antiseptic gauze, saturated it anew from his pocket flask of bichloride of mercury, and with the deft touch of a practiced hospital corps man, learned in the United States army, he bandaged the throbbing temple. But there was a look upon Sibley's face while at work that boded no good to the man responsible. The Governor saw it and shivered with cold fear. Moreover, the Governor did not like the silence of the Constabulary officer. There something Oriental in the fact that Sibley asked no questions, sought no information from the Governor, who might reasonably be supposed to know the circumstances attending the case.

was

That she was not of pure Castilian blood Sibley realized before he had completed his task in amateur surgery, but that she was beautiful he also knew. His experience among the Malays had taught him that persecuted beauty and official corruption were closely associated in the Philippine Islands. He did not glance at the Governor, because experience had taught him that the stolid face of guilt revealed nothing among these people. As he finished his task, the words, "Americanos diablos," of her ravings caught his attention. He immediately seated himself upon the cement floor of the prison, lifted her head gently to his knees, and listened to her ravings in silence. Minutes passed, and the two officials with whom he had visited the jail grew restless. Other minutes, and the Governor moved towards the door. A curt word from Sibley recalled him. The minutes grew into hours while the two native officials grew more restless, the two children cowered whimpering in the corner, and the big man sat motionless, gleaning from delirious lips the story of a care-free girlhood, a girlhood in faraway European convents. a maidenhood surrounded with love and tenderness, a wifehood cherished and sheltered, and, latterly, of a wrong so detestable in the eyes of men that the Major's hard face grew harder as the full realization of the attempted crime came to him. And, through her ravings, ran the thread of hatred of the "Americanos diablos," who had murdered her husband, robbed her of her property, sold her daughter into slavery and made her little son a peon. In disconnected scenes of wild delirium, to

the accompaniment of demoniac laughter and outbursts of grief, the unconscious woman played again the drama of her life. For an audience she had the man who had so nearly wrecked that life, and the man who would right. so far as human power can right such a wrong, the awful crime that had so nearly been accomplished in full. In Spanish, in Tagalog and in Visayan, she hurled impotent curses upon the head of Faustino Ablen the Pope, Pedro Soler the Governor, and upon the heads of the American devils, while an American devil held her wounded head upon his knees and gathered from her lips the wrong that had been done her, and Pedro Soler quaked inwardly at the grim evidence of the Major, and cursed the American devils. for reasons of his own.

At length Sibley had learned all the details of the story of the Governor's action from delirious lips. Laying the bandaged head tenderly aside, he rose from the floor and left the prison in company with the men who had taken him there. The silence' of the American was ominous in the sight of Pedro Soler, and the Governor was made to feel that he was practically a prisoner in the hands of the big man who wore an expression of grim determination. Dona Elena was taken to her own home, which had become the residence of the Governor, and Sibley, having given orders to prevent the escape of that official, set about investigating the story he had heard in the ravings of the delirious woman. From the women of Don Juan's hacienda he learned of the master's arrest, the murder of the police, the maltreatment of the mistress and the looting of the house in the name of the American authorities. From the children he learned the shameful proposition to their mother in jail and the cause of her delirium. Then he traced Faustino to the Governor's presence. When all the threads of the affair were in his hands, he called Pedro Soler before him. Sternly he laid bare the facts to that official.

"Why have you done these things?" he asked.

"The man was an enemy of the Americans, Senor. He fed the ladrones that they might grow fat and prey upon the people," faltered the wretched Pedro.

"And for that reason you attempted to

debauch his wife and sell his daughter into slavery? For that reason you drove him into the mountains as an outlaw and robbed him of his property? For that reason you brought the name of America into contempt and sold yourself to Faustino? What do you think should be done with you?"

"Oh, Senor, for the sake of the Holy Mother, not Bilibid! Men die in the big prison in Manila!" begged the miserable Pedro.

"No," and the lines about Sibley's mouth were grim, "not Bilibid. If you are in my lines at midnight, I shall hand you over to Don Juan Balingan, telling him the details of the story he does not already know.”

In abject terror, the native threw himself at Sibley's feet, clasped the Major's knees, and prayed for mercy. The American, rendered grim by a sense of justice, was not moved either by pity or scorn. The native pleaded:

"Oh, Senor, for the Mercy of Jesus, send me to Bilibid ! Let me go to prison where men die naturally! Oh, Senor, it is murder to give me to Balingan!"

But Sibley was deaf to his pleading. "If you have friends," he said, sternly, "take them with you. If you can protect

yourself from Balingan, you have that right. I have nothing to do with it. You sought this quarrel; you must end it. I expel you from this town as you drove out Balingan. Go!"

And Pedro Soler with a dozen of his friends left the barrio of Baliran at midnight. The Constabulary lines opened for their passage, and the darkness of the tropical forest closed upon them forever. If any man thereafter saw Pedro Soler his lips were sealed with the silence that hangs over crime and outlawry in Malay lands.

Three days after Soler's disappearance, Don Juan Balingan returned to his hacienda and took charge of his own. Sibley was invited to make the Balingan home his headquarters, for the master considers Sibley an ideal Governor equal, indeed, to any of the Spanish grandees who, in happier times, had swayed the scepter of power in Baliran. If the name of Soler is mentioned in Don Juan's presence, he smiles the inscrutable smile of the Orient and shrugs his lithe shoulders meaningly.

There is no trouble in Balingan now. Sibley prevailed upon. Don Juan to become Governor, and the dreaded outlaw, Faustino Ablen, may be seen any day plowing in the Balingan rice fields.

H.

URNER

"Mossback-say, Doc., it's your turn for story-tellin'. I doan mind that-'ar bellerin' out yander, but the sound of your brogue would be a cosy treble."

The entertainer of the Deacon's seat granted.

"Well, I don't mind a-tellin' you a winder to-night. Did you boys ever hear that I was a miner ?”

"A miner! Hear him croak!"

"You! Ha, ha! But you're givin' us a bounder."

"No, I'm a-givin' you but the facts as they air." The old swamper settled his elbows comfortably upon his knees, his gaze upon the coals displaced by the open door of the stove.

"No," he repeated dreamily, "I'm a-giving you facts. Ever heard of Grimson Brothers and Father?"

Every one laughed. Not to have heard of that colossal firm which threatened to

corner the mining industry of the United States-perhaps the world-was to argue that one was indeed a backwoodsman; and men who put in at Fondulac, Detroit or Saginaw, their yearly labors done, could not by any sane reasoning be of that class.

"Oh, ho! Grimson, father and son!" mimicked he of the green sweater. "You don't mean to convey that you ever were a partner of theirs, do you, Doc.?"

The reply came rapidly and ironically:

"We've drunk our last bitters

"Shut up, boy," Doc. remonstrated, feeling for a bandanna of uncertain complexion. "If not, I'll resign the Deacon's seat to some one what's a better story-teller."

Cries of "No, no," "We'll be good, Doc.." "Spin away," greeted this, and flattered the speaker to the point of proceeding:

"Well, it's Grimsons and Son, I'm after spinnin' my yarn about; never mind the father. I-yes, I does remember him -a tow-head with a stumped toe.

"It was long of the old gold days in Californy. I hed pawed and grubbed and starved till I found him, and finally staked over the apex of a vein what run yaller. I had the apex square, and I skinned a poplar and put up my pole all reg-'ler. I writ on the bark tellin' what corner 'twas, an' set off fur to look for King Peters. O' cose you-all hev heerd o' him! I knowed he'd be clean on to the explorator company, an' would mor'n that give me his opinion of the value o' my finl.

"I went straight to San Francisco, ahobblin' like mad, flyin' a sign, 'pleasedfit-to-kill over my smartness, and plumb into the King's office. He was right thah! Never squirmed, but riz steady and quiet as a monument. 'I'm with you, old man. You see, I'd come over the plains with his pa, an'-well, there was a life-savin' scrap

he med more over than I allowed was correct.

"Anyway, we turned north'ard, I a-taking on like a jay about my luck, but afraid to squeal almost for fear some looter 'd get on. For with the King's pull and my luck, thah wa'nt no tellin' whah we might quit stakin'.

"Well, when we got there, squatters was on my claim. A Jew-faced German with his family, and among 'em the purtiest gal ever seen. Those folks hed took a cabin what I left deserted an' hed begun to dig on my preserves, swearin' I hedn't staked at the apex. And I seen right there that they'd like as not mek their fortune before I could prove my claim by law; but there was Mr. Peters, what knew mines and their squirms and chances, and the rattlers what bides 'mong the rocks. And talk o' rattlers, them Grimsons was a hornets' nestful o' stripers.

"I pertested; the King, he pertested, and them suckers jest stayed and grinned when we 'lowed we'd have the law on 'em. Meantime, I was plumgasted to see that the gal had the King in her spider-net. Law-say, that gal was a sparklin' beaut! And old Grimson seemed blind as a mole when it came to notin' the progressin' of her flirtin' with the King.

"Then Peters he 'lowed he wanted to buy the mine for a company he represented in Boston. And the Jew's eyes jest rattled joy.

"You know how a mine is worked. First a little hole, then the opinion o' the engineer, then the big shaft, then the drift, and on aroun' to the wing, looking out all the time for a heave. Well, the King Well, the King shook off Grimson and told him that he'd stand by me till old Shasto melted. And then came a heave and our work stopped. I say stopped, but it wouldn't a-been halted hedn't that Jewel-that's her name come her scintillatin' witchdoin's on the King.

was

"So Peters he gave up. The vein hed broke, hell knew where it could have wandered off, and he believed, anyhow, it had petered out. I knowed better, for volcanic rock was thah, and you know what that means. So I kept on workin'. But, meanwhile, I had to go away, as I needed labor and advice and-slop me!-that the King was too smitten with that gal to know a

vein from a di'mond ring.

"I came back, and what you think? The first night I went down and found Grimson and a stranger in the bowels of my mine, a-tracin' that heave.

"I saw purple and lit into 'em, and, boys, you see I wear a scar to-day and this limp. Then they got me between two rocks and mashed me in, and stayed that night and day offerin' to buy me out. I set thah stubborn and determinate. die with the old mine, but never would I give up an inch of her. Then they tied me down and went up.

I'd

"Workin' all night, I gnawed the ropes with my teeth, and got on top somehow by climbin' a cable, and thah in the grove o the finest eucalyptuses on earth, I crept on my hands to whah the Jewel was making a fool of the King.

"She pressed her head to his arms, and that gold hair o' hers fell upon his breast and she promised to be his for-worse and better-and then I pinched his leg. He jumped; I slid back, and movin' quietly, went around to the back o' the cabin before he knowed I was thah. And then I slid into bed, and later Grimson came to the door with the King.

"He don't know it,' Grimson says, but the vein goes on twenty feet higher up. Now, Mr. Peters, suppose we give this old cuss a fair price and send him hobbling. That is, if he ever comes back,' he adds, significant.

66

"That doesn't seem honest, Mr. Grimson,' protests the King. I must object.'

"But, you see, I've gained my point, anyhow. The heave makes the apex at a different point from where your old prospector what dug his pole. I'll have the law on him!'

"I'm sorry for you, Grimson, but we'll win,' comes, grim, and I knowed then I could depend upon the King, gal or no.

"But I sees that the gal had a holt o' him, and it was a struggle, for he went pale and tremble-like, leanin' agin the door when old Grimson went off, his smiles shakin' his yellow teeth, I'll be sworn.

"Mr. Peters,' calls I sorftly, and he jumps. What?' he calls. 'I'm back; my men will be here next week, and I'm goin' ter stick it out. Will you stand by me?' "I'll stand by you! says the King. 'You'll never regret it,' says I. 'Nobody

never regrets anything good they does for old Doc. Nelson. And he sighs, but laughs afterwards. I knowed he was a-thinkin' o' that Jewel.

"I was off and saved when I woke up. A woman's figger swayed sorter-past the door and I hears voices

"But I cannot, sweetheart,' declares the King.

"But you must,' she returns, insistent. Then such lovin'es' names and doin's you never hear, and I wipes a tear for him, tho' I knowed she sheared his strength like a Bible heroine.

"He shook her off, some way, and I was grateful when I seen him come in and crawl in without strikin' a match.

"The mornin' after I wakes, and he ain't thah. I looks and searches, and he ain't nowhah. And then I heaves to the idea that there'd been foul play.

"I runs out bellowin' thunder, straight to that smelly squatter's cabin, and swings onto him and shakes him, and then I sees Jewel shakin' too-with laughin'. Stridin' up to her, I shot a fist under her nose that looks so like a flower-a-tiltin' and asmellin' wind-you done it-you-'

"Stid o' bein' mad, she laughs in my whiskers, and turns to Griscom and leans agin' him like a Marechal-Neil, all sweet and scenty and him, the-pardingdemndest little sticker vou ever seen! And then I am on. She loves him, and he's played the King like he was a checker

man.

“Well, I swore, if he's the King checkmated I'm the bishop what fights the dook. And I lays out Grimson. I takes a rope and ties him up by the neck, one of his feet on my knee. the woman screechin'. "Tell me whah the King is hid, or he swings! I cried, passionate. mad. And she signs to me: 'I'll lead the way.'

"But I won't be fooled, so I slips the rope from his neck to his shoulders, after chokin' him unconscious, and drags him along after the gal-or woman-Cleopatra as I'd come to estimate-straight to the mouth o' the old mine.

"All crawl into the bucket together,' says I, crumplin' Grimson up first and standin' on him, takin' the gal in my arms and startin' down with her.

"Through the drift we went whah the

last had been blocked out, and what you think we found in the wing?"

"Can't say! The join o' the vein?" said Hanley, the cook, excitedly.

"No and yes. The vein was there above us---they'd blown up to her durin' my absence, but what Jewel led me to, tears falling every time she seen Grimson bump over the rocks, was-King Peters strung up by his legs, black in the face. She of the gold-hair and heart o'pitch pointed him out, and I cut him down, and tied old Shylock thah with the rope, with Goldy to watch him. The King had come-to enough to recognize her. I was about to knock him in the head and to tow him away to safety for I feared the rest o' Grimson's gang-when she laughed in his face-then hung her head shy as a gladiola.

"Jewel, tell me that you had nothing to do with this. You-oh, you do care for me as you said! pleaded King, drippin' the words like honey.

"She was silent as I swung the lantern in her face and seen how sickly she looked. "Then-you-who are you?" demanded the King, roughly, though I felt him shakin'. Jewel was a-huggin' Grimson. She screams with laughs and cries: 'I am his wife,' she owns up. But he has four sons.' 'His second wife. And I love him!' she says defiant.

"I drags the King to the bucket." “Wall, that sneak," said the cook, moving toward the coffee pot. "But you don't expect us to take it in. What air you doin' here?"

"That's another story," said the entertainer from the Deacon's seat.

"Say, tell us,” cried the Green Sweater, as he was dubbed, "what became o' the Cuss Course ?"

"What do you know about cuss courses? Ever prospected ?”

"Mebbe," affirmed the lumberman.

"Wall, I got a million or two out'n that mine, blowed it at the court of Queen Victory, and come home to work." Doc. reached for a cup of coffee.

"Is that true? Or did you put it all into another mine, salted to taste by that same Jew you almost guillotined, ten years late? I see, you do not want to confess," the speaker ended gayly.

"Who be you?" demanded Doc.