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

in the Sleepy Hollow7 Country.
have a lair of one's own, be it never so small, to
crawl away to and die in when one is aweary of the
world. As it is, being denless, I can but do the
next best thing and go to a hotel. Probably they
are accustomed to that sort of thing at the Cottages.
"And now I have to tell you, old fellow, God
willing, that the time is come for you to fulfill
your promise. I write you frankly, as I would
have you write me under like circumstances. You
are all that I have on earth, (and a friend is sometimes more than a brother, you know)-and I have
a fancy that I should like your face to be the last
my eyes will rest upon on earth. Do not hesitate,
but come. The law practice can wait a little, I
dare say.
"Meanwhile, I shall remain here-but I am in
mortal fear of dying before you arrive. Spare me
that calamity, I beg you.
"Yours in suspense,"
"J. SHEI,TON."
Of course this had the desired effect; for
Tom Carver boarded the west bound passenger train the day following its receipt-and,
furthermore, he was not alone when he took
his compartment in the sleeper. A tall,
fair woman, pale as the moonlight upon
northern waters, was beside him-Edna
Summers, Edna Carver now.
They had been married the day before
receiving Shelton's letter, and a bridal trip
to California had been substituted for a proposed winter in Italy. After all, perhaps
one had better see one's own country first.
It was not in Tom Carver to withstand the
appeal Shelton had made, even had it not
been for that promise, now more sacred
from its years of age; and Edna had herself
suggested the change of plan.
Who can say that her feeling, as she. sat
beside her lord there in that palace car, was
altogether the glad exultation of a bride?
or whether her tremulousness arose altogether from proud modesty? Had the
ghost of a vanished passion, the spectrum
of many days upon the seashore and moonlight nights down under the silver maples,intruded as a grisly, grinning skeleton upon
her wedding morning? Her fair, pale face
told nothing-but can a woman ever forget?
One week after the dispatch of his letter
to Tom Carver, Shelton sat alone beside
his window, smoking. He had extinguished
his night lamp hours before, and some
where in the lower premises a clock had
just struck three.
Without, a glorious star-peopled sky
brightened the night, and the faint silver of a
waning moon was beginning to paint quivering fringes above the eastern hills. From the
distant river came a concert of frogs, and
far away upon some lonely hill could be
heard the melancholy wailing of a single
coyote, answered, now and again, by a yelp
yet more distant. From the rocky shore
four miles away the booming of the breakers
came like a deep undertone to the night's
stillness-a sub-bass to the silence.
Suddenly, as one feels a change in the atmosphere, Shelton became aware that he
was no longer alone in the night. A man
and a woman came around the corner of
the house, stopping just under his window.
Eduarda-he saw the sheen of the starlight
upon her hair-was speaking low and rapidly in Spanish:
"It is a lie, Manuel, and you know it.
This white-faced Gringo is nothing to me.
Is my mother's blood in me for nothing?
Do you not know the man is dying?"
"How should I know it?"-laughing
bitterly. "I My sources of information are
not great. But beware how you deceive
me. I may be taken-but as God is my
witness, you shall die before becoming the
wife of a Gringo. You dare not do it."
"Caramba! Do you think I fear you,
Sefior. The blood of the Ayalas is not
wont to quail at threats. Besides, have I
not promised? But by the Holy Mother
of God I will not fulfill that promise until
you give up your present mode of life."
"Give it up! And do you think they
would let me quit now and settle down to
quiet life? You little know the blood-hounds
of American law, porrita mia. Wait but a
few years, and then-Mexico and freedom!
Let him catch Manuel Lopez who can."
The couple passed on down the orchard
road into the shadow of the pear trees.
Then a horse was heard galloping off into
I'
84
[Jan.