



Produced by Suzanne Shell, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
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    THE CASSOWARY

    [Illustration: "I HAVE BEEN NARROW," SAID THE MINISTER]




    THE CASSOWARY

    What Chanced in the Cleft Mountains

    BY STANLEY WATERLOO


    Author of "The Story of Ab,"
              "The Seekers,"
              "The Wolf's Long Howl,"
              "The Story of a Strange Career,"
              Etc., Etc.


    PUBLISHERS
    MONARCH BOOK COMPANY
    CHICAGO


    COPYRIGHT 1906 BY
    MONARCH BOOK COMPANY
    CHICAGO




    CONTENTS


            Chapter

         I. WHAT CHANCED IN THE CLEFT MOUNTAINS
        II. A MAN
       III. JOHN LIPSKY'S SIGN
        IV. A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE
         V. THE "FAR AWAY LADY"
        VI. THE LIFE LINE
       VII. A TOAD AND A SONG
      VIII. ALAN MACGREGOR'S BROWN LEG
        IX. THE HUGE HOUND'S MOOD
         X. THE SIREN
        XI. THE PORTER'S STORY
       XII. THE PURPLE STOCKING
      XIII. HESITANT
       XIV. A TEST OF ATTITUDE
        XV. A SAMOAN IDYL
       XVI. A WOMAN AND SHEEP
      XVII. THE ENCHANTED COW
     XVIII. LOVE AND A ZULU
       XIX. AT BAY SOFTLY
        XX. LOVE WILL FIND THE WAY
       XXI. A LITERARY LOVE AFFAIR
      XXII. ABERCROMBIE'S WOOING
     XXIII. EVAN CUMMINGS' COURTSHIP
      XXIV. THE SWISS FAMILY ROBERTSON
       XXV. THE LOWRY-TURCK LOVE ENTANGLEMENT
      XXVI. THE PALE PEACOCK AND THE PURPLE HERRING
     XXVII. THE RELEASE
    XXVIII. LOVE'S INSOLENCE
      XXIX. AT LAST




    ILLUSTRATIONS


    "THE STOREKEEPER!" HE EXCLAIMED
    "I HAVE BEEN NARROW," SAID THE MINISTER
    THEY PLUNGED INTO THE WHITENESS
    THE GREAT SNAKE BEGAN ITS WORK OF DEGLUTITION
    THE BIG BODY RELAXED AND STRAIGHTENED OUT
    THE MAYOR HAD BEEN GETTING INTERESTED
    THE AWARD COULD BUT GO TO UNA LOA
    THE CHILDREN CARRIED AWAY ARMFULS OF FLOWERS
    SIR GLADYS ESCORTED THE LADY FLORETTA HOME
    HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS AS A CHILD
    A DOZEN OR MORE NESTS WERE FOUND
    "WE SHALL MEET AT BREAKFAST"




THE CASSOWARY




CHAPTER I

WHAT CHANCED IN THE CLEFT MOUNTAINS


The blizzard snorted and raged at midnight up the narrow pass west of
Pike's Peak, at the bottom of which lay the railroad track, and with
this tumult of the elements the snow was falling in masses which were
caught up and tossed about in the gale until the air was but a white,
swirling, yeasty mass through which nothing could be seen a yard away.
The canyon was filling rapidly and the awful storm showed no sign of
abatement. The passage was not of the narrowest at the place to which
this description refers. The railroad builders had done good work in
what had been little more than a gorge. They had blasted and carried
away after the manner of man who, if resolute enough, must find the way.
He may sweat for it; he may freeze for it, but he attains his end, as he
did in forcing a passage through the vainglorious labyrinths of the
Rockies. So, he had made a road between the towering heights of the
Cleft Mountains. He had done well, but he had left a way so indefensible
that indecent Nature, seeking reprisals, might do almost anything there
in winter. Just now, with the accompanying war-whoop of the roaring
blast, she was building up an enormous buttress across the King's
Highway. The canyon was filled to the depth of many feet, and the
buttress was growing higher every moment.

And, plunging forward from the West toward this buttress of snow, now
came tearing ahead boisterously the trans-continental train from San
Francisco. Its crew had hoped to get through the pass while yet the
thing was possible. On it came at full