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diff --git a/old/awotp10.txt b/old/awotp10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a07a05 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/awotp10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4374 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext A Waif of the Plains, by Bret Harte +#10 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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At +times an open space, blackened and burnt in an irregular circle, +with a shred of newspaper, an old rag, or broken tin can lying in +the ashes. Beyond these always a low dark line that seemed to sink +into the ground at night, and rose again in the morning with the +first light, but never otherwise changed its height and distance. +A sense of always moving with some indefinite purpose, but of +always returning at night to the same place--with the same +surroundings, the same people, the same bedclothes, and the same +awful black canopy dropped down from above. A chalky taste of dust +on the mouth and lips, a gritty sense of earth on the fingers, and +an all-pervading heat and smell of cattle. + +This was "The Great Plains" as they seemed to two children from the +hooded depth of an emigrant wagon, above the swaying heads of +toiling oxen, in the summer of 1852. + +It had appeared so to them for two weeks, always the same and +always without the least sense to them of wonder or monotony. When +they viewed it from the road, walking beside the wagon, there was +only the team itself added to the unvarying picture. One of the +wagons bore on its canvas hood the inscription, in large black +letters, "Off to California!" on the other "Root, Hog, or Die," but +neither of them awoke in the minds of the children the faintest +idea of playfulness or jocularity. Perhaps it was difficult to +connect the serious men, who occasionally walked beside them and +seemed to grow more taciturn and depressed as the day wore on, with +this past effusive pleasantry. + +Yet the impressions of the two children differed slightly. The +eldest, a boy of eleven, was apparently new to the domestic habits +and customs of a life to which the younger, a girl of seven, was +evidently native and familiar. The food was coarse and less +skillfully prepared than that to which he had been accustomed. +There was a certain freedom and roughness in their intercourse, a +simplicity that bordered almost on rudeness in their domestic +arrangements, and a speech that was at times almost untranslatable +to him. He slept in his clothes, wrapped up in blankets; he was +conscious that in the matter of cleanliness he was left to himself +to overcome the difficulties of finding water and towels. But it +is doubtful if in his youthfulness it affected him more than a +novelty. He ate and slept well, and found his life amusing. Only +at times the rudeness of his companions, or, worse, an indifference +that made him feel his dependency upon them, awoke a vague sense of +some wrong that had been done to him which while it was voiceless +to all others and even uneasily put aside by himself, was still +always slumbering in his childish consciousness. + +To the party he was known as an orphan put on the train at "St. Jo" +by some relative of his stepmother, to be delivered to another +relative at Sacramento. As his stepmother had not even taken leave +of him, but had entrusted his departure to the relative with whom +he had been lately living, it was considered as an act of +"riddance," and accepted as such by her party, and even vaguely +acquiesced in by the boy himself. What consideration had been +offered for his passage he did not know; he only remembered that he +had been told "to make himself handy." This he had done +cheerfully, if at times with the unskillfulness of a novice; but it +was not a peculiar or a menial task in a company where all took +part in manual labor, and where existence seemed to him to bear the +charm of a prolonged picnic. Neither was he subjected to any +difference of affection or treatment from Mrs. Silsbee, the mother +of his little companion, and the wife of the leader of the train. +Prematurely old, of ill-health, and harassed with cares, she had no +time to waste in discriminating maternal tenderness for her +daughter, but treated the children with equal and unbiased +querulousness. + +The rear wagon creaked, swayed, and rolled on slowly and heavily. +The hoofs of the draft-oxen, occasionally striking in the dust with +a dull report, sent little puffs like smoke on either side of the +track. Within, the children were playing "keeping store." The +little girl, as an opulent and extravagant customer, was purchasing +of the boy, who sat behind a counter improvised from a nail-keg and +the front seat, most of the available contents of the wagon, either +under their own names or an imaginary one as the moment suggested, +and paying for them in the easy and liberal currency of dried beans +and bits of paper. Change was given by the expeditious method of +tearing the paper into smaller fragments. The diminution of stock +was remedied by buying the same article over again under a +different name. Nevertheless, in spite of these favorable +commercial conditions, the market seemed dull. + +"I can show you a fine quality of sheeting at four cents a yard, +double width," said the boy, rising and leaning on his fingers on +the counter as he had seen the shopmen do. "All wool and will +wash," he added, with easy gravity. + +"I can buy it cheaper at Jackson's," said the girl, with the +intuitive duplicity of her bargaining sex. + +"Very well," said the boy. "I won't play any more." + +"Who cares?" said the girl indifferently. The boy here promptly +upset the counter; the rolled-up blanket which had deceitfully +represented the desirable sheeting falling on the wagon floor. It +apparently suggested a new idea to the former salesman. "I say! +let's play 'damaged stock.' See, I'll tumble all the things down +here right on top o' the others, and sell 'em for less than cost." + +The girl looked up. The suggestion was bold, bad, and momentarily +attractive. But she only said "No," apparently from habit, picked +up her doll, and the boy clambered to the front of the wagon. The +incomplete episode terminated at once with that perfect +forgetfulness, indifference, and irresponsibility common to all +young animals. If either could have flown away or bounded off +finally at that moment, they would have done so with no more +concern for preliminary detail than a bird or squirrel. The wagon +rolled steadily on. The boy could see that one of the teamsters +had climbed up on the tail-board of the preceding vehicle. The +other seemed to be walking in a dusty sleep. + +"Kla'uns," said the girl. + +The boy, without turning his head, responded, "Susy." + +"Wot are you going to be?" said the girl. + +"Goin' to be?" repeated Clarence. + +"When you is growed," explained Susy. + +Clarence hesitated. His settled determination had been to become a +pirate, merciless yet discriminating. But reading in a bethumbed +"Guide to the Plains" that morning of Fort Lamarie and Kit Carson, +he had decided upon the career of a "scout," as being more +accessible and requiring less water. Yet, out of compassion for +Susy's possible ignorance, he said neither, and responded with the +American boy's modest conventionality, "President." It was safe, +required no embarrassing description, and had been approved by +benevolent old gentlemen with their hands on his head. + +"I'm goin' to be a parson's wife," said Susy, "and keep hens, and +have things giv' to me. Baby clothes, and apples, and apple sass-- +and melasses! and more baby clothes! and pork when you kill." + +She had thrown herself at the bottom of the wagon, with her back +towards him and her doll in her lap. He could see the curve of her +curly head, and beyond, her bare dimpled knees, which were raised, +and over which she was trying to fold the hem of her brief skirt. + +"I wouldn't be a President's wife," she said presently. + +"You couldn't!" + +"Could if I wanted to!" + +"Couldn't!" + +"Could now!" + +"Couldn't!" + +"Why?" + +Finding it difficult to explain his convictions of her +ineligibility, Clarence thought it equally crushing not to give +any. There was a long silence. It was very hot and dusty. The +wagon scarcely seemed to move. Clarence gazed at the vignette of +the track behind them formed by the hood of the rear. Presently he +rose and walked past her to the tail-board. "Goin' to get down," +he said, putting his legs over. + +"Maw says 'No,'" said Susy. + +Clarence did not reply, but dropped to the ground beside the slowly +turning wheels. Without quickening his pace he could easily keep +his hand on the tail-board. + +"Kla'uns." + +He looked up. + +"Take me." + +She had already clapped on her sun-bonnet and was standing at the +edge of the tail-board, her little arms extended in such perfect +confidence of being caught that the boy could not resist. He +caught her cleverly. They halted a moment and let the lumbering +vehicle move away from them, as it swayed from side to side as if +laboring in a heavy sea. They remained motionless until it had +reached nearly a hundred yards, and then, with a sudden half-real, +half-assumed, but altogether delightful trepidation, ran forward +and caught up with it again. This they repeated two or three times +until both themselves and the excitement were exhausted, and they +again plodded on hand in hand. Presently Clarence uttered a cry. + +"My! Susy--look there!" + +The rear wagon had once more slipped away from them a considerable +distance. Between it and them, crossing its track, a most +extraordinary creature had halted. + +At first glance it seemed a dog--a discomfited, shameless, +ownerless outcast of streets and byways, rather than an honest +stray of some drover's train. It was so gaunt, so dusty, so +greasy, so slouching, and so lazy! But as they looked at it more +intently they saw that the grayish hair of its back had a bristly +ridge, and there were great poisonous-looking dark blotches on its +flanks, and that the slouch of its haunches was a peculiarity of +its figure, and not the cowering of fear. As it lifted its +suspicious head towards them they could see that its thin lips, too +short to cover its white teeth, were curled in a perpetual sneer. + +"Here, doggie!" said Clarence excitedly. "Good dog! Come." + +Susy burst into a triumphant laugh. "Et tain't no dog, silly; it's +er coyote." + +Clarence blushed. It wasn't the first time the pioneer's daughter +had shown her superior knowledge. He said quickly, to hide his +discomfiture, "I'll ketch him, any way; he's nothin' mor'n a ki yi." + +"Ye can't, tho," said Susy, shaking her sun-bonnet. "He's faster +nor a hoss!" + +Nevertheless, Clarence ran towards him, followed by Susy. When +they had come within twenty feet of him, the lazy creature, without +apparently the least effort, took two or three limping bounds to +one side, and remained at the same distance as before. They +repeated this onset three or four times with more or less +excitement and hilarity, the animal evading them to one side, but +never actually retreating before them. Finally, it occurred to +them both that although they were not catching him they were not +driving him away. The consequences of that thought were put into +shape by Susy with round-eyed significance. + +"Kla'uns, he bites." + +Clarence picked up a hard sun-baked clod, and, running forward, +threw it at the coyote. It was a clever shot, and struck him on +his slouching haunches. He snapped and gave a short snarling yelp, +and vanished. Clarence returned with a victorious air to his +companion. But she was gazing intently in the opposite direction, +and for the first time he discovered that the coyote had been +leading them half round a circle. + +"Kla'uns," said Susy, with a hysterical little laugh. + +"Well?" + +"The wagon's gone." + +Clarence started. It was true. Not only their wagon, but the +whole train of oxen and teamsters had utterly disappeared, +vanishing as completely as if they had been caught up in a +whirlwind or engulfed in the earth! Even the low cloud of dust +that usually marked their distant course by day was nowhere to be +seen. The long level plain stretched before them to the setting +sun, without a sign or trace of moving life or animation. That +great blue crystal bowl, filled with dust and fire by day, with +stars and darkness by night, which had always seemed to drop its +rim round them everywhere and shut them in, seemed to them now to +have been lifted to let the train pass out, and then closed down +upon them forever. + + +CHAPTER II + + +Their first sensation was one of purely animal freedom. + +They looked at each other with sparkling eyes and long silent +breaths. But this spontaneous outburst of savage nature soon +passed. Susy's little hand presently reached forward and clutched +Clarence's jacket. The boy understood it, and said quickly,-- + +"They ain't gone far, and they'll stop as soon as they find us +gone." + +They trotted on a little faster; the sun they had followed every +day and the fresh wagon tracks being their unfailing guides; the +keen, cool air of the plains, taking the place of that all- +pervading dust and smell of the perspiring oxen, invigorating them +with its breath. + +"We ain't skeered a bit, are we?" said Susy. + +"What's there to be afraid of?" said Clarence scornfully. He said +this none the less strongly because he suddenly remembered that +they had been often left alone in the wagon for hours without being +looked after, and that their absence might not be noticed until the +train stopped to encamp at dusk, two hours later. They were not +running very fast, yet either they were more tired than they knew, +or the air was thinner, for they both seemed to breathe quickly. +Suddenly Clarence stopped. + +"There they are now." + +He was pointing to a light cloud of dust in the far-off horizon, +from which the black hulk of a wagon emerged for a moment and was +lost. But even as they gazed the cloud seemed to sink like a fairy +mirage to the earth again, the whole train disappeared, and only +the empty stretching track returned. They did not know that this +seemingly flat and level plain was really undulatory, and that the +vanished train had simply dipped below their view on some further +slope even as it had once before. But they knew they were +disappointed, and that disappointment revealed to them the fact +that they had concealed it from each other. The girl was the first +to succumb, and burst into a quick spasm of angry tears. That +single act of weakness called out the boy's pride and strength. +There was no longer an equality of suffering; he had become her +protector; he felt himself responsible for both. Considering her +no longer his equal, he was no longer frank with her. + +"There's nothin' to boo-boo for," he said, with a half-affected +brusqueness. "So quit, now! They'll stop in a minit, and send +some one back for us. Shouldn't wonder if they're doin' it now." + +But Susy, with feminine discrimination detecting the hollow ring in +his voice, here threw herself upon him and began to beat him +violently with her little fists. "They ain't! They ain't! They +ain't. You know it! How dare you?" Then, exhausted with her +struggles, she suddenly threw herself flat on the dry grass, shut +her eyes tightly, and clutched at the stubble. + +"Get up," said the boy, with a pale, determined face that seemed to +have got much older. + +"You leave me be," said Susy. + +"Do you want me to go away and leave you?" asked the boy. + +Susy opened one blue eye furtively in the secure depths of her sun- +bonnet, and gazed at his changed face. + +"Ye-e-s." + +He pretended to turn away, but really to look at the height of the +sinking sun. + +"Kla'uns!" + +"Well?" + +"Take me." + +She was holding up her hands. He lifted her gently in his arms, +dropping her head over his shoulder. "Now," he said cheerfully, +"you keep a good lookout that way, and I this, and we'll soon be +there." + +The idea seemed to please her. After Clarence had stumbled on for +a few moments, she said, "Do you see anything, Kla'uns?" + +"Not yet." + +"No more don't I." This equality of perception apparently +satisfied her. Presently she lay more limp in his arms. She was +asleep. + +The sun was sinking lower; it had already touched the edge of the +horizon, and was level with his dazzled and straining eyes. At +times it seemed to impede his eager search and task his vision. +Haze and black spots floated across the horizon, and round wafers, +like duplicates of the sun, glittered back from the dull surface of +the plains. Then he resolved to look no more until he had counted +fifty, a hundred, but always with the same result, the return of +the empty, unending plains--the disk growing redder as it neared +the horizon, the fire it seemed to kindle as it sank, but nothing +more. + +Staggering under his burden, he tried to distract himself by +fancying how the discovery of their absence would be made. He +heard the listless, half-querulous discussion about the locality +that regularly pervaded the nightly camp. He heard the +discontented voice of Jake Silsbee as he halted beside the wagon, +and said, "Come out o' that now, you two, and mighty quick about +it." He heard the command harshly repeated. He saw the look of +irritation on Silsbee's dusty, bearded face, that followed his +hurried glance into the empty wagon. He heard the query, "What's +gone o' them limbs now?" handed from wagon to wagon. He heard a +few oaths; Mrs. Silsbee's high rasping voice, abuse of himself, the +hurried and discontented detachment of a search party, Silsbee and +one of the hired men, and vociferation and blame. Blame always for +himself, the elder, who might have "known better!" A little fear, +perhaps, but he could not fancy either pity or commiseration. +Perhaps the thought upheld his pride; under the prospect of +sympathy he might have broken down. + +At last he stumbled, and stopped to keep himself from falling +forward on his face. He could go no further; his breath was spent; +he was dripping with perspiration; his legs were trembling under +him; there was a roaring in his ears; round red disks of the sun +were scattered everywhere around him like spots of blood. To the +right of the trail there seemed to be a slight mound where he could +rest awhile, and yet keep his watchful survey of the horizon. But +on reaching it he found that it was only a tangle of taller +mesquite grass, into which he sank with his burden. Nevertheless, +if useless as a point of vantage, it offered a soft couch for Susy, +who seemed to have fallen quite naturally into her usual afternoon +siesta, and in a measure it shielded her from a cold breeze that +had sprung up from the west. Utterly exhausted himself, but not +daring to yield to the torpor that seemed to be creeping over him, +Clarence half sat, half knelt down beside her, supporting himself +with one hand, and, partly hidden in the long grass, kept his +straining eyes fixed on the lonely track. + +The red disk was sinking lower. It seemed to have already crumbled +away a part of the distance with its eating fires. As it sank +still lower, it shot out long, luminous rays, diverging fan-like +across the plain, as if, in the boy's excited fancy, it too were +searching for the lost estrays. And as one long beam seemed to +linger over his hiding-place, he even thought that it might serve +as a guide to Silsbee and the other seekers, and was constrained to +stagger to his feet, erect in its light. But it soon sank, and +with it Clarence dropped back again to his crouching watch. Yet he +knew that the daylight was still good for an hour, and with the +withdrawal of that mystic sunset glory objects became even more +distinct and sharply defined than at any other time. And with the +merciful sheathing of that flaming sword which seemed to have +swayed between him and the vanished train, his eyes already felt a +blessed relief. + + +CHAPTER III + + +With the setting of the sun an ominous silence fell. He could hear +the low breathing of Susy, and even fancied he could hear the +beating of his own heart in that oppressive hush of all nature. +For the day's march had always been accompanied by the monotonous +creaking of wheels and axles, and even the quiet of the night +encampment had been always more or less broken by the movement of +unquiet sleepers on the wagon beds, or the breathing of the cattle. +But here there was neither sound nor motion. Susy's prattle, and +even the sound of his own voice, would have broken the benumbing +spell, but it was a part of his growing self-denial now that he +refrained from waking her even by a whisper. She would awaken soon +enough to thirst and hunger, perhaps, and then what was he to do? +If that looked-for help would only come now--while she still slept. +For it was part of his boyish fancy that if he could deliver her +asleep and undemonstrative of fear and suffering, he would be less +blameful, and she less mindful of her trouble. If it did not come-- +but he would not think of that yet! If she was thirsty meantime-- +well, it might rain, and there was always the dew which they used +to brush off the morning grass; he would take off his shirt and +catch it in that, like a shipwrecked mariner. It would be funny, +and make her laugh. For himself he would not laugh; he felt he was +getting very old and grown up in this loneliness. + +It was getting darker--they should be looking into the wagons now. +A new doubt began to assail him. Ought he not, now that he was +rested, make the most of the remaining moments of daylight, and +before the glow faded from the west, when he would no longer have +any bearings to guide him? But there was always the risk of waking +her!--to what? The fear of being confronted again with HER fear +and of being unable to pacify her, at last decided him to remain. +But he crept softly through the grass, and in the dust of the track +traced the four points of the compass, as he could still determine +them by the sunset light, with a large printed W to indicate the +west! This boyish contrivance particularly pleased him. If he had +only had a pole, a stick, or even a twig, on which to tie his +handkerchief and erect it above the clump of mesquite as a signal +to the searchers in case they should be overcome by fatigue or +sleep, he would have been happy. But the plain was barren of brush +or timber; he did not dream that this omission and the very +unobtrusiveness of his hiding-place would be his salvation from a +greater danger. + +With the coming darkness the wind arose and swept the plain with a +long-drawn sigh. This increased to a murmur, till presently the +whole expanse--before sunk in awful silence--seemed to awake with +vague complaints, incessant sounds, and low moanings. At times he +thought he heard the halloaing of distant voices, at times it +seemed as a whisper in his own ear. In the silence that followed +each blast he fancied he could detect the creaking of the wagon, +the dull thud of the oxen's hoofs, or broken fragments of speech, +blown and scattered even as he strained his ears to listen by the +next gust. This tension of the ear began to confuse his brain, as +his eyes had been previously dazzled by the sunlight, and a strange +torpor began to steal over his faculties. Once or twice his head +dropped. + +He awoke with a start. A moving figure had suddenly uplifted +itself between him and the horizon! It was not twenty yards away, +so clearly outlined against the still luminous sky that it seemed +even nearer. A human figure, but so disheveled, so fantastic, and +yet so mean and puerile in its extravagance, that it seemed the +outcome of a childish dream. It was a mounted figure, but so +ludicrously disproportionate to the pony it bestrode, whose slim +legs were stiffly buried in the dust in a breathless halt, that it +might have been a straggler from some vulgar wandering circus. A +tall hat, crownless and rimless, a castaway of civilization, +surmounted by a turkey's feather, was on its head; over its +shoulders hung a dirty tattered blanket that scarcely covered the +two painted legs which seemed clothed in soiled yellow hose. In +one hand it held a gun; the other was bent above its eyes in eager +scrutiny of some distant point beyond and east of the spot where +the children lay concealed. Presently, with a dozen quick +noiseless strides of the pony's legs, the apparition moved to the +right, its gaze still fixed on that mysterious part of the horizon. +There was no mistaking it now! The painted Hebraic face, the large +curved nose, the bony cheek, the broad mouth, the shadowed eyes, +the straight long matted locks! It was an Indian! Not the +picturesque creature of Clarence's imagination, but still an +Indian! The boy was uneasy, suspicious, antagonistic, but not +afraid. He looked at the heavy animal face with the superiority of +intelligence, at the half-naked figure with the conscious supremacy +of dress, at the lower individuality with the contempt of a higher +race. Yet a moment after, when the figure wheeled and disappeared +towards the undulating west, a strange chill crept over him. Yet +he did not know that in this puerile phantom and painted pigmy the +awful majesty of Death had passed him by. + +"Mamma!" + +It was Susy's voice, struggling into consciousness. Perhaps she +had been instinctively conscious of the boy's sudden fears. + +"Hush!" + +He had just turned to the objective point of the Indian's gaze. +There WAS something! A dark line was moving along with the +gathering darkness. For a moment he hardly dared to voice his +thoughts even to himself. It was a following train overtaking them +from the rear! And from the rapidity of its movements a train with +horses, hurrying forward to evening camp. He had never dreamt of +help from that quarter. This was what the Indian's keen eyes had +been watching, and why he had so precipitately fled. + +The strange train was now coming up at a round trot. It was +evidently well appointed with five or six large wagons and several +outriders. In half an hour it would be here. Yet he refrained +from waking Susy, who had fallen asleep again; his old superstition +of securing her safety first being still uppermost. He took off +his jacket to cover her shoulders, and rearranged her nest. Then +he glanced again at the coming train. But for some unaccountable +reason it had changed its direction, and instead of following the +track that should have brought it to his side it had turned off to +the left! In ten minutes it would pass abreast of him a mile and a +half away! If he woke Susy now, he knew she would be helpless in +her terror, and he could not carry her half that distance. He +might rush to the train himself and return with help, but he would +never leave her alone--in the darkness. Never! If she woke she +would die of fright, perhaps, or wander blindly and aimlessly away. +No! The train would pass and with it that hope of rescue. +Something was in his throat, but he gulped it down and was quiet +again albeit he shivered in the night wind. + +The train was nearly abreast of him now. He ran out of the tall +grass, waving his straw hat above his head in the faint hope of +attracting attention. But he did not go far, for he found to his +alarm that when he turned back again the clump of mesquite was +scarcely distinguishable from the rest of the plain. This settled +all question of his going. Even if he reached the train and +returned with some one, how would he ever find her again in this +desolate expanse? + +He watched the train slowly pass--still mechanically, almost +hopelessly, waving his hat as he ran up and down before the +mesquite, as if he were waving a last farewell to his departing +hope. Suddenly it appeared to him that three of the outriders who +were preceding the first wagon had changed their shape. They were +no longer sharp, oblong, black blocks against the horizon but had +become at first blurred and indistinct, then taller and narrower, +until at last they stood out like exclamation points against the +sky. He continued to wave his hat, they continued to grow taller +and narrower. He understood it now--the three transformed blocks +were the outriders coming towards him. + +This is what he had seen-- + +[Drawing of three black blocks] + +This is what he saw now-- + +! ! ! + +He ran back to Susy to see if she still slept, for his foolish +desire to have her saved unconsciously was stronger than ever now +that safety seemed so near. She was still sleeping, although she +had moved slightly. He ran to the front again. + +The outriders had apparently halted. What were they doing? Why +wouldn't they come on? + +Suddenly a blinding flash of light seemed to burst from one of +them. Away over his head something whistled like a rushing bird, +and sped off invisible. They had fired a gun; they were signaling +to him--Clarence--like a grown-up man. He would have given his +life at that moment to have had a gun. But he could only wave his +hat frantically. + +One of the figures here bore away and impetuously darted forward +again. He was coming nearer, powerful, gigantic, formidable, as he +loomed through the darkness. All at once he threw up his arm with +a wild gesture to the others; and his voice, manly, frank, and +assuring, came ringing before him. + +"Hold up! Good God! It's no Injun--it's a child!" + +In another moment he had reined up beside Clarence and leaned over +him, bearded, handsome, powerful and protecting. + +"Hallo! What's all this? What are you doing here?" + +"Lost from Mr. Silsbee's train," said Clarence, pointing to the +darkened west. + +"Lost?--how long?" + +"About three hours. I thought they'd come back for us," said +Clarence apologetically to this big, kindly man. + +"And you kalkilated to wait here for 'em?" + +"Yes, yes--I did--till I saw you." + +"Then why in thunder didn't you light out straight for us, instead +of hanging round here and drawing us out?" + +The boy hung his head. He knew his reasons were unchanged, but all +at once they seemed very foolish and unmanly to speak out. + +"Only that we were on the keen jump for Injins," continued the +stranger, "we wouldn't have seen you at all, and might hev shot you +when we did. What possessed you to stay here?" + +The boy was still silent. "Kla'uns," said a faint, sleepy voice +from the mesquite, "take me." The rifle-shot had awakened Susy. + +The stranger turned quickly towards the sound. Clarence started +and recalled himself. "There," he said bitterly, "you've done it +now, you've wakened her! THAT'S why I stayed. I couldn't carry +her over there to you. I couldn't let her walk, for she'd be +frightened. I wouldn't wake her up, for she'd be frightened, and I +mightn't find her again. There!" He had made up his mind to be +abused, but he was reckless now that she was safe. + +The men glanced at each other. "Then," said the spokesman quietly, +"you didn't strike out for us on account of your sister?" + +"She ain't my sister," said Clarence quickly. "She's a little +girl. She's Mrs. Silsbee's little girl. We were in the wagon and +got down. It's my fault. I helped her down." + +The three men reined their horses closely round him, leaning +forward from their saddles, with their hands on their knees and +their heads on one side. "Then," said the spokesman gravely, "you +just reckoned to stay here, old man, and take your chances with her +rather than run the risk of frightening or leaving her--though it +was your one chance of life!" + +"Yes," said the boy, scornful of this feeble, grown-up repetition. + +"Come here." + +The boy came doggedly forward. The man pushed back the well-worn +straw hat from Clarence's forehead and looked into his lowering +face. With his hand still on the boy's head he turned him round to +the others, and said quietly,-- + +"Suthin of a pup, eh?" + +"You bet," they responded. + +The voice was not unkindly, although the speaker had thrown his +lower jaw forward as if to pronounce the word "pup" with a humorous +suggestion of a mastiff. Before Clarence could make up his mind if +the epithet was insulting or not, the man put out his stirruped +foot, and, with a gesture of invitation, said, "Jump up." + +"But Susy," said Clarence, drawing back. + +"Look; she's making up to Phil already." + +Clarence looked. Susy had crawled out of the mesquite, and with +her sun-bonnet hanging down her back, her curls tossed around her +face, still flushed with sleep, and Clarence's jacket over her +shoulders, was gazing up with grave satisfaction in the laughing +eyes of one of the men who was with outstretched hands bending over +her. Could he believe his senses? The terror-stricken, willful, +unmanageable Susy, whom he would have translated unconsciously to +safety without this terrible ordeal of being awakened to the loss +of her home and parents at any sacrifice to himself--this ingenuous +infant was absolutely throwing herself with every appearance of +forgetfulness into the arms of the first new-comer! Yet his +perception of this fact was accompanied by no sense of ingratitude. +For her sake he felt relieved, and with a boyish smile of +satisfaction and encouragement vaulted into the saddle before the +stranger. + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The dash forward to the train, securely held in the saddle by the +arms of their deliverers, was a secret joy to the children that +seemed only too quickly over. The resistless gallop of the fiery +mustangs, the rush of the night wind, the gathering darkness in +which the distant wagons, now halted and facing them, looked like +domed huts in the horizon--all these seemed but a delightful and +fitting climax to the events of the day. In the sublime +forgetfulness of youth, all they had gone through had left no +embarrassing record behind it; they were willing to repeat their +experiences on the morrow, confident of some equally happy end. +And when Clarence, timidly reaching his hand towards the horse-hair +reins lightly held by his companion, had them playfully yielded up +to him by that hold and confident rider, the boy felt himself +indeed a man. + +But a greater surprise was in store for them. As they neared the +wagons, now formed into a circle with a certain degree of military +formality, they could see that the appointments of the strange +party were larger and more liberal than their own, or indeed +anything they had ever known of the kind. Forty or fifty horses +were tethered within the circle, and the camp fires were already +blazing. Before one of them a large tent was erected, and through +the parted flaps could be seen a table actually spread with a white +cloth. Was it a school feast, or was this their ordinary household +arrangement? Clarence and Susy thought of their own dinners, +usually laid on bare boards beneath the sky, or under the low hood +of the wagon in rainy weather, and marveled. And when they finally +halted, and were lifted from their horses, and passed one wagon +fitted up as a bedroom and another as a kitchen, they could only +nudge each other with silent appreciation. But here again the +difference already noted in the quality of the sensations of the +two children was observable. Both were equally and agreeably +surprised. But Susy's wonder was merely the sense of novelty and +inexperience, and a slight disbelief in the actual necessity of +what she saw; while Clarence, whether from some previous general +experience or peculiar temperament, had the conviction that what he +saw here was the usual custom, and what he had known with the +Silsbees was the novelty. The feeling was attended with a slight +sense of wounded pride for Susy, as if her enthusiasm had exposed +her to ridicule. + +The man who had carried him, and seemed to be the head of the +party, had already preceded them to the tent, and presently +reappeared with a lady with whom he had exchanged a dozen hurried +words. They seemed to refer to him and Susy; but Clarence was too +much preoccupied with the fact that the lady was pretty, that her +clothes were neat and thoroughly clean, that her hair was tidy and +not rumpled, and that, although she wore an apron, it was as clean +as her gown, and even had ribbons on it, to listen to what was +said. And when she ran eagerly forward, and with a fascinating +smile lifted the astonished Susy in her arms, Clarence, in his +delight for his young charge, quite forgot that she had not noticed +him. The bearded man, who seemed to be the lady's husband, +evidently pointed out the omission, with some additions that +Clarence could not catch; for after saying, with a pretty pout, +"Well, why shouldn't he?" she came forward with the same dazzling +smile, and laid her small and clean white hand upon his shoulder. + +"And so you took good care of the dear little thing? She's such an +angel, isn't she? and you must love her very much." + +Clarence colored with delight. It was true it had never occurred +to him to look at Susy in the light of a celestial visitant, and I +fear he was just then more struck with the fair complimenter than +the compliment to his companion, but he was pleased for her sake. +He was not yet old enough to be conscious of the sex's belief in +its irresistible domination over mankind at all ages, and that +Johnny in his check apron would be always a hopeless conquest of +Jeannette in her pinafore, and that he ought to have been in love +with Susy. + +Howbeit, the lady suddenly whisked her away to the recesses of her +own wagon, to reappear later, washed, curled, and beribboned like a +new doll, and Clarence was left alone with the husband and another +of the party. + +"Well, my boy, you haven't told me your name yet." + +"Clarence, sir." + +"So Susy calls you, but what else?" + +"Clarence Brant." + +"Any relation to Colonel Brant?" asked the second man carelessly. + +"He was my father," said the boy, brightening under this faint +prospect of recognition in his loneliness. + +The two men glanced at each other. The leader looked at the boy +curiously, and said,-- + +"Are you the son of Colonel Brant, of Louisville?" + +"Yes, sir," said the boy, with a dim stirring of uneasiness in his +heart. "But he's dead now," he added finally. + +"Ah, when did he die?" said the man quickly. + +"Oh, a long time ago. I don't remember him much. I was very +little," said the boy, half apologetically. + +"Ah, you don't remember him?" + +"No," said Clarence shortly. He was beginning to fall back upon +that certain dogged repetition which in sensitive children arises +from their hopeless inability to express their deeper feelings. He +also had an instinctive consciousness that this want of a knowledge +of his father was part of that vague wrong that had been done him. +It did not help his uneasiness that he could see that one of the +two men, who turned away with a half-laugh, misunderstood or did +not believe him. + +"How did you come with the Silsbees?" asked the first man. + +Clarence repeated mechanically, with a child's distaste of +practical details, how he had lived with an aunt at St. Jo, and how +his stepmother had procured his passage with the Silsbees to +California, where he was to meet his cousin. All this with a lack +of interest and abstraction that he was miserably conscious told +against him, but he was yet helpless to resist. + +The first man remained thoughtful, and then glanced at Clarence's +sunburnt hands. Presently his large, good-humored smile returned. + +"Well, I suppose you are hungry?" + +"Yes," said Clarence shyly. "But--" + +"But what?" + +"I should like to wash myself a little," he returned hesitatingly, +thinking of the clean tent, the clean lady, and Susy's ribbons. + +"Certainly," said his friend, with a pleased look. "Come with me." +Instead of leading Clarence to the battered tin basin and bar of +yellow soap which had formed the toilet service of the Silsbee +party, he brought the boy into one of the wagons, where there was a +washstand, a china basin, and a cake of scented soap. Standing +beside Clarence, he watched him perform his ablutions with an +approving air which rather embarrassed his protege. Presently he +said, almost abruptly,-- + +"Do you remember your father's house at Louisville?" + +"Yes, sir; but it was a long time ago." + +Clarence remembered it as being very different from his home at St. +Joseph's, but from some innate feeling of diffidence he would have +shrunk from describing it in that way. He, however, said he +thought it was a large house. Yet the modest answer only made his +new friend look at him the more keenly. + +"Your father was Colonel Hamilton Brant, of Louisville, wasn't he?" +he said, half-confidentially. + +"Yes," said Clarence hopelessly. + +"Well," said his friend cheerfully, as if dismissing an abstruse +problem from his mind, "Let's go to supper." + +When they reached the tent again, Clarence noticed that the supper +was laid only for his host and wife and the second man--who was +familiarly called "Harry," but who spoke of the former always as +"Mr. and Mrs. Peyton"--while the remainder of the party, a dozen +men, were at a second camp fire, and evidently enjoying themselves +in a picturesque fashion. Had the boy been allowed to choose, he +would have joined them, partly because it seemed more "manly," and +partly that he dreaded a renewal of the questioning. + +But here, Susy, sitting bolt upright on an extemporized high stool, +happily diverted his attention by pointing to the empty chair +beside her. + +"Kla'uns," she said suddenly, with her usual clear and appalling +frankness, "they is chickens, and hamanaigs, and hot biksquits, and +lasses, and Mister Peyton says I kin have 'em all." + +Clarence, who had begun suddenly to feel that he was responsible +for Susy's deportment and was balefully conscious that she was +holding her plated fork in her chubby fist by its middle, and, from +his previous knowledge of her, was likely at any moment to plunge +it into the dish before her, said softly,-- + +"Hush!" + +"Yes, you shall, dear," said Mrs. Peyton, with tenderly beaming +assurance to Susy and a half-reproachful glance at the boy. "Eat +what you like, darling." + +"It's a fork," whispered the still uneasy Clarence, as Susy now +seemed inclined to stir her bowl of milk with it. + +"'Tain't, now, Kla'uns, it's only a split spoon," said Susy. + +But Mrs. Peyton, in her rapt admiration, took small note of these +irregularities, plying the child with food, forgetting her own +meal, and only stopping at times to lift back the forward straying +curls on Susy's shoulders. Mr. Peyton looked on gravely and +contentedly. Suddenly the eyes of husband and wife met. + +"She'd have been nearly as old as this, John," said Mrs. Peyton, in +a faint voice. + +John Peyton nodded without speaking, and turned his eyes away into +the gathering darkness. The man "Harry" also looked abstractedly +at his plate, as if he was saying grace. Clarence wondered who +"she" was, and why two little tears dropped from Mrs. Peyton's +lashes into Susy's milk, and whether Susy might not violently +object to it. He did not know until later that the Peytons had +lost their only child, and Susy comfortably drained this mingled +cup of a mother's grief and tenderness without suspicion. + +"I suppose we'll come up with their train early tomorrow, if some +of them don't find us to-night," said Mrs. Peyton, with a long sigh +and a regretful glance at Susy. "Perhaps we might travel together +for a little while," she added timidly. + +Harry laughed, and Mr. Peyton replied gravely, "I am afraid we +wouldn't travel with them, even for company's sake; and," he added, +in a lower and graver voice, "it's rather odd the search party +hasn't come upon us yet, though I'm keeping Pete and Hank +patrolling the trail to meet them." + +"It's heartless--so it is!" said Mrs. Peyton, with sudden +indignation. "It would be all very well if it was only this boy, +who can take care of himself; but to be so careless of a mere baby +like this, it's shameful!" + +For the first time Clarence tasted the cruelty of discrimination. +All the more keenly that he was beginning to worship, after his +boyish fashion, this sweet-faced, clean, and tender-hearted woman. +Perhaps Mr. Peyton noticed it, for he came quietly to his aid. + +"Maybe they knew better than we in what careful hands they had left +her," he said, with a cheerful nod towards Clarence. "And, again, +they may have been fooled as we were by Injin signs and left the +straight road." + +This suggestion instantly recalled to Clarence his vision in the +mesquite. Should he dare tell them? Would they believe him, or +would they laugh at him before her? He hesitated, and at last +resolved to tell it privately to the husband. When the meal was +ended, and he was made happy by Mrs. Peyton's laughing acceptance +of his offer to help her clear the table and wash the dishes, they +all gathered comfortably in front of the tent before the large camp +fire. At the other fire the rest of the party were playing cards +and laughing, but Clarence no longer cared to join them. He was +quite tranquil in the maternal propinquity of his hostess, albeit a +little uneasy as to his reticence about the Indian. + +"Kla'uns," said Susy, relieving a momentary pause, in her highest +voice, "knows how to speak. Speak, Kla'uns!" + +It appearing from Clarence's blushing explanation that this gift +was not the ordinary faculty of speech, but a capacity to recite +verse, he was politely pressed by the company for a performance. + +"Speak 'em, Kla'uns, the boy what stood unto the burnin' deck, and +said, 'The boy, oh, where was he?'" said Susy, comfortably lying +down on Mrs. Peyton's lap, and contemplating her bare knees in the +air. "It's 'bout a boy," she added confidentially to Mrs. Peyton, +"whose father wouldn't never, never stay with him on a burnin' +ship, though he said, 'Stay, father, stay,' ever so much." + +With this clear, lucid, and perfectly satisfactory explanation of +Mrs. Hemans's "Casabianca," Clarence began. Unfortunately, his +actual rendering of this popular school performance was more an +effort of memory than anything else, and was illustrated by those +wooden gestures which a Western schoolmaster had taught him. He +described the flames that "roared around him," by indicating with +his hand a perfect circle, of which he was the axis; he adjured his +father, the late Admiral Casabianca, by clasping his hands before +his chin, as if wanting to be manacled in an attitude which he was +miserably conscious was unlike anything he himself had ever felt or +seen before; he described that father "faint in death below," and +"the flag on high," with one single motion. Yet something that the +verses had kindled in his active imagination, perhaps, rather than +an illustration of the verses themselves, at times brightened his +gray eyes, became tremulous in his youthful voice, and I fear +occasionally incoherent on his lips. At times, when not conscious +of his affected art, the plain and all upon it seemed to him to +slip away into the night, the blazing camp fire at his feet to wrap +him in a fateful glory, and a vague devotion to something--he knew +not what--so possessed him that he communicated it, and probably +some of his own youthful delight in extravagant voice, to his +hearers, until, when he ceased with a glowing face, he was +surprised to find that the card players had deserted their camp +fires and gathered round the tent. + + +CHAPTER V + + +"You didn't say 'Stay, father, stay,' enough, Kla'uns," said Susy +critically. Then suddenly starting upright in Mrs. Peyton's lap, +she continued rapidly, "I kin dance. And sing. I kin dance High +Jambooree." + +"What's High Jambooree, dear?" asked Mrs. Peyton. + +"You'll see. Lemme down." And Susy slipped to the ground. + +The dance of High Jambooree, evidently of remote mystical African +origin, appeared to consist of three small skips to the right and +then to the left, accompanied by the holding up of very short +skirts, incessant "teetering" on the toes of small feet, the +exhibition of much bare knee and stocking, and a gurgling +accompaniment of childish laughter. Vehemently applauded, it left +the little performer breathless, but invincible and ready for fresh +conquest. + +"I kin sing, too," she gasped hurriedly, as if unwilling that the +applause should lapse. "I kin sing. Oh, dear! Kla'uns," +piteously, "WHAT is it I sing?" + +"Ben Bolt," suggested Clarence. + +"Oh, yes. Oh, don't you remember sweet Alers Ben Bolt?" began +Susy, in the same breath and the wrong key. "Sweet Alers, with +hair so brown, who wept with delight when you giv'd her a smile, +and--" with knitted brows and appealing recitative, "what's er rest +of it, Kla'uns?" + +"Who trembled with fear at your frown?" prompted Clarence. + +"Who trembled with fear at my frown?" shrilled Susy. "I forget er +rest. Wait! I kin sing--" + +"Praise God," suggested Clarence. + +"Yes." Here Susy, a regular attendant in camp and prayer-meetings, +was on firmer ground. + +Promptly lifting her high treble, yet with a certain acquired +deliberation, she began, "Praise God, from whom all blessings +flow." At the end of the second line the whispering and laughing +ceased. A deep voice to the right, that of the champion poker +player, suddenly rose on the swell of the third line. He was +instantly followed by a dozen ringing voices, and by the time the +last line was reached it was given with a full chorus, in which the +dull chant of teamsters and drivers mingled with the soprano of +Mrs. Peyton and Susy's childish treble. Again and again it was +repeated, with forgetful eyes and abstracted faces, rising and +falling with the night wind and the leap and gleam of the camp +fires, and fading again like them in the immeasurable mystery of +the darkened plain. + +In the deep and embarrassing silence that followed, at last the +party hesitatingly broke up, Mrs. Peyton retiring with Susy after +offering the child to Clarence for a perfunctory "good-night" kiss, +an unusual proceeding, which somewhat astonished them both--and +Clarence found himself near Mr. Peyton. + +"I think," said Clarence timidly, "I saw an Injin to-day." + +Mr. Peyton bent down towards him. "An Injin--where?" he asked +quickly, with the same look of doubting interrogatory with which he +had received Clarence's name and parentage. + +The boy for a moment regretted having spoken. But with his old +doggedness he particularized his statement. Fortunately, being +gifted with a keen perception, he was able to describe the stranger +accurately, and to impart with his description that contempt for +its subject which he had felt, and which to his frontier auditor +established its truthfulness. Peyton turned abruptly away, but +presently returned with Harry and another man. + +"You are sure of this?" said Peyton, half-encouragingly. + +"Yes, sir." + +"As sure as you are that your father is Colonel Brant and is dead?" +said Harry, with a light laugh. + +Tears sprang into the boy's lowering eyes. "I don't lie," he said +doggedly. + +"I believe you, Clarence," said Peyton quietly. "But why didn't +you say it before?" + +"I didn't like to say it before Susy and--her!" stammered the boy. + +"Her?" + +"Yes, sir--Mrs. Peyton," said Clarence blushingly. + +"Oh," said Harry sarcastically, "how blessed polite we are!" + +"That'll do. Let up on him, will you?" said Peyton, roughly, to +his subordinate. "The boy knows what he's about. But," he +continued, addressing Clarence, "how was it the Injin didn't see +you?" + +"I was very still on account of not waking Susy," said Clarence, +"and--" He hesitated. + +"And what?" + +"He seemed more keen watching what YOU were doing," said the boy +boldly. + +"That's so," broke in the second man, who happened to be +experienced, "and as he was to wind'ard o' the boy he was off HIS +scent and bearings. He was one of their rear scouts; the rest o' +them's ahead crossing our track to cut us off. Ye didn't see +anything else?" + +"I saw a coyote first," said Clarence, greatly encouraged. + +"Hold on!" said the expert, as Harry turned away with a sneer. +"That's a sign, too. Wolf don't go where wolf hez been, and coyote +don't foller Injins--there's no pickin's! How long afore did you +see the coyote?" + +"Just after we left the wagon," said Clarence. + +"That's it," said the man, thoughtfully. "He was driven on ahead, +or hanging on their flanks. These Injins are betwixt us and that +ar train, or following it." + +Peyton made a hurried gesture of warning, as if reminding the +speaker of Clarence's presence--a gesture which the boy noticed and +wondered at. Then the conversation of the three men took a lower +tone, although Clarence distinctly heard the concluding opinion of +the expert. + +"It ain't no good now, Mr. Peyton, and you'd be only exposing +yourself on their ground by breakin' camp agin to-night. And you +don't know that it ain't US they're watchin'. You see, if we +hadn't turned off the straight road when we got that first scare +from these yer lost children, we might hev gone on and walked plump +into some cursed trap of those devils. To my mind, we're just in +nigger luck, and with a good watch and my patrol we're all right to +be fixed where we be till daylight." + +Mr. Peyton presently turned away, taking Clarence with him. "As +we'll be up early and on the track of your train to-morrow, my boy, +you had better turn in now. I've put you up in my wagon, and as I +expect to be in the saddle most of the night, I reckon I won't +trouble you much." He led the way to a second wagon--drawn up +beside the one where Susy and Mrs. Peyton had retired--which +Clarence was surprised to find fitted with a writing table and +desk, a chair, and even a bookshelf containing some volumes. A +long locker, fitted like a lounge, had been made up as a couch for +him, with the unwonted luxury of clean white sheets and pillow- +cases. A soft matting covered the floor of the heavy wagon bed, +which, Mr. Peyton explained, was hung on centre springs to prevent +jarring. The sides and roof of the vehicle were of lightly paneled +wood, instead of the usual hooked canvas frame of the ordinary +emigrant wagon, and fitted with a glazed door and movable window +for light and air. Clarence wondered why the big, powerful man, +who seemed at home on horseback, should ever care to sit in this +office like a merchant or a lawyer; and if this train sold things +to the other trains, or took goods, like the peddlers, to towns on +the route; but there seemed to be nothing to sell, and the other +wagons were filled with only the goods required by the party. He +would have liked to ask Mr. Peyton who HE was, and have questioned +HIM as freely as he himself had been questioned. But as the +average adult man never takes into consideration the injustice of +denying to the natural and even necessary curiosity of childhood +that questioning which he himself is so apt to assume without +right, and almost always without delicacy, Clarence had no +recourse. Yet the boy, like all children, was conscious that if he +had been afterwards questioned about THIS inexplicable experience, +he would have been blamed for his ignorance concerning it. Left to +himself presently, and ensconced between the sheets, he lay for +some moments staring about him. The unwonted comfort of his couch, +so different from the stuffy blanket in the hard wagon bed which he +had shared with one of the teamsters, and the novelty, order, and +cleanliness of his surroundings, while they were grateful to his +instincts, began in some vague way to depress him. To his loyal +nature it seemed a tacit infidelity to his former rough companions +to be lying here; he had a dim idea that he had lost that +independence which equal discomfort and equal pleasure among them +had given him. There seemed a sense of servitude in accepting this +luxury which was not his. This set him endeavoring to remember +something of his father's house, of the large rooms, drafty +staircases, and far-off ceilings, and the cold formality of a life +that seemed made up of strange faces; some stranger--his parents; +some kinder--the servants; particularly the black nurse who had him +in charge. Why did Mr. Peyton ask him about it? Why, if it were +so important to strangers, had not his mother told him more of it? +And why was she not like this good woman with the gentle voice who +was so kind to--to Susy? And what did they mean by making HIM so +miserable? Something rose in his throat, but with an effort he +choked it back, and, creeping from the lounge, went softly to the +window, opened it to see if it "would work," and looked out. The +shrouded camp fires, the stars that glittered but gave no light, +the dim moving bulk of a patrol beyond the circle, all seemed to +intensify the darkness, and changed the current of his thoughts. +He remembered what Mr. Peyton had said of him when they first met. +"Suthin of a pup, ain't he?" Surely that meant something that was +not bad! He crept back to the couch again. + +Lying there, still awake, he reflected that he wouldn't be a scout +when he grew up, but would be something like Mr. Peyton, and have a +train like this, and invite the Silsbees and Susy to accompany him. +For this purpose, he and Susy, early to-morrow morning, would get +permission to come in here and play at that game. This would +familiarize him with the details, so that he would be able at any +time to take charge of it. He was already an authority on the +subject of Indians! He had once been fired at--as an Indian. He +would always carry a rifle like that hanging from the hooks at the +end of the wagon before him, and would eventually slay many Indians +and keep an account of them in a big book like that on the desk. +Susy would help him, having grown up a lady, and they would both +together issue provisions and rations from the door of the wagon to +the gathered crowds. He would be known as the "White Chief," his +Indian name being "Suthin of a Pup." He would have a circus van +attached to the train, in which he would occasionally perform. He +would also have artillery for protection. There would be a +terrific engagement, and he would rush into the wagon, heated and +blackened with gunpowder; and Susy would put down an account of it +in a book, and Mrs. Peyton--for she would be there in some vague +capacity--would say, "Really, now, I don't see but what we were +very lucky in having such a boy as Clarence with us. I begin to +understand him better." And Harry, who, for purposes of vague +poetical retaliation, would also drop in at that moment, would +mutter and say, "He is certainly the son of Colonel Brant; dear +me!" and apologize. And his mother would come in also, in her +coldest and most indifferent manner, in a white ball dress, and +start and say, "Good gracious, how that boy has grown! I am sorry +I did not see more of him when he was young." Yet even in the +midst of this came a confusing numbness, and then the side of the +wagon seemed to melt away, and he drifted out again alone into the +empty desolate plain from which even the sleeping Susy had +vanished, and he was left deserted and forgotten. Then all was +quiet in the wagon, and only the night wind moving round it. But +lo! the lashes of the sleeping White Chief--the dauntless leader, +the ruthless destroyer of Indians--were wet with glittering tears! + +Yet it seemed only a moment afterwards that he awoke with a faint +consciousness of some arrested motion. To his utter consternation, +the sun, three hours high, was shining in the wagon, already hot +and stifling in its beams. There was the familiar smell and taste +of the dirty road in the air about him. There was a faint creaking +of boards and springs, a slight oscillation, and beyond the audible +rattle of harness, as if the train had been under way, the wagon +moving, and then there had been a sudden halt. They had probably +come up with the Silsbee train; in a few moments the change would +be effected and all of his strange experience would be over. He +must get up now. Yet, with the morning laziness of the healthy +young animal, he curled up a moment longer in his luxurious couch. + +How quiet it was! There were far-off voices, but they seemed +suppressed and hurried. Through the window he saw one of the +teamsters run rapidly past him with a strange, breathless, +preoccupied face, halt a moment at one of the following wagons, and +then run back again to the front. + +Then two of the voices came nearer, with the dull beating of hoofs +in the dust. + +"Rout out the boy and ask him," said a half-suppressed, impatient +voice, which Clarence at once recognized as the man Harry's. + +"Hold on till Peyton comes up," said the second voice, in a low +tone; "leave it to him." + +"Better find out what they were like, at once," grumbled Harry. + +"Wait, stand back," said Peyton's voice, joining the others; "I'LL +ask him." + +Clarence looked wonderingly at the door. It opened on Mr. Peyton, +dusty and dismounted, with a strange, abstracted look in his face. + +"How many wagons are in your train, Clarence?" + +"Three, sir." + +"Any marks on them?" + +"Yes, sir," said Clarence, eagerly: "'Off to California' and 'Root, +Hog, or Die.'" + +Mr. Peyton's eye seemed to leap up and hold Clarence's with a +sudden, strange significance, and then looked down. + +"How many were you in all?" he continued. + +"Five, and there was Mrs. Silsbee." + +"No other woman?" + +"No." + +"Get up and dress yourself," he said gravely, "and wait here till I +come back. Keep cool and have your wits about you." He dropped +his voice slightly. "Perhaps something's happened that you'll have +to show yourself a little man again for, Clarence!" + +The door closed, and the boy heard the same muffled hoofs and +voices die away towards the front. He began to dress himself +mechanically, almost vacantly, yet conscious always of a vague +undercurrent of thrilling excitement. When he had finished he +waited almost breathlessly, feeling the same beating of his heart +that he had felt when he was following the vanished train the day +before. At last he could stand the suspense no longer, and opened +the door. Everything was still in the motionless caravan, except-- +it struck him oddly even then--the unconcerned prattling voice of +Susy from one of the nearer wagons. Perhaps a sudden feeling that +this was something that concerned HER, perhaps an irresistible +impulse overcame him, but the next moment he had leaped to the +ground, faced about, and was running feverishly to the front. + +The first thing that met his eyes was the helpless and desolate +bulk of one of the Silsbee wagons a hundred rods away, bereft of +oxen and pole, standing alone and motionless against the dazzling +sky! Near it was the broken frame of another wagon, its fore +wheels and axles gone, pitched forward on its knees like an ox +under the butcher's sledge. Not far away there were the burnt and +blackened ruins of a third, around which the whole party on foot +and horseback seemed to be gathered. As the boy ran violently on, +the group opened to make way for two men carrying some helpless but +awful object between them. A terrible instinct made Clarence +swerve from it in his headlong course, but he was at the same +moment discovered by the others, and a cry arose of "Go back!" +"Stop!" "Keep him back!" Heeding it no more than the wind that +whistled by him, Clarence made directly for the foremost wagon--the +one in which he and Susy had played. A powerful hand caught his +shoulder; it was Mr. Peyton's. + +"Mrs. Silsbee's wagon," said the boy, with white lips, pointing to +it. "Where is she?" + +"She's missing," said Peyton, "and one other--the rest are dead." + +"She must be there," said the boy, struggling, and pointing to the +wagon; "let me go." + +"Clarence," said Peyton sternly, accenting his grasp upon the boy's +arm, "be a man! Look around you. Try and tell us who these are." + +There seemed to be one or two heaps of old clothes lying on the +ground, and further on, where the men at a command from Peyton had +laid down their burden, another. In those ragged, dusty heaps of +clothes, from which all the majesty of life seemed to have been +ruthlessly stamped out, only what was ignoble and grotesque +appeared to be left. There was nothing terrible in this. The boy +moved slowly towards them; and, incredible even to himself, the +overpowering fear of them that a moment before had overcome him +left him as suddenly. He walked from the one to the other, +recognizing them by certain marks and signs, and mentioning name +after name. The groups gazed at him curiously; he was conscious +that he scarcely understood himself, still less the same quiet +purpose that made him turn towards the furthest wagon. + +"There's nothing there," said Peyton; "we've searched it." But the +boy, without replying, continued his way, and the crowd followed +him. + +The deserted wagon, more rude, disorderly, and slovenly than it had +ever seemed to him before, was now heaped and tumbled with broken +bones, cans, scattered provisions, pots, pans, blankets, and +clothing in the foul confusion of a dust-heap. But in this +heterogeneous mingling the boy's quick eye caught sight of a +draggled edge of calico. + +"That's Mrs. Silsbee's dress!" he cried, and leapt into the wagon. + +At first the men stared at each other, but an instant later a dozen +hands were helping him, nervously digging and clearing away the +rubbish. Then one man uttered a sudden cry, and fell back with +frantic but furious eyes uplifted against the pitiless, smiling sky +above him. + +"Great God! look here!" + +It was the yellowish, waxen face of Mrs. Silsbee that had been +uncovered. But to the fancy of the boy it had changed; the old +familiar lines of worry, care, and querulousness had given way to a +look of remote peace and statue-like repose. He had often vexed +her in her aggressive life; he was touched with remorse at her +cold, passionless apathy now, and pressed timidly forward. Even as +he did so, the man, with a quick but warning gesture, hurriedly +threw his handkerchief over the matted locks, as if to shut out +something awful from his view. Clarence felt himself drawn back; +but not before the white lips of a bystander had whispered a single +word-- + +"Scalped, too! by God!" + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Then followed days and weeks that seemed to Clarence as a dream. +At first, an interval of hushed and awed restraint when he and Susy +were kept apart, a strange and artificial interest taken little +note of by him, but afterwards remembered when others had forgotten +it; the burial of Mrs. Silsbee beneath a cairn of stones, with some +ceremonies that, simple though they were, seemed to usurp the +sacred rights of grief from him and Susy, and leave them cold and +frightened; days of frequent and incoherent childish outbursts from +Susy, growing fainter and rarer as time went on, until they ceased, +he knew not when; the haunting by night of that morning vision of +the three or four heaps of ragged clothes on the ground and a half +regret that he had not examined them more closely; a recollection +of the awful loneliness and desolation of the broken and abandoned +wagon left behind on its knees as if praying mutely when the train +went on and left it; the trundling behind of the fateful wagon in +which Mrs. Silsbee's body had been found, superstitiously shunned +by every one, and when at last turned over to the authorities at an +outpost garrison, seeming to drop the last link from the dragging +chain of the past. The revelation to the children of a new +experience in that brief glimpse of the frontier garrison; the +handsome officer in uniform and belted sword, an heroic, vengeful +figure to be admired and imitated hereafter; the sudden importance +and respect given to Susy and himself as "survivors"; the +sympathetic questioning and kindly exaggerations of their +experiences, quickly accepted by Susy--all these, looking back upon +them afterwards, seemed to have passed in a dream. + +No less strange and visionary to them seemed the real transitions +they noted from the moving train. How one morning they missed the +changeless, motionless, low, dark line along the horizon, and +before noon found themselves among the rocks and trees and a +swiftly rushing river. How there suddenly appeared beside them a +few days later a great gray cloud-covered ridge of mountains that +they were convinced was that same dark line that they had seen so +often. How the men laughed at them, and said that for the last +three days they had been CROSSING that dark line, and that it was +HIGHER than the great gray-clouded range before them, which it had +always hidden from their view! How Susy firmly believed that these +changes took place in her sleep, when she always "kinder felt they +were crawlin' up," and how Clarence, in the happy depreciation of +extreme youth, expressed his conviction that they "weren't a bit +high, after all." How the weather became cold, though it was +already summer, and at night the camp fire was a necessity, and +there was a stove in the tent with Susy; and yet how all this faded +away, and they were again upon a dazzling, burnt, and sun-dried +plain! But always as in a dream! + +More real were the persons who composed the party--whom they seemed +to have always known--and who, in the innocent caprice of children, +had become to them more actual than the dead had even been. There +was Mr. Peyton, who they now knew owned the train, and who was so +rich that he "needn't go to California if he didn't want to, and +was going to buy a great deal of it if he liked it," and who was +also a lawyer and "policeman"--which was Susy's rendering of +"politician"--and was called "Squire" and "Judge" at the frontier +outpost, and could order anybody to be "took up if he wanted to," +and who knew everybody by their Christian names; and Mrs. Peyton, +who had been delicate and was ordered by the doctor to live in the +open air for six months, and "never go into a house or a town +agin," and who was going to adopt Susy as soon as her husband could +arrange with Susy's relatives, and draw up the papers! How "Harry" +was Henry Benham, Mrs. Peyton's brother, and a kind of partner of +Mr. Peyton. And how the scout's name was Gus Gildersleeve, or the +"White Crow," and how, through his recognized intrepidity, an +attack upon their train was no doubt averted. Then there was +"Bill," the stock herder, and "Texas Jim," the vaquero--the latter +marvelous and unprecedented in horsemanship. Such were their +companions, as appeared through the gossip of the train and their +own inexperienced consciousness. To them, they were all astounding +and important personages. But, either from boyish curiosity or +some sense of being misunderstood, Clarence was more attracted by +the two individuals of the party who were least kind to him-- +namely, Mrs. Peyton and her brother Harry. I fear that, after the +fashion of most children, and some grown-up people, he thought less +of the steady kindness of Mr. Peyton and the others than of the +rare tolerance of Harry or the polite concessions of his sister. +Miserably conscious of this at times, he quite convinced himself +that if he could only win a word of approbation from Harry, or a +smile from Mrs. Peyton, he would afterwards revenge himself by +"running away." Whether he would or not, I cannot say. I am +writing of a foolish, growing, impressionable boy of eleven, of +whose sentiments nothing could be safely predicted but uncertainty. + +It was at this time that he became fascinated by another member of +the party whose position had been too humble and unimportant to be +included in the group already noted. Of the same appearance as the +other teamsters in size, habits, and apparel, he had not at first +exhibited to Clarence any claim to sympathy. But it appeared that +he was actually a youth of only sixteen--a hopeless incorrigible of +St. Joseph, whose parents had prevailed on Peyton to allow him to +join the party, by way of removing him from evil associations and +as a method of reform. Of this Clarence was at first ignorant, not +from any want of frankness on the part of the youth, for that +ingenious young gentleman later informed him that he had killed +three men in St. Louis, two in St. Jo, and that the officers of +justice were after him. But it was evident that to precocious +habits of drinking, smoking, chewing, and card-playing this +overgrown youth added a strong tendency to exaggeration of +statement. Indeed, he was known as "Lying Jim Hooker," and his +various qualities presented a problem to Clarence that was +attractive and inspiring, doubtful, but always fascinating. With +the hoarse voice of early wickedness and a contempt for ordinary +courtesy, he had a round, perfectly good-humored face, and a +disposition that when not called upon to act up to his self-imposed +role of reckless wickedness, was not unkindly. + +It was only a few days after the massacre, and while the children +were still wrapped in the gloomy interest and frightened reticence +which followed it, that "Jim Hooker" first characteristically +flashed upon Clarence's perceptions. Hanging half on and half off +the saddle of an Indian pony, the lank Jim suddenly made his +appearance, dashing violently up and down the track, and around the +wagon in which Clarence was sitting, tugging desperately at the +reins, with every indication of being furiously run away with, and +retaining his seat only with the most dauntless courage and skill. +Round and round they went, the helpless rider at times hanging by a +single stirrup near the ground, and again recovering himself by--as +it seemed to Clarence--almost superhuman effort. Clarence sat +open-mouthed with anxiety and excitement, and yet a few of the +other teamsters laughed. Then the voice of Mr. Peyton, from the +window of his car, said quietly,-- + +"There, that will do, Jim. Quit it!" + +The furious horse and rider instantly disappeared. A few moments +after, the bewildered Clarence saw the redoubted horseman trotting +along quietly in the dust of the rear, on the same fiery steed, who +in that prosaic light bore an astounding resemblance to an ordinary +team horse. Later in the day he sought an explanation from the +rider. + +"You see," answered Jim gloomily, "thar ain't a galoot in this yer +crowd ez knows jist WHAT'S in that hoss! And them ez suspecks +daren't say! It wouldn't do for to hev it let out that the Judge +hez a Morgan-Mexican plug that's killed two men afore he got him, +and is bound to kill another afore he gets through! Why, on'y the +week afore we kem up to you, that thar hoss bolted with me at +camping! Bucked and throwed me, but I kept my holt o' the stirrups +with my foot--so! Dragged me a matter of two miles, head down, and +me keepin' away rocks with my hand--so!" + +"Why didn't you loose your foot and let go?" asked Clarence +breathlessly. + +"YOU might," said Jim, with deep scorn; "that ain't MY style. I +just laid low till we kem to a steep pitched hill, and goin' down +when the hoss was, so to speak, kinder BELOW me, I just turned a +hand spring, so, and that landed me onter his back again." + +This action, though vividly illustrated by Jim's throwing his hands +down like feet beneath him, and indicating the parabola of a spring +in the air, proving altogether too much for Clarence's mind to +grasp, he timidly turned to a less difficult detail. + +"What made the horse bolt first, Mr. Hooker?" + +"Smelt Injins!" said Jim, carelessly expectorating tobacco juice in +a curving jet from the side of his mouth--a singularly fascinating +accomplishment, peculiarly his own, "'n' likely YOUR Injins." + +"But," argued Clarence hesitatingly, "you said it was a week +before--and--" + +"Er Mexican plug kin smell Injins fifty, yes, a hundred miles +away," said Jim, with scornful deliberation; "'n' if Judge Peyton +had took my advice, and hadn't been so mighty feared about the +character of his hoss gettin' out he'd hev played roots on them +Injins afore they tetched ye. But," he added, with gloomy +dejection, "there ain't no sand in this yer crowd, thar ain't no +vim, thar ain't nothin'; and thar kan't be ez long ez thar's women +and babies, and women and baby fixin's, mixed up with it. I'd hev +cut the whole blamed gang ef it weren't for one or two things," he +added darkly. + +Clarence, impressed by Jim's mysterious manner, for the moment +forgot his contemptuous allusion to Mr. Peyton, and the evident +implication of Susy and himself, and asked hurriedly, "What +things?" + +Jim, as if forgetful of the boy's presence in his fitful mood, +abstractedly half drew a glittering bowie knife from his bootleg, +and then slowly put it back again. "Thar's one or two old scores," +he continued, in a low voice, although no one was in hearing +distance of them, "one or two private accounts," he went on +tragically, averting his eyes as if watched by some one, "thet hev +to be wiped out with blood afore I leave. Thar's one or two men +TOO MANY alive and breathin' in this yer crowd. Mebbee it's Gus +Gildersleeve; mebbee it's Harry Benham; mebbee," he added, with a +dark yet noble disinterestedness, "it's ME." + +"Oh, no," said Clarence, with polite deprecation. + +Far from placating the gloomy Jim, this seemed only to awake his +suspicions. "Mebbee," he said, dancing suddenly away from +Clarence, "mebbee you think I'm lyin'. Mebbee you think, because +you're Colonel Brant's son, yer kin run ME with this yer train. +Mebbee," he continued, dancing violently back again, "ye kalkilate, +because ye run off'n' stampeded a baby, ye kin tote me round too, +sonny. Mebbee," he went on, executing a double shuffle in the dust +and alternately striking his hands on the sides of his boots, +"mebbee you're spyin' round and reportin' to the Judge." + +Firmly convinced that Jim was working himself up by an Indian war- +dance to some desperate assault on himself, but resenting the last +unjust accusation, Clarence had recourse to one of his old dogged +silences. Happily at this moment an authoritative voice called +out, "Now, then, you Jim Hooker!" and the desperate Hooker, as +usual, vanished instantly. Nevertheless, he appeared an hour or +two later beside the wagon in which Susy and Clarence were seated, +with an expression of satiated vengeance and remorseful +bloodguiltiness in his face, and his hair combed Indian fashion +over his eyes. As he generously contented himself with only +passing a gloomy and disparaging criticism on the game of cards +that the children were playing, it struck Clarence for the first +time that a great deal of his real wickedness resided in his hair. +This set him to thinking that it was strange that Mr. Peyton did +not try to reform him with a pair of scissors, but not until +Clarence himself had for at least four days attempted to imitate +Jim by combing his own hair in that fashion. + +A few days later, Jim again casually favored him with a +confidential interview. Clarence had been allowed to bestride one +of the team leaders postillionwise, and was correspondingly +elevated, when Jim joined him, on the Mexican plug, which appeared-- +no doubt a part of its wicked art--heavily docile, and even +slightly lame. + +"How much," said Jim, in a tone of gloomy confidence,--"how much +did you reckon to make by stealin' that gal-baby, sonny?" + +"Nothing," replied Clarence with a smile. Perhaps it was an +evidence of the marked influence that Jim was beginning to exert +over him that he already did not attempt to resent this fascinating +implication of grownup guilt. + +"It orter bin a good job, if it warn't revenge," continued Jim +moodily. + +"No, it wasn't revenge," said Clarence hurriedly. + +"Then ye kalkilated ter get er hundred dollars reward ef the old +man and old woman hadn't bin scelped afore yet got up to 'em?" said +Jim. "That's your blamed dodgasted luck, eh! Enyhow, you'll make +Mrs. Peyton plank down suthin' if she adopts the babby. Look yer, +young feller," he said, starting suddenly and throwing his face +forward, glaring fiendishly through his matted side-locks, "d'ye +mean ter tell me it wasn't a plant--a skin game--the hull thing?" + +"A what?" said Clarence. + +"D'ye mean to say"--it was wonderful how gratuitously husky his +voice became at this moment--"d'ye mean ter tell me ye didn't set +on them Injins to wipe out the Silsbees, so that ye could hev an +out-an'-out gal ORFEN on hand fer Mrs. Peyton ter adopt--eh?" + +But here Clarence was forced to protest, and strongly, although Jim +contemptuously ignored it. "Don't lie ter me," he repeated +mysteriously, "I'm fly. I'm dark, young fel. We're cahoots in +this thing?" And with this artful suggestion of being in +possession of Clarence's guilty secret he departed in time to elude +the usual objurgation of his superior, "Phil," the head teamster. + +Nor was his baleful fascination exercised entirely on Clarence. In +spite of Mrs. Peyton's jealously affectionate care, Clarence's +frequent companionship, and the little circle of admiring courtiers +that always surrounded Susy, it became evident that this small Eve +had been secretly approached and tempted by the Satanic Jim. She +was found one day to have a few heron's feathers in her possession +with which she adorned her curls, and at another time was +discovered to have rubbed her face and arms with yellow and red +ochre, confessedly the free gift of Jim Hooker. It was to Clarence +alone that she admitted the significance and purport of these +offerings. "Jim gived 'em to me," she said, "and Jim's a kind of +Injin hisself that won't hurt me; and when bad Injins come, they'll +think I'm his Injin baby and run away. And Jim said if I'd just +told the Injins when they came to kill papa and mamma, that I +b'longed to him, they'd hev runned away." + +"But," said the practical Clarence, "you could not; you know you +were with Mrs. Peyton all the time." + +"Kla'uns," said Susy, shaking her head and fixing her round blue +eyes with calm mendacity on the boy, "don't you tell me. I WAS +THERE!" + +Clarence started back, and nearly fell over the wagon in hopeless +dismay at this dreadful revelation of Susy's powers of +exaggeration. "But," he gasped, "you know, Susy, you and me left +before--" + +"Kla'uns," said Susy calmly, making a little pleat in the skirt of +her dress with her small thumb and fingers, "don't you talk to me. +I was there. I'se a SERIVER! The men at the fort said so! The +SERIVERS is allus, allus there, and allus allus knows everythin'." + +Clarence was too dumfounded to reply. He had a vague recollection +of having noticed before that Susy was very much fascinated by the +reputation given to her at Fort Ridge as a "survivor," and was +trying in an infantile way to live up to it. This the wicked Jim +had evidently encouraged. For a day or two Clarence felt a little +afraid of her, and more lonely than ever. + +It was in this state, and while he was doggedly conscious that his +association with Jim did not prepossess Mrs. Peyton or her brother +in his favor, and that the former even believed him responsible for +Susy's unhallowed acquaintance with Jim, that he drifted into one +of those youthful escapades on which elders are apt to sit in +severe but not always considerate judgment. Believing, like many +other children, that nobody cared particularly for him, except to +RESTRAIN him, discovering, as children do, much sooner than we +complacently imagine, that love and preference have no logical +connection with desert or character, Clarence became boyishly +reckless. But when, one day, it was rumored that a herd of buffalo +was in the vicinity, and that the train would be delayed the next +morning in order that a hunt might be organized, by Gildersleeve, +Benham, and a few others, Clarence listened willingly to Jim's +proposition that they should secretly follow it. + +To effect their unhallowed purpose required boldness and duplicity. +It was arranged that shortly after the departure of the hunting +party Clarence should ask permission to mount and exercise one of +the team horses--a favor that had been frequently granted him; that +in the outskirts of the camp he should pretend that the horse ran +away with him, and Jim would start in pursuit. The absence of the +shooting party with so large a contingent of horses and men would +preclude any further detachment from the camp to assist them. Once +clear, they would follow the track of the hunters, and, if +discovered by them, would offer the same excuse, with the addition +that they had lost their way to the camp. The plan was successful. +The details were carried out with almost too perfect effect; as it +appeared that Jim, in order to give dramatic intensity to the +fractiousness of Clarence's horse, had inserted a thorn apple under +the neck of his saddle, which Clarence only discovered in time to +prevent himself from being unseated. Urged forward by ostentatious +"Whoas!" and surreptitious cuts in the rear from Jim, pursuer and +pursued presently found themselves safely beyond the half-dry +stream and fringe of alder bushes that skirted the camp. They were +not followed. Whether the teamsters suspected and winked at this +design, or believed that the boys could take care of themselves, +and ran no risk of being lost in the proximity of the hunting +party, there was no general alarm. + +Thus reassured, and having a general idea of the direction of the +hunt, the boys pushed hilariously forward. Before them opened a +vast expanse of bottom land, slightly sloping on the right to a +distant half-filled lagoon, formed by the main river overflow, on +whose tributary they had encamped. The lagoon was partly hidden by +straggling timber and "brush," and beyond that again stretched the +unlimitable plains--the pasture of their mighty game. Hither, Jim +hoarsely informed his companion, the buffaloes came to water. A +few rods further on, he started dramatically, and, alighting, +proceeded to slowly examine the ground. It seemed to be scattered +over with half-circular patches, which he pointed out mysteriously +as "buffalo chip." To Clarence's inexperienced perception the +plain bore a singular resemblance to the surface of an ordinary +unromantic cattle pasture that somewhat chilled his heroic fancy. +However, the two companions halted and professionally examined +their arms and equipments. + +These, I grieve to say, though varied, were scarcely full or +satisfactory. The necessities of their flight had restricted Jim +to an old double-barreled fowling-piece, which he usually carried +slung across his shoulders; an old-fashioned "six-shooter," whose +barrels revolved occasionally and unexpectedly, known as "Allen's +Pepper Box" on account of its culinary resemblance; and a bowie- +knife. Clarence carried an Indian bow and arrow with which he had +been exercising, and a hatchet which he had concealed under the +flanks of his saddle. To this Jim generously added the six- +shooter, taking the hatchet in exchange--a transfer that at first +delighted Clarence, until, seeing the warlike and picturesque +effect of the hatchet in Jim's belt, he regretted the transfer. +The gun, Jim meantime explained "extry charged," "chuck up" to the +middle with slugs and revolver bullets, could only be fired by +himself, and even then he darkly added, not without danger. This +poverty of equipment was, however, compensated by opposite +statements from Jim of the extraordinary results obtained by these +simple weapons from "fellers I knew:" how HE himself had once +brought down a "bull" by a bold shot with a revolver through its +open bellowing mouth that pierced his "innards;" how a friend of +his--an intimate in fact--now in jail at Louisville for killing a +sheriff's deputy, had once found himself alone and dismounted with +a simple clasp-knife and a lariat among a herd of buffaloes; how, +leaping calmly upon the shaggy shoulders of the biggest bull, he +lashed himself with the lariat firmly to its horns, goading it +onward with his clasp-knife, and subsisting for days upon the flesh +cut from its living body, until, abandoned by its fellows and +exhausted by the loss of blood, it finally succumbed to its victor +at the very outskirts of the camp to which he had artfully driven +it! It must be confessed that this recital somewhat took away +Clarence's breath, and he would have liked to ask a few questions. +But they were alone on the prairie, and linked by a common +transgression; the glorious sun was coming up victoriously, the +pure, crisp air was intoxicating their nerves; in the bright +forecast of youth everything WAS possible! + +The surface of the bottom land that they were crossing was here and +there broken up by fissures and "potholes," and some circumspection +in their progress became necessary. In one of these halts, +Clarence was struck by a dull, monotonous jarring that sounded like +the heavy regular fall of water over a dam. Each time that they +slackened their pace the sound would become more audible, and was +at last accompanied by that slight but unmistakable tremor of the +earth that betrayed the vicinity of a waterfall. Hesitating over +the phenomenon, which seemed to imply that their topography was +wrong and that they had blundered from the track, they were +presently startled by the fact that the sound was actually +APPROACHING them! With a sudden instinct they both galloped +towards the lagoon. As the timber opened before them Jim uttered a +long ecstatic shout. "Why, it's THEM!" + +At a first glance it seemed to Clarence as if the whole plain +beyond was broken up and rolling in tumbling waves or furrows +towards them. A second glance showed the tossing fronts of a vast +herd of buffaloes, and here and there, darting in and out and among +them, or emerging from the cloud of dust behind, wild figures and +flashes of fire. With the idea of water still in his mind, it +seemed as if some tumultuous tidal wave were sweeping unseen +towards the lagoon, carrying everything before it. He turned with +eager eyes, in speechless expectancy, to his companion. + +Alack! that redoubtable hero and mighty hunter was, to all +appearances, equally speechless and astonished. It was true that +he remained rooted to the saddle, a lank, still heroic figure, +alternately grasping his hatchet and gun with a kind of spasmodic +regularity. How long he would have continued this would never be +known, for the next moment, with a deafening crash, the herd broke +through the brush, and, swerving at the right of the lagoon, bore +down directly upon them. All further doubt or hesitation on their +part was stopped. The farseeing, sagacious Mexican plug with a +terrific snort wheeled and fled furiously with his rider. Moved, +no doubt, by touching fidelity, Clarence's humbler team-horse +instantly followed. In a few moments those devoted animals +struggled neck to neck in noble emulation. + +"What are we goin' off this way for?" gasped the simple Clarence. + +"Peyton and Gildersleeve are back there--and they'll see us," +gasped Jim in reply. It struck Clarence that the buffaloes were +much nearer them than the hunting party, and that the trampling +hoofs of a dozen bulls were close behind them, but with another +gasp he shouted, + +"When are we going to hunt 'em?" + +"Hunt THEM!" screamed Jim, with a hysterical outburst of truth; +"why, they're huntin' US--dash it!" + +Indeed, there was no doubt that their frenzied horses were flying +before the equally frenzied herd behind them. They gained a +momentary advantage by riding into one of the fissures, and out +again on the other side, while their pursuers were obliged to make +a detour. But in a few minutes they were overtaken by that part of +the herd who had taken the other and nearer side of the lagoon, and +were now fairly in the midst of them. The ground shook with their +trampling hoofs; their steaming breath, mingling with the stinging +dust that filled the air, half choked and blinded Clarence. He was +dimly conscious that Jim had wildly thrown his hatchet at a cow +buffalo pressing close upon his flanks. As they swept down into +another gully he saw him raise his fateful gun with utter +desperation. Clarence crouched low on his horse's outstretched +neck. There was a blinding flash, a single stunning report of both +barrels; Jim reeled in one way half out of the saddle, while the +smoking gun seemed to leap in another over his head, and then rider +and horse vanished in a choking cloud of dust and gunpowder. A +moment after Clarence's horse stopped with a sudden check, and the +boy felt himself hurled over its head into the gully, alighting on +something that seemed to be a bounding cushion of curled and +twisted hair. It was the shaggy shoulder of an enormous buffalo! +For Jim's desperate random shot and double charge had taken effect +on the near hind leg of a preceding bull, tearing away the flesh +and ham-stringing the animal, who had dropped in the gully just in +front of Clarence's horse. + +Dazed but unhurt, the boy rolled from the lifted fore quarters of +the struggling brute to the ground. When he staggered to his feet +again, not only his horse was gone but the whole herd of buffaloes +seemed to have passed too, and he could hear the shouts of unseen +hunters now ahead of him. They had evidently overlooked his fall, +and the gully had concealed him. The sides before him were too +steep for his aching limbs to climb; the slope by which he and the +bull had descended when the collision occurred was behind the +wounded animal. Clarence was staggering towards it when the bull, +by a supreme effort, lifted itself on three legs, half turned, and +faced him. + +These events had passed too quickly for the inexperienced boy to +have felt any active fear, or indeed anything but wild excitement +and confusion. But the spectacle of that shaggy and enormous +front, that seemed to fill the whole gully, rising with awful +deliberation between him and escape, sent a thrill of terror +through his frame. The great, dull, bloodshot eyes glared at him +with a dumb, wondering fury; the large wet nostrils were so near +that their first snort of inarticulate rage made him reel backwards +as from a blow. The gully was only a narrow and short fissure or +subsidence of the plain; a few paces more of retreat and he would +be at its end, against an almost perpendicular bank fifteen feet +high. If he attempted to climb its crumbling sides and fell, there +would be those short but terrible horns waiting to impale him! It +seemed too terrible, too cruel! He was so small beside this +overgrown monster. It wasn't fair! The tears started to his eyes, +and then, in a rage at the injustice of Fate, he stood doggedly +still with clenched fists. He fixed his gaze with half-hysterical, +childish fury on those lurid eyes; he did not know that, owing to +the strange magnifying power of the bull's convex pupils, he, +Clarence, appeared much bigger than he really was to the brute's +heavy consciousness, the distance from him most deceptive, and that +it was to this fact that hunters so often owed their escape. He +only thought of some desperate means of attack. Ah! the six- +shooter. It was still in his pocket. He drew it nervously, +hopelessly--it looked so small compared with his large enemy! + +He presented it with flashing eyes, and pulled the trigger. A +feeble click followed, another, and again! Even THIS had mocked +him. He pulled the trigger once more, wildly; there was a sudden +explosion, and another. He stepped back; the balls had apparently +flattened themselves harmlessly on the bull's forehead. He pulled +again, hopelessly; there was another report, a sudden furious +bellow, and the enormous brute threw his head savagely to one side, +burying his left horn deep in the crumbling bank beside him. Again +and again he charged the bank, driving his left horn home, and +bringing down the stones and earth in showers. It was some seconds +before Clarence saw in a single glimpse of that wildly tossing +crest the reason of this fury. The blood was pouring from his left +eye, penetrated by the last bullet; the bull was blinded! A +terrible revulsion of feeling, a sudden sense of remorse that was +for the moment more awful than even his previous fear, overcame +him. HE had done THAT THING! As much to fly from the dreadful +spectacle as any instinct of self-preservation, he took advantage +of the next mad paroxysms of pain and blindness, that always +impelled the suffering beast towards the left, to slip past him on +the right, reach the incline, and scramble wildly up to the plain +again. Here he ran confusedly forward, not knowing whither--only +caring to escape that agonized bellowing, to shut out forever the +accusing look of that huge blood-weltering eye. + +Suddenly he heard a distant angry shout. To his first hurried +glance the plain had seemed empty, but, looking up, he saw two +horsemen rapidly advancing with a led horse behind them--his own. +With the blessed sense of relief that overtook him now came the +fevered desire for sympathy and to tell them all. But as they came +nearer he saw that they were Gildersleeve, the scout, and Henry +Benham, and that, far from sharing any delight in his deliverance, +their faces only exhibited irascible impatience. Overcome by this +new defeat, the boy stopped, again dumb and dogged. + +"Now, then, blank it all, WILL you get up and come along, or do you +reckon to keep the train waiting another hour over your blanked +foolishness?" said Gildersleeve savagely. + +The boy hesitated, and then mounted mechanically, without a word. + +"'Twould have served 'em right to have gone and left 'em," muttered +Benham vindictively. + +For one wild instant Clarence thought of throwing himself from his +horse and bidding them go on and leave him. But before he could +put his thought into action the two men were galloping forward, +with his horse led by a lariat fastened to the horn of +Gildersleeve's saddle. + +In two hours more they had overtaken the train, already on the +march, and were in the midst of the group of outriders. Judge +Peyton's face, albeit a trifle perplexed, turned towards Clarence +with a kindly, half-tolerant look of welcome. The boy's heart +instantly melted with forgiveness. + +"Well, my boy, let's hear YOUR story. What happened?" + +Clarence cast a hurried glance around, and saw Jim, with face +averted, riding gloomily behind. Then nervously and hurriedly he +told how he had been thrown into the gully on the back of the +wounded buffalo, and the manner of his escape. An audible titter +ran through the cavalcade. Mr. Peyton regarded him gravely. "But +how did the buffalo get so conveniently into the gully?" he asked. + +"Jim Hooker lamed him with a shotgun, and he fell over," said +Clarence timidly. + +A roar of Homeric laughter went up from the party. Clarence looked +up, stung and startled, but caught a single glimpse of Jim Hooker's +face that made him forget his own mortification. In its hopeless, +heart-sick, and utterly beaten dejection--the first and only real +expression he had seen on it--he read the dreadful truth. Jim's +REPUTATION had ruined him! The one genuine and striking episode of +his life, the one trustworthy account he had given of it, had been +unanimously accepted as the biggest and most consummate lie of his +record! + + +CHAPTER VII + + +With this incident of the hunt closed, to Clarence, the last +remembered episode of his journey. But he did not know until long +after that it had also closed to him what might have been the +opening of a new career. For it had been Judge Peyton's intention +in adopting Susy to include a certain guardianship and protection +of the boy, provided he could get the consent of that vague +relation to whom he was consigned. But it had been pointed out by +Mrs. Peyton and her brother that Clarence's association with Jim +Hooker had made him a doubtful companion for Susy, and even the +Judge himself was forced to admit that the boy's apparent taste for +evil company was inconsistent with his alleged birth and breeding. +Unfortunately, Clarence, in the conviction of being hopelessly +misunderstood, and that dogged acquiescence to fate which was one +of his characteristics, was too proud to correct the impression by +any of the hypocracies of childhood. He had also a cloudy instinct +of loyalty to Jim in his disgrace, without, however, experiencing +either the sympathy of an equal or the zeal of a partisan, but +rather--if it could be said of a boy of his years--with the +patronage and protection of a superior. So he accepted without +demur the intimation that when the train reached California he +would be forwarded from Stockton with an outfit and a letter of +explanation to Sacramento, it being understood that in the event of +not finding his relative he would return to the Peytons in one of +the southern valleys, where they elected to purchase a tract of +land. + +With this outlook, and the prospect of change, independence, and +all the rich possibilities that to the imagination of youth are +included in them, Clarence had found the days dragging. The halt +at Salt Lake, the transit of the dreary Alkali desert, even the +wild passage of the Sierras, were but a blurred picture in his +memory. The sight of eternal snows and the rolling of endless +ranks of pines, the first glimpse of a hillside of wild oats, the +spectacle of a rushing yellow river that to his fancy seemed tinged +with gold, were momentary excitements, quickly forgotten. But +when, one morning, halting at the outskirts of a struggling +settlement, he found the entire party eagerly gathered around a +passing stranger, who had taken from his saddle-bags a small +buckskin pouch to show them a double handful of shining scales of +metal, Clarence felt the first feverish and overmastering thrill of +the gold-seekers. Breathlessly he followed the breathless +questions and careless replies. The gold had been dug out of a +placer only thirty miles away. It might be worth, say, a hundred +and fifty dollars; it was only HIS share of a week's work with two +partners. It was not much; "the country was getting played out +with fresh arrivals and greenhorns." All this falling carelessly +from the unshaven lips of a dusty, roughly dressed man, with a +long-handled shovel and pickaxe strapped on his back, and a frying- +pan depending from his saddle. But no panoplied or armed knight +ever seemed so heroic or independent a figure to Clarence. What +could be finer than the noble scorn conveyed in his critical survey +of the train, with its comfortable covered wagons and appliances of +civilization? "Ye'll hev to get rid of them ther fixin's if yer +goin' in for placer diggin'!" What a corroboration of Clarence's +real thoughts! What a picture of independence was this! The +picturesque scout, the all-powerful Judge Peyton, the daring young +officer, all crumbled on their clayey pedestals before this hero in +a red flannel shirt and high-topped boots. To stroll around in the +open air all day, and pick up those shining bits of metal, without +study, without method or routine--this was really life; to some day +come upon that large nugget "you couldn't lift," that was worth as +much as the train and horses--such a one as the stranger said was +found the other day at Sawyer's Bar--this was worth giving up +everything for. That rough man, with his smile of careless +superiority, was the living link between Clarence and the Thousand +and One Nights; in him were Aladdin and Sindbad incarnate. + +Two days later they reached Stockton. Here Clarence, whose single +suit of clothes had been reinforced by patching, odds and ends from +Peyton's stores, and an extraordinary costume of army cloth, got up +by the regimental tailor at Fort Ridge, was taken to be refitted at +a general furnishing "emporium." But alas! in the selection of the +clothing for that adult locality scant provision seemed to have +been made for a boy of Clarence's years, and he was with difficulty +fitted from an old condemned Government stores with "a boy's" +seaman suit and a brass-buttoned pea-jacket. To this outfit Mr. +Peyton added a small sum of money for his expenses, and a letter of +explanation to his cousin. The stage-coach was to start at noon. +It only remained for Clarence to take leave of the party. The +final parting with Susy had been discounted on the two previous +days with some tears, small frights and clingings, and the +expressed determination on the child's part "to go with him;" but +in the excitement of the arrival at Stockton it was still further +mitigated, and under the influence of a little present from +Clarence--his first disbursement of his small capital--had at last +taken the form and promise of merely temporary separation. +Nevertheless, when the boy's scanty pack was deposited under the +stage-coach seat, and he had been left alone, he ran rapidly back +to the train for one moment more with Susy. Panting and a little +frightened, he reached Mrs. Peyton's car. + +"Goodness! You're not gone yet," said Mrs. Peyton sharply. "Do +you want to lose the stage?" + +An instant before, in his loneliness, he might have answered, +"Yes." But under the cruel sting of Mrs. Peyton's evident +annoyance at his reappearance he felt his legs suddenly tremble, +and his voice left him. He did not dare to look at Susy. But her +voice rose comfortably from the depths of the wagon where she was +sitting. + +"The stage will be gone away, Kla'uns." + +She too! Shame at his foolish weakness sent the yearning blood +that had settled round his heart flying back into his face. + +"I was looking for--for--for Jim, ma'am," he said at last, boldly. + +He saw a look of disgust pass over Mrs. Peyton's face, and felt a +malicious satisfaction as he turned and ran back to the stage. But +here, to his surprise, he actually found Jim, whom he really hadn't +thought of, darkly watching the last strapping of luggage. With a +manner calculated to convey the impression to the other passengers +that he was parting from a brother criminal, probably on his way to +a state prison, Jim shook hands gloomily with Clarence, and eyed +the other passengers furtively between his mated locks. + +"Ef ye hear o' anythin' happenin', ye'll know what's up," he said, +in a low, hoarse, but perfectly audible whisper. "Me and them's +bound to part company afore long. Tell the fellows at Deadman's +Gulch to look out for me at any time." + +Although Clarence was not going to Deadman's Gulch, knew nothing of +it, and had a faint suspicion that Jim was equally ignorant, yet as +one or two of the passengers glanced anxiously at the demure, gray- +eyed boy who seemed booked for such a baleful destination, he +really felt the half-delighted, half-frightened consciousness that +he was starting in life under fascinating immoral pretenses. But +the forward spring of the fine-spirited horses, the quickened +motion, the glittering sunlight, and the thought that he really was +leaving behind him all the shackles of dependence and custom, and +plunging into a life of freedom, drove all else from his mind. He +turned at last from this hopeful, blissful future, and began to +examine his fellow passengers with boyish curiosity. Wedged in +between two silent men on the front seat, one of whom seemed a +farmer, and the other, by his black attire, a professional man, +Clarence was finally attracted by a black-mantled, dark-haired, +bonnetless woman on the back seat, whose attention seemed to be +monopolized by the jocular gallantries of her companions and the +two men before her in the middle seat. From her position he could +see little more than her dark eyes, which occasionally seemed to +meet his frank curiosity in an amused sort of way, but he was +chiefly struck by the pretty foreign sound of her musical voice, +which was unlike anything he had ever heard before, and--alas for +the inconstancy of youth--much finer than Mrs. Peyton's. Presently +his farmer companion, casting a patronizing glance on Clarence's +pea-jacket and brass buttons, said cheerily-- + +"Jest off a voyage, sonny?" + +"No, sir," stammered Clarence; "I came across the plains." + +"Then I reckon that's the rig-out for the crew of a prairie +schooner, eh?" There was a laugh at this which perplexed Clarence. +Observing it, the humorist kindly condescended to explain that +"prairie schooner" was the current slang for an emigrant wagon. + +"I couldn't," explained Clarence, naively looking at the dark eyes +on the back seat, "get any clothes at Stockton but these; I suppose +the folks didn't think there'd ever be boys in California." + +The simplicity of this speech evidently impressed the others, for +the two men in the middle seats turned at a whisper from the lady +and regarded him curiously. Clarence blushed slightly and became +silent. Presently the vehicle began to slacken its speed. They +were ascending a hill; on either bank grew huge cottonwoods, from +which occasionally depended a beautiful scarlet vine. + +"Ah! eet ees pretty," said the lady, nodding her black-veiled head +towards it. "Eet is good in ze hair." + +One of the men made an awkward attempt to clutch a spray from the +window. A brilliant inspiration flashed upon Clarence. When the +stage began the ascent of the next hill, following the example of +an outside passenger, he jumped down to walk. At the top of the +hill he rejoined the stage, flushed and panting, but carrying a +small branch of the vine in his scratched hands. Handing it to the +man on the middle seat, he said, with grave, boyish politeness-- +"Please--for the lady." + +A slight smile passed over the face of Clarence's neighbors. The +bonnetless woman nodded a pleasant acknowledgment, and coquettishly +wound the vine in her glossy hair. The dark man at his side, who +hadn't spoken yet, turned to Clarence dryly. + +"If you're goin' to keep up this gait, sonny, I reckon ye won't +find much trouble gettin' a man's suit to fit you by the time you +reach Sacramento." + +Clarence didn't quite understand him, but noticed that a singular +gravity seemed to overtake the two jocular men on the middle seat, +and the lady looked out of the window. He came to the conclusion +that he had made a mistake about alluding to his clothes and his +size. He must try and behave more manly. That opportunity seemed +to be offered two hours later, when the stage stopped at a wayside +hotel or restaurant. + +Two or three passengers had got down to refresh themselves at the +bar. His right and left hand neighbors were, however, engaged in a +drawling conversation on the comparative merits of San Francisco +sandhill and water lots; the jocular occupants of the middle seat +were still engrossed with the lady. Clarence slipped out of the +stage and entered the bar-room with some ostentation. The complete +ignoring of his person by the barkeeper and his customers, however, +somewhat disconcerted him. He hesitated a moment, and then +returned gravely to the stage door and opened it. + +"Would you mind taking a drink with me, sir?" said Clarence +politely, addressing the farmer-looking passenger who had been most +civil to him. A dead silence followed. The two men on the middle +seat faced entirely around to gaze at him. + +"The Commodore asks if you'll take a drink with him," explained one +of the men to Clarence's friend with the greatest seriousness. + +"Eh? Oh, yes, certainly," returned that gentleman, changing his +astonished expression to one of the deepest gravity, "seeing it's +the Commodore." + +"And perhaps you and your friend will join, too?" said Clarence +timidly to the passenger who had explained; "and you too, sir?" he +added to the dark man. + +"Really, gentlemen, I don't see how we can refuse," said the +latter, with the greatest formality, and appealing to the others. +"A compliment of this kind from our distinguished friend is not to +be taken lightly." + +"I have observed, sir, that the Commodore's head is level," +returned the other man with equal gravity. + +Clarence could have wished they had not treated his first +hospitable effort quite so formally, but as they stepped from the +coach with unbending faces he led them, a little frightened, into +the bar-room. Here, unfortunately, as he was barely able to reach +over the counter, the barkeeper would have again overlooked him but +for a quick glance from the dark man, which seemed to change even +the barkeeper's perfunctory smiling face into supernatural gravity. + +"The Commodore is standing treat," said the dark man, with unbroken +seriousness, indicating Clarence, and leaning back with an air of +respectful formality. "I will take straight whiskey. The +Commodore, on account of just changing climate, will, I believe, +for the present content himself with lemon soda." + +Clarence had previously resolved to take whiskey, like the others, +but a little doubtful of the politeness of countermanding his +guest's order, and perhaps slightly embarrassed by the fact that +all the other customers seemed to have gathered round him and his +party with equally immovable faces, he said hurriedly: + +"Lemon soda for me, please." + +"The Commodore," said the barkeeper with impassive features, as he +bent forward and wiped the counter with professional deliberation, +"is right. No matter how much a man may be accustomed all his life +to liquor, when he is changing climate, gentlemen, he says 'Lemon +soda for me' all the time." + +"Perhaps," said Clarence, brightening, "you will join too?" + +"I shall be proud on this occasion, sir." + +"I think," said the tall man, still as ceremoniously unbending as +before, "that there can be but one toast here, gentlemen. I give +you the health of the Commodore. May his shadow never be less." + +The health was drunk solemnly. Clarence felt his cheeks tingle and +in his excitement drank his own health with the others. Yet he was +disappointed that there was not more joviality; he wondered if men +always drank together so stiffly. And it occurred to him that it +would be expensive. Nevertheless, he had his purse all ready +ostentatiously in his hand; in fact, the paying for it out of his +own money was not the least manly and independent pleasure he had +promised himself. "How much?" he asked, with an affectation of +carelessness. + +The barkeeper cast his eye professionally over the barroom. "I +think you said treats for the crowd; call it twenty dollars to make +even change." + +Clarence's heart sank. He had heard already of the exaggeration of +California prices. Twenty dollars! It was half his fortune. +Nevertheless, with an heroic effort, he controlled himself, and +with slightly nervous fingers counted out the money. It struck +him, however, as curious, not to say ungentlemanly, that the +bystanders craned their necks over his shoulder to look at the +contents of his purse, although some slight explanation was offered +by the tall man. + +"The Commodore's purse, gentlemen, is really a singular one. +Permit me," he said, taking it from Clarence's hand with great +politeness. "It is one of the new pattern, you observe, quite +worthy of inspection." He handed it to a man behind him, who in +turn handed it to another, while a chorus of "suthin quite new," +"the latest style," followed it in its passage round the room, and +indicated to Clarence its whereabouts. It was presently handed +back to the barkeeper, who had begged also to inspect it, and who, +with an air of scrupulous ceremony insisted upon placing it himself +in Clarence's side pocket, as if it were an important part of his +function. The driver here called "all aboard." The passengers +hurriedly reseated themselves, and the episode abruptly ended. +For, to Clarence's surprise, these attentive friends of a moment +ago at once became interested in the views of a new passenger +concerning the local politics of San Francisco, and he found +himself utterly forgotten. The bonnetless woman had changed her +position, and her head was no longer visible. The disillusion and +depression that overcame him suddenly were as complete as his +previous expectations and hopefulness had been extravagant. For +the first time his utter unimportance in the world and his +inadequacy to this new life around him came upon him crushingly. + +The heat and jolting of the stage caused him to fall into a slight +slumber and when he awoke he found his two neighbors had just got +out at a wayside station. They had evidently not cared to waken +him to say "Good-by." From the conversation of the other +passengers he learned that the tall man was a well-known gambler, +and the one who looked like a farmer was a ship captain who had +become a wealthy merchant. Clarence thought he understood now why +the latter had asked him if he came off a voyage, and that the +nickname of "Commodore" given to him, Clarence, was some joke +intended for the captain's understanding. He missed them, for he +wanted to talk to them about his relative at Sacramento, whom he +was now so soon to see. At last, between sleeping and waking, the +end of his journey was unexpectedly reached. It was dark, but, +being "steamer night," the shops and business places were still +open, and Mr. Peyton had arranged that the stage-driver should +deliver Clarence at the address of his relative in "J Street,"--an +address which Clarence had luckily remembered. But the boy was +somewhat discomfited to find that it was a large office or banking- +house. He, however, descended from the stage, and with his small +pack in his hand entered the building as the stage drove off, and, +addressing one of the busy clerks, asked for "Mr. Jackson Brant." + +There was no such person in the office. There never had been any +such person. The bank had always occupied that building. Was +there not some mistake in the number? No; the name, number, and +street had been deeply engrafted in the boy's recollection. Stop! +it might be the name of a customer who had given his address at the +bank. The clerk who made this suggestion disappeared promptly to +make inquiries in the counting-room. Clarence, with a rapidly +beating heart, awaited him. The clerk returned. There was no such +name on the books. Jackson Brant was utterly unknown to every one +in the establishment. + +For an instant the counter against which the boy was leaning seemed +to yield with his weight; he was obliged to steady himself with +both hands to keep from falling. It was not his disappointment, +which was terrible; it was not a thought of his future, which +seemed hopeless; it was not his injured pride at appearing to have +willfully deceived Mr. Peyton, which was more dreadful than all +else; but it was the sudden, sickening sense that HE himself had +been deceived, tricked, and fooled! For it flashed upon him for +the first time that the vague sense of wrong which had always +haunted him was this--that this was the vile culmination of a plan +to GET RID OF HIM, and that he had been deliberately lost and led +astray by his relatives as helplessly and completely as a useless +cat or dog! + +Perhaps there was something of this in his face, for the clerk, +staring at him, bade him sit down for a moment, and again vanished +into the mysterious interior. Clarence had no conception how long +he was absent, or indeed anything but his own breathless thoughts, +for he was conscious of wondering afterwards why the clerk was +leading him through a door in the counter into an inner room of +many desks, and again through a glass door into a smaller office, +where a preternaturally busy-looking man sat writing at a desk. +Without looking up, but pausing only to apply a blotting-pad to the +paper before him, the man said crisply-- + +"So you've been consigned to some one who don't seem to turn up, +and can't be found, eh? Never mind that," as Clarence laid +Peyton's letter before him. "Can't read it now. Well, I suppose +you want to be shipped back to Stockton?" + +"No!" said the boy, recovering his voice with an effort. + +"Eh, that's business, though. Know anybody here?" + +"Not a living soul; that's why they sent me," said the boy, in +sudden reckless desperation. He was the more furious that he knew +the tears were standing in his eyes. + +The idea seemed to strike the man amusingly. "Looks a little like +it, don't it?" he said, smiling grimly at the paper before him. +"Got any money?" + +"A little." + +"How much?" + +"About twenty dollars," said Clarence hesitatingly. The man opened +a drawer at his side, mechanically, for he did not raise his eyes, +and took out two ten-dollar gold pieces. "I'll go twenty better," +he said, laying them down on the desk. "That'll give you a chance +to look around. Come back here, if you don't see your way clear." +He dipped his pen into the ink with a significant gesture as if +closing the interview. + +Clarence pushed back the coin. "I'm not a beggar," he said +doggedly. + +The man this time raised his head and surveyed the boy with two +keen eyes. "You're not, hey? Well, do I look like one?" + +"No," stammered Clarence, as he glanced into the man's haughty +eyes. + +"Yet, if I were in your fix, I'd take that money and be glad to get +it." + +"If you'll let me pay you back again," said Clarence, a little +ashamed, and considerably frightened at his implied accusation of +the man before him. + +"You can," said the man, bending over his desk again. + +Clarence took up the money and awkwardly drew out his purse. But it +was the first time he had touched it since it was returned to him +in the bar-room, and it struck him that it was heavy and full-- +indeed, so full that on opening it a few coins rolled out on to the +floor. The man looked up abruptly. + +"I thought you said you had only twenty dollars?" he remarked +grimly. + +"Mr. Peyton gave me forty," returned Clarence, stupefied and +blushing. "I spent twenty dollars for drinks at the bar--and," he +stammered, "I--I--I don't know how the rest came here." + +"You spent twenty dollars for DRINKS?" said the man, laying down +his pen, and leaning back in his chair to gaze at the boy. + +"Yes--that is--I treated some gentlemen of the stage, sir, at +Davidson's Crossing." + +"Did you treat the whole stage company?" + +"No, sir, only about four or five--and the bar-keeper. But +everything's so dear in California. I know that." + +"Evidently. But it don't seem to make much difference with YOU," +said the man, glancing at the purse. + +"They wanted my purse to look at," said Clarence hurriedly, "and +that's how the thing happened. Somebody put HIS OWN MONEY back +into MY purse by accident." + +"Of course," said the man grimly. + +"Yes, that's the reason," said Clarence, a little relieved, but +somewhat embarrassed by the man's persistent eyes. + +"Then, of course," said the other quietly, "you don't require my +twenty dollars now." + +"But," returned Clarence hesitatingly, "this isn't MY money. I +must find out who it belongs to, and give it back again. Perhaps," +he added timidly, "I might leave it here with you, and call for it +when I find the man, or send him here." + +With the greatest gravity he here separated the surplus from what +was left of Peyton's gift and the twenty dollars he had just +received. The balance unaccounted for was forty dollars. He laid +it on the desk before the man, who, still looking at him, rose and +opened the door. + +"Mr. Reed." + +The clerk who had shown Clarence in appeared. + +"Open an account with--" He stopped and turned interrogatively to +Clarence. + +"Clarence Brant," said Clarence, coloring with excitement. + +"With Clarence Brant. Take that deposit"--pointing to the money-- +"and give him a receipt." He paused as the clerk retired with a +wondering gaze at the money, looked again at Clarence, said, "I +think YOU'LL do," and reentered the private office, closing the +door behind him. + +I hope it will not be deemed inconceivable that Clarence, only a +few moments before crushed with bitter disappointment and the +hopeless revelation of his abandonment by his relatives, now felt +himself lifted up suddenly into an imaginary height of independence +and manhood. He was leaving the bank, in which he stood a minute +before a friendless boy, not as a successful beggar, for this +important man had disclaimed the idea, but absolutely as a +customer! a depositor! a business man like the grown-up clients who +were thronging the outer office, and before the eyes of the clerk +who had pitied him! And he, Clarence, had been spoken to by this +man, whose name he now recognized as the one that was on the door +of the building--a man of whom his fellow-passengers had spoken +with admiring envy--a banker famous in all California! Will it be +deemed incredible that this imaginative and hopeful boy, forgetting +all else, the object of his visit, and even the fact that he +considered this money was not his own, actually put his hat a +little on one side as he strolled out on his way to the streets and +prospective fortune? + +Two hours later the banker had another visitor. It chanced to be +the farmer-looking man who had been Clarence's fellow-passenger. +Evidently a privileged person, he was at once ushered as "Captain +Stevens" into the presence of the banker. At the end of a familiar +business interview the captain asked carelessly-- + +"Any letters for me?" + +The busy banker pointed with his pen to the letter "S" in a row of +alphabetically labeled pigeon-holes against the wall. The captain, +having selected his correspondence, paused with a letter in his +hand. + +"Look here, Carden, there are letters here for some chap called +'John Silsbee.' They were here when I called, ten weeks ago." + +"Well?" + +"That's the name of that Pike County man who was killed by Injins +in the plains. The 'Frisco papers had all the particulars last +night; may be it's for that fellow. It hasn't got a postmark. Who +left it here?" + +Mr. Carden summoned a clerk. It appeared that the letter had been +left by a certain Brant Fauquier, to be called for. + +Captain Stevens smiled. "Brant's been too busy dealin' faro to +think of 'em agin, and since that shootin' affair at Angels' I hear +he's skipped to the southern coast somewhere. Cal Johnson, his old +chum, was in the up stage from Stockton this afternoon." + +"Did you come by the up stage from Stockton this afternoon?" said +Carden, looking up. + +"Yes, as far as Ten-mile Station--rode the rest of the way here." + +"Did you notice a queer little old-fashioned kid--about so high-- +like a runaway school-boy?" + +"Did I? By G--d, sir, he treated me to drinks." + +Carden jumped from his chair. "Then he wasn't lying!" + +"No! We let him do it; but we made it good for the little chap +afterwards. Hello! What's up?" + +But Mr. Carden was already in the outer office beside the clerk who +had admitted Clarence. + +"You remember that boy Brant who was here?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Where did he go?" + +"Don't know, sir." + +"Go and find him somewhere and somehow. Go to all the hotels, +restaurants, and gin-mills near here, and hunt him up. Take some +one with you, if you can't do it alone. Bring him back here, +quick!" + +It was nearly midnight when the clerk fruitlessly returned. It was +the fierce high noon of "steamer nights"; light flashed brilliantly +from shops, counting-houses, drinking-saloons, and gambling-hells. +The streets were yet full of eager, hurrying feet--swift of +fortune, ambition, pleasure, or crime. But from among these deeper +harsher footfalls the echo of the homeless boy's light, innocent +tread seemed to have died out forever. + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +When Clarence was once more in the busy street before the bank, it +seemed clear to his boyish mind that, being now cast adrift upon +the world and responsible to no one, there was no reason why he +should not at once proceed to the nearest gold mines! The idea of +returning to Mr. Peyton and Susy, as a disowned and abandoned +outcast, was not to be thought of. He would purchase some kind of +an outfit, such as he had seen the miners carry, and start off as +soon as he had got his supper. But although one of his most +delightful anticipations had been the unfettered freedom of +ordering a meal at a restaurant, on entering the first one he found +himself the object of so much curiosity, partly from his size and +partly from his dress, which the unfortunate boy was beginning to +suspect was really preposterous, and he turned away with a +stammered excuse, and did not try another. Further on he found a +baker's shop, where he refreshed himself with some gingerbread and +lemon soda. At an adjacent grocery he purchased some herrings, +smoked beef, and biscuits, as future provisions for his "pack" or +kit. Then began his real quest for an outfit. In an hour he had +secured--ostensibly for some friend, to avoid curious inquiry--a +pan, a blanket, a shovel and pick, all of which he deposited at the +baker's, his unostentatious headquarters, with the exception of a +pair of disguising high boots that half hid his sailor trousers, +which he kept to put on at the last. Even to his inexperience the +cost of these articles seemed enormous; when his purchases were +complete, of his entire capital scarcely four dollars remained! +Yet in the fond illusions of boyhood these rude appointments seemed +possessed of far more value than the gold he had given in exchange +for them, and he had enjoyed a child's delight in testing the +transforming magic of money. + +Meanwhile, the feverish contact of the crowded street had, strange +to say, increased his loneliness, while the ruder joviality of its +dissipations began to fill him with vague uneasiness. The passing +glimpse of dancing halls and gaudily whirled figures that seemed +only feminine in their apparel; the shouts and boisterous choruses +from concert rooms; the groups of drunken roisterers that +congregated around the doors of saloons or, hilariously charging +down the streets, elbowed him against the wall, or humorously +insisted on his company, discomposed and frightened him. He had +known rude companionship before, but it was serious, practical, and +under control. There was something in this vulgar degradation of +intellect and power--qualities that Clarence had always boyishly +worshiped--which sickened and disillusioned him. Later on a pistol +shot in a crowd beyond, the rush of eager men past him, the +disclosure of a limp and helpless figure against the wall, the +closing of the crowd again around it, although it stirred him with +a fearful curiosity, actually shocked him less hopelessly than +their brutish enjoyments and abandonment. + +It was in one of these rushes that he had been crushed against a +swinging door, which, giving way to his pressure, disclosed to his +wondering eyes a long, glitteringly adorned, and brightly lit room, +densely filled with a silent, attentive throng in attitudes of +decorous abstraction and preoccupation, that even the shouts and +tumult at its very doors could not disturb. Men of all ranks and +conditions, plainly or elaborately clad, were grouped together +under this magic spell of silence and attention. The tables before +them were covered with cards and loose heaps of gold and silver. A +clicking, the rattling of an ivory ball, and the frequent, formal, +lazy reiteration of some unintelligible sentence was all that he +heard. But by a sudden instinct he UNDERSTOOD it all. It was a +gambling saloon! + +Encouraged by the decorous stillness, and the fact that everybody +appeared too much engaged to notice him, the boy drew timidly +beside one of the tables. It was covered with a number of cards, +on which were placed certain sums of money. Looking down, Clarence +saw that he was standing before a card that as yet had nothing on +it. A single player at his side looked up, glanced at Clarence +curiously, and then placed half a dozen gold pieces on the vacant +card. Absorbed in the general aspect of the room and the players, +Clarence did not notice that his neighbor won twice, and even +THRICE, upon that card. Becoming aware, however, that the player +while gathering in his gains, was smilingly regarding him he moved +in some embarrassment to the other end of the table, where there +seemed another gap in the crowd. It so chanced that there was also +another vacant card. The previous neighbor of Clarence instantly +shoved a sum of money across the table on the vacant card and won! +At this the other players began to regard Clarence singularly, one +or two of the spectators smiled, and the boy, coloring, moved +awkwardly away. But his sleeve was caught by the successful +player, who, detaining him gently, put three gold pieces into his +hand. + +"That's YOUR share, sonny," he whispered. + +"Share--for what?" stammered the astounded Clarence. + +"For bringing me 'the luck,'" said the man. + +Clarence stared. "Am I--to--to play with it?" he said, glancing at +the coins and then at the table, in ignorance of the stranger's +meaning. + +"No, no!" said the man hurriedly, "don't do that. You'll lose it, +sonny, sure! Don't you see, YOU BRING THE LUCK TO OTHERS, not to +yourself. Keep it, old man, and run home!" + +"I don't want it! I won't have it!" said Clarence with a swift +recollection of the manipulation of his purse that morning, and a +sudden distrust of all mankind. + +"There!" He turned back to the table and laid the money on the +first vacant card he saw. In another moment, as it seemed to him, +it was raked away by the dealer. A sense of relief came over him. + +"There!" said the man, with an awed voice and a strange, fatuous +look in his eye. "What did I tell you? You see, it's allus so! +Now," he added roughly, "get up and get out o' this, afore you lose +the boots and shirt off ye." + +Clarence did not wait for a second command. With another glance +round the room, he began to make his way through the crowd towards +the front. But in that parting glance he caught a glimpse of a +woman presiding over a "wheel of fortune" in a corner, whose face +seemed familiar. He looked again, timidly. In spite of an +extraordinary head-dress or crown that she wore as the "Goddess of +Fortune," he recognized, twisted in its tinsel, a certain scarlet +vine which he had seen before; in spite of the hoarse formula which +she was continually repeating, he recognized the foreign accent. +It was the woman of the stage-coach! With a sudden dread that she +might recognize him, and likewise demand his services "for luck," +he turned and fled. + +Once more in the open air, there came upon him a vague loathing and +horror of the restless madness and feverish distraction of this +half-civilized city. It was the more powerful that it was vague, +and the outcome of some inward instinct. He found himself longing +for the pure air and sympathetic loneliness of the plains and +wilderness; he began to yearn for the companionship of his humble +associates--the teamster, the scout Gildersleeve, and even Jim +Hooker. But above all and before all was the wild desire to get +away from these maddening streets and their bewildering occupants. +He ran back to the baker's, gathered his purchases together, took +advantage of a friendly doorway to strap them on his boyish +shoulders, slipped into a side street, and struck out at once for +the outskirts. + +It had been his first intention to take stage to the nearest mining +district, but the diminution of his small capital forbade that +outlay, and he decided to walk there by the highroad, of whose +general direction he had informed himself. In half an hour the +lights of the flat, struggling city, and their reflection in the +shallow, turbid river before it, had sunk well behind him. The air +was cool and soft; a yellow moon swam in the slight haze that rose +above the tules; in the distance a few scattered cottonwoods and +sycamores marked like sentinels the road. When he had walked some +distance he sat down beneath one of them to make a frugal supper +from the dry rations in his pack, but in the absence of any spring +he was forced to quench his thirst with a glass of water in a +wayside tavern. Here he was good-humoredly offered something +stronger, which he declined, and replied to certain curious +interrogations by saying that he expected to overtake his friends +in a wagon further on. A new distrust of mankind had begun to make +the boy an adept in innocent falsehood, the more deceptive as his +careless, cheerful manner, the result of his relief at leaving the +city, and his perfect ease in the loving companionship of night and +nature, certainly gave no indication of his homelessness and +poverty. + +It was long past midnight, when, weary in body, but still hopeful +and happy in mind, he turned off the dusty road into a vast rolling +expanse of wild oats, with the same sense of security of rest as a +traveler to his inn. Here, completely screened from view by the +tall stalks of grain that rose thickly around him to the height of +a man's shoulder, he beat down a few of them for a bed, on which he +deposited his blanket. Placing his pack for a pillow, he curled +himself up in his blanket, and speedily fell asleep. + +He awoke at sunrise, refreshed, invigorated, and hungry. But he +was forced to defer his first self-prepared breakfast until he had +reached water, and a less dangerous place than the wild-oat field +to build his first camp fire. This he found a mile further on, +near some dwarf willows on the bank of a half-dry stream. Of his +various efforts to prepare his first meal, the fire was the most +successful; the coffee was somewhat too substantially thick, and +the bacon and herring lacked definiteness of quality from having +been cooked in the same vessel. In this boyish picnic he missed +Susy, and recalled, perhaps a little bitterly, her coldness at +parting. But the novelty of his situation, the brilliant sunshine +and sense of freedom, and the road already awakening to dusty life +with passing teams, dismissed everything but the future from his +mind. Readjusting his pack, he stepped on cheerily. At noon he +was overtaken by a teamster, who in return for a match to light his +pipe gave him a lift of a dozen miles. It is to be feared that +Clarence's account of himself was equally fanciful with his +previous story, and that the teamster parted from him with a +genuine regret, and a hope that he would soon be overtaken by his +friends along the road. "And mind that you ain't such a fool agin +to let 'em make you tote their dod-blasted tools fur them!" he +added unsuspectingly, pointing to Clarence's mining outfit. Thus +saved the heaviest part of the day's journey, for the road was +continually rising from the plains during the last six miles, +Clarence was yet able to cover a considerable distance on foot +before he halted for supper. Here he was again fortunate. An +empty lumber team watering at the same spring, its driver offered +to take Clarence's purchases--for the boy had profited by his late +friend's suggestion to personally detach himself from his +equipment--to Buckeye Mills for a dollar, which would also include +a "shakedown passage" for himself on the floor of the wagon. "I +reckon you've been foolin' away in Sacramento the money yer parents +give yer for return stage fare, eh? Don't lie, sonny," he added +grimly, as the now artful Clarence smiled diplomatically, "I've +been thar myself!" Luckily, the excuse that he was "tired and +sleepy" prevented further dangerous questioning, and the boy was +soon really in deep slumber on the wagon floor. + +He awoke betimes to find himself already in the mountains. Buckeye +Mills was a straggling settlement, and Clarence prudently stopped +any embarrassing inquiry from his friend by dropping off the wagon +with his equipment as they entered it, and hurriedly saying "Good- +by" from a crossroad through the woods. He had learned that the +nearest mining camp was five miles away, and its direction was +indicated by a long wooden "flume," or water-way, that alternately +appeared and disappeared on the flank of the mountain opposite. +The cooler and drier air, the grateful shadow of pine and bay, and +the spicy balsamic odors that everywhere greeted him, thrilled and +exhilarated him. The trail plunging sometimes into an undisturbed +forest, he started the birds before him like a flight of arrows +through its dim recesses; at times he hung breathlessly over the +blue depths of canyons where the same forests were repeated a +thousand feet below. Towards noon he struck into a rude road-- +evidently the thoroughfare of the locality--and was surprised to +find that it, as well as the adjacent soil wherever disturbed, was +a deep Indian red. Everywhere, along its sides, powdering the +banks and boles of trees with its ruddy stain, in mounds and +hillocks of piled dirt on the road, or in liquid paint-like pools, +when a trickling stream had formed a gutter across it, there was +always the same deep sanguinary color. Once or twice it became +more vivid in contrast with the white teeth of quartz that peeped +through it from the hillside or crossed the road in crumbled +strata. One of those pieces Clarence picked up with a quickening +pulse. It was veined and streaked with shining mica and tiny +glittering cubes of mineral that LOOKED like gold! + +The road now began to descend towards a winding stream, shrunken by +drought and ditching, that glared dazzingly in the sunlight from +its white bars of sand, or glistened in shining sheets and +channels. Along its banks, and even encroaching upon its bed, were +scattered a few mud cabins, strange-looking wooden troughs and +gutters, and here and there, glancing through the leaves, the white +canvas of tents. The stumps of felled trees and blackened spaces, +as of recent fires, marked the stream on either side. A sudden +sense of disappointment overcame Clarence. It looked vulgar, +common, and worse than all--FAMILIAR. It was like the unlovely +outskirts of a dozen other prosaic settlements he had seen in less +romantic localities. In that muddy red stream, pouring out of a +wooden gutter, in which three or four bearded, slouching, half- +naked figures were raking like chiffonniers, there was nothing to +suggest the royal metal. Yet he was so absorbed in gazing at the +scene, and had walked so rapidly during the past few minutes, that +he was startled, on turning a sharp corner of the road, to come +abruptly upon an outlying dwelling. + +It was a nondescript building, half canvas and half boards. The +interior seen through the open door was fitted up with side +shelves, a counter carelessly piled with provisions, groceries, +clothing, and hardware--with no attempt at display or even ordinary +selection--and a table, on which stood a demijohn and three or four +dirty glasses. Two roughly dressed men, whose long, matted beards +and hair left only their eyes and lips visible in the tangled +hirsute wilderness below their slouched hats, were leaning against +the opposite sides of the doorway, smoking. Almost thrown against +them in the rapid momentum of his descent, Clarence halted +violently. + +"Well, sonny, you needn't capsize the shanty," said the first man, +without taking his pipe from his lips. + +"If yer looking fur yer ma, she and yer Aunt Jane hev jest gone +over to Parson Doolittle's to take tea," observed the second man +lazily. "She allowed that you'd wait." + +"I'm--I'm--going to--to the mines," explained Clarence, with some +hesitation. "I suppose this is the way." + +The two men took their pipes from their lips, looked at each other, +completely wiped every vestige of expression from their faces with +the back of their hands, turned their eyes into the interior of the +cabin, and said, "Will yer come yer, now WILL yer?" Thus adjured, +half a dozen men, also bearded and carrying pipes in their mouths, +straggled out of the shanty, and, filing in front of it, squatted +down, with their backs against the boards, and gazed comfortably at +the boy. Clarence began to feel uneasy. + +"I'll give," said one, taking out his pipe and grimly eying +Clarence, "a hundred dollars for him as he stands." + +"And seein' as he's got that bran-new rig-out o' tools," said +another, "I'll give a hundred and fifty--and the drinks. I've +been," he added apologetically, "wantin' sunthin' like this a long +time." + +"Well, gen'lemen," said the man who had first spoken to him, +"lookin' at him by and large; takin' in, so to speak, the gin'ral +gait of him in single harness; bearin' in mind the perfect +freshness of him, and the coolness and size of his cheek--the easy +downyness, previousness, and utter don't-care-a-damnativeness of +his coming yer, I think two hundred ain't too much for him, and +we'll call it a bargain." + +Clarence's previous experience of this grim, smileless Californian +chaff was not calculated to restore his confidence. He drew away +from the cabin, and repeated doggedly, "I asked you if this was the +way to the mines." + +"It ARE the mines, and these yere are the miners," said the first +speaker gravely. "Permit me to interdoose 'em. This yere's Shasta +Jim, this yere's Shotcard Billy, this is Nasty Bob, and this +Slumgullion Dick. This yere's the Dook o' Chatham Street, the +Livin' Skeleton, and me!" + +"May we ask, fair young sir," said the Living Skeleton, who, +however, seemed in fairly robust condition, "whence came ye on the +wings of the morning, and whose Marble Halls ye hev left desolate?" + +"I came across the plains, and got into Stockton two days ago on +Mr. Peyton's train," said Clarence, indignantly, seeing no reason +now to conceal anything. "I came to Sacramento to find my cousin, +who isn't living there any more. I don't see anything funny in +THAT! I came here to the mines to dig gold--because---because Mr. +Silsbee, the man who was to bring me here and might have found my +cousin for me, was killed by Indians." + +"Hold up, sonny. Let me help ye," said the first speaker, rising +to his feet. "YOU didn't get killed by Injins because you got lost +out of a train with Silsbee's infant darter. Peyton picked you up +while you was takin' care of her, and two days arter you kem up to +the broken-down Silsbee wagons, with all the folks lyin' there +slartered." + +"Yes, sir," said Clarence, breathlessly with astonishment. + +"And," continued the man, putting his hand gravely to his head as +if to assist his memory, "when you was all alone on the plains with +that little child you saw one of those redskins, as near to you as +I be, watchin' the train, and you didn't breathe or move while he +was there?" + +"Yes, sir," said Clarence eagerly. + +"And you was shot at by Peyton, he thinkin' you was an Injun in the +mesquite grass? And you once shot a buffalo that had been pitched +with you down a gully--all by yourself?" + +"Yes," said Clarence, crimson with wonder and pleasure. "You know +me, then?" + +"Well, ye-e-es," said the man gravely, parting his mustache with +his fingers. "You see, YOU'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE." + +"Before! Me?" repeated the astounded Clarence. + +"Yes, before. Last night. You was taller then, and hadn't cut +your hair. You cursed a good deal more than you do now. You drank +a man's share of whiskey, and you borrowed fifty dollars to get to +Sacramento with. I reckon you haven't got it about you now, eh?" + +Clarence's brain reeled in utter confusion and hopeless terror. + +Was he going crazy, or had these cruel men learned his story from +his faithless friends, and this was a part of the plot? He +staggered forward, but the men had risen and quickly encircled him, +as if to prevent his escape. In vague and helpless desperation he +gasped-- + +"What place is this?" + +"Folks call it Deadman's Gulch." + +Deadman's Gulch! A flash of intelligence lit up the boy's blind +confusion. Deadman's Gulch! Could it have been Jim Hooker who had +really run away, and had taken his name? He turned half- +imploringly to the first speaker. + +"Wasn't he older than me, and bigger? Didn't he have a smooth, +round face and little eyes? Didn't he talk hoarse? Didn't he--" +He stopped hopelessly. + +"Yes; oh, he wasn't a bit like you," said the man musingly. "Ye +see, that's the h-ll of it! You're altogether TOO MANY and TOO +VARIOUS fur this camp." + +"I don't know who's been here before, or what they have said," said +Clarence desperately, yet even in that desperation retaining the +dogged loyalty to his old playmate, which was part of his nature. +"I don't know, and I don't care--there! I'm Clarence Brant of +Kentucky; I started in Silsbee's train from St. Jo, and I'm going +to the mines, and you can't stop me!" + +The man who had first spoken started, looked keenly at Clarence, +and then turned to the others. The gentleman known as the living +skeleton had obtruded his huge bulk in front of the boy, and, +gazing at him, said reflectively, "Darned if it don't look like one +of Brant's pups--sure!" + +"Air ye any relation to Kernel Hamilton Brant of Looeyville?" asked +the first speaker. + +Again that old question! Poor Clarence hesitated, despairingly. +Was he to go through the same cross-examination he had undergone +with the Peytons? "Yes," he said doggedly, "I am--but he's dead, +and you know it." + +"Dead--of course." "Sartin." "He's dead." "The Kernel's +planted," said the men in chorus. + +"Well, yes," reflected the Living Skeleton ostentatiously, as one +who spoke from experience. "Ham Brant's about as bony now as they +make 'em." + +"You bet! About the dustiest, deadest corpse you kin turn out," +corroborated Slumgullion Dick, nodding his head gloomily to the +others; "in point o' fack, es a corpse, about the last one I should +keer to go huntin' fur." + +"The Kernel's tech 'ud be cold and clammy," concluded the Duke of +Chatham Street, who had not yet spoken, "sure. But what did yer +mammy say about it? Is she gettin' married agin? Did SHE send ye +here?" + +It seemed to Clarence that the Duke of Chatham Street here received +a kick from his companions; but the boy repeated doggedly-- + +"I came to Sacramento to find my cousin, Jackson Brant; but he +wasn't there." + +"Jackson Brant!" echoed the first speaker, glancing at the others. +"Did your mother say he was your cousin?" + +"Yes," said Clarence wearily. "Good-by." + +"Hullo, sonny, where are you going?" + +"To dig gold," said the boy. "And you know you can't prevent me, +if it isn't on your claim. I know the law." He had heard Mr. +Peyton discuss it at Stockton, and he fancied that the men, who +were whispering among themselves, looked kinder than before, and as +if they were no longer "acting" to him. The first speaker laid his +hand on his shoulder, and said, "All right, come with me, and I'll +show you where to dig." + +"Who are you?" said Clarence. "You called yourself only 'me.'" + +"Well, you can call me Flynn--Tom Flynn." + +"And you'll show me where I can dig--myself?" + +"I will." + +"Do you know," said Clarence timidly, yet with a half-conscious +smile, "that I--I kinder bring luck?" + +The man looked down upon him, and said gravely, but, as it struck +Clarence, with a new kind of gravity, "I believe you." + +"Yes," said Clarence eagerly, as they walked along together, "I +brought luck to a man in Sacramento the other day." And he related +with great earnestness his experience in the gambling saloon. Not +content with that--the sealed fountains of his childish deep being +broken up by some mysterious sympathy--he spoke of his hospitable +exploit with the passengers at the wayside bar, of the finding of +his Fortunatus purse and his deposit at the bank. Whether that +characteristic old-fashioned reticence which had been such an +important factor for good or ill in his future had suddenly +deserted him, or whether some extraordinary prepossession in his +companion had affected him, he did not know; but by the time the +pair had reached the hillside Flynn was in possession of all the +boy's history. On one point only was his reserve unshaken. +Conscious although he was of Jim Hooker's duplicity, he affected to +treat it as a comrade's joke. + +They halted at last in the middle of an apparently fertile +hillside. Clarence shifted his shovel from his shoulders, unslung +his pan, and looked at Flynn. "Dig anywhere here, where you like," +said his companion carelessly, "and you'll be sure to find the +color. Fill your pan with the dirt, go to that sluice, and let the +water run in on the top of the pan--workin' it round so," he added, +illustrating a rotary motion with the vessel. "Keep doing that +until all the soil is washed out of it, and you have only the black +sand at the bottom. Then work that the same way until you see the +color. Don't be afraid of washing the gold out of the pan--you +couldn't do it if you tried. There, I'll leave you here, and you +wait till I come back." With another grave nod and something like +a smile in the only visible part of his bearded face--his eyes--he +strode rapidly away. + +Clarence did not lose time. Selecting a spot where the grass was +less thick, he broke through the soil and turned up two or three +spadefuls of red soil. When he had filled the pan and raised it to +his shoulder, he was astounded at its weight. He did not know that +it was due to the red precipitate of iron that gave it its color. +Staggering along with his burden to the running sluice, which +looked like an open wooden gutter, at the foot of the hill, he +began to carefully carry out Flynn's direction. The first dip of +the pan in the running water carried off half the contents of the +pan in liquid paint-like ooze. For a moment he gave way to boyish +satisfaction in the sight and touch of this unctuous solution, and +dabbled his fingers in it. A few moments more of rinsing and he +came to the sediment of fine black sand that was beneath it. +Another plunge and swilling of water in the pan, and--could he +believe his eyes!--a few yellow tiny scales, scarcely larger than +pins' heads, glittered among the sand. He poured it off. But his +companion was right; the lighter sand shifted from side to side +with the water, but the glittering points remained adhering by +their own tiny specific gravity to the smooth surface of the +bottom. It was "the color"--gold! + +Clarence's heart seemed to give a great leap within him. A vision +of wealth, of independence, of power, sprang before his dazzled +eyes, and--a hand lightly touched him on the shoulder. + +He started. In his complete preoccupation and excitement, he had +not heard the clatter of horse-hoofs, and to his amazement Flynn +was already beside him, mounted, and leading a second horse. + +"You kin ride?" he said shortly. + +"Yes" stammered Clarence; "but--" + +"BUT--we've only got two hours to reach Buckeye Mills in time to +catch the down stage. Drop all that, jump up, and come with me!" + +"But I've just found gold," said the boy excitedly. + +"And I've just found your--cousin. Come!" + +He spurred his horse across Clarence's scattered implements, half +helped, half lifted, the boy into the saddle of the second horse, +and, with a cut of his riata over the animal's haunches, the next +moment they were both galloping furiously away. + + +CHAPTER IX + + +Torn suddenly from his prospective future, but too much dominated +by the man beside him to protest, Clarence was silent until a rise +in the road, a few minutes later, partly abated their headlong +speed, and gave him chance to recover his breath and courage. + +"Where is my cousin?" he asked. + +"In the Southern county, two hundred miles from here." + +"Are we going to him?" + +"Yes." + +They rode furiously forward again. It was nearly half an hour +before they came to a longer ascent. Clarence could see that Flynn +was from time to time examining him curiously under his slouched +hat. This somewhat embarrassed him, but in his singular confidence +in the man no distrust mingled with it. + +"Ye never saw your--cousin?" he asked. + +"No," said Clarence; "nor he me. I don't think he knew me much, +any way. + +"How old mout ye be, Clarence?" + +"Eleven." + +"Well, as you're suthin of a pup"--Clarence started, and recalled +Peyton's first criticism of him--"I reckon to tell ye suthin. Ye +ain't goin' to be skeert, or afeard, or lose yer sand, I kalkilate, +for skunkin' ain't in your breed. Well, wot ef I told ye that +thish yer--thish yer--COUSIN o' yours was the biggest devil onhung; +that he'd just killed a man, and had to lite out elsewhere, and +THET'S why he didn't show up in Sacramento--what if I told you +that?" + +Clarence felt that this was somehow a little too much. He was +perfectly truthful, and lifting his frank eyes to Flynn, he said, + +"I should think you were talking a good deal like Jim Hooker!" + +His companion stared, and suddenly reined up his horse; then, +bursting into a shout of laughter, he galloped ahead, from time to +time shaking his head, slapping his legs, and making the dim woods +ring with his boisterous mirth. Then as suddenly becoming +thoughtful again, he rode on rapidly for half an hour, only +speaking to Clarence to urge him forward, and assisting his +progress by lashing the haunches of his horse. Luckily, the boy +was a good rider--a fact which Flynn seemed to thoroughly +appreciate--or he would have been unseated a dozen times. + +At last the straggling sheds of Buckeye Mills came into softer +purple view on the opposite mountain. Then laying his hand on +Clarence's shoulder as he reined in at his side, Flynn broke the +silence. + +"There, boy," he said, wiping the mirthful tears from his eyes. "I +was only foolin'--only tryin' yer grit! This yer cousin I'm taking +you to be as quiet and soft-spoken and as old-fashioned ez you be. +Why, he's that wrapped up in books and study that he lives alone in +a big adobe rancherie among a lot o' Spanish, and he don't keer to +see his own countrymen! Why, he's even changed his name, and +calles himself Don Juan Robinson! But he's very rich; he owns +three leagues of land and heaps of cattle and horses, and," +glancing approvingly at Clarence's seat in the saddle, "I reckon +you'll hev plenty of fun thar." + +"But," hesitated Clarence, to whom this proposal seemed only a +repetition of Peyton's charitable offer, "I think I'd better stay +here and dig gold--WITH YOU." + +"And I think you'd better not," said the man, with a gravity that +was very like a settled determination. + +"But my cousin never came for me to Sacramento--nor sent, nor even +wrote," persisted Clarence indignantly. + +"Not to YOU, boy; but he wrote to the man whom he reckoned would +bring you there--Jack Silsbee--and left it in the care of the bank. +And Silsbee, being dead, didn't come for the letter; and as you +didn't ask for it when you came, and didn't even mention Silsbee's +name, that same letter was sent back to your cousin through me, +because the bank thought we knew his whereabouts. It came to the +gulch by an express rider, whilst you were prospectin' on the +hillside. Rememberin' your story, I took the liberty of opening +it, and found out that your cousin had told Silsbee to bring you +straight to him. So I'm only doin' now what Silsbee would have +done." + +Any momentary doubt or suspicion that might have risen in +Clarence's mind vanished as he met his companion's steady and +masterful eye. Even his disappointment was forgotten in the charm +of this new-found friendship and protection. And as its outset had +been marked by an unusual burst of confidence on Clarence's part, +the boy, in his gratitude, now felt something of the timid shyness +of a deeper feeling, and once more became reticent. + +They were in time to snatch a hasty meal at Buckeye Mills before +the stage arrived, and Clarence noticed that his friend, despite +his rough dress and lawless aspect, provoked a marked degree of +respect from those he met--in which, perhaps, a wholesome fear was +mingled. It is certain that the two best places in the stage were +given up to them without protest, and that a careless, almost +supercilious invitation to drink from Flynn was responded to with +singular alacrity by all, including even two fastidiously dressed +and previously reserved passengers. I am afraid that Clarence +enjoyed this proof of his friend's singular dominance with a boyish +pride, and, conscious of the curious eyes of the passengers, +directed occasionally to himself, was somewhat ostentatious in his +familiarity with this bearded autocrat. + +At noon the next day they left the stage at a wayside road station, +and Flynn briefly informed Clarence that they must again take +horses. This at first seemed difficult in that out-of-the-way +settlement, where they alone had stopped, but a whisper from the +driver in the ear of the station-master produced a couple of fiery +mustangs, with the same accompaniment of cautious awe and mystery. +For the next two days they traveled on horseback, resting by night +at the lodgings of one or other of Flynn's friends in the outskirts +of a large town, where they arrived in the darkness, and left +before day. To any one more experienced than the simple-minded boy +it would have been evident that Flynn was purposely avoiding the +more traveled roads and conveyances; and when they changed horses +again the next day's ride was through an apparently unbroken +wilderness of scattered wood and rolling plain. Yet to Clarence, +with his pantheistic reliance and joyous sympathy with nature, the +change was filled with exhilarating pleasure. The vast seas of +tossing wild oats, the hillside still variegated with strange +flowers, the virgin freshness of untrodden woods and leafy aisles, +whose floors of moss or bark were undisturbed by human footprint, +were a keen delight and novelty. More than this, his quick eye, +trained perceptions, and frontier knowledge now stood him in good +stead. His intuitive sense of distance, instincts of woodcraft, +and his unerring detection of those signs, landmarks, and +guideposts of nature, undistinguishable to aught but birds and +beasts and some children, were now of the greatest service to his +less favored companion. In this part of their strange pilgrimage +it was the boy who took the lead. Flynn, who during the past two +days seemed to have fallen into a mood of watchful reserve, nodded +his approbation. "This sort of thing's yer best holt, boy," he +said. "Men and cities ain't your little game." + +At the next stopping-place Clarence had a surprise. They had again +entered a town at nightfall, and lodged with another friend of +Flynn's in rooms which from vague sounds appeared to be over a +gambling saloon. Clarence woke late in the morning, and, +descending into the street to mount for the day's journey, was +startled to find that Flynn was not on the other horse, but that a +well-dressed and handsome stranger had taken his place. But a +laugh, and the familiar command, "Jump up, boy," made him look +again. It WAS Flynn, but completely shaven of beard and mustache, +closely clipped of hair, and in a fastidiously cut suit of black! + +"Then you didn't know me?" said Flynn. + +"Not till you spoke," replied Clarence. + +"So much the better," said his friend sententiously, as he put +spurs to his horse. But as they cantered through the street, +Clarence, who had already become accustomed to the stranger's +hirsute adornment, felt a little more awe of him. The profile of +the mouth and chin now exposed to his sidelong glance was hard and +stern, and slightly saturnine. Although unable at the time to +identify it with anybody he had ever known, it seemed to the +imaginative boy to be vaguely connected with some sad experience. +But the eyes were thoughtful and kindly, and the boy later believed +that if he had been more familiar with the face he would have loved +it better. For it was the last and only day he was to see it, as, +late that afternoon, after a dusty ride along more traveled +highways, they reached their journey's end. + +It was a low-walled house, with red-tiled roofs showing against the +dark green of venerable pear and fig trees, and a square court-yard +in the centre, where they had dismounted. A few words in Spanish +from Flynn to one of the lounging peons admitted them to a wooden +corridor, and thence to a long, low room, which to Clarence's eyes +seemed literally piled with books and engravings. Here Flynn +hurriedly bade him stay while he sought the host in another part of +the building. But Clarence did not miss him; indeed, it may be +feared, he forgot even the object of their journey in the new +sensations that suddenly thronged upon him, and the boyish vista of +the future that they seemed to open. He was dazed and intoxicated. +He had never seen so many books before; he had never conceived of +such lovely pictures. And yet in some vague way he thought he must +have dreamt of them at some time. He had mounted a chair, and was +gazing spellbound at an engraving of a sea-fight when he heard +Flynn's voice. + +His friend had quietly reentered the room, in company with an +oldish, half-foreign-looking man, evidently his relation. With no +helping recollection, with no means of comparison beyond a vague +idea that his cousin might look like himself, Clarence stood +hopelessly before him. He had already made up his mind that he +would have to go through the usual cross-questioning in regard to +his father and family; he had even forlornly thought of inventing +some innocent details to fill out his imperfect and unsatisfactory +recollection. But, glancing up, he was surprised to find that his +elderly cousin was as embarrassed as he was, Flynn, as usual, +masterfully interposed. + +"Of course ye don't remember each other, and thar ain't much that +either of you knows about family matters, I reckon," he said +grimly; "and as your cousin calls himself Don Juan Robinson," he +added to Clarence, "it's just as well that you let 'Jackson Brant' +slide. I know him better than you, but you'll get used to him, and +he to you, soon enough. At least, you'd better," he concluded, +with his singular gravity. + +As he turned as if to leave the room with Clarence's embarrassed +relative--much to that gentleman's apparent relief--the boy looked +up at the latter and said timidly-- + +"May I look at those books?" + +His cousin stopped, and glanced at him with the first expression of +interest he had shown. + +"Ah, you read; you like books?" + +"Yes," said Clarence. As his cousin remained still looking at him +thoughtfully, he added, "My hands are pretty clean, but I can wash +them first, if you like." + +"You may look at them," said Don Juan smilingly; "and as they are +old books you can wash your hands afterwards." And, turning to +Flynn suddenly, with an air of relief, "I tell you what I'll do-- +I'll teach him Spanish!" + +They left the room together, and Clarence turned eagerly to the +shelves. They were old books, some indeed very old, queerly bound, +and worm-eaten. Some were in foreign languages, but others in +clear, bold English type, with quaint wood-cuts and illustrations. +One seemed to be a chronicle of battles and sieges, with pictured +representations of combatants spitted with arrows, cleanly lopped +off in limb, or toppled over distinctly by visible cannon-shot. He +was deep in its perusal when he heard the clatter of a horse's +hoofs in the court-yard and the voice of Flynn. He ran to the +window, and was astonished to see his friend already on horseback, +taking leave of his host. + +For one instant Clarence felt one of those sudden revulsions of +feeling common to his age, but which he had always timidly hidden +under dogged demeanor. Flynn, his only friend! Flynn, his only +boyish confidant! Flynn, his latest hero, was going away and +forsaking him without a word of parting! It was true that he had +only agreed to take him to his guardian, but still Flynn need not +have left him without a word of hope or encouragement! With any +one else Clarence would probably have taken refuge in his usual +Indian stoicism, but the same feeling that had impelled him to +offer Flynn his boyish confidences on their first meeting now +overpowered him. He dropped his book, ran out into the corridor, +and made his way to the court-yard, just as Flynn galloped out from +the arch. + +But the boy uttered a despairing shout that reached the rider. He +drew rein, wheeled, halted, and sat facing Clarence impatiently. +To add to Clarence's embarrassment his cousin had lingered in the +corridor, attracted by the interruption, and a peon, lounging in +the archway, obsequiously approached Flynn's bridle-rein. But the +rider waved him off, and, turning sternly to Clarence, said:-- + +"What's the matter now?" + +"Nothing," said Clarence, striving to keep back the hot tears that +rose in his eyes. "But you were going away without saying 'good- +by.' You've been very kind to me, and--and--I want to thank you!" + +A deep flush crossed Flynn's face. Then glancing suspiciously +towards the corridor, he said hurriedly,-- + +"Did HE send you?" + +"No, I came myself. I heard you going." + +"All right. Good-by." He leaned forward as if about to take +Clarence's outstretched hand, checked himself suddenly with a grim +smile, and taking from his pocket a gold coin handed it to the boy. + +Clarence took it, tossed it with a proud gesture to the waiting +peon, who caught it thankfully, drew back a step from Flynn, and +saying, with white cheeks, "I only wanted to say good-by," dropped +his hot eyes to the ground. But it did not seem to be his own +voice that had spoken, nor his own self that had prompted the act. + +There was a quick interchange of glances between the departing +guest and his late host, in which Flynn's eyes flashed with an odd, +admiring fire, but when Clarence raised his head again he was gone. +And as the boy turned back with a broken heart towards the +corridor, his cousin laid his hand upon his shoulder. + +"Muy hidalgamente, Clarence," he said pleasantly. "Yes, we shall +make something of you!" + + +CHAPTER X + + +Then followed to Clarence three uneventful years. During that +interval he learnt that Jackson Brant, or Don Juan Robinson--for +the tie of kinship was the least factor in their relations to each +other, and after the departure of Flynn was tacitly ignored by +both--was more Spanish than American. An early residence in Lower +California, marriage with a rich Mexican widow, whose dying +childless left him sole heir, and some strange restraining +idiosyncrasy of temperament had quite denationalized him. A +bookish recluse, somewhat superfastidious towards his own +countrymen, the more Clarence knew him the more singular appeared +his acquaintance with Flynn; but as he did not exhibit more +communicativeness on this point than upon their own kinship, +Clarence finally concluded that it was due to the dominant +character of his former friend, and thought no more about it. He +entered upon the new life at El Refugio with no disturbing past. +Quickly adapting himself to the lazy freedom of this hacienda +existence, he spent the mornings on horseback ranging the hills +among his cousin's cattle, and the afternoons and evenings busied +among his cousin's books with equally lawless and undisciplined +independence. The easy-going Don Juan, it is true, attempted to +make good his rash promise to teach the boy Spanish, and actually +set him a few tasks; but in a few weeks the quick-witted Clarence +acquired such a colloquial proficiency from his casual acquaintance +with vaqueros and small traders that he was glad to leave the +matter in his young kinsman's hands. Again, by one of those +illogical sequences which make a lifelong reputation depend upon a +single trivial act, Clarence's social status was settled forever at +El Refugio Rancho by his picturesque diversion of Flynn's parting +gift. The grateful peon to whom the boy had scornfully tossed the +coin repeated the act, gesture, and spirit of the scene to his +companion, and Don Juan's unknown and youthful relation was at once +recognized as hijo de la familia, and undeniably a hidalgo born and +bred. But in the more vivid imagination of feminine El Refugio the +incident reached its highest poetic form. "It is true, Mother of +God," said Chucha of the Mill; "it was Domingo who himself relates +it as it were the Creed. When the American escort had arrived with +the young gentleman, this escort, look you, being not of the same +quality, he is departing again without a word of permission. Comes +to him at this moment my little hidalgo. 'You have yourself +forgotten to take from me your demission,' he said. This escort, +thinking to make his peace with a mere muchacho, gives to him a +gold piece of twenty pesos. The little hidalgo has taken it SO, +and with the words, 'Ah! you would make of me your almoner to my +cousin's people,' has given it at the moment to Domingo, and with a +grace and fire admirable." But it is certain that Clarence's +singular simplicity and truthfulness, a faculty of being +picturesquely indolent in a way that suggested a dreamy abstraction +of mind rather than any vulgar tendency to bodily ease and comfort, +and possibly the fact that he was a good horseman, made him a +popular hero at El Refugio. At the end of three years Don Juan +found that this inexperienced and apparently idle boy of fourteen +knew more of the practical ruling of the rancho than he did +himself; also that this unlettered young rustic had devoured nearly +all the books in his library with boyish recklessness of digestion. +He found, too, that in spite of his singular independence of +action, Clarence was possessed of an invincible loyalty of +principle, and that, asking no sentimental affection, and indeed +yielding none, he was, without presuming on his relationship, +devoted to his cousin's interest. It seemed that from being a +glancing ray of sunshine in the house, evasive but never obtrusive, +he had become a daily necessity of comfort and security to his +benefactor. + +Clarence was, however, astonished, when, one morning, Don Juan, +with the same embarrassed manner he had shown at their first +meeting, suddenly asked him, "what business he expected to follow." +It seemed the more singular, as the speaker, like most abstracted +men, had hitherto always studiously ignored the future, in their +daily intercourse. Yet this might have been either the habit of +security or the caution of doubt. Whatever it was, it was some +sudden disturbance of Don Juan's equanimity, as disconcerting to +himself as it was to Clarence. So conscious was the boy of this +that, without replying to his cousin's question, but striving in +vain to recall some delinquency of his own, he asked, with his +usual boyish directness-- + +"Has anything happened? Have I done anything wrong?" + +"No, no," returned Don Juan hurriedly. "But, you see, it's time +that you should think of your future--or at least prepare for it. +I mean you ought to have some more regular education. You will +have to go to school. It's too bad," he added fretfully, with a +certain impatient forgetfulness of Clarence's presence, and as if +following his own thought. "Just as you are becoming of service to +me, and justifying your ridiculous position here--and all this d--d +nonsense that's gone before--I mean, of course, Clarence," he +interrupted himself, catching sight of the boy's whitening cheek +and darkening eye, "I mean, you know--this ridiculousness of my +keeping you from school at your age, and trying to teach you +myself--don't you see." + +"You think it is--ridiculous," repeated Clarence, with dogged +persistency. + +"I mean I am ridiculous," said Don Juan hastily. "There! there! +let's say no more about it. To-morrow we'll ride over to San Jose +and see the Father Secretary at the Jesuits' College about your +entering at once. It's a good school, and you'll always be near +the rancho!" And so the interview ended. + +I am afraid that Clarence's first idea was to run away. There are +few experiences more crushing to an ingenuous nature than the +sudden revelation of the aspect in which it is regarded by others. +The unfortunate Clarence, conscious only of his loyalty to his +cousin's interest and what he believed were the duties of his +position, awoke to find that position "ridiculous." In an +afternoon's gloomy ride through the lonely hills, and later in the +sleepless solitude of his room at night, he concluded that his +cousin was right. He would go to school; he would study hard--so +hard that in a little, a very little while, he could make a living +for himself. He awoke contented. It was the blessing of youth +that this resolve and execution seemed as one and the same thing. + +The next day found him installed as a pupil and boarder in the +college. Don Juan's position and Spanish predilections naturally +made his relation acceptable to the faculty; but Clarence could not +help perceiving that Father Sobriente, the Principal, regarded him +at times with a thoughtful curiosity that made him suspect that his +cousin had especially bespoken that attention, and that he +occasionally questioned him on his antecedents in a way that made +him dread a renewal of the old questioning about his progenitor. +For the rest, he was a polished, cultivated man; yet, in the +characteristic, material criticism of youth, I am afraid that +Clarence chiefly identified him as a priest with large hands, whose +soft palms seemed to be cushioned with kindness, and whose equally +large feet, encased in extraordinary shapeless shoes of undyed +leather, seemed to tread down noiselessly--rather than to +ostentatiously crush--the obstacles that beset the path of the +young student. In the cloistered galleries of the court-yard +Clarence sometimes felt himself borne down by the protecting weight +of this paternal hand; in the midnight silence of the dormitory he +fancied he was often conscious of the soft browsing tread and +snuffly muffled breathing of his elephantine-footed mentor. + +His relations with his school-fellows were at first far from +pleasant. Whether they suspected favoritism; whether they resented +that old and unsympathetic manner which sprang from his habits of +association with his elders; or whether they rested their +objections on the broader grounds of his being a stranger, I do not +know, but they presently passed from cruel sneers to physical +opposition. It was then found that this gentle and reserved youth +had retained certain objectionable, rude, direct, rustic qualities +of fist and foot, and that, violating all rules and disdaining the +pomp and circumstance of school-boy warfare, of which he knew +nothing, he simply thrashed a few of his equals out of hand, with +or without ceremony, as the occasion or the insult happened. In +this emergency one of the seniors was selected to teach this +youthful savage his proper position. A challenge was given, and +accepted by Clarence with a feverish alacrity that surprised +himself as much as his adversary. This was a youth of eighteen, +his superior in size and skill. + +The first blow bathed Clarence's face in his own blood. But the +sanguinary chrism, to the alarm of the spectators, effected an +instantaneous and unhallowed change in the boy. Instantly closing +with his adversary, he sprang at his throat like an animal, and +locking his arm around his neck began to strangle him. Blind to +the blows that rained upon him, he eventually bore his staggering +enemy by sheer onset and surprise to the earth. Amidst the general +alarm, the strength of half a dozen hastily summoned teachers was +necessary to unlock his hold. Even then he struggled to renew the +conflict. But his adversary had disappeared, and from that day +forward Clarence was never again molested. + +Seated before Father Sobriente in the infirmary, with swollen and +bandaged face, and eyes that still seemed to see everything in the +murky light of his own blood, Clarence felt the soft weight of the +father's hand upon his knee. + +"My son," said the priest gently, "you are not of our religion, or +I should claim as a right to ask a question of your own heart at +this moment. But as to a good friend, Claro, a good friend," he +continued, patting the boy's knee, "you will tell me, old Father +Sobriente, frankly and truthfully, as is your habit, one little +thing. Were you not afraid?" + +"No," said Clarence doggedly. "I'll lick him again to-morrow." + +"Softly, my son! It was not of HIM I speak, but of something more +terrible and awful. Were you not afraid of--of--" he paused, and +suddenly darting his clear eyes into the very depths of Clarence's +soul, added--"of YOURSELF?" + +The boy started, shuddered, and burst into tears. + +"So, so," said the priest gently, "we have found our real enemy. +Good! Now, by the grace of God, my little warrior, we shall fight +HIM and conquer." + +Whether Clarence profited by this lesson, or whether this brief +exhibition of his quality prevented any repetition of the cause, +the episode was soon forgotten. As his school-fellows had never +been his associates or confidants, it mattered little to him +whether they feared or respected him, or were hypocritically +obsequious, after the fashion of the weaker. His studies, at all +events, profited by this lack of distraction. Already his two +years of desultory and omnivorous reading had given him a facile +familiarity with many things, which left him utterly free of the +timidity, awkwardness, or non-interest of a beginner. His usually +reserved manner, which had been lack of expression rather than of +conviction, had deceived his tutors. The audacity of a mind that +had never been dominated by others, and owed no allegiance to +precedent, made his merely superficial progress something +marvelous. + +At the end of the first year he was a phenomenal scholar, who +seemed capable of anything. Nevertheless, Father Sobriente had an +interview with Don Juan, and as a result Clarence was slightly kept +back in his studies, a little more freedom from the rules was +conceded to him, and he was even encouraged to take some diversion. +Of such was the privilege to visit the neighboring town of Santa +Clara unrestricted and unattended. He had always been liberally +furnished with pocket-money, for which, in his companionless state +and Spartan habits, he had a singular and unboyish contempt. +Nevertheless, he always appeared dressed with scrupulous neatness, +and was rather distinguished-looking in his older reserve and +melancholy self-reliance. + +Lounging one afternoon along the Alameda, a leafy avenue set out by +the early Mission Fathers between the village of San Jose and the +convent of Santa Clara, he saw a double file of young girls from +the convent approaching, on their usual promenade. A view of this +procession being the fondest ambition of the San Jose collegian, +and especially interdicted and circumvented by the good Fathers +attending the college excursions, Clarence felt for it the profound +indifference of a boy who, in the intermediate temperate zone of +fifteen years, thinks that he is no longer young and romantic! He +was passing them with a careless glance, when a pair of deep violet +eyes caught his own under the broad shade of a coquettishly +beribboned hat, even as it had once looked at him from the depths +of a calico sunbonnet. Susy! He started, and would have spoken; +but with a quick little gesture of caution and a meaning glance at +the two nuns who walked at the head and foot of the file, she +indicated him to follow. He did so at a respectful distance, +albeit wondering. A little further on Susy dropped her +handkerchief, and was obliged to dart out and run back to the end +of the file to recover it. But she gave another swift glance of +her blue eyes as she snatched it up and demurely ran back to her +place. The procession passed on, but when Clarence reached the +spot where she had paused he saw a three-cornered bit of paper +lying in the grass. He was too discreet to pick it up while the +girls were still in sight, but continued on, returning to it later. +It contained a few words in a schoolgirl's hand, hastily scrawled +in pencil: "Come to the south wall near the big pear-tree at six." + +Delighted as Clarence felt, he was at the same time embarrassed. +He could not understand the necessity of this mysterious +rendezvous. He knew that if she was a scholar she was under +certain conventual restraints; but with the privileges of his +position and friendship with his teachers, he believed that Father +Sobriente would easily procure him an interview with this old play- +fellow, of whom he had often spoken, and who was, with himself, the +sole survivor of his tragical past. And trusted as he was by +Sobriente, there was something in this clandestine though innocent +rendezvous that went against his loyalty. Nevertheless, he kept +the appointment, and at the stated time was at the south wall of +the convent, over which the gnarled boughs of the distinguishing +pear-tree hung. Hard by in the wall was a grated wicket door that +seemed unused. + +Would she appear among the boughs or on the edge of the wall? +Either would be like the old Susy. But to his surprise he heard +the sound of the key turning in the lock. The grated door suddenly +swung on its hinges, and Susy slipped out. Grasping his hand, she +said, "Let's run, Clarence," and before he could reply she started +off with him at a rapid pace. Down the lane they flew--very much, +as it seemed to Clarence's fancy, as they had flown from the old +emigrant wagon on the prairie, four years before. He glanced at +the fluttering, fairy-like figure beside him. She had grown taller +and more graceful; she was dressed in exquisite taste, with a +minuteness of luxurious detail that bespoke the spoilt child; but +there was the same prodigal outburst of rippling, golden hair down +her back and shoulders, violet eyes, capricious little mouth, and +the same delicate hands and feet he had remembered. He would have +preferred a more deliberate survey, but with a shake of her head +and an hysteric little laugh she only said, "Run, Clarence, run," +and again darted forward. Arriving at the cross-street, they +turned the corner, and halted breathlessly. + +"But you're not running away from school, Susy, are you?" said +Clarence anxiously. + +"Only a little bit. Just enough to get ahead of the other girls," +she said, rearranging her brown curls and tilted hat. "You see, +Clarence," she condescended to explain, with a sudden assumption of +older superiority, "mother's here at the hotel all this week, and +I'm allowed to go home every night, like a day scholar. Only +there's three or four other girls that go out at the same time with +me, and one of the Sisters, and to-day I got ahead of 'em just to +see YOU." + +"But" began Clarence. + +"Oh, it's all right; the other girls knew it, and helped me. They +don't start out for half an hour yet, and they'll say I've just run +ahead, and when they and the Sister get to the hotel I'll be there +already--don't you see?" + +"Yes," said Clarence dubiously. + +"And we'll go to an ice-cream saloon now, shan't we? There's a +nice one near the hotel. I've got some money," she added quickly, +as Clarence looked embarrassed. + +"So have I," said Clarence, with a faint accession of color. +"Let's go!" She had relinquished his hand to smooth out her frock, +and they were walking side by side at a more moderate pace. "But," +he continued, clinging to his first idea with masculine +persistence, and anxious to assure his companion of his power, of +his position, "I'm in the college, and Father Sobriente, who knows +your lady superior, is a good friend of mine and gives me +privileges; and--and--when he knows that you and I used to play +together--why, he'll fix it that we may see each other whenever we +want." + +"Oh, you silly!" said Susy. "WHAT!--when you're--" + +"When I'm WHAT?" + +The young girl shot a violet blue ray from under her broad hat. +"Why--when we're grown up now?" Then with a certain precision, +"Why, they're VERY particular about young gentlemen! Why, +Clarence, if they suspected that you and I were--" Another violet +ray from under the hat completed this unfinished sentence. + +Pleased and yet confused, Clarence looked straight ahead with +deepening color. "Why," continued Susy, "Mary Rogers, that was +walking with me, thought you were ever so old--and a distinguished +Spaniard! And I," she said abruptly--"haven't I grown? Tell me, +Clarence," with her old appealing impatience, "haven't I grown? Do +tell me!" + +"Very much," said Clarence. + +"And isn't this frock pretty--it's only my second best--but I've a +prettier one with lace all down in front; but isn't this one +pretty, Clarence, tell me?" + +Clarence thought the frock and its fair owner perfection, and said +so. Whereat Susy, as if suddenly aware of the presence of passers- +by, assumed an air of severe propriety, dropped her hands by her +side, and with an affected conscientiousness walked on, a little +further from Clarence's side, until they reached the ice-cream +saloon. + +"Get a table near the back, Clarence," she said, in a confidential +whisper, "where they can't see us--and strawberry, you know, for +the lemon and vanilla here are just horrid!" + +They took their seats in a kind of rustic arbor in the rear of the +shop, which gave them the appearance of two youthful but somewhat +over-dressed and over-conscious shepherds. There was an interval +of slight awkwardness, which Susy endeavored to displace. "There +has been," she remarked, with easy conversational lightness, "quite +an excitement about our French teacher being changed. The girls in +our class think it most disgraceful." + +And this was all she could say after a separation of four years! +Clarence was desperate, but as yet idealess and voiceless. At +last, with an effort over his spoon, he gasped a floating +recollection: "Do you still like flapjacks, Susy?" + +"Oh, yes," with a laugh, "but we don't have them now." + +"And Mose" (a black pointer, who used to yelp when Susy sang), +"does he still sing with you?" + +"Oh, HE'S been lost ever so long," said Susy composedly; "but I've +got a Newfoundland and a spaniel and a black pony;" and here, with +a rapid inventory of her other personal effects, she drifted into +some desultory details of the devotion of her adopted parents, whom +she now readily spoke of as "papa" and "mamma," with evidently no +disturbing recollection of the dead. From which it appeared that +the Peytons were very rich, and, in addition to their possessions +in the lower country, owned a rancho in Santa Clara and a house in +San Francisco. Like all children, her strongest impressions were +the most recent. In the vain hope to lead her back to this +material yesterday, he said-- + +"You remember Jim Hooker?" + +"Oh, HE ran away, when you left. But just think of it! The other +day, when papa and I went into a big restaurant in San Francisco, +who should be there WAITING on the table--yes, Clarence, a real +waiter--but Jim Hooker! Papa spoke to him; but of course," with a +slight elevation of her pretty chin, "I couldn't, you know; fancy-- +a waiter!" + +The story of how Jim Hooker had personated him stopped short upon +Clarence's lips. He could not bring himself now to add that +revelation to the contempt of his small companion, which, in spite +of its naivete, somewhat grated on his sensibilities. + +"Clarence," she said, suddenly turning towards him mysteriously, +and indicating the shopman and his assistants, "I really believe +these people suspect us." + +"Of what?" said the practical Clarence. + +"Don't be silly! Don't you see how they are staring?" + +Clarence was really unable to detect the least curiosity on the +part of the shopman, or that any one exhibited the slightest +concern in him or his companion. But he felt a return of the +embarrassed pleasure he was conscious of a moment before. + +"Then you're living with your father?" said Susy, changing the +subject. + +"You mean my COUSIN," said Clarence, smiling. "You know my father +died long before I ever knew you." + +"Yes; that's what YOU used to say, Clarence, but papa says it isn't +so." But seeing the boy's wondering eyes fixed on her with a +troubled expression, she added quickly, "Oh, then, he IS your +cousin!" + +"Well, I think I ought to know," said Clarence, with a smile, that +was, however, far from comfortable, and a quick return of his old +unpleasant recollections of the Peytons. "Why, I was brought to +him by one of his friends." And Clarence gave a rapid boyish +summary of his journey from Sacramento, and Flynn's discovery of +the letter addressed to Silsbee. But before he had concluded he +was conscious that Susy was by no means interested in these +details, nor in the least affected by the passing allusion to her +dead father and his relation to Clarence's misadventures. With her +rounded chin in her hand, she was slowly examining his face, with a +certain mischievous yet demure abstraction. "I tell you what, +Clarence," she said, when he had finished, "you ought to make your +cousin get you one of those sombreros, and a nice gold-braided +serape. They'd just suit you. And then--then you could ride up +and down the Alameda when we are going by." + +"But I'm coming to see you at--at your house, and at the convent," +he said eagerly. "Father Sobriente and my cousin will fix it all +right." + +But Susy shook her head, with superior wisdom. "No; they must +never know our secret!--neither papa nor mamma, especially mamma. +And they mustn't know that we've met again--AFTER THESE YEARS!" It +is impossible to describe the deep significance which Susy's blue +eyes gave to this expression. After a pause she went on-- + +"No! We must never meet again, Clarence, unless Mary Rogers helps. +She is my best, my ONLIEST friend, and older than I; having had +trouble herself, and being expressly forbidden to see him again. +You can speak to her about Suzette--that's my name now; I was +rechristened Suzette Alexandra Peyton by mamma. And now, +Clarence," dropping her voice and glancing shyly around the saloon, +"you may kiss me just once under my hat, for good-by." She +adroitly slanted her broad-brimmed hat towards the front of the +shop, and in its shadow advanced her fresh young cheek to Clarence. + +Coloring and laughing, the boy pressed his lips to it twice. Then +Susy arose, with the faintest affectation of a sigh, shook out her +skirt, drew on her gloves with the greatest gravity, and saying, +"Don't follow me further than the door--they're coming now," walked +with supercilious dignity past the preoccupied proprietor and +waiters to the entrance. Here she said, with marked civility, +"Good-afternoon, Mr. Brant," and tripped away towards the hotel. +Clarence lingered for a moment to look after the lithe and elegant +little figure, with its shining undulations of hair that fell over +the back and shoulders of her white frock like a golden mantle, and +then turned away in the opposite direction. + +He walked home in a state, as it seemed to him, of absurd +perplexity. There were many reasons why his encounter with Susy +should have been of unmixed pleasure. She had remembered him of +her own free will, and, in spite of the change in her fortune, had +made the first advances. Her doubts about her future interviews +had affected him but little; still less, I fear, did he think of +the other changes in her character and disposition, for he was of +that age when they added only a piquancy and fascination to her--as +of one who, in spite of her weakness of nature, was still devoted +to him! But he was painfully conscious that this meeting had +revived in him all the fears, vague uneasiness, and sense of wrong +that had haunted his first boyhood, and which he thought he had +buried at El Refugio four years ago. Susy's allusion to his father +and the reiteration of Peyton's skepticism awoke in his older +intellect the first feeling of suspicion that was compatible with +his open nature. Was this recurring reticence and mystery due to +any act of his father's? But, looking back upon it in after-years, +he concluded that the incident of that day was a premonition rather +than a recollection. + + +CHAPTER XI + + +When he reached the college the Angelus had long since rung. In +the corridor he met one of the Fathers, who, instead of questioning +him, returned his salutation with a grave gentleness that struck +him. He had turned into Father Sobriente's quiet study with the +intention of reporting himself, when he was disturbed to find him +in consultation with three or four of the faculty, who seemed to be +thrown into some slight confusion by his entrance. Clarence was +about to retire hurriedly when Father Sobriente, breaking up the +council with a significant glance at the others, called him back. +Confused and embarrassed, with a dread of something impending, the +boy tried to avert it by a hurried account of his meeting with +Susy, and his hopes of Father Sobriente's counsel and assistance. +Taking upon himself the idea of suggesting Susy's escapade, he +confessed the fault. The old man gazed into his frank eyes with a +thoughtful, half-compassionate smile. "I was just thinking of +giving you a holiday with--with Don Juan Robinson." The unusual +substitution of this final title for the habitual "your cousin" +struck Clarence uneasily. "But we will speak of that later. Sit +down, my son; I am not busy. We shall talk a little. Father Pedro +says you are getting on fluently with your translations. That is +excellent, my son, excellent." + +Clarence's face beamed with relief and pleasure. His vague fears +began to dissipate. + +"And you translate even from dictation! Good! We have an hour to +spare, and you shall give to me a specimen of your skill. Eh? +Good! I will walk here and dictate to you in my poor English, and +you shall sit there and render it to me in your good Spanish. Eh? +So we shall amuse and instruct ourselves." + +Clarence smiled. These sporadic moments of instruction and +admonition were not unusual to the good Father. He cheerfully +seated himself at the Padre's table before a blank sheet of paper, +with a pen in his hand. Father Sobriente paced the apartment, with +his usual heavy but noiseless tread. To his surprise, the good +priest, after an exhaustive pinch of snuff, blew his nose, and +began, in his most lugubrious style of pulpit exhortation:-- + +"It has been written that the sins of the father shall be visited +upon the children, and the unthinking and worldly have sought +refuge from this law by declaring it harsh and cruel. Miserable +and blind! For do we not see that the wicked man, who in the pride +of his power and vainglory is willing to risk punishment to +HIMSELF--and believes it to be courage--must pause before the awful +mandate that condemns an equal suffering to those he loves, which +he cannot withhold or suffer for? In the spectacle of these +innocents struggling against disgrace, perhaps disease, poverty, or +desertion, what avails his haughty, all-defying spirit? Let us +imagine, Clarence." + +"Sir?" said the literal Clarence, pausing in his exercise. + +"I mean," continued the priest, with a slight cough, "let the +thoughtful man picture a father: a desperate, self-willed man, who +scorned the laws of God and society--keeping only faith with a +miserable subterfuge he called 'honor,' and relying only on his own +courage and his knowledge of human weakness. Imagine him cruel and +bloody--a gambler by profession, an outlaw among men, an outcast +from the Church; voluntarily abandoning friends and family,--the +wife he should have cherished, the son he should have reared and +educated--for the gratification of his deadly passions. Yet +imagine that man suddenly confronted with the thought of that +heritage of shame and disgust which he had brought upon his +innocent offspring--to whom he cannot give even his own desperate +recklessness to sustain its vicarious suffering. What must be the +feelings of a parent--" + +"Father Sobriente," said Clarence softly. + +To the boy's surprise, scarcely had he spoken when the soft +protecting palm of the priest was already upon his shoulder, and +the snuffy but kindly upper lip, trembling with some strange +emotion, close beside his cheek. + +"What is it, Clarence?" he said hurriedly. "Speak, my son, without +fear! You would ask--" + +"I only wanted to know if 'padre' takes a masculine verb here," +replied Clarence naively. + +Father Sobriente blew his nose violently. "Truly--though used for +either gender, by the context masculine," he responded gravely. +"Ah," he added, leaning over Clarence, and scanning his work +hastily, "Good, very good! And now, possibly," he continued, +passing his hand like a damp sponge over his heated brow, "we shall +reverse our exercise. I shall deliver to you in Spanish what you +shall render back in English, eh? And--let us consider--we shall +make something more familiar and narrative, eh?" + +To this Clarence, somewhat bored by these present solemn +abstractions, assented gladly, and took up his pen. Father +Sobriente, resuming his noiseless pacing, began: + +"On the fertile plains of Guadalajara lived a certain caballero, +possessed of flocks and lands, and a wife and son. But, being also +possessed of a fiery and roving nature, he did not value them as he +did perilous adventure, feats of arms, and sanguinary encounters. +To this may be added riotous excesses, gambling and drunkenness, +which in time decreased his patrimony, even as his rebellious and +quarrelsome spirit had alienated his family and neighbors. His +wife, borne down by shame and sorrow, died while her son was still +an infant. In a fit of equal remorse and recklessness the +caballero married again within the year. But the new wife was of a +temper and bearing as bitter as her consort. Violent quarrels +ensued between them, ending in the husband abandoning his wife and +son, and leaving St. Louis--I should say Guadalajara--for ever. +Joining some adventurers in a foreign land, under an assumed name, +he pursued his reckless course, until, by one or two acts of +outlawry, he made his return to civilization impossible. The +deserted wife and step-mother of his child coldly accepted the +situation, forbidding his name to be spoken again in her presence, +announced that he was dead, and kept the knowledge of his existence +from his own son, whom she placed under the charge of her sister. +But the sister managed to secretly communicate with the outlawed +father, and, under a pretext, arranged between them, of sending the +boy to another relation, actually dispatched the innocent child to +his unworthy parent. Perhaps stirred by remorse, the infamous man--" + +"Stop!" said Clarence suddenly. + +He had thrown down his pen, and was standing erect and rigid before +the Father. + +"You are trying to tell me something, Father Sobriente," he said, +with an effort. "Speak out, I implore you. I can stand anything +but this mystery. I am no longer a child. I have a right to know +all. This that you are telling me is no fable--I see it in your +face, Father Sobriente; it is the story of--of--" + +"Your father, Clarence!" said the priest, in a trembling voice. + +The boy drew back, with a white face. "My father!" he repeated. +"Living, or dead?" + +"Living, when you first left your home," said the old man +hurriedly, seizing Clarence's hand, "for it was he who in the name +of your cousin sent for you. Living--yes, while you were here, for +it was he who for the past three years stood in the shadow of this +assumed cousin, Don Juan, and at last sent you to this school. +Living, Clarence, yes; but living under a name and reputation that +would have blasted you! And now DEAD--dead in Mexico, shot as an +insurgent and in a still desperate career! May God have mercy on +his soul!" + +"Dead!" repeated Clarence, trembling, "only now?" + +"The news of the insurrection and his fate came only an hour +since," continued the Padre quickly; "his complicity with it and +his identity were known only to Don Juan. He would have spared you +any knowledge of the truth, even as this dead man would; but I and +my brothers thought otherwise. I have broken it to you badly, my +son, but forgive me?" + +An hysterical laugh broke from Clarence and the priest recoiled +before him. "Forgive YOU! What was this man to me?" he said, with +boyish vehemence. "He never LOVED me! He deserted me; he made my +life a lie. He never sought me, came near me, or stretched a hand +to me that I could take?" + +"Hush! hush!" said the priest, with a horrified look, laying his +huge hand upon the boy's shoulder and bearing him down to his seat. +"You know not what you say. Think--think, Clarence! Was there +none of all those who have befriended you--who were kind to you in +your wanderings--to whom your heart turned unconsciously? Think, +Clarence! You yourself have spoken to me of such a one. Let your +heart speak again, for his sake--for the sake of the dead." + +A gentler light suffused the boy's eyes, and he started. Catching +convulsively at his companion's sleeve, he said in an eager, boyish +whisper, "There was one, a wicked, desperate man, whom they all +feared--Flynn, who brought me from the mines. Yes, I thought that +he was my cousin's loyal friend--more than all the rest; and I told +him everything--all, that I never told the man I thought my cousin, +or anyone, or even you; and I think, I think, Father, I liked him +best of all. I thought since it was wrong," he continued, with a +trembling smile, "for I was foolishly fond even of the way the +others feared him, he that I feared not, and who was so kind to me. +Yet he, too, left me without a word, and when I would have followed +him--" But the boy broke down, and buried his face in his hands. + +"No, no," said Father Sobriente, with eager persistence, "that was +his foolish pride to spare you the knowledge of your kinship with +one so feared, and part of the blind and mistaken penance he had +laid upon himself. For even at that moment of your boyish +indignation, he never was so fond of you as then. Yes, my poor +boy, this man, to whom God led your wandering feet at Deadman's +Gulch; the man who brought you here, and by some secret hold--I +know not what--on Don Juan's past, persuaded him to assume to be +your relation; this man Flynn, this Jackson Brant the gambler, this +Hamilton Brant the outlaw--WAS YOUR FATHER! Ah, yes! Weep on, my +son; each tear of love and forgiveness from thee hath vicarious +power to wash away his sin." + +With a single sweep of his protecting hand he drew Clarence towards +his breast, until the boy slowly sank upon his knees at his feet. +Then, lifting his eyes towards the ceiling, he said softly in an +older tongue, "And THOU, too, unhappy and perturbed spirit, rest!" + + . . . . . . . + +It was nearly dawn when the good Padre wiped the last tears from +Clarence's clearer eyes. "And now, my son," he said, with a gentle +smile, as he rose to his feet, "let us not forget the living. +Although your step-mother has, through her own act, no legal claim +upon you, far be it from me to indicate your attitude towards her. +Enough that YOU are independent." He turned, and, opening a drawer +in his secretaire, took out a bank-book, and placed it in the hands +of the wondering boy. + +"It was HIS wish, Clarence, that even after his death you should +never have to prove your kinship to claim your rights. Taking +advantage of the boyish deposit you had left with Mr. Carden at the +bank, with his connivance and in your name he added to it, month by +month and year by year; Mr. Carden cheerfully accepting the trust +and management of the fund. The seed thus sown has produced a +thousandfold, Clarence, beyond all expectations. You are not only +free, my son, but of yourself and in whatever name you choose--your +own master." + +"I shall keep my father's name," said the boy simply. + +"Amen!" said Father Sobriente. + + +Here closes the chronicle of Clarence Brant's boyhood. How he +sustained his name and independence in after years, and who, of +those already mentioned in these pages, helped him to make or mar it, +may be a matter for future record. + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext A Waif of the Plains, by Bret Harte + |