croach upon the mountain-side in its slow winding ascent the darkness
had become so real that a young girl cantering along the rising terrace
found difficulty in guiding her horse, with eyes still dazzled by the
sunset fires.

In spite of her precautions, the animal suddenly shied at some object
in the obscured roadway, and nearly unseated her. The accident disclosed
not only the fact that she was riding in a man's saddle, but also a foot
and ankle that her ordinary walking-dress was too short to hide. It was
evident that her equestrian exercise was extempore, and that at that
hour and on that road she had not expected to meet company. But she was
apparently a good horsewoman, for the mischance which might have thrown
a less practical or more timid rider seemed of little moment to her.
With a strong hand and determined gesture she wheeled her frightened
horse back into the track, and rode him directly at the object. But here
she herself slightly recoiled, for it was the body of a man lying in the
road.

As she leaned forward over her horse's shoulder, she could see by the
dim light that he was a miner, and that, though motionless, he was
breathing stertorously. Drunk, no doubt!--an accident of the locality
alarming only to her horse. But although she cantered impatiently
forward, she had not proceeded a hundred yards before she stopped
reflectively, and trotted back again. He had not moved. She could now
see that his head and shoulders were covered with broken clods of earth
and gravel, and smaller fragments lay at his side. A dozen feet above
him on the hillside there was a foot trail which ran parallel with the
bridle-road, and occasionally overhung it. It seemed possible that he
might have fallen from the trail and been stunned.

Dismounting, she succeeded in dragging him to a safer position by the
bank. The act discovered his face, which was young, and unknown to her.
Wiping it with the silk handkerchief which was loosely slung around his
neck after the fashion of his class, she gave a quick feminine glance
around her and then approached her own and rather handsome face near his
lips. There was no odor of alcohol in the thick and heavy respiration.
Mounting again, she rode forward at an accelerated pace, and in twenty
minutes had reached a higher tableland of the mountain, a cleared
opening in the forest that showed signs of careful cultivation, and
a large, rambling, yet picturesque-looking dwelling, whose unpain