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diff --git a/2555.txt b/2555.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..358995e --- /dev/null +++ b/2555.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6892 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under the Redwoods, by Bret Harte + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Under the Redwoods + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 18, 2006 [EBook #2555] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER THE REDWOODS *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +UNDER THE REDWOODS + + +By Bret Harte + + + + +CONTENTS + + +JIMMY'S BIG BROTHER FROM CALIFORNIA + +THE YOUNGEST MISS PIPER + +A WIDOW OF THE SANTA ANA VALLEY + +THE MERMAID OF LIGHTHOUSE POINT + +UNDER THE EAVES + +HOW REUBEN ALLEN "SAW LIFE" IN SAN FRANCISCO + +THREE VAGABONDS OF TRINIDAD + +A VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN + +A ROMANCE OF THE LINE + +BOHEMIAN DAYS IN SAN FRANCISCO + + + + + +UNDER THE REDWOODS + + + + +JIMMY'S BIG BROTHER FROM CALIFORNIA + + +As night crept up from the valley that stormy afternoon, Sawyer's +Ledge was at first quite blotted out by wind and rain, but presently +reappeared in little nebulous star-like points along the mountain side, +as the straggling cabins of the settlement were one by one lit up by +the miners returning from tunnel and claim. These stars were of varying +brilliancy that evening, two notably so--one that eventually resolved +itself into a many-candled illumination of a cabin of evident festivity; +the other into a glimmering taper in the window of a silent one. +They might have represented the extreme mutations of fortune in the +settlement that night: the celebration of a strike by Robert Falloner, a +lucky miner; and the sick-bed of Dick Lasham, an unlucky one. + +The latter was, however, not quite alone. He was ministered to by Daddy +Folsom, a weak but emotional and aggressively hopeful neighbor, who was +sitting beside the wooden bunk whereon the invalid lay. Yet there +was something perfunctory in his attitude: his eyes were continually +straying to the window, whence the illuminated Falloner festivities +could be seen between the trees, and his ears were more intent on the +songs and laughter that came faintly from the distance than on the +feverish breathing and unintelligible moans of the sufferer. + +Nevertheless he looked troubled equally by the condition of his charge +and by his own enforced absence from the revels. A more impatient moan +from the sick man, however, brought a change to his abstracted face, and +he turned to him with an exaggerated expression of sympathy. + +"In course! Lordy! I know jest what those pains are: kinder ez ef you +was havin' a tooth pulled that had roots branchin' all over ye! My! I've +jest had 'em so bad I couldn't keep from yellin'! That's hot rheumatics! +Yes, sir, I oughter know! And" (confidentially) "the sing'ler thing +about 'em is that they get worse jest as they're going off--sorter +wringin' yer hand and punchin' ye in the back to say 'Good-by.' There!" +he continued, as the man sank exhaustedly back on his rude pillow of +flour-sacks. "There! didn't I tell ye? Ye'll be all right in a minit, +and ez chipper ez a jay bird in the mornin'. Oh, don't tell me about +rheumatics--I've bin thar! On'y mine was the cold kind--that hangs on +longest--yours is the hot, that burns itself up in no time!" + +If the flushed face and bright eyes of Lasham were not enough to +corroborate this symptom of high fever, the quick, wandering laugh he +gave would have indicated the point of delirium. But the too optimistic +Daddy Folsom referred this act to improvement, and went on cheerfully: +"Yes, sir, you're better now, and"--here he assumed an air of cautious +deliberation, extravagant, as all his assumptions were--"I ain't sayin' +that--ef--you--was--to--rise--up" (very slowly) "and heave a blanket or +two over your shoulders--jest by way o' caution, you know--and leanin' +on me, kinder meander over to Bob Falloner's cabin and the boys, it +wouldn't do you a heap o' good. Changes o' this kind is often prescribed +by the faculty." Another moan from the sufferer, however, here +apparently corrected Daddy's too favorable prognosis. "Oh, all right! +Well, perhaps ye know best; and I'll jest run over to Bob's and say how +as ye ain't comin', and will be back in a jiffy!" + +"The letter," said the sick man hurriedly, "the letter, the letter!" + +Daddy leaned suddenly over the bed. It was impossible for even his +hopefulness to avoid the fact that Lasham was delirious. It was a strong +factor in the case--one that would certainly justify his going over +to Falloner's with the news. For the present moment, however, this +aberration was to be accepted cheerfully and humored after Daddy's own +fashion. "Of course--the letter, the letter," he said convincingly; +"that's what the boys hev bin singin' jest now-- + + 'Good-by, Charley; when you are away, + Write me a letter, love; send me a letter, love!' + +"That's what you heard, and a mighty purty song it is too, and kinder +clings to you. It's wonderful how these things gets in your head." + +"The letter--write--send money--money--money, and the photograph--the +photograph--photograph--money," continued the sick man, in the rapid +reiteration of delirium. + +"In course you will--to-morrow--when the mail goes," returned Daddy +soothingly; "plenty of them. Jest now you try to get a snooze, will ye? +Hol' on!--take some o' this." + +There was an anodyne mixture on the rude shelf, which the doctor had +left on his morning visit. Daddy had a comfortable belief that what +would relieve pain would also check delirium, and he accordingly +measured out a dose with a liberal margin to allow of waste by the +patient in swallowing in his semi-conscious state. As he lay more quiet, +muttering still, but now unintelligibly, Daddy, waiting for a more +complete unconsciousness and the opportunity to slip away to Falloner's, +cast his eyes around the cabin. He noticed now for the first time since +his entrance that a crumpled envelope bearing a Western post-mark was +lying at the foot of the bed. Daddy knew that the tri-weekly post had +arrived an hour before he came, and that Lasham had evidently received a +letter. Sure enough the letter itself was lying against the wall beside +him. It was open. Daddy felt justified in reading it. + +It was curt and businesslike, stating that unless Lasham at once sent +a remittance for the support of his brother and sister--two children in +charge of the writer--they must find a home elsewhere. That the arrears +were long standing, and the repeated promises of Lasham to send money +had been unfulfilled. That the writer could stand it no longer. This +would be his last communication unless the money were sent forthwith. + +It was by no means a novel or, under the circumstances, a shocking +disclosure to Daddy. He had seen similar missives from daughters, and +even wives, consequent on the varying fortunes of his neighbors; no one +knew better than he the uncertainties of a miner's prospects, and +yet the inevitable hopefulness that buoyed him up. He tossed it aside +impatiently, when his eye caught a strip of paper he had overlooked +lying upon the blanket near the envelope. It contained a few lines in +an unformed boyish hand addressed to "my brother," and evidently slipped +into the letter after it was written. By the uncertain candlelight Daddy +read as follows:-- + + +Dear Brother, Rite to me and Cissy rite off. Why aint you done it? It's +so long since you rote any. Mister Recketts ses you dont care any more. +Wen you rite send your fotograff. Folks here ses I aint got no big +bruther any way, as I disremember his looks, and cant say wots like him. +Cissy's kryin' all along of it. I've got a hedake. William Walker make +it ake by a blo. So no more at present from your loving little bruther +Jim. + + +The quick, hysteric laugh with which Daddy read this was quite +consistent with his responsive, emotional nature; so, too, were the +ready tears that sprang to his eyes. He put the candle down unsteadily, +with a casual glance at the sick man. It was notable, however, that +this look contained less sympathy for the ailing "big brother" than his +emotion might have suggested. For Daddy was carried quite away by his +own mental picture of the helpless children, and eager only to relate +his impressions of the incident. He cast another glance at the invalid, +thrust the papers into his pocket, and clapping on his hat slipped from +the cabin and ran to the house of festivity. Yet it was characteristic +of the man, and so engrossed was he by his one idea, that to the usual +inquiries regarding his patient he answered, "he's all right," and +plunged at once into the incident of the dunning letter, reserving--with +the instinct of an emotional artist--the child's missive until the last. +As he expected, the money demand was received with indignant criticisms +of the writer. + +"That's just like 'em in the States," said Captain Fletcher; "darned if +they don't believe we've only got to bore a hole in the ground and snake +out a hundred dollars. Why, there's my wife--with a heap of hoss sense +in everything else--is allus wonderin' why I can't rake in a cool fifty +betwixt one steamer day and another." + +"That's nothin' to my old dad," interrupted Gus Houston, the "infant" +of the camp, a bright-eyed young fellow of twenty; "why, he wrote to me +yesterday that if I'd only pick up a single piece of gold every day and +just put it aside, sayin' 'That's for popper and mommer,' and not fool +it away--it would be all they'd ask of me." + +"That's so," added another; "these ignorant relations is just the ruin +o' the mining industry. Bob Falloner hez bin lucky in his strike to-day, +but he's a darned sight luckier in being without kith or kin that he +knows of." + +Daddy waited until the momentary irritation had subsided, and then drew +the other letter from his pocket. "That ain't all, boys," he began in a +faltering voice, but gradually working himself up to a pitch of pathos; +"just as I was thinking all them very things, I kinder noticed this yer +poor little bit o' paper lyin' thar lonesome like and forgotten, +and I--read it--and well--gentlemen--it just choked me right up!" He +stopped, and his voice faltered. + +"Go slow, Daddy, go slow!" said an auditor smilingly. It was evident +that Daddy's sympathetic weakness was well known. + +Daddy read the child's letter. But, unfortunately, what with his real +emotion and the intoxication of an audience, he read it extravagantly, +and interpolated a child's lisp (on no authority whatever), and a +simulated infantile delivery, which, I fear, at first provoked the +smiles rather than the tears of his audience. Nevertheless, at its +conclusion the little note was handed round the party, and then there +was a moment of thoughtful silence. + +"Tell you what it is, boys," said Fletcher, looking around the table, +"we ought to be doin' suthin' for them kids right off! Did you," turning +to Daddy, "say anythin' about this to Dick?" + +"Nary--why, he's clean off his head with fever--don't understand a +word--and just babbles," returned Daddy, forgetful of his roseate +diagnosis a moment ago, "and hasn't got a cent." + +"We must make up what we can amongst us afore the mail goes to-night," +said the "infant," feeling hurriedly in his pockets. "Come, ante up, +gentlemen," he added, laying the contents of his buckskin purse upon the +table. + +"Hold on, boys," said a quiet voice. It was their host Falloner, who had +just risen and was slipping on his oilskin coat. "You've got enough to +do, I reckon, to look after your own folks. I've none! Let this be my +affair. I've got to go to the Express Office anyhow to see about my +passage home, and I'll just get a draft for a hundred dollars for +that old skeesicks--what's his blamed name? Oh, Ricketts"--he made a +memorandum from the letter--"and I'll send it by express. Meantime, you +fellows sit down there and write something--you know what--saying that +Dick's hurt his hand and can't write--you know; but asked you to send +a draft, which you're doing. Sabe? That's all! I'll skip over to the +express now and get the draft off, and you can mail the letter an hour +later. So put your dust back in your pockets and help yourselves to the +whiskey while I'm gone." He clapped his hat on his head and disappeared. + +"There goes a white man, you bet!" said Fletcher admiringly, as the door +closed behind their host. "Now, boys," he added, drawing a chair to the +table, "let's get this yer letter off, and then go back to our game." + +Pens and ink were produced, and an animated discussion ensued as to +the matter to be conveyed. Daddy's plea for an extended explanatory and +sympathetic communication was overruled, and the letter was written to +Ricketts on the simple lines suggested by Falloner. + +"But what about poor little Jim's letter? That ought to be answered," +said Daddy pathetically. + +"If Dick hurt his hand so he can't write to Ricketts, how in thunder is +he goin' to write to Jim?" was the reply. + +"But suthin' oughter be said to the poor kid," urged Daddy piteously. + +"Well, write it yourself--you and Gus Houston make up somethin' +together. I'm going to win some money," retorted Fletcher, returning +to the card-table, where he was presently followed by all but Daddy and +Houston. + +"Ye can't write it in Dick's name, because that little brother knows +Dick's handwriting, even if he don't remember his face. See?" suggested +Houston. + +"That's so," said Daddy dubiously; "but," he added, with elastic +cheerfulness, "we can write that Dick 'says.' See?" + +"Your head's level, old man! Just you wade in on that." + +Daddy seized the pen and "waded in." Into somewhat deep and difficult +water, I fancy, for some of it splashed into his eyes, and he sniffled +once or twice as he wrote. "Suthin' like this," he said, after a +pause:-- + + +DEAR LITTLE JIMMIE,--Your big brother havin' hurt his hand, wants me to +tell you that otherways he is all hunky and A1. He says he don't forget +you and little Cissy, you bet! and he's sendin' money to old Ricketts +straight off. He says don't you and Cissy mind whether school keeps +or not as long as big Brother Dick holds the lines. He says he'd have +written before, but he's bin follerin' up a lead mighty close, and +expects to strike it rich in a few days. + + +"You ain't got no sabe about kids," said Daddy imperturbably; "they've +got to be humored like sick folks. And they want everythin' big--they +don't take no stock in things ez they are--even ef they hev 'em worse +than they are. 'So,'" continued Daddy, reading to prevent further +interruption, "'he says you're just to keep your eyes skinned lookin' +out for him comin' home any time--day or night. All you've got to do is +to sit up and wait. He might come and even snake you out of your beds! +He might come with four white horses and a nigger driver, or he might +come disguised as an ornary tramp. Only you've got to be keen on +watchin'.' (Ye see," interrupted Daddy explanatorily, "that'll jest keep +them kids lively.) 'He says Cissy's to stop cryin' right off, and if +Willie Walker hits yer on the right cheek you just slug out with your +left fist, 'cordin' to Scripter.' Gosh," ejaculated Daddy, stopping +suddenly and gazing anxiously at Houston, "there's that blamed +photograph--I clean forgot that." + +"And Dick hasn't got one in the shop, and never had," returned Houston +emphatically. "Golly! that stumps us! Unless," he added, with diabolical +thoughtfulness, "we take Bob's? The kids don't remember Dick's face, and +Bob's about the same age. And it's a regular star picture--you bet! Bob +had it taken in Sacramento--in all his war paint. See!" He indicated a +photograph pinned against the wall--a really striking likeness which did +full justice to Bob's long silken mustache and large, brown determined +eyes. "I'll snake it off while they ain't lookin', and you jam it in +the letter. Bob won't miss it, and we can fix it up with Dick after he's +well, and send another." + +Daddy silently grasped the "infant's" hand, who presently secured the +photograph without attracting attention from the card-players. It was +promptly inclosed in the letter, addressed to Master James Lasham. The +"infant" started with it to the post-office, and Daddy Folsom returned +to Lasham's cabin to relieve the watcher that had been detached from +Falloner's to take his place beside the sick man. + +Meanwhile the rain fell steadily and the shadows crept higher and higher +up the mountain. Towards midnight the star points faded out one by one +over Sawyer's Ledge even as they had come, with the difference that the +illumination of Falloner's cabin was extinguished first, while the dim +light of Lasham's increased in number. Later, two stars seemed to shoot +from the centre of the ledge, trailing along the descent, until they +were lost in the obscurity of the slope--the lights of the stage-coach +to Sacramento carrying the mail and Robert Falloner. They met and passed +two fainter lights toiling up the road--the buggy lights of the doctor, +hastily summoned from Carterville to the bedside of the dying Dick +Lasham. + + +The slowing up of his train caused Bob Falloner to start from a half +doze in a Western Pullman car. As he glanced from his window he could +see that the blinding snowstorm which had followed him for the past six +hours had at last hopelessly blocked the line. There was no prospect +beyond the interminable snowy level, the whirling flakes, and the +monotonous palisades of leafless trees seen through it to the distant +banks of the Missouri. It was a prospect that the mountain-bred Falloner +was beginning to loathe, and although it was scarcely six weeks since +he left California, he was already looking back regretfully to the deep +slopes and the free song of the serried ranks of pines. + +The intense cold had chilled his temperate blood, even as the rigors and +conventions of Eastern life had checked his sincerity and spontaneous +flow of animal spirits begotten in the frank intercourse and brotherhood +of camps. He had just fled from the artificialities of the great +Atlantic cities to seek out some Western farming lands in which he +might put his capital and energies. The unlooked-for interruption of his +progress by a long-forgotten climate only deepened his discontent. And +now--that train was actually backing! It appeared they must return to +the last station to wait for a snow-plough to clear the line. It was, +explained the conductor, barely a mile from Shepherdstown, where there +was a good hotel and a chance of breaking the journey for the night. + +Shepherdstown! The name touched some dim chord in Bob Falloner's memory +and conscience--yet one that was vague. Then he suddenly remembered that +before leaving New York he had received a letter from Houston informing +him of Lasham's death, reminding him of his previous bounty, and begging +him--if he went West--to break the news to the Lasham family. There was +also some allusion to a joke about his (Bob's) photograph, which he had +dismissed as unimportant, and even now could not remember clearly. For a +few moments his conscience pricked him that he should have forgotten it +all, but now he could make amends by this providential delay. It was not +a task to his liking; in any other circumstances he would have written, +but he would not shirk it now. + +Shepherdstown was on the main line of the Kansas Pacific Road, and as he +alighted at its station, the big through trains from San Francisco +swept out of the stormy distance and stopped also. He remembered, as he +mingled with the passengers, hearing a childish voice ask if this was +the Californian train. He remembered hearing the amused and patient +reply of the station-master: "Yes, sonny--here she is again, and here's +her passengers," as he got into the omnibus and drove to the hotel. Here +he resolved to perform his disagreeable duty as quickly as possible, +and on his way to his room stopped for a moment at the office to ask for +Ricketts' address. The clerk, after a quick glance of curiosity at his +new guest, gave it to him readily, with a somewhat familiar smile. It +struck Falloner also as being odd that he had not been asked to write +his name on the hotel register, but this was a saving of time he was not +disposed to question, as he had already determined to make his visit to +Ricketts at once, before dinner. It was still early evening. + +He was washing his hands in his bedroom when there came a light tap at +his sitting-room door. Falloner quickly resumed his coat and entered the +sitting-room as the porter ushered in a young lady holding a small boy +by the hand. But, to Falloner's utter consternation, no sooner had the +door closed on the servant than the boy, with a half-apologetic glance +at the young lady, uttered a childish cry, broke from her, and calling, +"Dick! Dick!" ran forward and leaped into Falloner's arms. + +The mere shock of the onset and his own amazement left Bob without +breath for words. The boy, with arms convulsively clasping his body, was +imprinting kisses on Bob's waistcoat in default of reaching his face. +At last Falloner managed gently but firmly to free himself, and turned +a half-appealing, half-embarrassed look upon the young lady, whose own +face, however, suddenly flushed pink. To add to the confusion, the boy, +in some reaction of instinct, suddenly ran back to her, frantically +clutched at her skirts, and tried to bury his head in their folds. + +"He don't love me," he sobbed. "He don't care for me any more." + +The face of the young girl changed. It was a pretty face in its +flushing; in the paleness and thoughtfulness that overcast it it was a +striking face, and Bob's attention was for a moment distracted from +the grotesqueness of the situation. Leaning over the boy she said in a +caressing yet authoritative voice, "Run away for a moment, dear, until +I call you," opening the door for him in a maternal way so inconsistent +with the youthfulness of her figure that it struck him even in his +confusion. There was something also in her dress and carriage that +equally affected him: her garments were somewhat old-fashioned in style, +yet of good material, with an odd incongruity to the climate and season. + +Under her rough outer cloak she wore a polka jacket and the thinnest of +summer blouses; and her hat, though dark, was of rough straw, plainly +trimmed. Nevertheless, these peculiarities were carried off with an air +of breeding and self-possession that was unmistakable. It was possible +that her cool self-possession might have been due to some instinctive +antagonism, for as she came a step forward with coldly and +clearly-opened gray eyes, he was vaguely conscious that she didn't like +him. Nevertheless, her manner was formally polite, even, as he fancied, +to the point of irony, as she began, in a voice that occasionally +dropped into the lazy Southern intonation, and a speech that easily +slipped at times into Southern dialect:-- + +"I sent the child out of the room, as I could see that his advances +were annoying to you, and a good deal, I reckon, because I knew your +reception of them was still more painful to him. It is quite natural, I +dare say, you should feel as you do, and I reckon consistent with your +attitude towards him. But you must make some allowance for the depth of +his feelings, and how he has looked forward to this meeting. When I +tell you that ever since he received your last letter, he and his +sister--until her illness kept her home--have gone every day when the +Pacific train was due to the station to meet you; that they have taken +literally as Gospel truth every word of your letter"-- + +"My letter?" interrupted Falloner. + +The young girl's scarlet lip curled slightly. "I beg your pardon--I +should have said the letter you dictated. Of course it wasn't in your +handwriting--you had hurt your hand, you know," she added ironically. +"At all events, they believed it all--that you were coming at any +moment; they lived in that belief, and the poor things went to the +station with your photograph in their hands so that they might be the +first to recognize and greet you." + +"With my photograph?" interrupted Falloner again. + +The young girl's clear eyes darkened ominously. "I reckon," she said +deliberately, as she slowly drew from her pocket the photograph Daddy +Folsom had sent, "that that is your photograph. It certainly seems an +excellent likeness," she added, regarding him with a slight suggestion +of contemptuous triumph. + +In an instant the revelation of the whole mystery flashed upon him! The +forgotten passage in Houston's letter about the stolen photograph stood +clearly before him; the coincidence of his appearance in Shepherdstown, +and the natural mistake of the children and their fair protector, were +made perfectly plain. But with this relief and the certainty that he +could confound her with an explanation came a certain mischievous desire +to prolong the situation and increase his triumph. She certainly had not +shown him any favor. + +"Have you got the letter also?" he asked quietly. + +She whisked it impatiently from her pocket and handed it to him. As he +read Daddy's characteristic extravagance and recognized the familiar +idiosyncrasies of his old companions, he was unable to restrain a smile. +He raised his eyes, to meet with surprise the fair stranger's leveled +eyebrows and brightly indignant eyes, in which, however, the rain was +fast gathering with the lightning. + +"It may be amusing to you, and I reckon likely it was all a California +joke," she said with slightly trembling lips; "I don't know No'thern +gentlemen and their ways, and you seem to have forgotten our ways as you +have your kindred. Perhaps all this may seem so funny to them: it may +not seem funny to that boy who is now crying his heart out in the hall; +it may not be very amusing to that poor Cissy in her sick-bed longing +to see her brother. It may be so far from amusing to her, that I should +hesitate to bring you there in her excited condition and subject her +to the pain that you have caused him. But I have promised her; she is +already expecting us, and the disappointment may be dangerous, and I +can only implore you--for a few moments at least--to show a little more +affection than you feel." As he made an impulsive, deprecating gesture, +yet without changing his look of restrained amusement, she stopped him +hopelessly. "Oh, of course, yes, yes, I know it is years since you have +seen them; they have no right to expect more; only--only--feeling as you +do," she burst impulsively, "why--oh, why did you come?" + +Here was Bob's chance. He turned to her politely; began gravely, "I +simply came to"--when suddenly his face changed; he stopped as if struck +by a blow. His cheek flushed, and then paled! Good God! What had he +come for? To tell them that this brother they were longing for--living +for--perhaps even dying for--was dead! In his crass stupidity, his +wounded vanity over the scorn of the young girl, his anticipation of +triumph, he had forgotten--totally forgotten--what that triumph meant! +Perhaps if he had felt more keenly the death of Lasham the thought of it +would have been uppermost in his mind; but Lasham was not his partner or +associate, only a brother miner, and his single act of generosity was +in the ordinary routine of camp life. If she could think him cold and +heartless before, what would she think of him now? The absurdity of her +mistake had vanished in the grim tragedy he had seemed to have cruelly +prepared for her. The thought struck him so keenly that he stammered, +faltered, and sank helplessly into a chair. + +The shock that he had received was so plain to her that her own +indignation went out in the breath of it. Her lip quivered. "Don't you +mind," she said hurriedly, dropping into her Southern speech; "I didn't +go to hurt you, but I was just that mad with the thought of those +pickaninnies, and the easy way you took it, that I clean forgot I'd no +call to catechise you! And you don't know me from the Queen of Sheba. +Well," she went on, still more rapidly, and in odd distinction to her +previous formal slow Southern delivery, "I'm the daughter of Colonel +Boutelle, of Bayou Sara, Louisiana; and his paw, and his paw before him, +had a plantation there since the time of Adam, but he lost it and six +hundred niggers during the Wah! We were pooh as pohverty--paw and maw +and we four girls--and no more idea of work than a baby. But I had +an education at the convent at New Orleans, and could play, and speak +French, and I got a place as school-teacher here; I reckon the first +Southern woman that has taught school in the No'th! Ricketts, who used +to be our steward at Bayou Sara, told me about the pickaninnies, and how +helpless they were, with only a brother who occasionally sent them money +from California. I suppose I cottoned to the pooh little things at first +because I knew what it was to be alone amongst strangers, Mr. Lasham; I +used to teach them at odd times, and look after them, and go with them +to the train to look for you. Perhaps Ricketts made me think you didn't +care for them; perhaps I was wrong in thinking it was true, from the way +you met Jimmy just now. But I've spoken my mind and you know why." She +ceased and walked to the window. + +Falloner rose. The storm that had swept through him was over. The quick +determination, resolute purpose, and infinite patience which had made +him what he was were all there, and with it a conscientiousness which +his selfish independence had hitherto kept dormant. He accepted the +situation, not passively--it was not in his nature--but threw himself +into it with all his energy. + +"You were quite right," he said, halting a moment beside her; "I don't +blame you, and let me hope that later you may think me less to blame +than you do now. Now, what's to be done? Clearly, I've first to make it +right with Tommy--I mean Jimmy--and then we must make a straight dash +over to the girl! Whoop!" Before she could understand from his face the +strange change in his voice, he had dashed out of the room. In a moment +he reappeared with the boy struggling in his arms. "Think of the little +scamp not knowing his own brother!" he laughed, giving the boy a really +affectionate, if slightly exaggerated hug, "and expecting me to open my +arms to the first little boy who jumps into them! I've a great mind not +to give him the present I fetched all the way from California. Wait +a moment." He dashed into the bedroom, opened his valise--where he +providentially remembered he had kept, with a miner's superstition, the +first little nugget of gold he had ever found--seized the tiny bit of +quartz of gold, and dashed out again to display it before Jimmy's eager +eyes. + +If the heartiness, sympathy, and charming kindness of the man's whole +manner and face convinced, even while it slightly startled, the young +girl, it was still more effective with the boy. Children are quick +to detect the false ring of affected emotion, and Bob's was so +genuine--whatever its cause--that it might have easily passed for a +fraternal expression with harder critics. The child trustfully nestled +against him and would have grasped the gold, but the young man +whisked it into his pocket. "Not until we've shown it to our little +sister--where we're going now! I'm off to order a sleigh." He dashed +out again to the office as if he found some relief in action, or, as +it seemed to Miss Boutelle, to avoid embarrassing conversation. When he +came back again he was carrying an immense bearskin from his luggage. He +cast a critical look at the girl's unseasonable attire. + +"I shall wrap you and Jimmy in this--you know it's snowing frightfully." + +Miss Boutelle flushed a little. "I'm warm enough when walking," she +said coldly. Bob glanced at her smart little French shoes, and +thought otherwise. He said nothing, but hastily bundled his two guests +downstairs and into the street. The whirlwind dance of the snow made the +sleigh an indistinct bulk in the glittering darkness, and as the young +girl for an instant stood dazedly still, Bob incontinently lifted her +from her feet, deposited her in the vehicle, dropped Jimmy in her lap, +and wrapped them both tightly in the bearskin. Her weight, which +was scarcely more than a child's, struck him in that moment as being +tantalizingly incongruous to the matronly severity of her manner and its +strange effect upon him. He then jumped in himself, taking the direction +from his companion, and drove off through the storm. + +The wind and darkness were not favorable to conversation, and only +once did he break the silence. "Is there any one who would be likely to +remember--me--where we are going?" he asked, in a lull of the storm. + +Miss Boutelle uncovered enough of her face to glance at him curiously. +"Hardly! You know the children came here from the No'th after your +mother's death, while you were in California." + +"Of course," returned Bob hurriedly; "I was only thinking--you know +that some of my old friends might have called," and then collapsed into +silence. + +After a pause a voice came icily, although under the furs: "Perhaps +you'd prefer that your arrival be kept secret from the public? But they +seem to have already recognized you at the hotel from your inquiry about +Ricketts, and the photograph Jimmy had already shown them two weeks +ago." Bob remembered the clerk's familiar manner and the omission to ask +him to register. "But it need go no further, if you like," she added, +with a slight return of her previous scorn. + +"I've no reason for keeping it secret," said Bob stoutly. + +No other words were exchanged until the sleigh drew up before a plain +wooden house in the suburbs of the town. Bob could see at a glance that +it represented the income of some careful artisan or small shopkeeper, +and that it promised little for an invalid's luxurious comfort. They +were ushered into a chilly sitting-room and Miss Boutelle ran upstairs +with Jimmy to prepare the invalid for Bob's appearance. He noticed that +a word dropped by the woman who opened the door made the young girl's +face grave again, and paled the color that the storm had buffeted to +her cheek. He noticed also that these plain surroundings seemed only +to enhance her own superiority, and that the woman treated her with a +deference in odd contrast to the ill-concealed disfavor with which she +regarded him. Strangely enough, this latter fact was a relief to his +conscience. It would have been terrible to have received their kindness +under false pretenses; to take their just blame of the man he personated +seemed to mitigate the deceit. + +The young girl rejoined him presently with troubled eyes. Cissy was +worse, and only intermittently conscious, but had asked to see him. It +was a short flight of stairs to the bedroom, but before he reached it +Bob's heart beat faster than it had in any mountain climb. In one corner +of the plainly furnished room stood a small truckle bed, and in it lay +the invalid. It needed but a single glance at her flushed face in its +aureole of yellow hair to recognize the likeness to Jimmy, although, +added to that strange refinement produced by suffering, there was a +spiritual exaltation in the child's look--possibly from delirium--that +awed and frightened him; an awful feeling that he could not lie to this +hopeless creature took possession of him, and his step faltered. But +she lifted her small arms pathetically towards him as if she divined his +trouble, and he sank on his knees beside her. With a tiny finger curled +around his long mustache, she lay there silent. Her face was full of +trustfulness, happiness, and consciousness--but she spoke no word. + +There was a pause, and Falloner, slightly lifting his head without +disturbing that faintly clasping finger, beckoned Miss Boutelle to his +side. "Can you drive?" he said, in a low voice. + +"Yes." + +"Take my sleigh and get the best doctor in town to come here at once. +Bring him with you if you can; if he can't come at once, drive home +yourself. I will stay here." + +"But"--hesitated Miss Boutelle. + +"I will stay here," he repeated. + +The door closed on the young girl, and Falloner, still bending over the +child, presently heard the sleigh-bells pass away in the storm. He still +sat with his bent head, held by the tiny clasp of those thin fingers. +But the child's eyes were fixed so intently upon him that Mrs. Ricketts +leaned over the strangely-assorted pair and said-- + +"It's your brother Dick, dearie. Don't you know him?" + +The child's lips moved faintly. "Dick's dead," she whispered. + +"She's wandering," said Mrs. Ricketts. "Speak to her." But Bob, with +his eyes on the child's, lifted a protesting hand. The little sufferer's +lips moved again. "It isn't Dick--it's the angel God sent to tell me." + +She spoke no more. And when Miss Boutelle returned with the doctor she +was beyond the reach of finite voices. Falloner would have remained all +night with them, but he could see that his presence in the contracted +household was not desired. Even his offer to take Jimmy with him to the +hotel was declined, and at midnight he returned alone. + +What his thoughts were that night may be easily imagined. Cissy's death +had removed the only cause he had for concealing his real identity. +There was nothing more to prevent his revealing all to Miss Boutelle and +to offer to adopt the boy. But he reflected this could not be done until +after the funeral, for it was only due to Cissy's memory that he should +still keep up the role of Dick Lasham as chief mourner. If it seems +strange that Bob did not at this crucial moment take Miss Boutelle into +his confidence, I fear it was because he dreaded the personal effect +of the deceit he had practiced upon her more than any ethical +consideration; she had softened considerably in her attitude towards him +that night; he was human, after all, and while he felt his conduct had +been unselfish in the main, he dared not confess to himself how much her +opinion had influenced him. He resolved that after the funeral he would +continue his journey, and write to her, en route, a full explanation of +his conduct, inclosing Daddy's letter as corroborative evidence. But on +searching his letter-case he found that he had lost even that evidence, +and he must trust solely at present to her faith in his improbable +story. + +It seemed as if his greatest sacrifice was demanded at the funeral! For +it could not be disguised that the neighbors were strongly prejudiced +against him. Even the preacher improved the occasion to warn the +congregation against the dangers of putting off duty until too late. And +when Robert Falloner, pale, but self-restrained, left the church with +Miss Boutelle, equally pale and reserved, on his arm, he could with +difficulty restrain his fury at the passing of a significant smile +across the faces of a few curious bystanders. "It was Amy Boutelle, that +was the 'penitence' that fetched him, you bet!" he overheard, a barely +concealed whisper; and the reply, "And it's a good thing she's made out +of it too, for he's mighty rich!" + +At the church door he took her cold hand into his. "I am leaving +to-morrow morning with Jimmy," he said, with a white face. "Good-by." + +"You are quite right; good-by," she replied as briefly, but with the +faintest color. He wondered if she had heard it too. + +Whether she had heard it or not, she went home with Mrs. Ricketts +in some righteous indignation, which found--after the young lady's +habit--free expression. Whatever were Mr. Lasham's faults of omission it +was most un-Christian to allude to them there, and an insult to the poor +little dear's memory who had forgiven them. Were she in his shoes she +would shake the dust of the town off her feet; and she hoped he would. +She was a little softened on arriving to find Jimmy in tears. He had +lost Dick's photograph--or Dick had forgotten to give it back at +the hotel, for this was all he had in his pocket. And he produced a +letter--the missing letter of Daddy, which by mistake Falloner +had handed back instead of the photograph. Miss Boutelle saw the +superscription and Californian postmark with a vague curiosity. + +"Did you look inside, dear? Perhaps it slipped in." + +Jimmy had not. Miss Boutelle did--and I grieve to say, ended by reading +the whole letter. + +Bob Falloner had finished packing his things the next morning, and was +waiting for Mr. Ricketts and Jimmy. But when a tap came at the door, he +opened it to find Miss Boutelle standing there. "I have sent Jimmy into +the bedroom," she said with a faint smile, "to look for the photograph +which you gave him in mistake for this. I think for the present he +prefers his brother's picture to this letter, which I have not explained +to him or any one." She stopped, and raising her eyes to his, said +gently: "I think it would have only been a part of your goodness to have +trusted me, Mr. Falloner." + +"Then you will forgive me?" he said eagerly. + +She looked at him frankly, yet with a faint trace of coquetry that the +angels might have pardoned. "Do you want me to say to you what Mrs. +Ricketts says were the last words of poor Cissy?" + +A year later, when the darkness and rain were creeping up Sawyer's +Ledge, and Houston and Daddy Folsom were sitting before their brushwood +fire in the old Lasham cabin, the latter delivered himself oracularly. + +"It's a mighty queer thing, that news about Bob! It's not that he's +married, for that might happen to any one; but this yer account in the +paper of his wedding being attended by his 'little brother.' That gets +me! To think all the while he was here he was lettin' on to us that he +hadn't kith or kin! Well, sir, that accounts to me for one thing,--the +sing'ler way he tumbled to that letter of poor Dick Lasham's little +brother and sent him that draft! Don't ye see? It was a feller feelin'! +Knew how it was himself! I reckon ye all thought I was kinder soft +reading that letter o' Dick Lasham's little brother to him, but ye see +what it did." + + + + +THE YOUNGEST MISS PIPER + + +I do not think that any of us who enjoyed the acquaintance of the Piper +girls or the hospitality of Judge Piper, their father, ever cared for +the youngest sister. Not on account of her extreme youth, for the eldest +Miss Piper confessed to twenty-six--and the youth of the youngest sister +was established solely, I think, by one big braid down her back. Neither +was it because she was the plainest, for the beauty of the Piper girls +was a recognized general distinction, and the youngest Miss Piper was +not entirely devoid of the family charms. Nor was it from any lack of +intelligence, nor from any defective social quality; for her precocity +was astounding, and her good-humored frankness alarming. Neither do I +think it could be said that a slight deafness, which might impart an +embarrassing publicity to any statement--the reverse of our general +feeling--that might be confided by any one to her private ear, was a +sufficient reason; for it was pointed out that she always understood +everything that Tom Sparrell told her in his ordinary tone of voice. +Briefly, it was very possible that Delaware--the youngest Miss +Piper--did not like us. Yet it was fondly believed by us that the other +sisters failed to show that indifference to our existence shown by Miss +Delaware, although the heartburnings, misunderstandings, jealousies, +hopes and fears, and finally the chivalrous resignation with which we +at last accepted the long foregone conclusion that they were not for +us, and far beyond our reach, is not a part of this veracious chronicle. +Enough that none of the flirtations of her elder sisters affected or +were shared by the youngest Miss Piper. She moved in this heart-breaking +atmosphere with sublime indifference, treating her sisters' affairs with +what we considered rank simplicity or appalling frankness. Their few +admirers who were weak enough to attempt to gain her mediation or +confidence had reason to regret it. + +"It's no kind o' use givin' me goodies," she said to a helpless suitor +of Louisiana Piper's who had offered to bring her some sweets, "for I +ain't got no influence with Lu, and if I don't give 'em up to her when +she hears of it, she'll nag me and hate you like pizen. Unless," she +added thoughtfully, "it was wintergreen lozenges; Lu can't stand them, +or anybody who eats them within a mile." It is needless to add that +the miserable man, thus put upon his gallantry, was obliged in honor to +provide Del with the wintergreen lozenges that kept him in disfavor +and at a distance. Unfortunately, too, any predilection or pity for any +particular suitor of her sister's was attended by even more disastrous +consequences. It was reported that while acting as "gooseberry"--a role +usually assigned to her--between Virginia Piper and an exceptionally +timid young surveyor, during a ramble she conceived a rare sentiment of +humanity towards the unhappy man. After once or twice lingering behind +in the ostentatious picking of a wayside flower, or "running on ahead" +to look at a mountain view, without any apparent effect on the shy and +speechless youth, she decoyed him aside while her elder sister rambled +indifferently and somewhat scornfully on. The youngest Miss Piper leaped +upon the rail of a fence, and with the stalk of a thimbleberry in her +mouth swung her small feet to and fro and surveyed him dispassionately. + +"Ye don't seem to be ketchin' on?" she said tentatively. + +The young man smiled feebly and interrogatively. + +"Don't seem to be either follering suit nor trumpin'," continued Del +bluntly. + +"I suppose so--that is, I fear that Miss Virginia"--he stammered. + +"Speak up! I'm a little deaf. Say it again!" said Del, screwing up her +eyes and eyebrows. + +The young man was obliged to admit in stentorian tones that his progress +had been scarcely satisfactory. + +"You're goin' on too slow--that's it," said Del critically. "Why, when +Captain Savage meandered along here with Jinny" (Virginia) "last +week, afore we got as far as this he'd reeled off a heap of Byron and +Jamieson" (Tennyson), "and sich; and only yesterday Jinny and Doctor +Beveridge was blowin' thistletops to know which was a flirt all along +the trail past the crossroads. Why, ye ain't picked ez much as a single +berry for Jinny, let alone Lad's Love or Johnny Jumpups and Kissme's, +and ye keep talkin' across me, you two, till I'm tired. Now look here," +she burst out with sudden decision, "Jinny's gone on ahead in a kind o' +huff; but I reckon she's done that afore too, and you'll find her, jest +as Spinner did, on the rise of the hill, sittin' on a pine stump and +lookin' like this." (Here the youngest Miss Piper locked her +fingers over her left knee, and drew it slightly up,--with a sublime +indifference to the exposure of considerable small-ankled red +stocking,--and with a far-off, plaintive stare, achieved a colorable +imitation of her elder sister's probable attitude.) "Then you jest go up +softly, like as you was a bear, and clap your hands on her eyes, and +say in a disguised voice like this" (here Del turned on a high falsetto +beyond any masculine compass), "'Who's who?' jest like in forfeits." + +"But she'll be sure to know me," said the surveyor timidly. + +"She won't," said Del in scornful skepticism. + +"I hardly think"--stammered the young man, with an awkward smile, "that +I--in fact--she'll discover me--before I can get beside her." + +"Not if you go softly, for she'll be sittin' back to the road, +so--gazing away, so"--the youngest Miss Piper again stared dreamily in +the distance, "and you'll creep up just behind, like this." + +"But won't she be angry? I haven't known her long--that is--don't you +see?" He stopped embarrassedly. + +"Can't hear a word you say," said Del, shaking her head decisively. +"You've got my deaf ear. Speak louder, or come closer." + +But here the instruction suddenly ended, once and for all time! For +whether the young man was seriously anxious to perfect himself; whether +he was truly grateful to the young girl and tried to show it; whether he +was emboldened by the childish appeal of the long brown distinguishing +braid down her back, or whether he suddenly found something peculiarly +provocative in the reddish brown eyes between their thickset hedge of +lashes, and with the trim figure and piquant pose, and was seized with +that hysteric desperation which sometimes attacks timidity itself, I +cannot say! Enough that he suddenly put his arm around her waist and +his lips to her soft satin cheek, peppered and salted as it was by +sun-freckles and mountain air, and received a sound box on the ear for +his pains. The incident was closed. He did not repeat the experiment on +either sister. The disclosure of his rebuff seemed, however, to give a +singular satisfaction to Red Gulch. + +While it may be gathered from this that the youngest Miss Piper was +impervious to general masculine advances, it was not until later that +Red Gulch was thrown into skeptical astonishment by the rumors that all +this time she really had a lover! Allusion has been made to the charge +that her deafness did not prevent her from perfectly understanding the +ordinary tone of voice of a certain Mr. Thomas Sparrell. + +No undue significance was attached to this fact through the very +insignificance and "impossibility" of that individual;--a lanky, +red-haired youth, incapacitated for manual labor through lameness,--a +clerk in a general store at the Cross Roads! He had never been the +recipient of Judge Piper's hospitality; he had never visited the house +even with parcels; apparently his only interviews with her or any of +the family had been over the counter. To do him justice he certainly had +never seemed to seek any nearer acquaintance; he was not at the church +door when her sisters, beautiful in their Sunday gowns, filed into the +aisle, with little Delaware bringing up the rear; he was not at the +Democratic barbecue, that we attended without reference to our personal +politics, and solely for the sake of Judge Piper and the girls; nor +did he go to the Agricultural Fair Ball--open to all. His abstention we +believed to be owing to his lameness; to a wholesome consciousness +of his own social defects; or an inordinate passion for reading cheap +scientific textbooks, which did not, however, add fluency nor conviction +to his speech. Neither had he the abstraction of a student, for his +accounts were kept with an accuracy which struck us, who dealt at the +store, as ignobly practical, and even malignant. Possibly we might have +expressed this opinion more strongly but for a certain rude vigor of +repartee which he possessed, and a suggestion that he might have a +temper on occasion. "Them red-haired chaps is like to be tetchy and +to kinder see blood through their eyelashes," had been suggested by an +observing customer. + +In short, little as we knew of the youngest Miss Piper, he was the last +man we should have suspected her to select as an admirer. What we did +know of their public relations, purely commercial ones, implied the +reverse of any cordial understanding. The provisioning of the Piper +household was entrusted to Del, with other practical odds and ends of +housekeeping, not ornamental, and the following is said to be a truthful +record of one of their overheard interviews at the store:-- + +The youngest Miss Piper, entering, displacing a quantity of goods in the +centre to make a sideways seat for herself, and looking around loftily +as she took a memorandum-book and pencil from her pocket. + +"Ahem! If I ain't taking you away from your studies, Mr. Sparrell, +maybe you'll be good enough to look here a minit;--but" (in affected +politeness) "if I'm disturbing you I can come another time." + +Sparrell, placing the book he had been reading carefully under the +counter, and advancing to Miss Delaware with a complete ignoring of her +irony: "What can we do for you to-day, Miss Piper?" + +Miss Delaware, with great suavity of manner, examining her +memorandum-book: "I suppose it wouldn't be shocking your delicate +feelings too much to inform you that the canned lobster and oysters you +sent us yesterday wasn't fit for hogs?" + +Sparrell (blandly): "They weren't intended for them, Miss Piper. If +we had known you were having company over from Red Gulch to dinner, we +might have provided something more suitable for them. We have a fair +quality of oil-cake and corn-cobs in stock, at reduced figures. But the +canned provisions were for your own family." + +Miss Delaware (secretly pleased at this sarcastic allusion to her +sister's friends, but concealing her delight): "I admire to hear you +talk that way, Mr. Sparrell; it's better than minstrels or a circus. I +suppose you get it outer that book," indicating the concealed volume. +"What do you call it?" + +Sparrell (politely): "The First Principles of Geology." + +Miss Delaware, leaning sideways and curling her little fingers around +her pink ear: "Did you say the first principles of 'geology' or +'politeness'? You know I am so deaf; but, of course, it couldn't be +that." + +Sparrell (easily): "Oh no, you seem to have that in your hand"--pointing +to Miss Delaware's memorandum-book--"you were quoting from it when you +came in." + +Miss Delaware, after an affected silence of deep resignation: "Well! +it's too bad folks can't just spend their lives listenin' to such +elegant talk; I'd admire to do nothing else! But there's my family up at +Cottonwood--and they must eat. They're that low that they expect me +to waste my time getting food for 'em here, instead of drinking in the +First Principles of the Grocery." + +"Geology," suggested Sparrell blandly. "The history of rock formation." + +"Geology," accepted Miss Delaware apologetically; "the history of rocks, +which is so necessary for knowing just how much sand you can put in the +sugar. So I reckon I'll leave my list here, and you can have the things +toted to Cottonwood when you've got through with your First Principles." + +She tore out a list of her commissions from a page of her +memorandum-book, leaped lightly from the counter, threw her brown braid +from her left shoulder to its proper place down her back, shook out +her skirts deliberately, and saying, "Thank you for a most improvin' +afternoon, Mr. Sparrell," sailed demurely out of the store. + +A few auditors of this narrative thought it inconsistent that a daughter +of Judge Piper and a sister of the angelic host should put up with a +mere clerk's familiarity, but it was pointed out that "she gave him as +good as he sent," and the story was generally credited. But certainly +no one ever dreamed that it pointed to any more precious confidences +between them. + +I think the secret burst upon the family, with other things, at the big +picnic at Reservoir Canyon. This festivity had been arranged for weeks +previously, and was undertaken chiefly by the "Red Gulch Contingent," +as we were called, as a slight return to the Piper family for their +frequent hospitality. The Piper sisters were expected to bring nothing +but their own personal graces and attend to the ministration of such +viands and delicacies as the boys had profusely supplied. + +The site selected was Reservoir Canyon, a beautiful, triangular valley +with very steep sides, one of which was crowned by the immense reservoir +of the Pioneer Ditch Company. The sheer flanks of the canyon descended +in furrowed lines of vines and clinging bushes, like folds of falling +skirts, until they broke again into flounces of spangled shrubbery over +a broad level carpet of monkshood, mariposas, lupines, poppies, and +daisies. Tempered and secluded from the sun's rays by its lofty shadows, +the delicious obscurity of the canyon was in sharp contrast to the +fiery mountain trail that in the full glare of the noonday sky made +its tortuous way down the hillside, like a stream of lava, to plunge +suddenly into the valley and extinguish itself in its coolness as in a +lake. The heavy odors of wild honeysuckle, syringa, and ceanothus that +hung over it were lightened and freshened by the sharp spicing of pine +and bay. The mountain breeze which sometimes shook the serrated tops of +the large redwoods above with a chill from the remote snow peaks even in +the heart of summer, never reached the little valley. + +It seemed an ideal place for a picnic. Everybody was therefore +astonished to hear that an objection was suddenly raised to this perfect +site. They were still more astonished to know that the objector was the +youngest Miss Piper! Pressed to give her reasons, she had replied that +the locality was dangerous; that the reservoir placed upon the mountain, +notoriously old and worn out, had been rendered more unsafe by +false economy in unskillful and hasty repairs to satisfy speculating +stockbrokers, and that it had lately shown signs of leakage and sapping +of its outer walls; that, in the event of an outbreak, the little +triangular valley, from which there was no outlet, would be instantly +flooded. Asked still more pressingly to give her authority for these +details, she at first hesitated, and then gave the name of Tom Sparrell. + +The derision with which this statement was received by us all, as the +opinion of a sedentary clerk, was quite natural and obvious, but not +the anger which it excited in the breast of Judge Piper; for it was not +generally known that the judge was the holder of a considerable number +of shares in the Pioneer Ditch Company, and that large dividends had +been lately kept up by a false economy of expenditure, to expedite a +"sharp deal" in the stock, by which the judge and others could sell out +of a failing company. Rather, it was believed, that the judge's anger +was due only to the discovery of Sparrell's influence over his daughter +and his interference with the social affairs of Cottonwood. It was said +that there was a sharp scene between the youngest Miss Piper and the +combined forces of the judge and the elder sisters, which ended in the +former's resolute refusal to attend the picnic at all if that site was +selected. + +As Delaware was known to be fearless even to the point of recklessness, +and fond of gayety, her refusal only intensified the belief that she was +merely "stickin' up for Sparrell's judgment" without any reference to +her own personal safety or that of her sisters. The warning was laughed +away; the opinion of Sparrell treated with ridicule as the dyspeptic and +envious expression of an impractical man. It was pointed out that the +reservoir had lasted a long time even in its alleged ruinous state; that +only a miracle of coincidence could make it break down that particular +afternoon of the picnic; that even if it did happen, there was no direct +proof that it would seriously flood the valley, or at best add more than +a spice of excitement to the affair. The "Red Gulch Contingent," who +WOULD be there, was quite as capable of taking care of the ladies, in +case of any accident, as any lame crank who wouldn't, but could only +croak a warning to them from a distance. A few even wished something +might happen that they might have an opportunity of showing their +superior devotion; indeed, the prospect of carrying the half-submerged +sisters, in a condition of helpless loveliness, in their arms to a place +of safety was a fascinating possibility. The warning was conspicuously +ineffective; everybody looked eagerly forward to the day and the +unchanged locality; to the greatest hopefulness and anticipation was +added the stirring of defiance, and when at last the appointed hour +had arrived, the picnic party passed down the twisting mountain trail +through the heat and glare in a fever of enthusiasm. + +It was a pretty sight to view this sparkling procession--the girls cool +and radiant in their white, blue, and yellow muslins and flying ribbons, +the "Contingent" in its cleanest ducks, and blue and red flannel shirts, +the judge white-waistcoated and panama-hatted, with a new dignity +borrowed from the previous circumstances, and three or four impressive +Chinamen bringing up the rear with hampers--as it at last debouched into +Reservoir Canyon. + +Here they dispersed themselves over the limited area, scarcely half an +acre, with the freedom of escaped school children. They were secure in +their woodland privacy. They were overlooked by no high road and +its passing teams; they were safe from accidental intrusion from the +settlement; indeed they went so far as to effect the exclusiveness of +"clique." At first they amused themselves by casting humorously defiant +eyes at the long low Ditch Reservoir, which peeped over the green wall +of the ridge, six hundred feet above them; at times they even simulated +an exaggerated terror of it, and one recognized humorist declaimed a +grotesque appeal to its forbearance, with delightful local allusions. +Others pretended to discover near a woodman's hut, among the belt of +pines at the top of the descending trail, the peeping figure of the +ridiculous and envious Sparrell. But all this was presently forgotten +in the actual festivity. Small as was the range of the valley, it +still allowed retreats during the dances for waiting couples among the +convenient laurel and manzanita bushes which flounced the mountain side. +After the dancing, old-fashioned children's games were revived with +great laughter and half-hearted and coy protests from the ladies; +notably one pastime known as "I'm a-pinin'," in which ingenious +performance the victim was obliged to stand in the centre of a circle +and publicly "pine" for a member of the opposite sex. Some hilarity was +occasioned by the mischievous Miss "Georgy" Piper declaring, when it +came to her turn, that she was "pinin'" for a look at the face of Tom +Sparrell just now! + +In this local trifling two hours passed, until the party sat down to the +long-looked for repast. It was here that the health of Judge Piper was +neatly proposed by the editor of the "Argus." The judge responded with +great dignity and some emotion. He reminded them that it had been his +humble endeavor to promote harmony--that harmony so characteristic +of American principles--in social as he had in political circles, +and particularly among the strangely constituted yet purely American +elements of frontier life. He accepted the present festivity with +its overflowing hospitalities, not in recognition of himself--("yes! +yes!")--nor of his family--(enthusiastic protests)--but of that American +principle! If at one time it seemed probable that these festivities +might be marred by the machinations of envy--(groans)--or that +harmony interrupted by the importation of low-toned material +interests--(groans)--he could say that, looking around him, he had never +before felt--er--that--Here the judge stopped short, reeled slightly +forward, caught at a camp-stool, recovered himself with an apologetic +smile, and turned inquiringly to his neighbor. + +A light laugh--instantly suppressed--at what was at first supposed to +be the effect of the "overflowing hospitality" upon the speaker himself, +went around the male circle until it suddenly appeared that half a dozen +others had started to their feet at the same time, with white faces, and +that one of the ladies had screamed. + +"What is it?" everybody was asking with interrogatory smiles. + +It was Judge Piper who replied:-- + +"A little shock of earthquake," he said blandly; "a mere thrill! I +think," he added with a faint smile, "we may say that Nature herself has +applauded our efforts in good old Californian fashion, and signified her +assent. What are you saying, Fludder?" + +"I was thinking, sir," said Fludder deferentially, in a lower voice, +"that if anything was wrong in the reservoir, this shock, you know, +might"-- + +He was interrupted by a faint crashing and crackling sound, and looking +up, beheld a good-sized boulder, evidently detached from some greater +height, strike the upland plateau at the left of the trail and bound +into the fringe of forest beside it. A slight cloud of dust marked its +course, and then lazily floated away in mid air. But it had been watched +agitatedly, and it was evident that that singular loss of nervous +balance which is apt to affect all those who go through the slightest +earthquake experience was felt by all. But some sense of humor, however, +remained. + +"Looks as if the water risks we took ain't goin' to cover earthquakes," +drawled Dick Frisney; "still that wasn't a bad shot, if we only knew +what they were aiming at." + +"Do be quiet," said Virginia Piper, her cheeks pink with excitement. +"Listen, can't you? What's that funny murmuring you hear now and then up +there?" + +"It's only the snow-wind playin' with the pines on the summit. You girls +won't allow anybody any fun but yourselves." + +But here a scream from "Georgy," who, assisted by Captain Fairfax, had +mounted a camp-stool at the mouth of the valley, attracted everybody's +attention. She was standing upright, with dilated eyes, staring at +the top of the trail. "Look!" she said excitedly, "if the trail isn't +moving!" + +Everybody faced in that direction. At the first glance it seemed indeed +as if the trail was actually moving; wriggling and undulating its +tortuous way down the mountain like a huge snake, only swollen to twice +its usual size. But the second glance showed it to be no longer a trail +but a channel of water, whose stream, lifted in a bore-like wall four or +five feet high, was plunging down into the devoted valley. + +For an instant they were unable to comprehend even the nature of the +catastrophe. The reservoir was directly over their heads; the bursting +of its wall they had imagined would naturally bring down the water in a +dozen trickling streams or falls over the cliff above them and along the +flanks of the mountain. But that its suddenly liberated volume should +overflow the upland beyond and then descend in a pent-up flood by their +own trail and their only avenue of escape, had been beyond their wildest +fancy. + +They met this smiting truth with that characteristic short laugh +with which the American usually receives the blow of Fate or the +unexpected--as if he recognized only the absurdity of the situation. +Then they ran to the women, collected them together, and dragged them +to vantages of fancied security among the bushes which flounced the long +skirts of the mountain walls. But I leave this part of the description +to the characteristic language of one of the party:-- + +"When the flood struck us, it did not seem to take any stock of us in +particular, but laid itself out to 'go for' that picnic for all it +was worth! It wiped it off the face of the earth in about twenty-five +seconds! It first made a clean break from stem to stern, carrying +everything along with it. The first thing I saw was old Judge Piper, +puttin' on his best licks to get away from a big can of strawberry ice +cream that was trundling after him and trying to empty itself on his +collar, whenever a bigger wave lifted it. He was followed by what was +left of the brass band; the big drum just humpin' itself to keep +abreast o' the ice cream, mixed up with camp-stools, music-stands, a few +Chinamen, and then what they call in them big San Francisco processions +'citizens generally.' The hull thing swept up the canyon inside o' +thirty seconds. Then, what Captain Fairfax called 'the reflex action in +the laws o' motion' happened, and darned if the hull blamed procession +didn't sweep back again--this time all the heavy artillery, such as +camp-kettles, lager beer kegs, bottles, glasses, and crockery that was +left behind takin' the lead now, and Judge Piper and that ice cream can +bringin' up the rear. As the jedge passed us the second time, we noticed +that that ice cream can--hevin' swallowed water--was kinder losing its +wind, and we encouraged the old man by shoutin' out, 'Five to one on +him!' And then, you wouldn't believe what followed. Why, darn my skin, +when that 'reflex' met the current at the other end, it just swirled +around again in what Captain Fairfax called the 'centrifugal curve,' and +just went round and round the canyon like ez when yer washin' the dirt +out o' a prospectin' pan--every now and then washin' some one of the +boys that was in it, like scum, up ag'in the banks. + +"We managed in this way to snake out the judge, jest ez he was sailin' +round on the home stretch, passin' the quarter post two lengths ahead +o' the can. A good deal o' the ice cream had washed away, but it took +us ten minutes to shake the cracked ice and powdered salt out o' the +old man's clothes, and warm him up again in the laurel bush where he +was clinging. This sort o' 'Here we go round the mulberry bush' kep' +on until most o' the humans was got out, and only the furniture o' +the picnic was left in the race. Then it got kinder mixed up, and went +sloshin' round here and there, ez the water kep' comin' down by the +trail. Then Lulu Piper, what I was holdin' up all the time in a laurel +bush, gets an idea, for all she was wet and draggled; and ez the things +went bobbin' round, she calls out the figures o' a cotillon to 'em. +'Two camp-stools forward.' 'Sashay and back to your places.' 'Change +partners.' 'Hands all round.' + +"She was clear grit, you bet! And the joke caught on and the other +girls jined in, and it kinder cheered 'em, for they was wantin' it. Then +Fludder allowed to pacify 'em by sayin' he just figured up the size o' +the reservoir and the size o' the canyon, and he kalkilated that the +cube was about ekal, and the canyon couldn't flood any more. And then +Lulu--who was peart as a jay and couldn't be fooled--speaks up and says, +'What's the matter with the ditch, Dick?' + +"Lord! then we knew that she knew the worst; for of course all the water +in the ditch itself--fifty miles of it!--was drainin' now into that +reservoir and was bound to come down to the canyon." + +It was at this point that the situation became really desperate, for +they had now crawled up the steep sides as far as the bushes afforded +foothold, and the water was still rising. The chatter of the girls +ceased, there were long silences, in which the men discussed the wildest +plans, and proposed to tear their shirts into strips to make ropes to +support the girls by sticks driven into the mountain side. It was in +one of those intervals that the distinct strokes of a woodman's axe were +heard high on the upland at the point where the trail descended to the +canyon. Every ear was alert, but only those on one side of the canyon +could get a fair view of the spot. This was the good fortune of Captain +Fairfax and Georgy Piper, who had climbed to the highest bush on that +side, and were now standing up, gazing excitedly in that direction. + +"Some one is cutting down a tree at the head of the trail," shouted +Fairfax. The response and joyful explanation, "for a dam across the +trail," was on everybody's lips at the same time. + +But the strokes of the axe were slow and painfully intermittent. +Impatience burst out. + +"Yell to him to hurry up! Why haven't they brought two men?" + +"It's only one man," shouted the captain, "and he seems to be a cripple. +By Jiminy!--it is--yes!--it's Tom Sparrell!" + +There was a dead silence. Then, I grieve to say, shame and its twin +brother rage took possession of their weak humanity. Oh, yes! It was all +of a piece! Why in the name of Folly hadn't he sent for an able-bodied +man. Were they to be drowned through his cranky obstinacy? + +The blows still went on slowly. Presently, however, they seemed to +alternate with other blows--but alas! they were slower, and if possible +feebler! + +"Have they got another cripple to work?" roared the Contingent in one +furious voice. + +"No--it's a woman--a little one--yes! a girl. Hello! Why, sure as you +live, it's Delaware!" + +A spontaneous cheer burst from the Contingent, partly as a rebuke to +Sparrell, I think, partly from some shame over their previous rage. He +could take it as he liked. + +Still the blows went on distressingly slow. The girls were hoisted +on the men's shoulders; the men were half submerged. Then there was a +painful pause; then a crumbling crash. Another cheer went up from the +canyon. + +"It's down! straight across the trail," shouted Fairfax, "and a part of +the bank on the top of it." + +There was another moment of suspense. Would it hold or be carried away +by the momentum of the flood? It held! In a few moments Fairfax again +gave voice to the cheering news that the flow had stopped and the +submerged trail was reappearing. In twenty minutes it was clear--a muddy +river bed, but possible of ascent! Of course there was no diminution of +the water in the canyon, which had no outlet, yet it now was possible +for the party to swing from bush to bush along the mountain side until +the foot of the trail--no longer an opposing one--was reached. There +were some missteps and mishaps,--flounderings in the water, and some +dangerous rescues,--but in half an hour the whole concourse stood +upon the trail and commenced the ascent. It was a slow, difficult, and +lugubrious procession--I fear not the best-tempered one, now that the +stimulus of danger and chivalry was past. When they reached the dam made +by the fallen tree, although they were obliged to make a long detour to +avoid its steep sides, they could see how successfully it had diverted +the current to a declivity on the other side. + +But strangely enough they were greeted by nothing else! Sparrell and +the youngest Miss Piper were gone; and when they at last reached the +highroad, they were astounded to hear from a passing teamster that no +one in the settlement knew anything of the disaster! + +This was the last drop in their cup of bitterness! They who had expected +that the settlement was waiting breathlessly for their rescue, who +anticipated that they would be welcomed as heroes, were obliged to +meet the ill-concealed amusement of passengers and friends at their +dishevelled and bedraggled appearance, which suggested only the +blundering mishaps of an ordinary summer outing! "Boatin' in the +reservoir, and fell in?" "Playing at canal-boat in the Ditch?" were some +of the cheerful hypotheses. The fleeting sense of gratitude they had +felt for their deliverers was dissipated by the time they had reached +their homes, and their rancor increased by the information that when the +earthquake occurred Mr. Tom Sparrell and Miss Delaware were enjoying +a "pasear" in the forest--he having a half-holiday by virtue of +the festival--and that the earthquake had revived his fears of a +catastrophe. The two had procured axes in the woodman's hut and did what +they thought was necessary to relieve the situation of the picnickers. +But the very modesty of this account of their own performance had the +effect of belittling the catastrophe itself, and the picnickers' report +of their exceeding peril was received with incredulous laughter. + +For the first time in the history of Red Gulch there was a serious +division between the Piper family, supported by the Contingent, and the +rest of the settlement. Tom Sparrell's warning was remembered by +the latter, and the ingratitude of the picnickers to their rescuers +commented upon; the actual calamity to the reservoir was more or less +attributed to the imprudent and reckless contiguity of the revelers on +that day, and there were not wanting those who referred the accident +itself to the machinations of the scheming Ditch Director Piper! + +It was said that there was a stormy scene in the Piper household that +evening. The judge had demanded that Delaware should break off her +acquaintance with Sparrell, and she had refused; the judge had demanded +of Sparrell's employer that he should discharge him, and had been met +with the astounding information that Sparrell was already a silent +partner in the concern. At this revelation Judge Piper was alarmed; +while he might object to a clerk who could not support a wife, as a +consistent democrat he could not oppose a fairly prosperous tradesman. +A final appeal was made to Delaware; she was implored to consider the +situation of her sisters, who had all made more ambitious marriages +or were about to make them. Why should she now degrade the family by +marrying a country storekeeper? + +It is said that here the youngest Miss Piper made a memorable reply, and +a revelation the truth of which was never gainsaid:-- + +"You all wanter know why I'm going to marry Tom Sparrell?" she queried, +standing up and facing the whole family circle. + +"Yes." + +"Why I prefer him to the hull caboodle that you girls have married or +are going to marry?" she continued, meditatively biting the end of her +braid. + +"Yes." + +"Well, he's the only man of the whole lot that hasn't proposed to me +first." + +It is presumed that Sparrell made good the omission, or that the family +were glad to get rid of her, for they were married that autumn. And +really a later comparison of the family records shows that while Captain +Fairfax remained "Captain Fairfax," and the other sons-in-law did not +advance proportionately in standing or riches, the lame storekeeper of +Red Gulch became the Hon. Senator Tom Sparrell. + + + + +A WIDOW OF THE SANTA ANA VALLEY + + +The Widow Wade was standing at her bedroom window staring out, in that +vague instinct which compels humanity in moments of doubt and perplexity +to seek this change of observation or superior illumination. Not that +Mrs. Wade's disturbance was of a serious character. She had passed the +acute stage of widowhood by at least two years, and the slight redness +of her soft eyelids as well as the droop of her pretty mouth were +merely the recognized outward and visible signs of the grievously minded +religious community in which she lived. The mourning she still wore +was also partly in conformity with the sad-colored garments of +her neighbors, and the necessities of the rainy season. She was in +comfortable circumstances, the mistress of a large ranch in the valley, +which had lately become more valuable by the extension of a wagon road +through its centre. She was simply worrying whether she should go to +a "sociable" ending with "a dance"--a daring innovation of some +strangers--at the new hotel, or continue to eschew such follies, that +were, according to local belief, unsuited to "a vale of tears." + +Indeed at this moment the prospect she gazed abstractedly upon seemed +to justify that lugubrious description. The Santa Ana Valley--a long +monotonous level--was dimly visible through moving curtains of rain or +veils of mist, to the black mourning edge of the horizon, and had looked +like that for months. The valley--in some remote epoch an arm of the San +Francisco Bay--every rainy season seemed to be trying to revert to its +original condition, and, long after the early spring had laid on its +liberal color in strips, bands, and patches of blue and yellow, the +blossoms of mustard and lupine glistened like wet paint. Nevertheless on +that rich alluvial soil Nature's tears seemed only to fatten the +widow's acres and increase her crops. Her neighbors, too, were equally +prosperous. Yet for six months of the year the recognized expression +of Santa Ana was one of sadness, and for the other six months--of +resignation. Mrs. Wade had yielded early to this influence, as she had +to others, in the weakness of her gentle nature, and partly as it was +more becoming the singular tragedy that had made her a widow. + +The late Mr. Wade had been found dead with a bullet through his head in +a secluded part of the road over Heavy Tree Hill in Sonora County. Near +him lay two other bodies, one afterwards identified as John Stubbs, a +resident of the Hill, and probably a traveling companion of Wade's, +and the other a noted desperado and highwayman, still masked, as at the +moment of the attack. Wade and his companion had probably sold their +lives dearly, and against odds, for another mask was found on the +ground, indicating that the attack was not single-handed, and as +Wade's body had not yet been rifled, it was evident that the remaining +highwayman had fled in haste. The hue and cry had been given by +apparently the only one of the travelers who escaped, but as he was +hastening to take the overland coach to the East at the time, his +testimony could not be submitted to the coroner's deliberation. The +facts, however, were sufficiently plain for a verdict of willful murder +against the highwayman, although it was believed that the absent witness +had basely deserted his companion and left him to his fate, or, as was +suggested by others, that he might even have been an accomplice. It +was this circumstance which protracted comment on the incident, and +the sufferings of the widow, far beyond that rapid obliteration which +usually overtook such affairs in the feverish haste of the early days. +It caused her to remove to Santa Ana, where her old father had feebly +ranched a "quarter section" in the valley. He survived her husband +only a few months, leaving her the property, and once more in mourning. +Perhaps this continuity of woe endeared her to a neighborhood where +distinctive ravages of diphtheria or scarlet fever gave a kind of social +preeminence to any household, and she was so sympathetically assisted by +her neighbors in the management of the ranch that, from an unkempt +and wasteful wilderness, it became paying property. The slim, willowy +figure, soft red-lidded eyes, and deep crape of "Sister Wade" at church +or prayer-meeting was grateful to the soul of these gloomy worshipers, +and in time she herself found that the arm of these dyspeptics of mind +and body was nevertheless strong and sustaining. Small wonder that she +should hesitate to-night about plunging into inconsistent, even though +trifling, frivolities. + +But apart from this superficial reason, there was another instinctive +one deep down in the recesses of Mrs. Wade's timid heart which she had +kept to herself, and indeed would have tearfully resented had it been +offered by another. The late Mr. Wade had been, in fact, a singular +example of this kind of frivolous existence carried to a man-like +excess. Besides being a patron of amusements, Mr. Wade gambled, raced, +and drank. He was often home late, and sometimes not at all. Not that +this conduct was exceptional in the "roaring days" of Heavy Tree Hill, +but it had given Mrs. Wade perhaps an undue preference for a less +certain, even if a more serious life. His tragic death was, of course, +a kind of martyrdom, which exalted him in the feminine mind to a saintly +memory; yet Mrs. Wade was not without a certain relief in that. It +was voiced, perhaps crudely, by the widow of Abner Drake in a visit of +condolence to the tearful Mrs. Wade a few days after Wade's death. "It's +a vale o' sorrow, Mrs. Wade," said the sympathizer, "but it has its ups +and downs, and I recken ye'll be feelin' soon pretty much as I did about +Abner when HE was took. It was mighty soothin' and comfortin' to feel +that whatever might happen now, I always knew just whar Abner was +passin' his nights." Poor slim Mrs. Wade had no disquieting sense of +humor to interfere with her reception of this large truth, and she +accepted it with a burst of reminiscent tears. + +A long volleying shower had just passed down the level landscape, and +was followed by a rolling mist from the warm saturated soil like the +smoke of the discharge. Through it she could see a faint lightening +of the hidden sun, again darkening through a sudden onset of rain, and +changing as with her conflicting doubts and resolutions. Thus gazing, +she was vaguely conscious of an addition to the landscape in the shape +of a man who was passing down the road with a pack on his back like +the tramping "prospectors" she had often seen at Heavy Tree Hill. That +memory apparently settled her vacillating mind; she determined she +would NOT go to the dance. But as she was turning away from the window +a second figure, a horseman, appeared in another direction by a +cross-road, a shorter cut through her domain. This she had no difficulty +in recognizing as one of the strangers who were getting up the dance. +She had noticed him at church on the previous Sunday. As he passed the +house he appeared to be gazing at it so earnestly that she drew back +from the window lest she should be seen. And then, for no reason +whatever, she changed her mind once more, and resolved to go to the +dance. Gravely announcing this fact to the wife of her superintendent +who kept house with her in her loneliness, she thought nothing more +about it. She should go in her mourning, with perhaps the addition of a +white collar and frill. + +It was evident, however, that Santa Ana thought a good deal more than +she did of this new idea, which seemed a part of the innovation already +begun by the building up of the new hotel. It was argued by some that +as the new church and new schoolhouse had been opened by prayer, it was +only natural that a lighter festivity should inaugurate the opening of +the hotel. "I reckon that dancin' is about the next thing to travelin' +for gettin' up an appetite for refreshments, and that's what the +landlord is kalkilatin' to sarve," was the remark of a gloomy but +practical citizen on the veranda of "The Valley Emporium." "That's so," +rejoined a bystander; "and I notice on that last box o' pills I got for +chills the directions say that a little 'agreeable exercise'--not too +violent--is a great assistance to the working o' the pills." + +"I reckon that that Mr. Brooks who's down here lookin' arter mill +property, got up the dance. He's bin round town canvassin' all the women +folks and drummin' up likely gals for it. They say he actooally sent an +invite to the Widder Wade," remarked another lounger. "Gosh! he's got +cheek!" + +"Well, gentlemen," said the proprietor judicially, "while we don't +intend to hev any minin' camp fandangos or 'Frisco falals round Santa +Any--(Santa Ana was proud of its simple agricultural virtues)--I ain't +so hard-shelled as not to give new things a fair trial. And, after all, +it's the women folk that has the say about it. Why, there's old Miss +Ford sez she hasn't kicked a fut sence she left Mizoori, but wouldn't +mind trying it agin. Ez to Brooks takin' that trouble--well, I suppose +it's along o' his bein' HEALTHY!" He heaved a deep dyspeptic sigh, which +was faintly echoed by the others. "Why, look at him now, ridin' round +on that black hoss o' his, in the wet since daylight and not carin' for +blind chills or rhumatiz!" + +He was looking at a serape-draped horseman, the one the widow had seen +on the previous night, who was now cantering slowly up the street. +Seeing the group on the veranda, he rode up, threw himself lightly from +his saddle, and joined them. He was an alert, determined, good-looking +fellow of about thirty-five, whose smooth, smiling face hardly commended +itself to Santa Ana, though his eyes were distinctly sympathetic. He +glanced at the depressed group around him and became ominously serious. + +"When did it happen?" he asked gravely. + +"What happen?" said the nearest bystander. + +"The Funeral, Flood, Fight, or Fire. Which of the four F's was it?" + +"What are ye talkin' about?" said the proprietor stiffly, scenting some +dangerous humor. + +"YOU," said Brooks promptly. "You're all standing here, croaking like +crows, this fine morning. I passed YOUR farm, Johnson, not an hour ago; +the wheat just climbing out of the black adobe mud as thick as rows of +pins on paper--what have YOU to grumble at? I saw YOUR stock, Briggs, +over on Two-Mile Bottom, waddling along, fat as the adobe they were +sticking in, their coats shining like fresh paint--what's the matter +with YOU? And," turning to the proprietor, "there's YOUR shed, Saunders, +over on the creek, just bursting with last year's grain that you know +has gone up two hundred per cent. since you bought it at a bargain--what +are YOU growling at? It's enough to provoke a fire or a famine to hear +you groaning--and take care it don't, some day, as a lesson to you." + +All this was so perfectly true of the prosperous burghers that they +could not for a moment reply. But Briggs had recourse to what he +believed to be a retaliatory taunt. + +"I heard you've been askin' Widow Wade to come to your dance," he said, +with a wink at the others. "Of course she said 'Yes.'" + +"Of course she did," returned Brooks coolly. "I've just got her note." + +"What?" ejaculated the three men together. "Mrs. Wade comin'?" + +"Certainly! Why shouldn't she? And it would do YOU good to come too, +and shake the limp dampness out o' you," returned Brooks, as he quietly +remounted his horse and cantered away. + +"Darned ef I don't think he's got his eye on the widder," said Johnson +faintly. + +"Or the quarter section," added Briggs gloomily. + +For all that, the eventful evening came, with many lights in the +staring, undraped windows of the hotel, coldly bright bunting on the +still damp walls of the long dining-room, and a gentle downpour from the +hidden skies above. A close carryall was especially selected to bring +Mrs. Wade and her housekeeper. The widow arrived, looking a little +slimmer than usual in her closely buttoned black dress, white collar and +cuffs, very glistening in eye and in hair,--whose glossy black ringlets +were perhaps more elaborately arranged than was her custom,--and with +a faint coming and going of color, due perhaps to her agitation at this +tentative reentering into worldly life, which was nevertheless quite +virginal in effect. A vague solemnity pervaded the introductory +proceedings, and a singular want of sociability was visible in the +"sociable" part of the entertainment. People talked in whispers or with +that grave precision which indicates good manners in rural communities; +conversed painfully with other people whom they did not want to talk to +rather than appear to be alone, or rushed aimlessly together like water +drops, and then floated in broken, adherent masses over the floor. The +widow became a helpless, religious centre of deacons and Sunday-school +teachers, which Brooks, untiring, yet fruitless, in his attempt to +produce gayety, tried in vain to break. To this gloom the untried +dangers of the impending dance, duly prefigured by a lonely cottage +piano and two violins in a desert of expanse, added a nervous +chill. When at last the music struck up--somewhat hesitatingly and +protestingly, from the circumstance that the player was the church +organist, and fumbled mechanically for his stops, the attempt to make +up a cotillon set was left to the heroic Brooks. Yet he barely escaped +disaster when, in posing the couples, he incautiously begged them to +look a little less as if they were waiting for the coffin to be borne +down the aisle between them, and was rewarded by a burst of tears from +Mrs. Johnson, who had lost a child two years before, and who had to +be led away, while her place in the set was taken by another. Yet the +cotillon passed off; a Spanish dance succeeded; "Moneymusk," with the +Virginia Reel, put a slight intoxicating vibration into the air, and +healthy youth at last asserted itself in a score of freckled but buxom +girls in white muslin, with romping figures and laughter, at the lower +end of the room. Still a rigid decorum reigned among the elder dancers, +and the figures were called out in grave formality, as if, to Brooks's +fancy, they were hymns given from the pulpit, until at the close of +the set, in half-real, half-mock despair, he turned desperately to Mrs. +Wade, his partner:-- + +"Do you waltz?" + +Mrs. Wade hesitated. She HAD, before marriage, and was a good waltzer. +"I do," she said timidly, "but do you think they"-- + +But before the poor widow could formulate her fears as to the reception +of "round dances," Brooks had darted to the piano, and the next moment +she heard with a "fearful joy" the opening bars of a waltz. It was an +old Julien waltz, fresh still in the fifties, daring, provocative +to foot, swamping to intellect, arresting to judgment, irresistible, +supreme! Before Mrs. Wade could protest, Brooks's arm had gathered up +her slim figure, and with one quick backward sweep and swirl they were +off! The floor was cleared for them in a sudden bewilderment of alarm--a +suspense of burning curiosity. The widow's little feet tripped quickly, +her long black skirt swung out; as she turned the corner there was +not only a sudden revelation of her pretty ankles, but, what was more +startling, a dazzling flash of frilled and laced petticoat, which +at once convinced every woman in the room that the act had been +premeditated for days! Yet even that criticism was presently forgotten +in the pervading intoxication of the music and the movement. The younger +people fell into it with wild rompings, whirlings, and clasping of hands +and waists. And stranger than all, a corybantic enthusiasm seized upon +the emotionally religious, and those priests and priestesses of Cybele +who were famous for their frenzy and passion in camp-meeting devotions +seemed to find an equal expression that night in the waltz. And when, +flushed and panting, Mrs. Wade at last halted on the arm of her partner, +they were nearly knocked over by the revolving Johnson and Mrs. Stubbs +in a whirl of gloomy exultation! Deacons and Sunday-school teachers +waltzed together until the long room shook, and the very bunting on +the walls waved and fluttered with the gyrations of those religious +dervishes. Nobody knew--nobody cared how long this frenzy lasted--it +ceased only with the collapse of the musicians. Then, with much vague +bewilderment, inward trepidation, awkward and incoherent partings, +everybody went dazedly home; there was no other dancing after that--the +waltz was the one event of the festival and of the history of Santa Ana. +And later that night, when the timid Mrs. Wade, in the seclusion of her +own room and the disrobing of her slim figure, glanced at her spotless +frilled and laced petticoat lying on a chair, a faint smile--the first +of her widowhood--curved the corners of her pretty mouth. + +A week of ominous silence regarding the festival succeeded in Santa +Ana. The local paper gave the fullest particulars of the opening of the +hotel, but contented itself with saying: "The entertainment concluded +with a dance." Mr. Brooks, who felt himself compelled to call upon his +late charming partner twice during the week, characteristically soothed +her anxieties as to the result. "The fact of it is, Mrs. Wade, there's +really nobody in particular to blame--and that's what gets them. They're +all mixed up in it, deacons and Sunday-school teachers; and when +old Johnson tried to be nasty the other evening and hoped you hadn't +suffered from your exertions that night, I told him you hadn't quite +recovered yet from the physical shock of having been run into by him and +Mrs. Stubbs, but that, you being a lady, you didn't tell just how you +felt at the exhibition he and she made of themselves. That shut him up." + +"But you shouldn't have said that," said Mrs. Wade with a frightened +little smile. + +"No matter," returned Brooks cheerfully. "I'll take the blame of it with +the others. You see they'll have to have a scapegoat--and I'm just the +man, for I got up the dance! And as I'm going away, I suppose I shall +bear off the sin with me into the wilderness." + +"You're going away?" repeated Mrs. Wade in more genuine concern. + +"Not for long," returned Brooks laughingly. "I came here to look up a +mill site, and I've found it. Meantime I think I've opened their eyes." + +"You have opened mine," said the widow with timid frankness. + +They were soft pretty eyes when opened, in spite of their heavy red +lids, and Mr. Brooks thought that Santa Ana would be no worse if they +remained open. Possibly he looked it, for Mrs. Wade said hurriedly, "I +mean--that is--I've been thinking that life needn't ALWAYS be as gloomy +as we make it here. And even HERE, you know, Mr. Brooks, we have six +months' sunshine--though we always forget it in the rainy season." + +"That's so," said Brooks cheerfully. "I once lost a heap of money +through my own foolishness, and I've managed to forget it, and I even +reckon to get it back again out of Santa Ana if my mill speculation +holds good. So good-by, Mrs. Wade--but not for long." He shook her +hand frankly and departed, leaving the widow conscious of a certain +sympathetic confidence and a little grateful for--she knew not what. + +This feeling remained with her most of the afternoon, and even imparted +a certain gayety to her spirits, to the extent of causing her to hum +softly to herself; the air being oddly enough the Julien Waltz. And +when, later in the day, the shadows were closing in with the rain, +word was brought to her that a stranger wished to see her in the +sitting-room, she carried a less mournful mind to this function of her +existence. For Mrs. Wade was accustomed to give audience to traveling +agents, tradesmen, working-hands and servants, as chatelaine of her +ranch, and the occasion was not novel. Yet on entering the room, which +she used partly as an office, she found some difficulty in classifying +the stranger, who at first glance reminded her of the tramping miner +she had seen that night from her window. He was rather incongruously +dressed, some articles of his apparel being finer than others; he wore +a diamond pin in a scarf folded over a rough "hickory" shirt; his light +trousers were tucked in common mining boots that bore stains of travel +and a suggestion that he had slept in his clothes. What she could see +of his unshaven face in that uncertain light expressed a kind of dogged +concentration, overlaid by an assumption of ease. He got up as she came +in, and with a slight "How do, ma'am," shut the door behind her and +glanced furtively around the room. + +"What I've got to say to ye, Mrs. Wade,--as I reckon you be,--is +strictly private and confidential! Why, ye'll see afore I get through. +But I thought I might just as well caution ye agin our being disturbed." + +Overcoming a slight instinct of repulsion, Mrs. Wade returned, "You can +speak to me here; no one will interrupt you--unless I call them," she +added with a little feminine caution. + +"And I reckon ye won't do that," he said with a grim smile. "You are the +widow o' Pulaski Wade, late o' Heavy Tree Hill, I reckon?" + +"I am," said Mrs. Wade. + +"And your husband's buried up thar in the graveyard, with a monument +over him setting forth his virtues ez a Christian and a square man and a +high-minded citizen? And that he was foully murdered by highwaymen?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Wade, "that is the inscription." + +"Well, ma'am, a bigger pack o' lies never was cut on stone!" + +Mrs. Wade rose, half in indignation, half in terror. + +"Keep your sittin'," said the stranger, with a warning wave of his +hand. "Wait till I'm through, and then you call in the hull State o' +Californy, ef ye want." + +The stranger's manner was so doggedly confident that Mrs. Wade sank +back tremblingly in her chair. The man put his slouch hat on his knee, +twirled it round once or twice, and then said with the same stubborn +deliberation:-- + +"The highwayman in that business was your husband--Pulaski Wade--and his +gang, and he was killed by one o' the men he was robbin'. Ye see, +ma'am, it used to be your husband's little game to rope in three or four +strangers in a poker deal at Spanish Jim's saloon--I see you've heard o' +the place," he interpolated as Mrs. Wade drew back suddenly--"and when +he couldn't clean 'em out in that way, or they showed a little more +money than they played, he'd lay for 'em with his gang in a lone part of +the trail, and go through them like any road agent. That's what he did +that night--and that's how he got killed." + +"How do you know this?" said Mrs. Wade, with quivering lips. + +"I was one o' the men he went through before he was killed. And I'd hev +got my money back, but the rest o' the gang came up, and I got away jest +in time to save my life and nothin' else. Ye might remember thar was one +man got away and giv' the alarm, but he was goin' on to the States by +the overland coach that night and couldn't stay to be a witness. I was +that man. I had paid my passage through, and I couldn't lose THAT too +with my other money, so I went." + +Mrs. Wade sat stunned. She remembered the missing witness, and how she +had longed to see the man who was last with her husband; she +remembered Spanish Jim's saloon--his well-known haunt; his frequent and +unaccountable absences, the sudden influx of money which he always said +he had won at cards; the diamond ring he had given her as the result of +"a bet;" the forgotten recurrence of other robberies by a secret masked +gang; a hundred other things that had worried her, instinctively, +vaguely. She knew now, too, the meaning of the unrest that had driven +her from Heavy Tree Hill--the strange unformulated fears that had +haunted her even here. Yet with all this she felt, too, her present +weakness--knew that this man had taken her at a disadvantage, that she +ought to indignantly assert herself, deny everything, demand proof, and +brand him a slanderer! + +"How did--you--know it was my husband?" she stammered. + +"His mask fell off in the fight; you know another mask was found--it +was HIS. I saw him as plainly as I see him there!" he pointed to a +daguerreotype of her husband which stood upon her desk. + +Mrs. Wade could only stare vacantly, hopelessly. After a pause the man +continued in a less aggressive manner and more confidential tone, which, +however, only increased her terror. "I ain't sayin' that YOU knowed +anything about this, ma'am, and whatever other folks might say when THEY +know of it, I'll allers say that you didn't." + +"What, then, did you come here for?" said the widow desperately. + +"What do I come here for?" repeated the man grimly, looking around the +room; "what did I come to this yer comfortable home--this yer big ranch +and to a rich woman like yourself for? Well, Mrs. Wade, I come to get +the six hundred dollars your husband robbed me of, that's all! I ain't +askin' more! I ain't askin' interest! I ain't askin' compensation for +havin' to run for my life--and," again looking grimly round the walls, +"I ain't askin' more than you will give--or is my rights." + +"But this house never was his; it was my father's," gasped Mrs. Wade; +"you have no right"-- + +"Mebbe 'yes' and mebbe 'no,' Mrs. Wade," interrupted the man, with +a wave of his hat; "but how about them two checks to bearer for two +hundred dollars each found among your husband's effects, and collected +by your lawyer for you--MY CHECKS, Mrs. Wade?" + +A wave of dreadful recollection overwhelmed her. She remembered the +checks found upon her husband's body, known only to her and her lawyer, +believed to be gambling gains, and collected at once under his legal +advice. Yet she made one more desperate effort in spite of the instinct +that told her he was speaking the truth. + +"But you shall have to prove it--before witnesses." + +"Do you WANT me to prove it before witnesses?" said the man, coming +nearer her. "Do you want to take my word and keep it between ourselves, +or do you want to call in your superintendent and his men, and all +Santy Any, to hear me prove your husband was a highwayman, thief, and +murderer? Do you want to knock over that monument on Heavy Tree Hill, +and upset your standing here among the deacons and elders? Do you want +to do all this and be forced, even by your neighbors, to pay me in the +end, as you will? Ef you do, call in your witnesses now and let's have +it over. Mebbe it would look better ef I got the money out of YOUR +FRIENDS than ye--a woman! P'raps you're right!" + +He made a step towards the door, but she stopped him. + +"No! no! wait! It's a large sum--I haven't it with me," she stammered, +thoroughly beaten. + +"Ye kin get it." + +"Give me time!" she implored. "Look! I'll give you a hundred down +now,--all I have here,--the rest another time!" She nervously opened a +drawer of her desk and taking out a buckskin bag of gold thrust it in +his hand. "There! go away now!" She lifted her thin hands despairingly +to her head. "Go! do!" + +The man seemed struck by her manner. "I don't want to be hard on +a woman," he said slowly. "I'll go now and come back again at nine +to-night. You can git the money, or what's as good, a check to bearer, +by then. And ef ye'll take my advice, you won't ask no advice from +others, ef you want to keep your secret. Just now it's safe with me; I'm +a square man, ef I seem to be a hard one." He made a gesture as if to +take her hand, but as she drew shrinkingly away, he changed it to an +awkward bow, and the next moment was gone. + +She started to her feet, but the unwonted strain upon her nerves and +frail body had been greater than she knew. She made a step forward, felt +the room whirl round her and then seem to collapse beneath her feet, +and, clutching at her chair, sank back into it, fainting. + +How long she lay there she never knew. She was at last conscious of some +one bending over her, and a voice--the voice of Mr. Brooks--in her ear, +saying, "I beg your pardon; you seem ill. Shall I call some one?" + +"No!" she gasped, quickly recovering herself with an effort, and staring +round her. "Where is--when did you come in?" + +"Only this moment. I was leaving tonight, sooner than I expected, and +thought I'd say good-by. They told me that you had been engaged with a +stranger, but he had just gone. I beg your pardon--I see you are ill. I +won't detain you any longer." + +"No! no! don't go! I am better--better," she said feverishly. As she +glanced at his strong and sympathetic face a wild idea seized her. He +was a stranger here, an alien to these people, like herself. The advice +that she dare not seek from others, from her half-estranged religious +friends, from even her superintendent and his wife, dare she ask from +him? Perhaps he saw this frightened doubt, this imploring appeal, in her +eyes, for he said gently, "Is it anything I can do for you?" + +"Yes," she said, with the sudden desperation of weakness; "I want you to +keep a secret." + +"Yours?--yes!" he said promptly. + +Whereat poor Mrs. Wade instantly burst into tears. Then, amidst her +sobs, she told him of the stranger's visit, of his terrible accusations, +of his demands, his expected return, and her own utter helplessness. To +her terror, as she went on she saw a singular change in his kind face; +he was following her with hard, eager intensity. She had half hoped, +even through her fateful instincts, that he might have laughed, manlike, +at her fears, or pooh-poohed the whole thing. But he did not. "You say +he positively recognized your husband?" he repeated quickly. + +"Yes, yes!" sobbed the widow, "and knew that daguerreotype!" she pointed +to the desk. + +Brooks turned quickly in that direction. Luckily his back was towards +her, and she could not see his face, and the quick, startled look that +came into his eyes. But when they again met hers, it was gone, and even +their eager intensity had changed to a gentle commiseration. "You have +only his word for it, Mrs. Wade," he said gently, "and in telling your +secret to another, you have shorn the rascal of half his power over you. +And he knew it. Now, dismiss the matter from your mind and leave it all +to me. I will be here a few minutes before nine--AND ALONE IN THIS ROOM. +Let your visitor be shown in here, and don't let us be disturbed. Don't +be alarmed," he added with a faint twinkle in his eye, "there will be no +fuss and no exposure!" + + +It lacked a few minutes of nine when Mr. Brooks was ushered into the +sitting-room. As soon as he was alone he quietly examined the door and +the windows, and having satisfied himself, took his seat in a chair +casually placed behind the door. Presently he heard the sound of voices +and a heavy footstep in the passage. He lightly felt his waistcoat +pocket--it contained a pretty little weapon of power and precision, with +a barrel scarcely two inches long. + +The door opened, and the person outside entered the room. In an instant +Brooks had shut the door and locked it behind him. The man turned +fiercely, but was faced by Brooks quietly, with one finger calmly hooked +in his waistcoat pocket. The man slightly recoiled from him--not as much +from fear as from some vague stupefaction. "What's that for? What's your +little game?" he said half contemptuously. + +"No game at all," returned Brooks coolly. "You came here to sell a +secret. I don't propose to have it given away first to any listener." + +"YOU don't--who are YOU?" + +"That's a queer question to ask of the man you are trying to +personate--but I don't wonder! You're doing it d----d badly." + +"Personate--YOU?" said the stranger, with staring eyes. + +"Yes, ME," said Brooks quietly. "I am the only man who escaped from the +robbery that night at Heavy Tree Hill and who went home by the Overland +Coach." + +The stranger stared, but recovered himself with a coarse laugh. "Oh, +well! we're on the same lay, it appears! Both after the widow--afore we +show up her husband." + +"Not exactly," said Brooks, with his eyes fixed intently on the +stranger. "You are here to denounce a highwayman who is DEAD and escaped +justice. I am here to denounce one who is LIVING!--Stop! drop your hand; +it's no use. You thought you had to deal only with a woman to-night, and +your revolver isn't quite handy enough. There! down!--down! So! That'll +do." + +"You can't prove it," said the man hoarsely. + +"Fool! In your story to that woman you have given yourself away. There +were but two travelers attacked by the highwaymen. One was killed--I am +the other. Where do YOU come in? What witness can you be--except as +the highwayman that you are? Who is left to identify Wade but--his +accomplice!" + +The man's suddenly whitened face made his unshaven beard seem to bristle +over his face like some wild animal's. "Well, ef you kalkilate to blow +me, you've got to blow Wade and his widder too. Jest you remember that," +he said whiningly. + +"I've thought of that," said Brooks coolly, "and I calculate that to +prevent it is worth about that hundred dollars you got from that +poor woman--and no more! Now, sit down at that table, and write as I +dictate." + +The man looked at him in wonder, but obeyed. + +"Write," said Brooks, "'I hereby certify that my accusations against the +late Pulaski Wade of Heavy Tree Hill are erroneous and groundless, and +the result of mistaken identity, especially in regard to any complicity +of his in the robbery of John Stubbs, deceased, and Henry Brooks, at +Heavy Tree Hill, on the night of the 13th August, 1854.'" + +The man looked up with a repulsive smile. "Who's the fool now, Cap'n? +What's become of your hold on the widder, now?" + +"Write!" said Brooks fiercely. + +The sound of a pen hurriedly scratching paper followed this first +outburst of the quiet Brooks. + +"Sign it," said Brooks. + +The man signed it. + +"Now go," said Brooks, unlocking the door, "but remember, if you should +ever be inclined to revisit Santa Ana, you will find ME living here +also." + +The man slunk out of the door and into the passage like a wild animal +returning to the night and darkness. Brooks took up the paper, rejoined +Mrs. Wade in the parlor, and laid it before her. + +"But," said the widow, trembling even in her joy, "do you--do you think +he was REALLY mistaken?" + +"Positive," said Brooks coolly. "It's true, it's a mistake that has cost +you a hundred dollars, but there are some mistakes that are worth that +to be kept quiet." + +***** + +They were married a year later; but there is no record that in after +years of conjugal relations with a weak, charming, but sometimes trying +woman, Henry Brooks was ever tempted to tell her the whole truth of the +robbery of Heavy Tree Hill. + + + + +THE MERMAID OF LIGHTHOUSE POINT + + +Some forty years ago, on the northern coast of California, near the +Golden Gate, stood a lighthouse. Of a primitive class, since superseded +by a building more in keeping with the growing magnitude of the adjacent +port, it attracted little attention from the desolate shore, and, it was +alleged, still less from the desolate sea beyond. A gray structure of +timber, stone, and glass, it was buffeted and harried by the constant +trade winds, baked by the unclouded six months' sun, lost for a few +hours in the afternoon sea-fog, and laughed over by circling guillemots +from the Farallones. It was kept by a recluse--a preoccupied man of +scientific tastes, who, in shameless contrast to his fellow immigrants, +had applied to the government for this scarcely lucrative position as a +means of securing the seclusion he valued more than gold. Some believed +that he was the victim of an early disappointment in love--a view +charitably taken by those who also believed that the government would +not have appointed "a crank" to a position of responsibility. Howbeit, +he fulfilled his duties, and, with the assistance of an Indian, even +cultivated a small patch of ground beside the lighthouse. His isolation +was complete! There was little to attract wanderers here: the nearest +mines were fifty miles away; the virgin forest on the mountains inland +were penetrated only by sawmills and woodmen from the Bay settlements, +equally remote. Although by the shore-line the lights of the great port +were sometimes plainly visible, yet the solitude around him was +peopled only by Indians,--a branch of the great northern tribe of +"root-diggers,"--peaceful and simple in their habits, as yet +undisturbed by the white man, nor stirred into antagonism by aggression. +Civilization only touched him at stated intervals, and then by the more +expeditious sea from the government boat that brought him supplies. But +for his contiguity to the perpetual turmoil of wind and sea, he might +have passed a restful Arcadian life in his surroundings; for even his +solitude was sometimes haunted by this faint reminder of the great port +hard by that pulsated with an equal unrest. Nevertheless, the sands +before his door and the rocks behind him seemed to have been untrodden +by any other white man's foot since their upheaval from the ocean. It +was true that the little bay beside him was marked on the map as "Sir +Francis Drake's Bay," tradition having located it as the spot where +that ingenious pirate and empire-maker had once landed his vessels and +scraped the barnacles from his adventurous keels. But of this Edgar +Pomfrey--or "Captain Pomfrey," as he was called by virtue of his +half-nautical office--had thought little. + +For the first six months he had thoroughly enjoyed his seclusion. In +the company of his books, of which he had brought such a fair store +that their shelves lined his snug corners to the exclusion of more +comfortable furniture, he found his principal recreation. Even his +unwonted manual labor, the trimming of his lamp and cleaning of his +reflectors, and his personal housekeeping, in which his Indian help at +times assisted, he found a novel and interesting occupation. For outdoor +exercise, a ramble on the sands, a climb to the rocky upland, or a pull +in the lighthouse boat, amply sufficed him. "Crank" as he was supposed +to be, he was sane enough to guard against any of those early lapses +into barbarism which marked the lives of some solitary gold-miners. +His own taste, as well as the duty of his office, kept his person and +habitation sweet and clean, and his habits regular. Even the little +cultivated patch of ground on the lee side of the tower was symmetrical +and well ordered. Thus the outward light of Captain Pomfrey shone forth +over the wilderness of shore and wave, even like his beacon, whatever +his inward illumination may have been. + +It was a bright summer morning, remarkable even in the monotonous +excellence of the season, with a slight touch of warmth which the +invincible Northwest Trades had not yet chilled. There was still a faint +haze off the coast, as if last night's fog had been caught in the quick +sunshine, and the shining sands were hot, but without the usual dazzling +glare. A faint perfume from a quaint lilac-colored beach-flower, whose +clustering heads dotted the sand like bits of blown spume, took the +place of that smell of the sea which the odorless Pacific lacked. A few +rocks, half a mile away, lifted themselves above the ebb tide at varying +heights as they lay on the trough of the swell, were crested with foam +by a striking surge, or cleanly erased in the full sweep of the sea. +Beside, and partly upon one of the higher rocks, a singular object was +moving. + +Pomfrey was interested but not startled. He had once or twice seen seals +disporting on these rocks, and on one occasion a sea-lion,--an estray +from the familiar rocks on the other side of the Golden Gate. But he +ceased work in his garden patch, and coming to his house, exchanged +his hoe for a telescope. When he got the mystery in focus he suddenly +stopped and rubbed the object-glass with his handkerchief. But even when +he applied the glass to his eye for a second time, he could scarcely +believe his eyesight. For the object seemed to be a WOMAN, the lower +part of her figure submerged in the sea, her long hair depending over +her shoulders and waist. There was nothing in her attitude to suggest +terror or that she was the victim of some accident. She moved slowly +and complacently with the sea, and even--a more staggering +suggestion--appeared to be combing out the strands of her long hair with +her fingers. With her body half concealed she might have been a mermaid! + +He swept the foreshore and horizon with his glass; there was neither +boat nor ship--nor anything that moved, except the long swell of the +Pacific. She could have come only from the sea; for to reach the rocks +by land she would have had to pass before the lighthouse, while the +narrow strip of shore which curved northward beyond his range of view he +knew was inhabited only by Indians. But the woman was unhesitatingly +and appallingly WHITE, and her hair light even to a golden gleam in the +sunshine. + +Pomfrey was a gentleman, and as such was amazed, dismayed, and cruelly +embarrassed. If she was a simple bather from some vicinity hitherto +unknown and unsuspected by him, it was clearly his business to shut up +his glass and go back to his garden patch--although the propinquity of +himself and the lighthouse must have been as plainly visible to her as +she was to him. On the other hand, if she was the survivor of some wreck +and in distress--or, as he even fancied from her reckless manner, bereft +of her senses, his duty to rescue her was equally clear. In his dilemma +he determined upon a compromise and ran to his boat. He would pull out +to sea, pass between the rocks and the curving sand-spit, and examine +the sands and sea more closely for signs of wreckage, or some overlooked +waiting boat near the shore. He would be within hail if she needed him, +or she could escape to her boat if she had one. + +In another moment his boat was lifting on the swell towards the rocks. +He pulled quickly, occasionally turning to note that the strange figure, +whose movements were quite discernible to the naked eye, was still +there, but gazing more earnestly towards the nearest shore for any sign +of life or occupation. In ten minutes he had reached the curve where the +trend opened northward, and the long line of shore stretched before him. +He swept it eagerly with a single searching glance. Sea and shore were +empty. He turned quickly to the rock, scarcely a hundred yards on his +beam. It was empty too! Forgetting his previous scruples, he pulled +directly for it until his keel grated on its submerged base. There was +nothing there but the rock, slippery with the yellow-green slime of +seaweed and kelp--neither trace nor sign of the figure that had +occupied it a moment ago. He pulled around it; there was no cleft or +hiding-place. For an instant his heart leaped at the sight of something +white, caught in a jagged tooth of the outlying reef, but it was only +the bleached fragment of a bamboo orange-crate, cast from the deck of +some South Sea trader, such as often strewed the beach. He lay off the +rock, keeping way in the swell, and scrutinizing the glittering sea. At +last he pulled back to the lighthouse, perplexed and discomfited. + +Was it simply a sporting seal, transformed by some trick of his vision? +But he had seen it through his glass, and now remembered such details +as the face and features framed in their contour of golden hair, and +believed he could even have identified them. He examined the rock again +with his glass, and was surprised to see how clearly it was outlined now +in its barren loneliness. Yet he must have been mistaken. His scientific +and accurate mind allowed of no errant fancy, and he had always sneered +at the marvelous as the result of hasty or superficial observation. He +was a little worried at this lapse of his healthy accuracy,--fearing +that it might be the result of his seclusion and loneliness,--akin to +the visions of the recluse and solitary. It was strange, too, that it +should take the shape of a woman; for Edgar Pomfrey had a story--the +usual old and foolish one. + +Then his thoughts took a lighter phase, and he turned to the memory of +his books, and finally to the books themselves. From a shelf he picked +out a volume of old voyages, and turned to a remembered passage: "In +other seas doe abound marvells soche as Sea Spyders of the bigness of a +pinnace, the wich they have been known to attack and destroy; Sea Vypers +which reach to the top of a goodly maste, whereby they are able to draw +marinners from the rigging by the suction of their breathes; and +Devill Fyshe, which vomit fire by night which makyth the sea to shine +prodigiously, and mermaydes. They are half fyshe and half mayde of grate +Beauty, and have been seen of divers godly and creditable witnesses +swymming beside rocks, hidden to their waist in the sea, combing of +their hayres, to the help of whych they carry a small mirrore of the +bigness of their fingers." Pomfrey laid the book aside with a faint +smile. To even this credulity he might come! + +Nevertheless, he used the telescope again that day. But there was no +repetition of the incident, and he was forced to believe that he had +been the victim of some extraordinary illusion. The next morning, +however, with his calmer judgment doubts began to visit him. There was +no one of whom he could make inquiries but his Indian helper, and their +conversation had usually been restricted to the language of signs or the +use of a few words he had picked up. He contrived, however, to ask if +there was a "waugee" (white) woman in the neighborhood. The Indian +shook his head in surprise. There was no "waugee" nearer than the remote +mountain-ridge to which he pointed. Pomfrey was obliged to be content +with this. Even had his vocabulary been larger, he would as soon have +thought of revealing the embarrassing secret of this woman, whom he +believed to be of his own race, to a mere barbarian as he would of +asking him to verify his own impressions by allowing him to look at her +that morning. The next day, however, something happened which forced him +to resume his inquiries. He was rowing around the curving spot when he +saw a number of black objects on the northern sands moving in and out +of the surf, which he presently made out as Indians. A nearer approach +satisfied him that they were wading squaws and children gathering +seaweed and shells. He would have pushed his acquaintance still nearer, +but as his boat rounded the point, with one accord they all scuttled +away like frightened sandpipers. Pomfrey, on his return, asked his +Indian retainer if they could swim. "Oh, yes!" "As far as the rock?" +"Yes." Yet Pomfrey was not satisfied. The color of his strange +apparition remained unaccounted for, and it was not that of an Indian +woman. + +Trifling events linger long in a monotonous existence, and it was nearly +a week before Pomfrey gave up his daily telescopic inspection of the +rock. Then he fell back upon his books again, and, oddly enough, upon +another volume of voyages, and so chanced upon the account of Sir +Francis Drake's occupation of the bay before him. He had always thought +it strange that the great adventurer had left no trace or sign of +his sojourn there; still stranger that he should have overlooked the +presence of gold, known even to the Indians themselves, and have lost +a discovery far beyond his wildest dreams and a treasure to which the +cargoes of those Philippine galleons he had more or less successfully +intercepted were trifles. Had the restless explorer been content to pace +those dreary sands during three weeks of inactivity, with no thought of +penetrating the inland forests behind the range, or of even entering the +nobler bay beyond? Or was the location of the spot a mere tradition as +wild and unsupported as the "marvells" of the other volume? Pomfrey had +the skepticism of the scientific, inquiring mind. + +Two weeks had passed and he was returning from a long climb inland, when +he stopped to rest in his descent to the sea. The panorama of the +shore was before him, from its uttermost limit to the lighthouse on the +northern point. The sun was still one hour high, it would take him +about that time to reach home. But from this coign of vantage he could +see--what he had not before observed--that what he had always believed +was a little cove on the northern shore was really the estuary of a +small stream which rose near him and eventually descended into the ocean +at that point. He could also see that beside it was a long low erection +of some kind, covered with thatched brush, which looked like a "barrow," +yet showed signs of habitation in the slight smoke that rose from it and +drifted inland. It was not far out of his way, and he resolved to return +in that direction. On his way down he once or twice heard the barking +of an Indian dog, and knew that he must be in the vicinity of an +encampment. A camp-fire, with the ashes yet warm, proved that he was on +the trail of one of the nomadic tribes, but the declining sun warned +him to hasten home to his duty. When he at last reached the estuary, he +found that the building beside it was little else than a long hut, whose +thatched and mud-plastered mound-like roof gave it the appearance of a +cave. Its single opening and entrance abutted on the water's edge, and +the smoke he had noticed rolled through this entrance from a smouldering +fire within. Pomfrey had little difficulty in recognizing the purpose of +this strange structure from the accounts he had heard from "loggers" of +the Indian customs. The cave was a "sweat-house"--a calorific chamber +in which the Indians closely shut themselves, naked, with a "smudge" or +smouldering fire of leaves, until, perspiring and half suffocated, they +rushed from the entrance and threw themselves into the water before it. +The still smouldering fire told him that the house had been used that +morning, and he made no doubt that the Indians were encamped near by. He +would have liked to pursue his researches further, but he found he +had already trespassed upon his remaining time, and he turned somewhat +abruptly away--so abruptly, in fact, that a figure, which had evidently +been cautiously following him at a distance, had not time to get away. +His heart leaped with astonishment. It was the woman he had seen on the +rock. + +Although her native dress now only disclosed her head and hands, there +was no doubt about her color, and it was distinctly white, save for the +tanning of exposure and a slight red ochre marking on her low forehead. +And her hair, long and unkempt as it was, showed that he had not erred +in his first impression of it. It was a tawny flaxen, with fainter +bleachings where the sun had touched it most. Her eyes were of a clear +Northern blue. Her dress, which was quite distinctive in that it was +neither the cast off finery of civilization nor the cheap "government" +flannels and calicoes usually worn by the Californian tribes, was purely +native, and of fringed deerskin, and consisted of a long, loose shirt +and leggings worked with bright feathers and colored shells. A necklace, +also of shells and fancy pebbles, hung round her neck. She seemed to +be a fully developed woman, in spite of the girlishness of her flowing +hair, and notwithstanding the shapeless length of her gaberdine-like +garment, taller than the ordinary squaw. + +Pomfrey saw all this in a single flash of perception, for the next +instant she was gone, disappearing behind the sweat-house. He ran after +her, catching sight of her again, half doubled up, in the characteristic +Indian trot, dodging around rocks and low bushes as she fled along the +banks of the stream. But for her distinguishing hair, she looked in her +flight like an ordinary frightened squaw. This, which gave a sense of +unmanliness and ridicule to his own pursuit of her, with the fact +that his hour of duty was drawing near and he was still far from the +lighthouse, checked him in full career, and he turned regretfully away. +He had called after her at first, and she had not heeded him. What he +would have said to her he did not know. He hastened home discomfited, +even embarrassed--yet excited to a degree he had not deemed possible in +himself. + +During the morning his thoughts were full of her. Theory after theory +for her strange existence there he examined and dismissed. His first +thought, that she was a white woman--some settler's wife--masquerading +in Indian garb, he abandoned when he saw her moving; no white woman +could imitate that Indian trot, nor would remember to attempt it if +she were frightened. The idea that she was a captive white, held by +the Indians, became ridiculous when he thought of the nearness of +civilization and the peaceful, timid character of the "digger" tribes. +That she was some unfortunate demented creature who had escaped from her +keeper and wandered into the wilderness, a glance at her clear, frank, +intelligent, curious eyes had contradicted. There was but one theory +left--the most sensible and practical one--that she was the offspring +of some white man and Indian squaw. Yet this he found, oddly enough, the +least palatable to his fancy. And the few half-breeds he had seen were +not at all like her. + +The next morning he had recourse to his Indian retainer, "Jim." With +infinite difficulty, protraction, and not a little embarrassment, he +finally made him understand that he had seen a "white squaw" near the +"sweat-house," and that he wanted to know more about her. With equal +difficulty Jim finally recognized the fact of the existence of such +a person, but immediately afterwards shook his head in an emphatic +negation. With greater difficulty and greater mortification Pomfrey +presently ascertained that Jim's negative referred to a supposed +abduction of the woman which he understood that his employer seriously +contemplated. But he also learned that she was a real Indian, and that +there were three or four others like her, male and female, in that +vicinity; that from a "skeena mowitch" (little baby) they were all like +that, and that their parents were of the same color, but never a white +or "waugee" man or woman among them; that they were looked upon as a +distinct and superior caste of Indians, and enjoyed certain privileges +with the tribe; that they superstitiously avoided white men, of whom +they had the greatest fear, and that they were protected in this by +the other Indians; that it was marvelous and almost beyond belief that +Pomfrey had been able to see one, for no other white man had, or was +even aware of their existence. + +How much of this he actually understood, how much of it was lying and +due to Jim's belief that he wished to abduct the fair stranger, Pomfrey +was unable to determine. There was enough, however, to excite his +curiosity strongly and occupy his mind to the exclusion of his +books--save one. Among his smaller volumes he had found a travel book of +the "Chinook Jargon," with a lexicon of many of the words commonly +used by the Northern Pacific tribes. An hour or two's trial with the +astonished Jim gave him an increased vocabulary and a new occupation. +Each day the incongruous pair took a lesson from the lexicon. In a week +Pomfrey felt he would be able to accost the mysterious stranger. But +he did not again surprise her in any of his rambles, or even in a later +visit to the sweat-house. He had learned from Jim that the house was +only used by the "bucks," or males, and that her appearance there had +been accidental. He recalled that he had had the impression that she had +been stealthily following him, and the recollection gave him a pleasure +he could not account for. But an incident presently occurred which gave +him a new idea of her relations towards him. + +The difficulty of making Jim understand had hitherto prevented Pomfrey +from intrusting him with the care of the lantern; but with the aid of +the lexicon he had been able to make him comprehend its working, and +under Pomfrey's personal guidance the Indian had once or twice lit the +lamp and set its machinery in motion. It remained for him only to +test Jim's unaided capacity, in case of his own absence or illness. It +happened to be a warm, beautiful sunset, when the afternoon fog had for +once delayed its invasion of the shore-line, that he left the lighthouse +to Jim's undivided care, and reclining on a sand-dune still warm from +the sun, lazily watched the result of Jim's first essay. As the twilight +deepened, and the first flash of the lantern strove with the dying +glories of the sun, Pomfrey presently became aware that he was not the +only watcher. A little gray figure creeping on all fours suddenly glided +out of the shadow of another sand-dune and then halted, falling back on +its knees, gazing fixedly at the growing light. It was the woman he had +seen. She was not a dozen yards away, and in her eagerness and utter +absorption in the light had evidently overlooked him. He could see +her face distinctly, her lips parted half in wonder, half with the +breathless absorption of a devotee. A faint sense of disappointment came +over him. It was not HIM she was watching, but the light! As it swelled +out over the darkening gray sand she turned as if to watch its effect +around her, and caught sight of Pomfrey. With a little startled cry--the +first she had uttered--she darted away. He did not follow. A moment +before, when he first saw her, an Indian salutation which he had +learned from Jim had risen to his lips, but in the odd feeling which her +fascination of the light had caused him he had not spoken. He watched +her bent figure scuttling away like some frightened animal, with a +critical consciousness that she was really scarce human, and went back +to the lighthouse. He would not run after her again! Yet that evening he +continued to think of her, and recalled her voice, which struck him now +as having been at once melodious and childlike, and wished he had at +least spoken, and perhaps elicited a reply. + +He did not, however, haunt the sweat-house near the river again. Yet he +still continued his lessons with Jim, and in this way, perhaps, although +quite unpremeditatedly, enlisted a humble ally. A week passed in which +he had not alluded to her, when one morning, as he was returning from a +row, Jim met him mysteriously on the beach. + +"S'pose him come slow, slow," said Jim gravely, airing his newly +acquired English; "make no noise--plenty catchee Indian maiden." The +last epithet was the polite lexicon equivalent of squaw. + +Pomfrey, not entirely satisfied in his mind, nevertheless softly +followed the noiselessly gliding Jim to the lighthouse. Here Jim +cautiously opened the door, motioning Pomfrey to enter. + +The base of the tower was composed of two living rooms, a storeroom and +oil-tank. As Pomfrey entered, Jim closed the door softly behind him. +The abrupt transition from the glare of the sands and sun to the +semi-darkness of the storeroom at first prevented him from seeing +anything, but he was instantly distracted by a scurrying flutter and +wild beating of the walls, as of a caged bird. In another moment +he could make out the fair stranger, quivering with excitement, +passionately dashing at the barred window, the walls, the locked door, +and circling around the room in her desperate attempt to find an egress, +like a captured seagull. Amazed, mystified, indignant with Jim, himself, +and even his unfortunate captive, Pomfrey called to her in Chinook to +stop, and going to the door, flung it wide open. She darted by him, +raising her soft blue eyes for an instant in a swift, sidelong glance of +half appeal, half-frightened admiration, and rushed out into the open. +But here, to his surprise, she did not run away. On the contrary, she +drew herself up with a dignity that seemed to increase her height, and +walked majestically towards Jim, who at her unexpected exit had suddenly +thrown himself upon the sand, in utterly abject terror and supplication. +She approached him slowly, with one small hand uplifted in a menacing +gesture. The man writhed and squirmed before her. Then she turned, +caught sight of Pomfrey standing in the doorway, and walked quietly +away. Amazed, yet gratified with this new assertion of herself, Pomfrey +respectfully, but alas! incautiously, called after her. In an instant, +at the sound of his voice, she dropped again into her slouching Indian +trot and glided away over the sandhills. + +Pomfrey did not add any reproof of his own to the discomfiture of his +Indian retainer. Neither did he attempt to inquire the secret of this +savage girl's power over him. It was evident he had spoken truly when he +told his master that she was of a superior caste. Pomfrey recalled her +erect and indignant figure standing over the prostrate Jim, and was +again perplexed and disappointed at her sudden lapse into the timid +savage at the sound of his voice. Would not this well-meant but +miserable trick of Jim's have the effect of increasing her unreasoning +animal-like distrust of him? A few days later brought an unexpected +answer to his question. + +It was the hottest hour of the day. He had been fishing off the reef +of rocks where he had first seen her, and had taken in his line and was +leisurely pulling for the lighthouse. Suddenly a little musical cry not +unlike a bird's struck his ear. He lay on his oars and listened. It was +repeated; but this time it was unmistakably recognizable as the voice of +the Indian girl, although he had heard it but once. He turned eagerly +to the rock, but it was empty; he pulled around it, but saw nothing. +He looked towards the shore, and swung his boat in that direction, +when again the cry was repeated with the faintest quaver of a laugh, +apparently on the level of the sea before him. For the first time he +looked down, and there on the crest of a wave not a dozen yards ahead, +danced the yellow hair and laughing eyes of the girl. The frightened +gravity of her look was gone, lost in the flash of her white teeth and +quivering dimples as her dripping face rose above the sea. When their +eyes met she dived again, but quickly reappeared on the other bow, +swimming with lazy, easy strokes, her smiling head thrown back over +her white shoulder, as if luring him to a race. If her smile was a +revelation to him, still more so was this first touch of feminine +coquetry in her attitude. He pulled eagerly towards her; with a few long +overhand strokes she kept her distance, or, if he approached too near, +she dived like a loon, coming up astern of him with the same childlike, +mocking cry. In vain he pursued her, calling her to stop in her own +tongue, and laughingly protested; she easily avoided his boat at every +turn. Suddenly, when they were nearly abreast of the river estuary, +she rose in the water, and, waving her little hands with a gesture of +farewell, turned, and curving her back like a dolphin, leaped into the +surging swell of the estuary bar and was lost in its foam. It would have +been madness for him to have attempted to follow in his boat, and he +saw that she knew it. He waited until her yellow crest appeared in the +smoother water of the river, and then rowed back. In his excitement and +preoccupation he had quite forgotten his long exposure to the sun +during his active exercise, and that he was poorly equipped for the cold +sea-fog which the heat had brought in earlier, and which now was quietly +obliterating sea and shore. This made his progress slower and more +difficult, and by the time he had reached the lighthouse he was chilled +to the bone. + +The next morning he woke with a dull headache and great weariness, and +it was with considerable difficulty that he could attend to his duties. +At nightfall, feeling worse, he determined to transfer the care of the +light to Jim, but was amazed to find that he had disappeared, and what +was more ominous, a bottle of spirits which Pomfrey had taken from his +locker the night before had disappeared too. Like all Indians, Jim's +rudimentary knowledge of civilization included "fire-water;" he +evidently had been tempted, had fallen, and was too ashamed or too drunk +to face his master. Pomfrey, however, managed to get the light in order +and working, and then, he scarcely knew how, betook himself to bed in +a state of high fever. He turned from side to side racked by pain, with +burning lips and pulses. Strange fancies beset him; he had noticed when +he lit his light that a strange sail was looming off the estuary--a +place where no sail had ever been seen or should be--and was relieved +that the lighting of the tower might show the reckless or ignorant +mariner his real bearings for the "Gate." At times he had heard voices +above the familiar song of the surf, and tried to rise from his bed, but +could not. Sometimes these voices were strange, outlandish, dissonant, +in his own language, yet only partly intelligible; but through them +always rang a single voice, musical, familiar, yet of a tongue not his +own--hers! And then, out of his delirium--for such it proved afterwards +to be--came a strange vision. He thought that he had just lit the light +when, from some strange and unaccountable reason, it suddenly became dim +and defied all his efforts to revive it. To add to his discomfiture, +he could see quite plainly through the lantern a strange-looking vessel +standing in from the sea. She was so clearly out of her course for the +Gate that he knew she had not seen the light, and his limbs trembled +with shame and terror as he tried in vain to rekindle the dying light. +Yet to his surprise the strange ship kept steadily on, passing the +dangerous reef of rocks, until she was actually in the waters of the +bay. But stranger than all, swimming beneath her bows was the golden +head and laughing face of the Indian girl, even as he had seen it the +day before. A strange revulsion of feeling overtook him. Believing that +she was luring the ship to its destruction, he ran out on the beach +and strove to hail the vessel and warn it of its impending doom. But he +could not speak--no sound came from his lips. And now his attention was +absorbed by the ship itself. High-bowed and pooped, and curved like the +crescent moon, it was the strangest craft that he had ever seen. Even +as he gazed it glided on nearer and nearer, and at last beached itself +noiselessly on the sands before his own feet. A score of figures +as bizarre and outlandish as the ship itself now thronged its high +forecastle--really a castle in shape and warlike purpose--and leaped +from its ports. The common seamen were nearly naked to the waist; the +officers looked more like soldiers than sailors. What struck him more +strangely was that they were one and all seemingly unconscious of the +existence of the lighthouse, sauntering up and down carelessly, as if on +some uninhabited strand, and even talking--so far as he could understand +their old bookish dialect--as if in some hitherto undiscovered land. +Their ignorance of the geography of the whole coast, and even of the sea +from which they came, actually aroused his critical indignation; their +coarse and stupid allusions to the fair Indian swimmer as the "mermaid" +that they had seen upon their bow made him more furious still. Yet +he was helpless to express his contemptuous anger, or even make them +conscious of his presence. Then an interval of incoherency and utter +blankness followed. When he again took up the thread of his fancy +the ship seemed to be lying on her beam ends on the sand; the strange +arrangement of her upper deck and top-hamper, more like a dwelling than +any ship he had ever seen, was fully exposed to view, while the seamen +seemed to be at work with the rudest contrivances, calking and scraping +her barnacled sides. He saw that phantom crew, when not working, at +wassail and festivity; heard the shouts of drunken roisterers; saw the +placing of a guard around some of the most uncontrollable, and later +detected the stealthy escape of half a dozen sailors inland, amidst the +fruitless volley fired upon them from obsolete blunderbusses. Then +his strange vision transported him inland, where he saw these seamen +following some Indian women. Suddenly one of them turned and ran +frenziedly towards him as if seeking succor, closely pursued by one of +the sailors. Pomfrey strove to reach her, struggled violently with the +fearful apathy that seemed to hold his limbs, and then, as she uttered +at last a little musical cry, burst his bonds and--awoke! + +As consciousness slowly struggled back to him, he could see the bare +wooden-like walls of his sleeping-room, the locker, the one window +bright with sunlight, the open door of the tank-room, and the little +staircase to the tower. There was a strange smoky and herb-like smell in +the room. He made an effort to rise, but as he did so a small sunburnt +hand was laid gently yet restrainingly upon his shoulder, and he heard +the same musical cry as before, but this time modulated to a girlish +laugh. He raised his head faintly. Half squatting, half kneeling by his +bed was the yellow-haired stranger. + +With the recollection of his vision still perplexing him, he said in a +weak voice, "Who are you?" + +Her blue eyes met his own with quick intelligence and no trace of her +former timidity. A soft, caressing light had taken its place. Pointing +with her finger to her breast in a childlike gesture, she said, +"Me--Olooya." + +"Olooya!" He remembered suddenly that Jim had always used that word in +speaking of her, but until then he had always thought it was some Indian +term for her distinct class. + +"Olooya," he repeated. Then, with difficulty attempting to use her own +tongue, he asked, "When did you come here?" + +"Last night," she answered in the same tongue. "There was no witch-fire +there," she continued, pointing to the tower; "when it came not, Olooya +came! Olooya found white chief sick and alone. White chief could not get +up! Olooya lit witch-fire for him." + +"You?" he repeated in astonishment. "I lit it myself." + +She looked at him pityingly, as if still recognizing his delirium, +and shook her head. "White chief was sick--how can know? Olooya made +witch-fire." + +He cast a hurried glance at his watch hanging on the wall beside him. +It had RUN DOWN, although he had wound it the last thing before going to +bed. He had evidently been lying there helpless beyond the twenty-four +hours! + +He groaned and turned to rise, but she gently forced him down again, and +gave him some herbal infusion, in which he recognized the taste of the +Yerba Buena vine which grew by the river. Then she made him comprehend +in her own tongue that Jim had been decoyed, while drunk, aboard a +certain schooner lying off the shore at a spot where she had seen some +men digging in the sands. She had not gone there, for she was afraid +of the bad men, and a slight return of her former terror came into her +changeful eyes. She knew how to light the witch-light; she reminded him +she had been in the tower before. + +"You have saved my light, and perhaps my life," he said weakly, taking +her hand. + +Possibly she did not understand him, for her only answer was a vague +smile. But the next instant she started up, listening intently, and then +with a frightened cry drew away her hand and suddenly dashed out of +the building. In the midst of his amazement the door was darkened by a +figure--a stranger dressed like an ordinary miner. Pausing a moment +to look after the flying Olooya, the man turned and glanced around the +room, and then with a coarse, familiar smile approached Pomfrey. + +"Hope I ain't disturbin' ye, but I allowed I'd just be neighborly and +drop in--seein' as this is gov'nment property, and me and my pardners, +as American citizens and tax-payers, helps to support it. We're coastin' +from Trinidad down here and prospectin' along the beach for gold in the +sand. Ye seem to hev a mighty soft berth of it here--nothing to do--and +lots of purty half-breeds hangin' round!" + +The man's effrontery was too much for Pomfrey's self-control, weakened +by illness. "It IS government property," he answered hotly, "and you +have no more right to intrude upon it than you have to decoy away my +servant, a government employee, during my illness, and jeopardize that +property." + +The unexpectedness of this attack, and the sudden revelation of the fact +of Pomfrey's illness in his flushed face and hollow voice apparently +frightened and confused the stranger. He stammered a surly excuse, +backed out of the doorway, and disappeared. An hour later Jim appeared, +crestfallen, remorseful, and extravagantly penitent. Pomfrey was too +weak for reproaches or inquiry, and he was thinking only of Olooya. + +She did not return. His recovery in that keen air, aided, as he +sometimes thought, by the herbs she had given him, was almost as rapid +as his illness. The miners did not again intrude upon the lighthouse nor +trouble his seclusion. When he was able to sun himself on the sands, he +could see them in the distance at work on the beach. He reflected that +she would not come back while they were there, and was reconciled. +But one morning Jim appeared, awkward and embarrassed, leading another +Indian, whom he introduced as Olooya's brother. Pomfrey's suspicions +were aroused. Except that the stranger had something of the girl's +superiority of manner, there was no likeness whatever to his fair-haired +acquaintance. But a fury of indignation was added to his suspicions when +he learned the amazing purport of their visit. It was nothing less than +an offer from the alleged brother to SELL his sister to Pomfrey for +forty dollars and a jug of whiskey! Unfortunately, Pomfrey's temper once +more got the better of his judgment. With a scathing exposition of the +laws under which the Indian and white man equally lived, and the legal +punishment of kidnaping, he swept what he believed was the impostor from +his presence. He was scarcely alone again before he remembered that his +imprudence might affect the girl's future access to him, but it was too +late now. + +Still he clung to the belief that he should see her when the prospectors +had departed, and he hailed with delight the breaking up of the camp +near the "sweat-house" and the disappearance of the schooner. It seemed +that their gold-seeking was unsuccessful; but Pomfrey was struck, on +visiting the locality, to find that in their excavations in the sand at +the estuary they had uncovered the decaying timbers of a ship's small +boat of some ancient and obsolete construction. This made him think +of his strange dream, with a vague sense of warning which he could not +shake off, and on his return to the lighthouse he took from his shelves +a copy of the old voyages to see how far his fancy had been affected +by his reading. In the account of Drake's visit to the coast he found a +footnote which he had overlooked before, and which ran as follows: "The +Admiral seems to have lost several of his crew by desertion, who were +supposed to have perished miserably by starvation in the inhospitable +interior or by the hands of savages. But later voyagers have suggested +that the deserters married Indian wives, and there is a legend that a +hundred years later a singular race of half-breeds, bearing unmistakable +Anglo-Saxon characteristics, was found in that locality." Pomfrey fell +into a reverie of strange hypotheses and fancies. He resolved that, +when he again saw Olooya, he would question her; her terror of these men +might be simply racial or some hereditary transmission. + +But his intention was never fulfilled. For when days and weeks had +elapsed, and he had vainly haunted the river estuary and the rocky +reef before the lighthouse without a sign of her, he overcame his +pride sufficiently to question Jim. The man looked at him with dull +astonishment. + +"Olooya gone," he said. + +"Gone!--where?" + +The Indian made a gesture to seaward which seemed to encompass the whole +Pacific. + +"How? With whom?" repeated his angry yet half-frightened master. + +"With white man in ship. You say YOU no want Olooya--forty dollars too +much. White man give fifty dollars--takee Olooya all same." + + + + +UNDER THE EAVES + + +The assistant editor of the San Francisco "Daily Informer" was going +home. So much of his time was spent in the office of the "Informer" that +no one ever cared to know where he passed those six hours of sleep which +presumably suggested a domicile. His business appointments outside the +office were generally kept at the restaurant where he breakfasted and +dined, or of evenings in the lobbies of theatres or the anterooms of +public meetings. Yet he had a home and an interval of seclusion of which +he was jealously mindful, and it was to this he was going to-night at +his usual hour. + +His room was in a new building on one of the larger and busier +thoroughfares. The lower floor was occupied by a bank, but as it was +closed before he came home, and not yet opened when he left, it did not +disturb his domestic sensibilities. The same may be said of the next +floor, which was devoted to stockbrokers' and companies offices, and was +equally tomb-like and silent when he passed; the floor above that was a +desert of empty rooms, which echoed to his footsteps night and morning, +with here and there an oasis in the green sign of a mining secretary's +office, with, however, the desolating announcement that it would only +be "open for transfers from two to four on Saturdays." The top floor +had been frankly abandoned in an unfinished state by the builder, whose +ambition had "o'erleaped itself" in that sanguine era of the city's +growth. There was a smell of plaster and the first coat of paint about +it still, but the whole front of the building was occupied by a long +room with odd "bull's-eye" windows looking out through the heavy +ornamentations of the cornice over the adjacent roofs. + +It had been originally intended for a club-room, but after the ill +fortune which attended the letting of the floor below, and possibly +because the earthquake-fearing San Franciscans had their doubts of +successful hilarity at the top of so tall a building, it remained +unfinished, with the two smaller rooms at its side. Its incomplete and +lonely grandeur had once struck the editor during a visit of inspection, +and the landlord, whom he knew, had offered to make it habitable for him +at a nominal rent. It had a lavatory with a marble basin and a tap of +cold water. The offer was a novel one, but he accepted it, and fitted up +the apartment with some cheap second-hand furniture, quite inconsistent +with the carved mantels and decorations, and made a fair sitting-room +and bedroom of it. Here, on a Sunday, when its stillness was +intensified, and even a passing footstep on the pavement fifty feet +below was quite startling, he would sit and work by one of the quaint +open windows. In the rainy season, through the filmed panes he sometimes +caught a glimpse of the distant, white-capped bay, but never of the +street below him. + +The lights were out, but, groping his way up to the first landing, he +took from a cup-boarded niche in the wall his candlestick and matches +and continued the ascent to his room. The humble candlelight flickered +on the ostentatious gold letters displayed on the ground-glass doors +of opulent companies which he knew were famous, and rooms where +millionaires met in secret conclave, but the contrast awakened only his +sense of humor. Yet he was always relieved after he had reached his own +floor. Possibly its incompleteness and inchoate condition made it seem +less lonely than the desolation of the finished and furnished rooms +below, and it was only this recollection of past human occupancy that +was depressing. + +He opened his door, lit the solitary gas jet that only half illuminated +the long room, and, it being already past midnight, began to undress +himself. This process presently brought him to that corner of his room +where his bed stood, when he suddenly stopped, and his sleepy yawn +changed to a gape of surprise. For, lying in the bed, its head upon +the pillow, and its rigid arms accurately stretched down over the +turned-back sheet, was a child's doll! It was a small doll--a banged and +battered doll, that had seen service, but it had evidently been "tucked +in" with maternal tenderness, and lay there with its staring eyes turned +to the ceiling, the very genius of insomnia! + +His first start of surprise was followed by a natural resentment of +what might have been an impertinent intrusion on his privacy by some +practical-joking adult, for he knew there was no child in the house. + +His room was kept in order by the wife of the night watchman employed +by the bank, and no one else had a right of access to it. But the woman +might have brought a child there and not noticed its disposal of its +plaything. He smiled. It might have been worse! It might have been a +real baby! + +The idea tickled him with a promise of future "copy"--of a story with +farcical complications, or even a dramatic ending, in which the baby, +adopted by him, should turn out to be somebody's stolen offspring. He +lifted the little image that had suggested these fancies, carefully laid +it on his table, went to bed, and presently forgot it all in slumber. + +In the morning his good-humor and interest in it revived to the extent +of writing on a slip of paper, "Good-morning! Thank you--I've slept very +well," putting the slip in the doll's jointed arms, and leaving it in a +sitting posture outside his door when he left his room. When he returned +late at night it was gone. + +But it so chanced that, a few days later, owing to press of work on the +"Informer," he was obliged to forego his usual Sunday holiday out of +town, and that morning found him, while the bells were ringing for +church, in his room with a pile of manuscript and proof before him. +For these were troublous days in San Francisco; the great Vigilance +Committee of '56 was in session, and the offices of the daily papers +were thronged with eager seekers of news. Such affairs, indeed, were not +in the functions of the assistant editor, nor exactly to his taste; he +was neither a partisan of the so-called Law and Order Party, nor yet +an enthusiastic admirer of the citizen Revolutionists known as the +Vigilance Committee, both extremes being incompatible with his habits of +thought. Consequently he was not displeased at this opportunity of doing +his work away from the office and the "heady talk" of controversy. + +He worked on until the bells ceased and a more than Sabbath stillness +fell upon the streets. So quiet was it that once or twice the +conversation of passing pedestrians floated up and into his window, as +of voices at his elbow. + +Presently he heard the sound of a child's voice singing in subdued tone, +as if fearful of being overheard. This time he laid aside his pen--it +certainly was no delusion! The sound did not come from the open +window, but from some space on a level with his room. Yet there was no +contiguous building as high. + +He rose and tried to open his door softly, but it creaked, and the +singing instantly ceased. There was nothing before him but the bare, +empty hall, with its lathed and plastered partitions, and the two +smaller rooms, unfinished like his own, on either side of him. Their +doors were shut; the one at his right hand was locked, the other yielded +to his touch. + +For the first moment he saw only the bare walls of the apparently empty +room. But a second glance showed him two children--a boy of seven and +a girl of five--sitting on the floor, which was further littered by +a mattress, pillow, and blanket. There was a cheap tray on one of the +trunks containing two soiled plates and cups and fragments of a meal. +But there was neither a chair nor table nor any other article of +furniture in the room. Yet he was struck by the fact that, in spite of +this poverty of surrounding, the children were decently dressed, and the +few scattered pieces of luggage in quality bespoke a superior condition. + +The children met his astonished stare with an equal wonder and, he +fancied, some little fright. The boy's lips trembled a little as he said +apologetically-- + +"I told Jinny not to sing. But she didn't make MUCH noise." + +"Mamma said I could play with my dolly. But I fordot and singed," said +the little girl penitently. + +"Where's your mamma?" asked the young man. The fancy of their being +near relatives of the night watchman had vanished at the sound of their +voices. + +"Dorn out," said the girl. + +"When did she go out?" + +"Last night." + +"Were you all alone here last night?" + +"Yes!" + +Perhaps they saw the look of indignation and pity in the editor's face, +for the boy said quickly-- + +"She don't go out EVERY night; last night she went to"-- + +He stopped suddenly, and both children looked at each other with a half +laugh and half cry, and then repeated in hopeless unison, "She's dorn +out." + +"When is she coming back again?" + +"To-night. But we won't make any more noise." + +"Who brings you your food?" continued the editor, looking at the tray. + +"Woberts." + +Evidently Roberts, the night watchman! The editor felt relieved; here +was a clue to some explanation. He instantly sat down on the floor +between them. + +"So that was the dolly that slept in my bed," he said gayly, taking it +up. + +God gives helplessness a wonderful intuition of its friends. The +children looked up at the face of their grown-up companion, giggled, and +then burst into a shrill fit of laughter. He felt that it was the first +one they had really indulged in for many days. Nevertheless he said, +"Hush!" confidentially; why he scarcely knew, except to intimate to them +that he had taken in their situation thoroughly. "Make no noise," he +added softly, "and come into my big room." + +They hung back, however, with frightened yet longing eyes. "Mamma said +we mussent do out of this room," said the girl. + +"Not ALONE," responded the editor quickly, "but with ME, you know; +that's different." + +The logic sufficed them, poor as it was. Their hands slid quite +naturally into his. But at the door he stopped, and motioning to the +locked door of the other room, asked:-- + +"And is that mamma's room, too?" + +Their little hands slipped from his and they were silent. Presently the +boy, as if acted upon by some occult influence of the girl, said in a +half whisper, "Yes." + +The editor did not question further, but led them into his room. Here +they lost the slight restraint they had shown, and began, child fashion, +to become questioners themselves. + +In a few moments they were in possession of his name, his business, the +kind of restaurant he frequented, where he went when he left his room +all day, the meaning of those funny slips of paper, and the written +manuscripts, and why he was so quiet. But any attempt of his to +retaliate by counter questions was met by a sudden reserve so +unchildlike and painful to him--as it was evidently to themselves--that +he desisted, wisely postponing his inquiries until he could meet +Roberts. + +He was glad when they fell to playing games with each other quite +naturally, yet not entirely forgetting his propinquity, as their +occasional furtive glances at his movements showed him. He, too, became +presently absorbed in his work, until it was finished and it was time +for him to take it to the office of the "Informer." The wild idea seized +him of also taking the children afterwards for a holiday to the Mission +Dolores, but he prudently remembered that even this negligent mother of +theirs might have some rights over her offspring that he was bound to +respect. + +He took leave of them gayly, suggesting that the doll be replaced in his +bed while he was away, and even assisted in "tucking it up." But during +the afternoon the recollection of these lonely playfellows in the +deserted house obtruded itself upon his work and the talk of his +companions. Sunday night was his busiest night, and he could not, +therefore, hope to get away in time to assure himself of their mother's +return. + +It was nearly two in the morning when he returned to his room. He paused +for a moment on the threshold to listen for any sound from the adjoining +room. But all was hushed. + +His intention of speaking to the night watchman was, however, +anticipated the next morning by that guardian himself. A tap upon his +door while he was dressing caused him to open it somewhat hurriedly +in the hope of finding one of the children there, but he met only the +embarrassed face of Roberts. Inviting him into the room, the editor +continued dressing. Carefully closing the door behind him, the man +began, with evident hesitation,-- + +"I oughter hev told ye suthin' afore, Mr. Breeze; but I kalkilated, so +to speak, that you wouldn't be bothered one way or another, and so ye +hadn't any call to know that there was folks here"-- + +"Oh, I see," interrupted Breeze cheerfully; "you're speaking of the +family next door--the landlord's new tenants." + +"They ain't exactly THAT," said Roberts, still with embarrassment. "The +fact is--ye see--the thing points THIS way: they ain't no right to be +here, and it's as much as my place is worth if it leaks out that they +are." + +Mr. Breeze suspended his collar-buttoning, and stared at Roberts. + +"You see, sir, they're mighty poor, and they've nowhere else to go--and +I reckoned to take 'em in here for a spell and say nothing about it." + +"But the landlord wouldn't object, surely? I'll speak to him myself," +said Breeze impulsively. + +"Oh, no; don't!" said Roberts in alarm; "he wouldn't like it. You see, +Mr. Breeze, it's just this way: the mother, she's a born lady, and did +my old woman a good turn in old times when the family was rich; but now +she's obliged--just to support herself, you know--to take up with what +she gets, and she acts in the bally in the theatre, you see, and hez +to come in late o' nights. In them cheap boarding-houses, you know, the +folks looks down upon her for that, and won't hev her, and in the cheap +hotels the men are--you know--a darned sight wuss, and that's how I took +her and her kids in here, where no one knows 'em." + +"I see," nodded the editor sympathetically; "and very good it was of +you, my man." + +Roberts looked still more confused, and stammered with a forced laugh, +"And--so--I'm just keeping her on here, unbeknownst, until her husband +gets"--He stopped suddenly. + +"So she has a husband living, then?" said Breeze in surprise. + +"In the mines, yes--in the mines!" repeated Roberts with a monotonous +deliberation quite distinct from his previous hesitation, "and she's +only waitin' until he gets money enough--to--to take her away." He +stopped and breathed hard. + +"But couldn't you--couldn't WE--get her some more furniture? There's +nothing in that room, you know, not a chair or table; and unless the +other room is better furnished"-- + +"Eh? Oh, yes!" said Roberts quickly, yet still with a certain +embarrassment; "of course THAT'S better furnished, and she's quite +satisfied, and so are the kids, with anything. And now, Mr. Breeze, I +reckon you'll say nothin' o' this, and you'll never go back on me?" + +"My dear Mr. Roberts," said the editor gravely, "from this moment I am +not only blind, but deaf to the fact that ANYBODY occupies this floor +but myself." + +"I knew you was white all through, Mr. Breeze," said the night watchman, +grasping the young man's hand with a grip of iron, "and I telled my wife +so. I sez, 'Jest you let me tell him EVERYTHIN',' but she"--He stopped +again and became confused. + +"And she was quite right, I dare say," said Breeze, with a laugh; "and I +do not want to know anything. And that poor woman must never know that +I ever knew anything, either. But you may tell your wife that when +the mother is away she can bring the little ones in here whenever she +likes." + +"Thank ye--thank ye, sir!--and I'll just run down and tell the old woman +now, and won't intrude upon your dressin' any longer." + +He grasped Breeze's hand again, went out and closed the door behind +him. It might have been the editor's fancy, but he thought there was a +certain interval of silence outside the door before the night watchman's +heavy tread was heard along the hall again. + +For several evenings after this Mr. Breeze paid some attention to the +ballet in his usual round of the theatres. Although he had never seen +his fair neighbor, he had a vague idea that he might recognize her +through some likeness to her children. But in vain. In the opulent +charms of certain nymphs, and in the angular austerities of others, +he failed equally to discern any of those refinements which might have +distinguished the "born lady" of Roberts's story, or which he himself +had seen in her children. + +These he did not meet again during the week, as his duties kept him +late at the office; but from certain signs in his room he knew that Mrs. +Roberts had availed herself of his invitation to bring them in with her, +and he regularly found "Jinny's" doll tucked up in his bed at night, and +he as regularly disposed of it outside his door in the morning, with a +few sweets, like an offering, tucked under its rigid arms. + +But another circumstance touched him more delicately; his room +was arranged with greater care than before, and with an occasional +exhibition of taste that certainly had not distinguished Mrs. Roberts's +previous ministrations. One evening on his return he found a small +bouquet of inexpensive flowers in a glass on his writing-table. He loved +flowers too well not to detect that they were quite fresh, and could +have been put there only an hour or two before he arrived. + +The next evening was Saturday, and, as he usually left the office +earlier on that day, it occurred to him, as he walked home, that it was +about the time his fair neighbor would be leaving the theatre, and that +it was possible he might meet her. + +At the front door, however, he found Roberts, who returned his greeting +with a certain awkwardness which struck him as singular. When he reached +the niche on the landing he found his candle was gone, but he proceeded +on, groping his way up the stairs, with an odd conviction that both +these incidents pointed to the fact that the woman had just returned or +was expected. + +He had also a strange feeling--which may have been owing to the +darkness--that some one was hidden on the landing or on the stairs where +he would pass. This was further accented by a faint odor of patchouli, +as, with his hand on the rail, he turned the corner of the third +landing, and he was convinced that if he had put out his other hand it +would have come in contact with his mysterious neighbor. But a certain +instinct of respect for her secret, which she was even now guarding in +the darkness, withheld him, and he passed on quickly to his own floor. + +Here it was lighter; the moon shot a beam of silver across the passage +from an unshuttered window as he passed. He reached his room door, +entered, but instead of lighting the gas and shutting the door, stood +with it half open, listening in the darkness. + +His suspicions were verified; there was a slight rustling noise, and +a figure which had evidently followed him appeared at the end of the +passage. It was that of a woman habited in a grayish dress and cloak of +the same color; but as she passed across the band of moonlight he had +a distinct view of her anxious, worried face. It was a face no longer +young; it was worn with illness, but still replete with a delicacy and +faded beauty so inconsistent with her avowed profession that he felt a +sudden pang of pain and doubt. The next moment she had vanished in her +room, leaving the same faint perfume behind her. He closed his door +softly, lit the gas, and sat down in a state of perplexity. That swift +glimpse of her face and figure had made her story improbable to the +point of absurdity, or possibly to the extreme of pathos! + +It seemed incredible that a woman of that quality should be forced to +accept a vocation at once so low, so distasteful, and so unremunerative. +With her evident antecedents, had she no friends but this common Western +night watchman of a bank? Had Roberts deceived him? Was his whole story +a fabrication, and was there some complicity between the two? What was +it? He knit his brows. + +Mr. Breeze had that overpowering knowledge of the world which only comes +with the experience of twenty-five, and to this he superadded the active +imagination of a newspaper man. A plot to rob the bank? These mysterious +absences, that luggage which he doubted not was empty and intended for +spoil! But why encumber herself with the two children? Here his common +sense and instinct of the ludicrous returned and he smiled. + +But he could not believe in the ballet dancer! He wondered, indeed, how +any manager could have accepted the grim satire of that pale, worried +face among the fairies, that sad refinement amid their vacant smiles and +rouged checks. And then, growing sad again, he comforted himself with +the reflection that at least the children were not alone that night, and +so went to sleep. + +For some days he had no further meeting with his neighbors. The +disturbed state of the city--for the Vigilance Committee were still in +session--obliged the daily press to issue "extras," and his work at the +office increased. + +It was not until Sunday again that he was able to be at home. Needless +to say that his solitary little companions were duly installed there, +while he sat at work with his proofs on the table before him. + +The stillness of the empty house was only broken by the habitually +subdued voices of the children at their play, when suddenly the harsh +stroke of a distant bell came through the open window. But it was no +Sabbath bell, and Mr. Breeze knew it. It was the tocsin of the Vigilance +Committee, summoning the members to assemble at their quarters for +a capture, a trial, or an execution of some wrongdoer. To him it was +equally a summons to the office--to distasteful news and excitement. + +He threw his proofs aside in disgust, laid down his pen, seized his hat, +and paused a moment to look round for his playmates. But they were gone! +He went into the hall, looked into the open door of their room, but they +were not there. He tried the door of the second room, but it was locked. + +Satisfied that they had stolen downstairs in their eagerness to +know what the bell meant, he hurried down also, met Roberts in the +passage,--a singularly unusual circumstance at that hour,--called to him +to look after the runaways, and hurried to his office. + +Here he found the staff collected, excitedly discussing the news. One +of the Vigilance Committee prisoners, a notorious bully and ruffian, +detained as a criminal and a witness, had committed suicide in his +cell. Fortunately this was all reportorial work, and the services of Mr. +Breeze were not required. He hurried back, relieved, to his room. + +When he reached his landing, breathlessly, he heard the same quick +rustle he had heard that memorable evening, and was quite satisfied that +he saw a figure glide swiftly out of the open door of his room. It was +no doubt his neighbor, who had been seeking her children, and as he +heard their voices as he passed, his uneasiness and suspicions were +removed. + +He sat down again to his scattered papers and proofs, finished his work, +and took it to the office on his way to dinner. He returned early, in +the hope that he might meet his neighbor again, and had quite settled +his mind that he was justified in offering a civil "Good-evening" to +her, in spite of his previous respectful ignoring of her presence. She +must certainly have become aware by this time of his attention to +her children and consideration for herself, and could not mistake his +motives. But he was disappointed, although he came up softly; he found +the floor in darkness and silence on his return, and he had to be +content with lighting his gas and settling down to work again. + +A near church clock had struck ten when he was startled by the sound of +an unfamiliar and uncertain step in the hall, followed by a tap at his +door. Breeze jumped to his feet, and was astonished to find Dick, the +"printer's devil," standing on the threshold with a roll of proofs in +his hand. + +"How did you get here?" he asked testily. + +"They told me at the restaurant they reckoned you lived yere, and the +night watchman at the door headed me straight up. When he knew whar I +kem from he wanted to know what the news was, but I told him he'd better +buy an extra and see." + +"Well, what did you come for?" said the editor impatiently. + +"The foreman said it was important, and he wanted to know afore he went +to press ef this yer correction was YOURS?" + +He went to the table, unrolled the proofs, and, taking out the slip, +pointed to a marked paragraph. "The foreman says the reporter who +brought the news allows he got it straight first-hand! But ef you've +corrected it, he reckons you know best." + +Breeze saw at a glance that the paragraph alluded to was not of his own +writing, but one of several news items furnished by reporters. These +had been "set up" in the same "galley," and consequently appeared in the +same proof-slip. He was about to say curtly that neither the matter nor +the correction was his, when something odd in the correction of the item +struck him. It read as follows:-- + +"It appears that the notorious 'Jim Bodine,' who is in hiding and +badly wanted by the Vigilance Committee, has been tempted lately into +a renewal of his old recklessness. He was seen in Sacramento Street the +other night by two separate witnesses, one of whom followed him, but he +escaped in some friendly doorway." + +The words "in Sacramento Street" were stricken out and replaced by the +correction "on the Saucelito shore," and the words "friendly doorway" +were changed to "friendly dinghy." The correction was not his, nor the +handwriting, which was further disguised by being an imitation of print. +A strange idea seized him. + +"Has any one seen these proofs since I left them at the office?" + +"No, only the foreman, sir." + +He remembered that he had left the proofs lying openly on his table +when he was called to the office at the stroke of the alarm bell; he +remembered the figure he saw gliding from his room on his return. She +had been there alone with the proofs; she only could have tampered with +them. + +The evident object of the correction was to direct the public attention +from Sacramento Street to Saucelito, as the probable whereabouts of this +"Jimmy Bodine." The street below was Sacramento Street, the "friendly +doorway" might have been their own. + +That she had some knowledge of this Bodine was not more improbable than +the ballet story. Her strange absences, the mystery surrounding her, all +seemed to testify that she had some connection--perhaps only an innocent +one--with these desperate people whom the Vigilance Committee were +hunting down. Her attempt to save the man was, after all, no more +illegal than their attempt to capture him. True, she might have trusted +him, Breeze, without this tampering with his papers; yet perhaps she +thought he was certain to discover it--and it was only a silent appeal +to his mercy. The corrections were ingenious and natural--it was the act +of an intelligent, quick-witted woman. + +Mr. Breeze was prompt in acting upon his intuition, whether right or +wrong. He took up his pen, wrote on the margin of the proof, "Print as +corrected," said to the boy carelessly, "The corrections are all right," +and dismissed him quickly. + +The corrected paragraph which appeared in the "Informer" the next +morning seemed to attract little public attention, the greater +excitement being the suicide of the imprisoned bully and the effect it +might have upon the prosecution of other suspected parties, against whom +the dead man had been expected to bear witness. + +Mr. Breeze was unable to obtain any information regarding the desperado +Bodine's associates and relations; his correction of the paragraph had +made the other members of the staff believe he had secret and superior +information regarding the fugitive, and he thus was estopped from +asking questions. But he felt himself justified now in demanding fuller +information from Roberts at the earliest opportunity. + +For this purpose he came home earlier that night, hoping to find the +night watchman still on his first beat in the lower halls. But he was +disappointed. He was amazed, however, on reaching his own landing, to +find the passage piled with new luggage, some of that ruder type of +rolled blanket and knapsack known as a "miner's kit." He was still more +surprised to hear men's voices and the sound of laughter proceeding +from the room that was always locked. A sudden sense of uneasiness and +disgust, he knew not why, came over him. + +He passed quickly into his room, shut the door sharply, and lit the gas. +But he presently heard the door of the locked room open, a man's voice, +slightly elevated by liquor and opposition, saying, "I know what's due +from one gen'leman to 'nother"--a querulous, objecting voice saying, +"Hole on! not now," and a fainter feminine protest, all of which were +followed by a rap on his door. + +Breeze opened it to two strangers, one of whom lurched forward +unsteadily with outstretched hand. He had a handsome face and figure, +and a certain consciousness of it even in the abandon of liquor; he +had an aggressive treacherousness of eye which his potations had not +subdued. He grasped Breeze's hand tightly, but dropped it the next +moment perfunctorily as he glanced round the room. + +"I told them I was bound to come in," he said, without looking at +Breeze, "and say 'Howdy!' to the man that's bin a pal to my women folks +and the kids--and acted white all through! I said to Mame, 'I reckon HE +knows who I am, and that I kin be high-toned to them that's high-toned; +kin return shake for shake and shot for shot!' Aye! that's me! So I was +bound to come in like a gen'leman, sir, and here I am!" + +He threw himself in an unproffered chair and stared at Breeze. + +"I'm afraid," said Breeze dryly, "that, nevertheless, I never knew who +you were, and that even now I am ignorant whom I am addressing." + +"That's just it," said the second man, with a querulous protest, which +did not, however, conceal his admiring vassalage to his friend; "that's +what I'm allus telling Jim. 'Jim,' I says, 'how is folks to know you're +the man that shot Kernel Baxter, and dropped three o' them Mariposa +Vigilants? They didn't see you do it! They just look at your fancy style +and them mustaches of yours, and allow ye might be death on the girls, +but they don't know ye! An' this man yere--he's a scribe in them +papers--writes what the boss editor tells him, and lives up yere on the +roof, 'longside yer wife and the children--what's he knowin' about YOU?' +Jim's all right enough," he continued, in easy confidence to Breeze, +"but he's too fresh 'bout himself." + +Mr. James Bodine accepted this tribute and criticism of his henchman +with a complacent laugh, which was not, however, without a certain +contempt for the speaker and the man spoken to. His bold, selfish eyes +wandered round the room as if in search of some other amusement than his +companions offered. + +"I reckon this is the room which that hound of a landlord, Rakes, +allowed he'd fix up for our poker club--the club that Dan Simmons and +me got up, with a few other sports. It was to be a slap-up affair, right +under the roof, where there was no chance of the police raiding us. But +the cur weakened when the Vigilants started out to make war on any game +a gen'leman might hev that wasn't in their gummy-bag, salt pork trade. +Well, it's gettin' a long time between drinks, gen'lemen, ain't it?" He +looked round him significantly. + +Only the thought of the woman and her children in the next room, and +the shame that he believed she was enduring, enabled Breeze to keep his +temper or even a show of civility. + +"I'm afraid," he said quietly, "that you'll find very little here to +remind you of the club--not even the whiskey; for I use the room only as +a bedroom, and as I am a workingman, and come in late and go out early, +I have never found it available for hospitality, even to my intimate +friends. I am very glad, however, that the little leisure I have had in +it has enabled me to make the floor less lonely for your children." + +Mr. Bodine got up with an affected yawn, turned an embarrassed yet +darkening eye on Breeze, and lunged unsteadily to the door. "And as I +only happened in to do the reg'lar thing between high-toned gen'lemen, +I reckon we kin say 'Quits.'" He gave a coarse laugh, said "So long," +nodded, stumbled into the passage, and thence into the other room. + +His companion watched him pass out with a relieved yet protecting air, +and then, closing the door softly, drew nearer to Breeze, and said in +husky confidence,-- + +"Ye ain't seein' him at his best, mister! He's bin drinkin' too much, +and this yer news has upset him." + +"What news?" asked Breeze. + +"This yer suicide o' Irish Jack!" + +"Was he his friend?" + +"Friend?" ejaculated the man, horrified at the mere suggestion. "Not +much! Why, Irish Jack was the only man that could hev hung Jim! Now he's +dead, in course the Vigilants ain't got no proof agin Jim. Jim wants to +face it out now an' stay here, but his wife and me don't see it noways! +So we are taking advantage o' the lull agin him to get him off down the +coast this very night. That's why he's been off his head drinkin'. Ye +see, when a man has been for weeks hidin'--part o' the time in that +room and part o' the time on the wharf, where them Vigilants has been +watchin' every ship that left in order to ketch him, he's inclined to +celebrate his chance o' getting away"-- + +"Part of the time in that room?" interrupted Breeze quickly. + +"Sartin! Don't ye see? He allus kem in as you went out--sabe!--and got +away before you kem back, his wife all the time just a-hoverin' between +the two places, and keeping watch for him. It was killin' to her, you +see, for she wasn't brought up to it, whiles Jim didn't keer--had two +revolvers and kalkilated to kill a dozen Vigilants afore he dropped. But +that's over now, and when I've got him safe on that 'plunger' down at +the wharf to-night, and put him aboard the schooner that's lying off the +Heads, he's all right agin." + +"And Roberts knew all this and was one of his friends?" asked Breeze. + +"Roberts knew it, and Roberts's wife used to be a kind of servant +to Jim's wife in the South, when she was a girl, but I don't know ez +Roberts is his FRIEND!" + +"He certainly has shown himself one," said Breeze. + +"Ye-e-s," said the stranger meditatively, "ye-e-s." He stopped, opened +the door softly, and peeped out, and then closed it again softly. "It's +sing'lar, Mr. Breeze," he went on in a sudden yet embarrassed burst +of confidence, "that Jim thar--a man thet can shoot straight, and hez +frequent; a man thet knows every skin game goin'--that THET man Jim," +very slowly, "hezn't really--got--any friends--'cept me--and his wife." + +"Indeed?" said Mr. Breeze dryly. + +"Sure! Why, you yourself didn't cotton to him--I could see THET." + +Mr. Breeze felt himself redden slightly, and looked curiously at the +man. This vulgar parasite, whom he had set down as a worshiper of sham +heroes, undoubtedly did not look like an associate of Bodine's, and had +a certain seriousness that demanded respect. As he looked closer into +his wide, round face, seamed with small-pox, he fancied he saw even in +its fatuous imbecility something of that haunting devotion he had seen +on the refined features of the wife. He said more gently,-- + +"But one friend like you would seem to be enough." + +"I ain't what I uster be, Mr. Breeze," said the man meditatively, +"and mebbe ye don't know who I am. I'm Abe Shuckster, of Shuckster's +Ranch--one of the biggest in Petalumy. I was a rich man until a year +ago, when Jim got inter trouble. What with mortgages and interest, +payin' up Jim's friends and buying off some ez was set agin him, thar +ain't much left, and when I've settled that bill for the schooner lying +off the Heads there I reckon I'm about played out. But I've allus a +shanty at Petalumy, and mebbe when things is froze over and Jim gets +back--you'll come and see him--for you ain't seen him at his best." + +"I suppose his wife and children go with him?" said Breeze. + +"No! He's agin it, and wants them to come later. But that's all right, +for you see she kin go back to their own house at the Mission, now that +the Vigilants are givin' up shadderin' it. So long, Mr. Breeze! We're +startin' afore daylight. Sorry you didn't see Jim in condition." + +He grasped Breeze's hand warmly and slipped out of the door softly. For +an instant Mr. Breeze felt inclined to follow him into the room and make +a kinder adieu to the pair, but the reflection that he might embarrass +the wife, who, it would seem, had purposely avoided accompanying her +husband when he entered, withheld him. And for the last few minutes he +had been doubtful if he had any right to pose as her friend. Beside the +devotion of the man who had just left him, his own scant kindness to her +children seemed ridiculous. + +He went to bed, but tossed uneasily until he fancied he heard stealthy +footsteps outside his door and in the passage. Even then he thought of +getting up, dressing, and going out to bid farewell to the fugitives. +But even while he was thinking of it he fell asleep and did not wake +until the sun was shining in at his windows. + +He sprang to his feet, threw on his dressing-gown, and peered into the +passage. Everything was silent. He stepped outside--the light streamed +into the hall from the open doors and windows of both rooms--the floor +was empty; not a trace of the former occupants remained. He was turning +back when his eye fell upon the battered wooden doll set upright against +his doorjamb, holding stiffly in its jointed arms a bit of paper folded +like a note. Opening it, he found a few lines written in pencil. + + +God bless you for your kindness to us, and try to forgive me for +touching your papers. But I thought that you would detect it, know WHY I +did it, and then help us, as you did! Good-by! + +MAMIE BODINE. + + +Mr. Breeze laid down the paper with a slight accession of color, as if +its purport had been ironical. How little had he done compared to the +devotion of this delicate woman or the sacrifices of that rough friend! +How deserted looked this nest under the eaves, which had so long borne +its burden of guilt, innocence, shame, and suffering! For many days +afterwards he avoided it except at night, and even then he often found +himself lying awake to listen to the lost voices of the children. + +But one evening, a fortnight later, he came upon Roberts in the hall. +"Well," said Breeze, with abrupt directness, "did he get away?" + +Roberts started, uttered an oath which it is possible the Recording +Angel passed to his credit, and said, "Yes, HE got away all right!" + +"Why, hasn't his wife joined him?" + +"No. Never, in this world, I reckon; and if anywhere in the next, I +don't want to go there!" said Roberts furiously. + +"Is he dead?" + +"Dead? That kind don't die!" + +"What do you mean?" + +Roberts's lips writhed, and then, with a strong effort, he said with +deliberate distinctness, "I mean--that the hound went off with another +woman--that--was--in--that schooner, and left that fool Shuckster adrift +in the plunger." + +"And the wife and children?" + +"Shuckster sold his shanty at Petaluma to pay their passage to the +States. Good-night!" + + + + +HOW REUBEN ALLEN "SAW LIFE" IN SAN FRANCISCO + + +The junior partner of the firm of Sparlow & Kane, "Druggists and +Apothecaries," of San Francisco, was gazing meditatively out of the +corner of the window of their little shop in Dupont Street. He could see +the dimly lit perspective of the narrow thoroughfare fade off into the +level sand wastes of Market Street on the one side, and plunge into the +half-excavated bulk of Telegraph Hill on the other. He could see the +glow and hear the rumble of Montgomery Street--the great central avenue +farther down the hill. Above the housetops was spread the warm blanket +of sea-fog under which the city was regularly laid to sleep every +summer night to the cool lullaby of the Northwest Trades. It was already +half-past eleven; footsteps on the wooden pavement were getting rarer +and more remote; the last cart had rumbled by; the shutters were up +along the street; the glare of his own red and blue jars was the only +beacon left to guide the wayfarers. Ordinarily he would have been going +home at this hour, when his partner, who occupied the surgery and a +small bedroom at the rear of the shop, always returned to relieve him. +That night, however, a professional visit would detain the "Doctor" +until half-past twelve. There was still an hour to wait. He felt drowsy; +the mysterious incense of the shop, that combined essence of drugs, +spice, scented soap, and orris root--which always reminded him of the +Arabian Nights--was affecting him. He yawned, and then, turning away, +passed behind the counter, took down a jar labeled "Glycyrr. Glabra," +selected a piece of Spanish licorice, and meditatively sucked it. +Not receiving from it that diversion and sustenance he apparently was +seeking, he also visited, in an equally familiar manner, a jar marked +"Jujubes," and returned ruminatingly to his previous position. + +If I have not in this incident sufficiently established the youthfulness +of the junior partner, I may add briefly that he was just nineteen, that +he had early joined the emigration to California, and after one or two +previous light-hearted essays at other occupations, for which he was +singularly unfitted, he had saved enough to embark on his present +venture, still less suited to his temperament. In those adventurous days +trades and vocations were not always filled by trained workmen; it was +extremely probable that the experienced chemist was already making his +success as a gold-miner, with a lawyer and a physician for his partners, +and Mr. Kane's inexperienced position was by no means a novel one. A +slight knowledge of Latin as a written language, an American schoolboy's +acquaintance with chemistry and natural philosophy, were deemed +sufficient by his partner, a regular physician, for practical +cooperation in the vending of drugs and putting up of prescriptions. He +knew the difference between acids and alkalies and the peculiar results +which attended their incautious combination. But he was excessively +deliberate, painstaking, and cautious. The legend which adorned the desk +at the counter, "Physicians' prescriptions carefully prepared," was more +than usually true as regarded the adverb. There was no danger of his +poisoning anybody through haste or carelessness, but it was possible +that an urgent "case" might have succumbed to the disease while he was +putting up the remedy. Nor was his caution entirely passive. In those +days the "heroic" practice of medicine was in keeping with the abnormal +development of the country; there were "record" doses of calomel +and quinine, and he had once or twice incurred the fury of local +practitioners by sending back their prescriptions with a modest query. + +The far-off clatter of carriage wheels presently arrested his attention; +looking down the street, he could see the lights of a hackney carriage +advancing towards him. They had already flashed upon the open crossing +a block beyond before his vague curiosity changed into an active +instinctive presentiment that they were coming to the shop. He withdrew +to a more becoming and dignified position behind the counter as the +carriage drew up with a jerk before the door. + +The driver rolled from his box and opened the carriage door to a woman +whom he assisted, between some hysterical exclamations on her part and +some equally incoherent explanations of his own, into the shop. Kane saw +at a glance that both were under the influence of liquor, and one, the +woman, was disheveled and bleeding about the head. Yet she was elegantly +dressed and evidently en fete, with one or two "tricolor" knots and +ribbons mingled with her finery. Her golden hair, matted and darkened +with blood, had partly escaped from her French bonnet and hung heavily +over her shoulders. The driver, who was supporting her roughly, and with +a familiarity that was part of the incongruous spectacle, was the first +to speak. + +"Madame le Blank! ye know! Got cut about the head down at the fete +at South Park! Tried to dance upon the table, and rolled over on some +champagne bottles. See? Wants plastering up!" + +"Ah brute! Hog! Nozzing of ze kine! Why will you lie? I dance! Ze +cowards, fools, traitors zere upset ze table and I fall. I am cut! Ah, +my God, how I am cut!" + +She stopped suddenly and lapsed heavily against the counter. At which +Kane hurried around to support her into the surgery with the one +fixed idea in his bewildered mind of getting her out of the shop, +and, suggestively, into the domain and under the responsibility of his +partner. The hackman, apparently relieved and washing his hands of any +further complicity in the matter, nodded and smiled, and saying, "I +reckon I'll wait outside, pardner," retreated incontinently to his +vehicle. To add to Kane's half-ludicrous embarrassment the fair +patient herself slightly resisted his support, accused the hackman of +"abandoning her," and demanded if Kane knew "zee reason of zees affair," +yet she presently lapsed again into the large reclining-chair which +he had wheeled forward, with open mouth, half-shut eyes, and a strange +Pierrette mask of face, combined of the pallor of faintness and chalk, +and the rouge of paint and blood. At which Kane's cautiousness again +embarrassed him. A little brandy from the bottle labeled "Vini Galli" +seemed to be indicated, but his inexperience could not determine if her +relaxation was from bloodlessness or the reacting depression of alcohol. +In this dilemma he chose a medium course, with aromatic spirits of +ammonia, and mixing a diluted quantity in a measuring-glass, poured +it between her white lips. A start, a struggle, a cough--a volley +of imprecatory French, and the knocking of the glass from his +hand followed--but she came to! He quickly sponged her head of the +half-coagulated blood, and removed a few fragments of glass from a long +laceration of the scalp. The shock of the cold water and the appearance +of the ensanguined basin frightened her into a momentary passivity. But +when Kane found it necessary to cut her hair in the region of the wound +in order to apply the adhesive plaster, she again endeavored to rise and +grasp the scissors. + +"You'll bleed to death if you're not quiet," said the young man with +dogged gravity. + +Something in his manner impressed her into silence again. He cut whole +locks away ruthlessly; he was determined to draw the edges of the wound +together with the strip of plaster and stop the bleeding--if he cropped +the whole head. His excessive caution for her physical condition did +not extend to her superficial adornment. Her yellow tresses lay on the +floor, her neck and shoulders were saturated with water from the sponge +which he continually applied, until the heated strips of plaster had +closed the wound almost hermetically. She whimpered, tears ran down her +cheeks; but so long as it was not blood the young man was satisfied. + +In the midst of it he heard the shop door open, and presently the sound +of rapping on the counter. Another customer! + +Mr. Kane called out, "Wait a moment," and continued his ministrations. +After a pause the rapping recommenced. Kane was just securing the last +strip of plaster and preserved a preoccupied silence. Then the door flew +open abruptly and a figure appeared impatiently on the threshold. It was +that of a miner recently returned from the gold diggings--so recently +that he evidently had not had time to change his clothes at his adjacent +hotel, and stood there in his high boots, duck trousers, and flannel +shirt, over which his coat was slung like a hussar's jacket from his +shoulder. Kane would have uttered an indignant protest at the intrusion, +had not the intruder himself as quickly recoiled with an astonishment +and contrition that was beyond the effect of any reproval. He literally +gasped at the spectacle before him. A handsomely dressed woman reclining +in a chair; lace and jewelry and ribbons depending from her saturated +shoulders; tresses of golden hair filling her lap and lying on the +floor; a pail of ruddy water and a sponge at her feet, and a pale +young man bending over her head with a spirit lamp and strips of yellow +plaster! + +"'Scuse me, pard! I was just dropping in; don't you hurry! I kin wait," +he stammered, falling back, and then the door closed abruptly behind +him. + +Kane gathered up the shorn locks, wiped the face and neck of his patient +with a clean towel and his own handkerchief, threw her gorgeous opera +cloak over her shoulders, and assisted her to rise. She did so, weakly +but obediently; she was evidently stunned and cowed in some mysterious +way by his material attitude, perhaps, or her sudden realization of her +position; at least the contrast between her aggressive entrance into +the shop and her subdued preparation for her departure was so remarkable +that it affected even Kane's preoccupation. + +"There," he said, slightly relaxing his severe demeanor with an +encouraging smile, "I think this will do; we've stopped the bleeding. It +will probably smart a little as the plaster sets closer. I can send my +partner, Dr. Sparlow, to you in the morning." + +She looked at him curiously and with a strange smile. "And zees Doctor +Sparrlow--eez he like you, M'sieu?" + +"He is older, and very well known," said the young man seriously. "I can +safely recommend him." + +"Ah," she repeated, with a pensive smile which made Kane think her quite +pretty. "Ah--he ez older--your Doctor Sparrlow--but YOU are strong, +M'sieu." + +"And," said Kane vaguely, "he will tell you what to do." + +"Ah," she repeated again softly, with the same smile, "he will tell me +what to do if I shall not know myself. Dat ez good." + +Kane had already wrapped her shorn locks in a piece of spotless white +paper and tied it up with narrow white ribbon in the dainty fashion dear +to druggists' clerks. As he handed it to her she felt in her pocket and +produced a handful of gold. + +"What shall I pay for zees, M'sieu?" + +Kane reddened a little--solely because of his slow arithmetical +faculties. Adhesive plaster was cheap--he would like to have charged +proportionately for the exact amount he had used; but the division was +beyond him! And he lacked the trader's instinct. + +"Twenty-five cents, I think," he hazarded briefly. + +She started, but smiled again. "Twenty-five cents for all zees--ze +medicine, ze strips for ze head, ze hair cut"--she glanced at the paper +parcel he had given her--"it is only twenty-five cents?" + +"That's all." + +He selected from her outstretched palm, with some difficulty, the +exact amount, the smallest coin it held. She again looked at him +curiously--half confusedly--and moved slowly into the shop. The miner, +who was still there, retreated as before with a gaspingly apologetic +gesture--even flattening himself against the window to give her sweeping +silk flounces freer passage. As she passed into the street with a +"Merci, M'sieu, good a'night," and the hackman started from the vehicle +to receive her, the miner drew a long breath, and bringing his fist down +upon the counter, ejaculated,-- + +"B'gosh! She's a stunner!" + +Kane, a good deal relieved at her departure and the success of his +ministration, smiled benignly. + +The stranger again stared after the retreating carriage, looked around +the shop, and even into the deserted surgery, and approached the +counter confidentially. "Look yer, pardner. I kem straight from St. Jo, +Mizzorri, to Gold Hill--whar I've got a claim--and I reckon this is the +first time I ever struck San Francisker. I ain't up to towny ways nohow, +and I allow that mebbe I'm rather green. So we'll let that pass! Now +look yer!" he added, leaning over the counter with still deeper and even +mysterious confidence, "I suppose this yer kind o' thing is the regular +go here, eh? nothin' new to YOU! in course no! But to me, pard, it's +just fetchin' me! Lifts me clear outer my boots every time! Why, when I +popped into that thar room, and saw that lady--all gold, furbelows, +and spangles--at twelve o'clock at night, sittin' in that cheer and you +a-cuttin' her h'r and swabbin' her head o' blood, and kinder prospectin' +for 'indications,' so to speak, and doin' it so kam and indifferent +like, I sez to myself, 'Rube, Rube,' sez I, 'this yer's life! city life! +San Francisker life! and b'gosh, you've dropped into it! Now, pard, look +yar! don't you answer, ye know, ef it ain't square and above board for +me to know; I ain't askin' you to give the show away, ye know, in the +matter of high-toned ladies like that, but" (very mysteriously, and +sinking his voice to the lowest confidential pitch, as he put his +hand to his ear as if to catch the hushed reply), "what mout hev bin +happening, pard?" + +Considerably amused at the man's simplicity, Kane replied +good-humoredly: "Danced among some champagne bottles on a table at a +party, fell and got cut by glass." + +The stranger nodded his head slowly and approvingly as he repeated with +infinite deliberateness: "Danced on champagne bottles, champagne! you +said, pard? at a pahty! Yes!" (musingly and approvingly). "I reckon +that's about the gait they take. SHE'D do it." + +"Is there anything I can do for you? sorry to have kept you waiting," +said Kane, glancing at the clock. + +"O ME! Lord! ye needn't mind me. Why, I should wait for anythin' o' the +like o' that, and be just proud to do it! And ye see, I sorter helped +myself while you war busy." + +"Helped yourself?" said Kane in astonishment. + +"Yes, outer that bottle." He pointed to the ammonia bottle, which still +stood on the counter. "It seemed to be handy and popular." + +"Man! you might have poisoned yourself." + +The stranger paused a moment at the idea. "So I mout, I reckon," he said +musingly, "that's so! pizined myself jest ez you was lookin' arter that +high-toned case, and kinder bothered you! It's like me!" + +"I mean it required diluting; you ought to have taken it in water," said +Kane. + +"I reckon! It DID sorter h'ist me over to the door for a little fresh +air at first! seemed rayther scaldy to the lips. But wot of it that GOT +THAR," he put his hand gravely to his stomach, "did me pow'ful good." + +"What was the matter with you?" asked Kane. + +"Well, ye see, pard" (confidentially again), "I reckon it's suthin' +along o' my heart. Times it gets to poundin' away like a quartz stamp, +and then it stops suddent like, and kinder leaves ME out too." + +Kane looked at him more attentively. He was a strong, powerfully built +man with a complexion that betrayed nothing more serious than +the effects of mining cookery. It was evidently a common case of +indigestion. + +"I don't say it would not have done you some good if properly +administered," he replied. "If you like I'll put up a diluted quantity +and directions?" + +"That's me, every time, pardner!" said the stranger with an accent of +relief. "And look yer, don't you stop at that! Ye just put me up some +samples like of anythin' you think mout be likely to hit. I'll go in for +a fair show, and then meander in every now and then, betwixt times, to +let you know. Ye don't mind my drifting in here, do ye? It's about ez +likely a place ez I struck since I've left the Sacramento boat, and my +hotel, just round the corner. Ye just sample me a bit o' everythin'; +don't mind the expense. I'll take YOUR word for it. The way you--a +young fellow--jest stuck to your work in thar, cool and kam as a +woodpecker--not minding how high-toned she was--nor the jewelery and +spangles she had on--jest got me! I sez to myself, 'Rube,' sez I, +'whatever's wrong o' YOUR insides, you jest stick to that feller to set +ye right.'" + +The junior partner's face reddened as he turned to his shelves +ostensibly for consultation. Conscious of his inexperience, the homely +praise of even this ignorant man was not ungrateful. He felt, too, +that his treatment of the Frenchwoman, though successful, might not be +considered remunerative from a business point of view by his partner. He +accordingly acted upon the suggestion of the stranger and put up two or +three specifics for dyspepsia. They were received with grateful alacrity +and the casual display of considerable gold in the stranger's pocket in +the process of payment. He was evidently a successful miner. + +After bestowing the bottles carefully about his person, he again +leaned confidentially towards Kane. "I reckon of course you know this +high-toned lady, being in the way of seein' that kind o' folks. I +suppose you won't mind telling me, ez a stranger. But" (he added +hastily, with a deprecatory wave of his hand), "perhaps ye would." + +Mr. Kane, in fact, had hesitated. He knew vaguely and by report that +Madame le Blanc was the proprietress of a famous restaurant, over which +she had rooms where private gambling was carried on to a great extent. +It was also alleged that she was protected by a famous gambler and a +somewhat notorious bully. Mr. Kane's caution suggested that he had no +right to expose the reputation of his chance customer. He was silent. + +The stranger's face became intensely sympathetic and apologetic. "I +see!--not another word, pard! It ain't the square thing to be givin' +her away, and I oughtn't to hev asked. Well--so long! I reckon I'll jest +drift back to the hotel. I ain't been in San Francisker mor' 'n three +hours, and I calkilate, pard, that I've jest seen about ez square a +sample of high-toned life as fellers ez haz bin here a year. Well, +hastermanyanner--ez the Greasers say. I'll be droppin' in to-morrow. My +name's Reuben Allen o' Mariposa. I know yours; it's on the sign, and it +ain't Sparlow." + +He cast another lingering glance around the shop, as if loath to leave +it, and then slowly sauntered out of the door, pausing in the street a +moment, in the glare of the red light, before he faded into darkness. +Without knowing exactly why, Kane had an instinct that the stranger knew +no one in San Francisco, and after leaving the shop was going into utter +silence and obscurity. + +A few moments later Dr. Sparlow returned to relieve his wearied partner. +A pushing, active man, he listened impatiently to Kane's account of his +youthful practice with Madame le Blanc, without, however, dwelling much +on his methods. "You ought to have charged her more," the elder said +decisively. "She'd have paid it. She only came here because she was +ashamed to go to a big shop in Montgomery Street--and she won't come +again." + +"But she wants you to see her to-morrow," urged Kane, "and I told her +you would!" + +"You say it was only a superficial cut?" queried the doctor, "and +you closed it? Umph! what can she want to see ME for?" He paid more +attention, however, to the case of the stranger, Allen. "When he comes +here again, manage to let me see him." Mr. Kane promised, yet for some +indefinable reason he went home that night not quite as well satisfied +with himself. + +He was much more concerned the next morning when, after relieving the +doctor for his regular morning visits, he was startled an hour later +by the abrupt return of that gentleman. His face was marked by some +excitement and anxiety, which nevertheless struggled with that sense +of the ludicrous which Californians in those days imported into most +situations of perplexity or catastrophe. Putting his hands deeply into +his trousers pockets, he confronted his youthful partner behind the +counter. + +"How much did you charge that French-woman?" he said gravely. + +"Twenty-five cents," said Kane timidly. + +"Well, I'd give it back and add two hundred and fifty dollars if she had +never entered the shop." + +"What's the matter?" + +"Her head will be--and a mass of it, in a day, I reckon! Why, man, you +put enough plaster on it to clothe and paper the dome of the Capitol! +You drew her scalp together so that she couldn't shut her eyes without +climbing up the bed-post! You mowed her hair off so that she'll have to +wear a wig for the next two years--and handed it to her in a beau-ti-ful +sealed package! They talk of suing me and killing you out of hand." + +"She was bleeding a great deal and looked faint," said the junior +partner; "I thought I ought to stop that." + +"And you did--by thunder! Though it might have been better business +for the shop if I'd found her a crumbling ruin here, than lathed and +plastered in this fashion, over there! However," he added, with a laugh, +seeing an angry light in his junior partner's eye, "SHE don't seem to +mind it--the cursing all comes from THEM. SHE rather likes your style +and praises it--that's what gets me! Did you talk to her much," he +added, looking critically at his partner. + +"I only told her to sit still or she'd bleed to death," said Kane +curtly. + +"Humph!--she jabbered something about your being 'strong' and knowing +just how to handle her. Well, it can't be helped now. I think I came in +time for the worst of it and have drawn their fire. Don't do it again. +The next time a woman with a cut head and long hair tackles you, fill +up her scalp with lint and tannin, and pack her off to some of the big +shops and make THEM pick it out." And with a good-humored nod he started +off to finish his interrupted visits. + +With a vague sense of remorse, and yet a consciousness of some injustice +done him, Mr. Kane resumed his occupation with filters and funnels, and +mortars and triturations. He was so gloomily preoccupied that he did +not, as usual, glance out of the window, or he would have observed the +mining stranger of the previous night before it. It was not until the +man's bowed shoulders blocked the light of the doorway that he looked up +and recognized him. Kane was in no mood to welcome his appearance. His +presence, too, actively recalled the last night's adventure of which he +was a witness--albeit a sympathizing one. Kane shrank from the illusions +which he felt he would be sure to make. And with his present ill luck, +he was by no means sure that his ministrations even to HIM had been any +more successful than they had been to the Frenchwoman. But a glance +at his good-humored face and kindling eyes removed that suspicion. +Nevertheless, he felt somewhat embarrassed and impatient, and perhaps +could not entirely conceal it. He forgot that the rudest natures are +sometimes the most delicately sensitive to slights, and the stranger had +noticed his manner and began apologetically. + +"I allowed I'd just drop in anyway to tell ye that these thar pills you +giv' me did me a heap o' good so far--though mebbe it's only fair to +give the others a show too, which I'm reckoning to do." He paused, and +then in a submissive confidence went on: "But first I wanted to hev you +excuse me for havin' asked all them questions about that high-toned lady +last night, when it warn't none of my business. I am a darned fool." + +Mr. Kane instantly saw that it was no use to keep up his attitude of +secrecy, or impose upon the ignorant, simple man, and said hurriedly: +"Oh no. The lady is very well known. She is the proprietress of a +restaurant down the street--a house open to everybody. Her name is +Madame le Blanc; you may have heard of her before?" + +To his surprise the man exhibited no diminution of interest nor change +of sentiment at this intelligence. "Then," he said slowly, "I reckon I +might get to see her again. Ye see, Mr. Kane, I rather took a fancy to +her general style and gait--arter seein' her in that fix last night. It +was rather like them play pictures on the stage. Ye don't think she'd +make any fuss to seein' a rough old 'forty-niner' like me?" + +"Hardly," said Kane, "but there might be some objection from her +gentlemen friends," he added, with a smile,--"Jack Lane, a gambler, who +keeps a faro bank in her rooms, and Jimmy O'Ryan, a prize-fighter, who +is one of her 'chuckers out.'" + +His further relation of Madame le Blanc's entourage apparently gave the +miner no concern. He looked at Kane, nodded, and repeated slowly +and appreciatively: "Yes, keeps a gamblin' and faro bank and a +prize-fighter--I reckon that might be about her gait and style too. And +you say she lives"-- + +He stopped, for at this moment a man entered the shop quickly, shut the +door behind him, and turned the key in the lock. It was done so quickly +that Kane instinctively felt that the man had been loitering in the +vicinity and had approached from the side street. A single glance at the +intruder's face and figure showed him that it was the bully of whom +he had just spoken. He had seen that square, brutal face once before, +confronting the police in a riot, and had not forgotten it. But today, +with the flush of liquor on it, it had an impatient awkwardness and +confused embarrassment that he could not account for. He did not +comprehend that the genuine bully is seldom deliberate of attack, and +is obliged--in common with many of the combative lower animals--to lash +himself into a previous fury of provocation. This probably saved him, as +perhaps some instinctive feeling that he was in no immediate danger kept +him cool. He remained standing quietly behind the counter. Allen glanced +around carelessly, looking at the shelves. + +The silence of the two men apparently increased the ruffian's rage and +embarrassment. Suddenly he leaped into the air with a whoop and +clumsily executed a negro double shuffle on the floor, which jarred the +glasses--yet was otherwise so singularly ineffective and void of purpose +that he stopped in the midst of it and had to content himself with +glaring at Kane. + +"Well," said Kane quietly, "what does all this mean? What do you want +here?" + +"What does it mean?" repeated the bully, finding his voice in a high +falsetto, designed to imitate Kane's. "It means I'm going to play merry +h-ll with this shop! It means I'm goin' to clean it out and the blank +hair-cuttin' blank that keeps it. What do I want here? Well--what I want +I intend to help myself to, and all h-ll can't stop me! And" (working +himself to the striking point) "who the blank are you to ask me?" He +sprang towards the counter, but at the same moment Allen seemed to +slip almost imperceptibly and noiselessly between them, and Kane found +himself confronted only by the miner's broad back. + +"Hol' yer hosses, stranger," said Allen slowly, as the ruffian suddenly +collided with his impassive figure. "I'm a sick man comin' in yer for +medicine. I've got somethin' wrong with my heart, and goin's on like +this yer kinder sets it to thumpin'." + +"Blank you and your blank heart!" screamed the bully, turning in a fury +of amazement and contempt at this impotent interruption. "Who"--but his +voice stopped. Allen's powerful right arm had passed over his head and +shoulders like a steel hoop, and pinioned his elbows against his sides. +Held rigidly upright, he attempted to kick, but Allen's right leg here +advanced, and firmly held his lower limbs against the counter that shook +to his struggles and blasphemous outcries. Allen turned quietly to Kane, +and, with a gesture of his unemployed arm, said confidentially: + +"Would ye mind passing me down that ar Romantic Spirits of Ammonyer ye +gave me last night?" + +Kane caught the idea, and handed him the bottle. + +"Thar," said Allen, taking out the stopper and holding the pungent +spirit against the bully's dilated nostrils and vociferous mouth, "thar, +smell that, and taste it, it will do ye good; it was powerful kammin' to +ME last night." + +The ruffian gasped, coughed, choked, but his blaspheming voice died away +in a suffocating hiccough. + +"Thar," continued Allen, as his now subdued captive relaxed his +struggling, "ye 'r' better, and so am I. It's quieter here now, and ye +ain't affectin' my heart so bad. A little fresh air will make us both +all right." He turned again to Kane in his former subdued confidential +manner. + +"Would ye mind openin' that door?" + +Kane flew to the door, unlocked it, and held it wide open. The bully +again began to struggle, but a second inhalation of the hartshorn +quelled him, and enabled his captor to drag him to the door. As they +emerged upon the sidewalk, the bully, with a final desperate struggle, +freed his arm and grasped his pistol at his hip-pocket, but at the same +moment Allen deliberately caught his hand, and with a powerful side +throw cast him on the pavement, retaining the weapon in his own hand. +"I've one of my own," he said to the prostrate man, "but I reckon I'll +keep this yer too, until you're better." + +The crowd that had collected quickly, recognizing the notorious and +discomfited bully, were not of a class to offer him any sympathy, and he +slunk away followed by their jeers. Allen returned quietly to the +shop. Kane was profuse in his thanks, and yet oppressed with his simple +friend's fatuous admiration for a woman who could keep such ruffians in +her employ. "You know who that man was, I suppose?" he said. + +"I reckon it was that 'er prize-fighter belongin' to that high-toned +lady," returned Allen simply. "But he don't know anything about +RASTLIN', b'gosh; only that I was afraid o' bringin' on that heart +trouble, I mout hev hurt him bad." + +"They think"--hesitated Kane, "that--I--was rough in my treatment +of that woman and maliciously cut off her hair. This attack was +revenge--or"--he hesitated still more, as he remembered Dr. Sparlow's +indication of the woman's feeling--"or that bully's idea of revenge." + +"I see," nodded Allen, opening his small sympathetic eyes on Kane with +an exasperating air of secrecy--"just jealousy." + +Kane reddened in sheer hopelessness of explanation. "No; it was earning +his wages, as he thought." + +"Never ye mind, pard," said Allen confidentially. "I'll set 'em +both right. Ye see, this sorter gives me a show to call at that thar +restaurant and give HIM back his six-shooter, and set her on the right +trail for you. Why, Lordy! I was here when you was fixin' her--I'm +testimony o' the way you did it--and she'll remember me. I'll sorter +waltz round thar this afternoon. But I reckon I won't be keepin' YOU +from your work any longer. And look yar!--I say, pard!--this is seein' +life in 'Frisco--ain't it? Gosh! I've had more high times in this very +shop in two days, than I've had in two years of St. Jo. So long, Mr. +Kane!" He waved his hand, lounged slowly out of the shop, gave a parting +glance up the street, passed the window, and was gone. + +The next day being a half-holiday for Kane, he did not reach the shop +until afternoon. "Your mining friend Allen has been here," said Doctor +Sparlow. "I took the liberty of introducing myself, and induced him to +let me carefully examine him. He was a little shy, and I am sorry for +it, as I fear he has some serious organic trouble with his heart and +ought to have a more thorough examination." Seeing Kane's unaffected +concern, he added, "You might influence him to do so. He's a good fellow +and ought to take some care of himself. By the way, he told me to tell +you that he'd seen Madame le Blanc and made it all right about you. He +seems to be quite infatuated with the woman." + +"I'm sorry he ever saw her," said Kane bitterly. + +"Well, his seeing her seems to have saved the shop from being smashed +up, and you from getting a punched head," returned the Doctor with a +laugh. "He's no fool--yet it's a freak of human nature that a simple +hayseed like that--a man who's lived in the backwoods all his life, is +likely to be the first to tumble before a pot of French rouge like her." + +Indeed, in a couple of weeks, there was no further doubt of Mr. Reuben +Allen's infatuation. He dropped into the shop frequently on his way to +and from the restaurant, where he now regularly took his meals; he spent +his evenings in gambling in its private room. Yet Kane was by no means +sure that he was losing his money there unfairly, or that he was used +as a pigeon by the proprietress and her friends. The bully O'Ryan was +turned away; Sparlow grimly suggested that Allen had simply taken his +place, but Kane ingeniously retorted that the Doctor was only piqued +because Allen had evaded his professional treatment. Certainly the +patient had never consented to another examination, although he +repeatedly and gravely bought medicines, and was a generous customer. +Once or twice Kane thought it his duty to caution Allen against his new +friends and enlighten him as to Madame le Blanc's reputation, but his +suggestions were received with a good-humored submission that was either +the effect of unbelief or of perfect resignation to the fact, and he +desisted. One morning Dr. Sparlow said cheerfully:-- + +"Would you like to hear the last thing about your friend and the +Frenchwoman? The boys can't account for her singling out a fellow like +that for her friend, so they say that the night that she cut herself at +the fete and dropped in here for assistance, she found nobody here but +Allen--a chance customer! That it was HE who cut off her hair and bound +up her wounds in that sincere fashion, and she believed he had saved her +life." The Doctor grinned maliciously as he added: "And as that's the +way history is written you see your reputation is safe." + +It may have been a month later that San Francisco was thrown into a +paroxysm of horror and indignation over the assassination of a prominent +citizen and official in the gambling-rooms of Madame le Blanc, at the +hands of a notorious gambler. The gambler had escaped, but in one +of those rare spasms of vengeful morality which sometimes overtakes +communities who have too long winked at and suffered the existence of +evil, the fair proprietress and her whole entourage were arrested and +haled before the coroner's jury at the inquest. The greatest excitement +prevailed; it was said that if the jury failed in their duty, +the Vigilance Committee had arranged for the destruction of the +establishment and the deportation of its inmates. The crowd that had +collected around the building was reinforced by Kane and Dr. Sparlow, +who had closed their shop in the next block to attend. When Kane had +fought his way into the building and the temporary court, held in the +splendidly furnished gambling saloon, whose gilded mirrors reflected the +eager faces of the crowd, the Chief of Police was giving his testimony +in a formal official manner, impressive only for its relentless +and impassive revelation of the character and antecedents of the +proprietress. The house had been long under the espionage of the police; +Madame le Blanc had a dozen aliases; she was "wanted" in New Orleans, +in New York, in Havana! It was in HER house that Dyer, the bank clerk, +committed suicide; it was there that Colonel Hooley was set upon by her +bully, O'Ryan; it was she--Kane heard with reddening cheeks--who defied +the police with riotous conduct at a fete two months ago. As he coolly +recited the counts of this shameful indictment, Kane looked eagerly +around for Allen, whom he knew had been arrested as a witness. How would +HE take this terrible disclosure? He was sitting with the others, his +arm thrown over the back of his chair, and his good-humored face turned +towards the woman, in his old confidential attitude. SHE, gorgeously +dressed, painted, but unblushing, was cool, collected, and cynical. + +The Coroner next called the only witness of the actual tragedy, "Reuben +Allen." The man did not move nor change his position. The summons was +repeated; a policeman touched him on the shoulder. There was a pause, +and the officer announced: "He has fainted, your Honor!" + +"Is there a physician present?" asked the Coroner. + +Sparlow edged his way quickly to the front. "I'm a medical man," he said +to the Coroner, as he passed quickly to the still, upright, immovable +figure and knelt beside it with his head upon his heart. There was an +awed silence as, after a pause, he rose slowly to his feet. + +"The witness is a patient, your Honor, whom I examined some weeks ago +and found suffering from valvular disease of the heart. He is dead." + + + + +THREE VAGABONDS OF TRINIDAD + + +"Oh! it's you, is it?" said the Editor. + +The Chinese boy to whom the colloquialism was addressed answered +literally, after his habit:-- + +"Allee same Li Tee; me no changee. Me no ollee China boy." + +"That's so," said the Editor with an air of conviction. "I don't suppose +there's another imp like you in all Trinidad County. Well, next time +don't scratch outside there like a gopher, but come in." + +"Lass time," suggested Li Tee blandly, "me tap tappee. You no like tap +tappee. You say, alle same dam woodpeckel." + +It was quite true--the highly sylvan surroundings of the Trinidad +"Sentinel" office--a little clearing in a pine forest--and its attendant +fauna, made these signals confusing. An accurate imitation of a +woodpecker was also one of Li Tee's accomplishments. + +The Editor without replying finished the note he was writing; at which +Li Tee, as if struck by some coincident recollection, lifted up his long +sleeve, which served him as a pocket, and carelessly shook out a letter +on the table like a conjuring trick. The Editor, with a reproachful +glance at him, opened it. It was only the ordinary request of an +agricultural subscriber--one Johnson--that the Editor would "notice" a +giant radish grown by the subscriber and sent by the bearer. + +"Where's the radish, Li Tee?" said the Editor suspiciously. + +"No hab got. Ask Mellikan boy." + +"What?" + +Here Li Tee condescended to explain that on passing the schoolhouse he +had been set upon by the schoolboys, and that in the struggle the big +radish--being, like most such monstrosities of the quick Californian +soil, merely a mass of organized water--was "mashed" over the head of +some of his assailants. The Editor, painfully aware of these regular +persecutions of his errand boy, and perhaps realizing that a radish +which could not be used as a bludgeon was not of a sustaining nature, +forebore any reproof. "But I cannot notice what I haven't seen, Li Tee," +he said good-humoredly. + +"S'pose you lie--allee same as Johnson," suggested Li with equal +cheerfulness. "He foolee you with lotten stuff--you foolee Mellikan man, +allee same." + +The Editor preserved a dignified silence until he had addressed his +letter. "Take this to Mrs. Martin," he said, handing it to the boy; "and +mind you keep clear of the schoolhouse. Don't go by the Flat either if +the men are at work, and don't, if you value your skin, pass Flanigan's +shanty, where you set off those firecrackers and nearly burnt him out +the other day. Look out for Barker's dog at the crossing, and keep +off the main road if the tunnel men are coming over the hill." Then +remembering that he had virtually closed all the ordinary approaches to +Mrs. Martin's house, he added, "Better go round by the woods, where you +won't meet ANY ONE." + +The boy darted off through the open door, and the Editor stood for a +moment looking regretfully after him. He liked his little protege ever +since that unfortunate child--a waif from a Chinese wash-house--was +impounded by some indignant miners for bringing home a highly imperfect +and insufficient washing, and kept as hostage for a more proper +return of the garments. Unfortunately, another gang of miners, equally +aggrieved, had at the same time looted the wash-house and driven off the +occupants, so that Li Tee remained unclaimed. For a few weeks he +became a sporting appendage of the miners' camp; the stolid butt +of good-humored practical jokes, the victim alternately of careless +indifference or of extravagant generosity. He received kicks and +half-dollars intermittently, and pocketed both with stoical fortitude. +But under this treatment he presently lost the docility and frugality +which was part of his inheritance, and began to put his small wits +against his tormentors, until they grew tired of their own mischief and +his. But they knew not what to do with him. His pretty nankeen-yellow +skin debarred him from the white "public school," while, although as +a heathen he might have reasonably claimed attention from the +Sabbath-school, the parents who cheerfully gave their contributions to +the heathen ABROAD, objected to him as a companion of their children in +the church at home. At this juncture the Editor offered to take him +into his printing office as a "devil." For a while he seemed to be +endeavoring, in his old literal way, to act up to that title. He inked +everything but the press. He scratched Chinese characters of an abusive +import on "leads," printed them, and stuck them about the office; he put +"punk" in the foreman's pipe, and had been seen to swallow small type +merely as a diabolical recreation. As a messenger he was fleet of foot, +but uncertain of delivery. Some time previously the Editor had enlisted +the sympathies of Mrs. Martin, the good-natured wife of a farmer, to +take him in her household on trial, but on the third day Li Tee had +run away. Yet the Editor had not despaired, and it was to urge her to a +second attempt that he dispatched that letter. + +He was still gazing abstractedly into the depths of the wood when he was +conscious of a slight movement--but no sound--in a clump of hazel near +him, and a stealthy figure glided from it. He at once recognized it as +"Jim," a well-known drunken Indian vagrant of the settlement--tied +to its civilization by the single link of "fire water," for which he +forsook equally the Reservation where it was forbidden and his own camps +where it was unknown. Unconscious of his silent observer, he dropped +upon all fours, with his ear and nose alternately to the ground like +some tracking animal. Then having satisfied himself, he rose, and +bending forward in a dogged trot, made a straight line for the woods. +He was followed a few seconds later by his dog--a slinking, rough, +wolf-like brute, whose superior instinct, however, made him detect the +silent presence of some alien humanity in the person of the Editor, and +to recognize it with a yelp of habit, anticipatory of the stone that he +knew was always thrown at him. + +"That's cute," said a voice, "but it's just what I expected all along." + +The Editor turned quickly. His foreman was standing behind him, and had +evidently noticed the whole incident. + +"It's what I allus said," continued the man. "That boy and that Injin +are thick as thieves. Ye can't see one without the other--and they've +got their little tricks and signals by which they follow each other. +T'other day when you was kalkilatin' Li Tee was doin' your errands I +tracked him out on the marsh, just by followin' that ornery, +pizenous dog o' Jim's. There was the whole caboodle of 'em--including +Jim--campin' out, and eatin' raw fish that Jim had ketched, and green +stuff they had both sneaked outer Johnson's garden. Mrs. Martin may TAKE +him, but she won't keep him long while Jim's round. What makes Li foller +that blamed old Injin soaker, and what makes Jim, who, at least, is a +'Merican, take up with a furrin' heathen, just gets me." + +The Editor did not reply. He had heard something of this before. Yet, +after all, why should not these equal outcasts of civilization cling +together! + +***** + +Li Tee's stay with Mrs. Martin was brief. His departure was hastened by +an untoward event--apparently ushered in, as in the case of other +great calamities, by a mysterious portent in the sky. One morning an +extraordinary bird of enormous dimensions was seen approaching from the +horizon, and eventually began to hover over the devoted town. Careful +scrutiny of this ominous fowl, however, revealed the fact that it was a +monstrous Chinese kite, in the shape of a flying dragon. The spectacle +imparted considerable liveliness to the community, which, however, +presently changed to some concern and indignation. It appeared that +the kite was secretly constructed by Li Tee in a secluded part of Mrs. +Martin's clearing, but when it was first tried by him he found that +through some error of design it required a tail of unusual proportions. +This he hurriedly supplied by the first means he found--Mrs. Martin's +clothes-line, with part of the weekly wash depending from it. This fact +was not at first noticed by the ordinary sightseer, although the tail +seemed peculiar--yet, perhaps, not more peculiar than a dragon's tail +ought to be. But when the actual theft was discovered and reported +through the town, a vivacious interest was created, and spy-glasses were +used to identify the various articles of apparel still hanging on that +ravished clothes-line. These garments, in the course of their slow +disengagement from the clothes-pins through the gyrations of the kite, +impartially distributed themselves over the town--one of Mrs. Martin's +stockings falling upon the veranda of the Polka Saloon, and the other +being afterwards discovered on the belfry of the First Methodist +Church--to the scandal of the congregation. It would have been well if +the result of Li Tee's invention had ended here. Alas! the kite-flyer +and his accomplice, "Injin Jim," were tracked by means of the kite's +tell-tale cord to a lonely part of the marsh and rudely dispossessed of +their charge by Deacon Hornblower and a constable. Unfortunately, +the captors overlooked the fact that the kite-flyers had taken the +precaution of making a "half-turn" of the stout cord around a log to +ease the tremendous pull of the kite--whose power the captors had not +reckoned upon--and the Deacon incautiously substituted his own body for +the log. A singular spectacle is said to have then presented itself to +the on-lookers. The Deacon was seen to be running wildly by leaps and +bounds over the marsh after the kite, closely followed by the constable +in equally wild efforts to restrain him by tugging at the end of the +line. The extraordinary race continued to the town until the constable +fell, losing his hold of the line. This seemed to impart a singular +specific levity to the Deacon, who, to the astonishment of everybody, +incontinently sailed up into a tree! When he was succored and cut down +from the demoniac kite, he was found to have sustained a dislocation +of the shoulder, and the constable was severely shaken. By that one +infelicitous stroke the two outcasts made an enemy of the Law and the +Gospel as represented in Trinidad County. It is to be feared also that +the ordinary emotional instinct of a frontier community, to which they +were now simply abandoned, was as little to be trusted. In this dilemma +they disappeared from the town the next day--no one knew where. A +pale blue smoke rising from a lonely island in the bay for some days +afterwards suggested their possible refuge. But nobody greatly cared. +The sympathetic mediation of the Editor was characteristically opposed +by Mr. Parkin Skinner, a prominent citizen:-- + +"It's all very well for you to talk sentiment about niggers, Chinamen, +and Injins, and you fellers can laugh about the Deacon being snatched +up to heaven like Elijah in that blamed Chinese chariot of a kite--but +I kin tell you, gentlemen, that this is a white man's country! Yes, sir, +you can't get over it! The nigger of every description--yeller, +brown, or black, call him 'Chinese,' 'Injin,' or 'Kanaka,' or what +you like--hez to clar off of God's footstool when the Anglo-Saxon gets +started! It stands to reason that they can't live alongside o' printin' +presses, M'Cormick's reapers, and the Bible! Yes, sir! the Bible; and +Deacon Hornblower kin prove it to you. It's our manifest destiny to clar +them out--that's what we was put here for--and it's just the work we've +got to do!" + +I have ventured to quote Mr. Skinner's stirring remarks to show that +probably Jim and Li Tee ran away only in anticipation of a possible +lynching, and to prove that advanced sentiments of this high and +ennobling nature really obtained forty years ago in an ordinary American +frontier town which did not then dream of Expansion and Empire! + +Howbeit, Mr. Skinner did not make allowance for mere human nature. +One morning Master Bob Skinner, his son, aged twelve, evaded the +schoolhouse, and started in an old Indian "dug-out" to invade the +island of the miserable refugees. His purpose was not clearly defined +to himself, but was to be modified by circumstances. He would either +capture Li Tee and Jim, or join them in their lawless existence. He +had prepared himself for either event by surreptitiously borrowing +his father's gun. He also carried victuals, having heard that Jim ate +grasshoppers and Li Tee rats, and misdoubting his own capacity for +either diet. He paddled slowly, well in shore, to be secure from +observation at home, and then struck out boldly in his leaky canoe for +the island--a tufted, tussocky shred of the marshy promontory torn off +in some tidal storm. It was a lovely day, the bay being barely ruffled +by the afternoon "trades;" but as he neared the island he came upon the +swell from the bar and the thunders of the distant Pacific, and grew a +little frightened. The canoe, losing way, fell into the trough of the +swell, shipping salt water, still more alarming to the prairie-bred boy. +Forgetting his plan of a stealthy invasion, he shouted lustily as the +helpless and water-logged boat began to drift past the island; at which +a lithe figure emerged from the reeds, threw off a tattered blanket, and +slipped noiselessly, like some animal, into the water. It was Jim, who, +half wading, half swimming, brought the canoe and boy ashore. Master +Skinner at once gave up the idea of invasion, and concluded to join the +refugees. + +This was easy in his defenceless state, and his manifest delight in +their rude encampment and gypsy life, although he had been one of Li +Tee's oppressors in the past. But that stolid pagan had a philosophical +indifference which might have passed for Christian forgiveness, and +Jim's native reticence seemed like assent. And, possibly, in the minds +of these two vagabonds there might have been a natural sympathy for this +other truant from civilization, and some delicate flattery in the fact +that Master Skinner was not driven out, but came of his own accord. +Howbeit, they fished together, gathered cranberries on the marsh, shot +a wild duck and two plovers, and when Master Skinner assisted in the +cooking of their fish in a conical basket sunk in the ground, filled +with water, heated by rolling red-hot stones from their drift-wood fire +into the buried basket, the boy's felicity was supreme. And what an +afternoon! To lie, after this feast, on their bellies in the grass, +replete like animals, hidden from everything but the sunshine above +them; so quiet that gray clouds of sandpipers settled fearlessly around +them, and a shining brown muskrat slipped from the ooze within a few +feet of their faces--was to feel themselves a part of the wild life in +earth and sky. Not that their own predatory instincts were hushed by +this divine peace; that intermitting black spot upon the water, declared +by the Indian to be a seal, the stealthy glide of a yellow fox in the +ambush of a callow brood of mallards, the momentary straying of an elk +from the upland upon the borders of the marsh, awoke their tingling +nerves to the happy but fruitless chase. And when night came, too soon, +and they pigged together around the warm ashes of their camp-fire, under +the low lodge poles of their wigwam of dried mud, reeds, and driftwood, +with the combined odors of fish, wood-smoke, and the warm salt breath of +the marsh in their nostrils, they slept contentedly. The distant lights +of the settlement went out one by one, the stars came out, very large +and very silent, to take their places. The barking of a dog on the +nearest point was followed by another farther inland. But Jim's dog, +curled at the feet of his master, did not reply. What had HE to do with +civilization? + +The morning brought some fear of consequences to Master Skinner, but no +abatement of his resolve not to return. But here he was oddly combated +by Li Tee. "S'pose you go back allee same. You tellee fam'lee canoe go +topside down--you plentee swimee to bush. Allee night in bush. Housee +big way off--how can get? Sabe?" + +"And I'll leave the gun, and tell Dad that when the canoe upset the gun +got drowned," said the boy eagerly. + +Li Tee nodded. + +"And come again Saturday, and bring more powder and shot and a bottle +for Jim," said Master Skinner excitedly. + +"Good!" grunted the Indian. + +Then they ferried the boy over to the peninsula, and set him on a trail +across the marshes, known only to themselves, which would bring him +home. And when the Editor the next morning chronicled among his news, +"Adrift on the Bay--A Schoolboy's Miraculous Escape," he knew as little +what part his missing Chinese errand boy had taken in it as the rest of +his readers. + +Meantime the two outcasts returned to their island camp. It may have +occurred to them that a little of the sunlight had gone from it with +Bob; for they were in a dull, stupid way fascinated by the little white +tyrant who had broken bread with them. He had been delightfully selfish +and frankly brutal to them, as only a schoolboy could be, with the +addition of the consciousness of his superior race. Yet they each +longed for his return, although he was seldom mentioned in their scanty +conversation--carried on in monosyllables, each in his own language, or +with some common English word, or more often restricted solely to signs. +By a delicate flattery, when they did speak of him it was in what they +considered to be his own language. + +"Boston boy, plenty like catchee HIM," Jim would say, pointing to a +distant swan. Or Li Tee, hunting a striped water snake from the reeds, +would utter stolidly, "Melikan boy no likee snake." Yet the next two +days brought some trouble and physical discomfort to them. Bob +had consumed, or wasted, all their provisions--and, still more +unfortunately, his righteous visit, his gun, and his superabundant +animal spirits had frightened away the game, which their habitual quiet +and taciturnity had beguiled into trustfulness. They were half starved, +but they did not blame him. It would come all right when he returned. +They counted the days, Jim with secret notches on the long pole, Li Tee +with a string of copper "cash" he always kept with him. The eventful +day came at last,--a warm autumn day, patched with inland fog like blue +smoke and smooth, tranquil, open surfaces of wood and sea; but to their +waiting, confident eyes the boy came not out of either. They kept a +stolid silence all that day until night fell, when Jim said, "Mebbe +Boston boy go dead." Li Tee nodded. It did not seem possible to these +two heathens that anything else could prevent the Christian child from +keeping his word. + +After that, by the aid of the canoe, they went much on the marsh, +hunting apart, but often meeting on the trail which Bob had taken, with +grunts of mutual surprise. These suppressed feelings, never made known +by word or gesture, at last must have found vicarious outlet in the +taciturn dog, who so far forgot his usual discretion as to once or twice +seat himself on the water's edge and indulge in a fit of howling. It had +been a custom of Jim's on certain days to retire to some secluded place, +where, folded in his blanket, with his back against a tree, he remained +motionless for hours. In the settlement this had been usually referred +to the after effects of drink, known as the "horrors," but Jim had +explained it by saying it was "when his heart was bad." And now it +seemed, by these gloomy abstractions, that "his heart was bad" very +often. And then the long withheld rains came one night on the wings of +a fierce southwester, beating down their frail lodge and scattering +it abroad, quenching their camp-fire, and rolling up the bay until it +invaded their reedy island and hissed in their ears. It drove the game +from Jim's gun; it tore the net and scattered the bait of Li Tee, the +fisherman. Cold and half starved in heart and body, but more dogged and +silent than ever, they crept out in their canoe into the storm-tossed +bay, barely escaping with their miserable lives to the marshy peninsula. +Here, on their enemy's ground, skulking in the rushes, or lying close +behind tussocks, they at last reached the fringe of forest below the +settlement. Here, too, sorely pressed by hunger, and doggedly reckless +of consequences, they forgot their caution, and a flight of teal fell to +Jim's gun on the very outskirts of the settlement. + +It was a fatal shot, whose echoes awoke the forces of civilization +against them. For it was heard by a logger in his hut near the +marsh, who, looking out, had seen Jim pass. A careless, good-natured +frontiersman, he might have kept the outcasts' mere presence to himself; +but there was that damning shot! An Indian with a gun! That weapon, +contraband of law, with dire fines and penalties to whoso sold or gave +it to him! A thing to be looked into--some one to be punished! An Indian +with a weapon that made him the equal of the white! Who was safe? +He hurried to town to lay his information before the constable, but, +meeting Mr. Skinner, imparted the news to him. The latter pooh-poohed +the constable, who he alleged had not yet discovered the whereabouts +of Jim, and suggested that a few armed citizens should make the chase +themselves. The fact was that Mr. Skinner, never quite satisfied in his +mind with his son's account of the loss of the gun, had put two and +two together, and was by no means inclined to have his own gun possibly +identified by the legal authority. Moreover, he went home and at once +attacked Master Bob with such vigor and so highly colored a description +of the crime he had committed, and the penalties attached to it, that +Bob confessed. More than that, I grieve to say that Bob lied. The Indian +had "stoled his gun," and threatened his life if he divulged the theft. +He told how he was ruthlessly put ashore, and compelled to take a trail +only known to them to reach his home. In two hours it was reported +throughout the settlement that the infamous Jim had added robbery with +violence to his illegal possession of the weapon. The secret of the +island and the trail over the marsh was told only to a few. + +Meantime it had fared hard with the fugitives. Their nearness to +the settlement prevented them from lighting a fire, which might have +revealed their hiding-place, and they crept together, shivering all +night in a clump of hazel. Scared thence by passing but unsuspecting +wayfarers wandering off the trail, they lay part of the next day and +night amid some tussocks of salt grass, blown on by the cold sea-breeze; +chilled, but securely hidden from sight. Indeed, thanks to some +mysterious power they had of utter immobility, it was wonderful how they +could efface themselves, through quiet and the simplest environment. The +lee side of a straggling vine in the meadow, or even the thin ridge +of cast-up drift on the shore, behind which they would lie for hours +motionless, was a sufficient barrier against prying eyes. In this +occupation they no longer talked together, but followed each other with +the blind instinct of animals--yet always unerringly, as if conscious +of each other's plans. Strangely enough, it was the REAL animal +alone--their nameless dog--who now betrayed impatience and a certain +human infirmity of temper. The concealment they were resigned to, the +sufferings they mutely accepted, he alone resented! When certain scents +or sounds, imperceptible to their senses, were blown across their +path, he would, with bristling back, snarl himself into guttural and +strangulated fury. Yet, in their apathy, even this would have passed +them unnoticed, but that on the second night he disappeared suddenly, +returning after two hours' absence with bloody jaws--replete, but still +slinking and snappish. It was only in the morning that, creeping on +their hands and knees through the stubble, they came upon the torn and +mangled carcass of a sheep. The two men looked at each other without +speaking--they knew what this act of rapine meant to themselves. It +meant a fresh hue and cry after them--it meant that their starving +companion had helped to draw the net closer round them. The Indian +grunted, Li Tee smiled vacantly; but with their knives and fingers they +finished what the dog had begun, and became equally culpable. But that +they were heathens, they could not have achieved a delicate ethical +responsibility in a more Christian-like way. + +Yet the rice-fed Li Tee suffered most in their privations. His habitual +apathy increased with a certain physical lethargy which Jim could not +understand. When they were apart he sometimes found Li Tee stretched +on his back with an odd stare in his eyes, and once, at a distance, he +thought he saw a vague thin vapor drift from where the Chinese boy was +lying and vanish as he approached. When he tried to arouse him there +was a weak drawl in his voice and a drug-like odor in his breath. Jim +dragged him to a more substantial shelter, a thicket of alder. It was +dangerously near the frequented road, but a vague idea had sprung up in +Jim's now troubled mind that, equal vagabonds though they were, Li Tee +had more claims upon civilization, through those of his own race who +were permitted to live among the white men, and were not hunted to +"reservations" and confined there like Jim's people. If Li Tee was "heap +sick," other Chinamen might find and nurse him. As for Li Tee, he had +lately said, in a more lucid interval: "Me go dead--allee samee Mellikan +boy. You go dead too--allee samee," and then lay down again with +a glassy stare in his eyes. Far from being frightened at this, Jim +attributed his condition to some enchantment that Li Tee had evoked from +one of his gods--just as he himself had seen "medicine-men" of his own +tribe fall into strange trances, and was glad that the boy no longer +suffered. The day advanced, and Li Tee still slept. Jim could hear the +church bells ringing; he knew it was Sunday--the day on which he was +hustled from the main street by the constable; the day on which the +shops were closed, and the drinking saloons open only at the back door. +The day whereon no man worked--and for that reason, though he knew it +not, the day selected by the ingenious Mr. Skinner and a few friends as +especially fitting and convenient for a chase of the fugitives. The bell +brought no suggestion of this--though the dog snapped under his breath +and stiffened his spine. And then he heard another sound, far off and +vague, yet one that brought a flash into his murky eye, that lit up the +heaviness of his Hebraic face, and even showed a slight color in his +high cheek-bones. He lay down on the ground, and listened with suspended +breath. He heard it now distinctly. It was the Boston boy calling, and +the word he was calling was "Jim." + +Then the fire dropped out of his eyes as he turned with his usual +stolidity to where Li Tee was lying. Him he shook, saying briefly: +"Boston boy come back!" But there was no reply, the dead body rolled +over inertly under his hand; the head fell back, and the jaw dropped +under the pinched yellow face. The Indian gazed at him slowly, and then +gravely turned again in the direction of the voice. Yet his dull mind +was perplexed, for, blended with that voice were other sounds like the +tread of clumsily stealthy feet. But again the voice called "Jim!" and +raising his hands to his lips he gave a low whoop in reply. This +was followed by silence, when suddenly he heard the voice--the boy's +voice--once again, this time very near him, saying eagerly:-- + +"There he is!" + +Then the Indian knew all. His face, however, did not change as he took +up his gun, and a man stepped out of the thicket into the trail:-- + +"Drop that gun, you d----d Injin." + +The Indian did not move. + +"Drop it, I say!" + +The Indian remained erect and motionless. + +A rifle shot broke from the thicket. At first it seemed to have missed +the Indian, and the man who had spoken cocked his own rifle. But the +next moment the tall figure of Jim collapsed where he stood into a mere +blanketed heap. + +The man who had fired the shot walked towards the heap with the easy air +of a conqueror. But suddenly there arose before him an awful phantom, +the incarnation of savagery--a creature of blazing eyeballs, flashing +tusks, and hot carnivorous breath. He had barely time to cry out "A +wolf!" before its jaws met in his throat, and they rolled together on +the ground. + +But it was no wolf--as a second shot proved--only Jim's slinking dog; +the only one of the outcasts who at that supreme moment had gone back to +his original nature. + + + + +A VISION OF THE FOUNTAIN + + +Mr. Jackson Potter halted before the little cottage, half shop, half +hostelry, opposite the great gates of Domesday Park, where tickets of +admission to that venerable domain were sold. Here Mr. Potter revealed +his nationality as a Western American, not only in his accent, but in +a certain half-humorous, half-practical questioning of the +ticket-seller--as that quasi-official stamped his ticket--which was +nevertheless delivered with such unfailing good-humor, and such frank +suggestiveness of the perfect equality of the ticket-seller and the +well-dressed stranger that, far from producing any irritation, it +attracted the pleased attention not only of the official, but his wife +and daughter and a customer. Possibly the good looks of the stranger had +something to do with it. Jackson Potter was a singularly handsome young +fellow, with one of those ideal faces and figures sometimes seen in +Western frontier villages, attributable to no ancestor, but evolved +possibly from novels and books devoured by ancestresses in the long +solitary winter evenings of their lonely cabins on the frontier. A +beardless, classical head, covered by short flocculent blonde curls, +poised on a shapely neck and shoulders, was more Greek in outline +than suggestive of any ordinary American type. Finally, after having +thoroughly amused his small audience, he lifted his straw hat to the +"ladies," and lounged out across the road to the gateway. Here he +paused, consulting his guide-book, and read aloud: "St. John's +gateway. This massive structure, according to Leland, was built +in"--murmured--"never mind when; we'll pass St. John," marked the page +with his pencil, and tendering his ticket to the gate-keeper, heard, +with some satisfaction, that, as there were no other visitors just +then, and as the cicerone only accompanied PARTIES, he would be left to +himself, and at once plunged into a by-path. + +It was that loveliest of rare creations--a hot summer day in England, +with all the dampness of that sea-blown isle wrung out of it, exhaled +in the quivering blue vault overhead, or passing as dim wraiths in the +distant wood, and all the long-matured growth of that great old garden +vivified and made resplendent by the fervid sun. The ashes of dead and +gone harvests, even the dust of those who had for ages wrought in it, +turned again and again through incessant cultivation, seemed to move +and live once more in that present sunshine. All color appeared to be +deepened and mellowed, until even the very shadows of the trees were as +velvety as the sward they fell upon. The prairie-bred Potter, accustomed +to the youthful caprices and extravagances of his own virgin soil, could +not help feeling the influence of the ripe restraints of this. + +As he glanced through the leaves across green sunlit spaces to the +ivy-clad ruins of Domesday Abbey, which seemed itself a growth of +the very soil, he murmured to himself: "Things had been made mighty +comfortable for folks here, you bet!" Forgotten books he had read as a +boy, scraps of school histories, or rarer novels, came back to him as he +walked along, and peopled the solitude about him with their heroes. + +Nevertheless, it was unmistakably hot--a heat homelike in its intensity, +yet of a different effect, throwing him into languid reverie rather than +filling his veins with fire. Secure in his seclusion in the leafy chase, +he took off his jacket and rambled on in his shirt sleeves. Through the +opening he presently saw the abbey again, with the restored wing where +the noble owner lived for two or three weeks in the year, but now given +over to the prevailing solitude. And then, issuing from the chase, he +came upon a broad, moss-grown terrace. Before him stretched a tangled +and luxuriant wilderness of shrubs and flowers, darkened by cypress and +cedars of Lebanon; its dun depths illuminated by dazzling white statues, +vases, trellises, and paved paths, choked and lost in the trailing +growths of years of abandonment and forgetfulness. He consulted his +guide-book again. It was the "old Italian garden," constructed under the +design of a famous Italian gardener by the third duke; but its studied +formality being displeasing to his successor, it was allowed to fall +into picturesque decay and negligent profusion, which were not, however, +disturbed by later descendants,--a fact deplored by the artistic writer +of the guide-book, who mournfully called attention to the rare beauty of +the marble statues, urns, and fountains, ruined by neglect, although one +or two of the rarer objects had been removed to Deep Dene Lodge, another +seat of the present duke. + +It is needless to say that Mr. Potter conceived at once a humorous +opposition to the artistic enthusiasm of the critic, and, plunging +into the garden, took a mischievous delight in its wildness and the +victorious struggle of nature with the formality of art. At every step +through the tangled labyrinth he could see where precision and order +had been invaded, and even the rigid masonry broken or upheaved by the +rebellious force. Yet here and there the two powers had combined to +offer an example of beauty neither could have effected alone. A passion +vine had overrun and enclasped a vase with a perfect symmetry no +sculptor could have achieved. A heavy balustrade was made ethereal with +a delicate fretwork of vegetation between its balusters like lace. Here, +however, the lap and gurgle of water fell gratefully upon the ear of +the perspiring and thirsty Mr. Potter, and turned his attention to more +material things. Following the sound, he presently came upon an enormous +oblong marble basin containing three time-worn fountains with grouped +figures. The pipes were empty, silent, and choked with reeds and water +plants, but the great basin itself was filled with water from some +invisible source. + +A terraced walk occupied one side of the long parallelogram; at +intervals and along the opposite bank, half shadowed by willows, tinted +marble figures of tritons, fauns, and dryads arose half hidden in the +reeds. They were more or less mutilated by time, and here and there only +the empty, moss-covered plinths that had once supported them could be +seen. But they were so lifelike in their subdued color in the shade that +he was for a moment startled. + +The water looked deliciously cool. An audacious thought struck him. He +was alone, and the place was a secluded one. He knew there were no other +visitors; the marble basin was quite hidden from the rest of the garden, +and approached only from the path by which he had come, and whose entire +view he commanded. He quietly and deliberately undressed himself under +the willows, and unhesitatingly plunged into the basin. The water was +four or five feet deep, and its extreme length afforded an excellent +swimming bath, despite the water-lilies and a few aquatic plants that +mottled its clear surface, or the sedge that clung to the bases of the +statues. He disported for some moments in the delicious element, and +then seated himself upon one of the half-submerged plinths, almost +hidden by reeds, that had once upheld a river god. Here, lazily resting +himself upon his elbow, half his body still below the water, his +quick ear was suddenly startled by a rustling noise and the sound of +footsteps. For a moment he was inclined to doubt his senses; he could +see only the empty path before him and the deserted terrace. But the +sound became more distinct, and to his great uneasiness appeared to +come from the OTHER side of the fringe of willows, where there was +undoubtedly a path to the fountain which he had overlooked. His clothes +were under those willows, but he was at least twenty yards from the bank +and an equal distance from the terrace. He was about to slip beneath the +water when, to his crowning horror, before he could do so, a young girl +slowly appeared from the hidden willow path full upon the terrace. She +was walking leisurely with a parasol over her head and a book in her +hand. Even in his intense consternation her whole figure--a charming +one in its white dress, sailor hat, and tan shoes--was imprinted on his +memory as she instinctively halted to look upon the fountain, evidently +an unexpected surprise to her. + +A sudden idea flashed upon him. She was at least sixty yards away; +he was half hidden in the reeds and well in the long shadows of the +willows. If he remained perfectly motionless she might overlook him at +that distance, or take him for one of the statues. He remembered also +that as he was resting on his elbow, his half-submerged body lying on +the plinth below water, he was somewhat in the attitude of one of the +river gods. And there was no other escape. If he dived he might not be +able to keep under water as long as she remained, and any movement +he knew would betray him. He stiffened himself and scarcely breathed. +Luckily for him his attitude had been a natural one and easy to keep. +It was well, too, for she was evidently in no hurry and walked slowly, +stopping from time to time to admire the basin and its figures. Suddenly +he was instinctively aware that she was looking towards him and even +changing her position, moving her pretty head and shading her eyes +with her hand as if for a better view. He remained motionless, scarcely +daring to breathe. Yet there was something so innocently frank and +undisturbed in her observation, that he knew as instinctively that she +suspected nothing, and took him for a half-submerged statue. He breathed +more freely. But presently she stopped, glanced around her, and, keeping +her eyes fixed in his direction, began to walk backwards slowly until +she reached a stone balustrade behind her. On this she leaped, and, +sitting down, opened in her lap the sketch-book she was carrying, and, +taking out a pencil, to his horror began to sketch! + +For a wild moment he recurred to his first idea of diving and swimming +at all hazards to the bank, but the conviction that now his slightest +movement must be detected held him motionless. He must save her the +mortification of knowing she was sketching a living man, if he died +for it. She sketched rapidly but fixedly and absorbedly, evidently +forgetting all else in her work. From time to time she held out her +sketch before her to compare it with her subject. Yet the seconds seemed +minutes and the minutes hours. Suddenly, to his great relief, a distant +voice was heard calling "Lottie." It was a woman's voice; by its accent +it also seemed to him an American one. + +The young girl made a slight movement of impatience, but did not look +up, and her pencil moved still more rapidly. Again the voice called, +this time nearer. The young girl's pencil fairly flew over the paper, +as, still without looking up, she lifted a pretty voice and answered +back, "Y-e-e-s!" + +It struck him that her accent was also that of a compatriot. + +"Where on earth are you?" continued the first voice, which now appeared +to come from the other side of the willows on the path by which the +young girl had approached. "Here, aunty," replied the girl, closing her +sketch-book with a snap and starting to her feet. + +A stout woman, fashionably dressed, made her appearance from the willow +path. + +"What have you been doing all this while?" she said querulously. "Not +sketching, I hope," she added, with a suspicious glance at the book. +"You know your professor expressly forbade you to do so in your +holidays." + +The young girl shrugged her shoulders. "I've been looking at the +fountains," she replied evasively. + +"And horrid looking pagan things they are, too," said the elder woman, +turning from them disgustedly, without vouchsafing a second glance. +"Come. If we expect to do the abbey, we must hurry up, or we won't catch +the train. Your uncle is waiting for us at the top of the garden." + +And, to Potter's intense relief, she grasped the young girl's arm and +hurried her away, their figures the next moment vanishing in the tangled +shrubbery. + +Potter lost no time in plunging with his cramped limbs into the water +and regaining the other side. Here he quickly half dried himself with +some sun-warmed leaves and baked mosses, hurried on his clothes, and +hastened off in the opposite direction to the path taken by them, yet +with such circuitous skill and speed that he reached the great gateway +without encountering anybody. A brisk walk brought him to the station +in time to catch a stopping train, and in half an hour he was speeding +miles away from Domesday Park and his half-forgotten episode. + +***** + +Meantime the two ladies continued on their way to the abbey. "I don't +see why I mayn't sketch things I see about me," said the young lady +impatiently. "Of course, I understand that I must go through the +rudimentary drudgery of my art and study from casts, and learn +perspective, and all that; but I can't see what's the difference between +working in a stuffy studio over a hand or arm that I know is only a +STUDY, and sketching a full or half length in the open air with the +wonderful illusion of light and shade and distance--and grouping and +combining them all--that one knows and feels makes a picture. The real +picture one makes is already in one's self." + +"For goodness' sake, Lottie, don't go on again with your usual +absurdities. Since you are bent on being an artist, and your Popper +has consented and put you under the most expensive master in Paris, the +least you can do is to follow the rules. And I dare say he only wanted +you to 'sink the shop' in company. It's such horrid bad form for you +artistic people to be always dragging out your sketch-books. What would +you say if your Popper came over here, and began to examine every lady's +dress in society to see what material it was, just because he was a big +dry-goods dealer in America?" + +The young girl, accustomed to her aunt's extravagances, made no reply. +But that night she consulted her sketch, and was so far convinced of her +own instincts, and the profound impression the fountain had made upon +her, that she was enabled to secretly finish her interrupted sketch from +memory. For Miss Charlotte Forrest was a born artist, and in no mere +caprice had persuaded her father to let her adopt the profession, and +accepted the drudgery of a novitiate. She looked earnestly upon this +first real work of her hand and found it good! Still, it was but a +pencil sketch, and wanted the vivification of color. + +When she returned to Paris she began--still secretly--a larger study in +oils. She worked upon it in her own room every moment she could spare +from her studio practice, unknown to her professor. It absorbed her +existence; she grew thin and pale. When it was finished, and only then, +she showed it tremblingly to her master. He stood silent, in profound +astonishment. The easel before him showed a foreground of tangled +luxuriance, from which stretched a sheet of water like a darkened +mirror, while through parted reeds on its glossy surface arose the +half-submerged figure of a river god, exquisite in contour, yet whose +delicate outlines were almost a vision by the crowning illusion of +light, shadow, and atmosphere. + +"It is a beautiful copy, mademoiselle, and I forgive you breaking my +rules," he said, drawing a long breath. "But I cannot now recall the +original picture." + +"It's no copy of a picture, professor," said the young girl timidly, and +she disclosed her secret. "It was the only perfect statue there," she +added diffidently; "but I think it wanted--something." + +"True," said the professor abstractedly. "Where the elbow rests there +should be a half-inverted urn flowing with water; but the drawing of +that shoulder is so perfect--as is YOUR study of it--that one guesses +the missing forearm one cannot see, which clasped it. Beautiful! +beautiful!" + +Suddenly he stopped, and turned his eyes almost searchingly on hers. + +"You say you have never drawn from the human model, mademoiselle?" + +"Never," said the young girl innocently. + +"True," murmured the professor again. "These are the classic ideal +measurements. There are no limbs like those now. Yet it is wonderful! +And this gem, you say, is in England?" + +"Yes." + +"Good! I am going there in a few days. I shall make a pilgrimage to see +it. Until then, mademoiselle, I beg you to break as many of my rules as +you like." + +Three weeks later she found the professor one morning standing before +her picture in her private studio. "You have returned from England," she +said joyfully. + +"I have," said the professor gravely. + +"You have seen the original subject?" she said timidly. + +"I have NOT. I have not seen it, mademoiselle," he said, gazing at +her mildly through his glasses, "because it does not exist, and never +existed." + +The young girl turned pale. + +"Listen. I have go to England. I arrive at the Park of Domesday. I +penetrate the beautiful, wild garden. I approach the fountain. I see +the wonderful water, the exquisite light and shade, the lilies, the +mysterious reeds--beautiful, yet not as beautiful as you have made it, +mademoiselle, but no statue--no river god! I demand it of the concierge. +He knows of it absolutely nothing. I transport myself to the noble +proprietor, Monsieur le Duc, at a distant chateau where he has collected +the ruined marbles. It is not there." + +"Yet I saw it," said the young girl earnestly, yet with a troubled face. +"O professor," she burst out appealingly, "what do you think it was?" + +"I think, mademoiselle," said the professor gravely, "that you created +it. Believe me, it is a function of genius! More, it is a proof, a +necessity! You saw the beautiful lake, the ruined fountain, the soft +shadows, the empty plinth, curtained by reeds. You yourself say you feel +there was 'something wanting.' Unconsciously you yourself supplied it. +All that you had ever dreamt of mythology, all that you had ever seen +of statuary, thronged upon you at that supreme moment, and, evolved from +your own fancy, the river god was born. It is your own, chere enfant, as +much the offspring of your genius as the exquisite atmosphere you have +caught, the charm of light and shadow that you have brought away. Accept +my felicitations. You have little more to learn of me." + +As he bowed himself out and descended the stairs he shrugged his +shoulders slightly. "She is an adorable genius," he murmured. "Yet she +is also a woman. Being a woman, naturally she has a lover--this river +god! Why not?" + +The extraordinary success of Miss Forrest's picture and the +instantaneous recognition of her merit as an artist, apart from her +novel subject, perhaps went further to remove her uneasiness than any +serious conviction of the professor's theory. Nevertheless, it appealed +to her poetic and mystic imagination, and although other subjects from +her brush met with equally phenomenal success, and she was able in a +year to return to America with a reputation assured beyond criticism, +she never entirely forgot the strange incident connected with her +initial effort. + +And by degrees a singular change came over her. Rich, famous, and +attractive, she began to experience a sentimental and romantic +interest in that episode. Once, when reproached by her friends for her +indifference to her admirers, she had half laughingly replied that she +had once found her "ideal," but never would again. Yet the jest had +scarcely passed her lips before she became pale and silent. With this +change came also a desire to re-purchase the picture, which she had +sold in her early success to a speculative American picture-dealer. On +inquiry she found, alas! that it had been sold only a day or two before +to a Chicago gentleman, of the name of Potter, who had taken a fancy to +it. + +Miss Forrest curled her pretty lip, but, nothing daunted, resolved +to effect her purpose, and sought the purchaser at his hotel. She was +ushered into a private drawing-room, where, on a handsome easel, stood +the newly acquired purchase. Mr. Potter was out, "but would return in a +moment." + +Miss Forrest was relieved, for, alone and undisturbed, she could now let +her full soul go out to her romantic creation. As she stood there, she +felt the glamour of the old English garden come back to her, the play of +light and shadow, the silent pool, the godlike face and bust, with its +cast-down, meditative eyes, seen through the parted reeds. She clasped +her hands silently before her. Should she never see it again as then? + +"Pray don't let me disturb you; but won't you take a seat?" + +Miss Forrest turned sharply round. Then she started, uttered a +frightened little cry, and fainted away. + +Mr. Potter was touched, but a master of himself. As she came to, he +said quietly: "I came upon you suddenly--as you stood entranced by this +picture--just as I did when I first saw it. That's why I bought it. +Are you any relative of the Miss Forrest who painted it?" he continued, +quietly looking at her card, which he held in his hand. + +Miss Forrest recovered herself sufficiently to reply, and stated her +business with some dignity. + +"Ah," said Mr. Potter, "THAT is another question. You see, the picture +has a special value to me, as I once saw an old-fashioned garden like +that in England. But that chap there,--I beg your pardon, I mean that +figure,--I fancy, is your own creation, entirely. However, I'll think +over your proposition, and if you will allow me I'll call and see you +about it." + +Mr. Potter did call--not once, but many times--and showed quite a +remarkable interest in Miss Forrest's art. The question of the sale of +the picture, however, remained in abeyance. A few weeks later, after a +longer call than usual, Mr. Potter said:-- + +"Don't you think the best thing we can do is to make a kind of +compromise, and let us own the picture together?" + +And they did. + + + + +A ROMANCE OF THE LINE + + +As the train moved slowly out of the station, the Writer of Stories +looked up wearily from the illustrated pages of the magazines and +weeklies on his lap to the illustrated advertisements on the walls of +the station sliding past his carriage windows. It was getting to be +monotonous. For a while he had been hopefully interested in the bustle +of the departing trains, and looked up from his comfortable and early +invested position to the later comers with that sense of superiority +common to travelers; had watched the conventional leave-takings--always +feebly prolonged to the uneasiness of both parties--and contrasted it +with the impassive business promptitude of the railway officials; but +it was the old experience repeated. Falling back on the illustrated +advertisements again, he wondered if their perpetual recurrence at every +station would not at last bring to the tired traveler the loathing of +satiety; whether the passenger in railway carriages, continually offered +Somebody's oats, inks, washing blue, candles, and soap, apparently as +a necessary equipment for a few hours' journey, would not there and +thereafter forever ignore the use of these articles, or recoil from that +particular quality. Or, as an unbiased observer, he wondered if, on +the other hand, impressible passengers, after passing three or four +stations, had ever leaped from the train and refused to proceed further +until they were supplied with one or more of those articles. Had he ever +known any one who confided to him in a moment of expansiveness that he +had dated his use of Somebody's soap to an advertisement persistently +borne upon him through the medium of a railway carriage window? +No! Would he not have connected that man with that other certifying +individual who always appends a name and address singularly obscure and +unconvincing, yet who, at some supreme moment, recommends Somebody's +pills to a dying friend,--afflicted with a similar address,--which +restore him to life and undying obscurity. Yet these pictorial and +literary appeals must have a potency independent of the wares they +advertise, or they wouldn't be there. + +Perhaps he was the more sensitive to this monotony as he was just then +seeking change and novelty in order to write a new story. He was not +looking for material,--his subjects were usually the same,--he was +merely hoping for that relaxation and diversion which should freshen and +fit him for later concentration. Still, he had often heard of the odd +circumstances to which his craft were sometimes indebted for suggestion. +The invasion of an eccentric-looking individual--probably an innocent +tradesman into a railway carriage had given the hint for "A Night with +a Lunatic;" a nervously excited and belated passenger had once +unconsciously sat for an escaped forger; the picking up of a forgotten +novel in the rack, with passages marked in pencil, had afforded the plot +of a love story; or the germ of a romance had been found in an obscure +news paragraph which, under less listless moments, would have +passed unread. On the other hand, he recalled these inconvenient and +inconsistent moments from which the so-called "inspiration" sprang, the +utter incongruity of time and place in some brilliant conception, and +wondered if sheer vacuity of mind were really so favorable. + +Going back to his magazine again, he began to get mildly interested in +a story. Turning the page, however, he was confronted by a pictorial +advertising leaflet inserted between the pages, yet so artistic in +character that it might have been easily mistaken for an illustration of +the story he was reading, and perhaps was not more remote or obscure in +reference than many he had known. But the next moment he recognized +with despair that it was only a smaller copy of one he had seen on the +hoarding at the last station. He threw the leaflet aside, but the flavor +of the story was gone. The peerless detergent of the advertisement had +erased it from the tablets of his memory. He leaned back in his seat +again, and lazily watched the flying suburbs. Here were the usual +promising open spaces and patches of green, quickly succeeded again by +solid blocks of houses whose rear windows gave directly upon the line, +yet seldom showed an inquisitive face--even of a wondering child. It was +a strange revelation of the depressing effects of familiarity. Expresses +might thunder by, goods trains drag their slow length along, shunting +trains pipe all day beneath their windows, but the tenants heeded them +not. Here, too, was the junction, with its labyrinthine interlacing of +tracks that dazed the tired brain; the overburdened telegraph posts, +that looked as if they really could not stand another wire; the long +lines of empty, homeless, and deserted trains in sidings that had seen +better days; the idle trains, with staring vacant windows, which were +eventually seized by a pert engine hissing, "Come along, will you?" +and departed with a discontented grunt from every individual carriage +coupling; the racing trains, that suddenly appeared parallel with one's +carriage windows, begot false hopes of a challenge of speed, and then, +without warning, drew contemptuously and, superciliously away; the swift +eclipse of everything in a tunneled bridge; the long, slithering passage +of an "up" express, and then the flash of a station, incoherent and +unintelligible with pictorial advertisements again. + +He closed his eyes to concentrate his thought, and by degrees a pleasant +languor stole over him. The train had by this time attained that rate of +speed which gave it a slight swing and roll on curves and switches +not unlike the rocking of a cradle. Once or twice he opened his eyes +sleepily upon the waltzing trees in the double planes of distance, and +again closed them. Then, in one of these slight oscillations, he +felt himself ridiculously slipping into slumber, and awoke with some +indignation. Another station was passed, in which process the pictorial +advertisements on the hoardings and the pictures in his lap seemed to +have become jumbled up, confused, and to dance before him, and then +suddenly and strangely, without warning, the train stopped short--at +ANOTHER station. And then he arose, and--what five minutes before he +never conceived of doing--gathered his papers and slipped from the +carriage to the platform. When I say "he" I mean, of course, the +Writer of Stories; yet the man who slipped out was half his age and a +different-looking person. + +***** + +The change from the motion of the train--for it seemed that he had been +traveling several hours--to the firmer platform for a moment bewildered +him. The station looked strange, and he fancied it lacked a certain kind +of distinctness. But that quality was also noticeable in the porters and +loungers on the platform. He thought it singular, until it seemed to him +that they were not characteristic, nor in any way important or necessary +to the business he had in hand. Then, with an effort, he tried to +remember himself and his purpose, and made his way through the station +to the open road beyond. A van, bearing the inscription, "Removals to +Town and Country," stood before him and blocked his way, but a dogcart +was in waiting, and a grizzled groom, who held the reins, touched his +hat respectfully. Although still dazed by his journey and uncertain of +himself, he seemed to recognize in the man that distinctive character +which was wanting in the others. The correctness of his surmise was +revealed a few moments later, when, after he had taken his seat beside +him, and they were rattling out of the village street, the man turned +towards him and said:-- + +"Tha'll know Sir Jarge?" + +"I do not," said the young man. + +"Ay! but theer's many as cooms here as doan't, for all they cooms. +Tha'll say it ill becooms mea as war man and boy in Sir Jarge's sarvice +for fifty year, to say owt agen him, but I'm here to do it, or they +couldn't foolfil their business. Tha wast to ax me questions about Sir +Jarge and the Grange, and I wor to answer soa as to make tha think +thar was suthing wrong wi' un. Howbut I may save tha time and tell thea +downroight that Sir Jarge forged his uncle's will, and so gotten the +Grange. That 'ee keeps his niece in mortal fear o' he. That tha'll be +put in haunted chamber wi' a boggle." + +"I think," said the young man hesitatingly, "that there must be some +mistake. I do not know any Sir George, and I am NOT going to the +Grange." + +"Eay! Then thee aren't the 'ero sent down from London by the story +writer?" + +"Not by THAT one," said the young man diffidently. + +The old man's face changed. It was no mere figure of speech: it actually +was ANOTHER face that looked down upon the traveler. + +"Then mayhap your honor will be bespoken at the Angel's Inn," he said, +with an entirely distinct and older dialect, "and a finer hostel for a +young gentleman of your condition ye'll not find on this side of Oxford. +A fair chamber, looking to the sun; sheets smelling of lavender from +Dame Margery's own store, and, for the matter of that, spread by the +fair hands of Maudlin, her daughter--the best favored lass that ever +danced under a Maypole. Ha! have at ye there, young sir! Not to speak of +the October ale of old Gregory, her father--ay, nor the rare Hollands, +that never paid excise duties to the king." + +"I'm afraid," said the young traveler timidly, "there's over a century +between us. There's really some mistake." + +"What?" said the groom, "ye are NOT the young spark who is to marry +Mistress Amy at the Hall, yet makes a pother and mess of it all by a +duel with Sir Roger de Cadgerly, the wicked baronet, for his over-free +discourse with our fair Maudlin this very eve? Ye are NOT the traveler +whose post-chaise is now at the Falcon? Ye are not he that was bespoken +by the story writer in London?" + +"I don't think I am," said the young man apologetically. "Indeed, as I +am feeling far from well, I think I'll get out and walk." + +He got down--the vehicle and driver vanished in the distance. It did not +surprise him. "I must collect my thoughts," he said. He did so. Possibly +the collection was not large, for presently he said, with a sigh of +relief:-- + +"I see it all now! My name is Paul Bunker. I am of the young branch of +an old Quaker family, rich and respected in the country, and I am on a +visit to my ancestral home. But I have lived since a child in America, +and am alien to the traditions and customs of the old country, and even +of the seat to which my fathers belong. I have brought with me from the +far West many peculiarities of speech and thought that may startle my +kinsfolk. But I certainly shall not address my uncle as 'Hoss!' nor +shall I say 'guess' oftener than is necessary." + +Much brightened and refreshed by his settled identity, he had time, +as he walked briskly along, to notice the scenery, which was certainly +varied and conflicting in character, and quite inconsistent with his +preconceived notions of an English landscape. On his right, a lake of +the brightest cobalt blue stretched before a many-towered and terraced +town, which was relieved by a background of luxuriant foliage and +emerald-green mountains; on his left arose a rugged mountain, which he +was surprised to see was snow-capped, albeit a tunnel was observable +midway of its height, and a train just issuing from it. Almost +regretting that he had not continued on his journey, as he was fully +sensible that it was in some way connected with the railway he had +quitted, presently his attention was directed to the gateway of a +handsome park, whose mansion was faintly seen in the distance. Hurrying +towards him, down the avenue of limes, was a strange figure. It was that +of a man of middle age; clad in Quaker garb, yet with an extravagance +of cut and detail which seemed antiquated even for England. He had +evidently seen the young man approaching, and his face was beaming with +welcome. If Paul had doubted that it was his uncle, the first words he +spoke would have reassured him. + +"Welcome to Hawthorn Hall," said the figure, grasping his hand heartily, +"but thee will excuse me if I do not tarry with thee long at present, +for I am hastening, even now, with some nourishing and sustaining food +for Giles Hayward, a farm laborer." He pointed to a package he was +carrying. "But thee will find thy cousins Jane and Dorcas Bunker taking +tea in the summer-house. Go to them! Nay--positively--I may not linger, +but will return to thee quickly." And, to Paul's astonishment, he +trotted away on his sturdy, respectable legs, still beaming and carrying +his package in his hand. + +"Well, I'll be dog-goned! but the old man ain't going to be left, you +bet!" he ejaculated, suddenly remembering his dialect. "He'll get there, +whether school keeps or not!" Then, reflecting that no one heard him, he +added simply, "He certainly was not over civil towards the nephew he +has never seen before. And those girls--whom I don't know! How very +awkward!" + +Nevertheless, he continued his way up the avenue towards the mansion. +The park was beautifully kept. Remembering the native wildness and +virgin seclusion of the Western forest, he could not help contrasting it +with the conservative gardening of this pretty woodland, every rood +of which had been patrolled by keepers and rangers, and preserved and +fostered hundreds of years before he was born, until warmed for human +occupancy. At times the avenue was crossed by grass drives, where +the original woodland had been displaced, not by the exigency of a +"clearing" for tillage, as in his own West, but for the leisurely +pleasure of the owner. Then, a few hundred yards from the house +itself,--a quaint Jacobean mansion,--he came to an open space where the +sylvan landscape had yielded to floral cultivation, and so fell upon a +charming summer-house, or arbor, embowered with roses. It must have +been the one of which his uncle had spoken, for there, to his wondering +admiration, sat two little maids before a rustic table, drinking tea +demurely, yes, with all the evident delight of a childish escapade from +their elders. While in the picturesque quaintness of their attire +there was still a formal suggestion of the sect to which their father +belonged, their summer frocks--differing in color, yet each of the same +subdued tint--were alike in cut and fashion, and short enough to show +their dainty feet in prim slippers and silken hose that matched their +frocks. As the afternoon sun glanced through the leaves upon their pink +cheeks, tied up in quaint hats by ribbons under their chins, they made a +charming picture. At least Paul thought so as he advanced towards them, +hat in hand. They looked up at his approach, but again cast down their +eyes with demure shyness; yet he fancied that they first exchanged +glances with each other, full of mischievous intelligence. + +"I am your cousin Paul," he said smilingly, "though I am afraid I am +introducing myself almost as briefly as your father just now excused +himself to me. He told me I would find you here, but he himself was +hastening on a Samaritan mission." + +"With a box in his hand?" said the girls simultaneously, exchanging +glances with each other again. + +"With a box containing some restorative, I think," responded Paul, a +little wonderingly. + +"Restorative! So THAT'S what he calls it now, is it?" said one of the +girls saucily. "Well, no one knows what's in the box, though he always +carries it with him. Thee never sees him without it"-- + +"And a roll of paper," suggested the other girl. + +"Yes, a roll of paper--but one never knows what it is!" said the +first speaker. "It's very strange. But no matter now, Paul. Welcome to +Hawthorn Hall. I am Jane Bunker, and this is Dorcas." She stopped, +and then, looking down demurely, added, "Thee may kiss us both, cousin +Paul." + +The young man did not wait for a second invitation, but gently touched +his lips to their soft young cheeks. + +"Thee does not speak like an American, Paul. Is thee really and truly +one?" continued Jane. + +Paul remembered that he had forgotten his dialect, but it was too late +now. + +"I am really and truly one, and your own cousin, and I hope you will +find me a very dear"-- + +"Oh!" said Dorcas, starting up primly. "You must really allow me to +withdraw." To the young man's astonishment, she seized her parasol, and, +with a youthful affectation of dignity, glided from the summer-house and +was lost among the trees. + +"Thy declaration to me was rather sudden," said Jane quietly, in answer +to his look of surprise, "and Dorcas is peculiarly sensitive and less +like the 'world's people' than I am. And it was just a little cruel, +considering that she has loved thee secretly all these years, followed +thy fortunes in America with breathless eagerness, thrilled at thy +narrow escapes, and wept at thy privations." + +"But she has never seen me before!" said the astounded Paul. + +"And thee had never seen me before, and yet thee has dared to propose to +me five minutes after thee arrived, and in her presence." + +"But, my dear girl!" expostulated Paul. + +"Stand off!" she said, rapidly opening her parasol and interposing +it between them. "Another step nearer--ay, even another word of +endearment--and I shall be compelled--nay, forced," she added in a lower +voice, "to remove this parasol, lest it should be crushed and ruined!" + +"I see," he said gloomily, "you have been reading novels; but so have +I, and the same ones! Nevertheless, I intended only to tell you that I +hoped you would always find me a kind friend." + +She shut her parasol up with a snap. "And I only intended to tell thee +that my heart was given to another." + +"You INTENDED--and now?" + +"Is it the 'kind friend' who asks?" + +"If it were not?" + +"Really?" + +"Yes." + +"Ah!" + +"Oh!" + +"But thee loves another?" she said, toying with her cup. + +He attempted to toy with his, but broke it. A man lacks delicacy in this +kind of persiflage. "You mean I am loved by another," he said bluntly. + +"You dare to say that!" she said, flashing, in spite of her prim +demeanor. + +"No, but YOU did just now! You said your sister loved me!" + +"Did I?" she said dreamily. "Dear! dear! That's the trouble of trying to +talk like Mr. Blank's delightful dialogues. One gets so mixed!" + +"Yet you will be a sister to me?" he said. "'Tis an old American joke, +but 'twill serve." + +There was a long silence. + +"Had thee not better go to sister Dorcas? She is playing with the cows," +said Jane plaintively. + +"You forget," he returned gravely, "that, on page 27 of the novel we +have both read, at this point he is supposed to kiss her." + +She had forgotten, but they both remembered in time. At this moment a +scream came faintly from the distance. They both started, and rose. + +"It is sister Dorcas," said Jane, sitting down again and pouring out +another cup of tea. "I have always told her that one of those Swiss cows +would hook her." + +Paul stared at her with a strange revulsion of feeling. "I could +save Dorcas," he muttered to himself, "in less time than it takes to +describe." He paused, however, as he reflected that this would depend +entirely upon the methods of the writer of this description. "I could +rescue her! I have only to take the first clothes-line that I find, +and with that knowledge and skill with the lasso which I learned in the +wilds of America, I could stop the charge of the most furious ruminant. +I will!" and without another word he turned and rushed off in the +direction of the sound. + +***** + +He had not gone a hundred yards before he paused, a little bewildered. +To the left could still be seen the cobalt lake with the terraced +background; to the right the rugged mountains. He chose the latter. +Luckily for him a cottager's garden lay in his path, and from a line +supported by a single pole depended the homely linen of the cottager. To +tear these garments from the line was the work of a moment (although +it represented the whole week's washing), and hastily coiling the rope +dexterously in his hand, he sped onward. Already panting with exertion +and excitement, a few roods farther he was confronted with a spectacle +that left him breathless. + +A woman--young, robust, yet gracefully formed--was running ahead of him, +driving before her with an open parasol an animal which he instantly +recognized as one of that simple yet treacherous species most feared by +the sex--known as the "Moo Cow." + +For a moment he was appalled by the spectacle. But it was only for a +moment! Recalling his manhood and her weakness, he stopped, and bracing +his foot against a stone, with a graceful flourish of his lasso around +his head, threw it in the air. It uncoiled slowly, sped forward with +unerring precision, and missed! With the single cry of "Saved!" the fair +stranger sank fainting in his arms! He held her closely until the color +came back to her pale face. Then he quietly disentangled the lasso from +his legs. + +"Where am I?" she said faintly. + +"In the same place," he replied, slowly but firmly. "But," he added, +"you have changed!" + +She had, indeed, even to her dress. It was now of a vivid brick red, and +so much longer in the skirt that it seemed to make her taller. Only her +hat remained the same. + +"Yes," she said, in a low, reflective voice and a disregard of her +previous dialect, as she gazed up in his eyes with an eloquent lucidity, +"I have changed, Paul! I feel myself changing at those words you uttered +to Jane. There are moments in a woman's life that man knows nothing +of; moments bitter and cruel, sweet and merciful, that change her whole +being; moments in which the simple girl becomes a worldly woman; moments +in which the slow procession of her years is never noted--except by +another woman! Moments that change her outlook on the world and her +relations to it--and her husband's relations! Moments when the maid +becomes a wife, the wife a widow, the widow a re-married woman, by a +simple, swift illumination of the fancy. Moments when, wrought upon by +a single word--a look--an emphasis and rising inflection, all logical +sequence is cast away, processes are lost--inductions lead nowhere. +Moments when the inharmonious becomes harmonious, the indiscreet +discreet, the inefficient efficient, and the inevitable evitable. I +mean," she corrected herself hurriedly--"You know what I mean! If you +have not felt it you have read it!" + +"I have," he said thoughtfully. "We have both read it in the same novel. +She is a fine writer." + +"Ye-e-s." She hesitated with that slight resentment of praise of another +woman so delightful in her sex. "But you have forgotten the Moo Cow!" +and she pointed to where the distracted animal was careering across the +lawn towards the garden. + +"You are right," he said, "the incident is not yet closed. Let us pursue +it." + +They both pursued it. Discarding the useless lasso, he had recourse to a +few well-aimed epithets. The infuriated animal swerved and made directly +towards a small fountain in the centre of the garden. In attempting to +clear it, it fell directly into the deep cup-like basin and remained +helplessly fixed, with its fore-legs projecting uneasily beyond the rim. + +"Let us leave it there," she said, "and forget it--and all that has +gone before. Believe me," she added, with a faint sigh, "it is best. Our +paths diverge from this moment. I go to the summer-house, and you go to +the Hall, where my father is expecting you." He would have detained her +a moment longer, but she glided away and was gone. + +Left to himself again, that slight sense of bewilderment which had +clouded his mind for the last hour began to clear away; his singular +encounter with the girls strangely enough affected him less strongly +than his brief and unsatisfactory interview with his uncle. For, after +all, he was his host, and upon him depended his stay at Hawthorn Hall. +The mysterious and slighting allusions of his cousins to the old man's +eccentricities also piqued his curiosity. Why had they sneered at his +description of the contents of the package he carried--and what did +it really contain? He did not reflect that it was none of his +business,--people in his situation seldom do,--and he eagerly hurried +towards the Hall. But he found in his preoccupation he had taken the +wrong turning in the path, and that he was now close to the wall which +bounded and overlooked the highway. Here a singular spectacle presented +itself. A cyclist covered with dust was seated in the middle of the +road, trying to restore circulation to his bruised and injured leg by +chafing it with his hands, while beside him lay his damaged bicycle. He +had evidently met with an accident. In an instant Paul had climbed the +wall and was at his side. + +"Can I offer you any assistance?" he asked eagerly. + +"Thanks--no! I've come a beastly cropper over something or other on +this road, and I'm only bruised, though the machine has suffered worse," +replied the stranger, in a fresh, cheery voice. He was a good-looking +fellow of about Paul's own age, and the young American's heart went out +towards him. + +"How did it happen?" asked Paul. + +"That's what puzzles me," said the stranger. "I was getting out of +the way of a queer old chap in the road, and I ran over something that +seemed only an old scroll of paper; but the shock was so great that +I was thrown, and I fancy I was for a few moments unconscious. Yet I +cannot see any other obstruction in the road, and there's only that bit +of paper." He pointed to the paper,--a half-crushed roll of ordinary +foolscap, showing the mark of the bicycle upon it. + +A strange idea came into Paul's mind. He picked up the paper and +examined it closely. Besides the mark already indicated, it showed two +sharp creases about nine inches long, and another exactly at the point +of the impact of the bicycle. Taking a folded two-foot rule from +his pocket, he carefully measured these parallel creases and made an +exhaustive geometrical calculation with his pencil on the paper. The +stranger watched him with awed and admiring interest. Rising, he again +carefully examined the road, and was finally rewarded by the discovery +of a sharp indentation in the dust, which, on measurement and comparison +with the creases in the paper and the calculations he had just made, +proved to be identical. + +"There was a solid body in that paper," said Paul quietly; "a +parallelogram exactly nine inches long and three wide." + +"I say! you're wonderfully clever, don't you know," said the stranger, +with unaffected wonder. "I see it all--a brick." + +Paul smiled gently and shook his head. "That is the hasty inference of +an inexperienced observer. You will observe at the point of impact of +your wheel the parallel crease is CURVED, as from the yielding of the +resisting substances, and not BROKEN, as it would be by the crumbling of +a brick." + +"I say, you're awfully detective, don't you know! just like that +fellow--what's his name?" said the stranger admiringly. + +The words recalled Paul to himself. Why was he acting like a detective? +and what was he seeking to discover? Nevertheless, he felt impelled +to continue. "And that queer old chap whom you met--why didn't he help +you?" + +"Because I passed him before I ran into the--the parallelogram, and I +suppose he didn't know what happened behind him?" + +"Did he have anything in his hand?" + +"Can't say." + +"And you say you were unconscious afterwards?" + +"Yes!" + +"Long enough for the culprit to remove the principal evidence of his +crime?" + +"Come! I say, really you are--you know you are!" + +"Have you any secret enemy?" + +"No." + +"And you don't know Mr. Bunker, the man who owns this vast estate?" + +"Not at all. I'm from Upper Tooting." + +"Good afternoon," said Paul abruptly, and turned away. + +It struck him afterwards that his action might have seemed uncivil, and +even inhuman, to the bruised cyclist, who could hardly walk. But it was +getting late, and he was still far from the Hall, which, oddly enough, +seemed to be no longer visible from the road. He wandered on for some +time, half convinced that he had passed the lodge gates, yet hoping to +find some other entrance to the domain. Dusk was falling; the rounded +outlines of the park trees beyond the wall were solid masses of shadow. +The full moon, presently rising, restored them again to symmetry, and at +last he, to his relief, came upon the massive gateway. Two lions ramped +in stone on the side pillars. He thought it strange that he had not +noticed the gateway on his previous entrance, but he remembered that he +was fully preoccupied with the advancing figure of his uncle. In a few +minutes the Hall itself appeared, and here again he was surprised that +he had overlooked before its noble proportions and picturesque outline. +Its broad terraces, dazzlingly white in the moonlight; its long line of +mullioned windows, suffused with a warm red glow from within, made it +look like part of a wintry landscape--and suggested a Christmas card. +The venerable ivy that hid the ravages time had made in its walls looked +like black carving. His heart swelled with strange emotions as he gazed +at his ancestral hall. How many of his blood had lived and died there; +how many had gone forth from that great porch to distant lands! He tried +to think of his father--a little child--peeping between the balustrades +of that terrace. He tried to think of it, and perhaps would have +succeeded had it not occurred to him that it was a known fact that his +uncle had bought the estate and house of an impoverished nobleman only +the year before. Yet--he could not tell why--he seemed to feel higher +and nobler for that trial. + +The terrace was deserted, and so quiet that as he ascended to it his +footsteps seemed to echo from the walls. When he reached the portals, +the great oaken door swung noiselessly on its hinges--opened by some +unseen but waiting servitor--and admitted him to a lofty hall, dark +with hangings and family portraits, but warmed by a red carpet the whole +length of its stone floor. For a moment he waited for the servant to +show him to the drawing-room or his uncle's study. But no one appeared. +Believing this to be a part of the characteristic simplicity of the +Quaker household, he boldly entered the first door, and found himself in +a brilliantly lit and perfectly empty drawing-room. The same experience +met him with the other rooms on that floor--the dining-room displaying +an already set, exquisitely furnished and decorated table, with chairs +for twenty guests! He mechanically ascended the wide oaken staircase +that led to the corridor of bedrooms above a central salon. Here he +found only the same solitude. Bedroom doors yielded to his touch, only +to show the same brilliantly lit vacancy. He presently came upon one +room which seemed to give unmistakable signs of HIS OWN occupancy. +Surely there stood his own dressing-case on the table! and his own +evening clothes carefully laid out on another, as if fresh from a +valet's hands. He stepped hastily into the corridor--there was no one +there; he rang the bell--there was no response! But he noticed that +there was a jug of hot water in his basin, and he began dressing +mechanically. + +There was little doubt that he was in a haunted house, but this did not +particularly disturb him. Indeed, he found himself wondering if it could +be logically called a haunted house--unless he himself was haunting it, +for there seemed to be no other there. Perhaps the apparitions would +come later, when he was dressed. Clearly it was not his uncle's +house--and yet, as he had never been inside his uncle's house, he +reflected that he ought not to be positive. + +He finished dressing and sat down in an armchair with a kind of +thoughtful expectancy. But presently his curiosity became impatient of +the silence and mystery, and he ventured once more to explore the house. +Opening his bedroom door, he found himself again upon the deserted +corridor, but this time he could distinctly hear a buzz of voices from +the drawing-room below. Assured that he was near a solution of the +mystery, he rapidly descended the broad staircase and made his way to +the open door of the drawing-room. But although the sound of voices +increased as he advanced, when he entered the room, to his utter +astonishment, it was as empty as before. + +Yet, in spite of his bewilderment and confusion, he was able to +follow one of the voices, which, in its peculiar distinctness and +half-perfunctory tone, he concluded must belong to the host of the +invisible assembly. + +"Ah," said the voice, greeting some unseen visitor, "so glad you have +come. Afraid your engagements just now would keep you away." Then the +voice dropped to a lower and more confidential tone. "You must take down +Lady Dartman, but you will have Miss Morecamp--a clever girl--on the +other side of you. Ah, Sir George! So good of you to come. All well at +the Priory? So glad to hear it." (Lower and more confidentially.) "You +know Mrs. Monkston. You'll sit by her. A little cut up by her husband +losing his seat. Try to amuse her." + +Emboldened by desperation, Paul turned in the direction of the voice. +"I am Paul Bunker," he said hesitatingly. "I'm afraid you'll think me +intrusive, but I was looking for my uncle, and"-- + +"Intrusive, my dear boy! The son of my near neighbor in the country +intrusive? Really, now, I like that! Grace!" (the voice turned in +another direction) "here is the American nephew of our neighbor Bunker +at Widdlestone, who thinks he is 'a stranger.'" + +"We all knew of your expected arrival at Widdlestone--it was so good +of you to waive ceremony and join us," said a well-bred feminine voice, +which Paul at once assumed to belong to the hostess. "But I must find +some one for your dinner partner. Mary" (here her voice was likewise +turned away), "this is Mr. Bunker, the nephew of an old friend and +neighbor in Upshire;" (the voice again turned to him), "you will take +Miss Morecamp in. My dear" (once again averted), "I must find some one +else to console poor dear Lord Billingtree with." Here the hostess's +voice was drowned by fresh arrivals. + +Bewildered and confused as he was, standing in this empty desert of +a drawing-room, yet encompassed on every side by human voices, so +marvelous was the power of suggestion, he seemed to almost feel the +impact of the invisible crowd. He was trying desperately to realize his +situation when a singularly fascinating voice at his elbow unexpectedly +assisted him. It was evidently his dinner partner. + +"I suppose you must be tired after your journey. When did you arrive?" + +"Only a few hours ago," said Paul. + +"And I dare say you haven't slept since you arrived. One doesn't on the +passage, you know; the twenty hours pass so quickly, and the experience +is so exciting--to US at least. But I suppose as an American you are +used to it." + +Paul gasped. He had passively accepted the bodiless conversation, +because it was at least intelligible! But NOW! Was he going mad? + +She evidently noticed his silence. "Never mind," she continued, "you +can tell me all about it at dinner. Do you know I always think that +this sort of thing--what we're doing now,--this ridiculous formality +of reception,--which I suppose is after all only a concession to our +English force of habit,--is absurd! We ought to pass, as it were, +directly from our houses to the dinner-table. It saves time." + +"Yes--no--that is--I'm afraid I don't follow you," stammered Paul. + +There was a slight pout in her voice as she replied: "No matter now--we +must follow them--for our host is moving off with Lady Billingtree, and +it's our turn now." + +So great was the illusion that he found himself mechanically offering +his arm as he moved through the empty room towards the door. Then he +descended the staircase without another word, preceded, however, by +the sound of his host's voice. Following this as a blind man might, he +entered the dining-room, which to his discomfiture was as empty as the +salon above. Still following the host's voice, he dropped into a chair +before the empty table, wondering what variation of the Barmecide feast +was in store for him. Yet the hum of voices from the vacant chairs +around the board so strongly impressed him that he could almost believe +that he was actually at dinner. + +"Are you seated?" asked the charming voice at his side. + +"Yes," a little wonderingly, as his was the only seat visibly occupied. + +"I am so glad that this silly ceremony is over. By the way, where are +you?" + +Paul would have liked to answer, "Lord only knows!" but he reflected +that it might not sound polite. "Where am I?" he feebly repeated. + +"Yes; where are you dining?" + +It seemed a cool question under the circumstances, but he answered +promptly,-- + +"With you." + +"Of course," said the charming voice; "but where are you eating your +dinner?" + +Considering that he was not eating anything, Paul thought this cooler +still. But he answered briefly, "In Upshire." + +"Oh! At your uncle's?" + +"No," said Paul bluntly; "in the next house." + +"Why, that's Sir William's--our host's--and he and his family are here +in London. You are joking." + +"Listen!" said Paul desperately. Then in a voice unconsciously lowered +he hurriedly told her where he was--how he came there--the empty +house--the viewless company! To his surprise the only response was a +musical little laugh. But the next moment her voice rose higher with an +unmistakable concern in it, apparently addressing their invisible host. + +"Oh, Sir William, only think how dreadful. Here's poor Mr. Bunker, alone +in an empty house, which he has mistaken for his uncle's--and without +any dinner!" + +"Really; dear, dear! How provoking! But how does he happen to be WITH +US? James, how is this?" + +"If you please, Sir William," said a servant's respectful voice, +"Widdlestone is in the circuit and is switched on with the others. We +heard that a gentleman's luggage had arrived at Widdlestone, and we +telegraphed for the rooms to be made ready, thinking we'd have her +ladyship's orders later." + +A single gleam of intelligence flashed upon Paul. His luggage--yes, had +been sent from the station to the wrong house, and he had unwittingly +followed. But these voices! whence did they come? And where was the +actual dinner at which his host was presiding? It clearly was not at +this empty table. + +"See that he has everything he wants at once," said Sir William; "there +must be some one there." Then his voice turned in the direction of +Paul again, and he said laughingly, "Possess your soul and appetite in +patience for a moment, Mr. Bunker; you will be only a course behind us. +But we are lucky in having your company--even at your own discomfort." + +Still more bewildered, Paul turned to his invisible partner. "May I ask +where YOU are dining?" + +"Certainly; at home in Curzon Street," returned the pretty voice. "It +was raining so, I did not go out." + +"And--Lord Billington?" faltered Paul. + +"Oh, he's in Scotland--at his own place." + +"Then, in fact, nobody is dining here at all," said Paul desperately. + +There was a slight pause, and then the voice responded, with a touch of +startled suggestion in it: "Good heavens, Mr. Bunker! Is it possible you +don't know we're dining by telephone?" + +"By what?" + +"Telephone. Yes. We're a telephonic dinner-party. We are dining in our +own houses; but, being all friends, we're switched on to each other, +and converse exactly as we would at table. It saves a great trouble and +expense, for any one of us can give the party, and the poorest can equal +the most extravagant. People who are obliged to diet can partake of +their own slops at home, and yet mingle with the gourmets without +awkwardness or the necessity of apology. We are spared the spectacle, at +least, of those who eat and drink too much. We can switch off a bore at +once. We can retire when we are fatigued, without leaving a blank space +before the others. And all this without saying anything of the higher +spiritual and intellectual effect--freed from material grossness of +appetite and show--which the dinner party thus attains. But you are +surely joking! You, an American, and not know it! Why, it comes from +Boston. Haven't you read that book, 'Jumping a Century'? It's by an +American." + +A strange illumination came upon Paul. Where had he heard something like +this before? But at the same moment his thoughts were diverted by the +material entrance of a footman, bearing a silver salver with his dinner. +It was part of his singular experience that the visible entrance of this +real, commonplace mortal--the only one he had seen--in the midst of this +voiceless solitude was distinctly unreal, and had all the effect of an +apparition. He distrusted it and the dishes before him. But his lively +partner's voice was now addressing an unseen occupant of the next chair. +Had she got tired of his ignorance, or was it feminine tact to enable +him to eat something? He accepted the latter hypothesis, and tried to +eat. But he felt himself following the fascinating voice in all the +charm of its youthful and spiritual inflections. Taking advantage of its +momentary silence, he said gently,-- + +"I confess my ignorance, and am willing to admit all you claim for this +wonderful invention. But do you think it compensates for the loss of the +individual person? Take my own case--if you will not think me personal. +I have never had the pleasure of seeing you; do you believe that I +am content with only that suggestion of your personality which the +satisfaction of hearing your voice affords me?" + +There was a pause, and then a very mischievous ring in the voice +that replied: "It certainly is a personal question, and it is another +blessing of this invention that you'll never know whether I am blushing +or not; but I forgive you, for I never before spoke to any one I had +never seen--and I suppose it's confusion. But do you really think you +would know me--the REAL one--any better? It is the real person who +thinks and speaks, not the outward semblance that we see, which +very often unfairly either attracts or repels us? We can always SHOW +ourselves at our best, but we must, at last, reveal our true colors +through our thoughts and speech. Isn't it better to begin with the real +thing first?" + +"I hope, at least, to have the privilege of judging by myself," said +Paul gallantly. "You will not be so cruel as not to let me see you +elsewhere, otherwise I shall feel as if I were in some dream, and will +certainly be opposed to your preference for realities." + +"I am not certain if the dream would not be more interesting to you," +said the voice laughingly. "But I think your hostess is already saying +'good-by.' You know everybody goes at once at this kind of party; the +ladies don't retire first, and the gentlemen join them afterwards. In +another moment we'll ALL be switched off; but Sir William wants me to +tell you that his coachman will drive you to your uncle's, unless +you prefer to try and make yourself comfortable for the night here. +Good-by!" + +The voices around him seemed to grow fainter, and then utterly cease. +The lights suddenly leaped up, went out, and left him in complete +darkness. He attempted to rise, but in doing so overset the dishes +before him, which slid to the floor. A cold air seemed to blow across +his feet. The "good-by" was still ringing in his ears as he straightened +himself to find he was in his railway carriage, whose door had just been +opened for a young lady who was entering the compartment from a wayside +station. "Good-by," she repeated to the friend who was seeing her off. +The Writer of Stories hurriedly straightened himself, gathered up the +magazines and papers that had fallen from his lap, and glanced at the +station walls. The old illustrations glanced back at him! He looked at +his watch; he had been asleep just ten minutes! + + + + +BOHEMIAN DAYS IN SAN FRANCISCO + + +It is but just to the respectable memory of San Francisco that in these +vagrant recollections I should deprecate at once any suggestion that the +levity of my title described its dominant tone at any period of my early +experiences. On the contrary, it was a singular fact that while the +rest of California was swayed by an easy, careless unconventionalism, or +swept over by waves of emotion and sentiment, San Francisco preserved +an intensely material and practical attitude, and even a certain austere +morality. I do not, of course, allude to the brief days of '49, when it +was a straggling beach of huts and stranded hulks, but to the earlier +stages of its development into the metropolis of California. Its first +tottering steps in that direction were marked by a distinct gravity and +decorum. Even during the period when the revolver settled small private +difficulties, and Vigilance Committees adjudicated larger public ones, +an unmistakable seriousness and respectability was the ruling sign of +its governing class. It was not improbable that under the reign of the +Committee the lawless and vicious class were more appalled by the moral +spectacle of several thousand black-coated, serious-minded business men +in embattled procession than by mere force of arms, and one "suspect"--a +prize-fighter--is known to have committed suicide in his cell after +confrontation with his grave and passionless shopkeeping judges. Even +that peculiar quality of Californian humor which was apt to mitigate +the extravagances of the revolver and the uncertainties of poker had no +place in the decorous and responsible utterance of San Francisco. The +press was sober, materialistic, practical--when it was not severely +admonitory of existing evil; the few smaller papers that indulged in +levity were considered libelous and improper. Fancy was displaced by +heavy articles on the revenues of the State and inducements to the +investment of capital. Local news was under an implied censorship which +suppressed anything that might tend to discourage timid or cautious +capital. Episodes of romantic lawlessness or pathetic incidents of +mining life were carefully edited--with the comment that these things +belonged to the past, and that life and property were now "as safe in +San Francisco as in New York or London." + +Wonder-loving visitors in quest of scenes characteristic of the +civilization were coldly snubbed with this assurance. Fires, floods, and +even seismic convulsions were subjected to a like grimly materialistic +optimism. I have a vivid recollection of a ponderous editorial on one +of the severer earthquakes, in which it was asserted that only the +UNEXPECTEDNESS of the onset prevented San Francisco from meeting it in +a way that would be deterrent of all future attacks. The unconsciousness +of the humor was only equaled by the gravity with which it was +received by the whole business community. Strangely enough, this grave +materialism flourished side by side with--and was even sustained by--a +narrow religious strictness more characteristic of the Pilgrim Fathers +of a past century than the Western pioneers of the present. San +Francisco was early a city of churches and church organizations to which +the leading men and merchants belonged. The lax Sundays of the dying +Spanish race seemed only to provoke a revival of the rigors of the +Puritan Sabbath. With the Spaniard and his Sunday afternoon bullfight +scarcely an hour distant, the San Francisco pulpit thundered against +Sunday picnics. One of the popular preachers, declaiming upon the +practice of Sunday dinner-giving, averred that when he saw a guest in +his best Sunday clothes standing shamelessly upon the doorstep of his +host, he felt like seizing him by the shoulder and dragging him from +that threshold of perdition. + +Against the actual heathen the feeling was even stronger, and reached +its climax one Sunday when a Chinaman was stoned to death by a crowd of +children returning from Sunday-school. I am offering these examples +with no ethical purpose, but merely to indicate a singular contradictory +condition which I do not think writers of early Californian history have +fairly recorded. It is not my province to suggest any theory for +these appalling exceptions to the usual good-humored lawlessness and +extravagance of the rest of the State. They may have been essential +agencies to the growth and evolution of the city. They were undoubtedly +sincere. The impressions I propose to give of certain scenes and +incidents of my early experience must, therefore, be taken as purely +personal and Bohemian, and their selection as equally individual and +vagrant. I am writing of what interested me at the time, though not +perhaps of what was more generally characteristic of San Francisco. + +I had been there a week--an idle week, spent in listless outlook for +employment; a full week in my eager absorption of the strange life +around me and a photographic sensitiveness to certain scenes and +incidents of those days, which start out of my memory to-day as freshly +as the day they impressed me. + +One of these recollections is of "steamer night," as it was called,--the +night of "steamer day,"--preceding the departure of the mail steamship +with the mails for "home." Indeed, at that time San Francisco may be +said to have lived from steamer day to steamer day; bills were made due +on that day, interest computed to that period, and accounts settled. +The next day was the turning of a new leaf: another essay to fortune, +another inspiration of energy. So recognized was the fact that even +ordinary changes of condition, social and domestic, were put aside until +AFTER steamer day. "I'll see what I can do after next steamer day" was +the common cautious or hopeful formula. It was the "Saturday night" of +many a wage-earner--and to him a night of festivity. The thoroughfares +were animated and crowded; the saloons and theatres full. I can recall +myself at such times wandering along the City Front, as the business +part of San Francisco was then known. Here the lights were burning all +night, the first streaks of dawn finding the merchants still at their +counting-house desks. I remember the dim lines of warehouses lining the +insecure wharves of rotten piles, half filled in--that had ceased to +be wharves, but had not yet become streets,--their treacherous yawning +depths, with the uncertain gleam of tarlike mud below, at times still +vocal with the lap and gurgle of the tide. I remember the weird stories +of disappearing men found afterward imbedded in the ooze in which they +had fallen and gasped their life away. I remember the two or three +ships, still left standing where they were beached a year or two before, +built in between warehouses, their bows projecting into the roadway. +There was the dignity of the sea and its boundless freedom in their +beautiful curves, which the abutting houses could not destroy, and even +something of the sea's loneliness in the far-spaced ports and cabin +windows lit up by the lamps of the prosaic landsmen who plied their +trades behind them. One of these ships, transformed into a hotel, +retained its name, the Niantic, and part of its characteristic interior +unchanged. I remember these ships' old tenants--the rats--who had +increased and multiplied to such an extent that at night they fearlessly +crossed the wayfarer's path at every turn, and even invaded the gilded +saloons of Montgomery Street. In the Niantic their pit-a-pat was met +on every staircase, and it was said that sometimes in an excess of +sociability they accompanied the traveler to his room. In the early +"cloth-and-papered" houses--so called because the ceilings were not +plastered, but simply covered by stretched and whitewashed cloth--their +scamperings were plainly indicated in zigzag movements of the sagging +cloth, or they became actually visible by finally dropping through the +holes they had worn in it! I remember the house whose foundations were +made of boxes of plug tobacco--part of a jettisoned cargo--used instead +of more expensive lumber; and the adjacent warehouse where the trunks of +the early and forgotten "forty-niners" were stored, and--never claimed +by their dead or missing owners--were finally sold at auction. I +remember the strong breath of the sea over all, and the constant onset +of the trade winds which helped to disinfect the deposit of dirt and +grime, decay and wreckage, which were stirred up in the later evolutions +of the city. + +Or I recall, with the same sense of youthful satisfaction and unabated +wonder, my wanderings through the Spanish Quarter, where three centuries +of quaint customs, speech, and dress were still preserved; where the +proverbs of Sancho Panza were still spoken in the language of Cervantes, +and the high-flown illusions of the La Manchian knight still a part +of the Spanish Californian hidalgo's dream. I recall the more modern +"Greaser," or Mexican--his index finger steeped in cigarette stains; +his velvet jacket and his crimson sash; the many-flounced skirt and lace +manta of his women, and their caressing intonations--the one musical +utterance of the whole hard-voiced city. I suppose I had a boy's +digestion and bluntness of taste in those days, for the combined odor of +tobacco, burned paper, and garlic, which marked that melodious breath, +did not affect me. + +Perhaps from my Puritan training I experienced a more fearful joy in the +gambling saloons. They were the largest and most comfortable, even as +they were the most expensively decorated rooms in San Francisco. Here +again the gravity and decorum which I have already alluded to were +present at that earlier period--though perhaps from concentration of +another kind. People staked and lost their last dollar with a calm +solemnity and a resignation that was almost Christian. The oaths, +exclamations, and feverish interruptions which often characterized more +dignified assemblies were absent here. There was no room for the lesser +vices; there was little or no drunkenness; the gaudily dressed and +painted women who presided over the wheels of fortune or performed on +the harp and piano attracted no attention from those ascetic players. +The man who had won ten thousand dollars and the man who had lost +everything rose from the table with equal silence and imperturbability. +I never witnessed any tragic sequel to those losses; I never heard of +any suicide on account of them. Neither can I recall any quarrel or +murder directly attributable to this kind of gambling. It must be +remembered that these public games were chiefly rouge et noir, monte, +faro, or roulette, in which the antagonist was Fate, Chance, Method, or +the impersonal "bank," which was supposed to represent them all; there +was no individual opposition or rivalry; nobody challenged the decision +of the "croupier," or dealer. + +I remember a conversation at the door of one saloon which was as +characteristic for its brevity as it was a type of the prevailing +stoicism. "Hello!" said a departing miner, as he recognized a brother +miner coming in, "when did you come down?" "This morning," was the +reply. "Made a strike on the bar?" suggested the first speaker. "You +bet!" said the other, and passed in. I chanced an hour later to be at +the same place as they met again--their relative positions changed. +"Hello! Whar now?" said the incomer. "Back to the bar." "Cleaned out?" +"You bet!" Not a word more explained a common situation. + +My first youthful experience at those tables was an accidental one. +I was watching roulette one evening, intensely absorbed in the mere +movement of the players. Either they were so preoccupied with the game, +or I was really older looking than my actual years, but a bystander laid +his hand familiarly on my shoulder, and said, as to an ordinary habitue, +"Ef you're not chippin' in yourself, pardner, s'pose you give ME a +show." Now I honestly believe that up to that moment I had no intention, +nor even a desire, to try my own fortune. But in the embarrassment of +the sudden address I put my hand in my pocket, drew out a coin, and laid +it, with an attempt at carelessness, but a vivid consciousness that I +was blushing, upon a vacant number. To my horror I saw that I had +put down a large coin--the bulk of my possessions! I did not flinch, +however; I think any boy who reads this will understand my feeling; it +was not only my coin but my manhood at stake. I gazed with a miserable +show of indifference at the players, at the chandelier--anywhere but at +the dreadful ball spinning round the wheel. There was a pause; the game +was declared, the rake rattled up and down, but still I did not look at +the table. Indeed, in my inexperience of the game and my embarrassment, +I doubt if I should have known if I had won or not. I had made up my +mind that I should lose, but I must do so like a man, and, above all, +without giving the least suspicion that I was a greenhorn. I even +affected to be listening to the music. The wheel spun again; the game +was declared, the rake was busy, but I did not move. At last the man +I had displaced touched me on the arm and whispered, "Better make a +straddle and divide your stake this time." I did not understand him, but +as I saw he was looking at the board, I was obliged to look, too. I drew +back dazed and bewildered! Where my coin had lain a moment before was a +glittering heap of gold. + +My stake had doubled, quadrupled, and doubled again. I did not know how +much then---I do not know now--it may have been not more than three or +four hundred dollars--but it dazzled and frightened me. "Make your +game, gentlemen," said the croupier monotonously. I thought he looked +at me--indeed, everybody seemed to be looking at me--and my companion +repeated his warning. But here I must again appeal to the boyish reader +in defense of my idiotic obstinacy. To have taken advice would have +shown my youth. I shook my head--I could not trust my voice. I smiled, +but with a sinking heart, and let my stake remain. The ball again sped +round the wheel, and stopped. There was a pause. The croupier indolently +advanced his rake and swept my whole pile with others into the bank! +I had lost it all. Perhaps it may be difficult for me to explain why I +actually felt relieved, and even to some extent triumphant, but I seemed +to have asserted my grown-up independence--possibly at the cost of +reducing the number of my meals for days; but what of that! I was a man! +I wish I could say that it was a lesson to me. I am afraid it was not. +It was true that I did not gamble again, but then I had no especial +desire to--and there was no temptation. I am afraid it was an incident +without a moral. Yet it had one touch characteristic of the period which +I like to remember. The man who had spoken to me, I think, suddenly +realized, at the moment of my disastrous coup, the fact of my extreme +youth. He moved toward the banker, and leaning over him whispered a few +words. The banker looked up, half impatiently, half kindly--his hand +straying tentatively toward the pile of coin. I instinctively knew what +he meant, and, summoning my determination, met his eyes with all the +indifference I could assume, and walked away. + +I had at that period a small room at the top of a house owned by a +distant relation--a second or third cousin, I think. He was a man of +independent and original character, had a Ulyssean experience of men and +cities, and an old English name of which he was proud. While in London +he had procured from the Heralds' College his family arms, whose +crest was stamped upon a quantity of plate he had brought with him to +California. The plate, together with an exceptionally good cook, which +he had also brought, and his own epicurean tastes, he utilized in the +usual practical Californian fashion by starting a rather expensive +half-club, half-restaurant in the lower part of the building--which he +ruled somewhat autocratically, as became his crest. The restaurant was +too expensive for me to patronize, but I saw many of its frequenters as +well as those who had rooms at the club. They were men of very +distinct personality; a few celebrated, and nearly all notorious. They +represented a Bohemianism--if such it could be called--less innocent +than my later experiences. I remember, however, one handsome young +fellow whom I used to meet occasionally on the staircase, who captured +my youthful fancy. I met him only at midday, as he did not rise till +late, and this fact, with a certain scrupulous elegance and neatness in +his dress, ought to have made me suspect that he was a gambler. In my +inexperience it only invested him with a certain romantic mystery. + +One morning as I was going out to my very early breakfast at a cheap +Italian cafe on Long Wharf, I was surprised to find him also descending +the staircase. He was scrupulously dressed even at that early hour, +but I was struck by the fact that he was all in black, and his slight +figure, buttoned to the throat in a tightly fitting frock coat, gave, I +fancied, a singular melancholy to his pale Southern face. Nevertheless, +he greeted me with more than his usual serene cordiality, and I +remembered that he looked up with a half-puzzled, half-amused expression +at the rosy morning sky as he walked a few steps with me down the +deserted street. I could not help saying that I was astonished to +see him up so early, and he admitted that it was a break in his usual +habits, but added with a smiling significance I afterwards remembered +that it was "an even chance if he did it again." As we neared the street +corner a man in a buggy drove up impatiently. In spite of the driver's +evident haste, my handsome acquaintance got in leisurely, and, lifting +his glossy hat to me with a pleasant smile, was driven away. I have +a very lasting recollection of his face and figure as the buggy +disappeared down the empty street. I never saw him again. It was not +until a week later that I knew that an hour after he left me that +morning he was lying dead in a little hollow behind the Mission +Dolores--shot through the heart in a duel for which he had risen so +early. + +I recall another incident of that period, equally characteristic, but +happily less tragic in sequel. I was in the restaurant one morning +talking to my cousin when a man entered hastily and said something to +him in a hurried whisper. My cousin contracted his eyebrows and uttered +a suppressed oath. Then with a gesture of warning to the man he crossed +the room quietly to a table where a regular habitue of the restaurant +was lazily finishing his breakfast. A large silver coffee-pot with a +stiff wooden handle stood on the table before him. My cousin leaned over +the guest familiarly and apparently made some hospitable inquiry as +to his wants, with his hand resting lightly on the coffee-pot handle. +Then--possibly because, my curiosity having been excited, I was watching +him more intently than the others--I saw what probably no one else +saw--that he deliberately upset the coffee-pot and its contents over +the guest's shirt and waistcoat. As the victim sprang up with +an exclamation, my cousin overwhelmed him with apologies for his +carelessness, and, with protestations of sorrow for the accident, +actually insisted upon dragging the man upstairs into his own private +room, where he furnished him with a shirt and waistcoat of his own. The +side door had scarcely closed upon them, and I was still lost in wonder +at what I had seen, when a man entered from the street. He was one of +the desperate set I have already spoken of, and thoroughly well known to +those present. He cast a glance around the room, nodded to one or two of +the guests, and then walked to a side table and took up a newspaper. I +was conscious at once that a singular constraint had come over the other +guests--a nervous awkwardness that at last seemed to make itself known +to the man himself, who, after an affected yawn or two, laid down the +paper and walked out. + +"That was a mighty close call," said one of the guests with a sigh of +relief. + +"You bet! And that coffee-pot spill was the luckiest kind of accident +for Peters," returned another. + +"For both," added the first speaker, "for Peters was armed too, and +would have seen him come in!" + +A word or two explained all. Peters and the last comer had quarreled +a day or two before, and had separated with the intention to "shoot +on sight," that is, wherever they met,--a form of duel common to those +days. The accidental meeting in the restaurant would have been the +occasion, with the usual sanguinary consequence, but for the word +of warning given to my cousin by a passer-by who knew that Peters' +antagonist was coming to the restaurant to look at the papers. Had +my cousin repeated the warning to Peters himself he would only have +prepared him for the conflict--which he would not have shirked--and so +precipitated the affray. + +The ruse of upsetting the coffee-pot, which everybody but myself thought +an accident, was to get him out of the room before the other entered. I +was too young then to venture to intrude upon my cousin's secrets, but +two or three years afterwards I taxed him with the trick and he admitted +it regretfully. I believe that a strict interpretation of the "code" +would have condemned his act as unsportsmanlike, if not UNFAIR! + +I recall another incident connected with the building equally +characteristic of the period. The United States Branch Mint stood very +near it, and its tall, factory-like chimneys overshadowed my cousin's +roof. Some scandal had arisen from an alleged leakage of gold in the +manipulation of that metal during the various processes of smelting +and refining. One of the excuses offered was the volatilization of the +precious metal and its escape through the draft of the tall chimneys. +All San Francisco laughed at this explanation until it learned that a +corroboration of the theory had been established by an assay of the dust +and grime of the roofs in the vicinity of the Mint. These had yielded +distinct traces of gold. San Francisco stopped laughing, and that +portion of it which had roofs in the neighborhood at once began +prospecting. Claims were staked out on these airy placers, and my +cousin's roof, being the very next one to the chimney, and presumably +"in the lead," was disposed of to a speculative company for a +considerable sum. I remember my cousin telling me the story--for the +occurrence was quite recent--and taking me with him to the roof to +explain it, but I am afraid I was more attracted by the mystery of the +closely guarded building, and the strangely tinted smoke which arose +from this temple where money was actually being "made," than by anything +else. Nor did I dream as I stood there--a very lanky, open-mouthed +youth--that only three or four years later I should be the secretary of +its superintendent. In my more adventurous ambition I am afraid I would +have accepted the suggestion half-heartedly. Merely to have helped to +stamp the gold which other people had adventurously found was by no +means a part of my youthful dreams. + +At the time of these earlier impressions the Chinese had not yet become +the recognized factors in the domestic and business economy of the city +which they had come to be when I returned from the mines three years +later. Yet they were even then a more remarkable and picturesque +contrast to the bustling, breathless, and brand-new life of San +Francisco than the Spaniard. The latter seldom flaunted his faded +dignity in the principal thoroughfares. "John" was to be met everywhere. +It was a common thing to see a long file of sampan coolies carrying +their baskets slung between them, on poles, jostling a modern, +well-dressed crowd in Montgomery Street, or to get a whiff of their +burned punk in the side streets; while the road leading to their +temporary burial-ground at Lone Mountain was littered with slips of +colored paper scattered from their funerals. They brought an atmosphere +of the Arabian Nights into the hard, modern civilization; their +shops--not always confined at that time to a Chinese quarter--were +replicas of the bazaars of Canton and Peking, with their quaint display +of little dishes on which tidbits of food delicacies were exposed for +sale, all of the dimensions and unreality of a doll's kitchen or a +child's housekeeping. + +They were a revelation to the Eastern immigrant, whose preconceived +ideas of them were borrowed from the ballet or pantomime; they did not +wear scalloped drawers and hats with jingling bells on their points, nor +did I ever see them dance with their forefingers vertically extended. +They were always neatly dressed, even the commonest of coolies, and +their festive dresses were marvels. As traders they were grave and +patient; as servants they were sad and civil, and all were singularly +infantine in their natural simplicity. The living representatives of the +oldest civilization in the world, they seemed like children. Yet they +kept their beliefs and sympathies to themselves, never fraternizing with +the fanqui, or foreign devil, or losing their singular racial qualities. +They indulged in their own peculiar habits; of their social and inner +life, San Francisco knew but little and cared less. Even at this early +period, and before I came to know them more intimately, I remember +an incident of their daring fidelity to their own customs that was +accidentally revealed to me. I had become acquainted with a Chinese +youth of about my own age, as I imagined,--although from mere outward +appearance it was generally impossible to judge of a Chinaman's age +between the limits of seventeen and forty years,--and he had, in a burst +of confidence, taken me to see some characteristic sights in a Chinese +warehouse within a stone's throw of the Plaza. I was struck by the +singular circumstance that while the warehouse was an erection of wood +in the ordinary hasty Californian style, there were certain brick and +stone divisions in its interior, like small rooms or closets, evidently +added by the Chinamen tenants. My companion stopped before a long, very +narrow entrance, a mere longitudinal slit in the brick wall, and with a +wink of infantine deviltry motioned me to look inside. I did so, and saw +a room, really a cell, of fair height but scarcely six feet square, +and barely able to contain a rude, slanting couch of stone covered with +matting, on which lay, at a painful angle, a richly dressed Chinaman. +A single glance at his dull, staring, abstracted eyes and half-opened +mouth showed me he was in an opium trance. This was not in itself a +novel sight, and I was moving away when I was suddenly startled by the +appearance of his hands, which were stretched helplessly before him on +his body, and at first sight seemed to be in a kind of wicker cage. + +I then saw that his finger-nails were seven or eight inches long, and +were supported by bamboo splints. Indeed, they were no longer human +nails, but twisted and distorted quills, giving him the appearance +of having gigantic claws. "Velly big Chinaman," whispered my cheerful +friend; "first-chop man--high classee--no can washee--no can eat--no +dlinke, no catchee him own glub allee same nothee man--China boy must +catchee glub for him, allee time! Oh, him first-chop man--you bettee!" + +I had heard of this singular custom of indicating caste before, and +was amazed and disgusted, but I was not prepared for what followed. My +companion, evidently thinking he had impressed me, grew more reckless +as showman, and saying to me, "Now me showee you one funny thing--heap +makee you laugh," led me hurriedly across a little courtyard swarming +with chickens and rabbits, when he stopped before another inclosure. +Suddenly brushing past an astonished Chinaman who seemed to be standing +guard, he thrust me into the inclosure in front of a most extraordinary +object. It was a Chinaman, wearing a huge, square, wooden frame fastened +around his neck like a collar, and fitting so tightly and rigidly that +the flesh rose in puffy weals around his cheeks. He was chained to a +post, although it was as impossible for him to have escaped with his +wooden cage through the narrow doorway as it was for him to lie down +and rest in it. Yet I am bound to say that his eyes and face expressed +nothing but apathy, and there was no appeal to the sympathy of the +stranger. My companion said hurriedly,-- + +"Velly bad man; stealee heap from Chinamen," and then, apparently +alarmed at his own indiscreet intrusion, hustled me away as quickly as +possible amid a shrill cackling of protestation from a few of his own +countrymen who had joined the one who was keeping guard. In another +moment we were in the street again--scarce a step from the Plaza, in the +full light of Western civilization--not a stone's throw from the courts +of justice. + +My companion took to his heels and left me standing there bewildered +and indignant. I could not rest until I had told my story, but without +betraying my companion, to an elder acquaintance, who laid the +facts before the police authorities. I had expected to be closely +cross-examined--to be doubted--to be disbelieved. To my surprise, I was +told that the police had already cognizance of similar cases of illegal +and barbarous punishments, but that the victims themselves refused to +testify against their countrymen--and it was impossible to convict or +even to identify them. "A white man can't tell one Chinese from another, +and there are always a dozen of 'em ready to swear that the man you've +got isn't the one." I was startled to reflect that I, too, could not +have conscientiously sworn to either jailor or the tortured prisoner--or +perhaps even to my cheerful companion. The police, on some pretext, made +a raid upon the premises a day or two afterwards, but without result. +I wondered if they had caught sight of the high-class, first-chop +individual, with the helplessly outstretched fingers, as that story I +had kept to myself. + +But these barbaric vestiges in John Chinaman's habits did not affect his +relations with the San Franciscans. He was singularly peaceful, docile, +and harmless as a servant, and, with rare exceptions, honest and +temperate. If he sometimes matched cunning with cunning, it was the +flattery of imitation. He did most of the menial work of San Francisco, +and did it cleanly. Except that he exhaled a peculiar druglike odor, he +was not personally offensive in domestic contact, and by virtue of being +the recognized laundryman of the whole community his own blouses were +always freshly washed and ironed. His conversational reserve arose, not +from his having to deal with an unfamiliar language,--for he had picked +up a picturesque and varied vocabulary with ease,--but from his natural +temperament. He was devoid of curiosity, and utterly unimpressed by +anything but the purely business concerns of those he served. Domestic +secrets were safe with him; his indifference to your thoughts, actions, +and feelings had all the contempt which his three thousand years of +history and his innate belief in your inferiority seemed to justify. He +was blind and deaf in your household because you didn't interest him +in the least. It was said that a gentleman, who wished to test his +impassiveness, arranged with his wife to come home one day and, in the +hearing of his Chinese waiter who was more than usually intelligent--to +disclose with well-simulated emotion the details of a murder he had just +committed. He did so. The Chinaman heard it without a sign of horror +or attention even to the lifting of an eyelid, but continued his duties +unconcerned. Unfortunately, the gentleman, in order to increase the +horror of the situation, added that now there was nothing left for him +but to cut his throat. At this John quietly left the room. The gentleman +was delighted at the success of his ruse until the door reopened and +John reappeared with his master's razor, which he quietly slipped--as +if it had been a forgotten fork--beside his master's plate, and calmly +resumed his serving. I have always considered this story to be quite as +improbable as it was inartistic, from its tacit admission of a certain +interest on the part of the Chinaman. I never knew one who would have +been sufficiently concerned to go for the razor. + +His taciturnity and reticence may have been confounded with rudeness of +address, although he was always civil enough. "I see you have listened +to me and done exactly what I told you," said a lady, commending some +performance of her servant after a previous lengthy lecture; "that's +very nice." "Yes," said John calmly, "you talkee allee time; talkee +allee too much." "I always find Ling very polite," said another +lady, speaking of her cook, "but I wish he did not always say to me, +'Goodnight, John,' in a high falsetto voice." She had not recognized the +fact that he was simply repeating her own salutation with his marvelous +instinct of relentless imitation, even as to voice. I hesitate to record +the endless stories of his misapplication of that faculty which were +then current, from the one of the laundryman who removed the buttons +from the shirts that were sent to him to wash that they might agree with +the condition of the one offered him as a pattern for "doing up," to +that of the unfortunate employer who, while showing John how to handle +valuable china carefully, had the misfortune to drop a plate himself--an +accident which was followed by the prompt breaking of another by the +neophyte, with the addition of "Oh, hellee!" in humble imitation of his +master. + +I have spoken of his general cleanliness; I am reminded of one or two +exceptions, which I think, however, were errors of zeal. His manner of +sprinkling clothes in preparing them for ironing was peculiar. He would +fill his mouth with perfectly pure water from a glass beside him, and +then, by one dexterous movement of his lips in a prolonged expiration, +squirt the water in an almost invisible misty shower on the article +before him. Shocking as this was at first to the sensibilities of many +American employers, it was finally accepted, and even commended. It was +some time after this that the mistress of a household, admiring the deft +way in which her cook had spread a white sauce on certain dishes, was +cheerfully informed that the method was "allee same." + +His recreations at that time were chiefly gambling, for the Chinese +theatre wherein the latter produced his plays (which lasted for several +months and comprised the events of a whole dynasty) was not yet built. +But he had one or two companies of jugglers who occasionally performed +also at American theatres. I remember a singular incident which attended +the debut of a newly arrived company. It seemed that the company had +been taken on their Chinese reputation solely, and there had been no +previous rehearsal before the American stage manager. The theatre was +filled with an audience of decorous and respectable San Franciscans of +both sexes. It was suddenly emptied in the middle of the performance; +the curtain came down with an alarmed and blushing manager apologizing +to deserted benches, and the show abruptly terminated. Exactly WHAT +had happened never appeared in the public papers, nor in the published +apology of the manager. It afforded a few days' mirth for wicked San +Francisco, and it was epigrammatically summed up in the remark that "no +woman could be found in San Francisco who was at that performance, and +no man who was not." Yet it was alleged even by John's worst detractors +that he was innocent of any intended offense. Equally innocent, but +perhaps more morally instructive, was an incident that brought his +career as a singularly successful physician to a disastrous close. +An ordinary native Chinese doctor, practicing entirely among his own +countrymen, was reputed to have made extraordinary cures with two +or three American patients. With no other advertising than this, and +apparently no other inducement offered to the public than what their +curiosity suggested, he was presently besieged by hopeful and eager +sufferers. Hundreds of patients were turned away from his crowded doors. +Two interpreters sat, day and night, translating the ills of ailing +San Francisco to this medical oracle, and dispensing his +prescriptions--usually small powders--in exchange for current coin. In +vain the regular practitioners pointed out that the Chinese possessed +no superior medical knowledge, and that their religion, which proscribed +dissection and autopsies, naturally limited their understanding of the +body into which they put their drugs. Finally they prevailed upon an +eminent Chinese authority to give them a list of the remedies generally +used in the Chinese pharmacopoeia, and this was privately circulated. +For obvious reasons I may not repeat it here. But it was summed +up--again after the usual Californian epigrammatic style--by the remark +that "whatever were the comparative merits of Chinese and American +practice, a simple perusal of the list would prove that the Chinese were +capable of producing the most powerful emetic known." The craze subsided +in a single day; the interpreters and their oracle vanished; the Chinese +doctors' signs, which had multiplied, disappeared, and San Francisco +awoke cured of its madness, at the cost of some thousand dollars. + +My Bohemian wanderings were confined to the limits of the city, for the +very good reason that there was little elsewhere to go. San Francisco +was then bounded on one side by the monotonously restless waters of the +bay, and on the other by a stretch of equally restless and monotonously +shifting sand dunes as far as the Pacific shore. Two roads penetrated +this waste: one to Lone Mountain--the cemetery; the other to the Cliff +House--happily described as "an eight-mile drive with a cocktail at +the end of it." Nor was the humor entirely confined to this felicitous +description. The Cliff House itself, half restaurant, half drinking +saloon, fronting the ocean and the Seal Rock, where disporting seals +were the chief object of interest, had its own peculiar symbol. The +decanters, wine-glasses, and tumblers at the bar were all engraved +in old English script with the legal initials "L. S." (Locus +Sigilli),--"the place of the seal." + +On the other hand, Lone Mountain, a dreary promontory giving upon the +Golden Gate and its striking sunsets, had little to soften its weird +suggestiveness. As the common goal of the successful and unsuccessful, +the carved and lettered shaft of the man who had made a name, and the +staring blank headboard of the man who had none, climbed the sandy +slopes together. I have seen the funerals of the respectable citizen who +had died peacefully in his bed, and the notorious desperado who had +died "with his boots on," followed by an equally impressive cortege of +sorrowing friends, and often the self-same priest. But more awful than +its barren loneliness was the utter absence of peacefulness and rest +in this dismal promontory. By some wicked irony of its situation and +climate it was the personification of unrest and change. The incessant +trade winds carried its loose sands hither and thither, uncovering the +decaying coffins of early pioneers, to bury the wreaths and flowers, +laid on a grave of to-day, under their obliterating waves. No tree to +shade them from the glaring sky above could live in those winds, no +turf would lie there to resist the encroaching sand below. The dead +were harried and hustled even in their graves by the persistent sun, the +unremitting wind, and the unceasing sea. The departing mourner saw the +contour of the very mountain itself change with the shifting dunes as +he passed, and his last look beyond rested on the hurrying, eager waves +forever hastening to the Golden Gate. + +If I were asked to say what one thing impressed me as the dominant and +characteristic note of San Francisco, I should say it was this untiring +presence of sun and wind and sea. They typified, even if they were not, +as I sometimes fancied, the actual incentive to the fierce, restless +life of the city. I could not think of San Francisco without the trade +winds; I could not imagine its strange, incongruous, multigenerous +procession marching to any other music. They were always there in my +youthful recollections; they were there in my more youthful dreams of +the past as the mysterious vientes generales that blew the Philippine +galleons home. + +For six months they blew from the northwest, for six months from the +southwest, with unvarying persistency. They were there every morning, +glittering in the equally persistent sunlight, to chase the San +Franciscan from his slumber; they were there at midday, to stir his +pulses with their beat; they were there again at night, to hurry him +through the bleak and flaring gas-lit streets to bed. They left their +mark on every windward street or fence or gable, on the outlying sand +dunes; they lashed the slow coasters home, and hurried them to sea +again; they whipped the bay into turbulence on their way to Contra +Costa, whose level shoreland oaks they had trimmed to windward as +cleanly and sharply as with a pruning-shears. Untiring themselves, they +allowed no laggards; they drove the San Franciscan from the wall against +which he would have leaned, from the scant shade in which at noontide he +might have rested. They turned his smallest fires into conflagrations, +and kept him ever alert, watchful, and eager. In return, they scavenged +his city and held it clean and wholesome; in summer they brought him the +soft sea-fog for a few hours to soothe his abraded surfaces; in winter +they brought the rains and dashed the whole coast-line with flowers, and +the staring sky above it with soft, unwonted clouds. They were always +there--strong, vigilant, relentless, material, unyielding, triumphant. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Under the Redwoods, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER THE REDWOODS *** + +***** This file should be named 2555.txt or 2555.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/5/2555/ + +Produced by Donald Lainson + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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