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diff --git a/old/bysns10.txt b/old/bysns10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f52499f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/bysns10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4963 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of By Shore and Sedge, by Bret Harte +#3 in our series by Bret Harte + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + +BY SHORE AND SEDGE + +by BRET HARTE + + + + +CONTENTS + + +BY SHORE AND SEDGE + + AN APOSTLE OF THE TULES + + SARAH WALKER + + A SHIP OF '49 + + + + +BY SHORE AND SEDGE + + + +AN APOSTLE OF THE TULES + + +I + + +On October 10, 1856, about four hundred people were camped in +Tasajara Valley, California. It could not have been for the +prospect, since a more barren, dreary, monotonous, and uninviting +landscape never stretched before human eye; it could not have been +for convenience or contiguity, as the nearest settlement was thirty +miles away; it could not have been for health or salubrity, as the +breath of the ague-haunted tules in the outlying Stockton marshes +swept through the valley; it could not have been for space or +comfort, for, encamped on an unlimited plain, men and women were +huddled together as closely as in an urban tenement-house, without +the freedom or decency of rural isolation; it could not have been +for pleasant companionship, as dejection, mental anxiety, tears, +and lamentation were the dominant expression; it was not a hurried +flight from present or impending calamity, for the camp had been +deliberately planned, and for a week pioneer wagons had been slowly +arriving; it was not an irrevocable exodus, for some had already +returned to their homes that others might take their places. It +was simply a religious revival of one or two denominational sects, +known as a "camp-meeting." + +A large central tent served for the assembling of the principal +congregation; smaller tents served for prayer-meetings and class- +rooms, known to the few unbelievers as "side-shows"; while the +actual dwellings of the worshipers were rudely extemporized +shanties of boards and canvas, sometimes mere corrals or inclosures +open to the cloudless sky, or more often the unhitched covered +wagon which had brought them there. The singular resemblance to a +circus, already profanely suggested, was carried out by a +straggling fringe of boys and half-grown men on the outskirts of +the encampment, acrimonious with disappointed curiosity, lazy +without the careless ease of vagrancy, and vicious without the +excitement of dissipation. For the coarse poverty and brutal +economy of the larger arrangements, the dreary panorama of unlovely +and unwholesome domestic details always before the eyes, were +hardly exciting to the senses. The circus might have been more +dangerous, but scarcely more brutalizing. The actors themselves, +hard and aggressive through practical struggles, often warped and +twisted with chronic forms of smaller diseases, or malformed and +crippled through carelessness and neglect, and restless and uneasy +through some vague mental distress and inquietude that they had +added to their burdens, were scarcely amusing performers. The +rheumatic Parkinsons, from Green Springs; the ophthalmic Filgees, +from Alder Creek; the ague-stricken Harneys, from Martinez Bend; +and the feeble-limbed Steptons, from Sugar Mill, might, in their +combined families, have suggested a hospital, rather than any other +social assemblage. Even their companionship, which had little of +cheerful fellowship in it, would have been grotesque but for the +pathetic instinct of some mutual vague appeal from the hardness of +their lives and the helplessness of their conditions that had +brought them together. Nor was this appeal to a Higher Power any +the less pathetic that it bore no reference whatever to their +respective needs or deficiencies, but was always an invocation for +a light which, when they believed they had found it, to +unregenerate eyes scarcely seemed to illumine the rugged path in +which their feet were continually stumbling. One might have smiled +at the idea of the vendetta-following Ferguses praying for +"justification by Faith," but the actual spectacle of old Simon +Fergus, whose shot-gun was still in his wagon, offering up that +appeal with streaming eyes and agonized features was painful beyond +a doubt. To seek and obtain an exaltation of feeling vaguely known +as "It," or less vaguely veiling a sacred name, was the burden of +the general appeal. + +The large tent had been filled, and between the exhortations a +certain gloomy enthusiasm had been kept up by singing, which had +the effect of continuing in an easy, rhythmical, impersonal, and +irresponsible way the sympathies of the meeting. This was +interrupted by a young man who rose suddenly, with that spontaneity +of impulse which characterized the speakers, but unlike his +predecessors, he remained for a moment mute, trembling and +irresolute. The fatal hesitation seemed to check the unreasoning, +monotonous flow of emotion, and to recall to some extent the reason +and even the criticism of the worshipers. He stammered a prayer +whose earnestness was undoubted, whose humility was but too +apparent, but his words fell on faculties already benumbed by +repetition and rhythm. A slight movement of curiosity in the rear +benches, and a whisper that it was the maiden effort of a new +preacher, helped to prolong the interruption. A heavy man of +strong physical expression sprang to the rescue with a hysterical +cry of "Glory!" and a tumultuous fluency of epithet and sacred +adjuration. Still the meeting wavered. With one final paroxysmal +cry, the powerful man threw his arms around his nearest neighbor +and burst into silent tears. An anxious hush followed; the speaker +still continued to sob on his neighbor's shoulder. Almost before +the fact could be commented upon, it was noticed that the entire +rank of worshipers on the bench beside him were crying also; the +second and third rows were speedily dissolved in tears, until even +the very youthful scoffers in the last benches suddenly found their +half-hysterical laughter turned to sobs. The danger was averted, +the reaction was complete; the singing commenced, and in a few +moments the hapless cause of the interruption and the man who had +retrieved the disaster stood together outside the tent. A horse +was picketed near them. + +The victor was still panting from his late exertions, and was more +or less diluvial in eye and nostril, but neither eye nor nostril +bore the slightest tremor of other expression. His face was stolid +and perfectly in keeping with his physique,--heavy, animal, and +unintelligent. + +"Ye oughter trusted in the Lord," he said to the young preacher. + +"But I did," responded the young man, earnestly. + +"That's it. Justifyin' yourself by works instead o' leanin' onto +Him! Find Him, sez you! Git Him, sez you! Works is vain. Glory! +glory!" he continued, with fluent vacuity and wandering, dull, +observant eyes. + +"But if I had a little more practice in class, Brother Silas, more +education?" + +"The letter killeth," interrupted Brother Silas. Here his +wandering eyes took dull cognizance of two female faces peering +through the opening of the tent. "No, yer mishun, Brother Gideon, +is to seek Him in the by-ways, in the wilderness,--where the foxes +hev holes and the ravens hev their young,--but not in the Temples +of the people. Wot sez Sister Parsons?" + +One of the female faces detached itself from the tent flaps, which +it nearly resembled in color, and brought forward an angular figure +clothed in faded fustian that had taken the various shades and +odors of household service. + +"Brother Silas speaks well," said Sister Parsons, with stridulous +fluency. "It's fore-ordained. Fore-ordinashun is better nor +ordinashun, saith the Lord. He shall go forth, turnin' neither to +the right hand nor the left hand, and seek Him among the lost +tribes and the ungodly. He shall put aside the temptashun of +Mammon and the flesh." Her eyes and those of Brother Silas here +both sought the other female face, which was that of a young girl +of seventeen. + +"Wot sez little Sister Meely,--wot sez Meely Parsons?" continued +Brother Silas, as if repeating an unctuous formula. + +The young girl came hesitatingly forward, and with a nervous cry of +"Oh, Gideon!" threw herself on the breast of the young man. + +For a moment they remained locked in each other's arms. In the +promiscuous and fraternal embracings which were a part of the +devotional exercises of the hour, the act passed without +significance. The young man gently raised her face. She was young +and comely, albeit marked with a half-frightened, half-vacant +sorrow. "Amen," said Brother Gideon, gravely. + +He mounted his horse and turned to go. Brother Silas had clasped +his powerful arms around both women and was holding them in a +ponderous embrace. + +"Go forth, young man, into the wilderness." + +The young man bowed his head, and urged his horse forward in the +bleak and barren plain. In half an hour every vestige of the camp +and its unwholesome surroundings was lost in the distance. It was +as if the strong desiccating wind, which seemed to spring up at his +horse's feet, had cleanly erased the flimsy structures from the +face of the plain, swept away the lighter breath of praise and +plaint, and dried up the easy-flowing tears. The air was harsh but +pure; the grim economy of form and shade and color in the level +plain was coarse but not vulgar; the sky above him was cold and +distant but not repellent; the moisture that had been denied his +eyes at the prayer-meeting overflowed them here; the words that had +choked his utterance an hour ago now rose to his lips. He threw +himself from his horse, and kneeling in the withered grass--a mere +atom in the boundless plain--lifted his pale face against the +irresponsive blue and prayed. + +He prayed that the unselfish dream of his bitter boyhood, his +disappointed youth, might come to pass. He prayed that he might in +higher hands become the humble instrument of good to his fellow- +man. He prayed that the deficiencies of his scant education, his +self-taught learning, his helpless isolation, and his inexperience +might be overlooked or reinforced by grace. He prayed that the +Infinite Compassion might enlighten his ignorance and solitude with +a manifestation of the Spirit; in his very weakness he prayed for +some special revelation, some sign or token, some visitation or +gracious unbending from that coldly lifting sky. The low sun +burned the black edge of the distant tules with dull eating fires +as he prayed, lit the dwarfed hills with a brief but ineffectual +radiance, and then died out. The lingering trade winds fired a few +volleys over its grave and then lapsed into a chilly silence. The +young man staggered to his feet; it was quite dark now, but the +coming night had advanced a few starry vedettes so near the plain +they looked like human watch-fires. For an instant he could not +remember where he was. Then a light trembled far down at the +entrance of the valley. Brother Gideon recognized it. It was in +the lonely farmhouse of the widow of the last Circuit preacher. + + +II + + +The abode of the late Reverend Marvin Hiler remained in the +disorganized condition he had left it when removed from his sphere +of earthly uselessness and continuous accident. The straggling +fence that only half inclosed the house and barn had stopped at +that point where the two deacons who had each volunteered to do a +day's work on it had completed their allotted time. The building +of the barn had been arrested when the half load of timber +contributed by Sugar Mill brethren was exhausted, and three windows +given by "Christian Seekers" at Martinez painfully accented the +boarded spaces for the other three that "Unknown Friends" in +Tasajara had promised but not yet supplied. In the clearing some +trees that had been felled but not taken away added to the general +incompleteness. + +Something of this unfinished character clung to the Widow Hiler and +asserted itself in her three children, one of whom was consistently +posthumous. Prematurely old and prematurely disappointed, she had +all the inexperience of girlhood with the cares of maternity, and +kept in her family circle the freshness of an old maid's +misogynistic antipathies with a certain guilty and remorseful +consciousness of widowhood. She supported the meagre household to +which her husband had contributed only the extra mouths to feed +with reproachful astonishment and weary incapacity. She had long +since grown tired of trying to make both ends meet, of which she +declared "the Lord had taken one." During her two years' widowhood +she had waited on Providence, who by a pleasing local fiction had +been made responsible for the disused and cast-off furniture and +clothing which, accompanied with scriptural texts, found their way +mysteriously into her few habitable rooms. The providential manna +was not always fresh; the ravens who fed her and her little ones +with flour from the Sugar Mills did not always select the best +quality. Small wonder that, sitting by her lonely hearthstone,--a +borrowed stove that supplemented the unfinished fireplace,-- +surrounded by her mismatched furniture and clad in misfitting +garments, she had contracted a habit of sniffling during her dreary +watches. In her weaker moments she attributed it to grief; in her +stronger intervals she knew that it sprang from damp and draught. + +In her apathy the sound of horses' hoofs at her unprotected door +even at that hour neither surprised nor alarmed her. She lifted +her head as the door opened and the pale face of Gideon Deane +looked into the room. She moved aside the cradle she was rocking, +and, taking a saucepan and tea-cup from a chair beside her, +absently dusted it with her apron, and pointing to the vacant seat +said, "Take a chair," as quietly as if he had stepped from the next +room instead of the outer darkness. + +"I'll put up my horse first," said Gideon gently. + +"So do," responded the widow briefly. + +Gideon led his horse across the inclosure, stumbling over the heaps +of rubbish, dried chips, and weather-beaten shavings with which it +was strewn, until he reached the unfinished barn, where he +temporarily bestowed his beast. Then taking a rusty axe, by the +faint light of the stars, he attacked one of the fallen trees with +such energy that at the end of ten minutes he reappeared at the +door with an armful of cut boughs and chips, which he quietly +deposited behind the stove. Observing that he was still standing +as if looking for something, the widow lifted her eyes and said, +"Ef it's the bucket, I reckon ye'll find it at the spring, where +one of them foolish Filgee boys left it. I've been that tuckered +out sens sundown, I ain't had the ambition to go and tote it back." +Without a word Gideon repaired to the spring, filled the missing +bucket, replaced the hoop on the loosened staves of another he +found lying useless beside it, and again returned to the house. +The widow once more pointed to the chair, and Gideon sat down. +"It's quite a spell sens you wos here," said the Widow Hiler, +returning her foot to the cradle-rocker; "not sens yer was +ordained. Be'n practicin', I reckon, at the meetin'." + +A slight color came into his cheek. "My place is not there, Sister +Hiler," he said gently; "it's for those with the gift o' tongues. +I go forth only a common laborer in the vineyard." He stopped and +hesitated; he might have said more, but the widow, who was familiar +with that kind of humility as the ordinary perfunctory expression +of her class, suggested no sympathetic interest in his mission. + +"Thar's a deal o' talk over there," she said dryly, "and thar's +folks ez thinks thar's a deal o' money spent in picnicking the +Gospel that might be given to them ez wish to spread it, or to +their widows and children. But that don't consarn you, Brother +Gideon. Sister Parsons hez money enough to settle her darter Meely +comfortably on her own land; and I've heard tell that you and Meely +was only waitin' till you was ordained to be jined together. +You'll hev an easier time of it, Brother Gideon, than poor Marvin +Hiler had," she continued, suppressing her tears with a certain +astringency that took the place of her lost pride; "but the Lord +wills that some should be tried and some not." + +"But I am not going to marry Meely Parsons," said Gideon quietly. + +The widow took her foot from the rocker. "Not marry Meely!" she +repeated vaguely. But relapsing into her despondent mood she +continued: "Then I reckon it's true what other folks sez of Brother +Silas Braggley makin' up to her and his powerful exhortin' +influence over her ma. Folks sez ez Sister Parsons hez just +resigned her soul inter his keepin'." + +"Brother Silas hez a heavenly gift," said the young man, with +gentle enthusiasm; "and perhaps it may be so. If it is, it is the +Lord's will. But I do not marry Meely because my life and my ways +henceforth must lie far beyond her sphere of strength. I oughtn't +to drag a young inexperienced soul with me to battle and struggle +in the thorny paths that I must tread." + +"I reckon you know your own mind," said Sister Hiler grimly. "But +thar's folks ez might allow that Meely Parsons ain't any better +than others, that she shouldn't have her share o' trials and keers +and crosses. Riches and bringin' up don't exempt folks from the +shadder. I married Marvin Hiler outer a house ez good ez Sister +Parsons', and at a time when old Cyrus Parsons hadn't a roof to his +head but the cover of the emigrant wagon he kem across the plains +in. I might say ez Marvin knowed pretty well wot it was to have a +helpmeet in his ministration, if it wasn't vanity of sperit to say +it now. But the flesh is weak, Brother Gideon." Her influenza +here resolved itself into unmistakable tears, which she wiped away +with the first article that was accessible in the work-bag before +her. As it chanced to be a black silk neckerchief of the deceased +Hiler, the result was funereal, suggestive, but practically +ineffective. + +"You were a good wife to Brother Hiler," said the young man gently. +"Everybody knows that." + +"It's suthin' to think of since he's gone," continued the widow, +bringing her work nearer to her eyes to adjust it to their tear- +dimmed focus. "It's suthin' to lay to heart in the lonely days and +nights when thar's no man round to fetch water and wood and lend a +hand to doin' chores; it's suthin' to remember, with his three +children to feed, and little Selby, the eldest, that vain and +useless that he can't even tote the baby round while I do the work +of a hired man." + +"It's a hard trial, Sister Hiler," said Gideon, "but the Lord has +His appointed time." + +Familiar as consolation by vague quotation was to Sister Hiler, +there was an occult sympathy in the tone in which this was offered +that lifted her for an instant out of her narrower self. She +raised her eyes to his. The personal abstraction of the devotee +had no place in the deep dark eyes that were lifted from the cradle +to hers with a sad, discriminating, and almost womanly sympathy. +Surprised out of her selfish preoccupation, she was reminded of her +apparent callousness to what might be his present disappointment. +Perhaps it seemed strange to her, too, that those tender eyes +should go a-begging. + +"Yer takin' a Christian view of yer own disappointment, Brother +Gideon," she said, with less astringency of manner; "but every +heart knoweth its own sorrer. I'll be gettin' supper now that the +baby's sleepin' sound, and ye'll sit by and eat." + +"If you let me help you, Sister Hiler," said the young man with a +cheerfulness that belied any overwhelming heart affection, and +awakened in the widow a feminine curiosity as to his real feelings +to Meely. But her further questioning was met with a frank, +amiable, and simple brevity that was as puzzling as the most artful +periphrase of tact. Accustomed as she was to the loquacity of +grief and the confiding prolixity of disappointed lovers, she could +not understand her guest's quiescent attitude. Her curiosity, +however, soon gave way to the habitual contemplation of her own +sorrows, and she could not forego the opportune presence of a +sympathizing auditor to whom she could relieve her feelings. The +preparations for the evening meal were therefore accompanied by a +dreary monotone of lamentation. She bewailed her lost youth, her +brief courtship, the struggles of her early married life, her +premature widowhood, her penurious and helpless existence, the +disruption of all her present ties, the hopelessness of the future. +She rehearsed the unending plaint of those long evenings, set to +the music of the restless wind around her bleak dwelling, with +something of its stridulous reiteration. The young man listened, +and replied with softly assenting eyes, but without pausing in the +material aid that he was quietly giving her. He had removed the +cradle of the sleeping child to the bedroom, quieted the sudden +wakefulness of "Pinkey," rearranged the straggling furniture of the +sitting-room with much order and tidiness, repaired the hinges of a +rebellious shutter and the lock of an unyielding door, and yet had +apparently retained an unabated interest in her spoken woes. +Surprised once more into recognizing this devotion, Sister Hiler +abruptly arrested her monologue. + +"Well, if you ain't the handiest man I ever seed about a house!" + +"Am I?" said Gideon, with suddenly sparkling eyes. "Do you really +think so?" + +"I do." + +"Then you don't know how glad I am." His frank face so +unmistakably showed his simple gratification that the widow, after +gazing at him for a moment, was suddenly seized with a bewildering +fancy. The first effect of it was the abrupt withdrawal of her +eyes, then a sudden effusion of blood to her forehead that finally +extended to her cheekbones, and then an interval of forgetfulness +where she remained with a plate held vaguely in her hand. When she +succeeded at last in putting it on the table instead of the young +man's lap, she said in a voice quite unlike her own,-- + +"Sho!" + +"I mean it," said Gideon, cheerfully. After a pause, in which he +unostentatiously rearranged the table which the widow was +abstractedly disorganizing, he said gently, "After tea, when you're +not so much flustered with work and worry, and more composed in +spirit, we'll have a little talk, Sister Hiler. I'm in no hurry +to-night, and if you don't mind I'll make myself comfortable in the +barn with my blanket until sun-up to-morrow. I can get up early +enough to do some odd chores round the lot before I go." + +"You know best, Brother Gideon," said the widow, faintly, "and if +you think it's the Lord's will, and no speshal trouble to you, so +do. But sakes alive! it's time I tidied myself a little," she +continued, lifting one hand to her hair, while with the other she +endeavored to fasten a buttonless collar; "leavin' alone the +vanities o' dress, it's ez much as one can do to keep a clean rag +on with the children climbin' over ye. Sit by, and I'll be back in +a minit." She retired to the back room, and in a few moments +returned with smoothed hair and a palm-leaf broche shawl thrown +over her shoulders, which not only concealed the ravages made by +time and maternity on the gown beneath, but to some extent gave her +the suggestion of being a casual visitor in her own household. It +must be confessed that for the rest of the evening Sister Hiler +rather lent herself to this idea, possibly from the fact that it +temporarily obliterated the children, and quite removed her from +any responsibility in the unpicturesque household. This effect was +only marred by the absence of any impression upon Gideon, who +scarcely appeared to notice the change, and whose soft eyes seemed +rather to identify the miserable woman under her forced disguise. +He prefaced the meal with a fervent grace, to which the widow +listened with something of the conscious attitude she had adopted +at church during her late husband's ministration, and during the +meal she ate with a like consciousness of "company manners." + +Later that evening Selby Hiler woke up in his little truckle bed, +listening to the rising midnight wind, which in his childish fancy +he confounded with the sound of voices that came through the open +door of the living-room. He recognized the deep voice of the young +minister, Gideon, and the occasional tearful responses of his +mother, and he was fancying himself again at church when he heard a +step, and the young preacher seemed to enter the room, and going to +the bed leaned over it and kissed him on the forehead, and then +bent over his little brother and sister and kissed them too. Then +he slowly re-entered the living-room. Lifting himself softly on +his elbow, Selby saw him go up towards his mother, who was crying, +with her head on the table, and kiss her also on the forehead. +Then he said "Good-night," and the front door closed, and Selby +heard his footsteps crossing the lot towards the barn. His mother +was still sitting with her face buried in her hands when he fell +asleep. + +She sat by the dying embers of the fire until the house was still +again; then she rose and wiped her eyes. "Et's a good thing," she +said, going to the bedroom door, and looking in upon her sleeping +children; "et's a mercy and a blessing for them and--for--me. But-- +but--he might--hev--said--he--loved me!" + + +III + + +Although Gideon Deane contrived to find a nest for his blanket in +the mouldy straw of the unfinished barn loft, he could not sleep. +He restlessly watched the stars through the cracks of the boarded +roof, and listened to the wind that made the half-open structure as +vocal as a sea-shell, until past midnight. Once or twice he had +fancied he heard the tramp of horse-hoofs on the far-off trail, and +now it seemed to approach nearer, mingled with the sound of voices. +Gideon raised his head and looked through the doorway of the loft. +He was not mistaken: two men had halted in the road before the +house, and were examining it as if uncertain if it were the +dwelling they were seeking, and were hesitating if they should +rouse the inmates. Thinking he might spare the widow this +disturbance to her slumbers, and possibly some alarm, he rose +quickly, and descending to the inclosure walked towards the house. +As he approached the men advanced to meet him, and by accident or +design ranged themselves on either side. A glance showed him they +were strangers to the locality. + +"We're lookin' fer the preacher that lives here," said one, who +seemed to be the elder. "A man by the name o' Hiler, I reckon!" + +"Brother Hiler has been dead two years," responded Gideon. "His +widow and children live here." + +The two men looked at each other. The younger one laughed; the +elder mumbled something about its being "three years ago," and then +turning suddenly on Gideon, said: + +"P'r'aps YOU'RE a preacher?" + +"I am." + +"Can you come to a dying man?" + +"I will." + +The two men again looked at each other. "But," continued Gideon, +softly, "you'll please keep quiet so as not to disturb the widow +and her children, while I get my horse." He turned away; the +younger man made a movement as if to stop him, but the elder +quickly restrained his hand. "He isn't goin' to run away," he +whispered. "Look," he added, as Gideon a moment later reappeared +mounted and equipped. + +"Do you think we'll be in time?" asked the young preacher as they +rode quickly away in the direction of the tules. + +The younger repressed a laugh; the other answered grimly, "I +reckon." + +"And is he conscious of his danger?" + +"I reckon." + +Gideon did not speak again. But as the onus of that silence seemed +to rest upon the other two, the last speaker, after a few moments' +silent and rapid riding, continued abruptly, "You don't seem +curious?" + +"Of what?" said Gideon, lifting his soft eyes to the speaker. "You +tell me of a brother at the point of death, who seeks the Lord +through an humble vessel like myself. HE will tell me the rest." + +A silence still more constrained on the part of the two strangers +followed, which they endeavored to escape from by furious riding; +so that in half an hour the party had reached a point where the +tules began to sap the arid plain, while beyond them broadened the +lagoons of the distant river. In the foreground, near a clump of +dwarfed willows, a camp-fire was burning, around which fifteen or +twenty armed men were collected, their horses picketed in an outer +circle guarded by two mounted sentries. A blasted cotton-wood with +a single black arm extended over the tules stood ominously against +the dark sky. + +The circle opened to receive them and closed again. The elder man +dismounted and leading Gideon to the blasted cotton-wood, pointed +to a pinioned man seated at its foot with an armed guard over him. +He looked up at Gideon with an amused smile. + +"You said it was a dying man," said Gideon, recoiling. + +"He will be a dead man in half an hour," returned the stranger. + +"And you?" + +"We are the Vigilantes from Alamo. This man," pointing to the +prisoner, "is a gambler who killed a man yesterday. We hunted him +here, tried him an hour ago, and found him guilty. The last man we +hung here, three years ago, asked for a parson. We brought him the +man who used to live where we found you. So we thought we'd give +this man the same show, and brought you." + +"And if I refuse?" said Gideon. + +The leader shrugged his shoulders. + +"That's HIS lookout, not ours. We've given him the chance. Drive +ahead, boys," he added, turning to the others; "the parson allows +he won't take a hand." + +"One moment," said Gideon, in desperation, "one moment, for the +sake of that God you have brought me here to invoke in behalf of +this wretched man. One moment, for the sake of Him in whose +presence you must stand one day as he does now." With passionate +earnestness he pointed out the vindictive impulse they were +mistaking for Divine justice; with pathetic fervency he fell upon +his knees and implored their mercy for the culprit. But in vain. +As at the camp-meeting of the day before, he was chilled to find +his words seemed to fall on unheeding and unsympathetic ears. He +looked around on their abstracted faces; in their gloomy savage +enthusiasm for expiatory sacrifice, he was horrified to find the +same unreasoning exaltation that had checked his exhortations then. +Only one face looked upon his, half mischievously, half +compassionately. It was the prisoner's. + +"Yer wastin' time on us," said the leader, dryly; "wastin' HIS +time. Hadn't you better talk to him?" + +Gideon rose to his feet, pale and cold. "He may have something to +confess. May I speak with him alone?" he said gently. + +The leader motioned to the sentry to fall back. Gideon placed +himself before the prisoner so that in the faint light of the camp- +fire the man's figure was partly hidden by his own. "You meant +well with your little bluff, pardner," said the prisoner, not +unkindly, "but they've got the cards to win." + +"Kneel down with your back to me," said Gideon, in a low voice. +The prisoner fell on his knees. At the same time he felt Gideon's +hand and the gliding of steel behind his back, and the severed +cords hung loosely on his arms and legs. + +"When I lift my voice to God, brother," said Gideon, softly, "drop +on your face and crawl as far as you can in a straight line in my +shadow, then break for the tules. I will stand between you and +their first fire." + +"Are you mad?" said the prisoner. "Do you think they won't fire +lest they should hurt you? Man! they'll kill YOU, the first +thing." + +"So be it--if your chance is better." + +Still on his knees, the man grasped Gideon's two hands in his own +and devoured him with his eyes. + +"You mean it?" + +"I do." + +"Then," said the prisoner, quietly, "I reckon I'll stop and hear +what you've got to say about God until they're ready." + +"You refuse to fly?" + +"I reckon I was never better fitted to die than now," said the +prisoner, still grasping his hand. After a pause he added in a +lower tone, "I can't pray--but--I think," he hesitated, "I think I +could manage to ring in a hymn." + +"Will you try, brother?" + +"Yes." + +With their hands tightly clasped together, Gideon lifted his gentle +voice. The air was a common one, familiar in the local religious +gatherings, and after the first verse one or two of the sullen +lookers-on joined unkindly in the refrain. But, as he went on, the +air and words seemed to offer a vague expression to the dull +lowering animal emotion of the savage concourse, and at the end of +the second verse the refrain, augmented in volume and swelled by +every voice in the camp, swept out over the hollow plain. + +It was met in the distance by a far-off cry. With an oath taking +the place of his supplication, the leader sprang to his feet. But +too late! The cry was repeated as a nearer slogan of defiance--the +plain shook--there was the tempestuous onset of furious hoofs--a +dozen shots--the scattering of the embers of the camp-fire into a +thousand vanishing sparks even as the lurid gathering of savage +humanity was dispersed and dissipated over the plain, and Gideon +and the prisoner stood alone. But as the sheriff of Contra Costa +with his rescuing posse swept by, the man they had come to save +fell forward in Gideon's arms with a bullet in his breast--the +Parthian shot of the flying Vigilante leader. + +The eager crowd that surged around him with outstretched helping +hands would have hustled Gideon aside. But the wounded man roused +himself, and throwing an arm around the young preacher's neck, +warned them back with the other. "Stand back!" he gasped. "He +risked his life for mine! Look at him, boys! Wanted ter stand up +'twixt them hounds and me and draw their fire on himself! Ain't he +just hell?" he stopped; an apologetic smile crossed his lips. "I +clean forgot, pardner; but it's all right. I said I was ready to +go; and I am." His arm slipped from Gideon's neck; he slid to the +ground; he had fainted. + +A dark, military-looking man pushed his way through the crowd--the +surgeon, one of the posse, accompanied by a younger man +fastidiously dressed. The former bent over the unconscious +prisoner, and tore open his shirt; the latter followed his +movements with a flush of anxious inquiry in his handsome, careless +face. After a moment's pause the surgeon, without looking up, +answered the young man's mute questioning. "Better send the +sheriff here at once, Jack." + +"He is here," responded the official, joining the group. + +The surgeon looked up at him. "I am afraid they've put the case +out of your jurisdiction, Sheriff," he said grimly. "It's only a +matter of a day or two at best--perhaps only a few hours. But he +won't live to be taken back to jail." + +"Will he live to go as far as Martinez?" asked the young man +addressed as Jack. + +"With care, perhaps." + +"Will you be responsible for him, Jack Hamlin?" said the sheriff, +suddenly. + +"I will." + +"Then take him. Stay, he's coming to." + +The wounded man slowly opened his eyes. They fell upon Jack Hamlin +with a pleased look of recognition, but almost instantly and +anxiously glanced around as if seeking another. Leaning over him, +Jack said gayly, "They've passed you over to me, old man; are you +willing?" + +The wounded man's eyes assented, but still moved restlessly from +side to side. + +"Is there any one you want to go with you?" + +"Yes," said the eyes. + +"The doctor, of course?" + +The eyes did not answer. Gideon dropped on his knees beside him. +A ray of light flashed in the helpless man's eyes and transfigured +his whole face. + +"You want HIM?" said Jack incredulously. + +"Yes," said the eyes. + +"What--the preacher?" + +The lips struggled to speak. Everybody bent down to hear his +reply. + +"You bet," he said faintly. + + +IV + + +It was early morning when the wagon containing the wounded man, +Gideon, Jack Hamlin, and the surgeon crept slowly through the +streets of Martinez and stopped before the door of the "Palmetto +Shades." The upper floor of this saloon and hostelry was occupied +by Mr. Hamlin as his private lodgings, and was fitted up with the +usual luxury and more than the usual fastidiousness of his +extravagant class. As the dusty and travel-worn party trod the +soft carpets and brushed aside their silken hangings in their slow +progress with their helpless burden to the lace-canopied and snowy +couch of the young gambler, it seemed almost a profanation of some +feminine seclusion. Gideon, to whom such luxury was unknown, was +profoundly troubled. The voluptuous ease and sensuousness, the +refinements of a life of irresponsible indulgence, affected him +with a physical terror to which in his late moment of real peril he +had been a stranger; the gilding and mirrors blinded his eyes; even +the faint perfume seemed to him an unhallowed incense, and turned +him sick and giddy. Accustomed as he had been to disease and +misery in its humblest places and meanest surroundings, the wounded +desperado lying in laces and fine linen seemed to him monstrous and +unnatural. It required all his self-abnegation, all his sense of +duty, all his deep pity, and all the instinctive tact which was +born of his gentle thoughtfulness for others, to repress a +shrinking. But when the miserable cause of all again opened his +eyes and sought Gideon's hand, he forgot it all. Happily, Hamlin, +who had been watching him with wondering but critical eyes, mistook +his concern. "Don't you worry about that gin-mill and hash- +gymnasium downstairs," he said. "I've given the proprietor a +thousand dollars to shut up shop as long as this thing lasts." +That this was done from some delicate sense of respect to the +preacher's domiciliary presence, and not entirely to secure +complete quiet and seclusion for the invalid, was evident from the +fact that Mr. Hamlin's drawing and dining rooms, and even the hall, +were filled with eager friends and inquirers. It was discomposing +to Gideon to find himself almost an equal subject of interest and +curiosity to the visitors. The story of his simple devotion had +lost nothing by report; hats were doffed in his presence that might +have grown to their wearers' heads; the boldest eyes dropped as he +passed by; he had only to put his pale face out of the bedroom door +and the loudest discussion, heated by drink or affection, fell to a +whisper. The surgeon, who had recognized the one dominant wish of +the hopelessly sinking man, gravely retired, leaving Gideon a few +simple instructions and directions for their use. "He'll last as +long as he has need of you," he said respectfully. "My art is only +second here. God help you both! When he wakes, make the most of +your time." + +In a few moments he did waken, and as before turned his fading look +almost instinctively on the faithful, gentle eyes that were +watching him. How Gideon made the most of his time did not +transpire, but at the end of an hour, when the dying man had again +lapsed into unconsciousness, he softly opened the door of the +sitting-room. + +Hamlin started hastily to his feet. He had cleared the room of his +visitors, and was alone. He turned a moment towards the window +before he faced Gideon with inquiring but curiously-shining eyes. + +"Well?" he said, hesitatingly. + +"Do you know Kate Somers?" asked Gideon. + +Hamlin opened his brown eyes. "Yes." + +"Can you send for her?" + +"What, HERE?" + +"Yes, here." + +"What for?" + +"To marry him," said Gideon, gently. "There's no time to lose." + +"To MARRY him?" + +"He wishes it." + +"But say--oh, come, now," said Hamlin confidentially, leaning back +with his hands on the top of a chair. "Ain't this playing it a +little--just a LITTLE--too low down? Of course you mean well, and +all that; but come, now, say--couldn't you just let up on him +there? Why, she"--Hamlin softly closed the door--"she's got no +character." + +"The more reason he should give her one." + +A cynical knowledge of matrimony imparted to him by the wives of +others evidently colored Mr. Hamlin's views. "Well, perhaps it's +all the same if he's going to die. But isn't it rather rough on +HER? I don't know," he added, reflectively; "she was sniveling +round here a little while ago, until I sent her away." + +"You sent her away!" echoed Gideon. + +"I did." + +"Why?" + +"Because YOU were here." + +Nevertheless Mr. Hamlin departed, and in half an hour reappeared +with two brilliantly dressed women. One, hysterical, tearful, +frightened, and pallid, was the destined bride; the other, highly +colored, excited, and pleasedly observant, was her friend. Two men +hastily summoned from the anteroom as witnesses completed the group +that moved into the bedroom and gathered round the bed. + +The ceremony was simple and brief. It was well, for of all who +took part in it none was more shaken by emotion than the +officiating priest. The brilliant dresses of the women, the +contrast of their painted faces with the waxen pallor of the dying +man; the terrible incongruity of their voices, inflections, +expressions, and familiarity; the mingled perfume of cosmetics and +the faint odor of wine; the eyes of the younger woman following his +movements with strange absorption, so affected him that he was glad +when he could fall on his knees at last and bury his face in the +pillow of the sufferer. The hand that had been placed in the +bride's cold fingers slipped from them and mechanically sought +Gideon's again. The significance of the unconscious act brought +the first spontaneous tears into the woman's eyes. It was his last +act, for when Gideon's voice was again lifted in prayer, the spirit +for whom it was offered had risen with it, as it were, still +lovingly hand in hand, from the earth forever. + +The funeral was arranged for two days later, and Gideon found that +his services had been so seriously yet so humbly counted upon by +the friends of the dead man that he could scarce find it in his +heart to tell them that it was the function of the local preacher-- +an older and more experienced man than himself. "If it is," said +Jack Hamlin, coolly, "I'm afraid he won't get a yaller dog to come +to his church; but if you say you'll preach at the grave, there +ain't a man, woman, or child that will be kept away. Don't you go +back on your luck, now; it's something awful and nigger-like. +You've got this crowd where the hair is short; excuse me, but it's +so. Talk of revivals! You could give that one-horse show in +Tasajara a hundred points, and skunk them easily." Indeed, had +Gideon been accessible to vanity, the spontaneous homage he met +with everywhere would have touched him more sympathetically and +kindly than it did; but in the utter unconsciousness of his own +power and the quality they worshiped in him, he felt alarmed and +impatient of what he believed to be their weak sympathy with his +own human weakness. In the depth of his unselfish heart, lit, it +must be confessed, only by the scant, inefficient lamp of his +youthful experience, he really believed he had failed in his +apostolic mission because he had been unable to touch the hearts of +the Vigilantes by oral appeal and argument. Feeling thus the +reverence of these irreligious people that surrounded him, the +facile yielding of their habits and prejudices to his half-uttered +wish, appeared to him only a temptation of the flesh. No one had +sought him after the manner of the camp-meeting; he had converted +the wounded man through a common weakness of their humanity. More +than that, he was conscious of a growing fascination for the +truthfulness and sincerity of that class; particularly of Mr. Jack +Hamlin, whose conversion he felt he could never attempt, yet whose +strange friendship alternately thrilled and frightened him. + +It was the evening before the funeral. The coffin, half smothered +in wreaths and flowers, stood upon trestles in the anteroom; a +large silver plate bearing an inscription on which for the second +time Gideon read the name of the man he had converted. It was a +name associated on the frontier so often with reckless hardihood, +dissipation, and blood, that even now Gideon trembled at his +presumption, and was chilled by a momentary doubt of the efficiency +of his labor. Drawing unconsciously nearer to the mute subject of +his thoughts, he threw his arms across the coffin and buried his +face between them. + +A stream of soft music, the echo of some forgotten song, seemed to +Gideon to suddenly fill and possess the darkened room, and then to +slowly die away, like the opening and shutting of a door upon a +flood of golden radiance. He listened with hushed breath and a +beating heart. He had never heard anything like it before. Again +the strain arose, the chords swelled round him, until from their +midst a tenor voice broke high and steadfast, like a star in +troubled skies. Gideon scarcely breathed. It was a hymn--but such +a hymn. He had never conceived there could be such beautiful +words, joined to such exquisite melody, and sung with a grace so +tender and true. What were all other hymns to this ineffable +yearning for light, for love, and for infinite rest? Thrilled and +exalted, Gideon felt his doubts pierced and scattered by that +illuminating cry. Suddenly he rose, and with a troubled thought +pushed open the door to the sitting-room. It was Mr. Jack Hamlin +sitting before a parlor organ. The music ceased. + +"It was YOU," stammered Gideon. + +Jack nodded, struck a few chords by way of finish, and then wheeled +round on the music-stool towards Gideon. His face was slightly +flushed. "Yes. I used to be the organist and tenor in our church +in the States. I used to snatch the sinners bald-headed with that. +Do you know I reckon I'll sing that to-morrow, if you like, and +maybe afterwards we'll--but"--he stopped--"we'll talk of that after +the funeral. It's business." Seeing Gideon still glancing with a +troubled air from the organ to himself, he said: "Would you like to +try that hymn with me? Come on!" + +He again struck the chords. As the whole room seemed to throb with +the music, Gideon felt himself again carried away. Glancing over +Jack's shoulders, he could read the words but not the notes; yet, +having a quick ear for rhythm, he presently joined in with a deep +but uncultivated baritone. Together they forgot everything else, +and at the end of an hour were only recalled by the presence of a +silently admiring concourse of votive-offering friends who had +gathered round them. + +The funeral took place the next day at the grave dug in the public +cemetery--a green area fenced in by the palisading tules. The +words of Gideon were brief but humble; the strongest partisan of +the dead man could find no fault in a confession of human frailty +in which the speaker humbly confessed his share; and when the hymn +was started by Hamlin and taken up by Gideon, the vast multitude, +drawn by interest and curiosity, joined as in a solemn Amen. + +Later, when those two strangely-assorted friends had returned to +Mr. Hamlin's rooms previous to Gideon's departure, the former, in a +manner more serious than his habitual cynical good-humor, began: "I +said I had to talk business with you. The boys about here want to +build a church for you, and are ready to plank the money down if +you'll say it's a go. You understand they aren't asking you to run +in opposition to that Gospel sharp--excuse me--that's here now, nor +do they want you to run a side show in connection with it. They +want you to be independent. They don't pin you down to any kind of +religion, you know; whatever you care to give them--Methodist, +Roman Catholic, Presbyterian---is mighty good enough for them, if +you'll expound it. You might give a little of each, or one on one +day and one another--they'll never know the difference if you only +mix the drinks yourself. They'll give you a house and guarantee +you fifteen hundred dollars the first year." + +He stopped and walked towards the window. The sunlight that fell +upon his handsome face seemed to call back the careless smile to +his lips and the reckless fire to his brown eyes. "I don't suppose +there's a man among them that wouldn't tell you all this in a great +deal better way than I do. But the darned fools--excuse me--would +have ME break it to you. Why, I don't know. I needn't tell you I +like you--not only for what you did for George--but I like you for +your style--for yourself. And I want you to accept. You could +keep these rooms till they got a house ready for you. Together-- +you and me--we'd make that organ howl. But because I like it-- +because it's everything to us--and nothing to you, it don't seem +square for me to ask it. Does it?" + +Gideon replied by taking Hamlin's hand. His face was perfectly +pale, but his look collected. He had not expected this offer, and +yet when it was made he felt as if he had known it before--as if he +had been warned of it--as if it was the great temptation of his +life. Watching him with an earnestness only slightly overlaid by +his usual manner, Hamlin went on. + +"I know it would be lonely here, and a man like you ought to have a +wife for--" he slightly lifted his eyebrows--"for example's sake. +I heard there was a young lady in the case over there in Tasajara-- +but the old people didn't see it on account of your position. +They'd jump at it now. Eh? No? Well," continued Jack, with a +decent attempt to conceal his cynical relief, "perhaps those boys +have been so eager to find out all they could do for you that +they've been sold. Perhaps we're making equal fools of ourselves +now in asking you to stay. But don't say no just yet--take a day +or a week to think of it." + +Gideon still pale but calm, cast his eyes around the elegant room, +at the magic organ, then upon the slight handsome figure before +him. "I WILL think of it," he said, in a low voice, as he pressed +Jack's hand. "And if I accept you will find me here to-morrow +afternoon at this time; if I do not you will know that I keep with +me wherever I go the kindness, the brotherly love, and the grace of +God that prompts your offer, even though He withholds from me His +blessed light, which alone can make me know His wish." He stopped +and hesitated. "If you love me, Jack, don't ask me to stay, but +pray for that light which alone can guide my feet back to you, or +take me hence for ever." + +He once more tightly pressed the hand of the embarrassed man before +him and was gone. + +Passers-by on the Martinez road that night remembered a mute and +ghostly rider who, heedless of hail or greeting, moved by them as +in a trance or vision. But the Widow Hiler the next morning, +coming from the spring, found no abstraction or preoccupation in +the soft eyes of Gideon Deane as he suddenly appeared before her, +and gently relieved her of the bucket she was carrying. A quick +flash of color over her brow and cheek-bone, as if a hot iron had +passed there, and a certain astringent coyness, would have +embarrassed any other man than him. + +"Sho, it's YOU. I reck'ned I'd seen the last of you." + +"You don't mean that, Sister Hiler?" said Gideon, with a gentle +smile. + +"Well, what with the report of your goin's on at Martinez and +improvin' the occasion of that sinner's death, and leadin' a +revival, I reckoned you'ld hev forgotten low folks at Tasajara. +And if your goin' to be settled there in a new church, with new +hearers, I reckon you'll want new surroundings too. Things change +and young folks change with 'em." + +They had reached the house. Her breath was quick and short as if +she and not Gideon had borne the burden. He placed the bucket in +its accustomed place, and then gently took her hand in his. The +act precipitated the last drop of feeble coquetry she had retained, +and the old tears took its place. Let us hope for the last time. +For as Gideon stooped and lifted her ailing babe in his strong +arms, he said softly, "Whatever God has wrought for me since we +parted, I know now He has called me to but one work." + +"And that work?" she asked, tremulously. + +"To watch over the widow and fatherless. And with God's blessing, +sister, and His holy ordinance, I am here to stay." + + + +SARAH WALKER + + +It was very hot. Not a breath of air was stirring throughout the +western wing of the Greyport Hotel, and the usual feverish life of +its four hundred inmates had succumbed to the weather. The great +veranda was deserted; the corridors were desolated; no footfall +echoed in the passages; the lazy rustle of a wandering skirt, or a +passing sigh that was half a pant, seemed to intensify the heated +silence. An intoxicated bee, disgracefully unsteady in wing and +leg, who had been holding an inebriated conversation with himself +in the corner of my window pane, had gone to sleep at last and was +snoring. The errant prince might have entered the slumberous halls +unchallenged, and walked into any of the darkened rooms whose open +doors gaped for more air, without awakening the veriest Greyport +flirt with his salutation. At times a drowsy voice, a lazily +interjected sentence, an incoherent protest, a long-drawn phrase of +saccharine tenuity suddenly broke off with a gasp, came vaguely to +the ear, as if indicating a half-suspended, half-articulated +existence somewhere, but not definite enough to indicate +conversation. In the midst of this, there was the sudden crying of +a child. + +I looked up from my work. Through the camera of my jealously +guarded window I could catch a glimpse of the vivid, quivering blue +of the sky, the glittering intensity of the ocean, the long +motionless leaves of the horse-chestnut in the road,--all utterly +inconsistent with anything as active as this lamentation. I +stepped to the open door and into the silent hall. + +Apparently the noise had attracted the equal attention of my +neighbors. A vague chorus of "Sarah Walker," in querulous +recognition, of "O Lord! that child again!" in hopeless protest, +rose faintly from the different rooms. As the lamentations seemed +to approach nearer, the visitors' doors were successively shut, +swift footsteps hurried along the hall; past my open door came a +momentary vision of a heated nursemaid carrying a tumultuous chaos +of frilled skirts, flying sash, rebellious slippers, and tossing +curls; there was a moment's rallying struggle before the room +nearly opposite mine, and then a door opened and shut upon the +vision. It was Sarah Walker! + +Everybody knew her; few had ever seen more of her than this passing +vision. In the great hall, in the dining-room, in the vast +parlors, in the garden, in the avenue, on the beach, a sound of +lamentation had always been followed by this same brief apparition. +Was there a sudden pause among the dancers and a subjugation of the +loudest bassoons in the early evening "hop," the explanation was +given in the words "Sarah Walker." Was there a wild confusion +among the morning bathers on the sands, people whispered "Sarah +Walker." A panic among the waiters at dinner, an interruption in +the Sunday sacred concert, a disorganization of the after-dinner +promenade on the veranda, was instantly referred to Sarah Walker. +Nor were her efforts confined entirely to public life. In cozy +corners and darkened recesses, bearded lips withheld the amorous +declaration to mutter "Sarah Walker" between their clenched teeth; +coy and bashful tongues found speech at last in the rapid +formulation of "Sarah Walker." Nobody ever thought of abbreviating +her full name. The two people in the hotel, otherwise +individualized, but known only as "Sarah Walker's father" and +"Sarah Walker's mother," and never as Mr. and Mrs. Walker, +addressed her only as "Sarah Walker"; two animals that were +occasionally a part of this passing pageant were known as "Sarah +Walker's dog" and "Sarah Walker's cat," and later it was my proud +privilege to sink my own individuality under the title of "that +friend of Sarah Walker's." + +It must not be supposed that she had attained this baleful eminence +without some active criticism. Every parent in the Greyport Hotel +had held his or her theory of the particular defects of Sarah +Walker's education; every virgin and bachelor had openly expressed +views of the peculiar discipline that was necessary to her +subjugation. It may be roughly estimated that she would have spent +the entire nine years of her active life in a dark cupboard on an +exclusive diet of bread and water, had this discipline obtained; +while, on the other hand, had the educational theories of the +parental assembly prevailed, she would have ere this shone an +etherealized essence in the angelic host. In either event she +would have "ceased from troubling," which was the general Greyport +idea of higher education. A paper read before our Literary Society +on "Sarah Walker and other infantile diseases," was referred to in +the catalogue as "Walker, Sarah, Prevention and Cure," while the +usual burlesque legislation of our summer season culminated in the +Act entitled "An Act to amend an Act entitled an Act for the +abatement of Sarah Walker." As she was hereafter exclusively to be +fed "on the PROVISIONS of this Act," some idea of its general tone +may be gathered. It was a singular fact in this point of her +history that her natural progenitors not only offered no resistance +to the doubtful celebrity of their offspring, but, by hopelessly +accepting the situation, to some extent POSED as Sarah Walker's +victims. Mr. and Mrs. Walker were known to be rich, respectable, +and indulgent to their only child. They themselves had been +evolved from a previous generation of promiscuously acquired wealth +into the repose of inherited property, but it was currently +accepted that Sarah had "cast back" and reincarnated some waif on +the deck of an emigrant ship at the beginning of the century. + +Such was the child separated from me by this portentous history, a +narrow passage, and a closed nursery door. Presently, however, the +door was partly opened again as if to admit the air. The crying +had ceased, but in its place the monotonous Voice of Conscience, +for the moment personated by Sarah Walker's nursemaid, kept alive a +drowsy recollection of Sarah Walker's transgressions. + +"You see," said the Voice, "what a dreadful thing it is for a +little girl to go on as you do. I am astonished at you, Sarah +Walker. So is everybody; so is the good ladies next door; so is +the kind gentleman opposite; so is all! Where you expect to go to, +'Evin only knows! How you expect to be forgiven, saints alone can +tell! But so it is always, and yet you keep it up. And wouldn't +you like it different, Sarah Walker? Wouldn't you like to have +everybody love you? Wouldn't you like them good ladies next door, +and that nice gentleman opposite, all to kinder rise up and say, +'Oh, what a dear good little girl Sarah Walker is?'" The +interpolation of a smacking sound of lips, as if in unctuous +anticipation of Sarah Walker's virtue, here ensued--"Oh, what a +dear, good, sw-e-et, lovely little girl Sarah Walker is!" + +There was a dead silence. It may have been fancy, but I thought +that some of the doors in the passage creaked softly as if in +listening expectation. Then the silence was broken by a sigh. Had +Sarah Walker ingloriously succumbed? Rash and impotent conclusion! + +"I don't," said Sarah Walker's voice, slowly rising until it broke +on the crest of a mountainous sob, "I--don't--want--'em--to--love +me. I--don't want--'em--to say--what a--dear--good--little girl-- +Sarah Walker is!" She caught her breath. "I--want--'em--to say-- +what a naughty--bad--dirty--horrid--filthy--little girl Sarah +Walker is--so I do. There!" + +The doors slammed all along the passages. The dreadful issue was +joined. I softly crossed the hall and looked into Sarah Walker's +room. + +The light from a half-opened shutter fell full upon her rebellious +little figure. She had stiffened herself in a large easy-chair +into the attitude in which she had been evidently deposited there +by the nurse whose torn-off apron she still held rigidly in one +hand. Her shapely legs stood out before her, jointless and +inflexible to the point of her tiny shoes--a POSE copied with +pathetic fidelity by the French doll at her feet. The attitude +must have been dreadfully uncomfortable, and maintained only as +being replete with some vague insults to the person who had put her +down, as exhibiting a wild indecorum of silken stocking. A +mystified kitten--Sarah Walker's inseparable--was held as rigidly +under one arm with equal dumb aggressiveness. Following the stiff +line of her half-recumbent figure, her head suddenly appeared +perpendicularly erect--yet the only mobile part of her body. A +dazzling sunburst of silky hair, the color of burnished copper, +partly hid her neck and shoulders and the back of the chair. Her +eyes were a darker shade of the same color--the orbits appearing +deeper and larger from the rubbing in of habitual tears from long +wet lashes. Nothing so far seemed inconsistent with her infelix +reputation, but, strange to say, her other features were marked by +delicacy and refinement, and her mouth--that sorely exercised and +justly dreaded member--was small and pretty, albeit slightly +dropped at the corners. + +The immediate effect of my intrusion was limited solely to the +nursemaid. Swooping suddenly upon Sarah Walker's too evident +deshabille, she made two or three attempts to pluck her into +propriety; but the child, recognizing the cause as well as the +effect, looked askance at me and only stiffened herself the more. +"Sarah Walker, I'm shocked." + +"It ain't HIS room anyway," said Sarah, eying me malevolently. +"What's he doing here?" + +There was so much truth in this that I involuntarily drew back +abashed. The nurse-maid ejaculated "Sarah!" and lifted her eyes in +hopeless protest. + +"And he needn't come seeing YOU," continued Sarah, lazily rubbing +the back of her head against the chair; "my papa don't allow it. +He warned you 'bout the other gentleman, you know." + +"Sarah Walker!" + +I felt it was necessary to say something. "Don't you want to come +with me and look at the sea?" I said with utter feebleness of +invention. To my surprise, instead of actively assaulting me Sarah +Walker got up, shook her hair over her shoulders, and took my hand. + +"With your hair in that state?" almost screamed the domestic. But +Sarah Walker had already pulled me into the hall. What +particularly offensive form of opposition to authority was implied +in this prompt assent to my proposal I could only darkly guess. +For myself I knew I must appear to her a weak impostor. What would +there possibly be in the sea to interest Sarah Walker? For the +moment I prayed for a water-spout, a shipwreck, a whale, or any +marine miracle to astound her and redeem my character. I walked +guiltily down the hall, holding her hand bashfully in mine. I +noticed that her breast began to heave convulsively; if she cried I +knew I should mingle my tears with hers. We reached the veranda in +gloomy silence. As I expected, the sea lay before us glittering in +the sun--vacant, staring, flat, and hopelessly and unquestionably +uninteresting. + +"I knew it all along," said Sarah Walker, turning down the corners +of her mouth; "there never was anything to see. I know why you got +me to come here. You want to tell me if I'm a good girl you'll +take me to sail some day. You want to say if I'm bad the sea will +swallow me up. That's all you want, you horrid thing, you!" + +"Hush!" I said, pointing to the corner of the veranda. + +A desperate idea of escape had just seized me. Bolt upright in the +recess of a window sat a nursemaid who had succumbed to sleep +equally with her helpless charge in the perambulator beside her. I +instantly recognized the infant--a popular organism known as "Baby +Buckly"--the prodigy of the Greyport Hotel, the pet of its +enthusiastic womanhood. Fat and featureless, pink and pincushiony, +it was borrowed by gushing maidenhood, exchanged by idiotic +maternity, and had grown unctuous and tumefacient under the kisses +and embraces of half the hotel. Even in its present repose it +looked moist and shiny from indiscriminate and promiscuous +osculation. + +"Let's borrow Baby Buckly," I said recklessly. + +Sarah Walker at once stopped crying. I don't know how she did it, +but the cessation was instantaneous, as if she had turned off a tap +somewhere. + +"And put it in Mr. Peters' bed!" I continued. + +Peters being notoriously a grim bachelor, the bare suggestion +bristled with outrage. Sarah Walker's eyes sparkled. + +"You don't mean it!--go 'way!"--she said with affected coyness. + +"But I do! Come." + +We extracted it noiselessly together--that is, Sarah Walker did, +with deft womanliness--carried it darkly along the hall to No. 27, +and deposited it in Peters' bed, where it lay like a freshly opened +oyster. We then returned hand in hand to my room, where we looked +out of the window on the sea. It was observable that there was no +lack of interest in Sarah Walker now. + +Before five minutes had elapsed some one breathlessly passed the +open door while we were still engaged in marine observation. This +was followed by return footsteps and a succession of swiftly +rustling garments, until the majority of the women in our wing had +apparently passed our room, and we saw an irregular stream of +nursemaids and mothers converging towards the hotel out of the +grateful shadow of arbors, trees, and marquees. In fact we were +still engaged in observation when Sarah Walker's nurse came to +fetch her away, and to inform her that "by rights" Baby Buckly's +nurse and Mr. Peters should both be made to leave the hotel that +very night. Sarah Walker permitted herself to be led off with dry +but expressive eyes. That evening she did not cry, but, on being +taken into the usual custody for disturbance, was found to be +purple with suppressed laughter. + +This was the beginning of my intimacy with Sarah Walker. But while +it was evident that whatever influence I obtained over her was due +to my being particeps criminis, I think it was accepted that a +regular abduction of infants might become in time monotonous if not +dangerous. So she was satisfied with the knowledge that I could +not now, without the most glaring hypocrisy, obtrude a moral +superiority upon her. I do not think she would have turned state +evidence and accused me, but I was by no means assured of her +disinterested regard. She contented herself, for a few days +afterwards, with meeting me privately and mysteriously +communicating unctuous reminiscences of our joint crime, without +suggesting a repetition. Her intimacy with me did not seem to +interfere with her general relations to her own species in the +other children in the hotel. Perhaps I should have said before +that her popularity with them was by no means prejudiced by her +infelix reputation. But while she was secretly admired by all, she +had few professed followers and no regular associates. Whether the +few whom she selected for that baleful preeminence were either torn +from her by horrified guardians, or came to grief through her +dangerous counsels, or whether she really did not care for them, I +could not say. Their elevation was brief, their retirement +unregretted. It was however permitted me, through felicitous +circumstances, to become acquainted with the probable explanation +of her unsociability. + +The very hot weather culminated one afternoon in a dead faint of +earth and sea and sky. An Alpine cloudland of snow that had mocked +the upturned eyes of Greyport for hours, began to darken under the +folding shadow of a black and velvety wing. The atmosphere seemed +to thicken as the gloom increased; the lazy dust, thrown up by +hurrying feet that sought a refuge, hung almost motionless in the +air. Suddenly it was blown to the four quarters in one fierce gust +that as quickly dispersed the loungers drooping in shade and cover. +For a few seconds the long avenue was lost in flying clouds of +dust, and then was left bare of life or motion. Raindrops in huge +stars and rosettes appeared noiselessly and magically upon the +sidewalks--gouts of moisture apparently dropped from mid-air. And +then the ominous hush returned. + +A mile away along the rocks, I turned for shelter into a cavernous +passage of the overhanging cliff, where I could still watch the +coming storm upon the sea. A murmur of voices presently attracted +my attention. I then observed that the passage ended in a kind of +open grotto, where I could dimly discern the little figures of +several children, who, separated from their nurses in the sudden +onset of the storm, had taken refuge there. As the gloom deepened +they became silent again, until the stillness was broken by a +familiar voice. There was no mistaking it.--It was Sarah Walker's. +But it was not lifted in lamentation, it was raised only as if +resuming a suspended narrative. + +"Her name," said Sarah Walker gloomily, "was Kribbles. She was the +only child--of--of orphaned parentage, and fair to see, but she was +bad, and God did not love her. And one day she was separated from +her nurse on a desert island like to this. And then came a +hidgeous thunderstorm. And a great big thunderbolt came galumping +after her. And it ketehed her and rolled all over her--so! and +then it came back and ketched her and rolled her over--so! And +when they came to pick her up there was not so much as THAT left of +her. All burnt up!" + +"Wasn't there just a little bit of her shoe?" suggested a cautious +auditor. + +"Not a bit," said Sarah Walker firmly. All the other children +echoed "Not a bit," indignantly, in evident gratification at the +completeness of Kribbles' catastrophe. At this moment the +surrounding darkness was suddenly filled with a burst of blue +celestial fire; the heavy inky sea beyond, the black-edged mourning +horizon, the gleaming sands, each nook and corner of the dripping +cave, with the frightened faces of the huddled group of children, +started into vivid life for an instant, and then fell back with a +deafening crash into the darkness. + +There was a slight sound of whimpering. Sarah Walker apparently +pounced upon the culprit, for it ceased. + +"Sniffling 'tracts 'lectricity," she said sententiously. + +"But you thaid it wath Dod!" lisped a casuist of seven. + +"It's all the same," said Sarah sharply, "and so's asking +questions." + +This obscure statement was however apparently understood, for the +casuist lapsed into silent security. "Lots of things 'tracts it," +continued Sarah Walker. "Gold and silver, and metals and knives +and rings." + +"And pennies?" + +"And pennies most of all! Kribbles was that vain, she used to wear +jewelry and fly in the face of Providence." + +"But you thaid--" + +"Will you?--There! you hear that?" There was another blinding +flash and bounding roll of thunder along the shore. "I wonder you +didn't ketch it. You would--only I'm here." + +All was quiet again, but from certain indications it was evident +that a collection of those dangerous articles that had proved fatal +to the unhappy Kribbles was being taken up. I could hear the clink +of coins and jingle of ornaments. That Sarah herself was the +custodian was presently shown. "But won't the lightning come to +you now?" asked a timid voice. + +"No," said Sarah, promptly, "'cause I ain't afraid! Look!" + +A frightened protest from the children here ensued, but the next +instant she appeared at the entrance of the grotto and ran down the +rocks towards the sea. Skipping from bowlder to bowlder she +reached the furthest projection of the ledge, now partly submerged +by the rising surf, and then turned half triumphantly, half +defiantly, towards the grotto. The weird phosphorescence of the +storm lit up the resolute little figure standing there, gorgeously +bedecked with the chains, rings, and shiny trinkets of her +companions. With a tiny hand raised in mock defiance of the +elements, she seemed to lean confidingly against the panting breast +of the gale, with fluttering skirt and flying tresses. Then the +vault behind her cracked with three jagged burning fissures, a +weird flame leaped upon the sand, there was a cry of terror from +the grotto, echoed by a scream of nurses on the cliff, a deluge of +rain, a terrific onset from the gale--and--Sarah Walker was gone? +Nothing of the kind! When I reached the ledge, after a severe +struggle with the storm, I found Sarah on the leeward side, +drenched but delighted. I held her tightly, while we waited for a +lull to regain the cliff, and took advantage of the sympathetic +situation. + +"But you know you WERE frightened, Sarah," I whispered; "you +thought of what happened to poor Kribbles." + +"Do you know who Kribbles was?" she asked confidentially. + +"No." + +"Well," she whispered, "I made Kribbles up. And the hidgeous storm +and thunderbolt--and the burning! All out of my own head." + +The only immediate effect of this escapade was apparently to +precipitate and bring into notoriety the growing affection of an +obscure lover of Sarah Walker's, hitherto unsuspected. He was a +mild inoffensive boy of twelve, known as "Warts," solely from an +inordinate exhibition of these youthful excrescences. On the day +of Sarah Walker's adventure his passion culminated in a sudden and +illogical attack upon Sarah's nurse and parents while they were +bewailing her conduct, and in assaulting them with his feet and +hands. Whether he associated them in some vague way with the cause +of her momentary peril, or whether he only wished to impress her +with the touching flattery of a general imitation of her style, I +cannot say. For his lovemaking was peculiar. A day or two +afterwards he came to my open door and remained for some moments +bashfully looking at me. The next day I found him standing by my +chair in the piazza with an embarrassed air and in utter inability +to explain his conduct. At the end of a rapid walk on the sand one +morning, I was startled by the sound of hurried breath, and looking +around, discovered the staggering Warts quite exhausted by +endeavoring to keep up with me on his short legs. At last the +daily recurrence of his haunting presence forced a dreadful +suspicion upon me. Warts was courting ME for Sarah Walker! Yet it +was impossible to actually connect her with these mute attentions. +"You want me to give them to Sarah Walker," I said cheerfully one +afternoon, as he laid upon my desk some peculiarly uninviting +crustacea which looked not unlike a few detached excrescences from +his own hands. He shook his head decidedly. "I understand," I +continued, confidently; "you want me to keep them for her." "No," +said Warts, doggedly. "Then you only want me to tell her how nice +they are?" The idea was apparently so shamelessly true that he +blushed himself hastily into the passage, and ceased any future +contribution. Naturally still more ineffective was the slightest +attempt to bring his devotion into the physical presence of Sarah +Walker. The most ingenious schemes to lure him into my room while +she was there failed utterly. Yet he must have at one time basked +in her baleful presence. "Do you like Warts?" I asked her one day +bluntly. "Yes," said Sarah Walker with cheerful directness; "ain't +HE got a lot of 'em?--though he used to have more. But," she added +reflectively, "do you know the little Ilsey boy?" I was compelled +to admit my ignorance. "Well!" she said with a reminiscent sigh of +satisfaction, "HE'S got only two toes on his left foot--showed 'em +to me. And he was born so." Need it be said that in these few +words I read the dismal sequel of Warts' unfortunate attachment? +His accidental eccentricity was no longer attractive. What were +his evanescent accretions, subject to improvement or removal, +beside the hereditary and settled malformations of his rival? + +Once only, in this brief summer episode, did Sarah Walker attract +the impulsive and general sympathy of Greyport. It is only just to +her consistency to say it was through no fault of hers, unless a +characteristic exposure which brought on a chill and diphtheria +could be called her own act. Howbeit, towards the close of the +season, when a sudden suggestion of the coming autumn had crept, +one knew not how, into the heart of a perfect day; when even a +return of the summer warmth had a suspicion of hectic,--on one of +these days Sarah Walker was missed with the bees and the +butterflies. For two days her voice had not been heard in hall or +corridor, nor had the sunshine of her French marigold head lit up +her familiar places. The two days were days of relief, yet +mitigated with a certain uneasy apprehension of the return of Sarah +Walker, or--more alarming thought!--the Sarah Walker element in a +more appalling form. So strong was this impression that an unhappy +infant who unwittingly broke this interval with his maiden outcry +was nearly lynched. "We're not going to stand that from YOU, you +know," was the crystallized sentiment of a brutal bachelor. In +fact, it began to be admitted that Greyport had been accustomed to +Sarah Walker's ways. In the midst of this, it was suddenly +whispered that Sarah Walker was lying dangerously ill, and was not +expected to live. + +Then occurred one of those strange revulsions of human sentiment +which at first seem to point the dawning of a millennium of poetic +justice, but which, in this case, ended in merely stirring the +languid pulses of society into a hectic fever, and in making +sympathy for Sarah Walker an insincere and exaggerated fashion. +Morning and afternoon visits to her apartment, with extravagant +offerings, were de rigueur; bulletins were issued three times a +day; an allusion to her condition was the recognized preliminary to +all conversation; advice, suggestions, and petitions to restore the +baleful existence, flowed readily from the same facile invention +that had once proposed its banishment; until one afternoon the +shadow had drawn so close that even Folly withheld its careless +feet before it, and laid down its feeble tinkling bells and gaudy +cap tremblingly on the threshold. But the sequel must be told in +more vivid words than mine. + +"Whin I saw that angel lyin' there," said Sarah Walker's nurse, "as +white, if ye plaze, as if the whole blessed blood of her body had +gone to make up the beautiful glory of her hair; speechless as she +was, I thought I saw a sort of longin' in her eyes. + +"'Is it anythin' you'll be wantin', Sarah darlint', sez her mother +with a thremblin' voice, 'afore it's lavin' us ye are? Is it the +ministher yer askin' for, love?' sez she. + +"And Sarah looked at me, and if it was the last words I spake, her +lips moved and she whispered 'Scotty.' + +"'Wirra! wirra!' sez the mother, 'it's wanderin' she is, the +darlin';' for Scotty, don't ye see, was the grand barkeeper of the +hotel. + +"'Savin' yer presence, ma'am,' sez I, 'and the child's here, ez is +half a saint already, it's thruth she's spakin'--it's Scotty she +wants.' And with that my angel blinks wid her black eyes 'yes.' + +"'Bring him,' says the docthor, 'at once.' + +"And they bring him in wid all the mustachios and moighty fine +curls of him, and his diamonds, rings, and pins all a-glistening +just like his eyes when he set 'em on that suffering saint. + +"'Is it anythin' you're wantin,' Sarah dear?' sez he, thryin' to +spake firm. And Sarah looks at him, and then looks at a tumbler on +the table. + +"'Is it a bit of a cocktail, the likes of the one I made for ye +last Sunday unbeknownst?' sez he, looking round mortal afraid of +the parents. And Sarah Walker's eyes said, 'It is.' Then the +ministher groaned, but the docthor jumps to his feet. + +"'Bring it,' sez he, 'and howld your jaw, an ye's a Christian +sowl.' And he brought it. An' afther the first sip, the child +lifts herself up on one arm, and sez, with a swate smile and a toss +of the glass: + +"'I looks towards you, Scotty,' sez she. + +"'I observes you and bows, miss,' sez he, makin' as if he was +dhrinkin' wid her. + +"'Here's another nail in yer coffin, old man,' sez she winkin'. + +"'And here's the hair all off your head, miss,' sez he quite +aisily, tossin' back the joke betwixt 'em. + +"And with that she dhrinks it off, and lies down and goes to sleep +like a lamb, and wakes up wid de rosy dawn in her cheeks, and the +morthal seekness gone forever." + + . . . . . . . . . + +Thus Sarah Walker recovered. Whether the fact were essential to +the moral conveyed in these pages, I leave the reader to judge. + +I was leaning on the terrace of the Kronprinzen-Hof at Rolandseck +one hot summer afternoon, lazily watching the groups of tourists +strolling along the road that ran between the Hof and the Rhine. +There was certainly little in the place or its atmosphere to recall +the Greyport episode of twenty years before, when I was suddenly +startled by hearing the name of "Sarah Walker." + +In the road below me were three figures,--a lady, a gentleman, and +a little girl. As the latter turned towards the lady who addressed +her, I recognized the unmistakable copper-colored tresses, trim +figure, delicate complexion, and refined features of the friend of +my youth! I seized my hat, but by the time I had reached the road, +they had disappeared. + +The utter impossibility of its being Sarah Walker herself, and the +glaring fact that the very coincidence of name would be +inconsistent with any conventional descent from the original Sarah, +I admit confused me. But I examined the book of the Kronprinzen- +Hof and the other hotels, and questioned my portier. There was no +"Mees" nor "Madame Walkiere" extant in Rolandseck. Yet might not +Monsieur have heard incorrectly? The Czara Walka was evidently +Russian, and Rolandseck was a resort for Russian princes. But +pardon! Did Monsieur really mean the young demoiselle now +approaching? Ah! that was a different affair. She was the +daughter of the Italian Prince and Princess Monte Castello staying +here. The lady with her was not the Princess, but a foreign +friend. The gentleman was the Prince. Would he present Monsieur's +card? + +They were entering the hotel. The Prince was a little, +inoffensive-looking man, the lady an evident countrywoman of my +own, and the child--was, yet was NOT, Sarah! There was the face, +the outline, the figure--but the life, the verve, the audacity, was +wanting! I could contain myself no longer. + +"Pardon an inquisitive compatriot, madam," I said; "but I heard you +a few moments ago address this young lady by the name of a very +dear young friend, whom I knew twenty years ago--Sarah Walker. Am +I right?" + +The Prince stopped and gazed at us both with evident affright; then +suddenly recognizing in my freedom some wild American indecorum, +doubtless provoked by the presence of another of my species, which +he really was not expected to countenance, retreated behind the +portier. The circumstance by no means increased the good-will of +the lady, as she replied somewhat haughtily:-- + +"The Principessina is named Sarah Walker, after her mother's maiden +name." + +"Then this IS Sarah Walker's daughter!" I said joyfully. + +"She is the daughter of the Prince and Princess of Monte Castello," +corrected the lady frigidly. + +"I had the pleasure of knowing her mother very well." I stopped +and blushed. Did I really know Sarah Walker very well? And would +Sarah Walker know me now? Or would it not be very like her to go +back on me? There was certainly anything but promise in the +feeble-minded, vacuous copy of Sarah before me. I was yet +hesitating, when the Prince, who had possibly received some +quieting assurance from the portier, himself stepped forward, +stammered that the Princess would, without doubt, be charmed to +receive me later, and skipped upstairs, leaving the impression on +my mind that he contemplated ordering his bill at once. There was +no excuse for further prolonging the interview. "Say good-by to +the strange gentleman, Sarah," suggested Sarah's companion stiffly. +I looked at the child in the wild hope of recognizing some prompt +resistance to the suggestion that would have identified her with +the lost Sarah of my youth--but in vain. "Good-by, sir, said the +affected little creature, dropping a mechanical curtsey. "Thank +you very much for remembering my mother." "Good-by, Sarah!" It +was indeed good-by forever. + +For on my way to my room I came suddenly upon the Prince, in a +recess of the upper hall, addressing somebody through an open door +with a querulous protest, whose wild extravagance of statement was +grotesquely balanced by its utter feeble timidity of manner. "It +is," said the Prince, "indeed a grave affair. We have here +hundreds of socialists, emissaries from lawless countries and +impossible places, who travel thousands of miles to fall upon our +hearts and embrace us. They establish an espionage over us; they +haunt our walks in incredible numbers; they hang in droves upon our +footsteps; Heaven alone saves us from a public osculation at any +moment! They openly allege that they have dandled us on their +knees at recent periods; washed and dressed us, and would do so +still. Our happiness, our security--" + +"Don't be a fool, Prince. Do shut up!" + +The Prince collapsed and shrank away, and I hurried past the open +door. A tall, magnificent-looking woman was standing before a +glass, arranging her heavy red hair. The face, which had been +impatiently turned towards the door, had changed again to profile, +with a frown still visible on the bent brow. Our eyes met as I +passed. The next moment the door slammed, and I had seen the last +of Sarah Walker. + + + +A SHIP OF '49 + + +It had rained so persistently in San Francisco during the first +week of January, 1854, that a certain quagmire in the roadway of +Long Wharf had become impassable, and a plank was thrown over its +dangerous depth. Indeed, so treacherous was the spot that it was +alleged, on good authority, that a hastily embarking traveler had +once hopelessly lost his portmanteau, and was fain to dispose of +his entire interest in it for the sum of two dollars and fifty +cents to a speculative stranger on the wharf. As the stranger's +search was rewarded afterwards only by the discovery of the body of +a casual Chinaman, who had evidently endeavored wickedly to +anticipate him, a feeling of commercial insecurity was added to the +other eccentricities of the locality. + +The plank led to the door of a building that was a marvel even in +the chaotic frontier architecture of the street. The houses on +either side--irregular frames of wood or corrugated iron--bore +evidence of having been quickly thrown together, to meet the +requirements of the goods and passengers who were once disembarked +on what was the muddy beach of the infant city. But the building +in question exhibited a certain elaboration of form and design +utterly inconsistent with this idea. The structure obtruded a +bowed front to the street, with a curving line of small windows, +surmounted by elaborate carvings and scroll work of vines and +leaves, while below, in faded gilt letters, appeared the legend +"Pontiac--Marseilles." The effect of this incongruity was +startling. It is related that an inebriated miner, impeded by mud +and drink before its door, was found gazing at its remarkable +facade with an expression of the deepest despondency. "I hev lived +a free life, pardner," he explained thickly to the Samaritan who +succored him, "and every time since I've been on this six weeks' +jamboree might have kalkilated it would come to this. Snakes I've +seen afore now, and rats I'm not unfamiliar with, but when it comes +to the starn of a ship risin' up out of the street, I reckon it's +time to pass in my checks." "It IS a ship, you blasted old +soaker," said the Samaritan curtly. + +It was indeed a ship. A ship run ashore and abandoned on the beach +years before by her gold-seeking crew, with the debris of her +scattered stores and cargo, overtaken by the wild growth of the +strange city and the reclamation of the muddy flat, wherein she lay +hopelessly imbedded; her retreat cut off by wharves and quays and +breakwater, jostled at first by sheds, and then impacted in a block +of solid warehouses and dwellings, her rudder, port, and counter +boarded in, and now gazing hopelessly through her cabin windows +upon the busy street before her. But still a ship despite her +transformation. The faintest line of contour yet left visible +spoke of the buoyancy of another element; the balustrade of her +roof was unmistakably a taffrail. The rain slipped from her +swelling sides with a certain lingering touch of the sea; the soil +around her was still treacherous with its suggestions, and even the +wind whistled nautically over her chimney. If, in the fury of some +southwesterly gale, she had one night slipped her strange moorings +and left a shining track through the lower town to the distant sea, +no one would have been surprised. + +Least of all, perhaps, her present owner and possessor, Mr. Abner +Nott. For by the irony of circumstances, Mr. Nott was a Far +Western farmer who had never seen a ship before, nor a larger +stream of water than a tributary of the Missouri River. In a +spirit, half of fascination, half of speculation, he had bought her +at the time of her abandonment, and had since mortgaged his ranch +at Petaluma with his live stock, to defray the expenses of filling +in the land where she stood, and the improvements of the vicinity. +He had transferred his household goods and his only daughter to her +cabin, and had divided the space "between decks" and her hold into +lodging-rooms, and lofts for the storage of goods. It could hardly +be said that the investment had been profitable. His tenants +vaguely recognized that his occupancy was a sentimental rather than +a commercial speculation, and often generously lent themselves to +the illusion by not paying their rent. Others treated their own +tenancy as a joke,--a quaint recreation born of the childlike +familiarity of frontier intercourse. A few had left carelessly +abandoning their unsalable goods to their landlord, with great +cheerfulness and a sense of favor. Occasionally Mr. Abner Nott, in +a practical relapse, raged against the derelicts, and talked of +dispossessing them, or even dismantling his tenement, but he was +easily placated by a compliment to the "dear old ship," or an +effort made by some tenant to idealize his apartment. A +photographer who had ingeniously utilized the forecastle for a +gallery (accessible from the bows in the next street), paid no +further tribute than a portrait of the pretty face of Rosey Nott. +The superstitious reverence in which Abner Nott held his monstrous +fancy was naturally enhanced by his purely bucolic exaggeration of +its real functions and its native element. "This yer keel has +sailed, and sailed, and sailed," he would explain with some +incongruity of illustration, "in a bee line, makin' tracks for days +runnin'. I reckon more storms and blizzards hez tackled her then +you ken shake a stick at. She's stampeded whales afore now, and +sloshed round with pirates and freebooters in and outer the Spanish +Main, and across lots from Marcelleys where she was rared. And yer +she sits peaceful-like just ez if she'd never been outer a pertater +patch, and hadn't ploughed the sea with fo'sails and studdin' sails +and them things cavortin' round her masts." + +Abner Nott's enthusiasm was shared by his daughter, but with more +imagination, and an intelligence stimulated by the scant literature +of her father's emigrant wagon and the few books found on the cabin +shelves. But to her the strange shell she inhabited suggested more +of the great world than the rude, chaotic civilization she saw from +the cabin windows or met in the persons of her father's lodgers. +Shut up for days in this quaint tenement, she had seen it change +from the enchanted playground of her childish fancy to the theatre +of her active maidenhood, but without losing her ideal romance in +it. She had translated its history in her own way, read its quaint +nautical hieroglyphics after her own fashion, and possessed herself +of its secrets. She had in fancy made voyages in it to foreign +lands; had heard the accents of a softer tongue on its decks, and +on summer nights, from the roof of the quarter-deck, had seen +mellower constellations take the place of the hard metallic glitter +of the Californian skies. Sometimes, in her isolation, the long, +cylindrical vault she inhabited seemed, like some vast sea-shell, +to become musical with the murmurings of the distant sea. So +completely had it taken the place of the usual instincts of +feminine youth that she had forgotten she was pretty, or that her +dresses were old in fashion and scant in quantity. After the first +surprise of admiration her father's lodgers ceased to follow the +abstracted nymph except with their eyes,--partly respecting her +spiritual shyness, partly respecting the jealous supervision of the +paternal Nott. She seldom penetrated the crowded centre of the +growing city; her rare excursions were confined to the old ranch at +Petaluma, whence she brought flowers and plants, and even +extemporized a hanging-garden on the quarter-deck. + +It was still raining, and the wind, which had increased to a gale, +was dashing the drops against the slanting cabin windows with a +sound like spray when Mr. Abner Nott sat before a table seriously +engaged with his accounts. For it was "steamer night,"--as that +momentous day of reckoning before the sailing of the regular mail +steamer was briefly known to commercial San Francisco,--and Mr. +Nott was subject at such times to severely practical relapses. A +swinging light seemed to bring into greater relief that peculiar +encased casket-like security of the low-timbered, tightly-fitting +apartment, with its toy-like utilities of space, and made the +pretty oval face of Rosey Nott appear a characteristic ornament. +The sliding door of the cabin communicated with the main deck, now +roofed in and partitioned off so as to form a small passage that +led to the open starboard gangway, where a narrow, inclosed +staircase built on the ship's side took the place of the ship's +ladder under her counter, and opened in the street. + +A dash of rain against the window caused Rosey to lift her eyes +from her book. + +"It's much nicer here than at the ranch, father," she said +coaxingly, "even leaving alone its being a beautiful ship instead +of a shanty; the wind don't whistle through the cracks and blow out +the candle when you're reading, nor the rain spoil your things hung +up against the wall. And you look more like a gentleman sitting in +his own--ship--you know, looking over his bills and getting ready +to give his orders." + +Vague and general as Miss Rosey's compliment was, it had its full +effect upon her father, who was at times dimly conscious of his +hopeless rusticity and its incongruity with his surroundings. +"Yes," he said awkwardly, with a slight relaxation of his +aggressive attitude; "yes, in course it's more bang-up style, but +it don't pay--Rosey--it don't pay. Yer's the Pontiac that oughter +be bringin' in, ez rents go, at least three hundred a month, don't +make her taxes. I bin thinkin' seriously of sellin' her." + +As Rosey knew her father had experienced this serious contemplation +on the first of every month for the last two years, and cheerfully +ignored it the next day, she only said, "I'm sure the vacant rooms +and lofts are all rented, father." + +"That's it," returned Mr. Nott thoughtfully, plucking at his bushy +whiskers with his fingers and thumb as if he were removing dead and +sapless incumbranees in their growth, "that's just what it is-- +them's ez in it themselves don't pay, and them ez haz left their +goods--the goods don't pay. The feller ez stored them iron sugar +kettles in the forehold, after trying to get me to make another +advance on 'em, sez he believes he'll have to sacrifice 'em to me +after all, and only begs I'd give him a chance of buying back the +half of 'em ten years from now, at double what I advanced him. The +chap that left them five hundred cases of hair dye 'tween decks and +then skipped out to Sacramento, met me the other day in the street +and advised me to use a bottle ez an advertisement, or try it on +the starn of the Pontiac for fire-proof paint. That foolishness ez +all he's good for. And yet thar might be suthin' in the paint, if +a feller had nigger luck. Ther's that New York chap ez bought up +them damaged boxes of plug terbaker for fifty dollars a thousand, +and sold 'em for foundations for that new building in Sansome +Street at a thousand clear profit. It's all luck, Rosey." + +The girl's eyes had wandered again to the pages of her book. +Perhaps she was already familiar with the text of her father's +monologue. But recognizing an additional querulousness in his +voice, she laid the book aside and patiently folded her hands in +her lap. + +"That's right--for I've suthin' to tell ye. The fact is Sleight +wants to buy the Pontiac out and out just ez she stands with the +two fifty vara lots she stands on." + +"Sleight wants to buy her? Sleight?" echoed Rosey incredulously. + +"You bet! Sleight--the big financier, the smartest man in +'Frisco." + +"What does he want to buy her for?" asked Rosey, knitting her +pretty brows. + +The apparently simple question suddenly puzzled Mr. Nott. He +glanced feebly at his daughter's face, and frowned in vacant +irritation. "That's so," he said, drawing a long breath; "there's +suthin' in that." + +"What did he SAY?" continued the young girl, impatiently. + +"Not much. 'You've got the Pontiac, Nott,' sez he. 'You bet!' sez +I. 'What'll you take for her and the lot she stands on?' sez he, +short and sharp. Some fellers, Rosey," said Nott, with a cunning +smile, "would hev blurted out a big figger and been cotched. That +ain't my style. I just looked at him. 'I'll wait fur your figgers +until next steamer day,' sez he, and off he goes like a shot. He's +awfully sharp, Rosey." + +"But if he is sharp, father, and he really wants to buy the ship," +returned Rosey, thoughfully, "it's only because he knows it's +valuable property, and not because he likes it as we do. He can't +take that value away even if we don't sell it to him, and all the +while we have the comfort of the dear old Pontiac, don't you see?" + +This exhaustive commercial reasoning was so sympathetic to Mr. +Nott's instincts that he accepted it as conclusive. He, however, +deemed it wise to still preserve his practical attitude. "But that +don't make it pay by the month, Rosey. Suthin' must be done. I'm +thinking I'll clean out that photographer." + +"Not just after he's taken such a pretty view of the cabin front of +the Pontiac from the street, father! No! he's going to give us a +copy, and put the other in a shop window in Montgomery Street." + +"That's so," said Mr. Nott, musingly; "it's no slouch of an +advertisement. 'The Pontiac,' the property of A. Nott, Esq., of +St. Jo, Missouri. Send it on to your Aunt Phoebe; sorter make the +old folks open their eyes--oh? Well, seein' he's been to some +expense fittin' up an entrance from the other street, we'll let him +slide. But as to that d----d old Frenchman Ferrers, in the next +loft, with his stuck-up airs and high-falutin style, we must get +quit of him; he's regularly gouged me in that ere horsehair +spekilation." + +"How can you say that, father!" said Rosey, with a slight increase +of color. "It was your own offer. You know those bales of curled +horsehair were left behind by the late tenant to pay his rent. +When Mr. de Ferrieres rented the room afterwards, you told him +you'd throw them in in the place of repairs and furniture. It was +your own offer." + +"Yes, but I didn't reckon ther'd ever be a big price per pound paid +for the darned stuff for sofys and cushions and sich." + +"How do you know HE knew it, father?" responded Rosey. + +"Then why did he look so silly at first, and then put on airs when +I joked him about it, eh?" + +"Perhaps he didn't understand your joking, father. He's a +foreigner, and shy and proud, and--not like the others. I don't +think he knew what you meant then, any more than he believed he was +making a bargain before. He may be poor, but I think he's been--a-- +a--gentleman." + +The young girl's animation penetrated even Mr. Nott's slow +comprehension. Her novel opposition, and even the prettiness it +enhanced, gave him a dull premonition of pain. His small round +eyes became abstracted, his mouth remained partly open, even his +fresh color slightly paled. + +"You seem to have been takin' stock of this yer man, Rosey," he +said, with a faint attempt at archness; "if he warn't ez old ez a +crow, for all his young feathers, I'd think he was makin' up to +you." + +But the passing glow had faded from her young cheeks, and her eyes +wandered again to her book. "He pays his rent regularly every +steamer night," she said, quietly, as if dismissing an exhausted +subject, "and he'll be here in a moment, I dare say." She took up +her book, and leaning her head on her hand, once more became +absorbed in its pages. + +An uneasy silence followed. The rain beat against the windows, the +ticking of a clock became audible, but still Mr. Nott sat with +vacant eyes fixed on his daughter's face, and the constrained smile +on his lips. He was conscious that he had never seen her look so +pretty before, yet he could not tell why this was no longer an +unalloyed satisfaction. Not but that he had always accepted the +admiration of others for her as a matter of course, but for the +first time he became conscious that she not only had an interest in +others, but apparently a superior knowledge of them. How did she +know these things about this man, and why had she only now +accidentally spoken of them? HE would have done so. All this +passed so vaguely through his unreflective mind, that he was unable +to retain any decided impression, but the far-reaching one that his +lodger had obtained some occult influence over her through the +exhibition of his baleful skill in the horsehair speculation. +"Them tricks is likely to take a young girl's fancy. I must look +arter her," he said to himself softly. + +A slow regular step in the gangway interrupted his paternal +reflections. Hastily buttoning across his chest the pea-jacket +which he usually wore at home as a single concession to his +nautical surroundings, he drew himself up with something of the +assumption of a ship-master, despite certain bucolic suggestions of +his boots and legs. The footsteps approached nearer, and a tall +figure suddenly stood in the doorway. + +It was a figure so extraordinary that even in the strange +masquerade of that early civilization it was remarkable; a figure +with whom father and daughter were already familiar without +abatement of wonder--the figure of a rejuvenated old man, padded, +powdered, dyed, and painted to the verge of caricature, but without +a single suggestion of ludicrousness or humor. A face so +artificial that it seemed almost a mask, but, like a mask, more +pathetic than amusing. He was dressed in the extreme of fashion of +a dozen years before; his pearl gray trousers strapped tightly over +his varnished boots, his voluminous satin cravat and high collar +embraced his rouged cheeks and dyed whiskers, his closely-buttoned +frock coat clinging to a waist that seemed accented by stays. + +He advanced two steps into the cabin with an upright precision of +motion that might have hid the infirmities of age, and said +deliberately with a foreign accent:-- + +"You-r-r ac-coumpt?" + +In the actual presence of the apparition Mr. Nott's dignified +resistance wavered. But glancing uneasily at his daughter and +seeing her calm eyes fixed on the speaker without embarrassment, he +folded his arms stiffly, and with a lofty simulation of examining +the ceiling, said,-- + +"Ahem! Rosa! The gentleman's account." + +It was an infelicitous action. For the stranger, who evidently had +not noticed the presence of the young girl before, started, took a +step quickly forward, bent stiffly but profoundly over the little +hand that held the account, raised it to his lips, and with "a +thousand pardons, mademoiselle," laid a small canvas bag containing +the rent before the disorganized Mr. Nott and stiffly vanished. + +That night was a troubled one to the simple-minded proprietor of +the good ship Pontiac. Unable to voice his uneasiness by further +discussion, but feeling that his late discomposing interview with +his lodger demanded some marked protest, he absented himself on the +plea of business during the rest of the evening, happily to his +daughter's utter obliviousness of the reason. Lights were burning +brilliantly in counting-rooms and offices, the feverish life of the +mercantile city was at its height. With a vague idea of entering +into immediate negotiations with Mr. Sleight for the sale of the +ship--as a direct way out of his present perplexity, he bent his +steps towards the financier's office, but paused and turned back +before reaching the door. He made his way to the wharf and gazed +abstractedly at the lights reflected in the dark, tremulous, jelly- +like water. But wherever he went he was accompanied by the absurd +figure of his lodger--a figure he had hitherto laughed at or half +pitied, but which now, to his bewildered comprehension, seemed to +have a fateful significance. Here a new idea seized him, and he +hurried back to the ship, slackening his pace only when he arrived +at his own doorway. Here he paused a moment and slowly ascended +the staircase. When he reached the passage he coughed slightly and +paused again. Then he pushed open the door of the darkened cabin +and called softly:-- + +"Rosey!" + +"What is it, father?" said Rosey's voice from the little state-room +on the right--Rosey's own bower. + +"Nothing!" said Mr. Nott, with an affectation of languid calmness; +"I only wanted to know if you was comfortable. It's an awful busy +night in town." + +"Yes, father." + +"I reckon thar's tons o' gold goin' to the States tomorrow." + +"Yes, father." + +"Pretty comfortable, eh?" + +"Yes, father." + +"Well, I'll browse round a spell, and turn in myself, soon." + +"Yes father." + +Mr. Nott took down a hanging lantern, lit it, and passed out into +the gangway. Another lamp hung from the companion hatch to light +the tenants to the lower deck, whence he descended. This deck was +divided fore and aft by a partitioned passage,--the lofts or +apartments being lighted from the ports, and one or two by a door +cut through the ship's side communicating with an alley on either +side. This was the case with the loft occupied by Mr. Nott's +strange lodger, which, besides a door in the passage, had this +independent communication with the alley. Nott had never known him +to make use of the latter door; on the contrary, it was his regular +habit to issue from his apartment at three o'clock every afternoon, +dressed as he has been described, stride deliberately through the +passage to the upper deck and thence into the street, where his +strange figure was a feature of the principal promenade for two or +three hours, returning as regularly at eight o'clock to the ship +and the seclusion of his loft. Mr. Nott paused before the door, +under the pretence of throwing the light before him into the +shadows of the forecastle; all was silent within. He was turning +back when he was impressed by the regular recurrence of a peculiar +rustling sound which he had at first referred to the rubbing of the +wires of the swinging lantern against his clothing. He set down +the light and listened; the sound was evidently on the other side +of the partition; the sound of some prolonged, rustling, scraping +movement, with regular intervals. Was it due to another of Mr. +Nott's unprofitable tenants--the rats? No. A bright idea flashed +upon Mr. Nott's troubled mind. It was de Ferrieres snoring! He +smiled grimly. "Wonder if Rosey'd call him a gentleman if she +heard that," he chuckled to himself as he slowly made his way back +to the cabin and the small state-room opposite to his daughter's. +During the rest of the night he dreamed of being compelled to give +Rosey in marriage to his strange lodger, who added insult to the +outrage by snoring audibly through the marriage service. + +Meantime, in her cradle-like nest in her nautical bower, Miss Rosey +slumbered as lightly. Waking from a vivid dream of Venice--a +child's Venice--seen from the swelling deck of the proudly-riding +Pontiac, she was so impressed as to rise and cross on tiptoe to the +little slanting porthole. Morning was already dawning over the +flat, straggling city, but from every counting-house and magazine +the votive tapers of the feverish worshipers of trade and mammon +were still flaring fiercely. + + +II + + +The day following "steamer night" was usually stale and flat at San +Francisco. The reaction from the feverish exaltation of the +previous twenty-four hours was seen in the listless faces and +lounging feet of promenaders, and was notable in the deserted +offices and warehouses still redolent of last night's gas, and +strewn with the dead ashes of last night's fires. + +There was a brief pause before the busy life which ran its course +from "steamer day" to steamer day was once more taken up. In that +interval a few anxious speculators and investors breathed freely, +some critical situation was relieved, or some impending catastrophe +momentarily averted. In particular, a singular stroke of good +fortune that morning befell Mr. Nott. He not only secured a new +tenant, but, as he sagaciously believed, introduced into the +Pontiac a counteracting influence to the subtle fascinations of de +Ferrieres. + +The new tenant apparently possessed a combination of business +shrewdness and brusque frankness that strongly impressed his +landlord. "You see, Rosey," said Nott, complacently describing the +interview to his daughter, "when I sorter intimated in a keerless +kind o' way that sugar kettles and hair dye was about played out ez +securities, he just planked down the money for two months in +advance. 'There,' sez he, 'that's YOUR SECURITY--now where's +MINE?' 'I reckon I don't hitch on, pardner,' sez I; 'security what +for?' ''Spose you sell the ship?' sez he, 'afore the two months is +up. I've heard that old Sleight wants to buy her.' 'Then you gets +back your money,' sez I. 'And lose my room,' sez he; 'not much, +old man. You sign a paper that whoever buys the ship inside o' two +months hez to buy ME ez a tenant with it; that's on the square.' +So I sign the paper. It was mighty cute in the young feller, +wasn't it?" he said, scanning his daughter's pretty puzzled face a +little anxiously; "and don't you see ez I ain't goin' to sell the +Pontiac, it's just about ez cute in me, eh? He's a contractor +somewhere around yer, and wants to be near his work. So he takes +the room next to the Frenchman, that that ship captain quit for the +mines, and succeeds naterally to his chest and things. He's might +peart-lookin, that young feller, Rosey--long black moustaches, all +his own color, Rosey--and he's a regular high-stepper, you bet. I +reckon he's not only been a gentleman, but ez NOW. Some o' them +contractors are very high-toned!" + +"I don't think we have any right to give him the captain's chest, +father," said Rosey; "there may be some private things in it. +There were some letters and photographs in the hair-dye man's trunk +that you gave the photographer." + +"That's just it, Rosey," returned Abner Nott with sublime +unconsciousness, "photographs and love letters you can't sell for +cash, and I don't mind givin' 'em away, if they kin make a feller +creature happy." + +"But, father, have we the RIGHT to give 'em away?" + +"They're collateral security, Rosey," said her father grimly. "Co- +la-te-ral," he continued, emphasizing each syllable by tapping the +fist of one hand in the open palm of the other. "Co-la-te-ral is +the word the big business sharps yer about call 'em. You can't get +round that." He paused a moment, and then, as a new idea seemed to +be painfully borne in his round eyes, continued cautiously: "Was +that the reason why you woudn't touch any of them dresses from the +trunks of that opery gal ez skedaddled for Sacramento? And yet +them trunks I regularly bought at auction--Rosey--at auction, on +spec--and they didn't realize the cost of drayage." + +A slight color mounted to Rosey's face. "No," she said, hastily, +"not that." Hesitating a moment she then drew softly to his side, +and, placing her arms around his neck, turned his broad, foolish +face towards her own. "Father," she began, "when mother died, +would YOU have liked anybody to take her trunks and paw around her +things and wear them?" + +"When your mother died, just this side o' Sweetwater, Rosey," said +Mr. Nott, with beaming unconsciousness, "she hadn't any trunks. I +reckon she hadn't even an extra gown hanging up in the wagin, 'cept +the petticoat ez she had wrapped around yer. It was about ez much +ez we could do to skirmish round with Injins, alkali, and cold, and +we sorter forgot to dress for dinner. She never thought, Rosey, +that you and me would live to be inhabitin' a paliss of a real +ship. Ef she had she would have died a proud woman." + +He turned his small, loving, boar-like eyes upon her as a +preternaturally innocent and trusting companion of Ulysses might +have regarded the transforming Circe. Rosey turned away with the +faintest sigh. The habitual look of abstraction returned to her +eyes as if she had once more taken refuge in her own ideal world. +Unfortunately the change did not escape either the sensitive +observation or the fatuous misconception of the sagacious parent. +"Ye'll be mountin' a few furbelows and fixins, Rosey, I reckon, ez +only natural. Mabbee ye'll have to prink up a little now that +we've got a gentleman contractor in the ship. I'll see what I kin +pick up in Montgomery Street." And indeed he succeeded a few hours +later in accomplishing with equal infelicity his generous design. +When she returned from her household tasks she found on her berth a +purple velvet bonnet of extraordinary make, and a pair of white +satin slippers. "They'll do for a start off, Rosey," he explained, +"and I got 'em at my figgers." + +"But I go out so seldom, father, and a bonnet--" + +"That's so," interrupted Mr. Nott, complacently, "it might be jest +ez well for a young gal like yer to appear ez if she DID go out, or +would go out if she wanted to. So you kin be wearin' that ar +headstall kinder like this evening when the contractor's here, ez +if you'd jest come in from a pasear." + +Miss Rosey did not however immediately avail herself of her +father's purchase, but contented herself with the usual scarlet +ribbon that like a snood confined her brown hair, when she returned +to her tasks. The space between the galley and the bulwarks had +been her favorite resort in summer when not actually engaged in +household work. It was now lightly roofed over with boards and +tarpaulin against the winter rain, but still afforded her a +veranda-like space before the gallery door, where she could read or +sew, looking over the bow of the Pontiac to the tossing bay or the +further range of the Contra Costa hills. + +Hither Miss Rosey brought the purple prodigy, partly to please her +father, partly with a view of subjecting it to violent radical +changes. But after trying it on before the tiny mirror in the +galley once or twice, her thoughts wandered away, and she fell into +one of her habitual reveries seated on a little stool before the +galley door. + +She was roused from it by the slight shaking and rattling of the +doors of a small hatch on the deck, not a dozen yards from where +she sat. It had been evidently fastened from below during the wet +weather, but as she gazed, the fastenings were removed, the doors +were suddenly lifted, and the head and shoulders of a young man +emerged from the deck. Partly from her father's description, and +partly from the impossibility of its being anybody else, she at +once conceived it to be the new lodger. She had time to note that +he was young and good-looking, graver perhaps than became his +sudden pantomimic appearance, but before she could observe him +closely, he had turned, closed the hatch with a certain familiar +dexterity, and walked slowly towards the bows. Even in her slight +bewilderment, she observed that his step upon the deck seemed +different to her father's or the photographer's, and that he laid +his hand on various objects with a half-caressing ease and habit. +Presently he paused and turned back, and glancing at the galley +door for the first time encountered her wondering eyes. + +It seemed so evident that she had been a curious spectator of his +abrupt entrance on deck that he was at first disconcerted and +confused. But after a second glance at her he appeared to resume +his composure, and advanced a little defiantly towards the galley. + +"I suppose I frightened you, popping up the fore hatch just now?" + +"The what?" asked Rosey. + +"The fore hatch," he repeated impatiently, indicating it with a +gesture. + +"And that's the fore hatch?" she said abstractedly. "You seem to +know ships." + +"Yes--a little," he said quietly. "I was below, and unfastened the +hatch to come up the quickest way and take a look round. I've just +hired a room here," he added explanatorily. + +"I thought so," said Rosey simply; "you're the contractor?" + +"The contractor!--oh, yes! You seem to know it all." + +"Father's told me." + +"Oh, he's your father--Nott? Certainly. I see now," he continued, +looking at her with a half repressed smile. "Certainly, Miss Nott, +good morning," he half added and walked towards the companion way. +Something in the direction of his eyes as he turned away made Rosey +lift her hands to her head. She had forgotten to remove her +father's baleful gift. + +She snatched it off and ran quickly to the companion way. + +"Sir!" she called. + +The young man turned half way down the steps and looked up. There +was a faint color in her cheeks, and her pretty brown hair was +slightly disheveled from the hasty removal of the bonnet. + +"Father's very particular about strangers being on this deck," she +said a little sharply. + +"Oh--ah--I'm sorry I intruded." + +"I--I--thought I'd tell you," said Rosey, frightened by her +boldness into a feeble anti-climax. + +"Thank you." + +She came back slowly to the galley and picked up the unfortunate +bonnet with a slight sense of remorse. Why should she feel angry +with her poor father's unhappy offering? And what business had +this strange young man to use the ship so familiarly? Yet she was +vaguely conscious that she and her father, with all their love and +their domestic experience of it, lacked a certain instinctive ease +in its possession that the half indifferent stranger had shown on +first treading its deck. She walked to the hatchway and examined +it with a new interest. Succeeding in lifting the hatch, she gazed +at the lower deck. As she already knew the ladder had long since +been removed to make room for one of the partitions, the only way +the stranger could have reached it was by leaping to one of the +rings. To make sure of this she let herself down holding on to the +rings, and dropped a couple of feet to the deck below. She was in +the narrow passage her father had penetrated the previous night. +Before her was the door leading to de Ferrieres's loft, always +locked. It was silent within; it was the hour when the old +Frenchman made his habitual promenade in the city. But the light +from the newly-opened hatch allowed her to see more of the +mysterious recesses of the forward bulkhead than she had known +before, and she was startled by observing another yawning hatch-way +at her feet from which the closely-fitting door had been lifted, +and which the new lodger had evidently forgotten to close again. +The young girl stooped down and peered cautiously into the black +abyss. Nothing was to be seen, nothing heard but the distant +gurgle and click of water in some remoter depth. She replaced the +hatch and returned by way of the passage to the cabin. + +When her father came home that night she briefly recounted the +interview with the new lodger, and her discovery of his curiosity. +She did this with a possible increase of her usual shyness and +abstraction, and apparently more as a duty than a colloquial +recreation. But it pleased Mr. Nott also to give it more than his +usual misconception. "Looking round the ship, was he--eh, Rosey?" +he said with infinite archness. "In course, kinder sweepin' round +the galley, and offerin' to fetch you wood and water, eh?" Even +when the young girl had picked up her book with the usual faint +smile of affectionate tolerance, and then drifted away in its +pages, Mr. Nott chuckled audibly. "I reckon old Frenchy didn't +come by when the young one was bedevlin' you there." + +"What, father?" said Rosey, lifting her abstracted eyes to his +face. + +At the moment it seemed impossible that any human intelligence +could have suspected deceit or duplicity in Rosey's clear gaze. +But Mr. Nott's intelligence was superhuman. "I was sayin' that Mr. +Ferrieres didn't happen in while the young feller was there--eh?" + +"No, father," answered Rosey, with an effort to follow him out of +the pages of her book. "Why?" + +But Mr. Nott did not reply. Later in the evening he awkwardly +waylaid the new lodger before the cabin door as that gentleman +would have passed on to his room. + +"I'm afraid," said the young man, glancing at Rosey, "that I +intruded upon your daughter to-day. I was a little curious to see +the old ship, and I didn't know what part of it was private." + +"There ain't no private part to this yer ship--that ez, 'cepting +the rooms and lofts," said Mr. Nott, authoritatively. Then, +subjecting the anxious look of his daughter to his usual faculty +for misconception, he added, "Thar ain't no place whar you haven't +as much right to go ez any other man; thar ain't any man, furriner +or Amerykan, young or old, dyed or undyed, ez hev got any better +rights. You hear me, young fellow. Mr. Renshaw--my darter. My +darter--Mr. Renshaw. Rosey, give the gentleman a chair. She's only +jest come in from a promeynade, and hez jest taken off her bonnet," +he added, with an arch look at Rosey, and a hurried look around the +cabin, as if he hoped to see the missing gift visible to the +general eye. "So take a seat a minit, won't ye?" + +But Mr. Renshaw, after an observant glance at the young girl's +abstracted face, brusquely excused himself, "I've got a letter to +write," he said, with a half bow to Rosey. "Good night." + +He crossed the passage to the room that had been assigned to him, +and closing the door gave way to some irritability of temper in his +efforts to light the lamp and adjust his writing materials. For +his excuse to Mr. Nott was more truthful than most polite pretexts. +He had, indeed, a letter to write, and one that, being yet young in +duplicity, the near presence of his host rendered difficult. For +it ran as follows:-- + + +"DEAR SLEIGHT, + +"As I found I couldn't get a chance to make any examination of the +ship except as occasion offered, I just went in to rent lodgings in +her from the God-forsaken old ass who owns her, and here I am a +tenant for two months. I contracted for that time in case the old +fool should sell out to some one else before. Except that she's +cut up a little between decks by the partitions for lofts that that +Pike County idiot has put into her, she looks but little changed, +and her FORE-HOLD, as far as I can judge, is intact. It seems that +Nott bought her just as she stands, with her cargo half out, but he +wasn't here when she broke cargo. If anybody else had bought her +but this cursed Missourian, who hasn't got the hayseed out of his +hair, I might have found out something from him, and saved myself +this kind of fooling, which isn't in my line. If I could get +possession of a loft on the main deck, well forward, just over the +fore-hold, I could satisfy myself in a few hours, but the loft is +rented by that crazy Frenchman who parades Montgomery Street every +afternoon, and though old Pike County wants to turn him out, I'm +afraid I can't get it for a week to come. + +"If anything should happen to me, just you waltz down here and +corral my things at once, for this old frontier pirate has a way of +confiscating his lodgers' trunks. + +"Yours, + +DICK." + + +III + + +If Mr. Renshaw indulged in any further curiosity regarding the +interior of the Pontiac, he did not make his active researches +manifest to Rosey. Nor, in spite of her father's invitation, did +he again approach the galley--a fact which gave her her first vague +impression in his favor. He seemed also to avoid the various +advances which Mr. Nott appeared impelled to make, whenever they +met in the passage, but did so without seemingly avoiding HER, and +marked his half contemptuous indifference to the elder Nott by an +increase of respect to the young girl. She would have liked to ask +him something about ships, and was sure his conversation would have +been more interesting than that of old Captain Bower, to whose +cabin he had succeeded, who had once told her a ship was the +"devil's hen-coop." She would have liked also to explain to him +that she was not in the habit of wearing a purple bonnet. But her +thoughts were presently engrossed by an experience which +interrupted the even tenor of her young life. + +She had been, as she afterwards remembered, impressed with a +nervous restlessness one afternoon, which made it impossible for +her to perform her ordinary household duties, or even to indulge +her favorite recreation of reading or castle building. She +wandered over the ship, and, impelled by the same vague feeling of +unrest, descended to the lower deck and the forward bulkhead where +she had discovered the open hatch. It had not been again +disturbed, nor was there any trace of further exploration. A +little ashamed, she knew not why, of revisiting the scene of Mr. +Renshaw's researches, she was turning back when she noticed that +the door which communicated with de Ferrieres's loft was partly +open. The circumstance was so unusual that she stopped before it +in surprise. There was no sound from within; it was the hour when +its queer occupant was always absent; he must have forgotten to +lock the door or it had been unfastened by other hands. After a +moment of hesitation she pushed it further open and stepped into +the room. + +By the dim light of two port-holes she could see that the floor was +strewn and piled with the contents of a broken bale of curled horse +hair, of which a few untouched bales still remained against the +wall. A heap of morocco skins, some already cut in the form of +chair cushion covers, and a few cushions unfinished and unstuffed +lay in the light of the ports, and gave the apartment the +appearance of a cheap workshop. A rude instrument for combing the +horse hair, awls, buttons, and thread heaped on a small bench +showed that active work had been but recently interrupted. A cheap +earthenware ewer and basin on the floor, and a pallet made of an +open bale of horse hair, on which a ragged quilt and blanket were +flung, indicated that the solitary worker dwelt and slept beside +his work. + +The truth flashed upon the young girl's active brain, quickened by +seclusion and fed by solitary books. She read with keen eyes the +miserable secret of her father's strange guest in the poverty- +stricken walls, in the mute evidences of menial handicraft +performed in loneliness and privation, in this piteous adaptation +of an accident to save the conscious shame of premeditated toil. +She knew now why he had stammeringly refused to receive her +father's offer to buy back the goods he had given him; she knew now +how hardly gained was the pittance that paid his rent and supported +his childish vanity and grotesque pride. From a peg in the corner +hung the familiar masquerade that hid his poverty--the pearl-gray +trousers, the black frock coat, the tall shining hat--in hideous +contrast to the penury of his surroundings. But if THEY were here, +where was HE, and in what new disguise had he escaped from his +poverty? A vague uneasiness caused her to hesitate and return to +the open door. She had nearly reached it when her eye fell on the +pallet which it partly illuminated. A singular resemblance in the +ragged heap made her draw closer. The faded quilt was a dressing- +gown, and clutching its folds lay a white, wasted hand. + +The emigrant childhood of Rose Nott had been more than once +shadowed by scalping knives, and she was acquainted with Death. +She went fearlessly to the couch, and found that the dressing-gown +was only an enwrapping of the emaciated and lifeless body of de +Ferrieres. She did not retreat or call for help, but examined him +closely. He was unconscious, but not pulseless; he had evidently +been strong enough to open the door for air or succor, but had +afterward fallen in a fit on the couch. She flew to her father's +locker and the galley fire, returned, and shut the door behind her, +and by the skillful use of hot water and whisky soon had the +satisfaction of seeing a faint color take the place of the faded +rouge in the ghastly cheeks. She was still chafing his hands when +he slowly opened his eyes. With a start, he made a quick attempt +to push aside her hands and rise. But she gently restrained him. + +"Eh--what!" he stammered, throwing his face back from hers with an +effort and trying to turn it to the wall. + +"You have been ill," she said quietly. "Drink this." + +With his face still turned away he lifted the cup to his chattering +teeth. When he had drained it he threw a trembling glance around +the room and at the door. + +"There's no one been here but myself," she said quickly. "I +happened to see the door open as I passed. I didn't think it worth +while to call any one." + +The searching look he gave her turned into an expression of relief, +which, to her infinite uneasiness, again feebly lightened into one +of antiquated gallantry. He drew the dressing-gown around him with +an air. + +"Ah! it is a goddess, Mademoiselle, that has deigned to enter the +cell where--where--I--amuse myself. It is droll--is it not? I +came here to make--what you call--the experiment of your father's +fabric. I make myself--ha! ha!--like a workman. Ah, bah! the +heat, the darkness, the plebeian motion make my head to go round. +I stagger, I faint, I cry out, I fall. But what of that? The +great God hears my cry and sends me an angel. Voila!" + +He attempted an easy gesture of gallantry, but overbalanced himself +and fell sideways on the pallet with a gasp. Yet there was so much +genuine feeling mixed with his grotesque affectation, so much +piteous consciousness of the ineffectiveness of his falsehood, that +the young girl, who had turned away, came back and laid her hand +upon his arm. + +"You must lie still and try to sleep," she said gently. "I will +return again. Perhaps," she added, "there is some one I can send +for?" + +He shook his head violently. Then in his old manner added, "After +Mademoiselle--no one." + +"I mean--" she hesitated--"have you no friends?" + +"Friends,--ah! without doubt." He shrugged his shoulders. "But +Mademoiselle will comprehend--" + +"You are better now," said Rosey quickly, "and no one need know +anything if you don't wish it. Try to sleep. You need not lock +the door when I go; I will see that no one comes in." + +He flushed faintly and averted his eyes. "It is too droll, +Mademoiselle, is it not?" + +"Of course it is," said Rosey, glancing round the miserable room. + +"And Mademoiselle is an angel." + +He carried her hand to his lips humbly--his first purely unaffected +action. She slipped through the door, and softly closed it behind +her. + +Reaching the upper deck she was relieved to find her father had not +returned, and her absence had been unnoticed. For she had resolved +to keep de Ferrieres's secret to herself from the moment that she +had unwittingly discovered it, and to do this and still be able to +watch over him without her father's knowledge required some +caution. She was conscious of his strange aversion to the +unfortunate man without understanding the reason, but as she was in +the habit of entertaining his caprices more from affectionate +tolerance of his weakness than reverence of his judgment, she saw +no disloyalty to him in withholding a confidence that might be +disloyal to another. "It won't do father any good to know it," she +said to herself, "and if it DID it oughtn't to," she added with +triumphant feminine logic. But the impression made upon her by the +spectacle she had just witnessed was stronger than any other +consideration. The revelation of de Ferrieres's secret poverty +seemed a chapter from a romance of her own weaving; for a moment it +lifted the miserable hero out of the depths of his folly and +selfishness. She forgot the weakness of the man in the strength of +his dramatic surroundings. It partly satisfied a craving she had +felt; it was not exactly the story of the ship, as she had dreamed +it, but it was an episode in her experience of it that broke its +monotony. That she should soon learn, perhaps from de Ferrieres's +own lips, the true reason of his strange seclusion, and that it +involved more than appeared to her now, she never for a moment +doubted. + +At the end of an hour she again knocked softly at the door, +carrying some light nourishment she had prepared for him. He was +asleep, but she was astounded to find that in the interval he had +managed to dress himself completely in his antiquated finery. It +was a momentary shock to the illusion she had been fostering, but +she forgot it in the pitiable contrast between his haggard face and +his pomatumed hair and beard, the jauntiness of his attire, and the +collapse of his invalid figure. When she had satisfied herself +that his sleep was natural, she busied herself softly in arranging +the miserable apartment. With a few feminine touches she removed +the slovenliness of misery, and placed the loose material and +ostentatious evidences of his work on one side. Finding that he +still slept, and knowing the importance of this natural medication, +she placed the refreshment she had brought by his side and +noiselessly quitted the apartment. Hurrying through the gathering +darkness between decks, she once or twice thought she had heard +footsteps, and paused, but encountering no one, attributed the +impression to her over-consciousness. Yet she thought it prudent +to go to the galley first, where she lingered a few moments before +returning to the cabin. On entering she was a little startled at +observing a figure seated at her father's desk, but was relieved at +finding it was Mr. Renshaw. + +He rose and put aside the book he had idly picked up. "I am afraid +I am an intentional intruder this time, Miss Nott. But I found no +one here, and I was tempted to look into this ship-shape little +snuggery. You see the temptation got the better of me." + +His voice and smile were so frank and pleasant, so free from his +previous restraint, yet still respectful, so youthful yet manly, +that Rosey was affected by them even in her preoccupation. Her +eyes brightened and then dropped before his admiring glance. Had +she known that the excitement of the last few hours had brought a +wonderful charm into her pretty face, had aroused the slumbering +life of her half-awakened beauty, she would have been more +confused. As it was, she was only glad that the young man should +turn out to be "nice." Perhaps he might tell her something about +ships; perhaps if she had only known him longer she might, with de +Ferrieres's permission, have shared her confidence with him, and +enlisted his sympathy and assistance. She contented herself with +showing this anticipatory gratitude in her face as she begged him, +with the timidity of a maiden hostess, to resume his seat. + +But Mr. Renshaw seemed to talk only to make her talk, and I am +forced to admit that Rosey found this almost as pleasant. It was +not long before he was in possession of her simple history from the +day of her baby emigration to California to the transfer of her +childish life to the old ship, and even of much of the romantic +fancies she had woven into her existence there. Whatever ulterior +purpose he had in view, he listened as attentively as if her +artless chronicle was filled with practical information. Once, +when she had paused for breath, he said gravely, "I must ask you to +show me over this wonderful ship some day that I may see it with +your eyes." + +"But I think you know it already better than I do," said Rosey with +a smile. + +Mr. Renshaw's brow clouded slightly. "Ah," he said, with a touch +of his former restraint; "and why?" + +"Well," said Rosey timidly, "I thought you went round and touched +things in a familiar way as if you had handled them before." + +The young man raised his eyes to Rosey's and kept them there long +enough to bring back his gentler expression. "Then, because I +found you trying on a very queer bonnet the first day I saw you," +he said, mischievously, "I ought to believe you were in the habit +of wearing one." + +In the first flush of mutual admiration young people are apt to +find a laugh quite as significant as a sigh for an expression of +sympathetic communion, and this master-stroke of wit convulsed them +both. In the midst of it Mr. Nott entered the cabin. But the +complacency with which he viewed the evident perfect understanding +of the pair was destined to suffer some abatement. Rosey, suddenly +conscious that she was in some way participating in ridicule of her +father through his unhappy gift, became embarrassed. Mr. Renshaw's +restraint returned with the presence of the old man. In vain, at +first, Abner Nott strove with profound levity to indicate his arch +comprehension of the situation, and in vain, later, becoming +alarmed, he endeavored, with cheerful gravity, to indicate his +utter obliviousness of any but a business significance in their +tete-a-tete. + +"I oughtn't to hev intruded, Rosey," he said, "when you and the +gentleman were talkin' of contracts, mebbee; but don't mind me. +I'm on the fly, anyhow, Rosey dear, hevin' to see a man round the +corner." + +But even the attitude of withdrawing did not prevent the exit of +Renshaw to his apartment and of Rosey to the galley. Left alone in +the cabin, Abner Nott felt in the knots and tangles of his beard +for a reason. Glancing down at his prodigious boots which, covered +with mud and gravel, strongly emphasized his agricultural origin, +and gave him a general appearance of standing on his own broad +acres, he was struck with an idea. "It's them boots," he whispered +to himself, softly; "they somehow don't seem 'xactly to trump or +follow suit in this yer cabin; they don't hitch into anythin', but +jist slosh round loose, and, so to speak, play it alone. And them +young critters nat'rally feels it and gets out o' the way." Acting +upon this instinct with his usual precipitate caution, he at once +proceeded to the nearest second-hand shop, and, purchasing a pair +of enormous carpet slippers, originally the property of a gouty +sea-captain, reappeared with a strong suggestion of newly +upholstering the cabin. The improvement, however, was fraught with +a portentous circumstance. Mr. Nott's footsteps, which usually +announced his approach all over the ship, became stealthy and +inaudible. + +Meantime Miss Rosey had taken advantage of the absence of her +father to visit her patient. To avoid attracting attention she did +not take a light, but groped her way to the lower deck and rapped +softly at the door. It was instantly opened by de Ferrieres. He +had apparently appreciated the few changes she had already made in +the room, and had himself cleared away the pallet from which he had +risen to make two low seats against the wall. Two bits of candle +placed on the floor illuminated the beams above, the dressing-gown +was artistically draped over the solitary chair, and a pile of +cushions formed another seat. With elaborate courtesy he handed +Miss Rosey to the chair. He looked pale and weak, though the +gravity of the attack had evidently passed. Yet he persisted in +remaining standing. "If I sit," he explained with a gesture, "I +shall again disgrace myself by sleeping in Mademoiselle's presence. +Yes! I shall sleep--I shall dream--and wake to find her gone?" + +More embarrassed by his recovery than when he was lying helplessly +before her, she said hesitatingly that she was glad he was better, +and that she hoped he liked the broth. + +"It was manna from heaven, Mademoiselle. See, I have taken it all-- +every precious drop. What else could I have done for +Mademoiselle's kindness?" + +He showed her the empty bowl. A swift conviction came upon her +that the man had been suffering from want of food. The thought +restored her self-possession even while it brought the tears to her +eyes. "I wish you would let me speak to father--or some one," she +said impulsively, and stopped. + +A quick and half insane gleam of terror and suspicion lit up his +deep eyes. "For what, Mademoiselle! For an accident--that is +nothing--absolutely nothing, for I am strong and well now--see!" he +said tremblingly. "Or for a whim--for a folly you may say, that +they will misunderstand. No, Mademoiselle is good, is wise. She +will say to herself, 'I understand, my friend Monsieur de Ferrieres +for the moment has a secret. He would seem poor, he would take the +role of artisan, he would shut himself up in these walls--perhaps I +may guess why, but it is his secret. I think of it no more.'" He +caught her hand in his with a gesture that he would have made one +of gallantry, but that in its tremulous intensity became a piteous +supplication. + +"I have said nothing, and will say nothing, if you wish it," said +Rosey hastily; "but others may find out how you live here. This is +not fit work for you. You seem to be a--a gentleman. You ought to +be a lawyer, or a doctor, or in a bank," she continued timidly, +with a vague enumeration of the prevailing degrees of local +gentility. + +He dropped her hand. "Ah! does not Mademoiselle comprehend that it +is BECAUSE I am a gentleman that there is nothing between it and +this? Look!" he continued almost fiercely. "What if I told you it +is the lawyer, it is the doctor, it is the banker that brings me, a +gentleman, to this, eh? Ah, bah! What do I say? This is honest, +what I do! But the lawyer, the banker, the doctor, what are they?" +He shrugged his shoulders, and pacing the apartment with a furtive +glance at the half anxious, half frightened girl, suddenly stopped, +dragged a small portmanteau from behind the heap of bales and +opened it. "Look, Mademoiselle," he said, tremulously lifting a +handful of worn and soiled letters and papers. "Look--these are +the tools of your banker, your lawyer, your doctor. With this the +banker will make you poor, the lawyer will prove you a thief, the +doctor will swear you are crazy, eh? What shall you call the work +of a gentleman--this"--he dragged the pile of cushions forward--"or +this?" + +To the young girl's observant eyes some of the papers appeared to +be of a legal or official character, and others like bills of +lading, with which she was familiar. Their half-theatrical +exhibition reminded her of some play she had seen; they might be +the clue to some story, or the mere worthless hoardings of a +diseased fancy. Whatever they were, de Ferrieres did not +apparently care to explain further; indeed, the next moment his +manner changed to his old absurd extravagance. "But this is stupid +for Mademoiselle to hear. What shall we speak of? Ah, what SHOULD +we speak of in Mademoiselle's presence?" + +"But are not these papers valuable?" asked Rosey, partly to draw +her host's thoughts back to their former channel. + +"Perhaps." He paused and regarded the young girl fixedly. "Does +Mademoiselle think so?" + +"I don't know," said Rosey. "How should I?" + +"Ah! if Mademoiselle thought so--if Mademoiselle would deign--" He +stopped again and placed his hand upon his forehead. "It might be +so!" he muttered. + +"I must go now," said Rosey, hurriedly, rising with an awkward +sense of constraint. "Father will wonder where I am." + +"I shall explain. I will accompany you, Mademoiselle." + +"No, no," said Rosey, quickly; "he must not know I have been here!" +She stopped. The honest blush flew to her cheek, and then returned +again, because she had blushed. + +De Ferrieres gazed at her with an exalted look. Then drawing +himself to his full height, he said, with an exaggerated and +indescribable gesture, "Go, my child, go. Tell your father that +you have been alone and unprotected in the abode of poverty and +suffering, but--that it was in the presence of Armand de +Ferrieres." + +He threw open the door with a bow that nearly swept the ground, but +did not again offer to take her hand. At once impressed and +embarrassed at this crowning incongruity, her pretty lip trembled +between a smile and a cry as she said, "Good-night," and slipped +away into the darkness. + +Erect and grotesque de Ferrieres retained the same attitude until +the sound of her footsteps was lost, when he slowly began to close +the door. But a strong arm arrested it from without, and a large +carpeted foot appeared at the bottom of the narrowing opening. The +door yielded, and Mr. Abner Nott entered the room. + + +IV + + +With an exclamation and a hurried glance around him, de Ferrieres +threw himself before the intruder. But slowly lifting his large +hand, and placing it on his lodger's breast, he quietly overbore +the sick man's feeble resistance with an impact of power that +seemed almost as moral as it was physical. He did not appear to +take any notice of the room or its miserable surroundings; indeed, +scarcely of the occupant. Still pushing him, with abstracted eyes +and immobile face, to the chair that Rosey had just quitted, he +made him sit down, and then took up his own position on the pile of +cushions opposite. His usually underdone complexion was of watery +blueness; but his dull, abstracted glance appeared to exercise a +certain dumb, narcotic fascination on his lodger. + +"I mout," said Nott, slowly, "hev laid ye out here on sight, +without enny warnin', or dropped ye in yer tracks in Montgomery +Street, wherever ther was room to work a six-shooter in comf'ably? +Johnson, of Petaluny--him, ye know, ez had a game eye--fetched +Flynn comin' outer meetin' one Sunday, and it was only on account +of his wife, and she a second-hand one, so to speak. There was +Walker, of Contra Costa, plugged that young Sacramento chap, whose +name I disremember, full o' holes just ez HE was sayin' 'Good by' +to his darter. I mout hev done all this if it had settled things +to please me. For while you and Flynn and that Sacramento chap ez +all about the same sort o' men, Rosey's a different kind from their +sort o' women." + +"Mademoiselle is an angel!" said de Ferrieres, suddenly rising, +with an excess of extravagance. "A saint! Look! I cram the lie, +ha! down his throat who challenges it." + +"Ef by mam'selle ye mean my Rosey," said Nott, quietly laying his +powerful hands on de Ferrieres's shoulders, and slowly pinning him +down again upon his chair, "ye're about right, though she ain't +mam'selle yet. Ez I was sayin', I might hev killed you off-hand if +I hed thought it would hev been a good thing for Rosey." + +"For her? Ah, well! Look, I am ready," interrupted de Ferrieres, +again springing to his feet, and throwing open his coat with both +hands. "See! here at my heart--fire!" + +"Ez I was sayin'," continued Nott, once more pressing the excited +man down in his chair, "I might hev wiped ye out--and mebbee ye +wouldn't hev keered--or YOU might hev wiped ME out, and I mout hev +said, 'Thank'ee,' but I reckon this ain't a case for what's +comf'able for you and me. It's what's good for ROSEY. And the +thing to kalkilate is, what's to be done." + +His small round eyes for the first time rested on de Ferrieres's +face, and were quickly withdrawn. It was evident that this +abstracted look, which had fascinated his lodger, was merely a +resolute avoidance of de Ferrieres's glance, and it became apparent +later that this avoidance was due to a ludicrous appreciation of de +Ferrieres's attractions. + +"And after we've done THAT we must kalkilate what Rosey is, and +what Rosey wants. P'raps, ye allow, YOU know what Rosey is? +P'raps you've seen her prance round in velvet bonnets and white +satin slippers, and sich. P'raps you've seen her readin' tracks +and v'yages, without waitin' to spell a word, or catch her breath. +But that ain't the Rosey ez I know. It's a little child ez uster +crawl in and out the tail-board of a Mizzouri wagon on the alcali +pizoned plains, where there wasn't another bit of God's mercy on +yearth to be seen for miles and miles. It's a little gal as uster +hunger and thirst ez quiet and mannerly ez she now eats and drinks +in plenty; whose voice was ez steady with Injins yelling round her +nest in the leaves on Sweetwater ez in her purty cabin up yonder. +THAT'S the gal ez I know! That's the Rosey ez my ole woman puts +into my arms one night arter we left Laramie when the fever was +high, and sez, 'Abner,' sez she, 'the chariot is swingin' low for +me to-night, but thar ain't room in it for her or you to git in or +hitch on. Take her and rare her, so we kin all jine on the other +shore,' sez she. And I'd knowed the other shore wasn't no +Kaliforny. And that night, p'raps, the chariot swung lower than +ever before, and my ole woman stepped into it, and left me and +Rosey to creep on in the old wagon alone. It's them kind o' +things," added Mr. Nott thoughtfully, "that seem to pint to my +killin' you on sight ez the best thing to be done. And yet Rosey +mightn't like it." + +He had slipped one of his feet out of his huge carpet slippers, +and, as he reached down to put it on again, he added calmly: "And +ez to yer marrying HER it ain't to be done." + +The utterly bewildered expression which transfigured de Ferrieres's +face at this announcement was unobserved by Nott's averted eyes, +nor did he perceive that his listener the next moment straightened +his erect figure and adjusted his cravat. + +"Ef Rosey," he continued, "hez read in vy'ges and tracks in +Eyetalian and French countries of such chaps ez you and kalkilates +you're the right kind to tie to, mebbee it mout hev done if you'd +been livin' over thar in a pallis, but somehow it don't jibe in +over here and agree with a ship--and that ship lying comf'able +ashore in San Francisco. You don't seem to suit the climate, you +see, and your general gait is likely to stampede the other cattle. +Agin," said Nott, with an ostentation of looking at his companion +but really gazing on vacancy, "this fixed up, antique style of +yours goes better with them ivy kivered ruins in Rome and Palmyry +that Rosey's mixed you up with, than it would yere. I ain't +saying," he added as de Ferrieres was about to speak, "I ain't +sayin' ez that child ain't smitten with ye. It ain't no use to lie +and say she don't prefer you to her old father, or young chaps of +her own age and kind. I've seed it afor now. I suspicioned it +afor I seed her slip out o' this place to-night. Thar! keep your +hair on, such ez it is!" he added as de Ferrieres attempted a quick +deprecatory gesture. "I ain't askin yer how often she comes here, +nor what she sez to you nor you to her. I ain't asked her and I +don't ask you. I'll allow ez you've settled all the preliminaries +and bought her the ring and sich; I'm only askin' you now, +kalkilatin you've got all the keerds in your own hand, what you'll +take to step out and leave the board?" + +The dazed look of de Ferrieres might have forced itself even upon +Nott's one-idead fatuity, had it not been a part of that +gentleman's system delicately to look another way at that moment so +as not to embarrass his adversary's calculation. "Pardon," +stammered de Ferrieres, "but I do not comprehend!" He raised his +hand to his head. "I am not well--I am stupid. Ah, mon Dieu!" + +"I ain't sayin'," added Nott more gently, "ez you don't feel bad. +It's nat'ral. But it ain't business. I'm asking you," he +continued, taking from his breast-pocket a large wallet, "how much +you'll take in cash now, and the rest next steamer day, to give up +Rosey and leave the ship." + +De Ferrieres staggered to his feet despite Nott's restraining hand. +"To leave Mademoiselle and leave the ship?" he said huskily, "is it +not?" + +"In course. Yer can leave things yer just ez you found 'em when +you came, you know," continued Nott, for the first time looking +around the miserable apartment. "It's a business job. I'll take +the bales back ag'in, and you kin reckon up what you're out, +countin' Rosey and loss o' time." + +"He wishes me to go--he has said," repeated de Ferrieres to himself +thickly. + +"Ef you mean ME when you say HIM, and ez thar ain't any other man +around, I reckon you do--'yes!'" + +"And he asks me--he--this man of the feet and the daughter--asks +me--de Ferrieres--what I will take," continued de Ferrieres, +buttoning his coat. "No! it is a dream!" He walked stiffly to the +corner where his portmanteau lay, lifted it, and going to the outer +door, a cut through the ship's side that communicated with the +alley, unlocked it and flung it open to the night. A thick mist +like the breath of the ocean flowed into the room. + +"You ask me what I shall take to go," he said as he stood on the +threshold. "I shall take what YOU cannot give, Monsieur, but what +I would not keep if I stood here another moment. I take my Honor, +Monsieur, and--I take my leave!" + +For a moment his grotesque figure was outlined in the opening, and +then disappeared as if he had dropped into an invisible ocean +below. Stupefied and disconcerted at this complete success of his +overtures, Abner Nott remained speechless, gazing at the vacant +space until a cold influx of the mist recalled him. Then he rose +and shuffled quickly to the door. + +"Hi! Ferrers! Look yer--Say! Wot's your hurry, pardner?" + +But there was no response. The thick mist, which hid the +surrounding objects, seemed to deaden all sound also. After a +moment's pause he closed the door, but did not lock it, and +retreating to the centre of the room remained blinking at the two +candles and plucking some perplexing problem from his beard. +Suddenly an idea seized him. Rosey! Where was she? Perhaps it +had been a preconcerted plan, and she had fled with him. Putting +out the lights, he stumbled hurriedly through the passage to the +gangway above. The cabin-door was open; there was the sound of +voices--Renshaw's and Rosey's. Mr. Nott felt relieved but not +unembarrassed. He would have avoided his daughter's presence that +evening. But even while making this resolution with characteristic +infelicity he blundered into the room. Rosey looked up with a +slight start; Renshaw's animated face was changed to its former +expression of inward discontent. + +"You came in so like a ghost, father," said Rosey with a slight +peevishness that was new to her. "And I thought you were in town. +Don't go, Mr. Renshaw." + +But Mr. Renshaw intimated that he had already trespassed upon Miss +Nott's time, and that no doubt her father wanted to talk with her. +To his surprise and annoyance, however, Mr. Nott insisted on +accompanying him to his room, and without heeding Renshaw's cold +"Good-night," entered and closed the door behind him. + +"P'rap's," said Mr. Nott with a troubled air, "you disremember that +when you first kem here you asked me if you could hev that 'er loft +that the Frenchman had down stairs." + +"No, I don't remember it," said Renshaw almost rudely. "But," he +added, after a pause, with an air of a man obliged to revive a +stale and unpleasant memory, "if I did--what about it?" + +"Nuthin', only that you kin hev it to-morrow, ez that 'ere +Frenchman is movin' out," responded Nott. "I thought you was +sorter keen about it when you first kem." + +"Umph! we'll talk about it to-morrow." Something in the look of +wearied perplexity with which Mr. Nott was beginning to regard his +own mal a propos presence, arrested the young man's attention. +"What's the reason you didn't sell this old ship long ago, take a +decent house in the town, and bring up your daughter like a lady?" +he asked with a sudden blunt good humor. But even this implied +blasphemy against the habitation he worshiped did not prevent Mr. +Nott from his usual misconstruction of the question. + +"I reckon, now, Rosey's got high-flown ideas of livin' in a castle +with ruins, eh?" he said cunningly. + +"Haven't heard her say," returned Renshaw abruptly. "Good-night." + +Firmly convinced that Rosey had been unable to conceal from Mr. +Renshaw the influence of her dreams of a castellated future with de +Ferrieres, he regained the cabin. Satisfying himself that his +daughter had retired, he sought his own couch. But not to sleep. +The figure of de Ferrieres, standing in the ship side and melting +into the outer darkness, haunted him, and compelled him in dreams +to rise and follow him through the alleys and by-ways of the +crowded city. Again, it was a part of his morbid suspicion that he +now invested the absent man with a potential significance and an +unknown power. What deep-laid plans might he not form to possess +himself of Rosey, of which he, Abner Nott, would be ignorant? +Unchecked by the restraint of a father's roof he would now give +full license to his power. "Said he'd take his Honor with him," +muttered Abner to himself in the dim watches of the night; "lookin' +at that sayin' in its right light, it looks bad." + + +V + + +The elaborately untruthful account which Mr. Nott gave his daughter +of de Ferrieres's sudden departure was more fortunate than his +usual equivocations. While it disappointed and slightly mortified +her, it did not seem to her inconsistent with what she already knew +of him. "Said his doctor had ordered him to quit town under an +hour, owing to a comin' attack of hay fever, and he had a friend +from furrin parts waitin' him at the Springs, Rosey," explained +Nott, hesitating between his desire to avoid his daughter's eyes +and his wish to observe her countenance. + +"Was he worse?--I mean did he look badly, father?" inquired Rosey +thoughtfully. + +"I reckon not exackly bad. Kinder looked ez if he mout be worse +soon ef he didn't hump hisself." + +"Did you see him?--in his room?" asked Rosey anxiously. Upon the +answer to this simple question depended the future confidential +relations of father and daughter. If her father had himself +detected the means by which his lodger existed, she felt that her +own obligations to secrecy had been removed. But Mr. Nott's answer +disposed of this vain hope. It was a response after his usual +fashion to the question he IMAGINED she artfully wished to ask, i. +e. if he had discovered their rendezvous of the previous night. +This it was part of his peculiar delicacy to ignore. Yet his reply +showed that he had been unconscious of the one miserable secret +that he might have read easily. + +"I was there an hour or so--him and me alone--discussin' trade. I +reckon he's got a good thing outer that curled horse hair, for I +see he's got in an invoice o' cushions. I've stored 'em all in the +forrard bulkhead until he sends for 'em, ez Mr. Renshaw hez taken +the loft." + +But although Mr. Renshaw had taken the loft, he did not seem in +haste to occupy it. He spent part of the morning in uneasily +pacing his room, in occasional sallies into the street from which +he purposelessly returned, and once or twice in distant and furtive +contemplation of Rosey at work in the galley. This last +observation was not unnoticed by the astute Nott, who at once +conceiving that he was nourishing a secret and hopeless passion for +Rosey, began to consider whether it was not his duty to warn the +young man of her preoccupied affections. But Mr. Renshaw's final +disappearance obliged him to withhold his confidence till morning. + +This time Mr. Renshaw left the ship with the evident determination +of some settled purpose. He walked rapidly until he reached the +counting-house of Mr. Sleight, when he was at once shown into a +private office. In a few moments Mr. Sleight, a brusque but +passionless man, joined him. + +"Well," said Sleight, closing the door carefully. "What news?" + +"None," said Renshaw bluntly. "Look here, Sleight," he added, +turning to him suddenly. "Let me out of this game. I don't like +it." + +"Does that mean you've found nothing?" asked Sleight, +sarcastically. + +"It means that I haven't looked for anything, and that I don't +intend to without the full knowledge of that d----d fool who owns +the ship." + +"You've changed your mind since you wrote that letter," said +Sleight coolly, producing from a drawer the note already known to +the reader. Renshaw mechanically extended his hand to take it. +Mr. Sleight dropped the letter back into the drawer, which he +quietly locked. The apparently simple act dyed Mr. Renshaw's cheek +with color, but it vanished quickly, and with it any token of his +previous embarrassment. He looked at Sleight with the convinced +air of a resolute man who had at last taken a disagreeable step but +was willing to stand by the consequences. + +"I HAVE changed my mind," he said coolly. "I found out that it was +one thing to go down there as a skilled prospector might go to +examine a mine that was to be valued according to his report of the +indications, but that it was entirely another thing to go and play +the spy in a poor devil's house in order to buy something he didn't +know he was selling and wouldn't sell if he did." + +"And something that the man HE bought of didn't think of selling; +something HE himself never paid for, and never expected to buy," +sneered Sleight. + +"But something that WE expect to buy from our knowledge of all +this, and it is that which makes all the difference." + +"But you knew all this before." + +"I never saw it in this light before! I never thought of it until +I was living there face to face with the old fool I was intending +to overreach. I never was SURE of it until this morning, when he +actually turned out one of his lodgers that I might have the very +room I required to play off our little game in comfortably. When +he did that, I made up my mind to drop the whole thing, and I'm +here to do it." + +"And let somebody else take the responsibility--with the +percentage--unless you've also felt it your duty to warn Nott too," +said Sleight with a sneer. + +"You only dare say that to me, Sleight," said Renshaw quietly, +"because you have in that drawer an equal evidence of my folly and +my confidence; but if you are wise you will not presume too far on +either. Let us see how we stand. Through the yarn of a drunken +captain and a mutinous sailor you became aware of an unclaimed +shipment of treasure, concealed in an unknown ship that entered +this harbor. You are enabled, through me, to corroborate some +facts and identify the ship. You proposed to me, as a speculation, +to identify the treasure if possible before you purchased the ship. +I accepted the offer without consideration; on consideration I now +decline it, but without prejudice or loss to any one but myself. +As to your insinuation I need not remind you that my presence here +to-day refutes it. I would not require your permission to make a +much better bargain with a good natured fool like Nott than I could +with you. Or if I did not care for the business I could have +warned the girl--" + +"The girl--what girl?" + +Renshaw bit his lip but answered boldly, "The old man's daughter--a +poor girl--whom this act would rob as well as her father." + +Sleight looked at his companion attentively. "You might have said +so at first, and let up on this camp-meetin' exhortation. Well +then--admitting you've got the old man and the young girl on the +same string, and that you've played it pretty low down in the short +time you've been there--I suppose, Dick Renshaw, I've got to see +your bluff. Well, how much is it! What's the figure you and she +have settled on?" + +For an instant Mr. Sleight was in physical danger. But before he +had finished speaking Renshaw's quick sense of the ludicrous had so +far overcome his first indignation as to enable him even to admire +the perfect moral insensibility of his companion. As he rose and +walked towards the door, he half wondered that he had ever treated +the affair seriously. With a smile he replied: + +"Far from bluffing, Sleight, I am throwing my cards on the table. +Consider that I've passed out. Let some other man take my hand. +Rake down the pot if you like, old man, I leave for Sacramento to- +night. Adios." + +When the door had closed behind him Mr. Sleight summoned his clerk. + +"Is that petition for grading Pontiac Street ready?" + +"I've seen the largest property holders, sir; they're only waiting +for you to sign first." Mr. Sleight paused and then affixed his +signature to the paper his clerk laid before him. "Get the other +names and send it up at once." + +"If Mr. Nott doesn't sign, sir?" + +"No matter. He will be assessed all the same." Mr. Sleight took +up his hat. + +"The Lascar seaman that was here the other day has been wanting to +see you, sir. I said you were busy." + +Mr. Sleight put down his hat. "Send him up." + +Nevertheless Mr. Sleight sat down and at once abstracted himself so +completely as to be apparently in utter oblivion of the man who +entered. He was lithe and Indian-looking; bearing in dress and +manner the careless slouch without the easy frankness of a sailor. + +"Well!" said Sleight without looking up. + +"I was only wantin' to know ef you had any news for me, boss?" + +"News?" echoed Sleight as if absently; "news of what?" + +"That little matter of the Pontiac we talked about, boss," returned +the Lascar with an uneasy servility in the whites of his teeth and +eyes. + +"Oh," said Sleight, "that's played out. It's a regular fraud. +It's an old forecastle yarn, my man, that you can't reel off in the +cabin." + +The sailor's face darkened. + +"The man who was looking into it has thrown the whole thing up. I +tell you it's played out!" repeated Sleight, without raising his +head. + +"It's true, boss--every word," said the Lascar, with an appealing +insinuation that seemed to struggle hard with savage earnestness. +"You can swear me, boss; I wouldn't lie to a gentleman like you. +Your man hasn't half looked, or else--it must be there, or--" + +"That's just it," said Sleight slowly; "who's to know that your +friends haven't been there already?--that seems to have been your +style." + +"But no one knew it but me, until I told you, I swear to God. I +ain't lying, boss, and I ain't drunk. Say--don't give it up, boss. +That man of yours likely don't believe it, because he don't know +anything about it. I DO--I could find it." + +A silence followed. Mr. Sleight remained completely absorbed in +his papers for some moments. Then glancing at the Lascar, he took +his pen, wrote a hurried note, folded it, addressed it, and, +holding it between his fingers, leaned back in his chair. + +"If you choose to take this note to my man, he may give it another +show. Mind, I don't say that he WILL. He's going to Sacramento +to-night, but you could go down there and find him before he +starts. He's got a room there, I believe. While you're waiting +for him, you might keep your eyes open to satisfy yourself." + +"Ay, ay, sir," said the sailor, eagerly endeavoring to catch the +eye of his employer. But Mr. Sleight looked straight before him, +and he turned to go. + +"The Sacramento boat goes at nine," said Mr. Sleight quietly. + +This time their glances met, and the Lascar's eye glistened with +subtle intelligence. The next moment he was gone, and Mr. Sleight +again became absorbed in his papers. + +Meanwhile Renshaw was making his way back to the Pontiac with that +light-hearted optimism that had characterized his parting with +Sleight. It was this quality of his nature, fostered perhaps by +the easy civilization in which he moved, that had originally drawn +him into relations with the man he had just quitted; a quality that +had been troubled and darkened by those relations, yet, when they +were broken, at once returned. It consequently did not occur to +him that he had only selfishly compromised with the difficulty; it +seemed to him enough that he had withdrawn from a compact he +thought dishonorable; he was not called upon to betray his partner +in that compact merely to benefit others. He had been willing to +incur suspicion and loss to reinstate himself in his self-respect, +more he could not do without justifying that suspicion. The view +taken by Sleight was, after all, that which most business men would +take--which even the unbusiness-like Nott would take--which the +girl herself might be tempted to listen to. Clearly he could do +nothing but abandon the Pontiac and her owner to the fate he could +not in honor avert. And even that fate was problematical. It did +not follow that the treasure was still concealed in the Pontiac, +nor that Nott would be willing to sell her. He would make some +excuse to Nott--he smiled to think he would probably be classed in +the long line of absconding tenants--he would say good-by to Rosey, +and leave for Sacramento that night. He ascended the stairs to the +gangway with a freer breast than when he first entered the ship. + +Mr. Nott was evidently absent, and after a quick glance at the +half-open cabin door, Renshaw turned towards the galley. But Miss +Rosey was not in her accustomed haunt, and with a feeling of +disappointment, which seemed inconsistent with so slight a cause, +he crossed the deck impatiently and entered his room. He was about +to close the door when the prolonged rustle of a trailing skirt in +the passage attracted his attention. The sound was so unlike that +made by any garment worn by Rosey that he remained motionless, with +his hand on the door. The sound approached nearer, and the next +moment a white veiled figure with a trailing skirt slowly swept +past the room. Renshaw's pulses halted for an instant in half +superstitious awe. As the apparition glided on and vanished in the +cabin door he could only see that it was the form of a beautiful +and graceful woman--but nothing more. Bewildered and curious, he +forgot himself so far as to follow it, and impulsively entered the +cabin. The figure turned, uttered a little cry, threw the veil +aside, and showed the half troubled, half blushing face of Rosey. + +"I--beg--your pardon," stammered Renshaw; "I didn't know it was +you." + +"I was trying on some things," said Rosey, recovering her composure +and pointing to an open trunk that seemed to contain a theatrical +wardrobe--"some things father gave me long ago. I wanted to see if +there was anything I could use. I thought I was all alone in the +ship, but fancying I heard a noise forward I came out to see what +it was. I suppose it must have been you." + +She raised her clear eyes to his, with a slight touch of womanly +reserve that was so incompatible with any vulgar vanity or girlish +coquetry that he became the more embarrassed. Her dress, too, of a +slightly antique shape, rich but simple, seemed to reveal and +accent a certain repose of gentlewomanliness, that he was now +wishing to believe he had always noticed. Conscious of a +superiority in her that now seemed to change their relations +completely, he alone remained silent, awkward, and embarrassed +before the girl who had taken care of his room, and who cooked in +the galley! What he had thoughtlessly considered a merely vulgar +business intrigue against her stupid father, now to his extravagant +fancy assumed the proportions of a sacrilege to herself. + +"You've had your revenge, Miss Nott, for the fright I once gave +you," he said a little uneasily, "for you quite startled me just +now as you passed. I began to think the Pontiac was haunted. I +thought you were a ghost. I don't know why such a ghost should +FRIGHTEN anybody," he went on with a desperate attempt to recover +his position by gallantry. "Let me see--that's Donna Elvira's +dress--is it not?" + +"I don't think that was the poor woman's name," said Rosey simply; +"she died of yellow fever at New Orleans as Signora somebody." + +Her ignorance seemed to Mr. Renshaw so plainly to partake more of +the nun than the provincial that he hesitated to explain to her +that he meant the heroine of an opera. + +"It seems dreadful to put on the poor thing's clothes, doesn't it?" +she added. + +Mr. Renshaw's eyes showed so plainly that he thought otherwise, +that she drew a little austerely towards the door of her state- +room. + +"I must change these things before any one comes," she said dryly. + +"That means I must go, I suppose. But couldn't you let me wait +here or in the gangway until then, Miss Nott? I am going away to- +night, and I mayn't see you again." He had not intended to say +this, but it slipped from his embarrassed tongue. She stopped with +her hand on the door. + +"You are going away?" + +"I--think--I must leave to-night. I have some important business +in Sacramento." + +She raised her frank eyes to his. The unmistakable look of +disappointment that he saw in them gave his heart a sudden throb +and sent the quick blood to his cheeks. + +"It's too bad," she said, abstractedly. "Nobody ever seems to stay +here long. Captain Bower promised to tell me all about the ship +and he went away the second week. The photographer left before he +finished the picture of the Pontiac; Monsieur de Ferrieres has only +just gone, and now YOU are going." + +"Perhaps, unlike them, I have finished my season of usefulness +here," he replied, with a bitterness he would have recalled the +next moment. But Rosey, with a faint sigh, saying, "I won't be +long," entered the state-room and closed the door behind her. + +Renshaw bit his lip and pulled at the long silken threads of his +moustache until they smarted. Why had he not gone at once? Why +was it necessary to say he might not see her again--and if he had +said it, why should he add anything more? What was he waiting for +now? To endeavor to prove to her that he really bore no +resemblance to Captain Bower, the photographer, the crazy Frenchman +de Ferrieres? Or would he be forced to tell her that he was +running away from a conspiracy to defraud her father--merely for +something to say? Was there ever such folly? Rosey was "not +long," as she had said, but he was beginning to pace the narrow +cabin impatiently when the door opened and she returned. + +She had resumed her ordinary calico gown, but such was the +impression left upon Renshaw's fancy that she seemed to wear it +with a new grace. At any other time he might have recognized the +change as due to a new corset, which strict veracity compels me to +record Rosey had adopted for the first time that morning. Howbeit, +her slight coquetry seemed to have passed, for she closed the open +trunk with a return of her old listless air, and sitting on it +rested her elbows on her knees and her oval chin in her hands. + +"I wish you would do me a favor," she said after a reflective +pause. + +"Let me know what it is and it shall be done," replied Renshaw +quickly. + +"If you should come across Monsieur de Ferrieres, or hear of him, I +wish you would let me know. He was very poorly when he left here, +and I should like to know if he was better. He didn't say where he +was going. At least, he didn't tell father; but I fancy he and +father don't agree." + +"I shall be very glad of having even THAT opportunity of making you +remember me, Miss Nott," returned Renshaw with a faint smile; "I +don't suppose either that it would be very difficult to get news of +your friend--everybody seems to know him." + +"But not as I did," said Rosey with an abstracted little sigh. + +Mr. Renshaw opened his brown eyes upon her. Was he mistaken? was +this romantic girl only a little coquette playing her provincial +airs on him? "You say he and your father didn't agree? That +means, I suppose, that YOU and he agreed?--and that was the +result." + +"I don't think father knew anything about it," said Rosey simply. + +Mr. Renshaw rose. And this was what he had been waiting to hear! +"Perhaps," he said grimly, "you would also like news of the +photographer and Captain Bower, or did your father agree with them +better?" + +"No," said Rosey quietly. She remained silent for a moment, and +lifting her lashes said, "Father always seemed to agree with YOU, +and that--" she hesitated. + +"That's why YOU don't." + +"I didn't say that," said Rosey with an incongruous increase of +coldness and color. "I only meant to say it was that which makes +it seem so hard you should go now." + +Notwithstanding his previous determination Renshaw found himself +sitting down again. Confused and pleased, wishing he had said +more--or less--he said nothing, and Rosey was forced to continue. + +"It's strange, isn't it--but father was urging me this morning to +make a visit to some friends at the old Ranch. I didn't want to +go. I like it much better here." + +"But you cannot bury yourself here forever, Miss Nott," said +Renshaw with a sudden burst of honest enthusiasm. "Sooner or later +you will be forced to go where you will be properly appreciated, +where you will be admired and courted, where your slightest wish +will be law. Believe me, without flattery, you don't know your own +power." + +"It doesn't seem strong enough to keep even the little I like +here," said Rosey with a slight glistening of the eyes. "But," she +added hastily, "you don't know how much the dear old ship is to me. +It's the only home I think I ever had." + +"But the Ranch?" said Renshaw. + +"The Ranch seemed to be only the old wagon halted in the road. It +was a very little improvement on outdoors," said Rosey with a +little shiver. "But this is so cozy and snug and yet so strange +and foreign. Do you know I think I began to understand why I like +it so since you taught me so much about ships and voyages. Before +that I only learned from books. Books deceive you, I think, more +than people do. Don't you think so?" + +She evidently did not notice the quick flush that covered his +cheeks and apparently dazzled his troubled eyelid for she went on +confidentially. + +"I was thinking of you yesterday. I was sitting by the galley +door, looking forward. You remember the first day I saw you when +you startled me by coming up out of the hatch?" + +"I wish you wouldn't think of that," said Renshaw, with more +earnestness than he would have made apparent. + +"I don't want to either," said Rosey, gravely, "for I've had a +strange fancy about it. I saw once when I was younger, a picture +in a print shop in Montgomery Street that haunted me. I think it +was called 'The Pirate.' There was a number of wicked-looking +sailors lying around the deck, and coming out of a hatch was one +figure with his hands on the deck and a cutlass in his mouth." + +"Thank you," said Renshaw. + +"You don't understand. He was horrid-looking, not at all like you. +I never thought of HIM when I first saw you; but the other day I +thought how dreadful it would have been if some one like him and +not like you had come up then. That made me nervous sometimes of +being alone. I think father is too. He often goes about +stealthily at night, as if he was watching for something." + +Renshaw's face grew suddenly dark. Could it be possible that +Sleight had always suspected him, and set spies to watch--or was he +guilty of some double intrigue? + +"He thinks," continued Rosey with a faint smile, "that some one is +looking around the ship, and talks of setting bear-traps. I hope +you're not mad, Mr. Renshaw," she added, suddenly catching sight of +his changed expression, "at my foolishness in saying you reminded +me of the pirate. I meant nothing." + +"I know you're incapable of meaning anything but good to anybody, +Miss Nott, perhaps to me more than I deserve," said Renshaw with a +sudden burst of feeling. "I wish--I wish--you would do ME a favor. +YOU asked me one just now." He had taken her hand. It seemed so +like a mere illustration of his earnestness, that she did not +withdraw it. "Your father tells you everything. If he has any +offer to dispose of the ship, will you write to me at once before +anything is concluded?" He winced a little--the sentence of +Sleight, "What's the figure you and she have settled upon?" flashed +across his mind. He scarcely noticed that Rosey had withdrawn her +hand coldly. + +"Perhaps you had better speak to father, as it is HIS business. +Besides, I shall not be here. I shall be at the Ranch." + +"But you said you didn't want to go?" + +"I've changed my mind," said Rosey listlessly. "I shall go to- +night." + +She rose as if to indicate that the interview was ended. With an +overpowering instinct that his whole future happiness depended upon +his next act, he made a step towards her, with eager outstretched +hands. But she slightly lifted her own with a warning gesture, "I +hear father coming--you will have a chance to talk BUSINESS with +him," she said, and vanished into her state-room. + + +VI + + +The heavy tread of Abner Nott echoed in the passage. Confused and +embarrassed, Renshaw remained standing at the door that had closed +upon Rosey as her father entered the cabin. Providence, which +always fostered Mr. Nott's characteristic misconceptions, left that +perspicacious parent but one interpretation of the situation. +Rosey had evidently just informed Mr. Renshaw that she loved +another! + +"I was just saying 'good-by' to Miss Nott," said Renshaw, hastily +regaining his composure with an effort. "I am going to Sacramento +to-night, and will not return. I--" + +"In course, in course," interrupted Nott, soothingly; "that's wot +you say now, and that's what you allow to do. That's wot they +allus do." + +"I mean," said Renshaw, reddening at what he conceived to be an +allusion to the absconding propensities of Nott's previous +tenants,--"I mean that you shall keep the advance to cover any loss +you might suffer through my giving up the rooms." + +"Certingly," said Nott, laying his hand with a large sympathy on +Renshaw's shoulder; "but we'll drop that just now. We won't swap +hosses in the middle of the river. We'll square up accounts in +your room," he added, raising his voice that Rosey might overhear +him, after a preliminary wink at the young man. "Yes, sir, we'll +just square up and settle in there. Come along, Mr. Renshaw." +Pushing him with paternal gentleness from the cabin, with his hand +still upon his shoulder, he followed him into the passage. Half +annoyed at his familiarity, yet not altogether displeased by this +illustration of Rosey's belief of his preference, Renshaw +wonderingly accompanied him. Nott closed the door, and pushing the +young man into a chair, deliberately seated himself at the table +opposite. "It's just as well that Rosey reckons that you and me is +settlin' our accounts," he began, cunningly, "and mebbee it's just +ez well ez she should reckon you're goin' away." + +"But I AM going," interrupted Renshaw, impatiently. "I leave to- +night." + +"Surely, surely," said Nott, gently, "that's wot you kalkilate to +do; that's just nat'ral in a young feller. That's about what I +reckon I'D hev done to her mother if anythin' like this hed ever +cropped up, which it didn't. Not but what Almiry Jane had young +fellers enough round her, but, 'cept ole Judge Peter, ez was lamed +in the War of 1812, there ain't no similarity ez I kin see," he +added, musingly. + +"I am afraid I can't see any similarity either, Mr. Nott," said +Renshaw, struggling between a dawning sense of some impending +absurdity and his growing passion for Rosey. "For Heaven's sake +speak out if you've got anything to say." + +Mr. Nott leaned forward, and placed his large hand on the young +man's shoulder. "That's it. That's what I sed to myself when I +seed how things were pintin'. 'Speak out,' sez I, 'Abner! Speak +out if you've got anything to say. You kin trust this yer Mr. +Renshaw. He ain't the kind of man to creep into the bosom of a +man's ship for pupposes of his own. He ain't a man that would hunt +round until he discovered a poor man's treasure, and then try to +rob--'" + +"Stop!" said Renshaw, with a set face and darkening eyes. "WHAT +treasure? WHAT man are you speaking of?" + +"Why Rosey and Mr. Ferrers," returned Nott, simply. + +Renshaw sank into his seat again. But the expression of relief +which here passed swiftly over his face gave way to one of uneasy +interest as Nott went on. + +"P'r'aps it's a little highfalutin talkin' of Rosey ez a treasure. +But, considerin', Mr. Renshaw, ez she's the only prop'ty I've kept +by me for seventeen years ez hez paid interest and increased in +valooe, it ain't sayin' too much to call her so. And ez Ferrers +knows this, he oughter been content with gougin' me in that horse- +hair spec, without goin' for Rosey. P'r'aps yer surprised at +hearing me speak o' my own flesh and blood ez if I was talkin' +hoss-trade, but you and me is bus'ness men, Mr. Renshaw, and we +discusses ez such. We ain't goin' to slosh round and slop over in +po'try and sentiment," continued Nott, with a tremulous voice, and +a hand that slightly shook on Renshaw's shoulder. "We ain't goin' +to git up and sing, 'Thou'st larned to love another thou'st broken +every vow we've parted from each other and my bozom's lonely now oh +is it well to sever such hearts as ourn for ever kin I forget thee +never farewell farewell farewell.' Ye never happen'd to hear Jim +Baker sing that at the moosic hall on Dupont Street, Mr. Renshaw," +continued Mr. Nott, enthusiastically, when he had recovered from +that complete absence of punctuation which alone suggested verse to +his intellect. "He sorter struck water down here," indicating his +heart, "every time." + +"But what has Miss Nott to do with M. de Ferrieres?" asked Renshaw, +with a faint smile. + +Mr. Nott regarded him with dumb, round, astonished eyes. "Hezn't +she told yer?" + +"Certainly not." + +"And she didn't let on anythin' about him?" he continued, feebly. + +"She said she'd liked to know where--" He stopped, with the +reflection that he was betraying her confidences. + +A dim foreboding of some new form of deceit, to which even the man +before him was a consenting party, almost paralyzed Nott's +faculties. "Then she didn't tell yer that she and Ferrers was +sparkin' and keepin' kimpany together; that she and him was +engaged, and was kalkilatin' to run away to furrin parts; that she +cottoned to him more than to the ship or her father?" + +"She certainly did not, and I shouldn't believe it," said Renshaw, +quickly. + +Nott smiled. He was amused; he astutely recognized the usual +trustfulness of love and youth. There was clearly no deceit here! +Renshaw's attentive eyes saw the smile, and his brow darkened. + +"I like to hear yer say that, Mr. Renshaw," said Nott, "and it's no +more than Rosey deserves, ez it's suthing onnat'ral and spell-like +that's come over her through Ferrers. It ain't my Rosey. But it's +Gospel truth, whether she's bewitched or not; whether it's them +damn fool stories she reads--and it's like ez not he's just the +kind o' snipe to write 'em hisself, and sorter advertise hisself, +don't yer see--she's allus stuck up for him. They've had +clandesent interviews, and when I taxed him with it he ez much ez +allowed it was so, and reckoned he must leave, so ez he could run +her off, you know--kinder stampede her with 'honor.' Them's his +very words." + +"But that is all past; he is gone, and Miss Nott does not even know +where he is!" said Renshaw, with a laugh, which, however, concealed +a vague uneasiness. + +Mr. Nott rose and opened the door carefully. When he had satisfied +himself that no one was listening, he came back and said in a +whisper, "That's a lie. Not ez Rosey means to lie, but it's a +trick he's put upon that poor child. That man, Mr. Renshaw, hez +been hangin' round the Pontiac ever since. I've seed him twice +with my own eyes pass the cabin windys. More than that, I've heard +strange noises at night, and seen strange faces in the alley over +yer. And only jist now ez I kem in I ketched sight of a furrin +lookin' Chinee nigger slinking round the back door of what useter +be Ferrers's loft." + +"Did he look like a sailor?" asked Renshaw quickly, with a return +of his former suspicion. + +"Not more than I do," said Nott, glancing complacently at his pea- +jacket. "He had rings on his yeers like a wench." + +Mr. Renshaw started. But seeing Nott's eyes fixed on him, he said +lightly, "But what have these strange faces and this strange man-- +probably only a Lascar sailor out of a job--to do with Ferrieres?" + +"Friends o' his--feller furrin citizens--spies on Rosey, don't you +see? But they can't play the old man, Mr. Renshaw. I've told +Rosey she must make a visit to the old Ranch. Once I've got her +ther safe, I reckon I kin manage Mr. Ferrers and any number of +Chinee niggers he kin bring along." + +Renshaw remained for a few moments lost in thought. Then rising +suddenly he grasped Mr. Nott's hand with a frank smile but +determined eyes. "I haven't got the hang of this, Mr. Nott--the +whole thing gets me! I only know that I've changed my mind. I'm +NOT going to Sacramento. I shall stay HERE, old man, until I see +you safe through the business, or my name's not Dick Renshaw. +There's my hand on it! Don't say a word. Maybe it is no more than +I ought to do--perhaps not half enough. Only remember, not a word +of this to your daughter. She must believe that I leave to-night. +And the sooner you get her out of this cursed ship the better." + +"Deacon Flint's girls are goin' up in to-night's boat. I'll send +Rosey with them," said Nott with a cunning twinkle. Renshaw +nodded. Nott seized his hand with a wink of unutterable +significance. + +Left to himself Renshaw tried to review more calmly the +circumstances in these strange revelations that had impelled him to +change his resolution so suddenly. That the ship was under the +surveillance of unknown parties, and that the description of them +tallied with his own knowledge of a certain Lascar sailor, who was +one of Sleight's informants--seemed to be more than probable. That +this seemed to point to Sleight's disloyalty to himself while he +was acting as his agent, or a double treachery on the part of +Sleight's informants was in either case a reason and an excuse for +his own interference. But the connection of the absurd Frenchman +with the case, which at first seemed a characteristic imbecility of +his landlord, bewildered him the more he thought of it. Rejecting +any hypothesis of the girl's affection for the antiquated figure +whose sanity was a question of public criticism, he was forced to +the equally alarming theory that Ferrieres was cognizant of the +treasure, and that his attentions to Rosey were to gain possession +of it by marrying her. Might she not be dazzled by a picture of +this wealth? Was it not possible that she was already in part +possession of the secret, and her strange attraction to the ship, +and what he had deemed her innocent craving for information +concerning it, a consequence? Why had he not thought of this +before? Perhaps she had detected his purpose from the first, and +had deliberately checkmated him. The thought did not increase his +complacency as Nott softly returned. + +"It's all right," he began with a certain satisfaction in this rare +opportunity for Machiavellian diplomacy, "it's all fixed now. +Rosey tumbled to it at once, partiklerly when I said you was bound +to go. 'But wot makes Mr. Renshaw go, father,' sez she; 'wot makes +everybody run away from the ship?' sez she, rather peart like and +sassy for her. 'Mr. Renshaw hez contractin' business,' sez I; 'got +a big thing up in Sacramento that'll make his fortun',' sez I--for +I wasn't goin' to give yer away, don't ye see. 'He had some +business to talk to you about the ship,' sez she, lookin' at me +under the corner of her pocket handkerchief. 'Lots o' business,' +sez I. 'Then I reckon he don't care to hev me write to him,' sez +she. 'Not a bit,' sez I, 'he wouldn't answer ye if ye did. Ye'll +never hear from that chap agin.'" + +"But what the devil--" interrupted the young man impetuously. + +"Keep yer hair on!" remonstrated the old man with dark +intelligence. "Ef you'd seen the way she flounced into her +stateroom!--she, Rosey, ez allus moves ez softly ez a spirit--you'd +hev wished I'd hev unloaded a little more. No sir, gals is gals in +some things all the time." + +Renshaw rose and paced the room rapidly. "Perhaps I'd better speak +to her again before she goes," he said, impulsively. + +"P'r'aps you'd better not," replied the imperturbable Nott. + +Irritated as he was, Renshaw could not avoid the reflection that +the old man was right. What, indeed, could he say to her with his +present imperfect knowledge? How could she write to him if that +knowledge was correct? + +"Ef," said Nott, kindly, with a laying on of large benedictory and +paternal hands, "ef yer are willin' to see Rosey agin, without +SPEAKIN' to her, I reckon I ken fix it for yer. I'm goin' to take +her down to the boat in half an hour. Ef yer should happen--mind, +ef yer should HAPPEN to be down there, seein' some friends off and +sorter promenadin' up and down the wharf like them high-toned chaps +on Montgomery Street--ye might ketch her eye unconscious like. Or, +ye might do this!" He rose after a moment's cogitation and with a +face of profound mystery opened the door and beckoned Renshaw to +follow him. Leading the way cautiously, he brought the young man +into an open unpartitioned recess beside her stateroom. It seemed +to be used as a storeroom, and Renshaw's eye was caught by a trunk +the size and shape of the one that had provided Rosey with the +materials of her masquerade. Pointing to it Mr. Nott said in a +grave whisper: "This yer trunk is the companion trunk to Rosey's. +SHE'S got the things them opery women wears; this yer contains the +HE things, the duds and fixin's o' the men o' the same stripe." +Throwing it open he continued: "Now, Mr. Renshaw, gals is gals; +it's nat'ral they should be took by fancy dress and store clothes +on young chaps as on theirselves. That man Ferrers hez got the +dead wood on all of ye in this sort of thing, and hez been playing, +so to speak, a lone hand all along. And ef thar's anythin' in +thar," he added, lifting part of a theatrical wardrobe, "that you +think you'd fancy--anythin' you'd like to put on when ye promenade +the wharf down yonder--it's yours. Don't ye be bashful, but help +yourself." + +It was fully a minute before Renshaw fairly grasped the old man's +meaning. But when he did--when the suggested spectacle of himself +arrayed a la Ferrieres, gravely promenading the wharf as a last +gorgeous appeal to the affections of Rosey, rose before his fancy, +he gave way to a fit of genuine laughter. The nervous tension of +the past few hours relaxed; he laughed until the tears came into +his eyes; he was still laughing when the door of the cabin was +suddenly opened and Rosey appeared cold and distant on the +threshold. + +"I--beg your pardon," stammered Renshaw hastily. "I didn't mean-- +to disturb you--I--" + +Without looking at him Rosey turned to her father. "I am ready," +she said coldly, and closed the door again. + +A glance of artful intelligence came into Nott's eyes, which had +remained blankly staring at Renshaw's apparently causeless +hilarity. Turning to him he winked solemnly. "That keerless kind +o' hoss-laff jist fetched her," he whispered, and vanished before +his chagrined companion could reply. + +When Mr. Nott and his daughter departed Renshaw was not in the +ship, neither did he make a spectacular appearance on the wharf as +Mr. Nott had fondly expected, nor did he turn up again until after +nine o'clock, when he found the old man in the cabin awaiting his +return with some agitation. + +"A minit ago," he said, mysteriously closing the door behind +Renshaw, "I heard a voice in the passage, and goin' out who should +I see agin but that darned furrin nigger ez I told yer 'bout, +kinder hidin' in the dark, his eyes shinin like a catamount, I was +jist reachin' for my weppins when he riz up with a grin and handed +me this yer letter. I told him I reckoned you'd gone to +Sacramento, but he said he wez sure you was in your room, and to +prove it I went thar. But when I kem back the d----d skunk had +vamoosed--got frightened I reckon--and wasn't nowhar to be seen." + +Reashaw took the letter hastily. It contained only a line in +Sleight's hand. "If you change your mind, the bearer may be of +service to you." + +He turned abruptly to Nott. "You say it was the same Lascar you +saw before." + +"It was." + +"Then all I can say is he is no agent of de Ferrieres's," said +Renshaw, turning away with a disappointed air. Mr. Nott would have +asked another question, but with an abrupt "Good-night" the young +man entered his room, locked the door, and threw himself on his bed +to reflect without interruption. + +But if he was in no mood to stand Nott's fatuous conjectures, he +was less inclined to be satisfied with his own. Had he been again +carried away through his impulses evoked by the caprices of a +pretty coquette and the absurd theories of her half imbecile +father? Had he broken faith with Sleight and remained in the ship +for nothing, and would not his change of resolution appear to be +the result of Sleight's note? But why had the Lascar been haunting +the ship before? In the midst of these conjectures he fell asleep. + + +VII + + +Between three and four in the morning the clouds broke over the +Pontiac, and the moon, riding high, picked out in black and silver +the long hulk that lay cradled between the iron shells of +warehouses and the wooden frames of tenements on either side. The +galley and covered gangway presented a mass of undefined shadow, +against which the white deck shone brightly, stretching to the +forecastle and bows, where the tiny glass roof of the photographer +glistened like a gem in the Pontiac's crest. So peaceful and +motionless she lay that she might have been some petrifaction of a +past age now first exhumed and laid bare to the cold light of the +stars. + +Nevertheless this calm security was presently invaded by a sense of +stealthy life and motion. What had seemed a fixed shadow suddenly +detached itself from the deck, and began to slip stanchion by +stanchion along the bulwarks toward the companion way. At the +cabin door it halted and crouched motionless. Then rising, it +glided forward with the same staccato movement until opposite the +slight elevation of the forehatch. Suddenly it darted to the +hatch, unfastened and lifted it with a swift, familiar dexterity, +and disappeared in the opening. But as the moon shone upon its +vanishing face, it revealed the whitening eyes and teeth of the +Lascar seaman. + +Dropping to the lower deck lightly, he felt his way through the +dark passage between the partitions, evidently less familiar to +him, halting before each door to listen. Returning forward he +reached the second hatchway that had attracted Rosey's attention, +and noiselessly unclosed its fastenings. A penetrating smell of +bilge arose from the opening. Drawing a small bull's-eye lantern +from his breast he lit it, and unhesitatingly let himself down to +the further depth. The moving flash of his light revealed the +recesses of the upper hold, the abyss of the well amidships, and +glanced from the shining backs of moving zig-zags of rats that +seemed to outline the shadowy beams and transoms. Disregarding +those curious spectators of his movements, he turned his attention +eagerly to the inner casings of the hold, that seemed in one spot +to have been strengthened by fresh timbers. Attacking this +stealthily with the aid of some tools hidden in his oil-skin +clothing, in the light of the lantern he bore a fanciful +resemblance to the predatory animals around him. The low +continuous sound of rasping and gnawing of timber which followed +heightened the resemblance. At the end of a few minutes he had +succeeded in removing enough of the outer planking to show that the +entire filling of the casing between the stanchions was composed of +small boxes. Dragging out one of them with feverish eagerness to +the light, the Lascar forced it open. In the rays of the bull's- +eye, a wedged mass of discolored coins showed with a lurid glow. +The story of the Pontiac was true--the treasure was there! + +But Mr. Sleight had overlooked the logical effect of this discovery +on the natural villainy of his tool. In the very moment of his +triumphant execution of his patron's suggestions the idea of +keeping the treasure to himself flashed upon his mind. HE had +discovered it--why should he give it up to anybody? HE had run all +the risks; if he were detected at that moment, who would believe +that his purpose there at midnight was only to satisfy some one +else that the treasure was still intact? No. The circumstances +were propitious; he would get the treasure out of the ship at once, +drop it over her side, hastily conceal it in the nearest lot +adjacent, and take it away at his convenience.--Who would be the +wiser for it? + +But it was necessary to reconnoitre first. He knew that the loft +overhead was empty. He knew that it communicated with the alley, +for he had tried the door that morning. He would convey the +treasure there, and drop it into the alley. The boxes were heavy. +Each one would require a separate journey to the ship's side, but +he would at least secure something if he were interrupted. He +stripped the casing, and gathered the boxes together in a pile. + +Ah, yes, it was funny too that he--the Lascar hound--the d----d +nigger--should get what bigger and bullier men than he had died +for! The mate's blood was on those boxes, if the salt water had +not washed it out. It was a hell of a fight when they dragged the +captain--Oh, what was that? Was it the splash of a rat in the +bilge, or what? + +A superstitious terror had begun to seize him at the thought of +blood. The stifling hold seemed again filled with struggling +figures he had known; the air thick with cries and blasphemies that +he had forgotten. He rose to his feet, and running quickly to the +hatchway, leaped to the deck above. All was quiet. The door +leading to the empty loft yielded to his touch. He entered, and, +gliding through, unbarred and opened the door that gave upon the +alley. The cold air and moonlight flowed in silently; the way of +escape was clear. Bah! He would go back for the treasure. + +He had reached the passage when the door he had just opened was +suddenly darkened. Turning rapidly, he was conscious of a gaunt +figure, grotesque, silent, and erect, looming on the threshold +between him and the sky. Hidden in the shadow, he made a stealthy +step towards it, with an iron wrench in his uplifted hand. But the +next moment his eyes dilated with superstitious horror; the iron +fell from this hand, and with a scream, like a frightened animal, +he turned and fled into the passage. In the first access of his +blind terror he tried to reach the deck above through the +forehatch, but was stopped by the sound of a heavy tread overhead. +The immediate fear of detection now overcame his superstition; he +would have even faced the apparition again to escape through the +loft; but, before he could return there, other footsteps approached +rapidly from the end of the passage he would have to traverse. +There was but one chance of escape left now--the forehold he had +just quitted. He might hide there until the alarm was over. He +glided back to the hatch, lifted it, and it closed softly over his +head as the upper hatch was simultaneously raised, and the small +round eyes of Abner Nott peered down upon it. The other footsteps +proved to be Renshaw's but, attracted by the open door of the loft, +he turned aside and entered. As soon as he disappeared Mr. Nott +cautiously dropped through the opening to the deck below, and, +going to the other hatch through which the Lascar had vanished, +deliberately refastened it. In a few moments Renshaw returned with +a light, and found the old man sitting on the hatch. + +"The loft door was open," said Renshaw. "There's little doubt +whoever was here escaped that way." + +"Surely," said Nott. There was a peculiar look of Machiavellian +sagacity in his face which irritated Renshaw. + +"Then you're sure it was Ferrieres you saw pass by your window +before you called me?" he asked. + +Nott nodded his head with an expression of infinite profundity. + +"But you say he was going FROM the ship. Then it could not have +been he who made the noise we heard down here." + +"Mebbee no, and mebbee yes," returned Nott, cautiously. "But if he +was already concealed inside the ship, as that open door, which you +say you barred from the inside, would indicate, what the devil did +he want with this?" said Renshaw, producing the monkey-wrench he +had picked up. + +Mr. Nott examined the tool carefully, and shook his head with +momentous significance. Nevertheless, his eyes wandered to the +hatch on which he was seated. + +"Did you find anything disturbed THERE?" said Renshaw, following +the direction of his eye. "Was that hatch fastened as it is now?" + +"It was," said Nott, calmly. "But ye wouldn't mind fetchin' me a +hammer and some o' them big nails from the locker, would yer, while +I hang round here just so ez to make sure against another attack." + +Renshaw complied with his request; but as Nott proceeded to gravely +nail down the fastenings of the hatch, he turned impatiently away +to complete his examination of the ship. The doors of the other +lofts and their fastenings appeared secure and undisturbed. Yet it +was undeniable that a felonious entrance had been made, but by whom +or for what purpose still remained uncertain. Even now, Renshaw +found it difficult to accept Nott's theory that de Ferrieres was +the aggressor and Rosey the object, nor could he justify his own +suspicion that the Lascar had obtained a surreptitious entrance +under Sleight's directions. With a feeling that if Rosey had been +present he would have confessed all, and demanded from her an equal +confidence, he began to hate his feeble, purposeless, and +inefficient alliance with her father, who believed but dare not tax +his daughter with complicity in this outrage. What could be done +with a man whose only idea of action at such a moment was to nail +up an undisturbed entrance in his invaded house! He was so +preoccupied with these thoughts that when Nott rejoined him in the +cabin he scarcely heeded his presence, and was entirely oblivious +of the furtive looks which the old man from time to time cast upon +his face. + +"I reckon ye wouldn't mind," broke in Nott, suddenly, "ef I asked a +favor of ye, Mr. Renshaw. Mebbee ye'll allow it's askin' too much +in the matter of expense; mebbee ye'll allow it's askin' too much +in the matter o' time. But I kalkilate to pay all the expense, and +if you'd let me know what yer vally yer time at, I reckon I could +stand that. What I'd be askin' is this. Would ye mind takin' a +letter from me to Rosey, and bringin' back an answer?" + +Renshaw stared speechlessly at this absurd realization of his wish +of a moment before. "I don't think I understand you," he +stammered. + +"P'r'aps not," returned Nott, with great gravity. "But that's not +so much matter to you ez your time and expenses." + +"I meant I should be glad to go if I can be of any service to you," +said Renshaw, hastily. + +"You kin ketch the seven o'clock boat this morning, and you'll +reach San Rafael at ten--" + +"But I thought Miss Rosey went to Petaluma," interrupted Renshaw +quickly. + +Nott regarded him with an expression of patronizing superiority. +"That's what we ladled out to the public gin'rally, and to Ferrers +and his gang in partickler. We SAID Petalumey, but if you go to +Madrono Cottage, San Rafael, you'll find Rosey thar." + +If Mr. Renshaw required anything more to convince him of the +necessity of coming to some understanding with Rosey at once it +would have been this last evidence of her father's utterly dark and +supremely inscrutable designs. He assented quickly, and Nott +handed him a note. + +"Ye'll be partickler to give this inter her own hands, and wait for +an answer," said Nott gravely. + +Resisting the proposition to enter then and there into an elaborate +calculation of the value of his time and the expenses of the trip, +Renshaw found himself at seven o'clock on the San Rafael boat. +Brief as was the journey it gave him time to reflect upon his +coming interview with Rosey. He had resolved to begin by +confessing all; the attempt of last night had released him from any +sense of duty to Sleight. Besides, he did not doubt that Nott's +letter contained some reference to this affair only known to Nott's +dark and tortuous intelligence. + + +VIII + + +Madrono Cottage lay at the entrance of a little canada already +green with the early winter rains, and nestled in a thicket of the +harlequin painted trees that gave it a name. The young man was a +little relieved to find that Rosey had gone to the post-office a +mile away, and that he would probably overtake her or meet her +returning--alone. The road--little more than a trail--wound along +the crest of the hill looking across the canada to the long, dark, +heavily-wooded flank of Mount Tamalpais that rose from the valley a +dozen miles away. A cessation of the warm rain, a rift in the sky, +and the rare spectacle of cloud scenery, combined with a certain +sense of freedom, restored that lighthearted gayety that became him +most. At a sudden turn of the road he caught sight of Rosey's +figure coming towards him, and quickened his step with the +impulsiveness of a boy. But she suddenly disappeared, and when he +again saw her she was on the other side of the trail apparently +picking the leaves of a manzanita. She had already seen him. + +Somehow the frankness of his greeting was checked. She looked up +at him with cheeks that retained enough of their color to suggest +why she had hesitated, and said, "YOU here, Mr. Renshaw? I thought +you were in Sacramento." + +"And I thought YOU were in Petaluma," he retorted gayly. "I have a +letter from your father. The fact is, one of those gentlemen who +has been haunting the ship actually made an entry last night. Who +he was, and what he came for, nobody knows. Perhaps your father +gives you his suspicions." He could not help looking at her +narrowly as he handed her the note. Except that her pretty +eyebrows were slightly raised in curiosity she seemed undisturbed +as she opened the letter. Presently she raised her eyes to his. + +"Is this all father gave you?" + +"All." + +"You're sure you haven't dropped anything?" + +"Nothing. I have given you all he gave me." + +"And that is all it is." She exhibited the missive, a perfectly +blank sheet of paper folded like a note! + +Renshaw felt the angry blood glow in his cheeks. "This is +unpardonable! I assure you, Miss Nott, there must be some mistake. +He himself has probably forgotten the inclosure," he continued, yet +with an inward conviction that the act was perfectly premeditated +on the part of the old man. + +The young girl held out her hand frankly. "Don't think any more of +it, Mr. Renshaw. Father is forgetful at times. But tell me about +last night." + +In a few words Mr. Renshaw briefly but plainly related the details +of the attempt upon the Pontiac, from the moment that he had been +awakened by Nott, to his discovery of the unknown trespasser's +flight by the open door to the loft. When he had finished, he +hesitated, and then taking Rosey's hand, said impulsively, "You +will not be angry with me if I tell you all? Your father firmly +believes that the attempt was made by the old Frenchman, de +Ferrieres, with a view of carrying you off." + +A dozen reasons other than the one her father would have attributed +it to might have called the blood to her face. But only innocence +could have brought the look of astonished indignation to her eyes +as she answered quickly: + +"So THAT was what you were laughing at?" + +"Not that, Miss Nott," said the young man eagerly: "though I wish +to God I could accuse myself of nothing more disloyal. Do not +speak, I beg," he added impatiently, as Rosey was about to reply. +"I have no right to hear you; I have no right to even stand in your +presence until I have confessed everything. I came to the Pontiac; +I made your acquaintance, Miss Nott, through a fraud as wicked as +anything your father charges to de Ferrieres. I am not a +contractor. I never was an honest lodger in the Pontiac. I was +simply a spy." + +"But you didn't mean to be--it was some mistake, wasn't it?" said +Rosey, quite white, but more from sympathy with the offender's +emotion than horror at the offense. + +"I am afraid I did mean it. But bear with me for a few moments +longer and you shall know all. It's a long story. Will you walk +on, and--take my arm? You do not shrink from me, Miss Nott. Thank +you. I scarcely deserve the kindness." + +Indeed so little did Rosey shrink that he was conscious of a slight +reassuring pressure on his arm as they moved forward, and for the +moment I fear the young man felt like exaggerating his offense for +the sake of proportionate sympathy. "Do you remember," he +continued, "one evening when I told you some sea tales, you said +you always thought there must be some story about the Pontiac? +There was a story of the Pontiac, Miss Nott--a wicked story--a +terrible story--which I might have told you, which I OUGHT to have +told you--which was the story that brought me there. You were +right, too, in saying that you thought I had known the Pontiac +before I stepped first on her deck that day. I had." + +He laid his disengaged hand across lightly on Rosey's, as if to +assure himself that she was listening. + +"I was at that time a sailor. I had been fool enough to run away +from college, thinking it a fine romantic thing to ship before the +mast for a voyage round the world. I was a little disappointed, +perhaps, but I made the best of it, and in two years I was second +mate of a whaler lying in a little harbor of one of the uncivilized +islands of the Pacific. While we were at anchor there a French +trading vessel put in, apparently for water. She had the dregs of +a mixed crew of Lascars and Portuguese, who said they had lost the +rest of their men by desertion, and that the captain and mate had +been carried off by fever. There was something so queer in their +story that our skipper took the law in his own hands, and put me on +board of her with a salvage crew. But that night the French crew +mutinied, cut the cables, and would have got to sea if we had not +been armed and prepared, and managed to drive them below. When we +had got them under hatches for a few hours they parleyed, and +offered to go quietly ashore. As we were short of hands and unable +to take them with us, and as we had no evidence against them, we +let them go, took the ship to Callao, turned her over to the +authorities, lodged a claim for salvage, and continued our voyage. +When we returned we found the truth of the story was known. She +had been a French trader from Marseilles, owned by her captain; her +crew had mutinied in the Pacific, killed their officers and the +only passenger--the owner of the cargo. They had made away with +the cargo and a treasure of nearly half a million of Spanish gold +for trading purposes which belonged to the passenger. In course of +time the ship was sold for salvage and put into the South American +trade until the breaking out of the Californian gold excitement, +when she was sent with a cargo to San Francisco. That ship was the +Pontiac which your father bought." + +A slight shudder ran through the girl's frame. "I wish--I wish you +hadn't told me," she said. "I shall never close my eyes again +comfortably on board of her, I know." + +"I would say that you had purified her of ALL stains of her past-- +but there may be one that remains. And THAT in most people's eyes +would be no detraction. You look puzzled, Miss Nott--but I am +coming to the explanation and the end of my story. A ship of war +was sent to the island to punish the mutineers and pirates, for +such they were, but they could not be found. A private expedition +was sent to discover the treasure which they were supposed to have +buried, but in vain. About two months ago Mr. Sleight told me one +of his shipmates had sent him a Lascar sailor who had to dispose of +a valuable secret regarding the Pontiac for a percentage. That +secret was that the treasure was never taken by the mutineers out +of the Pontiac! They were about to land and bury it when we +boarded them. They took advantage of their imprisonment under +hatches to BURY IT IN THE SHIP. They hid it in the hold so +securely and safely that it was never detected by us or the Callao +authorities. I was then asked, as one who knew the vessel, to +undertake a private examination of her, with a view of purchasing +her from your father without awakening his suspicions. I assented. +You have my confession now, Miss Nott. You know my crime. I am at +your mercy." + +Rosey's arm only tightened around his own. Her eyes sought his. +"And you didn't find anything?" she said. + +The question sounded so oddly like Sleight's, that Renshaw returned +a little stiffly-- + +"I didn't look." + +"Why?" asked Rosey simply. + +"Because," stammered Renshaw, with an uneasy consciousness of +having exaggerated his sentiment, "it didn't seem honorable; it +didn't seem fair to you." + +"Oh, you silly! you might have looked and told ME." + +"But," said Renshaw, "do you think that would have been fair to +Sleight?" + +"As fair to him as to us. For, don't you see, it wouldn't belong +to any of us. It would belong to the friends or the family of the +man who lost it." + +"But there were no heirs," said Renshaw. "That was proved by some +impostor who pretended to be his brother, and libelled the Pontiac +at Callao, but the courts decided he was a lunatic." + +"Then it belongs to the poor pirates who risked their own lives for +it, rather than to Sleight, who did nothing." She was silent for a +moment, and then resumed with energy, "I believe he was at the +bottom of that attack last night." + +"I have thought so too," said Renshaw. + +"Then I must go back at once," she continued impulsively. "Father +must not be left alone." + +"Nor must YOU," said Renshaw, quickly. "Do let me return with you, +and share with you and your father the trouble I have brought upon +you. Do not," he added in a lower tone, "deprive me of the only +chance of expiating my offense, of making myself worthy your +forgiveness." + +"I am sure," said Rosey, lowering her lids and half withdrawing her +arm, "I am sure I have nothing to forgive. You did not believe the +treasure belonged to us any more than to anybody else, until you +knew ME--" + +"That is true," said the young man, attempting to take her hand. + +"I mean," said Rosey, blushing, and showing a distracting row of +little teeth in one of her infrequent laughs, "oh, you know what I +mean." She withdrew her arm gently, and became interested in the +selection of certain wayside bay leaves as they passed along. "All +the same, I don't believe in this treasure," she said abruptly, as +if to change the subject. "I don't believe it ever was hidden +inside the Pontiac." + +"That can easily be ascertained now," said Renshaw. + +"But it's a pity you didn't find it out while you were about it," +said Rosey. "It would have saved so much talk and trouble." + +"I have told you why I didn't search the ship," responded Renshaw, +with a slight bitterness. "But it seems I could only avoid being a +great rascal by becoming a great fool." + +"You never intended to be a rascal," said Rosey, earnestly, "and +you couldn't be a fool, except in heeding what a silly girl says. +I only meant if you had taken me into your confidence it would have +been better." + +"Might I not say the same to you regarding your friend, the old +Frenchman?" returned Renshaw. "What if I were to confess to you +that I lately suspected him of knowing the secret, and of trying to +gain your assistance?" + +Instead of indignantly repudiating the suggestion, to the young +man's great discomfiture, Rosey only knit her pretty brows, and +remained for some minutes silent. Presently she asked timidly,-- + +"Do you think it wrong to tell another person's secret for their +own good?" + +"No," said Renshaw, promptly. + +"Then I'll tell you Monsieur de Ferrieres's! But only because I +believe from what you have just said that he will turn out to have +some right to the treasure." + +Then with kindling eyes, and a voice eloquent with sympathy, Rosey +told the story of her accidental discovery of de Ferrieres's +miserable existence in the loft. Clothing it with the unconscious +poetry of her fresh, young imagination, she lightly passed over his +antique gallantry and grotesque weakness, exalting only his lonely +sufferings and mysterious wrongs. Renshaw listened, lost between +shame for his late suspicions and admiration for her thoughtful +delicacy, until she began to speak of de Ferrieres's strange +allusions to the foreign papers in his portmanteau. "I think some +were law papers, and I am almost certain I saw the word Callao +printed on one of them." + +"It may be so," said Renshaw, thoughtfully. "The old Frenchman has +always passed for a harmless, wandering eccentric. I hardly think +public curiosity has ever even sought to know his name, much less +his history. But had we not better first try to find if there IS +any property before we examine his claims to it?" + +"As you please," said Rosey, with a slight pout; "but you will find +it much easier to discover him than his treasure. It's always +easier to find the thing you're not looking for." + +"Until you want it," said Renshaw, with sudden gravity. + +"How pretty it looks over there," said Rosey, turning her conscious +eyes to the opposite mountain. + +"Very." + +They had reached the top of the hill, and in the near distance the +chimney of Madrono Cottage was even now visible. At the expected +sight they unconsciously stopped--unconsciously disappointed. +Rosey broke the embarrassing silence. + +"There's another way home, but it's a roundabout way," she said +timidly. + +"Let us take it," said Renshaw. + +She hesitated. "The boat goes at four, and we must return to- +night." + +"The more reason why we should make the most of our time now," said +Renshaw with a faint smile. "To-morrow all things may be changed; +to-morrow you may find yourself an heiress, Miss Nott. To-morrow," +he added, with a slight tremor in his voice, "I may have earned +your forgiveness, only to say farewell to you forever. Let me keep +this sunshine, this picture, this companionship with you long +enough to say now what perhaps I must not say to-morrow." + +They were silent for a moment, and then by a common instinct turned +together into a narrow trail, scarce wide enough for two, that +diverged from the straight practical path before them. It was +indeed a roundabout way home, so roundabout, in fact, that as they +wandered on it seemed even to double on its track, occasionally +lingering long and becoming indistinct under the shadow of madrono +and willow; at one time stopping blindly before a fallen tree in +the hollow, where they had quite lost it, and had to sit down to +recall it; a rough way, often requiring the mutual help of each +other's hands and eyes to tread together in security; an uncertain +way, not to be found without whispered consultation and concession, +and yet a way eventually bringing them hand in hand, happy and +hopeful, to the gate of Madrono Cottage. And if there was only +just time for Rosey to prepare to take the boat, it was due to the +deviousness of the way. If a stray curl was lying loose on Rosey's +cheek, and a long hair had caught in Renshaw's button, it was owing +to the roughness of the way; and if in the tones of their voices +and in the glances of their eyes there was a maturer seriousness, +it was due to the dim uncertainty of the path they had traveled, +and would hereafter tread together. + + +IX + + +When Mr. Nott had satisfied himself of Renshaw's departure, he +coolly bolted the door at the head of the companion way, thus +cutting off any communication with the lower deck. Taking a long +rifle from the rack above his berth, he carefully examined the +hammer and cap, and then cautiously let himself down through the +forehatch to the deck below. After a deliberate survey of the +still intact fastenings of the hatch over the forehold, he +proceeded quietly to unloose them again with the aid of the tools +that still lay there. When the hatch was once more free he lifted +it, and, withdrawing a few feet from the opening, sat himself down, +rifle in hand. A profound silence reigned throughout the lower +deck. + +"Ye kin rize up out o' that," said Nott gently. + +There was a stealthy rustle below that seemed to approach the +hatch, and then with a sudden bound the Lascar leaped on the deck. +But at the same instant Nott covered him with his rifle. A slight +shade of disappointment and surprise had crossed the old man's +face, and clouded his small round eyes at the apparition of the +Lascar, but his hand was none the less firm upon the trigger as the +frightened prisoner sank on his knees, with his hands clasped in +the attitude of supplication for mercy. + +"Ef you're thinkin' o' skippin' afore I've done with yer," said +Nott with labored gentleness, "I oughter warn ye that it's my style +to drop Injins at two hundred yards, and this deck ain't anywhere +mor'n fifty. It's an uncomfortable style, a nasty style--but it's +MY style. I thought I'd tell yer, so yer could take it easy where +you air. Where's Ferrers?" + +Even in the man's insane terror, his utter bewilderment at the +question was evident. "Ferrers?" he gasped; "don't know him, I +swear to God, boss." + +"P'r'aps," said Nott, with infinite cunning, "yer don't know the +man ez kem into the loft from the alley last night--p'r'aps yer +didn't see an airy Frenchman with a dyed moustache, eh? I thought +that would fetch ye!" he continued, as the man started at the +evidence that his vision of last night was a living man. "P'r'aps +you and him didn't break into this ship last night, jist to run off +with my darter Rosey? P'r'aps yer don't know Rosey, eh? P'r'aps +yer don't know ez Ferrers wants to marry her, and hez been hangin' +round yer ever since he left--eh?" + +Scarcely believing the evidence of his senses that the old man +whose treasure he had been trying to steal was utterly ignorant of +his real offense, and yet uncertain of the penalty of the other +crime of which he was accused, the Lascar writhed his body and +stammered vaguely, "Mercy! Mercy!" + +"Well," said Nott, cautiously, "ez I reckon the hide of a dead +Chinee nigger ain't any more vallyble than that of a dead Injin, I +don't care ef I let up on yer--seein' the cussedness ain't yours. +But ef I let yer off this once, you must take a message to Ferrers +from me." + +"Let me off this time, boss, and I swear to God I will," said the +Lascar eagerly. + +"Ye kin say to Ferrers--let me see--" deliberated Nott, leaning on +his rifle with cautious reflection. "Ye kin say to Ferrers like +this--sez you, 'Ferrers,' sez you, 'the old man sez that afore you +went away you sez to him, sez you, "I take my honor with me," sez +you'--have you got that?" interrupted Nott suddenly. + +"Yes, boss." + +"'I take my honor with me,' sez you," repeated Nott slowly. +"'Now,' sez you--'the old man sez, sez he--tell Ferrers, sez he, +that his honor havin' run away agin, he sends it back to him, and +ef he ever ketches it around after this, he'll shoot it on sight.' +Hev yer got that?" + +"Yes," stammered the bewildered captive. + +"Then git!" + +The Lascar sprang to his feet with the agility of a panther, leaped +through the hatch above him, and disappeared over the bow of the +ship with an unhesitating directness that showed that every avenue +of escape had been already contemplated by him. Slipping lightly +from the cutwater to the ground, he continued his flight, only +stopping at the private office of Mr. Sleight. + +When Mr. Renshaw and Rosey Nott arrived on board the Pontiac that +evening, they were astonished to find the passage before the cabin +completely occupied with trunks and boxes, and the bulk of their +household goods apparently in the process of removal. Mr. Nott, +who was superintending the work of two Chinamen, betrayed not only +no surprise at the appearance of the young people, but not the +remotest recognition of their own bewilderment at his occupation. + +"Kalkilatin'," he remarked casually to his daughter, "you'd rather +look arter your fixin's, Rosey, I've left 'em till the last. +P'r'aps yer and Mr. Renshaw wouldn't mind sittin' down on that +locker until I've strapped this yer box." + +"But what does it all mean, father?" said Rosey, taking the old man +by the lapels of his sea-jacket, and slightly emphasizing her +question. "What in the name of goodness are you doing?" + +"Breakin' camp, Rosey dear, breakin' camp, jist ez we uster," +replied Nott with cheerful philosophy. "Kinder like old times, +ain't it? Lord, Rosey," he continued, stopping and following up +the reminiscence, with the end of the rope in his hand as if it +were a clue, "don't ye mind that day we started outer Livermore +Pass, and seed the hull o' the Californy coast stretchin' yonder-- +eh? But don't ye be skeered, Rosey dear," he added quickly, as if +in recognition of the alarm expressed in her face. "I ain't +turning ye outer house and home; I've jist hired that 'ere Madrono +Cottage from the Peters ontil we kin look round." + +"But you're not leaving the ship, father," continued Rosey, +impetuously. "You haven't sold it to that man Sleight?" + +Mr. Nott rose and carefully closed the cabin door. Then drawing a +large wallet from his pocket, he said, "It's sing'lar ye should hev +got the name right the first pop, ain't it, Rosey? but it's +Sleight, sure enough, all the time. This yer check," he added, +producing a paper from the depths of the wallet, "this yer check +for 25,000 dollars is wot he paid for it only two hours ago." + +"But," said Renshaw, springing to his feet furiously, "you're +duped, swindled--betrayed!" + +"Young man," said Nott, throwing a certain dignity into his +habitual gesture of placing his hands on Renshaw's shoulders, "I +bought this yer ship five years ago jist ez she stood for 8,000 +dollars. Kalkilatin' wot she cost me in repairs and taxes, and wot +she brought me in since then, accordin' to my figgerin', I don't +call a clear profit of 15,000 dollars much of a swindle." + +"Tell him all," said Rosey, quickly, more alarmed at Renshaw's +despairing face than at the news itself. "Tell him everything, +Dick--Mr. Renshaw; it may not be too late." + +In a voice half choked with passionate indignation Renshaw +hurriedly repeated the story of the hidden treasure, and the plot +to rescue it, prompted frequently by Rosey's tenacious memory and +assisted by Rosey's deft and tactful explanations. But to their +surprise the imperturbable countenance of Abner Nott never altered; +a slight moisture of kindly paternal tolerance of their +extravagance glistened in his little eyes, but nothing more. + +"Ef there was a part o' this ship, a plank or a bolt ez I don't +know, ez I hevn't touched with my own hand, and looked into with my +own eyes, thar might be suthin' in that story. I don't let on to +be a sailor like YOU, but ez I know the ship ez a boy knows his +first hoss, as a woman knows her first babby, I reckon thar ain't +no treasure yer, onless it was brought into the Pontiac last night +by them chaps." + +"But are you mad! Sleight would not pay three times the value of +the ship to-day if he were not positive! And that positive +knowledge was gained last night by the villain who broke into the +Pontiac--no doubt the Lascar." + +"Surely," said Nott, meditatively. "The Lascar! There's suthin' +in that. That Lascar I fastened down in the hold last night +unbeknownst to you, Mr. Renshaw, and let him out again this morning +ekally unbeknownst." + +"And you let him carry his information to Sleight--without a word!" +said Renshaw, with a sickening sense of Nott's utter fatuity. + +"I sent him back with a message to the man he kem from," said Nott, +winking both his eyes at Renshaw, significantly, and making signs +behind his daughter's back. + +Rosey, conscious of her lover's irritation, and more eager to +soothe his impatience than from any faith in her suggestion, +interfered. "Why not examine the place where he was concealed? he +may have left some traces of his search." + +The two men looked at each other. "Seem' ez I've turned the +Pontiac over to Sleight jist ez it stands, I don't know ez it's +'xactly on the square," said Nott doubtfully. + +"You've a right to know at least WHAT you deliver to him," +interrupted Renshaw brusquely: "Bring a lantern." + +Followed by Rosey, Renshaw and Nott hurriedly sought the lower deck +and the open hatch of the forehold. The two men leaped down first +with the lantern, and then assisted Rosey to descend. Renshaw took +a step forward and uttered a cry. + +The rays of the lantern fell on the ship's side. The Lascar had, +during his forced seclusion, put back the boxes of treasure and +replaced the planking, yet not so carefully but that the quick eye +of Renshaw had discovered it. The next moment he had stripped away +the planking again, and the hurriedly-restored box which the Lascar +had found fell to the deck, scattering part of its ringing +contents. Rosey turned pale; Renshaw's eyes flashed fire; only +Abner Nott remained quiet and impassive. + +"Are you satisfied you have been duped?" said Renshaw passionately. + +To their surprise Mr. Nott stooped down, and picking up one of the +coins handed it gravely to Renshaw. "Would ye mind heftin' that +'ere coin in your hand--feelin' it, bitin' it, scrapin' it with a +knife, and kinder seein' how it compares with other coins?" + +"What do you mean?" said Renshaw. + +"I mean that that yer coin--that ALL the coins in this yer box, +that all the coins in them other boxes--and ther's forty on 'em--is +all and every one of 'em counterfeits!" + +The piece dropped unconsciously from Renshaw's hand, and striking +another that lay on the deck gave out a dull, suspicious ring. + +"They waz counterfeits got up by them Dutch supercargo sharps for +dealin' with the Injins and cannibals and South Sea heathens ez +bows down to wood and stone. If satisfied them ez well ez them +buttons ye puts in missionary boxes, I reckon, and 'cepting ez +freight, don't cost nothin'. I found 'em tucked in the ribs o' the +old Pontiac when I bought her, and I nailed 'em up in thar lest +they should fall into dishonest hands. It's a lucky thing, Mr. +Renshaw, that they comes into the honest fingers of a square man +like Sleight--ain't it?" + +He turned his small, guileless eyes upon Renshaw with such child- +like simplicity that it checked the hysterical laugh that was +rising to the young man's lips. + +"But did any one know of this but yourself?" + +"I reckon not. I once suspicioned that old cap'en Bowers, who was +always foolin' round the hold yer, must hev noticed the bulge in +the casin', but when he took to axin' questions I axed others--ye +know my style, Rosey? Come." + +He led the way grimly back to the cabin, the young people +following; but turning suddenly at the companionway he observed +Renshaw's arm around the waist of his daughter. + +He said nothing until they had reached the cabin, when he closed +the door softly, and looking at them both gently, said with +infinite cunning-- + +"Ef it isn't too late, Rosey, ye kin tell this young man ez how I +forgive him for havin' diskivered THE TREASURE of the Pontiac." + + . . . . . . . . . + +It was nearly eighteen months afterwards that Mr. Nott one morning +entered the room of his son-in-law at Madrono Cottage. Drawing him +aside, he said with his old air of mystery, "Now ez Rosey's ailin' +and don't seem to be so eager to diskiver what's become of Mr. +Ferrers, I don't mind tellin' ye that over a year ago I heard he +died suddenly in Sacramento. Thar was suthin' in the paper about +his bein' a lunatic and claimin' to be a relation to somebody on +the Pontiac; but likes ez not it's only the way those newspaper +fellows got hold of the story of his wantin' to marry Rosey." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of By Shore and Sedge, by Bret Harte + diff --git a/old/bysns10.zip b/old/bysns10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8eea8c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/bysns10.zip |