The Chalice Of Courage A Romance of Colorado   By: Cyrus Townsend Brady (1861-1920)

A Romance of Colorado

BY CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY

Author of "The Island of Regeneration," "The Better Man," "Hearts and the Highway," "As the Sparks Fly Upward," etc., etc.

With Illustrations By HARRISON FISHER and J. N. MARCHAND

NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1912

COPYRIGHT, 1911 BY W. G. CHAPMAN

COPYRIGHT, 1912 BY DODD, MEAD & COMPANY

Published, February, 1912

To My Beloved Friend JOHN B . WALKER, JR.

Great hearted, Great souled, High spirited Man of Colorado.

[Illustration: "Leave me to myself, I would not take the finest, noblest man on earth "]

PREFACE

Prefaces, like much study, are a weariness to the flesh; to some people, not to me. I can conceive of no literary proposition more attractive than the opportunity to write unlimited prefaces. Let me write the preface and I care not who writes the book. Unfortunately for my desires, I can only be prefatory in the case of my own. Happily my own are sufficiently numerous to afford me some scope in the indulgence of this passion for forewords.

I suppose no one ever sat down to write a preface until after he had written the book. It is like the final pat that the fond parent gives to the child before it is allowed to depart in its best clothes. I have seen the said parent accompany the child quite a distance on the way, keeping up a continual process of adjustment of raiment which it was evidently loath to discontinue.

And that is my case exactly. Here is the novel with which I have done my best, which I have written and rewritten after long and earnest thought, and yet I cannot let it go forth without some final, shall I say caress? And as it is, I really have nothing of importance to say! The final pats and pulls and tugs and smoothings do not materially add to the child's appearance or increase its fascination, and I am at a loss to find a reason for the preface except it be the converse of the statement about the famous and much disliked Dr. Fell!

Perhaps, if I admit to you that I have been in the cañon, that I have followed the course of the brook, that I have seen that lake, that I have tramped those trails, it will serve to make you understand, dear reader, how real and actual it all is to me. Yes, I have even looked over the precipice down which the woman fell. I have talked with old Kirkby; Robert Maitland is an intimate friend of mine; I have even met his brother in Philadelphia and as for that glorious girl Enid well, being a married man, I will refrain from any personal appraisement of her qualities. But I can with propriety dilate upon Newbold, and even Armstrong, bad as he was, has some place in my regard.

If these people shall by any chance seem real to you and become your friends as they are mine, another of those pleasant ties that bind the author and his public together will have been woven, knotted, forged. Never mind the method so long as there is a tie. And with this hope, looking out up the winter snows that might have covered the range, as I have often seen them there, I bid you a happy good morning.

CYRUS TOWNSEND BRADY

St. George's Rectory, Kansas City, Missouri.

Thanksgiving Day, 1911.

CONTENTS

BOOK I

THE HIGHER LAW

I THE CUP THAT WOULD NOT PASS 1 II ALONE UPON THE TRAIL 16

BOOK II

THE EAST AND THE WEST

III THE YOUNG LADY FROM PHILADELPHIA 29 IV THE GAME PLAYED IN THE USUAL WAY 43 V THE STORY AND THE LETTERS 55 VI THE POOL AND THE WATER SPRITE 72 VII THE BEAR, THE MAN AND THE FLOOD 88 VIII DEATH, LIFE AND THE RESURRECTION 101

BOOK III

FORGETTING AND FORGOT

IX A WILD DASH FOR THE HILLS 123 X A TELEGRAM AND A CALLER 136 XI OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY 149 XII ON THE TWO SIDES OF THE DOOR 166 XIII THE LOG HUT IN THE MOUNTAINS 179 XIV A TOUR OF INSPECTION 193 XV THE CASTAWAYS OF THE MOUNTAINS 203

BOOK IV

OH YE ICE AND SNOW, PRAISE YE THE LORD

XVI THE WOMAN'S HEART 223 XVII THE MAN'S HEART 236 XVIII THE KISS ON THE HAND 248 XIX THE FACE IN THE LOCKET 261 XX THE STRENGTH OF THE WEAK 276

BOOK V

THE CUP IS DRAINED

XXI THE CHALLENGE OF THE RANGE 291 XXII THE CONVERGING TRAILS 310 XXIII THE ODDS AGAINST HIM 327 XXIV THE LAST RESORT OF KINGS AND MEN 339 XXV THE BECOMING END 357 XXVI THE DRAUGHT OF JOY 368

ILLUSTRATIONS

"LEAVE ME TO MYSELF, I WOULD NOT TAKE THE FINEST, NOBLEST MAN ON EARTH " FRONTISPIECE