Produced by David Yingling, Diane Monico, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) LADIES' HOME JOURNAL LIBRARY OF FICTION THE SPIRIT OF SWEETWATER BY HAMLIN GARLAND AUTHOR OF WAYSIDE COURTSHIPS MAIN-TRAVELED ROADS PRAIRIE SONGS, ETC. PHILADELPHIA CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO. Copyright, 1898, by HAMLIN GARLAND TO JESSIE VIOLA AND HARRIET EDITH GARLAND [Illustration: Hamlin Garland] _THE MYSTERY OF MOUNTAINS_ _As the sun sinks And the canons deepening in color Add mystery to silence Then the lone traveller lying out-stretched Beneath the silent pines on some high range Watches and listens in ecstasy of fear And timorous admiration._ _In the roar of the stream he catches The reminiscent echo of colossal cataracts; In the cry of the cliff-bird He thinks he hears the eagle's scream Or yowl of far-off mountain-lion; In the fall of a loose rock He fancies the menacing footfall of the grizzly bear; And in the black deeps of the lower canon His dreaming eyes detect once more Prodigious lines of buffalo crawling snake-wise Athwart the stream, Or files of Indian warriors Winding downward to the distant plain, Where camp-fires gleam like stars._ Part I The Spirit of Sweetwater CHAPTER I One spring day a young man of good mental furnishing and very slender purse walked over the shoulder of Mount Mogallon and down the trail to Gold Creek. He walked because the stage fare seemed too high. Two years and four months later he was pointed out to strangers by the people of Sweetwater Springs. "That is Richard Clement, the sole owner of 'The Witch,' a mine valued at three millions of dollars." This in itself was truly an epic. Sweetwater Springs was a village in a canon, out of which rose two wonderful springs of water whose virtues were known throughout the land. The village was wedged in the canon which ran to the mighty breast of Mogallon like a fold in a king's robe. The village and its life centered around the pavilion which roofed the spring, and Clement spent his evenings there in order to see the people, at least, as they joyously thronged about the music-stand and sipped the beautiful water which the Utes long, long ago called "sweet water," and visited with reverence and hope of returning health. Since the coming of his great wealth Clement had not allowed himself a day's vacation, and he had grown ten years older in that time. There were untimely signs of age in his hair and in the troubled lines of his face. He was a young man, but he looked a strong and stern and careworn man to those whose attention was called to him. He was a conscientious man, and the possession of great wealth was not without its gravities.