第9章

Wynn's confidences upon the impulsive heart of Jack Brace,the expressman.It has been already intimated that it was his "day off."Unable to summarily reassume his usual functions beside the driver without some practical reason,and ashamed to go so palpably as a mere passenger,he was forced to let the coach proceed without him.Discomfited for the moment,he was not,however,beaten.He had lost the blissful journey by her side,which would have been his professional right,but--she was going to Indian Spring!could he not anticipate her there?Might they not meet in the most accidental manner?And what might not come from that meeting away from the prying eyes of their own town?

Mr.Brace did not hesitate,but saddling his fleet Buckskin,by the time the stage-coach had passed the Crossing in the high-road he had mounted the hill and was dashing along the "cutoff"in the same direction,a full mile in advance.Arriving at Indian Spring,he left his horse at a Mexican posada on the confines of the settlement,and from the piled debris of a tunnel excavation awaited the slow arrival of the coach.On mature reflection he could give no reason why he had not boldly awaited it at the express office,except a certain bashful consciousness of his own folly,and a belief that it might be glaringly apparent to the bystanders.When the coach arrived and he had overcome this consciousness,it was too late.Yuba Bill had discharged his passengers for Indian Spring and driven away.Miss Nellie was in the settlement,but where?As time passed he became more desperate and bolder.He walked recklessly up and down the main street,glancing in at the open doors of shops,and even in the windows of private dwellings.It might have seemed a poor compliment to Miss Nellie,but it was an evidence of his complete preoccupation,when the sight of a female face at a window,even though it was plain or perhaps painted,caused his heart to bound,or the glancing of a skirt in the distance quickened his feet and his pulses.Had Jack contented himself with remaining at Excelsior he might have vaguely regretted,but as soon become as vaguely accustomed to,Miss Nellie's absence.But it was not until his hitherto quiet and passive love took this first step of action that it fully declared itself.When he had made the tour of the town a dozen times unsuccessfully,he had perfectly made up his mind that marriage with Nellie or the speedy death of several people,including possibly himself,was the only alternative.He regretted he had not accompanied her;he regretted he had not demanded where she was going;he contemplated a course of future action that two hours ago would have filled him with bashful terror.There was clearly but one thing to do--to declare his passion the instant he met her,and return with her to Excelsior an accepted suitor,or not to return at all.

Suddenly he was vexatiously conscious of hearing his name lazily called,and looking up found that he was on the outskirts of the town,and interrogated by two horsemen.

"Got down to walk,and the coach got away from you,Jack,eh?"A little ashamed of his preoccupation,Brace stammered something about "collections."He did not recognize the men,but his own face,name,and business were familiar to everybody for fifty miles along the stage-road.