Beyond was a clump of young firs
with gray stems, so straight and perfect as to be almost uncanny. Or was
it the traveler's overwrought imagination?
Now the trail turned at right angles along the steep side of a canon,
and he heard the music of the mountain torrent far below. Half a mile
further on, where the trail crossed the brook at the head of the canon,
it doubled back on itself along the other side. The traveler refreshed
himself at a mossy spring by the side of the trail, then, as he emerged
from the canon at a sudden turn, Downieville appeared. It lay far below
him, at the forks of the North Yuba. How musically the roar of the river
came up through the autumn stillness! Sign boards pointing to the Ruby
Mine, and to the City of Six, prepare the traveler for the discovery of
some settlement in the wilderness. But he is hardly prepared for such a
beautiful and welcome sight. Here, tucked away among the mountains as
tidily as some Eastern village, lies the county seat of Sierra County.
But this is California and not Maryland, for yonder comes a mountaineer
up the trail with his pack horses.
Keeler lost no time in descending and transacting his business at the
court-house.
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