ry to its culmination twenty minutes did not elapse; but in that
interval a radius of two hundred yards around the hidden spring was
swept of life and light and motion.

For the rest of that day and part of the night a pall of smoke hung
above the scene of desolation. It lifted only towards the morning, when
the moon, rising high, picked out in black and silver the shrunken and
silent columns of those roofless vaults, shorn of base and capital. It
flickered on the still, overflowing pool of the hidden spring, and
shone upon the white face of Low, who, with a rootlet of the fallen tree
holding him down like an arm across his breast, seemed to be sleeping
peacefully in the sleeping water.

* * * * *

Contemporaneous history touched him as briefly, but not as gently. "It
is now definitely ascertained," said "The Slumgullion Mirror," "that
Sheriff Dunn met his fate in the Carquinez Woods in the performance
of his duty; that fearless man having received information of
the concealment of a band of horse thieves in their recesses. The
desperadoes are presumed to have escaped, as the only remains found are
those of two wretched tramps, one of whom is said to have been a digger,
who supported himself upon roots and herbs, and the other a degraded
half-white woman. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the fire
originated through their carelessness, although Father Wynn of the First
Baptist Church, in his powerful discourse of last Sunday, pointed at the
warning and lesson of such catastrophes. It may not be out of place
here to say that the rumors regarding an engagement between the pastor's
accomplished daughter and the late lamented sheriff are utterly without
foundation, as it has been an on dit for some time in all well-informed
circles that the indefatigable Mr. Brace, of Wells, Fargo and Co.'s
Express, will shortly lead the lady to the hymeneal altar."

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