an needed no urging. He proceeded to relate the story of the
discovery of her gold ledges. Of her patiently locating the ledges in
the face of the fact that her strange electric instinct for minerals
gave her real suffering; and of her taking him into her secret; not
omitting to tell of the water witch, the talisman, and the dream, as
well as her wish that Shismakoff be kept in ignorance to the last
moment. It was now that Michaelovitz forced his daughter to regret that
she had not herself told the tale.

He did not spare her blushes. On the contrary he bore down upon the
finale of the narrative with all the vigor of a surgeon performing a
serious duty, adding that she had had her wishes in the matter
gratified, and she ought to be satisfied that their listener was a
genuine lover, and not one seeking a wife for her possessions.

At this juncture Eyllen's poor cheeks could blush no longer. Her eyes
were wet, but her lips were smiling; and Michaelovitz betook himself to
the path which led to the spring, thus giving the lovers an opportunity
to be alone.

Shismakoff was the first to speak.

"So this is the little one who wears the talisman," he laughed. "But it
has no power to protect you from witchcraft, as I can honestly testify.
See! Here in me is the proof of my story. Have you not bewitched _me_?"
his strong arms moving tenderly around the girl's little jacket, while
he covered her lips with kisses.

"Give the talisman to me, darling, that I may wear it until your love
shall be as strong for me as is my own for Eyllen!"

Then the girl, thinking him in earnest, handed it to her lover who hung
it about his neck beneath his waistcoat next to his heart. So the lovers
had forgotten the ledges and the man among them, and thought only of
their love and each other; the rocks, gold-laden though they were, as
well as everything else, being then of secondary importance.

[Illustration]

End of Project Gutenberg's The Trail of a Sourdough, by May Kellogg Sullivan

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