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diff --git a/old/flpcr10.txt b/old/flpcr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..337c2db --- /dev/null +++ b/old/flpcr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2129 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext Flip: A California Romance, by Bret Harte +#43 in our series by Bret Harte + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, charlie@idirect.com. + + + + + +FLIP: A CALIFORNIA ROMANCE + +by Bret Harte + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Just where the track of the Los Gatos road streams on and upward +like the sinuous trail of a fiery rocket until it is extinguished +in the blue shadows of the Coast Range, there is an embayed terrace +near the summit, hedged by dwarf firs. At every bend of the heat- +laden road the eye rested upon it wistfully; all along the flank of +the mountain, which seemed to pant and quiver in the oven-like air, +through rising dust, the slow creaking of dragging wheels, the +monotonous cry of tired springs, and the muffled beat of plunging +hoofs, it held out a promise of sheltered coolness and green +silences beyond. Sunburned and anxious faces yearned toward it +from the dizzy, swaying tops of stagecoaches, from lagging teams +far below, from the blinding white canvas covers of "mountain +schooners," and from scorching saddles that seemed to weigh down +the scrambling, sweating animals beneath. But it would seem that +the hope was vain, the promise illusive. When the terrace was +reached it appeared not only to have caught and gathered all the +heat of the valley below, but to have evolved a fire of its own +from some hidden crater-like source unknown. Nevertheless, instead +of prostrating and enervating man and beast, it was said to have +induced the wildest exaltation. The heated air was filled and +stifling with resinous exhalations. The delirious spices of balm, +bay, spruce, juniper, yerba buena, wild syringa, and strange +aromatic herbs as yet unclassified, distilled and evaporated in +that mighty heat, and seemed to fire with a midsummer madness all +who breathed their fumes. They stung, smarted, stimulated, +intoxicated. It was said that the most jaded and foot-sore horses +became furious and ungovernable under their influence; wearied +teamsters and muleteers, who had exhausted their profanity in the +ascent, drank fresh draughts of inspiration in this fiery air, +extended their vocabulary, and created new and startling forms of +objurgation. It is recorded that one bibulous stage-driver +exhausted description and condensed its virtues in a single phrase: +"Gin and ginger." This felicitous epithet, flung out in a generous +comparison with his favorite drink, "rum and gum," clung to it ever +after. + +Such was the current comment on this vale of spices. Like most +human criticism it was hasty and superficial. No one yet had been +known to have penetrated deeply its mysterious recesses. It was +still far below the summit and its wayside inn. It had escaped the +intruding foot of hunter and prospector; and the inquisitive patrol +of the county surveyor had only skirted its boundary. It remained +for Mr. Lance Harriott to complete its exploration. His reasons +for so doing were simple. He had made the journey thither +underneath the stage-coach, and clinging to its axle. He had +chosen this hazardous mode of conveyance at night, as the coach +crept by his place of concealment in the wayside brush, to elude +the sheriff of Monterey County and his posse, who were after him. + +He had not made himself known to his fellow-passengers as they +already knew him as a gambler, an outlaw, and a desperado; he +deemed it unwise to present himself in a newer reputation of a man +who had just slain a brother gambler in a quarrel, and for whom a +reward was offered. He slipped from the axle as the stage-coach +swirled past the brushing branches of fir, and for an instant lay +unnoticed, a scarcely distinguishable mound of dust in the broken +furrows of the road. Then, more like a beast than a man, he crept +on his hands and knees into the steaming underbrush. Here he lay +still until the clatter of harness and the sound of voices faded in +the distance. Had he been followed, it would have been difficult +to detect in that inert mass of rags any semblance to a known form +or figure. A hideous reddish mask of dust and clay obliterated his +face; his hands were shapeless stumps exaggerated in his trailing +sleeves. And when he rose, staggering like a drunken man, and +plunged wildly into the recesses of the wood, a cloud of dust +followed him, and pieces and patches of his frayed and rotten +garments clung to the impeding branches. Twice he fell, but, +maddened and upheld by the smarting spices and stimulating aroma +of the air, he kept on his course. + +Gradually the heat became less oppressive; once when he stopped and +leaned exhaustedly against a sapling, he fancied he saw the zephyr +he could not yet feel in the glittering and trembling of leaves in +the distance before him. Again the deep stillness was moved with a +faint sighing rustle, and he knew he must be nearing the edge of +the thicket. The spell of silence thus broken was followed by a +fainter, more musical interruption--the glassy tinkle of water! A +step further his foot trembled on the verge of a slight ravine, +still closely canopied by the interlacing boughs overhead. A tiny +stream that he could have dammed with his hand yet lingered in +this parched red gash in the hillside and trickled into a deep, +irregular, well-like cavity, that again overflowed and sent its +slight surplus on. It had been the luxurious retreat of many a +spotted trout; it was to be the bath of Lance Harriott. Without a +moment's hesitation, without removing a single garment, he slipped +cautiously into it, as if fearful of losing a single drop. His +head disappeared from the level of the bank; the solitude was again +unbroken. Only two objects remained upon the edge of the ravine,-- +his revolver and tobacco pouch. + +A few minutes elapsed. A fearless blue jay alighted on the bank +and made a prospecting peck at the tobacco pouch. It yielded in +favor of a gopher, who endeavored to draw it toward his hole, but +in turn gave way to a red squirrel, whose attention was divided, +however, between the pouch and the revolver, which he regarded with +mischievous fascination. Then there was a splash, a grunt, a +sudden dispersion of animated nature, and the head of Mr. Lance +Harriott appeared above the bank. It was a startling transformation. +Not only that he had, by this wholesale process, washed himself and +his light "drill" garments entirely clean, but that he had, +apparently by the same operation, morally cleansed HIMSELF, and left +every stain and ugly blot of his late misdeeds and reputation in his +bath. His face, albeit scratched here and there, was rosy, round, +shining with irrepressible good humor and youthful levity. His +large blue eyes were infantine in their innocent surprise and +thoughtlessness. Dripping yet with water, and panting, he rested +his elbows lazily on the bank, and became instantly absorbed with a +boy's delight in the movements of the gopher, who, after the first +alarm, returned cautiously to abduct the tobacco pouch. If any +familiar had failed to detect Lance Harriott in this hideous +masquerade of dust and grime and tatters, still less would any +passing stranger have recognized in this blond faun the possible +outcast and murderer. And, when with a swirl of his spattering +sleeve, he drove back the gopher in a shower of spray and leaped to +the bank, he seemed to have accepted his felonious hiding-place as a +mere picnicking bower. + +A slight breeze was unmistakably permeating the wood from the west. +Looking in that direction, Lance imagined that the shadow was less +dark, and although the undergrowth was denser, he struck off +carelessly toward it. As he went on, the wood became lighter and +lighter; branches, and presently leaves, were painted against the +vivid blue of the sky. He knew he must be near the summit, +stopped, felt for his revolver, and then lightly put the few +remaining branches aside. + +The full glare of the noonday sun at first blinded him. When he +could see more clearly, he found himself on the open western slope +of the mountain, which in the Coast Range was seldom wooded. The +spiced thicket stretched between him and the summit, and again +between him and the stage road that plunges from the terrace, like +forked lightning into the valley below. He could command all the +approaches without being seen. Not that this seemed to occupy his +thoughts or cause him any anxiety. His first act was to disencumber +himself of his tattered coat; he then filled and lighted his pipe, +and stretched himself full-length on the open hillside, as if to +bleach in the fierce sun. While smoking he carelessly perused the +fragment of a newspaper which had enveloped his tobacco, and being +struck with some amusing paragraph, read it half aloud again to some +imaginary auditor, emphasizing its humor with an hilarious slap upon +his leg. + +Possibly from the relaxation of fatigue and the bath, which had +become a vapor one as he alternately rolled and dried himself in +the baking grass, his eyes closed dreamily. He was awakened by +the sound of voices. They were distant; they were vague; they +approached no nearer. He rolled himself to the verge of the first +precipitous grassy descent. There was another bank or plateau +below him, and then a confused depth of olive shadows, pierced here +and there by the spiked helmets of pines. + +There was no trace of habitation, yet the voices were those of some +monotonous occupation, and Lance distinctly heard through them the +click of crockery and the ring of some household utensil. It +appeared to be the interjectional, half listless, half perfunctory, +domestic dialogue of an old man and a girl, of which the words were +unintelligible. Their voices indicated the solitude of the +mountain, but without sadness; they were mysterious without being +awe-inspiring. They might have uttered the dreariest commonplaces, +but, in their vast isolation, they seemed musical and eloquent. +Lance drew his first sigh,--they had suggested dinner. + +Careless as his nature was, he was too cautious to risk detection +in broad daylight. He contented himself for the present with +endeavoring to locate that particular part of the depths from which +the voices seemed to rise. It was more difficult, however, to +select some other way of penetrating it than by the stage road. +"They're bound to have a fire or show a light when it's dark," he +reasoned, and, satisfied with that reflection, lay down again. +Presently he began to amuse himself by tossing some silver coins in +the air. Then his attention was directed to a spur of the Coast +Range which had been sharply silhouetted against the cloudless +western sky. Something intensely white, something so small that it +was scarcely larger than the silver coin in his hand, was appearing +in a slight cleft of the range. + +While he looked it gradually filled and obliterated the cleft. In +another moment the whole serrated line of mountain had disappeared. +The dense, dazzling white, encompassing host began to pour over and +down every ravine and pass of the coast. Lance recognized the sea- +fog, and knew that scarcely twenty miles away lay the ocean--and +safety! The drooping sun was now caught and hidden in its soft +embraces. A sudden chill breathed over the mountain. He shivered, +rose, and plunged again for very warmth into the spice-laden +thicket. The heated balsamic air began to affect him like a +powerful sedative; his hunger was forgotten in the languor of +fatigue; he slumbered. When he awoke it was dark. He groped his +way through the thicket. A few stars were shining directly above +him, but beyond and below, everything was lost in the soft, white, +fleecy veil of fog. Whatever light or fire might have betokened +human habitation was hidden. To push on blindly would be madness; +he could only wait for morning. It suited the outcast's lazy +philosophy. He crept back again to his bed in the hollow and +slept. In that profound silence and shadow, shut out from human +association and sympathy by the ghostly fog, what torturing visions +conjured up by remorse and fear should have pursued him? What +spirit passed before him, or slowly shaped itself out of the +infinite blackness of the wood? None. As he slipped gently into +that blackness he remembered with a slight regret, some biscuits +that were dropped from the coach by a careless luncheon-consuming +passenger. That pang over, he slept as sweetly, as profoundly, as +divinely, as a child. + + +CHAPTER II. + + +He awoke with the aroma of the woods still steeping his senses. +His first instinct was that of all young animals; he seized a few +of the young, tender green leaves of the yerba buena vine that +crept over his mossy pillow and ate them, being rewarded by a half +berry-like flavor that seemed to soothe the cravings of his +appetite. The languor of sleep being still upon him, he lazily +watched the quivering of a sunbeam that was caught in the canopying +boughs above. Then he dozed again. Hovering between sleeping and +waking, he became conscious of a slight movement among the dead +leaves on the bank beside the hollow in which he lay. The movement +appeared to be intelligent, and directed toward his revolver, which +glittered on the bank. Amused at this evident return of his +larcenous friend of the previous day, he lay perfectly still. The +movement and rustle continued, but it now seemed long and +undulating. Lance's eyes suddenly became set; he was intensely, +keenly awake. It was not a snake, but the hand of a human arm, +half hidden in the moss, groping for the weapon. In that flash of +perception he saw that it was small, bare, and deeply freckled. In +an instant he grasped it firmly, and rose to his feet, dragging to +his own level as he did so, the struggling figure of a young girl. + +"Leave me go!" she said, more ashamed than frightened. + +Lance looked at her. She was scarcely more than fifteen, slight +and lithe, with a boyish flatness of breast and back. Her flushed +face and bare throat were absolutely peppered with minute brown +freckles, like grains of spent gunpowder. Her eyes, which were +large and gray, presented the singular spectacle of being also +freckled,--at least they were shot through in pupil and cornea +with tiny spots like powdered allspice. Her hair was even more +remarkable in its tawny, deer-skin color, full of lighter shades, +and bleached to the faintest of blondes on the crown of her head, +as if by the action of the sun. She had evidently outgrown her +dress, which was made for a smaller child, and the too brief skirt +disclosed a bare, freckled, and sandy desert of shapely limb, for +which the darned stockings were equally too scant. Lance let his +grasp slip from her thin wrist to her hand, and then with a good- +humored gesture tossed it lightly back to her. + +She did not retreat, but continued looking at him in a half-surly +embarrassment. + +"I ain't a bit frightened," she said; "I'm not going to run away,-- +don't you fear." + +"Glad to hear it," said Lance, with unmistakable satisfaction, "but +why did you go for my revolver?" + +She flushed again and was silent. Presently she began to kick the +earth at the roots of the tree, and said, as if confidentially to +her foot,-- + +"I wanted to get hold of it before you did." + +"You did?--and why?" + +"Oh, you know why." + +Every tooth in Lance's head showed that he did, perfectly. But he +was discreetly silent. + +"I didn't know what you were hiding there for," she went on, still +addressing the tree, "and," looking at him sideways under her white +lashes, "I didn't see your face." + +This subtle compliment was the first suggestion of her artful sex. +It actually sent the blood into the careless rascal's face, and for +a moment confused him. He coughed. "So you thought you'd freeze +on to that six-shooter of mine until you saw my hand?" + +She nodded. Then she picked up a broken hazel branch, fitted it +into the small of her back, threw her tanned bare arms over the +ends of it, and expanded her chest and her biceps at the same +moment. This simple action was supposed to convey an impression at +once of ease and muscular force. + +"Perhaps you'd like to take it now," said Lance, handing her the +pistol. + +"I've seen six-shooters before now," said the girl, evading the +proffered weapon and its suggestion. "Dad has one, and my brother +had two derringers before he was half as big as me." + +She stopped to observe in her companion the effect of this capacity +of her family to bear arms. Lance only regarded her amusedly. +Presently she again spoke abruptly:-- + +"What made you eat that grass, just now?" + +"Grass!" echoed Lance. + +"Yes, there," pointing to the yerba buena. + +Lance laughed. "I was hungry. Look!" he said, gayly tossing some +silver into the air. "Do you think you could get me some breakfast +for that, and have enough left to buy something for yourself?" + +The girl eyed the money and the man with half-bashful curiosity. + +"I reckon Dad might give ye suthing if he had a mind ter, though ez +a rule he's down on tramps ever since they run off his chickens. +Ye might try." + +"But I want YOU to try. You can bring it to me here." + +The girl retreated a step, dropped her eyes, and, with a smile that +was a charming hesitation between bashfulness and impudence, said: +"So you ARE hidin', are ye?" + +"That's just it. Your head's level. I am," laughed Lance +unconcernedly. + +"Yur ain't one o' the McCarty gang--are ye?" + +Mr. Lance Harriott felt a momentary moral exaltation in declaring +truthfully that he was not one of a notorious band of mountain +freebooters known in the district under that name. + +"Nor ye ain't one of them chicken lifters that raided Henderson's +ranch? We don't go much on that kind o' cattle yer." + +"No," said Lance, cheerfully. + +"Nor ye ain't that chap ez beat his wife unto death at Santa +Clara?" + +Lance honestly scorned the imputation. Such conjugal ill treatment +as he had indulged in had not been physical, and had been with +other men's wives. + +There was a moment's further hesitation on the part of the girl. +Then she said shortly: + +"Well, then, I reckon you kin come along with me." + +"Where?" asked Lance. + +"To the ranch," she replied simply. + +"Then you won't bring me anything to eat here?" + +"What for? You kin get it down there." Lance hesitated. "I tell +you it's all right," she continued. "I'll make it all right with +Dad." + +"But suppose I reckon I'd rather stay here," persisted Lance, with +a perfect consciousness, however, of affectation in his caution. + +"Stay away then," said the girl coolly; "only as Dad perempted this +yer woods"-- + +"PRE-empted," suggested Lance. + +"Per-empted or pre-emp-ted, as you like," continued the girl +scornfully,--"ez he's got a holt on this yer woods, ye might ez +well see him down thar ez here. For here he's like to come any +minit. You can bet your life on that." + +She must have read Lance's amusement in his eyes, for she again +dropped her own with a frown of brusque embarrassment. "Come +along, then; I'm your man," said Lance, gayly, extending his hand. + +She would not accept it, eying it, however, furtively, like a horse +about to shy. "Hand me your pistol first," she said. + +He handed it to her with an assumption of gayety. She received it +on her part with unfeigned seriousness, and threw it over her +shoulder like a gun. This combined action of the child and +heroine, it is quite unnecessary to say, afforded Lance undiluted +joy. + +"You go first," she said. + +Lance stepped promptly out, with a broad grin. "Looks kinder as if +I was a prisoner, don't it?" he suggested. + +"Go on, and don't fool," she replied. + +The two fared onward through the wood. For one moment he +entertained the facetious idea of appearing to rush frantically +away, "just to see what the girl would do," but abandoned it. +"It's an even thing if she wouldn't spot me the first pop," he +reflected admiringly. + +When they had reached the open hillside, Lance stopped inquiringly. +"This way," she said, pointing toward the summit, and in quite an +opposite direction to the valley where he had heard the voices, one +of which he now recognized as hers. They skirted the thicket for a +few moments, and then turned sharply into a trail which began to +dip toward a ravine leading to the valley. + +"Why do you have to go all the way round?" he asked. + +"WE don't," the girl replied with emphasis; "there's a shorter +cut." + +"Where?" + +"That's telling," she answered shortly. + +"What's your name?" asked Lance, after a steep scramble and a drop +into the ravine. + +"Flip." + +"What?" + +"Flip." + +"I mean your first name,--your front name." + +"Flip." + +"Flip! Oh, short for Felipa!" + +"It ain't Flipper,--it's Flip." And she relapsed into silence. + +"You don't ask me mine?" suggested Lance. + +She did not vouchsafe a reply. + +"Then you don't want to know?" + +"Maybe Dad will. You can lie to HIM." + +This direct answer apparently sustained the agreeable homicide for +some moments. He moved onward, silently exuding admiration. + +"Only," added Flip, with a sudden caution, "you'd better agree with +me." + +The trail here turned again abruptly and re-entered the canyon. +Lance looked up, and noticed they were almost directly beneath the +bay thicket and the plateau that towered far above them. The trail +here showed signs of clearing, and the way was marked by felled +trees and stumps of pines. + +"What does your father do here?" he finally asked. Flip remained +silent, swinging the revolver. Lance repeated his question. + +"Burns charcoal and makes diamonds," said Flip, looking at him from +the corners of her eyes. + +"Makes diamonds?" echoed Lance. + +Flip nodded her head. + +"Many of 'em?" he continued carelessly. + +"Lots. But they're not big," she returned, with a sidelong glance. + +"Oh, they're not big?" said Lance gravely. + +They had by this time reached a small staked inclosure, whence the +sudden fluttering and cackle of poultry welcomed the return of the +evident mistress of this sylvan retreat. It was scarcely imposing. +Further on, a cooking stove under a tree, a saddle and bridle, a +few household implements scattered about, indicated the "ranch." +Like most pioneer clearings, it was simply a disorganized raid upon +nature that had left behind a desolate battlefield strewn with +waste and decay. The fallen trees, the crushed thicket, the +splintered limbs, the rudely torn-up soil, were made hideous by +their grotesque juxtaposition with the wrecked fragments of +civilization, in empty cans, broken bottles, battered hats, +soleless boots, frayed stockings, cast-off rags, and the crowning +absurdity of the twisted-wire skeleton of a hooped skirt hanging +from a branch. The wildest defile, the densest thicket, the most +virgin solitude, was less dreary and forlorn than this first +footprint of man. The only redeeming feature of this prolonged +bivouac was the cabin itself. Built of the half-cylindrical strips +of pine bark, and thatched with the same material, it had a certain +picturesque rusticity. But this was an accident of economy rather +than taste, for which Flip apologized by saying that the bark of +the pine was "no good" for charcoal. + +"I reckon Dad's in the woods," she added, pausing before the open +door of the cabin. "Oh, Dad!" Her voice, clear and high, seemed +to fill the whole long canyon, and echoed from the green plateau +above. The monotonous strokes of an axe were suddenly pretermitted, +and somewhere from the depths of the close-set pines a voice +answered "Flip." There was a pause of a few moments, with some +muttering, stumbling, and crackling in the underbrush, and then the +sudden appearance of "Dad." + +Had Lance first met him in the thicket, he would have been puzzled +to assign his race to Mongolian, Indian, or Ethiopian origin. +Perfunctory but incomplete washings of his hands and face, after +charcoal burning, had gradually ground into his skin a grayish +slate-pencil pallor, grotesquely relieved at the edges, where the +washing had left off, with a border of a darker color. He looked +like an overworked Christy minstrel with the briefest of intervals +between his performances. There were black rims in the orbits of +his eyes, as if he gazed feebly out of unglazed spectacles, which +heightened his simian resemblance, already grotesquely exaggerated +by what appeared to be repeated and spasmodic experiments in dyeing +his gray hair. Without the slightest notice of Lance, he inflicted +his protesting and querulous presence entirely on his daughter. + +"Well, what's up now? Yer ye are calling me from work an hour +before noon. Dog my skin, ef I ever get fairly limbered up afore +it's 'Dad!' and 'Oh, Dad!'" + +To Lance's intense satisfaction the girl received this harangue +with an air of supreme indifference, and when "Dad" had relapsed +into an unintelligible, and, as it seemed to Lance, a half- +frightened muttering, she said coolly,-- + +"Ye'd better drop that axe and scoot round getten' this stranger +some breakfast and some grub to take with him. He's one of them +San Francisco sports out here trout fishing in the branch. He's +got adrift from his party, has lost his rod and fixins, and had to +camp out last night in the Gin and Ginger Woods." + +"That's just it; it's allers suthin like that," screamed the old +man, dashing his fist on his leg in a feeble, impotent passion, but +without looking at Lance. "Why in blazes don't he go up to that +there blamed hotel on the summit? Why in thunder--" But here he +caught his daughter's large, freckled eyes full in his own. He +blinked feebly, his voice fell into a tone of whining entreaty. +"Now, look yer, Flip, it's playing it rather low down on the old +man, this yer running' in o' tramps and desarted emigrants and +cast-ashore sailors and forlorn widders and ravin' lunatics, on +this yer ranch. I put it to you, Mister," he said abruptly, +turning to Lance for the first time, but as if he had already taken +an active part in the conversation,--"I put it as a gentleman +yourself, and a fair-minded sportin' man, if this is the square +thing?" + +Before Lance could reply, Flip had already begun. "That's just it! +D'ye reckon, being a sportin' man and an A 1 feller, he's goin' to +waltz down inter that hotel, rigged out ez he is? D'ye reckon he's +goin' to let his partners get the laugh outer him? D'ye reckon +he's goin' to show his head outer this yer ranch till he can do it +square? Not much! Go 'long. Dad, you're talking silly!" + +The old man weakened. He feebly trailed his axe between his legs +to a stump and sat down, wiping his forehead with his sleeve, and +imparting to it the appearance of a slate with a difficult sum +partly rubbed out. He looked despairingly at Lance. "In course," +he said, with a deep sigh, "you naturally ain't got any money. In +course you left your pocketbook, containing fifty dollars, under a +stone, and can't find it. In course," he continued, as he observed +Lance put his hand to his pocket, "you've only got a blank check on +Wells, Fargo & Co. for a hundred dollars, and you'd like me to give +you the difference?" + +Amused as Lance evidently was at this, his absolute admiration for +Flip absorbed everything else. With his eyes fixed upon the girl, +he briefly assured the old man that he would pay for everything he +wanted. He did this with a manner quite different from the +careless, easy attitude he had assumed toward Flip; at least the +quick-witted girl noticed it, and wondered if he was angry. It was +quite true that ever since his eye had fallen upon another of his +own sex, its glance had been less frank and careless. Certain +traits of possible impatience, which might develop into man- +slaying, were coming to the fore. Yet a word or a gesture of +Flip's was sufficient to change that manner, and when, with the +fretful assistance of her father, she had prepared a somewhat +sketchy and primitive repast, he questioned the old man about +diamond-making. The eye of Dad kindled. + +"I want ter know how ye knew I was making diamonds," he asked, with +a certain bashful pettishness not unlike his daughter's. + +"Heard it in 'Frisco," replied Lance, with glib mendacity, glancing +at the girl. + +"I reckon they're gettin' sort of skeert down there--them +jewelers," chuckled Dad, "yet it's in nater that their figgers will +have to come down. It's only a question of the price of charcoal. +I suppose they didn't tell you how I made the discovery?" + +Lance would have stopped the old man's narrative by saying that he +knew the story, but he wished to see how far Flip lent herself to +her father's delusion. + +"Ye see, one night about two years ago I had a pit o' charcoal +burning out there, and tho' it had been a smouldering and a smoking +and a blazing for nigh unto a month, somehow it didn't charcoal +worth a cent. And yet, dog my skin, but the heat o' that er pit +was suthin hidyus and frightful; ye couldn't stand within a hundred +yards of it, and they could feel it on the stage road three miles +over yon, t'other side the mountain. There was nights when me and +Flip had to take our blankets up the ravine and camp out all night, +and the back of this yer hut shriveled up like that bacon. It was +about as nigh on to hell as any sample ye kin get here. Now, mebbe +you think I built that air fire? Mebbe you'll allow the heat was +just the nat'ral burning of that pit?" + +"Certainly," said Lance, trying to see Flip's eyes, which were +resolutely averted. + +"Thet's whar you'd be lyin'! That yar heat kem out of the bowels +of the yearth,--kem up like out of a chimbley or a blast, and kep +up that yar fire. And when she cools down a month after, and I got +to strip her, there was a hole in the yearth, and a spring o' +bilin', scaldin' water pourin' out of it ez big as your waist. And +right in the middle of it was this yer." He rose with the instinct +of a skillful raconteur, and whisked from under his bunk a chamois +leather bag, which he emptied on the table before them. It +contained a small fragment of native rock crystal, half-fused upon +a petrified bit of pine. It was so glaringly truthful, so really +what it purported to be, that the most unscientific woodman or +pioneer would have understood it at a glance. Lance raised his +mirthful eyes to Flip. + +"It was cooled suddint,--stunted by the water," said the girl, +eagerly. She stopped, and as abruptly turned away her eyes and her +reddened face. + +"That's it, that's just it," continued the old man. "Thar's Flip, +thar, knows it; she ain't no fool!" Lance did not speak, but +turned a hard, unsympathizing look upon the old man, and rose +almost roughly. The old man clutched his coat. "That's it, ye +see. The carbon's just turning to di'mens. And stunted. And why? +'Cos the heat wasn't kep up long enough. Mebbe yer think I stopped +thar? That ain't me. Thar's a pit out yar in the woods ez hez +been burning six months; it hain't, in course, got the advantages +o' the old one, for it's nat'ral heat. But I'm keeping that heat +up. I've got a hole where I kin watch it every four hours. When +the time comes, I'm thar! Don't you see? That's me! that's David +Fairley,--that's the old man,--you bet!" + +"That's so," said Lance, curtly. "And now, Mr. Fairley, if you'll +hand me over a coat or a jacket till I can get past these fogs on +the Monterey road, I won't keep you from your diamond pit." He +threw down a handful of silver on the table. + +"Ther's a deerskin jacket yer," said the old man, "that one o' them +vaqueros left for the price of a bottle of whiskey." + +"I reckon it wouldn't suit the stranger," said Flip, dubiously +producing a much-worn, slashed, and braided vaquero's jacket. But +it did suit Lance, who found it warm, and also had suddenly found a +certain satisfaction in opposing Flip. When he had put it on, and +nodded coldly to the old man, and carelessly to Flip, he walked to +the door. + +"If you're going to take the Monterey road, I can show you a short +cut to it," said Flip, with a certain kind of shy civility. + +The paternal Fairley groaned. "That's it; let the chickens and the +ranch go to thunder, as long as there's a stranger to trapse round +with; go on!" + +Lance would have made some savage reply, but Flip interrupted. +"You know yourself, Dad, it's a blind trail, and as that 'ere +constable that kem out here hunting French Pete, couldn't find it, +and had to go round by the canyon, like ez not the stranger would +lose his way, and have to come back!" This dangerous prospect +silenced the old man, and Flip and Lance stepped into the road +together. They walked on for some moments without speaking. +Suddenly Lance turned upon his companion. + +"You didn't swallow all that rot about the diamond, did you?" he +asked, crossly. + +Flip ran a little ahead, as if to avoid a reply. + +"You don't mean to say that's the sort of hog wash the old man +serves out to you regularly?" continued Lance, becoming more slangy +in his ill temper. + +"I don't know that it's any consarn o' yours what I think," replied +Flip, hopping from boulder to boulder, as they crossed the bed of a +dry watercourse. + +"And I suppose you've piloted round and dry-nussed every tramp and +dead beat you've met since you came here," continued Lance, with +unmistakable ill humor. "How many have you helped over this road?" + +"It's a year since there was a Chinaman chased by some Irishmen +from the Crossing into the brush about yer, and he was too afeered +to come out, and nigh most starved to death in thar. I had to drag +him out and start him on the mountain, for you couldn't get him +back to the road. He was the last one but YOU." + +"Do you reckon it's the right thing for a girl like you to run +about with trash of this kind, and mix herself up with all sorts of +rough and bad company?" said Lance. + +Flip stopped short. "Look! if you're goin' to talk like Dad, I'll +go back." + +The ridiculousness of such a resemblance struck him more keenly +than a consciousness of his own ingratitude. He hastened to assure +Flip that he was joking. When he had made his peace they fell into +talk again, Lance becoming unselfish enough to inquire into one or +two facts concerning her life which did not immediately affect him. +Her mother had died on the plains when she was a baby, and her +brother had run away from home at twelve. She fully expected to +see him again, and thought he might sometime stray into their +canyon. "That is why, then, you take so much stock in tramps," +said Lance. "You expect to recognize HIM?" + +"Well," replied Flip, gravely, "there is suthing in THAT, and +there's suthing in THIS: some o' these chaps might run across +brother and do him a good turn for the sake of me." + +"Like me, for instance?" suggested Lance. + +"Like you. You'd do him a good turn, wouldn't you?" + +"You bet!" said Lance, with a sudden emotion that quite startled +him; "only don't you go to throwing yourself round promiscuously." +He was half-conscious of an irritating sense of jealousy, as he +asked if any of her proteges had ever returned. + +"No," said Flip, "no one ever did. It shows," she added with +sublime simplicity, "I had done 'em good, and they could get on +alone. Don't it?" + +"It does," responded Lance grimly. "Have you any other friends +that come?" + +"Only the Postmaster at the Crossing." + +"The Postmaster?" + +"Yes; he's reckonin' to marry me next year, if I'm big enough." + +"And what do you reckon?" asked Lance earnestly. + +Flip began a series of distortions with her shoulders, ran on +ahead, picked up a few pebbles and threw them into the wood, +glanced back at Lance with swimming mottled eyes, that seemed a +piquant incarnation of everything suggestive and tantalizing, and +said, + +"That's telling." + +They had by this time reached the spot where they were to separate. +"Look," said Flip, pointing to a faint deflection of their path, +which seemed, however, to lose itself in the underbrush a dozen +yards away, "ther's your trail. It gets plainer and broader the +further you get on, but you must use your eyes here, and get to +know it well afore you get into the fog. Good-by." + +"Good-by." Lance took her hand and drew her beside him. She was +still redolent of the spices of the thicket, and to the young man's +excited fancy seemed at that moment to personify the perfume and +intoxication of her native woods. Half laughingly, half earnestly, +he tried to kiss her; she struggled for some time strongly, but at +the last moment yielded, with a slight return and the exchange of a +subtle fire that thrilled him, and left him standing confused and +astounded as she ran away. He watched her lithe, nymph-like figure +disappear in the checkered shadows of the wood, and then he turned +briskly down the half-hidden trail. His eyesight was keen, he made +good progress, and was soon well on his way toward the distant +ridge. + +But Flip's return had not been as rapid. When she reached the wood +she crept to its beetling verge, and, looking across the canyon, +watched Lance's figure as it vanished and reappeared in the shadows +and sinuosities of the ascent. When he reached the ridge the +outlying fog crept across the summit, caught him in its embrace, +and wrapped him from her gaze. Flip sighed, raised herself, put +her alternate foot on a stump, and took a long pull at her too- +brief stockings. When she had pulled down her skirt and endeavored +once more to renew the intimacy that had existed in previous years +between the edge of her petticoat and the top of her stockings, she +sighed again, and went home. + + +CHAPTER III. + + +For six months the sea fogs monotonously came and went along the +Monterey coast; for six months they beleaguered the Coast Range +with afternoon sorties of white hosts that regularly swept over the +mountain crest, and were as regularly beaten back again by the +leveled lances of the morning sun. For six months that white veil +which had once hidden Lance Harriott in its folds returned without +him. For that amiable outlaw no longer needed disguise or hiding- +place. The swift wave of pursuit that had dashed him on the summit +had fallen back, and the next day was broken and scattered. Before +the week had passed, a regular judicial inquiry relieved his crime +of premeditation, and showed it to be a rude duel of two armed and +equally desperate men. From a secure vantage in a seacoast town +Lance challenged a trial by his peers, and, as an already prejudged +man escaping from his executioners, obtained a change of venue. +Regular justice, seated by the calm Pacific, found the action of an +interior, irregular jury rash and hasty. Lance was liberated on +bail. + +The Postmaster at Fisher's Crossing had just received the weekly +mail and express from San Francisco, and was engaged in examining +it. It consisted of five letters and two parcels. Of these, three +of the letters and the two parcels were directed to Flip. It was +not the first time during the last six months that this extraordinary +event had occurred, and the curiosity of the Crossing was duly +excited. As Flip had never called personally for the letters or +parcels, but had sent one of her wild, irregular scouts or henchmen +to bring them, and as she was seldom seen at the Crossing or on the +stage road, that curiosity was never satisfied. The disappointment +to the Postmaster--a man past the middle age--partook of a +sentimental nature. He looked at the letters and parcels; he looked +at his watch; it was yet early, he could return by noon. He again +examined the addresses; they were in the same handwriting as the +previous letters. His mind was made up, he would deliver them +himself. The poetic, soulful side of his mission was delicately +indicated by a pale blue necktie, a clean shirt, and a small package +of gingernuts, of which Flip was extravagantly fond. + +The common road to Fairley's Ranch was by the stage turnpike to a +point below the Gin and Ginger Woods, where the prudent horseman +usually left his beast and followed the intersecting trail afoot. +It was here that the Postmaster suddenly observed on the edge of +the wood the figure of an elegantly-dressed woman; she was walking +slowly, and apparently at her ease; one hand held her skirts +lightly gathered between her gloved fingers, the other slowly swung +a riding whip. Was it a picnic of some people from Monterey or +Santa Cruz? The spectacle was novel enough to justify his coming +nearer. Suddenly she withdrew into the wood; he lost sight of her; +she was gone. He remembered, however, that Flip was still to be +seen, and as the steep trail was beginning to tax all his energies, +he was fain to hurry forward. The sun was nearly vertical when he +turned into the canyon, and saw the bark roof of the cabin beyond. +At almost the same moment Flip appeared, flushed and panting, in +the road before him. + +"You've got something for me," she said, pointing to the parcel and +letters. Completely taken by surprise, the Postmaster mechanically +yielded them up, and as instantly regretted it. "They're paid +for," continued Flip, observing his hesitation. + +"That's so," stammered the official of the Crossing, seeing his +last chance of knowing the contents of the parcel vanish; "but I +thought ez it's a valooable package, maybe ye might want to examine +it to see that it was all right afore ye receipted for it." + +"I'll risk it," said Flip, coolly, "and if it ain't right I'll let +ye know." + +As the girl seemed inclined to retire with her property, the +Postmaster was driven to other conversation. "We ain't had the +pleasure of seeing you down at the Crossing for a month o' +Sundays," he began, with airy yet pronounced gallantry. "Some +folks let on you was keepin' company with some feller like Bijah +Brown, and you were getting a little too set up for the Crossing." +The individual here mentioned being the county butcher, and +supposed to exhibit his hopeless affection for Flip by making a +long and useless divergence from his weekly route to enter the +canyon for "orders," Flip did not deem it necessary to reply. +"Then I allowed how ez you might have company," he continued; "I +reckon there's some city folks up at the summit. I saw a mighty +smart, fash'n'ble gal cavorting round. Had no end o' style and +fancy fixin's. That's my kind, I tell you. I just weaken on that +sort o' gal," he continued, in the firm belief that he had awakened +Flip's jealousy, as he glanced at her well-worn homespun frock, and +found her eyes suddenly fixed on his own. + +"Strange I ain't got to see her yet," she replied coolly, +shouldering her parcel, and quite ignoring any sense of obligation +to him for his extra-official act. + +"But you might get to see her at the edge of the Gin and Ginger +Woods," he persisted feebly, in a last effort to detain her; "if +you'll take a pasear there with me." Flip's only response was to +walk on toward the cabin, whence, with a vague complimentary +suggestion of "droppin' in to pass the time o' day" with her +father, the Postmaster meekly followed. + +The paternal Fairley, once convinced that his daughter's new +companion required no pecuniary or material assistance from his +hands, relaxed to the extent of entering into a querulous +confidence with him, during which Flip took the opportunity of +slipping away. As Fairley had that infelicitous tendency of most +weak natures, to unconsciously exaggerate unimportant details in +their talk, the Postmaster presently became convinced that the +butcher was a constant and assiduous suitor of Flip's. The +absurdity of his sending parcels and letters by post when he might +bring them himself did not strike the official. On the contrary, +he believed it to be a master stroke of cunning. Fired by jealousy +and Flip's indifference, he "deemed it his duty"--using that facile +form of cowardly offensiveness--to betray Flip. + +Of which she was happily oblivious. Once away from the cabin, she +plunged into the woods, with the parcel swung behind her like a +knapsack. Leaving the trail, she presently struck off in a +straight line through cover and underbrush with the unerring +instinct of an animal, climbing hand over hand the steepest ascent, +or fluttering like a bird from branch to branch down the deepest +declivity. She soon reached that part of the trail where the +susceptible Postmaster had seen the fascinating unknown. Assuring +herself she was not followed, she crept through the thicket until +she reached a little waterfall and basin that had served the +fugitive Lance for a bath. The spot bore signs of later and more +frequent occupancy, and when Flip carefully removed some bark and +brushwood from a cavity in the rock and drew forth various folded +garments, it was evident she had used it as a sylvan dressing-room. +Here she opened the parcel; it contained a small and delicate shawl +of yellow China crepe. Flip instantly threw it over her shoulders +and stepped hurriedly toward the edge of the wood. Then she began +to pass backward and forward before the trunk of a tree. At first +nothing was visible on the tree, but a closer inspection showed a +large pane of ordinary window glass stuck in the fork of the +branches. It was placed at such a cunning angle against the +darkness of the forest opening that it made a soft and mysterious +mirror, not unlike a Claude Lorraine glass, wherein not only the +passing figure of the young girl was seen, but the dazzling green +and gold of the hillside, and the far-off silhouetted crests of the +Coast Range. + +But this was evidently only a prelude to a severer rehearsal. When +she returned to the waterfall she unearthed from her stores a large +piece of yellow soap and some yards of rough cotton "sheeting." +These she deposited beside the basin and again crept to the edge of +the wood to assure herself that she was alone. Satisfied that no +intruding foot had invaded that virgin bower, she returned to her +bath and began to undress. A slight wind followed her, and seemed +to whisper to the circumjacent trees. It appeared to waken her +sister naiads and nymphs, who, joining their leafy fingers, softly +drew around her a gently moving band of trembling lights and +shadows, of flecked sprays and inextricably mingled branches, and +involved her in a chaste sylvan obscurity, veiled alike from +pursuing god or stumbling shepherd. Within these hallowed +precincts was the musical ripple of laughter and falling water, and +at times the glimpse of a lithe brier-caught limb, or a ray of +sunlight trembling over bright flanks, or the white austere outline +of a childish bosom. + +When she drew again the leafy curtain, and once more stepped out of +the wood, she was completely transformed. It was the figure that +had appeared to the Postmaster; the slight, erect, graceful form of +a young woman modishly attired. It was Flip, but Flip made taller +by the lengthened skirt and clinging habiliments of fashion. Flip +freckled, but, through the cunning of a relief of yellow color in +her gown, her piquant brown-shot face and eyes brightened and +intensified until she seemed like a spicy odor made visible. I +cannot affirm that the judgment of Flip's mysterious modiste was +infallible, or that the taste of Mr. Lance Harriott, her patron, +was fastidious; enough that it was picturesque, and perhaps not +more glaring and extravagant than the color in which Spring herself +had once clothed the sere hillside where Flip was now seated. The +phantom mirror in the tree fork caught and held her with the sky, +the green leaves, the sunlight and all the graciousness of her +surroundings, and the wind gently tossed her hair and the gay +ribbons of her gypsy hat. Suddenly she started. Some remote sound +in the trail below, inaudible to any ear less fine than hers, +arrested her breathing. She rose swiftly and darted into cover. + +Ten minutes passed. The sun was declining; the white fog was +beginning to creep over the Coast Range. From the edge of the wood +Cinderella appeared, disenchanted, and in her homespun garments. +The clock had struck--the spell was past. As she disappeared down +the trail even the magic mirror, moved by the wind, slipped from +the tree top to the ground, and became a piece of common glass. + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +The events of the day had produced a remarkable impression on the +facial aspect of the charcoal-burning Fairley. Extraordinary +processes of thought, indicated by repeated rubbing of his forehead, +had produced a high light in the middle and a corresponding +deepening of shadow at the sides, until it bore the appearance of a +perfect sphere. It was this forehead that confronted Flip +reproachfully as became a deceived comrade, menacingly as became an +outraged parent in the presence of a third party and--a Postmaster! + +"Fine doin's this, yer receivin' clandecent bundles and letters, +eh?" he began. Flip sent one swift, withering look of contempt at +the Postmaster, who at once becoming invertebrate and groveling, +mumbled that he must "get on" to the Crossing, and rose to go. But +the old man, who had counted on his presence for moral support, and +was clearly beginning to hate him for precipitating this scene with +his daughter, whom he feared, violently protested. + +"Sit down, can't ye? Don't you see you're a witness?" he screamed +hysterically. + +It was a fatal suggestion. "Witness," repeated Flip, scornfully. + +"Yes, a witness! He gave ye letters and bundles." + +"Weren't they directed to me?" asked Flip. + +"Yes," said the Postmaster, hesitatingly; "in course, yes." + +"Do YOU lay claim to them?" she said, turning to her father. + +"No," responded the old man. + +"Do you?" sharply, to the Postmaster. + +"No," he replied. + +"Then," said Flip, coolly, "if you're not claimin' 'em for +yourself, and you hear father say they ain't his, I reckon the less +you have to say about 'em the better." + +"Thar's suthin' in that," said the old man, shamelessly abandoning +the Postmaster. + +"Then why don't she say who sent 'em, and what they are like," said +the Postmaster, "if there's nothin' in it?" + +"Yes," echoed Dad. "Flip, why don't you?" + +Without answering the direct question, Flip turned upon her father. + +"Maybe you forget how you used to row and tear round here because +tramps and such like came to the ranch for suthin', and I gave it +to 'em? Maybe you'll quit tearin' round and letting yourself be +made a fool of now by that man, just because one of those tramps +gets up and sends us some presents back in turn?" + +"'Twasn't me, Flip," said the old man, deprecatingly, but glaring +at the astonished Postmaster. "Twasn't my doin'. I allus said if +you cast your bread on the waters it would come back to you by +return mail. The fact is, the Gov'ment is gettin' too high-handed! +Some o' these bloated officials had better climb down before next +leckshen." + +"Maybe," continued Flip to her father, without looking at her +discomfited visitor, "ye'd better find out whether one of those +officials comes up to this yer ranch to steal away a gal about my +own size, or to get points about diamond-making. I reckon he don't +travel round to find out who writes all the letters that go through +the Post Office." + +The Postmaster had seemingly miscalculated the old man's infirm +temper and the daughter's skillful use of it. He was unprepared +for Flip's boldness and audacity, and when he saw that both barrels +of the accusation had taken effect on the charcoal burner, who was +rising with epileptic rage, he fairly turned and fled. The old man +would have followed him with objurgation beyond the door, but for +the restraining hand of Flip. + +Baffled and beaten, nevertheless Fate was not wholly unkind to the +retreating suitor. Near the Gin and Ginger Woods he picked up a +letter which had fallen from Flip's pocket. He recognized the +writing, and did not scruple to read it. It was not a love +epistle,--at least, not such a one as he would have written,--it +did not give the address nor the name of the correspondent; but he +read the following with greedy eyes:-- + + +"Perhaps it's just as well that you don't rig yourself out for the +benefit of those dead beats at the Crossing, or any tramp that +might hang round the ranch. Keep all your style for me when I +come. I can't tell you when, it's mighty uncertain before the +rainy season. But I'm coming soon. Don't go back on your promise +about lettin up on the tramps, and being a little more high-toned. +And don't you give 'em so much. It's true I sent you hats TWICE. +I clean forgot all about the first; but I wouldn't have given a +ten-dollar hat to a nigger woman who had a sick baby because I had +an extra hat. I'd have let that baby slide. I forgot to ask +whether the skirt is worn separately; I must see the dressmaking +sharp about it; but I think you'll want something on besides a +jacket and skirt; at least, it looks like it up here. I don't +think you could manage a piano down there without the old man +knowing it, and raisin' the devil generally. I promised you I'd +let up on him. Mind you keep all your promises to me. I'm glad +you're gettin' on with the six-shooter; tin cans are good at +fifteen yards, but try it on suthin' that MOVES! I forgot to say +that I am on the track of your big brother. It's a three years' +old track, and he was in Arizona. The friend who told me didn't +expatiate much on what he did there, but I reckon they had a high +old time. If he's above the earth I'll find him, you bet. The +yerba buena and the southern wood came all right,--they smelt like +you. Say, Flip, do you remember the last--the VERY last--thing +that happened when you said 'Good-by' on the trail? Don't let me +ever find out that you've let anybody else kiss--" + + +But here the virtuous indignation of the Postmaster found vent in +an oath. He threw the letter away. He retained of it only two +facts,--Flip HAD a brother who was missing; she had a lover present +in the flesh. + +How much of the substance of this and previous letters Flip had +confided to her father I cannot say. If she suppressed anything it +was probably that which affected Lance's secret alone, and it was +doubtful how much of that she herself knew. In her own affairs she +was frank without being communicative, and never lost her shy +obstinacy even with her father. Governing the old man as +completely as she did, she appeared most embarrassed when she was +most dominant; she had her own way without lifting her voice or her +eyes; she seemed oppressed by mauvaise honte when she was most +triumphant; she would end a discussion with a shy murmur addressed +to herself, or a single gesture of self-consciousness. + +The disclosure of her strange relations with an unknown man and the +exchange of presents and confidences seemed to suddenly awake +Fairley to a vague, uneasy sense of some unfulfilled duties as a +parent. The first effect of this on his weak nature was a peevish +antagonism to the cause of it. He had long, fretful monologues on +the vanity of diamond-making, if accompanied with a "pestering" by +"interlopers;" on the wickedness of concealment and conspiracy, and +their effects on charcoal-burning; on the nurturing of spies and +"adders" in the family circle, and on the seditiousness of dark and +mysterious councils in which a gray-haired father was left out. It +was true that a word or look from Flip generally brought these +monologues to an inglorious and abrupt termination, but they were +none the less lugubrious as long as they lasted. In time they were +succeeded by an affectation of contrite apology and self- +depreciation. "Don't go out o' the way to ask the old man," he +would say, referring to the quantity of bacon to be ordered; "it's +nat'ral a young gal should have her own advisers." The state of +the flour barrel would also produce a like self-abasement. "Unless +ye're already in correspondence about more flour, ye might take the +opinion o' the first tramp ye meet ez to whether Santa Cruz Mills +is a good brand, but don't ask the old man." If Flip was in +conversation with the butcher, Fairley would obtrusively retire +with the hope "he wasn't intrudin' on their secrets." + +These phases of her father's weakness were not frequent enough to +excite her alarm, but she could not help noticing they were +accompanied with a seriousness unusual to him. He began to be +tremulously watchful of her, returning often from work at an +earlier hour, and lingering by the cabin in the morning. He +brought absurd and useless presents for her, and presented them +with a nervous anxiety, poorly concealed by an assumption of +careless, paternal generosity. "Suthin' I picked up at the +Crossin' for ye to-day," he would say, airily, and retire to watch +the effect of a pair of shoes two sizes too large, or a fur cap in +September. He would have hired a cheap parlor organ for her, but +for the apparently unexpected revelation that she couldn't play. +He had received the news of a clue to his long-lost son without +emotion, but lately he seemed to look upon it as a foregone +conclusion, and one that necessarily solved the question of +companionship for Flip. "In course, when you've got your own flesh +and blood with ye, ye can't go foolin' around with strangers." +These autumnal blossoms of affection, I fear, came too late for any +effect upon Flip, precociously matured by her father's indifference +and selfishness. But she was good humored, and, seeing him +seriously concerned, gave him more of her time, even visited him in +the sacred seclusion of the "diamond pit," and listened with far- +off eyes to his fitful indictment of all things outside his grimy +laboratory. Much of this patient indifference came with a +capricious change in her own habits; she no longer indulged in the +rehearsal of dress, she packed away her most treasured garments, +and her leafy boudoir knew her no more. She sometimes walked on +the hillside, and often followed the trail she had taken with Lance +when she led him to the ranch. She once or twice extended her walk +to the spot where she had parted from him, and as often came shyly +away, her eyes downcast and her face warm with color. Perhaps +because these experiences and some mysterious instinct of maturing +womanhood had left a story in her eyes, which her two adorers, the +Postmaster and the Butcher, read with passion, she became famous +without knowing it. Extravagant stories of her fascinations +brought strangers into the valley. The effect upon her father may +be imagined. Lance could not have desired a more effective +guardian than he proved to be in this emergency. Those who had +been told of this hidden pearl were surprised to find it so +jealously protected. + + +CHAPTER V. + + +The long, parched summer had drawn to its dusty close. Much of it +was already blown abroad and dissipated on trail and turnpike, or +crackled in harsh, unelastic fibres on hillside and meadow. Some +of it had disappeared in the palpable smoke by day and fiery crests +by night of burning forests. The besieging fogs on the Coast Range +daily thinned their hosts, and at last vanished. The wind changed +from northwest to southwest. The salt breath of the sea was on the +summit. And then one day the staring, unchanged sky was faintly +touched with remote mysterious clouds, and grew tremulous in +expression. The next morning dawned upon a newer face in the +heavens, on changed woods, on altered outlines, on vanished crests, +on forgotten distances. It was raining! + +Four weeks of this change, with broken spaces of sunlight and +intense blue aerial islands, and then a storm set in. All day the +summit pines and redwoods rocked in the blast. At times the onset +of the rain seemed to be held back by the fury of the gale, or was +visibly seen in sharp waves on the hillside. Unknown and concealed +watercourses suddenly overflowed the trails, pools became lakes and +brooks rivers. Hidden from the storm, the sylvan silence of +sheltered valleys was broken by the impetuous rush of waters; even +the tiny streamlet that traversed Flip's retreat in the Gin and +Ginger Woods became a cascade. + +The storm drove Fairley from his couch early. The falling of a +large tree across the trail, and the sudden overflow of a small +stream beside it, hastened his steps. But he was doomed to +encounter what was to him a more disagreeable object--a human +figure. By the bedraggled drapery that flapped and fluttered in +the wind, by the long, unkempt hair that hid the face and eyes, and +by the grotesquely misplaced bonnet, the old man recognized one of +his old trespassers,--an Indian squaw. + +"Clear out 'er that! Come, make tracks, will ye?" the old man +screamed; but here the wind stopped his voice, and drove him +against a hazel bush. + +"Me heap sick," answered the squaw, shivering through her muddy +shawl. + +"I'll make ye a heap sicker if ye don't vamose the ranch," +continued Fairley, advancing. + +"Me wantee Wangee girl. Wangee girl give me heap grub," said the +squaw, without moving. + +"You bet your life," groaned the old man to himself. Nevertheless +an idea struck him. "Ye ain't brought no presents, hev ye?" he +asked cautiously. "Ye ain't got no pooty things for poor Wangee +girl?" he continued, insinuatingly. + +"Me got heap cache nuts and berries," said the squaw. + +"Oh, in course! in course! That's just it," screamed Fairley; +"you've got 'em cached only two mile from yer, and you'll go and +get 'em for a half dollar, cash down." + +"Me bring Wangee girl to cache," replied the Indian, pointing to +the wood. "Honest Injin." + +Another bright idea struck Mr. Fairley. But it required some +elaboration. Hurrying the squaw with him through the pelting rain, +he reached the shelter of the corral. Vainly the shivering +aborigine drew her tightly bandaged papoose closer to her square, +flat breast, and looked longingly toward the cabin; the old man +backed her against the palisade. Here he cautiously imparted his +dark intentions to employ her to keep watch and ward over the +ranch, and especially over its young mistress--"clear out all the +tramps 'ceptin' yourself, and I'll keep ye in grub and rum." Many +and deliberate repetitions of this offer in various forms at last +seemed to affect the squaw; she nodded violently, and echoed the +last word "rum." "Now," she added. The old man hesitated; she was +in possession of his secret; he groaned, and, promising an +immediate installment of liquor, led her to the cabin. + +The door was so securely fastened against the impact of the storm +that some moments elapsed before the bar was drawn, and the old man +had become impatient and profane. When it was partly opened by +Flip he hastily slipped in, dragging the squaw after him, and cast +one single suspicious glance around the rude apartment which served +as a sitting-room. Flip had apparently been writing. A small +inkstand was still on the board table, but her paper had evidently +been concealed before she allowed them to enter. The squaw +instantly squatted before the adobe hearth, warmed her bundled +baby, and left the ceremony of introduction to her companion. Flip +regarded the two with calm preoccupation and indifference. The +only thing that touched her interest was the old squaw's draggled +skirt and limp neckerchief. They were Flip's own, long since +abandoned and cast off in the Gin and Ginger Woods. "Secrets +again," whined Fairley, still eying Flip furtively. "Secrets +again, in course--in course--jiss so. Secrets that must be kep +from the ole man. Dark doin's by one's own flesh and blood. Go +on! go on! Don't mind me." Flip did not reply. She had even lost +the interest in her old dress. Perhaps it had only touched some +note in unison with her revery. + +"Can't ye get the poor critter some whiskey?" he queried, fretfully. +"Ye used to be peart enuff before." As Flip turned to the corner to +lift the demijohn, Fairley took occasion to kick the squaw with his +foot, and indicate by extravagant pantomime that the bargain was not +to be alluded to before the girl. Flip poured out some whiskey in a +tin cup, and, approaching the squaw, handed it to her. "It's like +ez not," continued Fairley to his daughter, but looking at the +squaw, "that she'll be huntin' the woods off and on, and kinder +looking after the last pit near the Madronos; ye'll give her grub +and licker ez she likes. Well, d'ye hear, Flip? Are ye moonin' +agin with yer secrets? What's gone with ye?" + +If the child were dreaming, it was a delicious dream. Her magnetic +eyes were suffused by a strange light, as though the eye itself had +blushed; her full pulse showed itself more in the rounding outline +of her cheek than in any deepening of color; indeed, if there was +any heightening of tint, it was in her freckles, which fairly +glistened like tiny spangles. Her eyes were downcast, her +shoulders slightly bent, but her voice was low and clear and +thoughtful as ever. + +"One o' the big pines above the Madrono pit has blown over into the +run," she said. "It's choked up the water, and it's risin' fast. +Like ez not it's pourin' over into the pit by this time." + +The old man rose with a fretful cry. "And why in blames didn't you +say so first?" he screamed, catching up his axe and rushing to the +door. + +"Ye didn't give me a chance," said Flip, raising her eyes for the +first time. With an impatient imprecation, Fairley darted by her +and rushed into the wood. In an instant she had shut the door and +bolted it. In the same instant the squaw arose, dashed the long +hair not only from her eyes, but from her head, tore away her shawl +and blanket, and revealed the square shoulders of Lance Harriott! +Flip remained leaning against the door; but the young man in rising +dropped the bandaged papoose, which rolled from his lap into the +fire. Flip, with a cry, sprang toward it; but Lance caught her by +the waist with one arm, as with the other he dragged the bundle +from the flames. + +"Don't be alarmed," he said, gayly, "it's only--" + +"What?" said Flip, trying to disengage herself. + +"My coat and trousers." + +Flip laughed, which encouraged Lance to another attempt to kiss +her. She evaded it by diving her head into his waistcoat, and +saying, "There's father." + +"But he's gone to clear away that tree?" suggested Lance. + +One of Flip's significant silences followed. + +"Oh, I see," he laughed. "That was a plan to get him away! Ah!" +She had released herself. + +"Why did you come like that?" she said, pointing to his wig and +blanket. + +"To see if you'd know me," he responded. + +"No," said Flip, dropping her eyes. "It's to keep other people +from knowing you. You're hidin' agin." + +"I am," returned Lance; "but," he interrupted, "it's only the same +old thing." + +"But you wrote from Monterey that it was all over," she persisted. + +"So it would have been," he said gloomily, "but for some dog down +here who is hunting up an old scent. I'll spot him yet, and--" He +stopped suddenly, with such utter abstraction of hatred in his +fixed and glittering eyes that she almost feared him. She laid her +hand quite unconsciously on his arm. He grasped it; his face +changed. + +"I couldn't wait any longer to see you, Flip, so I came here +anyway," he went on. "I thought to hang round and get a chance to +speak to you first, when I fell afoul of the old man. He didn't +know me, and tumbled right in my little game. Why, do you believe +he wants to hire me for my grub and liquor, to act as a sort of +sentry over you and the ranch?" And here he related with great +gusto the substance of his interview. "I reckon as he's that +suspicious," he concluded, "I'd better play it out now as I've +begun, only it's mighty hard I can't see you here before the fire +in your fancy toggery, Flip, but must dodge in and out of the wet +underbrush in these yer duds of yours that I picked up in the old +place in the Gin and Ginger Woods." + +"Then you came here just to see me?" asked Flip. + +"I did." + +"For only that?" + +"Only that." + +Flip dropped her eyes. Lance had got his other arm around her +waist, but her resisting little hand was still potent. + +"Listen," she said at last without looking up, but apparently +talking to the intruding arm, "when Dad comes I'll get him to send +you to watch the diamond pit. It isn't far; it's warm, and"-- + +"What?" + +"I'll come, after a bit, and see you. Quit foolin' now. If you'd +only have come here like yourself--like--like--a white man." + +"The old man," interrupted Lance, "would have just passed me on to +the summit. I couldn't have played the lost fisherman on him at +this time of year." + +"Ye could have been stopped at the Crossing by high water, you +silly," said the girl. "It was." This grammatical obscurity +referred to the stage coach. + +"Yes, but I might have been tracked to this cabin. And look here, +Flip," he said, suddenly straightening himself, and lifting the +girl's face to a level with his own, "I don't want you to lie any +more for me. It ain't right." + +"All right. Ye needn't go to the pit, then, and I won't come." + +"Flip!" + +"And here's Dad coming. Quick!" + +Lance chose to put his own interpretation on this last adjuration. +The resisting little hand was now lying quite limp on his shoulder, +He drew her brown, bright face near his own, felt her spiced breath +on his lips, his cheeks, his hot eyelids, his swimming eyes, kissed +her, hurriedly replaced his wig and blanket, and dropped beside the +fire with the tremulous laugh of youth and innocent first passion. +Flip had withdrawn to the window, and was looking out upon the +rocking pines. + +"He don't seem to be coming," said Lance, with a half-shy laugh. + +"No," responded Flip demurely, pressing her hot oval cheek against +the wet panes; "I reckon I was mistaken. You're sure," she added, +looking resolutely another way, but still trembling like a magnetic +needle toward Lance, as he moved slightly before the fire, "you're +SURE you'd like me to come to you?" + +"Sure, Flip?" + +"Hush!" said Flip, as this reassuring query of reproachful +astonishment appeared about to be emphasized by a forward amatory +dash of Lance's; "hush! he's coming this time, sure." + +It was, indeed, Fairley, exceedingly wet, exceedingly bedraggled, +exceedingly sponged out as to color, and exceedingly profane. It +appeared that there was, indeed, a tree that had fallen in the +"run," but that, far from diverting the overflow into the pit, it +had established "back water," which had forced another outlet. All +this might have been detected at once by any human intellect not +distracted by correspondence with strangers, and enfeebled by +habitually scorning the intellect of its own progenitor. This +reckless selfishness had further only resulted in giving +"rheumatics" to that progenitor, who now required the external +administration of opodeldoc to his limbs, and the internal +administration of whiskey. Having thus spoken, Mr. Fairley, with +great promptitude and infantine simplicity, at once bared two legs +of entirely different colors and mutely waited for his daughter to +rub them. If Flip did this all unconsciously, and with the +mechanical dexterity of previous habit, it was because she did not +quite understand the savage eyes and impatient gestures of Lance in +his encompassing wig and blanket, and because it helped her to +voice her thought. + +"Ye'll never be able to take yer watch at the diamond pit to-night, +Dad," she said; "and I've been reck'nin' you might set the squaw +there instead. I can show her what to do." + +But to Flip's momentary discomfiture, her father promptly objected. +"Mebbee I've got suthin' else for her to do. Mebbee I may have my +secrets, too--eh?" he said, with dark significance, at the same +time administering a significant nudge to Lance, which kept up the +young man's exasperation. "No, she'll rest yer a bit just now. +I'll set her to watchin' suthin' else, like as not, when I want +her." Flip fell into one of her suggestive silences. Lance +watched her earnestly, mollified by a single furtive glance from +her significant eyes; the rain dashed against the windows, and +occasionally spattered and hissed in the hearth of the broad +chimney, and Mr. David Fairley, somewhat assuaged by the internal +administration of whiskey, grew more loquacious. The genius of +incongruity and inconsistency which generally ruled his conduct +came out with freshened vigor under the gentle stimulation of +spirit. "On an evening like this," he began, comfortably settling +himself on the floor beside the chimney, "ye might rig yerself out +in them new duds and fancy fixin's that that Sacramento shrimp sent +ye, and let your own flesh and blood see ye. If that's too much to +do for your old dad, ye might do it to please that digger squaw as +a Christian act." Whether in the hidden depths of the old man's +consciousness there was a feeling of paternal vanity in showing +this wretched aborigine the value and importance of the treasure +she was about to guard, I cannot say. Flip darted an interrogatory +look at Lance, who nodded a quiet assent, and she flew into the +inner room. She did not linger on the details of her toilet, but +reappeared almost the next moment in her new finery; buttoning the +neck of her gown as she entered the room, and chastely stopping at +the window to characteristically pull up her stocking. The +peculiarity of her situation increased her usual shyness; she +played with the black and gold beads of a handsome necklace,-- +Lance's last gift,--as the merest child might; her unbuckled shoe +gave the squaw a natural opportunity of showing her admiration and +devotion by insisting upon buckling it, and gave Lance, under that +disguise, an opportunity of covertly kissing the little foot and +ankle in the shadow of the chimney; an event which provoked slight +hysterical symptoms in Flip, and caused her to sit suddenly down in +spite of the remonstrances of her parent. "Ef you can't quit +gigglin' and squirmin' like an Injin baby yourself, ye'd better git +rid o' them duds," he ejaculated with peevish scorn. + +Yet, under this perfunctory rebuke, his weak vanity could not be +hidden, and he enjoyed the evident admiration of a creature whom he +believed to be half-witted and degraded all the more keenly because +it did not make him jealous. She could not take Flip from him. +Rendered garrulous by liquor, he went to voice his contempt for +those who might attempt it. Taking advantage of his daughter's +absence to resume her homely garments, he whispered confidentially +to Lance,-- + +"Ye see these yer fine dresses, ye might think is presents. Pr'aps +Flip lets on they are? Pr'aps she don't know any better. But they +ain't presents. They're only samples o' dressmaking and jewelry +that a vain, conceited shrimp of a feller up in Sacramento sends +down here to get customers for. In course I'm to pay for 'em. In +course he reckons I'm to do it. In course I calkilate to do it; +but he needn't try to play 'em off as presents. He talks suthin' +o' coming down here, sportin' hisself off on Flip as a fancy buck! +Not ez long ez the old man's here, you bet." Thoroughly carried +away by his fancied wrongs, it was perhaps fortunate that he did +not observe the flashing eyes of Lance behind his lank and +lustreless wig; but seeing only the figure of Lance, as he had +conjured him, he went on: "That's why I want you to hang around +her. Hang around her ontil my boy,--him that's comin' home on a +visit,--gets here, and I reckon he'll clear out that yar Sacramento +counter-jumper. Only let me get a sight o' him afore Flip does. +eh? D'ye hear? Dog my skin if I don't believe the d----d Injin's +drunk." It was fortunate that at that moment Flip reappeared, and, +dropping on the hearth between her father and the infuriated Lance, +let her hand slip in his with a warning pressure. The light touch +momentarily recalled him to himself and her, but not until the +quick-witted girl had had revealed to her in one startled wave of +consciousness the full extent of Lance's infirmity of temper. With +the instinct of awakened tenderness came a sense of responsibility, +and a vague premonition of danger. The coy blossom of her heart +was scarce unfolded before it was chilled by approaching shadows. +Fearful of, she knew not what, she hesitated. Every moment of +Lance's stay was imperiled by a single word that might spring from +his suppressed white lips; beyond and above the suspicions his +sudden withdrawal might awaken in her father's breast, she was +dimly conscious of some mysterious terror without that awaited him. +She listened to the furious onslaught of the wind upon the +sycamores beside their cabin, and thought she heard it there; she +listened to the sharp fusillade of rain upon roof and pane, and the +turbulent roar and rush of leaping mountain torrents at their very +feet, and fancied it was there. She suddenly sprang to the window, +and, pressing her eyes to the pane, saw through the misty turmoil +of tossing boughs and swaying branches the scintillating +intermittent flames of torches moving on the trail above, and KNEW +it was there! + +In an instant she was collected and calm. "Dad," she said, in her +ordinary indifferent tone, "there's torches movin' up toward the +diamond pit. Likely it's tramps. I'll take the squaw and see." +And before the old man could stagger to his feet she had dragged +Lance with her into the road. + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The wind charged down upon them, slamming the door at their backs, +extinguishing the broad shaft of light that had momentarily shot +out into the darkness, and swept them a dozen yards away. Gaining +the lee of a madrono tree, Lance opened his blanketed arms, +enfolded the girl, and felt her for one brief moment tremble and +nestle in his bosom like some frightened animal. "Well," he said, +gayly, "what next?" Flip recovered herself. "You're safe now +anywhere outside the house. But did you expect them tonight?" +Lance shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?" "Hush!" returned the +girl; "they're coming this way." + +The four flickering, scattered lights presently dropped into line. +The trail had been found; they were coming nearer. Flip breathed +quickly; the spiced aroma of her presence filled the blanket as he +drew her tightly beside him. He had forgotten the storm that raged +around them, the mysterious foe that was approaching, until Flip +caught his sleeve with a slight laugh. "Why, it's Kennedy and +Bijah?" + +"Who's Kennedy and Bijah?" asked Lance, curtly. + +"Kennedy's the Postmaster and Bijah's the Butcher." + +"What do they want?" continued Lance. + +"Me," said Flip, coyly. + +"You?" + +"Yes; let's run away." + +Half leading, half dragging her friend, Flip made her way with +unerring woodcraft down the ravine. The sound of voices and even +the tumult of the storm became fainter, an acrid smell of burning +green wood smarted Lance's lips and eyes; in the midst of the +darkness beneath him gradually a faint, gigantic nimbus like a +lurid eye glowed and sank, quivered and faded with the spent breath +of the gale as it penetrated their retreat. "The pit," whispered +Flip; "it's safe on the other side," she added, cautiously skirting +the orbit of the great eye, and leading him to a sheltered nest of +bark and sawdust. It was warm and odorous. Nevertheless, they +both deemed it necessary to enwrap themselves in the single +blanket. The eye beamed fitfully upon them, occasionally a wave of +lambent tremulousness passed across it; its weirdness was an excuse +for their drawing nearer each other in playful terror. + +"Flip." + +"Well?" + +"What did the other two want? To see you, TOO?" + +"Likely," said Flip, without the least trace of coquetry. "There's +been a lot of strangers yer, off and on." + +"Perhaps you'd like to go back and see them?" + +"Do you want me to?" + +Lance's reply was a kiss. Nevertheless he was vaguely uneasy. +"Looks a little as if I were running away, don't it?" he suggested. + +"No," said Flip; "they think you're only a squaw; it's me they're +after." Lance smarted a little at this infelicitous speech. A +strange and irritating sensation had been creeping over him--it was +his first experience of shame and remorse. "I reckon I'll go back +and see," he said, rising abruptly. + +Flip was silent. She was thinking. Believing that the men were +seeking her only, she knew that their attention would be directed +from her companion when it was found out he was no longer with her, +and she dreaded to meet them in his irritable presence. + +"Go," she said, "tell Dad something's gone wrong in the diamond +pit, and say I'm watching it for him here." + +"And you?" + +"I'll go there and wait for him. If he can't get rid of them, and +they follow him there, I'll come back here and meet you. Anyhow, +I'll manage to have Dad wait there a spell." + +She took his hand and led him back by a different path to the +trail. He was surprised to find that the cabin, its window glowing +from the fire, was only a hundred yards away. "Go in the back way, +by the shed. Don't go in the room, nor near the light, if you can. +Don't talk inside, but call or beckon to Dad. Remember," she said, +with a laugh, "you're keeping watch of me for him. Pull your hair +down on your eyes so." This operation, like most feminine +embellishments of the masculine toilet was attended by a kiss, and +Flip, stepping back into the shadow, vanished in the storm. + +Lance's first movements were inconsistent with his assumed sex. He +picked up his draggled skirt, and drew a bowie knife from his boot. +From his bosom he took a revolver, turning the chambers noiselessly +as he felt the caps. He then crept toward the cabin softly and +gained the shed. It was quite dark but for a pencil of light +piercing a crack of the rude, ill-fitting door that opened on the +sitting-room. A single voice not unfamiliar to him, raised in +half-brutal triumph, greeted his ears. + +A name was mentioned--his own! His angry hand was on the latch. +One moment more and he would have burst the door, but in that +instant another name was uttered--a name that dropped his hand from +the latch and the blood from his cheeks. He staggered backward, +passed his hand swiftly across his forehead, recovered himself with +a gesture of mingled rage and despair, and, sinking on his knees +beside the door, pressed his hot temples against the crack. + +"Do I know Lance Harriott?" said the voice. "Do I know the d----d +ruffian? Didn't I hunt him a year ago into the brush three miles +from the Crossing? Didn't we lose sight of him the very day he +turned up yer at this ranch, and got smuggled over into Monterey? +Ain't it the same man as killed Arkansaw Bob--Bob Ridley--the name +he went by in Sonora? And who was Bob Ridley, eh? Who? Why, you +d----d old fool, it was Bob Fairley--YOUR SON!" + +The old man's voice rose querulous and indistinct. + +"What are ye talkin' about?" interrupted the first speaker. "I +tell you I KNOW. Look at these pictures. I found 'em on his body. +Look at 'em. Pictures of you and your girl. Pr'aps you'll deny +them. Pr'aps you'll tell me I lie when I tell you HE told me he +was your son; told me how he ran away from you; how you were livin' +somewhere in the mountains makin' gold, or suthin' else, outer +charcoal. He told me who he was as a secret. He never let on he +told it to any one else. And when I found that the man who killed +him, Lance Harriott, had been hidin' here, had been sendin' spies +all around to find out all about your son, had been foolin' you and +tryin' to ruin your gal as he had killed your boy, I knew that HE +knew it, too." + +"LIAR!" + +The door fell in with a crash. There was the sudden apparition of +a demoniac face, still half hidden by the long trailing black locks +of hair that curled like Medusa's around it. A cry of terror +filled the room. Three of the men dashed from the door and fled +precipitately. The man who had spoken sprang toward his rifle in +the chimney corner. But the movement was his last; a blinding +flash and shattering report interposed between him and his weapon. + +The impulse carried him forward headlong into the fire, that hissed +and spluttered with his blood, and Lance Harriott with his smoking +pistol, strode past him to the door. Already far down the trail +there were hurried voices, the crack and crackling of impending +branches growing fainter and fainter in the distance. Lance turned +back to the solitary living figure--the old man. + +Yet he might have been dead, too, he sat so rigid and motionless, +his fixed eyes staring vacantly at the body on the hearth. Before +him on the table lay the cheap photographs, one evidently of +himself, taken in some remote epoch of complexion, one of a child +which Lance recognized as Flip. + +"Tell me," said Lance hoarsely, laying his quivering hand on the +table, "was Bob Ridley your son?" + +"My son," echoed the old man in a strange, far-off voice, without +turning his eyes from the corpse--"My son--is--is--is there!" +pointing to the dead man. "Hush! Didn't he tell you so? Didn't +you hear him say it? Dead--dead--shot--shot!" + +"Silence! are you crazy, man?" repeated Lance, tremblingly; "that +is not Bob Ridley, but a dog, a coward, a liar gone to his +reckoning. Hear me! If your son WAS Bob Ridley, I swear to God I +never knew it, now or--or--THEN. Do you hear me? Tell me! Do you +believe me? Speak! You shall speak." + +He laid his hand almost menacingly on the old man's shoulder. +Fairley slowly raised his head. Lance fell back with a groan of +horror. The weak lips were wreathed with a feeble imploring smile, +but the eyes wherein the fretful, peevish, suspicious spirit had +dwelt were blank and tenantless; the flickering intellect that had +lit them was blown out and vanished. + +Lance walked toward the door and remained motionless for a moment, +gazing into the night. When he turned back again toward the fire +his face was as colorless as the dead man's on the hearth; the fire +of passion was gone from his beaten eyes; his step was hesitating +and slow. He went up to the table. + +"I say, old man," he said, with a strange smile and an odd, +premature suggestion of the infinite weariness of death in his +voice, "you wouldn't mind giving me this, would you?" and he took +up the picture of Flip. The old man nodded repeatedly. "Thank +you," said Lance. He went to the door, paused a moment, and +returned. "Good-by, old man," he said, holding out his hand. +Fairley took it with a childish smile. "He's dead," said the old +man softly, holding Lance's hand, but pointing to the hearth. +"Yes," said Lance, with the faintest of smiles on the palest of +faces. "You feel sorry for any one that's dead, don't you?" +Fairley nodded again. Lance looked at him with eyes as remote as +his own, shook his head, and turned away. When he reached the door +he laid his revolver carefully, and, indeed, somewhat ostentatiously, +upon a chair. But when he stepped from the threshold he stopped a +moment in the light of the open door to examine the lock of a small +derringer which he drew from his pocket. He then shut the door +carefully, and with the same slow, hesitating step, felt his way +into the night. + +He had but one idea in his mind, to find some lonely spot; some +spot where the footsteps of man would never penetrate, some spot +that would yield him rest, sleep, obliteration, forgetfulness, and, +above all, where HE would be forgotten. He had seen such places; +surely there were many,--where bones were picked up of dead men who +had faded from the earth and had left no other record. If he could +only keep his senses now he might find such a spot, but he must be +careful, for her little feet went everywhere, and she must never +see him again alive or dead. And in the midst of his thoughts, and +the darkness, and the storm, he heard a voice at his side, "Lance, +how long you have been!" + + . . . . . . + +Left to himself, the old man again fell into a vacant contemplation +of the dead body before him, until a stronger blast swept down like +an avalanche upon the cabin, burst through the ill-fastened door +and broken chimney, and, dashing the ashes and living embers over +the floor, filled the room with blinding smoke and flame. Fairley +rose with a feeble cry, and then, as if acted upon by some dominant +memory, groped under the bed until he found his buckskin bag and +his precious crystal, and fled precipitately from the room. Lifted +by this second shock from his apathy, he returned to the fixed idea +of his life,--the discovery and creation of the diamond,--and +forgot all else. The feeble grasp that his shaken intellect kept +of the events of the night relaxed, the disguised Lance, the story +of his son, the murder, slipped into nothingness; there remained +only the one idea, his nightly watch by the diamond pit. The +instinct of long habit was stronger than the darkness or the onset +of the storm, and he kept his tottering way over stream and fallen +timber until he reached the spot. A sudden tremor seemed to shake +the lambent flame that had lured him on. He thought he heard the +sound of voices; there were signs of recent disturbance,-- +footprints in the sawdust! With a cry of rage and suspicion, +Fairley slipped into the pit and sprang toward the nearest opening. +To his frenzied fancy it had been tampered with, his secret +discovered, the fruit of his long labors stolen from him that very +night. With superhuman strength he began to open the pit, +scattering the half-charred logs right and left, and giving vent to +the suffocating gases that rose from the now incandescent charcoal. +At times the fury of the gale would drive it back and hold it +against the sides of the pit, leaving the opening free; at times, +following the blind instinct of habit, the demented man would fall +upon his face and bury his nose and mouth in the wet bark and +sawdust. At last, the paroxysm past, he sank back again in his old +apathetic attitude of watching, the attitude he had so often kept +beside his sylvan crucible. In this attitude and in silence he +waited for the dawn. + +It came with a hush in the storm; it came with blue openings in the +broken up and tumbled heavens; it came with stars that glistened +first, and then paled, and at last sank drowning in those deep +cerulean lakes; it came with those cerulean lakes broadening into +vaster seas, whose shores expanded at last into one illimitable +ocean, cerulean no more, but flecked with crimson and opal dyes; it +came with the lightly lifted misty curtain of the day, torn and +rent on crag and pine top, but always lifting, lifting. It came +with the sparkle of emerald in the grasses, and the flash of +diamonds in every spray, with a whisper in the awakening woods, and +voices in the traveled roads and trails. + +The sound of these voices stopped before the pit, and seemed to +interrogate the old man. He came, and, putting his finger on his +lips, made a sign of caution. When three or four men had descended +he bade them follow him, saying, weakly and disjointedly, but +persistently: "My boy--my son Robert--came home--came home at last-- +here with Flip--both of them--come and see!" + +He had reached a little niche or nest in the hillside, and stopped +and suddenly drew aside a blanket. Beneath it, side by side, lay +Flip and Lance, dead, with their cold hands clasped in each +other's. + +"Suffocated!" said two or three, turning with horror toward the +broken up and still smouldering pit. + +"Asleep!" said the old man. "Asleep! I've seen 'em lying that way +when they were babies together. Don't tell me! Don't say I don't +know my own flesh and blood! So! so! So, my pretty ones!" He +stooped and kissed them. Then, drawing the blanket over them +gently, he rose and said softly, "Good night!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext Flip: A California Romance, by Bret Harte + |