The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 119: what you’re looking at

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

THE GOLD to the Royal Ophir and see what the clue amounts to.” , Whipple had time to eat his dinner and write a hasty line to Amy, stating that he had received a call to action and would be delayed a day in returning to the works at the Golden Eagle. As a matter of fact, he was five days late in getting back to the cyanide plant, and during his five days’ absence a discovery of the greatest importance had been made by Teresa. CHAPTER XVIII. TERESA’S DISCOVERY. ASIDE from Amy and Whipple, no one at the cyanide works knew that Henderson, the young man who had been hired by the manager and had joined Jeffries and Chombo in their dark plots, was in reality Tom Travis, the brother of Amy. , Of necessity the sheriff had been in- formed of the true condition of affairs, but not until Whipple had obtained from him a promise of secrecy. Sympathy for Amy had prompted the manager to withhold the information. All would be known some time, but un- til that time he would not add to the grievous burden this devoted sister was carrying. Teresa wondered at the great change that had come over Amy. Before the bullion was stolen the two girls had been inseparable companions, the clos- est of friends. Scarcely an evening passed that Amy was not with Teresa, either at the Gonzales’ home or at Mrs. Gambel’s. Often the little Mexicana would come to the office with her drawn-work and chatter industriously as she plied her needle, Amy busying herself with her own duties the while. When Sunday came they were abroad in the hills to- gether, or visiting Ysabel, the daughter of Gualterio. Now all was different. Amy was re- served, taciturn, and seemed to shun the Mexican girl’s society. Teresa awoke to the new condition with a start and a throb of pain. If she went to the office with her drawn-work, Amy had not half a dozen words to say C. OUgle GLEANERS. 115 to her. And so it was when Teresa called at Mrs. Gambel’s in the evening. As for visiting Teresa in her own home, Amy had ceased to do that en- tirely. Rarely was there a smile on Amy’s face since the bullion was taken, and since Whipple had come _ Teresa’s friendly advances had been even more sternly repulsed. Sadly the Mexicana tried to seek out the cause of her friend’s changed man- ner, but in vain. As a last resort she went directly to Amy and asked for an explanation. Amy’s only answer was to fling her arms about Teresa’s neck, kiss her pas- sionately, and turn tearfully away. Thus Teresa learned that the cause of her friend’s sorrow was not for her to know. Comforting herself with the reflection that she herself was not at fault, Teresa kept away from Amy and | would not encroach upon the solitude the other appeared to crave. ° A young heart like Teresa’s, however, yearns for companionship as a flower for the sun, and the Mexicana went more and more often to (ualterio’s to visit with Ysabel. Ysabel was like Teresa in many ways, having the same bright eyes and blue- black, glistening hair, the same soft voice and native coquetry, the same in- consistency where the deeper feelings of pleasure and pain, love and indiffer- ence were concerned—all the direct and legitimate heritage of their common race. : Yet there were individual differences | between the girls, and all in favor of the charming Teresa. “ Do not eat your heart out about the Senorita Travis, cara,” Ysabel had said to Teresa; “who but a man can wring the most drops of. bitterness from a woman’s soul? Ay dit me! Some man is the cause of the sejiorita’s sorrow.” Ysabel shook her wise little head. “Time will cure it,” she added. “And will time cure every grief of the heart?” whispered Teresa. “Every one. Not a seiiorita, novia, but hag her caballero.” “T believe you. Ysabel.” “Thev meet, they love, they marry: if they do not marry, they forget and e e (COL ElOOO COL