An Oregon Girl: A Tale of American Life in the New WestRice, Alfred Ernest
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An Oregon Girl: A Tale of American Life in the New West
Rice, Alfred Ernest
Oregon -- Fiction; Western stories; Women pioneers -- Fiction
"Did you notice the path a lady took, who entered the park a minute
since?" he inquired of a park policeman.
"Yes; that way!" and the policeman waved his hand to the left.
"Thank you," and Sam followed the direction indicated. A strange
foreboding hurried him on. He was then fully aroused to something
extraordinary about to happen. He walked on the grass whenever
possible to muffle the sound of his footfalls, and soon was rewarded
by making out the dim form of a woman some distance ahead, being still
in the range of the gate arc light. There was no mistaking the figure.
From that moment he never lost sight of her.
To avoid suspicion of shadowing her, he took a diverging path and
boldly clambered over the hill, and proceeded toward the children's
playgrounds, apparently away from her. Passing on and in the direction
of the reservoirs, he at length stopped at the fountain.
He was the "man near the fountain" whom she discovered while she was
standing under the cedar.
Sam had stopped but a moment when, to his amazement, he discovered
Virginia suddenly had disappeared down the hillside. He at once
followed her, and was the man she again saw on the driveway beneath
her. Again she disappeared, and he shrewdly suspected, into the deep
shadow of the clump of firs nearby.
He was straining his eyes diagonally up the slope, trying to penetrate
the gloom, when a low scream of terror assailed his ears, and was
quickly followed by a low, reassuring masculine voice. He determined
to get near them. He threw himself flat against the bank and, shielded
some by the unmowed grassy slope, dragged himself along for about
fifty feet, to where the driveway, rounding westward, divided them
from the long flight of steps. He passed within fifty feet of the
couple, then cautiously pulled himself near the summit. The ridge was
strategically of great value. It enabled him to flank them unseen.
He immediately availed himself of its cover and sneaked slowly and
cautiously along the side of the crest to a point which he judged to
be near enough to them, and then he peered above the summit. The
couple were between him and the dim city lights. He strained his ears
to catch their words, and drew himself closer, inch by inch, fearing
discovery, yet desperately anxious to catch the purpose of the
meeting, and when he saw the glittering knife, his alarm gave
expression in the low whistle.
When he sprang on in pursuit of Jack, it was with a determination to
ascertain who he was, where he lived, and, if possible, to gain some
knowledge of his purpose in this meeting with Virginia at such an
unseasonable time and place.
The few words of low-spoken conversation he had heard gave him no clue
to the real object of the meeting; but he was convinced that some
grave and momentous purpose was involved to have induced Virginia to
keep so perilous an appointment alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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