Told In The Hills   By: Marah Ellis Ryan (1866-1934)

A NOVEL

BY MARAH ELLIS RYAN

AUTHOR OF THAT GIRL MONTANA, THE BONDWOMAN, A FLOWER OF FRANCE, ETC.

NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1891 By Rand McNally & Co. Chicago. Copyright, 1905 By Rand McNally & Co. Chicago. All Rights Reserved (Told in the Hills)

IN ALL REVERENCE IN ALL GRATITUDE TO THE FRIENDS GRANTED ME BY THE WEST

FAYETTE SPRINGS, PENN.

KOPA MESIKA

Nika sikhs klaksta kumtucks Klaksta yakwa mamook elahan, Nika mahsie mahsie kwanesum.

M. E. R.

Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox, or his sheep, go astray.

... Thou shalt bring it unto thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again....

... And with all lost things of thy brother's which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise....

In any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down. Deuteronomy.

[Illustration: Mowitza forged ahead, her sturdy persistence suggesting a realization of her own importance]

List of Illustrations

Mowitza forged ahead, her sturdy persistence suggesting a realization of her own importance

At a sharp cut of the whip, Betty sprang forward

Cooling it to suit baby's lips, she knelt beside the squaw

TOLD IN THE HILLS

PART FIRST

THE PLEDGE

"The only one of the name who is not a gentleman"; those words were repeated over and over by a young fellow who walked, one autumn morning, under the shade of old trees and along a street of aristocratic houses in old New Orleans.

He would have been handsome had it not been for the absolutely wicked expression of his face as he muttered to himself while he walked. He looked about twenty five dark and tall so tall as to be a noticeable man among many men, and so well proportioned, and so confidently careless in movement as not to be ungainly the confidence of strength.

Some negroes whom he passed turned to look after him, even the whites he met eyed him seriously. He looked like a man off a sleepless journey, his eyes were bloodshot, his face haggard, and over all was a malignant expression as of lurking devilishness.

He stopped at a house set back from the street, and half smothered in the shade of the trees and great creeping vines that flung out long arms from the stone walls. There was a stately magnificence about its grand entrance, and its massive proportions it showed so plainly the habitation of wealth. Evidently the ill natured looking individual was not a frequent visitor there, for he examined the house, and the numbers about, with some indecision; then his eyes fell on the horse block, in the stone of which a name was carved. A muttered something, which was not a blessing, issued from his lips as he read it, but with indecision at an end he strode up the walk to the house. A question was answered by the dubious looking darky at the door, and a message was sent somewhere to the upper regions; then the darky, looking no less puzzled, requested the gentleman to follow him to the "Young Massa's" study. The gentleman did so, noting with those wicked side glances of his the magnificence of the surroundings, and stopping short before a picture of a brunette, willowy girl that rested on an easel. The face was lovely enough to win praise from any man, but an expression, strangely akin to that bestowed on the carven name outside, escaped him. Through the lattice of the window the laughter of woman came to him as fresh and cheery as the light of the young sun, and bits of broken sentences also words of banter and retort.