xtra heart-beat. What is the
matter with me now? When that girl smiled up in my face, welcomed me as
her brother's friend, and told me she was glad I had come with him, all
the clutches broke off my cage, and I thought I would in a moment bring
up in the sump below the 1,700 foot level, smashed so they would have to
sew the pieces up in canvas to bring me to the surface. It is a clear
case that I am gone, and what the mischief am I going to do? Suppose I
brace up and try to win her, and fail, then I shall be done for sure
enough. The old world so far has had no particular attractions for me,
and were I to ask her to look at me, and she, like a sensible woman
that she is, should first look surprised at my assurance, and then
respectfully decline, what would there be left for me? Suppose again, I
could fool her into accepting, then what? I, a rough Nevada miner, linked
for life with a London fairy--beauty and the beast--what would I do with
her? In this babel, what could I do? What could she do on the old Jasper
farm on the hill? I have it. I won't see her again. I will go and pack my
grip, tell Jack I have received a cable which takes me home, and I will
leave to-morrow.

"But then I could not go as I came. Those steady brown eyes would follow
me; when the sunlight would turn its glint on gold and purple clouds, her
chestnut curls would be sure to flash before my eyes, and then there
would be a voice crying to me ceaselessly: 'You who prided yourself on
being brave enough to do any needed thing, you on the first real trial
lowered your flag and fled in a panic. A nice fix I have got myself into.
All my life, through all my dare-devil days, on the ranges in Texas, down
amid the swelling clay of the Comstock, everywhere, my soul has been
equal to the occasion, and I have been able to acquit myself in a way not
to attract attention to my deficiencies. But now my heart has gone back
on me; a pair of eyes have confused my vision, and a little hand has
knocked me out on the first round. I am in a deuce of a fix, surely."
So he rattled on to himself.

The driver was a garrulous whip. From time to time he had been calling
down to Sedgwick the names of famous points of interest along the route,
which had been unheeded by the absorbed occupant of the cab. Finally the
driver explained that a certain structure was Westminster Abbey.

"And what is Westminster Abbey?"

"It is where kings and queens and great soldiers and scholars a