The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heritage of Dedlow Marsh and Other Tales, by
Bret Harte

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Title: The Heritage of Dedlow Marsh and Other Tales

Author: Bret Harte

Posting Date: October 28, 2008 [EBook #2281]
Release Date: August, 2000

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH ***

THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH and Other Tales

by

Bret Harte

CONTENTS.

THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH
A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE FOOT-HILLS
A SECRET OF TELEGRAPH HILL
CAPTAIN JIM'S FRIEND

THE HERITAGE OF DEDLOW MARSH.

I.

The sun was going down on the Dedlow Marshes. The tide was following
it fast as if to meet the reddening lines of sky and water in the west,
leaving the foreground to grow blacker and blacker every moment, and to
bring out in startling contrast the few half-filled and half-lit pools
left behind and forgotten. The strong breath of the Pacific fanning
their surfaces at times kindled them into a dull glow like dying
embers. A cloud of sand-pipers rose white from one of the nearer
lagoons, swept in a long eddying ring against the sunset, and became a
black and dropping rain to seaward. The long sinuous line of channel,
fading with the light and ebbing with the tide, began to give off here
and there light puffs of gray-winged birds like sudden exhalations.
High in the darkening sky the long arrow-headed lines of geese and
'brant' pointed towards the upland. As the light grew more uncertain
the air at times was filled with the rush of viewless and melancholy
wings, or became plaintive with far-off cries and lamentations. As the
Marshes grew blacker the far-scattered tussocks and accretions on its
level surface began to loom in exaggerated outline, and two human
figures, suddenly emerging erect on the bank of the hidden channel,
assumed the proportion of giants.

When they had moored their unseen boat, they still appeared for some
moments to be moving vaguely and aimlessly round the spot where they
had disembarked. But as the eye became familiar with the darkness it
was seen that they were really advancing inland, yet with a slown