The Writings of Bret Harte Volume 7; Cressy and Other Tales (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE CHATELAINE OF BURNT RIDGE CHAPTER 1 It had grown dark ou Burnt Ridge. Seen from below, the whole serrated crest, that had glittered in the sunset as if its interstices were eaten by consuming fires, now closed up its ranks of blackened shafts and became again harsh and sombre chevaux de frise against the sky. A faint glow still lingered over the red valley road, as if it were its own reflection, rather than any light from beyond the darkened ridge. Night was already creeping up out of remote cr.nons and along the furrowed flanks of the mountain, or settling on the nearer woods with the sound of homecoming and innumerable wings. At a point where the road began to encroach upon the mountain side in its slow winding ascent the darkness had become so real that a young girl cantering along the rising terrace found difficulty in guiding her horse, with eyes still dazzled by the sunset fires. In spite of her precautions, the animal suddenly shied at some object in the obscured roadway, and nearly unseated her. The accident disclosed not only the fact that she was riding in a man's saddle, but also a foot and ankle that her ordinary walking-dress was too short to hide. It was evident that her equestrian exercise was extempore, and that at that hour and on that road she had not expected to meet company. But she was apparently a good horsewoman, for the mischance which might have thrown a less practical or more timid rider seemed of little moment to her. With a strong hand and determined gesture she wheeled her frightened horse back into the track, and rode him directlyat the object. But here she herself slightly recoiled, for it was the body of a man lying in the road. As she leaned forward over her horse's shoulder, she could see by the dim light that he was a miner, and tha...