The Heritage of the Hills

"My answer," he said, "is the same that dear old Dad kept repeating for thirty years. I shall not enrich myself by sacrificing the confidence placed in me. I shall remain loyal to my simple trust. I am the Watchman of the Dead."

Her lips quivered and her eyes glowed warmly, and two tears trickled down her cheeks. Oliver took from his shirt the envelope and showed her the black seals, still unbroken. Then on a flat rock before them he made a tiny fire of grass and twigs, and placed the envelope on top of it. Then he lighted a match.

"The funeral pyre of my worldly fortune!" he apostrophized. "The lost mine of Bolivio will be lost indeed when the map has burned."

Together they watched the tiny fire in silence, till the black wax sputtered and dripped down on the stone, and the eager flames crinkled the envelope and its contents and reduced them to ashes.

"And now?" said Oliver.

"And now!" echoed Jessamy.

He slowly placed both arms about her and lifted her, unresisting, to her feet. He drew her close, brushed back her hair, and looked deep into eyes from which tears streamed unrestrained. Then she threw her arms about his shoulders, and, with a glad laugh, half hysterical, she drew his head down and kissed him time and again.

His hour had come. Oliver Drew had captured the star that had led him on and on – his Star of Destiny. Warm were her lips and tremulous – glowing were her eyes for love of him. His pulse leaped madly as she gave herself to him in absolute surrender.

"There's another matter," he said five minutes later, as she lay silent in his arms, with the fragrance of her hair in his nostrils. "Old Danforth, the head of the firm of attorneys that attended to Dad's affairs, looked at me keenly from under shaggy brows when I gave my answer.

"'So it's No, is it, young man?' he said.

"'No it is,' I told him.

"'In that case,' he said, 'you are to come with me.'

"He took me to a bank and opened a safe-deposit box in the vaults. He showed me bonds totalling over a hundred thousand dollars, and cash that represented the interest coupons the firm had been clipping since Dad died.

"'Here's the key,' he told me. 'If your answer had been yes, these bonds, too, would have gone to the church. For then you would have had the gems. Your father didn't mean to leave you penniless. You would have been fairly well off, I imagine, whether your answer had been Yes or No. Your father wanted his question answered by a man of education, and I think he would be pleased at your decision.'"

Jessamy had straightened and twisted in his arms till her face was close to his.

"Peter Drew never hinted at that to me!" she cried. "I – I suppose you'd have nothing but the Old Ivison Place if you answered No. Oh, my romantic Old Peter Drew! God rest his soul! I'm so glad."

"Glad, eh?" He smiled whimsically at her, and she quickly interpreted his thoughts.

"Oh, but, Oliver – you don't understand! It's not that you're wealthy, after all – but now you can give Damon Tamroy just what the cement company would have paid him for Lime Rock!"

"Lime Rock shall be your wedding gift," he laughed.

"Oh, Oliver! And – and when we're – married, you won't take me away from the Poison Oak Country, will you, dear! I'll go anywhere you say – but these hills, and the river, and Lime Rock, and Old Dad Sloan, and – my Hummingbird – and the perfume of the manzanita blossoms in spring – and – oh, I love my country next to you, dear heart! And in my dreams I loved you even before you came riding to me in the silver-mounted saddle of Bolivio, like a knight out of the past. This is my country – and if we must go, I'll pine for it – and maybe die like the Indian bride. I want to stay here, Oliver dear – with you – down on the dear Old Ivison Place!"

Oliver tenderly kissed his Star of Destiny. "I have no other plans," he whispered into her ear. "My place is there… I am the Watchman of the Dead!"

THE END