José — page 155: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

148 JOSE. ‘ Fifteen miles up the river was the stage station of which Hattie had told her. It was a settlement containing several. Americans. Such being the case, she had no doubt that she should find there some person invested with official authority, who could at least, if necessary, protect her. This settle- ment she was determined to reach, and then wait for the stage coach that was running from Santa Fe to St. Joseph. If she was not too late for that trip, according to the overseer’s statement, the coach was due very shortly. For what her father had said regarding the impossibility of her attempt ing the journey alone. she cared nothing. She sus- pected that in order to further his own plans, he was determined to marry her to McGregor; and she had pledged herself that once away from the fort, no discomforts or dangers, to the worst of which she had reason to believe herself equal, should deter her from returning to the States. To avoid suspicion she had taken nothing from the fort save what she wore. But she had scarcely any thoughts of this, and with a view only to escaping the con- fines of McGregor’s home with as little delay as possible, she spoke encouragingly to her herse to accelerate his speed. The river was soon reached, and she was now enabled to continue her flight on a bright green meadow. If nothing occurred to delay her on the way, she could reach her preliminary destination in less than three hours. Although she could see but a short distance, for the murky air, intensifying with each moment, and albeit little charm the surroundings could possess for her then, she could not help being wonderfully impressed with the marked beauty of the scene, as Eomichooks co