silent and distraught. His absence of mind was particularly noted by his
workmen at the Empire Quartz Mill. "Ef the old man don't look out and
wake up," said his foreman, "he'll hev them feet of his yet under the
stamps. When he ain't givin' his mind to 'em, they is altogether too
promiskuss."

A few nights later, Miss Jenny recognized her father's hand in a timid
tap at the door. She opened it, and he stood before her, with a valise
in his hand, equipped as for a journey. "I takes the stage to-night,
Jinny dear, from Four Forks to 'Frisco. Maybe I may drop in on Jack
afore I go. I'll be back in a week. Good-by."

"Good-by." He still held her hand. Presently he drew her back into the
room, closing the door carefully, and glancing around. There was a look
of profound cunning in his eye as he said slowly,--

"Bear up, and keep dark, Jinny dear, and trust to the old man. Various
men has various ways. Thar is ways as is common, and ways as is
uncommon; ways as is easy, and ways as is oneasy. Bear up, and keep
dark." With this Delphic utterance he put his finger to his lips, and
vanished.

It was ten o'clock when he reached Four Forks. A few minutes later,
he stood on the threshold of that dwelling described by the Four Forks
"Sentinel" as "the palatial residence of John Ashe," and known to the
local satirist as the "ash-box." "Hevin' to lay by two hours, John," he
said to his prospective son-in-law, as he took his hand at the door,
"a few words of social converse, not on business, but strictly
private, seems to be about as nat'ral a thing as a man can do." This
introduction, evidently the result of some study, and plainly committed