diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2286-0.txt | 3209 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2286-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 64936 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2286-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 68485 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2286-h/2286-h.htm | 3777 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2286.txt | 3208 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 2286.zip | bin | 0 -> 64666 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/dvlfd10.txt | 3233 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/dvlfd10.zip | bin | 0 -> 63705 bytes |
11 files changed, 13443 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2286-0.txt b/2286-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa1af81 --- /dev/null +++ b/2286-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3209 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Devil's Ford, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Devil's Ford + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 13, 2006 [EBook #2286] +Last Updated: March 4, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVIL'S FORD *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +DEVIL'S FORD + +by Bret Harte + + + + +DEVIL'S FORD + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +It was a season of unequalled prosperity in Devil's Ford. The half a +dozen cabins scattered along the banks of the North Fork, as if by some +overflow of that capricious river, had become augmented during a week of +fierce excitement by twenty or thirty others, that were huddled together +on the narrow gorge of Devil's Spur, or cast up on its steep sides. So +sudden and violent had been the change of fortune, that the dwellers +in the older cabins had not had time to change with it, but still kept +their old habits, customs, and even their old clothes. The flour pan in +which their daily bread was mixed stood on the rude table side by side +with the “prospecting pans,” half full of gold washed up from their +morning's work; the front windows of the newer tenements looked upon +the one single thoroughfare, but the back door opened upon the uncleared +wilderness, still haunted by the misshapen bulk of bear or the nightly +gliding of catamount. + +Neither had success as yet affected their boyish simplicity and the +frankness of old frontier habits; they played with their new-found +riches with the naive delight of children, and rehearsed their glowing +future with the importance and triviality of school-boys. + +“I've bin kalklatin',” said Dick Mattingly, leaning on his long-handled +shovel with lazy gravity, “that when I go to Rome this winter, I'll get +one o' them marble sharps to chisel me a statoo o' some kind to set up +on the spot where we made our big strike. Suthin' to remember it by, you +know.” + +“What kind o' statoo--Washington or Webster?” asked one of the Kearney +brothers, without looking up from his work. + +“No--I reckon one o' them fancy groups--one o' them Latin goddesses that +Fairfax is always gassin' about, sorter leadin', directin' and bossin' +us where to dig.” + +“You'd make a healthy-lookin' figger in a group,” responded Kearney, +critically regarding an enormous patch in Mattingly's trousers. “Why +don't you have a fountain instead?” + +“Where'll you get the water?” demanded the first speaker, in return. +“You know there ain't enough in the North Fork to do a week's washing +for the camp--to say nothin' of its color.” + +“Leave that to me,” said Kearney, with self-possession. “When I've built +that there reservoir on Devil's Spur, and bring the water over the ridge +from Union Ditch, there'll be enough to spare for that.” + +“Better mix it up, I reckon--have suthin' half statoo, half fountain,” + interposed the elder Mattingly, better known as “Maryland Joe,” “and set +it up afore the Town Hall and Free Library I'm kalklatin' to give. Do +THAT, and you can count on me.” + +After some further discussion, it was gravely settled that Kearney +should furnish water brought from the Union Ditch, twenty miles away, +at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, to feed a memorial fountain +erected by Mattingly, worth a hundred thousand dollars, as a crowning +finish to public buildings contributed by Maryland Joe, to the extent +of half a million more. The disposition of these vast sums by gentlemen +wearing patched breeches awakened no sense of the ludicrous, nor did any +doubt, reservation, or contingency enter into the plans of the charming +enthusiasts themselves. The foundation of their airy castles lay already +before them in the strip of rich alluvium on the river bank, where the +North Fork, sharply curving round the base of Devil's Spur, had for +centuries swept the detritus of gulch and canyon. They had barely +crossed the threshold of this treasure-house, to find themselves rich +men; what possibilities of affluence might be theirs when they had fully +exploited their possessions? So confident were they of that ultimate +prospect, that the wealth already thus obtained was religiously expended +in engines and machinery for the boring of wells and the conveyance of +that precious water which the exhausted river had long since ceased to +yield. It seemed as if the gold they had taken out was by some ironical +compensation gradually making its way back to the soil again through +ditch and flume and reservoir. + +Such was the position of affairs at Devil's Ford on the 13th of August, +1860. It was noon of a hot day. Whatever movement there was in the +stifling air was seen rather than felt in a tremulous, quivering, +upward-moving dust along the flank of the mountain, through which the +spires of the pines were faintly visible. There was no water in the +bared and burning bars of the river to reflect the vertical sun, but +under its direct rays one or two tinned roofs and corrugated zinc cabins +struck fire, a few canvas tents became dazzling to the eye, and the +white wooded corral of the stage office and hotel insupportable. For +two hours no one ventured in the glare of the open, or even to cross the +narrow, unshadowed street, whose dull red dust seemed to glow between +the lines of straggling houses. The heated shells of these green +unseasoned tenements gave out a pungent odor of scorching wood and +resin. The usual hurried, feverish toil in the claim was suspended; +the pick and shovel were left sticking in the richest “pay gravel;” + the toiling millionaires themselves, ragged, dirty, and perspiring, lay +panting under the nearest shade, where the pipes went out listlessly, +and conversation sank to monosyllables. + +“There's Fairfax,” said Dick Mattingly, at last, with a lazy effort. His +face was turned to the hillside, where a man had just emerged from +the woods, and was halting irresolutely before the glaring expanse of +upheaved gravel and glistening boulders that stretched between him and +the shaded group. “He's going to make a break for it,” he added, as the +stranger, throwing his linen coat over his head, suddenly started into +an Indian trot through the pelting sunbeams toward them. This strange +act was perfectly understood by the group, who knew that in that +intensely dry heat the danger of exposure was lessened by active +exercise and the profuse perspiration that followed it. In another +moment the stranger had reached their side, dripping as if rained upon, +mopping his damp curls and handsome bearded face with his linen coat, as +he threw himself pantingly on the ground. + +“I struck out over here first, boys, to give you a little warning,” he +said, as soon as he had gained breath. “That engineer will be down here +to take charge as soon as the six o'clock stage comes in. He's an oldish +chap, has got a family of two daughters, and--I--am--d----d if he is not +bringing them down here with him.” + +“Oh, go long!” exclaimed the five men in one voice, raising themselves +on their hands and elbows, and glaring at the speaker. + +“Fact, boys! Soon as I found it out I just waltzed into that Jew shop at +the Crossing and bought up all the clothes that would be likely to suit +you fellows, before anybody else got a show. I reckon I cleared out the +shop. The duds are a little mixed in style, but I reckon they're clean +and whole, and a man might face a lady in 'em. I left them round at the +old Buckeye Spring, where they're handy without attracting attention. +You boys can go there for a general wash-up, rig yourselves up without +saying anything, and then meander back careless and easy in your store +clothes, just as the stage is coming in, sabe?” + +“Why didn't you let us know earlier?” asked Mattingly aggrievedly; +“you've been back here at least an hour.” + +“I've been getting some place ready for THEM,” returned the new-comer. +“We might have managed to put the man somewhere, if he'd been alone, but +these women want family accommodation. There was nothing left for me to +do but to buy up Thompson's saloon.” + +“No?” interrupted his audience, half in incredulity, half in +protestation. + +“Fact! You boys will have to take your drinks under canvas again, I +reckon! But I made Thompson let those gold-framed mirrors that used to +stand behind the bar go into the bargain, and they sort of furnish the +room. You know the saloon is one of them patent houses you can take to +pieces, and I've been reckoning you boys will have to pitch in and help +me to take the whole shanty over to the laurel bushes, and put it up +agin Kearney's cabin.” + +“What's all that?” said the younger Kearney, with an odd mingling of +astonishment and bashful gratification. + +“Yes, I reckon yours is the cleanest house, because it's the newest, so +you'll just step out and let us knock in one o' the gables, and clap it +on to the saloon, and make ONE house of it, don't you see? There'll be +two rooms, one for the girls and the other for the old man.” + +The astonishment and bewilderment of the party had gradually given way +to a boyish and impatient interest. + +“Hadn't we better do the job at once?” suggested Dick Mattingly. + +“Or throw ourselves into those new clothes, so as to be ready,” added +the younger Kearney, looking down at his ragged trousers. “I say, +Fairfax, what are the girls like, eh?” + +All the others had been dying to ask the question, yet one and all +laughed at the conscious manner and blushing cheek of the questioner. + +“You'll find out quick enough,” returned Fairfax, whose curt +carelessness did not, however, prevent a slight increase of color on his +own cheek. “We'd better get that job off our hands before doing anything +else. So, if you're ready, boys, we'll just waltz down to Thompson's and +pack up the shanty. He's out of it by this time, I reckon. You might +as well be perspiring to some purpose over there as gaspin' under this +tree. We won't go back to work this afternoon, but knock off now, and +call it half a day. Come! Hump yourselves, gentlemen. Are you ready? +One, two, three, and away!” + +In another instant the tree was deserted; the figures of the five +millionaires of Devil's Ford, crossing the fierce glare of the open +space, with boyish alacrity, glistened in the sunlight, and then +disappeared in the nearest fringe of thickets. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Six hours later, when the shadow of Devil's Spur had crossed the river, +and spread a slight coolness over the flat beyond, the Pioneer coach, +leaving the summit, began also to bathe its heated bulk in the long +shadows of the descent. Conspicuous among the dusty passengers, the +two pretty and youthful faces of the daughters of Philip Carr, mining +superintendent and engineer, looked from the windows with no little +anxiety towards their future home in the straggling settlement below, +that occasionally came in view at the turns of the long zigzagging road. +A slight look of comical disappointment passed between them as they +gazed upon the sterile flat, dotted with unsightly excrescences that +stood equally for cabins or mounds of stone and gravel. It was so feeble +and inconsistent a culmination to the beautiful scenery they had passed +through, so hopeless and imbecile a conclusion to the preparation of +that long picturesque journey, with its glimpses of sylvan and pastoral +glades and canyons, that, as the coach swept down the last incline, +and the remorseless monotony of the dead level spread out before them, +furrowed by ditches and indented by pits, under cover of shielding their +cheeks from the impalpable dust that rose beneath the plunging +wheels, they buried their faces in their handkerchiefs, to hide a few +half-hysterical tears. Happily, their father, completely absorbed in a +practical, scientific, and approving contemplation of the topography +and material resources of the scene of his future labors, had no time +to notice their defection. It was not until the stage drew up before +a rambling tenement bearing the inscription, “Hotel and Stage Office,” + that he became fully aware of it. + +“We can't stop HERE, papa,” said Christie Carr decidedly, with a shake +of her pretty head. “You can't expect that.” + +Mr. Carr looked up at the building; it was half grocery, half saloon. +Whatever other accommodations it contained must have been hidden in the +rear, as the flat roof above was almost level with the raftered ceiling +of the shop. + +“Certainly,” he replied hurriedly; “we'll see to that in a moment. I +dare say it's all right. I told Fairfax we were coming. Somebody ought +to be here.” + +“But they're not,” said Jessie Carr indignantly; “and the few that were +here scampered off like rabbits to their burrows as soon as they saw us +get down.” + +It was true. The little group of loungers before the building had +suddenly disappeared. There was the flash of a red shirt vanishing in an +adjacent doorway; the fading apparition of a pair of high boots and blue +overalls in another; the abrupt withdrawal of a curly blond head from a +sashless window over the way. Even the saloon was deserted, although +a back door in the dim recess seemed to creak mysteriously. The +stage-coach, with the other passengers, had already rattled away. + +“I certainly think Fairfax understood that I--” began Mr. Carr. + +He was interrupted by the pressure of Christie's fingers on his arm and +a subdued exclamation from Jessie, who was staring down the street. + +“What are they?” she whispered in her sister's ear. “Nigger minstrels, a +circus, or what?” + +The five millionaires of Devil's Ford had just turned the corner of the +straggling street, and were approaching in single file. One glance was +sufficient to show that they had already availed themselves of the new +clothing bought by Fairfax, had washed, and one or two had shaved. But +the result was startling. + +Through some fortunate coincidence in size, Dick Mattingly was the only +one who had achieved an entire new suit. But it was of funereal black +cloth, and although relieved at one extremity by a pair of high riding +boots, in which his too short trousers were tucked, and at the other +by a tall white hat, and cravat of aggressive yellow, the effect was +depressing. In agreeable contrast, his brother, Maryland Joe, was +attired in a thin fawn-colored summer overcoat, lightly worn open, so as +to show the unstarched bosom of a white embroidered shirt, and a pair of +nankeen trousers and pumps. + +The Kearney brothers had divided a suit between them, the elder wearing +a tightly-fitting, single-breasted blue frock-coat and a pair of pink +striped cotton trousers, while the younger candidly displayed the +trousers of his brother's suit, as a harmonious change to a shining +black alpaca coat and crimson neckerchief. Fairfax, who brought up the +rear, had, with characteristic unselfishness, contented himself with a +French workman's blue blouse and a pair of white duck trousers. Had they +shown the least consciousness of their finery, or of its absurdity, they +would have seemed despicable. But only one expression beamed on the five +sunburnt and shining faces--a look of unaffected boyish gratification +and unrestricted welcome. + +They halted before Mr. Carr and his daughters, simultaneously removed +their various and remarkable head coverings, and waited until Fairfax +advanced and severally presented them. Jessie Carr's half-frightened +smile took refuge in the trembling shadows of her dark lashes; Christie +Carr stiffened slightly, and looked straight before her. + +“We reckoned--that is--we intended to meet you and the young ladies at +the grade,” said Fairfax, reddening a little as he endeavored to +conceal his too ready slang, “and save you from trapesing--from dragging +yourselves up grade again to your house.” + +“Then there IS a house?” said Jessie, with an alarming frank laugh +of relief, that was, however, as frankly reflected in the boyishly +appreciative eyes of the young men. + +“Such as it is,” responded Fairfax, with a shade of anxiety, as he +glanced at the fresh and pretty costumes of the young women, and +dubiously regarded the two Saratoga trunks resting hopelessly on the +veranda. “I'm afraid it isn't much, for what you're accustomed to. But,” + he added more cheerfully, “it will do for a day or two, and perhaps +you'll give us the pleasure of showing you the way there now.” + +The procession was quickly formed. Mr. Carr, alive only to the actual +business that had brought him there, at once took possession of +Fairfax, and began to disclose his plans for the working of the mine, +occasionally halting to look at the work already done in the ditches, +and to examine the field of his future operations. Fairfax, not +displeased at being thus relieved of a lighter attendance on Mr. +Carr's daughters, nevertheless from time to time cast a paternal glance +backwards upon their escorts, who had each seized a handle of the two +trunks, and were carrying them in couples at the young ladies' side. The +occupation did not offer much freedom for easy gallantry, but no sign +of discomfiture or uneasiness was visible in the grateful faces of the +young men. The necessity of changing hands at times with their burdens +brought a corresponding change of cavalier at the lady's side, although +it was observed that the younger Kearney, for the sake of continuing a +conversation with Miss Jessie, kept his grasp of the handle nearest the +young lady until his hand was nearly cut through, and his arm worn out +by exhaustion. + +“The only thing on wheels in the camp is a mule wagon, and the mules are +packin' gravel from the river this afternoon,” explained Dick Mattingly +apologetically to Christie, “or we'd have toted--I mean carried--you and +your baggage up to the shant--the--your house. Give us two weeks more, +Miss Carr--only two weeks to wash up our work and realize--and we'll +give you a pair of 2.40 steppers and a skeleton buggy to meet you at the +top of the hill and drive you over to the cabin. Perhaps you'd prefer +a regular carriage; some ladies do. And a nigger driver. But what's the +use of planning anything? Afore that time comes we'll have run you up +a house on the hill, and you shall pick out the spot. It wouldn't take +long--unless you preferred brick. I suppose we could get brick over from +La Grange, if you cared for it, but it would take longer. If you +could put up for a time with something of stained glass and a mahogany +veranda--” + +In spite of her cold indignation, and the fact that she could understand +only a part of Mattingly's speech, Christie comprehended enough to make +her lift her clear eyes to the speaker, as she replied freezingly that +she feared she would not trouble them long with her company. + +“Oh, you'll get over that,” responded Mattingly, with an exasperating +confidence that drove her nearly frantic, from the manifest kindliness +of intent that made it impossible for her to resent it. “I felt that way +myself at first. Things will look strange and unsociable for a while, +until you get the hang of them. You'll naturally stamp round and cuss a +little--” He stopped in conscious consternation. + +With ready tact, and before Christie could reply, Maryland Joe had put +down the trunk and changed hands with his brother. + +“You mustn't mind Dick, or he'll go off and kill himself with shame,” he +whispered laughingly in her ear. “He means all right, but he's picked +up so much slang here that he's about forgotten how to talk English, and +it's nigh on to four years since he's met a young lady.” + +Christie did not reply. Yet the laughter of her sister in advance with +the Kearney brothers seemed to make the reserve with which she tried to +crush further familiarity only ridiculous. + +“Do you know many operas, Miss Carr?” + +She looked at the boyish, interested, sunburnt face so near to her +own, and hesitated. After all, why should she add to her other real +disappointments by taking this absurd creature seriously? + +“In what way?” she returned, with a half smile. + +“To play. On the piano, of course. There isn't one nearer here than +Sacramento; but I reckon we could get a small one by Thursday. You +couldn't do anything on a banjo?” he added doubtfully; “Kearney's got +one.” + +“I imagine it would be very difficult to carry a piano over those +mountains,” said Christie laughingly, to avoid the collateral of the +banjo. + +“We got a billiard-table over from Stockton,” half bashfully interrupted +Dick Mattingly, struggling from his end of the trunk to recover his +composure, “and it had to be brought over in sections on the back of a +mule, so I don't see why--” He stopped short again in confusion, at a +sign from his brother, and then added, “I mean, of course, that a piano +is a heap more delicate, and valuable, and all that sort of thing, but +it's worth trying for.” + +“Fairfax was always saying he'd get one for himself, so I reckon it's +possible,” said Joe. + +“Does he play?” asked Christie. + +“You bet,” said Joe, quite forgetting himself in his enthusiasm. “He can +snatch Mozart and Beethoven bald-headed.” + +In the embarrassing silence that followed this speech the fringe of pine +wood nearest the flat was reached. Here there was a rude “clearing,” and +beneath an enormous pine stood the two recently joined tenements. There +was no attempt to conceal the point of junction between Kearney's +cabin and the newly-transported saloon from the flat--no architectural +illusion of the palpable collusion of the two buildings, which seemed +to be telescoped into each other. The front room or living room occupied +the whole of Kearney's cabin. It contained, in addition to the necessary +articles for housekeeping, a “bunk” or berth for Mr. Carr, so as to +leave the second building entirely to the occupation of his daughters as +bedroom and boudoir. + +There was a half-humorous, half-apologetic exhibition of the rude +utensils of the living room, and then the young men turned away as the +two girls entered the open door of the second room. Neither Christie nor +Jessie could for a moment understand the delicacy which kept these young +men from accompanying them into the room they had but a few moments +before decorated and arranged with their own hands, and it was not until +they turned to thank their strange entertainers that they found that +they were gone. + +The arrangement of the second room was rude and bizarre, but not without +a singular originality and even tastefulness of conception. What had +been the counter or “bar” of the saloon, gorgeous in white and gold, +now sawn in two and divided, was set up on opposite sides of the room as +separate dressing-tables, decorated with huge bunches of azaleas, that +hid the rough earthenware bowls, and gave each table the appearance of a +vestal altar. + +The huge gilt plate-glass mirror which had hung behind the bar still +occupied one side of the room, but its length was artfully divided by +an enormous rosette of red, white, and blue muslin--one of the surviving +Fourth of July decorations of Thompson's saloon. On either side of the +door two pathetic-looking, convent-like cots, covered with spotless +sheeting, and heaped up in the middle, like a snow-covered grave, had +attracted their attention. They were still staring at them when Mr. Carr +anticipated their curiosity. + +“I ought to tell you that the young men confided to me the fact that +there was neither bed nor mattress to be had on the Ford. They have +filled some flour sacks with clean dry moss from the woods, and put half +a dozen blankets on the top, and they hope you can get along until +the messenger who starts to-night for La Grange can bring some bedding +over.” + +Jessie flew with mischievous delight to satisfy herself of the truth +of this marvel. “It's so, Christie,” she said laughingly--“three +flour-sacks apiece; but I'm jealous: yours are all marked 'superfine,' +and mine 'middlings.'” + +Mr. Carr had remained uneasily watching Christie's shadowed face. + +“What matters?” she said drily. “The accommodation is all in keeping.” + +“It will be better in a day or two,” he continued, casting a longing +look towards the door--the first refuge of masculine weakness in an +impending domestic emergency. “I'll go and see what can be done,” he +said feebly, with a sidelong impulse towards the opening and freedom. +“I've got to see Fairfax again to-night any way.” + +“One moment, father,” said Christie, wearily. “Did you know anything of +this place and these--these people--before you came?” + +“Certainly--of course I did,” he returned, with the sudden testiness of +disturbed abstraction. “What are you thinking of? I knew the geological +strata and the--the report of Fairfax and his partners before I +consented to take charge of the works. And I can tell you that there is +a fortune here. I intend to make my own terms, and share in it.” + +“And not take a salary or some sum of money down?” said Christie, slowly +removing her bonnet in the same resigned way. + +“I am not a hired man, or a workman, Christie,” said her father sharply. +“You ought not to oblige me to remind you of that.” + +“But the hired men--the superintendent and his workmen--were the only +ones who ever got anything out of your last experience with Colonel +Waters at La Grange, and--and we at least lived among civilized people +there.” + +“These young men are not common people, Christie; even if they have +forgotten the restraints of speech and manners, they're gentlemen.” + +“Who are willing to live like--like negroes.” + +“You can make them what you please.” + +Christie raised her eyes. There was a certain cynical ring in her +father's voice that was unlike his usual hesitating abstraction. It both +puzzled and pained her. + +“I mean,” he said hastily, “that you have the same opportunity to direct +the lives of these young men into more regular, disciplined channels +that I have to regulate and correct their foolish waste of industry and +material here. It would at least beguile the time for you.” + +Fortunately for Mr. Carr's escape and Christie's uneasiness, Jessie, who +had been examining the details of the living-room, broke in upon this +conversation. + +“I'm sure it will be as good as a perpetual picnic. George Kearney says +we can have a cooking-stove under the tree outside at the back, and as +there will be no rain for three months we can do the cooking there, +and that will give us more room for--for the piano when it comes; +and there's an old squaw to do the cleaning and washing-up any +day--and--and--it will be real fun.” + +She stopped breathlessly, with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes--a +charming picture of youth and trustfulness. Mr. Carr had seized the +opportunity to escape. + +“Really, now, Christie,” said Jessie confidentially, when they were +alone, and Christie had begun to unpack her trunk, and to mechanically +put her things away, “they're not so bad.” + +“Who?” asked Christie. + +“Why, the Kearneys, and Mattinglys, and Fairfax, and the lot, provided +you don't look at their clothes. And think of it! they told me--for they +tell one EVERYTHING in the most alarming way--that those clothes were +bought to please US. A scramble of things bought at La Grange, without +reference to size or style. And to hear these creatures talk, why, you'd +think they were Astors or Rothschilds. Think of that little one with +the curls--I don't believe he is over seventeen, for all his baby +moustache--says he's going to build an assembly hall for us to give +a dance in next month; and apologizes the next breath to tell us that +there isn't any milk to be had nearer than La Grange, and we must do +without it, and use syrup in our tea to-morrow.” + +“And where is all this wealth?” said Christie, forcing herself to smile +at her sister's animation. + +“Under our very feet, my child, and all along the river. Why, what +we thought was pure and simple mud is what they call 'gold-bearing +cement.'” + +“I suppose that is why they don't brush their boots and trousers, it's +so precious,” returned Christie drily. “And have they ever translated +this precious dirt into actual coin?” + +“Bless you, yes. Why, that dirty little gutter, you know, that ran along +the side of the road and followed us down the hill all the way here, +that cost them--let me see--yes, nearly sixty thousand dollars. And +fancy! papa's just condemned it--says it won't do; and they've got to +build another.” + +An impatient sigh from Christie drew Jessie's attention to her troubled +eyebrows. + +“Don't worry about our disappointment, dear. It isn't so very great. I +dare say we'll be able to get along here in some way, until papa is rich +again. You know they intend to make him share with them.” + +“It strikes me that he is sharing with them already,” said Christie, +glancing bitterly round the cabin; “sharing everything--ourselves, our +lives, our tastes.” + +“Ye-e-s!” said Jessie, with vaguely hesitating assent. “Yes, even +these:” she showed two dice in the palm of her little hand. “I found 'em +in the drawer of our dressing-table.” + +“Throw them away,” said Christie impatiently. + +But Jessie's small fingers closed over the dice. “I'll give them to the +little Kearney. I dare say they were the poor boy's playthings.” + +The appearance of these relics of wild dissipation, however, had lifted +Christie out of her sublime resignation. “For Heaven's sake, Jessie,” + she said, “look around and see if there is anything more!” + +To make sure, they each began to scrimmage; the broken-spirited Christie +exhibiting both alacrity and penetration in searching obscure corners. +In the dining-room, behind the dresser, three or four books were +discovered: an odd volume of Thackeray, another of Dickens, a +memorandum-book or diary. “This seems to be Latin,” said Jessie, fishing +out a smaller book. “I can't read it.” + +“It's just as well you shouldn't,” said Christie shortly, whose ideas +of a general classical impropriety had been gathered from pages of +Lempriere's dictionary. “Put it back directly.” + +Jessie returned certain odes of one Horatius Flaccus to the corner, and +uttered an exclamation. “Oh, Christie! here are some letters tied up +with a ribbon.” + +They were two or three prettily written letters, exhaling a faint odor +of refinement and of the pressed flowers that peeped from between the +loose leaves. “I see, 'My darling Fairfax.' It's from some woman.” + +“I don't think much of her, whosoever she is,” said Christie, tossing +the intact packet back into the corner. + +“Nor I,” echoed Jessie. + +Nevertheless, by some feminine inconsistency, evidently the circumstance +did make them think more of HIM, for a minute later, when they had +reentered their own room, Christie remarked, “The idea of petting a +man by his family name! Think of mamma ever having called papa 'darling +Carr'!” + +“Oh, but his family name isn't Fairfax,” said Jessie hastily; “that's +his FIRST name, his Christian name. I forget what's his other name, but +nobody ever calls him by it.” + +“Do you mean,” said Christie, with glistening eyes and awful +deliberation--“do you mean to say that we're expected to fall in with +this insufferable familiarity? I suppose they'll be calling US by our +Christian names next.” + +“Oh, but they do!” said Jessie, mischievously. + +“What!” + +“They call me Miss Jessie; and Kearney, the little one, asked me if +Christie played.” + +“And what did you say?” + +“I said that you did,” answered Jessie, with an affectation of cherubic +simplicity. “You do, dear; don't you? . . . There, don't get angry, +darling; I couldn't flare up all of a sudden in the face of that poor +little creature; he looked so absurd--and so--so honest.” + +Christie turned away, relapsing into her old resigned manner, and +assuming her household duties in a quiet, temporizing way that was, +however, without hope or expectation. + +Mr. Carr, who had dined with his friends under the excuse of not adding +to the awkwardness of the first day's housekeeping returned late at +night with a mass of papers and drawings, into which he afterwards +withdrew, but not until he had delivered himself of a mysterious package +entrusted to him by the young men for his daughters. It contained a +contribution to their board in the shape of a silver spoon and battered +silver mug, which Jessie chose to facetiously consider as an affecting +reminiscence of the youthful Kearney's christening days--which it +probably was. + +The young girls retired early to their white snow-drifts: Jessie not +without some hilarious struggles with hers, in which she was, however, +quickly surprised by the deep and refreshing sleep of youth; Christie to +lie awake and listen to the night wind, that had changed from the first +cool whispers of sunset to the sturdy breath of the mountain. At times +the frail house shook and trembled. Wandering gusts laden with the +deep resinous odors of the wood found their way through the imperfect +jointure of the two cabins, swept her cheek and even stirred her long, +wide-open lashes. A broken spray of pine needles rustled along the roof, +or a pine cone dropped with a quick reverberating tap-tap that for an +instant startled her. Lying thus, wide awake, she fell into a dreamy +reminiscence of the past, hearing snatches of old melody in the moving +pines, fragments of sentences, old words, and familiar epithets in the +murmuring wind at her ear, and even the faint breath of long-forgotten +kisses on her cheek. She remembered her mother--a pallid creature, who +had slowly faded out of one of her father's vague speculations in a +vaguer speculation of her own, beyond his ken--whose place she had +promised to take at her father's side. The words, “Watch over him, +Christie; he needs a woman's care,” again echoed in her ears, as if +borne on the night wind from the lonely grave in the lonelier cemetery +by the distant sea. She had devoted herself to him with some little +sacrifices of self, only remembered now for their uselessness in +saving her father the disappointment that sprang from his sanguine and +one-idea'd temperament. She thought of him lying asleep in the other +room, ready on the morrow to devote those fateful qualities to the new +enterprise that with equally fateful disposition she believed would end +in failure. It did not occur to her that the doubts of her own practical +nature were almost as dangerous and illogical as his enthusiasm, and +that for that reason she was fast losing what little influence she +possessed over him. With the example of her mother's weakness before her +eyes, she had become an unsparing and distrustful critic, with the sole +effect of awakening his distrust and withdrawing his confidence from +her. + +He was beginning to deceive her as he had never deceived her mother. +Even Jessie knew more of this last enterprise than she did herself. + +All that did not tend to decrease her utter restlessness. It was already +past midnight when she noticed that the wind had again abated. The +mountain breeze had by this time possessed the stifling valleys and +heated bars of the river in its strong, cold embraces; the equilibrium +of Nature was restored, and a shadowy mist rose from the hollow. A +stillness, more oppressive and intolerable than the previous commotion, +began to pervade the house and the surrounding woods. She could hear the +regular breathing of the sleepers; she even fancied she could detect the +faint impulses of the more distant life in the settlement. The far-off +barking of a dog, a lost shout, the indistinct murmur of some nearer +watercourse--mere phantoms of sound--made the silence more irritating. +With a sudden resolution she arose, dressed herself quietly and +completely, threw a heavy cloak over her head and shoulders, and opened +the door between the living-room and her own. Her father was sleeping +soundly in his bunk in the corner. She passed noiselessly through the +room, opened the lightly fastened door, and stepped out into the night. + +In the irritation and disgust of her walk hither, she had never noticed +the situation of the cabin, as it nestled on the slope at the fringe of +the woods; in the preoccupation of her disappointment and the mechanical +putting away of her things, she had never looked once from the window of +her room, or glanced backward out of the door that she had entered. The +view before her was a revelation--a reproach, a surprise that took away +her breath. Over her shoulders the newly risen moon poured a flood of +silvery light, stretching from her feet across the shining bars of the +river to the opposite bank, and on up to the very crest of the +Devil's Spur--no longer a huge bulk of crushing shadow, but the steady +exaltation of plateau, spur, and terrace clothed with replete and +unutterable beauty. In this magical light that beauty seemed to be +sustained and carried along by the river winding at its base, lifted +again to the broad shoulder of the mountain, and lost only in the +distant vista of death-like, overcrowning snow. Behind and above where +she stood the towering woods seemed to be waiting with opened ranks +to absorb her with the little cabin she had quitted, dwarfed into +insignificance in the vast prospect; but nowhere was there another sign +or indication of human life and habitation. She looked in vain for +the settlement, for the rugged ditches, the scattered cabins, and the +unsightly heaps of gravel. In the glamour of the moonlight they had +vanished; a veil of silver-gray vapor touched here and there with ebony +shadows masked its site. A black strip beyond was the river bank. All +else was changed. With a sudden sense of awe and loneliness she turned +to the cabin and its sleeping inmates--all that seemed left to her in +the vast and stupendous domination of rock and wood and sky. + +But in another moment the loneliness passed. A new and delicious sense +of an infinite hospitality and friendliness in their silent presence +began to possess her. This same slighted, forgotten, uncomprehended, +but still foolish and forgiving Nature seemed to be bending over her +frightened and listening ear with vague but thrilling murmurings of +freedom and independence. She felt her heart expand with its wholesome +breath, her soul fill with its sustaining truth. + +She felt-- + +What was that? + +An unmistakable outburst of a drunken song at the foot of the slope:-- + + “Oh, my name it is Johnny from Pike, + I'm h-ll on a spree or a strike.” . . . + +She stopped as crimson with shame and indignation as if the viewless +singer had risen before her. + + “I knew when to bet, and get up and get--” + +“Hush! D--n it all. Don't you hear?” + +There was the sound of hurried whispers, a “No” and “Yes,” and then a +dead silence. + +Christie crept nearer to the edge of the slope in the shadow of a +buckeye. In the clearer view she could distinguish a staggering +figure in the trail below who had evidently been stopped by two other +expostulating shadows that were approaching from the shelter of a tree. + +“Sho!--didn't know!” + +The staggering figure endeavored to straighten itself, and then slouched +away in the direction of the settlement. The two mysterious shadows +retreated again to the tree, and were lost in its deeper shadow. +Christie darted back to the cabin, and softly reentered her room. + +“I thought I heard a noise that woke me, and I missed you,” said Jessie, +rubbing her eyes. “Did you see anything?” + +“No,” said Christie, beginning to undress. + +“You weren't frightened, dear?” + +“Not in the least,” said Christie, with a strange little laugh. “Go to +sleep.” + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +The five impulsive millionaires of Devil's Ford fulfilled not a few of +their most extravagant promises. In less than six weeks Mr. Carr and +his daughters were installed in a new house, built near the site of the +double cabin, which was again transferred to the settlement, in order +to give greater seclusion to the fair guests. It was a long, roomy, +one-storied villa, with a not unpicturesque combination of deep veranda +and trellis work, which relieved the flat monotony of the interior and +the barrenness of the freshly-cleared ground. An upright piano, brought +from Sacramento, occupied the corner of the parlor. A suite of gorgeous +furniture, whose pronounced and extravagant glories the young girls +instinctively hid under home-made linen covers, had also been spoils +from afar. Elsewhere the house was filled with ornaments and decorations +that in their incongruity forcibly recalled the gilded plate-glass +mirrors of the bedroom in the old cabin. In the hasty furnishing of +this Aladdin's palace, the slaves of the ring had evidently seized +upon anything that would add to its glory, without reference always to +fitness. + +“I wish it didn't look so cussedly like a robber's cave,” said George +Kearney, when they were taking a quiet preliminary survey of the +unclassified treasures, before the Carrs took possession. + +“Or a gambling hell,” said his brother reflectively. + +“It's about the same thing, I reckon,” said Dick Mattingly, who was +supposed, in his fiery youth, to have encountered the similarity. + +Nevertheless, the two girls managed to bestow the heterogeneous +collection with tasteful adaptation to their needs. A crystal +chandelier, which had once lent a fascinating illusion to the game of +Monte, hung unlighted in the broad hall, where a few other bizarre and +public articles were relegated. A long red sofa or bench, which had done +duty beside a billiard-table found a place here also. Indeed, it is to +be feared that some of the more rustic and bashful youths of Devil's +Ford, who had felt it incumbent upon them to pay their respects to +the new-comers, were more at ease in this vestibule than in the arcana +beyond, whose glories they could see through the open door. To others, +it represented a recognized state of probation before their re-entree +into civilization again. “I reckon, if you don't mind, miss,” said the +spokesman of one party, “ez this is our first call, we'll sorter hang +out in the hall yer, until you'r used to us.” On another occasion, one +Whiskey Dick, impelled by a sense of duty, paid a visit to the new house +and its fair occupants, in a fashion frankly recounted by him afterwards +at the bar of the Tecumseh Saloon. + +“You see, boys, I dropped in there the other night, when some of you +fellers was doin' the high-toned 'thankee, marm' business in the parlor. +I just came to anchor in the corner of the sofy in the hall, without +lettin' on to say that I was there, and took up a Webster's dictionary +that was on the table and laid it open--keerless like, on my knees, ez +if I was sorter consultin' it--and kinder dozed off there, listenin' to +you fellows gassin' with the young ladies, and that yer Miss Christie +just snakin' music outer that pianner, and I reckon I fell asleep. +Anyhow, I was there nigh on to two hours. It's mighty soothin', them +fashionable calls; sorter knocks the old camp dust outer a fellow, and +sets him up again.” + +It would have been well if the new life of the Devil's Ford had shown +no other irregularity than the harmless eccentricities of its original +locaters. But the news of its sudden fortune, magnified by report, began +presently to flood the settlement with another class of adventurers. +A tide of waifs, strays, and malcontents of old camps along the river +began to set towards Devil's Ford, in very much the same fashion as the +debris, drift, and alluvium had been carried down in bygone days and +cast upon its banks. A few immigrant wagons, diverted from the highways +of travel by the fame of the new diggings, halted upon the slopes of +Devil's Spur and on the arid flats of the Ford, and disgorged their +sallow freight of alkali-poisoned, prematurely-aged women and children +and maimed and fever-stricken men. Against this rude form of domesticity +were opposed the chromo-tinted dresses and extravagant complexions of +a few single unattended women--happily seen more often at night behind +gilded bars than in the garish light of day--and an equal number of +pale-faced, dark-moustached, well-dressed, and suspiciously idle men. +A dozen rivals of Thompson's Saloon had sprung up along the narrow +main street. There were two new hotels--one a “Temperance House,” whose +ascetic quality was confined only to the abnegation of whiskey--a rival +stage office, and a small one-storied building, from which the “Sierran +Banner” fluttered weekly, for “ten dollars a year, in advance.” + Insufferable in the glare of a Sabbath sun, bleak, windy, and flaring in +the gloom of a Sabbath night, and hopelessly depressing on all days of +the week, the First Presbyterian Church lifted its blunt steeple from +the barrenest area of the flats, and was hideous! The civic improvements +so enthusiastically contemplated by the five millionaires in the earlier +pages of this veracious chronicle--the fountain, reservoir, town-hall, +and free library--had not yet been erected. Their sites had been +anticipated by more urgent buildings and mining works, unfortunately +not considered in the sanguine dreams of the enthusiasts, and, more +significant still, their cost and expense had been also anticipated by +the enormous outlay of their earnings in the work upon Devil's Ditch. + +Nevertheless, the liberal fulfilment of their promise in the new house +in the suburbs blinded the young girls' eyes to their shortcomings in +the town. Their own remoteness and elevation above its feverish life +kept them from the knowledge of much that was strange, and perhaps +disturbing to their equanimity. As they did not mix with the immigrant +women--Miss Jessie's good-natured intrusion into one of their +half-nomadic camps one day having been met with rudeness and +suspicion--they gradually fell into the way of trusting the +responsibility of new acquaintances to the hands of their original +hosts, and of consulting them in the matter of local recreation. It thus +occurred that one day the two girls, on their way to the main street for +an hour's shopping at the Villa de Paris and Variety Store, were stopped +by Dick Mattingly a few yards from their house, with the remark that, as +the county election was then in progress, it would be advisable for +them to defer their intention for a few hours. As he did not deem it +necessary to add that two citizens, in the exercise of a freeman's +franchise, had been supplementing their ballots with bullets, in front +of an admiring crowd, they knew nothing of that accident that removed +from Devil's Ford an entertaining stranger, who had only the night +before partaken of their hospitality. + +A week or two later, returning one morning from a stroll in the forest, +Christie and Jessie were waylaid by George Kearney and Fairfax, and, +under pretext of being shown a new and romantic trail, were diverted +from the regular path. This enabled Mattingly and Maryland Joe to cut +down the body of a man hanged by the Vigilance Committee a few hours +before on the regular trail, and to remonstrate with the committee +on the incompatibility of such exhibitions with a maidenly worship of +nature. + +“With the whole county to hang a man in,” expostulated Joe, “you might +keep clear of Carr's woods.” + +It is needless to add that the young girls never knew of this act of +violence, or the delicacy that kept them in ignorance of it. Mr. Carr +was too absorbed in business to give heed to what he looked upon as +a convulsion of society as natural as a geological upheaval, and too +prudent to provoke the criticism of his daughters by comment in their +presence. + +An equally unexpected confidence, however, took its place. Mr. Carr +having finished his coffee one morning, lingered a moment over his +perfunctory paternal embraces, with the awkwardness of a preoccupied +man endeavoring by the assumption of a lighter interest to veil another +abstraction. + +“And what are we doing to-day, Christie?” he asked, as Jessie left the +dining-room. + +“Oh, pretty much the usual thing--nothing in particular. If George +Kearney gets the horses from the summit, we're going to ride over to +Indian Spring to picnic. Fairfax--Mr. Munroe--I always forget that man's +real name in this dreadfully familiar country--well, he's coming to +escort us, and take me, I suppose--that is, if Kearney takes Jessie.” + +“A very nice arrangement,” returned her father, with a slight nervous +contraction of the corners of his mouth and eyelids to indicate +mischievousness. “I've no doubt they'll both be here. You know they +usually are--ha! ha! And what about the two Mattinglys and Philip +Kearney, eh?” he continued; “won't they be jealous?” + +“It isn't their turn,” said Christie carelessly; “besides, they'll +probably be there.” + +“And I suppose they're beginning to be resigned,” said Carr, smiling. + +“What on earth are you talking of, father?” + +She turned her clear brown eyes upon him, and was regarding him with +such manifest unconsciousness of the drift of his speech, and, withal, +a little vague impatience of his archness, that Mr. Carr was feebly +alarmed. It had the effect of banishing his assumed playfulness, which +made his serious explanation the more irritating. + +“Well, I rather thought that--that young Kearney was paying considerable +attention to--to--to Jessie,” replied her father, with hesitating +gravity. + +“What! that boy?” + +“Young Kearney is one of the original locators, and an equal partner in +the mine. A very enterprising young fellow. In fact, much more advanced +and bolder in his conceptions than the others. I find no difficulty with +him.” + +At another time Christie would have questioned the convincing quality +of this proof, but she was too much shocked at her father's first +suggestion, to think of anything else. + +“You don't mean to say, father, that you are talking seriously of these +men--your friends--whom we see every day--and our only company?” + +“No, no!” said Mr. Carr hastily; “you misunderstand. I don't suppose +that Jessie or you--” + +“Or ME! Am I included?” + +“You don't let me speak, Christie. I mean, I am not talking seriously,” + continued Mr. Carr, with his most serious aspect, “of you and Jessie +in this matter; but it may be a serious thing to these young men to be +thrown continually in the company of two attractive girls.” + +“I understand--you mean that we should not see so much of them,” said +Christie, with a frank expression of relief so genuine as to utterly +discompose her father. “Perhaps you are right, though I fail to +discover anything serious in the attentions of young Kearney to +Jessie--or--whoever it may be--to me. But it will be very easy to +remedy it, and see less of them. Indeed, we might begin to-day with some +excuse.” + +“Yes--certainly. Of course!” said Mr. Carr, fully convinced of his +utter failure, but, like most weak creatures, consoling himself with the +reflection that he had not shown his hand or committed himself. “Yes; +but it would perhaps be just as well for the present to let things go on +as they were. We'll talk of it again--I'm in a hurry now,” and, edging +himself through the door, he slipped away. + +“What do you think is father's last idea?” said Christie, with, I fear, +a slight lack of reverence in her tone, as her sister reentered the +room. “He thinks George Kearney is paying you too much attention.” + +“No!” said Jessie, replying to her sister's half-interrogative, +half-amused glance with a frank, unconscious smile. + +“Yes, and he says that Fairfax--I think it's Fairfax--is equally +fascinated with ME.” + +Jessie's brow slightly contracted as she looked curiously at her sister. + +“Of all things,” she said, “I wonder if any one has put that idea into +his dear old head. He couldn't have thought it himself.” + +“I don't know,” said Christie musingly; “but perhaps it's just as well +if we kept a little more to ourselves for a while.” + +“Did father say so?” said Jessie quickly. + +“No, but that is evidently what he meant.” + +“Ye-es,” said Jessie slowly, “unless--” + +“Unless what?” said Christie sharply. “Jessie, you don't for a moment +mean to say that you could possibly conceive of anything else?” + +“I mean to say,” said Jessie, stealing her arm around her sister's waist +demurely, “that you are perfectly right. We'll keep away from these +fascinating Devil's Forders, and particularly the youngest Kearney. +I believe there has been some ill-natured gossip. I remember that the +other day, when we passed the shanty of that Pike County family on +the slope, there were three women at the door, and one of them said +something that made poor little Kearney turn white and pink alternately, +and dance with suppressed rage. I suppose the old lady--M'Corkle, that's +her name--would like to have a share of our cavaliers for her Euphemy +and Mamie. I dare say it's only right; I would lend them the cherub +occasionally, and you might let them have Mr. Munroe twice a week.” + +She laughed, but her eyes sought her sister's with a certain +watchfulness of expression. + +Christie shrugged her shoulders, with a suggestion of disgust. + +“Don't joke. We ought to have thought of all this before.” + +“But when we first knew them, in the dear old cabin, there wasn't any +other woman and nobody to gossip, and that's what made it so nice. I +don't think so very much of civilization, do you?” said the young lady +pertly. + +Christie did not reply. Perhaps she was thinking the same thing. It +certainly had been very pleasant to enjoy the spontaneous and chivalrous +homage of these men, with no further suggestion of recompense or +responsibility than the permission to be worshipped; but beyond that she +racked her brain in vain to recall any look or act that proclaimed the +lover. These men, whom she had found so relapsed into barbarism that +they had forgotten the most ordinary forms of civilization; these +men, even in whose extravagant admiration there was a certain loss of +self-respect, that as a woman she would never forgive; these men, who +seemed to belong to another race--impossible! Yet it was so. + +“What construction must they have put upon her father's acceptance of +their presents--of their company--of her freedom in their presence? No! +they must have understood from the beginning that she and her sister +had never looked upon them except as transient hosts and chance +acquaintances. Any other idea was preposterous. And yet--” + +It was the recurrence of this “yet” that alarmed her. For she remembered +now that but for their slavish devotion they might claim to be her +equal. According to her father's account, they had come from homes as +good as their own; they were certainly more than her equal in fortune; +and her father had come to them as an employee, until they had taken him +into partnership. If there had only been sentiment of any kind +connected with any of them! But they were all alike, brave, unselfish, +humorous--and often ridiculous. If anything, Dick Mattingly was funniest +by nature, and made her laugh more. Maryland Joe, his brother, told +better stories (sometimes of Dick), though not so good a mimic as the +other Kearney, who had a fairly sympathetic voice in singing. They were +all good-looking enough; perhaps they set store on that--men are so +vain. + +And as for her own rejected suitor, Fairfax Munroe, except for a kind of +grave and proper motherliness about his protecting manner, he absolutely +was the most indistinctive of them all. He had once brought her some +rare tea from the Chinese camp, and had taught her how to make it; he +had cautioned her against sitting under the trees at nightfall; he had +once taken off his coat to wrap around her. Really, if this were the +only evidence of devotion that could be shown, she was safe! + +“Well,” said Jessie, “it amuses you, I see.” + +Christie checked the smile that had been dimpling the cheek nearest +Jessie, and turned upon her the face of an elder sister. + +“Tell me, have YOU noticed this extraordinary attention of Mr. Munroe to +me?” + +“Candidly?” asked Jessie, seating herself comfortably on the table +sideways, and endeavoring, to pull her skirt over her little feet. +“Honest Injun?” + +“Don't be idiotic, and, above all, don't be slangy! Of course, +candidly.” + +“Well, no. I can't say that I have.” + +“Then,” said Christie, “why in the name of all that's preposterous, do +they persist in pairing me off with the least interesting man of the +lot?” + +Jessie leaped from the table. + +“Come now,” she said, with a little nervous laugh, “he's not so bad as +all that. You don't know him. But what does it matter now, as long as +we're not going to see them any more?” + +“They're coming here for the ride to-day,” said Christie resignedly. +“Father thought it better not to break it off at once.” + +“Father thought so!” echoed Jessie, stopping with her hand on the door. + +“Yes; why do you ask?” + +But Jessie had already left the room, and was singing in the hall. + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The afternoon did not, however, bring their expected visitors. It +brought, instead, a brief note by the hands of Whiskey Dick from +Fairfax, apologizing for some business that kept him and George Kearney +from accompanying the ladies. It added that the horses were at the +disposal of themselves and any escort they might select, if they would +kindly give the message to Whiskey Dick. + +The two girls looked at each other awkwardly; Jessie did not attempt to +conceal a slight pout. + +“It looks as if they were anticipating us,” she said, with a half-forced +smile. “I wonder, now, if there really has been any gossip? But no! They +wouldn't have stopped for that, unless--” She looked curiously at her +sister. + +“Unless what?” repeated Christie; “you are horribly mysterious this +morning.” + +“Am I? It's nothing. But they're wanting an answer. Of course you'll +decline.” + +“And intimate we only care for their company! No! We'll say we're sorry +they can't come, and--accept their horses. We can do without an escort, +we two.” + +“Capital!” said Jessie, clapping her hands. “We'll show them--” + +“We'll show them nothing,” interrupted Christie decidedly. “In our place +there's only the one thing to do. Where is this--Whiskey Dick?” + +“In the parlor.” + +“The parlor!” echoed Christie. “Whiskey Dick? What--is he--” + +“Yes; he's all right,” said Jessie confidently. “He's been here before, +but he stayed in the hall; he was so shy. I don't think you saw him.” + +“I should think not--Whiskey Dick!” + +“Oh, you can call him Mr. Hall, if you like,” said Jessie, laughing. +“His real name is Dick Hall. If you want to be funny, you can say Alky +Hall, as the others do.” + +Christie's only reply to this levity was a look of superior resignation +as she crossed the hall and entered the parlor. + +Then ensued one of those surprising, mystifying, and utterly +inexplicable changes that leave the masculine being so helpless in the +hands of his feminine master. Before Christie opened the door her face +underwent a rapid transformation: the gentle glow of a refined woman's +welcome suddenly beamed in her interested eyes; the impulsive courtesy +of an expectant hostess eagerly seizing a long-looked-for opportunity +broke in a smile upon her lips as she swept across the room, and stopped +with her two white outstretched hands before Whiskey Dick. + +It needed only the extravagant contrast presented by that gentleman to +complete the tableau. Attired in a suit of shining black alpaca, the +visitor had evidently prepared himself with some care for a possible +interview. He was seated by the French window opening upon the veranda, +as if to secure a retreat in case of an emergency. Scrupulously washed +and shaven, some of the soap appeared to have lingered in his eyes and +inflamed the lids, even while it lent a sleek and shining lustre, not +unlike his coat, to his smooth black hair. Nevertheless, leaning back +in his chair, he had allowed a large white handkerchief to depend +gracefully from his fingers--a pose at once suggesting easy and elegant +langour. + +“How kind of you to give me an opportunity to make up for my misfortune +when you last called! I was so sorry to have missed you. But it was +entirely my fault! You were hurried, I think--you conversed with others +in the hall--you--” + +She stopped to assist him to pick up the handkerchief that had fallen, +and the Panama hat that had rolled from his lap towards the window +when he had started suddenly to his feet at the apparition of grace and +beauty. As he still nervously retained the two hands he had grasped, +this would have been a difficult feat, even had he not endeavored at the +same moment, by a backward furtive kick, to propel the hat out of the +window, at which she laughingly broke from his grasp and flew to the +rescue. + +“Don't mind it, miss,” he said hurriedly. “It is not worth your +demeaning yourself to touch it. Leave it outside thar, miss. I wouldn't +have toted it in, anyhow, if some of those high-falutin' fellows hadn't +allowed, the other night, ez it were the reg'lar thing to do; as if, +miss, any gentleman kalkilated to ever put on his hat in the house afore +a lady!” + +But Christie had already possessed herself of the unlucky object, and +had placed it upon the table. This compelled Whiskey Dick to rise again, +and as an act of careless good breeding to drop his handkerchief in it. +He then leaned one elbow upon the piano, and, crossing one foot over the +other, remained standing in an attitude he remembered to have seen +in the pages of an illustrated paper as portraying the hero in some +drawing-room scene. It was easy and effective, but seemed to be more +favorable to revery than conversation. Indeed, he remembered that he had +forgotten to consult the letterpress as to which it represented. + +“I see you agree with me, that politeness is quite a matter of +intention,” said Christie, “and not of mere fashion and rules. Now, for +instance,” she continued, with a dazzling smile, “I suppose, according +to the rules, I ought to give you a note to Mr. Munroe, accepting his +offer. That is all that is required; but it seems so much nicer, don't +you think, to tell it to YOU for HIM, and have the pleasure of your +company and a little chat at the same time.” + +“That's it, that's just it, Miss Carr; you've hit it in the centre this +time,” said Whiskey Dick, now quite convinced that his attitude was not +intended for eloquence, and shifting back to his own seat, hat and all; +“that's tantamount to what I said to the boys just now. 'You want an +excuse,' sez I, 'for not goin' out with the young ladies. So, accorden' +to rules, you writes a letter allowin' buzziness and that sorter thing +detains you. But wot's the facts? You're a gentleman, and as gentlemen +you and George comes to the opinion that you're rather playin' it for +all it's worth in this yer house, you know--comin' here night and day, +off and on, reg'lar sociable and fam'ly like, and makin' people talk +about things they ain't any call to talk about, and, what's a darned +sight more, YOU FELLOWS ain't got any right YET to allow 'em to talk +about, d'ye see?” he paused, out of breath. + +It was Miss Christie's turn to move about. In changing her seat to the +piano-stool, so as to be nearer her visitor, she brushed down some loose +music, which Whiskey Dick hastened to pick up. + +“Pray don't mind it,” she said, “pray don't, really--let it be--” + But Whiskey Dick, feeling himself on safe ground in this attention, +persisted to the bitter end of a disintegrated and well-worn +“Travatore.” “So that is what Mr. Munroe said,” she remarked quietly. + +“Not just then, in course, but it's what's bin on his mind and in his +talk for days off and on,” returned Dick, with a knowing smile and a nod +of mysterious confidence. “Bless your soul, Miss Carr, folks like you +and me don't need to have them things explained. That's what I said to +him, sez I. 'Don't send no note, but just go up there and hev it out +fair and square, and say what you do mean.' But they would hev the note, +and I kalkilated to bring it. But when I set my eyes on you, and heard +you express yourself as you did just now, I sez to myself, sez I, 'Dick, +yer's a young lady, and a fash'nable lady at that, ez don't go foolin' +round on rules and etiketts'--excuse my freedom, Miss Carr--'and you and +her, sez I, 'kin just discuss this yer matter in a sociable, off-hand, +fash'nable way.' They're a good lot o' boys, Miss Carr, a square +lot--white men all of 'em; but they're a little soft and green, may be, +from livin' in these yer pine woods along o' the other sap. They just +worship the ground you and your sister tread on--certain! of course! +of course!” he added hurriedly, recognizing Christie's half-conscious, +deprecating gesture with more exaggerated deprecation. “I understand. +But what I wanter say is that they'd be willin' to be that ground, +and lie down and let you walk over them--so to speak, Miss Carr, so to +speak--if it would keep the hem of your gown from gettin' soiled in the +mud o' the camp. But it wouldn't do for them to make a reg'lar curderoy +road o' themselves for the houl camp to trapse over, on the mere chance +of your some time passin' that way, would it now?” + +“Won't you let me offer you some refreshment, Mr. Hall?” said Christie, +rising, with a slight color. “I'm really ashamed of my forgetfulness +again, but I'm afraid it's partly YOUR fault for entertaining me to the +exclusion of yourself. No, thank you, let me fetch it for you.” + +She turned to a handsome sideboard near the door, and presently faced +him again with a decanter of whiskey and a glass in her hand, and a +return of the bewitching smile she had worn on entering. + +“But perhaps you don't take whiskey?” suggested the arch deceiver, with +a sudden affected but pretty perplexity of eye, brow, and lips. + +For the first time in his life Whiskey Dick hesitated between two forms +of intoxication. But he was still nervous and uneasy; habit triumphed, +and he took the whiskey. He, however, wiped his lips with a slight wave +of his handkerchief, to support a certain easy elegance which he firmly +believed relieved the act of any vulgar quality. + +“Yes, ma'am,” he continued, after an exhilarated pause. “Ez I said +afore, this yer's a matter you and me can discuss after the fashion o' +society. My idea is that these yer boys should kinder let up on you and +Miss Jessie for a while, and do a little more permiskus attention round +the Ford. There's one or two families yer with grown-up gals ez oughter +be squared; that is--the boys mighter put in a few fancy touches among +them--kinder take 'em buggy riding--or to church--once in a while--just +to take the pizen outer their tongues, and make a kind o' bluff to the +parents, d'ye see? That would sorter divert their own minds; and even if +it didn't, it would kinder get 'em accustomed agin to the old style and +their own kind. I want to warn ye agin an idea that might occur to you +in a giniral way. I don't say you hev the idea, but it's kind o' nat'ral +you might be thinkin' of it some time, and I thought I'd warn you agin +it.” + +“I think we understand each other too well to differ much, Mr. Hall,” + said Christie, still smiling; “but what is the idea?” + +The delicate compliment to their confidential relations and the slight +stimulus of liquor had tremulously exalted Whiskey Dick. Affecting to +look cautiously out of the window and around the room, he ventured +to draw nearer the young woman with a half-paternal, half-timid +familiarity. + +“It might have occurred to you,” he said, laying his handkerchief as if +to veil mere vulgar contact, on Christie's shoulder, “that it would be a +good thing on YOUR side to invite down some of your high-toned gentlemen +friends from 'Frisco to visit you and escort you round. It seems quite +nat'ral like, and I don't say it ain't, but--the boys wouldn't stand for +it.” + +In spite of her self-possession, Christie's eyes suddenly darkened, +and she involuntarily drew herself up. But Whiskey Dick, guiltily +attributing the movement to his own indiscreet gesture, said, “Excuse +me, miss,” recovered himself by lightly dusting her shoulder with his +handkerchief, as if to remove the impression, and her smile returned. + +“They wouldn't stand for it,” said Dick, “and there'd be some shooting! +Not afore you, miss--not afore you, in course! But they'd adjourn to the +woods some morning with them city folks, and hev it out with rifles at +a hundred yards. Or, seein' ez they're city folks, the boys would do the +square thing with pistols at twelve paces. They're good boys, as I +said afore; but they're quick and tetchy--George, being the youngest, +nat'rally is the tetchiest. You know how it is, Miss Carr; his pretty, +gal-like face and little moustaches haz cost him half a dozen scrimmages +already. He'z had a fight for every hair that's growed in his moustache +since he kem here.” + +“Say no more, Mr. Hall!” said Christie, rising and pressing her hands +lightly on Dick's tremulous fingers. “If I ever had any such idea, I +should abandon it now; you are quite right in this as in your other +opinions. I shall never cease to be thankful to Mr. Munroe and Mr. +Kearney that they intrusted this delicate matter to your hands.” + +“Well,” said the gratified and reddening visitor, “it ain't perhaps +the square thing to them or myself to say that they reckoned to have me +discuss their delicate affairs for them, but--” + +“I understand,” interrupted Christie. “They simply gave you the letter +as a friend. It was my good fortune to find you a sympathizing and +liberal man of the world.” The delighted Dick, with conscious vanity +beaming from every feature of his shining face, lightly waved the +compliment aside with his handkerchief, as she continued, “But I am +forgetting the message. We accept the horses. Of course we COULD do +without an escort; but forgive my speaking so frankly, are YOU engaged +this afternoon?” + +“Excuse me, miss, I don't take--” stammered Dick, scarcely believing his +ears. + +“Could you give us your company as an escort?” repeated Christie with a +smile. + +Was he awake or dreaming, or was this some trick of liquor in his +often distorted fancy? He, Whiskey Dick! the butt of his friends, the +chartered oracle of the barrooms, even in whose wretched vanity there +was always the haunting suspicion that he was despised and scorned; he, +who had dared so much in speech, and achieved so little in fact! he, +whose habitual weakness had even led him into the wildest indiscretion +here; he--now offered a reward for that indiscretion! He, Whiskey Dick, +the solicited escort of these two beautiful and peerless girls! What +would they say at the Ford? What would his friends think? It would be +all over the Ford the next day. His past would be vindicated, his future +secured. He grew erect at the thought. It was almost in other voice, +and with no trace of his previous exaggeration, that he said, “With +pleasure.” + +“Then, if you will bring the horses at once, we shall be ready when you +return.” + +In another instant he had vanished, as if afraid to trust the reality of +his good fortune to the dangers of delay. At the end of half an hour +he reappeared, leading the two horses, himself mounted on a half-broken +mustang. A pair of large, jingling silver spurs and a stiff sombrero, +borrowed with the mustang from some mysterious source, were donned to do +honor to the occasion. + +The young girls were not yet ready, but he was shown by the Chinese +servant into the parlor to wait for them. The decanter of whiskey and +glasses were still invitingly there. He was hot, trembling, and flushed +with triumph. He walked to the table and laid his hand on the decanter, +when an odd thought flashed upon him. He would not drink this time. +No, it should not be said that he, the selected escort of the elite of +Devil's Ford, had to fill himself up with whiskey before they started. +The boys might turn to each other in their astonishment, as he proudly +passed with his fair companions, and say, “It's Whiskey Dick,” but he'd +be d----d if they should add, “and full as ever.” No, sir! Nor when +he was riding beside these real ladies, and leaning over them at some +confidential moment, should they even know it from his breath! No. . . . +Yet a thimbleful, taken straight, only a thimbleful, wouldn't be much, +and might help to pull him together. He again reached his trembling +hand for the decanter, hesitated, and then, turning his back upon it, +resolutely walked to the open window. Almost at the same instant he +found himself face to face with Christie on the veranda. + +She looked into his bloodshot eyes, and cast a swift glance at the +decanter. + +“Won't you take something before you go?” she said sweetly. + +“I--reckon--not, jest now,” stammered Whiskey Dick, with a heroic +effort. + +“You're right,” said Christie. “I see you are like me. It's too hot for +anything fiery. Come with me.” + +She led him into the dining-room, and pouring out a glass of iced +tea handed it to him. Poor Dick was not prepared for this terrible +culmination. Whiskey Dick and iced tea! But under pretence of seeing if +it was properly flavored, Christie raised it to her own lips. + +“Try it, to please me.” + +He drained the goblet. + +“Now, then,” said Christie gayly, “let's find Jessie, and be off!” + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Whatever might have been his other deficiencies as an escort, Whiskey +Dick was a good horseman, and, in spite of his fractious brute, +exhibited such skill and confidence as to at once satisfy the young +girls of his value to them in the management of their own horses, +to whom side-saddles were still an alarming novelty. Jessie, who +had probably already learned from her sister the purport of Dick's +confidences, had received him with equal cordiality and perhaps a more +unqualified amusement; and now, when fairly lifted into the saddle by +his tremulous but respectful hands, made a very charming picture of +youthful and rosy satisfaction. And when Christie, more fascinating than +ever in her riding-habit, took her place on the other side of Dick, as +they sallied from the gate, that gentleman felt his cup of happiness +complete. His triumphal entree into the world of civilization and +fashion was secure. He did not regret the untasted liquor; here was +an experience in after years to lean his back against comfortably in +bar-rooms, to entrance or defy mankind. He had even got so far as +to formulate in fancy the sentence: “I remember, gentlemen, that one +afternoon, being on a pasear with two fash'nable young ladies,” etc., +etc. + +At present, however, he was obliged to confine himself to the functions +of an elegant guide and cicerone--when not engaged in “having it out” + with his horse. Their way lay along the slope, crossing the high-road at +right angles, to reach the deeper woods beyond. Dick would have lingered +on the highway--ostensibly to point out to his companions the new flume +that had taken the place of the condemned ditch, but really in the hope +of exposing himself in his glory to the curious eyes of the wayfaring +world. + +Unhappily the road was deserted in the still powerful sunlight, and he +was obliged to seek the cover of the woods, with a passing compliment to +the parent of his charges. Waving his hands towards the flume, he +said, “Look at that work of your father's; there ain't no other man in +Californy but Philip Carr ez would hev the grit to hold up such a bluff +agin natur and agin luck ez that yer flume stands for. I don't say it +'cause you're his daughters, ladies! That ain't the style, ez YOU know, +in sassiety, Miss Carr,” he added, turning to Christie as the more +socially experienced. “No! but there ain't another man to be found +ez could do it. It cost already two hundred thousand; it'll cost five +hundred thousand afore it's done; and every cent of it is got out of the +yearth beneath it, or HEZ got to be out of it. 'Tain't ev'ry man, Miss +Carr, ez hev got the pluck to pledge not only what he's got, but what he +reckons to git.” + +“But suppose he don't get it?” said Christie, slightly contracting her +brows. + +“Then there's the flume to show for it,” said Dick. + +“But of what use is the flume, if there isn't any more gold?” continued +Christie, almost angrily. + +“That's good from YOU, miss,” said Dick, giving way to a fit of +hilarity. “That's good for a fash'nable young lady--own daughter of +Philip Carr. She sez, says she,” continued Dick, appealing to the sedate +pines for appreciation of Christie's rare humor, “'Wot's the use of a +flume, when gold ain't there?' I must tell that to the boys.” + +“And what's the use of the gold in the ground when the flume isn't there +to work it out?” said Jessie to her sister, with a cautioning glance +towards Dick. + +But Dick did not notice the look that passed between the sisters. The +richer humor of Jessie's retort had thrown him into convulsions of +laughter. + +“And now SHE says, wot's the use o' the gold without the flume? 'Xcuse +me, ladies, but that's just puttin' the hull question that's agitatin' +this yer camp inter two speeches as clear as crystal. There's the +hull crowd outside--and some on 'em inside, like Fairfax, hez their +doubts--ez says with Miss Christie; and there's all of us inside, ez +holds Miss Jessie's views.” + +“I never heard Mr. Munroe say that the flume was wrong,” said Jessie +quickly. + +“Not to you, nat'rally,” said Dick, with a confidential look at +Christie; “but I reckon he'd like some of the money it cost laid out for +suthin' else. But what's the odds? The gold is there, and WE'RE bound to +get it.” + +Dick was the foreman of a gang of paid workmen, who had replaced the +millionaires in mere manual labor, and the WE was a polite figure of +speech. + +The conversation seemed to have taken an unfortunate turn, and both the +girls experienced a feeling of relief when they entered the long gulch +or defile that led to Indian Spring. The track now becoming narrow, they +were obliged to pass in single file along the precipitous hillside, +led by this escort. This effectually precluded any further speech, +and Christie at once surrendered herself to the calm, obliterating +influences of the forest. The settlement and its gossip were far behind +and forgotten. In the absorption of nature, her companions passed out of +her mind, even as they sometimes passed out of her sight in the windings +of the shadowy trail. As she rode alone, the fronds of breast-high +ferns seemed to caress her with outstretched and gently-detaining hands; +strange wildflowers sprang up through the parting underbrush; even the +granite rocks that at times pressed closely upon the trail appeared as +if cushioned to her contact with star-rayed mosses, or lightly flung +after her long lassoes of delicate vines. She recalled the absolute +freedom of their al-fresco life in the old double cabin, when she +spent the greater part of her waking hours under the mute trees in +the encompassing solitude, and, half regretting the more civilized +restraints of this newer and more ambitious abode, forgot that she had +ever rebelled against it. The social complication that threatened her +now seemed to her rather the outcome of her half-civilized parlor than +of the sylvan glade. How easy it would have been to have kept the cabin, +and then to have gone away entirely, than for her father to have allowed +them to be compromised with the growing fortunes of the settlement! +The suspicions and distrust that she had always felt of their fortunes +seemed to grow with the involuntary admission of Whiskey Dick that +they were shared by others who were practical men. She was fain to have +recourse to the prospect again to banish these thoughts, and this opened +her eyes to the fact that her companions had been missing from the trail +ahead of her for some time. She quickened her pace slightly to reach +a projecting point of rock that gave her a more extended prospect. But +they had evidently disappeared. + +She was neither alarmed nor annoyed. She could easily overtake them +soon, for they would miss her, and return or wait for her at the spring. +At the worst she would have no difficulty in retracing her steps home. +In her present mood, she could readily spare their company; indeed she +was not sorry that no other being should interrupt that sympathy with +the free woods which was beginning to possess her. + +She was destined, however, to be disappointed. She had not proceeded a +hundred yards before she noticed the moving figure of a man beyond her +in the hillside chaparral above the trail. He seemed to be going in the +same direction as herself, and, as she fancied, endeavoring to avoid +her. This excited her curiosity to the point of urging her horse forward +until the trail broadened into the level forest again, which she now +remembered was a part of the environs of Indian Spring. The stranger +hesitated, pausing once or twice with his back towards her, as if +engaged in carefully examining the dwarf willows to select a switch. +Christie slightly checked her speed as she drew nearer; when, as if +obedient to a sudden resolution, he turned and advanced towards her. She +was relieved and yet surprised to recognize the boyish face and figure +of George Kearney. He was quite pale and agitated, although attempting, +by a jaunty swinging of the switch he had just cut, to assume the +appearance of ease and confidence. + +Here was an opportunity. Christie resolved to profit by it. She did not +doubt that the young fellow had already passed her sister on the trail, +but, from bashfulness, had not dared to approach her. By inviting his +confidence, she would doubtless draw something from him that would deny +or corroborate her father's opinion of his sentiments. If he was really +in love with Jessie, she would learn what reasons he had for expecting +a serious culmination of his suit, and perhaps she might be able +delicately to open his eyes to the truth. If, as she believed, it was +only a boyish fancy, she would laugh him out of it with that camaraderie +which had always existed between them. A half motherly sympathy, albeit +born quite as much from a contemplation of his beautiful yearning eyes +as from his interesting position, lightened the smile with which she +greeted him. + +“So you contrived to throw over your stupid business and join us, +after all,” she said; “or was it that you changed your mind at the +last moment?” she added mischievously. “I thought only we women were +permitted that!” Indeed, she could not help noticing that there was +really a strong feminine suggestion in the shifting color and slightly +conscious eyelids of the young fellow. + +“Do young girls always change their minds?” asked George, with an +embarrassed smile. + +“Not, always; but sometimes they don't know their own mind--particularly +if they are very young; and when they do at last, you clever creatures +of men, who have interpreted their ignorance to please yourselves, abuse +them for being fickle.” She stopped to observe the effect of what she +believed a rather clear and significant exposition of Jessie's and +George's possible situation. But she was not prepared for the look +of blank resignation that seemed to drive the color from his face and +moisten the fire of his dark eyes. + +“I reckon you're right,” he said, looking down. + +“Oh! we're not accusing you of fickleness,” said Christie gayly; +“although you didn't come, and we were obliged to ask Mr. Hall to join +us. I suppose you found him and Jessie just now?” + +But George made no reply. The color was slowly coming back to his face, +which, as she glanced covertly at him, seemed to have grown so much +older that his returning blood might have brought two or three years +with it. + +“Really, Mr. Kearney,” she said dryly, “one would think that some silly, +conceited girl”--she was quite earnest in her epithets, for a sudden, +angry conviction of some coquetry and disingenuousness in Jessie had +come to her in contemplating its effects upon the young fellow at her +side--“some country jilt, had been trying her rustic hand upon you.” + +“She is not silly, conceited, nor countrified,” said George, slowly +raising his beautiful eyes to the young girl half reproachfully. “It is +I who am all that. No, she is right, and you know it.” + +Much as Christie admired and valued her sister's charms, she thought +this was really going too far. What had Jessie ever done--what was +Jessie--to provoke and remain insensible to such a blind devotion as +this? And really, looking at him now, he was not so VERY YOUNG for +Jessie; whether his unfortunate passion had brought out all his latent +manliness, or whether he had hitherto kept his serious nature in the +background, certainly he was not a boy. And certainly his was not a +passion that he could be laughed out of. It was getting very tiresome. +She wished she had not met him--at least until she had had some clearer +understanding with her sister. He was still walking beside her, with his +hand on her bridle rein, partly to lead her horse over some boulders in +the trail, and partly to conceal his first embarrassment. When they had +fairly reached the woods, he stopped. + +“I am going to say good-by, Miss Carr.” + +“Are you not coming further? We must be near Indian Spring, now; Mr. +Hall and--and Jessie--cannot be far away. You will keep me company until +we meet them?” + +“No,” he replied quietly. “I only stopped you to say good-by. I am going +away.” + +“Not from Devil's Ford?” she asked, in half-incredulous astonishment. +“At least, not for long?” + +“I am not coming back,” he replied. + +“But this is very abrupt,” she said hurriedly, feeling that in some +ridiculous way she had precipitated an equally ridiculous catastrophe. +“Surely you are not going away in this fashion, without saying good-by +to Jessie and--and father?” + +“I shall see your father, of course--and you will give my regards to +Miss Jessie.” + +He evidently was in earnest. Was there ever anything so perfectly +preposterous? She became indignant. + +“Of course,” she said coldly, “I won't detain you; your business must +be urgent, and I forgot--at least I had forgotten until to-day--that +you have other duties more important than that of squire of dames. I am +afraid this forgetfulness made me think you would not part from us in +quite such a business fashion. I presume, if you had not met me just +now, we should none of us have seen you again?” + +He did not reply. + +“Will you say good-by, Miss Carr?” + +He held out his hand. + +“One moment, Mr. Kearney. If I have said anything which you think +justifies this very abrupt leave-taking, I beg you will forgive and +forget it--or, at least, let it have no more weight with you than the +idle words of any woman. I only spoke generally. You know--I--I might be +mistaken.” + +His eyes, which had dilated when she began to speak, darkened; his +color, which had quickly come, as quickly sank when she had ended. + +“Don't say that, Miss Carr. It is not like you, and--it is useless. You +know what I meant a moment ago. I read it in your reply. You meant that +I, like others, had deceived myself. Did you not?” + +She could not meet those honest eyes with less than equal honesty. +She knew that Jessie did not love him--would not marry him--whatever +coquetry she might have shown. + +“I did not mean to offend you,” she said hesitatingly; “I only half +suspected it when I spoke.” + +“And you wish to spare me the avowal?” he said bitterly. + +“To me, perhaps, yes, by anticipating it. I could not tell what ideas +you might have gathered from some indiscreet frankness of Jessie--or my +father,” she added, with almost equal bitterness. + +“I have never spoken to either,” he replied quickly. He stopped, and +added, after a moment's mortifying reflection, “I've been brought up in +the woods, Miss Carr, and I suppose I have followed my feelings, instead +of the etiquette of society.” + +Christie was too relieved at the rehabilitation of Jessie's truthfulness +to notice the full significance of his speech. + +“Good-by,” he said again, holding out his hand. + +“Good-by!” + +She extended her own, ungloved, with a frank smile. He held it for a +moment, with his eyes fixed upon hers. Then suddenly, as if obeying +an uncontrollable impulse, he crushed it like a flower again and again +against his burning lips, and darted away. + +Christie sank back in her saddle with a little cry, half of pain and +half of frightened surprise. Had the poor boy suddenly gone mad, or was +this vicarious farewell a part of the courtship of Devil's Ford? She +looked at her little hand, which had reddened under the pressure, and +suddenly felt the flush extending to her cheeks and the roots of her +hair. This was intolerable. + +“Christie!” + +It was her sister emerging from the wood to seek her. In another moment +she was at her side. + +“We thought you were following,” said Jessie. “Good heavens! how you +look! What has happened?” + +“Nothing. I met Mr. Kearney a moment ago on the trail. He is going away, +and--and--” She stopped, furious and flushing. + +“And,” said Jessie, with a burst of merriment, “he told you at last he +loved you. Oh, Christie!” + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The abrupt departure of George Kearney from Devil's Ford excited +but little interest in the community, and was soon forgotten. It was +generally attributed to differences between himself and his partners +on the question of further outlay of their earnings on mining +improvements--he and Philip Carr alone representing a sanguine minority +whose faith in the future of the mine accepted any risks. It was alleged +by some that he had sold out to his brother; it was believed by others +that he had simply gone to Sacramento to borrow money on his share, +in order to continue the improvements on his own responsibility. The +partners themselves were uncommunicative; even Whiskey Dick, who since +his remarkable social elevation had become less oracular, much to his +own astonishment, contributed nothing to the gossip except a suggestion +that as the fiery temper of George Kearney brooked no opposition, +even from his brother, it was better they should separate before the +estrangement became serious. + +Mr. Carr did not disguise his annoyance at the loss of his young +disciple and firm ally. But an unlucky allusion to his previous remarks +on Kearney's attentions to Jessie, and a querulous regret that he had +permitted a disruption of their social intimacy, brought such an ominous +and frigid opposition, not only from Christie, but even the frivolous +Jessie herself, that Carr sank back in a crushed and terrified silence. +“I only meant to say,” he stammered after a pause, in which he, however, +resumed his aggrieved manner, “that FAIRFAX seems to come here still, +and HE is not such a particular friend of mine.” + +“But she is--and has your interest entirely at heart,” said Jessie, +stoutly, “and he only comes here to tell us how things are going on at +the works.” + +“And criticise your father, I suppose,” said Mr. Carr, with an +attempt at jocularity that did not, however, disguise an irritated +suspiciousness. “He really seems to have supplanted ME as he has poor +Kearney in your estimation.” + +“Now, father,” said Jessie, suddenly seizing him by the shoulders in +affected indignation, but really to conceal a certain embarrassment +that sprang quite as much from her sister's quietly observant eye as her +father's speech, “you promised to let this ridiculous discussion drop. +You will make me and Christie so nervous that we will not dare to +open the door to a visitor, until he declares his innocence of any +matrimonial intentions. You don't want to give color to the gossip that +agreement with your views about the improvements is necessary to getting +on with us.” + +“Who dares talk such rubbish?” said Carr, reddening; “is that the kind +of gossip that Fairfax brings here?” + +“Hardly, when it's known that he don't quite agree with you, and DOES +come here. That's the best denial of the gossip.” + +Christie, who had of late loftily ignored these discussions, waited +until her father had taken his departure. + +“Then that is the reason why you still see Mr. Munroe, after what you +said,” she remarked quietly to Jessie. + +Jessie, who would have liked to escape with her father, was obliged to +pause on the threshold of the door, with a pretty assumption of blank +forgetfulness in her blue eyes and lifted eyebrows. + +“Said what? when?” she asked vacantly. + +“When--when Mr. Kearney that day--in the woods--went away,” said +Christie, faintly coloring. + +“Oh! THAT day,” said Jessie briskly; “the day he just gloved your +hand with kisses, and then fled wildly into the forest to conceal his +emotion.” + +“The day he behaved very foolishly,” said Christie, with reproachful +calmness, that did not, however, prevent a suspicion of indignant +moisture in her eyes--“when you explained”-- + +“That it wasn't meant for ME,” interrupted Jessie. + +“That it was to you that MR. MUNROE'S attentions were directed. And then +we agreed that it was better to prevent any further advances of this +kind by avoiding any familiar relations with either of them.” + +“Yes,” said Jessie, “I remember; but you're not confounding my seeing +Fairfax occasionally now with that sort of thing. HE doesn't kiss my +hand like anything,” she added, as if in abstract reflection. + +“Nor run away, either,” suggested the trodden worm, turning. + +There was an ominous silence. + +“Do you know we are nearly out of coffee?” said Jessie choking, but +moving towards the door with Spartan-like calmness. + +“Yes. And something must be done this very day about the washing,” said +Christie, with suppressed emotion, going towards the opposite entrance. + +Tears stood in each other's eyes with this terrible exchange of domestic +confidences. Nevertheless, after a moment's pause, they deliberately +turned again, and, facing each other with frightful calmness, left +the room by purposeless and deliberate exits other than those they +had contemplated--a crushing abnegation of self, that, to some extent, +relieved their surcharged feelings. + +Meantime the material prosperity of Devil's Ford increased, if a +prosperity based upon no visible foundation but the confidences and +hopes of its inhabitants could be called material. Few, if any, stopped +to consider that the improvements, buildings, and business were simply +the outlay of capital brought from elsewhere, and as yet the settlement +or town, as it was now called, had neither produced nor exported capital +of itself equal to half the amount expended. It was true that some +land was cultivated on the further slope, some mills erected and lumber +furnished from the inexhaustible forest; but the consumers were the +inhabitants themselves, who paid for their produce in borrowed capital +or unlimited credit. It was never discovered that while all roads led to +Devil's Ford, Devil's Ford led to nowhere. The difficulties overcome +in getting things into the settlement were never surmounted for getting +things out of it. The lumber was practically valueless for export to +other settlements across the mountain roads, which were equally rich in +timber. The theory so enthusiastically held by the original locators, +that Devil's Ford was a vast sink that had, through ages, exhausted and +absorbed the trickling wealth of the adjacent hills and valleys, was +suffering an ironical corroboration. + +One morning it was known that work was stopped at the Devil's Ford +Ditch--temporarily only, it was alleged, and many of the old workmen +simply had their labor for the present transferred to excavating the +river banks, and the collection of vast heaps of “pay gravel.” Specimens +from these mounds, taken from different localities, and at different +levels, were sent to San Francisco for more rigid assay and analysis. +It was believed that this would establish the fact of the permanent +richness of the drifts, and not only justify past expenditure, but a +renewed outlay of credit and capital. The suspension of engineering work +gave Mr. Carr an opportunity to visit San Francisco on general business +of the mine, which could not, however, prevent him from arranging +further combinations with capital. His two daughters accompanied him. It +offered an admirable opportunity for a shopping expedition, a change of +scene, and a peaceful solution of their perplexing and anomalous social +relations with Devil's Ford. In the first flush of gratitude to their +father for this opportune holiday, something of harmony had been +restored to the family circle that had of late been shaken by discord. + +But their sanguine hopes of enjoyment were not entirely fulfilled. Both +Jessie and Christie were obliged to confess to a certain disappointment +in the aspect of the civilization they were now reentering. They at +first attributed it to the change in their own habits during the last +three months, and their having become barbarous and countrified in +their seclusion. Certainly in the matter of dress they were behind the +fashions as revealed in Montgomery Street. But when the brief solace +afforded them by the modiste and dressmaker was past, there seemed +little else to be gained. They missed at first, I fear, the chivalrous +and loyal devotion that had only amused them at Devil's Ford, and were +the more inclined, I think, to distrust the conscious and more civilized +gallantry of the better dressed and more carefully presented men they +met. For it must be admitted that, for obvious reasons, their criticisms +were at first confined to the sex they had been most in contact with. +They could not help noticing that the men were more eager, annoyingly +feverish, and self-asserting in their superior elegance and external +show than their old associates were in their frank, unrestrained habits. +It seemed to them that the five millionaires of Devil's Ford, in their +radical simplicity and thoroughness, were perhaps nearer the type of +true gentlemanhood than these citizens who imitated a civilization they +were unable yet to reach. + +The women simply frightened them, as being, even more than the men, +demonstrative and excessive in their fine looks, their fine dresses, +their extravagant demand for excitement. In less than a week they found +themselves regretting--not the new villa on the slope of Devil's Ford, +which even in its own bizarre fashion was exceeded by the barbarous +ostentation of the villas and private houses around them--but the double +cabin under the trees, which now seemed to them almost aristocratic in +its grave simplicity and abstention. In the mysterious forests of masts +that thronged the city's quays they recalled the straight shafts of the +pines on Devil's slopes, only to miss the sedate repose and infinite +calm that used to environ them. In the feverish, pulsating life of the +young metropolis they often stopped oppressed, giddy, and choking; the +roar of the streets and thoroughfares was meaningless to them, except to +revive strange memories of the deep, unvarying monotone of the evening +wind over their humbler roof on the Sierran hillside. Civic bred and +nurtured as they were, the recurrence of these sensations perplexed and +alarmed them. + +“It seems so perfectly ridiculous,” said Jessie, “for us to feel as out +of place here as that Pike County servant girl in Sacramento who had +never seen a steamboat before; do you know, I quite had a turn the other +day at seeing a man on the Stockton wharf in a red shirt, with a rifle +on his shoulder.” + +“And you wanted to go and speak to him?” said Christie, with a sad +smile. + +“No, that's just it; I felt awfully hurt and injured that he did not +come up and speak to ME! I wonder if we got any fever or that sort of +thing up there; it makes one quite superstitious.” + +Christie did not reply; more than once before she had felt that +inexplicable misgiving. It had sometimes seemed to her that she had +never been quite herself since that memorable night when she had +slipped out of their sleeping-cabin, and stood alone in the gracious and +commanding presence of the woods and hills. In the solitude of night, +with the hum of the great city rising below her--at times even in +theatres or crowded assemblies of men and women--she forgot herself, +and again stood in the weird brilliancy of that moonlight night in +mute worship at the foot of that slowly-rising mystic altar of piled +terraces, hanging forests, and lifted plateaus that climbed forever to +the lonely skies. Again she felt before her the expanding and opening +arms of the protecting woods. Had they really closed upon her in some +pantheistic embrace that made her a part of them? Had she been baptized +in that moonlight as a child of the great forest? It was easy to believe +in the myths of the poets of an idyllic life under those trees, where, +free from conventional restrictions, one loved and was loved. If she, +with her own worldly experience, could think of this now, why might +not George Kearney have thought? . . . She stopped, and found herself +blushing even in the darkness. As the thought and blush were the usual +sequel of her reflections, it is to be feared that they may have been at +times the impelling cause. + +Mr. Carr, however, made up for his daughters' want of sympathy with +metropolitan life. To their astonishment, he not only plunged into the +fashionable gayeties and amusements of the town, but in dress and manner +assumed the role of a leader of society. The invariable answer to their +half-humorous comment was the necessities of the mine, and the policy +of frequenting the company of capitalists, to enlist their support and +confidence. There was something in this so unlike their father, that +what at any other time they would have hailed as a relief to +his habitual abstraction now half alarmed them. Yet he was not +dissipated--he did not drink nor gamble. There certainly did not seem +any harm in his frequenting the society of ladies, with a gallantry that +appeared to be forced and a pleasure that to their critical eyes was +certainly apocryphal. He did not drag his daughters into the mixed +society of that period; he did not press upon them the company of those +he most frequented, and whose accepted position in that little world of +fashion was considered equal to their own. When Jessie strongly objected +to the pronounced manners of a certain widow, whose actual present +wealth and pecuniary influence condoned for a more uncertain prehistoric +past, Mr. Carr did not urge a further acquaintance. “As long as you're +not thinking of marrying again, papa,” Jessie had said finally, “I don't +see the necessity of our knowing her.” “But suppose I were,” had replied +Mr. Carr with affected humor. “Then you certainly wouldn't care for any +one like her,” his daughter had responded triumphantly. Mr. Carr smiled, +and dropped the subject, but it is probable that his daughters' want of +sympathy with his acquaintances did not in the least interfere with +his social prestige. A gentleman in all his relations and under all +circumstances, even his cold scientific abstraction was provocative; +rich men envied his lofty ignorance of the smaller details of +money-making, even while they mistrusted his judgment. A man still well +preserved, and free from weakening vices, he was a dangerous rival to +younger and faster San Francisco, in the eyes of the sex, who knew how +to value a repose they did not themselves possess. + +Suddenly Mr. Carr announced his intention of proceeding to Sacramento, +on further business of the mine, leaving his two daughters in the family +of a wealthy friend until he should return for them. He opposed their +ready suggestion to return to Devil's Ford with a new and unnecessary +inflexibility: he even met their compromise to accompany him to +Sacramento with equal decision. + +“You will be only in my way,” he said curtly. “Enjoy yourselves here +while you can.” + +Thus left to themselves, they tried to accept his advice. Possibly some +slight reaction to their previous disappointment may have already set +in; perhaps they felt any distraction to be a relief to their anxiety +about their father. They went out more; they frequented concerts and +parties; they accepted, with their host and his family, an invitation to +one of those opulent and barbaric entertainments with which a noted San +Francisco millionaire distracted his rare moments of reflection in his +gorgeous palace on the hills. Here they could at least be once more in +the country they loved, albeit of a milder and less heroic type, and a +little degraded by the overlapping tinsel and scattered spangles of the +palace. + +It was a three days' fete; the style and choice of amusements left to +the guests, and an equal and active participation by no means necessary +or indispensable. Consequently, when Christie and Jessie Carr proposed +a ride through the adjacent canyon on the second morning, they had no +difficulty in finding horses in the well-furnished stables of their +opulent entertainers, nor cavaliers among the other guests, who were +too happy to find favor in the eyes of the two pretty girls who were +supposed to be abnormally fastidious and refined. Christie's escort +was a good-natured young banker, shrewd enough to avoid demonstrative +attentions, and lucky enough to interest her during the ride with his +clear and half-humorous reflections on some of the business speculations +of the day. If his ideas were occasionally too clever, and not always +consistent with a high sense of honor, she was none the less interested +to know the ethics of that world of speculation into which her father +had plunged, and the more convinced, with mingled sense of pride and +anxiety, that his still dominant gentlemanhood would prevent his coping +with it on equal terms. Nor could she help contrasting the conversation +of the sharp-witted man at her side with what she still remembered of +the vague, touching, boyish enthusiasm of the millionaires of Devil's +Ford. Had her escort guessed the result of this contrast, he would +hardly have been as gratified as he was with the grave attention of her +beautiful eyes. + +The fascination of a gracious day and the leafy solitude of the canyon +led them to prolong their ride beyond the proposed limit, and it became +necessary towards sunset for them to seek some shorter cut home. + +“There's a vaquero in yonder field,” said Christie's escort, who was +riding with her a little in advance of the others, “and those fellows +know every trail that a horse can follow. I'll ride on, intercept him, +and try my Spanish on him. If I miss him, as he's galloping on, you +might try your hand on him yourself. He'll understand your eyes, Miss +Carr, in any language.” + +As he dashed away, to cover his first audacity of compliment, Christie +lifted the eyes thus apostrophized to the opposite field. The vaquero, +who was chasing some cattle, was evidently too preoccupied to heed the +shouts of her companion, and wheeling round suddenly to intercept one +of the deviating fugitives, permitted Christie's escort to dash past him +before that gentleman could rein in his excited steed. This brought the +vaquero directly in her path. Perceiving her, he threw his horse back on +its haunches, to prevent a collision. Christie rode up to him, suddenly +uttered a cry, and halted. For before her, sunburnt in cheek and throat, +darker in the free growth of moustache and curling hair, clad in the +coarse, picturesque finery of his class, undisguised only in his boyish +beauty, sat George Kearney. + +The blood, that had forsaken her astonished face, rushed as quickly +back. His eyes, which had suddenly sparkled with an electrical glow, +sank before hers. His hand dropped, and his cheek flushed with a dark +embarrassment. + +“You here, Mr. Kearney? How strange!--but how glad I am to meet you +again!” + +She tried to smile; her voice trembled, and her little hand shook as she +extended it to him. + +He raised his dark eyes quickly, and impulsively urged his horse to her +side. But, as if suddenly awakening to the reality of the situation, +he glanced at her hurriedly, down at his barbaric finery, and threw a +searching look towards her escort. + +In an instant Christie saw the infelicity of her position, and its +dangers. The words of Whiskey Dick, “He wouldn't stand that,” flashed +across her mind. There was no time to lose. The banker had already +gained control over his horse, and was approaching them, all unconscious +of the fixed stare with which George was regarding him. Christie hastily +seized the hand which he had allowed to fall at his side, and said +quickly:-- + +“Will you ride with me a little way, Mr. Kearney?” + +He turned the same searching look upon her. She met it clearly and +steadily; he even thought reproachfully. + +“Do!” she said hurriedly. “I ask it as a favor. I want to speak to you. +Jessie and I are here alone. Father is away. YOU are one of our oldest +friends.” + +He hesitated. She turned to the astonished young banker, who rode up. + +“I have just met an old friend. Will you please ride back as quickly as +you can, and tell Jessie that Mr. Kearney is here, and ask her to join +us?” + +She watched her dazed escort, still speechless from the spectacle of the +fastidious Miss Carr tete-a-tete with a common Mexican vaquero, gallop +off in the direction of the canyon, and then turned to George. + +“Now take me home, the shortest way, as quick as you can.” + +“Home?” echoed George. + +“I mean to Mr. Prince's house. Quick! before they can come up to us.” + +He mechanically put spurs to his horse; she followed. They presently +struck into a trail that soon diverged again into a disused logging +track through the woods. + +“This is the short cut to Prince's, by two miles,” he said, as they +entered the woods. + +As they were still galloping, without exchanging a word, Christie began +to slacken her speed; George did the same. They were safe from intrusion +at the present, even if the others had found the short cut. Christie, +bold and self-reliant a moment ago, suddenly found herself growing weak +and embarrassed. What had she done? + +She checked her horse suddenly. + +“Perhaps we had better wait for them,” she said timidly. + +George had not raised his eyes to hers. + +“You said you wanted to hurry home,” he replied gently, passing his hand +along his mustang's velvety neck, “and--and you had something to say to +me.” + +“Certainly,” she answered, with a faint laugh. “I'm so astonished at +meeting you here. I'm quite bewildered. You are living here; you have +forsaken us to buy a ranche?” she continued, looking at him attentively. + +His brow colored slightly. + +“No, I'm living here, but I have bought no ranche. I'm only a hired man +on somebody else's ranche, to look after the cattle.” + +He saw her beautiful eyes fill with astonishment and--something else. +His brow cleared; he went on, with his old boyish laugh: + +“No, Miss Carr. The fact is, I'm dead broke. I've lost everything since +I saw you last. But as I know how to ride, and I'm not afraid of work, I +manage to keep along.” + +“You have lost money in--in the mines?” said Christie suddenly. + +“No”--he replied quickly, evading her eyes. “My brother has my interest, +you know. I've been foolish on my own account solely. You know I'm +rather inclined to that sort of thing. But as long as my folly don't +affect others, I can stand it.” + +“But it may affect others--and THEY may not think of it as folly--” She +stopped short, confused by his brightening color and eyes. “I mean--Oh, +Mr. Kearney, I want you to be frank with me. I know nothing of business, +but I know there has been trouble about the mine at Devil's Ford. Tell +me honestly, has my father anything to do with it? If I thought that +through any imprudence of his, you had suffered--if I believed that +you could trace any misfortune of yours to him--to US--I should never +forgive myself”--she stopped and flashed a single look at him--“I should +never forgive YOU for abandoning us.” + +The look of pain which had at first shown itself in his face, which +never concealed anything, passed, and a quick smile followed her +feminine anticlimax. + +“Miss Carr,” he said, with boyish eagerness, “if any man suggested to me +that your father wasn't the brightest and best of his kind--too wise and +clever for the fools about him to understand--I'd--I'd shoot him.” + +Confused by his ready and gracious disclaimer of what she had NOT +intended to say, there was nothing left for her but to rush upon +what she really intended to say, with what she felt was shameful +precipitation. + +“One word more, Mr. Kearney,” she began, looking down, but feeling the +color come to her face as she spoke. “When you spoke to me the day you +left, you must have thought me hard and cruel. When I tell you that I +thought you were alluding to Jessie and some feeling you had for her--” + +“For Jessie!” echoed George. + +“You will understand that--that--” + +“That what?” said George, drawing nearer to her. + +“That I was only speaking as she might have spoken had you talked to her +of me,” added Christie hurriedly, slightly backing her horse away from +him. + +But this was not so easy, as George was the better rider, and by an +imperceptible movement of his wrist and foot had glued his horse to her +side. “He will go now,” she had thought, but he didn't. + +“We must ride on,” she suggested faintly. + +“No,” he said with a sudden dropping of his boyish manner and a slight +lifting of his head. “We must ride together no further, Miss Carr. I +must go back to the work I am hired to do, and you must go on with +your party, whom I hear coming. But when we part here you must bid me +good-by--not as Jessie's sister--but as Christie--the one--the only +woman that I love, or that I ever have loved.” + +He held out his hand. With the recollection of their previous parting, +she tremblingly advanced her own. He took it, but did not raise it to +his lips. And it was she who found herself half confusedly retaining his +hand in hers, until she dropped it with a blush. + +“Then is this the reason you give for deserting us as you have deserted +Devil's Ford?” she said coldly. + +He lifted his eyes to her with a strange smile, and said, “Yes,” wheeled +his horse, and disappeared in the forest. + +He had left her thus abruptly once before, kissed, blushing, and +indignant. He was leaving her now, unkissed, but white and indignant. +Yet she was so self-possessed when the party joined her, that the +singular rencontre and her explanation of the stranger's sudden +departure excited no further comment. Only Jessie managed to whisper in +her ear,-- + +“I hope you are satisfied now that it wasn't me he meant?” + +“Not at all,” said Christie coldly. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +A few days after the girls had returned to San Francisco, they received +a letter from their father. His business, he wrote, would detain him in +Sacramento some days longer. There was no reason why they should return +to Devil's Ford in the heat of the summer; their host had written to +beg him to allow them a more extended visit, and, if they were enjoying +themselves, he thought it would be well not to disoblige an old friend. +He had heard they had a pleasant visit to Mr. Prince's place, and that a +certain young banker had been very attentive to Christie. + +“Do you know what all this means, dear?” asked Jessie, who had been +watching her sister with an unusually grave face. + +Christie whose thoughts had wandered from the letter, replied +carelessly,-- + +“I suppose it means that we are to wait here until father sends for us.” + +“It means a good deal more. It means that papa has had another reverse; +it means that the assay has turned out badly for the mine--that the +further they go from the flat the worse it gets--that all the gold they +will probably ever see at Devil's Ford is what they have already found +or will find on the flat; it means that all Devil's Ford is only a +'pocket,' and not a 'lead.'” She stopped, with unexpected tears in her +eyes. + +“Who told you this?” asked Christie breathlessly. + +“Fairfax--Mr. Munroe,” stammered her sister, “writes to me as if we +already knew it--tells me not to be alarmed, that it isn't so bad--and +all that.” + +“How long has this happened, Jessie?” said Christie, taking her hand, +with a white but calm face. + +“Nearly ever since we've been here, I suppose. It must be so, for he +says poor papa is still hopeful of doing something yet.” + +“And Mr. Munroe writes to you?” said Christie abstractedly. + +“Of course,” said Jessie quickly. “He feels interested in--us.” + +“Nobody tells ME anything,” said Christie. + +“Didn't--” + +“No,” said Christie bitterly. + +“What on earth DID you talk about? But people don't confide in you +because they're afraid of you. You're so--” + +“So what?” + +“So gently patronizing, and so 'I-don't-suppose-you-can-help-it, +poor-thing,' in your general style,” said Jessie, kissing her. “There! +I only wish I was like you. What do you say if we write to father that +we'll go back to Devil's Ford? Mr. Munroe thinks we will be of service +there just now. If the men are dissatisfied, and think we're spending +money--” + +“I'm afraid Mr. Munroe is hardly a disinterested adviser. At least, I +don't think it would look quite decent for you to fly back without your +father, at his suggestion,” said Christie coldly. “He is not the only +partner. We are spending no money. Besides, we have engaged to go to Mr. +Prince's again next week.” + +“As you like, dear,” said Jessie, turning away to hide a faint smile. + +Nevertheless, when they returned from their visit to Mr. Prince's, and +one or two uneventful rides, Christie looked grave. It was only a few +days later that Jessie burst upon her one morning. + +“You were saying that nobody ever tells you anything. Well, here's your +chance. Whiskey Dick is below.” + +“Whiskey Dick?” repeated Christie. “What does he want?” + +“YOU, love. Who else? You know he always scorns me as not being +high-toned and elegant enough for his social confidences. He asked for +you only.” + +With an uneasy sense of some impending revelation, Christie descended to +the drawing-room. As she opened the door, a strong flavor of that toilet +soap and eau de Cologne with which Whiskey Dick was in the habit of +gracefully effacing the traces of dissipation made known his presence. +In spite of a new suit of clothes, whose pristine folds refused to +adapt themselves entirely to the contour of his figure, he was somewhat +subdued by the unexpected elegance of the drawing-room of Christie's +host. But a glance at Christie's sad but gracious face quickly reassured +him. Taking from his hat a three-cornered parcel, he unfolded a +handsome saffrona rose, which he gravely presented to her. Having +thus reestablished his position, he sank elegantly into a tete-a-tete +ottoman. Finding the position inconvenient to face Christie, who had +seated herself on a chair, he transferred himself to the other side of +the ottoman, and addressed her over its back as from a pulpit. + +“Is this really a fortunate accident, Mr. Hall, or did you try to find +us?” said Christie pleasantly. + +“Partly promiskuss, and partly coincident, Miss Christie, one up and +t'other down,” said Dick lightly. “Work being slack at present at +Devil's Ford, I reck'ned I'd take a pasear down to 'Frisco, and dip into +the vortex o' fash'nable society and out again.” He lightly waved a +new handkerchief to illustrate his swallow-like intrusion. “This yer +minglin' with the bo-tong is apt to be wearisome, ez you and me knows, +unless combined with experience and judgment. So when them boys up +there allows that there's a little too much fash'nable society and San +Francisco capital and high-falutin' about the future goin' on fer square +surface mining, I sez, 'Look yere, gentlemen,' sez I, 'you don't see the +pint. The pint is to get the pop'lar eye fixed, so to speak, on Devil's +Ford. When a fash'nable star rises above the 'Frisco horizon--like Miss +Carr--and, so to speak, dazzles the gineral eye, people want to know +who she is. And when people say that's the accomplished daughter o' the +accomplished superintendent of the Devil's Ford claim--otherwise known +as the Star-eyed Goddess o' Devil's Ford--every eye is fixed on the +mine, and Capital, so to speak, tumbles to her.' And when they sez that +the old man--excuse my freedom, but that's the way the boys talk of your +father, meaning no harm--the old man, instead o' trying to corral rich +widders--grass or otherwise--to spend their money on the big works for +the gold that ain't there yet--should stay in Devil's Ford and put all +his sabe and genius into grindin' out the little gold that is there, I +sez to them that it ain't your father's style. 'His style,' sez I, 'ez +to go in and build them works.' When they're done he turns round to +Capital, and sez he--'Look yer,' sez he, 'thar's all the works you +want, first quality--cost a million; thar's all the water you want, +onlimited--cost another million; thar's all the pay gravel you want +in and outer the ground--call it two millions more. Now my time's too +vally'ble; my professhun's too high-toned to WORK mines. I MAKE 'em. +Hand me over a check for ten millions and call it square, and work it +for yourself.' So Capital hands over the money and waltzes down to run +the mine, and you original locators walks round with yer hands in yer +pockets a-top of your six million profit, and you let's Capital take the +work and the responsibility.” + +Preposterous as this seemed from the lips of Whiskey Dick, Christie +had a haunting suspicion that it was not greatly unlike the theories +expounded by the clever young banker who had been her escort. She did +not interrupt his flow of reminiscent criticism; when he paused for +breath, she said, quietly: + +“I met Mr. George Kearney the other day in the country.” + +Whiskey Dick stopped awkwardly, glanced hurriedly at Christie, and +coughed behind his handkerchief. + +“Mr. Kearney--eh--er--certengly--yes--er--met him, you say. Was +he--er--er--well?” + +“In health, yes; but otherwise he has lost everything,” said Christie, +fixing her eyes on the embarrassed Dick. + +“Yes--er--in course--in course--” continued Dick, nervously glancing +round the apartment as if endeavoring to find an opening to some less +abrupt statement of the fact. + +“And actually reduced to take some menial employment,” added Christie, +still regarding Dick with her clear glance. + +“That's it--that's just it,” said Dick, beaming as he suddenly found his +delicate and confidential opportunity. “That's it, Miss Christie; that's +just what I was sayin' to the boys. 'Ez it the square thing,' sez I, +'jest because George hez happened to hypothecate every dollar he has, +or expects to hev, to put into them works, only to please Mr. Carr, and +just because he don't want to distress that intelligent gentleman by +letting him see he's dead broke--for him to go and demean himself and +Devil's Ford by rushing away and hiring out as a Mexican vaquero +on Mexican wages? Look,' sez I, 'at the disgrace he brings upon a +high-toned, fash'nable girl, at whose side he's walked and danced, and +passed rings, and sentiments, and bokays in the changes o' the cotillion +and the mizzourka. And wot,' sez I, 'if some day, prancing along in a +fash'nable cavalcade, she all of a suddents comes across him drivin' a +Mexican steer?' That's what I said to the boys. And so you met him, Miss +Christie, as usual,” continued Dick, endeavoring under the appearance +of a large social experience to conceal an eager anxiety to know the +details--“so you met him; and, in course, you didn't let on yer knew +him, so to speak, nat'rally, or p'raps you kinder like asked him to fix +your saddle-girth, and give him a five-dollar piece--eh?” + +Christie, who had risen and gone to the window, suddenly turned a very +pale face and shining eyes on Dick. + +“Mr. Hall,” she said, with a faint attempt at a smile, “we are old +friends, and I feel I can ask you a favor. You once before acted as our +escort--it was for a short but a happy time--will you accept a larger +trust? My father is busy in Sacramento for the mine: will you, without +saying anything to anybody, take Jessie and me back at once to Devil's +Ford?” + +“Will I? Miss Christie,” said Dick, choking between an intense +gratification and a desire to keep back its vulgar exhibition, “I shall +be proud!” + +“When I say keep it a secret”--she hesitated--“I don't mean that I +object to your letting Mr. Kearney, if you happen to know where he is, +understand that we are going back to Devil's Ford.” + +“Cert'nly--nat'rally,” said Dick, waving his hand gracefully; +“sorter drop him a line, saying that bizness of a social and delicate +nature--being the escort of Miss Christie and Jessie Carr to Devil's +Ford--prevents my having the pleasure of calling.” + +“That will do very well, Mr. Hall,” said Christie, faintly smiling +through her moist eyelashes. “Then will you go at once and secure +tickets for to-night's boat, and bring them here? Jessie and I will +arrange everything else.” + +“Cert'nly,” said Dick impulsively, and preparing to take a graceful +leave. + +“We'll be impatient until you return with the tickets,” said Christie +graciously. + +Dick shook hands gravely, got as far as the door, and paused. + +“You think it better to take the tickets now?” he said dubiously. + +“By all means,” said Christie impetuously. “I've set my heart on going +to-night--and unless you secure berths early--” + +“In course--in course,” interrupted Dick nervously. “But--” + +“But what?” said Christie impatiently. + +Dick hesitated, shut the door carefully, and, looking round the +room, lightly shook out his handkerchief, apparently flicked away an +embarrassing suggestion, and said, with a little laugh: + +“It's ridiklous, perfectly ridiklous, Miss Christie; but not bein' in +the habit of carryin' ready money, and havin' omitted to cash a draft on +Wells, Fargo & Co.--” + +“Of course,” said Christie rapidly. “How forgetful I am! Pray forgive +me, Mr. Hall. I didn't think. I'll run up and get it from our host; he +will be glad to be our banker.” + +“One moment, Miss Christie,” said Dick lightly, as his thumb and finger +relaxed in his waistcoat pocket over the only piece of money in the +world that had remained to him after his extravagant purchase of +Christie's saffrona rose, “one moment: in this yer monetary transaction, +if you like, you are at liberty to use MY name.” + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +As Christie and Jessie Carr looked from the windows of the coach, whose +dust-clogged wheels were slowly dragging them, as if reluctant, nearer +the last stage of their journey to Devil's Ford, they were conscious +of a change in the landscape, which they could not entirely charge upon +their changed feelings. The few bared open spaces on the upland, the +long stretch of rocky ridge near the summit, so vivid and so velvety +during their first journey, were now burnt and yellow; even the brief +openings in the forest were seared as if by a hot iron in the scorching +rays of a half year's sun. The pastoral slopes of the valley below were +cloaked in lustre-leather: the rare watercourses along the road had +faded from the waiting eye and ear; it seemed as if the long and dry +summer had even invaded the close-set ranks of pines, and had blown a +simoom breath through the densest woods, leaving its charred red ashes +on every leaf and spray along the tunnelled shade. As they leaned out +of the window and inhaled the half-dead spices of the evergreens, they +seemed to have entered the atmosphere of some exhausted passion--of some +fierce excitement that was even now slowly burning itself out. + +It was a relief at last to see the straggling houses of Devil's Ford far +below come once more into view, as they rounded the shoulder of Devil's +Spur and began the long descent. But as they entered the town a change +more ominous and startling than the desiccation of the landscape +forced itself upon them. The town was still there, but where were +the inhabitants? Four months ago they had left the straggling street +thronged with busy citizens--groups at every corner, and a chaos +of merchandise and traders in the open plaza or square beside the +Presbyterian church. Now all was changed. Only a few wayfarers lifted +their heads lazily as the coach rattled by, crossing the deserted square +littered with empty boxes, and gliding past empty cabins or vacant shop +windows, from which not only familiar faces, but even the window sashes +themselves, were gone. The great unfinished serpent-like flume, crossing +the river on gigantic trestles, had advanced as far as the town, +stooping over it like some enormous reptile that had sucked its life +blood and was gorged with its prey. + +Whiskey Dick, who had left the stage on the summit to avail himself of +a shorter foot trail to the house, that would give him half an hour's +grace to make preparations, met them at the stage office with a buggy. +A glance at the young girls, perhaps, convinced him that the graces of +elegant worldly conversation were out of place with the revelation he +read on their faces. Perhaps, he, too, was a trifle indisposed. The +short journey to the house was made in profound silence. + +The villa had been repainted and decorated, and it looked fresher, and +even, to their preoccupied minds, appeared more attractive than ever. +Thoughtful hands had taken care of the vines and rose-bushes on the +trellises; water--that precious element in Devil's Ford--had not been +spared in keeping green through the long drought the plants which the +girls had so tenderly nurtured. It was the one oasis in which the summer +still lingered; and yet a singular sense of loss came over the girls as +they once more crossed its threshold. It seemed no longer their own. + +“Ef I was you, Miss Christie, I'd keep close to the house for a day or +two, until--until--things is settled,” said Dick; “there's a heap o' +tramps and sich cattle trapsin' round. P'raps you wouldn't feel so +lonesome if you was nearer town--for instance, 'bout wher' you useter +live.” + +“In the dear old cabin,” said Christie quickly; “I remember it; I wish +we were there now.” + +“Do you really? Do you?” said Whiskey Dick, with suddenly twinkling +eyes. “That's like you to say it. That's what I allus said,” continued +Dick, addressing space generally; “if there's any one ez knows how +to come square down to the bottom rock without flinchin', it's your +high-toned, fash'nable gals. But I must meander back to town, and let +the boys know you're in possession, safe and sound. It's right mean that +Fairfax and Mattingly had to go down to Lagrange on some low business +yesterday, but they'll be back to-morrow. So long.” + +Left alone, the girls began to realize their strange position. They had +conceived no settled plan. The night they left San Francisco they had +written an earnest letter to their father, telling him that on learning +the truth about the reverses of Devil's Ford, they thought it their duty +to return and share them with others, without obliging him to prefer the +request, and with as little worry to him as possible. He would find them +ready to share his trials, and in what must be the scene of their work +hereafter. + +“It will bring father back,” said Christie; “he won't leave us here +alone; and then together we must come to some understanding with +him--with THEM--for somehow I feel as if this house belonged to us no +longer.” + +Her surmise was not far wrong. When Mr. Carr arrived hurriedly from +Sacramento the next evening, he found the house deserted. His daughters +were gone; there were indications that they had arrived, and, for some +reason, suddenly departed. The vague fear that had haunted his guilty +soul after receiving their letter, and during his breathless journey, +now seemed to be realized. He was turning from the empty house, whose +reproachful solitude frightened him, when he was confronted on the +threshold by the figure of Fairfax Munroe. + +“I came to the stage office to meet you,” he said; “you must have left +the stage at the summit.” + +“I did,” said Carr angrily. “I was anxious to meet my daughters quickly, +to know the reason of their foolish alarm, and to know also who had been +frightening them. Where are they?” + +“They are safe in the old cabin beyond, that has been put up ready to +receive them again,” said Fairfax quietly. + +“But what is the meaning of this? Why are they not here?” demanded Carr, +hiding his agitation in a burst of querulous rage. + +“Do YOU ask, Mr. Carr?” said Fairfax sadly. “Did you expect them to +remain here until the sheriff took possession? No one knows better than +yourself that the money advanced you on the deeds of this homestead has +never been repaid.” + +Carr staggered, but recovered himself with feeble violence. + +“Since you know so much of my affairs, how do you know that this claim +will ever be pressed for payment? How do you know it is not the advance +of a--a--friend?” + +“Because I have seen the woman who advanced it,” said Fairfax +hopelessly. “She was here to look at the property before your daughters +came.” + +“Well?” said Carr nervously. + +“Well! You force me to tell you something I should like to forget. You +force me to anticipate a disclosure I expected to make to you only when +I came to ask permission to woo your daughter Jessie; and when I tell +you what it is, you will understand that I have no right to criticise +your conduct. I am only explaining my own.” + +“Go on,” said Carr impatiently. + +“When I first came to this country, there was a woman I loved +passionately. She treated me as women of her kind only treat men like +me; she ruined me, and left me. That was four years ago. I love your +daughter, Mr. Carr, but she has never heard it from my lips. I would not +woo her until I had told you all. I have tried to do it ere this, and +failed. Perhaps I should not now, but--” + +“But what?” said Carr furiously; “speak out!” + +“But this. Look!” said Fairfax, producing from his pocket the packet of +letters Jessie had found; “perhaps you know the handwriting?” + +“What do you mean?” gasped Carr. + +“That woman--my mistress--is the woman who advanced you money, and who +claims this house.” + + +The interview, and whatever came of it, remained a secret with the two +men. When Mr. Carr accepted the hospitality of the old cabin again, it +was understood that he had sacrificed the new house and its furniture +to some of the more pressing debts of the mine, and the act went far to +restore his waning popularity. But a more genuine feeling of relief was +experienced by Devil's Ford when it was rumored that Fairfax Munroe had +asked for the hand of Jessie Carr, and that some promise contingent upon +the equitable adjustment of the affairs of the mine had been given +by Mr. Carr. To the superstitious mind of Devil's Ford and its few +remaining locators, this new partnership seemed to promise that unity +of interest and stability of fortune that Devil's Ford had lacked. But +nothing could be done until the rainy season had fairly set in; until +the long-looked-for element that was to magically separate the gold from +the dross in those dull mounds of dust and gravel had come of its own +free will, and in its own appointed channels, independent of the feeble +auxiliaries that had hopelessly riven the rocks on the hillside, or hung +incomplete and unfinished in lofty scaffoldings above the settlement. + +The rainy season came early. At first in gathered mists on the higher +peaks that were lifted in the morning sun only to show a fresher field +of dazzling white below; in white clouds that at first seemed to be mere +drifts blown across from those fresh snowfields, and obscuring the +clear blue above; in far-off murmurs in the hollow hills and gulches; +in nearer tinkling melody and baby prattling in the leaves. It came +with bright flashes of sunlight by day, with deep, monotonous shadow at +night; with the onset of heavy winds, the roar of turbulent woods, +the tumultuous tossing of leafy arms, and with what seemed the silent +dissolution of the whole landscape in days of steady and uninterrupted +downfall. It came extravagantly, for every canyon had grown into a +torrent, every gulch a waterspout, every watercourse a river, and all +pouring into the North Fork, that, rushing past the settlement, seemed +to threaten it with lifted crest and flying mane. It came dangerously, +for one night the river, leaping the feeble barrier of Devil's Ford, +swept away houses and banks, scattered with unconscious irony the +laboriously collected heaps of gravel left for hydraulic machinery, and +spread out a vast and silent lake across the submerged flat. + +In the hurry and confusion of that night the girls had thrown open their +cabin to the escaping miners, who hurried along the slope that was now +the bank of the river. Suddenly Christie felt her arm grasped, and she +was half-led, half-dragged, into the inner room. Her father stood before +her. + +“Where is George Kearney?” he asked tremulously. + +“George Kearney!” echoed Christie, for a moment believing the excitement +had turned her father's brain. “You know he is not here; he is in San +Francisco.” + +“He is here--I tell you,” said Carr impatiently; “he has been here ever +since the high water, trying to save the flume and reservoir.” + +“George--here!” Christie could only gasp. + +“Yes! He passed here a few moments ago, to see if you were all safe, +and he has gone on towards the flume. But what he is trying to do is +madness. If you see him, implore him to do no more. Let him abandon the +accursed flume to its fate. It has worked already too much woe upon us +all; why should it carry his brave and youthful soul down with it?” + +The words were still ringing in her ears, when he suddenly passed away, +with the hurrying crowd. Scarcely knowing what she did, she ran out, +vaguely intent only on one thought, seeking only the one face, lately +so dear in recollection that she felt she would die if she never saw it +again. Perplexed by confused voices in the woods, she lost track of +the crowd, until the voices suddenly were raised in one loud outcry, +followed by the crashing of timber, the splashing of water, a silence, +and then a dull, continuous roar. She ran vaguely on in the direction of +the reservoir, with her father's injunction still in her mind, until a +terrible idea displaced it, and she turned at right angles suddenly, and +ran towards the slope leading down to the submerged flat. She had barely +left the shelter of the trees behind her before the roar of water +seemed to rise at her very feet. She stopped, dazed, bewildered, and +horror-stricken, on the edge of the slope. It was the slope no longer, +but the bank of the river itself! + +Even in the gray light of early morning, and with inexperienced eyes, +she saw all too clearly now. The trestle-work had given way; the curving +mile of flume, fallen into the stream, and, crushed and dammed against +the opposite shore, had absolutely turned the whole river through the +half-finished ditch and partly excavated mine in its way, a few rods +further on to join the old familiar channel. The bank of the river was +changed; the flat had become an island, between which and the slope +where she stood the North Fork was rolling its resistless yellow +torrent. As she gazed spellbound, a portion of the slope beneath her +suddenly seemed to sink and crumble, and was swallowed up in the rushing +stream. She heard a cry of warning behind her, but, rooted to the spot +by a fearful fascination, she heeded it not. + +Again there was a sudden disruption, and another part of the slope sank +to rise no more; but this time she felt herself seized by the waist and +dragged back. It was her father standing by her side. + +He was flushed and excited, gazing at the water with a strange +exultation. + +“Do you see it? Do you know what has happened?” he asked quickly. + +“The flume has fallen and turned the river,” said Christie hurriedly. +“But--have you seen him--is he safe?” + +“He--who?” he answered vacantly. + +“George Kearney!” + +“He is safe,” he said impatiently. “But, do you see, Christie? Do you +know what this means?” + +He pointed with his tremulous hand to the stream before them. + +“It means we are ruined,” said Christie coldly. + +“Nothing of the kind! It means that the river is doing the work of the +flume. It is sluicing off the gravel, deepening the ditch, and altering +the slope which was the old bend of the river. It will do in ten minutes +the work that would take us a year. If we can stop it in time, or +control it, we are safe; but if we can not, it will carry away the bed +and deposit with the rest, and we are ruined again.” + +With a gesture of impotent fury, he dashed away in the direction of an +equally excited crowd, that on a point of the slope nearer the island +were gesticulating and shouting to a second group of men, who on the +opposite shore were clambering on over the choked debris of the flume +that had dammed and diverted the current. It was evident that the same +idea had occurred to them, and they were risking their lives in the +attempt to set free the impediments. Shocked and indignant as Christie +had been at the degrading absorption of material interests at such +a moment, the element of danger lifted the labors of these men into +heroism, and she began to feel a strange exultation as she watched them. +Under the skilful blows of their axes, in a few moments the vast body +of drift began to disintegrate, and then to swing round and move towards +the old channel. A cheer went up, but as suddenly died away again. An +overlapping fringe of wreckage had caught on the point of the island and +arrested the whole mass. + +The men, who had gained the shore with difficulty, looked back with a +cry of despair. But the next moment from among them leaped a figure, +alert, buoyant, invincible, and, axe in hand, once more essayed the +passage. Springing from timber to timber, he at last reached the point +of obstruction. A few strokes of the axe were sufficient to clear it; +but at the first stroke it was apparent that the striker was also losing +his hold upon the shore, and that he must inevitably be carried away +with the tossing debris. But this consideration did not seem to affect +him; the last blow was struck, and as the freed timbers rolled on, +over and over, he boldly plunged into the flood. Christie gave a little +cry--her heart had bounded with him; it seemed as if his plunge had +splashed the water in her eyes. He did not come to the surface until he +had passed the point below where her father stood, and then struggling +feebly, as if stunned or disabled by a blow. It seemed to her that he +was trying to approach the side of the river where she was. Would he do +it? Could she help him? She was alone; he was hidden from the view of +the men on the point, and no succor could come from them. There was a +fringe of alder nearly opposite their cabin that almost overhung the +stream. She ran to it, clutched it with a frantic hand, and, leaning +over the boiling water, uttered for the first time his name: + +“George!” + +As if called to the surface by the magic of her voice, he rose a few +yards from her in mid-current, and turned his fading eyes towards the +bank. In another moment he would have been swept beyond her reach, but +with a supreme effort he turned on one side; the current, striking him +sideways, threw him towards the bank, and she caught him by his sleeve. +For an instant it seemed as if she would be dragged down with him. For +one dangerous moment she did not care, and almost yielded to the spell; +but as the rush of water pressed him against the bank, she recovered +herself, and managed to lift him beyond its reach. And then she sat +down, half-fainting, with his white face and damp curls upon her breast. + +“George, darling, speak to me! Only one word! Tell me, have I saved +you?” + +His eyes opened. A faint twinkle of the old days came to them--a boyish +smile played upon his lips. + +“For yourself--or Jessie?” + +She looked around her with a little frightened air. They were alone. +There was but one way of sealing those mischievous lips, and she found +it! + + +“That's what I allus said, gentlemen,” lazily remarked Whiskey Dick, +a few weeks later, leaning back against the bar, with his glass in +his hand. “'George,' sez I, 'it ain't what you SAY to a fash'nable, +high-toned young lady; it's what you DOES ez makes or breaks you.' And +that's what I sez gin'rally o' things in the Ford. It ain't what Carr +and you boys allows to do; it's the gin'ral average o' things ez IS done +that gives tone to the hull, and hez brought this yer new luck to you +all!” + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Devil's Ford, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVIL'S FORD *** + +***** This file should be named 2286-0.txt or 2286-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/2286/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/2286-0.zip b/2286-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1123ed --- /dev/null +++ b/2286-0.zip diff --git a/2286-h.zip b/2286-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8759add --- /dev/null +++ b/2286-h.zip diff --git a/2286-h/2286-h.htm b/2286-h/2286-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3634810 --- /dev/null +++ b/2286-h/2286-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3777 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Devil's Ford, by Bret Harte + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Devil's Ford, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Devil's Ford + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 13, 2006 [EBook #2286] +Last Updated: March 4, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVIL'S FORD *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + DEVIL'S FORD + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + by Bret Harte + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <big><b>DEVIL'S FORD</b></big> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h1> + DEVIL'S FORD + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I + </h2> + <p> + It was a season of unequalled prosperity in Devil's Ford. The half a dozen + cabins scattered along the banks of the North Fork, as if by some overflow + of that capricious river, had become augmented during a week of fierce + excitement by twenty or thirty others, that were huddled together on the + narrow gorge of Devil's Spur, or cast up on its steep sides. So sudden and + violent had been the change of fortune, that the dwellers in the older + cabins had not had time to change with it, but still kept their old + habits, customs, and even their old clothes. The flour pan in which their + daily bread was mixed stood on the rude table side by side with the + “prospecting pans,” half full of gold washed up from their morning's work; + the front windows of the newer tenements looked upon the one single + thoroughfare, but the back door opened upon the uncleared wilderness, + still haunted by the misshapen bulk of bear or the nightly gliding of + catamount. + </p> + <p> + Neither had success as yet affected their boyish simplicity and the + frankness of old frontier habits; they played with their new-found riches + with the naive delight of children, and rehearsed their glowing future + with the importance and triviality of school-boys. + </p> + <p> + “I've bin kalklatin',” said Dick Mattingly, leaning on his long-handled + shovel with lazy gravity, “that when I go to Rome this winter, I'll get + one o' them marble sharps to chisel me a statoo o' some kind to set up on + the spot where we made our big strike. Suthin' to remember it by, you + know.” + </p> + <p> + “What kind o' statoo—Washington or Webster?” asked one of the + Kearney brothers, without looking up from his work. + </p> + <p> + “No—I reckon one o' them fancy groups—one o' them Latin + goddesses that Fairfax is always gassin' about, sorter leadin', directin' + and bossin' us where to dig.” + </p> + <p> + “You'd make a healthy-lookin' figger in a group,” responded Kearney, + critically regarding an enormous patch in Mattingly's trousers. “Why don't + you have a fountain instead?” + </p> + <p> + “Where'll you get the water?” demanded the first speaker, in return. “You + know there ain't enough in the North Fork to do a week's washing for the + camp—to say nothin' of its color.” + </p> + <p> + “Leave that to me,” said Kearney, with self-possession. “When I've built + that there reservoir on Devil's Spur, and bring the water over the ridge + from Union Ditch, there'll be enough to spare for that.” + </p> + <p> + “Better mix it up, I reckon—have suthin' half statoo, half + fountain,” interposed the elder Mattingly, better known as “Maryland Joe,” + “and set it up afore the Town Hall and Free Library I'm kalklatin' to + give. Do THAT, and you can count on me.” + </p> + <p> + After some further discussion, it was gravely settled that Kearney should + furnish water brought from the Union Ditch, twenty miles away, at a cost + of two hundred thousand dollars, to feed a memorial fountain erected by + Mattingly, worth a hundred thousand dollars, as a crowning finish to + public buildings contributed by Maryland Joe, to the extent of half a + million more. The disposition of these vast sums by gentlemen wearing + patched breeches awakened no sense of the ludicrous, nor did any doubt, + reservation, or contingency enter into the plans of the charming + enthusiasts themselves. The foundation of their airy castles lay already + before them in the strip of rich alluvium on the river bank, where the + North Fork, sharply curving round the base of Devil's Spur, had for + centuries swept the detritus of gulch and canyon. They had barely crossed + the threshold of this treasure-house, to find themselves rich men; what + possibilities of affluence might be theirs when they had fully exploited + their possessions? So confident were they of that ultimate prospect, that + the wealth already thus obtained was religiously expended in engines and + machinery for the boring of wells and the conveyance of that precious + water which the exhausted river had long since ceased to yield. It seemed + as if the gold they had taken out was by some ironical compensation + gradually making its way back to the soil again through ditch and flume + and reservoir. + </p> + <p> + Such was the position of affairs at Devil's Ford on the 13th of August, + 1860. It was noon of a hot day. Whatever movement there was in the + stifling air was seen rather than felt in a tremulous, quivering, + upward-moving dust along the flank of the mountain, through which the + spires of the pines were faintly visible. There was no water in the bared + and burning bars of the river to reflect the vertical sun, but under its + direct rays one or two tinned roofs and corrugated zinc cabins struck + fire, a few canvas tents became dazzling to the eye, and the white wooded + corral of the stage office and hotel insupportable. For two hours no one + ventured in the glare of the open, or even to cross the narrow, unshadowed + street, whose dull red dust seemed to glow between the lines of straggling + houses. The heated shells of these green unseasoned tenements gave out a + pungent odor of scorching wood and resin. The usual hurried, feverish toil + in the claim was suspended; the pick and shovel were left sticking in the + richest “pay gravel;” the toiling millionaires themselves, ragged, dirty, + and perspiring, lay panting under the nearest shade, where the pipes went + out listlessly, and conversation sank to monosyllables. + </p> + <p> + “There's Fairfax,” said Dick Mattingly, at last, with a lazy effort. His + face was turned to the hillside, where a man had just emerged from the + woods, and was halting irresolutely before the glaring expanse of upheaved + gravel and glistening boulders that stretched between him and the shaded + group. “He's going to make a break for it,” he added, as the stranger, + throwing his linen coat over his head, suddenly started into an Indian + trot through the pelting sunbeams toward them. This strange act was + perfectly understood by the group, who knew that in that intensely dry + heat the danger of exposure was lessened by active exercise and the + profuse perspiration that followed it. In another moment the stranger had + reached their side, dripping as if rained upon, mopping his damp curls and + handsome bearded face with his linen coat, as he threw himself pantingly + on the ground. + </p> + <p> + “I struck out over here first, boys, to give you a little warning,” he + said, as soon as he had gained breath. “That engineer will be down here to + take charge as soon as the six o'clock stage comes in. He's an oldish + chap, has got a family of two daughters, and—I—am—d——d + if he is not bringing them down here with him.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, go long!” exclaimed the five men in one voice, raising themselves on + their hands and elbows, and glaring at the speaker. + </p> + <p> + “Fact, boys! Soon as I found it out I just waltzed into that Jew shop at + the Crossing and bought up all the clothes that would be likely to suit + you fellows, before anybody else got a show. I reckon I cleared out the + shop. The duds are a little mixed in style, but I reckon they're clean and + whole, and a man might face a lady in 'em. I left them round at the old + Buckeye Spring, where they're handy without attracting attention. You boys + can go there for a general wash-up, rig yourselves up without saying + anything, and then meander back careless and easy in your store clothes, + just as the stage is coming in, sabe?” + </p> + <p> + “Why didn't you let us know earlier?” asked Mattingly aggrievedly; “you've + been back here at least an hour.” + </p> + <p> + “I've been getting some place ready for THEM,” returned the new-comer. “We + might have managed to put the man somewhere, if he'd been alone, but these + women want family accommodation. There was nothing left for me to do but + to buy up Thompson's saloon.” + </p> + <p> + “No?” interrupted his audience, half in incredulity, half in protestation. + </p> + <p> + “Fact! You boys will have to take your drinks under canvas again, I + reckon! But I made Thompson let those gold-framed mirrors that used to + stand behind the bar go into the bargain, and they sort of furnish the + room. You know the saloon is one of them patent houses you can take to + pieces, and I've been reckoning you boys will have to pitch in and help me + to take the whole shanty over to the laurel bushes, and put it up agin + Kearney's cabin.” + </p> + <p> + “What's all that?” said the younger Kearney, with an odd mingling of + astonishment and bashful gratification. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I reckon yours is the cleanest house, because it's the newest, so + you'll just step out and let us knock in one o' the gables, and clap it on + to the saloon, and make ONE house of it, don't you see? There'll be two + rooms, one for the girls and the other for the old man.” + </p> + <p> + The astonishment and bewilderment of the party had gradually given way to + a boyish and impatient interest. + </p> + <p> + “Hadn't we better do the job at once?” suggested Dick Mattingly. + </p> + <p> + “Or throw ourselves into those new clothes, so as to be ready,” added the + younger Kearney, looking down at his ragged trousers. “I say, Fairfax, + what are the girls like, eh?” + </p> + <p> + All the others had been dying to ask the question, yet one and all laughed + at the conscious manner and blushing cheek of the questioner. + </p> + <p> + “You'll find out quick enough,” returned Fairfax, whose curt carelessness + did not, however, prevent a slight increase of color on his own cheek. + “We'd better get that job off our hands before doing anything else. So, if + you're ready, boys, we'll just waltz down to Thompson's and pack up the + shanty. He's out of it by this time, I reckon. You might as well be + perspiring to some purpose over there as gaspin' under this tree. We won't + go back to work this afternoon, but knock off now, and call it half a day. + Come! Hump yourselves, gentlemen. Are you ready? One, two, three, and + away!” + </p> + <p> + In another instant the tree was deserted; the figures of the five + millionaires of Devil's Ford, crossing the fierce glare of the open space, + with boyish alacrity, glistened in the sunlight, and then disappeared in + the nearest fringe of thickets. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II + </h2> + <p> + Six hours later, when the shadow of Devil's Spur had crossed the river, + and spread a slight coolness over the flat beyond, the Pioneer coach, + leaving the summit, began also to bathe its heated bulk in the long + shadows of the descent. Conspicuous among the dusty passengers, the two + pretty and youthful faces of the daughters of Philip Carr, mining + superintendent and engineer, looked from the windows with no little + anxiety towards their future home in the straggling settlement below, that + occasionally came in view at the turns of the long zigzagging road. A + slight look of comical disappointment passed between them as they gazed + upon the sterile flat, dotted with unsightly excrescences that stood + equally for cabins or mounds of stone and gravel. It was so feeble and + inconsistent a culmination to the beautiful scenery they had passed + through, so hopeless and imbecile a conclusion to the preparation of that + long picturesque journey, with its glimpses of sylvan and pastoral glades + and canyons, that, as the coach swept down the last incline, and the + remorseless monotony of the dead level spread out before them, furrowed by + ditches and indented by pits, under cover of shielding their cheeks from + the impalpable dust that rose beneath the plunging wheels, they buried + their faces in their handkerchiefs, to hide a few half-hysterical tears. + Happily, their father, completely absorbed in a practical, scientific, and + approving contemplation of the topography and material resources of the + scene of his future labors, had no time to notice their defection. It was + not until the stage drew up before a rambling tenement bearing the + inscription, “Hotel and Stage Office,” that he became fully aware of it. + </p> + <p> + “We can't stop HERE, papa,” said Christie Carr decidedly, with a shake of + her pretty head. “You can't expect that.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Carr looked up at the building; it was half grocery, half saloon. + Whatever other accommodations it contained must have been hidden in the + rear, as the flat roof above was almost level with the raftered ceiling of + the shop. + </p> + <p> + “Certainly,” he replied hurriedly; “we'll see to that in a moment. I dare + say it's all right. I told Fairfax we were coming. Somebody ought to be + here.” + </p> + <p> + “But they're not,” said Jessie Carr indignantly; “and the few that were + here scampered off like rabbits to their burrows as soon as they saw us + get down.” + </p> + <p> + It was true. The little group of loungers before the building had suddenly + disappeared. There was the flash of a red shirt vanishing in an adjacent + doorway; the fading apparition of a pair of high boots and blue overalls + in another; the abrupt withdrawal of a curly blond head from a sashless + window over the way. Even the saloon was deserted, although a back door in + the dim recess seemed to creak mysteriously. The stage-coach, with the + other passengers, had already rattled away. + </p> + <p> + “I certainly think Fairfax understood that I—” began Mr. Carr. + </p> + <p> + He was interrupted by the pressure of Christie's fingers on his arm and a + subdued exclamation from Jessie, who was staring down the street. + </p> + <p> + “What are they?” she whispered in her sister's ear. “Nigger minstrels, a + circus, or what?” + </p> + <p> + The five millionaires of Devil's Ford had just turned the corner of the + straggling street, and were approaching in single file. One glance was + sufficient to show that they had already availed themselves of the new + clothing bought by Fairfax, had washed, and one or two had shaved. But the + result was startling. + </p> + <p> + Through some fortunate coincidence in size, Dick Mattingly was the only + one who had achieved an entire new suit. But it was of funereal black + cloth, and although relieved at one extremity by a pair of high riding + boots, in which his too short trousers were tucked, and at the other by a + tall white hat, and cravat of aggressive yellow, the effect was + depressing. In agreeable contrast, his brother, Maryland Joe, was attired + in a thin fawn-colored summer overcoat, lightly worn open, so as to show + the unstarched bosom of a white embroidered shirt, and a pair of nankeen + trousers and pumps. + </p> + <p> + The Kearney brothers had divided a suit between them, the elder wearing a + tightly-fitting, single-breasted blue frock-coat and a pair of pink + striped cotton trousers, while the younger candidly displayed the trousers + of his brother's suit, as a harmonious change to a shining black alpaca + coat and crimson neckerchief. Fairfax, who brought up the rear, had, with + characteristic unselfishness, contented himself with a French workman's + blue blouse and a pair of white duck trousers. Had they shown the least + consciousness of their finery, or of its absurdity, they would have seemed + despicable. But only one expression beamed on the five sunburnt and + shining faces—a look of unaffected boyish gratification and + unrestricted welcome. + </p> + <p> + They halted before Mr. Carr and his daughters, simultaneously removed + their various and remarkable head coverings, and waited until Fairfax + advanced and severally presented them. Jessie Carr's half-frightened smile + took refuge in the trembling shadows of her dark lashes; Christie Carr + stiffened slightly, and looked straight before her. + </p> + <p> + “We reckoned—that is—we intended to meet you and the young + ladies at the grade,” said Fairfax, reddening a little as he endeavored to + conceal his too ready slang, “and save you from trapesing—from + dragging yourselves up grade again to your house.” + </p> + <p> + “Then there IS a house?” said Jessie, with an alarming frank laugh of + relief, that was, however, as frankly reflected in the boyishly + appreciative eyes of the young men. + </p> + <p> + “Such as it is,” responded Fairfax, with a shade of anxiety, as he glanced + at the fresh and pretty costumes of the young women, and dubiously + regarded the two Saratoga trunks resting hopelessly on the veranda. “I'm + afraid it isn't much, for what you're accustomed to. But,” he added more + cheerfully, “it will do for a day or two, and perhaps you'll give us the + pleasure of showing you the way there now.” + </p> + <p> + The procession was quickly formed. Mr. Carr, alive only to the actual + business that had brought him there, at once took possession of Fairfax, + and began to disclose his plans for the working of the mine, occasionally + halting to look at the work already done in the ditches, and to examine + the field of his future operations. Fairfax, not displeased at being thus + relieved of a lighter attendance on Mr. Carr's daughters, nevertheless + from time to time cast a paternal glance backwards upon their escorts, who + had each seized a handle of the two trunks, and were carrying them in + couples at the young ladies' side. The occupation did not offer much + freedom for easy gallantry, but no sign of discomfiture or uneasiness was + visible in the grateful faces of the young men. The necessity of changing + hands at times with their burdens brought a corresponding change of + cavalier at the lady's side, although it was observed that the younger + Kearney, for the sake of continuing a conversation with Miss Jessie, kept + his grasp of the handle nearest the young lady until his hand was nearly + cut through, and his arm worn out by exhaustion. + </p> + <p> + “The only thing on wheels in the camp is a mule wagon, and the mules are + packin' gravel from the river this afternoon,” explained Dick Mattingly + apologetically to Christie, “or we'd have toted—I mean carried—you + and your baggage up to the shant—the—your house. Give us two + weeks more, Miss Carr—only two weeks to wash up our work and realize—and + we'll give you a pair of 2.40 steppers and a skeleton buggy to meet you at + the top of the hill and drive you over to the cabin. Perhaps you'd prefer + a regular carriage; some ladies do. And a nigger driver. But what's the + use of planning anything? Afore that time comes we'll have run you up a + house on the hill, and you shall pick out the spot. It wouldn't take long—unless + you preferred brick. I suppose we could get brick over from La Grange, if + you cared for it, but it would take longer. If you could put up for a time + with something of stained glass and a mahogany veranda—” + </p> + <p> + In spite of her cold indignation, and the fact that she could understand + only a part of Mattingly's speech, Christie comprehended enough to make + her lift her clear eyes to the speaker, as she replied freezingly that she + feared she would not trouble them long with her company. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you'll get over that,” responded Mattingly, with an exasperating + confidence that drove her nearly frantic, from the manifest kindliness of + intent that made it impossible for her to resent it. “I felt that way + myself at first. Things will look strange and unsociable for a while, + until you get the hang of them. You'll naturally stamp round and cuss a + little—” He stopped in conscious consternation. + </p> + <p> + With ready tact, and before Christie could reply, Maryland Joe had put + down the trunk and changed hands with his brother. + </p> + <p> + “You mustn't mind Dick, or he'll go off and kill himself with shame,” he + whispered laughingly in her ear. “He means all right, but he's picked up + so much slang here that he's about forgotten how to talk English, and it's + nigh on to four years since he's met a young lady.” + </p> + <p> + Christie did not reply. Yet the laughter of her sister in advance with the + Kearney brothers seemed to make the reserve with which she tried to crush + further familiarity only ridiculous. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know many operas, Miss Carr?” + </p> + <p> + She looked at the boyish, interested, sunburnt face so near to her own, + and hesitated. After all, why should she add to her other real + disappointments by taking this absurd creature seriously? + </p> + <p> + “In what way?” she returned, with a half smile. + </p> + <p> + “To play. On the piano, of course. There isn't one nearer here than + Sacramento; but I reckon we could get a small one by Thursday. You + couldn't do anything on a banjo?” he added doubtfully; “Kearney's got + one.” + </p> + <p> + “I imagine it would be very difficult to carry a piano over those + mountains,” said Christie laughingly, to avoid the collateral of the + banjo. + </p> + <p> + “We got a billiard-table over from Stockton,” half bashfully interrupted + Dick Mattingly, struggling from his end of the trunk to recover his + composure, “and it had to be brought over in sections on the back of a + mule, so I don't see why—” He stopped short again in confusion, at a + sign from his brother, and then added, “I mean, of course, that a piano is + a heap more delicate, and valuable, and all that sort of thing, but it's + worth trying for.” + </p> + <p> + “Fairfax was always saying he'd get one for himself, so I reckon it's + possible,” said Joe. + </p> + <p> + “Does he play?” asked Christie. + </p> + <p> + “You bet,” said Joe, quite forgetting himself in his enthusiasm. “He can + snatch Mozart and Beethoven bald-headed.” + </p> + <p> + In the embarrassing silence that followed this speech the fringe of pine + wood nearest the flat was reached. Here there was a rude “clearing,” and + beneath an enormous pine stood the two recently joined tenements. There + was no attempt to conceal the point of junction between Kearney's cabin + and the newly-transported saloon from the flat—no architectural + illusion of the palpable collusion of the two buildings, which seemed to + be telescoped into each other. The front room or living room occupied the + whole of Kearney's cabin. It contained, in addition to the necessary + articles for housekeeping, a “bunk” or berth for Mr. Carr, so as to leave + the second building entirely to the occupation of his daughters as bedroom + and boudoir. + </p> + <p> + There was a half-humorous, half-apologetic exhibition of the rude utensils + of the living room, and then the young men turned away as the two girls + entered the open door of the second room. Neither Christie nor Jessie + could for a moment understand the delicacy which kept these young men from + accompanying them into the room they had but a few moments before + decorated and arranged with their own hands, and it was not until they + turned to thank their strange entertainers that they found that they were + gone. + </p> + <p> + The arrangement of the second room was rude and bizarre, but not without a + singular originality and even tastefulness of conception. What had been + the counter or “bar” of the saloon, gorgeous in white and gold, now sawn + in two and divided, was set up on opposite sides of the room as separate + dressing-tables, decorated with huge bunches of azaleas, that hid the + rough earthenware bowls, and gave each table the appearance of a vestal + altar. + </p> + <p> + The huge gilt plate-glass mirror which had hung behind the bar still + occupied one side of the room, but its length was artfully divided by an + enormous rosette of red, white, and blue muslin—one of the surviving + Fourth of July decorations of Thompson's saloon. On either side of the + door two pathetic-looking, convent-like cots, covered with spotless + sheeting, and heaped up in the middle, like a snow-covered grave, had + attracted their attention. They were still staring at them when Mr. Carr + anticipated their curiosity. + </p> + <p> + “I ought to tell you that the young men confided to me the fact that there + was neither bed nor mattress to be had on the Ford. They have filled some + flour sacks with clean dry moss from the woods, and put half a dozen + blankets on the top, and they hope you can get along until the messenger + who starts to-night for La Grange can bring some bedding over.” + </p> + <p> + Jessie flew with mischievous delight to satisfy herself of the truth of + this marvel. “It's so, Christie,” she said laughingly—“three + flour-sacks apiece; but I'm jealous: yours are all marked 'superfine,' and + mine 'middlings.'” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Carr had remained uneasily watching Christie's shadowed face. + </p> + <p> + “What matters?” she said drily. “The accommodation is all in keeping.” + </p> + <p> + “It will be better in a day or two,” he continued, casting a longing look + towards the door—the first refuge of masculine weakness in an + impending domestic emergency. “I'll go and see what can be done,” he said + feebly, with a sidelong impulse towards the opening and freedom. “I've got + to see Fairfax again to-night any way.” + </p> + <p> + “One moment, father,” said Christie, wearily. “Did you know anything of + this place and these—these people—before you came?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly—of course I did,” he returned, with the sudden testiness + of disturbed abstraction. “What are you thinking of? I knew the geological + strata and the—the report of Fairfax and his partners before I + consented to take charge of the works. And I can tell you that there is a + fortune here. I intend to make my own terms, and share in it.” + </p> + <p> + “And not take a salary or some sum of money down?” said Christie, slowly + removing her bonnet in the same resigned way. + </p> + <p> + “I am not a hired man, or a workman, Christie,” said her father sharply. + “You ought not to oblige me to remind you of that.” + </p> + <p> + “But the hired men—the superintendent and his workmen—were the + only ones who ever got anything out of your last experience with Colonel + Waters at La Grange, and—and we at least lived among civilized + people there.” + </p> + <p> + “These young men are not common people, Christie; even if they have + forgotten the restraints of speech and manners, they're gentlemen.” + </p> + <p> + “Who are willing to live like—like negroes.” + </p> + <p> + “You can make them what you please.” + </p> + <p> + Christie raised her eyes. There was a certain cynical ring in her father's + voice that was unlike his usual hesitating abstraction. It both puzzled + and pained her. + </p> + <p> + “I mean,” he said hastily, “that you have the same opportunity to direct + the lives of these young men into more regular, disciplined channels that + I have to regulate and correct their foolish waste of industry and + material here. It would at least beguile the time for you.” + </p> + <p> + Fortunately for Mr. Carr's escape and Christie's uneasiness, Jessie, who + had been examining the details of the living-room, broke in upon this + conversation. + </p> + <p> + “I'm sure it will be as good as a perpetual picnic. George Kearney says we + can have a cooking-stove under the tree outside at the back, and as there + will be no rain for three months we can do the cooking there, and that + will give us more room for—for the piano when it comes; and there's + an old squaw to do the cleaning and washing-up any day—and—and—it + will be real fun.” + </p> + <p> + She stopped breathlessly, with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes—a + charming picture of youth and trustfulness. Mr. Carr had seized the + opportunity to escape. + </p> + <p> + “Really, now, Christie,” said Jessie confidentially, when they were alone, + and Christie had begun to unpack her trunk, and to mechanically put her + things away, “they're not so bad.” + </p> + <p> + “Who?” asked Christie. + </p> + <p> + “Why, the Kearneys, and Mattinglys, and Fairfax, and the lot, provided you + don't look at their clothes. And think of it! they told me—for they + tell one EVERYTHING in the most alarming way—that those clothes were + bought to please US. A scramble of things bought at La Grange, without + reference to size or style. And to hear these creatures talk, why, you'd + think they were Astors or Rothschilds. Think of that little one with the + curls—I don't believe he is over seventeen, for all his baby + moustache—says he's going to build an assembly hall for us to give a + dance in next month; and apologizes the next breath to tell us that there + isn't any milk to be had nearer than La Grange, and we must do without it, + and use syrup in our tea to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “And where is all this wealth?” said Christie, forcing herself to smile at + her sister's animation. + </p> + <p> + “Under our very feet, my child, and all along the river. Why, what we + thought was pure and simple mud is what they call 'gold-bearing cement.'” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose that is why they don't brush their boots and trousers, it's so + precious,” returned Christie drily. “And have they ever translated this + precious dirt into actual coin?” + </p> + <p> + “Bless you, yes. Why, that dirty little gutter, you know, that ran along + the side of the road and followed us down the hill all the way here, that + cost them—let me see—yes, nearly sixty thousand dollars. And + fancy! papa's just condemned it—says it won't do; and they've got to + build another.” + </p> + <p> + An impatient sigh from Christie drew Jessie's attention to her troubled + eyebrows. + </p> + <p> + “Don't worry about our disappointment, dear. It isn't so very great. I + dare say we'll be able to get along here in some way, until papa is rich + again. You know they intend to make him share with them.” + </p> + <p> + “It strikes me that he is sharing with them already,” said Christie, + glancing bitterly round the cabin; “sharing everything—ourselves, + our lives, our tastes.” + </p> + <p> + “Ye-e-s!” said Jessie, with vaguely hesitating assent. “Yes, even these:” + she showed two dice in the palm of her little hand. “I found 'em in the + drawer of our dressing-table.” + </p> + <p> + “Throw them away,” said Christie impatiently. + </p> + <p> + But Jessie's small fingers closed over the dice. “I'll give them to the + little Kearney. I dare say they were the poor boy's playthings.” + </p> + <p> + The appearance of these relics of wild dissipation, however, had lifted + Christie out of her sublime resignation. “For Heaven's sake, Jessie,” she + said, “look around and see if there is anything more!” + </p> + <p> + To make sure, they each began to scrimmage; the broken-spirited Christie + exhibiting both alacrity and penetration in searching obscure corners. In + the dining-room, behind the dresser, three or four books were discovered: + an odd volume of Thackeray, another of Dickens, a memorandum-book or + diary. “This seems to be Latin,” said Jessie, fishing out a smaller book. + “I can't read it.” + </p> + <p> + “It's just as well you shouldn't,” said Christie shortly, whose ideas of a + general classical impropriety had been gathered from pages of Lempriere's + dictionary. “Put it back directly.” + </p> + <p> + Jessie returned certain odes of one Horatius Flaccus to the corner, and + uttered an exclamation. “Oh, Christie! here are some letters tied up with + a ribbon.” + </p> + <p> + They were two or three prettily written letters, exhaling a faint odor of + refinement and of the pressed flowers that peeped from between the loose + leaves. “I see, 'My darling Fairfax.' It's from some woman.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't think much of her, whosoever she is,” said Christie, tossing the + intact packet back into the corner. + </p> + <p> + “Nor I,” echoed Jessie. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, by some feminine inconsistency, evidently the circumstance + did make them think more of HIM, for a minute later, when they had + reentered their own room, Christie remarked, “The idea of petting a man by + his family name! Think of mamma ever having called papa 'darling Carr'!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, but his family name isn't Fairfax,” said Jessie hastily; “that's his + FIRST name, his Christian name. I forget what's his other name, but nobody + ever calls him by it.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean,” said Christie, with glistening eyes and awful deliberation—“do + you mean to say that we're expected to fall in with this insufferable + familiarity? I suppose they'll be calling US by our Christian names next.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, but they do!” said Jessie, mischievously. + </p> + <p> + “What!” + </p> + <p> + “They call me Miss Jessie; and Kearney, the little one, asked me if + Christie played.” + </p> + <p> + “And what did you say?” + </p> + <p> + “I said that you did,” answered Jessie, with an affectation of cherubic + simplicity. “You do, dear; don't you? . . . There, don't get angry, + darling; I couldn't flare up all of a sudden in the face of that poor + little creature; he looked so absurd—and so—so honest.” + </p> + <p> + Christie turned away, relapsing into her old resigned manner, and assuming + her household duties in a quiet, temporizing way that was, however, + without hope or expectation. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Carr, who had dined with his friends under the excuse of not adding to + the awkwardness of the first day's housekeeping returned late at night + with a mass of papers and drawings, into which he afterwards withdrew, but + not until he had delivered himself of a mysterious package entrusted to + him by the young men for his daughters. It contained a contribution to + their board in the shape of a silver spoon and battered silver mug, which + Jessie chose to facetiously consider as an affecting reminiscence of the + youthful Kearney's christening days—which it probably was. + </p> + <p> + The young girls retired early to their white snow-drifts: Jessie not + without some hilarious struggles with hers, in which she was, however, + quickly surprised by the deep and refreshing sleep of youth; Christie to + lie awake and listen to the night wind, that had changed from the first + cool whispers of sunset to the sturdy breath of the mountain. At times the + frail house shook and trembled. Wandering gusts laden with the deep + resinous odors of the wood found their way through the imperfect jointure + of the two cabins, swept her cheek and even stirred her long, wide-open + lashes. A broken spray of pine needles rustled along the roof, or a pine + cone dropped with a quick reverberating tap-tap that for an instant + startled her. Lying thus, wide awake, she fell into a dreamy reminiscence + of the past, hearing snatches of old melody in the moving pines, fragments + of sentences, old words, and familiar epithets in the murmuring wind at + her ear, and even the faint breath of long-forgotten kisses on her cheek. + She remembered her mother—a pallid creature, who had slowly faded + out of one of her father's vague speculations in a vaguer speculation of + her own, beyond his ken—whose place she had promised to take at her + father's side. The words, “Watch over him, Christie; he needs a woman's + care,” again echoed in her ears, as if borne on the night wind from the + lonely grave in the lonelier cemetery by the distant sea. She had devoted + herself to him with some little sacrifices of self, only remembered now + for their uselessness in saving her father the disappointment that sprang + from his sanguine and one-idea'd temperament. She thought of him lying + asleep in the other room, ready on the morrow to devote those fateful + qualities to the new enterprise that with equally fateful disposition she + believed would end in failure. It did not occur to her that the doubts of + her own practical nature were almost as dangerous and illogical as his + enthusiasm, and that for that reason she was fast losing what little + influence she possessed over him. With the example of her mother's + weakness before her eyes, she had become an unsparing and distrustful + critic, with the sole effect of awakening his distrust and withdrawing his + confidence from her. + </p> + <p> + He was beginning to deceive her as he had never deceived her mother. Even + Jessie knew more of this last enterprise than she did herself. + </p> + <p> + All that did not tend to decrease her utter restlessness. It was already + past midnight when she noticed that the wind had again abated. The + mountain breeze had by this time possessed the stifling valleys and heated + bars of the river in its strong, cold embraces; the equilibrium of Nature + was restored, and a shadowy mist rose from the hollow. A stillness, more + oppressive and intolerable than the previous commotion, began to pervade + the house and the surrounding woods. She could hear the regular breathing + of the sleepers; she even fancied she could detect the faint impulses of + the more distant life in the settlement. The far-off barking of a dog, a + lost shout, the indistinct murmur of some nearer watercourse—mere + phantoms of sound—made the silence more irritating. With a sudden + resolution she arose, dressed herself quietly and completely, threw a + heavy cloak over her head and shoulders, and opened the door between the + living-room and her own. Her father was sleeping soundly in his bunk in + the corner. She passed noiselessly through the room, opened the lightly + fastened door, and stepped out into the night. + </p> + <p> + In the irritation and disgust of her walk hither, she had never noticed + the situation of the cabin, as it nestled on the slope at the fringe of + the woods; in the preoccupation of her disappointment and the mechanical + putting away of her things, she had never looked once from the window of + her room, or glanced backward out of the door that she had entered. The + view before her was a revelation—a reproach, a surprise that took + away her breath. Over her shoulders the newly risen moon poured a flood of + silvery light, stretching from her feet across the shining bars of the + river to the opposite bank, and on up to the very crest of the Devil's + Spur—no longer a huge bulk of crushing shadow, but the steady + exaltation of plateau, spur, and terrace clothed with replete and + unutterable beauty. In this magical light that beauty seemed to be + sustained and carried along by the river winding at its base, lifted again + to the broad shoulder of the mountain, and lost only in the distant vista + of death-like, overcrowning snow. Behind and above where she stood the + towering woods seemed to be waiting with opened ranks to absorb her with + the little cabin she had quitted, dwarfed into insignificance in the vast + prospect; but nowhere was there another sign or indication of human life + and habitation. She looked in vain for the settlement, for the rugged + ditches, the scattered cabins, and the unsightly heaps of gravel. In the + glamour of the moonlight they had vanished; a veil of silver-gray vapor + touched here and there with ebony shadows masked its site. A black strip + beyond was the river bank. All else was changed. With a sudden sense of + awe and loneliness she turned to the cabin and its sleeping inmates—all + that seemed left to her in the vast and stupendous domination of rock and + wood and sky. + </p> + <p> + But in another moment the loneliness passed. A new and delicious sense of + an infinite hospitality and friendliness in their silent presence began to + possess her. This same slighted, forgotten, uncomprehended, but still + foolish and forgiving Nature seemed to be bending over her frightened and + listening ear with vague but thrilling murmurings of freedom and + independence. She felt her heart expand with its wholesome breath, her + soul fill with its sustaining truth. + </p> + <p> + She felt— + </p> + <p> + What was that? + </p> + <p> + An unmistakable outburst of a drunken song at the foot of the slope:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Oh, my name it is Johnny from Pike, + I'm h-ll on a spree or a strike.” . . . +</pre> + <p> + She stopped as crimson with shame and indignation as if the viewless + singer had risen before her. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “I knew when to bet, and get up and get—” + </pre> + <p> + “Hush! D—n it all. Don't you hear?” + </p> + <p> + There was the sound of hurried whispers, a “No” and “Yes,” and then a dead + silence. + </p> + <p> + Christie crept nearer to the edge of the slope in the shadow of a buckeye. + In the clearer view she could distinguish a staggering figure in the trail + below who had evidently been stopped by two other expostulating shadows + that were approaching from the shelter of a tree. + </p> + <p> + “Sho!—didn't know!” + </p> + <p> + The staggering figure endeavored to straighten itself, and then slouched + away in the direction of the settlement. The two mysterious shadows + retreated again to the tree, and were lost in its deeper shadow. Christie + darted back to the cabin, and softly reentered her room. + </p> + <p> + “I thought I heard a noise that woke me, and I missed you,” said Jessie, + rubbing her eyes. “Did you see anything?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Christie, beginning to undress. + </p> + <p> + “You weren't frightened, dear?” + </p> + <p> + “Not in the least,” said Christie, with a strange little laugh. “Go to + sleep.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III + </h2> + <p> + The five impulsive millionaires of Devil's Ford fulfilled not a few of + their most extravagant promises. In less than six weeks Mr. Carr and his + daughters were installed in a new house, built near the site of the double + cabin, which was again transferred to the settlement, in order to give + greater seclusion to the fair guests. It was a long, roomy, one-storied + villa, with a not unpicturesque combination of deep veranda and trellis + work, which relieved the flat monotony of the interior and the barrenness + of the freshly-cleared ground. An upright piano, brought from Sacramento, + occupied the corner of the parlor. A suite of gorgeous furniture, whose + pronounced and extravagant glories the young girls instinctively hid under + home-made linen covers, had also been spoils from afar. Elsewhere the + house was filled with ornaments and decorations that in their incongruity + forcibly recalled the gilded plate-glass mirrors of the bedroom in the old + cabin. In the hasty furnishing of this Aladdin's palace, the slaves of the + ring had evidently seized upon anything that would add to its glory, + without reference always to fitness. + </p> + <p> + “I wish it didn't look so cussedly like a robber's cave,” said George + Kearney, when they were taking a quiet preliminary survey of the + unclassified treasures, before the Carrs took possession. + </p> + <p> + “Or a gambling hell,” said his brother reflectively. + </p> + <p> + “It's about the same thing, I reckon,” said Dick Mattingly, who was + supposed, in his fiery youth, to have encountered the similarity. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, the two girls managed to bestow the heterogeneous collection + with tasteful adaptation to their needs. A crystal chandelier, which had + once lent a fascinating illusion to the game of Monte, hung unlighted in + the broad hall, where a few other bizarre and public articles were + relegated. A long red sofa or bench, which had done duty beside a + billiard-table found a place here also. Indeed, it is to be feared that + some of the more rustic and bashful youths of Devil's Ford, who had felt + it incumbent upon them to pay their respects to the new-comers, were more + at ease in this vestibule than in the arcana beyond, whose glories they + could see through the open door. To others, it represented a recognized + state of probation before their re-entree into civilization again. “I + reckon, if you don't mind, miss,” said the spokesman of one party, “ez + this is our first call, we'll sorter hang out in the hall yer, until you'r + used to us.” On another occasion, one Whiskey Dick, impelled by a sense of + duty, paid a visit to the new house and its fair occupants, in a fashion + frankly recounted by him afterwards at the bar of the Tecumseh Saloon. + </p> + <p> + “You see, boys, I dropped in there the other night, when some of you + fellers was doin' the high-toned 'thankee, marm' business in the parlor. I + just came to anchor in the corner of the sofy in the hall, without lettin' + on to say that I was there, and took up a Webster's dictionary that was on + the table and laid it open—keerless like, on my knees, ez if I was + sorter consultin' it—and kinder dozed off there, listenin' to you + fellows gassin' with the young ladies, and that yer Miss Christie just + snakin' music outer that pianner, and I reckon I fell asleep. Anyhow, I + was there nigh on to two hours. It's mighty soothin', them fashionable + calls; sorter knocks the old camp dust outer a fellow, and sets him up + again.” + </p> + <p> + It would have been well if the new life of the Devil's Ford had shown no + other irregularity than the harmless eccentricities of its original + locaters. But the news of its sudden fortune, magnified by report, began + presently to flood the settlement with another class of adventurers. A + tide of waifs, strays, and malcontents of old camps along the river began + to set towards Devil's Ford, in very much the same fashion as the debris, + drift, and alluvium had been carried down in bygone days and cast upon its + banks. A few immigrant wagons, diverted from the highways of travel by the + fame of the new diggings, halted upon the slopes of Devil's Spur and on + the arid flats of the Ford, and disgorged their sallow freight of + alkali-poisoned, prematurely-aged women and children and maimed and + fever-stricken men. Against this rude form of domesticity were opposed the + chromo-tinted dresses and extravagant complexions of a few single + unattended women—happily seen more often at night behind gilded bars + than in the garish light of day—and an equal number of pale-faced, + dark-moustached, well-dressed, and suspiciously idle men. A dozen rivals + of Thompson's Saloon had sprung up along the narrow main street. There + were two new hotels—one a “Temperance House,” whose ascetic quality + was confined only to the abnegation of whiskey—a rival stage office, + and a small one-storied building, from which the “Sierran Banner” + fluttered weekly, for “ten dollars a year, in advance.” Insufferable in + the glare of a Sabbath sun, bleak, windy, and flaring in the gloom of a + Sabbath night, and hopelessly depressing on all days of the week, the + First Presbyterian Church lifted its blunt steeple from the barrenest area + of the flats, and was hideous! The civic improvements so enthusiastically + contemplated by the five millionaires in the earlier pages of this + veracious chronicle—the fountain, reservoir, town-hall, and free + library—had not yet been erected. Their sites had been anticipated + by more urgent buildings and mining works, unfortunately not considered in + the sanguine dreams of the enthusiasts, and, more significant still, their + cost and expense had been also anticipated by the enormous outlay of their + earnings in the work upon Devil's Ditch. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, the liberal fulfilment of their promise in the new house in + the suburbs blinded the young girls' eyes to their shortcomings in the + town. Their own remoteness and elevation above its feverish life kept them + from the knowledge of much that was strange, and perhaps disturbing to + their equanimity. As they did not mix with the immigrant women—Miss + Jessie's good-natured intrusion into one of their half-nomadic camps one + day having been met with rudeness and suspicion—they gradually fell + into the way of trusting the responsibility of new acquaintances to the + hands of their original hosts, and of consulting them in the matter of + local recreation. It thus occurred that one day the two girls, on their + way to the main street for an hour's shopping at the Villa de Paris and + Variety Store, were stopped by Dick Mattingly a few yards from their + house, with the remark that, as the county election was then in progress, + it would be advisable for them to defer their intention for a few hours. + As he did not deem it necessary to add that two citizens, in the exercise + of a freeman's franchise, had been supplementing their ballots with + bullets, in front of an admiring crowd, they knew nothing of that accident + that removed from Devil's Ford an entertaining stranger, who had only the + night before partaken of their hospitality. + </p> + <p> + A week or two later, returning one morning from a stroll in the forest, + Christie and Jessie were waylaid by George Kearney and Fairfax, and, under + pretext of being shown a new and romantic trail, were diverted from the + regular path. This enabled Mattingly and Maryland Joe to cut down the body + of a man hanged by the Vigilance Committee a few hours before on the + regular trail, and to remonstrate with the committee on the + incompatibility of such exhibitions with a maidenly worship of nature. + </p> + <p> + “With the whole county to hang a man in,” expostulated Joe, “you might + keep clear of Carr's woods.” + </p> + <p> + It is needless to add that the young girls never knew of this act of + violence, or the delicacy that kept them in ignorance of it. Mr. Carr was + too absorbed in business to give heed to what he looked upon as a + convulsion of society as natural as a geological upheaval, and too prudent + to provoke the criticism of his daughters by comment in their presence. + </p> + <p> + An equally unexpected confidence, however, took its place. Mr. Carr having + finished his coffee one morning, lingered a moment over his perfunctory + paternal embraces, with the awkwardness of a preoccupied man endeavoring + by the assumption of a lighter interest to veil another abstraction. + </p> + <p> + “And what are we doing to-day, Christie?” he asked, as Jessie left the + dining-room. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, pretty much the usual thing—nothing in particular. If George + Kearney gets the horses from the summit, we're going to ride over to + Indian Spring to picnic. Fairfax—Mr. Munroe—I always forget + that man's real name in this dreadfully familiar country—well, he's + coming to escort us, and take me, I suppose—that is, if Kearney + takes Jessie.” + </p> + <p> + “A very nice arrangement,” returned her father, with a slight nervous + contraction of the corners of his mouth and eyelids to indicate + mischievousness. “I've no doubt they'll both be here. You know they + usually are—ha! ha! And what about the two Mattinglys and Philip + Kearney, eh?” he continued; “won't they be jealous?” + </p> + <p> + “It isn't their turn,” said Christie carelessly; “besides, they'll + probably be there.” + </p> + <p> + “And I suppose they're beginning to be resigned,” said Carr, smiling. + </p> + <p> + “What on earth are you talking of, father?” + </p> + <p> + She turned her clear brown eyes upon him, and was regarding him with such + manifest unconsciousness of the drift of his speech, and, withal, a little + vague impatience of his archness, that Mr. Carr was feebly alarmed. It had + the effect of banishing his assumed playfulness, which made his serious + explanation the more irritating. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I rather thought that—that young Kearney was paying + considerable attention to—to—to Jessie,” replied her father, + with hesitating gravity. + </p> + <p> + “What! that boy?” + </p> + <p> + “Young Kearney is one of the original locators, and an equal partner in + the mine. A very enterprising young fellow. In fact, much more advanced + and bolder in his conceptions than the others. I find no difficulty with + him.” + </p> + <p> + At another time Christie would have questioned the convincing quality of + this proof, but she was too much shocked at her father's first suggestion, + to think of anything else. + </p> + <p> + “You don't mean to say, father, that you are talking seriously of these + men—your friends—whom we see every day—and our only + company?” + </p> + <p> + “No, no!” said Mr. Carr hastily; “you misunderstand. I don't suppose that + Jessie or you—” + </p> + <p> + “Or ME! Am I included?” + </p> + <p> + “You don't let me speak, Christie. I mean, I am not talking seriously,” + continued Mr. Carr, with his most serious aspect, “of you and Jessie in + this matter; but it may be a serious thing to these young men to be thrown + continually in the company of two attractive girls.” + </p> + <p> + “I understand—you mean that we should not see so much of them,” said + Christie, with a frank expression of relief so genuine as to utterly + discompose her father. “Perhaps you are right, though I fail to discover + anything serious in the attentions of young Kearney to Jessie—or—whoever + it may be—to me. But it will be very easy to remedy it, and see less + of them. Indeed, we might begin to-day with some excuse.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—certainly. Of course!” said Mr. Carr, fully convinced of his + utter failure, but, like most weak creatures, consoling himself with the + reflection that he had not shown his hand or committed himself. “Yes; but + it would perhaps be just as well for the present to let things go on as + they were. We'll talk of it again—I'm in a hurry now,” and, edging + himself through the door, he slipped away. + </p> + <p> + “What do you think is father's last idea?” said Christie, with, I fear, a + slight lack of reverence in her tone, as her sister reentered the room. + “He thinks George Kearney is paying you too much attention.” + </p> + <p> + “No!” said Jessie, replying to her sister's half-interrogative, + half-amused glance with a frank, unconscious smile. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, and he says that Fairfax—I think it's Fairfax—is equally + fascinated with ME.” + </p> + <p> + Jessie's brow slightly contracted as she looked curiously at her sister. + </p> + <p> + “Of all things,” she said, “I wonder if any one has put that idea into his + dear old head. He couldn't have thought it himself.” + </p> + <p> + “I don't know,” said Christie musingly; “but perhaps it's just as well if + we kept a little more to ourselves for a while.” + </p> + <p> + “Did father say so?” said Jessie quickly. + </p> + <p> + “No, but that is evidently what he meant.” + </p> + <p> + “Ye-es,” said Jessie slowly, “unless—” + </p> + <p> + “Unless what?” said Christie sharply. “Jessie, you don't for a moment mean + to say that you could possibly conceive of anything else?” + </p> + <p> + “I mean to say,” said Jessie, stealing her arm around her sister's waist + demurely, “that you are perfectly right. We'll keep away from these + fascinating Devil's Forders, and particularly the youngest Kearney. I + believe there has been some ill-natured gossip. I remember that the other + day, when we passed the shanty of that Pike County family on the slope, + there were three women at the door, and one of them said something that + made poor little Kearney turn white and pink alternately, and dance with + suppressed rage. I suppose the old lady—M'Corkle, that's her name—would + like to have a share of our cavaliers for her Euphemy and Mamie. I dare + say it's only right; I would lend them the cherub occasionally, and you + might let them have Mr. Munroe twice a week.” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, but her eyes sought her sister's with a certain watchfulness + of expression. + </p> + <p> + Christie shrugged her shoulders, with a suggestion of disgust. + </p> + <p> + “Don't joke. We ought to have thought of all this before.” + </p> + <p> + “But when we first knew them, in the dear old cabin, there wasn't any + other woman and nobody to gossip, and that's what made it so nice. I don't + think so very much of civilization, do you?” said the young lady pertly. + </p> + <p> + Christie did not reply. Perhaps she was thinking the same thing. It + certainly had been very pleasant to enjoy the spontaneous and chivalrous + homage of these men, with no further suggestion of recompense or + responsibility than the permission to be worshipped; but beyond that she + racked her brain in vain to recall any look or act that proclaimed the + lover. These men, whom she had found so relapsed into barbarism that they + had forgotten the most ordinary forms of civilization; these men, even in + whose extravagant admiration there was a certain loss of self-respect, + that as a woman she would never forgive; these men, who seemed to belong + to another race—impossible! Yet it was so. + </p> + <p> + “What construction must they have put upon her father's acceptance of + their presents—of their company—of her freedom in their + presence? No! they must have understood from the beginning that she and + her sister had never looked upon them except as transient hosts and chance + acquaintances. Any other idea was preposterous. And yet—” + </p> + <p> + It was the recurrence of this “yet” that alarmed her. For she remembered + now that but for their slavish devotion they might claim to be her equal. + According to her father's account, they had come from homes as good as + their own; they were certainly more than her equal in fortune; and her + father had come to them as an employee, until they had taken him into + partnership. If there had only been sentiment of any kind connected with + any of them! But they were all alike, brave, unselfish, humorous—and + often ridiculous. If anything, Dick Mattingly was funniest by nature, and + made her laugh more. Maryland Joe, his brother, told better stories + (sometimes of Dick), though not so good a mimic as the other Kearney, who + had a fairly sympathetic voice in singing. They were all good-looking + enough; perhaps they set store on that—men are so vain. + </p> + <p> + And as for her own rejected suitor, Fairfax Munroe, except for a kind of + grave and proper motherliness about his protecting manner, he absolutely + was the most indistinctive of them all. He had once brought her some rare + tea from the Chinese camp, and had taught her how to make it; he had + cautioned her against sitting under the trees at nightfall; he had once + taken off his coat to wrap around her. Really, if this were the only + evidence of devotion that could be shown, she was safe! + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Jessie, “it amuses you, I see.” + </p> + <p> + Christie checked the smile that had been dimpling the cheek nearest + Jessie, and turned upon her the face of an elder sister. + </p> + <p> + “Tell me, have YOU noticed this extraordinary attention of Mr. Munroe to + me?” + </p> + <p> + “Candidly?” asked Jessie, seating herself comfortably on the table + sideways, and endeavoring, to pull her skirt over her little feet. “Honest + Injun?” + </p> + <p> + “Don't be idiotic, and, above all, don't be slangy! Of course, candidly.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, no. I can't say that I have.” + </p> + <p> + “Then,” said Christie, “why in the name of all that's preposterous, do + they persist in pairing me off with the least interesting man of the lot?” + </p> + <p> + Jessie leaped from the table. + </p> + <p> + “Come now,” she said, with a little nervous laugh, “he's not so bad as all + that. You don't know him. But what does it matter now, as long as we're + not going to see them any more?” + </p> + <p> + “They're coming here for the ride to-day,” said Christie resignedly. + “Father thought it better not to break it off at once.” + </p> + <p> + “Father thought so!” echoed Jessie, stopping with her hand on the door. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; why do you ask?” + </p> + <p> + But Jessie had already left the room, and was singing in the hall. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV + </h2> + <p> + The afternoon did not, however, bring their expected visitors. It brought, + instead, a brief note by the hands of Whiskey Dick from Fairfax, + apologizing for some business that kept him and George Kearney from + accompanying the ladies. It added that the horses were at the disposal of + themselves and any escort they might select, if they would kindly give the + message to Whiskey Dick. + </p> + <p> + The two girls looked at each other awkwardly; Jessie did not attempt to + conceal a slight pout. + </p> + <p> + “It looks as if they were anticipating us,” she said, with a half-forced + smile. “I wonder, now, if there really has been any gossip? But no! They + wouldn't have stopped for that, unless—” She looked curiously at her + sister. + </p> + <p> + “Unless what?” repeated Christie; “you are horribly mysterious this + morning.” + </p> + <p> + “Am I? It's nothing. But they're wanting an answer. Of course you'll + decline.” + </p> + <p> + “And intimate we only care for their company! No! We'll say we're sorry + they can't come, and—accept their horses. We can do without an + escort, we two.” + </p> + <p> + “Capital!” said Jessie, clapping her hands. “We'll show them—” + </p> + <p> + “We'll show them nothing,” interrupted Christie decidedly. “In our place + there's only the one thing to do. Where is this—Whiskey Dick?” + </p> + <p> + “In the parlor.” + </p> + <p> + “The parlor!” echoed Christie. “Whiskey Dick? What—is he—” + </p> + <p> + “Yes; he's all right,” said Jessie confidently. “He's been here before, + but he stayed in the hall; he was so shy. I don't think you saw him.” + </p> + <p> + “I should think not—Whiskey Dick!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you can call him Mr. Hall, if you like,” said Jessie, laughing. “His + real name is Dick Hall. If you want to be funny, you can say Alky Hall, as + the others do.” + </p> + <p> + Christie's only reply to this levity was a look of superior resignation as + she crossed the hall and entered the parlor. + </p> + <p> + Then ensued one of those surprising, mystifying, and utterly inexplicable + changes that leave the masculine being so helpless in the hands of his + feminine master. Before Christie opened the door her face underwent a + rapid transformation: the gentle glow of a refined woman's welcome + suddenly beamed in her interested eyes; the impulsive courtesy of an + expectant hostess eagerly seizing a long-looked-for opportunity broke in a + smile upon her lips as she swept across the room, and stopped with her two + white outstretched hands before Whiskey Dick. + </p> + <p> + It needed only the extravagant contrast presented by that gentleman to + complete the tableau. Attired in a suit of shining black alpaca, the + visitor had evidently prepared himself with some care for a possible + interview. He was seated by the French window opening upon the veranda, as + if to secure a retreat in case of an emergency. Scrupulously washed and + shaven, some of the soap appeared to have lingered in his eyes and + inflamed the lids, even while it lent a sleek and shining lustre, not + unlike his coat, to his smooth black hair. Nevertheless, leaning back in + his chair, he had allowed a large white handkerchief to depend gracefully + from his fingers—a pose at once suggesting easy and elegant langour. + </p> + <p> + “How kind of you to give me an opportunity to make up for my misfortune + when you last called! I was so sorry to have missed you. But it was + entirely my fault! You were hurried, I think—you conversed with + others in the hall—you—” + </p> + <p> + She stopped to assist him to pick up the handkerchief that had fallen, and + the Panama hat that had rolled from his lap towards the window when he had + started suddenly to his feet at the apparition of grace and beauty. As he + still nervously retained the two hands he had grasped, this would have + been a difficult feat, even had he not endeavored at the same moment, by a + backward furtive kick, to propel the hat out of the window, at which she + laughingly broke from his grasp and flew to the rescue. + </p> + <p> + “Don't mind it, miss,” he said hurriedly. “It is not worth your demeaning + yourself to touch it. Leave it outside thar, miss. I wouldn't have toted + it in, anyhow, if some of those high-falutin' fellows hadn't allowed, the + other night, ez it were the reg'lar thing to do; as if, miss, any + gentleman kalkilated to ever put on his hat in the house afore a lady!” + </p> + <p> + But Christie had already possessed herself of the unlucky object, and had + placed it upon the table. This compelled Whiskey Dick to rise again, and + as an act of careless good breeding to drop his handkerchief in it. He + then leaned one elbow upon the piano, and, crossing one foot over the + other, remained standing in an attitude he remembered to have seen in the + pages of an illustrated paper as portraying the hero in some drawing-room + scene. It was easy and effective, but seemed to be more favorable to + revery than conversation. Indeed, he remembered that he had forgotten to + consult the letterpress as to which it represented. + </p> + <p> + “I see you agree with me, that politeness is quite a matter of intention,” + said Christie, “and not of mere fashion and rules. Now, for instance,” she + continued, with a dazzling smile, “I suppose, according to the rules, I + ought to give you a note to Mr. Munroe, accepting his offer. That is all + that is required; but it seems so much nicer, don't you think, to tell it + to YOU for HIM, and have the pleasure of your company and a little chat at + the same time.” + </p> + <p> + “That's it, that's just it, Miss Carr; you've hit it in the centre this + time,” said Whiskey Dick, now quite convinced that his attitude was not + intended for eloquence, and shifting back to his own seat, hat and all; + “that's tantamount to what I said to the boys just now. 'You want an + excuse,' sez I, 'for not goin' out with the young ladies. So, accorden' to + rules, you writes a letter allowin' buzziness and that sorter thing + detains you. But wot's the facts? You're a gentleman, and as gentlemen you + and George comes to the opinion that you're rather playin' it for all it's + worth in this yer house, you know—comin' here night and day, off and + on, reg'lar sociable and fam'ly like, and makin' people talk about things + they ain't any call to talk about, and, what's a darned sight more, YOU + FELLOWS ain't got any right YET to allow 'em to talk about, d'ye see?” he + paused, out of breath. + </p> + <p> + It was Miss Christie's turn to move about. In changing her seat to the + piano-stool, so as to be nearer her visitor, she brushed down some loose + music, which Whiskey Dick hastened to pick up. + </p> + <p> + “Pray don't mind it,” she said, “pray don't, really—let it be—” + But Whiskey Dick, feeling himself on safe ground in this attention, + persisted to the bitter end of a disintegrated and well-worn “Travatore.” + “So that is what Mr. Munroe said,” she remarked quietly. + </p> + <p> + “Not just then, in course, but it's what's bin on his mind and in his talk + for days off and on,” returned Dick, with a knowing smile and a nod of + mysterious confidence. “Bless your soul, Miss Carr, folks like you and me + don't need to have them things explained. That's what I said to him, sez + I. 'Don't send no note, but just go up there and hev it out fair and + square, and say what you do mean.' But they would hev the note, and I + kalkilated to bring it. But when I set my eyes on you, and heard you + express yourself as you did just now, I sez to myself, sez I, 'Dick, yer's + a young lady, and a fash'nable lady at that, ez don't go foolin' round on + rules and etiketts'—excuse my freedom, Miss Carr—'and you and + her, sez I, 'kin just discuss this yer matter in a sociable, off-hand, + fash'nable way.' They're a good lot o' boys, Miss Carr, a square lot—white + men all of 'em; but they're a little soft and green, may be, from livin' + in these yer pine woods along o' the other sap. They just worship the + ground you and your sister tread on—certain! of course! of course!” + he added hurriedly, recognizing Christie's half-conscious, deprecating + gesture with more exaggerated deprecation. “I understand. But what I + wanter say is that they'd be willin' to be that ground, and lie down and + let you walk over them—so to speak, Miss Carr, so to speak—if + it would keep the hem of your gown from gettin' soiled in the mud o' the + camp. But it wouldn't do for them to make a reg'lar curderoy road o' + themselves for the houl camp to trapse over, on the mere chance of your + some time passin' that way, would it now?” + </p> + <p> + “Won't you let me offer you some refreshment, Mr. Hall?” said Christie, + rising, with a slight color. “I'm really ashamed of my forgetfulness + again, but I'm afraid it's partly YOUR fault for entertaining me to the + exclusion of yourself. No, thank you, let me fetch it for you.” + </p> + <p> + She turned to a handsome sideboard near the door, and presently faced him + again with a decanter of whiskey and a glass in her hand, and a return of + the bewitching smile she had worn on entering. + </p> + <p> + “But perhaps you don't take whiskey?” suggested the arch deceiver, with a + sudden affected but pretty perplexity of eye, brow, and lips. + </p> + <p> + For the first time in his life Whiskey Dick hesitated between two forms of + intoxication. But he was still nervous and uneasy; habit triumphed, and he + took the whiskey. He, however, wiped his lips with a slight wave of his + handkerchief, to support a certain easy elegance which he firmly believed + relieved the act of any vulgar quality. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, ma'am,” he continued, after an exhilarated pause. “Ez I said afore, + this yer's a matter you and me can discuss after the fashion o' society. + My idea is that these yer boys should kinder let up on you and Miss Jessie + for a while, and do a little more permiskus attention round the Ford. + There's one or two families yer with grown-up gals ez oughter be squared; + that is—the boys mighter put in a few fancy touches among them—kinder + take 'em buggy riding—or to church—once in a while—just + to take the pizen outer their tongues, and make a kind o' bluff to the + parents, d'ye see? That would sorter divert their own minds; and even if + it didn't, it would kinder get 'em accustomed agin to the old style and + their own kind. I want to warn ye agin an idea that might occur to you in + a giniral way. I don't say you hev the idea, but it's kind o' nat'ral you + might be thinkin' of it some time, and I thought I'd warn you agin it.” + </p> + <p> + “I think we understand each other too well to differ much, Mr. Hall,” said + Christie, still smiling; “but what is the idea?” + </p> + <p> + The delicate compliment to their confidential relations and the slight + stimulus of liquor had tremulously exalted Whiskey Dick. Affecting to look + cautiously out of the window and around the room, he ventured to draw + nearer the young woman with a half-paternal, half-timid familiarity. + </p> + <p> + “It might have occurred to you,” he said, laying his handkerchief as if to + veil mere vulgar contact, on Christie's shoulder, “that it would be a good + thing on YOUR side to invite down some of your high-toned gentlemen + friends from 'Frisco to visit you and escort you round. It seems quite + nat'ral like, and I don't say it ain't, but—the boys wouldn't stand + for it.” + </p> + <p> + In spite of her self-possession, Christie's eyes suddenly darkened, and + she involuntarily drew herself up. But Whiskey Dick, guiltily attributing + the movement to his own indiscreet gesture, said, “Excuse me, miss,” + recovered himself by lightly dusting her shoulder with his handkerchief, + as if to remove the impression, and her smile returned. + </p> + <p> + “They wouldn't stand for it,” said Dick, “and there'd be some shooting! + Not afore you, miss—not afore you, in course! But they'd adjourn to + the woods some morning with them city folks, and hev it out with rifles at + a hundred yards. Or, seein' ez they're city folks, the boys would do the + square thing with pistols at twelve paces. They're good boys, as I said + afore; but they're quick and tetchy—George, being the youngest, + nat'rally is the tetchiest. You know how it is, Miss Carr; his pretty, + gal-like face and little moustaches haz cost him half a dozen scrimmages + already. He'z had a fight for every hair that's growed in his moustache + since he kem here.” + </p> + <p> + “Say no more, Mr. Hall!” said Christie, rising and pressing her hands + lightly on Dick's tremulous fingers. “If I ever had any such idea, I + should abandon it now; you are quite right in this as in your other + opinions. I shall never cease to be thankful to Mr. Munroe and Mr. Kearney + that they intrusted this delicate matter to your hands.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the gratified and reddening visitor, “it ain't perhaps the + square thing to them or myself to say that they reckoned to have me + discuss their delicate affairs for them, but—” + </p> + <p> + “I understand,” interrupted Christie. “They simply gave you the letter as + a friend. It was my good fortune to find you a sympathizing and liberal + man of the world.” The delighted Dick, with conscious vanity beaming from + every feature of his shining face, lightly waved the compliment aside with + his handkerchief, as she continued, “But I am forgetting the message. We + accept the horses. Of course we COULD do without an escort; but forgive my + speaking so frankly, are YOU engaged this afternoon?” + </p> + <p> + “Excuse me, miss, I don't take—” stammered Dick, scarcely believing + his ears. + </p> + <p> + “Could you give us your company as an escort?” repeated Christie with a + smile. + </p> + <p> + Was he awake or dreaming, or was this some trick of liquor in his often + distorted fancy? He, Whiskey Dick! the butt of his friends, the chartered + oracle of the barrooms, even in whose wretched vanity there was always the + haunting suspicion that he was despised and scorned; he, who had dared so + much in speech, and achieved so little in fact! he, whose habitual + weakness had even led him into the wildest indiscretion here; he—now + offered a reward for that indiscretion! He, Whiskey Dick, the solicited + escort of these two beautiful and peerless girls! What would they say at + the Ford? What would his friends think? It would be all over the Ford the + next day. His past would be vindicated, his future secured. He grew erect + at the thought. It was almost in other voice, and with no trace of his + previous exaggeration, that he said, “With pleasure.” + </p> + <p> + “Then, if you will bring the horses at once, we shall be ready when you + return.” + </p> + <p> + In another instant he had vanished, as if afraid to trust the reality of + his good fortune to the dangers of delay. At the end of half an hour he + reappeared, leading the two horses, himself mounted on a half-broken + mustang. A pair of large, jingling silver spurs and a stiff sombrero, + borrowed with the mustang from some mysterious source, were donned to do + honor to the occasion. + </p> + <p> + The young girls were not yet ready, but he was shown by the Chinese + servant into the parlor to wait for them. The decanter of whiskey and + glasses were still invitingly there. He was hot, trembling, and flushed + with triumph. He walked to the table and laid his hand on the decanter, + when an odd thought flashed upon him. He would not drink this time. No, it + should not be said that he, the selected escort of the elite of Devil's + Ford, had to fill himself up with whiskey before they started. The boys + might turn to each other in their astonishment, as he proudly passed with + his fair companions, and say, “It's Whiskey Dick,” but he'd be d——d + if they should add, “and full as ever.” No, sir! Nor when he was riding + beside these real ladies, and leaning over them at some confidential + moment, should they even know it from his breath! No. . . . Yet a + thimbleful, taken straight, only a thimbleful, wouldn't be much, and might + help to pull him together. He again reached his trembling hand for the + decanter, hesitated, and then, turning his back upon it, resolutely walked + to the open window. Almost at the same instant he found himself face to + face with Christie on the veranda. + </p> + <p> + She looked into his bloodshot eyes, and cast a swift glance at the + decanter. + </p> + <p> + “Won't you take something before you go?” she said sweetly. + </p> + <p> + “I—reckon—not, jest now,” stammered Whiskey Dick, with a + heroic effort. + </p> + <p> + “You're right,” said Christie. “I see you are like me. It's too hot for + anything fiery. Come with me.” + </p> + <p> + She led him into the dining-room, and pouring out a glass of iced tea + handed it to him. Poor Dick was not prepared for this terrible + culmination. Whiskey Dick and iced tea! But under pretence of seeing if it + was properly flavored, Christie raised it to her own lips. + </p> + <p> + “Try it, to please me.” + </p> + <p> + He drained the goblet. + </p> + <p> + “Now, then,” said Christie gayly, “let's find Jessie, and be off!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V + </h2> + <p> + Whatever might have been his other deficiencies as an escort, Whiskey Dick + was a good horseman, and, in spite of his fractious brute, exhibited such + skill and confidence as to at once satisfy the young girls of his value to + them in the management of their own horses, to whom side-saddles were + still an alarming novelty. Jessie, who had probably already learned from + her sister the purport of Dick's confidences, had received him with equal + cordiality and perhaps a more unqualified amusement; and now, when fairly + lifted into the saddle by his tremulous but respectful hands, made a very + charming picture of youthful and rosy satisfaction. And when Christie, + more fascinating than ever in her riding-habit, took her place on the + other side of Dick, as they sallied from the gate, that gentleman felt his + cup of happiness complete. His triumphal entree into the world of + civilization and fashion was secure. He did not regret the untasted + liquor; here was an experience in after years to lean his back against + comfortably in bar-rooms, to entrance or defy mankind. He had even got so + far as to formulate in fancy the sentence: “I remember, gentlemen, that + one afternoon, being on a pasear with two fash'nable young ladies,” etc., + etc. + </p> + <p> + At present, however, he was obliged to confine himself to the functions of + an elegant guide and cicerone—when not engaged in “having it out” + with his horse. Their way lay along the slope, crossing the high-road at + right angles, to reach the deeper woods beyond. Dick would have lingered + on the highway—ostensibly to point out to his companions the new + flume that had taken the place of the condemned ditch, but really in the + hope of exposing himself in his glory to the curious eyes of the wayfaring + world. + </p> + <p> + Unhappily the road was deserted in the still powerful sunlight, and he was + obliged to seek the cover of the woods, with a passing compliment to the + parent of his charges. Waving his hands towards the flume, he said, “Look + at that work of your father's; there ain't no other man in Californy but + Philip Carr ez would hev the grit to hold up such a bluff agin natur and + agin luck ez that yer flume stands for. I don't say it 'cause you're his + daughters, ladies! That ain't the style, ez YOU know, in sassiety, Miss + Carr,” he added, turning to Christie as the more socially experienced. + “No! but there ain't another man to be found ez could do it. It cost + already two hundred thousand; it'll cost five hundred thousand afore it's + done; and every cent of it is got out of the yearth beneath it, or HEZ got + to be out of it. 'Tain't ev'ry man, Miss Carr, ez hev got the pluck to + pledge not only what he's got, but what he reckons to git.” + </p> + <p> + “But suppose he don't get it?” said Christie, slightly contracting her + brows. + </p> + <p> + “Then there's the flume to show for it,” said Dick. + </p> + <p> + “But of what use is the flume, if there isn't any more gold?” continued + Christie, almost angrily. + </p> + <p> + “That's good from YOU, miss,” said Dick, giving way to a fit of hilarity. + “That's good for a fash'nable young lady—own daughter of Philip + Carr. She sez, says she,” continued Dick, appealing to the sedate pines + for appreciation of Christie's rare humor, “'Wot's the use of a flume, + when gold ain't there?' I must tell that to the boys.” + </p> + <p> + “And what's the use of the gold in the ground when the flume isn't there + to work it out?” said Jessie to her sister, with a cautioning glance + towards Dick. + </p> + <p> + But Dick did not notice the look that passed between the sisters. The + richer humor of Jessie's retort had thrown him into convulsions of + laughter. + </p> + <p> + “And now SHE says, wot's the use o' the gold without the flume? 'Xcuse me, + ladies, but that's just puttin' the hull question that's agitatin' this + yer camp inter two speeches as clear as crystal. There's the hull crowd + outside—and some on 'em inside, like Fairfax, hez their doubts—ez + says with Miss Christie; and there's all of us inside, ez holds Miss + Jessie's views.” + </p> + <p> + “I never heard Mr. Munroe say that the flume was wrong,” said Jessie + quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Not to you, nat'rally,” said Dick, with a confidential look at Christie; + “but I reckon he'd like some of the money it cost laid out for suthin' + else. But what's the odds? The gold is there, and WE'RE bound to get it.” + </p> + <p> + Dick was the foreman of a gang of paid workmen, who had replaced the + millionaires in mere manual labor, and the WE was a polite figure of + speech. + </p> + <p> + The conversation seemed to have taken an unfortunate turn, and both the + girls experienced a feeling of relief when they entered the long gulch or + defile that led to Indian Spring. The track now becoming narrow, they were + obliged to pass in single file along the precipitous hillside, led by this + escort. This effectually precluded any further speech, and Christie at + once surrendered herself to the calm, obliterating influences of the + forest. The settlement and its gossip were far behind and forgotten. In + the absorption of nature, her companions passed out of her mind, even as + they sometimes passed out of her sight in the windings of the shadowy + trail. As she rode alone, the fronds of breast-high ferns seemed to caress + her with outstretched and gently-detaining hands; strange wildflowers + sprang up through the parting underbrush; even the granite rocks that at + times pressed closely upon the trail appeared as if cushioned to her + contact with star-rayed mosses, or lightly flung after her long lassoes of + delicate vines. She recalled the absolute freedom of their al-fresco life + in the old double cabin, when she spent the greater part of her waking + hours under the mute trees in the encompassing solitude, and, half + regretting the more civilized restraints of this newer and more ambitious + abode, forgot that she had ever rebelled against it. The social + complication that threatened her now seemed to her rather the outcome of + her half-civilized parlor than of the sylvan glade. How easy it would have + been to have kept the cabin, and then to have gone away entirely, than for + her father to have allowed them to be compromised with the growing + fortunes of the settlement! The suspicions and distrust that she had + always felt of their fortunes seemed to grow with the involuntary + admission of Whiskey Dick that they were shared by others who were + practical men. She was fain to have recourse to the prospect again to + banish these thoughts, and this opened her eyes to the fact that her + companions had been missing from the trail ahead of her for some time. She + quickened her pace slightly to reach a projecting point of rock that gave + her a more extended prospect. But they had evidently disappeared. + </p> + <p> + She was neither alarmed nor annoyed. She could easily overtake them soon, + for they would miss her, and return or wait for her at the spring. At the + worst she would have no difficulty in retracing her steps home. In her + present mood, she could readily spare their company; indeed she was not + sorry that no other being should interrupt that sympathy with the free + woods which was beginning to possess her. + </p> + <p> + She was destined, however, to be disappointed. She had not proceeded a + hundred yards before she noticed the moving figure of a man beyond her in + the hillside chaparral above the trail. He seemed to be going in the same + direction as herself, and, as she fancied, endeavoring to avoid her. This + excited her curiosity to the point of urging her horse forward until the + trail broadened into the level forest again, which she now remembered was + a part of the environs of Indian Spring. The stranger hesitated, pausing + once or twice with his back towards her, as if engaged in carefully + examining the dwarf willows to select a switch. Christie slightly checked + her speed as she drew nearer; when, as if obedient to a sudden resolution, + he turned and advanced towards her. She was relieved and yet surprised to + recognize the boyish face and figure of George Kearney. He was quite pale + and agitated, although attempting, by a jaunty swinging of the switch he + had just cut, to assume the appearance of ease and confidence. + </p> + <p> + Here was an opportunity. Christie resolved to profit by it. She did not + doubt that the young fellow had already passed her sister on the trail, + but, from bashfulness, had not dared to approach her. By inviting his + confidence, she would doubtless draw something from him that would deny or + corroborate her father's opinion of his sentiments. If he was really in + love with Jessie, she would learn what reasons he had for expecting a + serious culmination of his suit, and perhaps she might be able delicately + to open his eyes to the truth. If, as she believed, it was only a boyish + fancy, she would laugh him out of it with that camaraderie which had + always existed between them. A half motherly sympathy, albeit born quite + as much from a contemplation of his beautiful yearning eyes as from his + interesting position, lightened the smile with which she greeted him. + </p> + <p> + “So you contrived to throw over your stupid business and join us, after + all,” she said; “or was it that you changed your mind at the last moment?” + she added mischievously. “I thought only we women were permitted that!” + Indeed, she could not help noticing that there was really a strong + feminine suggestion in the shifting color and slightly conscious eyelids + of the young fellow. + </p> + <p> + “Do young girls always change their minds?” asked George, with an + embarrassed smile. + </p> + <p> + “Not, always; but sometimes they don't know their own mind—particularly + if they are very young; and when they do at last, you clever creatures of + men, who have interpreted their ignorance to please yourselves, abuse them + for being fickle.” She stopped to observe the effect of what she believed + a rather clear and significant exposition of Jessie's and George's + possible situation. But she was not prepared for the look of blank + resignation that seemed to drive the color from his face and moisten the + fire of his dark eyes. + </p> + <p> + “I reckon you're right,” he said, looking down. + </p> + <p> + “Oh! we're not accusing you of fickleness,” said Christie gayly; “although + you didn't come, and we were obliged to ask Mr. Hall to join us. I suppose + you found him and Jessie just now?” + </p> + <p> + But George made no reply. The color was slowly coming back to his face, + which, as she glanced covertly at him, seemed to have grown so much older + that his returning blood might have brought two or three years with it. + </p> + <p> + “Really, Mr. Kearney,” she said dryly, “one would think that some silly, + conceited girl”—she was quite earnest in her epithets, for a sudden, + angry conviction of some coquetry and disingenuousness in Jessie had come + to her in contemplating its effects upon the young fellow at her side—“some + country jilt, had been trying her rustic hand upon you.” + </p> + <p> + “She is not silly, conceited, nor countrified,” said George, slowly + raising his beautiful eyes to the young girl half reproachfully. “It is I + who am all that. No, she is right, and you know it.” + </p> + <p> + Much as Christie admired and valued her sister's charms, she thought this + was really going too far. What had Jessie ever done—what was Jessie—to + provoke and remain insensible to such a blind devotion as this? And + really, looking at him now, he was not so VERY YOUNG for Jessie; whether + his unfortunate passion had brought out all his latent manliness, or + whether he had hitherto kept his serious nature in the background, + certainly he was not a boy. And certainly his was not a passion that he + could be laughed out of. It was getting very tiresome. She wished she had + not met him—at least until she had had some clearer understanding + with her sister. He was still walking beside her, with his hand on her + bridle rein, partly to lead her horse over some boulders in the trail, and + partly to conceal his first embarrassment. When they had fairly reached + the woods, he stopped. + </p> + <p> + “I am going to say good-by, Miss Carr.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you not coming further? We must be near Indian Spring, now; Mr. Hall + and—and Jessie—cannot be far away. You will keep me company + until we meet them?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” he replied quietly. “I only stopped you to say good-by. I am going + away.” + </p> + <p> + “Not from Devil's Ford?” she asked, in half-incredulous astonishment. “At + least, not for long?” + </p> + <p> + “I am not coming back,” he replied. + </p> + <p> + “But this is very abrupt,” she said hurriedly, feeling that in some + ridiculous way she had precipitated an equally ridiculous catastrophe. + “Surely you are not going away in this fashion, without saying good-by to + Jessie and—and father?” + </p> + <p> + “I shall see your father, of course—and you will give my regards to + Miss Jessie.” + </p> + <p> + He evidently was in earnest. Was there ever anything so perfectly + preposterous? She became indignant. + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” she said coldly, “I won't detain you; your business must be + urgent, and I forgot—at least I had forgotten until to-day—that + you have other duties more important than that of squire of dames. I am + afraid this forgetfulness made me think you would not part from us in + quite such a business fashion. I presume, if you had not met me just now, + we should none of us have seen you again?” + </p> + <p> + He did not reply. + </p> + <p> + “Will you say good-by, Miss Carr?” + </p> + <p> + He held out his hand. + </p> + <p> + “One moment, Mr. Kearney. If I have said anything which you think + justifies this very abrupt leave-taking, I beg you will forgive and forget + it—or, at least, let it have no more weight with you than the idle + words of any woman. I only spoke generally. You know—I—I might + be mistaken.” + </p> + <p> + His eyes, which had dilated when she began to speak, darkened; his color, + which had quickly come, as quickly sank when she had ended. + </p> + <p> + “Don't say that, Miss Carr. It is not like you, and—it is useless. + You know what I meant a moment ago. I read it in your reply. You meant + that I, like others, had deceived myself. Did you not?” + </p> + <p> + She could not meet those honest eyes with less than equal honesty. She + knew that Jessie did not love him—would not marry him—whatever + coquetry she might have shown. + </p> + <p> + “I did not mean to offend you,” she said hesitatingly; “I only half + suspected it when I spoke.” + </p> + <p> + “And you wish to spare me the avowal?” he said bitterly. + </p> + <p> + “To me, perhaps, yes, by anticipating it. I could not tell what ideas you + might have gathered from some indiscreet frankness of Jessie—or my + father,” she added, with almost equal bitterness. + </p> + <p> + “I have never spoken to either,” he replied quickly. He stopped, and + added, after a moment's mortifying reflection, “I've been brought up in + the woods, Miss Carr, and I suppose I have followed my feelings, instead + of the etiquette of society.” + </p> + <p> + Christie was too relieved at the rehabilitation of Jessie's truthfulness + to notice the full significance of his speech. + </p> + <p> + “Good-by,” he said again, holding out his hand. + </p> + <p> + “Good-by!” + </p> + <p> + She extended her own, ungloved, with a frank smile. He held it for a + moment, with his eyes fixed upon hers. Then suddenly, as if obeying an + uncontrollable impulse, he crushed it like a flower again and again + against his burning lips, and darted away. + </p> + <p> + Christie sank back in her saddle with a little cry, half of pain and half + of frightened surprise. Had the poor boy suddenly gone mad, or was this + vicarious farewell a part of the courtship of Devil's Ford? She looked at + her little hand, which had reddened under the pressure, and suddenly felt + the flush extending to her cheeks and the roots of her hair. This was + intolerable. + </p> + <p> + “Christie!” + </p> + <p> + It was her sister emerging from the wood to seek her. In another moment + she was at her side. + </p> + <p> + “We thought you were following,” said Jessie. “Good heavens! how you look! + What has happened?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing. I met Mr. Kearney a moment ago on the trail. He is going away, + and—and—” She stopped, furious and flushing. + </p> + <p> + “And,” said Jessie, with a burst of merriment, “he told you at last he + loved you. Oh, Christie!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI + </h2> + <p> + The abrupt departure of George Kearney from Devil's Ford excited but + little interest in the community, and was soon forgotten. It was generally + attributed to differences between himself and his partners on the question + of further outlay of their earnings on mining improvements—he and + Philip Carr alone representing a sanguine minority whose faith in the + future of the mine accepted any risks. It was alleged by some that he had + sold out to his brother; it was believed by others that he had simply gone + to Sacramento to borrow money on his share, in order to continue the + improvements on his own responsibility. The partners themselves were + uncommunicative; even Whiskey Dick, who since his remarkable social + elevation had become less oracular, much to his own astonishment, + contributed nothing to the gossip except a suggestion that as the fiery + temper of George Kearney brooked no opposition, even from his brother, it + was better they should separate before the estrangement became serious. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Carr did not disguise his annoyance at the loss of his young disciple + and firm ally. But an unlucky allusion to his previous remarks on + Kearney's attentions to Jessie, and a querulous regret that he had + permitted a disruption of their social intimacy, brought such an ominous + and frigid opposition, not only from Christie, but even the frivolous + Jessie herself, that Carr sank back in a crushed and terrified silence. “I + only meant to say,” he stammered after a pause, in which he, however, + resumed his aggrieved manner, “that FAIRFAX seems to come here still, and + HE is not such a particular friend of mine.” + </p> + <p> + “But she is—and has your interest entirely at heart,” said Jessie, + stoutly, “and he only comes here to tell us how things are going on at the + works.” + </p> + <p> + “And criticise your father, I suppose,” said Mr. Carr, with an attempt at + jocularity that did not, however, disguise an irritated suspiciousness. + “He really seems to have supplanted ME as he has poor Kearney in your + estimation.” + </p> + <p> + “Now, father,” said Jessie, suddenly seizing him by the shoulders in + affected indignation, but really to conceal a certain embarrassment that + sprang quite as much from her sister's quietly observant eye as her + father's speech, “you promised to let this ridiculous discussion drop. You + will make me and Christie so nervous that we will not dare to open the + door to a visitor, until he declares his innocence of any matrimonial + intentions. You don't want to give color to the gossip that agreement with + your views about the improvements is necessary to getting on with us.” + </p> + <p> + “Who dares talk such rubbish?” said Carr, reddening; “is that the kind of + gossip that Fairfax brings here?” + </p> + <p> + “Hardly, when it's known that he don't quite agree with you, and DOES come + here. That's the best denial of the gossip.” + </p> + <p> + Christie, who had of late loftily ignored these discussions, waited until + her father had taken his departure. + </p> + <p> + “Then that is the reason why you still see Mr. Munroe, after what you + said,” she remarked quietly to Jessie. + </p> + <p> + Jessie, who would have liked to escape with her father, was obliged to + pause on the threshold of the door, with a pretty assumption of blank + forgetfulness in her blue eyes and lifted eyebrows. + </p> + <p> + “Said what? when?” she asked vacantly. + </p> + <p> + “When—when Mr. Kearney that day—in the woods—went away,” + said Christie, faintly coloring. + </p> + <p> + “Oh! THAT day,” said Jessie briskly; “the day he just gloved your hand + with kisses, and then fled wildly into the forest to conceal his emotion.” + </p> + <p> + “The day he behaved very foolishly,” said Christie, with reproachful + calmness, that did not, however, prevent a suspicion of indignant moisture + in her eyes—“when you explained”— + </p> + <p> + “That it wasn't meant for ME,” interrupted Jessie. + </p> + <p> + “That it was to you that MR. MUNROE'S attentions were directed. And then + we agreed that it was better to prevent any further advances of this kind + by avoiding any familiar relations with either of them.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Jessie, “I remember; but you're not confounding my seeing + Fairfax occasionally now with that sort of thing. HE doesn't kiss my hand + like anything,” she added, as if in abstract reflection. + </p> + <p> + “Nor run away, either,” suggested the trodden worm, turning. + </p> + <p> + There was an ominous silence. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know we are nearly out of coffee?” said Jessie choking, but moving + towards the door with Spartan-like calmness. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. And something must be done this very day about the washing,” said + Christie, with suppressed emotion, going towards the opposite entrance. + </p> + <p> + Tears stood in each other's eyes with this terrible exchange of domestic + confidences. Nevertheless, after a moment's pause, they deliberately + turned again, and, facing each other with frightful calmness, left the + room by purposeless and deliberate exits other than those they had + contemplated—a crushing abnegation of self, that, to some extent, + relieved their surcharged feelings. + </p> + <p> + Meantime the material prosperity of Devil's Ford increased, if a + prosperity based upon no visible foundation but the confidences and hopes + of its inhabitants could be called material. Few, if any, stopped to + consider that the improvements, buildings, and business were simply the + outlay of capital brought from elsewhere, and as yet the settlement or + town, as it was now called, had neither produced nor exported capital of + itself equal to half the amount expended. It was true that some land was + cultivated on the further slope, some mills erected and lumber furnished + from the inexhaustible forest; but the consumers were the inhabitants + themselves, who paid for their produce in borrowed capital or unlimited + credit. It was never discovered that while all roads led to Devil's Ford, + Devil's Ford led to nowhere. The difficulties overcome in getting things + into the settlement were never surmounted for getting things out of it. + The lumber was practically valueless for export to other settlements + across the mountain roads, which were equally rich in timber. The theory + so enthusiastically held by the original locators, that Devil's Ford was a + vast sink that had, through ages, exhausted and absorbed the trickling + wealth of the adjacent hills and valleys, was suffering an ironical + corroboration. + </p> + <p> + One morning it was known that work was stopped at the Devil's Ford Ditch—temporarily + only, it was alleged, and many of the old workmen simply had their labor + for the present transferred to excavating the river banks, and the + collection of vast heaps of “pay gravel.” Specimens from these mounds, + taken from different localities, and at different levels, were sent to San + Francisco for more rigid assay and analysis. It was believed that this + would establish the fact of the permanent richness of the drifts, and not + only justify past expenditure, but a renewed outlay of credit and capital. + The suspension of engineering work gave Mr. Carr an opportunity to visit + San Francisco on general business of the mine, which could not, however, + prevent him from arranging further combinations with capital. His two + daughters accompanied him. It offered an admirable opportunity for a + shopping expedition, a change of scene, and a peaceful solution of their + perplexing and anomalous social relations with Devil's Ford. In the first + flush of gratitude to their father for this opportune holiday, something + of harmony had been restored to the family circle that had of late been + shaken by discord. + </p> + <p> + But their sanguine hopes of enjoyment were not entirely fulfilled. Both + Jessie and Christie were obliged to confess to a certain disappointment in + the aspect of the civilization they were now reentering. They at first + attributed it to the change in their own habits during the last three + months, and their having become barbarous and countrified in their + seclusion. Certainly in the matter of dress they were behind the fashions + as revealed in Montgomery Street. But when the brief solace afforded them + by the modiste and dressmaker was past, there seemed little else to be + gained. They missed at first, I fear, the chivalrous and loyal devotion + that had only amused them at Devil's Ford, and were the more inclined, I + think, to distrust the conscious and more civilized gallantry of the + better dressed and more carefully presented men they met. For it must be + admitted that, for obvious reasons, their criticisms were at first + confined to the sex they had been most in contact with. They could not + help noticing that the men were more eager, annoyingly feverish, and + self-asserting in their superior elegance and external show than their old + associates were in their frank, unrestrained habits. It seemed to them + that the five millionaires of Devil's Ford, in their radical simplicity + and thoroughness, were perhaps nearer the type of true gentlemanhood than + these citizens who imitated a civilization they were unable yet to reach. + </p> + <p> + The women simply frightened them, as being, even more than the men, + demonstrative and excessive in their fine looks, their fine dresses, their + extravagant demand for excitement. In less than a week they found + themselves regretting—not the new villa on the slope of Devil's + Ford, which even in its own bizarre fashion was exceeded by the barbarous + ostentation of the villas and private houses around them—but the + double cabin under the trees, which now seemed to them almost aristocratic + in its grave simplicity and abstention. In the mysterious forests of masts + that thronged the city's quays they recalled the straight shafts of the + pines on Devil's slopes, only to miss the sedate repose and infinite calm + that used to environ them. In the feverish, pulsating life of the young + metropolis they often stopped oppressed, giddy, and choking; the roar of + the streets and thoroughfares was meaningless to them, except to revive + strange memories of the deep, unvarying monotone of the evening wind over + their humbler roof on the Sierran hillside. Civic bred and nurtured as + they were, the recurrence of these sensations perplexed and alarmed them. + </p> + <p> + “It seems so perfectly ridiculous,” said Jessie, “for us to feel as out of + place here as that Pike County servant girl in Sacramento who had never + seen a steamboat before; do you know, I quite had a turn the other day at + seeing a man on the Stockton wharf in a red shirt, with a rifle on his + shoulder.” + </p> + <p> + “And you wanted to go and speak to him?” said Christie, with a sad smile. + </p> + <p> + “No, that's just it; I felt awfully hurt and injured that he did not come + up and speak to ME! I wonder if we got any fever or that sort of thing up + there; it makes one quite superstitious.” + </p> + <p> + Christie did not reply; more than once before she had felt that + inexplicable misgiving. It had sometimes seemed to her that she had never + been quite herself since that memorable night when she had slipped out of + their sleeping-cabin, and stood alone in the gracious and commanding + presence of the woods and hills. In the solitude of night, with the hum of + the great city rising below her—at times even in theatres or crowded + assemblies of men and women—she forgot herself, and again stood in + the weird brilliancy of that moonlight night in mute worship at the foot + of that slowly-rising mystic altar of piled terraces, hanging forests, and + lifted plateaus that climbed forever to the lonely skies. Again she felt + before her the expanding and opening arms of the protecting woods. Had + they really closed upon her in some pantheistic embrace that made her a + part of them? Had she been baptized in that moonlight as a child of the + great forest? It was easy to believe in the myths of the poets of an + idyllic life under those trees, where, free from conventional + restrictions, one loved and was loved. If she, with her own worldly + experience, could think of this now, why might not George Kearney have + thought? . . . She stopped, and found herself blushing even in the + darkness. As the thought and blush were the usual sequel of her + reflections, it is to be feared that they may have been at times the + impelling cause. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Carr, however, made up for his daughters' want of sympathy with + metropolitan life. To their astonishment, he not only plunged into the + fashionable gayeties and amusements of the town, but in dress and manner + assumed the role of a leader of society. The invariable answer to their + half-humorous comment was the necessities of the mine, and the policy of + frequenting the company of capitalists, to enlist their support and + confidence. There was something in this so unlike their father, that what + at any other time they would have hailed as a relief to his habitual + abstraction now half alarmed them. Yet he was not dissipated—he did + not drink nor gamble. There certainly did not seem any harm in his + frequenting the society of ladies, with a gallantry that appeared to be + forced and a pleasure that to their critical eyes was certainly + apocryphal. He did not drag his daughters into the mixed society of that + period; he did not press upon them the company of those he most + frequented, and whose accepted position in that little world of fashion + was considered equal to their own. When Jessie strongly objected to the + pronounced manners of a certain widow, whose actual present wealth and + pecuniary influence condoned for a more uncertain prehistoric past, Mr. + Carr did not urge a further acquaintance. “As long as you're not thinking + of marrying again, papa,” Jessie had said finally, “I don't see the + necessity of our knowing her.” “But suppose I were,” had replied Mr. Carr + with affected humor. “Then you certainly wouldn't care for any one like + her,” his daughter had responded triumphantly. Mr. Carr smiled, and + dropped the subject, but it is probable that his daughters' want of + sympathy with his acquaintances did not in the least interfere with his + social prestige. A gentleman in all his relations and under all + circumstances, even his cold scientific abstraction was provocative; rich + men envied his lofty ignorance of the smaller details of money-making, + even while they mistrusted his judgment. A man still well preserved, and + free from weakening vices, he was a dangerous rival to younger and faster + San Francisco, in the eyes of the sex, who knew how to value a repose they + did not themselves possess. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly Mr. Carr announced his intention of proceeding to Sacramento, on + further business of the mine, leaving his two daughters in the family of a + wealthy friend until he should return for them. He opposed their ready + suggestion to return to Devil's Ford with a new and unnecessary + inflexibility: he even met their compromise to accompany him to Sacramento + with equal decision. + </p> + <p> + “You will be only in my way,” he said curtly. “Enjoy yourselves here while + you can.” + </p> + <p> + Thus left to themselves, they tried to accept his advice. Possibly some + slight reaction to their previous disappointment may have already set in; + perhaps they felt any distraction to be a relief to their anxiety about + their father. They went out more; they frequented concerts and parties; + they accepted, with their host and his family, an invitation to one of + those opulent and barbaric entertainments with which a noted San Francisco + millionaire distracted his rare moments of reflection in his gorgeous + palace on the hills. Here they could at least be once more in the country + they loved, albeit of a milder and less heroic type, and a little degraded + by the overlapping tinsel and scattered spangles of the palace. + </p> + <p> + It was a three days' fete; the style and choice of amusements left to the + guests, and an equal and active participation by no means necessary or + indispensable. Consequently, when Christie and Jessie Carr proposed a ride + through the adjacent canyon on the second morning, they had no difficulty + in finding horses in the well-furnished stables of their opulent + entertainers, nor cavaliers among the other guests, who were too happy to + find favor in the eyes of the two pretty girls who were supposed to be + abnormally fastidious and refined. Christie's escort was a good-natured + young banker, shrewd enough to avoid demonstrative attentions, and lucky + enough to interest her during the ride with his clear and half-humorous + reflections on some of the business speculations of the day. If his ideas + were occasionally too clever, and not always consistent with a high sense + of honor, she was none the less interested to know the ethics of that + world of speculation into which her father had plunged, and the more + convinced, with mingled sense of pride and anxiety, that his still + dominant gentlemanhood would prevent his coping with it on equal terms. + Nor could she help contrasting the conversation of the sharp-witted man at + her side with what she still remembered of the vague, touching, boyish + enthusiasm of the millionaires of Devil's Ford. Had her escort guessed the + result of this contrast, he would hardly have been as gratified as he was + with the grave attention of her beautiful eyes. + </p> + <p> + The fascination of a gracious day and the leafy solitude of the canyon led + them to prolong their ride beyond the proposed limit, and it became + necessary towards sunset for them to seek some shorter cut home. + </p> + <p> + “There's a vaquero in yonder field,” said Christie's escort, who was + riding with her a little in advance of the others, “and those fellows know + every trail that a horse can follow. I'll ride on, intercept him, and try + my Spanish on him. If I miss him, as he's galloping on, you might try your + hand on him yourself. He'll understand your eyes, Miss Carr, in any + language.” + </p> + <p> + As he dashed away, to cover his first audacity of compliment, Christie + lifted the eyes thus apostrophized to the opposite field. The vaquero, who + was chasing some cattle, was evidently too preoccupied to heed the shouts + of her companion, and wheeling round suddenly to intercept one of the + deviating fugitives, permitted Christie's escort to dash past him before + that gentleman could rein in his excited steed. This brought the vaquero + directly in her path. Perceiving her, he threw his horse back on its + haunches, to prevent a collision. Christie rode up to him, suddenly + uttered a cry, and halted. For before her, sunburnt in cheek and throat, + darker in the free growth of moustache and curling hair, clad in the + coarse, picturesque finery of his class, undisguised only in his boyish + beauty, sat George Kearney. + </p> + <p> + The blood, that had forsaken her astonished face, rushed as quickly back. + His eyes, which had suddenly sparkled with an electrical glow, sank before + hers. His hand dropped, and his cheek flushed with a dark embarrassment. + </p> + <p> + “You here, Mr. Kearney? How strange!—but how glad I am to meet you + again!” + </p> + <p> + She tried to smile; her voice trembled, and her little hand shook as she + extended it to him. + </p> + <p> + He raised his dark eyes quickly, and impulsively urged his horse to her + side. But, as if suddenly awakening to the reality of the situation, he + glanced at her hurriedly, down at his barbaric finery, and threw a + searching look towards her escort. + </p> + <p> + In an instant Christie saw the infelicity of her position, and its + dangers. The words of Whiskey Dick, “He wouldn't stand that,” flashed + across her mind. There was no time to lose. The banker had already gained + control over his horse, and was approaching them, all unconscious of the + fixed stare with which George was regarding him. Christie hastily seized + the hand which he had allowed to fall at his side, and said quickly:— + </p> + <p> + “Will you ride with me a little way, Mr. Kearney?” + </p> + <p> + He turned the same searching look upon her. She met it clearly and + steadily; he even thought reproachfully. + </p> + <p> + “Do!” she said hurriedly. “I ask it as a favor. I want to speak to you. + Jessie and I are here alone. Father is away. YOU are one of our oldest + friends.” + </p> + <p> + He hesitated. She turned to the astonished young banker, who rode up. + </p> + <p> + “I have just met an old friend. Will you please ride back as quickly as + you can, and tell Jessie that Mr. Kearney is here, and ask her to join + us?” + </p> + <p> + She watched her dazed escort, still speechless from the spectacle of the + fastidious Miss Carr tete-a-tete with a common Mexican vaquero, gallop off + in the direction of the canyon, and then turned to George. + </p> + <p> + “Now take me home, the shortest way, as quick as you can.” + </p> + <p> + “Home?” echoed George. + </p> + <p> + “I mean to Mr. Prince's house. Quick! before they can come up to us.” + </p> + <p> + He mechanically put spurs to his horse; she followed. They presently + struck into a trail that soon diverged again into a disused logging track + through the woods. + </p> + <p> + “This is the short cut to Prince's, by two miles,” he said, as they + entered the woods. + </p> + <p> + As they were still galloping, without exchanging a word, Christie began to + slacken her speed; George did the same. They were safe from intrusion at + the present, even if the others had found the short cut. Christie, bold + and self-reliant a moment ago, suddenly found herself growing weak and + embarrassed. What had she done? + </p> + <p> + She checked her horse suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps we had better wait for them,” she said timidly. + </p> + <p> + George had not raised his eyes to hers. + </p> + <p> + “You said you wanted to hurry home,” he replied gently, passing his hand + along his mustang's velvety neck, “and—and you had something to say + to me.” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly,” she answered, with a faint laugh. “I'm so astonished at + meeting you here. I'm quite bewildered. You are living here; you have + forsaken us to buy a ranche?” she continued, looking at him attentively. + </p> + <p> + His brow colored slightly. + </p> + <p> + “No, I'm living here, but I have bought no ranche. I'm only a hired man on + somebody else's ranche, to look after the cattle.” + </p> + <p> + He saw her beautiful eyes fill with astonishment and—something else. + His brow cleared; he went on, with his old boyish laugh: + </p> + <p> + “No, Miss Carr. The fact is, I'm dead broke. I've lost everything since I + saw you last. But as I know how to ride, and I'm not afraid of work, I + manage to keep along.” + </p> + <p> + “You have lost money in—in the mines?” said Christie suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “No”—he replied quickly, evading her eyes. “My brother has my + interest, you know. I've been foolish on my own account solely. You know + I'm rather inclined to that sort of thing. But as long as my folly don't + affect others, I can stand it.” + </p> + <p> + “But it may affect others—and THEY may not think of it as folly—” + She stopped short, confused by his brightening color and eyes. “I mean—Oh, + Mr. Kearney, I want you to be frank with me. I know nothing of business, + but I know there has been trouble about the mine at Devil's Ford. Tell me + honestly, has my father anything to do with it? If I thought that through + any imprudence of his, you had suffered—if I believed that you could + trace any misfortune of yours to him—to US—I should never + forgive myself”—she stopped and flashed a single look at him—“I + should never forgive YOU for abandoning us.” + </p> + <p> + The look of pain which had at first shown itself in his face, which never + concealed anything, passed, and a quick smile followed her feminine + anticlimax. + </p> + <p> + “Miss Carr,” he said, with boyish eagerness, “if any man suggested to me + that your father wasn't the brightest and best of his kind—too wise + and clever for the fools about him to understand—I'd—I'd shoot + him.” + </p> + <p> + Confused by his ready and gracious disclaimer of what she had NOT intended + to say, there was nothing left for her but to rush upon what she really + intended to say, with what she felt was shameful precipitation. + </p> + <p> + “One word more, Mr. Kearney,” she began, looking down, but feeling the + color come to her face as she spoke. “When you spoke to me the day you + left, you must have thought me hard and cruel. When I tell you that I + thought you were alluding to Jessie and some feeling you had for her—” + </p> + <p> + “For Jessie!” echoed George. + </p> + <p> + “You will understand that—that—” + </p> + <p> + “That what?” said George, drawing nearer to her. + </p> + <p> + “That I was only speaking as she might have spoken had you talked to her + of me,” added Christie hurriedly, slightly backing her horse away from + him. + </p> + <p> + But this was not so easy, as George was the better rider, and by an + imperceptible movement of his wrist and foot had glued his horse to her + side. “He will go now,” she had thought, but he didn't. + </p> + <p> + “We must ride on,” she suggested faintly. + </p> + <p> + “No,” he said with a sudden dropping of his boyish manner and a slight + lifting of his head. “We must ride together no further, Miss Carr. I must + go back to the work I am hired to do, and you must go on with your party, + whom I hear coming. But when we part here you must bid me good-by—not + as Jessie's sister—but as Christie—the one—the only + woman that I love, or that I ever have loved.” + </p> + <p> + He held out his hand. With the recollection of their previous parting, she + tremblingly advanced her own. He took it, but did not raise it to his + lips. And it was she who found herself half confusedly retaining his hand + in hers, until she dropped it with a blush. + </p> + <p> + “Then is this the reason you give for deserting us as you have deserted + Devil's Ford?” she said coldly. + </p> + <p> + He lifted his eyes to her with a strange smile, and said, “Yes,” wheeled + his horse, and disappeared in the forest. + </p> + <p> + He had left her thus abruptly once before, kissed, blushing, and + indignant. He was leaving her now, unkissed, but white and indignant. Yet + she was so self-possessed when the party joined her, that the singular + rencontre and her explanation of the stranger's sudden departure excited + no further comment. Only Jessie managed to whisper in her ear,— + </p> + <p> + “I hope you are satisfied now that it wasn't me he meant?” + </p> + <p> + “Not at all,” said Christie coldly. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII + </h2> + <p> + A few days after the girls had returned to San Francisco, they received a + letter from their father. His business, he wrote, would detain him in + Sacramento some days longer. There was no reason why they should return to + Devil's Ford in the heat of the summer; their host had written to beg him + to allow them a more extended visit, and, if they were enjoying + themselves, he thought it would be well not to disoblige an old friend. He + had heard they had a pleasant visit to Mr. Prince's place, and that a + certain young banker had been very attentive to Christie. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know what all this means, dear?” asked Jessie, who had been + watching her sister with an unusually grave face. + </p> + <p> + Christie whose thoughts had wandered from the letter, replied carelessly,— + </p> + <p> + “I suppose it means that we are to wait here until father sends for us.” + </p> + <p> + “It means a good deal more. It means that papa has had another reverse; it + means that the assay has turned out badly for the mine—that the + further they go from the flat the worse it gets—that all the gold + they will probably ever see at Devil's Ford is what they have already + found or will find on the flat; it means that all Devil's Ford is only a + 'pocket,' and not a 'lead.'” She stopped, with unexpected tears in her + eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Who told you this?” asked Christie breathlessly. + </p> + <p> + “Fairfax—Mr. Munroe,” stammered her sister, “writes to me as if we + already knew it—tells me not to be alarmed, that it isn't so bad—and + all that.” + </p> + <p> + “How long has this happened, Jessie?” said Christie, taking her hand, with + a white but calm face. + </p> + <p> + “Nearly ever since we've been here, I suppose. It must be so, for he says + poor papa is still hopeful of doing something yet.” + </p> + <p> + “And Mr. Munroe writes to you?” said Christie abstractedly. + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” said Jessie quickly. “He feels interested in—us.” + </p> + <p> + “Nobody tells ME anything,” said Christie. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't—” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Christie bitterly. + </p> + <p> + “What on earth DID you talk about? But people don't confide in you because + they're afraid of you. You're so—” + </p> + <p> + “So what?” + </p> + <p> + “So gently patronizing, and so 'I-don't-suppose-you-can-help-it, + poor-thing,' in your general style,” said Jessie, kissing her. “There! I + only wish I was like you. What do you say if we write to father that we'll + go back to Devil's Ford? Mr. Munroe thinks we will be of service there + just now. If the men are dissatisfied, and think we're spending money—” + </p> + <p> + “I'm afraid Mr. Munroe is hardly a disinterested adviser. At least, I + don't think it would look quite decent for you to fly back without your + father, at his suggestion,” said Christie coldly. “He is not the only + partner. We are spending no money. Besides, we have engaged to go to Mr. + Prince's again next week.” + </p> + <p> + “As you like, dear,” said Jessie, turning away to hide a faint smile. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, when they returned from their visit to Mr. Prince's, and one + or two uneventful rides, Christie looked grave. It was only a few days + later that Jessie burst upon her one morning. + </p> + <p> + “You were saying that nobody ever tells you anything. Well, here's your + chance. Whiskey Dick is below.” + </p> + <p> + “Whiskey Dick?” repeated Christie. “What does he want?” + </p> + <p> + “YOU, love. Who else? You know he always scorns me as not being high-toned + and elegant enough for his social confidences. He asked for you only.” + </p> + <p> + With an uneasy sense of some impending revelation, Christie descended to + the drawing-room. As she opened the door, a strong flavor of that toilet + soap and eau de Cologne with which Whiskey Dick was in the habit of + gracefully effacing the traces of dissipation made known his presence. In + spite of a new suit of clothes, whose pristine folds refused to adapt + themselves entirely to the contour of his figure, he was somewhat subdued + by the unexpected elegance of the drawing-room of Christie's host. But a + glance at Christie's sad but gracious face quickly reassured him. Taking + from his hat a three-cornered parcel, he unfolded a handsome saffrona + rose, which he gravely presented to her. Having thus reestablished his + position, he sank elegantly into a tete-a-tete ottoman. Finding the + position inconvenient to face Christie, who had seated herself on a chair, + he transferred himself to the other side of the ottoman, and addressed her + over its back as from a pulpit. + </p> + <p> + “Is this really a fortunate accident, Mr. Hall, or did you try to find + us?” said Christie pleasantly. + </p> + <p> + “Partly promiskuss, and partly coincident, Miss Christie, one up and + t'other down,” said Dick lightly. “Work being slack at present at Devil's + Ford, I reck'ned I'd take a pasear down to 'Frisco, and dip into the + vortex o' fash'nable society and out again.” He lightly waved a new + handkerchief to illustrate his swallow-like intrusion. “This yer minglin' + with the bo-tong is apt to be wearisome, ez you and me knows, unless + combined with experience and judgment. So when them boys up there allows + that there's a little too much fash'nable society and San Francisco + capital and high-falutin' about the future goin' on fer square surface + mining, I sez, 'Look yere, gentlemen,' sez I, 'you don't see the pint. The + pint is to get the pop'lar eye fixed, so to speak, on Devil's Ford. When a + fash'nable star rises above the 'Frisco horizon—like Miss Carr—and, + so to speak, dazzles the gineral eye, people want to know who she is. And + when people say that's the accomplished daughter o' the accomplished + superintendent of the Devil's Ford claim—otherwise known as the + Star-eyed Goddess o' Devil's Ford—every eye is fixed on the mine, + and Capital, so to speak, tumbles to her.' And when they sez that the old + man—excuse my freedom, but that's the way the boys talk of your + father, meaning no harm—the old man, instead o' trying to corral + rich widders—grass or otherwise—to spend their money on the + big works for the gold that ain't there yet—should stay in Devil's + Ford and put all his sabe and genius into grindin' out the little gold + that is there, I sez to them that it ain't your father's style. 'His + style,' sez I, 'ez to go in and build them works.' When they're done he + turns round to Capital, and sez he—'Look yer,' sez he, 'thar's all + the works you want, first quality—cost a million; thar's all the + water you want, onlimited—cost another million; thar's all the pay + gravel you want in and outer the ground—call it two millions more. + Now my time's too vally'ble; my professhun's too high-toned to WORK mines. + I MAKE 'em. Hand me over a check for ten millions and call it square, and + work it for yourself.' So Capital hands over the money and waltzes down to + run the mine, and you original locators walks round with yer hands in yer + pockets a-top of your six million profit, and you let's Capital take the + work and the responsibility.” + </p> + <p> + Preposterous as this seemed from the lips of Whiskey Dick, Christie had a + haunting suspicion that it was not greatly unlike the theories expounded + by the clever young banker who had been her escort. She did not interrupt + his flow of reminiscent criticism; when he paused for breath, she said, + quietly: + </p> + <p> + “I met Mr. George Kearney the other day in the country.” + </p> + <p> + Whiskey Dick stopped awkwardly, glanced hurriedly at Christie, and coughed + behind his handkerchief. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Kearney—eh—er—certengly—yes—er—met + him, you say. Was he—er—er—well?” + </p> + <p> + “In health, yes; but otherwise he has lost everything,” said Christie, + fixing her eyes on the embarrassed Dick. + </p> + <p> + “Yes—er—in course—in course—” continued Dick, + nervously glancing round the apartment as if endeavoring to find an + opening to some less abrupt statement of the fact. + </p> + <p> + “And actually reduced to take some menial employment,” added Christie, + still regarding Dick with her clear glance. + </p> + <p> + “That's it—that's just it,” said Dick, beaming as he suddenly found + his delicate and confidential opportunity. “That's it, Miss Christie; + that's just what I was sayin' to the boys. 'Ez it the square thing,' sez + I, 'jest because George hez happened to hypothecate every dollar he has, + or expects to hev, to put into them works, only to please Mr. Carr, and + just because he don't want to distress that intelligent gentleman by + letting him see he's dead broke—for him to go and demean himself and + Devil's Ford by rushing away and hiring out as a Mexican vaquero on + Mexican wages? Look,' sez I, 'at the disgrace he brings upon a high-toned, + fash'nable girl, at whose side he's walked and danced, and passed rings, + and sentiments, and bokays in the changes o' the cotillion and the + mizzourka. And wot,' sez I, 'if some day, prancing along in a fash'nable + cavalcade, she all of a suddents comes across him drivin' a Mexican + steer?' That's what I said to the boys. And so you met him, Miss Christie, + as usual,” continued Dick, endeavoring under the appearance of a large + social experience to conceal an eager anxiety to know the details—“so + you met him; and, in course, you didn't let on yer knew him, so to speak, + nat'rally, or p'raps you kinder like asked him to fix your saddle-girth, + and give him a five-dollar piece—eh?” + </p> + <p> + Christie, who had risen and gone to the window, suddenly turned a very + pale face and shining eyes on Dick. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Hall,” she said, with a faint attempt at a smile, “we are old + friends, and I feel I can ask you a favor. You once before acted as our + escort—it was for a short but a happy time—will you accept a + larger trust? My father is busy in Sacramento for the mine: will you, + without saying anything to anybody, take Jessie and me back at once to + Devil's Ford?” + </p> + <p> + “Will I? Miss Christie,” said Dick, choking between an intense + gratification and a desire to keep back its vulgar exhibition, “I shall be + proud!” + </p> + <p> + “When I say keep it a secret”—she hesitated—“I don't mean that + I object to your letting Mr. Kearney, if you happen to know where he is, + understand that we are going back to Devil's Ford.” + </p> + <p> + “Cert'nly—nat'rally,” said Dick, waving his hand gracefully; “sorter + drop him a line, saying that bizness of a social and delicate nature—being + the escort of Miss Christie and Jessie Carr to Devil's Ford—prevents + my having the pleasure of calling.” + </p> + <p> + “That will do very well, Mr. Hall,” said Christie, faintly smiling through + her moist eyelashes. “Then will you go at once and secure tickets for + to-night's boat, and bring them here? Jessie and I will arrange everything + else.” + </p> + <p> + “Cert'nly,” said Dick impulsively, and preparing to take a graceful leave. + </p> + <p> + “We'll be impatient until you return with the tickets,” said Christie + graciously. + </p> + <p> + Dick shook hands gravely, got as far as the door, and paused. + </p> + <p> + “You think it better to take the tickets now?” he said dubiously. + </p> + <p> + “By all means,” said Christie impetuously. “I've set my heart on going + to-night—and unless you secure berths early—” + </p> + <p> + “In course—in course,” interrupted Dick nervously. “But—” + </p> + <p> + “But what?” said Christie impatiently. + </p> + <p> + Dick hesitated, shut the door carefully, and, looking round the room, + lightly shook out his handkerchief, apparently flicked away an + embarrassing suggestion, and said, with a little laugh: + </p> + <p> + “It's ridiklous, perfectly ridiklous, Miss Christie; but not bein' in the + habit of carryin' ready money, and havin' omitted to cash a draft on + Wells, Fargo & Co.—” + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” said Christie rapidly. “How forgetful I am! Pray forgive me, + Mr. Hall. I didn't think. I'll run up and get it from our host; he will be + glad to be our banker.” + </p> + <p> + “One moment, Miss Christie,” said Dick lightly, as his thumb and finger + relaxed in his waistcoat pocket over the only piece of money in the world + that had remained to him after his extravagant purchase of Christie's + saffrona rose, “one moment: in this yer monetary transaction, if you like, + you are at liberty to use MY name.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII + </h2> + <p> + As Christie and Jessie Carr looked from the windows of the coach, whose + dust-clogged wheels were slowly dragging them, as if reluctant, nearer the + last stage of their journey to Devil's Ford, they were conscious of a + change in the landscape, which they could not entirely charge upon their + changed feelings. The few bared open spaces on the upland, the long + stretch of rocky ridge near the summit, so vivid and so velvety during + their first journey, were now burnt and yellow; even the brief openings in + the forest were seared as if by a hot iron in the scorching rays of a half + year's sun. The pastoral slopes of the valley below were cloaked in + lustre-leather: the rare watercourses along the road had faded from the + waiting eye and ear; it seemed as if the long and dry summer had even + invaded the close-set ranks of pines, and had blown a simoom breath + through the densest woods, leaving its charred red ashes on every leaf and + spray along the tunnelled shade. As they leaned out of the window and + inhaled the half-dead spices of the evergreens, they seemed to have + entered the atmosphere of some exhausted passion—of some fierce + excitement that was even now slowly burning itself out. + </p> + <p> + It was a relief at last to see the straggling houses of Devil's Ford far + below come once more into view, as they rounded the shoulder of Devil's + Spur and began the long descent. But as they entered the town a change + more ominous and startling than the desiccation of the landscape forced + itself upon them. The town was still there, but where were the + inhabitants? Four months ago they had left the straggling street thronged + with busy citizens—groups at every corner, and a chaos of + merchandise and traders in the open plaza or square beside the + Presbyterian church. Now all was changed. Only a few wayfarers lifted + their heads lazily as the coach rattled by, crossing the deserted square + littered with empty boxes, and gliding past empty cabins or vacant shop + windows, from which not only familiar faces, but even the window sashes + themselves, were gone. The great unfinished serpent-like flume, crossing + the river on gigantic trestles, had advanced as far as the town, stooping + over it like some enormous reptile that had sucked its life blood and was + gorged with its prey. + </p> + <p> + Whiskey Dick, who had left the stage on the summit to avail himself of a + shorter foot trail to the house, that would give him half an hour's grace + to make preparations, met them at the stage office with a buggy. A glance + at the young girls, perhaps, convinced him that the graces of elegant + worldly conversation were out of place with the revelation he read on + their faces. Perhaps, he, too, was a trifle indisposed. The short journey + to the house was made in profound silence. + </p> + <p> + The villa had been repainted and decorated, and it looked fresher, and + even, to their preoccupied minds, appeared more attractive than ever. + Thoughtful hands had taken care of the vines and rose-bushes on the + trellises; water—that precious element in Devil's Ford—had not + been spared in keeping green through the long drought the plants which the + girls had so tenderly nurtured. It was the one oasis in which the summer + still lingered; and yet a singular sense of loss came over the girls as + they once more crossed its threshold. It seemed no longer their own. + </p> + <p> + “Ef I was you, Miss Christie, I'd keep close to the house for a day or + two, until—until—things is settled,” said Dick; “there's a + heap o' tramps and sich cattle trapsin' round. P'raps you wouldn't feel so + lonesome if you was nearer town—for instance, 'bout wher' you useter + live.” + </p> + <p> + “In the dear old cabin,” said Christie quickly; “I remember it; I wish we + were there now.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you really? Do you?” said Whiskey Dick, with suddenly twinkling eyes. + “That's like you to say it. That's what I allus said,” continued Dick, + addressing space generally; “if there's any one ez knows how to come + square down to the bottom rock without flinchin', it's your high-toned, + fash'nable gals. But I must meander back to town, and let the boys know + you're in possession, safe and sound. It's right mean that Fairfax and + Mattingly had to go down to Lagrange on some low business yesterday, but + they'll be back to-morrow. So long.” + </p> + <p> + Left alone, the girls began to realize their strange position. They had + conceived no settled plan. The night they left San Francisco they had + written an earnest letter to their father, telling him that on learning + the truth about the reverses of Devil's Ford, they thought it their duty + to return and share them with others, without obliging him to prefer the + request, and with as little worry to him as possible. He would find them + ready to share his trials, and in what must be the scene of their work + hereafter. + </p> + <p> + “It will bring father back,” said Christie; “he won't leave us here alone; + and then together we must come to some understanding with him—with + THEM—for somehow I feel as if this house belonged to us no longer.” + </p> + <p> + Her surmise was not far wrong. When Mr. Carr arrived hurriedly from + Sacramento the next evening, he found the house deserted. His daughters + were gone; there were indications that they had arrived, and, for some + reason, suddenly departed. The vague fear that had haunted his guilty soul + after receiving their letter, and during his breathless journey, now + seemed to be realized. He was turning from the empty house, whose + reproachful solitude frightened him, when he was confronted on the + threshold by the figure of Fairfax Munroe. + </p> + <p> + “I came to the stage office to meet you,” he said; “you must have left the + stage at the summit.” + </p> + <p> + “I did,” said Carr angrily. “I was anxious to meet my daughters quickly, + to know the reason of their foolish alarm, and to know also who had been + frightening them. Where are they?” + </p> + <p> + “They are safe in the old cabin beyond, that has been put up ready to + receive them again,” said Fairfax quietly. + </p> + <p> + “But what is the meaning of this? Why are they not here?” demanded Carr, + hiding his agitation in a burst of querulous rage. + </p> + <p> + “Do YOU ask, Mr. Carr?” said Fairfax sadly. “Did you expect them to remain + here until the sheriff took possession? No one knows better than yourself + that the money advanced you on the deeds of this homestead has never been + repaid.” + </p> + <p> + Carr staggered, but recovered himself with feeble violence. + </p> + <p> + “Since you know so much of my affairs, how do you know that this claim + will ever be pressed for payment? How do you know it is not the advance of + a—a—friend?” + </p> + <p> + “Because I have seen the woman who advanced it,” said Fairfax hopelessly. + “She was here to look at the property before your daughters came.” + </p> + <p> + “Well?” said Carr nervously. + </p> + <p> + “Well! You force me to tell you something I should like to forget. You + force me to anticipate a disclosure I expected to make to you only when I + came to ask permission to woo your daughter Jessie; and when I tell you + what it is, you will understand that I have no right to criticise your + conduct. I am only explaining my own.” + </p> + <p> + “Go on,” said Carr impatiently. + </p> + <p> + “When I first came to this country, there was a woman I loved + passionately. She treated me as women of her kind only treat men like me; + she ruined me, and left me. That was four years ago. I love your daughter, + Mr. Carr, but she has never heard it from my lips. I would not woo her + until I had told you all. I have tried to do it ere this, and failed. + Perhaps I should not now, but—” + </p> + <p> + “But what?” said Carr furiously; “speak out!” + </p> + <p> + “But this. Look!” said Fairfax, producing from his pocket the packet of + letters Jessie had found; “perhaps you know the handwriting?” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” gasped Carr. + </p> + <p> + “That woman—my mistress—is the woman who advanced you money, + and who claims this house.” + </p> + <p> + The interview, and whatever came of it, remained a secret with the two + men. When Mr. Carr accepted the hospitality of the old cabin again, it was + understood that he had sacrificed the new house and its furniture to some + of the more pressing debts of the mine, and the act went far to restore + his waning popularity. But a more genuine feeling of relief was + experienced by Devil's Ford when it was rumored that Fairfax Munroe had + asked for the hand of Jessie Carr, and that some promise contingent upon + the equitable adjustment of the affairs of the mine had been given by Mr. + Carr. To the superstitious mind of Devil's Ford and its few remaining + locators, this new partnership seemed to promise that unity of interest + and stability of fortune that Devil's Ford had lacked. But nothing could + be done until the rainy season had fairly set in; until the + long-looked-for element that was to magically separate the gold from the + dross in those dull mounds of dust and gravel had come of its own free + will, and in its own appointed channels, independent of the feeble + auxiliaries that had hopelessly riven the rocks on the hillside, or hung + incomplete and unfinished in lofty scaffoldings above the settlement. + </p> + <p> + The rainy season came early. At first in gathered mists on the higher + peaks that were lifted in the morning sun only to show a fresher field of + dazzling white below; in white clouds that at first seemed to be mere + drifts blown across from those fresh snowfields, and obscuring the clear + blue above; in far-off murmurs in the hollow hills and gulches; in nearer + tinkling melody and baby prattling in the leaves. It came with bright + flashes of sunlight by day, with deep, monotonous shadow at night; with + the onset of heavy winds, the roar of turbulent woods, the tumultuous + tossing of leafy arms, and with what seemed the silent dissolution of the + whole landscape in days of steady and uninterrupted downfall. It came + extravagantly, for every canyon had grown into a torrent, every gulch a + waterspout, every watercourse a river, and all pouring into the North + Fork, that, rushing past the settlement, seemed to threaten it with lifted + crest and flying mane. It came dangerously, for one night the river, + leaping the feeble barrier of Devil's Ford, swept away houses and banks, + scattered with unconscious irony the laboriously collected heaps of gravel + left for hydraulic machinery, and spread out a vast and silent lake across + the submerged flat. + </p> + <p> + In the hurry and confusion of that night the girls had thrown open their + cabin to the escaping miners, who hurried along the slope that was now the + bank of the river. Suddenly Christie felt her arm grasped, and she was + half-led, half-dragged, into the inner room. Her father stood before her. + </p> + <p> + “Where is George Kearney?” he asked tremulously. + </p> + <p> + “George Kearney!” echoed Christie, for a moment believing the excitement + had turned her father's brain. “You know he is not here; he is in San + Francisco.” + </p> + <p> + “He is here—I tell you,” said Carr impatiently; “he has been here + ever since the high water, trying to save the flume and reservoir.” + </p> + <p> + “George—here!” Christie could only gasp. + </p> + <p> + “Yes! He passed here a few moments ago, to see if you were all safe, and + he has gone on towards the flume. But what he is trying to do is madness. + If you see him, implore him to do no more. Let him abandon the accursed + flume to its fate. It has worked already too much woe upon us all; why + should it carry his brave and youthful soul down with it?” + </p> + <p> + The words were still ringing in her ears, when he suddenly passed away, + with the hurrying crowd. Scarcely knowing what she did, she ran out, + vaguely intent only on one thought, seeking only the one face, lately so + dear in recollection that she felt she would die if she never saw it + again. Perplexed by confused voices in the woods, she lost track of the + crowd, until the voices suddenly were raised in one loud outcry, followed + by the crashing of timber, the splashing of water, a silence, and then a + dull, continuous roar. She ran vaguely on in the direction of the + reservoir, with her father's injunction still in her mind, until a + terrible idea displaced it, and she turned at right angles suddenly, and + ran towards the slope leading down to the submerged flat. She had barely + left the shelter of the trees behind her before the roar of water seemed + to rise at her very feet. She stopped, dazed, bewildered, and + horror-stricken, on the edge of the slope. It was the slope no longer, but + the bank of the river itself! + </p> + <p> + Even in the gray light of early morning, and with inexperienced eyes, she + saw all too clearly now. The trestle-work had given way; the curving mile + of flume, fallen into the stream, and, crushed and dammed against the + opposite shore, had absolutely turned the whole river through the + half-finished ditch and partly excavated mine in its way, a few rods + further on to join the old familiar channel. The bank of the river was + changed; the flat had become an island, between which and the slope where + she stood the North Fork was rolling its resistless yellow torrent. As she + gazed spellbound, a portion of the slope beneath her suddenly seemed to + sink and crumble, and was swallowed up in the rushing stream. She heard a + cry of warning behind her, but, rooted to the spot by a fearful + fascination, she heeded it not. + </p> + <p> + Again there was a sudden disruption, and another part of the slope sank to + rise no more; but this time she felt herself seized by the waist and + dragged back. It was her father standing by her side. + </p> + <p> + He was flushed and excited, gazing at the water with a strange exultation. + </p> + <p> + “Do you see it? Do you know what has happened?” he asked quickly. + </p> + <p> + “The flume has fallen and turned the river,” said Christie hurriedly. “But—have + you seen him—is he safe?” + </p> + <p> + “He—who?” he answered vacantly. + </p> + <p> + “George Kearney!” + </p> + <p> + “He is safe,” he said impatiently. “But, do you see, Christie? Do you know + what this means?” + </p> + <p> + He pointed with his tremulous hand to the stream before them. + </p> + <p> + “It means we are ruined,” said Christie coldly. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing of the kind! It means that the river is doing the work of the + flume. It is sluicing off the gravel, deepening the ditch, and altering + the slope which was the old bend of the river. It will do in ten minutes + the work that would take us a year. If we can stop it in time, or control + it, we are safe; but if we can not, it will carry away the bed and deposit + with the rest, and we are ruined again.” + </p> + <p> + With a gesture of impotent fury, he dashed away in the direction of an + equally excited crowd, that on a point of the slope nearer the island were + gesticulating and shouting to a second group of men, who on the opposite + shore were clambering on over the choked debris of the flume that had + dammed and diverted the current. It was evident that the same idea had + occurred to them, and they were risking their lives in the attempt to set + free the impediments. Shocked and indignant as Christie had been at the + degrading absorption of material interests at such a moment, the element + of danger lifted the labors of these men into heroism, and she began to + feel a strange exultation as she watched them. Under the skilful blows of + their axes, in a few moments the vast body of drift began to disintegrate, + and then to swing round and move towards the old channel. A cheer went up, + but as suddenly died away again. An overlapping fringe of wreckage had + caught on the point of the island and arrested the whole mass. + </p> + <p> + The men, who had gained the shore with difficulty, looked back with a cry + of despair. But the next moment from among them leaped a figure, alert, + buoyant, invincible, and, axe in hand, once more essayed the passage. + Springing from timber to timber, he at last reached the point of + obstruction. A few strokes of the axe were sufficient to clear it; but at + the first stroke it was apparent that the striker was also losing his hold + upon the shore, and that he must inevitably be carried away with the + tossing debris. But this consideration did not seem to affect him; the + last blow was struck, and as the freed timbers rolled on, over and over, + he boldly plunged into the flood. Christie gave a little cry—her + heart had bounded with him; it seemed as if his plunge had splashed the + water in her eyes. He did not come to the surface until he had passed the + point below where her father stood, and then struggling feebly, as if + stunned or disabled by a blow. It seemed to her that he was trying to + approach the side of the river where she was. Would he do it? Could she + help him? She was alone; he was hidden from the view of the men on the + point, and no succor could come from them. There was a fringe of alder + nearly opposite their cabin that almost overhung the stream. She ran to + it, clutched it with a frantic hand, and, leaning over the boiling water, + uttered for the first time his name: + </p> + <p> + “George!” + </p> + <p> + As if called to the surface by the magic of her voice, he rose a few yards + from her in mid-current, and turned his fading eyes towards the bank. In + another moment he would have been swept beyond her reach, but with a + supreme effort he turned on one side; the current, striking him sideways, + threw him towards the bank, and she caught him by his sleeve. For an + instant it seemed as if she would be dragged down with him. For one + dangerous moment she did not care, and almost yielded to the spell; but as + the rush of water pressed him against the bank, she recovered herself, and + managed to lift him beyond its reach. And then she sat down, + half-fainting, with his white face and damp curls upon her breast. + </p> + <p> + “George, darling, speak to me! Only one word! Tell me, have I saved you?” + </p> + <p> + His eyes opened. A faint twinkle of the old days came to them—a + boyish smile played upon his lips. + </p> + <p> + “For yourself—or Jessie?” + </p> + <p> + She looked around her with a little frightened air. They were alone. There + was but one way of sealing those mischievous lips, and she found it! + </p> + <p> + “That's what I allus said, gentlemen,” lazily remarked Whiskey Dick, a few + weeks later, leaning back against the bar, with his glass in his hand. + “'George,' sez I, 'it ain't what you SAY to a fash'nable, high-toned young + lady; it's what you DOES ez makes or breaks you.' And that's what I sez + gin'rally o' things in the Ford. It ain't what Carr and you boys allows to + do; it's the gin'ral average o' things ez IS done that gives tone to the + hull, and hez brought this yer new luck to you all!” + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Devil's Ford, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVIL'S FORD *** + +***** This file should be named 2286-h.htm or 2286-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/2286/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson; David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/2286.txt b/2286.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af1452b --- /dev/null +++ b/2286.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3208 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Devil's Ford, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Devil's Ford + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 13, 2006 [EBook #2286] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVIL'S FORD *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +DEVIL'S FORD + +by Bret Harte + + + + +DEVIL'S FORD + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +It was a season of unequalled prosperity in Devil's Ford. The half a +dozen cabins scattered along the banks of the North Fork, as if by some +overflow of that capricious river, had become augmented during a week of +fierce excitement by twenty or thirty others, that were huddled together +on the narrow gorge of Devil's Spur, or cast up on its steep sides. So +sudden and violent had been the change of fortune, that the dwellers +in the older cabins had not had time to change with it, but still kept +their old habits, customs, and even their old clothes. The flour pan in +which their daily bread was mixed stood on the rude table side by side +with the "prospecting pans," half full of gold washed up from their +morning's work; the front windows of the newer tenements looked upon +the one single thoroughfare, but the back door opened upon the uncleared +wilderness, still haunted by the misshapen bulk of bear or the nightly +gliding of catamount. + +Neither had success as yet affected their boyish simplicity and the +frankness of old frontier habits; they played with their new-found +riches with the naive delight of children, and rehearsed their glowing +future with the importance and triviality of school-boys. + +"I've bin kalklatin'," said Dick Mattingly, leaning on his long-handled +shovel with lazy gravity, "that when I go to Rome this winter, I'll get +one o' them marble sharps to chisel me a statoo o' some kind to set up +on the spot where we made our big strike. Suthin' to remember it by, you +know." + +"What kind o' statoo--Washington or Webster?" asked one of the Kearney +brothers, without looking up from his work. + +"No--I reckon one o' them fancy groups--one o' them Latin goddesses that +Fairfax is always gassin' about, sorter leadin', directin' and bossin' +us where to dig." + +"You'd make a healthy-lookin' figger in a group," responded Kearney, +critically regarding an enormous patch in Mattingly's trousers. "Why +don't you have a fountain instead?" + +"Where'll you get the water?" demanded the first speaker, in return. +"You know there ain't enough in the North Fork to do a week's washing +for the camp--to say nothin' of its color." + +"Leave that to me," said Kearney, with self-possession. "When I've built +that there reservoir on Devil's Spur, and bring the water over the ridge +from Union Ditch, there'll be enough to spare for that." + +"Better mix it up, I reckon--have suthin' half statoo, half fountain," +interposed the elder Mattingly, better known as "Maryland Joe," "and set +it up afore the Town Hall and Free Library I'm kalklatin' to give. Do +THAT, and you can count on me." + +After some further discussion, it was gravely settled that Kearney +should furnish water brought from the Union Ditch, twenty miles away, +at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, to feed a memorial fountain +erected by Mattingly, worth a hundred thousand dollars, as a crowning +finish to public buildings contributed by Maryland Joe, to the extent +of half a million more. The disposition of these vast sums by gentlemen +wearing patched breeches awakened no sense of the ludicrous, nor did any +doubt, reservation, or contingency enter into the plans of the charming +enthusiasts themselves. The foundation of their airy castles lay already +before them in the strip of rich alluvium on the river bank, where the +North Fork, sharply curving round the base of Devil's Spur, had for +centuries swept the detritus of gulch and canyon. They had barely +crossed the threshold of this treasure-house, to find themselves rich +men; what possibilities of affluence might be theirs when they had fully +exploited their possessions? So confident were they of that ultimate +prospect, that the wealth already thus obtained was religiously expended +in engines and machinery for the boring of wells and the conveyance of +that precious water which the exhausted river had long since ceased to +yield. It seemed as if the gold they had taken out was by some ironical +compensation gradually making its way back to the soil again through +ditch and flume and reservoir. + +Such was the position of affairs at Devil's Ford on the 13th of August, +1860. It was noon of a hot day. Whatever movement there was in the +stifling air was seen rather than felt in a tremulous, quivering, +upward-moving dust along the flank of the mountain, through which the +spires of the pines were faintly visible. There was no water in the +bared and burning bars of the river to reflect the vertical sun, but +under its direct rays one or two tinned roofs and corrugated zinc cabins +struck fire, a few canvas tents became dazzling to the eye, and the +white wooded corral of the stage office and hotel insupportable. For +two hours no one ventured in the glare of the open, or even to cross the +narrow, unshadowed street, whose dull red dust seemed to glow between +the lines of straggling houses. The heated shells of these green +unseasoned tenements gave out a pungent odor of scorching wood and +resin. The usual hurried, feverish toil in the claim was suspended; +the pick and shovel were left sticking in the richest "pay gravel;" +the toiling millionaires themselves, ragged, dirty, and perspiring, lay +panting under the nearest shade, where the pipes went out listlessly, +and conversation sank to monosyllables. + +"There's Fairfax," said Dick Mattingly, at last, with a lazy effort. His +face was turned to the hillside, where a man had just emerged from +the woods, and was halting irresolutely before the glaring expanse of +upheaved gravel and glistening boulders that stretched between him and +the shaded group. "He's going to make a break for it," he added, as the +stranger, throwing his linen coat over his head, suddenly started into +an Indian trot through the pelting sunbeams toward them. This strange +act was perfectly understood by the group, who knew that in that +intensely dry heat the danger of exposure was lessened by active +exercise and the profuse perspiration that followed it. In another +moment the stranger had reached their side, dripping as if rained upon, +mopping his damp curls and handsome bearded face with his linen coat, as +he threw himself pantingly on the ground. + +"I struck out over here first, boys, to give you a little warning," he +said, as soon as he had gained breath. "That engineer will be down here +to take charge as soon as the six o'clock stage comes in. He's an oldish +chap, has got a family of two daughters, and--I--am--d----d if he is not +bringing them down here with him." + +"Oh, go long!" exclaimed the five men in one voice, raising themselves +on their hands and elbows, and glaring at the speaker. + +"Fact, boys! Soon as I found it out I just waltzed into that Jew shop at +the Crossing and bought up all the clothes that would be likely to suit +you fellows, before anybody else got a show. I reckon I cleared out the +shop. The duds are a little mixed in style, but I reckon they're clean +and whole, and a man might face a lady in 'em. I left them round at the +old Buckeye Spring, where they're handy without attracting attention. +You boys can go there for a general wash-up, rig yourselves up without +saying anything, and then meander back careless and easy in your store +clothes, just as the stage is coming in, sabe?" + +"Why didn't you let us know earlier?" asked Mattingly aggrievedly; +"you've been back here at least an hour." + +"I've been getting some place ready for THEM," returned the new-comer. +"We might have managed to put the man somewhere, if he'd been alone, but +these women want family accommodation. There was nothing left for me to +do but to buy up Thompson's saloon." + +"No?" interrupted his audience, half in incredulity, half in +protestation. + +"Fact! You boys will have to take your drinks under canvas again, I +reckon! But I made Thompson let those gold-framed mirrors that used to +stand behind the bar go into the bargain, and they sort of furnish the +room. You know the saloon is one of them patent houses you can take to +pieces, and I've been reckoning you boys will have to pitch in and help +me to take the whole shanty over to the laurel bushes, and put it up +agin Kearney's cabin." + +"What's all that?" said the younger Kearney, with an odd mingling of +astonishment and bashful gratification. + +"Yes, I reckon yours is the cleanest house, because it's the newest, so +you'll just step out and let us knock in one o' the gables, and clap it +on to the saloon, and make ONE house of it, don't you see? There'll be +two rooms, one for the girls and the other for the old man." + +The astonishment and bewilderment of the party had gradually given way +to a boyish and impatient interest. + +"Hadn't we better do the job at once?" suggested Dick Mattingly. + +"Or throw ourselves into those new clothes, so as to be ready," added +the younger Kearney, looking down at his ragged trousers. "I say, +Fairfax, what are the girls like, eh?" + +All the others had been dying to ask the question, yet one and all +laughed at the conscious manner and blushing cheek of the questioner. + +"You'll find out quick enough," returned Fairfax, whose curt +carelessness did not, however, prevent a slight increase of color on his +own cheek. "We'd better get that job off our hands before doing anything +else. So, if you're ready, boys, we'll just waltz down to Thompson's and +pack up the shanty. He's out of it by this time, I reckon. You might +as well be perspiring to some purpose over there as gaspin' under this +tree. We won't go back to work this afternoon, but knock off now, and +call it half a day. Come! Hump yourselves, gentlemen. Are you ready? +One, two, three, and away!" + +In another instant the tree was deserted; the figures of the five +millionaires of Devil's Ford, crossing the fierce glare of the open +space, with boyish alacrity, glistened in the sunlight, and then +disappeared in the nearest fringe of thickets. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Six hours later, when the shadow of Devil's Spur had crossed the river, +and spread a slight coolness over the flat beyond, the Pioneer coach, +leaving the summit, began also to bathe its heated bulk in the long +shadows of the descent. Conspicuous among the dusty passengers, the +two pretty and youthful faces of the daughters of Philip Carr, mining +superintendent and engineer, looked from the windows with no little +anxiety towards their future home in the straggling settlement below, +that occasionally came in view at the turns of the long zigzagging road. +A slight look of comical disappointment passed between them as they +gazed upon the sterile flat, dotted with unsightly excrescences that +stood equally for cabins or mounds of stone and gravel. It was so feeble +and inconsistent a culmination to the beautiful scenery they had passed +through, so hopeless and imbecile a conclusion to the preparation of +that long picturesque journey, with its glimpses of sylvan and pastoral +glades and canyons, that, as the coach swept down the last incline, +and the remorseless monotony of the dead level spread out before them, +furrowed by ditches and indented by pits, under cover of shielding their +cheeks from the impalpable dust that rose beneath the plunging +wheels, they buried their faces in their handkerchiefs, to hide a few +half-hysterical tears. Happily, their father, completely absorbed in a +practical, scientific, and approving contemplation of the topography +and material resources of the scene of his future labors, had no time +to notice their defection. It was not until the stage drew up before +a rambling tenement bearing the inscription, "Hotel and Stage Office," +that he became fully aware of it. + +"We can't stop HERE, papa," said Christie Carr decidedly, with a shake +of her pretty head. "You can't expect that." + +Mr. Carr looked up at the building; it was half grocery, half saloon. +Whatever other accommodations it contained must have been hidden in the +rear, as the flat roof above was almost level with the raftered ceiling +of the shop. + +"Certainly," he replied hurriedly; "we'll see to that in a moment. I +dare say it's all right. I told Fairfax we were coming. Somebody ought +to be here." + +"But they're not," said Jessie Carr indignantly; "and the few that were +here scampered off like rabbits to their burrows as soon as they saw us +get down." + +It was true. The little group of loungers before the building had +suddenly disappeared. There was the flash of a red shirt vanishing in an +adjacent doorway; the fading apparition of a pair of high boots and blue +overalls in another; the abrupt withdrawal of a curly blond head from a +sashless window over the way. Even the saloon was deserted, although +a back door in the dim recess seemed to creak mysteriously. The +stage-coach, with the other passengers, had already rattled away. + +"I certainly think Fairfax understood that I--" began Mr. Carr. + +He was interrupted by the pressure of Christie's fingers on his arm and +a subdued exclamation from Jessie, who was staring down the street. + +"What are they?" she whispered in her sister's ear. "Nigger minstrels, a +circus, or what?" + +The five millionaires of Devil's Ford had just turned the corner of the +straggling street, and were approaching in single file. One glance was +sufficient to show that they had already availed themselves of the new +clothing bought by Fairfax, had washed, and one or two had shaved. But +the result was startling. + +Through some fortunate coincidence in size, Dick Mattingly was the only +one who had achieved an entire new suit. But it was of funereal black +cloth, and although relieved at one extremity by a pair of high riding +boots, in which his too short trousers were tucked, and at the other +by a tall white hat, and cravat of aggressive yellow, the effect was +depressing. In agreeable contrast, his brother, Maryland Joe, was +attired in a thin fawn-colored summer overcoat, lightly worn open, so as +to show the unstarched bosom of a white embroidered shirt, and a pair of +nankeen trousers and pumps. + +The Kearney brothers had divided a suit between them, the elder wearing +a tightly-fitting, single-breasted blue frock-coat and a pair of pink +striped cotton trousers, while the younger candidly displayed the +trousers of his brother's suit, as a harmonious change to a shining +black alpaca coat and crimson neckerchief. Fairfax, who brought up the +rear, had, with characteristic unselfishness, contented himself with a +French workman's blue blouse and a pair of white duck trousers. Had they +shown the least consciousness of their finery, or of its absurdity, they +would have seemed despicable. But only one expression beamed on the five +sunburnt and shining faces--a look of unaffected boyish gratification +and unrestricted welcome. + +They halted before Mr. Carr and his daughters, simultaneously removed +their various and remarkable head coverings, and waited until Fairfax +advanced and severally presented them. Jessie Carr's half-frightened +smile took refuge in the trembling shadows of her dark lashes; Christie +Carr stiffened slightly, and looked straight before her. + +"We reckoned--that is--we intended to meet you and the young ladies at +the grade," said Fairfax, reddening a little as he endeavored to +conceal his too ready slang, "and save you from trapesing--from dragging +yourselves up grade again to your house." + +"Then there IS a house?" said Jessie, with an alarming frank laugh +of relief, that was, however, as frankly reflected in the boyishly +appreciative eyes of the young men. + +"Such as it is," responded Fairfax, with a shade of anxiety, as he +glanced at the fresh and pretty costumes of the young women, and +dubiously regarded the two Saratoga trunks resting hopelessly on the +veranda. "I'm afraid it isn't much, for what you're accustomed to. But," +he added more cheerfully, "it will do for a day or two, and perhaps +you'll give us the pleasure of showing you the way there now." + +The procession was quickly formed. Mr. Carr, alive only to the actual +business that had brought him there, at once took possession of +Fairfax, and began to disclose his plans for the working of the mine, +occasionally halting to look at the work already done in the ditches, +and to examine the field of his future operations. Fairfax, not +displeased at being thus relieved of a lighter attendance on Mr. +Carr's daughters, nevertheless from time to time cast a paternal glance +backwards upon their escorts, who had each seized a handle of the two +trunks, and were carrying them in couples at the young ladies' side. The +occupation did not offer much freedom for easy gallantry, but no sign +of discomfiture or uneasiness was visible in the grateful faces of the +young men. The necessity of changing hands at times with their burdens +brought a corresponding change of cavalier at the lady's side, although +it was observed that the younger Kearney, for the sake of continuing a +conversation with Miss Jessie, kept his grasp of the handle nearest the +young lady until his hand was nearly cut through, and his arm worn out +by exhaustion. + +"The only thing on wheels in the camp is a mule wagon, and the mules are +packin' gravel from the river this afternoon," explained Dick Mattingly +apologetically to Christie, "or we'd have toted--I mean carried--you and +your baggage up to the shant--the--your house. Give us two weeks more, +Miss Carr--only two weeks to wash up our work and realize--and we'll +give you a pair of 2.40 steppers and a skeleton buggy to meet you at the +top of the hill and drive you over to the cabin. Perhaps you'd prefer +a regular carriage; some ladies do. And a nigger driver. But what's the +use of planning anything? Afore that time comes we'll have run you up +a house on the hill, and you shall pick out the spot. It wouldn't take +long--unless you preferred brick. I suppose we could get brick over from +La Grange, if you cared for it, but it would take longer. If you +could put up for a time with something of stained glass and a mahogany +veranda--" + +In spite of her cold indignation, and the fact that she could understand +only a part of Mattingly's speech, Christie comprehended enough to make +her lift her clear eyes to the speaker, as she replied freezingly that +she feared she would not trouble them long with her company. + +"Oh, you'll get over that," responded Mattingly, with an exasperating +confidence that drove her nearly frantic, from the manifest kindliness +of intent that made it impossible for her to resent it. "I felt that way +myself at first. Things will look strange and unsociable for a while, +until you get the hang of them. You'll naturally stamp round and cuss a +little--" He stopped in conscious consternation. + +With ready tact, and before Christie could reply, Maryland Joe had put +down the trunk and changed hands with his brother. + +"You mustn't mind Dick, or he'll go off and kill himself with shame," he +whispered laughingly in her ear. "He means all right, but he's picked +up so much slang here that he's about forgotten how to talk English, and +it's nigh on to four years since he's met a young lady." + +Christie did not reply. Yet the laughter of her sister in advance with +the Kearney brothers seemed to make the reserve with which she tried to +crush further familiarity only ridiculous. + +"Do you know many operas, Miss Carr?" + +She looked at the boyish, interested, sunburnt face so near to her +own, and hesitated. After all, why should she add to her other real +disappointments by taking this absurd creature seriously? + +"In what way?" she returned, with a half smile. + +"To play. On the piano, of course. There isn't one nearer here than +Sacramento; but I reckon we could get a small one by Thursday. You +couldn't do anything on a banjo?" he added doubtfully; "Kearney's got +one." + +"I imagine it would be very difficult to carry a piano over those +mountains," said Christie laughingly, to avoid the collateral of the +banjo. + +"We got a billiard-table over from Stockton," half bashfully interrupted +Dick Mattingly, struggling from his end of the trunk to recover his +composure, "and it had to be brought over in sections on the back of a +mule, so I don't see why--" He stopped short again in confusion, at a +sign from his brother, and then added, "I mean, of course, that a piano +is a heap more delicate, and valuable, and all that sort of thing, but +it's worth trying for." + +"Fairfax was always saying he'd get one for himself, so I reckon it's +possible," said Joe. + +"Does he play?" asked Christie. + +"You bet," said Joe, quite forgetting himself in his enthusiasm. "He can +snatch Mozart and Beethoven bald-headed." + +In the embarrassing silence that followed this speech the fringe of pine +wood nearest the flat was reached. Here there was a rude "clearing," and +beneath an enormous pine stood the two recently joined tenements. There +was no attempt to conceal the point of junction between Kearney's +cabin and the newly-transported saloon from the flat--no architectural +illusion of the palpable collusion of the two buildings, which seemed +to be telescoped into each other. The front room or living room occupied +the whole of Kearney's cabin. It contained, in addition to the necessary +articles for housekeeping, a "bunk" or berth for Mr. Carr, so as to +leave the second building entirely to the occupation of his daughters as +bedroom and boudoir. + +There was a half-humorous, half-apologetic exhibition of the rude +utensils of the living room, and then the young men turned away as the +two girls entered the open door of the second room. Neither Christie nor +Jessie could for a moment understand the delicacy which kept these young +men from accompanying them into the room they had but a few moments +before decorated and arranged with their own hands, and it was not until +they turned to thank their strange entertainers that they found that +they were gone. + +The arrangement of the second room was rude and bizarre, but not without +a singular originality and even tastefulness of conception. What had +been the counter or "bar" of the saloon, gorgeous in white and gold, +now sawn in two and divided, was set up on opposite sides of the room as +separate dressing-tables, decorated with huge bunches of azaleas, that +hid the rough earthenware bowls, and gave each table the appearance of a +vestal altar. + +The huge gilt plate-glass mirror which had hung behind the bar still +occupied one side of the room, but its length was artfully divided by +an enormous rosette of red, white, and blue muslin--one of the surviving +Fourth of July decorations of Thompson's saloon. On either side of the +door two pathetic-looking, convent-like cots, covered with spotless +sheeting, and heaped up in the middle, like a snow-covered grave, had +attracted their attention. They were still staring at them when Mr. Carr +anticipated their curiosity. + +"I ought to tell you that the young men confided to me the fact that +there was neither bed nor mattress to be had on the Ford. They have +filled some flour sacks with clean dry moss from the woods, and put half +a dozen blankets on the top, and they hope you can get along until +the messenger who starts to-night for La Grange can bring some bedding +over." + +Jessie flew with mischievous delight to satisfy herself of the truth +of this marvel. "It's so, Christie," she said laughingly--"three +flour-sacks apiece; but I'm jealous: yours are all marked 'superfine,' +and mine 'middlings.'" + +Mr. Carr had remained uneasily watching Christie's shadowed face. + +"What matters?" she said drily. "The accommodation is all in keeping." + +"It will be better in a day or two," he continued, casting a longing +look towards the door--the first refuge of masculine weakness in an +impending domestic emergency. "I'll go and see what can be done," he +said feebly, with a sidelong impulse towards the opening and freedom. +"I've got to see Fairfax again to-night any way." + +"One moment, father," said Christie, wearily. "Did you know anything of +this place and these--these people--before you came?" + +"Certainly--of course I did," he returned, with the sudden testiness of +disturbed abstraction. "What are you thinking of? I knew the geological +strata and the--the report of Fairfax and his partners before I +consented to take charge of the works. And I can tell you that there is +a fortune here. I intend to make my own terms, and share in it." + +"And not take a salary or some sum of money down?" said Christie, slowly +removing her bonnet in the same resigned way. + +"I am not a hired man, or a workman, Christie," said her father sharply. +"You ought not to oblige me to remind you of that." + +"But the hired men--the superintendent and his workmen--were the only +ones who ever got anything out of your last experience with Colonel +Waters at La Grange, and--and we at least lived among civilized people +there." + +"These young men are not common people, Christie; even if they have +forgotten the restraints of speech and manners, they're gentlemen." + +"Who are willing to live like--like negroes." + +"You can make them what you please." + +Christie raised her eyes. There was a certain cynical ring in her +father's voice that was unlike his usual hesitating abstraction. It both +puzzled and pained her. + +"I mean," he said hastily, "that you have the same opportunity to direct +the lives of these young men into more regular, disciplined channels +that I have to regulate and correct their foolish waste of industry and +material here. It would at least beguile the time for you." + +Fortunately for Mr. Carr's escape and Christie's uneasiness, Jessie, who +had been examining the details of the living-room, broke in upon this +conversation. + +"I'm sure it will be as good as a perpetual picnic. George Kearney says +we can have a cooking-stove under the tree outside at the back, and as +there will be no rain for three months we can do the cooking there, +and that will give us more room for--for the piano when it comes; +and there's an old squaw to do the cleaning and washing-up any +day--and--and--it will be real fun." + +She stopped breathlessly, with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes--a +charming picture of youth and trustfulness. Mr. Carr had seized the +opportunity to escape. + +"Really, now, Christie," said Jessie confidentially, when they were +alone, and Christie had begun to unpack her trunk, and to mechanically +put her things away, "they're not so bad." + +"Who?" asked Christie. + +"Why, the Kearneys, and Mattinglys, and Fairfax, and the lot, provided +you don't look at their clothes. And think of it! they told me--for they +tell one EVERYTHING in the most alarming way--that those clothes were +bought to please US. A scramble of things bought at La Grange, without +reference to size or style. And to hear these creatures talk, why, you'd +think they were Astors or Rothschilds. Think of that little one with +the curls--I don't believe he is over seventeen, for all his baby +moustache--says he's going to build an assembly hall for us to give +a dance in next month; and apologizes the next breath to tell us that +there isn't any milk to be had nearer than La Grange, and we must do +without it, and use syrup in our tea to-morrow." + +"And where is all this wealth?" said Christie, forcing herself to smile +at her sister's animation. + +"Under our very feet, my child, and all along the river. Why, what +we thought was pure and simple mud is what they call 'gold-bearing +cement.'" + +"I suppose that is why they don't brush their boots and trousers, it's +so precious," returned Christie drily. "And have they ever translated +this precious dirt into actual coin?" + +"Bless you, yes. Why, that dirty little gutter, you know, that ran along +the side of the road and followed us down the hill all the way here, +that cost them--let me see--yes, nearly sixty thousand dollars. And +fancy! papa's just condemned it--says it won't do; and they've got to +build another." + +An impatient sigh from Christie drew Jessie's attention to her troubled +eyebrows. + +"Don't worry about our disappointment, dear. It isn't so very great. I +dare say we'll be able to get along here in some way, until papa is rich +again. You know they intend to make him share with them." + +"It strikes me that he is sharing with them already," said Christie, +glancing bitterly round the cabin; "sharing everything--ourselves, our +lives, our tastes." + +"Ye-e-s!" said Jessie, with vaguely hesitating assent. "Yes, even +these:" she showed two dice in the palm of her little hand. "I found 'em +in the drawer of our dressing-table." + +"Throw them away," said Christie impatiently. + +But Jessie's small fingers closed over the dice. "I'll give them to the +little Kearney. I dare say they were the poor boy's playthings." + +The appearance of these relics of wild dissipation, however, had lifted +Christie out of her sublime resignation. "For Heaven's sake, Jessie," +she said, "look around and see if there is anything more!" + +To make sure, they each began to scrimmage; the broken-spirited Christie +exhibiting both alacrity and penetration in searching obscure corners. +In the dining-room, behind the dresser, three or four books were +discovered: an odd volume of Thackeray, another of Dickens, a +memorandum-book or diary. "This seems to be Latin," said Jessie, fishing +out a smaller book. "I can't read it." + +"It's just as well you shouldn't," said Christie shortly, whose ideas +of a general classical impropriety had been gathered from pages of +Lempriere's dictionary. "Put it back directly." + +Jessie returned certain odes of one Horatius Flaccus to the corner, and +uttered an exclamation. "Oh, Christie! here are some letters tied up +with a ribbon." + +They were two or three prettily written letters, exhaling a faint odor +of refinement and of the pressed flowers that peeped from between the +loose leaves. "I see, 'My darling Fairfax.' It's from some woman." + +"I don't think much of her, whosoever she is," said Christie, tossing +the intact packet back into the corner. + +"Nor I," echoed Jessie. + +Nevertheless, by some feminine inconsistency, evidently the circumstance +did make them think more of HIM, for a minute later, when they had +reentered their own room, Christie remarked, "The idea of petting a +man by his family name! Think of mamma ever having called papa 'darling +Carr'!" + +"Oh, but his family name isn't Fairfax," said Jessie hastily; "that's +his FIRST name, his Christian name. I forget what's his other name, but +nobody ever calls him by it." + +"Do you mean," said Christie, with glistening eyes and awful +deliberation--"do you mean to say that we're expected to fall in with +this insufferable familiarity? I suppose they'll be calling US by our +Christian names next." + +"Oh, but they do!" said Jessie, mischievously. + +"What!" + +"They call me Miss Jessie; and Kearney, the little one, asked me if +Christie played." + +"And what did you say?" + +"I said that you did," answered Jessie, with an affectation of cherubic +simplicity. "You do, dear; don't you? . . . There, don't get angry, +darling; I couldn't flare up all of a sudden in the face of that poor +little creature; he looked so absurd--and so--so honest." + +Christie turned away, relapsing into her old resigned manner, and +assuming her household duties in a quiet, temporizing way that was, +however, without hope or expectation. + +Mr. Carr, who had dined with his friends under the excuse of not adding +to the awkwardness of the first day's housekeeping returned late at +night with a mass of papers and drawings, into which he afterwards +withdrew, but not until he had delivered himself of a mysterious package +entrusted to him by the young men for his daughters. It contained a +contribution to their board in the shape of a silver spoon and battered +silver mug, which Jessie chose to facetiously consider as an affecting +reminiscence of the youthful Kearney's christening days--which it +probably was. + +The young girls retired early to their white snow-drifts: Jessie not +without some hilarious struggles with hers, in which she was, however, +quickly surprised by the deep and refreshing sleep of youth; Christie to +lie awake and listen to the night wind, that had changed from the first +cool whispers of sunset to the sturdy breath of the mountain. At times +the frail house shook and trembled. Wandering gusts laden with the +deep resinous odors of the wood found their way through the imperfect +jointure of the two cabins, swept her cheek and even stirred her long, +wide-open lashes. A broken spray of pine needles rustled along the roof, +or a pine cone dropped with a quick reverberating tap-tap that for an +instant startled her. Lying thus, wide awake, she fell into a dreamy +reminiscence of the past, hearing snatches of old melody in the moving +pines, fragments of sentences, old words, and familiar epithets in the +murmuring wind at her ear, and even the faint breath of long-forgotten +kisses on her cheek. She remembered her mother--a pallid creature, who +had slowly faded out of one of her father's vague speculations in a +vaguer speculation of her own, beyond his ken--whose place she had +promised to take at her father's side. The words, "Watch over him, +Christie; he needs a woman's care," again echoed in her ears, as if +borne on the night wind from the lonely grave in the lonelier cemetery +by the distant sea. She had devoted herself to him with some little +sacrifices of self, only remembered now for their uselessness in +saving her father the disappointment that sprang from his sanguine and +one-idea'd temperament. She thought of him lying asleep in the other +room, ready on the morrow to devote those fateful qualities to the new +enterprise that with equally fateful disposition she believed would end +in failure. It did not occur to her that the doubts of her own practical +nature were almost as dangerous and illogical as his enthusiasm, and +that for that reason she was fast losing what little influence she +possessed over him. With the example of her mother's weakness before her +eyes, she had become an unsparing and distrustful critic, with the sole +effect of awakening his distrust and withdrawing his confidence from +her. + +He was beginning to deceive her as he had never deceived her mother. +Even Jessie knew more of this last enterprise than she did herself. + +All that did not tend to decrease her utter restlessness. It was already +past midnight when she noticed that the wind had again abated. The +mountain breeze had by this time possessed the stifling valleys and +heated bars of the river in its strong, cold embraces; the equilibrium +of Nature was restored, and a shadowy mist rose from the hollow. A +stillness, more oppressive and intolerable than the previous commotion, +began to pervade the house and the surrounding woods. She could hear the +regular breathing of the sleepers; she even fancied she could detect the +faint impulses of the more distant life in the settlement. The far-off +barking of a dog, a lost shout, the indistinct murmur of some nearer +watercourse--mere phantoms of sound--made the silence more irritating. +With a sudden resolution she arose, dressed herself quietly and +completely, threw a heavy cloak over her head and shoulders, and opened +the door between the living-room and her own. Her father was sleeping +soundly in his bunk in the corner. She passed noiselessly through the +room, opened the lightly fastened door, and stepped out into the night. + +In the irritation and disgust of her walk hither, she had never noticed +the situation of the cabin, as it nestled on the slope at the fringe of +the woods; in the preoccupation of her disappointment and the mechanical +putting away of her things, she had never looked once from the window of +her room, or glanced backward out of the door that she had entered. The +view before her was a revelation--a reproach, a surprise that took away +her breath. Over her shoulders the newly risen moon poured a flood of +silvery light, stretching from her feet across the shining bars of the +river to the opposite bank, and on up to the very crest of the +Devil's Spur--no longer a huge bulk of crushing shadow, but the steady +exaltation of plateau, spur, and terrace clothed with replete and +unutterable beauty. In this magical light that beauty seemed to be +sustained and carried along by the river winding at its base, lifted +again to the broad shoulder of the mountain, and lost only in the +distant vista of death-like, overcrowning snow. Behind and above where +she stood the towering woods seemed to be waiting with opened ranks +to absorb her with the little cabin she had quitted, dwarfed into +insignificance in the vast prospect; but nowhere was there another sign +or indication of human life and habitation. She looked in vain for +the settlement, for the rugged ditches, the scattered cabins, and the +unsightly heaps of gravel. In the glamour of the moonlight they had +vanished; a veil of silver-gray vapor touched here and there with ebony +shadows masked its site. A black strip beyond was the river bank. All +else was changed. With a sudden sense of awe and loneliness she turned +to the cabin and its sleeping inmates--all that seemed left to her in +the vast and stupendous domination of rock and wood and sky. + +But in another moment the loneliness passed. A new and delicious sense +of an infinite hospitality and friendliness in their silent presence +began to possess her. This same slighted, forgotten, uncomprehended, +but still foolish and forgiving Nature seemed to be bending over her +frightened and listening ear with vague but thrilling murmurings of +freedom and independence. She felt her heart expand with its wholesome +breath, her soul fill with its sustaining truth. + +She felt-- + +What was that? + +An unmistakable outburst of a drunken song at the foot of the slope:-- + + "Oh, my name it is Johnny from Pike, + I'm h-ll on a spree or a strike." . . . + +She stopped as crimson with shame and indignation as if the viewless +singer had risen before her. + + "I knew when to bet, and get up and get--" + +"Hush! D--n it all. Don't you hear?" + +There was the sound of hurried whispers, a "No" and "Yes," and then a +dead silence. + +Christie crept nearer to the edge of the slope in the shadow of a +buckeye. In the clearer view she could distinguish a staggering +figure in the trail below who had evidently been stopped by two other +expostulating shadows that were approaching from the shelter of a tree. + +"Sho!--didn't know!" + +The staggering figure endeavored to straighten itself, and then slouched +away in the direction of the settlement. The two mysterious shadows +retreated again to the tree, and were lost in its deeper shadow. +Christie darted back to the cabin, and softly reentered her room. + +"I thought I heard a noise that woke me, and I missed you," said Jessie, +rubbing her eyes. "Did you see anything?" + +"No," said Christie, beginning to undress. + +"You weren't frightened, dear?" + +"Not in the least," said Christie, with a strange little laugh. "Go to +sleep." + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +The five impulsive millionaires of Devil's Ford fulfilled not a few of +their most extravagant promises. In less than six weeks Mr. Carr and +his daughters were installed in a new house, built near the site of the +double cabin, which was again transferred to the settlement, in order +to give greater seclusion to the fair guests. It was a long, roomy, +one-storied villa, with a not unpicturesque combination of deep veranda +and trellis work, which relieved the flat monotony of the interior and +the barrenness of the freshly-cleared ground. An upright piano, brought +from Sacramento, occupied the corner of the parlor. A suite of gorgeous +furniture, whose pronounced and extravagant glories the young girls +instinctively hid under home-made linen covers, had also been spoils +from afar. Elsewhere the house was filled with ornaments and decorations +that in their incongruity forcibly recalled the gilded plate-glass +mirrors of the bedroom in the old cabin. In the hasty furnishing of +this Aladdin's palace, the slaves of the ring had evidently seized +upon anything that would add to its glory, without reference always to +fitness. + +"I wish it didn't look so cussedly like a robber's cave," said George +Kearney, when they were taking a quiet preliminary survey of the +unclassified treasures, before the Carrs took possession. + +"Or a gambling hell," said his brother reflectively. + +"It's about the same thing, I reckon," said Dick Mattingly, who was +supposed, in his fiery youth, to have encountered the similarity. + +Nevertheless, the two girls managed to bestow the heterogeneous +collection with tasteful adaptation to their needs. A crystal +chandelier, which had once lent a fascinating illusion to the game of +Monte, hung unlighted in the broad hall, where a few other bizarre and +public articles were relegated. A long red sofa or bench, which had done +duty beside a billiard-table found a place here also. Indeed, it is to +be feared that some of the more rustic and bashful youths of Devil's +Ford, who had felt it incumbent upon them to pay their respects to +the new-comers, were more at ease in this vestibule than in the arcana +beyond, whose glories they could see through the open door. To others, +it represented a recognized state of probation before their re-entree +into civilization again. "I reckon, if you don't mind, miss," said the +spokesman of one party, "ez this is our first call, we'll sorter hang +out in the hall yer, until you'r used to us." On another occasion, one +Whiskey Dick, impelled by a sense of duty, paid a visit to the new house +and its fair occupants, in a fashion frankly recounted by him afterwards +at the bar of the Tecumseh Saloon. + +"You see, boys, I dropped in there the other night, when some of you +fellers was doin' the high-toned 'thankee, marm' business in the parlor. +I just came to anchor in the corner of the sofy in the hall, without +lettin' on to say that I was there, and took up a Webster's dictionary +that was on the table and laid it open--keerless like, on my knees, ez +if I was sorter consultin' it--and kinder dozed off there, listenin' to +you fellows gassin' with the young ladies, and that yer Miss Christie +just snakin' music outer that pianner, and I reckon I fell asleep. +Anyhow, I was there nigh on to two hours. It's mighty soothin', them +fashionable calls; sorter knocks the old camp dust outer a fellow, and +sets him up again." + +It would have been well if the new life of the Devil's Ford had shown +no other irregularity than the harmless eccentricities of its original +locaters. But the news of its sudden fortune, magnified by report, began +presently to flood the settlement with another class of adventurers. +A tide of waifs, strays, and malcontents of old camps along the river +began to set towards Devil's Ford, in very much the same fashion as the +debris, drift, and alluvium had been carried down in bygone days and +cast upon its banks. A few immigrant wagons, diverted from the highways +of travel by the fame of the new diggings, halted upon the slopes of +Devil's Spur and on the arid flats of the Ford, and disgorged their +sallow freight of alkali-poisoned, prematurely-aged women and children +and maimed and fever-stricken men. Against this rude form of domesticity +were opposed the chromo-tinted dresses and extravagant complexions of +a few single unattended women--happily seen more often at night behind +gilded bars than in the garish light of day--and an equal number of +pale-faced, dark-moustached, well-dressed, and suspiciously idle men. +A dozen rivals of Thompson's Saloon had sprung up along the narrow +main street. There were two new hotels--one a "Temperance House," whose +ascetic quality was confined only to the abnegation of whiskey--a rival +stage office, and a small one-storied building, from which the "Sierran +Banner" fluttered weekly, for "ten dollars a year, in advance." +Insufferable in the glare of a Sabbath sun, bleak, windy, and flaring in +the gloom of a Sabbath night, and hopelessly depressing on all days of +the week, the First Presbyterian Church lifted its blunt steeple from +the barrenest area of the flats, and was hideous! The civic improvements +so enthusiastically contemplated by the five millionaires in the earlier +pages of this veracious chronicle--the fountain, reservoir, town-hall, +and free library--had not yet been erected. Their sites had been +anticipated by more urgent buildings and mining works, unfortunately +not considered in the sanguine dreams of the enthusiasts, and, more +significant still, their cost and expense had been also anticipated by +the enormous outlay of their earnings in the work upon Devil's Ditch. + +Nevertheless, the liberal fulfilment of their promise in the new house +in the suburbs blinded the young girls' eyes to their shortcomings in +the town. Their own remoteness and elevation above its feverish life +kept them from the knowledge of much that was strange, and perhaps +disturbing to their equanimity. As they did not mix with the immigrant +women--Miss Jessie's good-natured intrusion into one of their +half-nomadic camps one day having been met with rudeness and +suspicion--they gradually fell into the way of trusting the +responsibility of new acquaintances to the hands of their original +hosts, and of consulting them in the matter of local recreation. It thus +occurred that one day the two girls, on their way to the main street for +an hour's shopping at the Villa de Paris and Variety Store, were stopped +by Dick Mattingly a few yards from their house, with the remark that, as +the county election was then in progress, it would be advisable for +them to defer their intention for a few hours. As he did not deem it +necessary to add that two citizens, in the exercise of a freeman's +franchise, had been supplementing their ballots with bullets, in front +of an admiring crowd, they knew nothing of that accident that removed +from Devil's Ford an entertaining stranger, who had only the night +before partaken of their hospitality. + +A week or two later, returning one morning from a stroll in the forest, +Christie and Jessie were waylaid by George Kearney and Fairfax, and, +under pretext of being shown a new and romantic trail, were diverted +from the regular path. This enabled Mattingly and Maryland Joe to cut +down the body of a man hanged by the Vigilance Committee a few hours +before on the regular trail, and to remonstrate with the committee +on the incompatibility of such exhibitions with a maidenly worship of +nature. + +"With the whole county to hang a man in," expostulated Joe, "you might +keep clear of Carr's woods." + +It is needless to add that the young girls never knew of this act of +violence, or the delicacy that kept them in ignorance of it. Mr. Carr +was too absorbed in business to give heed to what he looked upon as +a convulsion of society as natural as a geological upheaval, and too +prudent to provoke the criticism of his daughters by comment in their +presence. + +An equally unexpected confidence, however, took its place. Mr. Carr +having finished his coffee one morning, lingered a moment over his +perfunctory paternal embraces, with the awkwardness of a preoccupied +man endeavoring by the assumption of a lighter interest to veil another +abstraction. + +"And what are we doing to-day, Christie?" he asked, as Jessie left the +dining-room. + +"Oh, pretty much the usual thing--nothing in particular. If George +Kearney gets the horses from the summit, we're going to ride over to +Indian Spring to picnic. Fairfax--Mr. Munroe--I always forget that man's +real name in this dreadfully familiar country--well, he's coming to +escort us, and take me, I suppose--that is, if Kearney takes Jessie." + +"A very nice arrangement," returned her father, with a slight nervous +contraction of the corners of his mouth and eyelids to indicate +mischievousness. "I've no doubt they'll both be here. You know they +usually are--ha! ha! And what about the two Mattinglys and Philip +Kearney, eh?" he continued; "won't they be jealous?" + +"It isn't their turn," said Christie carelessly; "besides, they'll +probably be there." + +"And I suppose they're beginning to be resigned," said Carr, smiling. + +"What on earth are you talking of, father?" + +She turned her clear brown eyes upon him, and was regarding him with +such manifest unconsciousness of the drift of his speech, and, withal, +a little vague impatience of his archness, that Mr. Carr was feebly +alarmed. It had the effect of banishing his assumed playfulness, which +made his serious explanation the more irritating. + +"Well, I rather thought that--that young Kearney was paying considerable +attention to--to--to Jessie," replied her father, with hesitating +gravity. + +"What! that boy?" + +"Young Kearney is one of the original locators, and an equal partner in +the mine. A very enterprising young fellow. In fact, much more advanced +and bolder in his conceptions than the others. I find no difficulty with +him." + +At another time Christie would have questioned the convincing quality +of this proof, but she was too much shocked at her father's first +suggestion, to think of anything else. + +"You don't mean to say, father, that you are talking seriously of these +men--your friends--whom we see every day--and our only company?" + +"No, no!" said Mr. Carr hastily; "you misunderstand. I don't suppose +that Jessie or you--" + +"Or ME! Am I included?" + +"You don't let me speak, Christie. I mean, I am not talking seriously," +continued Mr. Carr, with his most serious aspect, "of you and Jessie +in this matter; but it may be a serious thing to these young men to be +thrown continually in the company of two attractive girls." + +"I understand--you mean that we should not see so much of them," said +Christie, with a frank expression of relief so genuine as to utterly +discompose her father. "Perhaps you are right, though I fail to +discover anything serious in the attentions of young Kearney to +Jessie--or--whoever it may be--to me. But it will be very easy to +remedy it, and see less of them. Indeed, we might begin to-day with some +excuse." + +"Yes--certainly. Of course!" said Mr. Carr, fully convinced of his +utter failure, but, like most weak creatures, consoling himself with the +reflection that he had not shown his hand or committed himself. "Yes; +but it would perhaps be just as well for the present to let things go on +as they were. We'll talk of it again--I'm in a hurry now," and, edging +himself through the door, he slipped away. + +"What do you think is father's last idea?" said Christie, with, I fear, +a slight lack of reverence in her tone, as her sister reentered the +room. "He thinks George Kearney is paying you too much attention." + +"No!" said Jessie, replying to her sister's half-interrogative, +half-amused glance with a frank, unconscious smile. + +"Yes, and he says that Fairfax--I think it's Fairfax--is equally +fascinated with ME." + +Jessie's brow slightly contracted as she looked curiously at her sister. + +"Of all things," she said, "I wonder if any one has put that idea into +his dear old head. He couldn't have thought it himself." + +"I don't know," said Christie musingly; "but perhaps it's just as well +if we kept a little more to ourselves for a while." + +"Did father say so?" said Jessie quickly. + +"No, but that is evidently what he meant." + +"Ye-es," said Jessie slowly, "unless--" + +"Unless what?" said Christie sharply. "Jessie, you don't for a moment +mean to say that you could possibly conceive of anything else?" + +"I mean to say," said Jessie, stealing her arm around her sister's waist +demurely, "that you are perfectly right. We'll keep away from these +fascinating Devil's Forders, and particularly the youngest Kearney. +I believe there has been some ill-natured gossip. I remember that the +other day, when we passed the shanty of that Pike County family on +the slope, there were three women at the door, and one of them said +something that made poor little Kearney turn white and pink alternately, +and dance with suppressed rage. I suppose the old lady--M'Corkle, that's +her name--would like to have a share of our cavaliers for her Euphemy +and Mamie. I dare say it's only right; I would lend them the cherub +occasionally, and you might let them have Mr. Munroe twice a week." + +She laughed, but her eyes sought her sister's with a certain +watchfulness of expression. + +Christie shrugged her shoulders, with a suggestion of disgust. + +"Don't joke. We ought to have thought of all this before." + +"But when we first knew them, in the dear old cabin, there wasn't any +other woman and nobody to gossip, and that's what made it so nice. I +don't think so very much of civilization, do you?" said the young lady +pertly. + +Christie did not reply. Perhaps she was thinking the same thing. It +certainly had been very pleasant to enjoy the spontaneous and chivalrous +homage of these men, with no further suggestion of recompense or +responsibility than the permission to be worshipped; but beyond that she +racked her brain in vain to recall any look or act that proclaimed the +lover. These men, whom she had found so relapsed into barbarism that +they had forgotten the most ordinary forms of civilization; these +men, even in whose extravagant admiration there was a certain loss of +self-respect, that as a woman she would never forgive; these men, who +seemed to belong to another race--impossible! Yet it was so. + +"What construction must they have put upon her father's acceptance of +their presents--of their company--of her freedom in their presence? No! +they must have understood from the beginning that she and her sister +had never looked upon them except as transient hosts and chance +acquaintances. Any other idea was preposterous. And yet--" + +It was the recurrence of this "yet" that alarmed her. For she remembered +now that but for their slavish devotion they might claim to be her +equal. According to her father's account, they had come from homes as +good as their own; they were certainly more than her equal in fortune; +and her father had come to them as an employee, until they had taken him +into partnership. If there had only been sentiment of any kind +connected with any of them! But they were all alike, brave, unselfish, +humorous--and often ridiculous. If anything, Dick Mattingly was funniest +by nature, and made her laugh more. Maryland Joe, his brother, told +better stories (sometimes of Dick), though not so good a mimic as the +other Kearney, who had a fairly sympathetic voice in singing. They were +all good-looking enough; perhaps they set store on that--men are so +vain. + +And as for her own rejected suitor, Fairfax Munroe, except for a kind of +grave and proper motherliness about his protecting manner, he absolutely +was the most indistinctive of them all. He had once brought her some +rare tea from the Chinese camp, and had taught her how to make it; he +had cautioned her against sitting under the trees at nightfall; he had +once taken off his coat to wrap around her. Really, if this were the +only evidence of devotion that could be shown, she was safe! + +"Well," said Jessie, "it amuses you, I see." + +Christie checked the smile that had been dimpling the cheek nearest +Jessie, and turned upon her the face of an elder sister. + +"Tell me, have YOU noticed this extraordinary attention of Mr. Munroe to +me?" + +"Candidly?" asked Jessie, seating herself comfortably on the table +sideways, and endeavoring, to pull her skirt over her little feet. +"Honest Injun?" + +"Don't be idiotic, and, above all, don't be slangy! Of course, +candidly." + +"Well, no. I can't say that I have." + +"Then," said Christie, "why in the name of all that's preposterous, do +they persist in pairing me off with the least interesting man of the +lot?" + +Jessie leaped from the table. + +"Come now," she said, with a little nervous laugh, "he's not so bad as +all that. You don't know him. But what does it matter now, as long as +we're not going to see them any more?" + +"They're coming here for the ride to-day," said Christie resignedly. +"Father thought it better not to break it off at once." + +"Father thought so!" echoed Jessie, stopping with her hand on the door. + +"Yes; why do you ask?" + +But Jessie had already left the room, and was singing in the hall. + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The afternoon did not, however, bring their expected visitors. It +brought, instead, a brief note by the hands of Whiskey Dick from +Fairfax, apologizing for some business that kept him and George Kearney +from accompanying the ladies. It added that the horses were at the +disposal of themselves and any escort they might select, if they would +kindly give the message to Whiskey Dick. + +The two girls looked at each other awkwardly; Jessie did not attempt to +conceal a slight pout. + +"It looks as if they were anticipating us," she said, with a half-forced +smile. "I wonder, now, if there really has been any gossip? But no! They +wouldn't have stopped for that, unless--" She looked curiously at her +sister. + +"Unless what?" repeated Christie; "you are horribly mysterious this +morning." + +"Am I? It's nothing. But they're wanting an answer. Of course you'll +decline." + +"And intimate we only care for their company! No! We'll say we're sorry +they can't come, and--accept their horses. We can do without an escort, +we two." + +"Capital!" said Jessie, clapping her hands. "We'll show them--" + +"We'll show them nothing," interrupted Christie decidedly. "In our place +there's only the one thing to do. Where is this--Whiskey Dick?" + +"In the parlor." + +"The parlor!" echoed Christie. "Whiskey Dick? What--is he--" + +"Yes; he's all right," said Jessie confidently. "He's been here before, +but he stayed in the hall; he was so shy. I don't think you saw him." + +"I should think not--Whiskey Dick!" + +"Oh, you can call him Mr. Hall, if you like," said Jessie, laughing. +"His real name is Dick Hall. If you want to be funny, you can say Alky +Hall, as the others do." + +Christie's only reply to this levity was a look of superior resignation +as she crossed the hall and entered the parlor. + +Then ensued one of those surprising, mystifying, and utterly +inexplicable changes that leave the masculine being so helpless in the +hands of his feminine master. Before Christie opened the door her face +underwent a rapid transformation: the gentle glow of a refined woman's +welcome suddenly beamed in her interested eyes; the impulsive courtesy +of an expectant hostess eagerly seizing a long-looked-for opportunity +broke in a smile upon her lips as she swept across the room, and stopped +with her two white outstretched hands before Whiskey Dick. + +It needed only the extravagant contrast presented by that gentleman to +complete the tableau. Attired in a suit of shining black alpaca, the +visitor had evidently prepared himself with some care for a possible +interview. He was seated by the French window opening upon the veranda, +as if to secure a retreat in case of an emergency. Scrupulously washed +and shaven, some of the soap appeared to have lingered in his eyes and +inflamed the lids, even while it lent a sleek and shining lustre, not +unlike his coat, to his smooth black hair. Nevertheless, leaning back +in his chair, he had allowed a large white handkerchief to depend +gracefully from his fingers--a pose at once suggesting easy and elegant +langour. + +"How kind of you to give me an opportunity to make up for my misfortune +when you last called! I was so sorry to have missed you. But it was +entirely my fault! You were hurried, I think--you conversed with others +in the hall--you--" + +She stopped to assist him to pick up the handkerchief that had fallen, +and the Panama hat that had rolled from his lap towards the window +when he had started suddenly to his feet at the apparition of grace and +beauty. As he still nervously retained the two hands he had grasped, +this would have been a difficult feat, even had he not endeavored at the +same moment, by a backward furtive kick, to propel the hat out of the +window, at which she laughingly broke from his grasp and flew to the +rescue. + +"Don't mind it, miss," he said hurriedly. "It is not worth your +demeaning yourself to touch it. Leave it outside thar, miss. I wouldn't +have toted it in, anyhow, if some of those high-falutin' fellows hadn't +allowed, the other night, ez it were the reg'lar thing to do; as if, +miss, any gentleman kalkilated to ever put on his hat in the house afore +a lady!" + +But Christie had already possessed herself of the unlucky object, and +had placed it upon the table. This compelled Whiskey Dick to rise again, +and as an act of careless good breeding to drop his handkerchief in it. +He then leaned one elbow upon the piano, and, crossing one foot over the +other, remained standing in an attitude he remembered to have seen +in the pages of an illustrated paper as portraying the hero in some +drawing-room scene. It was easy and effective, but seemed to be more +favorable to revery than conversation. Indeed, he remembered that he had +forgotten to consult the letterpress as to which it represented. + +"I see you agree with me, that politeness is quite a matter of +intention," said Christie, "and not of mere fashion and rules. Now, for +instance," she continued, with a dazzling smile, "I suppose, according +to the rules, I ought to give you a note to Mr. Munroe, accepting his +offer. That is all that is required; but it seems so much nicer, don't +you think, to tell it to YOU for HIM, and have the pleasure of your +company and a little chat at the same time." + +"That's it, that's just it, Miss Carr; you've hit it in the centre this +time," said Whiskey Dick, now quite convinced that his attitude was not +intended for eloquence, and shifting back to his own seat, hat and all; +"that's tantamount to what I said to the boys just now. 'You want an +excuse,' sez I, 'for not goin' out with the young ladies. So, accorden' +to rules, you writes a letter allowin' buzziness and that sorter thing +detains you. But wot's the facts? You're a gentleman, and as gentlemen +you and George comes to the opinion that you're rather playin' it for +all it's worth in this yer house, you know--comin' here night and day, +off and on, reg'lar sociable and fam'ly like, and makin' people talk +about things they ain't any call to talk about, and, what's a darned +sight more, YOU FELLOWS ain't got any right YET to allow 'em to talk +about, d'ye see?" he paused, out of breath. + +It was Miss Christie's turn to move about. In changing her seat to the +piano-stool, so as to be nearer her visitor, she brushed down some loose +music, which Whiskey Dick hastened to pick up. + +"Pray don't mind it," she said, "pray don't, really--let it be--" +But Whiskey Dick, feeling himself on safe ground in this attention, +persisted to the bitter end of a disintegrated and well-worn +"Travatore." "So that is what Mr. Munroe said," she remarked quietly. + +"Not just then, in course, but it's what's bin on his mind and in his +talk for days off and on," returned Dick, with a knowing smile and a nod +of mysterious confidence. "Bless your soul, Miss Carr, folks like you +and me don't need to have them things explained. That's what I said to +him, sez I. 'Don't send no note, but just go up there and hev it out +fair and square, and say what you do mean.' But they would hev the note, +and I kalkilated to bring it. But when I set my eyes on you, and heard +you express yourself as you did just now, I sez to myself, sez I, 'Dick, +yer's a young lady, and a fash'nable lady at that, ez don't go foolin' +round on rules and etiketts'--excuse my freedom, Miss Carr--'and you and +her, sez I, 'kin just discuss this yer matter in a sociable, off-hand, +fash'nable way.' They're a good lot o' boys, Miss Carr, a square +lot--white men all of 'em; but they're a little soft and green, may be, +from livin' in these yer pine woods along o' the other sap. They just +worship the ground you and your sister tread on--certain! of course! +of course!" he added hurriedly, recognizing Christie's half-conscious, +deprecating gesture with more exaggerated deprecation. "I understand. +But what I wanter say is that they'd be willin' to be that ground, +and lie down and let you walk over them--so to speak, Miss Carr, so to +speak--if it would keep the hem of your gown from gettin' soiled in the +mud o' the camp. But it wouldn't do for them to make a reg'lar curderoy +road o' themselves for the houl camp to trapse over, on the mere chance +of your some time passin' that way, would it now?" + +"Won't you let me offer you some refreshment, Mr. Hall?" said Christie, +rising, with a slight color. "I'm really ashamed of my forgetfulness +again, but I'm afraid it's partly YOUR fault for entertaining me to the +exclusion of yourself. No, thank you, let me fetch it for you." + +She turned to a handsome sideboard near the door, and presently faced +him again with a decanter of whiskey and a glass in her hand, and a +return of the bewitching smile she had worn on entering. + +"But perhaps you don't take whiskey?" suggested the arch deceiver, with +a sudden affected but pretty perplexity of eye, brow, and lips. + +For the first time in his life Whiskey Dick hesitated between two forms +of intoxication. But he was still nervous and uneasy; habit triumphed, +and he took the whiskey. He, however, wiped his lips with a slight wave +of his handkerchief, to support a certain easy elegance which he firmly +believed relieved the act of any vulgar quality. + +"Yes, ma'am," he continued, after an exhilarated pause. "Ez I said +afore, this yer's a matter you and me can discuss after the fashion o' +society. My idea is that these yer boys should kinder let up on you and +Miss Jessie for a while, and do a little more permiskus attention round +the Ford. There's one or two families yer with grown-up gals ez oughter +be squared; that is--the boys mighter put in a few fancy touches among +them--kinder take 'em buggy riding--or to church--once in a while--just +to take the pizen outer their tongues, and make a kind o' bluff to the +parents, d'ye see? That would sorter divert their own minds; and even if +it didn't, it would kinder get 'em accustomed agin to the old style and +their own kind. I want to warn ye agin an idea that might occur to you +in a giniral way. I don't say you hev the idea, but it's kind o' nat'ral +you might be thinkin' of it some time, and I thought I'd warn you agin +it." + +"I think we understand each other too well to differ much, Mr. Hall," +said Christie, still smiling; "but what is the idea?" + +The delicate compliment to their confidential relations and the slight +stimulus of liquor had tremulously exalted Whiskey Dick. Affecting to +look cautiously out of the window and around the room, he ventured +to draw nearer the young woman with a half-paternal, half-timid +familiarity. + +"It might have occurred to you," he said, laying his handkerchief as if +to veil mere vulgar contact, on Christie's shoulder, "that it would be a +good thing on YOUR side to invite down some of your high-toned gentlemen +friends from 'Frisco to visit you and escort you round. It seems quite +nat'ral like, and I don't say it ain't, but--the boys wouldn't stand for +it." + +In spite of her self-possession, Christie's eyes suddenly darkened, +and she involuntarily drew herself up. But Whiskey Dick, guiltily +attributing the movement to his own indiscreet gesture, said, "Excuse +me, miss," recovered himself by lightly dusting her shoulder with his +handkerchief, as if to remove the impression, and her smile returned. + +"They wouldn't stand for it," said Dick, "and there'd be some shooting! +Not afore you, miss--not afore you, in course! But they'd adjourn to the +woods some morning with them city folks, and hev it out with rifles at +a hundred yards. Or, seein' ez they're city folks, the boys would do the +square thing with pistols at twelve paces. They're good boys, as I +said afore; but they're quick and tetchy--George, being the youngest, +nat'rally is the tetchiest. You know how it is, Miss Carr; his pretty, +gal-like face and little moustaches haz cost him half a dozen scrimmages +already. He'z had a fight for every hair that's growed in his moustache +since he kem here." + +"Say no more, Mr. Hall!" said Christie, rising and pressing her hands +lightly on Dick's tremulous fingers. "If I ever had any such idea, I +should abandon it now; you are quite right in this as in your other +opinions. I shall never cease to be thankful to Mr. Munroe and Mr. +Kearney that they intrusted this delicate matter to your hands." + +"Well," said the gratified and reddening visitor, "it ain't perhaps +the square thing to them or myself to say that they reckoned to have me +discuss their delicate affairs for them, but--" + +"I understand," interrupted Christie. "They simply gave you the letter +as a friend. It was my good fortune to find you a sympathizing and +liberal man of the world." The delighted Dick, with conscious vanity +beaming from every feature of his shining face, lightly waved the +compliment aside with his handkerchief, as she continued, "But I am +forgetting the message. We accept the horses. Of course we COULD do +without an escort; but forgive my speaking so frankly, are YOU engaged +this afternoon?" + +"Excuse me, miss, I don't take--" stammered Dick, scarcely believing his +ears. + +"Could you give us your company as an escort?" repeated Christie with a +smile. + +Was he awake or dreaming, or was this some trick of liquor in his +often distorted fancy? He, Whiskey Dick! the butt of his friends, the +chartered oracle of the barrooms, even in whose wretched vanity there +was always the haunting suspicion that he was despised and scorned; he, +who had dared so much in speech, and achieved so little in fact! he, +whose habitual weakness had even led him into the wildest indiscretion +here; he--now offered a reward for that indiscretion! He, Whiskey Dick, +the solicited escort of these two beautiful and peerless girls! What +would they say at the Ford? What would his friends think? It would be +all over the Ford the next day. His past would be vindicated, his future +secured. He grew erect at the thought. It was almost in other voice, +and with no trace of his previous exaggeration, that he said, "With +pleasure." + +"Then, if you will bring the horses at once, we shall be ready when you +return." + +In another instant he had vanished, as if afraid to trust the reality of +his good fortune to the dangers of delay. At the end of half an hour +he reappeared, leading the two horses, himself mounted on a half-broken +mustang. A pair of large, jingling silver spurs and a stiff sombrero, +borrowed with the mustang from some mysterious source, were donned to do +honor to the occasion. + +The young girls were not yet ready, but he was shown by the Chinese +servant into the parlor to wait for them. The decanter of whiskey and +glasses were still invitingly there. He was hot, trembling, and flushed +with triumph. He walked to the table and laid his hand on the decanter, +when an odd thought flashed upon him. He would not drink this time. +No, it should not be said that he, the selected escort of the elite of +Devil's Ford, had to fill himself up with whiskey before they started. +The boys might turn to each other in their astonishment, as he proudly +passed with his fair companions, and say, "It's Whiskey Dick," but he'd +be d----d if they should add, "and full as ever." No, sir! Nor when +he was riding beside these real ladies, and leaning over them at some +confidential moment, should they even know it from his breath! No. . . . +Yet a thimbleful, taken straight, only a thimbleful, wouldn't be much, +and might help to pull him together. He again reached his trembling +hand for the decanter, hesitated, and then, turning his back upon it, +resolutely walked to the open window. Almost at the same instant he +found himself face to face with Christie on the veranda. + +She looked into his bloodshot eyes, and cast a swift glance at the +decanter. + +"Won't you take something before you go?" she said sweetly. + +"I--reckon--not, jest now," stammered Whiskey Dick, with a heroic +effort. + +"You're right," said Christie. "I see you are like me. It's too hot for +anything fiery. Come with me." + +She led him into the dining-room, and pouring out a glass of iced +tea handed it to him. Poor Dick was not prepared for this terrible +culmination. Whiskey Dick and iced tea! But under pretence of seeing if +it was properly flavored, Christie raised it to her own lips. + +"Try it, to please me." + +He drained the goblet. + +"Now, then," said Christie gayly, "let's find Jessie, and be off!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +Whatever might have been his other deficiencies as an escort, Whiskey +Dick was a good horseman, and, in spite of his fractious brute, +exhibited such skill and confidence as to at once satisfy the young +girls of his value to them in the management of their own horses, +to whom side-saddles were still an alarming novelty. Jessie, who +had probably already learned from her sister the purport of Dick's +confidences, had received him with equal cordiality and perhaps a more +unqualified amusement; and now, when fairly lifted into the saddle by +his tremulous but respectful hands, made a very charming picture of +youthful and rosy satisfaction. And when Christie, more fascinating than +ever in her riding-habit, took her place on the other side of Dick, as +they sallied from the gate, that gentleman felt his cup of happiness +complete. His triumphal entree into the world of civilization and +fashion was secure. He did not regret the untasted liquor; here was +an experience in after years to lean his back against comfortably in +bar-rooms, to entrance or defy mankind. He had even got so far as +to formulate in fancy the sentence: "I remember, gentlemen, that one +afternoon, being on a pasear with two fash'nable young ladies," etc., +etc. + +At present, however, he was obliged to confine himself to the functions +of an elegant guide and cicerone--when not engaged in "having it out" +with his horse. Their way lay along the slope, crossing the high-road at +right angles, to reach the deeper woods beyond. Dick would have lingered +on the highway--ostensibly to point out to his companions the new flume +that had taken the place of the condemned ditch, but really in the hope +of exposing himself in his glory to the curious eyes of the wayfaring +world. + +Unhappily the road was deserted in the still powerful sunlight, and he +was obliged to seek the cover of the woods, with a passing compliment to +the parent of his charges. Waving his hands towards the flume, he +said, "Look at that work of your father's; there ain't no other man in +Californy but Philip Carr ez would hev the grit to hold up such a bluff +agin natur and agin luck ez that yer flume stands for. I don't say it +'cause you're his daughters, ladies! That ain't the style, ez YOU know, +in sassiety, Miss Carr," he added, turning to Christie as the more +socially experienced. "No! but there ain't another man to be found +ez could do it. It cost already two hundred thousand; it'll cost five +hundred thousand afore it's done; and every cent of it is got out of the +yearth beneath it, or HEZ got to be out of it. 'Tain't ev'ry man, Miss +Carr, ez hev got the pluck to pledge not only what he's got, but what he +reckons to git." + +"But suppose he don't get it?" said Christie, slightly contracting her +brows. + +"Then there's the flume to show for it," said Dick. + +"But of what use is the flume, if there isn't any more gold?" continued +Christie, almost angrily. + +"That's good from YOU, miss," said Dick, giving way to a fit of +hilarity. "That's good for a fash'nable young lady--own daughter of +Philip Carr. She sez, says she," continued Dick, appealing to the sedate +pines for appreciation of Christie's rare humor, "'Wot's the use of a +flume, when gold ain't there?' I must tell that to the boys." + +"And what's the use of the gold in the ground when the flume isn't there +to work it out?" said Jessie to her sister, with a cautioning glance +towards Dick. + +But Dick did not notice the look that passed between the sisters. The +richer humor of Jessie's retort had thrown him into convulsions of +laughter. + +"And now SHE says, wot's the use o' the gold without the flume? 'Xcuse +me, ladies, but that's just puttin' the hull question that's agitatin' +this yer camp inter two speeches as clear as crystal. There's the +hull crowd outside--and some on 'em inside, like Fairfax, hez their +doubts--ez says with Miss Christie; and there's all of us inside, ez +holds Miss Jessie's views." + +"I never heard Mr. Munroe say that the flume was wrong," said Jessie +quickly. + +"Not to you, nat'rally," said Dick, with a confidential look at +Christie; "but I reckon he'd like some of the money it cost laid out for +suthin' else. But what's the odds? The gold is there, and WE'RE bound to +get it." + +Dick was the foreman of a gang of paid workmen, who had replaced the +millionaires in mere manual labor, and the WE was a polite figure of +speech. + +The conversation seemed to have taken an unfortunate turn, and both the +girls experienced a feeling of relief when they entered the long gulch +or defile that led to Indian Spring. The track now becoming narrow, they +were obliged to pass in single file along the precipitous hillside, +led by this escort. This effectually precluded any further speech, +and Christie at once surrendered herself to the calm, obliterating +influences of the forest. The settlement and its gossip were far behind +and forgotten. In the absorption of nature, her companions passed out of +her mind, even as they sometimes passed out of her sight in the windings +of the shadowy trail. As she rode alone, the fronds of breast-high +ferns seemed to caress her with outstretched and gently-detaining hands; +strange wildflowers sprang up through the parting underbrush; even the +granite rocks that at times pressed closely upon the trail appeared as +if cushioned to her contact with star-rayed mosses, or lightly flung +after her long lassoes of delicate vines. She recalled the absolute +freedom of their al-fresco life in the old double cabin, when she +spent the greater part of her waking hours under the mute trees in +the encompassing solitude, and, half regretting the more civilized +restraints of this newer and more ambitious abode, forgot that she had +ever rebelled against it. The social complication that threatened her +now seemed to her rather the outcome of her half-civilized parlor than +of the sylvan glade. How easy it would have been to have kept the cabin, +and then to have gone away entirely, than for her father to have allowed +them to be compromised with the growing fortunes of the settlement! +The suspicions and distrust that she had always felt of their fortunes +seemed to grow with the involuntary admission of Whiskey Dick that +they were shared by others who were practical men. She was fain to have +recourse to the prospect again to banish these thoughts, and this opened +her eyes to the fact that her companions had been missing from the trail +ahead of her for some time. She quickened her pace slightly to reach +a projecting point of rock that gave her a more extended prospect. But +they had evidently disappeared. + +She was neither alarmed nor annoyed. She could easily overtake them +soon, for they would miss her, and return or wait for her at the spring. +At the worst she would have no difficulty in retracing her steps home. +In her present mood, she could readily spare their company; indeed she +was not sorry that no other being should interrupt that sympathy with +the free woods which was beginning to possess her. + +She was destined, however, to be disappointed. She had not proceeded a +hundred yards before she noticed the moving figure of a man beyond her +in the hillside chaparral above the trail. He seemed to be going in the +same direction as herself, and, as she fancied, endeavoring to avoid +her. This excited her curiosity to the point of urging her horse forward +until the trail broadened into the level forest again, which she now +remembered was a part of the environs of Indian Spring. The stranger +hesitated, pausing once or twice with his back towards her, as if +engaged in carefully examining the dwarf willows to select a switch. +Christie slightly checked her speed as she drew nearer; when, as if +obedient to a sudden resolution, he turned and advanced towards her. She +was relieved and yet surprised to recognize the boyish face and figure +of George Kearney. He was quite pale and agitated, although attempting, +by a jaunty swinging of the switch he had just cut, to assume the +appearance of ease and confidence. + +Here was an opportunity. Christie resolved to profit by it. She did not +doubt that the young fellow had already passed her sister on the trail, +but, from bashfulness, had not dared to approach her. By inviting his +confidence, she would doubtless draw something from him that would deny +or corroborate her father's opinion of his sentiments. If he was really +in love with Jessie, she would learn what reasons he had for expecting +a serious culmination of his suit, and perhaps she might be able +delicately to open his eyes to the truth. If, as she believed, it was +only a boyish fancy, she would laugh him out of it with that camaraderie +which had always existed between them. A half motherly sympathy, albeit +born quite as much from a contemplation of his beautiful yearning eyes +as from his interesting position, lightened the smile with which she +greeted him. + +"So you contrived to throw over your stupid business and join us, +after all," she said; "or was it that you changed your mind at the +last moment?" she added mischievously. "I thought only we women were +permitted that!" Indeed, she could not help noticing that there was +really a strong feminine suggestion in the shifting color and slightly +conscious eyelids of the young fellow. + +"Do young girls always change their minds?" asked George, with an +embarrassed smile. + +"Not, always; but sometimes they don't know their own mind--particularly +if they are very young; and when they do at last, you clever creatures +of men, who have interpreted their ignorance to please yourselves, abuse +them for being fickle." She stopped to observe the effect of what she +believed a rather clear and significant exposition of Jessie's and +George's possible situation. But she was not prepared for the look +of blank resignation that seemed to drive the color from his face and +moisten the fire of his dark eyes. + +"I reckon you're right," he said, looking down. + +"Oh! we're not accusing you of fickleness," said Christie gayly; +"although you didn't come, and we were obliged to ask Mr. Hall to join +us. I suppose you found him and Jessie just now?" + +But George made no reply. The color was slowly coming back to his face, +which, as she glanced covertly at him, seemed to have grown so much +older that his returning blood might have brought two or three years +with it. + +"Really, Mr. Kearney," she said dryly, "one would think that some silly, +conceited girl"--she was quite earnest in her epithets, for a sudden, +angry conviction of some coquetry and disingenuousness in Jessie had +come to her in contemplating its effects upon the young fellow at her +side--"some country jilt, had been trying her rustic hand upon you." + +"She is not silly, conceited, nor countrified," said George, slowly +raising his beautiful eyes to the young girl half reproachfully. "It is +I who am all that. No, she is right, and you know it." + +Much as Christie admired and valued her sister's charms, she thought +this was really going too far. What had Jessie ever done--what was +Jessie--to provoke and remain insensible to such a blind devotion as +this? And really, looking at him now, he was not so VERY YOUNG for +Jessie; whether his unfortunate passion had brought out all his latent +manliness, or whether he had hitherto kept his serious nature in the +background, certainly he was not a boy. And certainly his was not a +passion that he could be laughed out of. It was getting very tiresome. +She wished she had not met him--at least until she had had some clearer +understanding with her sister. He was still walking beside her, with his +hand on her bridle rein, partly to lead her horse over some boulders in +the trail, and partly to conceal his first embarrassment. When they had +fairly reached the woods, he stopped. + +"I am going to say good-by, Miss Carr." + +"Are you not coming further? We must be near Indian Spring, now; Mr. +Hall and--and Jessie--cannot be far away. You will keep me company until +we meet them?" + +"No," he replied quietly. "I only stopped you to say good-by. I am going +away." + +"Not from Devil's Ford?" she asked, in half-incredulous astonishment. +"At least, not for long?" + +"I am not coming back," he replied. + +"But this is very abrupt," she said hurriedly, feeling that in some +ridiculous way she had precipitated an equally ridiculous catastrophe. +"Surely you are not going away in this fashion, without saying good-by +to Jessie and--and father?" + +"I shall see your father, of course--and you will give my regards to +Miss Jessie." + +He evidently was in earnest. Was there ever anything so perfectly +preposterous? She became indignant. + +"Of course," she said coldly, "I won't detain you; your business must +be urgent, and I forgot--at least I had forgotten until to-day--that +you have other duties more important than that of squire of dames. I am +afraid this forgetfulness made me think you would not part from us in +quite such a business fashion. I presume, if you had not met me just +now, we should none of us have seen you again?" + +He did not reply. + +"Will you say good-by, Miss Carr?" + +He held out his hand. + +"One moment, Mr. Kearney. If I have said anything which you think +justifies this very abrupt leave-taking, I beg you will forgive and +forget it--or, at least, let it have no more weight with you than the +idle words of any woman. I only spoke generally. You know--I--I might be +mistaken." + +His eyes, which had dilated when she began to speak, darkened; his +color, which had quickly come, as quickly sank when she had ended. + +"Don't say that, Miss Carr. It is not like you, and--it is useless. You +know what I meant a moment ago. I read it in your reply. You meant that +I, like others, had deceived myself. Did you not?" + +She could not meet those honest eyes with less than equal honesty. +She knew that Jessie did not love him--would not marry him--whatever +coquetry she might have shown. + +"I did not mean to offend you," she said hesitatingly; "I only half +suspected it when I spoke." + +"And you wish to spare me the avowal?" he said bitterly. + +"To me, perhaps, yes, by anticipating it. I could not tell what ideas +you might have gathered from some indiscreet frankness of Jessie--or my +father," she added, with almost equal bitterness. + +"I have never spoken to either," he replied quickly. He stopped, and +added, after a moment's mortifying reflection, "I've been brought up in +the woods, Miss Carr, and I suppose I have followed my feelings, instead +of the etiquette of society." + +Christie was too relieved at the rehabilitation of Jessie's truthfulness +to notice the full significance of his speech. + +"Good-by," he said again, holding out his hand. + +"Good-by!" + +She extended her own, ungloved, with a frank smile. He held it for a +moment, with his eyes fixed upon hers. Then suddenly, as if obeying +an uncontrollable impulse, he crushed it like a flower again and again +against his burning lips, and darted away. + +Christie sank back in her saddle with a little cry, half of pain and +half of frightened surprise. Had the poor boy suddenly gone mad, or was +this vicarious farewell a part of the courtship of Devil's Ford? She +looked at her little hand, which had reddened under the pressure, and +suddenly felt the flush extending to her cheeks and the roots of her +hair. This was intolerable. + +"Christie!" + +It was her sister emerging from the wood to seek her. In another moment +she was at her side. + +"We thought you were following," said Jessie. "Good heavens! how you +look! What has happened?" + +"Nothing. I met Mr. Kearney a moment ago on the trail. He is going away, +and--and--" She stopped, furious and flushing. + +"And," said Jessie, with a burst of merriment, "he told you at last he +loved you. Oh, Christie!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The abrupt departure of George Kearney from Devil's Ford excited +but little interest in the community, and was soon forgotten. It was +generally attributed to differences between himself and his partners +on the question of further outlay of their earnings on mining +improvements--he and Philip Carr alone representing a sanguine minority +whose faith in the future of the mine accepted any risks. It was alleged +by some that he had sold out to his brother; it was believed by others +that he had simply gone to Sacramento to borrow money on his share, +in order to continue the improvements on his own responsibility. The +partners themselves were uncommunicative; even Whiskey Dick, who since +his remarkable social elevation had become less oracular, much to his +own astonishment, contributed nothing to the gossip except a suggestion +that as the fiery temper of George Kearney brooked no opposition, +even from his brother, it was better they should separate before the +estrangement became serious. + +Mr. Carr did not disguise his annoyance at the loss of his young +disciple and firm ally. But an unlucky allusion to his previous remarks +on Kearney's attentions to Jessie, and a querulous regret that he had +permitted a disruption of their social intimacy, brought such an ominous +and frigid opposition, not only from Christie, but even the frivolous +Jessie herself, that Carr sank back in a crushed and terrified silence. +"I only meant to say," he stammered after a pause, in which he, however, +resumed his aggrieved manner, "that FAIRFAX seems to come here still, +and HE is not such a particular friend of mine." + +"But she is--and has your interest entirely at heart," said Jessie, +stoutly, "and he only comes here to tell us how things are going on at +the works." + +"And criticise your father, I suppose," said Mr. Carr, with an +attempt at jocularity that did not, however, disguise an irritated +suspiciousness. "He really seems to have supplanted ME as he has poor +Kearney in your estimation." + +"Now, father," said Jessie, suddenly seizing him by the shoulders in +affected indignation, but really to conceal a certain embarrassment +that sprang quite as much from her sister's quietly observant eye as her +father's speech, "you promised to let this ridiculous discussion drop. +You will make me and Christie so nervous that we will not dare to +open the door to a visitor, until he declares his innocence of any +matrimonial intentions. You don't want to give color to the gossip that +agreement with your views about the improvements is necessary to getting +on with us." + +"Who dares talk such rubbish?" said Carr, reddening; "is that the kind +of gossip that Fairfax brings here?" + +"Hardly, when it's known that he don't quite agree with you, and DOES +come here. That's the best denial of the gossip." + +Christie, who had of late loftily ignored these discussions, waited +until her father had taken his departure. + +"Then that is the reason why you still see Mr. Munroe, after what you +said," she remarked quietly to Jessie. + +Jessie, who would have liked to escape with her father, was obliged to +pause on the threshold of the door, with a pretty assumption of blank +forgetfulness in her blue eyes and lifted eyebrows. + +"Said what? when?" she asked vacantly. + +"When--when Mr. Kearney that day--in the woods--went away," said +Christie, faintly coloring. + +"Oh! THAT day," said Jessie briskly; "the day he just gloved your +hand with kisses, and then fled wildly into the forest to conceal his +emotion." + +"The day he behaved very foolishly," said Christie, with reproachful +calmness, that did not, however, prevent a suspicion of indignant +moisture in her eyes--"when you explained"-- + +"That it wasn't meant for ME," interrupted Jessie. + +"That it was to you that MR. MUNROE'S attentions were directed. And then +we agreed that it was better to prevent any further advances of this +kind by avoiding any familiar relations with either of them." + +"Yes," said Jessie, "I remember; but you're not confounding my seeing +Fairfax occasionally now with that sort of thing. HE doesn't kiss my +hand like anything," she added, as if in abstract reflection. + +"Nor run away, either," suggested the trodden worm, turning. + +There was an ominous silence. + +"Do you know we are nearly out of coffee?" said Jessie choking, but +moving towards the door with Spartan-like calmness. + +"Yes. And something must be done this very day about the washing," said +Christie, with suppressed emotion, going towards the opposite entrance. + +Tears stood in each other's eyes with this terrible exchange of domestic +confidences. Nevertheless, after a moment's pause, they deliberately +turned again, and, facing each other with frightful calmness, left +the room by purposeless and deliberate exits other than those they +had contemplated--a crushing abnegation of self, that, to some extent, +relieved their surcharged feelings. + +Meantime the material prosperity of Devil's Ford increased, if a +prosperity based upon no visible foundation but the confidences and +hopes of its inhabitants could be called material. Few, if any, stopped +to consider that the improvements, buildings, and business were simply +the outlay of capital brought from elsewhere, and as yet the settlement +or town, as it was now called, had neither produced nor exported capital +of itself equal to half the amount expended. It was true that some +land was cultivated on the further slope, some mills erected and lumber +furnished from the inexhaustible forest; but the consumers were the +inhabitants themselves, who paid for their produce in borrowed capital +or unlimited credit. It was never discovered that while all roads led to +Devil's Ford, Devil's Ford led to nowhere. The difficulties overcome +in getting things into the settlement were never surmounted for getting +things out of it. The lumber was practically valueless for export to +other settlements across the mountain roads, which were equally rich in +timber. The theory so enthusiastically held by the original locators, +that Devil's Ford was a vast sink that had, through ages, exhausted and +absorbed the trickling wealth of the adjacent hills and valleys, was +suffering an ironical corroboration. + +One morning it was known that work was stopped at the Devil's Ford +Ditch--temporarily only, it was alleged, and many of the old workmen +simply had their labor for the present transferred to excavating the +river banks, and the collection of vast heaps of "pay gravel." Specimens +from these mounds, taken from different localities, and at different +levels, were sent to San Francisco for more rigid assay and analysis. +It was believed that this would establish the fact of the permanent +richness of the drifts, and not only justify past expenditure, but a +renewed outlay of credit and capital. The suspension of engineering work +gave Mr. Carr an opportunity to visit San Francisco on general business +of the mine, which could not, however, prevent him from arranging +further combinations with capital. His two daughters accompanied him. It +offered an admirable opportunity for a shopping expedition, a change of +scene, and a peaceful solution of their perplexing and anomalous social +relations with Devil's Ford. In the first flush of gratitude to their +father for this opportune holiday, something of harmony had been +restored to the family circle that had of late been shaken by discord. + +But their sanguine hopes of enjoyment were not entirely fulfilled. Both +Jessie and Christie were obliged to confess to a certain disappointment +in the aspect of the civilization they were now reentering. They at +first attributed it to the change in their own habits during the last +three months, and their having become barbarous and countrified in +their seclusion. Certainly in the matter of dress they were behind the +fashions as revealed in Montgomery Street. But when the brief solace +afforded them by the modiste and dressmaker was past, there seemed +little else to be gained. They missed at first, I fear, the chivalrous +and loyal devotion that had only amused them at Devil's Ford, and were +the more inclined, I think, to distrust the conscious and more civilized +gallantry of the better dressed and more carefully presented men they +met. For it must be admitted that, for obvious reasons, their criticisms +were at first confined to the sex they had been most in contact with. +They could not help noticing that the men were more eager, annoyingly +feverish, and self-asserting in their superior elegance and external +show than their old associates were in their frank, unrestrained habits. +It seemed to them that the five millionaires of Devil's Ford, in their +radical simplicity and thoroughness, were perhaps nearer the type of +true gentlemanhood than these citizens who imitated a civilization they +were unable yet to reach. + +The women simply frightened them, as being, even more than the men, +demonstrative and excessive in their fine looks, their fine dresses, +their extravagant demand for excitement. In less than a week they found +themselves regretting--not the new villa on the slope of Devil's Ford, +which even in its own bizarre fashion was exceeded by the barbarous +ostentation of the villas and private houses around them--but the double +cabin under the trees, which now seemed to them almost aristocratic in +its grave simplicity and abstention. In the mysterious forests of masts +that thronged the city's quays they recalled the straight shafts of the +pines on Devil's slopes, only to miss the sedate repose and infinite +calm that used to environ them. In the feverish, pulsating life of the +young metropolis they often stopped oppressed, giddy, and choking; the +roar of the streets and thoroughfares was meaningless to them, except to +revive strange memories of the deep, unvarying monotone of the evening +wind over their humbler roof on the Sierran hillside. Civic bred and +nurtured as they were, the recurrence of these sensations perplexed and +alarmed them. + +"It seems so perfectly ridiculous," said Jessie, "for us to feel as out +of place here as that Pike County servant girl in Sacramento who had +never seen a steamboat before; do you know, I quite had a turn the other +day at seeing a man on the Stockton wharf in a red shirt, with a rifle +on his shoulder." + +"And you wanted to go and speak to him?" said Christie, with a sad +smile. + +"No, that's just it; I felt awfully hurt and injured that he did not +come up and speak to ME! I wonder if we got any fever or that sort of +thing up there; it makes one quite superstitious." + +Christie did not reply; more than once before she had felt that +inexplicable misgiving. It had sometimes seemed to her that she had +never been quite herself since that memorable night when she had +slipped out of their sleeping-cabin, and stood alone in the gracious and +commanding presence of the woods and hills. In the solitude of night, +with the hum of the great city rising below her--at times even in +theatres or crowded assemblies of men and women--she forgot herself, +and again stood in the weird brilliancy of that moonlight night in +mute worship at the foot of that slowly-rising mystic altar of piled +terraces, hanging forests, and lifted plateaus that climbed forever to +the lonely skies. Again she felt before her the expanding and opening +arms of the protecting woods. Had they really closed upon her in some +pantheistic embrace that made her a part of them? Had she been baptized +in that moonlight as a child of the great forest? It was easy to believe +in the myths of the poets of an idyllic life under those trees, where, +free from conventional restrictions, one loved and was loved. If she, +with her own worldly experience, could think of this now, why might +not George Kearney have thought? . . . She stopped, and found herself +blushing even in the darkness. As the thought and blush were the usual +sequel of her reflections, it is to be feared that they may have been at +times the impelling cause. + +Mr. Carr, however, made up for his daughters' want of sympathy with +metropolitan life. To their astonishment, he not only plunged into the +fashionable gayeties and amusements of the town, but in dress and manner +assumed the role of a leader of society. The invariable answer to their +half-humorous comment was the necessities of the mine, and the policy +of frequenting the company of capitalists, to enlist their support and +confidence. There was something in this so unlike their father, that +what at any other time they would have hailed as a relief to +his habitual abstraction now half alarmed them. Yet he was not +dissipated--he did not drink nor gamble. There certainly did not seem +any harm in his frequenting the society of ladies, with a gallantry that +appeared to be forced and a pleasure that to their critical eyes was +certainly apocryphal. He did not drag his daughters into the mixed +society of that period; he did not press upon them the company of those +he most frequented, and whose accepted position in that little world of +fashion was considered equal to their own. When Jessie strongly objected +to the pronounced manners of a certain widow, whose actual present +wealth and pecuniary influence condoned for a more uncertain prehistoric +past, Mr. Carr did not urge a further acquaintance. "As long as you're +not thinking of marrying again, papa," Jessie had said finally, "I don't +see the necessity of our knowing her." "But suppose I were," had replied +Mr. Carr with affected humor. "Then you certainly wouldn't care for any +one like her," his daughter had responded triumphantly. Mr. Carr smiled, +and dropped the subject, but it is probable that his daughters' want of +sympathy with his acquaintances did not in the least interfere with +his social prestige. A gentleman in all his relations and under all +circumstances, even his cold scientific abstraction was provocative; +rich men envied his lofty ignorance of the smaller details of +money-making, even while they mistrusted his judgment. A man still well +preserved, and free from weakening vices, he was a dangerous rival to +younger and faster San Francisco, in the eyes of the sex, who knew how +to value a repose they did not themselves possess. + +Suddenly Mr. Carr announced his intention of proceeding to Sacramento, +on further business of the mine, leaving his two daughters in the family +of a wealthy friend until he should return for them. He opposed their +ready suggestion to return to Devil's Ford with a new and unnecessary +inflexibility: he even met their compromise to accompany him to +Sacramento with equal decision. + +"You will be only in my way," he said curtly. "Enjoy yourselves here +while you can." + +Thus left to themselves, they tried to accept his advice. Possibly some +slight reaction to their previous disappointment may have already set +in; perhaps they felt any distraction to be a relief to their anxiety +about their father. They went out more; they frequented concerts and +parties; they accepted, with their host and his family, an invitation to +one of those opulent and barbaric entertainments with which a noted San +Francisco millionaire distracted his rare moments of reflection in his +gorgeous palace on the hills. Here they could at least be once more in +the country they loved, albeit of a milder and less heroic type, and a +little degraded by the overlapping tinsel and scattered spangles of the +palace. + +It was a three days' fete; the style and choice of amusements left to +the guests, and an equal and active participation by no means necessary +or indispensable. Consequently, when Christie and Jessie Carr proposed +a ride through the adjacent canyon on the second morning, they had no +difficulty in finding horses in the well-furnished stables of their +opulent entertainers, nor cavaliers among the other guests, who were +too happy to find favor in the eyes of the two pretty girls who were +supposed to be abnormally fastidious and refined. Christie's escort +was a good-natured young banker, shrewd enough to avoid demonstrative +attentions, and lucky enough to interest her during the ride with his +clear and half-humorous reflections on some of the business speculations +of the day. If his ideas were occasionally too clever, and not always +consistent with a high sense of honor, she was none the less interested +to know the ethics of that world of speculation into which her father +had plunged, and the more convinced, with mingled sense of pride and +anxiety, that his still dominant gentlemanhood would prevent his coping +with it on equal terms. Nor could she help contrasting the conversation +of the sharp-witted man at her side with what she still remembered of +the vague, touching, boyish enthusiasm of the millionaires of Devil's +Ford. Had her escort guessed the result of this contrast, he would +hardly have been as gratified as he was with the grave attention of her +beautiful eyes. + +The fascination of a gracious day and the leafy solitude of the canyon +led them to prolong their ride beyond the proposed limit, and it became +necessary towards sunset for them to seek some shorter cut home. + +"There's a vaquero in yonder field," said Christie's escort, who was +riding with her a little in advance of the others, "and those fellows +know every trail that a horse can follow. I'll ride on, intercept him, +and try my Spanish on him. If I miss him, as he's galloping on, you +might try your hand on him yourself. He'll understand your eyes, Miss +Carr, in any language." + +As he dashed away, to cover his first audacity of compliment, Christie +lifted the eyes thus apostrophized to the opposite field. The vaquero, +who was chasing some cattle, was evidently too preoccupied to heed the +shouts of her companion, and wheeling round suddenly to intercept one +of the deviating fugitives, permitted Christie's escort to dash past him +before that gentleman could rein in his excited steed. This brought the +vaquero directly in her path. Perceiving her, he threw his horse back on +its haunches, to prevent a collision. Christie rode up to him, suddenly +uttered a cry, and halted. For before her, sunburnt in cheek and throat, +darker in the free growth of moustache and curling hair, clad in the +coarse, picturesque finery of his class, undisguised only in his boyish +beauty, sat George Kearney. + +The blood, that had forsaken her astonished face, rushed as quickly +back. His eyes, which had suddenly sparkled with an electrical glow, +sank before hers. His hand dropped, and his cheek flushed with a dark +embarrassment. + +"You here, Mr. Kearney? How strange!--but how glad I am to meet you +again!" + +She tried to smile; her voice trembled, and her little hand shook as she +extended it to him. + +He raised his dark eyes quickly, and impulsively urged his horse to her +side. But, as if suddenly awakening to the reality of the situation, +he glanced at her hurriedly, down at his barbaric finery, and threw a +searching look towards her escort. + +In an instant Christie saw the infelicity of her position, and its +dangers. The words of Whiskey Dick, "He wouldn't stand that," flashed +across her mind. There was no time to lose. The banker had already +gained control over his horse, and was approaching them, all unconscious +of the fixed stare with which George was regarding him. Christie hastily +seized the hand which he had allowed to fall at his side, and said +quickly:-- + +"Will you ride with me a little way, Mr. Kearney?" + +He turned the same searching look upon her. She met it clearly and +steadily; he even thought reproachfully. + +"Do!" she said hurriedly. "I ask it as a favor. I want to speak to you. +Jessie and I are here alone. Father is away. YOU are one of our oldest +friends." + +He hesitated. She turned to the astonished young banker, who rode up. + +"I have just met an old friend. Will you please ride back as quickly as +you can, and tell Jessie that Mr. Kearney is here, and ask her to join +us?" + +She watched her dazed escort, still speechless from the spectacle of the +fastidious Miss Carr tete-a-tete with a common Mexican vaquero, gallop +off in the direction of the canyon, and then turned to George. + +"Now take me home, the shortest way, as quick as you can." + +"Home?" echoed George. + +"I mean to Mr. Prince's house. Quick! before they can come up to us." + +He mechanically put spurs to his horse; she followed. They presently +struck into a trail that soon diverged again into a disused logging +track through the woods. + +"This is the short cut to Prince's, by two miles," he said, as they +entered the woods. + +As they were still galloping, without exchanging a word, Christie began +to slacken her speed; George did the same. They were safe from intrusion +at the present, even if the others had found the short cut. Christie, +bold and self-reliant a moment ago, suddenly found herself growing weak +and embarrassed. What had she done? + +She checked her horse suddenly. + +"Perhaps we had better wait for them," she said timidly. + +George had not raised his eyes to hers. + +"You said you wanted to hurry home," he replied gently, passing his hand +along his mustang's velvety neck, "and--and you had something to say to +me." + +"Certainly," she answered, with a faint laugh. "I'm so astonished at +meeting you here. I'm quite bewildered. You are living here; you have +forsaken us to buy a ranche?" she continued, looking at him attentively. + +His brow colored slightly. + +"No, I'm living here, but I have bought no ranche. I'm only a hired man +on somebody else's ranche, to look after the cattle." + +He saw her beautiful eyes fill with astonishment and--something else. +His brow cleared; he went on, with his old boyish laugh: + +"No, Miss Carr. The fact is, I'm dead broke. I've lost everything since +I saw you last. But as I know how to ride, and I'm not afraid of work, I +manage to keep along." + +"You have lost money in--in the mines?" said Christie suddenly. + +"No"--he replied quickly, evading her eyes. "My brother has my interest, +you know. I've been foolish on my own account solely. You know I'm +rather inclined to that sort of thing. But as long as my folly don't +affect others, I can stand it." + +"But it may affect others--and THEY may not think of it as folly--" She +stopped short, confused by his brightening color and eyes. "I mean--Oh, +Mr. Kearney, I want you to be frank with me. I know nothing of business, +but I know there has been trouble about the mine at Devil's Ford. Tell +me honestly, has my father anything to do with it? If I thought that +through any imprudence of his, you had suffered--if I believed that +you could trace any misfortune of yours to him--to US--I should never +forgive myself"--she stopped and flashed a single look at him--"I should +never forgive YOU for abandoning us." + +The look of pain which had at first shown itself in his face, which +never concealed anything, passed, and a quick smile followed her +feminine anticlimax. + +"Miss Carr," he said, with boyish eagerness, "if any man suggested to me +that your father wasn't the brightest and best of his kind--too wise and +clever for the fools about him to understand--I'd--I'd shoot him." + +Confused by his ready and gracious disclaimer of what she had NOT +intended to say, there was nothing left for her but to rush upon +what she really intended to say, with what she felt was shameful +precipitation. + +"One word more, Mr. Kearney," she began, looking down, but feeling the +color come to her face as she spoke. "When you spoke to me the day you +left, you must have thought me hard and cruel. When I tell you that I +thought you were alluding to Jessie and some feeling you had for her--" + +"For Jessie!" echoed George. + +"You will understand that--that--" + +"That what?" said George, drawing nearer to her. + +"That I was only speaking as she might have spoken had you talked to her +of me," added Christie hurriedly, slightly backing her horse away from +him. + +But this was not so easy, as George was the better rider, and by an +imperceptible movement of his wrist and foot had glued his horse to her +side. "He will go now," she had thought, but he didn't. + +"We must ride on," she suggested faintly. + +"No," he said with a sudden dropping of his boyish manner and a slight +lifting of his head. "We must ride together no further, Miss Carr. I +must go back to the work I am hired to do, and you must go on with +your party, whom I hear coming. But when we part here you must bid me +good-by--not as Jessie's sister--but as Christie--the one--the only +woman that I love, or that I ever have loved." + +He held out his hand. With the recollection of their previous parting, +she tremblingly advanced her own. He took it, but did not raise it to +his lips. And it was she who found herself half confusedly retaining his +hand in hers, until she dropped it with a blush. + +"Then is this the reason you give for deserting us as you have deserted +Devil's Ford?" she said coldly. + +He lifted his eyes to her with a strange smile, and said, "Yes," wheeled +his horse, and disappeared in the forest. + +He had left her thus abruptly once before, kissed, blushing, and +indignant. He was leaving her now, unkissed, but white and indignant. +Yet she was so self-possessed when the party joined her, that the +singular rencontre and her explanation of the stranger's sudden +departure excited no further comment. Only Jessie managed to whisper in +her ear,-- + +"I hope you are satisfied now that it wasn't me he meant?" + +"Not at all," said Christie coldly. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +A few days after the girls had returned to San Francisco, they received +a letter from their father. His business, he wrote, would detain him in +Sacramento some days longer. There was no reason why they should return +to Devil's Ford in the heat of the summer; their host had written to +beg him to allow them a more extended visit, and, if they were enjoying +themselves, he thought it would be well not to disoblige an old friend. +He had heard they had a pleasant visit to Mr. Prince's place, and that a +certain young banker had been very attentive to Christie. + +"Do you know what all this means, dear?" asked Jessie, who had been +watching her sister with an unusually grave face. + +Christie whose thoughts had wandered from the letter, replied +carelessly,-- + +"I suppose it means that we are to wait here until father sends for us." + +"It means a good deal more. It means that papa has had another reverse; +it means that the assay has turned out badly for the mine--that the +further they go from the flat the worse it gets--that all the gold they +will probably ever see at Devil's Ford is what they have already found +or will find on the flat; it means that all Devil's Ford is only a +'pocket,' and not a 'lead.'" She stopped, with unexpected tears in her +eyes. + +"Who told you this?" asked Christie breathlessly. + +"Fairfax--Mr. Munroe," stammered her sister, "writes to me as if we +already knew it--tells me not to be alarmed, that it isn't so bad--and +all that." + +"How long has this happened, Jessie?" said Christie, taking her hand, +with a white but calm face. + +"Nearly ever since we've been here, I suppose. It must be so, for he +says poor papa is still hopeful of doing something yet." + +"And Mr. Munroe writes to you?" said Christie abstractedly. + +"Of course," said Jessie quickly. "He feels interested in--us." + +"Nobody tells ME anything," said Christie. + +"Didn't--" + +"No," said Christie bitterly. + +"What on earth DID you talk about? But people don't confide in you +because they're afraid of you. You're so--" + +"So what?" + +"So gently patronizing, and so 'I-don't-suppose-you-can-help-it, +poor-thing,' in your general style," said Jessie, kissing her. "There! +I only wish I was like you. What do you say if we write to father that +we'll go back to Devil's Ford? Mr. Munroe thinks we will be of service +there just now. If the men are dissatisfied, and think we're spending +money--" + +"I'm afraid Mr. Munroe is hardly a disinterested adviser. At least, I +don't think it would look quite decent for you to fly back without your +father, at his suggestion," said Christie coldly. "He is not the only +partner. We are spending no money. Besides, we have engaged to go to Mr. +Prince's again next week." + +"As you like, dear," said Jessie, turning away to hide a faint smile. + +Nevertheless, when they returned from their visit to Mr. Prince's, and +one or two uneventful rides, Christie looked grave. It was only a few +days later that Jessie burst upon her one morning. + +"You were saying that nobody ever tells you anything. Well, here's your +chance. Whiskey Dick is below." + +"Whiskey Dick?" repeated Christie. "What does he want?" + +"YOU, love. Who else? You know he always scorns me as not being +high-toned and elegant enough for his social confidences. He asked for +you only." + +With an uneasy sense of some impending revelation, Christie descended to +the drawing-room. As she opened the door, a strong flavor of that toilet +soap and eau de Cologne with which Whiskey Dick was in the habit of +gracefully effacing the traces of dissipation made known his presence. +In spite of a new suit of clothes, whose pristine folds refused to +adapt themselves entirely to the contour of his figure, he was somewhat +subdued by the unexpected elegance of the drawing-room of Christie's +host. But a glance at Christie's sad but gracious face quickly reassured +him. Taking from his hat a three-cornered parcel, he unfolded a +handsome saffrona rose, which he gravely presented to her. Having +thus reestablished his position, he sank elegantly into a tete-a-tete +ottoman. Finding the position inconvenient to face Christie, who had +seated herself on a chair, he transferred himself to the other side of +the ottoman, and addressed her over its back as from a pulpit. + +"Is this really a fortunate accident, Mr. Hall, or did you try to find +us?" said Christie pleasantly. + +"Partly promiskuss, and partly coincident, Miss Christie, one up and +t'other down," said Dick lightly. "Work being slack at present at +Devil's Ford, I reck'ned I'd take a pasear down to 'Frisco, and dip into +the vortex o' fash'nable society and out again." He lightly waved a +new handkerchief to illustrate his swallow-like intrusion. "This yer +minglin' with the bo-tong is apt to be wearisome, ez you and me knows, +unless combined with experience and judgment. So when them boys up +there allows that there's a little too much fash'nable society and San +Francisco capital and high-falutin' about the future goin' on fer square +surface mining, I sez, 'Look yere, gentlemen,' sez I, 'you don't see the +pint. The pint is to get the pop'lar eye fixed, so to speak, on Devil's +Ford. When a fash'nable star rises above the 'Frisco horizon--like Miss +Carr--and, so to speak, dazzles the gineral eye, people want to know +who she is. And when people say that's the accomplished daughter o' the +accomplished superintendent of the Devil's Ford claim--otherwise known +as the Star-eyed Goddess o' Devil's Ford--every eye is fixed on the +mine, and Capital, so to speak, tumbles to her.' And when they sez that +the old man--excuse my freedom, but that's the way the boys talk of your +father, meaning no harm--the old man, instead o' trying to corral rich +widders--grass or otherwise--to spend their money on the big works for +the gold that ain't there yet--should stay in Devil's Ford and put all +his sabe and genius into grindin' out the little gold that is there, I +sez to them that it ain't your father's style. 'His style,' sez I, 'ez +to go in and build them works.' When they're done he turns round to +Capital, and sez he--'Look yer,' sez he, 'thar's all the works you +want, first quality--cost a million; thar's all the water you want, +onlimited--cost another million; thar's all the pay gravel you want +in and outer the ground--call it two millions more. Now my time's too +vally'ble; my professhun's too high-toned to WORK mines. I MAKE 'em. +Hand me over a check for ten millions and call it square, and work it +for yourself.' So Capital hands over the money and waltzes down to run +the mine, and you original locators walks round with yer hands in yer +pockets a-top of your six million profit, and you let's Capital take the +work and the responsibility." + +Preposterous as this seemed from the lips of Whiskey Dick, Christie +had a haunting suspicion that it was not greatly unlike the theories +expounded by the clever young banker who had been her escort. She did +not interrupt his flow of reminiscent criticism; when he paused for +breath, she said, quietly: + +"I met Mr. George Kearney the other day in the country." + +Whiskey Dick stopped awkwardly, glanced hurriedly at Christie, and +coughed behind his handkerchief. + +"Mr. Kearney--eh--er--certengly--yes--er--met him, you say. Was +he--er--er--well?" + +"In health, yes; but otherwise he has lost everything," said Christie, +fixing her eyes on the embarrassed Dick. + +"Yes--er--in course--in course--" continued Dick, nervously glancing +round the apartment as if endeavoring to find an opening to some less +abrupt statement of the fact. + +"And actually reduced to take some menial employment," added Christie, +still regarding Dick with her clear glance. + +"That's it--that's just it," said Dick, beaming as he suddenly found his +delicate and confidential opportunity. "That's it, Miss Christie; that's +just what I was sayin' to the boys. 'Ez it the square thing,' sez I, +'jest because George hez happened to hypothecate every dollar he has, +or expects to hev, to put into them works, only to please Mr. Carr, and +just because he don't want to distress that intelligent gentleman by +letting him see he's dead broke--for him to go and demean himself and +Devil's Ford by rushing away and hiring out as a Mexican vaquero +on Mexican wages? Look,' sez I, 'at the disgrace he brings upon a +high-toned, fash'nable girl, at whose side he's walked and danced, and +passed rings, and sentiments, and bokays in the changes o' the cotillion +and the mizzourka. And wot,' sez I, 'if some day, prancing along in a +fash'nable cavalcade, she all of a suddents comes across him drivin' a +Mexican steer?' That's what I said to the boys. And so you met him, Miss +Christie, as usual," continued Dick, endeavoring under the appearance +of a large social experience to conceal an eager anxiety to know the +details--"so you met him; and, in course, you didn't let on yer knew +him, so to speak, nat'rally, or p'raps you kinder like asked him to fix +your saddle-girth, and give him a five-dollar piece--eh?" + +Christie, who had risen and gone to the window, suddenly turned a very +pale face and shining eyes on Dick. + +"Mr. Hall," she said, with a faint attempt at a smile, "we are old +friends, and I feel I can ask you a favor. You once before acted as our +escort--it was for a short but a happy time--will you accept a larger +trust? My father is busy in Sacramento for the mine: will you, without +saying anything to anybody, take Jessie and me back at once to Devil's +Ford?" + +"Will I? Miss Christie," said Dick, choking between an intense +gratification and a desire to keep back its vulgar exhibition, "I shall +be proud!" + +"When I say keep it a secret"--she hesitated--"I don't mean that I +object to your letting Mr. Kearney, if you happen to know where he is, +understand that we are going back to Devil's Ford." + +"Cert'nly--nat'rally," said Dick, waving his hand gracefully; +"sorter drop him a line, saying that bizness of a social and delicate +nature--being the escort of Miss Christie and Jessie Carr to Devil's +Ford--prevents my having the pleasure of calling." + +"That will do very well, Mr. Hall," said Christie, faintly smiling +through her moist eyelashes. "Then will you go at once and secure +tickets for to-night's boat, and bring them here? Jessie and I will +arrange everything else." + +"Cert'nly," said Dick impulsively, and preparing to take a graceful +leave. + +"We'll be impatient until you return with the tickets," said Christie +graciously. + +Dick shook hands gravely, got as far as the door, and paused. + +"You think it better to take the tickets now?" he said dubiously. + +"By all means," said Christie impetuously. "I've set my heart on going +to-night--and unless you secure berths early--" + +"In course--in course," interrupted Dick nervously. "But--" + +"But what?" said Christie impatiently. + +Dick hesitated, shut the door carefully, and, looking round the +room, lightly shook out his handkerchief, apparently flicked away an +embarrassing suggestion, and said, with a little laugh: + +"It's ridiklous, perfectly ridiklous, Miss Christie; but not bein' in +the habit of carryin' ready money, and havin' omitted to cash a draft on +Wells, Fargo & Co.--" + +"Of course," said Christie rapidly. "How forgetful I am! Pray forgive +me, Mr. Hall. I didn't think. I'll run up and get it from our host; he +will be glad to be our banker." + +"One moment, Miss Christie," said Dick lightly, as his thumb and finger +relaxed in his waistcoat pocket over the only piece of money in the +world that had remained to him after his extravagant purchase of +Christie's saffrona rose, "one moment: in this yer monetary transaction, +if you like, you are at liberty to use MY name." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +As Christie and Jessie Carr looked from the windows of the coach, whose +dust-clogged wheels were slowly dragging them, as if reluctant, nearer +the last stage of their journey to Devil's Ford, they were conscious +of a change in the landscape, which they could not entirely charge upon +their changed feelings. The few bared open spaces on the upland, the +long stretch of rocky ridge near the summit, so vivid and so velvety +during their first journey, were now burnt and yellow; even the brief +openings in the forest were seared as if by a hot iron in the scorching +rays of a half year's sun. The pastoral slopes of the valley below were +cloaked in lustre-leather: the rare watercourses along the road had +faded from the waiting eye and ear; it seemed as if the long and dry +summer had even invaded the close-set ranks of pines, and had blown a +simoom breath through the densest woods, leaving its charred red ashes +on every leaf and spray along the tunnelled shade. As they leaned out +of the window and inhaled the half-dead spices of the evergreens, they +seemed to have entered the atmosphere of some exhausted passion--of some +fierce excitement that was even now slowly burning itself out. + +It was a relief at last to see the straggling houses of Devil's Ford far +below come once more into view, as they rounded the shoulder of Devil's +Spur and began the long descent. But as they entered the town a change +more ominous and startling than the desiccation of the landscape +forced itself upon them. The town was still there, but where were +the inhabitants? Four months ago they had left the straggling street +thronged with busy citizens--groups at every corner, and a chaos +of merchandise and traders in the open plaza or square beside the +Presbyterian church. Now all was changed. Only a few wayfarers lifted +their heads lazily as the coach rattled by, crossing the deserted square +littered with empty boxes, and gliding past empty cabins or vacant shop +windows, from which not only familiar faces, but even the window sashes +themselves, were gone. The great unfinished serpent-like flume, crossing +the river on gigantic trestles, had advanced as far as the town, +stooping over it like some enormous reptile that had sucked its life +blood and was gorged with its prey. + +Whiskey Dick, who had left the stage on the summit to avail himself of +a shorter foot trail to the house, that would give him half an hour's +grace to make preparations, met them at the stage office with a buggy. +A glance at the young girls, perhaps, convinced him that the graces of +elegant worldly conversation were out of place with the revelation he +read on their faces. Perhaps, he, too, was a trifle indisposed. The +short journey to the house was made in profound silence. + +The villa had been repainted and decorated, and it looked fresher, and +even, to their preoccupied minds, appeared more attractive than ever. +Thoughtful hands had taken care of the vines and rose-bushes on the +trellises; water--that precious element in Devil's Ford--had not been +spared in keeping green through the long drought the plants which the +girls had so tenderly nurtured. It was the one oasis in which the summer +still lingered; and yet a singular sense of loss came over the girls as +they once more crossed its threshold. It seemed no longer their own. + +"Ef I was you, Miss Christie, I'd keep close to the house for a day or +two, until--until--things is settled," said Dick; "there's a heap o' +tramps and sich cattle trapsin' round. P'raps you wouldn't feel so +lonesome if you was nearer town--for instance, 'bout wher' you useter +live." + +"In the dear old cabin," said Christie quickly; "I remember it; I wish +we were there now." + +"Do you really? Do you?" said Whiskey Dick, with suddenly twinkling +eyes. "That's like you to say it. That's what I allus said," continued +Dick, addressing space generally; "if there's any one ez knows how +to come square down to the bottom rock without flinchin', it's your +high-toned, fash'nable gals. But I must meander back to town, and let +the boys know you're in possession, safe and sound. It's right mean that +Fairfax and Mattingly had to go down to Lagrange on some low business +yesterday, but they'll be back to-morrow. So long." + +Left alone, the girls began to realize their strange position. They had +conceived no settled plan. The night they left San Francisco they had +written an earnest letter to their father, telling him that on learning +the truth about the reverses of Devil's Ford, they thought it their duty +to return and share them with others, without obliging him to prefer the +request, and with as little worry to him as possible. He would find them +ready to share his trials, and in what must be the scene of their work +hereafter. + +"It will bring father back," said Christie; "he won't leave us here +alone; and then together we must come to some understanding with +him--with THEM--for somehow I feel as if this house belonged to us no +longer." + +Her surmise was not far wrong. When Mr. Carr arrived hurriedly from +Sacramento the next evening, he found the house deserted. His daughters +were gone; there were indications that they had arrived, and, for some +reason, suddenly departed. The vague fear that had haunted his guilty +soul after receiving their letter, and during his breathless journey, +now seemed to be realized. He was turning from the empty house, whose +reproachful solitude frightened him, when he was confronted on the +threshold by the figure of Fairfax Munroe. + +"I came to the stage office to meet you," he said; "you must have left +the stage at the summit." + +"I did," said Carr angrily. "I was anxious to meet my daughters quickly, +to know the reason of their foolish alarm, and to know also who had been +frightening them. Where are they?" + +"They are safe in the old cabin beyond, that has been put up ready to +receive them again," said Fairfax quietly. + +"But what is the meaning of this? Why are they not here?" demanded Carr, +hiding his agitation in a burst of querulous rage. + +"Do YOU ask, Mr. Carr?" said Fairfax sadly. "Did you expect them to +remain here until the sheriff took possession? No one knows better than +yourself that the money advanced you on the deeds of this homestead has +never been repaid." + +Carr staggered, but recovered himself with feeble violence. + +"Since you know so much of my affairs, how do you know that this claim +will ever be pressed for payment? How do you know it is not the advance +of a--a--friend?" + +"Because I have seen the woman who advanced it," said Fairfax +hopelessly. "She was here to look at the property before your daughters +came." + +"Well?" said Carr nervously. + +"Well! You force me to tell you something I should like to forget. You +force me to anticipate a disclosure I expected to make to you only when +I came to ask permission to woo your daughter Jessie; and when I tell +you what it is, you will understand that I have no right to criticise +your conduct. I am only explaining my own." + +"Go on," said Carr impatiently. + +"When I first came to this country, there was a woman I loved +passionately. She treated me as women of her kind only treat men like +me; she ruined me, and left me. That was four years ago. I love your +daughter, Mr. Carr, but she has never heard it from my lips. I would not +woo her until I had told you all. I have tried to do it ere this, and +failed. Perhaps I should not now, but--" + +"But what?" said Carr furiously; "speak out!" + +"But this. Look!" said Fairfax, producing from his pocket the packet of +letters Jessie had found; "perhaps you know the handwriting?" + +"What do you mean?" gasped Carr. + +"That woman--my mistress--is the woman who advanced you money, and who +claims this house." + + +The interview, and whatever came of it, remained a secret with the two +men. When Mr. Carr accepted the hospitality of the old cabin again, it +was understood that he had sacrificed the new house and its furniture +to some of the more pressing debts of the mine, and the act went far to +restore his waning popularity. But a more genuine feeling of relief was +experienced by Devil's Ford when it was rumored that Fairfax Munroe had +asked for the hand of Jessie Carr, and that some promise contingent upon +the equitable adjustment of the affairs of the mine had been given +by Mr. Carr. To the superstitious mind of Devil's Ford and its few +remaining locators, this new partnership seemed to promise that unity +of interest and stability of fortune that Devil's Ford had lacked. But +nothing could be done until the rainy season had fairly set in; until +the long-looked-for element that was to magically separate the gold from +the dross in those dull mounds of dust and gravel had come of its own +free will, and in its own appointed channels, independent of the feeble +auxiliaries that had hopelessly riven the rocks on the hillside, or hung +incomplete and unfinished in lofty scaffoldings above the settlement. + +The rainy season came early. At first in gathered mists on the higher +peaks that were lifted in the morning sun only to show a fresher field +of dazzling white below; in white clouds that at first seemed to be mere +drifts blown across from those fresh snowfields, and obscuring the +clear blue above; in far-off murmurs in the hollow hills and gulches; +in nearer tinkling melody and baby prattling in the leaves. It came +with bright flashes of sunlight by day, with deep, monotonous shadow at +night; with the onset of heavy winds, the roar of turbulent woods, +the tumultuous tossing of leafy arms, and with what seemed the silent +dissolution of the whole landscape in days of steady and uninterrupted +downfall. It came extravagantly, for every canyon had grown into a +torrent, every gulch a waterspout, every watercourse a river, and all +pouring into the North Fork, that, rushing past the settlement, seemed +to threaten it with lifted crest and flying mane. It came dangerously, +for one night the river, leaping the feeble barrier of Devil's Ford, +swept away houses and banks, scattered with unconscious irony the +laboriously collected heaps of gravel left for hydraulic machinery, and +spread out a vast and silent lake across the submerged flat. + +In the hurry and confusion of that night the girls had thrown open their +cabin to the escaping miners, who hurried along the slope that was now +the bank of the river. Suddenly Christie felt her arm grasped, and she +was half-led, half-dragged, into the inner room. Her father stood before +her. + +"Where is George Kearney?" he asked tremulously. + +"George Kearney!" echoed Christie, for a moment believing the excitement +had turned her father's brain. "You know he is not here; he is in San +Francisco." + +"He is here--I tell you," said Carr impatiently; "he has been here ever +since the high water, trying to save the flume and reservoir." + +"George--here!" Christie could only gasp. + +"Yes! He passed here a few moments ago, to see if you were all safe, +and he has gone on towards the flume. But what he is trying to do is +madness. If you see him, implore him to do no more. Let him abandon the +accursed flume to its fate. It has worked already too much woe upon us +all; why should it carry his brave and youthful soul down with it?" + +The words were still ringing in her ears, when he suddenly passed away, +with the hurrying crowd. Scarcely knowing what she did, she ran out, +vaguely intent only on one thought, seeking only the one face, lately +so dear in recollection that she felt she would die if she never saw it +again. Perplexed by confused voices in the woods, she lost track of +the crowd, until the voices suddenly were raised in one loud outcry, +followed by the crashing of timber, the splashing of water, a silence, +and then a dull, continuous roar. She ran vaguely on in the direction of +the reservoir, with her father's injunction still in her mind, until a +terrible idea displaced it, and she turned at right angles suddenly, and +ran towards the slope leading down to the submerged flat. She had barely +left the shelter of the trees behind her before the roar of water +seemed to rise at her very feet. She stopped, dazed, bewildered, and +horror-stricken, on the edge of the slope. It was the slope no longer, +but the bank of the river itself! + +Even in the gray light of early morning, and with inexperienced eyes, +she saw all too clearly now. The trestle-work had given way; the curving +mile of flume, fallen into the stream, and, crushed and dammed against +the opposite shore, had absolutely turned the whole river through the +half-finished ditch and partly excavated mine in its way, a few rods +further on to join the old familiar channel. The bank of the river was +changed; the flat had become an island, between which and the slope +where she stood the North Fork was rolling its resistless yellow +torrent. As she gazed spellbound, a portion of the slope beneath her +suddenly seemed to sink and crumble, and was swallowed up in the rushing +stream. She heard a cry of warning behind her, but, rooted to the spot +by a fearful fascination, she heeded it not. + +Again there was a sudden disruption, and another part of the slope sank +to rise no more; but this time she felt herself seized by the waist and +dragged back. It was her father standing by her side. + +He was flushed and excited, gazing at the water with a strange +exultation. + +"Do you see it? Do you know what has happened?" he asked quickly. + +"The flume has fallen and turned the river," said Christie hurriedly. +"But--have you seen him--is he safe?" + +"He--who?" he answered vacantly. + +"George Kearney!" + +"He is safe," he said impatiently. "But, do you see, Christie? Do you +know what this means?" + +He pointed with his tremulous hand to the stream before them. + +"It means we are ruined," said Christie coldly. + +"Nothing of the kind! It means that the river is doing the work of the +flume. It is sluicing off the gravel, deepening the ditch, and altering +the slope which was the old bend of the river. It will do in ten minutes +the work that would take us a year. If we can stop it in time, or +control it, we are safe; but if we can not, it will carry away the bed +and deposit with the rest, and we are ruined again." + +With a gesture of impotent fury, he dashed away in the direction of an +equally excited crowd, that on a point of the slope nearer the island +were gesticulating and shouting to a second group of men, who on the +opposite shore were clambering on over the choked debris of the flume +that had dammed and diverted the current. It was evident that the same +idea had occurred to them, and they were risking their lives in the +attempt to set free the impediments. Shocked and indignant as Christie +had been at the degrading absorption of material interests at such +a moment, the element of danger lifted the labors of these men into +heroism, and she began to feel a strange exultation as she watched them. +Under the skilful blows of their axes, in a few moments the vast body +of drift began to disintegrate, and then to swing round and move towards +the old channel. A cheer went up, but as suddenly died away again. An +overlapping fringe of wreckage had caught on the point of the island and +arrested the whole mass. + +The men, who had gained the shore with difficulty, looked back with a +cry of despair. But the next moment from among them leaped a figure, +alert, buoyant, invincible, and, axe in hand, once more essayed the +passage. Springing from timber to timber, he at last reached the point +of obstruction. A few strokes of the axe were sufficient to clear it; +but at the first stroke it was apparent that the striker was also losing +his hold upon the shore, and that he must inevitably be carried away +with the tossing debris. But this consideration did not seem to affect +him; the last blow was struck, and as the freed timbers rolled on, +over and over, he boldly plunged into the flood. Christie gave a little +cry--her heart had bounded with him; it seemed as if his plunge had +splashed the water in her eyes. He did not come to the surface until he +had passed the point below where her father stood, and then struggling +feebly, as if stunned or disabled by a blow. It seemed to her that he +was trying to approach the side of the river where she was. Would he do +it? Could she help him? She was alone; he was hidden from the view of +the men on the point, and no succor could come from them. There was a +fringe of alder nearly opposite their cabin that almost overhung the +stream. She ran to it, clutched it with a frantic hand, and, leaning +over the boiling water, uttered for the first time his name: + +"George!" + +As if called to the surface by the magic of her voice, he rose a few +yards from her in mid-current, and turned his fading eyes towards the +bank. In another moment he would have been swept beyond her reach, but +with a supreme effort he turned on one side; the current, striking him +sideways, threw him towards the bank, and she caught him by his sleeve. +For an instant it seemed as if she would be dragged down with him. For +one dangerous moment she did not care, and almost yielded to the spell; +but as the rush of water pressed him against the bank, she recovered +herself, and managed to lift him beyond its reach. And then she sat +down, half-fainting, with his white face and damp curls upon her breast. + +"George, darling, speak to me! Only one word! Tell me, have I saved +you?" + +His eyes opened. A faint twinkle of the old days came to them--a boyish +smile played upon his lips. + +"For yourself--or Jessie?" + +She looked around her with a little frightened air. They were alone. +There was but one way of sealing those mischievous lips, and she found +it! + + +"That's what I allus said, gentlemen," lazily remarked Whiskey Dick, +a few weeks later, leaning back against the bar, with his glass in +his hand. "'George,' sez I, 'it ain't what you SAY to a fash'nable, +high-toned young lady; it's what you DOES ez makes or breaks you.' And +that's what I sez gin'rally o' things in the Ford. It ain't what Carr +and you boys allows to do; it's the gin'ral average o' things ez IS done +that gives tone to the hull, and hez brought this yer new luck to you +all!" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Devil's Ford, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEVIL'S FORD *** + +***** This file should be named 2286.txt or 2286.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/2286/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/2286.zip b/2286.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f38fc4 --- /dev/null +++ b/2286.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c9afac0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #2286 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2286) diff --git a/old/dvlfd10.txt b/old/dvlfd10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1102336 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dvlfd10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3233 @@ +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Devil's Ford by, Bret Harte*** +#13 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. We need your donations. + + +Devil's Ford + +by Bret Harte + +August, 2000 [Etext #2286] + + +***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Devil's Ford by, Bret Harte*** +******This file should be named dvlfd10.txt or dvlfd10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, dvlfd11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, dvlfd10a.txt. + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month, or 384 more Etexts in 1997 for a total of 1000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 100 billion Etexts given away. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +DEVIL'S FORD + +by Bret Harte + + + + +DEVIL'S FORD + + +CHAPTER I + + +It was a season of unequalled prosperity in Devil's Ford. The half +a dozen cabins scattered along the banks of the North Fork, as if +by some overflow of that capricious river, had become augmented +during a week of fierce excitement by twenty or thirty others, that +were huddled together on the narrow gorge of Devil's Spur, or cast +up on its steep sides. So sudden and violent had been the change +of fortune, that the dwellers in the older cabins had not had time +to change with it, but still kept their old habits, customs, and +even their old clothes. The flour pan in which their daily bread +was mixed stood on the rude table side by side with the +"prospecting pans," half full of gold washed up from their +morning's work; the front windows of the newer tenements looked +upon the one single thoroughfare, but the back door opened upon the +uncleared wilderness, still haunted by the misshapen bulk of bear +or the nightly gliding of catamount. + +Neither had success as yet affected their boyish simplicity and the +frankness of old frontier habits; they played with their new-found +riches with the naive delight of children, and rehearsed their +glowing future with the importance and triviality of school-boys. + +"I've bin kalklatin'," said Dick Mattingly, leaning on his long- +handled shovel with lazy gravity, "that when I go to Rome this +winter, I'll get one o' them marble sharps to chisel me a statoo o' +some kind to set up on the spot where we made our big strike. +Suthin' to remember it by, you know." + +"What kind o' statoo--Washington or Webster?" asked one of the +Kearney brothers, without looking up from his work. + +"No--I reckon one o' them fancy groups--one o' them Latin goddesses +that Fairfax is always gassin' about, sorter leadin', directin' and +bossin' us where to dig." + +"You'd make a healthy-lookin' figger in a group," responded +Kearney, critically regarding an enormous patch in Mattingly's +trousers. "Why don't you have a fountain instead?" + +"Where'll you get the water?" demanded the first speaker, in +return. "You know there ain't enough in the North Fork to do a +week's washing for the camp--to say nothin' of its color." + +"Leave that to me," said Kearney, with self-possession. "When I've +built that there reservoir on Devil's Spur, and bring the water +over the ridge from Union Ditch, there'll be enough to spare for +that." + +"Better mix it up, I reckon--have suthin' half statoo, half +fountain," interposed the elder Mattingly, better known as +"Maryland Joe," "and set it up afore the Town Hall and Free Library +I'm kalklatin' to give. Do THAT, and you can count on me." + +After some further discussion, it was gravely settled that Kearney +should furnish water brought from the Union Ditch, twenty miles +away, at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, to feed a memorial +fountain erected by Mattingly, worth a hundred thousand dollars, as +a crowning finish to public buildings contributed by Maryland Joe, +to the extent of half a million more. The disposition of these +vast sums by gentlemen wearing patched breeches awakened no sense +of the ludicrous, nor did any doubt, reservation, or contingency +enter into the plans of the charming enthusiasts themselves. The +foundation of their airy castles lay already before them in the +strip of rich alluvium on the river bank, where the North Fork, +sharply curving round the base of Devil's Spur, had for centuries +swept the detritus of gulch and canyon. They had barely crossed +the threshold of this treasure-house, to find themselves rich men; +what possibilities of affluence might be theirs when they had fully +exploited their possessions? So confident were they of that +ultimate prospect, that the wealth already thus obtained was +religiously expended in engines and machinery for the boring of +wells and the conveyance of that precious water which the exhausted +river had long since ceased to yield. It seemed as if the gold +they had taken out was by some ironical compensation gradually +making its way back to the soil again through ditch and flume and +reservoir. + +Such was the position of affairs at Devil's Ford on the 13th of +August, 1860. It was noon of a hot day. Whatever movement there +was in the stifling air was seen rather than felt in a tremulous, +quivering, upward-moving dust along the flank of the mountain, +through which the spires of the pines were faintly visible. There +was no water in the bared and burning bars of the river to reflect +the vertical sun, but under its direct rays one or two tinned roofs +and corrugated zinc cabins struck fire, a few canvas tents became +dazzling to the eye, and the white wooded corral of the stage +office and hotel insupportable. For two hours no one ventured in +the glare of the open, or even to cross the narrow, unshadowed +street, whose dull red dust seemed to glow between the lines of +straggling houses. The heated shells of these green unseasoned +tenements gave out a pungent odor of scorching wood and resin. The +usual hurried, feverish toil in the claim was suspended; the pick +and shovel were left sticking in the richest "pay gravel;" the +toiling millionaires themselves, ragged, dirty, and perspiring, lay +panting under the nearest shade, where the pipes went out +listlessly, and conversation sank to monosyllables. + +"There's Fairfax," said Dick Mattingly, at last, with a lazy +effort. His face was turned to the hillside, where a man had just +emerged from the woods, and was halting irresolutely before the +glaring expanse of upheaved gravel and glistening boulders that +stretched between him and the shaded group. "He's going to make a +break for it," he added, as the stranger, throwing his linen coat +over his head, suddenly started into an Indian trot through the +pelting sunbeams toward them. This strange act was perfectly +understood by the group, who knew that in that intensely dry heat +the danger of exposure was lessened by active exercise and the +profuse perspiration that followed it. In another moment the +stranger had reached their side, dripping as if rained upon, +mopping his damp curls and handsome bearded face with his linen +coat, as he threw himself pantingly on the ground. + +"I struck out over here first, boys, to give you a little warning," +he said, as soon as he had gained breath. "That engineer will be +down here to take charge as soon as the six o'clock stage comes in. +He's an oldish chap, has got a family of two daughters, and--I--am-- +d----d if he is not bringing them down here with him." + +"Oh, go long!" exclaimed the five men in one voice, raising +themselves on their hands and elbows, and glaring at the speaker. + +"Fact, boys! Soon as I found it out I just waltzed into that Jew +shop at the Crossing and bought up all the clothes that would be +likely to suit you fellows, before anybody else got a show. I +reckon I cleared out the shop. The duds are a little mixed in +style, but I reckon they're clean and whole, and a man might face a +lady in 'em. I left them round at the old Buckeye Spring, where +they're handy without attracting attention. You boys can go there +for a general wash-up, rig yourselves up without saying anything, +and then meander back careless and easy in your store clothes, just +as the stage is coming in, sabe?" + +"Why didn't you let us know earlier?" asked Mattingly aggrievedly; +"you've been back here at least an hour." + +"I've been getting some place ready for THEM," returned the new- +comer. "We might have managed to put the man somewhere, if he'd +been alone, but these women want family accommodation. There was +nothing left for me to do but to buy up Thompson's saloon." + +"No?" interrupted his audience, half in incredulity, half in +protestation. + +"Fact! You boys will have to take your drinks under canvas again, +I reckon! But I made Thompson let those gold-framed mirrors that +used to stand behind the bar go into the bargain, and they sort of +furnish the room. You know the saloon is one of them patent houses +you can take to pieces, and I've been reckoning you boys will have +to pitch in and help me to take the whole shanty over to the laurel +bushes, and put it up agin Kearney's cabin." + +"What's all that?" said the younger Kearney, with an odd mingling +of astonishment and bashful gratification. + +"Yes, I reckon yours is the cleanest house, because it's the +newest, so you'll just step out and let us knock in one o' the +gables, and clap it on to the saloon, and make ONE house of it, +don't you see? There'll be two rooms, one for the girls and the +other for the old man." + +The astonishment and bewilderment of the party had gradually given +way to a boyish and impatient interest. + +"Hadn't we better do the job at once?" suggested Dick Mattingly. + +"Or throw ourselves into those new clothes, so as to be ready," +added the younger Kearney, looking down at his ragged trousers. "I +say, Fairfax, what are the girls like, eh?" + +All the others had been dying to ask the question, yet one and all +laughed at the conscious manner and blushing cheek of the +questioner. + +"You'll find out quick enough," returned Fairfax, whose curt +carelessness did not, however, prevent a slight increase of color +on his own cheek. "We'd better get that job off our hands before +doing anything else. So, if you're ready, boys, we'll just waltz +down to Thompson's and pack up the shanty. He's out of it by this +time, I reckon. You might as well be perspiring to some purpose +over there as gaspin' under this tree. We won't go back to work +this afternoon, but knock off now, and call it half a day. Come! +Hump yourselves, gentlemen. Are you ready? One, two, three, and +away!" + +In another instant the tree was deserted; the figures of the five +millionaires of Devil's Ford, crossing the fierce glare of the open +space, with boyish alacrity, glistened in the sunlight, and then +disappeared in the nearest fringe of thickets. + + +CHAPTER II + + +Six hours later, when the shadow of Devil's Spur had crossed the +river, and spread a slight coolness over the flat beyond, the +Pioneer coach, leaving the summit, began also to bathe its heated +bulk in the long shadows of the descent. Conspicuous among the +dusty passengers, the two pretty and youthful faces of the +daughters of Philip Carr, mining superintendent and engineer, +looked from the windows with no little anxiety towards their future +home in the straggling settlement below, that occasionally came in +view at the turns of the long zigzagging road. A slight look of +comical disappointment passed between them as they gazed upon the +sterile flat, dotted with unsightly excrescences that stood equally +for cabins or mounds of stone and gravel. It was so feeble and +inconsistent a culmination to the beautiful scenery they had passed +through, so hopeless and imbecile a conclusion to the preparation +of that long picturesque journey, with its glimpses of sylvan and +pastoral glades and canyons, that, as the coach swept down the last +incline, and the remorseless monotony of the dead level spread out +before them, furrowed by ditches and indented by pits, under cover +of shielding their cheeks from the impalpable dust that rose +beneath the plunging wheels, they buried their faces in their +handkerchiefs, to hide a few half-hysterical tears. Happily, their +father, completely absorbed in a practical, scientific, and +approving contemplation of the topography and material resources of +the scene of his future labors, had no time to notice their +defection. It was not until the stage drew up before a rambling +tenement bearing the inscription, "Hotel and Stage Office," that he +became fully aware of it. + +"We can't stop HERE, papa," said Christie Carr decidedly, with a +shake of her pretty head. "You can't expect that." + +Mr. Carr looked up at the building; it was half grocery, half +saloon. Whatever other accommodations it contained must have been +hidden in the rear, as the flat roof above was almost level with +the raftered ceiling of the shop. + +"Certainly," he replied hurriedly; "we'll see to that in a moment. +I dare say it's all right. I told Fairfax we were coming. +Somebody ought to be here." + +"But they're not," said Jessie Carr indignantly; "and the few that +were here scampered off like rabbits to their burrows as soon as +they saw us get down." + +It was true. The little group of loungers before the building had +suddenly disappeared. There was the flash of a red shirt vanishing +in an adjacent doorway; the fading apparition of a pair of high +boots and blue overalls in another; the abrupt withdrawal of a +curly blond head from a sashless window over the way. Even the +saloon was deserted, although a back door in the dim recess seemed +to creak mysteriously. The stage-coach, with the other passengers, +had already rattled away. + +"I certainly think Fairfax understood that I--" began Mr. Carr. + +He was interrupted by the pressure of Christie's fingers on his arm +and a subdued exclamation from Jessie, who was staring down the +street. + +"What are they?" she whispered in her sister's ear. "Nigger +minstrels, a circus, or what?" + +The five millionaires of Devil's Ford had just turned the corner of +the straggling street, and were approaching in single file. One +glance was sufficient to show that they had already availed +themselves of the new clothing bought by Fairfax, had washed, and +one or two had shaved. But the result was startling. + +Through some fortunate coincidence in size, Dick Mattingly was the +only one who had achieved an entire new suit. But it was of +funereal black cloth, and although relieved at one extremity by a +pair of high riding boots, in which his too short trousers were +tucked, and at the other by a tall white hat, and cravat of +aggressive yellow, the effect was depressing. In agreeable +contrast, his brother, Maryland Joe, was attired in a thin fawn- +colored summer overcoat, lightly worn open, so as to show the +unstarched bosom of a white embroidered shirt, and a pair of +nankeen trousers and pumps. + +The Kearney brothers had divided a suit between them, the elder +wearing a tightly-fitting, single-breasted blue frock-coat and a +pair of pink striped cotton trousers, while the younger candidly +displayed the trousers of his brother's suit, as a harmonious +change to a shining black alpaca coat and crimson neckerchief. +Fairfax, who brought up the rear, had, with characteristic +unselfishness, contented himself with a French workman's blue +blouse and a pair of white duck trousers. Had they shown the least +consciousness of their finery, or of its absurdity, they would have +seemed despicable. But only one expression beamed on the five +sunburnt and shining faces--a look of unaffected boyish +gratification and unrestricted welcome. + +They halted before Mr. Carr and his daughters, simultaneously +removed their various and remarkable head coverings, and waited +until Fairfax advanced and severally presented them. Jessie Carr's +half-frightened smile took refuge in the trembling shadows of her +dark lashes; Christie Carr stiffened slightly, and looked straight +before her. + +"We reckoned--that is--we intended to meet you and the young ladies +at the grade," said Fairfax, reddening a little as he endeavored to +conceal his too ready slang, "and save you from trapesing--from +dragging yourselves up grade again to your house." + +"Then there IS a house?" said Jessie, with an alarming frank laugh +of relief, that was, however, as frankly reflected in the boyishly +appreciative eyes of the young men. + +"Such as it is," responded Fairfax, with a shade of anxiety, as he +glanced at the fresh and pretty costumes of the young women, and +dubiously regarded the two Saratoga trunks resting hopelessly on +the veranda. "I'm afraid it isn't much, for what you're accustomed +to. But," he added more cheerfully, "it will do for a day or two, +and perhaps you'll give us the pleasure of showing you the way +there now." + +The procession was quickly formed. Mr. Carr, alive only to the +actual business that had brought him there, at once took possession +of Fairfax, and began to disclose his plans for the working of the +mine, occasionally halting to look at the work already done in the +ditches, and to examine the field of his future operations. +Fairfax, not displeased at being thus relieved of a lighter +attendance on Mr. Carr's daughters, nevertheless from time to time +cast a paternal glance backwards upon their escorts, who had each +seized a handle of the two trunks, and were carrying them in +couples at the young ladies' side. The occupation did not offer +much freedom for easy gallantry, but no sign of discomfiture or +uneasiness was visible in the grateful faces of the young men. The +necessity of changing hands at times with their burdens brought a +corresponding change of cavalier at the lady's side, although it +was observed that the younger Kearney, for the sake of continuing a +conversation with Miss Jessie, kept his grasp of the handle nearest +the young lady until his hand was nearly cut through, and his arm +worn out by exhaustion. + +"The only thing on wheels in the camp is a mule wagon, and the +mules are packin' gravel from the river this afternoon," explained +Dick Mattingly apologetically to Christie, "or we'd have toted--I +mean carried--you and your baggage up to the shant--the--your +house. Give us two weeks more, Miss Carr--only two weeks to wash +up our work and realize--and we'll give you a pair of 2.40 steppers +and a skeleton buggy to meet you at the top of the hill and drive +you over to the cabin. Perhaps you'd prefer a regular carriage; +some ladies do. And a nigger driver. But what's the use of +planning anything? Afore that time comes we'll have run you up a +house on the hill, and you shall pick out the spot. It wouldn't +take long--unless you preferred brick. I suppose we could get +brick over from La Grange, if you cared for it, but it would take +longer. If you could put up for a time with something of stained +glass and a mahogany veranda--" + +In spite of her cold indignation, and the fact that she could +understand only a part of Mattingly's speech, Christie comprehended +enough to make her lift her clear eyes to the speaker, as she +replied freezingly that she feared she would not trouble them long +with her company. + +"Oh, you'll get over that," responded Mattingly, with an +exasperating confidence that drove her nearly frantic, from the +manifest kindliness of intent that made it impossible for her to +resent it. "I felt that way myself at first. Things will look +strange and unsociable for a while, until you get the hang of them. +You'll naturally stamp round and cuss a little--" He stopped in +conscious consternation. + +With ready tact, and before Christie could reply, Maryland Joe had +put down the trunk and changed hands with his brother. + +"You mustn't mind Dick, or he'll go off and kill himself with +shame," he whispered laughingly in her ear. "He means all right, +but he's picked up so much slang here that he's about forgotten how +to talk English, and it's nigh on to four years since he's met a +young lady." + +Christie did not reply. Yet the laughter of her sister in advance +with the Kearney brothers seemed to make the reserve with which she +tried to crush further familiarity only ridiculous. + +"Do you know many operas, Miss Carr?" + +She looked at the boyish, interested, sunburnt face so near to her +own, and hesitated. After all, why should she add to her other +real disappointments by taking this absurd creature seriously? + +"In what way?" she returned, with a half smile. + +"To play. On the piano, of course. There isn't one nearer here +than Sacramento; but I reckon we could get a small one by Thursday. +You couldn't do anything on a banjo?" he added doubtfully; +"Kearney's got one." + +"I imagine it would be very difficult to carry a piano over those +mountains," said Christie laughingly, to avoid the collateral of +the banjo. + +"We got a billiard-table over from Stockton," half bashfully +interrupted Dick Mattingly, struggling from his end of the trunk to +recover his composure, "and it had to be brought over in sections +on the back of a mule, so I don't see why--" He stopped short +again in confusion, at a sign from his brother, and then added, "I +mean, of course, that a piano is a heap more delicate, and +valuable, and all that sort of thing, but it's worth trying for." + +"Fairfax was always saying he'd get one for himself, so I reckon +it's possible," said Joe. + +"Does he play?" asked Christie. + +"You bet," said Joe, quite forgetting himself in his enthusiasm. +"He can snatch Mozart and Beethoven bald-headed." + +In the embarrassing silence that followed this speech the fringe of +pine wood nearest the flat was reached. Here there was a rude +"clearing," and beneath an enormous pine stood the two recently +joined tenements. There was no attempt to conceal the point of +junction between Kearney's cabin and the newly-transported saloon +from the flat--no architectural illusion of the palpable collusion +of the two buildings, which seemed to be telescoped into each +other. The front room or living room occupied the whole of +Kearney's cabin. It contained, in addition to the necessary +articles for housekeeping, a "bunk" or berth for Mr. Carr, so as to +leave the second building entirely to the occupation of his +daughters as bedroom and boudoir. + +There was a half-humorous, half-apologetic exhibition of the rude +utensils of the living room, and then the young men turned away as +the two girls entered the open door of the second room. Neither +Christie nor Jessie could for a moment understand the delicacy +which kept these young men from accompanying them into the room +they had but a few moments before decorated and arranged with their +own hands, and it was not until they turned to thank their strange +entertainers that they found that they were gone. + +The arrangement of the second room was rude and bizarre, but not +without a singular originality and even tastefulness of conception. +What had been the counter or "bar" of the saloon, gorgeous in white +and gold, now sawn in two and divided, was set up on opposite sides +of the room as separate dressing-tables, decorated with huge +bunches of azaleas, that hid the rough earthenware bowls, and gave +each table the appearance of a vestal altar. + +The huge gilt plate-glass mirror which had hung behind the bar +still occupied one side of the room, but its length was artfully +divided by an enormous rosette of red, white, and blue muslin--one +of the surviving Fourth of July decorations of Thompson's saloon. +On either side of the door two pathetic-looking, convent-like cots, +covered with spotless sheeting, and heaped up in the middle, like a +snow-covered grave, had attracted their attention. They were still +staring at them when Mr. Carr anticipated their curiosity. + +"I ought to tell you that the young men confided to me the fact +that there was neither bed nor mattress to be had on the Ford. +They have filled some flour sacks with clean dry moss from the +woods, and put half a dozen blankets on the top, and they hope you +can get along until the messenger who starts to-night for La Grange +can bring some bedding over." + +Jessie flew with mischievous delight to satisfy herself of the +truth of this marvel. "It's so, Christie," she said laughingly-- +"three flour-sacks apiece; but I'm jealous: yours are all marked +'superfine,' and mine 'middlings.'" + +Mr. Carr had remained uneasily watching Christie's shadowed face. + +"What matters?" she said drily. "The accommodation is all in +keeping." + +"It will be better in a day or two," he continued, casting a +longing look towards the door--the first refuge of masculine +weakness in an impending domestic emergency. "I'll go and see what +can be done," he said feebly, with a sidelong impulse towards the +opening and freedom. "I've got to see Fairfax again to-night any +way." + +"One moment, father," said Christie, wearily. "Did you know +anything of this place and these--these people--before you came?" + +"Certainly--of course I did," he returned, with the sudden +testiness of disturbed abstraction. "What are you thinking of? I +knew the geological strata and the--the report of Fairfax and his +partners before I consented to take charge of the works. And I can +tell you that there is a fortune here. I intend to make my own +terms, and share in it." + +"And not take a salary or some sum of money down?" said Christie, +slowly removing her bonnet in the same resigned way. + +"I am not a hired man, or a workman, Christie," said her father +sharply. "You ought not to oblige me to remind you of that." + +"But the hired men--the superintendent and his workmen--were the +only ones who ever got anything out of your last experience with +Colonel Waters at La Grange, and--and we at least lived among +civilized people there." + +"These young men are not common people, Christie; even if they have +forgotten the restraints of speech and manners, they're gentlemen." + +"Who are willing to live like--like negroes." + +"You can make them what you please." + +Christie raised her eyes. There was a certain cynical ring in her +father's voice that was unlike his usual hesitating abstraction. +It both puzzled and pained her. + +"I mean," he said hastily, "that you have the same opportunity to +direct the lives of these young men into more regular, disciplined +channels that I have to regulate and correct their foolish waste of +industry and material here. It would at least beguile the time for +you." + +Fortunately for Mr. Carr's escape and Christie's uneasiness, +Jessie, who had been examining the details of the living-room, +broke in upon this conversation. + +"I'm sure it will be as good as a perpetual picnic. George Kearney +says we can have a cooking-stove under the tree outside at the +back, and as there will be no rain for three months we can do the +cooking there, and that will give us more room for--for the piano +when it comes; and there's an old squaw to do the cleaning and +washing-up any day--and--and--it will be real fun." + +She stopped breathlessly, with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes--a +charming picture of youth and trustfulness. Mr. Carr had seized +the opportunity to escape. + +"Really, now, Christie," said Jessie confidentially, when they were +alone, and Christie had begun to unpack her trunk, and to +mechanically put her things away, "they're not so bad." + +"Who?" asked Christie. + +"Why, the Kearneys, and Mattinglys, and Fairfax, and the lot, +provided you don't look at their clothes. And think of it! they +told me--for they tell one EVERYTHING in the most alarming way-- +that those clothes were bought to please US. A scramble of things +bought at La Grange, without reference to size or style. And to +hear these creatures talk, why, you'd think they were Astors or +Rothschilds. Think of that little one with the curls--I don't +believe he is over seventeen, for all his baby moustache--says he's +going to build an assembly hall for us to give a dance in next +month; and apologizes the next breath to tell us that there isn't +any milk to be had nearer than La Grange, and we must do without +it, and use syrup in our tea to-morrow." + +"And where is all this wealth?" said Christie, forcing herself to +smile at her sister's animation. + +"Under our very feet, my child, and all along the river. Why, what +we thought was pure and simple mud is what they call 'gold-bearing +cement.'" + +"I suppose that is why they don't brush their boots and trousers, +it's so precious," returned Christie drily. "And have they ever +translated this precious dirt into actual coin?" + +"Bless you, yes. Why, that dirty little gutter, you know, that ran +along the side of the road and followed us down the hill all the +way here, that cost them--let me see--yes, nearly sixty thousand +dollars. And fancy! papa's just condemned it--says it won't do; +and they've got to build another." + +An impatient sigh from Christie drew Jessie's attention to her +troubled eyebrows. + +"Don't worry about our disappointment, dear. It isn't so very +great. I dare say we'll be able to get along here in some way, +until papa is rich again. You know they intend to make him share +with them." + +"It strikes me that he is sharing with them already," said +Christie, glancing bitterly round the cabin; "sharing everything-- +ourselves, our lives, our tastes." + +"Ye-e-s!" said Jessie, with vaguely hesitating assent. "Yes, even +these:" she showed two dice in the palm of her little hand. "I +found 'em in the drawer of our dressing-table." + +"Throw them away," said Christie impatiently. + +But Jessie's small fingers closed over the dice. "I'll give them +to the little Kearney. I dare say they were the poor boy's +playthings." + +The appearance of these relics of wild dissipation, however, had +lifted Christie out of her sublime resignation. "For Heaven's +sake, Jessie," she said, "look around and see if there is anything +more!" + +To make sure, they each began to scrimmage; the broken-spirited +Christie exhibiting both alacrity and penetration in searching +obscure corners. In the dining-room, behind the dresser, three or +four books were discovered: an odd volume of Thackeray, another of +Dickens, a memorandum-book or diary. "This seems to be Latin," +said Jessie, fishing out a smaller book. "I can't read it." + +"It's just as well you shouldn't," said Christie shortly, whose +ideas of a general classical impropriety had been gathered from +pages of Lempriere's dictionary. "Put it back directly." + +Jessie returned certain odes of one Horatius Flaccus to the corner, +and uttered an exclamation. "Oh, Christie! here are some letters +tied up with a ribbon." + +They were two or three prettily written letters, exhaling a faint +odor of refinement and of the pressed flowers that peeped from +between the loose leaves. "I see, 'My darling Fairfax.' It's from +some woman." + +"I don't think much of her, whosoever she is," said Christie, +tossing the intact packet back into the corner. + +"Nor I," echoed Jessie. + +Nevertheless, by some feminine inconsistency, evidently the +circumstance did make them think more of HIM, for a minute later, +when they had reentered their own room, Christie remarked, "The +idea of petting a man by his family name! Think of mamma ever +having called papa 'darling Carr'!" + +"Oh, but his family name isn't Fairfax," said Jessie hastily; +"that's his FIRST name, his Christian name. I forget what's his +other name, but nobody ever calls him by it." + +"Do you mean," said Christie, with glistening eyes and awful +deliberation--"do you mean to say that we're expected to fall in +with this insufferable familiarity? I suppose they'll be calling +US by our Christian names next." + +"Oh, but they do!" said Jessie, mischievously. + +"What!" + +"They call me Miss Jessie; and Kearney, the little one, asked me if +Christie played." + +"And what did you say?" + +"I said that you did," answered Jessie, with an affectation of +cherubic simplicity. "You do, dear; don't you? . . . There, don't +get angry, darling; I couldn't flare up all of a sudden in the face +of that poor little creature; he looked so absurd--and so--so +honest." + +Christie turned away, relapsing into her old resigned manner, and +assuming her household duties in a quiet, temporizing way that was, +however, without hope or expectation. + +Mr. Carr, who had dined with his friends under the excuse of not +adding to the awkwardness of the first day's housekeeping returned +late at night with a mass of papers and drawings, into which he +afterwards withdrew, but not until he had delivered himself of a +mysterious package entrusted to him by the young men for his +daughters. It contained a contribution to their board in the shape +of a silver spoon and battered silver mug, which Jessie chose to +facetiously consider as an affecting reminiscence of the youthful +Kearney's christening days--which it probably was. + +The young girls retired early to their white snow-drifts: Jessie +not without some hilarious struggles with hers, in which she was, +however, quickly surprised by the deep and refreshing sleep of +youth; Christie to lie awake and listen to the night wind, that had +changed from the first cool whispers of sunset to the sturdy breath +of the mountain. At times the frail house shook and trembled. +Wandering gusts laden with the deep resinous odors of the wood +found their way through the imperfect jointure of the two cabins, +swept her cheek and even stirred her long, wide-open lashes. A +broken spray of pine needles rustled along the roof, or a pine cone +dropped with a quick reverberating tap-tap that for an instant +startled her. Lying thus, wide awake, she fell into a dreamy +reminiscence of the past, hearing snatches of old melody in the +moving pines, fragments of sentences, old words, and familiar +epithets in the murmuring wind at her ear, and even the faint +breath of long-forgotten kisses on her cheek. She remembered her +mother--a pallid creature, who had slowly faded out of one of her +father's vague speculations in a vaguer speculation of her own, +beyond his ken--whose place she had promised to take at her +father's side. The words, "Watch over him, Christie; he needs a +woman's care," again echoed in her ears, as if borne on the night +wind from the lonely grave in the lonelier cemetery by the distant +sea. She had devoted herself to him with some little sacrifices of +self, only remembered now for their uselessness in saving her +father the disappointment that sprang from his sanguine and one- +idea'd temperament. She thought of him lying asleep in the other +room, ready on the morrow to devote those fateful qualities to the +new enterprise that with equally fateful disposition she believed +would end in failure. It did not occur to her that the doubts of +her own practical nature were almost as dangerous and illogical as +his enthusiasm, and that for that reason she was fast losing what +little influence she possessed over him. With the example of her +mother's weakness before her eyes, she had become an unsparing and +distrustful critic, with the sole effect of awakening his distrust +and withdrawing his confidence from her. + +He was beginning to deceive her as he had never deceived her +mother. Even Jessie knew more of this last enterprise than she did +herself. + +All that did not tend to decrease her utter restlessness. It was +already past midnight when she noticed that the wind had again +abated. The mountain breeze had by this time possessed the +stifling valleys and heated bars of the river in its strong, cold +embraces; the equilibrium of Nature was restored, and a shadowy +mist rose from the hollow. A stillness, more oppressive and +intolerable than the previous commotion, began to pervade the house +and the surrounding woods. She could hear the regular breathing of +the sleepers; she even fancied she could detect the faint impulses +of the more distant life in the settlement. The far-off barking of +a dog, a lost shout, the indistinct murmur of some nearer +watercourse--mere phantoms of sound--made the silence more +irritating. With a sudden resolution she arose, dressed herself +quietly and completely, threw a heavy cloak over her head and +shoulders, and opened the door between the living-room and her own. +Her father was sleeping soundly in his bunk in the corner. She +passed noiselessly through the room, opened the lightly fastened +door, and stepped out into the night. + +In the irritation and disgust of her walk hither, she had never +noticed the situation of the cabin, as it nestled on the slope at +the fringe of the woods; in the preoccupation of her disappointment +and the mechanical putting away of her things, she had never looked +once from the window of her room, or glanced backward out of the +door that she had entered. The view before her was a revelation--a +reproach, a surprise that took away her breath. Over her shoulders +the newly risen moon poured a flood of silvery light, stretching +from her feet across the shining bars of the river to the opposite +bank, and on up to the very crest of the Devil's Spur--no longer a +huge bulk of crushing shadow, but the steady exaltation of plateau, +spur, and terrace clothed with replete and unutterable beauty. In +this magical light that beauty seemed to be sustained and carried +along by the river winding at its base, lifted again to the broad +shoulder of the mountain, and lost only in the distant vista of +death-like, overcrowning snow. Behind and above where she stood +the towering woods seemed to be waiting with opened ranks to absorb +her with the little cabin she had quitted, dwarfed into +insignificance in the vast prospect; but nowhere was there another +sign or indication of human life and habitation. She looked in +vain for the settlement, for the rugged ditches, the scattered +cabins, and the unsightly heaps of gravel. In the glamour of the +moonlight they had vanished; a veil of silver-gray vapor touched +here and there with ebony shadows masked its site. A black strip +beyond was the river bank. All else was changed. With a sudden +sense of awe and loneliness she turned to the cabin and its +sleeping inmates--all that seemed left to her in the vast and +stupendous domination of rock and wood and sky. + +But in another moment the loneliness passed. A new and delicious +sense of an infinite hospitality and friendliness in their silent +presence began to possess her. This same slighted, forgotten, +uncomprehended, but still foolish and forgiving Nature seemed to be +bending over her frightened and listening ear with vague but +thrilling murmurings of freedom and independence. She felt her +heart expand with its wholesome breath, her soul fill with its +sustaining truth. + +She felt-- + +What was that? + +An unmistakable outburst of a drunken song at the foot of the +slope:-- + + + "Oh, my name it is Johnny from Pike, + I'm h-ll on a spree or a strike" . . . + + +She stopped as crimson with shame and indignation as if the +viewless singer had risen before her. + + + "I knew when to bet, and get up and get--" + + +"Hush! D--n it all. Don't you hear?" + +There was the sound of hurried whispers, a "No" and "Yes," and then +a dead silence. + +Christie crept nearer to the edge of the slope in the shadow of a +buckeye. In the clearer view she could distinguish a staggering +figure in the trail below who had evidently been stopped by two +other expostulating shadows that were approaching from the shelter +of a tree. + +"Sho!--didn't know!" + +The staggering figure endeavored to straighten itself, and then +slouched away in the direction of the settlement. The two +mysterious shadows retreated again to the tree, and were lost in +its deeper shadow. Christie darted back to the cabin, and softly +reentered her room. + +"I thought I heard a noise that woke me, and I missed you," said +Jessie, rubbing her eyes. "Did you see anything?" + +"No," said Christie, beginning to undress. + +"You weren't frightened, dear?" + +"Not in the least," said Christie, with a strange little laugh. +"Go to sleep." + + +CHAPTER III + + +The five impulsive millionaires of Devil's Ford fulfilled not a few +of their most extravagant promises. In less than six weeks Mr. +Carr and his daughters were installed in a new house, built near +the site of the double cabin, which was again transferred to the +settlement, in order to give greater seclusion to the fair guests. +It was a long, roomy, one-storied villa, with a not unpicturesque +combination of deep veranda and trellis work, which relieved the +flat monotony of the interior and the barrenness of the freshly- +cleared ground. An upright piano, brought from Sacramento, +occupied the corner of the parlor. A suite of gorgeous furniture, +whose pronounced and extravagant glories the young girls +instinctively hid under home-made linen covers, had also been +spoils from afar. Elsewhere the house was filled with ornaments +and decorations that in their incongruity forcibly recalled the +gilded plate-glass mirrors of the bedroom in the old cabin. In the +hasty furnishing of this Aladdin's palace, the slaves of the ring +had evidently seized upon anything that would add to its glory, +without reference always to fitness. + +"I wish it didn't look so cussedly like a robber's cave," said +George Kearney, when they were taking a quiet preliminary survey of +the unclassified treasures, before the Carrs took possession. + +"Or a gambling hell," said his brother reflectively. + +"It's about the same thing, I reckon," said Dick Mattingly, who was +supposed, in his fiery youth, to have encountered the similarity. + +Nevertheless, the two girls managed to bestow the heterogeneous +collection with tasteful adaptation to their needs. A crystal +chandelier, which had once lent a fascinating illusion to the game +of Monte, hung unlighted in the broad hall, where a few other +bizarre and public articles were relegated. A long red sofa or +bench, which had done duty beside a billiard-table found a place +here also. Indeed, it is to be feared that some of the more rustic +and bashful youths of Devil's Ford, who had felt it incumbent upon +them to pay their respects to the new-comers, were more at ease in +this vestibule than in the arcana beyond, whose glories they could +see through the open door. To others, it represented a recognized +state of probation before their re-entree into civilization again. +"I reckon, if you don't mind, miss," said the spokesman of one +party, "ez this is our first call, we'll sorter hang out in the +hall yer, until you'r used to us." On another occasion, one +Whiskey Dick, impelled by a sense of duty, paid a visit to the new +house and its fair occupants, in a fashion frankly recounted by him +afterwards at the bar of the Tecumseh Saloon. + +"You see, boys, I dropped in there the other night, when some of +you fellers was doin' the high-toned 'thankee, marm' business in +the parlor. I just came to anchor in the corner of the sofy in the +hall, without lettin' on to say that I was there, and took up a +Webster's dictionary that was on the table and laid it open-- +keerless like, on my knees, ez if I was sorter consultin' it--and +kinder dozed off there, listenin' to you fellows gassin' with the +young ladies, and that yer Miss Christie just snakin' music outer +that pianner, and I reckon I fell asleep. Anyhow, I was there nigh +on to two hours. It's mighty soothin', them fashionable calls; +sorter knocks the old camp dust outer a fellow, and sets him up +again." + +It would have been well if the new life of the Devil's Ford had +shown no other irregularity than the harmless eccentricities of its +original locaters. But the news of its sudden fortune, magnified +by report, began presently to flood the settlement with another +class of adventurers. A tide of waifs, strays, and malcontents of +old camps along the river began to set towards Devil's Ford, in +very much the same fashion as the debris, drift, and alluvium had +been carried down in bygone days and cast upon its banks. A few +immigrant wagons, diverted from the highways of travel by the fame +of the new diggings, halted upon the slopes of Devil's Spur and on +the arid flats of the Ford, and disgorged their sallow freight of +alkali-poisoned, prematurely-aged women and children and maimed and +fever-stricken men. Against this rude form of domesticity were +opposed the chromo-tinted dresses and extravagant complexions of a +few single unattended women--happily seen more often at night +behind gilded bars than in the garish light of day--and an equal +number of pale-faced, dark-moustached, well-dressed, and +suspiciously idle men. A dozen rivals of Thompson's Saloon had +sprung up along the narrow main street. There were two new hotels-- +one a "Temperance House," whose ascetic quality was confined only +to the abnegation of whiskey--a rival stage office, and a small +one-storied building, from which the "Sierran Banner" fluttered +weekly, for "ten dollars a year, in advance." Insufferable in the +glare of a Sabbath sun, bleak, windy, and flaring in the gloom of a +Sabbath night, and hopelessly depressing on all days of the week, +the First Presbyterian Church lifted its blunt steeple from the +barrenest area of the flats, and was hideous! The civic +improvements so enthusiastically contemplated by the five +millionaires in the earlier pages of this veracious chronicle--the +fountain, reservoir, town-hall, and free library--had not yet been +erected. Their sites had been anticipated by more urgent buildings +and mining works, unfortunately not considered in the sanguine +dreams of the enthusiasts, and, more significant still, their cost +and expense had been also anticipated by the enormous outlay of +their earnings in the work upon Devil's Ditch. + +Nevertheless, the liberal fulfilment of their promise in the new +house in the suburbs blinded the young girls' eyes to their +shortcomings in the town. Their own remoteness and elevation above +its feverish life kept them from the knowledge of much that was +strange, and perhaps disturbing to their equanimity. As they did +not mix with the immigrant women--Miss Jessie's good-natured +intrusion into one of their half-nomadic camps one day having been +met with rudeness and suspicion--they gradually fell into the way +of trusting the responsibility of new acquaintances to the hands of +their original hosts, and of consulting them in the matter of local +recreation. It thus occurred that one day the two girls, on their +way to the main street for an hour's shopping at the Villa de Paris +and Variety Store, were stopped by Dick Mattingly a few yards from +their house, with the remark that, as the county election was then +in progress, it would be advisable for them to defer their +intention for a few hours. As he did not deem it necessary to add +that two citizens, in the exercise of a freeman's franchise, had +been supplementing their ballots with bullets, in front of an +admiring crowd, they knew nothing of that accident that removed +from Devil's Ford an entertaining stranger, who had only the night +before partaken of their hospitality. + +A week or two later, returning one morning from a stroll in the +forest, Christie and Jessie were waylaid by George Kearney and +Fairfax, and, under pretext of being shown a new and romantic +trail, were diverted from the regular path. This enabled Mattingly +and Maryland Joe to cut down the body of a man hanged by the +Vigilance Committee a few hours before on the regular trail, and to +remonstrate with the committee on the incompatibility of such +exhibitions with a maidenly worship of nature. + +"With the whole county to hang a man in," expostulated Joe, "you +might keep clear of Carr's woods." + +It is needless to add that the young girls never knew of this act +of violence, or the delicacy that kept them in ignorance of it. +Mr. Carr was too absorbed in business to give heed to what he +looked upon as a convulsion of society as natural as a geological +upheaval, and too prudent to provoke the criticism of his daughters +by comment in their presence. + +An equally unexpected confidence, however, took its place. Mr. +Carr having finished his coffee one morning, lingered a moment over +his perfunctory paternal embraces, with the awkwardness of a +preoccupied man endeavoring by the assumption of a lighter interest +to veil another abstraction. + +"And what are we doing to-day, Christie?" he asked, as Jessie left +the dining-room. + +"Oh, pretty much the usual thing--nothing in particular. If George +Kearney gets the horses from the summit, we're going to ride over +to Indian Spring to picnic. Fairfax--Mr. Munroe--I always forget +that man's real name in this dreadfully familiar country--well, +he's coming to escort us, and take me, I suppose--that is, if +Kearney takes Jessie." + +"A very nice arrangement," returned her father, with a slight +nervous contraction of the corners of his mouth and eyelids to +indicate mischievousness. "I've no doubt they'll both be here. +You know they usually are--ha! ha! And what about the two +Mattinglys and Philip Kearney, eh?" he continued; "won't they be +jealous?" + +"It isn't their turn," said Christie carelessly; "besides, they'll +probably be there." + +"And I suppose they're beginning to be resigned," said Carr, +smiling. + +"What on earth are you talking of, father?" + +She turned her clear brown eyes upon him, and was regarding him +with such manifest unconsciousness of the drift of his speech, and, +withal, a little vague impatience of his archness, that Mr. Carr +was feebly alarmed. It had the effect of banishing his assumed +playfulness, which made his serious explanation the more +irritating. + +"Well, I rather thought that--that young Kearney was paying +considerable attention to--to--to Jessie," replied her father, with +hesitating gravity. + +"What! that boy?" + +"Young Kearney is one of the original locators, and an equal +partner in the mine. A very enterprising young fellow. In fact, +much more advanced and bolder in his conceptions than the others. +I find no difficulty with him." + +At another time Christie would have questioned the convincing +quality of this proof, but she was too much shocked at her father's +first suggestion, to think of anything else. + +"You don't mean to say, father, that you are talking seriously of +these men--your friends--whom we see every day--and our only +company?" + +"No, no!" said Mr. Carr hastily; "you misunderstand. I don't +suppose that Jessie or you--" + +"Or ME! Am I included?" + +"You don't let me speak, Christie. I mean, I am not talking +seriously," continued Mr. Carr, with his most serious aspect, "of +you and Jessie in this matter; but it may be a serious thing to +these young men to be thrown continually in the company of two +attractive girls." + +"I understand--you mean that we should not see so much of them," +said Christie, with a frank expression of relief so genuine as to +utterly discompose her father. "Perhaps you are right, though I +fail to discover anything serious in the attentions of young +Kearney to Jessie--or--whoever it may be--to me. But it will be +very easy to remedy it, and see less of them. Indeed, we might +begin to-day with some excuse." + +"Yes--certainly. Of course!" said Mr. Carr, fully convinced of his +utter failure, but, like most weak creatures, consoling himself +with the reflection that he had not shown his hand or committed +himself. "Yes; but it would perhaps be just as well for the +present to let things go on as they were. We'll talk of it again-- +I'm in a hurry now," and, edging himself through the door, he +slipped away. + +"What do you think is father's last idea?" said Christie, with, I +fear, a slight lack of reverence in her tone, as her sister +reentered the room. "He thinks George Kearney is paying you too +much attention." + +"No!" said Jessie, replying to her sister's half-interrogative, +half-amused glance with a frank, unconscious smile. + +"Yes, and he says that Fairfax--I think it's Fairfax--is equally +fascinated with ME." + +Jessie's brow slightly contracted as she looked curiously at her +sister. + +"Of all things," she said, "I wonder if any one has put that idea +into his dear old head. He couldn't have thought it himself." + +"I don't know," said Christie musingly; "but perhaps it's just as +well if we kept a little more to ourselves for a while." + +"Did father say so?" said Jessie quickly. + +"No, but that is evidently what he meant." + +"Ye-es," said Jessie slowly, "unless--" + +"Unless what?" said Christie sharply. "Jessie, you don't for a +moment mean to say that you could possibly conceive of anything +else?" + +"I mean to say," said Jessie, stealing her arm around her sister's +waist demurely, "that you are perfectly right. We'll keep away +from these fascinating Devil's Forders, and particularly the +youngest Kearney. I believe there has been some ill-natured +gossip. I remember that the other day, when we passed the shanty +of that Pike County family on the slope, there were three women at +the door, and one of them said something that made poor little +Kearney turn white and pink alternately, and dance with suppressed +rage. I suppose the old lady--M'Corkle, that's her name--would +like to have a share of our cavaliers for her Euphemy and Mamie. I +dare say it's only right; I would lend them the cherub +occasionally, and you might let them have Mr. Munroe twice a week." + +She laughed, but her eyes sought her sister's with a certain +watchfulness of expression. + +Christie shrugged her shoulders, with a suggestion of disgust. + +"Don't joke. We ought to have thought of all this before." + +"But when we first knew them, in the dear old cabin, there wasn't +any other woman and nobody to gossip, and that's what made it so +nice. I don't think so very much of civilization, do you?" said +the young lady pertly. + +Christie did not reply. Perhaps she was thinking the same thing. +It certainly had been very pleasant to enjoy the spontaneous and +chivalrous homage of these men, with no further suggestion of +recompense or responsibility than the permission to be worshipped; +but beyond that she racked her brain in vain to recall any look or +act that proclaimed the lover. These men, whom she had found so +relapsed into barbarism that they had forgotten the most ordinary +forms of civilization; these men, even in whose extravagant +admiration there was a certain loss of self-respect, that as a +woman she would never forgive; these men, who seemed to belong to +another race--impossible! Yet it was so. + +"What construction must they have put upon her father's acceptance +of their presents--of their company--of her freedom in their +presence? No! they must have understood from the beginning that +she and her sister had never looked upon them except as transient +hosts and chance acquaintances. Any other idea was preposterous. +And yet--" + +It was the recurrence of this "yet" that alarmed her. For she +remembered now that but for their slavish devotion they might claim +to be her equal. According to her father's account, they had come +from homes as good as their own; they were certainly more than her +equal in fortune; and her father had come to them as an employee, +until they had taken him into partnership. If there had only been +sentiment of any kind connected with any of them! But they were +all alike, brave, unselfish, humorous--and often ridiculous. If +anything, Dick Mattingly was funniest by nature, and made her laugh +more. Maryland Joe, his brother, told better stories (sometimes of +Dick), though not so good a mimic as the other Kearney, who had a +fairly sympathetic voice in singing. They were all good-looking +enough; perhaps they set store on that--men are so vain. + +And as for her own rejected suitor, Fairfax Munroe, except for a +kind of grave and proper motherliness about his protecting manner, +he absolutely was the most indistinctive of them all. He had once +brought her some rare tea from the Chinese camp, and had taught her +how to make it; he had cautioned her against sitting under the +trees at nightfall; he had once taken off his coat to wrap around +her. Really, if this were the only evidence of devotion that could +be shown, she was safe! + +"Well," said Jessie, "it amuses you, I see." + +Christie checked the smile that had been dimpling the cheek nearest +Jessie, and turned upon her the face of an elder sister. + +"Tell me, have YOU noticed this extraordinary attention of Mr. +Munroe to me?" + +"Candidly?" asked Jessie, seating herself comfortably on the table +sideways, and endeavoring, to pull her skirt over her little feet. +"Honest Injun?" + +"Don't be idiotic, and, above all, don't be slangy! Of course, +candidly." + +"Well, no. I can't say that I have." + +"Then," said Christie, "why in the name of all that's preposterous, +do they persist in pairing me off with the least interesting man of +the lot?" + +Jessie leaped from the table. + +"Come now," she said, with a little nervous laugh, "he's not so bad +as all that. You don't know him. But what does it matter now, as +long as we're not going to see them any more?" + +"They're coming here for the ride to-day," said Christie +resignedly. "Father thought it better not to break it off at +once." + +"Father thought so!" echoed Jessie, stopping with her hand on the +door. + +"Yes; why do you ask?" + +But Jessie had already left the room, and was singing in the hall. + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The afternoon did not, however, bring their expected visitors. It +brought, instead, a brief note by the hands of Whiskey Dick from +Fairfax, apologizing for some business that kept him and George +Kearney from accompanying the ladies. It added that the horses +were at the disposal of themselves and any escort they might +select, if they would kindly give the message to Whiskey Dick. + +The two girls looked at each other awkwardly; Jessie did not +attempt to conceal a slight pout. + +"It looks as if they were anticipating us," she said, with a half- +forced smile. "I wonder, now, if there really has been any gossip? +But no! They wouldn't have stopped for that, unless--" She looked +curiously at her sister. + +"Unless what?" repeated Christie; "you are horribly mysterious this +morning." + +"Am I? It's nothing. But they're wanting an answer. Of course +you'll decline." + +"And intimate we only care for their company! No! We'll say we're +sorry they can't come, and--accept their horses. We can do without +an escort, we two." + +"Capital!" said Jessie, clapping her hands. "We'll show them--" + +"We'll show them nothing," interrupted Christie decidedly. "In our +place there's only the one thing to do. Where is this--Whiskey +Dick?" + +"In the parlor." + +"The parlor!" echoed Christie. "Whiskey Dick? What--is he--" + +"Yes; he's all right," said Jessie confidently. "He's been here +before, but he stayed in the hall; he was so shy. I don't think +you saw him." + +"I should think not--Whiskey Dick!" + +"Oh, you can call him Mr. Hall, if you like," said Jessie, +laughing. "His real name is Dick Hall. If you want to be funny, +you can say Alky Hall, as the others do." + +Christie's only reply to this levity was a look of superior +resignation as she crossed the hall and entered the parlor. + +Then ensued one of those surprising, mystifying, and utterly +inexplicable changes that leave the masculine being so helpless in +the hands of his feminine master. Before Christie opened the door +her face underwent a rapid transformation: the gentle glow of a +refined woman's welcome suddenly beamed in her interested eyes; the +impulsive courtesy of an expectant hostess eagerly seizing a long- +looked-for opportunity broke in a smile upon her lips as she swept +across the room, and stopped with her two white outstretched hands +before Whiskey Dick. + +It needed only the extravagant contrast presented by that gentleman +to complete the tableau. Attired in a suit of shining black +alpaca, the visitor had evidently prepared himself with some care +for a possible interview. He was seated by the French window +opening upon the veranda, as if to secure a retreat in case of an +emergency. Scrupulously washed and shaven, some of the soap +appeared to have lingered in his eyes and inflamed the lids, even +while it lent a sleek and shining lustre, not unlike his coat, to +his smooth black hair. Nevertheless, leaning back in his chair, he +had allowed a large white handkerchief to depend gracefully from +his fingers--a pose at once suggesting easy and elegant langour. + +"How kind of you to give me an opportunity to make up for my +misfortune when you last called! I was so sorry to have missed +you. But it was entirely my fault! You were hurried, I think--you +conversed with others in the hall--you--" + +She stopped to assist him to pick up the handkerchief that had +fallen, and the Panama hat that had rolled from his lap towards the +window when he had started suddenly to his feet at the apparition +of grace and beauty. As he still nervously retained the two hands +he had grasped, this would have been a difficult feat, even had he +not endeavored at the same moment, by a backward furtive kick, to +propel the hat out of the window, at which she laughingly broke +from his grasp and flew to the rescue. + +"Don't mind it, miss," he said hurriedly. "It is not worth your +demeaning yourself to touch it. Leave it outside thar, miss. I +wouldn't have toted it in, anyhow, if some of those high-falutin' +fellows hadn't allowed, the other night, ez it were the reg'lar +thing to do; as if, miss, any gentleman kalkilated to ever put on +his hat in the house afore a lady!" + +But Christie had already possessed herself of the unlucky object, +and had placed it upon the table. This compelled Whiskey Dick to +rise again, and as an act of careless good breeding to drop his +handkerchief in it. He then leaned one elbow upon the piano, and, +crossing one foot over the other, remained standing in an attitude +he remembered to have seen in the pages of an illustrated paper as +portraying the hero in some drawing-room scene. It was easy and +effective, but seemed to be more favorable to revery than +conversation. Indeed, he remembered that he had forgotten to +consult the letterpress as to which it represented. + +"I see you agree with me, that politeness is quite a matter of +intention," said Christie, "and not of mere fashion and rules. +Now, for instance," she continued, with a dazzling smile, "I +suppose, according to the rules, I ought to give you a note to Mr. +Munroe, accepting his offer. That is all that is required; but it +seems so much nicer, don't you think, to tell it to YOU for HIM, +and have the pleasure of your company and a little chat at the same +time." + +"That's it, that's just it, Miss Carr; you've hit it in the centre +this time," said Whiskey Dick, now quite convinced that his +attitude was not intended for eloquence, and shifting back to his +own seat, hat and all; "that's tantamount to what I said to the +boys just now. 'You want an excuse,' sez I, 'for not goin' out +with the young ladies. So, accorden' to rules, you writes a letter +allowin' buzziness and that sorter thing detains you. But wot's +the facts? You're a gentleman, and as gentlemen you and George +comes to the opinion that you're rather playin' it for all it's +worth in this yer house, you know--comin' here night and day, off +and on, reg'lar sociable and fam'ly like, and makin' people talk +about things they ain't any call to talk about, and, what's a +darned sight more, YOU FELLOWS ain't got any right YET to allow 'em +to talk about, d'ye see?" he paused, out of breath. + +It was Miss Christie's turn to move about. In changing her seat to +the piano-stool, so as to be nearer her visitor, she brushed down +some loose music, which Whiskey Dick hastened to pick up. + +"Pray don't mind it," she said, "pray don't, really--let it be--" +But Whiskey Dick, feeling himself on safe ground in this attention, +persisted to the bitter end of a disintegrated and well-worn +"Travatore." "So that is what Mr. Munroe said," she remarked +quietly. + +"Not just then, in course, but it's what's bin on his mind and in +his talk for days off and on," returned Dick, with a knowing smile +and a nod of mysterious confidence. "Bless your soul, Miss Carr, +folks like you and me don't need to have them things explained. +That's what I said to him, sez I. 'Don't send no note, but just go +up there and hev it out fair and square, and say what you do mean.' +But they would hev the note, and I kalkilated to bring it. But +when I set my eyes on you, and heard you express yourself as you +did just now, I sez to myself, sez I, 'Dick, yer's a young lady, +and a fash'nable lady at that, ez don't go foolin' round on rules +and etiketts'--excuse my freedom, Miss Carr--'and you and her, sez +I, 'kin just discuss this yer matter in a sociable, off-hand, +fash'nable way.' They're a good lot o' boys, Miss Carr, a square +lot--white men all of 'em; but they're a little soft and green, may +be, from livin' in these yer pine woods along o' the other sap. +They just worship the ground you and your sister tread on--certain! +of course! of course!" he added hurriedly, recognizing Christie's +half-conscious, deprecating gesture with more exaggerated +deprecation. "I understand. But what I wanter say is that they'd +be willin' to be that ground, and lie down and let you walk over +them--so to speak, Miss Carr, so to speak--if it would keep the hem +of your gown from gettin' soiled in the mud o' the camp. But it +wouldn't do for them to make a reg'lar curderoy road o' themselves +for the houl camp to trapse over, on the mere chance of your some +time passin' that way, would it now?" + +"Won't you let me offer you some refreshment, Mr. Hall?" said +Christie, rising, with a slight color. "I'm really ashamed of my +forgetfulness again, but I'm afraid it's partly YOUR fault for +entertaining me to the exclusion of yourself. No, thank you, let +me fetch it for you." + +She turned to a handsome sideboard near the door, and presently +faced him again with a decanter of whiskey and a glass in her hand, +and a return of the bewitching smile she had worn on entering. + +"But perhaps you don't take whiskey?" suggested the arch deceiver, +with a sudden affected but pretty perplexity of eye, brow, and +lips. + +For the first time in his life Whiskey Dick hesitated between two +forms of intoxication. But he was still nervous and uneasy; habit +triumphed, and he took the whiskey. He, however, wiped his lips +with a slight wave of his handkerchief, to support a certain easy +elegance which he firmly believed relieved the act of any vulgar +quality. + +"Yes, ma'am," he continued, after an exhilarated pause. "Ez I said +afore, this yer's a matter you and me can discuss after the fashion +o' society. My idea is that these yer boys should kinder let up on +you and Miss Jessie for a while, and do a little more permiskus +attention round the Ford. There's one or two families yer with +grown-up gals ez oughter be squared; that is--the boys mighter put +in a few fancy touches among them--kinder take 'em buggy riding--or +to church--once in a while--just to take the pizen outer their +tongues, and make a kind o' bluff to the parents, d'ye see? That +would sorter divert their own minds; and even if it didn't, it +would kinder get 'em accustomed agin to the old style and their own +kind. I want to warn ye agin an idea that might occur to you in a +giniral way. I don't say you hev the idea, but it's kind o' +nat'ral you might be thinkin' of it some time, and I thought I'd +warn you agin it." + +"I think we understand each other too well to differ much, Mr. +Hall," said Christie, still smiling; "but what is the idea?" + +The delicate compliment to their confidential relations and the +slight stimulus of liquor had tremulously exalted Whiskey Dick. +Affecting to look cautiously out of the window and around the room, +he ventured to draw nearer the young woman with a half-paternal, +half-timid familiarity. + +"It might have occurred to you," he said, laying his handkerchief +as if to veil mere vulgar contact, on Christie's shoulder, "that it +would be a good thing on YOUR side to invite down some of your +high-toned gentlemen friends from 'Frisco to visit you and escort +you round. It seems quite nat'ral like, and I don't say it ain't, +but--the boys wouldn't stand for it." + +In spite of her self-possession, Christie's eyes suddenly darkened, +and she involuntarily drew herself up. But Whiskey Dick, guiltily +attributing the movement to his own indiscreet gesture, said, +"Excuse me, miss," recovered himself by lightly dusting her +shoulder with his handkerchief, as if to remove the impression, and +her smile returned. + +"They wouldn't stand for it," said Dick, "and there'd be some +shooting! Not afore you, miss--not afore you, in course! But +they'd adjourn to the woods some morning with them city folks, and +hev it out with rifles at a hundred yards. Or, seein' ez they're +city folks, the boys would do the square thing with pistols at +twelve paces. They're good boys, as I said afore; but they're +quick and tetchy--George, being the youngest, nat'rally is the +tetchiest. You know how it is, Miss Carr; his pretty, gal-like +face and little moustaches haz cost him half a dozen scrimmages +already. He'z had a fight for every hair that's growed in his +moustache since he kem here." + +"Say no more, Mr. Hall!" said Christie, rising and pressing her +hands lightly on Dick's tremulous fingers. "If I ever had any such +idea, I should abandon it now; you are quite right in this as in +your other opinions. I shall never cease to be thankful to Mr. +Munroe and Mr. Kearney that they intrusted this delicate matter to +your hands." + +"Well," said the gratified and reddening visitor, "it ain't perhaps +the square thing to them or myself to say that they reckoned to +have me discuss their delicate affairs for them, but--" + +"I understand," interrupted Christie. "They simply gave you the +letter as a friend. It was my good fortune to find you a +sympathizing and liberal man of the world." The delighted Dick, +with conscious vanity beaming from every feature of his shining +face, lightly waved the compliment aside with his handkerchief, as +she continued, "But I am forgetting the message. We accept the +horses. Of course we COULD do without an escort; but forgive my +speaking so frankly, are YOU engaged this afternoon?" + +"Excuse me, miss, I don't take--" stammered Dick, scarcely +believing his ears. + +"Could you give us your company as an escort?" repeated Christie +with a smile. + +Was he awake or dreaming, or was this some trick of liquor in his +often distorted fancy? He, Whiskey Dick! the butt of his friends, +the chartered oracle of the barrooms, even in whose wretched vanity +there was always the haunting suspicion that he was despised and +scorned; he, who had dared so much in speech, and achieved so +little in fact! he, whose habitual weakness had even led him into +the wildest indiscretion here; he--now offered a reward for that +indiscretion! He, Whiskey Dick, the solicited escort of these two +beautiful and peerless girls! What would they say at the Ford? +What would his friends think? It would be all over the Ford the +next day. His past would be vindicated, his future secured. He +grew erect at the thought. It was almost in other voice, and with +no trace of his previous exaggeration, that he said, "With +pleasure." + +"Then, if you will bring the horses at once, we shall be ready when +you return." + +In another instant he had vanished, as if afraid to trust the +reality of his good fortune to the dangers of delay. At the end of +half an hour he reappeared, leading the two horses, himself mounted +on a half-broken mustang. A pair of large, jingling silver spurs +and a stiff sombrero, borrowed with the mustang from some +mysterious source, were donned to do honor to the occasion. + +The young girls were not yet ready, but he was shown by the Chinese +servant into the parlor to wait for them. The decanter of whiskey +and glasses were still invitingly there. He was hot, trembling, +and flushed with triumph. He walked to the table and laid his hand +on the decanter, when an odd thought flashed upon him. He would +not drink this time. No, it should not be said that he, the +selected escort of the elite of Devil's Ford, had to fill himself +up with whiskey before they started. The boys might turn to each +other in their astonishment, as he proudly passed with his fair +companions, and say, "It's Whiskey Dick," but he'd be d----d if they +should add, "and full as ever." No, sir! Nor when he was riding +beside these real ladies, and leaning over them at some +confidential moment, should they even know it from his breath! +No. . . . Yet a thimbleful, taken straight, only a thimbleful, +wouldn't be much, and might help to pull him together. He again +reached his trembling hand for the decanter, hesitated, and then, +turning his back upon it, resolutely walked to the open window. +Almost at the same instant he found himself face to face with +Christie on the veranda. + +She looked into his bloodshot eyes, and cast a swift glance at the +decanter. + +"Won't you take something before you go?" she said sweetly. + +"I--reckon--not, jest now," stammered Whiskey Dick, with a heroic +effort. + +"You're right," said Christie. "I see you are like me. It's too +hot for anything fiery. Come with me." + +She led him into the dining-room, and pouring out a glass of iced +tea handed it to him. Poor Dick was not prepared for this terrible +culmination. Whiskey Dick and iced tea! But under pretence of +seeing if it was properly flavored, Christie raised it to her own +lips. + +"Try it, to please me." + +He drained the goblet. + +"Now, then," said Christie gayly, "let's find Jessie, and be off!" + + +CHAPTER V + + +Whatever might have been his other deficiencies as an escort, +Whiskey Dick was a good horseman, and, in spite of his fractious +brute, exhibited such skill and confidence as to at once satisfy +the young girls of his value to them in the management of their own +horses, to whom side-saddles were still an alarming novelty. +Jessie, who had probably already learned from her sister the +purport of Dick's confidences, had received him with equal +cordiality and perhaps a more unqualified amusement; and now, when +fairly lifted into the saddle by his tremulous but respectful +hands, made a very charming picture of youthful and rosy +satisfaction. And when Christie, more fascinating than ever in her +riding-habit, took her place on the other side of Dick, as they +sallied from the gate, that gentleman felt his cup of happiness +complete. His triumphal entree into the world of civilization and +fashion was secure. He did not regret the untasted liquor; here +was an experience in after years to lean his back against +comfortably in bar-rooms, to entrance or defy mankind. He had even +got so far as to formulate in fancy the sentence: "I remember, +gentlemen, that one afternoon, being on a pasear with two +fash'nable young ladies," etc., etc. + +At present, however, he was obliged to confine himself to the +functions of an elegant guide and cicerone--when not engaged in +"having it out" with his horse. Their way lay along the slope, +crossing the high-road at right angles, to reach the deeper woods +beyond. Dick would have lingered on the highway--ostensibly to +point out to his companions the new flume that had taken the place +of the condemned ditch, but really in the hope of exposing himself +in his glory to the curious eyes of the wayfaring world. + +Unhappily the road was deserted in the still powerful sunlight, and +he was obliged to seek the cover of the woods, with a passing +compliment to the parent of his charges. Waving his hands towards +the flume, he said, "Look at that work of your father's; there +ain't no other man in Californy but Philip Carr ez would hev the +grit to hold up such a bluff agin natur and agin luck ez that yer +flume stands for. I don't say it 'cause you're his daughters, +ladies! That ain't the style, ez YOU know, in sassiety, Miss +Carr," he added, turning to Christie as the more socially +experienced. "No! but there ain't another man to be found ez could +do it. It cost already two hundred thousand; it'll cost five +hundred thousand afore it's done; and every cent of it is got out +of the yearth beneath it, or HEZ got to be out of it. 'Tain't +ev'ry man, Miss Carr, ez hev got the pluck to pledge not only what +he's got, but what he reckons to git." + +"But suppose he don't get it?" said Christie, slightly contracting +her brows. + +"Then there's the flume to show for it," said Dick. + +"But of what use is the flume, if there isn't any more gold?" +continued Christie, almost angrily. + +"That's good from YOU, miss," said Dick, giving way to a fit of +hilarity. "That's good for a fash'nable young lady--own daughter +of Philip Carr. She sez, says she," continued Dick, appealing to +the sedate pines for appreciation of Christie's rare humor, "'Wot's +the use of a flume, when gold ain't there?' I must tell that to +the boys." + +"And what's the use of the gold in the ground when the flume isn't +there to work it out?" said Jessie to her sister, with a cautioning +glance towards Dick. + +But Dick did not notice the look that passed between the sisters. +The richer humor of Jessie's retort had thrown him into convulsions +of laughter. + +"And now SHE says, wot's the use o' the gold without the flume? +'Xcuse me, ladies, but that's just puttin' the hull question that's +agitatin' this yer camp inter two speeches as clear as crystal. +There's the hull crowd outside--and some on 'em inside, like +Fairfax, hez their doubts--ez says with Miss Christie; and there's +all of us inside, ez holds Miss Jessie's views." + +"I never heard Mr. Munroe say that the flume was wrong," said +Jessie quickly. + +"Not to you, nat'rally," said Dick, with a confidential look at +Christie; "but I reckon he'd like some of the money it cost laid +out for suthin' else. But what's the odds? The gold is there, and +WE'RE bound to get it." + +Dick was the foreman of a gang of paid workmen, who had replaced +the millionaires in mere manual labor, and the WE was a polite +figure of speech. + +The conversation seemed to have taken an unfortunate turn, and both +the girls experienced a feeling of relief when they entered the +long gulch or defile that led to Indian Spring. The track now +becoming narrow, they were obliged to pass in single file along the +precipitous hillside, led by this escort. This effectually +precluded any further speech, and Christie at once surrendered +herself to the calm, obliterating influences of the forest. The +settlement and its gossip were far behind and forgotten. In the +absorption of nature, her companions passed out of her mind, even +as they sometimes passed out of her sight in the windings of the +shadowy trail. As she rode alone, the fronds of breast-high ferns +seemed to caress her with outstretched and gently-detaining hands; +strange wildflowers sprang up through the parting underbrush; even +the granite rocks that at times pressed closely upon the trail +appeared as if cushioned to her contact with star-rayed mosses, or +lightly flung after her long lassoes of delicate vines. She +recalled the absolute freedom of their al-fresco life in the old +double cabin, when she spent the greater part of her waking hours +under the mute trees in the encompassing solitude, and, half +regretting the more civilized restraints of this newer and more +ambitious abode, forgot that she had ever rebelled against it. The +social complication that threatened her now seemed to her rather +the outcome of her half-civilized parlor than of the sylvan glade. +How easy it would have been to have kept the cabin, and then to +have gone away entirely, than for her father to have allowed them +to be compromised with the growing fortunes of the settlement! The +suspicions and distrust that she had always felt of their fortunes +seemed to grow with the involuntary admission of Whiskey Dick that +they were shared by others who were practical men. She was fain to +have recourse to the prospect again to banish these thoughts, and +this opened her eyes to the fact that her companions had been +missing from the trail ahead of her for some time. She quickened +her pace slightly to reach a projecting point of rock that gave her +a more extended prospect. But they had evidently disappeared. + +She was neither alarmed nor annoyed. She could easily overtake +them soon, for they would miss her, and return or wait for her at +the spring. At the worst she would have no difficulty in retracing +her steps home. In her present mood, she could readily spare their +company; indeed she was not sorry that no other being should +interrupt that sympathy with the free woods which was beginning to +possess her. + +She was destined, however, to be disappointed. She had not +proceeded a hundred yards before she noticed the moving figure of a +man beyond her in the hillside chaparral above the trail. He +seemed to be going in the same direction as herself, and, as she +fancied, endeavoring to avoid her. This excited her curiosity to +the point of urging her horse forward until the trail broadened +into the level forest again, which she now remembered was a part of +the environs of Indian Spring. The stranger hesitated, pausing +once or twice with his back towards her, as if engaged in carefully +examining the dwarf willows to select a switch. Christie slightly +checked her speed as she drew nearer; when, as if obedient to a +sudden resolution, he turned and advanced towards her. She was +relieved and yet surprised to recognize the boyish face and figure +of George Kearney. He was quite pale and agitated, although +attempting, by a jaunty swinging of the switch he had just cut, to +assume the appearance of ease and confidence. + +Here was an opportunity. Christie resolved to profit by it. She +did not doubt that the young fellow had already passed her sister +on the trail, but, from bashfulness, had not dared to approach her. +By inviting his confidence, she would doubtless draw something from +him that would deny or corroborate her father's opinion of his +sentiments. If he was really in love with Jessie, she would learn +what reasons he had for expecting a serious culmination of his +suit, and perhaps she might be able delicately to open his eyes to +the truth. If, as she believed, it was only a boyish fancy, she +would laugh him out of it with that camaraderie which had always +existed between them. A half motherly sympathy, albeit born quite +as much from a contemplation of his beautiful yearning eyes as from +his interesting position, lightened the smile with which she +greeted him. + +"So you contrived to throw over your stupid business and join us, +after all," she said; "or was it that you changed your mind at the +last moment?" she added mischievously. "I thought only we women +were permitted that!" Indeed, she could not help noticing that +there was really a strong feminine suggestion in the shifting color +and slightly conscious eyelids of the young fellow. + +"Do young girls always change their minds?" asked George, with an +embarrassed smile. + +"Not, always; but sometimes they don't know their own mind-- +particularly if they are very young; and when they do at last, you +clever creatures of men, who have interpreted their ignorance to +please yourselves, abuse them for being fickle." She stopped to +observe the effect of what she believed a rather clear and +significant exposition of Jessie's and George's possible situation. +But she was not prepared for the look of blank resignation that +seemed to drive the color from his face and moisten the fire of his +dark eyes. + +"I reckon you're right," he said, looking down. + +"Oh! we're not accusing you of fickleness," said Christie gayly; +"although you didn't come, and we were obliged to ask Mr. Hall to +join us. I suppose you found him and Jessie just now?" + +But George made no reply. The color was slowly coming back to his +face, which, as she glanced covertly at him, seemed to have grown +so much older that his returning blood might have brought two or +three years with it. + +"Really, Mr. Kearney," she said dryly, "one would think that some +silly, conceited girl"--she was quite earnest in her epithets, for +a sudden, angry conviction of some coquetry and disingenuousness in +Jessie had come to her in contemplating its effects upon the young +fellow at her side--"some country jilt, had been trying her rustic +hand upon you." + +"She is not silly, conceited, nor countrified," said George, slowly +raising his beautiful eyes to the young girl half reproachfully. +"It is I who am all that. No, she is right, and you know it." + +Much as Christie admired and valued her sister's charms, she +thought this was really going too far. What had Jessie ever done-- +what was Jessie--to provoke and remain insensible to such a blind +devotion as this? And really, looking at him now, he was not so +VERY YOUNG for Jessie; whether his unfortunate passion had brought +out all his latent manliness, or whether he had hitherto kept his +serious nature in the background, certainly he was not a boy. And +certainly his was not a passion that he could be laughed out of. +It was getting very tiresome. She wished she had not met him--at +least until she had had some clearer understanding with her sister. +He was still walking beside her, with his hand on her bridle rein, +partly to lead her horse over some boulders in the trail, and +partly to conceal his first embarrassment. When they had fairly +reached the woods, he stopped. + +"I am going to say good-by, Miss Carr." + +"Are you not coming further? We must be near Indian Spring, now; +Mr. Hall and--and Jessie--cannot be far away. You will keep me +company until we meet them?" + +"No," he replied quietly. "I only stopped you to say good-by. I +am going away." + +"Not from Devil's Ford?" she asked, in half-incredulous astonishment. +"At least, not for long?" + +"I am not coming back," he replied. + +"But this is very abrupt," she said hurriedly, feeling that in some +ridiculous way she had precipitated an equally ridiculous +catastrophe. "Surely you are not going away in this fashion, +without saying good-by to Jessie and--and father?" + +"I shall see your father, of course--and you will give my regards +to Miss Jessie." + +He evidently was in earnest. Was there ever anything so perfectly +preposterous? She became indignant. + +"Of course," she said coldly, "I won't detain you; your business +must be urgent, and I forgot--at least I had forgotten until to- +day--that you have other duties more important than that of squire +of dames. I am afraid this forgetfulness made me think you would +not part from us in quite such a business fashion. I presume, if +you had not met me just now, we should none of us have seen you +again?" + +He did not reply. + +"Will you say good-by, Miss Carr?" + +He held out his hand. + +"One moment, Mr. Kearney. If I have said anything which you think +justifies this very abrupt leave-taking, I beg you will forgive and +forget it--or, at least, let it have no more weight with you than +the idle words of any woman. I only spoke generally. You know--I-- +I might be mistaken." + +His eyes, which had dilated when she began to speak, darkened; his +color, which had quickly come, as quickly sank when she had ended. + +"Don't say that, Miss Carr. It is not like you, and--it is +useless. You know what I meant a moment ago. I read it in your +reply. You meant that I, like others, had deceived myself. Did +you not?" + +She could not meet those honest eyes with less than equal honesty. +She knew that Jessie did not love him--would not marry him-- +whatever coquetry she might have shown. + +"I did not mean to offend you," she said hesitatingly; "I only half +suspected it when I spoke." + +"And you wish to spare me the avowal?" he said bitterly. + +"To me, perhaps, yes, by anticipating it. I could not tell what +ideas you might have gathered from some indiscreet frankness of +Jessie--or my father," she added, with almost equal bitterness. + +"I have never spoken to either," he replied quickly. He stopped, +and added, after a moment's mortifying reflection, "I've been +brought up in the woods, Miss Carr, and I suppose I have followed +my feelings, instead of the etiquette of society." + +Christie was too relieved at the rehabilitation of Jessie's +truthfulness to notice the full significance of his speech. + +"Good-by," he said again, holding out his hand. + +"Good-by!" + +She extended her own, ungloved, with a frank smile. He held it for +a moment, with his eyes fixed upon hers. Then suddenly, as if +obeying an uncontrollable impulse, he crushed it like a flower +again and again against his burning lips, and darted away. + +Christie sank back in her saddle with a little cry, half of pain +and half of frightened surprise. Had the poor boy suddenly gone +mad, or was this vicarious farewell a part of the courtship of +Devil's Ford? She looked at her little hand, which had reddened +under the pressure, and suddenly felt the flush extending to her +cheeks and the roots of her hair. This was intolerable. + +"Christie!" + +It was her sister emerging from the wood to seek her. In another +moment she was at her side. + +"We thought you were following," said Jessie. "Good heavens! how +you look! What has happened?" + +"Nothing. I met Mr. Kearney a moment ago on the trail. He is +going away, and--and--" She stopped, furious and flushing. + +"And," said Jessie, with a burst of merriment, "he told you at last +he loved you. Oh, Christie!" + + +CHAPTER VI + + +The abrupt departure of George Kearney from Devil's Ford excited +but little interest in the community, and was soon forgotten. It +was generally attributed to differences between himself and his +partners on the question of further outlay of their earnings on +mining improvements--he and Philip Carr alone representing a +sanguine minority whose faith in the future of the mine accepted +any risks. It was alleged by some that he had sold out to his +brother; it was believed by others that he had simply gone to +Sacramento to borrow money on his share, in order to continue the +improvements on his own responsibility. The partners themselves +were uncommunicative; even Whiskey Dick, who since his remarkable +social elevation had become less oracular, much to his own +astonishment, contributed nothing to the gossip except a suggestion +that as the fiery temper of George Kearney brooked no opposition, +even from his brother, it was better they should separate before +the estrangement became serious. + +Mr. Carr did not disguise his annoyance at the loss of his young +disciple and firm ally. But an unlucky allusion to his previous +remarks on Kearney's attentions to Jessie, and a querulous regret +that he had permitted a disruption of their social intimacy, +brought such an ominous and frigid opposition, not only from +Christie, but even the frivolous Jessie herself, that Carr sank +back in a crushed and terrified silence. "I only meant to say," he +stammered after a pause, in which he, however, resumed his +aggrieved manner, "that FAIRFAX seems to come here still, and HE is +not such a particular friend of mine." + +"But she is--and has your interest entirely at heart," said Jessie, +stoutly, "and he only comes here to tell us how things are going on +at the works." + +"And criticise your father, I suppose," said Mr. Carr, with an +attempt at jocularity that did not, however, disguise an irritated +suspiciousness. "He really seems to have supplanted ME as he has +poor Kearney in your estimation." + +"Now, father," said Jessie, suddenly seizing him by the shoulders +in affected indignation, but really to conceal a certain +embarrassment that sprang quite as much from her sister's quietly +observant eye as her father's speech, "you promised to let this +ridiculous discussion drop. You will make me and Christie so +nervous that we will not dare to open the door to a visitor, until +he declares his innocence of any matrimonial intentions. You don't +want to give color to the gossip that agreement with your views +about the improvements is necessary to getting on with us." + +"Who dares talk such rubbish?" said Carr, reddening; "is that the +kind of gossip that Fairfax brings here?" + +"Hardly, when it's known that he don't quite agree with you, and +DOES come here. That's the best denial of the gossip." + +Christie, who had of late loftily ignored these discussions, waited +until her father had taken his departure. + +"Then that is the reason why you still see Mr. Munroe, after what +you said," she remarked quietly to Jessie. + +Jessie, who would have liked to escape with her father, was obliged +to pause on the threshold of the door, with a pretty assumption of +blank forgetfulness in her blue eyes and lifted eyebrows. + +"Said what? when?" she asked vacantly. + +"When--when Mr. Kearney that day--in the woods--went away," said +Christie, faintly coloring. + +"Oh! THAT day," said Jessie briskly; "the day he just gloved your +hand with kisses, and then fled wildly into the forest to conceal +his emotion." + +"The day he behaved very foolishly," said Christie, with +reproachful calmness, that did not, however, prevent a suspicion of +indignant moisture in her eyes--"when you explained"-- + +"That it wasn't meant for ME," interrupted Jessie. + +"That it was to you that MR. MUNROE'S attentions were directed. +And then we agreed that it was better to prevent any further +advances of this kind by avoiding any familiar relations with +either of them." + +"Yes," said Jessie, "I remember; but you're not confounding my +seeing Fairfax occasionally now with that sort of thing. HE +doesn't kiss my hand like anything," she added, as if in abstract +reflection. + +"Nor run away, either," suggested the trodden worm, turning. + +There was an ominous silence. + +"Do you know we are nearly out of coffee?" said Jessie choking, but +moving towards the door with Spartan-like calmness. + +"Yes. And something must be done this very day about the washing," +said Christie, with suppressed emotion, going towards the opposite +entrance. + +Tears stood in each other's eyes with this terrible exchange of +domestic confidences. Nevertheless, after a moment's pause, they +deliberately turned again, and, facing each other with frightful +calmness, left the room by purposeless and deliberate exits other +than those they had contemplated--a crushing abnegation of self, +that, to some extent, relieved their surcharged feelings. + +Meantime the material prosperity of Devil's Ford increased, if a +prosperity based upon no visible foundation but the confidences and +hopes of its inhabitants could be called material. Few, if any, +stopped to consider that the improvements, buildings, and business +were simply the outlay of capital brought from elsewhere, and as +yet the settlement or town, as it was now called, had neither +produced nor exported capital of itself equal to half the amount +expended. It was true that some land was cultivated on the further +slope, some mills erected and lumber furnished from the +inexhaustible forest; but the consumers were the inhabitants +themselves, who paid for their produce in borrowed capital or +unlimited credit. It was never discovered that while all roads led +to Devil's Ford, Devil's Ford led to nowhere. The difficulties +overcome in getting things into the settlement were never +surmounted for getting things out of it. The lumber was +practically valueless for export to other settlements across the +mountain roads, which were equally rich in timber. The theory so +enthusiastically held by the original locators, that Devil's Ford +was a vast sink that had, through ages, exhausted and absorbed the +trickling wealth of the adjacent hills and valleys, was suffering +an ironical corroboration. + +One morning it was known that work was stopped at the Devil's Ford +Ditch--temporarily only, it was alleged, and many of the old +workmen simply had their labor for the present transferred to +excavating the river banks, and the collection of vast heaps of +"pay gravel." Specimens from these mounds, taken from different +localities, and at different levels, were sent to San Francisco for +more rigid assay and analysis. It was believed that this would +establish the fact of the permanent richness of the drifts, and not +only justify past expenditure, but a renewed outlay of credit and +capital. The suspension of engineering work gave Mr. Carr an +opportunity to visit San Francisco on general business of the mine, +which could not, however, prevent him from arranging further +combinations with capital. His two daughters accompanied him. It +offered an admirable opportunity for a shopping expedition, a +change of scene, and a peaceful solution of their perplexing and +anomalous social relations with Devil's Ford. In the first flush +of gratitude to their father for this opportune holiday, something +of harmony had been restored to the family circle that had of late +been shaken by discord. + +But their sanguine hopes of enjoyment were not entirely fulfilled. +Both Jessie and Christie were obliged to confess to a certain +disappointment in the aspect of the civilization they were now +reentering. They at first attributed it to the change in their own +habits during the last three months, and their having become +barbarous and countrified in their seclusion. Certainly in the +matter of dress they were behind the fashions as revealed in +Montgomery Street. But when the brief solace afforded them by the +modiste and dressmaker was past, there seemed little else to be +gained. They missed at first, I fear, the chivalrous and loyal +devotion that had only amused them at Devil's Ford, and were the +more inclined, I think, to distrust the conscious and more +civilized gallantry of the better dressed and more carefully +presented men they met. For it must be admitted that, for obvious +reasons, their criticisms were at first confined to the sex they +had been most in contact with. They could not help noticing that +the men were more eager, annoyingly feverish, and self-asserting in +their superior elegance and external show than their old associates +were in their frank, unrestrained habits. It seemed to them that +the five millionaires of Devil's Ford, in their radical simplicity +and thoroughness, were perhaps nearer the type of true +gentlemanhood than these citizens who imitated a civilization they +were unable yet to reach. + +The women simply frightened them, as being, even more than the men, +demonstrative and excessive in their fine looks, their fine +dresses, their extravagant demand for excitement. In less than a +week they found themselves regretting--not the new villa on the +slope of Devil's Ford, which even in its own bizarre fashion was +exceeded by the barbarous ostentation of the villas and private +houses around them--but the double cabin under the trees, which now +seemed to them almost aristocratic in its grave simplicity and +abstention. In the mysterious forests of masts that thronged the +city's quays they recalled the straight shafts of the pines on +Devil's slopes, only to miss the sedate repose and infinite calm +that used to environ them. In the feverish, pulsating life of the +young metropolis they often stopped oppressed, giddy, and choking; +the roar of the streets and thoroughfares was meaningless to them, +except to revive strange memories of the deep, unvarying monotone +of the evening wind over their humbler roof on the Sierran +hillside. Civic bred and nurtured as they were, the recurrence of +these sensations perplexed and alarmed them. + +"It seems so perfectly ridiculous," said Jessie, "for us to feel as +out of place here as that Pike County servant girl in Sacramento +who had never seen a steamboat before; do you know, I quite had a +turn the other day at seeing a man on the Stockton wharf in a red +shirt, with a rifle on his shoulder." + +"And you wanted to go and speak to him?" said Christie, with a sad +smile. + +"No, that's just it; I felt awfully hurt and injured that he did +not come up and speak to ME! I wonder if we got any fever or that +sort of thing up there; it makes one quite superstitious." + +Christie did not reply; more than once before she had felt that +inexplicable misgiving. It had sometimes seemed to her that she +had never been quite herself since that memorable night when she +had slipped out of their sleeping-cabin, and stood alone in the +gracious and commanding presence of the woods and hills. In the +solitude of night, with the hum of the great city rising below her-- +at times even in theatres or crowded assemblies of men and women-- +she forgot herself, and again stood in the weird brilliancy of that +moonlight night in mute worship at the foot of that slowly-rising +mystic altar of piled terraces, hanging forests, and lifted +plateaus that climbed forever to the lonely skies. Again she felt +before her the expanding and opening arms of the protecting woods. +Had they really closed upon her in some pantheistic embrace that +made her a part of them? Had she been baptized in that moonlight +as a child of the great forest? It was easy to believe in the +myths of the poets of an idyllic life under those trees, where, +free from conventional restrictions, one loved and was loved. If +she, with her own worldly experience, could think of this now, why +might not George Kearney have thought? . . . She stopped, and +found herself blushing even in the darkness. As the thought and +blush were the usual sequel of her reflections, it is to be feared +that they may have been at times the impelling cause. + +Mr. Carr, however, made up for his daughters' want of sympathy with +metropolitan life. To their astonishment, he not only plunged into +the fashionable gayeties and amusements of the town, but in dress +and manner assumed the role of a leader of society. The invariable +answer to their half-humorous comment was the necessities of the +mine, and the policy of frequenting the company of capitalists, to +enlist their support and confidence. There was something in this +so unlike their father, that what at any other time they would have +hailed as a relief to his habitual abstraction now half alarmed +them. Yet he was not dissipated--he did not drink nor gamble. +There certainly did not seem any harm in his frequenting the +society of ladies, with a gallantry that appeared to be forced and +a pleasure that to their critical eyes was certainly apocryphal. +He did not drag his daughters into the mixed society of that +period; he did not press upon them the company of those he most +frequented, and whose accepted position in that little world of +fashion was considered equal to their own. When Jessie strongly +objected to the pronounced manners of a certain widow, whose actual +present wealth and pecuniary influence condoned for a more +uncertain prehistoric past, Mr. Carr did not urge a further +acquaintance. "As long as you're not thinking of marrying again, +papa," Jessie had said finally, "I don't see the necessity of our +knowing her." "But suppose I were," had replied Mr. Carr with +affected humor. "Then you certainly wouldn't care for any one like +her," his daughter had responded triumphantly. Mr. Carr smiled, +and dropped the subject, but it is probable that his daughters' +want of sympathy with his acquaintances did not in the least +interfere with his social prestige. A gentleman in all his +relations and under all circumstances, even his cold scientific +abstraction was provocative; rich men envied his lofty ignorance of +the smaller details of money-making, even while they mistrusted his +judgment. A man still well preserved, and free from weakening +vices, he was a dangerous rival to younger and faster San +Francisco, in the eyes of the sex, who knew how to value a repose +they did not themselves possess. + +Suddenly Mr. Carr announced his intention of proceeding to +Sacramento, on further business of the mine, leaving his two +daughters in the family of a wealthy friend until he should return +for them. He opposed their ready suggestion to return to Devil's +Ford with a new and unnecessary inflexibility: he even met their +compromise to accompany him to Sacramento with equal decision. + +"You will be only in my way," he said curtly. "Enjoy yourselves +here while you can." + +Thus left to themselves, they tried to accept his advice. Possibly +some slight reaction to their previous disappointment may have +already set in; perhaps they felt any distraction to be a relief to +their anxiety about their father. They went out more; they +frequented concerts and parties; they accepted, with their host and +his family, an invitation to one of those opulent and barbaric +entertainments with which a noted San Francisco millionaire +distracted his rare moments of reflection in his gorgeous palace on +the hills. Here they could at least be once more in the country +they loved, albeit of a milder and less heroic type, and a little +degraded by the overlapping tinsel and scattered spangles of the +palace. + +It was a three days' fete; the style and choice of amusements left +to the guests, and an equal and active participation by no means +necessary or indispensable. Consequently, when Christie and Jessie +Carr proposed a ride through the adjacent canyon on the second +morning, they had no difficulty in finding horses in the well- +furnished stables of their opulent entertainers, nor cavaliers +among the other guests, who were too happy to find favor in the +eyes of the two pretty girls who were supposed to be abnormally +fastidious and refined. Christie's escort was a good-natured young +banker, shrewd enough to avoid demonstrative attentions, and lucky +enough to interest her during the ride with his clear and half- +humorous reflections on some of the business speculations of the +day. If his ideas were occasionally too clever, and not always +consistent with a high sense of honor, she was none the less +interested to know the ethics of that world of speculation into +which her father had plunged, and the more convinced, with mingled +sense of pride and anxiety, that his still dominant gentlemanhood +would prevent his coping with it on equal terms. Nor could she +help contrasting the conversation of the sharp-witted man at her +side with what she still remembered of the vague, touching, boyish +enthusiasm of the millionaires of Devil's Ford. Had her escort +guessed the result of this contrast, he would hardly have been as +gratified as he was with the grave attention of her beautiful eyes. + +The fascination of a gracious day and the leafy solitude of the +canyon led them to prolong their ride beyond the proposed limit, +and it became necessary towards sunset for them to seek some +shorter cut home. + +"There's a vaquero in yonder field," said Christie's escort, who +was riding with her a little in advance of the others, "and those +fellows know every trail that a horse can follow. I'll ride on, +intercept him, and try my Spanish on him. If I miss him, as he's +galloping on, you might try your hand on him yourself. He'll +understand your eyes, Miss Carr, in any language." + +As he dashed away, to cover his first audacity of compliment, +Christie lifted the eyes thus apostrophized to the opposite field. +The vaquero, who was chasing some cattle, was evidently too +preoccupied to heed the shouts of her companion, and wheeling round +suddenly to intercept one of the deviating fugitives, permitted +Christie's escort to dash past him before that gentleman could rein +in his excited steed. This brought the vaquero directly in her +path. Perceiving her, he threw his horse back on its haunches, to +prevent a collision. Christie rode up to him, suddenly uttered a +cry, and halted. For before her, sunburnt in cheek and throat, +darker in the free growth of moustache and curling hair, clad in +the coarse, picturesque finery of his class, undisguised only in +his boyish beauty, sat George Kearney. + +The blood, that had forsaken her astonished face, rushed as quickly +back. His eyes, which had suddenly sparkled with an electrical +glow, sank before hers. His hand dropped, and his cheek flushed +with a dark embarrassment. + +"You here, Mr. Kearney? How strange!--but how glad I am to meet +you again!" + +She tried to smile; her voice trembled, and her little hand shook +as she extended it to him. + +He raised his dark eyes quickly, and impulsively urged his horse to +her side. But, as if suddenly awakening to the reality of the +situation, he glanced at her hurriedly, down at his barbaric +finery, and threw a searching look towards her escort. + +In an instant Christie saw the infelicity of her position, and its +dangers. The words of Whiskey Dick, "He wouldn't stand that," +flashed across her mind. There was no time to lose. The banker +had already gained control over his horse, and was approaching +them, all unconscious of the fixed stare with which George was +regarding him. Christie hastily seized the hand which he had +allowed to fall at his side, and said quickly:-- + +"Will you ride with me a little way, Mr. Kearney?" + +He turned the same searching look upon her. She met it clearly and +steadily; he even thought reproachfully. + +"Do!" she said hurriedly. "I ask it as a favor. I want to speak +to you. Jessie and I are here alone. Father is away. YOU are one +of our oldest friends." + +He hesitated. She turned to the astonished young banker, who rode up. + +"I have just met an old friend. Will you please ride back as +quickly as you can, and tell Jessie that Mr. Kearney is here, and +ask her to join us?" + +She watched her dazed escort, still speechless from the spectacle +of the fastidious Miss Carr tete-a-tete with a common Mexican +vaquero, gallop off in the direction of the canyon, and then turned +to George. + +"Now take me home, the shortest way, as quick as you can." + +"Home?" echoed George. + +"I mean to Mr. Prince's house. Quick! before they can come up to +us." + +He mechanically put spurs to his horse; she followed. They +presently struck into a trail that soon diverged again into a +disused logging track through the woods. + +"This is the short cut to Prince's, by two miles," he said, as they +entered the woods. + +As they were still galloping, without exchanging a word, Christie +began to slacken her speed; George did the same. They were safe +from intrusion at the present, even if the others had found the +short cut. Christie, bold and self-reliant a moment ago, suddenly +found herself growing weak and embarrassed. What had she done? + +She checked her horse suddenly. + +"Perhaps we had better wait for them," she said timidly. + +George had not raised his eyes to hers. + +"You said you wanted to hurry home," he replied gently, passing his +hand along his mustang's velvety neck, "and--and you had something +to say to me." + +"Certainly," she answered, with a faint laugh. "I'm so astonished +at meeting you here. I'm quite bewildered. You are living here; +you have forsaken us to buy a ranche?" she continued, looking at +him attentively. + +His brow colored slightly. + +"No, I'm living here, but I have bought no ranche. I'm only a +hired man on somebody else's ranche, to look after the cattle." + +He saw her beautiful eyes fill with astonishment and--something +else. His brow cleared; he went on, with his old boyish laugh: + +"No, Miss Carr. The fact is, I'm dead broke. I've lost everything +since I saw you last. But as I know how to ride, and I'm not +afraid of work, I manage to keep along." + +"You have lost money in--in the mines?" said Christie suddenly. + +"No"--he replied quickly, evading her eyes. "My brother has my +interest, you know. I've been foolish on my own account solely. +You know I'm rather inclined to that sort of thing. But as long as +my folly don't affect others, I can stand it." + +"But it may affect others--and THEY may not think of it as folly--" +She stopped short, confused by his brightening color and eyes. "I +mean-- Oh, Mr. Kearney, I want you to be frank with me. I know +nothing of business, but I know there has been trouble about the +mine at Devil's Ford. Tell me honestly, has my father anything to +do with it? If I thought that through any imprudence of his, you +had suffered--if I believed that you could trace any misfortune of +yours to him--to US--I should never forgive myself"--she stopped +and flashed a single look at him--"I should never forgive YOU for +abandoning us." + +The look of pain which had at first shown itself in his face, which +never concealed anything, passed, and a quick smile followed her +feminine anticlimax. + +"Miss Carr," he said, with boyish eagerness, "if any man suggested +to me that your father wasn't the brightest and best of his kind-- +too wise and clever for the fools about him to understand--I'd--I'd +shoot him." + +Confused by his ready and gracious disclaimer of what she had NOT +intended to say, there was nothing left for her but to rush upon +what she really intended to say, with what she felt was shameful +precipitation. + +"One word more, Mr. Kearney," she began, looking down, but feeling +the color come to her face as she spoke. "When you spoke to me the +day you left, you must have thought me hard and cruel. When I tell +you that I thought you were alluding to Jessie and some feeling you +had for her--" + +"For Jessie!" echoed George. + +"You will understand that--that--" + +"That what?" said George, drawing nearer to her. + +"That I was only speaking as she might have spoken had you talked +to her of me," added Christie hurriedly, slightly backing her horse +away from him. + +But this was not so easy, as George was the better rider, and by an +imperceptible movement of his wrist and foot had glued his horse to +her side. "He will go now," she had thought, but he didn't. + +"We must ride on," she suggested faintly. + +"No," he said with a sudden dropping of his boyish manner and a +slight lifting of his head. "We must ride together no further, +Miss Carr. I must go back to the work I am hired to do, and you +must go on with your party, whom I hear coming. But when we part +here you must bid me good-by--not as Jessie's sister--but as +Christie--the one--the only woman that I love, or that I ever have +loved." + +He held out his hand. With the recollection of their previous +parting, she tremblingly advanced her own. He took it, but did not +raise it to his lips. And it was she who found herself half +confusedly retaining his hand in hers, until she dropped it with a +blush. + +"Then is this the reason you give for deserting us as you have +deserted Devil's Ford?" she said coldly. + +He lifted his eyes to her with a strange smile, and said, "Yes," +wheeled his horse, and disappeared in the forest. + +He had left her thus abruptly once before, kissed, blushing, and +indignant. He was leaving her now, unkissed, but white and +indignant. Yet she was so self-possessed when the party joined +her, that the singular rencontre and her explanation of the +stranger's sudden departure excited no further comment. Only +Jessie managed to whisper in her ear,-- + +"I hope you are satisfied now that it wasn't me he meant?" + +"Not at all," said Christie coldly. + + +CHAPTER VII + + +A few days after the girls had returned to San Francisco, they +received a letter from their father. His business, he wrote, would +detain him in Sacramento some days longer. There was no reason why +they should return to Devil's Ford in the heat of the summer; their +host had written to beg him to allow them a more extended visit, +and, if they were enjoying themselves, he thought it would be well +not to disoblige an old friend. He had heard they had a pleasant +visit to Mr. Prince's place, and that a certain young banker had +been very attentive to Christie. + +"Do you know what all this means, dear?" asked Jessie, who had been +watching her sister with an unusually grave face. + +Christie whose thoughts had wandered from the letter, replied +carelessly,-- + +"I suppose it means that we are to wait here until father sends for +us." + +"It means a good deal more. It means that papa has had another +reverse; it means that the assay has turned out badly for the mine-- +that the further they go from the flat the worse it gets--that all +the gold they will probably ever see at Devil's Ford is what they +have already found or will find on the flat; it means that all +Devil's Ford is only a 'pocket,' and not a 'lead.'" She stopped, +with unexpected tears in her eyes. + +"Who told you this?" asked Christie breathlessly. + +"Fairfax--Mr. Munroe," stammered her sister, "writes to me as if we +already knew it--tells me not to be alarmed, that it isn't so bad-- +and all that." + +"How long has this happened, Jessie?" said Christie, taking her +hand, with a white but calm face. + +"Nearly ever since we've been here, I suppose. It must be so, for +he says poor papa is still hopeful of doing something yet." + +"And Mr. Munroe writes to you?" said Christie abstractedly. + +"Of course," said Jessie quickly. "He feels interested in--us." + +"Nobody tells ME anything," said Christie. + +"Didn't--" + +"No," said Christie bitterly. + +"What on earth DID you talk about? But people don't confide in you +because they're afraid of you. You're so--" + +"So what?" + +"So gently patronizing, and so 'I-don't-suppose-you-can-help-it,- +poor-thing,' in your general style," said Jessie, kissing her. +"There! I only wish I was like you. What do you say if we write +to father that we'll go back to Devil's Ford? Mr. Munroe thinks we +will be of service there just now. If the men are dissatisfied, +and think we're spending money--" + +"I'm afraid Mr. Munroe is hardly a disinterested adviser. At +least, I don't think it would look quite decent for you to fly back +without your father, at his suggestion," said Christie coldly. "He +is not the only partner. We are spending no money. Besides, we +have engaged to go to Mr. Prince's again next week." + +"As you like, dear," said Jessie, turning away to hide a faint +smile. + +Nevertheless, when they returned from their visit to Mr. Prince's, +and one or two uneventful rides, Christie looked grave. It was +only a few days later that Jessie burst upon her one morning. + +"You were saying that nobody ever tells you anything. Well, here's +your chance. Whiskey Dick is below." + +"Whiskey Dick?" repeated Christie. "What does he want?" + +"YOU, love. Who else? You know he always scorns me as not being +high-toned and elegant enough for his social confidences. He asked +for you only." + +With an uneasy sense of some impending revelation, Christie +descended to the drawing-room. As she opened the door, a strong +flavor of that toilet soap and eau de Cologne with which Whiskey +Dick was in the habit of gracefully effacing the traces of +dissipation made known his presence. In spite of a new suit of +clothes, whose pristine folds refused to adapt themselves entirely +to the contour of his figure, he was somewhat subdued by the +unexpected elegance of the drawing-room of Christie's host. But a +glance at Christie's sad but gracious face quickly reassured him. +Taking from his hat a three-cornered parcel, he unfolded a handsome +saffrona rose, which he gravely presented to her. Having thus +reestablished his position, he sank elegantly into a tete-a-tete +ottoman. Finding the position inconvenient to face Christie, who +had seated herself on a chair, he transferred himself to the other +side of the ottoman, and addressed her over its back as from a +pulpit. + +"Is this really a fortunate accident, Mr. Hall, or did you try to +find us?" said Christie pleasantly. + +"Partly promiskuss, and partly coincident, Miss Christie, one up +and t'other down," said Dick lightly. "Work being slack at present +at Devil's Ford, I reck'ned I'd take a pasear down to 'Frisco, and +dip into the vortex o' fash'nable society and out again." He +lightly waved a new handkerchief to illustrate his swallow-like +intrusion. "This yer minglin' with the bo-tong is apt to be +wearisome, ez you and me knows, unless combined with experience and +judgment. So when them boys up there allows that there's a little +too much fash'nable society and San Francisco capital and high- +falutin' about the future goin' on fer square surface mining, I +sez, 'Look yere, gentlemen,' sez I, 'you don't see the pint. The +pint is to get the pop'lar eye fixed, so to speak, on Devil's Ford. +When a fash'nable star rises above the 'Frisco horizon--like Miss +Carr--and, so to speak, dazzles the gineral eye, people want to +know who she is. And when people say that's the accomplished +daughter o' the accomplished superintendent of the Devil's Ford +claim--otherwise known as the Star-eyed Goddess o' Devil's Ford-- +every eye is fixed on the mine, and Capital, so to speak, tumbles +to her.' And when they sez that the old man--excuse my freedom, +but that's the way the boys talk of your father, meaning no harm-- +the old man, instead o' trying to corral rich widders--grass or +otherwise--to spend their money on the big works for the gold that +ain't there yet--should stay in Devil's Ford and put all his sabe +and genius into grindin' out the little gold that is there, I sez +to them that it ain't your father's style. 'His style,' sez I, 'ez +to go in and build them works.' When they're done he turns round +to Capital, and sez he--'Look yer,' sez he, 'thar's all the works +you want, first quality--cost a million; thar's all the water you +want, onlimited--cost another million; thar's all the pay gravel +you want in and outer the ground--call it two millions more. Now +my time's too vally'ble; my professhun's too high-toned to WORK +mines. I MAKE 'em. Hand me over a check for ten millions and call +it square, and work it for yourself.' So Capital hands over the +money and waltzes down to run the mine, and you original locators +walks round with yer hands in yer pockets a-top of your six million +profit, and you let's Capital take the work and the responsibility." + +Preposterous as this seemed from the lips of Whiskey Dick, Christie +had a haunting suspicion that it was not greatly unlike the +theories expounded by the clever young banker who had been her +escort. She did not interrupt his flow of reminiscent criticism; +when he paused for breath, she said, quietly: + +"I met Mr. George Kearney the other day in the country." + +Whiskey Dick stopped awkwardly, glanced hurriedly at Christie, and +coughed behind his handkerchief. + +"Mr. Kearney--eh--er--certengly--yes--er--met him, you say. Was +he--er--er--well?" + +"In health, yes; but otherwise he has lost everything," said +Christie, fixing her eyes on the embarrassed Dick. + +"Yes--er--in course--in course--" continued Dick, nervously +glancing round the apartment as if endeavoring to find an opening +to some less abrupt statement of the fact. + +"And actually reduced to take some menial employment," added +Christie, still regarding Dick with her clear glance. + +"That's it--that's just it," said Dick, beaming as he suddenly +found his delicate and confidential opportunity. "That's it, Miss +Christie; that's just what I was sayin' to the boys. 'Ez it the +square thing,' sez I, 'jest because George hez happened to +hypothecate every dollar he has, or expects to hev, to put into +them works, only to please Mr. Carr, and just because he don't want +to distress that intelligent gentleman by letting him see he's dead +broke--for him to go and demean himself and Devil's Ford by rushing +away and hiring out as a Mexican vaquero on Mexican wages? Look,' +sez I, 'at the disgrace he brings upon a high-toned, fash'nable +girl, at whose side he's walked and danced, and passed rings, and +sentiments, and bokays in the changes o' the cotillion and the +mizzourka. And wot,' sez I, 'if some day, prancing along in a +fash'nable cavalcade, she all of a suddents comes across him +drivin' a Mexican steer?' That's what I said to the boys. And so +you met him, Miss Christie, as usual," continued Dick, endeavoring +under the appearance of a large social experience to conceal an +eager anxiety to know the details--"so you met him; and, in course, +you didn't let on yer knew him, so to speak, nat'rally, or p'raps +you kinder like asked him to fix your saddle-girth, and give him a +five-dollar piece--eh?" + +Christie, who had risen and gone to the window, suddenly turned a +very pale face and shining eyes on Dick. + +"Mr. Hall," she said, with a faint attempt at a smile, "we are old +friends, and I feel I can ask you a favor. You once before acted +as our escort--it was for a short but a happy time--will you accept +a larger trust? My father is busy in Sacramento for the mine: will +you, without saying anything to anybody, take Jessie and me back at +once to Devil's Ford?" + +"Will I? Miss Christie," said Dick, choking between an intense +gratification and a desire to keep back its vulgar exhibition, "I +shall be proud!" + +"When I say keep it a secret"--she hesitated--"I don't mean that I +object to your letting Mr. Kearney, if you happen to know where he +is, understand that we are going back to Devil's Ford." + +"Cert'nly--nat'rally," said Dick, waving his hand gracefully; +"sorter drop him a line, saying that bizness of a social and +delicate nature--being the escort of Miss Christie and Jessie Carr +to Devil's Ford--prevents my having the pleasure of calling." + +"That will do very well, Mr. Hall," said Christie, faintly smiling +through her moist eyelashes. "Then will you go at once and secure +tickets for to-night's boat, and bring them here? Jessie and I +will arrange everything else." + +"Cert'nly," said Dick impulsively, and preparing to take a graceful +leave. + +"We'll be impatient until you return with the tickets," said +Christie graciously. + +Dick shook hands gravely, got as far as the door, and paused. + +"You think it better to take the tickets now?" he said dubiously. + +"By all means," said Christie impetuously. "I've set my heart on +going to-night--and unless you secure berths early--" + +"In course--in course," interrupted Dick nervously. "But--" + +"But what?" said Christie impatiently. + +Dick hesitated, shut the door carefully, and, looking round the +room, lightly shook out his handkerchief, apparently flicked away +an embarrassing suggestion, and said, with a little laugh: + +"It's ridiklous, perfectly ridiklous, Miss Christie; but not bein' +in the habit of carryin' ready money, and havin' omitted to cash a +draft on Wells, Fargo & Co.--" + +"Of course," said Christie rapidly. "How forgetful I am! Pray +forgive me, Mr. Hall. I didn't think. I'll run up and get it from +our host; he will be glad to be our banker." + +"One moment, Miss Christie," said Dick lightly, as his thumb and +finger relaxed in his waistcoat pocket over the only piece of money +in the world that had remained to him after his extravagant +purchase of Christie's saffrona rose, "one moment: in this yer +monetary transaction, if you like, you are at liberty to use MY +name." + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +As Christie and Jessie Carr looked from the windows of the coach, +whose dust-clogged wheels were slowly dragging them, as if +reluctant, nearer the last stage of their journey to Devil's Ford, +they were conscious of a change in the landscape, which they could +not entirely charge upon their changed feelings. The few bared +open spaces on the upland, the long stretch of rocky ridge near the +summit, so vivid and so velvety during their first journey, were +now burnt and yellow; even the brief openings in the forest were +seared as if by a hot iron in the scorching rays of a half year's +sun. The pastoral slopes of the valley below were cloaked in +lustre-leather: the rare watercourses along the road had faded from +the waiting eye and ear; it seemed as if the long and dry summer +had even invaded the close-set ranks of pines, and had blown a +simoom breath through the densest woods, leaving its charred red +ashes on every leaf and spray along the tunnelled shade. As they +leaned out of the window and inhaled the half-dead spices of the +evergreens, they seemed to have entered the atmosphere of some +exhausted passion--of some fierce excitement that was even now +slowly burning itself out. + +It was a relief at last to see the straggling houses of Devil's +Ford far below come once more into view, as they rounded the +shoulder of Devil's Spur and began the long descent. But as they +entered the town a change more ominous and startling than the +desiccation of the landscape forced itself upon them. The town was +still there, but where were the inhabitants? Four months ago they +had left the straggling street thronged with busy citizens--groups +at every corner, and a chaos of merchandise and traders in the open +plaza or square beside the Presbyterian church. Now all was +changed. Only a few wayfarers lifted their heads lazily as the +coach rattled by, crossing the deserted square littered with empty +boxes, and gliding past empty cabins or vacant shop windows, from +which not only familiar faces, but even the window sashes +themselves, were gone. The great unfinished serpent-like flume, +crossing the river on gigantic trestles, had advanced as far as the +town, stooping over it like some enormous reptile that had sucked +its life blood and was gorged with its prey. + +Whiskey Dick, who had left the stage on the summit to avail himself +of a shorter foot trail to the house, that would give him half an +hour's grace to make preparations, met them at the stage office +with a buggy. A glance at the young girls, perhaps, convinced him +that the graces of elegant worldly conversation were out of place +with the revelation he read on their faces. Perhaps, he, too, was +a trifle indisposed. The short journey to the house was made in +profound silence. + +The villa had been repainted and decorated, and it looked fresher, +and even, to their preoccupied minds, appeared more attractive than +ever. Thoughtful hands had taken care of the vines and rose-bushes +on the trellises; water--that precious element in Devil's Ford--had +not been spared in keeping green through the long drought the +plants which the girls had so tenderly nurtured. It was the one +oasis in which the summer still lingered; and yet a singular sense +of loss came over the girls as they once more crossed its +threshold. It seemed no longer their own. + +"Ef I was you, Miss Christie, I'd keep close to the house for a day +or two, until--until--things is settled," said Dick; "there's a +heap o' tramps and sich cattle trapsin' round. P'raps you wouldn't +feel so lonesome if you was nearer town--for instance, 'bout wher' +you useter live." + +"In the dear old cabin," said Christie quickly; "I remember it; I +wish we were there now." + +"Do you really? Do you?" said Whiskey Dick, with suddenly +twinkling eyes. "That's like you to say it. That's what I allus +said," continued Dick, addressing space generally; "if there's any +one ez knows how to come square down to the bottom rock without +flinchin', it's your high-toned, fash'nable gals. But I must +meander back to town, and let the boys know you're in possession, +safe and sound. It's right mean that Fairfax and Mattingly had to +go down to Lagrange on some low business yesterday, but they'll be +back to-morrow. So long." + +Left alone, the girls began to realize their strange position. +They had conceived no settled plan. The night they left San +Francisco they had written an earnest letter to their father, +telling him that on learning the truth about the reverses of +Devil's Ford, they thought it their duty to return and share them +with others, without obliging him to prefer the request, and with +as little worry to him as possible. He would find them ready to +share his trials, and in what must be the scene of their work +hereafter. + +"It will bring father back," said Christie; "he won't leave us here +alone; and then together we must come to some understanding with +him--with THEM--for somehow I feel as if this house belonged to us +no longer." + +Her surmise was not far wrong. When Mr. Carr arrived hurriedly +from Sacramento the next evening, he found the house deserted. His +daughters were gone; there were indications that they had arrived, +and, for some reason, suddenly departed. The vague fear that had +haunted his guilty soul after receiving their letter, and during +his breathless journey, now seemed to be realized. He was turning +from the empty house, whose reproachful solitude frightened him, +when he was confronted on the threshold by the figure of Fairfax +Munroe. + +"I came to the stage office to meet you," he said; "you must have +left the stage at the summit." + +"I did," said Carr angrily. "I was anxious to meet my daughters +quickly, to know the reason of their foolish alarm, and to know +also who had been frightening them. Where are they?" + +"They are safe in the old cabin beyond, that has been put up ready +to receive them again," said Fairfax quietly. + +"But what is the meaning of this? Why are they not here?" demanded +Carr, hiding his agitation in a burst of querulous rage. + +"Do YOU ask, Mr. Carr?" said Fairfax sadly. "Did you expect them +to remain here until the sheriff took possession? No one knows +better than yourself that the money advanced you on the deeds of +this homestead has never been repaid." + +Carr staggered, but recovered himself with feeble violence. + +"Since you know so much of my affairs, how do you know that this +claim will ever be pressed for payment? How do you know it is not +the advance of a--a--friend?" + +"Because I have seen the woman who advanced it," said Fairfax +hopelessly. "She was here to look at the property before your +daughters came." + +"Well?" said Carr nervously. + +"Well! You force me to tell you something I should like to forget. +You force me to anticipate a disclosure I expected to make to you +only when I came to ask permission to woo your daughter Jessie; and +when I tell you what it is, you will understand that I have no +right to criticise your conduct. I am only explaining my own." + +"Go on," said Carr impatiently. + +"When I first came to this country, there was a woman I loved +passionately. She treated me as women of her kind only treat men +like me; she ruined me, and left me. That was four years ago. I +love your daughter, Mr. Carr, but she has never heard it from my +lips. I would not woo her until I had told you all. I have tried +to do it ere this, and failed. Perhaps I should not now, but--" + +"But what?" said Carr furiously; "speak out!" + +"But this. Look!" said Fairfax, producing from his pocket the +packet of letters Jessie had found; "perhaps you know the +handwriting?" + +"What do you mean?" gasped Carr. + +"That woman--my mistress--is the woman who advanced you money, and +who claims this house." + + +The interview, and whatever came of it, remained a secret with the +two men. When Mr. Carr accepted the hospitality of the old cabin +again, it was understood that he had sacrificed the new house and +its furniture to some of the more pressing debts of the mine, and +the act went far to restore his waning popularity. But a more +genuine feeling of relief was experienced by Devil's Ford when it +was rumored that Fairfax Munroe had asked for the hand of Jessie +Carr, and that some promise contingent upon the equitable +adjustment of the affairs of the mine had been given by Mr. Carr. +To the superstitious mind of Devil's Ford and its few remaining +locators, this new partnership seemed to promise that unity of +interest and stability of fortune that Devil's Ford had lacked. +But nothing could be done until the rainy season had fairly set in; +until the long-looked-for element that was to magically separate +the gold from the dross in those dull mounds of dust and gravel had +come of its own free will, and in its own appointed channels, +independent of the feeble auxiliaries that had hopelessly riven the +rocks on the hillside, or hung incomplete and unfinished in lofty +scaffoldings above the settlement. + +The rainy season came early. At first in gathered mists on the +higher peaks that were lifted in the morning sun only to show a +fresher field of dazzling white below; in white clouds that at +first seemed to be mere drifts blown across from those fresh +snowfields, and obscuring the clear blue above; in far-off murmurs +in the hollow hills and gulches; in nearer tinkling melody and baby +prattling in the leaves. It came with bright flashes of sunlight +by day, with deep, monotonous shadow at night; with the onset of +heavy winds, the roar of turbulent woods, the tumultuous tossing of +leafy arms, and with what seemed the silent dissolution of the +whole landscape in days of steady and uninterrupted downfall. It +came extravagantly, for every canyon had grown into a torrent, +every gulch a waterspout, every watercourse a river, and all +pouring into the North Fork, that, rushing past the settlement, +seemed to threaten it with lifted crest and flying mane. It came +dangerously, for one night the river, leaping the feeble barrier of +Devil's Ford, swept away houses and banks, scattered with +unconscious irony the laboriously collected heaps of gravel left +for hydraulic machinery, and spread out a vast and silent lake +across the submerged flat. + +In the hurry and confusion of that night the girls had thrown open +their cabin to the escaping miners, who hurried along the slope +that was now the bank of the river. Suddenly Christie felt her arm +grasped, and she was half-led, half-dragged, into the inner room. +Her father stood before her. + +"Where is George Kearney?" he asked tremulously. + +"George Kearney!" echoed Christie, for a moment believing the +excitement had turned her father's brain. "You know he is not +here; he is in San Francisco." + +"He is here--I tell you," said Carr impatiently; "he has been here +ever since the high water, trying to save the flume and reservoir." + +"George--here!" Christie could only gasp. + +"Yes! He passed here a few moments ago, to see if you were all +safe, and he has gone on towards the flume. But what he is trying +to do is madness. If you see him, implore him to do no more. Let +him abandon the accursed flume to its fate. It has worked already +too much woe upon us all; why should it carry his brave and +youthful soul down with it?" + +The words were still ringing in her ears, when he suddenly passed +away, with the hurrying crowd. Scarcely knowing what she did, she +ran out, vaguely intent only on one thought, seeking only the one +face, lately so dear in recollection that she felt she would die if +she never saw it again. Perplexed by confused voices in the woods, +she lost track of the crowd, until the voices suddenly were raised +in one loud outcry, followed by the crashing of timber, the +splashing of water, a silence, and then a dull, continuous roar. +She ran vaguely on in the direction of the reservoir, with her +father's injunction still in her mind, until a terrible idea +displaced it, and she turned at right angles suddenly, and ran +towards the slope leading down to the submerged flat. She had +barely left the shelter of the trees behind her before the roar of +water seemed to rise at her very feet. She stopped, dazed, +bewildered, and horror-stricken, on the edge of the slope. It was +the slope no longer, but the bank of the river itself! + +Even in the gray light of early morning, and with inexperienced +eyes, she saw all too clearly now. The trestle-work had given way; +the curving mile of flume, fallen into the stream, and, crushed and +dammed against the opposite shore, had absolutely turned the whole +river through the half-finished ditch and partly excavated mine in +its way, a few rods further on to join the old familiar channel. +The bank of the river was changed; the flat had become an island, +between which and the slope where she stood the North Fork was +rolling its resistless yellow torrent. As she gazed spellbound, a +portion of the slope beneath her suddenly seemed to sink and +crumble, and was swallowed up in the rushing stream. She heard a +cry of warning behind her, but, rooted to the spot by a fearful +fascination, she heeded it not. + +Again there was a sudden disruption, and another part of the slope +sank to rise no more; but this time she felt herself seized by the +waist and dragged back. It was her father standing by her side. + +He was flushed and excited, gazing at the water with a strange +exultation. + +"Do you see it? Do you know what has happened?" he asked quickly. + +"The flume has fallen and turned the river," said Christie +hurriedly. "But--have you seen him--is he safe?" + +"He--who?" he answered vacantly. + +"George Kearney!" + +"He is safe," he said impatiently. "But, do you see, Christie? Do +you know what this means?" + +He pointed with his tremulous hand to the stream before them. + +"It means we are ruined," said Christie coldly. + +"Nothing of the kind! It means that the river is doing the work of +the flume. It is sluicing off the gravel, deepening the ditch, and +altering the slope which was the old bend of the river. It will do +in ten minutes the work that would take us a year. If we can stop +it in time, or control it, we are safe; but if we can not, it will +carry away the bed and deposit with the rest, and we are ruined +again." + +With a gesture of impotent fury, he dashed away in the direction of +an equally excited crowd, that on a point of the slope nearer the +island were gesticulating and shouting to a second group of men, +who on the opposite shore were clambering on over the choked debris +of the flume that had dammed and diverted the current. It was +evident that the same idea had occurred to them, and they were +risking their lives in the attempt to set free the impediments. +Shocked and indignant as Christie had been at the degrading +absorption of material interests at such a moment, the element of +danger lifted the labors of these men into heroism, and she began +to feel a strange exultation as she watched them. Under the +skilful blows of their axes, in a few moments the vast body of +drift began to disintegrate, and then to swing round and move +towards the old channel. A cheer went up, but as suddenly died +away again. An overlapping fringe of wreckage had caught on the +point of the island and arrested the whole mass. + +The men, who had gained the shore with difficulty, looked back with +a cry of despair. But the next moment from among them leaped a +figure, alert, buoyant, invincible, and, axe in hand, once more +essayed the passage. Springing from timber to timber, he at last +reached the point of obstruction. A few strokes of the axe were +sufficient to clear it; but at the first stroke it was apparent +that the striker was also losing his hold upon the shore, and that +he must inevitably be carried away with the tossing debris. But +this consideration did not seem to affect him; the last blow was +struck, and as the freed timbers rolled on, over and over, he +boldly plunged into the flood. Christie gave a little cry--her +heart had bounded with him; it seemed as if his plunge had splashed +the water in her eyes. He did not come to the surface until he had +passed the point below where her father stood, and then struggling +feebly, as if stunned or disabled by a blow. It seemed to her that +he was trying to approach the side of the river where she was. +Would he do it? Could she help him? She was alone; he was hidden +from the view of the men on the point, and no succor could come +from them. There was a fringe of alder nearly opposite their cabin +that almost overhung the stream. She ran to it, clutched it with a +frantic hand, and, leaning over the boiling water, uttered for the +first time his name: + +"George!" + +As if called to the surface by the magic of her voice, he rose a +few yards from her in mid-current, and turned his fading eyes +towards the bank. In another moment he would have been swept +beyond her reach, but with a supreme effort he turned on one side; +the current, striking him sideways, threw him towards the bank, and +she caught him by his sleeve. For an instant it seemed as if she +would be dragged down with him. For one dangerous moment she did +not care, and almost yielded to the spell; but as the rush of water +pressed him against the bank, she recovered herself, and managed to +lift him beyond its reach. And then she sat down, half-fainting, +with his white face and damp curls upon her breast. + +"George, darling, speak to me! Only one word! Tell me, have I +saved you?" + +His eyes opened. A faint twinkle of the old days came to them--a +boyish smile played upon his lips. + +"For yourself--or Jessie?" + +She looked around her with a little frightened air. They were +alone. There was but one way of sealing those mischievous lips, +and she found it! + + +"That's what I allus said, gentlemen," lazily remarked Whiskey +Dick, a few weeks later, leaning back against the bar, with his +glass in his hand. "'George,' sez I, 'it ain't what you SAY to a +fash'nable, high-toned young lady; it's what you DOES ez makes or +breaks you.' And that's what I sez gin'rally o' things in the +Ford. It ain't what Carr and you boys allows to do; it's the +gin'ral average o' things ez IS done that gives tone to the hull, +and hez brought this yer new luck to you all!" + + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg etext of Devil's Ford, by Bret Harte + diff --git a/old/dvlfd10.zip b/old/dvlfd10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..830e6ac --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dvlfd10.zip |