In the Sleepy Hollow Country (concluded) [pp. 83-97]

In the Sleepy Hollow Country.
know. His friends from the East will be
here to-day. They must be received prop erly, and I-I do not think that I am quite
equal to the task. You will attend to it,
Aunt Mattie. And now where is the body
of Mar —of my husband?"
They told her, and she went on steadily:
"Very well; I will go to him. My first
duty is there. Gov'nor, will you saddle
Monte for me at once? You will excuse me
while I change my dress?"-bowing to them
all, "and Gov'nor, if you do not mind, I
should like you to go along to show me the
road. He may go, may not he, Uncle
Jim?"
"Yes. Oh, my God! I'll go myself,
Eddie."
"No, sir," she said, very softly, kissing
him again. "You must stay with Aunt
Mattie."
Then she turned slowly and went out of
the room. They heard her going steadily
up the stairs, and heard her room door close
after her.
The Gov'nor, at a word from his father,
went out to bring around the horses.
In a little while Eduarda's door opened
and, coming down fully equipped for riding,
she stepped out upon the passion-vine
shaded veranda. She passed through the
parlor to reach the porch-but paid no heed
to the aunt sobbing softly upon the sofa, nor
the Sheriff who was still standing with the
little squares of light and shadow playing
about his massive head.
Just beside the porch the Gov'nor was
holding Monte for her; and mounted upon
his own saddle horse, Jim Newman sat
firmly as an equestrian statue.
She only looked her thanks to her uncle,
knowing that he must already have been in
the saddle two days and a night, and sprang
lightly upon her own mustang-a creature
in ebony, of fire and sinew.
The Gov'nor released his hold upon the
Spanish bits, and with a bound they were
off —and Mrs. Newman running out upon
the veranda, cried after them plaintively:
"Eddie-Eddie, you hain't had no break fast yit!"
The girl rode like a mad creature —the
spirit that possessed her entering into her
horse. Over the long, dusty road, past the
still lagoon, across the hot mesa, up the nar row cafion, by farm, and beetling rock, and
orchard, dashing through the fords of the
swift-running river —she paid not the
slightest attention to the glorious panorama
of hill, and valley, and woodland, opening
and closing around her, nor even to the man
with care-worn face riding steadily and
swiftly at her side.
Soto's shanty at last-and, riding up
among the young oaks, she sprang to the
ground unassisted.
Unannounced, without knocking, she en tered one of the two rude rooms that the
house contained. Jim Newman, after
securing the horses, followed her with more
deliberation; but he did not enter. He
only stood in the open door-way. He
could not force himself to cross the threshold. Upon rude boards, resting on cracker
boxes, were stretched two rigid forms covered with coarse gray blankets. At the
head of each a single tallow candle glimmered in the bright day-light. Beside one
of these forms Eduarda knelt, her beautiful
face buried in the blanket covering the
breast.
She was alone-alone with death. The
man and the woman, old Jo and the Sefiora
Soto, who had been keeping watch there,
left the room when this woman, fair as an
angel, entered so suddenly and threw herself down beside the corpse of Manuel Lopez.
They did not know what that dark man had
been to this fair girl-but instinctive delicacy told them that here was one to whom,
in some way, the dead belonged.
She did not leave him after that until
everyone left him. Through all of the Coroner's inquest, with its interminable questioning and cross-questioning, she sat,
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[Jan.