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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. 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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 |