For the rest of that day and part of the night a pall of smoke hung above the scene of desolation.It lifted only towards the morning,when the moon,rising high,picked out in black and silver the shrunken and silent columns of those roofless vaults,shorn of base and capital.It flickered on the still,overflowing pool of the hidden spring,and shone upon the white face of Low,who,with a rootlet of the fallen tree holding him down like an arm across his breast,seemed to be sleeping peacefully in the sleeping water.
.
Contemporaneous history touched him as briefly,but not as gently."It is now definitely ascertained,"said "The Slumgullion Mirror,""that Sheriff Dunn met his fate in the Carquinez Woods in the performance of his duty;that fearless man having received information of the concealment of a band of horse thieves in their recesses.The desperadoes are presumed to have escaped,as the only remains found are those of two wretched tramps,one of whom is said to have been a digger,who supported himself upon roots and herbs,and the other a degraded half-white woman.It is not unreasonable to suppose that the fire originated through their carelessness,although Father Wynn of the First Baptist Church,in his powerful discourse of last Sunday,pointed at the warning and lesson of such catastrophes.
It may not be out of place here to say that the rumors regarding an engagement between the pastor's accomplished daughter and the late lamented sheriff are utterly without foundation,as it has been an on dit for some time in all well-informed circles that the indefatigable Mr.Brace,of Wells,Fargo and Co.'s Express,will shortly lead the lady to the hymeneal altar."