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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
THE GOLDEN CYCLE. 111
whom her virgin vows were plighted, he
imprinted a brother’s pure kiss upon her
brow, and beckoning the rest to follow,
left the re-united pair to their own communings.
We will turn the scroll of another cold,
bright morning, a few days later in the
same month of the same year.
A clear, deep blue sky and sparkling
sun shine above, and a bracing “‘norther”
tossing the white-caps in the Mexican
Gulf, where a noble steamship ploughs
the watery field, on its way to the golden
shores of California.
Leaning oyer the gunwales of this
moving, breathing monument to the power of steam, is Arthur Leyton; somewhat more humanized than when we saw
him a few days since, being shorn of his
hirsute crop, and otherwise re-fashioned
in personal embellishments to comport
with the requirements of civilization and
refinement—and by his side, his sorelytried, long-suffering but faithful wife ;
ay, faithful, even while contemplating
another union ; for friendship was all she
had ever felt for Harvey Allison; and a
gratitude that prompted her to make the
only return in her power, combined with
a determination to do her duty faithfully,
to insure the happiness to the man to
whom she owed so much.
But the husband of her heart’s young
hopes returned, alive! Ah! the “old
love” with its ‘‘ master-spell” came back ;
and when she listened to the tale of his
long captivity among the Indian hordes
of the far West—-when she heard how
he had, unintentionally, and lured by a
lovely prospect, wandered away from the
emigrant train which he had joined on
arriving, and being overtaken by night,
and overcome by exhaustion in endeavoring to find his way back to his companions, had lain down for a few moments’
repose, under the sheltering branches of
a huge tree, and was awakened by the
red glare of the savages’ camp-fire, and
found by their gestures and motions that
they considered him their lawful property, (two were sitting keeping guard over
his person while he slept), and would
treat him with kindness so long as he
did not attempt to escape, but, (with a
significant flourish of the scalping-knife
in the region of the cerebrum), on the
slightest intimation of such an intention,
another trophy of gory hair would grace
the wampum of their chief—she shuddered, and folded her arms tighter around
him, as her head rested upon his bosom.
And then, the recital of the days and
nights, and months, and years passed in
torturing dreams of home, wife, child,
and all the ties that bound him to life—
and, finally, the unhoped for sight of a
company of miners, through the hazy
glow of an Indian summer evening—and
the desperate resolve, at all hazards, to
reach them in spite of the strict watch
kept upon his movements—the chase for
life or death—and his final escape, tho’
flights of arrows whistled fearfully close,
and one did take effect in his left arm,
the wound of which was scarcely healed
as yet—awakened in her heart the keenest anguish, that she should ever, even
in thought, have accused him of neglect ;
and bound her to him with renewed love
and unshakable confidence.
More than this did hestate: How, immediately upon his return to civilized
life, he had written to her—but the letter,
alas! never reached her—telling, that as
soon as he had amassed sufficient to bring
him home, (for the sayages had appropriated all his money, which he wore in
a belt around his body), he should seek
and find her, dead or alive. And, that
fortune, as if to make amends for the
scurvy trick she had played him, opened
to him unlooked for suecess; and in a
few weeks his golden dream was realized
—the wealth he had coveted was his—
and he could flv to bring his heart’s idols