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diff --git a/2712.txt b/2712.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d00b799 --- /dev/null +++ b/2712.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1124 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Drift from Redwood Camp, 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: A Drift from Redwood Camp + +Author: Bret Harte + +Release Date: May 25, 2006 [EBook #2712] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP *** + + + + +Produced by Donald Lainson + + + + + +A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP + + +by Bret Harte + + +They had all known him as a shiftless, worthless creature. From the +time he first entered Redwood Camp, carrying his entire effects in a +red handkerchief on the end of a long-handled shovel, until he lazily +drifted out of it on a plank in the terrible inundation of '56, they +never expected anything better of him. In a community of strong men with +sullen virtues and charmingly fascinating vices, he was tolerated as +possessing neither--not even rising by any dominant human weakness or +ludicrous quality to the importance of a butt. In the dramatis +personae of Redwood Camp he was a simple "super"--who had only passive, +speechless roles in those fierce dramas that were sometimes unrolled +beneath its green-curtained pines. Nameless and penniless, he was +overlooked by the census and ignored by the tax collector, while in a +hotly-contested election for sheriff, when even the head-boards of the +scant cemetery were consulted to fill the poll-lists, it was discovered +that neither candidate had thought fit to avail himself of his actual +vote. He was debarred the rude heraldry of a nickname of achievement, +and in a camp made up of "Euchre Bills," "Poker Dicks," "Profane Pete," +and "Snap-shot Harry," was known vaguely as "him," "Skeesicks," or "that +coot." It was remembered long after, with a feeling of superstition, +that he had never even met with the dignity of an accident, nor received +the fleeting honor of a chance shot meant for somebody else in any of +the liberal and broadly comprehensive encounters which distinguished the +camp. And the inundation that finally carried him out of it was +partly anticipated by his passive incompetency, for while the others +escaped--or were drowned in escaping--he calmly floated off on his plank +without an opposing effort. + +For all that, Elijah Martin--which was his real name--was far from being +unamiable or repellent. That he was cowardly, untruthful, selfish, and +lazy, was undoubtedly the fact; perhaps it was his peculiar misfortune +that, just then, courage, frankness, generosity, and activity were the +dominant factors in the life of Redwood Camp. His submissive gentleness, +his unquestioned modesty, his half refinement, and his amiable exterior +consequently availed him nothing against the fact that he was missed +during a raid of the Digger Indians, and lied to account for it; or that +he lost his right to a gold discovery by failing to make it good against +a bully, and selfishly kept this discovery from the knowledge of the +camp. Yet this weakness awakened no animosity in his companions, and it +is probable that the indifference of the camp to his fate in this final +catastrophe came purely from a simple forgetfulness of one who at that +supreme moment was weakly incapable. + +Such was the reputation and such the antecedents of the man who, on the +15th of March, 1856, found himself adrift in a swollen tributary of the +Minyo. A spring freshet of unusual volume had flooded the adjacent river +until, bursting its bounds, it escaped through the narrow, wedge-shaped +valley that held Redwood Camp. For a day and night the surcharged river +poured half its waters through the straggling camp. At the end of that +time every vestige of the little settlement was swept away; all that was +left was scattered far and wide in the country, caught in the hanging +branches of water-side willows and alders, embayed in sluggish pools, +dragged over submerged meadows, and one fragment--bearing up Elijah +Martin--pursuing the devious courses of an unknown tributary fifty miles +away. Had he been a rash, impatient man, he would have been speedily +drowned in some earlier desperate attempt to reach the shore; had he +been an ordinary bold man, he would have succeeded in transferring +himself to the branches of some obstructing tree; but he was neither, +and he clung to his broken raft-like berth with an endurance that +was half the paralysis of terror and half the patience of habitual +misfortune. Eventually he was caught in a side current, swept to the +bank, and cast ashore on an unexplored wilderness. + +His first consciousness was one of hunger that usurped any sentiment +of gratitude for his escape from drowning. As soon as his cramped limbs +permitted, he crawled out of the bushes in search of food. He did +not know where he was; there was no sign of habitation--or even +occupation--anywhere. He had been too terrified to notice the direction +in which he had drifted--even if he had possessed the ordinary knowledge +of a backwoodsman, which he did not. He was helpless. In his bewildered +state, seeing a squirrel cracking a nut on the branch of a hollow tree +near him, he made a half-frenzied dart at the frightened animal, which +ran away. But the same association of ideas in his torpid and confused +brain impelled him to search for the squirrel's hoard in the hollow +of the tree. He ate the few hazel-nuts he found there, ravenously. The +purely animal instinct satisfied, he seemed to have borrowed from it a +certain strength and intuition. He limped through the thicket not +unlike some awkward, shy quadrumane, stopping here and there to peer +out through the openings over the marshes that lay beyond. His sight, +hearing, and even the sense of smell had become preternaturally acute. +It was the latter which suddenly arrested his steps with the odor +of dried fish. It had a significance beyond the mere instincts of +hunger--it indicated the contiguity of some Indian encampment. And as +such--it meant danger, torture, and death. + +He stopped, trembled violently, and tried to collect his scattered +senses. Redwood Camp had embroiled itself needlessly and brutally with +the surrounding Indians, and only held its own against them by reckless +courage and unerring marksmanship. The frequent use of a casual +wandering Indian as a target for the practising rifles of its members +had kept up an undying hatred in the heart of the aborigines and +stimulated them to terrible and isolated reprisals. The scalped and +skinned dead body of Jack Trainer, tied on his horse and held hideously +upright by a cross of wood behind his saddle, had passed, one night, +a slow and ghastly apparition, into camp; the corpse of Dick Ryner had +been found anchored on the river-bed, disembowelled and filled with +stone and gravel. The solitary and unprotected member of Redwood Camp +who fell into the enemy's hands was doomed. + +Elijah Martin remembered this, but his fears gradually began to subside +in a certain apathy of the imagination, which, perhaps, dulled his +apprehensions and allowed the instinct of hunger to become again +uppermost. He knew that the low bark tents, or wigwams, of the Indians +were hung with strips of dried salmon, and his whole being was new +centered upon an attempt to stealthily procure a delicious morsel. As +yet he had distinguished no other sign of life or habitation; a +few moments later, however, and grown bolder with an animal-like +trustfulness in his momentary security, he crept out of the thicket and +found himself near a long, low mound or burrow-like structure of mud and +bark on the river-bank. A single narrow opening, not unlike the entrance +of an Esquimau hut, gave upon the river. Martin had no difficulty in +recognizing the character of the building. It was a "sweathouse," an +institution common to nearly all the aboriginal tribes of California. +Half a religious temple, it was also half a sanitary asylum, was used as +a Russian bath or superheated vault, from which the braves, sweltering +and stifling all night, by smothered fires, at early dawn plunged, +perspiring, into the ice-cold river. The heat and smoke were further +utilized to dry and cure the long strips of fish hanging from the roof, +and it was through the narrow aperture that served as a chimney that the +odor escaped which Martin had detected. He knew that as the bathers +only occupied the house from midnight to early morn, it was now probably +empty. He advanced confidently toward it. + +He was a little surprised to find that the small open space between it +and the river was occupied by a rude scaffolding, like that on which +certain tribes exposed their dead, but in this instance it only +contained the feathered leggings, fringed blanket, and eagle-plumed +head-dress of some brave. He did not, however, linger in this plainly +visible area, but quickly dropped on all fours and crept into the +interior of the house. Here he completed his feast with the fish, and +warmed his chilled limbs on the embers of the still smouldering fires. +It was while drying his tattered clothes and shoeless feet that he +thought of the dead brave's useless leggings and moccasins, and it +occurred to him that he would be less likely to attract the Indians' +attention from a distance and provoke a ready arrow, if he were +disguised as one of them. Crawling out again, he quickly secured, not +only the leggings, but the blanket and head-dress, and putting them on, +cast his own clothes into the stream. A bolder, more energetic, or more +provident man would have followed the act by quickly making his way +back to the thicket to reconnoitre, taking with him a supply of fish for +future needs. But Elijah Martin succumbed again to the recklessness +of inertia; he yielded once more to the animal instinct of momentary +security. He returned to the interior of the hut, curled himself again +on the ashes, and weakly resolving to sleep until moonrise, and as +weakly hesitating, ended by falling into uneasy but helpless stupor. + +When he awoke, the rising sun, almost level with the low entrance to +the sweat-house, was darting its direct rays into the interior, as +if searching it with fiery spears. He had slept ten hours. He rose +tremblingly to his knees. Everything was quiet without; he might yet +escape. He crawled to the opening. The open space before it was empty, +but the scaffolding was gone. The clear, keen air revived him. As he +sprang out, erect, a shout that nearly stunned him seemed to rise from +the earth on all sides. He glanced around him in a helpless agony of +fear. A dozen concentric circles of squatting Indians, whose heads were +visible above the reeds, encompassed the banks around the sunken base +of the sweat-house with successive dusky rings. Every avenue of escape +seemed closed. Perhaps for that reason the attitude of his surrounding +captors was passive rather than aggressive, and the shrewd, half-Hebraic +profiles nearest him expressed only stoical waiting. There was a strange +similarity of expression in his own immovable apathy of despair. His +only sense of averting his fate was a confused idea of explaining his +intrusion. His desperate memory yielded a few common Indian words. He +pointed automatically to himself and the stream. His white lips moved. + +"I come--from--the river!" + +A guttural cry, as if the whole assembly were clearing their throats, +went round the different circles. The nearest rocked themselves to +and fro and bent their feathered heads toward him. A hollow-cheeked, +decrepit old man arose and said, simply:-- + +"It is he! The great chief has come!" + +***** + +He was saved. More than that, he was re-created. For, by signs and +intimations he was quickly made aware that since the death of their +late chief, their medicine-men had prophesied that his perfect successor +should appear miraculously before them, borne noiselessly on the river +FROM THE SEA, in the plumes and insignia of his predecessor. This mere +coincidence of appearance and costume might not have been convincing to +the braves had not Elijah Martin's actual deficiencies contributed to +their unquestioned faith in him. Not only his inert possession of the +sweat-house and his apathetic attitude in their presence, but his utter +and complete unlikeness to the white frontiersmen of their knowledge and +tradition--creatures of fire and sword and malevolent activity--as well +as his manifest dissimilarity to themselves, settled their conviction +of his supernatural origin. His gentle, submissive voice, his yielding +will, his lazy helplessness, the absence of strange weapons and fierce +explosives in his possession, his unwonted sobriety--all proved him an +exception to his apparent race that was in itself miraculous. For it +must be confessed that, in spite of the cherished theories of most +romances and all statesmen and commanders, that FEAR is the great +civilizer of the savage barbarian, and that he is supposed to regard +the prowess of the white man and his mysterious death-dealing weapons +as evidence of his supernatural origin and superior creation, the facts +have generally pointed to the reverse. Elijah Martin was not long in +discovering that when the Minyo hunter, with his obsolete bow, dropped +dead by a bullet from a viewless and apparently noiseless space, it +was NOT considered the lightnings of an avenging Deity, but was traced +directly to the ambushed rifle of Kansas Joe, swayed by a viciousness +quite as human as their own; the spectacle of Blizzard Dick, verging +on delirium tremens, and riding "amuck" into an Indian village with a +revolver in each hand, did NOT impress them as a supernatural act, nor +excite their respectful awe as much as the less harmful frenzy of one +of their own medicine-men; they were NOT influenced by implacable white +gods, who relaxed only to drive hard bargains and exchange mildewed +flour and shoddy blankets for their fish and furs. I am afraid they +regarded these raids of Christian civilization as they looked upon +grasshopper plagues, famines, inundations, and epidemics; while an +utterly impassive God washed his hands of the means he had employed, and +even encouraged the faithful to resist and overcome his emissaries--the +white devils! Had Elijah Martin been a student of theology, he +would have been struck with the singular resemblance of these +theories--although the application thereof was reversed--to the +Christian faith. But Elijah Martin had neither the imagination of +a theologian nor the insight of a politician. He only saw that he, +hitherto ignored and despised in a community of half-barbaric men, +now translated to a community of men wholly savage, was respected and +worshipped! + +It might have turned a stronger head than Elijah's. He was at first +frightened, fearful lest his reception concealed some hidden irony, +or that, like the flower-crowned victim of ancient sacrifice, he was +exalted and sustained to give importance and majesty to some impending +martyrdom. Then he began to dread that his innocent deceit--if deceit it +was--should be discovered; at last, partly from meekness and partly from +the animal contentment of present security, he accepted the situation. +Fortunately for him it was purely passive. The Great Chief of the Minyo +tribe was simply an expressionless idol of flesh and blood. The previous +incumbent of that office had been an old man, impotent and senseless +of late years through age and disease. The chieftains and braves had +consulted in council before him, and perfunctorily submitted their +decisions, like offerings, to his unresponsive shrine. In the same way, +all material events--expeditions, trophies, industries--were supposed +to pass before the dull, impassive eyes of the great chief, for direct +acceptance. On the second day of Elijah's accession, two of the braves +brought a bleeding human scalp before him. Elijah turned pale, trembled, +and averted his head, and then, remembering the danger of giving way +to his weakness, grew still more ghastly. The warriors watched him with +impassioned faces. A grunt--but whether of astonishment, dissent, or +approval, he would not tell--went round the circle. But the scalp was +taken away and never again appeared in his presence. + +An incident still more alarming quickly followed. Two captives, white +men, securely bound, were one day brought before him on their way to +the stake, followed by a crowd of old and young squaws and children. The +unhappy Elijah recognized in the prisoners two packers from a distant +settlement who sometimes passed through Redwood Camp. An agony of +terror, shame, and remorse shook the pseudo chief to his crest of high +feathers, and blanched his face beneath its paint and yellow ochre. To +interfere to save them from the torture they were evidently to receive +at the hands of those squaws and children, according to custom, would be +exposure and death to him as well as themselves; while to assist by his +passive presence at the horrible sacrifice of his countrymen was too +much for even his weak selfishness. Scarcely knowing what he did as the +lugubrious procession passed before him, he hurriedly hid his face +in his blanket and turned his back upon the scene. There was a dead +silence. The warriors were evidently unprepared for this extraordinary +conduct of their chief. What might have been their action it was +impossible to conjecture, for at that moment a little squaw, perhaps +impatient for the sport and partly emboldened by the fact that she +had been selected, only a few days before, as the betrothed of the new +chief, approached him slyly from the other side. The horrified eyes of +Elijah, momentarily raised from his blanket, saw and recognized her. The +feebleness of a weak nature, that dared not measure itself directly with +the real cause, vented its rage on a secondary object. He darted a quick +glance of indignation and hatred at the young girl. She ran back in +startled terror to her companions, a hurried consultation followed, and +in another moment the whole bevy of girls, old women, and children were +on the wing, shrieking and crying, to their wigwams. + +"You see," said one of the prisoners coolly to the other, in English, +"I was right. They never intended to do anything to us. It was only a +bluff. These Minyos are a different sort from the other tribes. They +never kill anybody if they can help it." + +"You're wrong," said the other, excitedly. "It was that big chief there, +with his head in a blanket, that sent those dogs to the right about. +Hell! did you see them run at just a look from him? He's a high and +mighty feller, you bet. Look at his dignity!" + +"That's so--he ain't no slouch," said the other, gazing at Elijah's +muffled head, critically. "D----d if he ain't a born king." + +The sudden conflict and utter revulsion of emotion that those simple +words caused in Elijah's breast was almost incredible. He had been at +first astounded by the revelation of the peaceful reputation of +the unknown tribe he had been called upon to govern; but even this +comforting assurance was as nothing compared to the greater revelations +implied in the speaker's praise of himself. He, Elijah Martin! +the despised, the rejected, the worthless outcast of Redwood Camp, +recognized as a "born king," a leader; his power felt by the very men +who had scorned him! And he had done nothing--stop! had he actually done +NOTHING? Was it not possible that he was REALLY what they thought him? +His brain reeled under the strong, unaccustomed wine of praise; acting +upon his weak selfishness, it exalted him for a moment to their measure +of his strength, even as their former belief in his inefficiency had +kept him down. Courage is too often only the memory of past success. +This was his first effort; he forgot he had not earned it, even as +he now ignored the danger of earning it. The few words of unconscious +praise had fallen like the blade of knighthood on his cowering +shoulders; he had risen ennobled from the contact. Though his face was +still muffled in his blanket, he stood erect and seemed to have gained +in stature. + +The braves had remained standing irresolute, and yet watchful, a few +paces from their captives. Suddenly, Elijah, still keeping his back +to the prisoners, turned upon the braves, with blazing eyes, violently +throwing out his hands with the gesture of breaking bonds. Like all +sudden demonstrations of undemonstrative men, it was extravagant, weird, +and theatrical. But it was more potent than speech--the speech that, +even if effective, would still have betrayed him to his countrymen. +The braves hurriedly cut the thongs of the prisoners; another impulsive +gesture from Elijah, and they, too, fled. When he lifted his eyes +cautiously from his blanket, captors and captives had dispersed in +opposite directions, and he was alone--and triumphant! + +From that moment Elijah Martin was another man. He went to bed that +night in an intoxicating dream of power; he arose a man of will, of +strength. He read it in the eyes of the braves, albeit at times averted +in wonder. He understood, now, that although peace had been their +habit and custom, they had nevertheless sought to test his theories of +administration with the offering of the scalps and the captives, and in +this detection of their common weakness he forgot his own. Most heroes +require the contrast of the unheroic to set them off; and Elijah +actually found himself devising means for strengthening the defensive +and offensive character of the tribe, and was himself strengthened +by it. Meanwhile the escaped packers did not fail to heighten +the importance of their adventure by elevating the character and +achievements of their deliverer; and it was presently announced +throughout the frontier settlements that the hitherto insignificant and +peaceful tribe of Minyos, who inhabited a large territory bordering on +the Pacific Ocean, had developed into a powerful nation, only kept from +the war-path by a more powerful but mysterious chief. The Government +sent an Indian agent to treat with them, in its usual half-paternal, +half-aggressive, and wholly inconsistent policy. Elijah, who still +retained the imitative sense and adaptability to surroundings which +belong to most lazy, impressible natures, and in striped yellow and +vermilion features looked the chief he personated, met the agent with +silent and becoming gravity. The council was carried on by signs. +Never before had an Indian treaty been entered into with such perfect +knowledge of the intentions and designs of the whites by the Indians, +and such profound ignorance of the qualities of the Indians by the +whites. It need scarcely be said that the treaty was an unquestionable +Indian success. They did not give up their arable lands; what they did +sell to the agent they refused to exchange for extravagant-priced shoddy +blankets, worthless guns, damp powder, and mouldy meal. They took pay in +dollars, and were thus enabled to open more profitable commerce with the +traders at the settlements for better goods and better bargains; they +simply declined beads, whiskey, and Bibles at any price. The result +was that the traders found it profitable to protect them from their +countrymen, and the chances of wantonly shooting down a possible +valuable customer stopped the old indiscriminate rifle-practice. +The Indians were allowed to cultivate their fields in peace. Elijah +purchased for them a few agricultural implements. The catching, curing, +and smoking of salmon became an important branch of trade. They waxed +prosperous and rich; they lost their nomadic habits--a centralized +settlement bearing the external signs of an Indian village took the +place of their old temporary encampments, but the huts were internally +an improvement on the old wigwams. The dried fish were banished from the +tent-poles to long sheds especially constructed for that purpose. The +sweat-house was no longer utilized for worldly purposes. The wise and +mighty Elijah did not attempt to reform their religion, but to preserve +it in its integrity. + +That these improvements and changes were due to the influence of one man +was undoubtedly true, but that he was necessarily a superior man did +not follow. Elijah's success was due partly to the fact that he had been +enabled to impress certain negative virtues, which were part of his own +nature, upon a community equally constituted to receive them. Each was +strengthened by the recognition in each other of the unexpected value of +those qualities; each acquired a confidence begotten of their success. +"He-hides-his-face," as Elijah Martin was known to the tribe after the +episode of the released captives, was really not so much of an autocrat +as many constitutional rulers. + +***** + +Two years of tranquil prosperity passed. Elijah Martin, foundling, +outcast, without civilized ties or relationship of any kind, forgotten +by his countrymen, and lifted into alien power, wealth, security, and +respect, became--homesick! + +It was near the close of a summer afternoon. He was sitting at the door +of his lodge, which overlooked, on one side, the far-shining levels +of the Pacific and, on the other, the slow descent to the cultivated +meadows and banks of the Minyo River, that debouched through a waste of +salt-marsh, beach-grass, sand-dunes, and foamy estuary into the +ocean. The headland, or promontory--the only eminence of the Minyo +territory--had been reserved by him for his lodge, partly on account of +its isolation from the village at its base, and partly for the view it +commanded of his territory. Yet his wearying and discontented eyes were +more often found on the ocean, as a possible highway of escape from his +irksome position, than on the plain and the distant range of mountains, +so closely connected with the nearer past and his former detractors. In +his vague longing he had no desire to return to them, even in triumph in +his present security there still lingered a doubt of his ability to +cope with the old conditions. It was more like his easy, indolent +nature--which revived in his prosperity--to trust to this least +practical and remote solution of his trouble. His homesickness was as +vague as his plan for escape from it; he did not know exactly what +he regretted, but it was probably some life he had not enjoyed, some +pleasure that had escaped his former incompetency and poverty. + +He had sat thus a hundred times, as aimlessly blinking at the vast +possibilities of the shining sea beyond, turning his back upon the +nearer and more practicable mountains, lulled by the far-off beating of +monotonous rollers, the lonely cry of the curlew and plover, the drowsy +changes of alternate breaths of cool, fragrant reeds and warm, spicy +sands that blew across his eyelids, and succumbed to sleep, as he +had done a hundred times before. The narrow strips of colored cloth, +insignia of his dignity, flapped lazily from his tent-poles, and at last +seemed to slumber with him; the shadows of the leaf-tracery thrown by +the bay-tree, on the ground at his feet, scarcely changed its pattern. +Nothing moved but the round, restless, berry-like eyes of Wachita, his +child-wife, the former heroine of the incident with the captive packers, +who sat near her lord, armed with a willow wand, watchful of intruding +wasps, sand-flies, and even the more ostentatious advances of a rotund +and clerical-looking humble-bee, with his monotonous homily. Content, +dumb, submissive, vacant, at such times, Wachita, debarred her +husband's confidences through the native customs and his own indifferent +taciturnity, satisfied herself by gazing at him with the wondering but +ineffectual sympathy of a faithful dog. Unfortunately for Elijah her +purely mechanical ministration could not prevent a more dangerous +intrusion upon his security. + +He awoke with a light start, and eyes that gradually fixed upon the +woman a look of returning consciousness. Wachita pointed timidly to the +village below. + +"The Messenger of the Great White Father has come to-day, with his +wagons and horses; he would see the chief of the Minyos, but I would not +disturb my lord." + +Elijah's brow contracted. Relieved of its characteristic metaphor, +he knew that this meant that the new Indian agent had made his usual +official visit, and had exhibited the usual anxiety to see the famous +chieftain. + +"Good!" he said. "White Rabbit [his lieutenant] will see the Messenger +and exchange gifts. It is enough." + +"The white messenger has brought his wangee [white] woman with him. +They would look upon the face of him who hides it," continued Wachita, +dubiously. "They would that Wachita should bring them nearer to where my +lord is, that they might see him when he knew it not." + +Elijah glanced moodily at his wife, with the half suspicion with which +he still regarded her alien character. "Then let Wachita go back to +the squaws and old women, and let her hide herself with them until the +wangee strangers are gone," he said curtly. "I have spoken. Go!" + +Accustomed to these abrupt dismissals, which did not necessarily +indicate displeasure, Wachita disappeared without a word. Elijah, who +had risen, remained for a few moments leaning against the tent-poles, +gazing abstractedly toward the sea. The bees droned uninterruptedly in +his ears, the far-off roll of the breakers came to him distinctly; but +suddenly, with greater distinctness, came the murmur of a woman's voice. + +"He don't look savage a bit! Why, he's real handsome." + +"Hush! you--" said a second voice, in a frightened whisper. + +"But if he DID hear he couldn't understand," returned the first voice. A +suppressed giggle followed. + +Luckily, Elijah's natural and acquired habits of repression suited the +emergency. He did not move, although he felt the quick blood fly to his +face, and the voice of the first speaker had suffused him with a strange +and delicious anticipation. He restrained himself, though the words she +had naively dropped were filling him with new and tremulous suggestion. +He was motionless, even while he felt that the vague longing and +yearning which had possessed him hitherto was now mysteriously taking +some unknown form and action. + +The murmuring ceased. The humble-bees' drone again became ascendant--a +sudden fear seized him. She was GOING; he should never see her! While he +had stood there a dolt and sluggard, she had satisfied her curiosity and +stolen away. With a sudden yielding to impulse, he darted quickly in +the direction where he had heard her voice. The thicket moved, parted, +crackled, and rustled, and then undulated thirty feet before him in a +long wave, as if from the passage of some lithe, invisible figure. But +at the same moment a little cry, half of alarm, half of laughter, broke +from his very feet, and a bent manzanito-bush, relaxed by frightened +fingers, flew back against his breast. Thrusting it hurriedly aside, +his stooping, eager face came almost in contact with the pink, flushed +cheeks and tangled curls of a woman's head. He was so near, her moist +and laughing eyes almost drowned his eager glance; her parted lips and +white teeth were so close to his that her quick breath took away his +own. + +She had dropped on one knee, as her companion fled, expecting he would +overlook her as he passed, but his direct onset had extracted the +feminine outcry. Yet even then she did not seem greatly frightened. + +"It's only a joke, sir," she said, coolly lifting herself to her feet by +grasping his arm. "I'm Mrs. Dall, the Indian agent's wife. They said you +wouldn't let anybody see you--and I determined I would. That's all!" She +stopped, threw back her tangled curls behind her ears, shook the briers +and thorns from her skirt, and added: "Well, I reckon you aren't afraid +of a woman, are you? So no harm's done. Good-by!" + +She drew slightly back as if to retreat, but the elasticity of the +manzanito against which she was leaning threw her forward once more. +He again inhaled the perfume of her hair; he saw even the tiny freckles +that darkened her upper lip and brought out the moist, red curve below. +A sudden recollection of a playmate of his vagabond childhood flashed +across his mind; a wild inspiration of lawlessness, begotten of his past +experience, his solitude, his dictatorial power, and the beauty of the +woman before him, mounted to his brain. He threw his arms passionately +around her, pressed his lips to hers, and with a half-hysterical laugh +drew back and disappeared in the thicket. + +Mrs. Dall remained for an instant dazed and stupefied. Then she lifted +her arm mechanically, and with her sleeve wiped her bruised mouth and +the ochre-stain that his paint had left, like blood, upon her cheek. Her +laughing face had become instantly grave, but not from fear; her dark +eyes had clouded, but not entirely with indignation. She suddenly +brought down her hand sharply against her side with a gesture of +discovery. + +"That's no Injun!" she said, with prompt decision. The next minute +she plunged back into the trail again, and the dense foliage once more +closed around her. But as she did so the broad, vacant face and the +mutely wondering eyes of Wachita rose, like a placid moon, between the +branches of a tree where they had been hidden, and shone serenely and +impassively after her. + +***** + +A month elapsed. But it was a month filled with more experience to +Elijah than his past two years of exaltation. In the first few days +following his meeting with Mrs. Dall, he was possessed by terror, +mingled with flashes of desperation, at the remembrance of his rash +imprudence. His recollection of extravagant frontier chivalry to +womankind, and the swift retribution of the insulted husband or +guardian, alternately filled him with abject fear or extravagant +recklessness. At times prepared for flight, even to the desperate +abandonment of himself in a canoe to the waters of the Pacific: at times +he was on the point of inciting his braves to attack the Indian agency +and precipitate the war that he felt would be inevitable. As the days +passed, and there seemed to be no interruption to his friendly relations +with the agency, with that relief a new, subtle joy crept into Elijah's +heart. The image of the agent's wife framed in the leafy screen behind +his lodge, the perfume of her hair and breath mingled with the spicing +of the bay, the brief thrill and tantalization of the stolen kiss still +haunted him. Through his long, shy abstention from society, and his two +years of solitary exile, the fresh beauty of this young Western wife, in +whom the frank artlessness of girlhood still lingered, appeared to him +like a superior creation. He forgot his vague longings in the inception +of a more tangible but equally unpractical passion. He remembered her +unconscious and spontaneous admiration of him; he dared to connect it +with her forgiving silence. If she had withheld her confidences from her +husband, he could hope--he knew not exactly what! + +One afternoon Wachita put into his hand a folded note. With an +instinctive presentiment of its contents, Elijah turned red and +embarrassed in receiving it from the woman who was recognized as his +wife. But the impassive, submissive manner of this household drudge, +instead of touching his conscience, seemed to him a vulgar and brutal +acceptance of the situation that dulled whatever compunction he might +have had. He opened the note and read hurriedly as follows:-- + +"You took a great freedom with me the other day, and I am justified in +taking one with you now. I believe you understand English as well as I +do. If you want to explain that and your conduct to me, I will be at the +same place this afternoon. My friend will accompany me, but she need not +hear what you have to say." + +Elijah read the letter, which might have been written by an ordinary +school-girl, as if it had conveyed the veiled rendezvous of a princess. +The reserve, caution, and shyness which had been the safeguard of his +weak nature were swamped in a flow of immature passion. He flew to the +interview with the eagerness and inexperience of first love. He was +completely at her mercy. So utterly was he subjugated by her presence +that she did not even run the risk of his passion. Whatever sentiment +might have mingled with her curiosity, she was never conscious of a +necessity to guard herself against it. At this second meeting she was +in full possession of his secret. He had told her everything; she had +promised nothing in return--she had not even accepted anything. Even +her actual after-relations to the denouement of his passion are still +shrouded in mystery. + +Nevertheless, Elijah lived two weeks on the unsubstantial memory of this +meeting. What might have followed could not be known, for at the end of +that time an outrage--so atrocious that even the peaceful Minyos were +thrilled with savage indignation--was committed on the outskirts of the +village. An old chief, who had been specially selected to deal with the +Indian agent, and who kept a small trading outpost, had been killed +and his goods despoiled by a reckless Redwood packer. The murderer had +coolly said that he was only "serving out" the tool of a fraudulent +imposture on the Government, and that he dared the arch-impostor +himself, the so-called Minyo chief, to help himself. A wave of +ungovernable fury surged up to the very tent-poles of Elijah's lodge and +demanded vengeance. Elijah trembled and hesitated. In the thraldom of +his selfish passion for Mrs. Dall he dared not contemplate a collision +with her countrymen. He would have again sought refuge in his passive, +non-committal attitude, but he knew the impersonal character of Indian +retribution and compensation--a sacrifice of equal value, without +reference to the culpability of the victim--and he dreaded some +spontaneous outbreak. To prevent the enforced expiation of the crime +by some innocent brother packer, he was obliged to give orders for the +pursuit and arrest of the criminal, secretly hoping for his escape or +the interposition of some circumstance to avert his punishment. A day of +sullen expectancy to the old men and squaws in camp, of gloomy anxiety +to Elijah alone in his lodge, followed the departure of the braves on +the war-path. It was midnight when they returned. Elijah, who from his +habitual reserve and the accepted etiquette of his exalted station had +remained impassive in his tent, only knew from the guttural rejoicings +of the squaws that the expedition had been successful and the captive +was in their hands. At any other time he might have thought it an +evidence of some growing scepticism of his infallibility of judgment +and a diminution of respect that they did not confront him with their +prisoner. But he was too glad to escape from the danger of exposure and +possible arraignment of his past life by the desperate captive, even +though it might not have been understood by the spectators. He reflected +that the omission might have arisen from their recollection of his +previous aversion to a retaliation on other prisoners. Enough that they +would wait his signal for the torture and execution at sunrise the next +day. + +The night passed slowly. It is more than probable that the selfish and +ignoble torments of the sleepless and vacillating judge were greater +than those of the prisoner who dozed at the stake between his curses. +Yet it was part of Elijah's fatal weakness that his kinder and more +human instincts were dominated even at that moment by his lawless +passion for the Indian agent's wife, and his indecision as to the fate +of his captive was as much due to this preoccupation as to a selfish +consideration of her relations to the result. He hated the prisoner for +his infelicitous and untimely crime, yet he could not make up his mind +to his death. He paced the ground before his lodge in dishonorable +incertitude. The small eyes of the submissive Wachita watched him with +vague solicitude. + +Toward morning he was struck by a shameful inspiration. He would creep +unperceived to the victim's side, unloose his bonds, and bid him fly to +the Indian agency. There he was to inform Mrs. Dall that her husband's +safety depended upon his absenting himself for a few days, but that +she was to remain and communicate with Elijah. She would understand +everything, perhaps; at least she would know that the prisoner's release +was to please her, but even if she did not, no harm would be done, +a white man's life would be saved, and his real motive would not be +suspected. He turned with feverish eagerness to the lodge. Wachita had +disappeared--probably to join the other women. It was well; she would +not suspect him. + +The tree to which the doomed man was bound was, by custom, selected +nearest the chief's lodge, within its sacred enclosure, with no other +protection than that offered by its reserved seclusion and the outer +semicircle of warriors' tents before it. To escape, the captive would +therefore have to pass beside the chief's lodge to the rear and descend +the hill toward the shore. Elijah would show him the way, and make it +appear as if he had escaped unaided. As he glided into the shadow of +a group of pines, he could dimly discern the outline of the destined +victim, secured against one of the larger trees in a sitting posture, +with his head fallen forward on his breast as if in sleep. But at the +same moment another figure glided out from the shadow and approached the +fatal tree. It was Wachita! + +He stopped in amazement. But in another instant a flash of intelligence +made it clear. He remembered her vague uneasiness and solicitude at his +agitation, her sudden disappearance; she had fathomed his perplexity, +as she had once before. Of her own accord she was going to release the +prisoner! The knife to cut his cords glittered in her hand. Brave and +faithful animal! + +He held his breath as he drew nearer. But, to his horror, the knife +suddenly flashed in the air and darted down, again and again, upon +the body of the helpless man. There was a convulsive struggle, but no +outcry, and the next moment the body hung limp and inert in its cords. +Elijah would himself have fallen, half-fainting, against a tree, but, +by a revulsion of feeling, came the quick revelation that the desperate +girl had rightly solved the problem! She had done what he ought to have +done--and his loyalty and manhood were preserved. That conviction +and the courage to act upon it--to have called the sleeping braves +to witness his sacrifice--would have saved him, but it was ordered +otherwise. + +As the girl rapidly passed him he threw out his hand and seized her +wrist. "Who did you do this for?" he demanded. + +"For you," she said, stupidly. + +"And why?" + +"Because you no kill him--you love his squaw." + +"HIS squaw!" He staggered back. A terrible suspicion flashed upon him. +He dashed Wachita aside and ran to the tree. It was the body of the +Indian agent! Aboriginal justice had been satisfied. The warriors +had not caught the MURDERER, but, true to their idea of vicarious +retribution, had determined upon the expiatory sacrifice of a life as +valuable and innocent as the one they had lost. + +***** + +"So the Gov'rment hev at last woke up and wiped out them cussed Digger +Minyos," said Snapshot Harry, as he laid down the newspaper, in the +brand-new saloon of the brand-new town of Redwood. "I see they've +stampeded both banks of the Minyo River, and sent off a lot to the +reservation. I reckon the soldiers at Fort Cass got sick o' sentiment +after those hounds killed the Injun agent, and are beginning to agree +with us that the only 'good Injun' is a dead one." + +"And it turns out that that wonderful chief, that them two packers used +to rave about, woz about as big a devil ez any, and tried to run off +with the agent's wife, only the warriors killed her. I'd like to know +what become of him. Some says he was killed, others allow that he got +away. I've heerd tell that he was originally some kind of Methodist +preacher!--a kind o' saint that got a sort o' spiritooal holt on the old +squaws and children." + +"Why don't you ask old Skeesicks? I see he's back here ag'in--and +grubbin' along at a dollar a day on tailin's. He's been somewhere up +north, they say." + +"What, Skeesicks? that shiftless, o'n'ry cuss! You bet he wusn't +anywhere where there was danger of fighting. Why, you might as well hev +suspected HIM of being the big chief himself! There he comes--ask him." + +And the laughter was so general that Elijah Martin--alias +Skeesicks--lounging shyly into the bar-room, joined in it weakly. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Drift from Redwood Camp, by Bret Harte + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A DRIFT FROM REDWOOD CAMP *** + +***** This file should be named 2712.txt or 2712.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/1/2712/ + +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. 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