"Now go, Walt, and do what you can to save that poor man. For my sake, you

know."

Yes, for your sake, Grace. You see I am not jealous any more." And, moved with sudden access of courage, he took her hand and lovingly stooped toward her. But she laughingly drew back.

"Not now, Walt-not yet. Not until you have said every thing to me-San Francisco, you know."

And so, suddenly losing his courage again--for he had already gone further than he had ever anticipated he could-he feebly echoed her laugh and left her. Wondering, as he strode over the plain, how he had ever dared to speak out as plainly as he had, and yet, now that it was done, wondering to find that it was all so easy; puzzling himself at times with the doubt whether he could be as eloquent again in the day when he came to talk to Judge Markham upon the subject; a little mystified with the idea that perhaps it was a dream, and that any moment he might wake up to the dread reality of nothing at all having happened-so he stumbled on toward the camp. had he quite collected all his faculties when, coming to the end of his route, he found himself at the camp-fire of Colonel Rollock, upon the outskirts of a little group, of which the Colonel himself was the prominent

center.

Nor

He stood with one hand firmly braced upon his left hip, the other hanging carelessly at his side, in apparent readiness for action or oratory, as the nature of the case might require; while he calmly listened to the running commentary of argument and suggestion that flowed on about him. Thus noticed, he could not fail of being recognized even at a careless glance as a man of marked influence, though it might not have been easy to tell exactly why. His figure was well knit, his eyes clear, his forehead broad and expansive, his mouth firm-set and decisive; yet certainly there were other

men to be met with whose conflict with the world had stamped them, in greater degree, perhaps, with the same attributes of feature and expression. Possibly it might have been the nature of his dress that helped him; since in that he was most scrupulously neat, not without some regard for the picturesque, in forcible contrast with the usual display of others about him. Most of the miners carried their rags and discolorations without attempt at disguise or concealment, and even with a sort of wild enjoyment, as though these were the patents of social freedom; while even Judge Markham, who seemed to maintain a careful attention and propriety in the matter of costume, displayed something of the remains of an Eastern and civilized air, a little at variance with those wilds, and far less effective in the creation of a suitable impression than were the nicely-fitting red shirt and black pistol-belt and slouched Panama of the Colonel. But whether it came from face, or form, or dress, or all together, it is certain that wherever he went the Colonel seemed marked out as a natural repository for confidence, and in any disturbance was with a sort of unanimous acclaim selected as the proper instrument of the public will.

Even here that flattering destiny attended him; for though at the time of the arrest, he had appeared upon the scene late, at once he seemed to inspire a general trustfulness in his ability to express and carry out the common interests; and now, without any formal appointment or election, stood in the center of the group, the acknowledged judge and master of the occasion.

and, with some dignity and thoughtfulness, discussed the weighty matter of the disposition of the culprit. For, though this was not the trial, and though it had been determined that the trial should take place the next day and be attended with scrupulous fairness and all the ceremony the nature of the case would allow, it could not but be perceived that, inasmuch as the criminal had already committed himself, there could be no question about the verdict, and that, in this informal deliberation, his fate would be determined.

"You speak to the point, Judge Markham," said the Colonel, "and yet you speak as a lawyer rather than as one acquainted with the rights and necessities of a population like ours. You have been too lately in the East, you see; in a few months you will look at these matters with other eyes. You say that we have no authority in law to take this man's life, and that in any event we should not take one life except for another; that the death penalty for a theft is not a thing to be thought of or allowed. Is not that your line of argument?"

"Exactly, Colonel Rollock. Nor do I see how you can avoid giving way to it."

"Only on the ground, Judge, that the necessities of the country have made a higher law, and one which under certain circumstances you yourself will admit. What do you do with the Indian on the Plains who has stolen your horse, and whom you overtake with the property in his possession? He has his constitutional rights as well as any other person, perhaps, and yet you shoot him on the spot. Why do you not rather imprison him for five or six years? Because not only is there no available prison at hand, but if there was, the fellow would laugh at such a punishment. Therefore you strip him of his constitutional rights, make a new law for the occasion, and shoot him. Now here is a man who is as troublesome to our frontier civilization as is an Indian on the Plains. He has already been pun

ished, probably for a similar offense, by the loss of his ears. He will not heed the warning, and does the same thing again. What, then, shall be done? Where are your State prisons? And, in lieu of them, must we let him go? By the same rule, you must then release any one who commits any crime that in more settled communities is not known as a crime unto death; and where then, in a little while, would be your personal safety-yes, the safety of your child, Judge Markham?"

"Look upon it in another light, Judge. In the East, you punish a man who forges a twenty-dollar check more severely than him who takes a twenty-dollar bill from off a counter. And why? Because the former crime can be more easily committed, and therefore must be attended with greater severities for its prevention. Now then, theft is an easy matter here, and hence the punishment of it must be more severe to act as a determent. We have no iron safes for our gold, nor stables for our horses and mules."

"There may be some reason in what you say, Colonel; but yet not enough to convince me, at least in the present matter. I have no especial reason to care for this man; and yet, as I do not like to see a life taken illegally, I must try to save him. Since, then, I fail to convince you, I must try another course. I was about to leave for San Francisco to-morrow noon, but now I will remain over. I will attend at what you call his trial, and will argue in his behalf. If that is insufficient, I will be present even at the place of execution, appeal to the people, and

دو

"No, no; don't do that Judge," interrupted the Colonel, laying his hand upon the other's arm. "I don't mean, you will understand, to keep you away for the purpose of insuring the fellow's death. I don't want the responsibility of contriving that. I stand here as the exponent of the people's

will, and if they say he should be hanged, I can't but agree with them that it should be done. On the other hand, if they say 'Let him go,' I will cheerfully assent. I merely now give you the hint to keep aloof, so that your ideas may have fair play. Stay away, and it may be possible that at the last moment the miners will take compassion and let the wretch go free. I have known it happen, though not often. Interfere, and his doom is sealed."

"And why?"

Others

"Because you are known to be a lawyer. Men here are distrustful of the law and its agents. I do not say that they are wisely so. I simply state a fact. Many of these miners have been ruined by the law, as administered by corrupt practitioners, and they now dread it as a pestilence, and will have none of it if they can help it. have not had much to do with the law personally, but they believe it to be an instrument made up of delays, extortions, appeals, and exactions, and they, too, will have none of it. Stay away, therefore, and trust to the only chance--the possible awakening pity of a crowd. If they see you interfering, it will arouse all their fierce sentiment of opposition to the chance of any application of that old system which they have so learned to dread as one of injustice and oppression; and then no power on earth can save the Why, Judge Markham, there is no one in the whole mine who cannot do more for him than you can. Our friend here, Redfern, could do more than you, for he is known by the miners more intimately as one of themselves; and they somehow feel that in his bad luck of today he has some claim upon their sympathy, and they might take a notion to gratify him when they would not even listen to you."

"I don't know as to that, exactly," Redfern here broke in, somewhat to the astonishment of the Colonel, who had evidently not expected the argument to be taken up in that quarter. "I wouldn't think of putting

forward my own bad luck as a reason for being listened to; but for all that, I have come here to try and save the man. Can I say a very few words, Colonel ? " "Certainly, Mark. Every one here has the right to speak."

"I said, Colonel, that I would not think of asking anything from the mine because of my own bad luck in selling out for so little, and Ohio's Pride immediately getting the reward of all my hard work. If by mentioning it, though, I might get through sympathy what I wanted, I would not forbear. But all that, of course, has nothing to do with the case. It's the pure right and wrong of it that I would say a little about, if you will let me."

Warming up with his feelings, Redfern continued for some minutes pleading his cause before that little group; not saying any thing additional in the way of new argument, indeed, but, after the manner of an uncultivated mind, repeating over and over again the same sequence of thought in somewhat different words. Yet even in this he gained some effect; for as he went on and gradually felt the hesitation with which he had commenced disappear, his words came more fluently and with almost impassioned energy, and with something of an earnest affection for the culprit in whose behalf he pleaded.

As he went on, expressions of sympathetic interest came out here and there, and hard features seemed to soften, as with some long unfelt emotion, and one or two looked stealthily around at the others, as though to read how they were impressed with the scene, ready to yield if the common feeling would allow it.

But for a minute or two only; Colonel Rollock-the real arbiter in the mattershowed no signs of relenting; his face gradually assuming a more severe expression than before, as though he were simply wearied of hearing a repetition of arguments that carried no weight with them, and consequently

when we get home ourselves, as any day we may, we should be questioned as to how it all came about, and-Hang it, man! Haven't you anything to say?"

"I don't want to give up my gray pony, Colonel."

66 And, of course, that wouldn't be necessary. The fellow will be glad enough to get off with such a small penalty as that. He will acknowledge your right to the pony --will, if properly encouraged, repeat his story that he bought it from a stranger, not knowing that it had been stolen. You will accept his plea--and tell the people that upon the whole you may have judged him a little too hastily. As to the pistol shotwhy, no harm was done there, after all. And really, that is more a matter between yourself and him than any one else. If you show that you don't care to take it to heart that an angry man sent a bullet within an inch of your hat, I don't know who else need do so. And all this being so, Henshaw, it seems to me that-"

As the Colonel spoke, suddenly there came rasping across the plain the quick, sharp report of a single rifle; and as by simultaneous impulse, that whole group of men started and gazed wildly in that one direction, striving to pierce the gathered gloom. It was no novelty, at any hour of the day or night, to hear the crack of firearms-so common a thing, indeed, that it seldom caused remark or notice; but now this single sound seemed to bring to all a certain vague, incomprehensible warning of unusual incident. Then as all stood speechless, listening for other sounds, there came a wild cry, the hail of men to each other, the rapid rush from the borders of the plain to one central spot; and so, following the example, that little group of men who stood in judgment, broke up and hurried thither.

At first, in the darkness and distance, nothing could be seen; but as they came nearer, a motionless figure lay upon the sod. A little crowd of men hurrying up from dif

ferent directions had already gathered around.

Then from the nearest tent a small, whiteclad figure glided swiftly to the spot, and sinking down upon the ground, lifted the wounded man's head upon her lap, and with her handkerchief wiped the pale lips and brow, in a vain attempt to do something that might prove of service. It was Grace, who felt that here was woman's work, from which she should not shrink; a work which she could now undertake unhindered by any one, and free from fear of misconstruction or reproof.

Then came more men hurrying to the scene, an ever increasing throng; plain miners startled from their tents, one of whom still held in his hand the little Bible he had been reading, and alongside of him Ohio's Pride, unconsciously grasping the bottle from which, at the moment of the gun shot, he had been pouring out a fresh draught. The Chínaman, too, stood gazing wonderingly down, and at his side was Five-Ace Bill, flourishing his rifle excitedly over his head, in a paroxysm of dismay and fear that seemed for the instant to overpower every other emotion in the crowd and make him even more conspicuously than the wounded man the centre of all observation.

"You should not have put me upon guard over him!" the man wildly cried out. "You might have known what would come of it. I call you all to witness that I did not intend to kill him, so help me God! When I saw that he had got free and crawled under the tent, and was running away, I fired only to frighten him and make him stop. I did not mean to hit him."

"It would have been more to your credit, if you had intended to hit him; then the more surely would you have done your duty," remarked Colonel Rollock, speaking now with all his natural magisterial rigidity of "Since he was trying to escape, it was necessary that you should have killed him-if, indeed, he be really dead."

tone.