n in a steady voice, "ez kem to
my shanty a night ago on his way to the--the--valley. He was a
sprightly young fellow, gay and chipper-like, and he sez to me,
confidential-like, 'Collinson,' sez he, 'I'm off to the States this
very night on business of importance; mebbe I'll be away a long
time--for years! You know,' sez he, 'Mr. Key, in the Hollow! Go to
him,' sez he, 'and tell him ez how I hadn't time to get to see him;
tell him,' sez he, 'that RIVERS'--you've got the name, Mr. Key?--you've
got the name, miss?--'that RIVERS wants him to say this to his little
sister from her lovin' brother. And tell him,' sez he, this yer
RIVERS, 'to look arter her, being alone.' You remember that, Mr. Key?
you remember it, miss? You see, I remembered it, too, being, so to
speak, alone myself"--he paused, and added in a faint whisper--"till
now."

Then he was silent. That innocent lie was the first and last upon his
honest lips; for as they stood there, hand in hand, they saw his plain,
hard face take upon itself, at first, the gray, ashen hues of the rocks
around him, and then and thereafter something of the infinite
tranquillity and peace of that wilderness in which he had lived and
died, and of which he was a part.

Contemporaneous history was less kindly. The "Bald Top Sentinel"
congratulated its readers that the late seismic disturbance was
accompanied with very little loss of life, if any. "It is reported
that the proprietor of a low shebeen for emigrants in an obscure hollow
had succumbed from injuries; but," added the editor, with a fine touch
of Western humor, "whether this was the result of his being forcibly
mixed up with his own tanglefoot whiskey or not, we are unable to
determine from the evidence before us." For all that, a small stone
shaft was added later to the rocks near the site of the old mill,
inscribed to the memory of this obscure proprietor, with the singular
legend: "Have ye faith like to him?" And those who knew only of the
material catastrophe looking around upon the scene of desolation it
commemorated, thought grimly that it must be faith indeed, and--were
wiser than they knew.

"You smiled, Don Preble," said the Lady Superior to Key a few weeks
later, "when I told to you that many caballeros thought it most
discreet to intrust their future brides to the maternal guardianship
and training of the Holy Church; yet, of a truth, I meant not YOU. And
yet--eh! well, we shall see."