The latter examined the handkerchief, as if looking for the answer to the question in its folds, but shook his head.
“Even a mountain Injin could not tell that.”
The parson asked the privilege of examining the article. His heart was beating fast, though no one else was aware of it, for it was a present which he had made to Nellie Dawson on the preceding Christmas, having been brought by Vose Adams, with other articles, on his trip made several months before the presentation. 223 There was the girl’s name, written by himself in indelible ink, and in his neat, round hand. It was a bitter reflection that it had been in her possession, when she was in the company of the one whom she esteemed above all others.
“It may have been,” reflected the parson, carefully keeping his thoughts to himself, “that, when she remembered from whom it came, she flung it aside to please him. Captain,” he added, “since this was once mine, I presume you have no objection to my keeping it.”
“You are welcome to it; I don’t care for it,” replied the parent.
“Thank you,” and the parson carefully put it away to keep company with the letter of Nellie Dawson which broke her father’s heart; “I observe that it is quite dry, which makes me believe it has not been exposed to the dew, and therefore could not have lain long on the ground.”
“You can’t tell anything by that,” commented Vose; “the air is so dry up here, even with the snow and water around us, that there’s no dew to amount to anything.”
All seemed to prefer not to discuss the little incident that had produced so sombre an effect upon the party. Wade Ruggles was disposed to claim the handkerchief, inasmuch as it was he who found it, but he respected the feelings of the parson too much to make any protest.
The occurrence was of no special interest to the guide. He had said they were in danger from the Indians and he gave his thoughts to them. While the others kept their seats on the ground, he stood erect, and, shading his eyes with one hand, peered long and attentively over the trail behind them. The clump of cedars from amid which the thin column of vapor was slowly climbing into the sky and the narrow ledge which had been the scene of their stirring adventure were in view, though its winding course shut a portion from sight.