionary troops. These 
 latter were to bide awhile at Cordoba, to await the result of some 
 Machiavellian schemes which had for their object the opening of the 
 gates of Vera Cruz, which still adhered to the government. Naturally, 
 Walter could not enter Vera Cruz with them even if the bargain were 
 successful ; for what he carried was not of a sort to pass the eyes of the 
 custom-house officers, and one set of custom-house officers was certain 
 to be succeeded by another. 
 
 The mule-bells of his winding train tinkled through dark tropical 
 forests that inspired reflection and awe, amid plantations of coffee and 
 pineapple, beneath rich parasitic growths of orchid and bromelia, and 
 post-hamlets, with monumental decayed churches, where Indian women 
 with trays of fruit on their heads, ignorant of the wars, gave them 
 smiling greeting. The second day after separating from the troops, 
 they came to a small river, which they crossed by means of a basket 
 suspended on a raw-hide cable, the animals swimming. Farther up 
 could be seen an ingenious boldly-arched foot-bridge made of grape 
 vines swung from tree to tree. At this place they heard some heavy 
 VOL. XLII.-7
 
 98 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 cannon-shots from the direction of Vera Cruz, to the northward of 
 which they had taken their course. They at first thought the city 
 might have been attacked ; but the firing was of too short duration. 
 
 Antonio Gassol acted in an odd way at the river, seeming, in Wal 
 ter's nervous fancy, to keep back on the rearward bank with a number 
 of the laden mules, while all the rest went forward. The young com 
 mander felt that his suspicions were highly unjust, but broke up, not 
 withstanding, any possible project of this kind. He was also warned 
 by the agent of Carvajal of some peculiar doings ; and he happened 
 upon Gassol in a little group of men conferring earnestly, who slunk 
 away at sight of him almost as if detected in something guilty. They 
 seemed to be chiefly those who had been held as prisoners at Lake 
 Jornada, and who might thus have discovered the real contents of the 
 bags : yet, if they had done so, why had there been no evidence of it 
 before ? After this, his nervous dread grew upon him, and he surprised 
 himself repeating the motto, " If it be now, 'tis not to come ; if it be 
 not now, yet it will come." But there was nothing he could do, save 
 to redouble his circumspection and diligence, and he endeavored to con 
 duct himself in all respects just as usual. 
 
 He sent Carvajal's lieutenant and two of his own men to look out 
 for the schooner and if possible have her in readiness against his arrival. 
 Pray heaven there had been no " norther" to blow her off the coast, he 
 murmured. By great good fortune, they found her. The lieutenant 
 boarded her, and came ashore again with some of the sailors, and the 
 men returned to say that she was standing off and on along the shore, 
 ready to respond to their wishes. 
 
 That night, which was to be his final one in Mexico, he retired late. 
 He could have slept but a little while it seemed to him, so full of 
 cares was he, that he had not slept at all when he was suddenly 
 awakened by the loud, discordant cry of a macaw in the branches over 
 his head. 
 
 There were shadowy forms of men lurking in the background, and 
 Antonio Gassol had been standing beside him with a machete, ready to 
 strike. 
 
 Don Walter had set up his camp-bed under a hastily-formed shelter 
 of branches, near the piled-up treasure, and in close proximity were 
 some of the sailors from the schooner. He had never anticipated any 
 personal harm, but only at most that some of the animals might be 
 run off with their precious burdens ; but now he woke to confront bold 
 murder. 
 
 The sudden cry of the macaw, as if a providential note of inter 
 position, had unsteadied the hand of the assassin for an instant, and in 
 this brief instant again Walter found his opportunity. Catching the 
 central support of his cot, already somewhat rickety from hard cam 
 paigning, he brought the whole to the ground, throwing himself with 
 all his force at the same time to the outer side. The blow had therefore 
 to descend a much longer distance than calculated, and so miscarried. 
 A second blow was resisted by muffling blankets, and resulted only in 
 a flesh-wound on his shoulder, and before a third could be aimed 
 Walter was on his feet with his revolver in his hand.
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 99 
 
 The would-be assassin escaped the shot, and ran through the camp, 
 rallying, his compatriots after him, and all fled together to the deeper 
 heart of the woods. They were but a small minority of the force, the 
 ringleaders having counted on winning over the rest after the first 
 blows had been successfully struck and the advantage was apparent. 
 The flight of Gassol would have ended the whole nefarious attenlpt, but 
 that he was to receive aid from a most unexpected quarter. 
 
 What it was can best be explained by returning briefly to the for 
 tunes of Amy Colebrook. She entered "Vera Cruz just as the plot for 
 its betrayal had broken out in some active manifestations among the 
 lower class. This plot was to fail, however, through lacking the co 
 operation of the time-battered fortress of San Juan de Ulloa. The 
 garrison, on their isolated rock in the roadstead, a mile or two from 
 shore, mutinied according to the plan, but their eiforts were baffled by the 
 intrepidity of a single person, their commanding officer. He loaded a 
 cannon with grape and discharged it into their ranks as they advanced 
 upon him. Again and again they moved forward, but still he fired 
 with telling effect. Then, disheartened at their losses, and unwilling to 
 delay further, they took numerous boats lying at the landing-place, and 
 pulled off to aid their friends in the town. 
 
 But the government adherents had gained courage from this apparent 
 rebuff to deal vigorously with the revolt around them. They were 
 ready drawn up in force at the edge of the quay, and received the boats 
 with a destructive fire. Some begged for quarter, and were taken, 
 others foundered outright, and a few of those in the rear made off to 
 the northward and succeeded in landing on the shore. As Amy's 
 steamer sailed out of port, the fusillade of this combat was her last view 
 of that country so blessed by the bounty of nature, but marred by the 
 perversity of man. 
 
 The mutineers from the boats took to the woods ; there, after a 
 brief season of wandering, they encountered the band of Gassol, who, 
 having happily made their acquaintance without coming to blows, pro 
 posed to them a new affair. Unscrupulous runagates as they were, 
 they were readily taken by the promise it afforded. 
 
 It was very early in the morning. Don Walter, feeling it impolitic 
 to give his men too much time for reflection, had summoned them to 
 begin loading the boats even before the last stars had paled from the 
 sky. A little creek afforded a favorable point of embarkation and 
 shelter for the boats. At dawn all hands were actively engaged at 
 work, watched over only by a small guard. In this supreme moment 
 of deliverance arose perhaps a more imminent peril than any that had 
 yet been encountered. The confederates burst from the woods in 
 superior force and charged with shouts that inspired dismay. 
 
 By what beneficent happening was it, however, that a small body 
 of sailors, who had ascended the creek to recover a boat that had drifted 
 a little way up with the tide, were just then on their return ? They 
 were in the thicket in such a way that it was possible for them to take 
 the assailants at close quarters in both flank and rear. Their numbers 
 were magnified by their concealment. Their wholly unexpected fire 
 staggered the marauding ranks and stopped their progress. The men
 
 100 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 at the boats re-formed behind trees, the mules, anything and everything 
 that afforded a semblance of shelter, and the tables were quickly turned ; 
 the fierce assailants were scattered right and left, and forced to fly in 
 wild confusion, leaving a large number of slain upon the ground. 
 
 Don Walter's heart sickened within him at the sight of dead bodies 
 once more. Here lay many of those who had fought bravely for him 
 at Huetongo, at the Barranca, and at the Lake. There lay, riddled 
 with balls, the disfigured corse of Antonio Gassol. He could not but 
 think that this man, of a good natural disposition, had meant to be all 
 that was faithful and honest in his mission, but he had fluttered like a 
 moth into the candle, and succumbed to a temptation beyond the 
 strength of his weak, human nature ; this fatal gold had drawn him on 
 to madness and crime. For him, truly might the old tradition of ill 
 luck in the Yellow Snake have been deemed verified. 
 
 There was no occasion now for further delay. The glorious light 
 of rosy morning filled the sky and flushed the sea that lay like a floor 
 beneath it, giving to the latter tender tints of pink and green ; and 
 amid all these opalescent hues glowed the milky-white sails of the 
 schooner, gently swelled with a favoring breeze. 
 
 The violence of the winds and waves was yet to be encountered, it 
 is true, but these were of little moment compared to the malevolence of 
 men. 
 
 For wellnigh a month he was tossed hither and yon, was beset by 
 all the obstacles by which winged craft, at the mercy of the great deep, 
 may be detained. Then, at last, he sailed up the long, beautiful bay, 
 between the minor cities on either hand, joined the illimitable perspec 
 tive of masts, and was at New York. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 " GOLD IN THE BAB IS THE STILLNESS OF DEATH ; MINTED GOLD IS LIFE." 
 
 NEW YORK, after unmeasured trial and tribulation ! New York, 
 practically for the first time. 
 
 The tall buildings of lower Broadway, with their fantastic sky 
 lines, suggested again his Barranca of Cimarron. He recognized al 
 most at once the gilded letters that spelled out the name of the bank 
 of which his father had been president, and which had been the prin 
 cipal scene of the disgrace. Who that did not know could have con 
 ceived any connection between this edifice amid the thick bustle of the 
 great thoroughfare of the metropolis, with its ornate fa9ade, its polished 
 mahogany and plate-glass, and its affable officials behind the counters, 
 who had done business ever since, no doubt, upon strictly honest prin 
 ciples, and the dark, half-ruined house at Resales where his youth 
 had been passed ? His father had kept none of the embezzled funds 
 for himself, it is true, but this, though often weakly urged by some as 
 a palliation, was none to Walter. His rigid ideas of integrity told him 
 that the money had gone in reckless speculations, of which others had 
 had to take all the risks. Walter had first seen the name of the bank 
 on some random old check-blank at Resales, found in a worm-eaten
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 101 
 
 cabinet that might almost have come down from the time of the Flood. 
 A slight memorandum, retained from among his father's papers, had 
 long been his constant companion. It had served as a sort of fetich 
 and stimulus, too, in his labors, and now furnished an indication where 
 to begin his work of restitution. He secured eminent counsel, and the 
 survivors and heirs of survivors of " the Great Ridgefield Defalcation" 
 of years long gone by soon began to hear of legal measures, and to 
 receive queries that set many hearts beating with hope and pleasure. 
 
 Walter's wound in the shoulder had been aggravated by the voyage, 
 but he allowed neither this suffering nor any other diversion to draw 
 him away from his main object till every necessary step had been taken. 
 The gold was conveyed from the hold of the schooner to the United 
 States Assay-Office. The rude smelting it had received would not do 
 for its final state, and it had to be subjected anew to treatment. Pend 
 ing this, however, certificates to a large amount of its value were issued, 
 which could be used in the negotiations. At length, when every pos 
 sible preliminary had been attended to, then, and then only, he suc 
 cumbed to illness beyond his strength to resist. He would have had 
 himself taken to a hospital, but the head of the law firm to which he 
 had committed his affairs would by no means listen to this. He was 
 impressed with admiration by a magnanimity far beyond that met with 
 in the ordinary range of practice, and conveyed him to his own home 
 instead, where, during a short but dangerous illness that followed, he 
 was his only friend. 
 
 Walter Arroyo, now Ridgefield, seemed to make it a sad sort of 
 luxury to keep away from Amy. He let her know of his arrival and 
 of his safety, but nothing further. She was there in the same city, and 
 he might go to her at any moment. If he went, it would be but for 
 one purpose ; and he did not wish to go till the money had been paid 
 back to her family. But if he proposed to her now, would it not be 
 exacting an unmanly advantage through some natural sense of obli 
 gation on her part? Surely his fancy was a little overwrought and 
 morbid. He doubted whether the disgrace could ever really be got rid 
 of, whether the name could ever be cleared of the stigma so long at 
 tached to it. 
 
 Then, too, one day he was greeted by a staggering blow : the entire 
 sum he had brought had been used up in the payment of the debt. 
 He seemed to have made some sort of miscalculation : he was apprized 
 from the mint that a considerable portion of the metal had fallen below 
 the standard roughly fixed upon it in his estimate. As a consequence, 
 instead of having a liberal sum left to draw upon, after all the obliga 
 tions were met, nothing would remain for himself. He proceeded at 
 once to find a more modest abode, and took steps to procure employ 
 ment in his profession as an engineer. 
 
 Nevertheless, for all his holding back, and for all his juggling with 
 the dearest passion of his heart, he meant to see Amy, and was counting 
 the very seconds till the moment arrived. An article appeared in one 
 of the more temperate and dignified of the newspapers, giving some 
 account of the whole affair. It was founded upon a statement by his 
 counsel. That gentleman had only been kept from giving it to the
 
 102 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 press hitherto by his" express prohibition, but now at last he boldly 
 disregarded this. 
 
 " I hold myself responsible," he said, warmly. " I have done it, 
 perhaps, even at the risk of a violation of confidence. Have you not 
 been defeating your own end by the unostentatious course you have 
 adopted, and by the obscurity in which you have chosen to shroud the 
 source of the reimbursement even from all those who have enjoyed its 
 benefits ? The atonement ought to have as much publicity as the 
 original scandal." 
 
 " But the terrible publicity of it," objected the young man, though 
 he was more than half convinced that the other was right. 
 
 " Oh, these things very soon pass over, and just leave a good general 
 effect behind," responded the lawyer, reassuringly. 
 
 " Those of our citizens who have reached middle life," said the 
 newspaper in question, " will still recall the startling effect upon this 
 community produced by the failure and flight of the late Randolph 
 Ridgefield. The magnitude of the interests involved made it the most 
 notable event of the kind in financial history, and it is doubtful if it 
 has ever been surpassed, even with our larger way of doing things in 
 these times. The unfortunate Randolph Ridgefield died in pov 
 erty in Mexico. His son, Walter Ridgefield, Esq., a young man of 
 great ability and force of character, has meantime, by his own un 
 aided industry, acquired a large fortune in that country. He lately 
 arrived here, and, we learn upon the best authority, has devoted not a 
 part only, but the whole of it, to making good the losses occasioned by 
 the transactions of his father. He has even employed the services of 
 expert detectives to find out remote and obscure heirs, to be reached in 
 no other way, that not the smallest fraction of the debt might remain 
 uncancelled. Within the past few days most of the money has been 
 paid out over the counters of the Excelsior Bank, where it was depos 
 ited with a peculiar fitness, as Randolph Ridgefield was at the head of 
 this institution at the time of the disaster. Several touching and pleas 
 ant incidents are reported in connection with the settlement of these 
 ancient claims. Perhaps the most interesting of all will prove to be the 
 repayment of the numerous depositors of the old Ridgefield Savings- 
 Bank, the incidental collapse of which was one of the most painful 
 features of the disaster. We may easily imagine the elation of the 
 humble class of persons whose little all was swept away on that occa 
 sion to find their hard dollars restored to them. Many, no doubt, will 
 find themselves raised from poverty and distress to comparative affluence. 
 
 " When we consider the great lapse of time, the absence of any legal 
 responsibility on the part of the giver, and the vastness of the sum, a 
 step of this kind cannot but arouse our warmest admiration. No com 
 pleted evil can ever be wholly repaired, it is true ; but rarely can there 
 have been so near an approach to entire reparation as that we chronicle 
 to-day. The proceeding will no doubt seem quixotic to that interesting 
 class of our fellow-citizens who have betaken themselves just across the 
 northern frontier and bid fair by their numbers and wealth to found 
 there a new aristocracy based upon spoliation like that of mediaeval 
 barons, but we are free to confess that, in our view, no more generous
 
 THE FELLOW SNAKE. 103 
 
 action, and none more calculated to have an invigorating effect upon too 
 lax notions of commercial morality, has been performed in our times." 
 
 The day after this, there arrived for Walter, through his banker, a 
 note from Amy, saying, 
 
 " Was it you, then ? It seems too incredible. Will you not come, 
 if only for a moment, to let me thank you for your great kindness ?" 
 
 Then finally Walter went to the Bella Vista Flats, near the Park. 
 The Bella Vista had on a small scale many of the external adornments 
 of more costly and ambitious flats, with none of their conveniences. 
 Its rooms were small and many of them dark, the Colebrooks were 
 high indeed in the air, and there was no elevator. Their rooms, too, 
 showed some disorder. 
 
 "Do not look at anything," protested Amy. "We are moving 
 already. We have danced, wept, and prayed with joy 'and gratitude 
 over our good fortune, and are getting ready to reap the benefit of it 
 without an instant's further loss of time." 
 
 Don Walter met her mother, and her younger sisters and an older 
 one also, with all of whom he was well pleased, while they were in 
 clined to look upon him as if he were a god but very thinly disguised, 
 instead of a common mortal. He met, too, her friend Emily Win 
 chester, the " Dear Emily" of the letters from Mexico, and the one 
 who had charged herself with re-mailing his letters when he had pre 
 tended to be in New York. She also was rather pretty in her dark 
 type, forming a considerable contrast to that of Amy. She went away 
 very shortly, leaving behind for Amy an ever-so-slightly-meaning 
 smile, at which the latter blushed very deeply, though there was no 
 chance that Walter could have seen it. 
 
 He found it a little difficult to conceive of Amy apart from the 
 bloom, the fragrance, the stately terraces and plashing fountains of Las 
 Delicias, with which she seemed to be thoroughly identified : still, there 
 was a new charm of domesticity about her in these surroundings. 
 
 " What a delight it is to me to see you again !" he exclaimed, with 
 unavoidable enthusiasm, and taking her hand warmly. " Will you let 
 me tell you how beautiful you are ?" 
 
 " If you can be so wholly reckless of the truth." 
 
 " We have been through so much together, it seems as if we ought 
 never to part again. How many other girls would have done for me 
 all that you have done ?" 
 
 " Some millions, I suppose." 
 
 " No, no ; not one." 
 
 " But what is this dreadful story I hear about your having nothing 
 left for yourself?" 
 
 " It is true. With the shrinkage at the Mint, the extraordinary ex 
 penses, the portion still left behind at Lake Jornada, and the smaller 
 portion that in spite of us fell into the hands of the enemy, all is gone. 
 The surplus I had counted upon has disappeared." 
 
 " No, no ! I will not have it so ! it is a shame !" protested Amy, 
 indignantly. " I cannot answer even for the rest of the Colebrook 
 family, who may be inclined to selfishness, though they shall hear 
 from me at once, but do you think I, who saw your hardships and
 
 104 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 
 
 your bravery, will take my share while you are in want ? No, indeed : 
 so much at least still remains to you." 
 
 " It is no more than I might have expected from your generous 
 heart, but I assure you honestly I do not miss the gold ; I never really 
 felt that it was mine, and when I think of all the blood and suffering 
 that rest upon it, I am very certain I shall be better off without it." 
 
 " Such unselfishness is not quite in human nature. Take care ! I 
 do not like people who are too unselfish ; they are apt to die young. If 
 you are not moderately human, I shall not approve of you." 
 
 " Of course, if I had known how it was coming out, I might have 
 made some different arrangement, perhaps have paid only a part of 
 the interest ; but what is done is done, and I am. not sorry." 
 
 " No, it is too wicked. I will not have it so." 
 
 " You see, I come here and talk of my woes, in spite of the obvious 
 suggestiveness of the thing," pursued Walter, smiling. "There is 
 just one way that occurs to me : we might share it, if you were willing." 
 
 His hearer colored again most deeply, this time with the best of 
 reason. 
 
 " After all, I do not feel poor," he continued, hopefully. " I shall 
 be ridden by no more nightmare, I am a free man, I begin the world 
 on even terms. If you thought well of the name of Ridgefield, now, I 
 would like to say I would like to tell you how very dearly I love 
 you. Had you ever suspected it might be so ?" 
 
 The tangles of her bright hair drifted against his temples, and her 
 soft cheek rested, as once before, against his bronzed one that had known 
 so many hardships. 
 
 " When you kissed me in Mexico, I felt I hoped you were fond 
 of me. But you tried me terribly, do you know ?" 
 
 " Yes, yes, I must have done so. How can you forgive me ?" 
 
 Letters came to them from Mexico. The good aunts Arroyo wrote 
 to Walter, " You will have a sweet bride ; we remember her very well : 
 you are fortunate in your marriage, and when peace is declared for 
 come some time it will you must bring her here to see us, child of our 
 hearts." 
 
 They wrote that the country was still torn by bitter strife, and 
 neither of the great parties seemed strong enough to put the other 
 down. The star of Captain Perez, they said, their tone about him 
 was not disrespectful now, was in the ascendant. He had risen more 
 and more to prominence in the Liberator's forces, till he might be 
 ranked as next in authority to the commander himself. The Jefe 
 Politico had been killed in a skirmish near the Barranca of Cimarron, 
 over which district Perez had still maintained some supervision. The 
 story recalled the fate of the ancient King William Rufus in the New 
 Forest: his body had been found in the woods by a charcoal-burner. 
 Walter fancied he divined the reason of the Jefe's presence there, and 
 he breathed freer henceforth at the thought that this eager spirit was no 
 longer to be feared as a prowler among the caves of the treasure. 
 
 Not long after their wedding-day there came a letter from Dofia 
 Beatriz, forwarded by an intermediary. She was dead. And her end, 
 according to the report of Sister Praxedis, had been very peaceful and
 
 THE YELLOW SNAKE. 105 
 
 edifying. The Sefioritas Arroyo also wrote about her death, saying, 
 " She was regardless of her health in the practice of her strict devotions. 
 She fell ill just about the time the news of your marriage came." 
 
 Amy's eyes were moist with tears as she in her turn read this letter. 
 It was the brief last message of one feeling that death was near. " I 
 was not strong enough to withstand the temptations of this world," it 
 read, " and in leaving it I have but one regret, that I may have been 
 a stumbling-block and an evil influence in your path. If God in his 
 infinite goodness should ever pardon my great transgression, I would 
 pray that my happiness in heaven might be to hover over you with the 
 warmth of a pure and hallowed aifection, free from desire that you 
 should ever know or return it, and to guard you from some pain or 
 trouble that might otherwise come to you." 
 
 It read like a strain of mournful music. It was a cry of hapless 
 love that had been its own destruction, an appeal to that life beyond 
 where all the baffled hopes of this world may yet be made good. 
 
 " She loved you more than I," murmured Amy, sadly. 
 
 In time there came news that the political sky was brightening. It 
 began to appear probable that the treasure-beds in the Barranca of 
 Cimarron and the gold buried on the shore of Lake Jornada might 
 yet once again be reached. 
 
 THE END.
 
 106 
 
 MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ADVENTURESS. 
 
 MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ADVENTURESS. 
 
 I HAVE no suspicion that I ever have been called an Adventuress. 
 I think no insult would hurt me more. 
 
 Yet what more am I, when every act of my life is a venture? 
 What else am I, when adventure or misadventure form the whole 
 ensemble of my existence ? 
 
 Is it not an adventure when I start out upon every journey I ever 
 take, not knowing in the least how I am ever to get back again, 
 usually not knowing even how I am to be fed or where lodged when 
 I reach that journey's end ? Is it not venturesome and adventurous 
 that I never send a dress to a dress-maker with any certainty that I can 
 ever take it away again, or that it does not thus join the others I 
 have already been obliged to resign because of not having the money, 
 after buying them, to pay for their making ? Is it not the life of an 
 adventuress to be always uncertain whether Saturday night will find 
 me a free woman or the cowering slave of my landlady's frown ? Is 
 it not the life of an adventuress incessantly to rob all Peters to pay all 
 Pauls, and vice versat to refresh the skirt of 1884 with that of 1885, 
 adding to them the bodice of 1886, rejuvenated with sleeves of 1887, 
 and fresh trimmings of the present Year of Our Lord, pretending to 
 the world that all is a synchronous creation fresh from the modiste f 
 Is it not an adventuress habit to wear boots in odds, ditto gloves, in 
 societies that would shudder at the thought of such a thing ? to sit in 
 cog, in the highest seats of the theatre and lie in under-water berths of 
 steamers ? to wiggle and twist and writhe and crawl among all hard 
 necessities, and yet to cheat the world into the idea that life is a merry 
 affair and that I never had a mortification or a deprivation since I came 
 into it? 
 
 The ordinary adventuress adventures to gain by others' loss. An 
 extraordinary adventuress, such as I am, adventures to benefit herself 
 in spite of fate and to nobody's loss save the waste of prophecy to the 
 knowing ones who declare she will yet come to grief. 
 
 Like more ordinary adventuresses, I live beyond my means. I 
 board in a stylish house upon Murray Hill, when a woman of less ad 
 venturous mind would grovel in Tenth Street or Washington Square. 
 I always pay my board by hook or by crook, but when I ever pay it 
 promptly two weeks in succession my sense of superior virtue becomes 
 insufferable to myself. I always inform my landlady that it is abso 
 lutely impossible for me to meet my engagements regularly : if she 
 cannot take me upon such grounds I must look elsewhere for one who 
 can. Naturally my choice of pensions becomes thus more restricted than 
 it would be were I not an adventuress. Frequently I am compelled to 
 remain in, or return to, a house objectionable to me. Sometimes I have 
 been obliged to dismiss myself gracefully from charming quarters be 
 cause the presiding genius was as impecunious as myself, or more im 
 patient. Yet I never in my life left a house in debt, and never failed to
 
 MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ADVENTURESS. 1Q7 
 
 pay a debt in time ! I subsist by the scanty and precarious earnings of 
 my pen. It is a fairly facile and clever pen, and an industrious one. But 
 no striking ability guides it : hence I have never been able to distinguish 
 myself above the common herd of penny-a-liners, who live with diffi 
 culty from hand to mouth, yet have not even the choice offered them 
 whether to live or not. Perhaps I might live an easier life did I take 
 it upon a lower altitude than Murray Hill. Mais que voulez-vous ? I 
 lived here before I became an adventuress : all my acquaintances live 
 here; my married sisters live here, and my celebrated brothers, all 
 likewise more or less, in the adventuring line. Were I to go lower 
 down I should feel myself a failure, a broken-down rather than a suc 
 cessful adventuress, and in my dull lexicon of elderly youth is no such 
 word as fail. I am by no means a brilliant adventuress. I am more 
 fond of dressing-gowns than of ball-dresses, of solitude than of society, 
 of books than of men. I am not trying to catch a husband, and I 
 never cared to have a fortune. The most golden of my ambitions is to 
 have money enough to be freed from this demnition grind of ink, to 
 have leisure to read without a taunting demon at my ear, and to be 
 always sure of my car-fare when I am miles away from Murray Hill ! 
 I should not, of course, be willing then to wear a bonnet crouching 
 upon my forehead when other bonnets soar aloft, but neither am I now ; 
 and I should then, as now, wear mismated gloves and boots most un 
 willingly, but doubtless then, as now, sustained and soothed by an un 
 faltering trust that nobody finds them out ! 
 
 Sometimes- I go to a party or ball. Then surely it would wring 
 any other than an adventuring heart to know to what straits I am put. 
 It is no uncommon occurrence for me to wash out my one lace- trimmed 
 and trained petticoat in the basin with running water in my dressing- 
 closet, and to wear it without ironing, rough-dried in my tiny room. 
 My faded slippers are refreshed by polish, my gloves chalked or inked, 
 my dress is the concrete fusion of a dozen abstract remnants, my ruches 
 and ribbons the price of more anxious thought than a review of Pos- 
 nett's "Comparative Literature." I often wonder, when I am dressed 
 and said to present a stylish appearance, what the feminine verdict 
 would be upon me were I to die in that very rig. Would my mirac 
 ulously-darned silk stockings, my patch-work dress, and my rag-bag 
 laces gain me the praise of a suffering, toiling saint, or would I be 
 flouted as a dead fraud? 
 
 Once upon a time I was bidden to a marriage-feast. I had no 
 wedding-garments, only my ubiquitous black silk, with its protean 
 changes of lace, velvet, and nun's veiling. Besides, the invitation 
 reached me tardily, and gave no time for my usual preparatory 
 struggles. I had no dress, no gloves, no fichu, no trained petticoat, no 
 anything. I had even no money. In the morning my prospect of 
 going to that marriage-feast looked very like the school-master's defini 
 tion of nothing, a footless stocking without a leg! Only an adven 
 turess under my then conditions could adventure to be a wedding-guest 
 that night. I was a wedding-guest, and I wore an elegant white silk 
 trimmed with fleecy tulle. My trained petticoat was Chinesely laun- 
 dried, my gloves immaculate !
 
 108 MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ADVENTURESS. 
 
 How did I do it? 
 
 There was the family silver, of which a fifth came to my share. I 
 wore that ! 
 
 The way I wore it was to send it by one of my brothers to a certain 
 safe place. This safe place is distinguished by a sign of three golden 
 balls, 
 
 When my brother came home I found myself in sudden funds. I 
 took a portion of my funds to a costumer on Fifth Avenue. There I 
 saw a white silk, fleecy with tulle. 
 
 I conquered the scowling fate that strove to prevent my presence at 
 the bridal of one of the most brilliant, most famous, most wealthy, and 
 most Murray-Hilly of our contemporary novelists. 
 
 Yet let no one doubt that the way of the adventuress is hard. If 
 any one does, let that one realize how some of my book-reviews said to 
 be remarkably pungent and brilliant are written. More than once- 
 upon-a-time it has happened me to receive a package of books when 
 not a cent, not a scrap of paper, not even a postage-stamp, relieved the 
 howling wilderness of my impecuniosity. Before those reviews could " 
 be written I must, of course, have paper ! Before I could have paper 
 I must, of course, have money ! 
 
 Therefore nothing was left me to do but clap a portion of those books 
 under my arm and march off on foot into the far-off region of Wide- 
 way where Grace Church points discrepantly a lean finger unto celes 
 tial spheres. There is an enticing shop known to all, where yesterday's 
 novels and books of travel and biography grace to-day's shelves at 
 half last evening's cost. There I sold my books, as I had sold many 
 and many a book before, and, hailing a car, rumbled triumphantly 
 down-town to buy my wholesale paper. 
 
 Next morning I awoke with a glad first thought that there was 
 shot in the locker, that is, writing-paper and stamps on hand, then a 
 dampening second thought that those very books sold yesterday must be 
 reviewed to-day. If any one doubts the hardness of the adventuress's 
 lot, let that one picture me as I spent the most of that day, lunchless 
 and ready to drop with fatigue, devouring at the bookseller's stall the 
 identical books that only 'twenty-four hours before were my own. In 
 treading my thorny adventuress way I have had occasion many times 
 to smile bitterly as romance people do at the frequent irony of cir 
 cumstance. Sometimes I have business Battery-wards that must be 
 attended to, although without a cent. How often as I have tramped 
 wearily downward from Murray Hill through that Valley of Humilia 
 tion, lower Wideway, with smarting feet and tired limbs, some wretched 
 creature has approached me with winsome smile to say, " Ah, my pretty 
 lady, you have never known what it is to be foot-sore and weary ! Will 
 you not give a poor woman her car-fare home ?" 
 
 To my acquaintances of Murray Hill, perhaps the most shocking 
 of my adventures, did they ever know of them, is ray theatre-going. 
 I am passionately fond of the drama, and naturally of a class of 
 artists and plays caviare to the average gallery god. When I am in 
 vited to the theatre, as sometimes happens, I sit at my ease, as if I 
 never saw any other part of the house than the court end I then occupy.
 
 EXPERIENCE AS AN ADVENTURESS. 1Q9 
 
 But when I pay my own scot, behold a change. I take just thirty-five 
 cents from such meagre store as I chance to have, and with that go to 
 and fro in the cars, to and from the dusky back door of the theatre in 
 which my chosen Star is shining. Sometimes I sit among ladies of quite 
 as much if not more refinement than I possess, even although they may 
 come openly from studios on Fourteenth Street or dress-making rooms 
 on Ninth, while I skulk down from Murray Hill. Sometimes, again, 
 the real genius of the place, the peanut-eating gallery god, is my next 
 neighbor ; but in such theatres and at such plays as I choose I never 
 find the god more offensive in his own gallery than beside me in a 
 street-car. Once upon a time I remember that I sat through Booth's 
 Hamlet in a gallery seat, that night a fifty-cent one and therefore not 
 the cheapest in the house. Beside me sat a young couple, evidently 
 small shop-people, decent, orderly, and clean. On the other side were a 
 pair of lovers, perhaps a nurse-maid and her grocery swain. But just 
 behind me, at twenty-five cents a seat, loomed, like swollen suns in 
 dusky eclipse, two sumptuous, gorgeous, pompous fellow-citizens of 
 African descent ! Never till I saw these opulent creatures, gloved, 
 cologned, oiled, ribboned, and starched, did I realize that I had indeed 
 climbed from Murray Hill to a sphere known to proletarian speech as 
 Nigger Heaven ! It was not long, however, before I found that in 
 this case at least the vulgar appellation was misapplied, and the place 
 no heaven to my looming neighbors. Said Africana to Africano, with 
 a groan, 
 
 " I don't see why this Hamilton is cracked up so ! Wish we'd 
 gone to see Dixey !" 
 
 Not the least peculiar of my adventures have been in honest pursuit 
 of honest employment. Thus have I come to know by heart those sad 
 dull places opening off from brilliant streets, like caves from sunny 
 glades, where dingy thousands go to advertise their " "Wants." A 
 student of human nature in its depression could not do better than 
 stand awhile in one of the advertising offices of our great dailies, par 
 ticularly on Saturday in the offices of the journals which issue an im 
 mense Sunday edition. Although I was never in a pawnbroker's shop 
 in my life, these offices strongly remind me of descriptions of them. 
 Ragged men whom one would expect to see sweeping the streets turn 
 out their fifty cents or dollar all in coppers, and one strongly sus 
 pects they have begged cent by cent the money with which to let the 
 world know they are willing to work. Hard-looking women, sodden 
 with drink, fumble the price of their advertisements from unclean 
 bosoms ; even poverty-stricken children of ten or twelve transact busi 
 ness with the clerks, whether for themselves or others does not appear. 
 The general character of the comers and goers is of discouragement 
 and depression, and the serried ranks of their " wants" in the news 
 paper explain why. The comfortable housekeepers, the elegant ma 
 trons and substantial gentlemen who break that grim monotony now 
 and then seem quite as much out of place as they would under the 
 three golden balls, while the showy young women and dashing dudes 
 who enter are evidently there for joke or intrigue, Comedy and Farce 
 flouting the very face of Tragedy.
 
 HO MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ADVENTURESS. 
 
 At one time I advertised with my last dollar for a wife. I should 
 have advertised for a husband too had I dared, but previous adventures 
 in the advertising line had taught me to beware of exposing myself 
 even incognito to the chivalrous notice of our much over-praised 
 American men. 
 
 Once I advertised myself as seeking the place of governess to 
 children or companion to a lady. There was no possible invitation to 
 intrigue in the form of my advertisement, although I never dreamed 
 of avoiding such appearance, never even remembered that a great city 
 is full of harpies snuffing for corruption and scenting it everywhere. 
 Among the perfectly honorable and business-like answers to my adver 
 tisements, one or two came that made my very hair stand on end. One 
 invited me, in covertly insulting language, to come and care for his 
 children while his wife was in Europe if I was under twenty-one ! 
 A second was so appalling that I never read it through, and shudder to 
 this day that I ever read so much. None of my business-like answers 
 ever came to anything save one. A gentlemanly person called upon 
 me on Murray Hill. He was very talkative and agreeable, chatted of 
 theatres, churches, popular preachers, Greenwood Cemetery, ocean- 
 steamers, .summer-resorts, and new novels. There was nothing to 
 startle me in the visit, although I wondered continually why he did 
 not approach the real object of the interview. Just as I had made up 
 my mind that he probably was waiting for me to introduce it, he looked 
 at his watch, suddenly started up as if in consternation, saying, " I beg 
 ten thousand pardons, but I had quite forgotten my train. You will 
 allow me to write you upon the subject of your advertisement ?" and 
 was gone. A few days after, I received a letter from him, far away in 
 Illinois. He wrote that he had intended to have " some fun" during 
 his late visit to New York, and had answered " heaps" of advertise 
 ments in pursuit of that intention. " The minute I saw you, however, 
 I saw that ' fun' was not in your line ; but I found you so brilliant and 
 charming that I could not get away, although I sat upon pins and 
 needles during every instant of my call. I am a widower, thirty-seven, 
 
 with two children, an income of " and thus the letter ran on till it 
 
 came to the proposal of a correspondence, with a view to marriage ! 
 
 Of course I never replied to this letter. I afterwards found out 
 from friends in his own city that the man had given me his real name 
 and a truthful account of his circumstances, with one important ex 
 ception. Instead of being a widower, he was the divorced husband of 
 two wives, and had narrowly missed State prison as a bigamist. 
 
 I advertised for a wife in pursuit of my ordinary career as an ad 
 venturess, and adventured my last dollar to find material for a ten- 
 dollar article upon matrimonial advertisements. The folly, ignorance, 
 duplicity, and rank sin that were revealed in the hosts of answers were 
 a dark lesson in the science of human nature, and made me feel that 
 my nine dollars (deducting one for the advertisement) were greasily and 
 smuttily earned. 
 
 I have also advertised "Jingles," and to furnish clever rhymes 
 upon every possible subject, births, deaths, marriages, christenings, 
 and to wrap up the gist of an advertisement in dashingly brilliant
 
 DESIRE. 
 
 Ingoldsby form. I have made some money this way, but, upon the 
 whole, not enough to pay me for the wrath I feel whenever a coarse 
 theatrical photograph js sent me and I am desired to rhyme upon a 
 flaunting third-rate actress or an idiotic masher, or for the dread I 
 feel in opening every letter lest it be one to shame my womanhood. 
 
 This kind of an adventuress I have been for years, and I see no 
 end to my heavy way. Often when the years behind me seem so 
 ragged and mean, and the years before hide their faces, I feel I can 
 endure it no more, strive no longer to seem what I am not, to live 
 where I have no right, to impose upon all who look at me. I know 
 that half my neighbors on Murray Hill do exactly the same, all in 
 their different ways ; yet that knowledge smooths not a wrinkle from 
 my pillow. And how am I to help myself? Were I to descend into 
 Washington Square, I might board for one or two dollars less a week ; 
 but what would that mean, save perhaps fresher ribbons and connubial 
 boots less often divorced ? There would be the same struggles, the 
 same ambitions, the same underlying discontent ; for have not Philistia 
 and Bohemia adventuresses, as well as Belgravia, Mayfair, and Murray 
 Hill ? Do we escape our fate by changing our lodgings, or slip our 
 gyves by turning our hands ? Alas ! there is but one way of help for 
 me ; and I long for it night and day. 
 
 Unto you, ye editors, I pray, pay me more for my book-reviews, 
 and do not so often reject my manuscripts. 
 
 Z. 
 
 DESIRE. 
 
 IF I should call you beautiful, my sweet, 
 When you look up at me with those proud eyes 
 And part the rosy petals of your mouth 
 
 To drop me honeyed greeting, were it wise ? 
 Or would you turn a statue of surprise ? 
 
 If when that dainty jewelled hand of yours 
 
 To me for transient custody is lent, 
 I should rain kisses on it rapturously, 
 
 Would your own pulses leap in happy vent? 
 
 Or would you bid me vanish and repent ? 
 
 If when you sing, and send that liquid voice 
 Pouring into my soul like maddening wine, 
 
 I should bend down and clasp you to my heart, 
 Would those white arms in joy about me twine? 
 Or would you slay me with a scorn divine? 
 
 Either the music of desire must fling 
 
 One passionate ringing cadence on your ear, 
 
 To find a deep sweet echo in your heart, 
 
 Or, like the stricken swan on woodland mere, 
 Lift its wild notes in pain of parting near. 
 
 Ada Nichols Man,
 
 112 WITH GAUGE $ SWALLOW. 
 
 WITH GAUGE & SWALLOW* 
 
 VI. A BILL OF DISOOVEEY. 
 
 haven't found it?" 
 JL It was Mr. Swallow who asked the question as he ap 
 proached a long table which stood at one end of the main office. At 
 this table sat three clerks with their coats oft'. Two of them wore 
 paper caps. At one end stood a bright-eyed, slender girl, wearing a 
 brown duster with long sleeves fitting snugly at the wrists, which but 
 toned down in front and was belted at the waist. She held a dust- 
 brush which she wielded as a sceptre. Books and papers were heaped 
 before her, while a pencil stuck coquettishly among the dark clustering 
 curls on which was jauntily perched a paper cap of the same pattern as 
 those worn by Mr. Bronson and myself. Mr. Burrill sat opposite the 
 smiling mistress of ceremonies, a picture of busy contentment. Before 
 us were files of papers which we opened and examined one by one. 
 The office-boy went back and forth with his arms full of these, while 
 a couple of clerks were busy at the other end of the room taking them 
 from the cases, dusting the pigeon-holes, and replacing them. 
 
 Miss Winters was our new stenographer, who ran the type-writer 
 and took the bread out of the mouths of three or four able-bodied 
 clerks for a stipend shockingly insignificant in comparison even with the 
 moderate salary of an embryo lawyer. The " type-writer girl" was a 
 new institution then. The time had not yet come when one desiring 
 such a position found youth and beauty a disadvantage, and ours could 
 never have advertised among her qualifications " middle-aged and 
 plain." The room was full of dust, and had been full of laughter until 
 Mr. Swallow made his appearance. 
 
 " Haven't found it, I suppose ?" repeated the great advocate still 
 more irritably as he drew near the table. 
 
 " Not yet," answered Burrill, shaking his head deprecatingly. 
 
 The room was still enough now. The rustle of the papers as we 
 slipped them rapidly from hand to hand, and the sharp tapping with 
 which Miss Winters evened the ends upon the table preparatory to 
 tying them up, were the only sounds to be heard. 
 
 " You're not likely to, as long as you wear those fools' caps," the 
 Junior snarled, with a glance at our head-gear. I started to take mine 
 oft", but Bronson, who sat opposite me, drew down his brows and seemed 
 about to make an angry reply. 
 
 " There is so much dust," said Mr. Burrill, who was always the 
 washer when any part of the office developed a tendency to friction. 
 He turned away his head and coughed, as if to testify to the effect of 
 the annoying particles. Miss Winters was at that moment brushing 
 off some bundles the boy had brought. 
 
 * Copyright, 1888, by B. K. TOURGEB.
 
 WITH GAUGE SWALLOW. 113 
 
 " I don't see the use of such an infernal dust, and won't have this 
 masquerading," said Mr. Swallow, savagely. " This isn't a picnic." 
 
 " You wouldn't have us handle these old papers without dusting 
 them, or clean house without being dressed for it, would you ?" asked 
 Miss Winters, smilingly. 
 
 " Miss Winters," said the Junior, sternly, " you were employed to 
 write my letters and copy papers, not to get yourself up like a washer 
 woman for the entertainment of the office." 
 
 " But I had nothing to do," protested the girl, dropping the brush 
 and snatching off her cap. 
 
 " I could have found something better for you to do than flirting 
 with my clerks," said Mr. Swallow. He sometimes forgot the firm 
 when angry and used the singular number and the possessive case with 
 considerable emphasis. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Swallow !" The girl's great black eyes were turned on 
 him with a look of horror. 
 
 " It was my fault, sir," interposed Mr. Burrill, apologetically. 
 " You know we were short-handed, and and a woman is so deft 
 about such things, and I thought " 
 
 " You are old enough to have more sense, Burrill," snapped the 
 Junior. " Miss Winters, go to your desk. When I want you to run 
 the office I'll let you know. In the mean time you had better be look 
 ing out for another place." 
 
 The girl pressed her handkerchief to her face, still holding the 
 crushed paper cap in one hand. Sobbing and trembling, she rushed 
 across the office into Mr. Swallow's room. 
 
 " If you please, sir " said Burrill, rising to his feet. 
 
 " Don't talk to me," exclaimed the irate lawyer. " I want that 
 paper." 
 
 " You are taking a queer way to get it," said an unfamiliar voice 
 behind me. 
 
 I looked around, and saw that a quiet, brown-bearded fellow who 
 had been about the office a good deal of late had entered from Mr. 
 Gauge's room. The senior partner stood near him, his face wearing a 
 decidedly troubled look. 
 
 "Do you think you are going to run this office, sir?" asked the 
 Junior, hotly. 
 
 " I think," was the cool reply, " that I have as much interest as any 
 one in the document Gauge & Swallow have lost. I have watched the 
 search for the last two days, and that girl has been worth more than 
 any two men engaged in it." 
 
 There was a general murmur of approval. 
 
 " It was her common sense that suggested a method that certainly 
 promised success, if the paper is still in the office." He added the 
 last with a touch of doubt that was almost an imputation. 
 
 " Of course it's here," asserted Mr. Swallow. 
 
 "There is just one way of proving that," said the stranger, with a 
 shrug, as he sauntered back into Mr. Gauge's room. " You know what 
 a failure to find it before Monday means," he added, as he turned in the 
 door-way. 
 
 VOL. XLIL 8
 
 114 WITH GAUGE SWALLOW. 
 
 This was Friday, and this man was the special counsel of Dole's 
 heirs, whose claim for a million or more hung on the paper we were 
 searching for. 
 
 " Come, Swallow," said Mr. Gauge, approaching the Junior and 
 putting his hand soothingly upon his shoulder. " You are worried 
 almost to death, I know. So are we all. I don't wonder it annoyed 
 you to see the girl making things so lively. I was afraid there'd be 
 trouble when you hired her. A law-office isn't the place for a girl, 
 anyhow ; but her bright ways haven't hindered the search, and her 
 faculty of putting things in order has helped a good deal." 
 
 " That's so," assented Burrill. 
 
 " Wouldn't have got through one case, if it hadn't been for her," 
 grumbled the office-boy, who was hanging on the back of an office- 
 chair, chewing gum and scowling fiercely. 
 
 "I know it, Gauge," said Mr. Swallow, turning to his partner; 
 " but I'm so troubled about that paper. I believe I am half crazy. 
 If it's not found I can never hold up my head at the bar again." 
 
 " No," said Mr. Gauge, absently. 
 
 " Nor you either," flashed back his partner. " It's as likely to have 
 been your fault as mine." 
 
 " Don't talk about whose fault it is," answered Mr. Gauge, gravely. 
 " If it isn't found, neither of us will ever sign a brief again." 
 
 The two men stood looking into each other's eyes, seemingly twenty 
 years older than they had been three days before. It was a serious 
 moment for Gauge & Swallow. One of the most important papers ever 
 placed in the possession of a legal firm was lost. It was apparently only 
 an insignificant scrap, a paper executed at a mining-camp in a gorge of 
 the Rocky Mountains a dozen years before. It seemed hardly worth 
 preserving then, being a mere agreement to share what did not exist, 
 a grub-staking contract between three men, but now its possession 
 meant millions. A copy was not enough. One of the parties was 
 dead, and the struggle was between the survivors. Practically, the 
 whole world had been ransacked for evidence in the case. I said the 
 third party was dead : he was at least missing. The paper had been 
 executed in triplicate, each party keeping a copy. One of the men had 
 disappeared. No trace of him could be found after a few months sub 
 sequent to the date of the contract. Another was the father of the 
 claimant ; while the defendants claimed title through the third. There 
 was a suspicion that the grub-staker had put the third partner out of 
 the way ; but of this no proof could be adduced. Only the original 
 contract could sustain the claim of the parties Gauge & Swallow repre 
 sented. The case was set down for trial on Monday. It had been 
 staved off for a week on some pretext or other, that an exhaustive 
 search for the missing document might be made. 
 
 Papers are seldom lost in an office like ours. The Chinese rever 
 ence for a paper- writing is carried to its extreme limit by the legal prac 
 titioner. One of Gauge & Swallow's clerks would no more think of 
 destroying a scrap of paper with a name, date, or anything else scrib 
 bled on it than of cutting off his ears, unless he knew positively that 
 it was of no value. Of course, even with all possible precaution, valuable
 
 WITH GAUGE SWALLOW. 115 
 
 papers do sometimes get mislaid ; and when a paper is actually lost in 
 a lawyer's office, search for it is wellnigh hopeless. In nine cases out 
 of ten it has been slipped inside the wrong wrapper, folded into some 
 paper to which it is riot at all related, or hidden in some file just as far 
 away from where it belongs as the limit of the cases will allow. It is 
 possible it may have been shut up in a book, dropped through the bot 
 tom of a drawer, or fallen down the back of a case. Papers, especially 
 valuable ones, are adepts in the art of self-seclusion, and many a lawyer 
 attributes, not without reason, the bald spot upon his cranium or the 
 gray hairs that crown his brow to the inexpressible agony of a long and 
 anxious search for the hidden treasures of a client, who peacefully slum 
 bers meanwhile, unmindful of the perils that threaten his muniments. 
 Modern mechanical aids, such as files and indexes, do very much to 
 reduce the risk of loss, though when a mistake is made with one of 
 them it seems even more hopeless to attempt its discovery. A man 
 who seeks for a misplaced letter in an indexed file is almost certain to 
 anathematize the ingenuity that devised it. 
 
 In such cases the only thing to be done, if the paper is of value 
 enough to justify it, is to lock the doors, like a merchant taking account 
 of stock, and turn everything within the four walls inside out until the 
 lost document is found. Such occasions are very much what house- 
 cleaning is to the tidy home-keeper, except that dust is even more uni 
 versal and ill-temper more abundant. 
 
 Such a time we were having at Gauge & Swallow's. Our em 
 ployers, though very good men, were human, and consequently en 
 dowed with nerves. This was especially true of Mr. Swallow. Usu 
 ally the best-natured of men, he was on such occasions an unmitigated 
 terror. Seemingly a very careless man, he rarely lost a paper. His 
 desk might be covered a foot deep with unassorted and unrelated man 
 uscripts, but somehow he could always find what he wanted. He pos 
 sessed a singular kind of memory, wonderfully strong in some di 
 rections and equally deficient in others. He never quoted, could not 
 recite a solitary stanza of poetry, and was accustomed to say that he 
 could not remember the Lord's Prayer, an assertion one was inclined 
 at times to credit. On the other hand, he knew every paper he had 
 ever handled, and could pick it out from a heap of similarly- folded 
 ones without reading the endorsement, recalling at once the handwriting, 
 blots, scratches, and other distinguishing marks upon it. 
 
 Mr. Gauge, however, though the most orderly man in the world, 
 knew a paper only by its contents, had a poor memory for faces, never 
 knew where he last saw a thing or when or for what purpose he had 
 last used it. He put things in their places, or thought he did, and 
 the consequence was that when he failed to do so he could give no clue 
 to their location. It was almost always his papers that were lost, but, 
 as he always believed, through the carelessness of others, usually his 
 partner, whom he never failed to accuse of having lost them among the 
 pile of rubbish on his desk. At such times the mutual recriminations 
 between the partners would have been enjoyable enough to the clerks 
 had it not been for the fact that they were in constant fear they might 
 tire of accusing each other and both turn on their subordinates.
 
 WITH GAUGE $ SWALLOW. 
 
 Miss Winters had been in the office but a few months. Mr. Gauge 
 had opposed her employment: women were just beginning to hold such 
 positions then, and were not looked on with favor. Her skill and ac 
 curacy, as well as her beauty and lady-like demeanor, had appealed to 
 Mr. Swallow so strongly, however, that he had overborne his partner's 
 objection. Until the loss of this paper the clerks in the office had seen 
 very little of her. The partners had kept her busy. Up to this time 
 they had adhered to the old fashion of writing many important letters 
 themselves. With her advent all this was changed. They suddenly 
 found the type-writer exactly the thing for their correspondence, though 
 it was as yet only occasionally employed in the more formal business 
 of the office. Whenever the door of Mr. Swallow's room was open, 
 we either heard the drone of dictation or the click of the machine ; and 
 whenever we had occasion to go there and we went there as often 
 as we could devise excuse for doing so we were sure to see her sitting 
 opposite one of the partners, with her book upon her lap, with her 
 sharp-pointed pencil jotting down their words in queer hieroglyphs, or 
 else we heard the click of the keys from behind the screen by which 
 her desk was shielded from observation. 
 
 Everybody was irritated by Mr. Swallow's attack on the young lady. 
 Bronson always resented any reflection on what was done in the office, 
 for all the work of which he held himself responsible. As soon as he 
 had finished the file on which he was engaged, therefore, he shoved 
 back his chair and left the room. I knew from his look there was 
 going to be trouble. When he returned, he had washed, donned his 
 coat, and had his hat in his hand. 
 
 " Going out, Bronson ?" asked Mr. Swallow, as the chief clerk 
 passed him on his way to the door. 
 
 " Yes, sir, and shall not return until morning," was the positive 
 answer. 
 
 " You know how anxious we are about this paper," suggested Mr. 
 Swallow, in a tone that showed a desire to avoid difference. 
 
 " I have already been up nearly all of two nights," retorted Bron 
 son, " and, as you do not seem satisfied with what has been done, I am 
 going home to get a little sleep. You had better get a ' mind-reader' 
 or something of that sort to find the paper for you. We can't see 
 through the files, can only use common sense and system, and that 
 takes time. You had better stop us and put a mesmerist on the job." 
 
 This was a hit at Mr. Swallow, who was always talking about mes 
 merism and the relations of mind to matter as if he really thought man 
 kind had some sort of sixth sense which acted without relation to time 
 or space and was unaffected by sensible obstacles. I do not suppose he 
 believed a word of what he said, but he was fond of talking about such 
 things in the hours of pleasant relaxation following a hard-won triumph 
 in court, and was accustomed to attribute much of his success to a sort 
 of instinctive power to read the mind of an adversary or a witness. 
 Indeed, there were cases in which it seemed as if this faculty of his 
 actually bordered on the occult. Bronson's parting shot woke a smile 
 on the dolorous visage of Mr. Gauge, who could not resist an opportu 
 nity to touch his partner's well-known weakness.
 
 WITH GAUGE $ SWALLOW. 117 
 
 " That's an idea, now," he said, briskly, as Bronson clattered down 
 the stairs. " Why not employ a mesmerist or the seventh son of a 
 seventh son to tell us where it is ?" 
 
 " It wouldn't do," said Mr. Swallow, quickly. " You see, he 
 would have to trace it by the impression on your mind ; and a paper 
 never leaves impression enough on your memory for anybody to find a 
 trace of it an hour afterwards, let alone a year." 
 
 Both laughed, each at his own jest, no doubt. No matter ; the 
 laughter put us all once more at ease. 
 
 "I don't know as I blame Bronson for being mad," said Mr. 
 Swallow, "but this thing must be pushed. I'll tell you what, I'll 
 apologize to Miss Winters, and then we'll all go at it and examine 
 every scrap of paper in the office. I'll work to-night ; you can take 
 a turn to-morrow night ; we'll have lunches sent in, and offer a hun 
 dred dollars to the one who finds the paper, and five hundred more to 
 the office when it is found. How will that do, gentlemen ?" 
 
 " Me too ?" asked Tommy. 
 
 " Yes, you too, you little rascal, if you will give that chair a rest 
 and go to work." 
 
 Some of the other clerks had come in, and the proposal was greeted 
 with noisy approval as they took part again in the search. 
 
 " Mr. Swallow." 
 
 Everybody started. There, just behind the partners, was Miss 
 Winters. She had removed the duster she had worn while engaged in 
 the search, and her mourning gown, with its bit of lace at the throat, 
 gave her pale face a very pathetic look. She had lost her mother since 
 she had been in the office, and we all felt a good deal of sympathy for 
 her. Besides, I may as well confess that we were very proud of our 
 " pretty shop-mate," as we called her. Thus far Tom was the only one 
 who could boast of any show of partiality on her part. She had man 
 aged to transform the lad into an endurable presence, and in return he 
 had become her especial champion. 
 
 " Mr. Swallow," she repeated, eagerly. Then, seeing we were all 
 looking at her, she faltered and cast down her eyes. 
 
 "Miss Winters," said the Junior, turning towards her with that 
 winning courtesy which made every one forget that he had any less 
 pleasing qualities, " I beg your pardon for my rudeness. My anxiety 
 has made me little less than a brute, or I should have seen that instead 
 of blame you deserved commendation." 
 
 " I was anxious too," she said, " almost as anxious as you and Mr. 
 Gauge. You have been very kind to me, and I wanted to show that I 
 was worthy of consideration. Will you let me try again?" 
 
 " I was just coming to request you to resume your place." 
 
 Then we all cheered, and Tommy executed a hand-spring and gave 
 a whistle which made us jump as if a policeman had sprung his rattle 
 among us. 
 
 " Oh, I didn't mean that," the little lady said, smiling and blushing 
 with pleasure. 
 
 " Not that ? Have you another idea ?" asked Mr. Gauge, anxious 
 to promote the return of good feeling.
 
 118 WITH GAUGE $ SWALLOW. 
 
 " Yes, that is," said Miss Winters, hesitantly, " I used to to find 
 things." 
 
 "Find things?" 
 
 " Yes, sir, when I was a child, you know. What Mr. Bronson 
 said made me think of it. The other children used to hide things, and 
 I would hold their hands and make them tell me what they had hidden, 
 and presently I would tell them where it was. Sometimes the one I 
 talked to did not know where it was, and sometimes it would be hidden 
 where I had never been. When I grew older my mother made me 
 promise not to do this. I don't know as I could now ; but, if you 
 
 would like, I will try. That is, I would if " She paused in 
 
 evident embarrassment. 
 
 " If what ?" asked Mr. Gauge, sharply. " You heard the offer Mr. 
 Swallow made for the recovery of this paper, I suppose ?" 
 
 " Oh, it isn't that," she exclaimed, quickly. " I don't want the 
 money, only what I earn," she added, proudly ; " but sometimes, you 
 know " 
 
 " Well ?" said Mr. Gauge, suspiciously. 
 
 " Sometimes, you see," she said, stammering painfully, " when I do 
 that I I become unconscious. If there were some some other lady 
 here, I I Avould be glad to try." 
 
 " What do you think ?" asked the Senior, turning to Mr. Swallow. 
 
 " I don't know," answered Mr. Swallow. " Couldn't do any 
 harm." 
 
 " Unless it should get out," said Mr. Gauge, dubiously. 
 
 " Well, yes ; we'd get laughed at then." 
 
 " If we don't find the paper it doesn't matter how much we are 
 laughed at." 
 
 " That's so. But the lady : whom can we get ?" 
 
 " Mrs. Gauge is to call for me with the carriage at four. It must 
 be about that time now," consulting his watch. " Mr. Fountain, will 
 you go down and ask her to come up ?" 
 
 I reached the sidewalk just in time to escort up the stairs the gra 
 cious wife of the senior partner, and, taking advantage of my good 
 fortune, I waited to see what followed. 
 
 The situation was hastily explained to the lady. She looked sharply 
 at the flushed and trembling girl who sat near her, and said, laying a 
 hand familiarly on her wrist, 
 
 " Do you think you could find it, my dear ?" 
 
 " I don't know. I can try," was the timid answer. 
 
 " Why did your mother object to your doing such things ?" 
 
 " She thought it was not good for me. She said it shortened my 
 father's life." 
 
 "How do you do it?" 
 
 "I don't know." 
 
 " Is there anything supernatural about it ? like spiritualism, I 
 mean ?" 
 
 " I don't know anything about that. You see, I just think and 
 think, until it seems as if I would die ; and then, perhaps all at once, 
 I am in a large place away from everybody and myself too, only
 
 WITH GAUGE $ SWALLOW. H9 
 
 lean see oh, everywhere just everywhere! Sometimes I can see 
 what I want to find, but cannot tell where it is. Then again I can see 
 nothing distinctly." 
 
 " And after it is over ?" 
 
 " I am very tired, very tired," said the girl, simply. 
 
 " You do not think it would hurt you ?" 
 
 " Oh, I guess not," with a pathetic smile. 
 
 "Are you sure?" asked the strange gentleman, anxiously. 
 
 " I am willing to try," she answered, without looking up. 
 
 Well, the result was that it was decided to try the experiment. 
 The young lady was placed in a chair, tipped backward, with a cushion 
 beneath her head. She held Mrs. Gauge's hand, "just so I may feel 
 safe, you know," she said. Mr. Gauge and Mr. Swallow sat in front 
 of her. 
 
 " Now talk about it," she said. " Tell me just how it looked, what 
 was in it, and all you know about it." 
 
 She closed her eyes, and the partners talked about the lost paper. 
 Mr. Swallow described its appearance, Mr. Gauge recited its contents, 
 and they helped each other out with the story of its execution as they 
 had heard it from their clients and witnesses. For a while she sat 
 silent, holding the hand of Mrs. Gauge, who watched her with motherly 
 solicitude. The blue veins stood out upon her temples, and her eyes 
 seemed to shrink back into great dark caverns. Then her lips began 
 to twitch, her hands to tremble, and the one Mrs. Gauge held to clasp 
 convulsively. Her eyelids twitched curiously, too, from the middle 
 outward, it seemed. She had asked us all to think of the lost paper 
 and be certain to speak of nothing else. I knew nothing about the 
 paper, and, getting tired of thinking of nothing, I looked at her and 
 thought of her. Instinctively the partners stopped talking as they 
 noted these things. We all watched the delicate creature as she sank 
 into the trance-state with compassion, feeling that she was giving some 
 thing of her very life to testify her gratitude and devotion to her em 
 ployers. 
 
 Presently she began to moan, turning her head one way and the 
 other. Her brow was knotted into a frown of unmistakable suffer 
 ing. After a while she talked indistinctly and brokenly, shivering 
 from head to foot : 
 
 " How dark it is ! the mountains roar. Three men sit around a 
 box : one of them writes, two no, three papers. One is burned at 
 the corner ; a drop of grease has fallen on one. It is a grub-stake 
 agreement. The grub-staker takes the one with the drop of tallow on 
 it ; the old man, the one with the burned corner ; the young man, the 
 other." 
 
 There was a moment of moaning and incoherence. Then she went 
 on : 
 
 " It is day, in a strange city, very bright. There are snowy 
 mountains a little way off. The streets are crowded with vehicles, but 
 they make no noise. The three men again. The old man and the 
 young man are ragged and lean. They show the other lumps of rock 
 which they take out of a bag. They are eager, excited. The fat man
 
 120 WITH GAUGE $ SWALLOW. 
 
 shakes his head. They ask for money. He still shakes his head. 
 Then they quarrel. They go out and leave the ores. The fat man 
 hides them. He takes out the paper and looks at it, then burns it 
 up." 
 
 Here came another pause. We were all intensely excited. 
 
 " Did you ever hear of that before ?" whispers Mr. Swallow. 
 
 The stranger shakes his head. 
 
 The girl continued. Her muscles were tensely strung, and great 
 sweat-drops stood upon her forehead. She evidently suffered greatly. 
 
 " Poor girl !" said Mrs. Gauge, compassionately. 
 
 " The old man is in the city. He has a long white beard. He is 
 rich, and lives in a fine house. He comes here to see Mr. Gauge, 
 always Mr. Gauge. He has a new name, and a box, a round box." 
 
 Mr. Gauge started to his feet. " Murrow !" whispered Mr. Swallow, 
 excitedly. Mr. Gauge nodded. 
 
 " He has a key, too, a curious key. He gives it to Mr. Gauge." 
 
 The girl lay still for a moment, then, springing up, her face dis 
 torted with excitement, she shrieked out, pointing her finger straight at 
 Mr. Gauge, but without opening her eyes, 
 
 " The key ! the key ! Give me the key ! Alive or dead ! alive 
 or dead ! alive or dead !" 
 
 Then she sank back exhausted. Mr. Gauge stepped quickly to his 
 desk on tiptoe and returned with a queer round key having four prongs. 
 " Nobody knew of it," he whispered. 
 
 I think we all turned pale. I felt as if the blood were trickling 
 from my veins. I should have fainted if some one had not spoken. 
 
 " It's in the box," the girl went on, " the round box. One three 
 I can't see the other figure. It's in the box, the paper with the 
 burnt corner." 
 
 Mr. Gauge stepped to the vault and returned with a round box 
 covered with leather. It looked like a hat-box. On the end were 
 two initials, E. M., and the figures 1 and 3. There had been another, 
 but it had been erased. It seemed to relieve the girl to have the box 
 brought near. 
 
 " It's here," she said, " in a big envelope, sealed up, Mr. Gauge's 
 no, Mr. Swallow's seal." 
 
 Mr. Gauge opened the box. A sealed envelope lay on the top. He 
 started. 
 
 " I had forgotten," he whispered to Mr. Swallow : " I borrowed 
 your seal one day for Murrow ; could not find mine." 
 
 " It's there, it's there," said the girl, with a sigh of contentment. 
 
 " Open it," whispered Mr. Swallow. 
 
 The Senior broke the seal and ran over the contents of the envelope. 
 A small paper, worn and creased, with a corner blackened by fire, fell 
 out. The stranger seized it. The girl drew a long breath and seemed 
 to sink into peaceful slumber. 
 
 " This is Newcombe's," said the stranger. " Where is the other ? 
 If we can only get the other ! Where is Dole's ? Ask her, quick !" 
 
 " Dole's ? Dole's ?" repeated the tranced girl, wearily. " I don't 
 see it. I can't find it."
 
 WITH GAUGE $ SWALLOW. 121 
 
 " You must try we must have it !" exclaimed the stranger, harshly. 
 I hated him for his cruelty. 
 
 " Dole's Dole's I am in a large room. There are books 
 
 books everywhere. It is here, but I cannot see it. I am tired, oh, 
 so tired !" 
 
 " Poor child !" said Mrs. Gauge : " don't worry her any more." 
 
 Miss Winters sank back, breathing painfully. Mr. Gauge and Mr. 
 Swallow hastily examined the papers found in the box. 
 
 " He hasn't been in the office for a year," I heard the former say. 
 " Said he was going away and might not return, but would give me a 
 sign when I should open it, said I need not be afraid ; he would let 
 me know, 'dead or alive.' Those were his very words. He was a 
 great spiritualist, you know. Makes one's flesh crawl, don't it ?" he 
 said, with a shiver. 
 
 " Hadn't you better wake her ?" asked the stranger, anxiously. 
 
 " Yes, indeed," exclaimed Mr. Swallow. " She must be waked. It 
 is very dangerous to go from a trance-state into sleep." 
 
 I brought a glass of water. Mrs. Gauge bathed her face. Then I 
 was sent after spirits. A little was poured into her mouth. Every 
 muscle was relaxed and limp. We chafed her hands, rubbed her 
 temples, pinched her fingers. Mrs. Gauge had loosened her clothing, 
 throwing her own shawl over the girl's shoulders. 
 
 Little by little she recovered consciousness, but she was still weak 
 and unnerved. She laughed and wept at once. 
 
 " Oh, dear ! I am so tired !" she moaned. " Why didn't you let 
 me sleep ? Isn't it time to go home ?" 
 
 " Poor child !" said the tender-hearted matron. " You are not going 
 home to-night : you are going with me. You must stay with me until 
 Monday at least. They won't want you here, now they have found the 
 paper." 
 
 " What is your full name, Miss Winters ?" asked the^Senior, looking 
 up from the papers he held. 
 
 " Marion Edna," she answered, with a smile. 
 
 "And your father's?" 
 
 " Henry Winters." 
 
 " Tell them to put things up, Mr. Fountain ; they need look no 
 farther. If I am not much mistaken, Miss Winters, you have dreamed 
 to some purpose for yourself as well as others. Take her home, my 
 dear. We must look over these papers ; but I will follow in an hour." 
 
 The stranger escorted the ladies down-stairs : Mr. Burrill was sent 
 for, and there was a long consultation in Mr. Swallow's room. When 
 I went to see him to his car that night, as I always did, though it was 
 a little out of my way, he said, 
 
 " Queer thing that happened at the office to-day, wasn't it ? I'm 
 sorry about it : don't like such things. The girl's well enough, ap 
 pears like a lady, but I don't like trances, or spirits, or anything of 
 the kind. They aren't regular ; there's no law for 'em ; and I, for one, 
 don't want any of 'em around. They found the paper, but it isn't the 
 one that was lost, and nothing on it to show that it's a duplicate origi 
 nal : that's always been understood, though ; all the witnesses say that."
 
 122 WITH GAUGE $ SWALLOW. 
 
 " Who was this Murrow, the man who owned the box ?" 
 
 " I don't know anything about him/' said the old man, testily, 
 " never liked his looks, and never cultivated his acquaintance. He was 
 a tall, weakly- looking man, with a long white beard ; lived up-town, 
 and used to speculate on ' tips' he claimed the spirits gave him. He 
 seemed to be very successful, though, spirits or no spirits, and was 
 reported to have made no end of money. He went off a year or more 
 ago, to hunt up his son, he said, with whom it seems there had been 
 some disagreement in his less prosperous days. He sold his house and 
 settled everything up as if he never expected to come back. So far as 
 I can see, he seems to have just crawled into that round box of his and 
 disappeared. He lived just back of Hazzard's place, the sewing- 
 machine man, you know, on Fifth Avenue, bought the house of him, 
 and, it seems, sold it back to him when he went away. A queer thing 
 about it is that Hazzard is Swallow's client and Murrow Gauge's ; so 
 that Swallow witnessed one deed and Gauge the other. Each one's 
 client seemed to have a sort of aversion to the man he did not employ. 
 Hazzard told Swallow he didn't like a man who stood so straight he 
 leaned backward; and Murrow told Gauge he didn't want an attorney 
 who had to have a partner to help him keep his clients' secrets. The 
 partners laughed at each other over these left-handed compliments, but 
 are both of them so faithful to their clients that they have never said a 
 word to each other about the business they did for them until to-day. 
 I doubt if they would ever have done so if it had not been that Mur 
 row was mixed up in this matter and Mr. Gauge believed him dead. 
 They don't often have individual clients, and it is a good thing they do 
 not. I tell you, Mr. Fountain, if lawyers are in partnership they 
 ought to be like husband and wife, no secrets between them." 
 
 The case of Dole's Heirs vs. The Ruby Mining Co. was called for 
 trial on Monday morning, but, after a brief consultation between the 
 counsel, was continued by consent, After a good deal of negotiation, 
 some adjustment was arrived at, by which it was agreed that the plain 
 tiff's proofs should be cancelled and judgment entered for the defend 
 ants. I never knew exactly what it was. 
 
 There was very little said about the matter in the office. Miss 
 Winters did not return to work, notwithstanding the signal service she 
 had rendered the firm. A while afterwards I asked Mr. Burrill how 
 the case came out. 
 
 " I wouldn't talk about the matter if I were you, Mr. Fountain," 
 he answered, testily. " There was something crooked about the case ; 
 and our folks feel very sore over it. They know somebody has played 
 them like a flute ; and the worst of it is, they don't exactly know who 
 did it. There doesn't seem to have been any wrong done, but the fair 
 thing was brought about in such a questionable way that they don't like 
 to hear about it. 
 
 " There wasn't any doubt about the contract : that was all straight. 
 Snead, the grub-staker, thinking his partners had disappeared, changed 
 the name of the mine, which was in a new district, made some develop 
 ments, and sold it to the company, making millions out of it in the end. 
 He stood behind the company, of course, in the suit. He knew his
 
 WITH GAUGE # SWALLOW. 123 
 
 only chance was to get hold of the contract or else to buy up Dole's 
 heirs. Spite of all he could do, he couldn't find Dole's heirs, however, 
 which is not strange, for Dole wasn't Dole at all. So he stole the 
 contract, or had it stolen, from our office, and left it under seal with 
 his counsel." 
 
 " How did he get it ?" 
 
 " Don't ask me. I think Gauge & Swallow would give a snug bit 
 to know themselves. The girl Miss Winters, I mean went into a 
 trance after she left here, and described the place where it was hidden so 
 minutely that Mr. Swallow recognized a desk in the office of Ewell & 
 Stafford, the defendants' attorneys, and went there the next day with a 
 search-warrant and an officer and demanded the paper of the man who 
 sat at the desk. It was a bold thing to do on such evidence, but Mr. 
 Swallow hadn't any more doubt But he won't ever do it again. 
 
 " Well, of course, Ewell & Stafford didn't want a row. So they 
 told the Junior to search the desk, if he wanted to take the responsi 
 bility. It wasn't any use to try and bluff Mr. Swallow. He'd have 
 bet his immortal soul on what that trance-medium said. And, sure 
 enough, the first thing he dropped on was the envelope containing the 
 copy of the contract, with his own endorsement on it. That settled the 
 case, of course. Ewell & Stafford couldn't afford to have the matter 
 get out, and would have given away the thief sooner than have the 
 charge of stealing the testimony made against them. After that it was 
 plain sailing so far as the settlement with the company was concerned. 
 Our folks had it all their own way, and took what they thought a fail- 
 share of the profits of the mine. It was when it came to paying over 
 the fund that the trouble came. Who do you suppose was entitled to 
 all that money ?" 
 
 " I am sure I don't know." 
 
 " I should think not, and would never guess, either. Nobody in the 
 world but that little, smooth, innocent trance-seer whom all you boys 
 were in love with." 
 
 " What ! Miss Winters ?" 
 
 " I don't wonder that you are surprised. Gauge & Swallow aren't 
 often taken in, but they were done for that time. It's always the way : 
 when a lawyer is gulled he never nibbles at the bait, but opens his 
 mouth and takes it all in at a gulp, like a big pike going for a minnow. 
 And who do you suppose it was put up the job on them?" 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 " Why, Mr. Gauge's grave, pious old spiritualistic client Murrow 
 was nobody else than Newcombe, while Dole was none other than 
 Henry Winters, who, according to Murrow's story, was his son under 
 another alias or in some previous state of existence, heaven knows 
 which." 
 
 " Why so many aliases ?" I asked. 
 
 " Oh, I can't tell," snarled the old man, " nor why they were mas 
 querading as prospectors in the Rockies, nor why they got Snead to 
 grub-stake them. Murrow must have had plenty of money. Of course 
 they let Snead sell the mine because they thought it cheaper to work 
 the company than the mine ; but why they should take such a round-
 
 124 ULTIMATE FAILURE. 
 
 about way, and why Murrow should hide himself so very carefully, I 
 can't quite understand ; unless " 
 
 The old man paused and rubbed a two days' stubble on his chin 
 reflectively. 
 
 " You think " I began. 
 
 " I think," said he, " that there isn't but one man who can un 
 ravel all this matter." 
 
 " And that is Murrow ?" 
 
 " That is a man who is better known in the city here by some other 
 name than Winters, or Murrow, or Newcombe, and who doesn't care 
 to be known by either of those names. You see, a rich man can have 
 as many families as he likes or as he thinks he can afford. Society 
 doesn't mind it much, and if he is very rich there is not much danger 
 of prosecution for bigamy. There is one thing society is a little par 
 ticular about: each family must have a different name. This is a 
 little troublesome to the man, no doubt, and apt to make difficulty 
 after his death." 
 
 " Have Gauge & Swallow any idea who he is ?" 
 
 " Not the least. They believe he is alive and in the city, know he 
 is rich and powerful, but who he is they cannot guess. He might be 
 any one of fifty yes, any one of a hundred or a thousand, for aught I 
 know. It is just one of the mysteries of which a lawyer gets a glimpse 
 and may never learn anything more." 
 
 " Do you know anything more about Miss Winters ?" 
 
 " I know," said Burrill, looking at me over his glasses suspi 
 ciously, "that there will never be any more trance-exhibitions nor 
 type-writer girls in this office. But she was an artist, Miss Winters 
 was, played to a select audience, but made a big hit !" 
 
 Albion W. Tour gee. 
 
 ULTIMATE FAILURE. 
 
 HOWEVER much my arrows have fallen short, 
 Or swerved aside, or overshot that mark 
 Far-set, whose circles centre but in Truth, 
 This the desire the one unfading dream 
 The hope of my young manhood, so to stand, 
 So aim, so loose the tense expectant string, 
 That, at the last, each winged shaft may fly 
 Unto the heart of Truth unerringly. 
 
 Yet though I soothe the sting of ill-success 
 With thoughts of Error, lurking in the grass, 
 Nursing a wound some wide-flown dart has given 
 A fear dwells ever at my inmost soul, 
 That, haply, ere my growing skill has won 
 The prize Perfection I may feel the bow 
 Break at full bend, or hear its worn cord part, 
 Or find the quiver empty at my belt. 
 
 Charles Henry Luders.
 
 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. 125 
 
 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. 
 
 praises of toadstools have yet to be loudly sung in America. A 
 small body of mycophagists are laboring with might and main to 
 unite an intelligent chorus from the public that will substitute for groans 
 and screams of horror at the sight of a toadstool the songs of gratitude 
 and adoration so long sung in the fatherlands by all people in all ages 
 in honor of these food- and health-giving plants ministering to their 
 wants and pleasures. 
 
 In the old countries, where a dense population taxes the producing 
 lands to their utmost for a food-supply, fungi of edible kinds are wel 
 comed as the voluntary tributes of tree and soil to the comestibles; but 
 in America their generosity is not appreciated. A knowledge of the 
 number of uses to which toadstools so generally despised are put will 
 have a tendency to turn our kicking propensities into respect. 
 
 Toadstool, mushroom, fungus, mould, ferment, or by whatever name 
 any particular form of fungoid growth may be designated, does not 
 separate it from its kind : they are all fungi, and as such bear very im 
 portant relations to mankind from their power for good or evil. 
 
 The Ostiaks, the Kamtchadales, and other inhabitants of Asiatic 
 Russia find in one of the gill-bearing family the Amanita muscarius 
 the exhilaration and madness that more civilized nations demand and 
 receive of alcohol, and enjoy a narcotism from its extract as seductive 
 as that of opium. The Fidji Islanders are indebted to toadstools strung 
 on a string for girdles, which alone prevent them from being classed 
 among " the poor and naked ;" and their sole aesthetic occupation lies 
 in ornamenting their limited wardrobe. The Fidji fishermen, especially, 
 value them highly because they are water-proof (!). 
 
 Cordier tells us that the negroes of the West of Africa exalt a certain 
 kind of Boletus to the sacredness of a god, and bow down in worship 
 before it : for this reason Afzelius has named this variety Boletus sacer. 
 
 A French chemist has extracted wax from the milk-giving kind, 
 but has not stated the price of the candles made from it. Others of 
 this delving fraternity have shown that toadstools may be used in the 
 manufacture of Prussian-blue instead of blood, for, like certain animal 
 matter, they furnish prussic acid. As fungi, after the manner of all 
 animal life, breathe oxygen and throw off carbonic acid gas, their flesh 
 partakes of animal rather than vegetable nature. 
 
 In their decomposition they are capital fertilizers of surrounding 
 plants, and in seasons when they are plentiful it will repay the agri- 
 cultui'ist to make use of them as manure. 
 
 According to LiunaBus, the Lapps delighted in the perfume of 
 some species, and lovers carried them upon their persons that they 
 might be the more attractive. Linna3us exclaims, " O Venus ! thou 
 that scarcely sufficest thyself in other countries with jewels, diamonds, 
 precious stones, gold, purple, music, and spectacle, art here satisfied 
 with a simple toadstool !"
 
 126 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. 
 
 A variety of Boletus a tube-bearing species is powdered and used 
 as a protector of clothing against the attacks of insects. The Agaricus 
 muscarius constitutes a well-known poison to the common house-fly. 
 It intoxicates them to such a degree that they can be swept up and 
 destroyed. Habitations and furniture rubbed with it are shunned by the 
 tidy housekeeper's terror, bedbugs. 
 
 Certain Polyporei, those large, dry, corky growths found upon logs 
 and trees, when properly seasoned, sliced, and beaten, engage large 
 manufactories in producing from them the punk of commerce, used by 
 the surgeon for the arrest of hemorrhage, the artist for his shading-stump, 
 and the Fourth-of-July urchin for his pyrotechnic purposes. 
 
 A species of Polyporus is used in Italy as scrubbing-brushes. In 
 countries where fire-producing is unknown or laborious, and the luxury 
 of lucifers denied, the dried fungus enables the transportation of fire 
 from one place to another over great distances. The inhabitants of 
 Franconia use them in hammered slices instead of chamois-skin for 
 underclothing. 
 
 Another Polyporus takes its place among manufactures as the highly- 
 necessary razor-strop. Northern nations make bottle-stoppers of them, 
 as their corky nature suggests. The Polyporus of the birch-tree (Poly 
 porus betulinus) increases the delight of smokers by its delicate flavor 
 when mixed with tobacco. In Bohemia the large kinds of Polyporei are 
 used for flower-vases, hanging-baskets, and wall-brackets : the writer 
 made them ornamental and serviceable in this way when living for many 
 years among mountains where the pottery of civilization was limited 
 in variety and supply ; and the beautiful white under-surface of many 
 kinds can be prettily ornamented with paintings in water- or oil-colors. 
 
 A species of puff-ball, owing to its hygrometric properties, makes 
 an excellent barometer. Others of the puff-ball family were used to 
 narcotize bees before the adoption of a life-saving system for robbing 
 them of their stores of honey, and as anaesthetics, under whose influ 
 ence formidable surgical operations have been performed. 
 
 The Neilgherries of South India were believed by the natives to 
 have been inhabited by a race of dwarfs who fed upon an underground 
 fungus (Mylitta) : to this day it is called " little man's bread," and it is 
 probably the same fungus that forms the so-called " native bread" of 
 Tasmania. 
 
 The Coprinus (ink-bearing) comatus, found in great quantities from 
 May to December upon open commons where ashes and refuse hstve 
 been dumped, is not only eagerly sought for as one of the greatest deli 
 cacies, but, like all the toadstools dissolving into a black fluid as they 
 decay, yields an ink rivalling in depth of color and in permanency the 
 far-famed black of the Chinese. 
 
 Some varieties of fungi yield valuable dyes. The kid-glove-makers 
 use them to obtain delicate shades of various colors. Woods, cotton, 
 wool, and silk are dyed with their beautiful extracts. In Italy they 
 are much used in these arts, and the Arabs tax them to furnish the 
 brilliant shades of their picturesque robes. 
 
 Ergot, so well known and so beneficent in its medical effects, is a 
 fungus (Claviceps) gathered from wheat, rye, and many grasses. Among
 
 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. 127 
 
 the Chinese a species growing upon dead caterpillars is highly valued 
 as a medicine, and as a stuffing for roast ducks. 
 
 We can get along very well without the duck-stuffing, but what 
 could we do without yeast ? Where would be the occupations of brewer 
 and baker, and the pride of the housekeeper in her airy biscuit and 
 buns, were it not for this carbonic-acid-making fungus, the yeast-maker ? 
 
 The vinegar-plant (Penicillium crustaceum) works silently in " ways 
 that are dark/' and changes solutions of sweets into sharp, sprightly 
 vinegar. 
 
 These are some of the ways in which toadstools befriend us ; but 
 there are many others. They are busy scavengers, a self-constituted 
 and vigilant Board of Health. They alone silence more house-flies 
 than all the brushes, traps, poisons, whacks, and swearing devoted to 
 the extermination of that saint-preventing insect, by the white form 
 which grows upon them and weaves them shrouds after they are dead. 
 Wasps, caterpillars, beetles, and bugs afford them houses of which they 
 take full possession. They delight the epicure with their delicious 
 truffle and savory sauces, and have entered into a companionship with 
 beefsteaks as gastronomic delights, inseparable as peaches and cream. 
 Their favors and flavors are known by the hundreds to the mycophagist 
 who is not afraid to question and eat of them. 
 
 In spite of all the good toadstools do us, they pay us back well for 
 our general dislike and contempt. Our harvests of grains and grass 
 are good or bad as their rust-forms decide. They creep into the pantry, 
 colonize their mould shapes upon cake, cheese, bread, and preserve, and 
 fare sumptuously at our expense. They will destroy a " ten-cent shine" 
 on a pair of boots in a single night by planting their blue forests from 
 pulling-strap to toe-point. They sow death where wounds gape for 
 their gangrene settlements, and famine where their white-clad Perono- 
 spora settles upon the potato-plant and delves into its tubers, leaving 
 them a mass of rot and corruption. 
 
 Many skin-diseases are due to their burro wings, and it is an open 
 question whether they do not originate several of the well-known human 
 ailments. They are the Paul Prys of plant-life. 
 
 The edible varieties are numerous. The writer has eaten enjoyably 
 of over one hundred, and confidently expects to add many more to the 
 list. The late Dr. Curtis, of North Carolina, catalogues one hundred 
 and twelve edible kinds found by him in that State. Every day my- 
 cophagists are adding to their cuisine species not heretofore tested to the 
 safety-point in eating, and even those which have long borne a bad 
 reputation. 
 
 The mycophagist selects from wood or field a specimen of toadstool 
 which by its external appearance extends an invitation to try it. Hard, 
 dry, leathery, fetid, slimy, or decomposing ones are left rigidly alone, as 
 they should be. Carefully removing the fungus from its habitation, and 
 after noting its botanical characteristics, a small piece is tasted raw : if 
 it is nauseous, it is thrown away and branded as non-edible ; if it is hot, 
 acrid, or bitter, a small piece is cooked without seasoning ; if it retains 
 any disagreeable qualities over the coals, it is branded in like manner ; 
 if it loses them all, larger pieces are cooked and eaten until the kind
 
 128 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. 
 
 either gives signs of noxious qualities or proves to be harmless. If 
 the specimen is mild and pleasant to the taste (a small piece) both raw 
 and cooked, the same care is observed until a full meal is eaten ; and it 
 is very necessary that it should be ; for in one family of gill-bearing 
 toadstools the Amanitee no sign either cooked or raw is given of its 
 deadly properties. This is the only family to which deaths have been 
 traced ; and the botanical characteristics of its members must be 
 thoroughly mastered. There is no other method of testing that is safe. 
 Charms of salt and silver are as useless as the romances of the fortune 
 teller, and even worse ; for, if believed in, they inspire a confidence that 
 leads directly to serious results. 
 
 Many persons may experience unpleasant effects from eating toad 
 stools, because of rich cooking or indigestion, which are not caused by 
 inherent injurious properties in the toadstool. " What is one man's 
 meat is another man's poison" is a proverb as true of toadstools as any 
 thing else. There are many varieties not friendly to delicate stomachs. 
 A wineglassful of whiskey and sweet oil, repeated if necessary, will 
 help them along safely should they happen to be eaten. The effects 
 of these kinds are experienced almost immediately after eating, and 
 yield promptly to simple treatment ; but the poison of the Ainanita 
 does not manifest itself for from eight to twelve hours after ingestion, 
 and by this peculiarity announces itself. In this event send for a phy 
 sician at once. One-eightieth to one-sixtieth of a grain of atropine 
 administered at a dose subcutaneously until the poison is counteracted 
 is an antidote. 
 
 The object of the mycologist should be to encourage and foster the 
 study of this interesting and plentiful form of plant-life ; for in so 
 doing he points the way to many pleasures and disseminates the knowl 
 edge that will in a great measure prevent the accidents occurring from 
 indiscriminate toadstool-eating. But, be this knowledge ever so wide 
 spread, there will be enough foolhardy people to afford annual announce 
 ments of deaths and wide-spread obituary notices for which the whole 
 toadstool family must suffer. 
 
 It is as supplying stores of nutritive matter and thus forming a 
 most important, excellent, and delicate food-supply that toadstools are 
 of most value. Almost everything contributes to the arts, but food- 
 supply is limited to digestible things. To the inhabitants of many 
 nations toadstools in their edible capacity are most important. The 
 Russians pay particular attention to their economy and cooking. The 
 Italian peasants regard toadstools as among their greatest blessings. In 
 England all of the edible varieties are eagerly sought after : tons 
 daily find their way from wood and field to the markets of towns and 
 cities and the great manufactories of sauces and pickles. Everywhere 
 in Europe they are dried for winter use. In France, especially, much 
 attention is paid to the cultivation of the toadstool of commerce, and it 
 constitutes an enormous industry. Ten thousand tons are annually 
 produced by one cultivator. In October of 1885 the writer saw the 
 outlying commons of Boston, New York, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia 
 covered with men, women, and children gathering the prolific and deli 
 cate Agaricus comatus (Coprinus) by huge basketfuls for the use of
 
 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. J29 
 
 hotels, clubs, and private families. Until within a very few years this 
 same Coprinus was classed among poisonous toadstools ! 
 
 But few varieties yield the secrets of the necessaries for their culti 
 vation. Most of them positively refuse to impart the knowledge to 
 the most seductive care and closest imitations of their natural homes 
 and haunts, and therefore can be found only upon the spote and within 
 the circles Dame Nature has assigned to them. 
 
 They will not colonize ; they will not emigrate ; they will not be 
 cheated out of their natural possessions ; they refuse to be educated, 
 and stand themselves upon their single leg as the most independent and 
 contrary growth with which man has to deal. 
 
 Compared with a toadstool, the North American Indian is a saint 
 for educational and implanting purposes, the Berkshire pig as tractable 
 as an oyster, and the long-stigmatized mule a model of amiability. 
 The Polyporei climb trees ; their twin brother, the Boletus, will not do 
 so under any circumstances. The Truffle hides under ground ; the 
 Lycoperdon camps on the ground and enjoys the ligneous stupidity of 
 rotten stumps ; the Hydnei are more Bohemian, and the Agaricini are 
 cosmopolitan. No mortal, yet, has found the spot where a toadstool of 
 some kind does not grow, even upon metals, and yet not over a dozen 
 varieties, of the many thousands, will allow themselves to be taken 
 from their natural habitat to live and grow in another mocking it as 
 intimately as the proverbial pair of peas. They are loyal beyond pre 
 cedent to their native soil, and not willing to accept naturalization- 
 papers from any one or for any purpose, no matter how politic the 
 tendering. 
 
 What we see of their lives is soon told. Turn up any mass of garden 
 mould, or mat of wood leaf, and slipping through every crack or cranny 
 will be found a white web-like structure easily mistakable for mould 
 itself, and by the uninitiated thought to be so. This tracery of delicate 
 fibre is composed of strings of single cells strung together by their ends, 
 and is the vine or mycelium upon which some kind of a toadstool will 
 group. While other plants give outward marks of what their fruit 
 will be, the mycelium tells nothing: the silence of a sound-asleep 
 oyster is a pandemonium to it. It will not even hint to the mycologist 
 what sort of toadstool it will bear. Whether this mycelium penetrates 
 the bark of trees and wanders among the sap-cells, whether among leaf 
 or earth, in rotten log or living tissues, it will some day under favoring 
 influences gather a lot of cells into a minute knob, each one of which will 
 go to cell-making with more system and industry than any honey-bee, 
 pushing, crowding, running their filaments by end-growth intricately 
 among one another, until the growing knob reaches a surface and comes 
 within the reach of light and air. Then a heavy dew or tempered 
 rain softens the compressed earth surrounding it cell-making goes on 
 as rapidly as water satisfies their thirst the knob breaks through its 
 outer integument of cell-shreds gives way the head of the growth 
 pops out the cells increase in size and number growth goes on until 
 the full-grown toadstool stands completed, a marvel from Nature's 
 workshop. Its mission is a simple one, to obey the first law of nature 
 and produce after its kind. From its gills or tubes, or of whatever shape 
 VOL. XLII. 9
 
 130 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. 
 
 its spore-bearing surface may be, it produces and casts off millions of 
 single cells, in no wise visibly differing from those cells producing them. 
 These cells or spores correspond to the seeds of plants, and, like them, 
 are intended to produce future plants of the toadstool kind. So numer 
 ous are they that they will print the exact spore-bearing surface of most 
 gill-bearing kinds upon paper or other like substance upon which that 
 surface is laid, in a few hours, and yet so minute is the spore that it 
 requires the aid of a microscope of considerable power to render it 
 visible. 
 
 Plain as the fact of their spore marriage is, its secrets are so well kept 
 that even gossiping microscopes are not allowed to visit the ceremony. 
 When in a very few instances they have been caught, they have said 
 plainly to man, " Know yourselves, and you will probably know us." 
 
 Simple as is their construction, being nothing more in every stage 
 of their growth than a ramifying mass of simple ovate cells strung 
 together at their ends, and of which the seeds or spores are but detached 
 single ones, they are so truly cryptogamic as to leave us in almost 
 total ignorance of their method of reproduction. 
 
 After toadstools show themselves outside their fructified wrappers, 
 they are recognized by the mycologist, classified, and named, yielding 
 most of their secrets to his curiosity. 
 
 Those having gills or plaits under their caps are called Agarics ; 
 those having thousands of mouths on a sponge-like surface, Polyporei, 
 or Boleti ; those having spikes or mane-like protuberances upon the 
 under side of their caps, Hydnei ; the clubbed, or coral-shaped, Cla- 
 varei ; and the round puff-ball, with the spore-bearing surface tied up 
 inside of a cover, Lycoperdons. 
 
 The surfacas described are for the purpose of spore-bearing. 
 
 It can be safely said that all Clavarei not bitter when raw are 
 edible ; none of them are known to be noxious. Many of them are 
 leathery by nature, and should be cooked over a slow fire until soft, or 
 they are not fit to eat. 
 
 All of the Hydnei are good when young and in healthy condition. 
 
 The tribe of Polyporei is divided into two classes. Polyporei proper 
 are those coriaceous growths found on trees or wood, with thousands 
 of mouths on their under surface to tubes which are not separable 
 from their caps or from themselves. Some of the softer varieties are 
 edible when not bitter, especially those found upon the birch-tree, and 
 the huge masses of oyster-like folds known as the wood-hen. The 
 Boleti have the same tubes and mouths, which are separable from their 
 tops and themselves, but when hot, bitter, acrid, water-soaked, or slimy, 
 should not be eaten. Many of the Boleti change color to red or blue 
 when cut or bruised : this is not a sign of danger when the flesh is sweet 
 and mild to the taste. The Boleti are a very numerous family, living 
 in wooded haunts or pasture-margins, and most of them are more deli 
 cate in flesh and higher in flavor than the common mushroom. Among 
 the ancient Romans they were high in favor as the Suillus spoken of by 
 Pliny, and to this day the Italian peasantry make them an important 
 article of food, either when fresh, or when cut in slices and dried for 
 winter use.
 
 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. 131 
 
 The much-kicked and thoroughly-despised puff-balls are properly 
 so treated when they reach the dust-giving age, because they are then 
 too old to eat ; but when young their white flesh is very tempting, and, 
 when not changing color to any shade of yellow upon being cut or 
 broken, will be pronounced by the most fastidious equal to any table- 
 delicacy. All white-fleshed puff-balls are edible. 
 
 The power of cell -building is well exemplified by them. It is re 
 corded of a puff-ball that it has raised a stone weighing ninety pounds 
 one and a half inches ; and the pavement of a whole Spanish city has 
 been disturbed by these silent lifters, unauthorized by its highway de 
 partment. They push through dry surfaces that the pick refuses to 
 enter, and have a way of growing under difficulties that commands re 
 spect. To any one who will take the pains to examine their cheese-like 
 interiors, they will commend themselves, even raw. 
 
 By far the most numerous tribe is that called Agaricini, a gill- 
 bearing tribe. To it belongs the common mushroom of commerce, the 
 Agaricus campestris, Agaricus arvensis, Horse mushroom, Champignon, 
 never was anything in nature so titled. Everybody thinks that he or 
 she knows it, and yet few do. It varies so in shape, color, size, and at 
 different stages of its growth, that even the expert is puzzled in deciding 
 to which of its many named varieties it belongs. In a firm belief of 
 knowledge of it by the amateur lies the great danger of toadstool-eating ; 
 for a small family of this tribe, numbering about thirty members, and 
 called Amanitse, contains at least twenty members possessing properties 
 so insinuating and deadly that, until within the few last months, those 
 who ate of them were doomed to certain death, because the antidote to 
 this subtle poison was not certainly known. In their button-shaped 
 youth they so closely resemble the common field-mushroom that they 
 are gathered with them, and get in their deadly work on the sanguine. 
 Owing to their perfect structure, they stand at the head of toadstools. 
 
 Of this family several members are harmless and delicious ; but it 
 is best for the collector to imagine the word " poison" inscribed in big 
 letters upon any toadstool found having a bulbous stem with a sheath 
 about it, a ring, rind, or apron-like surrounding near the top of the 
 stem, white gills, and, upon the cap of the toadstool, warts, scales, 
 scruff, or floccose remains. 
 
 Many varieties of toadstools interfere with the digestion, stirring 
 up cramps and intestinal troubles, but, as said before, none but the 
 Amanitse have been known to cause death. 
 
 The Amanitse always have a volva or sheath around the stem at or in 
 the surface of the ground; when this, or remnants of it, are found upon 
 any toadstool, throw it away, unless the finder is sure of discriminating 
 between the edible and non-edible Amanitse. 
 
 The object of this article is to encourage the readers to notice and 
 be friendly to toadstools, and to enter into a study of them which 
 cannot fail to give intellectual and stomachic delights ; but it would be 
 criminal to prompt a study which might lead to danger without 
 strongly impressing the characteristics of one of the most deadly of 
 poisonous plants, the Amanita. 
 
 In August of 1885, two of a family of five, residing in Shenandoah,
 
 132 OUR FRIENDS AND FOES AMONG THE TOADSTOOLS. 
 
 Pennsylvania, died from eating toadstools. All were terribly poisoned, 
 but the skill of the attending physician saved three of the sufferers by 
 hypodermically administering atropia, from one-eightieth to one-sixtieth 
 of a grain at a dose, until, in those whose lives were saved, the amount 
 reached one thirty-sixth of a grain. The writer was fortunate in being 
 able to obtain samples of the toadstools eaten, and in being able to 
 identify among them the Amanita vernus one of the deadliest of its 
 family and thus knowing the poisonous Amanita to have been for the 
 first time face to face in the human system with its antidote, atropine, 
 a product of the nightshade, deadly as the Amanita itself. 
 
 None other of the gill-bearing family Agarics are known to be 
 poisonous. Several of its members have effects upon the human econ 
 omy which make them improper as food, but, with the exception of 
 the Amanitse, a rule can be established : all Agarics mild to the taste 
 when raw, if they commend themselves in other ways, are edible. 
 
 Common sense must guide the consumer, the same sense that is 
 used in the selection of other food, and that sense, properly exercised, 
 will furnish to the possessors of it many dishes delicate and delicious. 
 So numerous are toadstools, so well does a study of them define their 
 habits and habitats, that the writer never fails, upon any day from April 
 to December, to find ample supply of healthy, nutritious, delicate toad 
 stools for himself and family. 
 
 The old saying of many that " only one kind is fit to eat" is easily 
 expunged from proverb sanctity. Every bite of good, ripe cheese in 
 cludes thousands of toadstools ; every piece of bread, every drop of 
 vinegar, every apple, tomato, pear, or peach, every drink of water, 
 every breath inhaled, includes with it the despised toadstools or their 
 spores in some of their many shapes. 
 
 It would not be proper to leave the reader to grope in search of the 
 literature of this interesting subject. 
 
 The best publication for the beginner in the study of toadstools is 
 the portfolio " Mushrooms of America," by Julius A. Palmer, pub 
 lished by Messrs. L. Prang & Co., Boston, Massachusetts, 1885. The 
 numerous colored plates it contains of the edible and suspicious kinds 
 are a quick guide to a knowledge of a few prominent varieties. For 
 further investigation and classification, "Cook's Hand-Book of British 
 Fungi," two volumes, Macmillan & Co., London, now out of print, 
 but shortly to appear in a new edition, is the best and most complete 
 hand-book in the English language. " Fungi, their Nature, Uses, etc.," 
 in the International Series, contains much interesting information. The 
 works of Cordier and Sicard, written in the French language, and 
 containing many fine colored plates, are indispensable to the student 
 who desires extensive and technical information upon edible and non- 
 edible fungi. During the present season the writer hopes to complete 
 for publication a hand-book upon American fungi, plainly describing 
 such varieties as his own experience and that of others have proved to 
 be either edible or injurious. 
 
 Charles McUvaine.
 
 A CASE OF WEAKNESS FOR THE FIRST PERSON SINGULAR. 133 
 
 A CASE OF WEAKNESS FOR THE FIRST PERSON 
 
 SINGULAR. 
 
 MOST gentle reader ! did it ever occur to you to be of Charles 
 Lamb's mind, so that one may look back on himself, after a 
 certain lapse of time, with an affectionate longing and homage which 
 have nothing to do with egotism? to agree with his friend Words 
 worth, moreover, that the child is father to the man, and to deduce 
 that the sentiment is but proper filial deference ? Having experienced 
 this blameless and unabashed enthusiasm of retrospect, I feel bound 
 to justify it in my own case; for the gods saw me going, of late, over 
 the lands of my forsaken school at Grosvenor, with a preposterous ten 
 derness, not for the " good gray heads" nor the ennobling associations 
 thereof, but for the once Myself, the twelve-years-old vagabond, who, 
 ere its first stormy term was out, had slid down every spout and climbed 
 every tree in that Arcadian enclosure. The magnificent oak, northeast 
 from the chapel, even, was no longer the venerable sovereign of our 
 woods, a splendid dome-like harborage of hale and glossy leaves; it 
 had become merely the green tent under which I confided to W., of a 
 September morn, that my mind was not quite settled on the point of 
 my future avocation ; that while the flesh desired the guardianship of a 
 fruit-stand, where should be heaped apples of all races, limes, tamarinds, 
 
 Mauna, and dates in argosies transferred 
 From Fez, 
 
 to be dispensed to the hungry public at touchingly low rates, yet some 
 thing aspiring and harassingly urgent in my conscience laid it upon me 
 to be a fireman or a car-driver as soon as I should grow up ! 
 
 Next, turning from the oak, I caught myself beaming approvingly 
 on a wide, neatly-gravelled circular path ; for none other reason, on 
 analysis, but that, in the prehistoric era, it had been called the race 
 course, and that there sound the loud timbrel ! I had actually beaten 
 G. F., our crack runner, with three incidental bars to clear, by a full sec 
 ond and a half. I paid tribute to a group of lordly elms, where the oriole's 
 old, old nest how well I remember the spring she built it ! hung in 
 yet distinguishable fragments from the sheltered bough : solely because 
 of the desk in the hall up-stairs which was level with their tops, and 
 the young truant eyes that strayed from tasks a hundred times an hour 
 to their cool undulating beauty. I caressed the creaking barnyard -gate, 
 for the sake of the idler who had swung there, who there flew to fisticuffs 
 with handsome professorial C. on a question of beetles, and who, be 
 side the neighboring mossy wall, had buried D.'s stilts when D. had 
 seemed illiberal on the score of lending them to deserving parties. The 
 carriage-house took on a sort of glory to me, as I remembered my frac 
 tured arm, the reward of glorious gymnastics on its roof; as did the 
 stately bronze Euterpe facing the front porch, when I recalled the um-
 
 134 A CASE OF WEAKNESS FOR THE FIRST PERSON SINGULAR. 
 
 brella and old straw hat supplied her for the edification of visitors ; 
 and, yea ! on the battered shed in the shadow of the pines I looked 
 with superstitious fondness, since there had hung the woolly residue of 
 the chivalrous ram Jehosaphat, who had horned me more than once, 
 and who, condemned to die for a last bravado, had taken from my hand, 
 with a conciliatory tear in his eye, the final apple of his final hour on 
 earth, while the great knives were already on the grindstone, and the 
 pebbles gathering in fat B. W.'s pockets, to shy, in posthumous ven 
 geance, at his bleaching hide. 
 
 Here was the great corn-bin, where in my exploring youth I had 
 been lost for a half-day ; here the disused chimney whence I scouted 
 and spied, time out of mind, for a trembling knot of fugitives ; here 
 the fragrant quince-orchard, at whose gnarled knees I had conned data 
 for examinations and indited letters, few but warm, to my best R. at 
 home; here the slope, thick with daisies, where I lay, heels in air, 
 telling sanguinary pirate-tales to virtuous little Bub C. (jam cinis esfy, 
 and spoiling him for his books for weeks after. Always the vision of 
 what was I pursuing me, forerunning me, throwing that ridiculous 
 pathetic halo over the old scenes ! Here was the long grove where I 
 was an Indian hunter, realistic to the point of red paint and much- 
 diminished clothing; the ring of cedars which was my gypsy-camp, 
 and, by ever-recurring changes, the deck of a man-o'-war ; the luthern- 
 window under which I stood with hopeful serenaders, when they culled 
 from the responsive shower maple-sugar, and I, alas ! only kindred- 
 colored soap ; the tall wistaria to whose roots I confided the bones of 
 my first rhymes, with a horrible fear out of the mythology lest it 
 should tell on me, like King Midas's barber's reeds ; the great field by 
 the beech-nuts, arena of Prisoners' Base, French and Indians, Bar-Up, 
 and Foot-Ball, and of that battle whence I carried to the house, with 
 my chum of the hour, a poor, disabled cavalryman whose fifth valuable 
 horse had been shot under him that keen midwinter afternoon. 
 
 Ah, it dawned upon me that I loved, beyond denial, that dear, queer 
 play-fellow, that vanished tatterdemalion progenitor ; pilgrimaging from 
 place to place entirely for its sake, and lingering over the very grass 
 that had been pressed by its quick, secure footsteps. I remembered its 
 humorous quandaries of allegiance while it studied with one set and 
 enjoyed itself with another, its body being hopelessly primitive and 
 barbaric to its rather progressive mind ; how it abhorred fuss and 
 feathers ; how it speculated early on what the world called success, and 
 swore for Hector against the Grecian victor, and for Hannibal against 
 the Roman ; how it bore any pain with pleased carelessness, took pro 
 digious pride in its own bumps and scars, and yet had the surgical 
 instinct, and carried salves and plasters for the alleviation of its young 
 companions' wounds ; how it paced often the garden-path to the gate, 
 poor little heart, cooling off its anger, dreaming of its first flame, the 
 Louisianian maid aged eighteen, in whom was " all that's best of dark 
 and bright," or trying to square its hurt notions of justice with the 
 shortcomings it suspected in the educational system. What frank 
 affections it had ! what fine scorns ! what reserve and privacy, despite its 
 genial temperament ! Altogether a natural, unsophisticated imp.
 
 BEAUTY IN LOVE. 135 
 
 Thus, mindful of it, and oddly oblivious of better things, I crossed 
 the great ridge where the underbrush has towered into a wood, past the 
 steep, polished rock down which that haunting ancestral juvenility 
 was wont to slide with shouts of glee, past the beautiful babbling 
 brook where a certain fast toy-schooner was sailed, and a certain 
 snub-nosed, bandy-legged, long-cherished only rubber doll sternly 
 buried, still in puris not., the stone affixed to its luckless neck ; past the 
 brook, with its musk-rat castles under the banks, and its verdant 
 corners where violets were plucked one first of December ; past the 
 healed-over site of the little pond, navigated of yore by the fleet of 
 tadpoles, each a black speck in his white gondola; past the silver- 
 birches where Grosvenor kittens and sparrows were laid with the 
 " pomp and circumstance" of a mock-military funeral, to the slender 
 bridge, renewed after many a spring flood, over the golden-sanded 
 stream. And there sat I, musing, where the young spectre, of course, 
 with its absurd freckles, had swung its long pony legs, and fished for 
 minnows, before me. 
 
 Dear N., for one, dead in the far South, would never run, with 
 black hair tossing in the wind, across that stony New England arch 
 again. E., gentle, steady E., was fathom-deep in responsibilities; and 
 V., that learned elder, in the thick of a valiant fight. I thought of 
 blond B., who walked with a rollicking French song ever at the lip, 
 over whom a bitter tragedy had fallen ; of sturdy- hearted L. R., an 
 anchored soul ; of J., the interrogative, worlds away ; of S., whom the 
 years had changed out of all comradeship ; of little H., youngest and 
 winsomest, who had unaccountably grown up ! They had all grown 
 up, somehow, and gone into trades, fortunes, experiences, marriages; into 
 development, failure, triumph, felicity, exile, or the grave. I felt that 
 I was jilted by Fate, and left behind. I do not know whether it was 
 the gloomiest or the pleasantest thing in the world to me, as I sat 
 there, listening to the musical lapses of the clear water, that if the 
 Ego-child, with its cart, or its beloved sword and gun, had but chanced 
 thither out of ghost-land, we should have met without forced relation 
 ship, without question, without wonder, not quite estranged after these 
 many moiling years, with no dearer, mutual wish than to study ever so 
 little, and play together forever over the happy acres of Grosvenor ! 
 
 Louise Imogen Quinsy. 
 
 BEAUTY IN LOVE. 
 
 T IKE what, this full, this Persia-odored rose ? 
 I J Like beauty's bosom when with passion stirred; 
 These billowy leaves, soft tumult that it shows 
 
 When love breathes from it, but no sound is heard ! 
 
 Charlotte Fiske Bates.
 
 136 OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP 
 
 OUE MONTHLY GOSSIP 
 WITH READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. 
 
 "Who wrote a hymn beginning 'A safe stronghold our God is still'?" 
 ANNA H. S. 
 
 No less a man than Martin Luther, the hymn being familiarly known as 
 "Luther's Hymn." It is a paraphrase of Psalm xlvi. It is now generally 
 held to have been written in 1529 and first printed in a hymn-book published 
 at Wittenberg in that year. No copy of this book is now known to be in exist 
 ence, but it was reprinted entire in a German newspaper in 1788. There is a 
 picturesque legend which has been widely accepted, but which has no historical 
 foundation, that the hymn originated during Luther's stay in Oppenheim while 
 journeying to Worms to appear before the Diet in 1521. On that famous journey 
 he was warned not to enter Worms, and replied in his letter to Spalatin, " And 
 if there were as many devils in Worms as tiles on the roofs I would go in." The 
 picture of a city full of devils has become a world full of devils in the poem, a 
 coincidence that led admirers of Luther to jump at the conclusion that he had 
 written the hymn in 1521. Luther composed a melody for the words, but the 
 melody was subsequently harmonized by his friend Johann Walter. The best 
 English translation of the hymn is by Carlyle, first published in Fraser's Maga 
 zine in 1831, which reproduces much of the rugged energy of the original. In 
 his prefatory remarks Carlyle says, " The following jars upon our ears, yet is 
 there something in it like the sound of Alpine avalanches, or the first murmur 
 of earthquakes, in the very vastness of which, dissonance a higher unison ia 
 revealed to us." " Luther's hymns are even more remarkable than his prose 
 work," says Heine. " Oftentimes they resemble a flower blooming on a rock ; 
 oftentimes they are like a moonbeam shimmering across a tossing sea. In this 
 respect also he merits the name of the Swan of Eisleben. He was, however, 
 anything but a mild swan in many of his songs, in which he rouses the courage 
 of his followers and inspires himself with fiercest ardor for the contest. A true 
 war-song was that defiant lay with which he and his companions entered Worms. 
 The old cathedral trembled at such unwonted strains, and the ravens were terri 
 fied in their obscure nests up in the church towers. This song the Marseillaise 
 Hymn of the Reformation preserves even yet its power of inspiring men, and 
 perhaps we may ere long have need in similar combats of the old mail-clad 
 words." 
 
 EDITOR "MONTHLY GOSSIP," In your magazine for May you open the 
 question of the death of the Pharaoh of the Exodus in the Red Sea. 
 
 In " Moslems and Mummies," written some ten years ago by C. D. Warner, 
 it was stated that the celebrated Egyptologist Mariette Bey had discovered the 
 tomb of the Pharaoh of the Exodus, on which were described the loss of his 
 army in the Red Sea, his subsequent career of battles and conquest, and death. 
 
 The historical Biblical record does not state his death. In the Psalms (poet 
 ical) we do not expect as strictly correct a statement. 
 
 H. A. S.
 
 OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. 137 
 
 A. G. M., who has read a great deal about the " Arcadia," but has been 
 deterred by its bulk and generally uninviting look from reading it, asks the 
 Gossip to give him some general idea of the story. 
 
 The " Arcadia," then, was a pastoral romance by Sir Philip Sidney, begun 
 in 1580 at the request of his sister, the Countess of Pembroke, left unfinished at 
 his death, published, contrary to his expressed desires, in 1590, under the title 
 of "The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia." By 1764 it had passed through 
 sixteen editions. Though it owed something to Sanuazaro's " Arcadia" as well 
 as to Montemayor's " Diana" and to the Greek romantic novelists, it probably 
 gave a greater impulse to the romantic style of fiction than any work that has 
 appeared before or since. Cowley and Waller praised it, Charles I. read it 
 during his imprisonment, and Milton accuses the king of having repeated at his 
 execution a prayer borrowed from that "vain amatorious poem." Shirley's drama 
 of " Arcadia" (1640, 4to) is founded on the romance, and so also is Day's " Isle of 
 Gulls" (1606). Its many separate episodes have also been freely utilized. Thus, 
 the story of Eangus is the origin of Shirley's " Andromana" and of Beaumont 
 and Fletcher's " Cupid's Revenge ;" the episode of Argalus and Parthenia was 
 turned into a poem by Francis Quarles (1621) and dramatized by Henry Glap- 
 thorne (1639) ; while the scene in the " Two Gentlemen of Verona" where Val 
 entine leagues himself with the outlaws, and the underplot in "King Lear" 
 concerning Gloster and his two sons, have evident parallels in the romance. The 
 situation also of Zelmane in female attire anticipates many Elizabethan dramas 
 which turned upon confusions of sex. The main plot, though complicated with 
 episodes, digressions, and poems, is comparatively slender, and turns upon the 
 efforts of Basilius, Prince of Arcadia, to evade the following oracle : 
 
 Thy elder care shall from thy careful face 
 By princely mean be stolen and yet not lost ; 
 Thy younger shall with nature's bliss embrace 
 An uncouth love which nature hateth most. 
 Both they themselves unto such two shall wed 
 Who at thy bier as at a bar shall plead 
 Why thee (a living man) they had made dead. 
 In thine own seat a foreign state shall sit, 
 And ere that all these blows thy head do hit, 
 Thou with thy wife adultery shall commit. 
 
 The precautions of Basilius consisted in retiring from his court into a forest, 
 where he built two lodges, in one of which he lived with his queen Gyneceia 
 and his younger daughter Philoclea, while in the other his elder daughter Pamela 
 was placed under the care of a clown, Dametas. No men are allowed to approach 
 these lodges save a priest and some shepherds skilled in music. But it happens 
 that two princes, Musidorus and Pyrocles, are shipwrecked on the Laconian 
 coast and after a short separation meet again in Arcadia. They determine to win 
 the princesses. Musidorus disguises himself as a shepherd, and by feigning love 
 to Dametas's ugly daughter, Mopsa, is enabled to reach Pamela. Pyrocles dons 
 Amazon's attire, and, under the name of Zelmane, is admitted by Basilius to his 
 lodge. Musidorus persuades Pamela to fly with him. Meanwhile, Pyrocles has 
 inspired love in both Basilius and Gyneceia, Basilius deeming him a woman, 
 Gyneceia recognizing a man through his disguise. He makes an appointment 
 with each to meet them in a certain cave at midnight, foreseeing that they will
 
 138 OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. 
 
 not recognize each other in the darkness. Thus the last and most mysterious 
 line of the prophecy is fulfilled. Pyrocles, in his true character, visits the chamber 
 of Philoclea and urges her to fly with him. But after much argument both faint 
 and fall asleep. Next morning the utmost confusion reigns in Arcadia, Pyrocles 
 is discovered in Philoclea's chamber, the fugitive Musidorus and Pamela are 
 brought back as captives by a band of soldiers, and Basilius is found in a death 
 like slumber as the result of a love-potion given him by Gyneceia, who, of course, 
 mistook him for Pyrocles. Euarchus, King of Macedon, is appointed to preside 
 at the trials of Gyneceia and the princes. As he is about to pronounce sentence, 
 Basilius awakes, everything is explained and forgiven, the oracle is shown to 
 have been fulfilled without serious injury to any one, and the lovers are united. 
 
 " What is the legend of Asmund and Aswit?" J. M. G. 
 
 Asmund and Aswit were two heroes of Scandinavian folk-lore. They swore 
 eternal friendship, and when one died the other was to accompany him in the 
 grave. Aswit was slain in battle, and the dreadful compact was carried out by 
 Asmund. Dead and living were interred together in a cavern, with their arms 
 and their horses, and a large stone was rolled over the opening. A century 
 passed away, and the Swedes under Eric invaded the country. Inspired by the 
 hope of plunder, they rolled the stone away from the sepulchre. Great was their 
 astonishment to hear within horrid cries, the clash of swords, and the clang of 
 armor. A few moments after, out rushed the hero Asmund, his sword drawn, 
 his armor half torn from his body, his white face smeared with blood. In a wild 
 string of verses he poured forth the story of his hundred years' conflict within 
 the tomb. No sooner, he declared, had the sepulchre been closed, than the corpse 
 of Aswit rose from the ground, inspired by some ravenous ghoul, tore to pieces 
 and devoured the horses that had been buried with him, and then attacked the 
 living champion. Asmund had defended himself manfully, and for a whole 
 century had waged a preternatural combat which had only just ended in his 
 triumph over Aswit, or rather over the demon who tenanted his body. Having 
 chanted these triumphant verses, the mamgled conqueror fell down dead before 
 them. 
 
 EDITOR GOSSIP, Whence the origin of " gall" as applied to individuals 
 who are impudent, or " cheeky" ? for instance, You have lots of gall to make 
 such a statement or request ? 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 C. L. PULLEN. 
 
 Possibly from " Hamlet :" 
 
 For though I am pigeon-livered and lack gall. 
 
 How critics differ 1 No fewer than five correspondents have humorously sug 
 gested that " Ding-Dong," in our No-Name number, was written by the " Sweet 
 Singer of Michigan." Another insists that it must have been Edmund Lear in one 
 of his most nonsensical moods. A well-known poet, on the other hand, calls it the 
 best piece of poetry he has seen for many years, and some of the newspapers have 
 praised it highly, while others have damned it unsparingly. The poem is in truth 
 by one of the greatest and most unique of American writers, Henry D. Thoreau, 
 and bears unmistakable marks of his style.
 
 OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. 139 
 
 The full list of authors in our No-Name number is as follows : 
 
 The Old Adam H. H. Boyesen. 
 
 From Bacon to Beethoven . . Sidney Lanier. 
 
 Ding- Dong Henry D. Thoreau. 
 
 Mr. Sonnenschein's Inheritance . Henry Harland (Sidney Luska). 
 
 The House of Hate .... Helen Gray Cone. 
 
 Among my Weeds .... Joaquin Miller. 
 
 A Little Boy's Talk .... Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt. 
 
 The Portrait and the Ghost . . 8. Weir Mitchell. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar's Wife . . . Edgar Fawcett. 
 
 Old Delaware . Eebecca Harding Davis. 
 
 In vrhat romance does the philosopher Arbaces appear ? W. M. G. 
 
 In Bulwer's " Last Days of Pompeii." He is an Egyptian magician, a melo 
 dramatic compound of great wickedness with great moral and intellectual powers, 
 who lives in barbaric splendor and sensuality. 
 
 Fearless of all restraints of conscience, holding, indeed, that as man had im 
 posed those checks on the vulgar herd, so man could by superior wisdom raise 
 himself above them, he establishes a dominion over the minds and imaginations 
 of others by his knowledge of the secret mysteries of Isis, whose priests are under 
 his control and made the instruments of his crimes. " His fame and his discov 
 eries," says Bulwer, "were known to all the cultivators of magic ; they even sur 
 vived himself; but it was not by his real and worldly name that he was honored 
 by the sorcerer and the sage. He received from their homage a more mystic ap 
 pellation, and was long remembered in Magna Graecia and the Eastern plains by 
 the name of ' Hermes, the Lord of the Flaming Belt.' His subtle speculations 
 and boasted attributes of wisdom, recorded in various volumes, were among those 
 tokens of ' the curious arts' which the Christian converts most joyfully yet most 
 fearfully burnt at Ephesus, depriving posterity of the proofs of the cunning of 
 the fiend." 
 
 Who was the Maid of Kars? S. M. M. 
 
 Your question probably refers to " Ayesha, the Maid of Kars," the heroine 
 of an Oriental romance by James Morier (1834). 
 
 Lord Osmond, a young Englishman, travelling through the remote town of 
 Kars, sees and falls in love with Ayesha, the reputed daughter of a rich old Turk. 
 His audacity in attempting to gain the affections of the maiden brings down upon 
 him the indignation of the Pacha. He is imprisoned, and escapes through the 
 instrumentality of a Khurdish freebooter, who conducts him to the castle of his 
 captain, Cara Bey, a noted robber chief. This gentleman, learning the nature of 
 the offence that had consigned Osmond to the pacha's dungeon, is himself fired 
 with the reported charms of Ayesha, shuts the Englishman up in one of his oubli 
 ettes, makes a midnight foray upon Kars, and succeeds in carrying off the damsel. 
 Osmond, meanwhile, forms a friendship in his prison with a young Russian be 
 longing to a regiment stationed on the neighboring frontier ; and they contrive 
 to open a communication with the Eussian commander, which ends in his being 
 admitted into Cara Bey's castle. The entire gang is seized, and the captives are 
 all liberated. In conclusion, Ayesha turns out to be the daughter of Sir Edward 
 Wortley, is converted to Christianity, and is happily married to Lord Osmond.
 
 140 OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP. 
 
 Who was Vittoria Accoramboni ? H. E. A. 
 
 A lady famous in Italian annals for her beauty and her tragic history, also 
 memorable in literature as the heroine of Webster's tragedy " The White Devil" 
 and of Tieck's romance bearing her name. Briefly told, the facts of her life are 
 as follows. Being forced by her father into a marriage with Francesco Peretti, in 
 spite of her preference for Paolo Giordano Orsini, the Duke of Bracciano (who 
 was currently believed to have murdered his wife Isabella), her husband was in 
 1581 found mysteriously slain. She herself fled to the house of the duke, and 
 not all the opposition of Pope Gregory XIII., who had her confined for a year in 
 Fort St. Angelo, could prevent her marriage to him. Soon after the duke died, 
 leaving the bulk of his fortune to the widow. This so angered Ludovico Orsini, 
 a relative, that he had Vittoria put to death in her palace at Padua, December 22, 
 1585. 
 
 R. J. H. asks whether Clavijo, the hero of Goethe's drama of that name, was 
 a real character. 
 
 Don Jose" Clavijo y Faxardo (1730-1806) was a Spanish journalist and gov 
 ernment official in Madrid. In 1764, under promise of marriage, be betrayed a 
 younger sister of Beaumarchais, living in that town as a milliner. Beaumarchais 
 at once left Paris for Madrid, appeared at Clavijo's house, and challenged him to 
 a duel. The cowardly seducer preferred to renew his promise and to give Beau 
 marchais a written confession that he had been guilty, " without pretext and with 
 out excuse, of breaking his solemn word of honor." But just as Beaumarchais 
 thought that everything had been arranged, he found that Clavijo was treacher 
 ously seeking to throw him into prison. Clavijo had some influence at court, 
 Beaumarchais was friendless and a stranger. Even the French ambassador 
 counselled him to fly ; but the resolute champion of justice remained at his post, 
 and at last fought his way into the very presence of the king. His own eloquence 
 did the rest, and Clavijo was forthwith deprived of his place in the public service. 
 In 1768 Beaumarchais founded upon these incidents his drama of " Eugenie ;" in 
 1772 he published the full details in his " Memoirs," which acquired an extraor 
 dinary popularity. In 1774 the story was utilized in Goethe's drama of " Clavijo," 
 in which the real names of some of the parties were given, though the incidents 
 were slightly altered. In 1785 Marsollier produced a drama on the same subject, 
 " Norac and Javolci" (anagrams of Caron and Clavijo), which was acted at Lyons 
 in the presence of Beaumarchais. And during all this time, it must be remem 
 bered, the unheroic hero of these adventures was alive, and conscious of the 
 unpleasant notoriety he had gained. 
 
 "What is the Felibrige?" asks 0. T. Jones. 
 
 Felibrige is the name assumed by a band of young Provengal poets, Eou- 
 maniho, Mistral, Aubanel, and others, who used to meet together, now here, now 
 there, but oftenest at Avignon, for the purpose of encouraging one another in 
 their work. At a reunion held May 21, 1854, at Font Segugno, the name Feli 
 brige was adopted, the members of the league assuming the title of Felibre. It 
 is said that on this occasion an old, wrinkled woman had appeared, and, as she 
 looked upon the band, exclaimed thrice, " Felibre ! Felibre ! Felibre !" and then 
 vanished. " Let us call ourselves Felibres," cried Mistral ; and so the name 
 began ; but its meaning is very doubtful.
 
 BOOK-TALK. 
 
 THE ONE HUNDRED PRIZE QUESTIONS. 
 
 DEAR GOSSIP, As you know full well, much interest and curiosity has been 
 awakened by your prize questions. Many who are debarred from being com 
 petitors by lack of leisure, insufficient confidence in their own knowledge and 
 patience, and various other causes, are yet eager spectators of the coming fray, and 
 would be glad to see the answers to the brain-racking questions. I doubt not, 
 also, that many a disappointed and forlorn competitor would be comforted by 
 seeing just wherein he failed. Could you not publish the answers of the suc 
 cessful candidate, as well as his name and pseudonyme? 
 
 I am sure that most of your many readers would gratefully appreciate your 
 doing so, and it would be a means of instruction to hundreds of non-competitors. 
 
 JAMES VANCE ANSON. 
 
 The four or five best answers to every question that admits of a difference 
 in the quality of the answers will be published in the Monthly Gossip of L/ip- 
 pincott's Magazine for August, September, and October. The editors of American 
 Notes and Queries (Philadelphia) also announce that they purpose to publish an 
 swers of their own to all the queries, as soon as the competition is over, i.e., 
 beginning with their number for June 23, 1888. 
 
 BOOK-TALK. 
 
 rpO WARDS the close of his long life Richard Baxter, the sternest of Calvinists, 
 -L and the author of numerous depressing works upon theology, wrote as fol 
 lows : " I now see more good and more evil in all men than heretofore I did. I 
 see that good men are not so good as I once thought they were, and I find that 
 few are so bad as either malicious enemies or censorious separating professors do 
 imagine." " The longer we live, the more we find we are like other persons," 
 says Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a recent essay. And George Sand, in her 
 preface to "Andre"," quotes approvingly the Italian proverb, Tutto ilmondo efatto 
 come la nostra famiglia. (" All the world is made like our own family.") These 
 opinions are significant. It is natural for men to believe in Ormuzd and Ahri- 
 man, in heroes and villains, in geniuses and dunces, to paint black very black 
 and white very white, to have sharp division between right and wrong, to give 
 intense worship to the things they believe to be worshipful, and intense hatred 
 to those that are hateful. It is natural also for men to range themselves on the 
 right hand of the Lord, and to surrender the left to those who differ from them 
 in creed, in temperament, in morals, in conventions, in hereditary training, in 
 opinions. Men and races commence by believing themselves the chosen people, 
 their gods the only gods, their prophets the true prophets, their warriors the 
 bravest and most glorious. Outside of the little radius of land that they occupy 
 is terra incognita, inhabited only by barbarians and Philistines. Two cen 
 turies, a century ago, how strange and narrow were the views that European
 
 142 BOOK-TALK. 
 
 nations held of their neighbors ! John Bull and Johnny Crapaud despised and 
 maligned each other. It was only a short time ago that the French discovered 
 that a German could have esprit; only a generation or so back that the English 
 learned they could read an American book ; only in our time that Europe has 
 been surprised to discover a great Eussian literature. 
 
 As with nations, so with individuals. Most men all very young men, cer 
 tainly in their inner hearts believe what the Duchesse de la Ferte" openly avowed 
 to Madame de Stae'l : " It is strange, but I find nobody except myself always in 
 the right." It is natural for us to believe that we have been born into the truth, 
 that we have inherited infallibility, that the feelings we imbibed with our mother's 
 milk represent eternal verities, that our instincts and hereditary tendencies came 
 to us by special favor of the Deity. We thank God we were not born Jews or 
 Mussulmans, or what not, when if we had been so born we should have thanked 
 God for it with the same fervency. We have a natural contempt for foreigners, 
 for men of alien tones of thought. The man of action looks down upon the man 
 of thought, who returns the other's disdain. The poet despises the mathematician, 
 and so on. We naturally hate what we cannot understand. Indeed, that is the 
 true definition of hatred, misunderstanding. If we really understood our enemy 
 we could never hate him, he would cease to be our enemy. There is nothing we 
 resent so much as being misunderstood. There is no person so offensive as the 
 man who deems that he can take our measure as we stand, unless, indeed, it be 
 the woman who has the same conceit of herself and who is continually stroking 
 our fur the wrong way to show how thoroughly she understands us. Yet the 
 misjudgments we object to we are continually visiting upon our neighbor. Haw 
 thorne once purposed writing a tale to show how we are all wronged and wrongers, 
 avenging one another. It is a pity he did not carry his purpose into execution. 
 
 All men are better than they appear on the surface. The world has been 
 too much with them. The divine soul finds itself choked and stifled by the acci 
 dents of temperament and environment ; it is disheartened by the multitudinous 
 contradictions in this paradoxical world ; the brain is stupid and muddled and 
 fails to recognize the right; the flesh is weak: nevertheless the divine soul 
 dwells latent below the surface, and may flare out at any moment in some sudden 
 and unlooked-for manner. 
 
 Each idler I meet in square or in street 
 
 Hath within him what all that's without him belies, 
 
 The miraculous infinite heart of man, 
 With its countless capabilities ! 
 
 ******* 
 
 And the fool that last year, at her Majesty's ball, 
 
 Sickened me so with his simper of pride, 
 Is the hero now heard of, the first on the wall, 
 
 With the bayonet-wound in his side. 
 
 Great emergencies call forth the great soul. War in the twinkling of an eye turns 
 village drunkards and pettifogging lawyers into generals and statesmen. Love 
 transforms Cymon from a brute into a man. Necessity makes Shakespeare a 
 dramatist ; accident reveals to Scott his true powers. The most commonplace
 
 BOOK-TALK. 143 
 
 men and women have passed through the fool's paradise of love, when they were 
 divine beings worshipping divinity, and in that fool's paradise they for a brief 
 moment found their true selves, saw deep into the soul of their consort That 
 flitting dream was in truth an awakening, the brief opening of the spiritual 
 eye. When the world of facts has passed away, our dreams may remain. The 
 man of common sense asks for realities, the poet knows that only illusions are 
 true. 
 
 Look you, the man whom you hate, are there not women who worship him, 
 children who look up to him ? Who sees the true man, you who hate him, or 
 they who love him ? Love is a divine delight, it reaches out over and around its 
 object into the illimitable, it is a part of the Over-Soul, of the Infinite, of God. 
 Hatred is painful, it strains and racks the body, it blinds the vision, it makes 
 man conscious of his mortal limitations. Love sees the virtues that are of the 
 soul, hatred only the diseases of the skin. " All men have their faults, and 
 stealing was Bill's," said a weeping widow over the corpse of a desperado, shot 
 in attempted burglary. And grotesque, ludicrous as the expression may seem, 
 she was right. She knew that not in the robber, the law-breaker, the outcast, 
 did the real man shine forth, but in those rarer moods of kindliness and gen 
 erosity when he was the true friend and husband. Perhaps when two enemies, 
 who have refused to see any good in each other on this earth, meet hereafter in 
 another world free from the muddy vesture of decay which clogs their vision 
 here, the first thought of each will be, " Is this the beautiful soul that I maligned 
 and hated?" 
 
 Most of us feel like good fellows wronged. We know that we should have 
 done better had not the world arrayed itself against us. That is why books 
 like "The New Heloise," "The Robbers," "Werther," "R6n6," " Obermann," 
 "Childe Harold," " Les Mise'rables," wild protests against the whole scheme of 
 society, have so shaken the world and still find young souls to fire and perturb ; 
 why all the various romances of crime, from " Jean Sbogar" to " The Outcasts of 
 Poker Flat," laying bare the native goodness below the criminal exterior, 
 have won perennial popularity ; why the right of the homely heroine to love 
 and be loved as emphasized in " Jane Eyre" electrified all England and America ; 
 why the neglected heroines of Ouida and the hoydens of Rhoda Broughton are 
 favorites with young women ; why Xavier de Maistre's touching " Leper of Aosta" 
 was followed by an epidemic of stories whose heroes were pariahs and outcasts 
 through disease or deformity ; why the persecuted heroine, the maligned hero, are 
 still favorite figures on the stage and in the penny-dreadfuls. 
 
 Wisely and tenderly has George Eliot written, "It is with men as with 
 trees : if you lop off their finest branches, into which they were pouring their 
 young life-juice, the wounds will be healed over by some rough boss, some odd 
 excrescence, and what might have been a grand tree expanding into liberal shade 
 is but a whimsical misshapen trunk. Many an irritating fault, many an unlovely 
 oddity, has come of a hard sorrow, which has crushed and maimed the nature 
 just when it was expanding into plenteous beauty ; and the trivial, erring life 
 which we visit with our harsh blame may be but as the unsteady motion of a 
 man whose best limb is withered." The world judges only results, it recks not 
 of hidden causes. The archangel ruined becomes to the popular imagination a 
 devil with horns and a tail.
 
 144 BOOK-TALK. 
 
 Nor should we be too hasty in blaming the world. Human nature is limited : 
 if it cannot without danger overleap its limitations, then it were wise to work out 
 its salvation within them. It is better to be deep as a lake than broad as a marsh. 
 Hatred is wrong, yet if hatred for things without our line of vision develop or 
 strengthen love for those that are in sight 
 
 (For love and hate, and faith and nnfaith, each 
 Bind great to lesser souls in sympathy), 
 
 then hatred is temporarily right, right relatively, though not absolutely. Speak 
 ing in the abstract, tolerance is better than intolerance ; but the tolerance of in 
 difference is a less potent instrument for good than the intolerance of enthusiasm. 
 Patriotism is mean and narrow and exclusive, a bar to the universal brother 
 hood which the prophet looks forward to ; yet in our present semi-barbaric state 
 patriotism is a virtue that calls out our noblest qualities, which without this 
 stimulus would lie latent and unrecognized. If, in the hurry of existence, we 
 must needs make snap judgments and harsh criticisms or none at all, then for the 
 moment let us content ourselves with such judgments and such criticisms. 
 
 But let us beware of thinking that here is the whole truth. While temporizing 
 for the sake of the present, let us preserve intact our larger hope for the future. 
 It may indeed seem better to be deep as a lake than broad as a marsh. Yet do 
 not let us despair of the marsh. Wait until the kindly waters have penetrated 
 further and widened their circuit. Then the marsh will give place to fertile 
 plains ; flowers will bourgeon and plenteous harvests ripen where before was only 
 an empty waste of water. In the great future that the centuries will bring to 
 men, they may look back with tender pity upon the narrowness and pettiness 
 which the present cannot escape from ; they may recognize that it was necessary 
 for the best interests of the race to go through the narrow and petty period. 
 
 And now whence the object of these reflections, and what is their tendency ? 
 Merely that the Reviewer had certain books on his table which he had been 
 reserving in order the more effectually to demolish them. For months past he 
 has been whetting his teeth and sharpening his knife, making ready to plunge 
 them into the tender, quivering flesh. But he has determined to refrain. Even 
 the greatest literary criminals are his fellows, his equals, mayhap his superiors. 
 " Alas 1" says Heine, " one ought really to write against no one in this world. 
 We are all of us sick and suffering enough in this great Lazaretto, and many a 
 piece of polemical reading involuntarily reminds me of a revolting quarrel in a 
 little hospital at Cracow, where I was an accidental spectator, and where it was 
 terrible to hear the sick mocking and reviling each other's infirmities, how 
 emaciated consumptives ridiculed those who were bloated with dropsy, how one 
 laughed at the cancer in the nose of another, and he again jeered the locked-jaw 
 and distorted eyes of his neighbors, until finally those who were mad with fever 
 sprang naked from bed, and tore the coverings and sheets from the maimed 
 bodies around, and there was nothing to be seen but revolting misery and mu 
 tilation."
 
 CURRENT NOTES. 145 
 
 OTJEEENT NOTES. 
 
 T\ETBIMENTAL food which, by reason of their superior strength, may not 
 Ax seriously affect the health of adults, as is well known, frequently acts upon 
 the more delicate organs of the child to produce disorders of the most serious 
 character. The amount of laudanum or other poison that would be harmless 
 to an adult will cause the death of an infant. This great difference between 
 the vitality of adults and children is too generally overlooked in the prepara 
 tion of food. Because no harm immediately perceptible comes to the adult 
 by the use of an article of food, no thought is given to the effect it may have 
 upon the more delicate organs of inferior age. 
 
 Children diet largely upon cake and bread, and these articles, if light, sweet, 
 and composed of materials that are free from injurious substances, are easily di 
 gested, nutritious, and wholesome. There is a danger to our children, however, 
 lurking in their bread and cake which is too often lost sight of. These articles 
 are now leavened largely by baking powders, and when pure and wholesome baking 
 powders are used they make not only the most palatable food, but one much more 
 wholesome and nutritious than if leavened with yeast or cream of tartar and 
 soda. The trouble arises from the fact, as shown by recent scientific tests by the 
 government chemists and by official boards of health, that all these baking pow 
 ders, with the single exception of the Royal, contain either lime, alum, phosphates, 
 or acids of an injurious character. Therefore when bread or cake is made with 
 the use of these cheap baking powders these ingredients (which are present 
 through the efforts of the manufacturers to produce a cheaper article) pass into 
 the food and are taken into the delicate organs of childhood, where they are the 
 source of very much of the disease with which our children are afflicted. 
 
 Persons who have not strong constitutions, growing girls, young children, 
 and nursing mothers are particularly liable to the evil effects produced by the 
 introduction of the adulterants named as found in the cheap baking powders. 
 Heartburn and the prevalent forms of indigestion are often solely traceable to 
 the action of alum on the delicate coats of the stomach. Prof. Willard Parker, 
 U. S. Surgeon-General Hammond, Prof. Alonzo Clark, most eminent physicians 
 of New York, with scores of others, have written and spoken most earnestly of 
 the evils arising from partaking of such food. There should be as much care in 
 the choice of a baking powder as in obtaining pure milk or in having a pre 
 scription compounded from pure drugs and not from poisons. 
 
 The matter is one of the greatest importance, particularly to the rising gen 
 eration, and while our conservative law-makers are making up their minds as to 
 the proper legislation to stop the sale of the poisonous compounds, mothers will 
 do well to study it carefully. The housekeeper will experience no inconvenience 
 in discarding the use of the adulterated baking .powder, if she has been using it, 
 as the Eoyal Baking Powder, upon the purity and wholesomeness of which all 
 the government chemists agree, is equally accessible ; but she will need to exer 
 cise a close watch upon her packages from the grocer in order to prevent the in 
 ferior brands from creeping into her kitchen unawares. 
 
 In what we have said in reference to the subject of baking powder there is 
 VOL. XLIL 10
 
 146 CURRENT NOTES. 
 
 no intention to disparage the work or the products of those many manufacturers 
 in other lines of food products who, with conscientiousness and liberality, are 
 serving the public with pure and wholesome articles of diet. 
 
 THE origin of the phrase " the bloody shirt" is in a Corsican custom, now 
 nearly, if not quite, obsolete. In the days of the fierce vendette the feuds which 
 divided Corsican family from family bloodshed was a common occurrence. Be 
 fore the burial of a murdered man the gridata was celebrated. This word, which 
 literally means a crying aloud, may be translated " a wake." The body of the 
 victim was laid upon a plank ; his useless fire-arms were placed near his hand, 
 and his blood-stained shirt was hung above his head. Around the rude bier sat 
 a circle of women, wrapped in their black mantles, who rocked themselves to and 
 fro with strange wailings. The men, relatives and friends of the murdered man, 
 fully armed, stood around the room, mad with thirst for revenge. Then one of 
 the women the wife or mother or sister of the dead man with a sharp scream 
 would snatch the bloody shirt, and, waving it aloft, begin the vocero, the lamen 
 tation. This rhythmic discourse was made up of alternate expressions of love for 
 the dead and hatred of his enemies ; and its startling images and tremendous 
 curses were echoed in the faces and mutterings of the armed mourners. It was 
 by a not unnatural transition that the phrase " bloody shirt" became applied to 
 utterances concerning the Southern Rebellion. 
 
 AMONG the many interesting announcements made by Lippincott's Maga 
 zine is that of a new novel, "Mammon," by Maud Howe, the author of "A 
 Newport Aquarelle," " Atalanta in the South," and other very popular novels. 
 " Mammon" has a stirring and original plot. It opens with a remarkably strong 
 scene in a Western mine, the commission of an extraordinary crime to bear 
 the stock thereof, which is said to be founded upon fact. The scene is then 
 shifted to New York, where clever satires are presented of the shoddy and 
 nouveau-riche aristocracy. Maud Howe, it will be remembered, is a daughter of 
 Mrs.' Julia Ward Howe. 
 
 NOVEL-READERS will be glad to hear that Miss Grace King, author of " Mon 
 sieur Motte" and other short stories that have attracted wide attention, is at 
 work on a novel, her first, which will appear complete in an early number of 
 LippincotCt Magazine. 
 
 A NEW novel by Captain Charles King, with a portrait and biographical 
 sketch of that popular author, is also among the forthcoming attractions. 
 
 THE American Notes and Queries (William S. Walsh, editor and publisher, 
 619 Walnut Street, Philadelphia) will contain the following articles in its issue 
 for June 23 : " Thackeray's Characters and their Prototypes," " The Coronation 
 Stone and the Lia Fail," " The City of Is and other Sunken Cities," " The Brides 
 of Enderby," " Abdiel," " The Lie in Literature," " Mascot," " Breaking a But 
 terfly," etc., etc. Subscription, $3 ,00 a year, 10 cents a number. The twelve num 
 bers containing answers to Lippincott's one hundred questions will be sent for $1.00. 
 
 MRS. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX writes to the managers of LippincoWs Mag 
 azine, " What a great story Amelie Rives wrote you I The best of all your novels ! 
 I think her the greatest living woman to-day."
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 "WHAT FOLKS SAY 
 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TO 
 
 THE HAMMOND TYPEWRITER Co.- 
 
 75 and 77 Nassau Street, 
 
 CABINET. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 DR. JAEGER'S S.W.S.CO. 
 
 A GOOD SUGGESTION. 
 
 Before you decide about your Spring and Summer 
 Underwear, for yourself or children, send for the Cata 
 logue (mailed free) of descriptions, illustrations, samples 
 of materials, and price-list of the 
 
 DR. JAEGER'S SANITARY WOOLLEN SYSTEM CO., 
 827 and 829 Broadway, New York. 
 
 SUMMER BOOKS AT A DISCOUNT 
 
 
 "\X7HENEVER you want a Book, or informa 
 tion about Books, write to F. E. GRANT, 
 7 West 42d Street, New York. Write for " Spe 
 cial Offer Slips," lists of recent Novels, and other 
 Books for Summer reading. 
 
 ^Typewriter Headquarters^ 
 
 NEW YORK, CHICAGO. 
 
 IS 
 
 The best place to buy aWriting Machine 
 
 of any make. The largest variety of 
 
 instruments in the world, at very 
 
 low prices. 
 
 MACHINES RENTED, 
 sold, bought and exchang 
 ed. Typewriter supplies, 
 attachments, and nov 
 elties in abundance. 
 
 70 
 
 BUOAOWAV, 
 JT. Y. City. 
 
 Address as 
 above. 
 
 144 
 
 LA SALLE ST., 
 Chicago. 
 
 R 
 
 OYAL 
 
 A large invoice of Royal Worcester Table 
 China has just been received by Ovington 
 Brothers too late for the spring trade. 
 
 Not wishing to carry it over until fall, they 
 have decided to offer it for sale at a very small 
 advance on the importation cost, and in lots to 
 suit purchasers. 
 
 Heretofore it has been difficult to obtain 
 Royal Worcester China except in complete sets j 
 but now single pieces or any small combinations 
 desired may be obtained. 
 
 Sets of plates in half dozens, with dishes to 
 correspond; lunch sets, course sets, and dessert 
 sets at the same proportionate price as if an 
 entire set were sold. 
 
 Descriptive list and prices may be had of 
 
 Ovington Brothers, 
 
 250 Fulton Street, 
 
 BROOKLYN, N.Y. 
 145 State Street, 
 CHICAGO.
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 PRECIOUS 
 STONES. 
 
 \nirn .., 
 
 Bailey, 
 
 Don I/O fc. Chestnut and 12th Sts., 
 Dd.il I\O OL Philadelphia. 
 
 Biddle, 
 
 Direct Importers of 
 
 Fine Diamonds, Rubies, 
 
 Emeralds, Sapphires, 
 
 P,,rls. 
 
 Precious Stones Jewelry 
 mounted in latest forms 
 of Pendants, Bracelets, 
 Brooches, Solitaire Ear 
 rings, Solitaire Rings. 
 
 Purchasers are invited jo 
 correspond. Selections 
 of latest design sent on 
 approval. 
 
 
 Do Not Ignore Self. 
 
 HE who does his duty to others leaves a part undone if he neglect his duty 
 to himself. " To thine ownself be true," meaning duty to others, as well, 
 was sage advice. But self-sacrifice, which is supposed to be the equivalent 
 of duty, and often is, may not be the wisest form. Duty and sacrifice may both 
 be tempered, prudently tempered, with an enlightened selfishness; and 
 who shall say they ought not ? 
 
 If life-insurance had a single function, merely the payment of so much 
 money when Jones or Smith died, either could credit himself with a duty dis 
 charged, when he thus made provision for his family. And the world would 
 approve. His memory would be tenderly revered. 
 
 But did he do his whole duty ? Was nothing due to himself? By what 
 chance was it that he escaped the poverty of old age, the pinch and pressure 
 of want which come to ninety-seven out of a hundred ? Was it by being one 
 of the three who escape the law ? Or did he fortunately die young. 
 
 No ; by combining with his care for others a little thought for himself. By 
 so ordering his insurance that, while protection for the family is continuous, he 
 shall also have an income, an adequate income in the form of an annuity for 
 his old age. 
 
 The end is laudable ; the means are at your hand. Why not reach out and 
 obtain an ENDOWMENT ANNUITY BOND of the Penn Mutual 
 Life? 
 
 Full information on inquiry in person or by mail. Home Office, 921 and 
 923 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
 
 LIPPINCOTT*S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 WM. D. ROGERS, SON & CO., 
 
 Coach Builders 
 
 -A.ISTID 
 
 HAKNESS MAKERS, 
 
 1007, 1009, and 1011 Chestnut St, 
 
 is a concentrated liquid extract of Malt 
 and Hops. It is considered by emi- 
 
 Inent physicians to be far superior to 
 any imported article. The " Best 
 Tonic " cures Dyspepsia ; it will tone 
 and strengthen the system, aids diges 
 tion, and is an excellent substitute for solid food. Of priceless value to nursing mothers. Sold 
 by all druggists. Manufactured by Specialty Dept. Ph. Best Brewing Co., Milwaukee, Wis. 
 
 ^CARRIAGES 
 
 FOR TOWN AND COUNTRY. 
 
 COLORED DESIGNS SENT UPON REQUEST. 
 
 WAREROOMS: NOS. 1712-1714 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 PAINT YOUR ROOFS 
 
 with DIXON'S SIOCA-GRAPHITK paint. It 
 will last for yean. Water will run from it pure and 
 clean, and it will giy you better satisfaction than any 
 other paint. Send for circular. 
 
 JOS. DIXON CRUCIBLE CO., 
 
 JERSEY CITY, N. J. 
 
 600 Handsomely Furnished Rooms at 
 $1.00 per day and upwards. % 
 
 FIRST-CLASS RESTAURANTS AT MODERATE PRICES. 
 
 Chit-its' Baffffffe to and /r*m Grand 
 Centra! JDep** JPV. 
 
 Travellers can live well at the Grand Union for 
 less money than at any other first-class hotel in 
 New York. 
 
 Send fie. in Stamps for the best Guid^e 
 to A> ir York City ever issued,! 98 page* 
 and map.
 
 LIPPJNCOrrS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 ENTIRELY REVISED AND REWRITTEN. 
 
 ?*\ /nr r 
 
 's J^ncyclopaedia. 
 
 
 0) 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 o 
 
 Z 
 
 M 
 
 Rg. 1. From Brass of Sir Fig. 2. Complete Suit of 
 John de St Quintin, 1397: Plate-armour, beginning 
 of 16th Century : 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 a 
 
 Vol. I. Now Ready. Containing 3100 Articles, 313 Wood- Engravings, and 12 Maps. 
 
 EDITED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 
 
 W. & R. CHAMBERS . 
 
 J. B. IvIPPIIVCOXT COMPANY, Philadelphia. 
 
 Imperial 8vo. To be completed in Ten Volumes, issued at intervals of a few months. Price per vol. : 
 Cloth, $3.00; Cloth, uncut, $3.00; Sheep, $4.00; Half Morocco, $4.50. 
 
 OPINIONS OF TIIR PRESS. 
 
 N. Y. WORLD "One of the most valuable works of reference in exist 
 ence." 
 
 ST. JAMES GAZETTE (LONDON) . . "No book of its size gives more information, or gives it, 
 
 on the whole, with greater accuracy." 
 
 BOSTON HERALD "No book beside the Bible and the handy dictionary 
 
 can be said to be more important." 
 
 BOSTON ADVERTISER "Could we own but one Encyclopaedia, Chambers's 
 
 would be that one." 
 
 LIVERPOOL MERCURY "The new Encyclopaedia will be a library in itself, and 
 
 will be certain to be highly appreciated wherever 
 the English language is spoken." 
 
 If not obtainable at your Booksellers', send direct to the Publishers, who tv ill forward the ivork, 
 free of postage, promptly on receipt of the price. 
 
 J. B. UPPINCOXX COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 715 and 717 Market Street, Philadelphia.
 
 LIPPINCOTT'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 THE BOOK OF THE YEAR. 
 
 From the Original 
 Manuscript. 
 
 "89. 
 
 By 
 EDGAR HENRY. 
 
 PAPER, 75 CENTS. EXTRA. CLOTH, 81.35. 
 
 " Under the non-committal but very suggestive title of ' Eighty-nine,' Cassell & Company publish one of the 
 most unique and curious of books. It is a story based on the possibilities of the present socio-political conditions, 
 written from a stand-point so new and singular that it seems strange that it should not before have attracted atten 
 tion, and yet so full of probability that the reader is startled with the thought that what is therein described may 
 at any moment occur. Unlike all other works of this character, the climax is not reached by any absurd appeal to 
 force, but by a quiet and simple evolution of social forces, the growth and character of which are set forth with a 
 ort of blundering forcefulness that half conceals the art which underlies the weird forecast it rivets in the reader's 
 consciousness." 
 
 MANNERS. 
 
 A HAND-BOOK OF SOCIAL CUSTOMS. EN 
 DORSED BY THE ELITE OF NEW YORK. 
 l6mo, new style of binding, 50 cents. 
 
 WiLLiAM OF GERMANY 
 
 A Biography of WILLIAM I., German Emperor 
 and King of Prussia. By ARCHIBALD FORBES, 
 the famous war correspondent, with preface 
 and additions by JOHN P. JACKSON. I vol., 
 I2mo, extra cloth, $1.50. 
 
 A NEW BOOK BY MAX O'RELL, AUTHOR OF 
 "JOHN BULL AND His ISLAND," ETC., ETC. 
 
 JOHN BULL, JR.; 
 
 OR, FRENCH AS SHE is TRADUCED. With an 
 Introduction by GEORGE GARY EGGLESTON. 
 I vol., l6mo, boards, 50 cents; cloth, gilt 
 top, $1.00. 
 
 " There is not a page in this delightful little volum* 
 that does not sparkle." Philadelphia Prett. 
 
 " A volume bubbling over with brightness, and is per* 
 vaded with wholesome common-sense." Commercial 
 A dvtrtiser. 
 
 "More the casual wit of a bright and well-bred man 
 than the labored jokes of a professional jester. Boston 
 Beacon. 
 
 FOR SUMMER READING. 
 
 CASSELUS SUNSHINE SERIES 
 
 CHOICE COPYRIGHT FICTION. 
 
 To be issued Weekly in I2mo Volumes. Price, 50 cents in paper; extra cloth, $1.00. 
 
 The Veiled Beyond. By S. B. ALEXANDER Ready May loth. 
 Orion, the Gold Beater. By SYLVANUS COBB, JR. 
 Two Men. By ELIZABETH STODDARD. 
 
 No. 19 State Street. By DAVID G. ADEE. 
 
 Brown Stone Boy and Other Queer People. By W. HENRY 
 BISHOP. 
 
 Bewitched. By Louis PENDLETON. 
 
 Another's Crime ; from, the Diary of Inspector 
 Byrnes. By JULIAN HAWTHORNE. 
 
 OTHER VOLUMES IN PREPARATION. 
 
 iis\itl rkl-JOl/ ( Complete Descriptive Catalogue of our Publi- 1 __.._ _. _ _ 
 N U W RFA OY 1 cations is now ready, and will be sent free to any > Q L /V I I ft L L. , 
 
 ( address on application. SEND FOR IT NOW. ) 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, 
 
 1O4 and 106 Fourth Avenue, 
 
 NEW YORK.
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 ARCHIVES OF PEDIATRICS. 
 
 A MOXXHI^Y JOURNAL. 
 
 DEVOTED TO THE DISEASES OP INFANTS AND CHILDEEN. 
 Subscription Price, $3.00 per Year. 
 
 In addition to the regular contributions, the following valuable series 
 of scientific articles are being published in the ARCHIVES OF PEDIATRICS. 
 
 I. THERAPEUTICS OF INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD, 
 
 by A. JACOBI, M.D., Clinical Professor of Diseases of Children in the Col 
 lege of Physicians and Surgeons, President of the New York Academy of 
 Medicine, etc. 
 
 The plan and scope of these articles are given in the following extract 
 from Prof. Jacobi's letter to our editor: 
 
 " I will prepare an essay of ten or twelve pages for every monthly issue of your journal. 
 The subjects will be therapeutical. The first paper will probably contain general principles 
 in their application to the disorders of early age. The following will treat of the thera 
 peutics of the diseases of the newly-born, of developmental and infectious diseases, those of 
 the organs of circulation and respiration, genito-urinary organs, stomach, and other ab 
 dominal viscera, muscles and bones, skin, nervous system, etc. Other subjects which will 
 be treated of afterwards are certain classes of remedies, such as anaesthetics, narcotics, 
 anti-febriles, purgatives, absorbents, roborants and stimulants, etc. If there be time and 
 room, the most interesting diseases, such as epilepsy, chorea, whooping-cough, and growths, 
 may become the subjects of special papers." 
 
 Began in January and will run through the year. 
 
 II. THE SYPHILITIC AND GENITO-URINARY DISEASES OF 
 
 INFANTS AND YOUNG CHILDREN, 
 
 ' 
 
 by F. R. STURGIS, M.D., Professor of Venereal and Geni to-Urinary Di- 
 eases in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, etc. 
 These articles will cover the following, especially, viz. : 
 
 1. General considerations of syphilis in children and the methods by which it may be 
 acquired. 
 
 2. Lesions of the skin and mucous membranes in syphilitic children. 
 
 3. Lesions of the bones, viscera, and nervous system in syphilitic children. 
 
 4. Affections of the eye, ear, and teeth in syphilitic children. 
 
 5. Treatment of infantile syphilis and its sequelae. 
 
 6. Diseases of the bladder and urethra in children. 
 
 7. Functional disorders of the genito-urinary organs. 
 
 8. Medico-legal aspects of venereal diseases in children. 
 
 Began in January and will run to August. 
 
 III. THE MEDICAL DISEASES OF THE MOUTH IN CHILDREN, 
 
 by F. FORCHHEIMER, M.D., Professor of Diseases of Children in the Medical 
 College of Ohio, at Cincinnati. 
 
 Begin in September and run through the year. 
 
 This is the only Magazine in America devoted exclusirely to the 
 DISEASES OF INFANTS AND CHILDREN. 
 
 The volume begins with the January number, but subscriptions may 
 begin at any time. 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 ttS ana 719 Hnrktit Strrft, Philadelphia. 
 
 6
 
 LIPPINCOTT S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 A MAGNIFICENT AND UNRIVALLED WORK. 
 
 A New Variorum Edition of 
 
 SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 Edited by HORACE HOWARD FURNESS. 
 
 In large 8vo Volumes. Superfine Toned Paper, Pine Cloth, Uncut Edges. Gilt Top. 
 
 In this New Variorum edition of SHAKESPEARE will be found : 
 
 first. On the same page with the text, a collation of the ancient copies, folio and quarto, 
 and of the majority of modern critical editions. 
 
 Secondly. The notes (also on the same page with the text) of all the editors whose texts 
 are collated, together with other notes, emendations, conjectures, and comments from all sources 
 accessible to the editor and deemed worthy of preservation. 
 
 Thirdly. In an appendix will be found reprints of those early quartos which are so unlike 
 the received text as to preclude the possibility, within the restricted limits of foot-notes, of giving 
 an intelligible record of their collation with other editions. Also, criticisms and illustrations 
 from English, German, and French sources, too voluminous to be incorporated in the commen 
 tary on the same page with the text. A volume will be devoted to each play, and will be wholly 
 independent of the rest 
 
 EOMEO AND JULIET, MACBETH, HAMLET, ZIN& LEAR, OTHELLO, 
 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 PRICE PER, VOLUME, 8-4. OO. 
 
 For sale by Booksellers generally, or will be sent, post-paid, on receipt of the price 
 by the Publishers, 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Philadelphia. 
 
 DR. ALLIBONE'S NEW WORK. 
 
 GEEAT AUTHOES OP ALL AGES. 
 
 BEING SELECTIONS FROM 
 
 THE PROSE WORKS OF EMINENT WRITERS FROM THE 
 TIME OF PERICLES TO THE PRESENT DAT. 
 
 By S. AUSTIN ALLIBONE, LL.D., 
 
 Author of "A Critical Dictionary of British and American Authors," "A Dictionary 
 of Poetical Quotations," etc., etc. 
 
 8vo. Extra cloth, $3.00. Extra cloth, gilt, $3.50. Half ealf, gilt, $5.00. 
 Turkey antique, $7.00. 
 
 " This is the fourth work in the invaluable series, the preparation of which Mr. Allibone 
 has made the task of his life, devoting to the work not only his rare scholarship, but also a per 
 sistence of industry which is little less than astonishing." New York Evening Pott. 
 
 " It is a book of rare merit, and embodies a vast amount of classic matter that honors the 
 English language. The large number of the authors and the variety of the subjects give it the 
 character of a library in itself. The diversity, style, and classical finish of most of the matter, 
 next to the food for the mind, moulds almost imperceptibly the channels of thought of the reader, 
 and creates a love for the higher realms of literature. Pittsburgh Evening Telegraph. 
 
 S&~ For sale by Booksellers generally, or will be sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of the 
 price by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 7 IS and 717 Market Street, Philadelphia. 
 
 7
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 SHOPPING IN SEDAN CHAIRS IN THE LAST CENTURY. 
 
 Queen Charlotte's Visit to Pears', for Soap for her Complexion, a Hundred Years Ago. 
 
 8
 
 J-B'LlPPIHCOTT"CAPA!iy$ 
 
 ^"^ f, S- -^ r A fiJ f" ^) >/ /> * > *~ / ^ 
 
 1MII.AI>EII'III.V, JUI.Y, 1888. 
 
 T-HIS BULLETIN contains A LIST of our NEW PUBLICATIONS, with brief 
 notices of their contents, etc., together with an announcement of WORKS 
 now IN PRESS to be issued shortly. 
 
 Our Publications are for Sale by Booksellers generally, or if not obtainable of 
 them, will be sent by mail, post-paid, upon receipt of price. 
 
 JUST ISSUED. 
 Animal Life of the Sea-Shore. 
 
 By ANGELO HEILPRIN, Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Academy 
 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia ; author of " The Geological Evidences 
 of Evolution," "Town Geology," "The Lesson of the Philadelphia Rocks," 
 " The Geographical and Geological Distribution of Animals" (International 
 Scientific Series), etc. Fully Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth. $1.25. Paper. 
 50 cents. 
 
 A popular treatise, interesting to sojourners by the sea, special attention being given 
 to the New Jersey and Long Island coasts. 
 
 Sruetoris Bayou and Miss Defarge. 
 
 No. 2 of The Series of American Novels. By JOHN HABBERTON, author of 
 " Helen's Babies," and FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT, author of " That Lass o' 
 Lowries." Complete in one volume. Square 12mo. Extra cloth. $1.00. 
 Paper. 50 cents. 
 
 " Brueton's Bayou," by John Habberton, the author of " Helen's Babies," is a beau 
 tiful picture of Southern life on the banks of the Mississippi. In originality of motive 
 and in freshness of treatment it stands alone among recent novels. 
 
 " Miss Defarge" needs no praise further than that it is from the pen of Mrs. Prances 
 Hodgson Burnett. It is a charming story, skilfully managed, and possesses an interest 
 equal to the author's most popular works. 
 
 The Deserter and From the Ranks. 
 
 No. 1 of The Series of American Novels. By CAPT. CHARLES KING, author of 
 
 " The Colonel's Daughter," " Marion's Faith," etc. Square 12mo. Extra cloth. 
 
 $1 .00. Paper. 50 cents. 
 
 " A pleasant addition to summer reading." Boston Journal. 
 
 "These novelettes are good examples of the vivacious and graceful style of Captain 
 King, a writer who steadily increases in popularity both at home and abroad." Philadel 
 phia American. 
 
 "The plot and style are excellent." Savannah News. 
 
 "No military novels of the day rival those of Captain King in precision and popu 
 larity." Boston Courier. 
 
 " The piazza and hammock haunter will be hard to please who cannot find enjoyment 
 in these capital stories." Boston Advertiser. 
 
 9
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 
 m 
 
 The Merchant of Venice. 
 
 VOLUME VII. OP THE VARIORUM EDITION OP SHAKESPEARE. Edited by 
 HORACE HOWARD FURNESS. Royal 8vo. Cloth extra. Gilt top. $4.00. 
 
 "A large and extremely handsome volume, with every perfection of mechanical 
 features, containing the text of the first folio, with notes that enable one to study Shakes 
 peare as the Greek poets are studied, weighing every phrase, every word, every syllable." 
 New Fork World. 
 
 " Among the well-nigh innumerable editions of Shakespeare, there is none more 
 scholarly, more exhaustive, or in every way satisfactory than the Variorum Edition, 
 edited by Horace Howard Furness. So complete is the treatment received in this last 
 edition, ' The Merchant of Venice,' that it is diiScult to see that anything more remains 
 to be said concerning the play." Boston Courier. 
 
 " The admirers of the great bard will have no criticisms to make upon the series. It 
 is the best work of a profound Shakespearian scholar, everywhere marked by honesty, 
 and backed by authentic historical facts, and will stand as an authority for all the time to 
 come." Chicago Inter -Ocean. 
 
 " We have here what Shakespeare wrote and what his contemporaries read, and in 
 this sense we are Shakespearians. No statement of the extent and variety of matter which 
 Mr. Furness has collected from all sources, and with an intelligence which no earlier 
 editor of Shakespeare has evinced, and included in his appendix, would show what and 
 how admirable it is how just, how wise, how impartial, and how scholarly." New York 
 Mail and Express. 
 
 "There certainly is no other edition of Shakespeare that throws so much light on 
 these dramas, gives such an interesting view of what has been written about them, and 
 shows how they have been dressed and acted." Albany Law Journal. 
 
 Over the Divide, and Other Verses. 
 
 By MARION MANVILLE. With a Portrait of the Author. 12mo. Extra cloth. 
 81.50. 
 
 " Miss Manville is a facile writer, with the power of expressing her varying moods in 
 easy, rhythmical verse, which is almost always smooth and musical, and which always con 
 tains a thought. 'Her manner is direct and simple, and her verses have the charm of 
 nature." Boston Writer. 
 
 " Most excellent work in the collection, and the book, as a whole, is the superior of 
 many of its kind." Chicago Journal. 
 
 "The poems are nearly all marked by a graceful fancy, .an appreciative love of the 
 beautiful in nature and the refined in man, and few volumes of poems have appeared of 
 late years in which musical facility of phrasing has been so generally displayed." Chicago 
 Times. 
 
 "Every one of the poems in this handsome book is a gem. The first, 'Over the 
 Divide,' is as good as anything Bret Harte or Will Carleton has written." Milwaukee 
 Sunday Telegraph. 
 
 Daphne. 
 
 A Novel. By " RITA," author of " Vivienne," " Like Dian's Kiss," etc. No. 86 
 of I/ippincotfs Series of Select Novels. Half cloth. 50 cents. Paper. 25 
 cents. 
 " It is a story of lofty genius and passionate love." Boston Glole. 
 
 Too Curious. 
 
 By EDWARD J. GOODMAN. 16mo. Half cloth. 50 cents. Paper. 25 cents. 
 No. 85 of Lippincott 's Series of Select Novels. 
 
 " An interesting story with an original plot, written in a most charming manner. 
 It holds the reader from the first to the last page." Baltimore American. 
 
 "The author of 'Too Curious' has done a real service, both to readers and writers, 
 by proving that even now a novel can be produced which is at once artistic, thrilling, and 
 original." London Tablet. 
 
 "Powerful and fascinating, it will take its place among the best of novels." Boston 
 Home Journal. 
 
 10
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS OF J. B. LIPPINCOJJ COMPANY. 
 
 A Life's Mistake. 
 
 By MRS. H. LOVETT CAMERON, author of " In a Grass Country," " Pure Gold,' 
 " Vera Nevill," " Worth Winning," etc. Half cloth. 50 cents. Paper cover. 
 25 cents. No. 84 of Lippincott's Series of Select Novels. 
 " It will be a mistake of your life if you don't read it." Texas Siftings. 
 " Mrs. Cameron has a wide circle of admirers by whom her works are always welcomed. 
 In this work she appears at her best." Baltimore News. 
 
 " 'A Life's Mistake' is like an April day, full of sunshine and tears, that end in a 
 glorious sunset." N. 0. Picayune. 
 
 " It is short, bright, and wholesome, and the heroine who tells her own story does it 
 in easy, graceful language." Philadelphia Bulletin. 
 
 Chambers^ Encyclopedia. 
 
 A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge. Edited and Published under the Auspices 
 of W. & R. CHAMBERS, Edinburgh, and J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Phila 
 delphia. Entirely Revised and Rewritten. Complete in ten volumes. To be 
 issued at intervals of a few months. Volume I. now ready. Price per vol. 
 Cloth. $3.00. Cloth, uncut. $3.00. Sheep. $4.00. Half morocco. $4.50. 
 " Practically a new book. Of course, it does not contain everything in the way of 
 knowledge now known in the world, but it has more of that sort of thing than ninety out 
 of every hundred people will ever use ; and then it is of so practicable a character. You 
 seek and you come quickly at the solution ; you have not to read page on page of type to 
 find what you want, it is right under your eyes. There is possibly no encyclopaedia in the 
 English language so good, so useful, and so cheap as this, and young men who wish to 
 advance themselves among men, or young women keenly alive to the intellectual charms 
 of women, ought to avail themselves of this opportunity to buy at the beginning of the 
 publication, and go on, volume by volume, to the end, thus not feeling the outlay of 
 money, and, as they get them volume by volume, sit themselves down and go over every 
 page, noting what is thereon. You have no conception how much you will pick up in 
 that way." Providence Book Notes. 
 
 "The publishers express the confidence that they are offering to the English-speaking 
 world a really new and greatly improved editon of a work which has already proved so 
 popular. In this expectation they do not deceive themselves. Nothing but praise can be 
 bestowed upon the work, which is of such superior merit that it should find a place in every 
 library. " Burlington Hawkeye. 
 
 Spinoza. 
 
 The twelfth volume of Philosophical Classics for English Readers. By JOHN 
 
 CAIRD, Principal of Glasgow University. With Portrait. 16mo. Cloth. $1.25. 
 
 " Dr. Caird's ' Spinoza' is as fine a piece of analysis and criticism as a devoted Hegelian 
 
 could give us. He does justice to all the nobleness of the man and the thinker. He sees 
 
 an ethical purpose permeating the whole structure of a system which begins by eliminating 
 
 human freedom and responsibility and yet ends with the love of God so unselfish as to 
 
 demand no love from God in return. He sees in his teaching the suggestion and prophecy 
 
 of what modern philosophy has been able to achieve in realizing the same idea as Spinoza 
 
 had, but in a better way. We know of no better or more readable book on the subject 
 
 than this." Philadelphia American. 
 
 Large Fortunes ; or, Christianity and the Labor 
 
 PROBLEM. By CHARLES RICHARDSON. 12mo. Extra cloth. 75 cents. 
 
 " Mr. Richardson has got hold of a mighty puzzle and has written thoughtfully about 
 it. He wrestles manfully with the matter and contributes to its literature a good many 
 bright and fresh ideas. We have read his little volume with pleasure, and feel no hesita 
 tion in commending it fully and without reserve." New York Herald. 
 
 "As fair and temperate a discussion of the labor problem as has been lately produced 
 on that vexed subject. The style and temper of the book is admirable and kindly, and 
 will be thoughtfully perused by all earnest readers." Chicago Evening Journal. 
 
 " Mr. Charles Richardson discusses in a simple and attractive style the origin and 
 effects of large fortunes and the cure for the evils which he believes to attend their exist 
 ence. The book contains just views upon many points. The style is lucid, the spirit fair, 
 and the purpose benevolent, while there is throughout an appearance of sincere conviction 
 that wins the respect and sympathy of the reader." Washington Public Opinion. 
 
 11
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 
 A Treatise on Mine- Survey ing. 
 
 For the Use of Managers of Mines and Collieries. By BENNETT H. BROUQH, Asso 
 ciate and Demonstrator of Mine-Surveying at the Royal School of Mines, London, 
 England. With Numerous Illustrations. 300 pages. Crown 8vo. Cloth. $2.50. 
 A most important and accurate work on a subject which has been but imperfectly 
 treated heretofore. It describes the most approved forms of American instruments and 
 the methods used in the unusually accurate surveys made in the Pennsylvania Anthracite 
 mines, as well as those adopted in the survey of metalliferous mine-claims in the Western 
 United States. The usual British mine-surveying practice is also duly discussed, and the 
 elaborate methods in use on the continent of Europe are described, it is believed for the 
 first time, in the English language. Proper attention is given to the recent developments 
 of stadia-surveying in connection with mining operations, and a chapter is devoted to the 
 use of the magnetic needle in prospecting for iron ore. 
 
 Construction of Bridges. 
 
 A Manual of the Construction of Bridges. By T. CLAXTON FIDLER. With 
 Two Hundred and Thirty Engravings printed in the text, and Twenty-six 
 Full-page Plates. 8vo. 420 pages. Extra cloth. $7.50. 
 
 The object aimed at in this work is to examine the practice of bridge-construction, 
 and the experimental facts on which it is based, in the light of reasonable theory, and to 
 state the theory of bridge-construction in such a practical form as will be most useful for 
 the purposes for which it is employed; regarding the theory simply as a means to a prac 
 tical end. and not as a field for the employment of learned research. 
 
 " Mr. Fidler belongs to the new school, and for them he has written a book which is 
 an admirable account of the theory and process of bridge-design, at once scientific and 
 thoroughly practical. It is a book such as we have a right to expect from one who is him 
 self a substantial contributor to the theory of the subject as well as a bridge-builder of 
 repute." London Review. 
 
 Picked Up in the Streets. 
 
 A Romance from the German of H. SCHOBERT. By MRS. A. L. WISTER. 12mo. 
 Extra cloth. $1.25. 
 
 " It is an entertaining, romantic story, with a healthy moral. The pathos is genuine, 
 and those who figure in it are unexaggerated types of human nature. It may be read 
 with profit and pleasure by old and young." Boston Gazette. 
 
 " Most excellent and interesting, as Mrs. Wister has a way of putting life into any 
 thing which she changes into English." Toledo Blade. 
 
 " Will take its place among the best of the stories in Mrs. Wister's lengthy list." 
 Philadelphia Evening Telegraph. 
 
 "One of the best novels given us from the 'German for some time." Boston Home 
 Journal. 
 
 Pleasant Waters: A Story of Southern Life 
 
 AND CHARACTER. By GRAHAM CLAYTOR. 12mo. Extra cloth. $1.00. 
 
 u Very readable indeed. We laid the book down with the feeling that the author had 
 done his work well. We haven't books enough on the Southern people. The vein has 
 been worked, but the mine has not been thoroughly developed. The Southern people and 
 their struggles during and since the war are an extremely interesting theme for the novelist 
 to handle. There are the old-fashioned planters, who never were and never can enter into 
 the spirit of the new regime; the young men of the New South, who have rolled up their 
 sleeves and are making themselves a force in the Kepublic; and the darkey, the everlasting 
 darkey, with his fun, his ignorance, his tragedies, his comedies of errors, and his determi 
 nation to get hold of the right end of things some time and to make a man of himself. 
 The author has ploughed in this field and turned up some good furrows." New York 
 Herald. 
 
 " The story is a quiet one, well told, and interesting." New York Times. 
 
 The Old Adam. 
 
 A Romance by H. H. BOYESEN. Published complete in Lippincotfs Magazine 
 for May, 1888. 25 cents. Half cloth. 50 cents. 
 
 "A novel that displays great strength and talent." New York Morning Journal. 
 "Delightfully written, worthy of one of our best hands." Brooklyn (N. Y.) Times. 
 " It will be read by all with pleasure." Topeka (Kansas) Democrat. 
 
 12
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS OF J. B. LIPPINC07T COMPANY. 
 
 Beautiful Mrs. Thorndyke. 
 
 By MRS. POULTNEY BIGELOW. Published complete in Lippincotfs Magazine for 
 June, 1888. 25 cents. Half cloth. 50 cents. 
 
 " A thrillingly interesting story of New York life, and is worthy of the highest 
 praise." Philadelphia Sunday Mercury. 
 
 "A highly meritorious novel." Albany (N. Y.} Press. 
 
 "One of the brightest, most winsome, and wholesomest of recent works of fiction." 
 Camden Coast Guide. 
 
 " It may be recommended as good summer reading." New York Morning Journal. 
 
 The Quick or the Dead? 
 
 AMLIE RIVES'S First Novel. With a Portrait of the Author. Published com 
 plete in Lippincotfs Magazine for April, 1888. 25 cents. Half cloth. 50 
 cents. 
 
 "The novel is exceedingly striking, full of color-language, like a brilliant painting, 
 and strong in its drawing, like a magnificent etching." Pennsylvanian. 
 
 " It has splendor of imagination and exquisite description ; perfect figures, with all 
 the hurried, quick movement of its dramatic incidents ; is almost perfect in execution." 
 Lafayette Sunday Leader. 
 
 A Blind Lead. 
 
 The Story of a Mine. By JOSEPHINE W. BATES. 12mo. Cloth extra. $1.25. 
 
 " It is certainly a powerful book. We took it up indifferently enough, but we had 
 read a few pages only before we found it was no ordinary work by no ordinary writer. A 
 good deal of skill is shown in the drawing of character. There are no dull pages, and the 
 interest is continuous from the first chapter to the last. We do not envy the state of any 
 one who can read this book, alive with noble feeling as it is, and then toss it lightly aside 
 without having been moved by it in the least. We know nothing of the author beyond 
 what the book may indirectly reveal, but, as we before stated, she is no ordinary writer, 
 and if anything we have here said shall induce any of our readers to examine the book 
 for themselves, we are reasonably sure that they will agree with us." Boston Advertiser. 
 
 " There is much of the pathetic in the little story, and one's heart will ache more than 
 once before the book is finished." Kansas City Times. 
 
 Practical Lessons in Nursing. 
 
 I. MILLS. Nervous and Insane. 
 
 II. KEATING. Maternity; Infancy; Childhood. 
 
 III. BRUEN. Management of Diet. 
 
 IV. WILSON. Practical Lessons in Nursing. 
 
 12mo. Extra cloth. Price, each, $1.OO. 
 
 "The principles involved and tender care of the sick necessitated caution to cultured 
 aid and learned requirements. There is a growing demand for skilled nursing, and these 
 works are calculated as a text for learners, while they lead the practitioner to better results. 
 Neglect of earnest requirement alone can militate against the merits of these books." St. 
 Louis Med. Journal. 
 
 tl Valuable books that should find entrance into every home." Philadelphia Press. 
 
 " It would be well if they could be generally read, for nurses for the sick cannot 
 possess too much knowledge." Texas Record of Medicine. 
 
 " Books that will be found useful for tho*se who are in training to become nurses, but 
 may be read advantageously by those not professionally inclined." N. Y. Times. 
 
 Doctor and Patient. 
 
 By S. WEIR MITCHELL, M.D., LL.D., HARV., author of " Fat and Blood, and 
 How to Make Them," " Wear and Tear ; or, Hints for the Overworked," etc. 
 12mo. Extra cloth. $1.50. 
 
 " There are few in the medical profession who have the gift of writing in as charming 
 a way as Dr. Mitchell, and in this little book the author appears at his best. There is such 
 a medley of humor, pathos, seriousness, and good sense that the reader is fascinated from 
 the beginning, and is loath to lay it down till finished." Ind. Med Journal. 
 
 "For all women who desire to have strong nerves, the kind, appreciative, wise, and 
 firm words of Dr. Mitchell are a godsend and a guide." Boston Post. 
 
 13
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 
 Diseases of the Skin. 
 
 A Manual for Practitioners and Students. By W. ALLAN JAMIESON, M.D., F.P.C., 
 P.E., Physician for Diseases of the Skin, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, etc. Illus 
 trated with Wood-Cuts and Oolorpd Plates. 8vo. Extra cloth. $fi.50. 
 " It covers the whole field of skin diseases. Facts are stated positively, and opinions 
 are well guarded by the personal experiences of eminent clinicians. It is a systematic 
 work well adapted to the wants of the student as well as the practitioner." Richmond 
 ( Va. ) Medical Monthly. 
 
 Handy Edition of Thackeray's Works. 
 
 Complete in 27 vols. "Denis Duval," etc., 1 vol. "Paris Sketch- Book," 1 vol. 
 " The Four Georges," etc., 1 vol. " Sketches and Travels," etc., 1 vol. " Christ 
 inas Books," 2 vols. " Roundabout Papers," 1 vol. " Ballads," 1 vol. " Lovell 
 the Widower," 1 vol. " Book of Snobs," 1 vol. " Fitzboodle Papers," 1 vol. 
 " Yellowplush Papers," 1 vol. " Major Gahagan," 1 vol. " Great Hoggarty 
 Diamond," 1 vol. " Irish Sketches," 1 vol. " Adventures of Philip," 2 vols. 
 "Henry Esmond," 1 vol. "The Virginians," 2 vols. "The Newcomes," 2 
 vols. " Barry Lyndon," etc., 1 vol. " Pendennis," 2 vols. " Vanity Fair," 
 2 vols. 16mo. Half cloth. 50 cents per vol. Half morocco. 81.00 per vol. 
 
 A Tale of Two Cities. (1 Vol.) 
 
 Just Ready. Handy Edition of Dickens's Works, to be completed in 30 vols. 16mo. 
 Previously issued : " Dombey and Son," 2 vols. ".A Child's History of Eng 
 land," 1 vol. " Old Curiosity Shop" and Reprinted Pieces, 2 vols. " Edwin 
 Drood and Miscellanies," 1 vol. "American Notes," etc., 1 vol. " Bleak 
 House," 2 vols. " Barnaby Rudge," 2 vols. "Pickwick Papers," 2 vols. 
 " Christmas Stories," 1 vol. " Sketches by Boz," 1 vol. " Nicholas Nickleby," 
 2 vols. " Great Expectations," 1 vol. " Martin Chuzzlewit," 2 vols. " Christ 
 mas Books," 1 vol. "Oliver Twist," 1 vol. "David Copperfield," 2 vols. 
 Half cloth. 50 cents per vol. Half morocco. $1.00 per vol. 
 In Course of Preparation. " Our Mutual Friend," 2 vols. " Uncommercial 
 Traveller," 1 vol. " Little Dorrit," 2 vols. 
 
 The clear type, fine thin paper, with uncut edges and neat binding, make these little 
 books as elegant as one need wish, while the low price will enable all lovers of Dickens to 
 possess, at a very small outlay, a good edition of his works. 
 
 BOOKS IN PRESS. 
 
 Stanley to the Rescue. The Relief of Emin 
 
 PASHA. By A. WAUTERS, President of the Royal Geographical Society of 
 Belgium. Translated by ELLEN E. FREWER. With- Map and Thirty-four Illus 
 trations. 12mo. Cloth extra. $1.50. 
 
 An Elementary Treatise on Human Anatomy. 
 
 By JOSEPH LEIDY, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. 
 
 A Popular History of Music, 
 
 MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, BALLET, AND OPERA, PROM ST. AMBROSE TO MOZART. 
 By JAMES E. MATTHEW. One Hundred and Fifty Illustrations, consisting of 
 Portraits, Musical Instruments, Fac-Similes of Rare and Early Musical Typog 
 raphy, etc. 
 
 Embroidery and Lace. 
 
 By ERNEST LEFEBVRE, Translated from the French, with about One Hundred and 
 Fifty Illustrations. One volume. Large 12mo. 
 
 14
 
 NEW PUBLICATIONS OF J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 
 Laconisms on All Sorts of Subjects ; 
 
 OR, THE WISDOM OP MANY IN THE WORDS OP ONE. By J. M. P. OTTS, D.D. 
 
 The Bronte Novels. 
 
 Handy Edition. Seven volumes. Uniform with the Handy Editions of Thackeray 
 and Dickens. 
 
 Half-Hours with the Best Foreign Authors. 
 
 Translations selected and arranged by CHARLES MORRIS. 4 vols. Crown 8vo. 
 Uniform with " Half-Hours with the Best American Authors." Also an Edition 
 de Luxe, limited to one hundred copies. In 4 vols. Octavo. 
 
 A Cyclopaedia of Diseases of Children 
 
 AND THEIR TREATMENT, MEDICAL AND SURGICAL. Edited by J. M. KEATING, 
 M.D. 
 
 The Chemical Analysis of Iron. 
 
 A Complete Account of All the Best-Known Methods for the Analysis of Iron, 
 Steel, Pig-iron, Iron Ore, Limestone, Slag, Clay, Sand, Coal, Coke, Furnace, and 
 Producer Gases. By ANDREW ALEXANDER BLAIR, Chief Chemist United 
 States Board, Appointed to Test Iron, Steel, and Other Metals, 1875 ; Chief 
 Chemist United States Geological Survey and Tenth Census, 1880. Octavo. 
 
 A New Novel. 
 
 By MRS. H. LOVETT CAMERON, author of "A Life's Mistake," " In a Grass 
 Country," "Pure Gold," etc. 
 
 A New Novel. 
 
 By the " DUCHESS," author of " Marvel," " The Duchess," "A Modern Circe," etc., 
 etc. 
 
 The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Percy 
 
 BYSSHE SHELLEY. Edited, Prefaced, and Annotated by RICHARD HERNE 
 SHEPPERD. Each Volume Complete in Itself. 
 
 POETICAL WORKS IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. 1. " The Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson," " The Wandering 
 Jew," " Queen Mab," "Alastor, Rosalind, and Helen," " Prometheus Unbound," 
 "Adonais," etc. 
 
 VOL. 2. " Laon and Cythna," " The Cenci," " Julian and Maddalo," " Swellfoot 
 the Tyrant," " The Witch of Atlas," " Epipsychidion," " Hellas." 
 
 VOL. 3. " Posthumous Poems," " The Masque of Anarchy," and Other Poems. 
 
 PROSE WORKS IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. 1. " Two Romances of Zastrozzi and St. Irvyne," "A Refutation of Deism," 
 
 " Letters to Leigh Hunt," etc. 
 VOL. 2. " The Essays," " Letters from Abroad," " Translations and Fragments," 
 
 " Bibliography of Shelley," and an Exhaustive Index. 
 
 In Sets of Five Volumes. Cloth. 6.25. Half morocco, gilt top. $10.00. 
 Three-quarters calf. $15.00. A Large Paper Edition is also in Preparation 
 (Only One Hundred Copies Printed). $20.00. 
 
 15
 
 HEW PUBLICATIONS OF J. B. LIPPINCOT7 COMPANY. 
 
 ENTIRELY REVISED AND REWRITTEN. 
 
 (^hambers's i^ncyclopaedia, 
 
 0) 
 
 w 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 z 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 2. 
 
 Tissandier's Controllable Balloon. 
 
 Honey Ant (Myrmecocystug mexicanus) : a, natural size. 
 
 oo 
 
 Vol. I. Now Ready. Containing 3100 Articles, 313 Wood-Engravings, and 12 Maps. 
 
 EDITED AND PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF 
 
 \V. & R. CHAMBERS . . . Edinburgh, 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Philadelphia. 
 
 Imperial 8vo. To be completed in Ten Volumes, issued at intervals of a few months. Price per vol. : 
 Cloth, $3.00; Cloth, uncut, $3.00; Sheep, $4.00; Half Morocco, $4.50. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 N. Y. WORLD "One of the most valuable works of reference in exist 
 ence." 
 
 ST. JAMES GAZETTE (LONDON) . . "No book of Its size gives more information, or gives it, 
 
 on the whole, with greater accuracy." 
 
 BOSTON HERALD "No book beside the Bible and the handy dictionary 
 
 can be said to be more important." 
 
 BOSTON ADVERTISER "Could we own but one Encyclopaedia, Chambers's 
 
 would be that one." 
 
 LIVERPOOL MERCURY "The new Encyclopaedia will be a library in itself, and 
 
 will be certain to be highly appreciated wherever 
 the English language is spoken." 
 
 If not obtainable at your Booksellers', send direct to the Publishers, who will forward the work, 
 free of postage, promptly on receipt of the price. 
 
 J. B. JUIPPINCOXX COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 715 and 717 Market Street, Philadelphia.
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 NT BINDING Of ALL 
 
 MANUFACTURED BY 
 
 HOLME S , BO OTH & HAY DE N S . 
 
 FACTORIES WATERBURY CONN. 
 
 25 Rirk Place aml22 Mimay Street, New York. 
 
 National School of Elocution ani Oratory 
 
 JAMKS K. MURDOCH, President. 
 
 Sixteenth yenr begins September 24th. Large and 
 experienced staff of teachers, each a specialist. Three 
 graduating courses. Grants diplomas and confer* de 
 grees. Catalogue, containing full information, sent upon 
 application to the Secretary, 
 
 CECIL HARPER, 
 '_- 1134 Arch Street, Philadelphia. 
 
 IfARRY FJILLMAN ACADEMY, 
 
 \viMii:s-K VKUI:, PA. 
 
 One of the best fitting schools in the country. Every 
 graduate who went to college last year entered without 
 condition. No boy will be received without the best ref 
 erences. As the limit of capacity is nearly reached, 
 early application should be made. 
 
 EDWIN L. SCOTT, A.M., Ph.D., Principal. 
 
 BROOKE HALL FEMALE SEMINARY, 
 
 MEDIA, DELAWARE CO., FA. 
 
 This school, standing firmly on its well-earned reputa 
 tion, under the same Principal for thirty-three years, 
 commences its Fall Session September igth. 
 
 M. L. EASTMAN, Principal. 
 
 PARK PLACE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, 
 
 1416 Park Avenue, BALTIMORE, MD. 
 
 English, French, and German Boarding and Day School 
 for Young Ladies and Little Girls. Jiooo per year (no 
 extras) for thorough education in Languages, Music, Art, 
 and the domestic duties of a home. Reopens Sept. aoth, 
 1888. Beautiful location near Druid Park. Superior 
 Professors and Teachers. Only 20 Boarders received. 
 Prepares for Smith's College and Harvard Annex. 
 European vacation parties. For catalogues address 
 MISS M. R. HECKART, Principal. 
 
 11 n D T UAiirt writing thoroughly taught, 
 nUnl'nftllU by mail or personally. 
 ott-Browne College, 1006 Chestnut St., Philadelphia. 
 
 T ADIES 1 write for terms. 3.00 sample corset tree to 
 1 - agents. LEWIS SCHIBLB & Co. ,390 Broadway, N.Y. 
 
 3ft. Auburn Institute. BMaMUM* 18M. 
 
 Family Sotiool for Young Ladiei. Hiiterr aad Litrtnr 
 a ipcaialty. Careful Horn* Trininj and Social Culturs. 
 Musie and Art. Advantaf > of Cincinnati mad* arailabl* to 
 pupil t. European Vacation partiei. 
 
 Addrnif H. THANE MILLER. CimmUTL OHIO. 
 
 128 S. ELEVENTH ST.. 
 
 A NEW MAGAZINE FOR LADIES. 
 
 THE UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE, 
 
 An illustrated Monthly for Fashions, Ladies' and 
 Children's Dresses, Home Literature, and Household 
 Notes. One Dollar a year. Single copies ten cents. 
 Published by the 
 
 UNIVERSAL FASHION COMPANY, 
 
 40 East 12th St., New York, N. Y. 
 
 A NEW MONTHLY FOR HOME AND SCHOOL, THE 
 
 KINDERGARTEN. 
 
 $2.00 t year. ALICE B. STOCSHAM & CO., Chicago, 111. 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA (BISMINOHAM) MOUNTAIN SEMINARY. 
 A Thorough School for Young Ladies. Situation noted 
 for health. Thirty-second year. Modern appliances. 
 Special buildings for Music and Art. Certificate admits 
 to any college. Send for Illustrated Catalogue. 
 A. R. GRIER, Business Manager. Miss N. J. DAVIS, Principal 
 
 A. W. FABER'S 
 
 LEAD PENCILS, 
 
 UNEQUALLED IN 
 QUALITY 
 
 THE OLDEST AND BEST 
 OF ALL PENCILS. 
 
 PEN HOLDERS 
 RUBBER 
 
 ERASERS. 
 PENCIL 
 
 SHARPENERS. 
 
 If you cannot obtain 
 these Goods at Stationers, 
 send 30 cts. fer samples of 
 same. 
 
 FABER'S PATENT 
 
 PENCIL 
 
 COMPASSES. 
 
 SAMPLES, 15 CTS.
 
 LIPPINCOTT % S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 To Business Men. 
 
 T TNCEASINGLY at it, writing, figuring, selling, indoors most of the time. Brain throb- 
 bing, eyes sleepy, appetite variable don't feel good anywhere. Brain and hands do all 
 the work, get all the exercise too much work, too much consolidated exercise. Treat yourself 
 as your common sense advises others, give the majority of the body a chance, exercise, 
 combine pleasure and business with it, see nature, eat, sleep, and be happy. Ride a cycle, and 
 be particular to ride one of the thirteen Columbia Cycles for 1888. 
 
 THK MOST COMPREHENSIVE CYCLING CATALOGUB FREE. 
 
 POPE MFG. Co., GENERAL OFFICES, 79 FRANKLIN ST., BOSTON. 
 
 Branch Houses: 12 Warren St., New York; 291 Wabash Ave., Chicago. 
 
 Bicycles anil Tricycles 
 
 for Gentlemen, Ladies, Boys, and 
 Miwes. 20 EimSENT STYLES in 
 High and Low-Priced Wheels. Be- 
 fore you purchase see our large 
 Illustrated Price-List. Sent on re 
 
 ceipt of stamp. 
 
 The John WUMmon Co., 55 State Stwt, Chicago, 111 
 
 USPALDING&BROS, 
 
 Have introduced for the 
 season of 1888 a superior 
 Socket for expert players, 
 called the SLOCUM price, 
 $8. In addition they offer 
 many norelties in the line 
 of Nets, falls, Poles, etc. 
 
 Send for Catalogue of 
 Summer Sports. 
 A. G. SPALDINQ & BROS., 
 241 Broadway, New York. 
 108 Madison St., Chicago. 
 
 BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, AND VELOCIPEDES. 
 
 STRONG & GREEN, 
 
 54 N. Fifth St., Philadelphia, 
 
 AGBNTS FOR THE 
 
 STAR BICYCLES 
 
 SEND FOR CATALOGUE. 
 
 WANAMAKER'S. 
 
 If you want things for head-wear, or hand-wear, or foot-wear, or any wear. 
 If you want things for house-furnishing or for house-keeping. If you want 
 things for decorating or amusement. If you want anything that makes home 
 brighter and life pleasanter. You think of Wanamaker's. Why? 
 
 Because at Wanamaker's you know just the thing you want may be had, if it 
 is a proper thing for the biggest store in the world to keep. You know that 
 what you want will be there, and that the price will be fair. 
 
 You can write for anything you want, and get it just as well as if you came 
 to the store. Anything. We have a little army of people who do nothing but 
 buy for those who write for things. 
 
 More people write for Dress Goods than anything else. That's natural. No 
 other store in America sells so many Dress Goods. 
 
 Just the same in degree with a hundred other things. We sell more books 
 at retail than any other store in the country. Any getable book is here (or we 
 will get it), and the price is always a fair one. Watch our new-book table, or 
 watch BOOK NEWS, which will keep you posted about the new books as they 
 drop from the presses, and tell the Wanamaker price with price by mail. An 
 author-portrait with each number. 50 cents a year. Sample copy by mail free. 
 
 Take Shoes our Shoe, the Wanamaker "Wearwell," for men, $3. Tan 
 nery calf vamp, goat upper, no side seams, smooth insole, plain or capped toe ; 
 in Congress, lace, or button. Sent anywhere for $3, and warranted. 
 
 Do you wonder that fourteen acres of floor-space is scant to do our busi 
 ness in ? 
 
 JOHN WANAMAKER, 
 
 IS 
 
 Philadelphia.
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 /> 
 
 IN THE WORLD. 
 
 _ 
 
 AWARDED 
 
 _ 
 
 y^& 
 
 These glnei are need in the Smithsonian Institute at Waihlngton, 
 for all its works of mounting gpecimens, by the Qorernment Arse- 
 nU and Department buildings, by the Pullman Palace Car Co., 
 Mason ft Hamlin Organ and Piano Co., and by thousands of flrst- 
 olas manufacturers and mechanics throughout the world, for all 
 kinds of nne work. Pronounced the STRONGEST ADHE 
 SIVE KNOWN. No other gluet have the record of 1620 pound* 
 to the iqttan inc/i. The total quantity sold between January 1880 and 
 1887, in all parts of the world, amounted to over Forty-seven 
 Million bottles. No short measure, no acid, no humbug in Gen 
 uine L.e Page's Glue*. Remember that they are unequalled 
 for repairing all kinds of Furniture, Glass, China, Ivory, 
 Books, Leal her, Musical Instruments, Statuary, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 To avoid the public being deceived by th many glues flooding the 
 market, some with high-sounding names, others imitating our adrer- 
 tisements, trade-marks, and name as near as they dare, we hare 
 commenced putting the autograph below on all the Genuine La Page's 
 Olnes. 
 
 Sample by mail, 20 cents (stamps). Mention this journal. 
 
 GLOUCESTER, MASS. 
 
 No Acid in LePage's Glues. 
 
 Oar Ute*t ityle Patent Cm exclude! air. Safe 
 for the pocket. Patent Wiper. Brash *4JuitabU 
 to amount of Glue In the Can. 
 
 STRAWBRIDGE & CLOTHIER, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 THE LARGEST STORE IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO 
 
 DRY GOODS. 
 
 Commodious Beading, Besting, and Betiring Booms have been care 
 fully arranged for the comfort of all visitors. 
 
 THE BUREAU OF INFORMATION 
 
 and the PACKAGE DEPARTMENT will be found a great convenience 
 to visitors who may choose to avail of either. 
 
 OUR MAIL ORDER DEPARTMENT, 
 
 organized on a broad scale, renders at all times the most prompt and 
 satisfactory service. 
 
 OUR STOCK 
 
 includes full and complete lines of everything in the lines of Dry 
 Goods that the market* of the world afford. 
 
 MARKET, EIGHTH^FILBERT STS., PHILADELPHIA.
 
 LIPPINCOTT'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 A TWELVE-ROOM MODERN HOUSE OF LOW COST. 
 
 The floor plans, full description and cost (for different localities) of the above house 
 
 AND OF 60 OTHER BEAUTIFUL HOUSES AND COTTAGES, 
 
 ranging in cost from $650 to $3,000, are given in Shqppell's latest pamphlet of designs (32 large 
 pages), which will be mailed to any address, post-paid, on receipt of 25 cents (stamps or silver). 
 Address R. "W. SHOPPELL, ARCHITECT, C3 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. (Mention this paper.) 
 
 ; Humphrey's Manual of Typewrit- 
 ! ing, Business Letter-Writer, and 
 ! Exercises for Phonographic Prac- 
 I tice. Price, $1.50; post-paid, $1.60. 
 j Humphrey's Interlinear Phono- 
 j graphic Lessons for Self-Instruc- 
 j tion ; six months' course, $25. In 
 terlinear Short-Hand Text-Book, 
 j $2. Enclose stamp for pamphlet 
 
 ' and specimen pages. 
 
 Humphrey'* Phonographic and Typewriting 
 Intitute, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 "STAMMERING," 
 
 And all defects of speech Permanently cared. 
 
 The Philadelphia Pretbyterian editorially remarks : 
 " Prof. Johnston's Institute is considered the largest and 
 most complete in its appliances of any in the U. S. His 
 testimonials from Geo. W. Childs, Prop. Phila. Ledger, 
 John Wanamaker, Prof. H. C. Wood, of the University 
 of Pennsylvania, and other eminent citizens, are of the 
 very highest character, and show that he enjoys the full 
 est confidence of men of that class." 
 
 For full information, send for pamphlet to E. S. JOHN 
 STON, nth and Spring Garden Sts., Philadelphia. 
 
 HOMOEOPATHY. 
 
 mortality was 6.07, at Bellevue, 12.05, an d at Black well's 
 Island, 12.03. The cost of medicine was 43 cents at first 
 and $1.46 per head at last two. At Ward's Island the 
 treatment is Homoeopathic; at the others Homoeopathy 
 U not " recognized." Comments would be wasted. We 
 mail our Book-Catalogue and Family Medicine-Case 
 Price- List free. For single remedies, by mail, send 25 
 cents. BOERICKE & TAFEL, Homoeopathic Phar 
 macists and Publishers, ion Arch St., Philadelphia, Pa., 
 145 Grand St., New York, 36 E Madison St., Chicago. 
 If i */* .(.* F,ntiil>liNliri1 in 
 
 THE LEADING "ENGLISH SPARROW GUN. 
 
 SEND2c. STAMP FOR DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULARS. BY EXPRESS, IN 
 
 AWOODFN BOX PREPAID ANYWHERE IN U.S. WITH 125 PROJEC 
 TILES. $2.00. ENGLESPRINGGUNCO.,HAZLETON,PA. 
 
 DRUNKARD 
 
 There is no happiness either for you or your family, 
 your wife or your children, while you continue spending 
 money for rum. Make a change at once for the better. 
 Get one bottle of 
 
 PFEII/S ANTIDOTE 
 
 for alcoholism, costing but a dollar, and in less than a 
 week you will have done with liquor forever. Sold by 
 all druggists and at office, 
 
 No. 155 North Second St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 Send for circular. Shipped to all parts of the world. 
 
 IMPROVED 
 
 "ECLIPSE" COPYING APPARATUS. 
 
 The best duplicating process extant. One thousand 
 copies in black only equalled by lithography. Perfect 
 fac-similes of your Handwriting. In many cases 
 " Eclipse" circulars have been taken for ordinary 
 written letters. Specimens and circulars on application. 
 
 FELIX F. DAUS & CO., 
 
 OSO Hrntnlirfi}/, \t-ir York. 
 
 WRIGLI lY'S SOAP 
 
 SJL"VIQ 
 
 a 
 
 A Silver-Plated Teaspoon. 
 GROCERS SELL IT. 
 
 FOR. 12 FOR. 2O 
 
 A Silver-Plated Sugar-Shell. A Silver-Plated Butter-Snife. 
 
 THE WRIGLEY MFG. CO., Philadelphia, Pa.
 
 LIPPINCOTrS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 English Compact Cameras. 
 
 Compactness is 
 the principal fea 
 ture of this Cam 
 era. We have in 
 it all the desirable 
 facilities possible, 
 combining great 
 lightness with rig 
 idity, perfection of 
 detail with sim 
 plicity and ease of 
 working in small 
 est space, and 
 with the least 
 weight, and every 
 convenience and 
 facility possessed 
 by any Camera. 
 
 A partial front 
 view of theCamera, 
 folded, showing the 
 sunken tripod top, 
 with clamping 
 screw in centre. 
 
 Send IO Cents for 1888 
 Edition Illustrated Catalogue, ISO 
 
 Brimful of new and improved apparatus. 
 
 The Amateur Guide in Photography. 
 
 THE REVISED EDITIOJV 
 
 It Is not an advertisement foi the publishers' goods, but is filled with 
 advice and valuable information gleaned from a knowledge of the 
 beginner's requirements gained by constant contact with students 
 in Photography, while acquiring their knowledge of the art, extend- 
 lng x over a period of seven years. Sent, post-paid, on receipt of 
 
 THE BLAIR CAMERA CO. 
 
 208 State St., Chicago. 918 Arch St., Philadelphia. 
 
 OFFICE AND FACTORY: 
 471,473, 4T5 <fc47T Tremont St., Boston, Mu*. 
 
 pages. 
 
 Barnes' Patent Foot Power Machinery. 
 
 Workers of Wood or Metal, 
 
 without steam power, by using outfits of these 
 Machines, can bid lower, and save 
 more money from their jobs, thant 
 by any other means f or doine their 1 
 work. Also for INm'STUIAI.* 
 SCHOOLS or Home TltAlNING. 
 With them boys can acquire practi 
 cal journeyman's trade before they 
 "go for themselves." Send for Cata 
 logue. W. F. & JOHN BARNKSj 
 CO., No. 5^3 Ruby St., Kockford, 111.' 
 
 ASTHMA 
 
 WATERLOO ORGANS 
 
 are noted for unequalled quality of tone, su 
 perior finish and design, of eases. Tttey pump 
 one-half easier than any other tna.de. 
 
 BEST IN THE WORLD. 
 
 In localities where we have no agents will 
 sell direct to public at wholesale prices, for 
 prices and catalogues, address 
 
 MALCOLM LOVE & CO., 
 
 Waterloo, X. P. 
 
 RICHARD BINDER, 
 
 IMPORTER OF 
 
 French Human Hair ani Hair Goods. 
 
 Elegant Front Pieces, Braids, Wigs, 
 
 IN STOCK OR MADE TO ORDER. 
 
 Hair Dressing, Cutting, and Shampooing. 
 
 Weddings and Parties Attended. 
 
 Binder's " PHYTALIA" positively cures dand 
 ruff and strengthens the hair. 
 
 THIRTEENTH, ABOVE CHESTNUT ST r , 
 
 OPPOSITE WANAMAKER'S. 
 
 HAY FEVER. 
 
 VJEVAY, IND., Feb. 9, 1888. 
 Your ASTHMA CURE has effected an 
 entire cure in my case. I have no more 
 asthma, my appetite is good and I am 
 gaining in flesh. I had asthma in its 
 worst form : my physician said mine was 
 as bad a case as he ever saw. If anyone 
 doubts the genuineness of this or wishes 
 to know anything more from me on the 
 subject, if he will write me, I will take 
 pleasure in answering him promptly. 
 
 JAS. K. PLEASANTS. 
 
 Judge Daniel Peck, Wheeling, W. Va., 
 writes: 
 
 I got a full set of your HAY FEVEE 
 medicines, and took them till the last 
 symptom of the disease departed. I have 
 recommended them to all my acquaintances 
 troubled with hay fever. I consider them 
 a specific for that disease. 
 
 Respectfully, DANIEL PECK. 
 
 PAMPHLET FREE ON BEQUEST. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 THE L. A. KNIGHT CO. 
 
 15 East Third Street, CINCINNATI, 0. 
 
 THAT 
 SAVES 
 
 MOST LABOR 
 ^PURCHASE GEAR 
 
 Saves half the labor of other 
 wringers, and costs but little more. 
 
 The CLOTHES. 
 
 Solid White Kubber Rolls. Warranted. Agents 
 wanted everywhere. Empire W. Co.. Auburn. N. Y 
 
 JHE AMERICAN CYCLES 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE 
 
 ON APPLICATION. 
 GORMUIlYaJEFEERY 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 tsi MANUFACTURERS IN AMERICA 
 
 "AS YOU LIKE IT." 
 
 Installment Flan or CASH. 
 BICYCLES, TRICYCLES, VICTOR, 
 VICTOR, JR., VICTOR SAFETY, 
 SPALDINC'S PREMIER. For full 
 particulars address with stamp, 
 
 i.G.SPALDING & BROS 
 
 108 Madison St., Chicago.. 
 241 Broadway, New York. 
 
 W 
 
 ANTED Ladies and Misses to do crochet- 
 work at home ; city or country ; steady work. 
 WESTERN LACE MFG. CO., 
 
 218 STATE St., CHICAGO, ILL. 
 
 TA YSPEPTICS, incurable preferred, WANTED. Ad- 
 JL/ dress J.J. F. Popp,Phila. , Pa. Mention this magMine. 
 
 PURE SPICES 
 
 COOKINCTXTRACTS, 
 
 17 North Eleventh St., Philadelphia, Fa. 
 
 n 
 
 21
 
 LIPPINCOTT S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 CURE THE DEAF 
 
 PKCK'S PATTEST IMPROVED CTTSH- 
 
 juries to the natural drums. Invisible, 
 comfortable, always in position. Mo- 
 
 Bo oor Mtw or, for 
 illustrated book of proofs JfKHK. 
 
 FURIY1AN 
 
 STEAM 
 
 HEATER 
 
 Is guaranteed to furnlih more heat per lb. 
 of fuel burned than any other appa 
 ratus in the world. Maie in 16 sizes. 
 BUBHS SftUALLT WILL HASH OB 
 SOFT COAL. Send for full illustrated 
 Catalogue. Address 
 
 HEKENDEEN MFG. CO., GENEVA, > .Y. 
 
 $2.00 ONLY! 
 
 OF 
 
 The Art Amateur. 
 
 Send this advertisement and two dollars, before Sep 
 tember ist, 1888, DIRECT TO THE PUBLISHER, 
 and you will receive 
 
 9 MONTHS' SUBSCRIPTION 
 
 (April to December, 1888, regular price $3), including 
 100 PA3BS OF DESIGNS in black and white, working size, 
 admirably adapted for Oil and Water-Color Painting, 
 Tapestry Painting, China Painting, Church and Home 
 Embroidery, Wood Carving, Brass Hammering, and 
 other Art Work ; and 200 PAOtZS Of TZIT richly illus 
 trated and crowded with interesting and valuable articles, 
 with abundant hints for Home Decoration and Fur 
 nishing. 
 
 PRACTICAL 
 
 ARTICLES! 
 
 Sketching from Nature; 
 Hints to Art Teachers; 
 Lessons in China Paint 
 ing; Hints about Char 
 coal Drawing ; Wood 
 Carving and Designing; 
 Portrait Posing and 
 Painting; very full and 
 Simple Instructions for 
 
 FLOWER AND LANDSCAPE 
 
 Painting In Oils and "Water Colors. 
 Five different Specimen Numbers with Five Beautiful 
 Colored Plates (of our selection) will be sent on receipt 
 of this (LIPPINCOTT, July) paragraph and one dollar 
 (regular price $1.75). Address 
 
 MONTAGUE MARKS, 23 Union Square, N.Y. 
 
 U COLORED 
 PLATES: 
 
 i. Cherries _ April 
 
 *. Laughing Man May 
 
 3. Red Roses June 
 
 4. Ferns July 
 
 5. Golden Rod Aug. 
 
 6. Birds of Paradise... .Sept. 
 j. Stormy Ceast Scene.-Oct. 
 
 8. Water Lily Nov. 
 
 9. Moonlight L'dscape.Nov. 
 10. "Hearts are Trumps"Dec. 
 ti. Winter Landscape. ..Dec. 
 
 |N OFFICE BUILDINGS, 
 
 with 17. S. Mail Chutes, (pat'd), 
 
 and the 17. S. free collection ser- 
 
 I vice, tenants mail letters without 
 
 M going down stairs. Write for par- 
 
 ^^ titulars, The Cutler Mfg. Co., 
 
 ^^ Rochester, N.Y., Sole Makers.' 
 
 Dobbins' Electric Soap. 
 
 THE BEST FAMILY SOAP 
 IN THE WORLD. 
 
 It is Strictly Pnre. Uniform in Quality. 
 
 THE original formula for which we paid $50,000 
 twenty years ago has never been modified or 
 changed in the slightest. This soap is iden 
 tical in quality to-day with that 
 made twenty years ago. 
 TT contains nothing that can injure 
 * the finest fabric. It brightens colors 
 and bleaches whites. 
 
 TT washes flannels and blankets as no other soap in 
 * the world does without shrinking leaving them 
 soft and white and like new. 
 
 READ THIS TWICE. 
 
 H1HERE is a great savins of time, of labor, of 
 J soap, of fuel, and of the fabric, where Dobbins' 
 Electric Soap is used according to directions. 
 QNE trial will demonstrate its great merit. It 
 v will pay you to make that trial. 
 T IKE all best things, it is extensively imitated' 
 f* and counterfeited. 
 
 J3eware of Imitations. 
 
 TNSIST upon Dobbins' Electric. Don't take 
 * Magnetic, Electro-Magic, Philadelphia Electric, or 
 any other fraud, simply because it is cheap. They will 
 ruin clothes, and are dear at any price. Ask for 
 
 ..<>.-<$. DOBBINS' ELECTRIC -><> 
 
 and take no other. Nearly every grocer from Maine to 
 Mexico keeps it in stock. If yours hasn't it, he will or 
 der from his nearest wholesale grocer. 
 
 T3 EAD carefully the inside wrapper around each bar, 
 
 J^- and be careful to follow directions on each 
 
 outside wrapper. You cannot afford to wait longer 
 
 before trying for yourself this old, reliable, and truly 
 
 wonderful 
 
 Dobbins' + Electric * Soap. 
 
 THE FEANKLIN 
 
 BOOK-RACK and DICTIONARY-HOLDER 
 
 36 inches high, 19 inches wide, 
 20 inches deep. 
 
 Ash $8.00 
 
 Ebony Finish 10.00 
 
 Cut 2 shows the Rack with a Ref 
 erence-Book ready for use. 
 
 Cut 3 shows the Rack with 
 Atlas or Folio ready for use. 
 Large folios between the up 
 rights, and heavy volumes, like 
 Dictionaries or Gazetteers, rest 
 ing in the cross-pieces in front. 
 
 NIMS & KNIGHT, 
 
 Manufacturers, TROY, N.Y, 
 
 WANTED All Foundrymen to send for Keim's 
 WaUr Jacketed Cupola Furnace Catalogue. It's 
 the best one put and a great labor-saver. Mining men 
 should send for a catalogue of Smelting Machinery and 
 Diamond Bit Rock-Drill, that brings up a solid core 1000 
 ft. Address Hartsfeld Furnace Co., Limited, Box 459, Cincinnati, 0. 
 
 P 
 
 ^ 
 
 ARLOW'S INDiCO BLUE. 
 
 IU m.riW ai a WASH BLUB bar* Um fall? tautcd and 
 eadon*d jr tkovMttdl of honMfeMpwi. Ymr mwr ought 
 U kr it on ml*. Aak kin for it D. S. WIIJTBBXOKR, 
 Proprietor, 2S3 Ifertk Seeond gtTMt, Fhlla4*lphia > fa.
 
 LIPPINCOTT'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 Capital and Surplus, $1,140,000. 
 
 SAM'L M. JARVIS, President. 
 ROLAND R. CONKLIK, Secretary. 
 
 Guaranteed Mortgages, Debenture Bonds, 
 
 AND 
 
 Investment Securities. 
 
 989 Broadway, Jtfew fork, 
 18 West 8i*th Street, Santas City, Mo., 
 144 South fourth Street, Philadelphia,. 
 
 THE 
 
 Fidelity and Casualty Company 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Nos. 214 and 216 Broadway, N.Y. 
 
 CAPITAL, $ 50,000.00. ASSETS, Jan. i, '88, |64,iai.j2. 
 
 Isiues SURETY BONDS guaranteeing the 
 fidelity of person* in positions of trust, such as Em 
 ployees of Railroads, Banks, etc., also Administrators, 
 Guardians, etc. 
 
 Issues ACCIDENT POLICIES, containing 
 all modern features. 
 
 Also PLATE GLASS AND BOILER 
 POLICI ES of approved forms. 
 
 OFFICERS: 
 WM. M. RICHARDS, President. 
 
 GBO. F. SEWAKD, Vice- President. 
 JOHH M. CRANK, Secretary. 
 
 ROB'T J. HILLAS, Asst. Secretary. 
 
 DIRECTORS : 
 Goo. S. Co* . . Pres. Americas Exchange Nat. Bank. 
 
 J. S. T. Stranakan Pres. Atlantic Dock Co. 
 
 A. E. Orr Of David Dows & Co. 
 
 G. G. Williams .... Pres. Chemical National Bank. 
 
 A. B. Hull Retired Merchant. 
 
 H. A. Hurlbut . Prs. of Commissioners of Emigration. 
 J. D. Vermilye . . . Pres. Merchants National Bank. 
 
 John L. Riker Of J. L. & D. S. Riker. 
 
 J. G. McCullough .... Pres. Panama Railway Co. 
 
 T. S. Moore Of Moore, Low & Wallace. 
 
 J. Rogers Maxwell .... Pres. Central R. R. of N. J. 
 
 Wm. M. Richards President. 
 
 Geo. F. Seward Vice-President. 
 
 U 
 
 JSED AND RECOMMENDED by MEISSONIER, KAUL- 
 BAC. VON PILOTY, GAB. MAX, and the most emi 
 nent artiste throughout the world. The 
 
 Johann Faber Siberian Lead Pencils. 
 
 Nona genuine unless stamped JOH AN M F ABER. For sale 
 by all stationers and dealers in Artiste* Materials. 
 QUEEN & CO., PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 General Agents for the U. S. 
 
 Guarantee Fund to secure Investors, 
 
 Conservative Management ensured by double 
 liability of Stockholders. 
 
 35 I/ears' continuous business without the loss 
 of a dollar to a single investor. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA DIREOTOBS: 
 WM. B. BEMENT, Industrial Iron Works. 
 GEO. BURNHAM, Baldwin Locomotive Works. 
 GEO. PHILLER, Pres. First National Bank. 
 GEO. M. TROUTMAN, Pres. Central National Bank. 
 WM. McGEORGE, Jr., Counsellor at Law. 
 
 The celebrated 6 per cent. First Mortgages of this 
 Company in amounts from aoo to $20,000, the principal 
 and interest of which are guaranteed by th above fund, 
 for sale at par and accrued interest. Send for pamphlets. 
 
 WM. McGEORQE, Jr., 
 It,, llUt JtttilitiHff, 181-143 South 4th St. 
 
 PEEFEOTED PLAN. 
 
 Accident Insurance at Aetna! Cost! 
 
 28O BROADWAY, 
 NEW YOBK OITT. 
 
 A. N. LOCKWOOD, President. 
 
 EQUITABLE ARRANGEMENT OF CLASSES. 
 
 NON-FORFEITABLE POLICIES. 
 AMPLE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 SS.OOO.OO Life Indemnity. 
 $2,6OO.OO Loss of Hand or Foot. 
 $5,OOO.OO Loss of Hand and Foot, or 
 both Hands or both Feet. 
 $1,25O.OO Loss of Eye. 
 
 $25.OO Weekly Indemnity for 26 
 consecutive weeks. 
 
 TOTAL COST TO MEMBER ABOUT $12.00 PER 
 YEAR, IN BI-MONTHLY PAYMENTS OF $2.00 
 EACH. 
 
 ACTIVE AGENTS WANTED. 
 
 PRINT YOUR OWNCARDS! 
 
 Press $8.00. Circular Pres 88.00, News 
 paper Size, 144.00. Type-setUng easy. 
 Printed directions. Send a stamps for our 
 list of Presses, Typ, etc., to factory. 
 
 KKL8ET ft CO., Meriden, Conn. 
 PLEASE MENTION THIS MAGAZINE. 
 
 R, M, LAMBIE, 
 
 ALL KINDS OF 
 
 BOOK 
 
 HOLDERS 
 
 THE MOST PERFECT 
 
 Dictionary Holder. 
 
 Send for Illustrated 
 
 Catalogne. 
 39 East 19th St, X.Y.
 
 L1PPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 PARLOR MIRRORS, 
 
 ENGRAVINGS, 
 
 ETCHINGS, 
 
 PAINTINGS, 
 EASELS, PEDESTALS, 
 PICTURE FRAMES, Etc. 
 
 ., 
 
 1022 MARKET ST., PHILA., PA., 
 
 LEADING TENITIS OUT-FITTERS 
 
 In shape our \ 
 " Talte" 
 Racket does 
 
 not differ a particle from either the 
 iii an" or "Sears." In stringing, we claim 
 superiority, as we use Imported Oat only, which by ^ 
 actual test stands 30 per cent, more strain than the Ameri 
 can gut. We use the same gut in our Quaker City 
 Racket. Send for our Complete Tennis Catalogue. 
 Sports of every description. 
 
 ILL 
 i i i 
 
 In- and out-door 
 
 ABSOLUTE SATISFACTION GUARANTEED, 
 
 raorr, mm & BENEDICT, 327 Broadway, n 
 
 Boston, Mass.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Washington, D.C. ; Baltimore, Md.; 
 Chicago, 111. ; St. Louis, Mo. ; Indianapolis, Ind. ; Minneapolis, Minn. ; 
 St. Paul, Minn.; Kansas City, Mo.; Denver, Col. ; Cleveland and Cin- 
 Bemington Typewriter No. 2. cinnati, Ohio ; London, England. Send for pamphlet. 
 
 Is it worth your while to give up 
 
 drinking COCOA-THETA during the summer 
 months ? Unlike most chocolate preparations, Wil 
 bur's Cocoa-Theta is adapted to the use of every 
 family all the year around. Order of your grocer. 
 
 H. O. WILBUR & SONS, 
 
 SOLE MANUFACTURERS, 
 
 24
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 Persons contemplating alterations in the plumbing of their houses should call and inspect 
 our new show-rooms, a novel feature being a series of model BATH-RooMS. A visit will be 
 instructive and suggestive. We manufacture Fine Plumbing Materials, such as are required and 
 used in work where quality and not price is the consideration. Among the specialties manufac 
 tured and controlled by us may be mentioned 
 
 The, "Royal" Porcelain Baths, The "Brighton" and " Hellyer" Water- 
 Closets, The "model" Slop-Sinks, The "Tucker" Grease-Traps, The 
 "Doherty" Self-Closina Cocks, and The "Fuller" faucets. 
 
 3^CE-5TEI^-S3SriF^ 1 Ensr OO., LIIMIITIEJD, 
 
 3Vo. 418 CLIJPF STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
 N. B. Suggestions for Bath-Room Interiors mailed on receipt of four cents in stamps. 
 
 CTTMMER HOMES FOR HEALTH and PLEASURE. 
 1'ubliihed by the WEST SHORE RAILROAD. Beautifully 
 illustrated, instructive, and readable. Where to spend the 
 summer, with a complete list of summer hotels and bearding 
 houses. In the Catskills, in the Walkill Valley, in the Sus- 
 quehanna Valley, in the Adirondacks, in the Mohawk Valley, 
 at Saratoga and Lake George, and along the West Shore of the 
 Hudson Hirer. Contains the most complete map of the Cats- 
 kills ever published. Send your address, with fire cents in 
 stamps, to H. B. JA6OE, General Eastern Passenger Agent, 
 363 Broadway, N.Y., and a copy will be mailed to yon as s*on 
 as issued. 
 
 BRIC-A-BRAC, Mexican and Indian Curiosities, Pueblo 
 Indian Pottery, curiously decorated; Mineral Cab 
 inets and Specimens, Opals, Agates, Garnets, and Petri 
 fied Wood, rough or polished ; Indian Blankets, Feather 
 Cards, etc. Send two-cent stamp for circular to 
 CHAS. F. BAILEY & CO., Albuquerque, N.M. 
 
 Fine Harness and Biding Saddles, Pony Har 
 ness, Pony Saddles, Fony Whips. 
 
 The largest and best variety of stable goods in the city. 
 
 PETERS A CAIHOUM CO., 33 Warren St., for. Church, New York- 
 
 BUFFALO STEAM EGG POACHER. 
 
 BEST I3ST THE -WOIK-IjD. 
 
 Send for Illustrated Circular. 
 SOLE MANUFACTURERS: 
 SIDNEY SHEPAKD & CO., Buffalo, N.Y.; 
 C. SIDNEY SHEPHERD & CO., Chicago, 111. 
 
 AUTOGRAPHS AND PRINTS. 
 
 SEND FOR MY PRICE-LISTS. 
 W. E. BENJAMIN, 28 West 23d St., N. Y. City. 
 
 "JUST THE SAME TO FROGGIE." 
 
 Set IIHUT GUT CIRLBTON'S 
 
 Ifunioroux Advice to 
 
 fining Anglers, 
 
 in our new 116-page Catalogue, con 
 taining over 700 Illustrations of 
 Fishing Tackle. Mailed on receipt 
 of 10 cents. 
 
 WILLIAM KILLS & SON, 
 
 BEST FISHING TACKLE, 
 
 Ho. 7 irrra Street, N. T. 
 
 Mention this Magazine. 
 
 ->s; 
 
 r^'vs 
 
 ? 
 
 / 1 
 
 USTER: 
 
 .-M">^ Ij 
 
 :^lr 
 
 ForWee^kBdcck 
 ? Rheumatism. 
 5cia^ica, t Fulmonary 
 Cnd Kidney Difficulties^ 
 
 i t 
 
 ^^y^ v^ ^ > V ^W"^^^ * r ** m ** ^^ 
 
 Stomach Affections Vea,kAuscIes,Lumb6.|o 
 Sfreuns, Stitches aJidaJI Loc&J Pwns L^^ 
 
 ASKFORAUUCOCK'S & LET NO EXPLANATION , OR 
 SOLICITATION INDUCE YOU TO ACCEPT A SUBSTITUTE. 
 
 *s
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 WE USE SOAP. 
 
 WEUSEPEARLINE 
 
 DISTORTED HANDS -will surely come to those who clean house and wash 
 clothes in the old-fashioned way with soap. How can it be otherwise ? You 
 rub rub rub, and you ache ache ache. You spend hours inhaling the hot 
 steam and odors which rise from the tub, impregnated with the filth of soiled 
 clothing, and with all this you have not obtained the best results. 
 
 WITH PEARLINE a delicate woman can do a large wash. You do not 
 have to rub yourself and your clothes to pieces. You do not have to inhale fetid 
 steam ; when finished you are not too tired to see that your work is well and econ 
 omically done, and that you have saved many hours of woman's hardest work. 
 
 JAMES PYLE'S PEAJRLINE is the modern soap. Beware of imitations. 
 
 ESTABLISHED I8OI. 
 
 BARRY S 
 TRIGOPHEROUS 
 
 FOR THE HAIR 
 
 The Oldest and the Best in the World. 
 
 The Hair dressed daily with this unrivalled preparation 
 will never decay, or fall out, or lose its lustre, or show 
 any signs of disease or decline. 
 
 FOR SALE EVERYWHERE 
 
 26
 
 LIPPINCOTT'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISED. 
 "INDISPENSABLE TO EVERY DRUGGIST AND PHYSICIAN." 
 
 THE I- 
 
 UNITED p*TATE DISPENSATORY. 
 
 (WITH DENISON'S PATENT INDEX.) * 
 
 FIFTEENTH EDITION. ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 Carefulty Bevised and Rewritten 137 
 HORATIO C. WOOD, M.D., UL.., J. P. RKJII^CTTOX, Ph.G., 
 
 AND 
 
 S. P. SADTLBR, Ph.D., F.C.S. 
 
 Handsomely Bound in One Volume, Royal 8vo, containing 1928 pages. Price, in 
 
 Cloth Extra, $7.00; Best Leather, Raised Bands, $8.00; 
 
 Half Russia, Raised Bands, $9.00. 
 
 For Facility of Reference, Denison's Patent Index will be Inserted for 
 $1.OO Additional to above Prices. (See Illustration.) 
 
 " We commend this work as a most valuable addition not only to pharmaceutical literature, but to 
 the medical profession as almost invaluable. Its literature, its chemistry, and its pharmacy are fully up 
 to any similar work here or abroad of its kind, and the high standard of excellence in the past is only 
 enhanced by the thoroughly reliable and trustworthy work of the present fifteenth edition." Pharma 
 ceutical Record. 
 
 " It has been the vade-mecum of every practitioner, more valued than, perhaps, any other book in 
 the library. Every edition has been an improvement upon the one preceding it, and the volume has 
 grown in value and scope as it has grown in bulk and popularity." Gaillard's Medical Journal. 
 
 "As a work of reference it has few equals and no superiors in our language, and it does great 
 credit to American pharmacy and therapeutics." Edinburgh Medical Journal. 
 
 " The present edition sustains the high reputation of former editions." London Practitioner. 
 
 " It forms a valuable work of reference as well for the practitioner as for the pharmacist." Dublin 
 Journal of Medicine. 
 
 " The book as a whole is one that is most worthy to hold a place in the pharmacist's select library." 
 Lonaon Pharmaceutical Journal. 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 For Sale by all Booksellers. 715 and 717 Market St., Philadelphia. 
 
 27
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 Beautiful and Lasting for ORNAMENTING 
 WINDOWS, DOORS, TRANSOMS, Etc. 
 
 Stained 
 
 Glass 
 
 SUBSTITUTE 
 
 AT SMALL, COST. Send for Illustrated Catalogue 
 and Prices. Samples by mall, 25 cents. 
 
 WP V fl 1 1 II P SOLE AGENT, 735 Arch St., 
 V. lUUIlU, PHILADELPHIA, FA. 
 Agents Wanted Everywhere. 
 
 PERFUMERY, 
 
 37 Boulevard do <Btras"bou.rar 
 
 PAKIS, FRANCE. 
 
 Flenr de Lys Face Powder, 
 
 Imparting to the Skin a soft and deli 
 cate whiteness. 
 
 Absolutely free from all injurious sub 
 stances. Sold everywhere. 
 
 HENRY DREYFUS, 
 1O Cortlandt Street, New York. 
 
 SOLE AGENT FOB THE V. B. 
 
 ART STAINED GLASS 
 
 FOR 
 
 CHURCHES AND DWELLINGS, 
 
 134 U. 7th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 TY 
 
 " c~aXsi'^- 
 
 PHIIsADEH?HIA-^SEND STAMP FOR CATALOGUE. 
 
 We are the only Music-Box House in Philadelphia tkat Import 
 all their instrument* direct from the manufactory in Switzerland. 
 
 TJdEJbi 
 
 ESTABLISHED 1846. 
 
 FRANKLIN 
 
 PRINTING INK WORKS, 
 
 JOHN WOODRUFF'S SONS, 
 
 1817 and. 1819 Cherry Street, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, FA. 
 
 This Magazine is printed with John Woodruff's Sons' Ink . 
 
 CAMPBELL PRINTING PRESS MFG. CO. 
 
 MANUFACTURERS OP 
 
 CLASS CYLINDER PRESSES, 
 
 Send for Circulars and Catalogues. 
 
 160 William Street, New York, 
 
 306 Dearborn Street, Chicago. 
 LIPPINCOTT'S MONTHLY 
 
 IS PRINTED ON A 
 
 CAMPBELL PRESS. 
 
 Mark your 
 
 Clothing! 
 Clear Rec 
 ord of 
 half a 
 Cen 
 tury, 
 
 'Most Reliable and Sim 
 plest for plain or deco 
 rative 
 mark- 
 
 Sold by all Druggists, Stationers, 
 ITews and Fancy Goods dealers. 
 
 I A nV AGENTS el*r $100 Monthly with our new 
 
 LH1/I undergarments and other goodi far ladies only. 
 
 O. L. ERWIN t CO, ChUago, 111. 
 Mention Lippinoett'i Mugaiine IB your letter when 70* writ*. 
 
 Yon cut! HT* atnoine anu tnafc* snort wwiey ttl WoiV fbf vt 
 
 than at anything ele in the world. Either sex ; all afree. Cost. 
 
 ly outfit FKEB. Termi FEBJt. Address, TBUB & Co., Augusta, Maine. 
 
 ~ "iBTJOOIESSS ;" 
 
 OR, 
 
 "PERFECTION WIRE BUSTLE IMPROVED." 
 
 THIS Bustle possesses every requisite of a complete and 
 perfect Bustle. It is perfect in shape. It is light in 
 weight, yet so strong it will support the heaviest dress. 
 It is very flexible, yielding to the least pressure, so that the 
 wearer feels no discomfort when sitting against it. It resumes 
 its shape at once when released from pressure. It is very health 
 ful, as it acts as a perfect cushion, relieving the wearer from the 
 weight of clothing resting upon it. It is the most durable Bustle 
 ever manufactured. Price, 65 and 75 cents each. 
 Sold by all dealers. Manufactured by the 
 
 WIRE SPECIALTY CO., 254 S. SECOND ST., PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 28
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 Unprecedented!} Low Death Bate, 
 
 PROVIDENT 
 
 LIFE AND TRDST COMPANY 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 In Form of Policy, 
 
 Prompt Settlement of Death Losses, 
 
 Equitable Dealing with Policy-Holders, 
 
 In Strength of Organization, 
 
 in everything which contributes to 
 the Security and Cheapness of Life 
 Insurance, this Company 
 
 STANDS UNRIVALLED. 
 
 GOOD STEAM HEATING 
 
 SAVES YOUR HEALTH. 
 
 Simplest in Con 
 struction. 
 
 Largest Steaming 
 Capacity. 
 
 Greatest Economy 
 in Fuel. 
 
 NO ENGINEER 
 
 OR SKILLED LABOR 
 
 IS REQUIRED. 
 
 MANUFACTURERS UNDER 
 
 FISKE'S PATENTS. 
 
 WANTED 
 
 " EVERYWHERE 
 
 Send for new Illus 
 trated Catalogue and 
 References. 
 
 DUPLEX STEAM H EATER 
 No. 10 Barclay St., New York. 
 
 AI)VAXCEI> METHOD 
 
 OF 
 
 BOOK-KEEPING. 
 
 THE SEVEN-ACCOUNT SYSTEM. 
 
 Condensed Treatise, iao pages, 10 x 14. 
 Price, $1.00. 
 
 BLANK BOOKS, 
 
 In Sets, from $5.00 to $100.00. 
 
 BUSINESS COLLEGE. 
 
 Life Scholarship, $50.00. 
 
 THE SE7EN- ACCOUNT SYSTEM. 
 19 N. Clark, Chicago. 
 
 Mention this magazine. 
 
 TRUST AMD SAFE DEPOSIT COMPANY. 
 
 THE PENNSYLVANIA COMPANY 
 
 FOR INSURANCES ON LIVES AND 
 GRANTING ANNUITIES, 
 
 No. 431 Chestnut Street. 
 
 INCORPORATED MARCH IO, 1812. 
 CHARTER PERPETUAL. 
 
 CAPITAL ... $2,000,000 
 SURPLUS ... 1,700,000 
 
 Chartered to act as EXECUTOBS, ADMINISTRATORS, 
 TRUSTEES,GUARDIANS,ASSIGNEES,COMMITTEES, 
 RECEIVERS, AGENTS, etc.; and for the faithful perform 
 ance of all such duties all its Capital and Surplus are liable. 
 
 AIL TRUST INVESTMENTS ARE KEPT SEPA 
 RATE AND APART FROM THE ASSETS OF THE 
 
 COMPANY. 
 
 INCOME COLLECTED AND REMITTED. 
 
 INTEREST ALLOWED ON MONEY DEPOSITS. 
 
 SAFES IN ITS BURGLAR-PROOF VAULTS 
 FOR RENT. 
 
 The protection of its Vaults for the preservation of 
 WILLS offered gratuitously. 
 
 Gold and Silver-PIate, Deeds, Mortgages, etc., received 
 for safe-keeping under guarantee. 
 
 LINDLEY SMYTH, PRESIDENT. 
 
 HENRY N. PAUL. VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 JARVI3 MASON, TRUST OFFICER. 
 WM P. HENRY, SEC'Y AND TREAS. 
 WM. L. BROWN, JR., ASS-T SECT AND TREAS. 
 
 LINDLEY SMYTH, 
 HENRY N. PAUL, 
 ALEXANDER BIDDLE, 
 ANTHONY J. ANTELO, 
 CHARLES S. LEWIS, 
 CHARLES W. WHARTON. 
 
 EDWARD 8. BUCKLEY. 
 
 EDWARD H. COATES, 
 PETER C. HOLDS, 
 JOHN R. FELL, 
 WILLIAM W. JUSTICE, 
 CRAIQE LIPPINCOTT, 
 GEORGE W. CHILDS, 
 
 PriraU Imstruction by 
 practical verbatim re 
 porter. 16 years' experience. No failures. Situations 
 guaranteed. Book and Circulars Free. JTKAJTK H AK- 
 KISON, Stenographer, 721 Broad Street, Newark, N. J. 
 
 f( THB BBST CR IK THm WORLD for coughs, JJ 
 ctUt, and comttmpiien is Cutler Bros. & Co's well- 
 known Boston VisetabU Pulmonary M*lt*m.
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 WOME GYMNASTICS. 
 
 J For the Preservation and Restoration of Health in Children and Young 
 and Old People of Both Sexes. With a Short Method of Acquiring the 
 Art of Swimming. By Prof. T. J. HARTELIUS, M.D. Translated and 
 adapted from the Swedish, by C. LOFVING, With 31 Illustrations. 12010. 
 Flexible cloth covers. 60 cents. 
 
 " A practical manual of easy gymnastics for persons of all ages. The physiological effects 
 of every movement are explained, and the diagrams and directions make the volume very plain 
 and useful." New York World. 
 
 " It is an admirable little book, and deserves to be known by those to whom their health is 
 a valuable consideration." Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 "An excellent little book upon the preservation of health by exercise. It contains informa 
 tion and advice that will be found of benefit to almost every reader." Boston Sat. Eve. Gazette. 
 
 OW TO WRITE ENGLISH. 
 
 A Practical Treatise on English Composition. By A. ARTHUR READE, 
 author of "Study and Stimulants," etc. i6mo. Flexible cloth cover. 
 60 cents. 
 
 "A clearly-written, instructive, simple, straightforward, and encouraging guide." Reporters 1 
 Magazine. 
 
 " Instead of being a dull treatise, or a wearisome grammar, it is a book which will be read, 
 and, it is to be hoped, studied by many young people who would be repelled by dry and technical 
 works, which are too common." Christian World. 
 
 THE PRIMER OF POLITENESS : 
 
 */ A HELP TO SCHOOL AND HOME GOVERNMENT. By ALEXANDER M. Gow, 
 
 A.M. 121110. Extra cloth, limp. 75 cents. 
 
 " His advice is enforced and made attractive by a judicious selection of appropriate anecdotes, 
 so that his book is an edifying combination of instruction and entertainment. There is plenty of 
 room for such a work, and we hope it will find an extensive sale." North American. 
 
 A 
 
 DRILL-BOOK IN ALGEBRA. 
 
 Exercises for Class-Drill and Review. Arranged according to subjects. 
 By MARSHALL LIVINGSTON PERRIN, A.M. i2mo. Cloth limp. Teachers' 
 Edition, with Answers. 75 cents.f Scholars' Edition, Questions Only. 
 60 cents. f 
 
 " As a practice-book or manual, we know of no other that so adequately fills the require 
 ments as this of Mr. Perrin's." New York School Journal. 
 
 " An exceedingly useful little book." N. E. Journal of Education. 
 
 " The work comprehends the whole subject from notation to logarithms, and will be found 
 to be an invaluable aid in the study of algebra." Normal Teacher. 
 
 OBJECT LESSONS. 
 
 The Handy-Book of Object Lessons. From a Teacher's Note-Book. By J. 
 WALKER. First and Second Series complete. i2mo. Extra cloth. $1.25. 
 Embracing Lessons on the following subjects, viz. : THE ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, and 
 MINERAL KINGDOMS; PHYSIOLOGY; PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY ; MANUFACTURES. 
 " The work is admirabTe in arrangement, simple and natural in method, and clear and com 
 prehensive generally. Taken altogether, it is one of the best and most practical books in its kind 
 that has as yet appeared." Boston Saturday Evening Post. 
 
 *** For sale by all Booksellers, or will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, on receipt of the 
 price by 
 
 J, B, LIPPINOOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 715 and 717 Market St., Philadelphia, 
 
 30
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 SELECT 
 
 FLAVORS: 
 
 LY PuRE ChoicJstFruits. 
 
 TUC DCCT Unequalled Strength for All. 
 
 I ML DUO 1 1 Thousands of Gross Sold. 
 
 Winning Friends Everywhere. CVCDV PA Mil Y 8 hould know their Delicious Flavors. 
 
 Healers Treble Sales with Them. LVLlll InmlL I Ask your Grocer or Dealer for Them. 
 
 Laboratory (Home Depot), Westflcld, Mass. (New Yorfc Office, 63 Park Place. 
 
 itiiiitioii* procured for pupils when competent, 
 end for circular. W. <i. C'HAFFEE, Oswesro. N.V 
 
 GOOD NEWS 
 Ifl LADIES. 
 
 Greatest inducements ever of. 
 lered. Now's your t:me to get up 
 orders for our celebrated Teaa 
 and Coffees.and secure a beauti 
 ful Gol d Band orMoss Rose China 
 
 ,-j^ rrri - Tea Set, or fiandsome Decorated 
 
 rold Band Moss Rosa Dinner Set, or Gold Band Moss 
 Decorated Toilet Set. For f ull particulars address 
 THE GREAT AMERICAN TEA CO. 
 " r Yo 
 
 P.O. 
 
 1 33 VeW St.. New York. 
 
 BIRCH'S , KEY 
 
 WILLWlND ^ ANVWATCrt 
 
 SOLD 
 
 AND NOT 
 WKAK OUT. 
 
 By mail, 250. Circulars free. 
 
 by Jewll 
 
 J. S. BIRCH & Co., 184 Lewis St., New York. 
 
 UEBF I 
 nLntl 
 
 pay to Agents 
 
 Why not save fne-kalf on ioeo useful 
 Article? Send for Catalogue. Big 
 CHICAGO SCALE CO.. Chicago, 111. 
 
 MADE WITH BOILING WATER. 
 
 EPPS'S 
 
 GRATEFUL-COMFORTING. 
 
 COCOA 
 
 MADE WITH BOILING MILK. 
 
 PHONOCRAPHYs ^ ^ 
 
 Works for self-instruction, by BenH Pitman and 
 Jerome B. Howard, forsale by all book-selers. Cat 
 alog, alfabet and ilustratioua sent fre. Adres 
 Phonographic Institute. Cincinnati. Ohio. 
 
 DON'T DRINK DIRTY WATER. 
 Best aud Cheapest Burersible Self- 
 Cleansing Water Filter ever Offered. 
 Brass Nickel-Plated. Fits any Faucet. 
 Price, 50c., post-paid. J. H. SEED, 
 Manufacturer, 41 & 43 Centre Street, 
 New York. 
 
 BLACK 
 
 VIOLET 
 
 PINK I RED | GREEN 
 
 You can make it yourself without the slightest trouble, nnrt at a 
 saving of 2OO per cent, with WALPOLB INK POWDERS, 
 which will yield several quarts of the best Ink in the world. 
 Package of either color 2o cents. Liberal discount in lar^e pack 
 ages to parties desiring to make Ink for sale. Used extensively br 
 Schools, Banks, Merchants, and Blank Book Manufacturers. Full 
 information by circular, free by mail. Address, 
 WALPOUE DYE AND CHEMICAL COMPANY 
 119 Milk St., 
 
 $5 
 
 to $8 a Day. Sample* worth $1.59 fuss. 
 Lines not under the Horse's feet Write BSEW- 
 STSI SAFBT7 BEIM HOLDS! CO., Holly, Mich. 
 
 CORSETS 
 
 Boned with Featherbone. 
 ^ Aik your Dealer for them. 
 
 ,- _jal relief for deafness has 
 
 found. An invisible device which is the same 
 to the ears as glasses to the eyes. Worn for 
 months without removal. Successful where 
 every other remedy has failed. A triumph of 
 the 19th century. For sale only by the inventor, _ 
 H. A. WALES, Bridgeport, Conn. 
 
 Cosmetic for a beautiful complexion. Guar 
 anteed to be perfectly harmless; recommended by 
 the Medical Profession, and warranted to remove 
 Tan, Freckle*, Moth Patches, Sunburn, Pim 
 ples, etc. Cures Salt Rheuin and Erysipelas. 
 A. Medicine for the Skin. Price, 5O cents. 
 
 ST. JOHN & CO., 
 317 Sixth Avenue, New York 
 
 mini LADIES' C3L1E5E, L "l^ 
 
 Has few equals and no sup trio r in Amtric*. 
 Highest Culture, Art, Music, Literature, Elo 
 cution. Climate exceptionally healthy. Cost moder 
 ate. For circular, address Her E. H. ENGLISH, M.I., Principal. 
 
 TO STOUT PEOPLE. 
 
 AdricePree HOW TO REDUCE WEIGHT and perman 
 ently cure OBESITY. Only ure method. Starvation Diet 
 and nanseons drtips unnecessary. New Trealiie, with full in 
 structions HOW TO ACT, sent in plain sealed envelope for 
 6 stamps. . K. LYNTON. 19 Park Flac*. New York. 
 
 GNYBTONURYRCLX 
 
 Just what every lady wants who 
 does Fancy Work. Is light and dura 
 ble, being made of metal. Nickel* 
 PlitSi. Far better than the old 
 wooden hoops. By mail, for =;octs. 
 Address NEW MOON RING, 
 Chicago. Send for circular. A 
 few lady agents wanted. 
 
 CARNRICKS^FOOD 
 
 W ^^^^^^IDHSB^mSHB*^ ^ ^ 
 
 Perfectly nourishes -the child from birth, without the addition of cow's milk, 
 and digests as easily as human milk. Send for "Our Baby's First and Second 
 Years," by Marion Harland. REED & CARNRICK, New York. 
 
 31
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 BEST STORIES BY POPULAR AUTHORS. 
 
 Jjppincott's Series of Select Jfovels, 
 
 16mo. Paper Cover. Q5 Cts. 
 
 ROSA N. CAREY. 
 
 BARBARA HEATHCOTE'S TRIAL. 
 QUEENIE'S WHIM. 
 NELLIE'S MEMORIES. 
 FOR LILIAS. 
 NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS. 
 
 ROBERT ORD'S ATONEMENT. 
 WOOED AND MARRIED. 
 UNCLE MAX. 
 WEE WIFIE. 
 
 ONLY THE GOVERNESS. 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 I HAVE LIVED AND LOVED. 
 MY LORD AND MY LADY. 
 ROY AND VIOLA. 
 DOLORES. 
 
 MRS. FORRESTER. 
 
 DIANA CAREW. 
 VIVA. 
 
 RHONA, 
 
 MIGNON. 
 
 ONCE AGAIN. 
 
 THE "DUCHESS." 
 
 FAITH AND UNFAITH. 
 
 DORIS. 
 
 ROSSMOYNE. 
 
 BEAUTY'S DAUGHTERS. 
 
 AIRY FAIRY LILIAN. 
 
 PORTIA. 
 
 MOLLY BAWN. 
 
 LOYS, LORD BERRESFORD. 
 
 MRS. GEOFFREY. 
 
 "O TENDER DOLORES." 
 
 A MAIDEN ALL FORLORN. 
 
 PHYLLIS. 
 
 IN DURANCE VILE. 
 
 LADY BRANKSMERE. 
 
 A MENTAL STRUGGLE. 
 
 LADY VAL WORTH'S DIAMONDS. 
 
 A MODERN CIRCE. 
 
 THE DUCHESS. 
 
 MARVEL. 
 
 MRS. H. LOVETT CAMERON. 
 
 IN A GRASS COUNTRY. I PURE GOLD. 
 
 VERA NEVILL. WORTH WINNING. 
 
 A LIFE'S MISTAKE. 
 
 COURT ROYAL. 
 
 S. BARING-GOULD. 
 THE GAVEROCKS. 
 
 RICHARD"CABLE. 
 
 DAPHNE. "Rita." 
 
 TOO CURIOUS. Edward J. Goodman. 
 A FALLEN IDOL. F. Anstey. 
 
 TRUE LOVE. Lady Di Beauclerk. 
 
 SUNSHINE IN THE SHADY PLACE. Edith Milner. 
 DOCTOR CUPID. Rhoda Broughton. 
 
 THAT OTHER PERSON. Mrs. Alfred Hunt. 
 
 GEOFFREY STIRLING. Mrs. Leith Adams. 
 MOLOCH. Mrs. Campbell Praed. 
 
 ALSO BOUND IN HALF CLOTH, FIFTY CENTS. 
 
 ** For sale by all Booksellers, or will be sent by mail, postage prepaid, on receipt of the price by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 715 and 717 Market St., Phi/a. 
 
 32
 
 L/PPJACOTT'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 OUIDA'S POPULAR NOVELS. 
 
 Bound in Extra Cloth, Black and Gilt Ornamentation. 
 
 FKICE, $1.25 PER VOLUME. 
 
 ARIADNE. 
 
 " It is the strongest of the author's works ; strong 
 in its passionate utterances, strong in its feeling, 
 and at times grand in its pathos. We know of no 
 one in the world who could write such novels as 
 hers." Boston Evening Traveller. 
 
 IN A WINTER CITY. 
 
 " This is one of the most fascinating of the recent 
 works of this undeniably powerful novelist." 
 New Haven Journal and Courier. 
 
 GRANYILLE DE YIGNE. 
 
 "This is one of the most powerful and spicy 
 works of fiction which the present century, so pro 
 lific in light literature, has produced." 
 
 STRATHMORE. 
 
 " It is a romance of the intense school, but it is 
 written with more power, fluency, and brilliancy 
 than the works of Miss Braddon and Mrs. Wood, 
 while its scenes and characters are taken from high 
 life." Boston Transcript. 
 
 CHANDOS. 
 
 " Those who have read ' Granville de Vigne' and 
 ' Strathmore' will be sure to read Chandos. It is 
 characterized by the same gorgeous coloring of 
 style, and is a story of surprising power and in 
 terest." Pittsburgh Evening Chronicle. 
 
 PUCK. 
 
 " Its quaintness will provoke laughter, while the 
 interest in the central character is kept up una 
 bated." Albany Journal. 
 
 IDALIA. 
 
 " It is a story of love and hatred, of affection 
 and jealousy, of intrigue and devotion." Albany 
 Evening Journal. 
 
 TRICOTR1N. 
 
 "With Portrait of the Author from an En 
 graving on Steel. 
 
 " The book abounds in beautiful sentiment, ex 
 pressed in a concentrated, compact style which 
 cannot fail to be attractive, and will be read with 
 pleasure in every household." San Francisco 
 Times. 
 
 PASCAREL. 
 
 " A charming novel, far in advance of ' Ouida's' 
 earlier novels." London Athenceum. 
 
 UNDER TWO FLAGS. 
 
 " This is probably the most popular work of 
 ' Ouida.' It is enough of itself to establish her 
 fame as one of the most eloquent and graphic 
 writers of fiction now living." Chicago Joumtil 
 of Commerce. 
 
 BEATRICE BOVILLE, 
 
 And other Stories. 
 
 " The many works already in print by this ver 
 satile authoress have established her reputation as 
 a novelist, and these short stories contribute largely 
 to the stock of pleasing narratives and adventures 
 alive to the memory of all who are given to ro 
 mance and fiction." New Haven Journal. 
 
 BEBEE. 
 
 " Simplicity and pure nature, unmarred by sen 
 sationalism of any kind, make the story as excel 
 lent as anything ' Ouida' has written." Philadel 
 phia North American. 
 
 FOLLE-FARINE. 
 
 " ' Ouida's' pen is a graphic one, and page after 
 page of gorgeous word-painting flows from it in a 
 smooth, melodious rhythm that often has the per 
 fect measure of blank verse, and needs only to be 
 broken into line. There is in it, too, the eloquence 
 of genius." Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 
 
 RANDOLPH GORDON. 
 
 " Our word for it, it is full of sparkle, dramatic 
 situation, and sharp characterization. We have 
 never yet seen a dull page from ' Ouida.' " New 
 Orleans Picayune. 
 
 SIGNA. 
 
 "The story is intensely dramatic, and most viv 
 idly appeals to the sympathy of a lover of the 
 warmer order of literature. It is sufficient to say 
 that it's 'Ouida's,' for no one ever wrote as she 
 wrote." Boston Traveller. 
 
 A LEAF IN THE STORM, 
 
 And. other Novelettes. "With 2 Illustra 
 tions. 8vo. Paper cover. 50 cts. 
 
 " Those who look upon light literature as an art 
 will read these tales with pleasure and satisfac 
 tion." Baltimore Gazette. 
 
 CECIL CASTLEMAINE'S GAGE, 
 
 And other Stories. 
 
 V For sale by all Booksellers, or will be sent, postpaid, on receipt of price by 
 
 J. B. I^IPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 715 staa-d. TIT" S^arlcet Street, 
 
 33
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 $85 SOLID GOLD WATCH FREE! 
 
 This splendid, solid gold, hunting-case watch, is now sold for 
 $85; at that price it is the best bargain in America; until lately 
 It could not he purchased for less than $100. We have both la 
 dies' and gents' sizes with works and cases of equal value. 
 ONE PERSO1V inea.-h locality can secure one of these 
 elegant watches absolutely F" JKEE. These watches may ba 
 depended on, not only as solid gold, but as standing among tho 
 most perfect, correct anil reliable timekeepers in the world. You 
 ask how is this wonderftil offer possible? We answer we want 
 one person in each locality to keep in their homes, and show to 
 those who call, a complete line of our valuable and vepy useful 
 HOUSEHOLD SAMPLES; these samples, as well as the watch, 
 we send ABSOLUTELY FREE, and after you have kept them in 
 your home for 2 months, and shown them to those who may 
 have called, they become entirely your own property ; It is pos 
 sible to make this great offer, sending the Solid Gold 
 'Watch and large line of valuable samples FREE, for the 
 reason that the showing of the samples in any locality, always 
 results in a large trade for us ; after our samples have been in a 
 locality for a month or two, we usually get from $1,000 to 
 $5.000 in trade from the surrounding country. Those who write 
 to us at once will receive a great benefit for scarcely any work 
 and trouble. This, the most remarkable and liberal offer ever 
 known, is made in order that our valuable Household Samples 
 may be placed at once where they can be seen, all over Ameri 
 ca; reader, it will be hardly any trouble for you to show them to 
 those who may callat your home, and yourreward will be most 
 satisfactory. A postal card, on which to write us, costs but 1 
 cent, and if, after you know all, you do not care to go further, 
 why no harm is done. But if you do send your address at 
 once, you can secure, FREE, Air ELEGANT 885, SOLID GOLD, 
 HUWTINO-CASE WATCH and our large, complete line of valu 
 able HOUSEHOLD SAMPLES. We pay all express freight, etc. 
 Address, STUf SON & Co., Box 241 Portland, Maine. 
 
 JDS-TU1PI! 
 
 ORDERS BY MAIL. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE 
 AND ADVERTISING 
 DURPSESi 
 
 JAMES Met REEKY & CO. 
 Invite correspondence in regard 
 to Samples and prices of their 
 varied lines of Silk, Woollen, 
 and Cotton Dress Materials. 
 Black Silks, Colored Satins, 
 Printed Pongees, Mixed and 
 Check Cheviots for Summer 
 Wear, Satteens, Ginghams, and 
 all Wash Fabrics are kept in 
 select variety. Orders by letter 
 are filled by our most experi 
 enced salesmen, and with as 
 sured satisfaction to the cus 
 tomers. 
 
 JAMES McCREERY & CO., 
 
 Broad way and llth St., 
 
 IVew York. 
 
 00 YOU 
 WRITE? 
 
 Postage is 16 cts. per Ib. 
 Express often cheaper. 
 
 We make a specialty of 
 
 WEDDING AND 
 VISITING CARDS, 
 STAMPING, Etc. 
 
 SEND FOR SAMPLES. 
 
 If so, and you desire fashionable writing-paper at reasonable prices, ask your 
 stationer for 
 
 Boston Linen, 
 
 Boston Bond, or 
 
 Bunker Hill Linen. 
 
 These papers have gained a reputation in every State and Territory in the 
 I Union on account of their excellent quality and reasonable price. If your sta- 
 I tioner does not keep them, send us three two-cent stamps for our complete 
 ' samples of paper, representing more than 
 
 250 Varieties which we sell by the Pound. 
 SAMUEL WARD COMPANY (INCORPORATED), 
 
 Wholesale and Betail Paper Merchants, Stationers, and Engravers, 
 178 to 184 Devonshire St., Boston. 
 
 43- Dealers should correspond with us. 
 
 IS NOT A BLOOD DISEASE, and CANNOT be cured 
 by the so-caned blooa purifiers, but is caused most com 
 monly by an imperfect condition of the secretions ; the food 
 fails to digest properly, the mucous lining of the stomach ia 
 weakenea, and chronic dyspepsia results, bringing the bad 
 _ _ appetite, the faint, gnawing feeling, low spirits, and all 
 
 symptoms dyspeptics know eo well. |L|^P| |%lf A R 7" n"P B A9I R" 
 THE GREAT ENGLISH REMEDY Jtly ||V*tMFPl INF 
 
 has in thirty years use in England and five in ! EJ BB I 
 
 America never known a case of failure. It con- 
 
 tains no opium or mercury. We guarantee every case, and will rtturn the money where we fail, fiend 
 us your address and we will refer rou to somebody in your neighborhood who knows all about Ann-Dys- 
 peptine, or if immediate relief is desired, send $1.00 for one pkge. PRIVATE FORMULA CO.. Lebanon. Ot 
 
 BUY for themselves and 
 their growing daughters 
 
 ENSIBL WOMEN 
 
 CORSE! 
 WAISTS 
 
 PATENT BUTIOHS-won't pall off. 
 
 BEAUTIFULLY MADE. BES 
 
 Thousands now in 
 
 descriptive circular. FERRIS 
 MARSH ALL" FIELD & CO., CHICAGO, ILL., WHOLESALE WESTERN AGENTS. 
 
 34
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 MASON & HAMLIN YACHT ORGAN. 
 
 For Yachts, Schools, and the Home. 
 
 $22. 
 
 MASON &. HAMLIN IMPROVED 
 
 GRAND AND UPRIGHT 
 
 PIANOS 
 
 CHARACTERIZBD BY 
 
 BRIGHTEST, PUREST TONES, GREATEST DURABILITY, 
 IMPROVED METHOD OF STRINGING. 
 
 Mason & Hamlin do not hesitate to make the extraor 
 dinary claim for their pianos, that they are superior to 
 all others. They recognize the high excellence achieved 
 by other leading makers in the art of piano building, but 
 still claim superiority. This they attribute solely to the 
 remarkable improvement introduced by them in the year 
 1882, and now known as the " MASON & HAMLIN PIANO 
 STRINGER," by the use of which is secured the greatest 
 possible purity and refinement of tone, together with 
 greatly increased capacity for standing in tune, and 
 other important advantages. 
 
 A circular, containing testimonials from three hundred 
 purchasers, musicians, and tuners, sent, together with 
 descriptive catalogue, to any applicant. 
 
 This little organ has as much power as any single reed 
 organ ; with that excellent quality which characterizes 
 the Mason & Hamlin Organs. It is successfully em 
 ployed for private and public uses ; even, in some instances, 
 for the accompaniment of hundreds of voices. A circu 
 lar with about one hundred opinions of purchasers of this 
 smallest organ will be forwarded to any one desiring it. 
 
 FASHIONABLE MODELS. 
 
 LISST OE5A1T. The finest and most powerfully toned 
 Reed Organ made. The first one made expressly for 
 the late Abbe Liszt. The organ par excellence for the 
 drawing-room, and used largely in churches and chap 
 els. With one and two manuals. Price from $350. 
 
 EOLUN HASP OBGAN. This style combines the effect of 
 a stringed orchestra with the organ.- It is possible to 
 produce the undulating effect of stringed instruments 
 with one hand while the other gives the organ tone. 
 Price from $105. 
 
 FOFULA2 ST7L3S at $22, $32.50. $60, $78, $96, and up. 
 
 Orgam and Pianos told for Cash, Eary Payments, and Rented. 
 Catalogue* free. 
 
 MASON & HAMLIN ORGAN AND PIANO CO., 
 
 llofitim. Xcir fork, Chicago. 
 
 MORTEAfiELCDMEANY. 
 
 Capital Subscribed 
 Capital Paid in (Cash) 
 
 . 32,000,000 
 
 i,eoo,ooo 
 
 6 PER CENT. DEBENTURES and GUARAN 
 TEED FARM MORTGAGES. Interest payable 
 semi-annually at any of our offices. Our mortgages 
 are upon improved FARMS ONLY. W loan o 
 money on the unduly stimulated property 
 of the towns and cities. Also 
 
 MUNICIPAL BONDS. 
 
 OFFICES. 
 
 NEW YORK, 208 B'way. I PHILADA., Cor. Chest- 
 BOSTON, 117 Devonshire nut and 4th Streets. 
 Street. I LONDON, England. 
 
 SEND FOR PAMPHLET. 
 
 Leading Nos. 14, 048, 128, 130,135, 333,161 
 For Sale by all Stationers. 
 
 THE ESTERBROOK STEEL PEN CO., 
 
 Works, Camden,N.J. 26 John St., New York 
 
 HI WA Dialogues, Tableaux, Speakers, for 
 Ul M W m School.Club* Parlor. Bestout. Cata- 
 I bM I V logue free. T. S. Dmnsoifr Chicago, 111. 
 
 SEDGWICK STEEL WIRE FENCE. 
 
 WITH FULL INSTRUCTIONS 
 FILLS A WANT 
 
 iONG WISHED FOR 
 
 
 Morphine Habit Cured in 1O 
 to 2O days- IVo pay till cured. 
 Dr. J. Stephen*, Lebanon, Ohio. 
 
 LADY AGENTS S 
 
 employment at $50 to $100 per 
 mouth selling Queen City Sup 
 porters. Sample outfit free. 
 Address Cincinnati Suspender 
 Co.,11 E.Ninth St.,Cincinnati,O. 
 
 The best Farm, Garden, Poultry Yard, Lawn, 
 School Lot, Park and Cemetery Fences and Gates. 
 Perfect Automatic Gate. Cheapest and Neatest 
 Iron Fences. Iron and wire Summer Houses, Lawn 
 Furniture, and other wire work. Best Wire Stretch 
 er and Plier. Ask dealers in hardware, or address 
 SEDCWICK BROS., RICHMOND, (NO. 
 EDWARD SUTTON, Eastern Agent, 
 300 MAKKET ST. PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 Don't be a Dunce. Learn German by r'd'g Germ, siories 
 with Eng.translat. Cir's free. O. P. Co., Box 2020, N.Y. 
 
 35
 
 L1PPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 L. S 
 
 .A. 
 
 54 West 14th St., near 6th Ave., New York. 
 World-renowned Eugenie's Secret of Beauty, or "C.LJ." 
 
 For the complexion; transparent; recommended by physicians; warranted 
 perfectly harmless ; superior to all other preparations. Tested and applied free 
 of charge; ammonia will not turn it black, as it does ether cosmetics; thou 
 sands of testimonials can be seen. Price, 1.00 and 50 cents per box. 
 
 THE MONTE CRISTO VELOUTINE FACE-POWDER 
 
 HIGHEST MEDALS AWARBKB FOR SAMB. 
 
 THE COSMETIC MASK (Patented). 
 
 For beautifying the complexion. fa.o, complete. 
 
 Turkish Rose Leaves, indelible tint, for the face and lips ; exquisite in color ; 
 fine as the blush of the rose. Ji.oo and Ji.jo per bottle. 
 
 Tbe Genuine Auburnine, wonderful preparation for coloring any 
 shade of hair golden brown ; price, 2.00. 
 All Goods can be exchanged at my expense. Send for Illustrated Catalogue. 
 
 J. B. Lippincott Company's 
 
 EXTRA QUALITY STEEL PENS. 
 
 OUR BEST-SELLING NUMBERS. 
 
 68 
 IFOIR, 
 
 Price, 75 Cents Per Gross. 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPAJSTY, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 
 NATURE'S NERVE TONIC. 
 
 Nature's Specific for Bright's Disease. 
 
 A Powerful NervOUS Tonic, it is a wonderful restorative in Nervous exhaustion, neuralgia, and 
 affections generally of the nervous system. Both a remedy for and preventive of Mental and Physical 
 Exhaustion from Overwork or Bright's Disease, Gout, Rheumatic Gout, Rheumatism, Acid Dyspepsia, 
 Malarial Poisoning, &c. It is par excellence a remedy. Endorsed by medical men of the highest distinction. 
 Water in Cases of one dozen half gallon bottles, S5 per case, at the Springs* 
 THOS. F. GOODE, Proprietor, BUFFALO LJ.TH1A SPRIXGS, VA.
 
 LIPPINCOTTS MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 Clo 
 
 No. 3. Hat 
 
 Stud nln 
 
 Inoheui high. 
 
 Raartaarmatfj 
 
 and Cluba. 
 
 Ten Garmenu can be bnntf oo one hook, and any 
 desired article can be nmoed without taking of 
 the ethers Draw forward the loops of the outer 
 garments onto the outer swireled hook, open it. re 
 move torment wanted, than clew it and slip the 
 renaming garment! back. OM Heok will eve the 
 ame hanging capacity u four of the old style, 
 urine a (treat deal cf space, which is always 
 valoaMe in closets or hallways 
 Jay ce A Crouby , HO UlMirty St^ 
 YORK, 
 
 FACIAL BLEMISHES. 
 
 Largest Establishment in the world for 
 their treatment. Facial Development, 
 Hairand Scalp, Superfluous Hair, Birth 
 Marks, Moles, Warts, Moth, Freckles, 
 i Wrinkles, Red Nose, Acne, Pimples, 
 jBl'k Heads, Scars, Pitting, etc., ana 
 [their treatment. Send xoc. for so-page 
 .book treating on 15 Skin Imperfections. 
 Jr. JOHN H. WOODBtTBT, 37 H. Petti St., 
 Alton?, H.T. Established 1870. Inventor 
 of Facial Appliances, Springs, etc. Six Parlors. 
 
 500 
 
 SAMPLES. BOOKS. OIRCD- 
 LAR8, LETTERS ud PAPERS 
 
 from firms all over the world if yon 
 send 20 cents to have your name In 
 American Directory. Copy sent you 
 with name inserted. Always address 
 American Directory Co., Buffalo, N. T. 
 
 Ymion Hni, VA., DM. IT, ISM. 
 dmtt-I hT klnvlT recrired mow thtt 1 ,000 
 oel of mail, mmT NEW8PAPZB8, tto.,fnhia I 
 hd ofwn paid 20 eU. each before. I mdrto* TT boT 
 to have their name inserted atone*. I knw from experi 
 ence jour directory fat eioeU all otherl. B. T. JAM*. 
 
 A.T 1TIC3-HT 
 
 i* 
 
 TiaN'T BUY ^ 
 
 < * i * A PHOTO -OUTFIT 
 
 UNTIL- YOU HEAR FROM US. 
 CATALOGUES MAILED FREE 
 DRAUGHTSMEN' n D 
 
 TrlOS- M'M?COLLIN . ft-C 
 635 -ARCH ST PHILADE 
 
 THE BEST CALICOES. 
 
 WM. SIMPSON & SONS, 
 
 SILVER GRAYS AND BUCK AND WHITES 
 
 MOURNING PRINTS. 
 
 NOVELTIES IN 
 
 EDDYSTONE 
 
 FANCY PRINTS. 
 
 BANDS OF COMFORT, manufactured by A. M. 
 & L. D. Lawson, will save you many pains ana aches, 
 and are the best protection against colds, etc. Send for 
 prices, etc., to A. M. & . D. I.AWSON, 
 
 1444 Broadway, N. T. 
 
 The Largest and Most Complete Unabridged 
 Dictionary in the English Language. 
 
 WORCESTER'S 
 
 UNABRIDGED QVARTO 
 
 DICTIONARY 
 
 BT THE ADDITION OF 
 
 ANefPrononncingBioppMcalMonary 
 
 of nearly 12,000 personages, and 
 
 A Hew Prononncing Gazetteer of tie World, 
 
 noting and locating over 20,000 places. 
 Containing also 
 
 Over 12,500 New Words, 
 
 recently added, together with 
 
 A Table of 5000 Words in General Use, 
 with their Synonymes. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH WOOD-OUTS AND FULL-PAOB PLATBS. 
 
 The National Standard of American Literature. 
 
 Every edition of Longfellow, Holmes, Bryant, Irving, 
 Whittier, and other eminent American authors, follows 
 Worcester. " It presents the usage of all great English 
 writers." It is the authority of the leading magazine! and 
 newspapers of the country and of the National Depart 
 ments at Washington. 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes says: 
 "Worcester's Dictionary has constantly Iain on my 
 table for daily use, and Webster's reposed on my shelves 
 for occasional consultation." 
 
 The Recognized Authority on Pronunciation. 
 
 Worcester's Dictionary presents the accepted usage of 
 our best public speakers, and has been regarded as the 
 standard by our leading orators, Kverett, Sumner, Phillips, 
 Garfiold, Hillard, and others. Most clergymen and law 
 yers use Worcester as authority on pronunciation. 
 
 That Worcester is preferred among scholars is evident 
 from the following testimonials from the leading col 
 leges : 
 From President Cbas. W. Elliott, of Harvard 
 
 Colleft, October 3, 1887. 
 
 " I have always referred to this work as the standard." 
 From President McCosh, of Princeton Colby*, 
 
 January 21, 1887. 
 
 " I am amazed at the amount of knowledge in this 
 
 large volume, which every scholar should possets. Worces 
 
 ter's Dictionary, so well known, needs no commendation 
 
 from me." 
 
 From President Faircliild, of Oberlm College, 
 
 February 24, 1887. 
 
 " / have never felt sure that I had the best light on any 
 doubtful point vntil / had consulted this authority. Our in 
 structors in English, in the college, have in general impressed 
 the scans idea upon their pupils." 
 
 FOB SALE BT ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 715 and 717 Market Street, Philadelphia. 
 
 1 OO Domestic Type- Writer. Sold ist jr. 1,000 
 V-L. at 5 ; ad, 25,000 at is. Now at Ji sales are im 
 mense. Catalogue. Sample Work, and Testimonials 
 free. H. S. INGERSOLL, 46 Cortlandt St., N. Y. 
 
 Practical, and Durable. 20 to 30 wrd* a minute cam be 
 written. G EO . B. BLAKEL Y, Bradford, Melui Co.,P. 
 
 i
 
 LIPPINCOTT'S MONTHLY MAGAZINE ADVERTISER. 
 
 Prolonged spasms of sneezing; breathing turned an ordeal of 
 wheeze and gasp ; distressing and blinding discharges from the 
 eyes lavas from the nose ; and occasional deafness and fever ; 
 
 THIS is HAY FEVER 
 
 A breathing ease ; A painless head; ThiQ | Q 
 A sparkling eye ; A lusty throat ; 
 
 IT MAY BE FOUND IN 
 
 lHHALATION. 
 
 T7* We have known it to be summer, and the farrago at the tree-tops 
 
 1. JL3.V f CVCr seemed no longer jubilant; the murmur of the breeze was ominous. 
 * For with the swelling buds and the sparkling dews came that ex 
 
 asperating scourge Hay Fever. From that time, daily, as sure as sunrise, it returned ; and while 
 it lasted endurance and patience ceased to be virtues. Existence was but an irritating ordeal. 
 
 This distressing affliction begins its ravages as early as June ; then adieu to peace and com 
 fort. With others it delays until as late as September, and leaves an irritated condition for 
 winter to aggravate. Like nasal catarrh, it is a disturbance of the mucous membrane. How 
 serious and annoying it is, only the despairing sufferer knows. Hay Fever is disgustingly per 
 tinacious and baffles the doctors, until they resort to desperate and barbarous expedients, the 
 most cruelly useless of which is burning out the interior of the nose. The practitioners yield 
 to the disease ; the disease seldom yields to the practitioner. One poison may antidote another, 
 but it is scarcely philosophical to assert that torture may be used to obliterate the traces of agony. 
 Thrashing a spavined horse does not limber his joints. This barbarous destruction of the nasal 
 membrane for the removal of Hay Fever should look for a parallel precedent of decapitation as 
 a preventive of headache. Why not employ nature's remedy ? Easy, natural, and effica 
 cious. And what more exact fulfilment of these salutary conditions than that found in Drs. 
 Starkey & Palen's scientific adjustment of the elements oxygen and nitrogen, to which the 
 vitality of positive magnetism is added. Hundreds of Drs. Starkey & Palen's patients who 
 have used Compound Oxygen report a removal of unhealthy conditions predisposing to 
 Catarrh and Asthma and Hay Fever, and several who were at one time acute sufferers from 
 Hay Fever report that they believe themselves to be entirely cured. The following are a few 
 of the many testimonials received : 
 
 From Iron Mountain, Missouri, we have the following letter, dated April 6th, 1885, from Mr. Ellis P. Cayce : 
 " I have a profound reverence for Compound Oxygen, and regard it as a great medical agent for many of our 
 numerous ills. It is now about a year since I received my Home Treatment from you. I was at that time suffer 
 ing intensely from neuralgia. Three or four weeks' use of Compound Oxygen cured me, and I had no return of 
 the disease. I have suffered severely from periodical attacks of hay fever for several years. Last summer 1 
 caught it at the usual time, but a -week's use of Compound Oxygen brake it up. I have used the Oxygen on vari 
 ous members of my family in cases of colds, always with excellent effect. I expect always to keep a supply of 
 Oxygen in my family in the future." 
 
 " WARRBNTON, N.C., Oct. at, 1886. 
 
 " Some time in August I ordered a Treatment of Oxygen for my aunt. She had suffered with hay fever regu 
 larly every year for fifteen years. When I ordered the Compound Oxygen her annual attack of hay fever had 
 already commenced, and as you did not promise relief after the commencement of the attack, we were not very 
 hopeful. But to our astonishment and joy the Oxygen relieved her at once, and only on one evening after she 
 commenced the Treatment, and then only for a few hours, did she have any considerable trouble with her hay fever. 
 Though she really had hay fever, it was so slight, after she commenced using the Oxygen, that she was scarcely 
 conscious of it. I do not know what Compound Oxygen will do for hay fever in general, but this case of fifteen 
 years' standing was mastered by it. You are at liberty to use this in any way you may see proper for the good 
 of hay-fever victims. I believe it will cure hay fever. It did in this case, at any rate. REV. T. J. TAYLOR." 
 
 To learn more of how the Compound Oxygen acts upon chronic cases, send for the treatise 
 on " Compound Oxygen its Mode of Action and Results." It will be mailed to you free by 
 DRS. STARKEY & PALEN, 1529 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa., 331 Montgomery Street, San 
 Francisco, Cal., 58 Church Street, Toronto, Canada.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 Form L9-75m-7,'61(Cl437s4)444
 
 PS 
 
 1100 
 
 Y33 
 
 fliilll 
 
 A 001372284 8
 
 
 \ < 
 
 
 
 
 
 /