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diff --git a/old/fabst10.txt b/old/fabst10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58d87a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fabst10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1801 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext Found At Blazing Star, by Bret Harte +#44 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. + + + + + +FOUND AT BLAZING STAR + +by Bret Harte + + + + +The rain had only ceased with the gray streaks of morning at +Blazing Star, and the settlement awoke to a moral sense of +cleanliness, and the finding of forgotten knives, tin cups, and +smaller camp utensils, where the heavy showers had washed away the +debris and dust heaps before the cabin doors. Indeed, it was +recorded in Blazing Star that a fortunate early riser had once +picked up on the highway a solid chunk of gold quartz which the +rain had freed from its incumbering soil, and washed into immediate +and glittering popularity. Possibly this may have been the reason +why early risers in that locality, during the rainy season, adopted +a thoughtful habit of body, and seldom lifted their eyes to the +rifted or india-ink washed skies above them. + +"Cass" Beard had risen early that morning, but not with a view to +discovery. A leak in his cabin roof,--quite consistent with his +careless, improvident habits,--had roused him at 4 A. M., with a +flooded "bunk" and wet blankets. The chips from his wood pile +refused to kindle a fire to dry his bed-clothes, and he had +recourse to a more provident neighbor's to supply the deficiency. +This was nearly opposite. Mr. Cassius crossed the highway, and +stopped suddenly. Something glittered in the nearest red pool +before him. Gold, surely! But, wonderful to relate, not an +irregular, shapeless fragment of crude ore, fresh from Nature's +crucible, but a bit of jeweler's handicraft in the form of a plain +gold ring. Looking at it more attentively, he saw that it bore the +inscription, "May to Cass." + +Like most of his fellow gold-seekers, Cass was superstitious. +"Cass!" His own name! He tried the ring. It fitted his little +finger closely. It was evidently a woman's ring. He looked up and +down the highway. No one was yet stirring. Little pools of water +in the red road were beginning to glitter and grow rosy from the +far-flushing east, but there was no trace of the owner of the +shining waif. He knew that there was no woman in camp, and among +his few comrades in the settlement he remembered to have seen none +wearing an ornament like that. Again, the coincidence of the +inscription to his rather peculiar nickname would have been a +perennial source of playful comment in a camp that made no +allowance for sentimental memories. He slipped the glittering +little hoop into his pocket, and thoughtfully returned to his +cabin. + +Two hours later, when the long, straggling procession, which every +morning wended its way to Blazing Star Gulch,--the seat of mining +operations in the settlement,--began to move, Cass saw fit to +interrogate his fellows. "Ye didn't none on ye happen to drop +anything round yer last night?" he asked, cautiously. + +"I dropped a pocketbook containing government bonds and some other +securities, with between fifty and sixty thousand dollars," +responded Peter Drummond, carelessly; "but no matter, if any man +will return a few autograph letters from foreign potentates that +happened to be in it,--of no value to anybody but the owner,--he +can keep the money. Thar's nothin' mean about me," he concluded, +languidly. + +This statement, bearing every evidence of the grossest mendacity, +was lightly passed over, and the men walked on with the deepest +gravity. + +"But hev you?" Cass presently asked of another. + +"I lost my pile to Jack Hamlin at draw-poker, over at Wingdam last +night," returned the other, pensively, "but I don't calkilate to +find it lying round loose." + +Forced at last by this kind of irony into more detailed explanation, +Cass confided to them his discovery, and produced his treasure. The +result was a dozen vague surmises,--only one of which seemed to be +popular, and to suit the dyspeptic despondency of the party,--a +despondency born of hastily masticated fried pork and flapjacks. +The ring was believed to have been dropped by some passing "road +agent" laden with guilty spoil. + +"Ef I was you," said Drummond, gloomily, "I wouldn't flourish that +yer ring around much afore folks. I've seen better men nor you +strung up a tree by Vigilantes for having even less than that in +their possession." + +"And I wouldn't say much about bein' up so d----d early this +morning," added an even more pessimistic comrade; "it might look +bad before a jury." + +With this the men sadly dispersed, leaving the innocent Cass with +the ring in his hand, and a general impression on his mind that he +was already an object of suspicion to his comrades,--an impression, +it is hardly necessary to say, they fully intended should be left +to rankle in his guileless bosom. + +Notwithstanding Cass's first hopeful superstition the ring did not +seem to bring him nor the camp any luck. Daily the "clean up" +brought the same scant rewards to their labors, and deepened the +sardonic gravity of Blazing Star. But, if Cass found no material +result from his treasure, it stimulated his lazy imagination, and, +albeit a dangerous and seductive stimulant, at least lifted him out +of the monotonous grooves of his half-careless, half-slovenly, but +always self-contented camp life. Heeding the wise caution of his +comrades, he took the habit of wearing the ring only at night. +Wrapped in his blanket, he stealthily slipped the golden circlet +over his little finger, and, as he averred, "slept all the better +for it." Whether it ever evoked any warmer dream or vision during +those calm, cold, virgin-like spring nights, when even the moon and +the greater planets retreated into the icy blue, steel-like +firmament, I cannot say. Enough that this superstition began to be +colored a little by fancy, and his fatalism somewhat mitigated by +hope. Dreams of this kind did not tend to promote his efficiency +in the communistic labors of the camp, and brought him a self- +isolation that, however gratifying at first, soon debarred him the +benefits of that hard practical wisdom which underlaid the +grumbling of his fellow workers. + +"I'm dog-goned," said one commentator, "ef I don't believe that +Cass is looney over that yer ring he found. Wears it on a string +under his shirt." + +Meantime, the seasons did not wait the discovery of the secret. +The red pools in Blazing Star highway were soon dried up in the +fervent June sun and riotous night wind of those altitudes. The +ephemeral grasses that had quickly supplanted these pools and the +chocolate-colored mud, were as quickly parched and withered. The +footprints of spring became vague and indefinite, and were finally +lost in the impalpable dust of the summer highway. + +In one of his long, aimless excursions, Cass had penetrated a thick +undergrowth of buckeye and hazel, and found himself quite +unexpectedly upon the high road to Red Chief's Crossing. Cass knew +by the lurid cloud of dust that hid the distance, that the up coach +had passed. He had already reached that stage of superstition when +the most trivial occurrence seemed to point in some way to an +elucidation of the mystery of his treasure. His eyes had +mechanically fallen to the ground again, as if he half expected to +find in some other waif a hint or corroboration of his imaginings. +Thus abstracted, the figure of a young girl on horseback, in the +road directly before the bushes he emerged from, appeared to have +sprung directly from the ground. + +"Oh, come here, please do; quick!" + +Cass stared, and then moved hesitatingly toward her. + +"I heard some one coming through the bushes, and I waited," she +went on. "Come quick. It's something too awful for anything." + +In spite of this appalling introduction, Cass could not but notice +that the voice, although hurried and excited, was by no means +agitated or frightened; that the eyes which looked into his +sparkled with a certain kind of pleased curiosity. + +"It was just here," she went on vivaciously, "just here that I went +into the bush and cut a switch for my mare,--and,"--leading him +along at a brisk trot by her side,--"just here, look, see! this is +what I found." + +It was scarcely thirty feet from the road. The only object that +met Cass's eye was a man's stiff, tall hat, lying emptily and +vacantly in the grass. It was new, shiny, and of modish shape. +But it was so incongruous, so perkily smart, and yet so feeble +and helpless lying there, so ghastly ludicrous in its very +appropriateness and incapacity to adjust itself to the surrounding +landscape, that it affected him with something more than a sense of +its grotesqueness, and he could only stare at it blankly. + +"But you're not looking the right way," the girl went on sharply; +"look there!" + +Cass followed the direction of her whip. At last, what might have +seemed a coat thrown carelessly on the ground met his eye, but +presently he became aware of a white, rigid, aimlessly-clinched +hand protruding from the flaccid sleeve; mingled with it in some +absurd way and half hidden by the grass, lay what might have been a +pair of cast-off trousers but for two rigid boots that pointed in +opposite angles to the sky. It was a dead man. So palpably dead +that life seemed to have taken flight from his very clothes. So +impotent, feeble, and degraded by them that the naked subject of a +dissecting table would have been less insulting to humanity. The +head had fallen back, and was partly hidden in a gopher burrow, but +the white, upturned face and closed eyes had less of helpless death +in them than those wretched enwrappings. Indeed, one limp hand +that lay across the swollen abdomen lent itself to the grotesquely +hideous suggestion of a gentleman sleeping off the excesses of a +hearty dinner. + +"Ain't he horrid?" continued the girl; "but what killed him?" + +Struggling between a certain fascination at the girl's cold-blooded +curiosity and horror of the murdered man, Cass hesitatingly lifted +the helpless head. A bluish hole above the right temple, and a few +brown paint-like spots on the forehead, shirt cellar, and matted +hair proved the only record. + +"Turn him over again," said the girl, impatiently, as Cass was +about to relinquish his burden. "May be you'll find another +wound." + +But Cass was dimly remembering certain formalities that in older +civilizations attend the discovery of dead bodies, and postponed a +present inquest. + +"Perhaps you'd better ride on, Miss, afore you get summoned as a +witness. I'll give warning at Red Chief's Crossing, and send the +coroner down here." + +"Let me go with you," she said, earnestly, "it would be such fun. +I don't mind being a witness. Or," she added, without heeding +Cass's look of astonishment, "I'll wait here till you come back." + +"But you see, Miss, it wouldn't seem right--" began Cass. + +"But I found him first," interrupted the girl, with a pout. + +Staggered by this preemptive right, sacred to all miners, Cass +stopped. + +"Who is the coroner?" she asked. + +"Joe Hornsby." + +"The tall, lame man, who was half eaten by a grizzly?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, look now! I'll ride on and bring him back in half an hour. +There!" + +"But, Miss--!" + +"Oh, don't mind ME. I never saw anything of this kind before, and +I want to see it ALL." + +"Do you know Hornsby?" asked Cass, unconsciously a trifle irritated. + +"No, but I'll bring him." She wheeled her horse into the road. + +In the presence of this living energy Cass quite forgot the +helpless dead. "Have you been long in these parts, Miss?" he +asked. + +"About two weeks," she answered, shortly. "Good-by, just now. +Look around for the pistol or anything else you can find, although +I have been over the whole ground twice already." + +A little puff of dust as the horse sprang into the road, a muffled +shuffle, struggle, then the regular beat of hoofs, and she was +gone. + +After five minutes had passed, Cass regretted that he had not +accompanied her; waiting in such a spot was an irksome task. Not +that there was anything in the scene itself to awaken gloomy +imaginings; the bright, truthful Californian sunshine scoffed at +any illusion of creeping shadows or waving branches. Once, in the +rising wind, the empty hat rolled over--but only in a ludicrous, +drunken way. A search for any further sign or token had proved +futile, and Cass grew impatient. He began to hate himself for +having stayed; he would have fled but for shame. Nor was his good +humor restored when at the close of a weary half hour two galloping +figures emerged from the dusty horizon--Hornsby and the young girl. + +His vague annoyance increased as he fancied that both seemed to +ignore him, the coroner barely acknowledging his presence with a +nod. Assisted by the young girl, whose energy and enthusiasm +evidently delighted him, Hornsby raised the body for a more careful +examination. The dead man's pockets were carefully searched. A +few coins, a silver pencil, knife, and tobacco-box were all they +found. It gave no clew to his identity. Suddenly the young girl, +who had, with unabashed curiosity, knelt beside the exploring +official hands of the Red Chief, uttered a cry of gratification. + +"Here's something! It dropped from the bosom of his shirt on the +ground. Look!" + +She was holding in the air, between her thumb and forefinger, a +folded bit of well-worn newspaper. Her eyes sparkled. + +"Shall I open it?" she asked. + +"Yes." + +"It's a little ring" she said; "looks like an engagement ring. +Something is written on it. Look! 'May to Cass.'" + +Cass darted forward. "It's mine," he stammered, "mine! I dropped +it. It's nothing--nothing," he went on, after a pause, embarrassed +and blushing, as the girl and her companion both stared at him--"a +mere trifle. I'll take it." + +But the coroner opposed his outstretched hand. "Not much," he +said, significantly. + +"But it's MINE," continued Cass, indignation taking the place of +shame at his discovered secret. "I found it six months ago in the +road. I--picked it up." + +"With your name already written on it! How handy!" said the +coroner, grimly. + +"It's an old story" said Cass, blushing again under the half- +mischievous, half-searching eyes of the girl. "All Blazing Star +knows I found it." + +"Then ye'll have no difficulty in provin' it," said Hornsby, +coolly. "Just now, however, WE'VE found it, and we propose to keep +it for the inquest." + +Cass shrugged his shoulders. Further altercation would have only +heightened his ludicrous situation in the girl's eyes. He turned +away, leaving his treasure in the coroner's hands. + +The inquest, a day or two later, was prompt and final. No clew to +the dead man's identity; no evidence sufficiently strong to prove +murder or suicide; no trace of any kind, inculpating any party, +known or unknown, were found. But much publicity and interest were +given to the proceedings by the presence of the principal witness, +a handsome girl. "To the pluck, persistency, and intellect of Miss +Porter," said the "Red Chief Recorder," "Tuolumne County owes the +recovery of the body." + +No one who was present at the inquest failed to be charmed with the +appearance and conduct of this beautiful young lady. + +"Miss Porter has but lately arrived in this district, in which, it +is hoped, she will become an honored resident, and continue to set +an example to all lackadaisical and sentimental members of the so- +called 'sterner sex.'" After this universally recognized allusion +to Cass Beard, the "Recorder" returned to its record: "Some +interest was excited by what appeared to be a clew to the mystery +in the discovery of a small gold engagement ring on the body. +Evidence was afterward offered to show it was the property of a Mr. +Cass Beard of Blazing Star, who appeared upon the scene AFTER the +discovery of the corpse by Miss Porter. He alleged he had dropped +it in lifting the unfortunate remains of the deceased. Much +amusement was created in court by the sentimental confusion of the +claimant, and a certain partisan spirit shown by his fellow-miners +of Blazing Star. It appearing, however, by the admission of this +sighing Strephon of the Foot hills, that he had himself FOUND this +pledge of affection lying in the highway six months previous, the +coroner wisely placed it in the safe-keeping of the county court +until the appearance of the rightful owner." + +Thus on the 13th of September, 186-, the treasure found at Blazing +Star passed out of the hands of its finder. + + . . . . . . + +Autumn brought an abrupt explanation of the mystery. Kanaka Joe +had been arrested for horse stealing, but had with noble candor +confessed to the finer offense of manslaughter. That swift and +sure justice which overtook the horse stealer in these altitudes +was stayed a moment and hesitated, for the victim was clearly the +mysterious unknown. Curiosity got the better of an extempore judge +and jury. + +"It was a fair fight," said the accused, not without some human +vanity, feeling that the camp hung upon his words, "and was settled +by the man az was peartest and liveliest with his weapon. We had a +sort of unpleasantness over at Lagrange the night afore, along of +our both hevin' a monotony of four aces. We had a clinch and a +stamp around, and when we was separated it was only a question of +shootin' on sight. He left Lagrange at sun up the next morning, +and I struck across a bit o' buckeye and underbrush and came upon +him, accidental like, on the Red Chief Road. I drawed when I +sighted him, and called out. He slipped from his mare and covered +himself with her flanks, reaching for his holster, but she rared +and backed down on him across the road and into the grass, where I +got in another shot and fetched him." + +"And you stole his mare?" suggested the Judge. + +"I got away," said the gambler, simply. + +Further questioning only elicited the fact that Joe did not know +the name or condition of his victim. He was a stranger in Lagrange. + +It was a breezy afternoon, with some turbulency in the camp, and +much windy discussion over this unwonted delay of justice. The +suggestion that Joe should be first hanged for horse stealing and +then tried for murder was angrily discussed, but milder counsels +were offered--that the fact of the killing should be admitted only +as proof of the theft. A large party from Red Chief had come over +to assist in judgment, among them the coroner. + +Cass Beard had avoided these proceedings, which only recalled an +unpleasant experience, and was wandering with pick, pan, and wallet +far from the camp. These accoutrements, as I have before intimated, +justified any form of aimless idleness under the equally aimless +title of "prospecting." He had at the end of three hours' +relaxation reached the highway to Red Chief, half hidden by blinding +clouds of dust torn from the crumbling red road at every gust which +swept down the mountain side. The spot had a familiar aspect to +Cass, although some freshly-dug holes near the wayside, with +scattered earth beside them, showed the presence of a recent +prospector. He was struggling with his memory, when the dust was +suddenly dispersed and he found himself again at the scene of the +murder. He started: he had not put foot on the road since the +inquest. There lacked only the helpless dead man and the +contrasting figure of the alert young woman to restore the picture. +The body was gone, it was true, but as he turned he beheld Miss +Porter, at a few paces distant, sitting on her horse as energetic +and observant as on the first morning they had met. A superstitious +thrill passed over him and awoke his old antagonism. + +She nodded to him slightly. "I came here to refresh my memory," +she said, "as Mr. Hornsby thought I might be asked to give my +evidence again at Blazing Star." + +Cass carelessly struck an aimless blow with his pick against the +sod and did not reply. + +"And you?" she queried. + +"I stumbled upon the place just now while prospecting, or I +shouldn't be here." + +"Then it was YOU made these holes?" + +"No," said Cass, with ill-concealed disgust. "Nobody but a +stranger would go foolin' round such a spot." + +He stopped, as the rude significance of his speech struck him, and +added surlily, "I mean--no one would dig here." + +The girl laughed and showed a set of very white teeth in her square +jaw. Cass averted his face. + +"Do you mean to say that every miner doesn't know that it's lucky +to dig wherever human blood has been spilt?" + +Cass felt a return of his superstition, but he did not look up. "I +never heard it before," he said, severely. + +"And you call yourself a California miner?" + +"I do." + +It was impossible for Miss Porter to misunderstand his curt speech +and unsocial manner. She stared at him and colored slightly. +Lifting her reins lightly, she said: "You certainly do not seem +like most of the miners I have met." + +"Nor you like any girl from the East I ever met," he responded. + +"What do you mean?" she asked, checking her horse. + +"What I say," he answered, doggedly. Reasonable as this reply was, +it immediately struck him that it was scarcely dignified or manly. +But before he could explain himself Miss Porter was gone. + +He met her again that very evening. The trial had been summarily +suspended by the appearance of the Sheriff of Calaveras and his +posse, who took Joe from that self-constituted tribunal of Blazing +Star and set his face southward and toward authoritative although +more cautious justice. But not before the evidence of the previous +inquest had been read, and the incident of the ring again delivered +to the public. + +It is said the prisoner burst into an incredulous laugh and asked +to see this mysterious waif. It was handed to him. Standing in +the very shadow of the gallows tree--which might have been one of +the pines that sheltered the billiard room in which the Vigilance +Committee held their conclave--the prisoner gave way to a burst of +merriment, so genuine and honest that the judge and jury joined in +automatic sympathy. When silence was restored an explanation was +asked by the Judge. But there was no response from the prisoner +except a subdued chuckle. + +"Did this ring belong to you?" asked the Judge, severely, the jury +and spectators craning their ears forward with an expectant smile +already on their faces. But the prisoner's eyes only sparkled +maliciously as he looked around the court. + +"Tell us, Joe," said a sympathetic and laughter-loving juror, under +his breath. "Let it out and we'll make it easy for you." + +"Prisoner," said the Judge, with a return of official dignity, +"remember that your life is in peril. Do you refuse?" + +Joe lazily laid his arm on the back of his chair with (to quote the +words of an animated observer) "the air of having a Christian hope +and a sequence flush in his hand," and said: "Well, as I reckon I'm +not up yer for stealin' a ring that another man lets on to have +found, and as fur as I kin see, hez nothin' to do with the case, I +do!" And as it was here that the Sheriff of Calaveras made a +precipitate entry into the room, the mystery remained unsolved. + +The effect of this freshly-important ridicule on the sensitive mind +of Cass might have been foretold by Blazing Star had it ever taken +that sensitiveness into consideration. He had lost the good humor +and easy pliability which had tempted him to frankness, and he had +gradually become bitter and hard. He had at first affected +amusement over his own vanished day dream--hiding his virgin +disappointment in his own breast; but when he began to turn upon +his feelings he turned upon his comrades also. Cass was for a +while unpopular. There is no ingratitude so revolting to the human +mind as that of the butt who refuses to be one any longer. The man +who rejects that immunity which laughter generally casts upon him +and demands to be seriously considered deserves no mercy. + +It was under these hard conditions that Cass Beard, convicted of +overt sentimentalism, aggravated by inconsistency, stepped into the +Red Chief coach that evening. It was his habit usually to ride +with the driver, but the presence of Hornsby and Miss Porter on the +box seat changed his intention. Yet he had the satisfaction of +seeing that neither had noticed him, and as there was no other +passenger inside, he stretched himself on the cushion of the back +seat and gave way to moody reflections. He quite determined to +leave Blazing Star, to settle himself seriously to the task of +money getting, and to return to his comrades, some day, a +sarcastic, cynical, successful man, and so overwhelm them with +confusion. For poor Cass had not yet reached that superiority of +knowing that success would depend upon his ability to forego his +past. Indeed, part of his boyhood had been cast among these men, +and he was not old enough to have learned that success was not to +be gauged by their standard. The moon lit up the dark interior of +the coach with a faint poetic light. The lazy swinging of the +vehicle that was bearing him away--albeit only for a night and a +day--the solitude, the glimpses from the window of great distances +full of vague possibilities, made the abused ring potent as that of +Gyges. He dreamed with his eyes open. From an Alnaschar vision he +suddenly awoke. The coach had stopped. The voices of men, one in +entreaty, one in expostulation, came from the box. Cass mechanically +put his hand to his pistol pocket. + +"Thank you, but I INSIST upon getting down." + +It was Miss Porter's voice. This was followed by a rapid, half- +restrained interchange of words between Hornsby and the driver. +Then the latter said, gruffly,-- + +"If the lady wants to ride inside, let her." + +Miss Porter fluttered to the ground. She was followed by Hornsby. +"Just a minit, Miss," he expostulated, half shamedly, half +brusquely, "ye don't onderstand me. I only--" + +But Miss Porter had jumped into the coach. + +Hornsby placed his hand on the handle of the door. Miss Porter +grasped it firmly from the inside. There was a slight struggle. + +All of which was part of a dream to the boyish Cass. But he awoke +from it--a man! "Do you," he asked, in a voice he scarcely +recognized himself,--"Do you want this man inside?" + +"No!" + +Cass caught at Hornsby's wrist like a young tiger. But alas! what +availed instinctive chivalry against main strength? He only +succeeded in forcing the door open in spite of Miss Porter's +superior strategy, and--I fear I must add, muscle also--and threw +himself passionately at Hornsby's throat, where he hung on and +calmly awaited dissolution. But he had, in the onset, driven +Hornsby out into the road and the moonlight. + +"Here! Somebody take my lines." The voice was "Mountain +Charley's," the driver. The figure that jumped from the box and +separated the struggling men belonged to this singularly direct +person. + +"You're riding inside?" said Charley, interrogatively, to Cass. +Before he could reply Miss Porter's voice came from the window. + +"He is!" + +Charley promptly bundled Cass into the coach. + +"And YOU?" to Hornsby, "onless you're kalkilatin' to take a little +'pasear' you're booked OUTSIDE. Get up." + +It is probable that Charley assisted Mr. Hornsby as promptly to his +seat, for the next moment the coach was rolling on. + +Meanwhile Cass, by reason of his forced entry, had been deposited +in Miss Porter's lap, whence, freeing himself, he had attempted to +climb over the middle seat, but in the starting of the coach was +again thrown heavily against her hat and shoulder; all of which was +inconsistent with the attitude of dignified reserve he had intended +to display. Miss Porter, meanwhile, recovered her good humor. + +"What a brute he was, ugh!" she said, retying the ribbons of her +bonnet under her square chin, and smoothing out her linen duster. + +Cass tried to look as if he had forgotten the whole affair. "Who? +Oh, yes I see!" he responded, absently. + +"I suppose I ought to thank you," she went on with a smile, "but +you know, really, I could have kept him out if you hadn't pulled +his wrist from outside. I'll show you. Look! Put your hand on +the handle there! Now, I'll hold the lock inside firmly. You see, +you can't turn the catch!" + +She indeed held the lock fast. It was a firm hand, yet soft--their +fingers had touched over the handle--and looked white in the +moonlight. He made no reply, but sank back again in his seat with +a singular sensation in the fingers that had touched hers. He was +in the shadow, and, without being seen, could abandon his reserve +and glance at her face. It struck him that he had never really +seen her before. She was not so tall as she had appeared to be. +Her eyes were not large, but her pupils were black, moist, velvety, +and so convex as to seem embossed on the white. She had an +indistinctive nose, a rather colorless face--whiter at the angles +of the mouth and nose through the relief of tiny freckles like +grains of pepper. Her mouth was straight, dark, red, but moist as +her eyes. She had drawn herself into the corner of the back seat, +her wrist put through and hanging over the swinging strap, the easy +lines of her plump figure swaying from side to side with the motion +of the coach. Finally, forgetful of any presence in the dark +corner opposite, she threw her head a little farther back, slipped +a trifle lower, and placing two well-booted feet upon the middle +seat, completed a charming and wholesome picture. + +Five minutes elapsed. She was looking straight at the moon. Cass +Beard felt his dignified reserve becoming very much like +awkwardness. He ought to be coldly polite. + +"I hope you're not flustered, Miss, by the--by the--" he began. + +"I?" She straightened herself up in the seat, cast a curious +glance into the dark corner, and then, letting herself down again, +said: "Oh, dear, no!" + +Another five minutes elapsed. She had evidently forgotten him. +She might, at least, have been civil. He took refuge again in his +reserve. But it was now mixed with a certain pique. + +Yet how much softer her face looked in the moonlight! Even her +square jaw had lost that hard, matter-of-fact, practical indication +which was so distasteful to him, and always had suggested a harsh +criticism of his weakness. How moist her eyes were--actually +shining in the light! How that light seemed to concentrate in the +corner of the lashes, and then slipped--a flash--away! Was she? +Yes, she was crying. + +Cass melted. He moved. Miss Porter put her head out of the window +and drew it back in a moment, dry-eyed. + +"One meets all sorts of folks traveling," said Cass, with what he +wished to make appear a cheerful philosophy. + +"I dare say. I don't know. I never before met any one who was +rude to me. I have traveled all over the country alone, and with +all kinds of people ever since I was so high. I have always gone +my own way, without hindrance or trouble. I always do. I don't +see why I shouldn't. Perhaps other people mayn't like it. I do. +I like excitement. I like to see all that there is to see. +Because I'm a girl I don't see why I cannot go out without a +keeper, and why I cannot do what any man can do that isn't wrong, +do you? Perhaps you do--perhaps you don't. Perhaps you like a +girl to be always in the house dawdling or thumping a piano or +reading novels. Perhaps you think I'm bold because I don't like +it, and won't lie and say I do." + +She spoke sharply and aggressively, and so evidently in answer to +Cass's unspoken indictment against her, that he was not surprised +when she became more direct. + +"You know you were shocked when I went to fetch that Hornsby, the +coroner, after we found the dead body." + +"Hornsby wasn't shocked," said Cass, a little viciously. + +"What do you mean?" she said, abruptly. + +"You were good friends enough until--" + +"Until he insulted me just now, is that it?" + +"Until he thought," stammered Cass, "that because you were--you +know--not so--so--so careful as other girls, he could be a little +freer." + +"And so, because I preferred to ride a mile with him to see +something real that had happened, and tried to be useful instead of +looking in shop windows in Main Street or promenading before the +hotel--" + +"And being ornamental," interrupted Cass. But this feeble and un- +Cass-like attempt at playful gallantry met with a sudden check. + +Miss Porter drew herself together, and looked out of the window. +"Do you wish me to walk the rest of the way home?" + +"No," said Cass, hurriedly, with a crimson face and a sense of +gratuitous rudeness. + +"Then stop that kind of talk, right there!" + +There was an awkward silence. "I wish I was a man," she said, half +bitterly, half earnestly. Cass Beard was not old and cynical +enough to observe that this devout aspiration is usually uttered by +those who have least reason to deplore their own femininity; and, +but for the rebuff he had just received, would have made the usual +emphatic dissent of our sex, when the wish is uttered by warm red +lips and tender voices--a dissent, it may be remarked, generally +withheld, however, when the masculine spinster dwells on the +perfection of woman. I dare say Miss Porter was sincere, for a +moment later she continued, poutingly: + +"And yet I used to go to fires in Sacramento when I was only ten +years old. I saw the theatre burnt down. Nobody found fault with +me then." + +Something made Cass ask if her father and mother objected to her +boyish tastes. The reply was characteristic if not satisfactory,-- + +"Object? I'd like to see them do it." + +The direction of the road had changed. The fickle moon now +abandoned Miss Porter and sought out Cass on the front seat. It +caressed the young fellow's silky moustache and long eyelashes, and +took some of the sunburn from his cheek. + +"What's the matter with your neck?" said the girl, suddenly. + +Cass looked down, blushing to find that the collar of his smart +"duck" sailor shirt was torn open. But something more than his +white, soft, girlish skin was exposed; the shirt front was dyed +quite red with blood from a slight cut on the shoulder. He +remembered to have felt a scratch while struggling with Hornsby. + +The girl's soft eyes sparkled. "Let ME," she said, vivaciously. +"Do! I'm good at wounds. Come over here. No--stay there. I'll +come over to you." + +She did, bestriding the back of the middle seat and dropping at his +side. The magnetic fingers again touched his; he felt her warm +breath on his neck as she bent toward him. + +"It's nothing," he said, hastily, more agitated by the treatment +than the wound. + +"Give me your flask," she responded, without heeding. A stinging +sensation as she bathed the edges of the cut with the spirit +brought him back to common sense again. "There," she said, +skillfully extemporizing a bandage from her handkerchief and a +compress from his cravat. "Now, button your coat over your chest, +so, and don't take cold." She insisted upon buttoning it for him; +greater even than the feminine delight in a man's strength is the +ministration to his weakness. Yet, when this was finished, she +drew a little away from him in some embarrassment--an embarrassment +she wondered at, as his skin was finer, his touch gentler, his +clothes cleaner, and--not to put too fine a point upon it--he +exhaled an atmosphere much sweeter than belonged to most of the men +her boyish habits had brought her in contact with--not excepting +her own father. Later she even exempted her mother from the +possession of this divine effluence. After a moment she asked, +suddenly, "What are you going to do with Hornsby?" + +Cass had not thought of him. His short-lived rage was past with +the occasion that provoked it. Without any fear of his adversary +he would have been content and quite willing to meet him no more. +He only said, "That will depend upon him." + +"Oh, you won't hear from him again," said she, confidently, "but +you really ought to get up a little more muscle. You've no more +than a girl." She stopped, a little confused. + +"What shall I do with your handkerchief?" asked the uneasy Cass, +anxious to change the subject. + +"Oh, keep it, if you want to, only don't show it to everybody as +you did that ring you found." Seeing signs of distress in his +face, she added: "Of course that was all nonsense. If you had +cared so much for the ring you couldn't have talked about it, or +shown it. Could you?" + +It relieved him to think that this might be true; he certainly had +not looked at it in that light before. + +"But did you really find it?" she asked, with sudden gravity. +"Really, now?" + +"Yes." + +"And there was no real May in the case?" + +"Not that I know of," laughed Cass, secretly pleased. + +But Miss Porter, after eying him critically for a moment jumped up +and climbed back again to her seat. "Perhaps you had better give +me that handkerchief back." + +Cass began to unbutton his coat. + +"No! no! Do you want to take your death of cold?" she screamed. +And Cass, to avoid this direful possibility, rebuttoned his coat +again over the handkerchief and a peculiarly pleasing sensation. + +Very little now was said until the rattling, bounding descent of +the coach denoted the approach to Red Chief. The straggling main +street disclosed itself, light by light. In the flash of +glittering windows and the sound of eager voices Miss Porter +descended, without waiting for Cass's proffered assistance, and +anticipated Mountain Charley's descent from the box. A few +undistinguishable words passed between them. + +"You kin freeze to me, Miss," said Charley; and Miss Porter, +turning her frank laugh and frankly opened palm to Cass, half +returned the pressure of his hand and slipped away. + +A few days after the stage coach incident, Mountain Charley drew up +beside Cass on the Blazing Star turnpike, and handed him a small +packet. "I was told to give ye that by Miss Porter. Hush--listen! +It's that rather old dog-goned ring o' yours that's bin in all the +papers. She's bamboozled that sap-headed county judge, Boompointer, +into givin' it to her. Take my advice and sling it away for some +other feller to pick up and get looney over. That's all!" + +"Did she say anything?" asked Cass, anxiously, as he received his +lost treasure somewhat coldly. + +"Well, yes! I reckon. She asked me to stand betwixt Hornsby and +you. So don't YOU tackle him, and I'll see HE don't tackle you," +and with a portentous wink Mountain Charley whipped up his horses +and was gone. + +Cass opened the packet. It contained nothing but the ring. +Unmitigated by any word of greeting, remembrance, or even raillery, +it seemed almost an insult. Had she intended to flaunt his folly +in his face, or had she believed he still mourned for it and deemed +its recovery a sufficient reward for his slight service? For an +instant he felt tempted to follow Charley's advice, and cast this +symbol of folly and contempt in the dust of the mountain road. And +had she not made his humiliation complete by begging Charley's +interference between him and his enemy? He would go home and send +her back the handkerchief she had given him. But here the +unromantic reflection that although he had washed it that very +afternoon in the solitude of his own cabin, he could not possibly +iron it, but must send it "rough dried," stayed his indignant feet. + +Two or three days, a week, a fortnight even, of this hopeless +resentment filled Cass's breast. Then the news of Kanaka Joe's +acquittal in the State Court momentarily revived the story of the +ring, and revamped a few stale jokes in the camp. But the interest +soon flagged; the fortunes of the little community of Blazing Star +had been for some months failing; and with early snows in the +mountain and wasted capital in fruitless schemes on the river, +there was little room for the indulgence of that lazy and original +humor which belonged to their lost youth and prosperity. Blazing +Star truly, in the grim figure of their slang, was "played out." +Not dug out, worked out, or washed out, but dissipated in a year of +speculation and chance. + +Against this tide of fortune Cass struggled manfully, and even +evoked the slow praise of his companions. Better still, he won a +certain praise for himself, in himself, in a consciousness of +increased strength, health, power, and self-reliance. He began to +turn his quick imagination and perception to some practical +account, and made one or two discoveries which quite startled his +more experienced but more conservative companions. Nevertheless, +Cass's discoveries and labors were not of a kind that produced +immediate pecuniary realization, and Blazing Star, which consumed +so many pounds of pork and flour daily, did not unfortunately +produce the daily equivalent in gold. Blazing Star lost its +credit. Blazing Star was hungry, dirty, and ragged. Blazing Star +was beginning to set. + +Participating in the general ill luck of the camp, Cass was not +without his own individual mischances. He had resolutely +determined to forget Miss Porter and all that tended to recall the +unlucky ring, but, cruelly enough, she was the only thing that +refused to be forgotten--whose undulating figure reclined opposite +to him in the weird moonlight of his ruined cabin, whose voice +mingled with the song of the river by whose banks he toiled, and +whose eyes and touch thrilled him in his dreams. Partly for this +reason, and partly because his clothes were beginning to be patched +and torn, he avoided Red Chief and any place where he would be +likely to meet her. In spite of this precaution he had once seen +her driving in a pony carriage, but so smartly and fashionably +dressed that he drew back in the cover of a wayside willow that she +might pass without recognition. He looked down upon his red- +splashed clothes and grimy, soil-streaked hands, and for a moment +half hated her. His comrades seldom spoke of her--instinctively +fearing some temptation that might beset his Spartan resolutions, +but he heard from time to time that she had been seen at balls and +parties, apparently enjoying those very frivolities of her sex she +affected to condemn. + +It was a Sabbath morning in early spring that he was returning from +an ineffectual attempt to enlist a capitalist at the county town to +redeem the fortunes of Blazing Star. He was pondering over the +narrowness of that capitalist, who had evidently but illogically +connected Cass's present appearance with the future of that +struggling camp, when he became so foot-sore that he was obliged to +accept a "lift" from a wayfaring teamster. As the slowly lumbering +vehicle passed the new church on the outskirts of the town, the +congregation were sallying forth. It was too late to jump down and +run away, and Cass dared not ask his new-found friend to whip up +his cattle. Conscious of his unshorn beard and ragged garments, he +kept his eyes fixed upon the road. A voice that thrilled him +called his name. It was Miss Porter, a resplendent vision of silk, +laces, and Easter flowers--yet actually running, with something of +her old dash and freedom, beside the wagon. As the astonished +teamster drew up before this elegant apparition, she panted:-- + +"Why did you make me run so far, and why didn't you look up?" + +Cass, trying to hide the patches on his knees beneath a newspaper, +stammered that he had not seen her. + +"And you did not hold down your head purposely?" + +"No," said Cass. + +"Why have you not been to Red Chief? Why didn't you answer my +message about the ring?" she asked, swiftly. + +"You sent nothing but the ring," said Cass, coloring, as he glanced +at the teamster. + +"Why, THAT was a message, you born idiot." + +Cass stared. The teamster smiled. Miss Porter gazed anxiously at +the wagon. "I think I'd like a ride in there; it looks awfully +good." She glanced mischievously around at the lingering and +curious congregation. + +"May I?" + +But Cass deprecated that proceeding strongly. It was dirty; he was +not sure it was even WHOLESOME; she would be SO uncomfortable; he, +himself, was only going a few rods farther, and in that time she +might ruin her dress-- + +"Oh, yes," she said, a little bitterly, "certainly, my dress must +be looked after. And--what else?" + +"People might think it strange, and believe I had invited you," +continued Cass, hesitatingly. + +"When I had only invited myself? Thank you. Good-by." + +She waved her hand and stepped back from the wagon. Cass would +have given worlds to recall her, but he sat still, and the vehicle +moved on in moody silence. At the first cross road he jumped down. +"Thank you," he said to the teamster. "You're welcome," returned +that gentleman, regarding him curiously, "but the next time a gal +like that asks to ride in this yer wagon, I reckon I won't take the +vote of any deadhead passenger. Adios, young fellow. Don't stay +out late; ye might be run off by some gal, and what would your +mother say?" Of course the young man could only look unutterable +things and walk away, but even in that dignified action he was +conscious that its effect was somewhat mitigated by a large patch +from a material originally used as a flour sack, which had repaired +his trousers, but still bore the ironical legend, "Best Superfine." + +The summer brought warmth and promise and some blossom, if not +absolute fruition, to Blazing Star. The long days drew Nature into +closer communion with the men, and hopefulness followed the +discontent of their winter seclusion. It was easier, too, for +Capital to be wooed and won into making a picnic in these mountain +solitudes than when high water stayed the fords and drifting snow +the Sierran trails. At the close of one of these Arcadian days +Cass was smoking before the door of his lonely cabin when he was +astounded by the onset of a dozen of his companions. Peter +Drummond, far in the van, was waving a newspaper like a victorious +banner. "All's right now, Cass, old man!" he panted as he stopped +before Cass and shoved back his eager followers. + +"What's all right?" asked Cass, dubiously. + +"YOU! You kin rake down the pile now. You're hunky! You're on +velvet. Listen!" + +He opened the newspaper and read, with annoying deliberation, as +follows:-- + +"LOST.--If the finder of a plain gold ring, bearing the engraved +inscription, 'May to Cass,' alleged to have been picked up on the +high road near Blazing Star on the 4th March, 186-, will apply to +Bookham & Sons, bankers, 1007 Y Street, Sacramento, he will be +suitably rewarded either for the recovery of the ring, or for such +facts as may identify it, or the locality where it was found." + +Cass rose and frowned savagely on his comrades. "No! no!" cried a +dozen voices, assuringly. "It's all right! Honest Injun! True as +gospel! No joke, Cass!" + +"Here's the paper, Sacramento 'Union' of yesterday. Look for +yourself," said Drummond, handing him the well-worn journal. "And +you see," he added, "how darned lucky you are. It ain't necessary +for you to produce the ring, so if that old biled owl of a +Boompointer don't giv' it back to ye, it's all the same." + +"And they say nobody but the finder need apply," interrupted +another. "That shuts out Boompointer or Kanaka Joe, for the matter +o' that." + +"It's clar that it MEANS you, Cass, ez much ez if they'd given your +name," added a third. + +For Miss Porter's sake and his own Cass had never told them of the +restoration of the ring, and it was evident that Mountain Charley +had also kept silent. Cass could not speak now without violating a +secret, and he was pleased that the ring itself no longer played an +important part in the mystery. But what was that mystery, and why +was the ring secondary to himself? Why was so much stress laid +upon his finding it? + +"You see," said Drummond, as if answering his unspoken thought, +"that 'ar gal--for it is a gal in course--hez read all about it in +the papers, and hez sort o' took a shine to ye. It don't make a +bit o' difference who in thunder Cass IS or WAZ, for I reckon she's +kicked him over by this time--" + +"Sarved him right, too, for losing the girl's ring and then lying +low and keeping dark about it," interrupted a sympathizer. + +"And she's just weakened over the romantic, high-toned way you +stuck to it," continued Drummond, forgetting the sarcasms he had +previously hurled at this romance. Indeed, the whole camp, by this +time, had become convinced that it had fostered and developed a +chivalrous devotion which was now on the point of pecuniary +realization. It was generally accepted that "she" was the daughter +of this banker, and also felt that in the circumstances the happy +father could not do less than develop the resources of Blazing Star +at once. Even if there were no relationship, what opportunity +could be more fit for presenting to capital a locality that even +produced engagement rings, and, as Jim Fauquier put it, "the men ez +knew how to keep 'em." It was this sympathetic Virginian who took +Cass aside with the following generous suggestion: "If you find +that you and the old gal couldn't hitch hosses, owin' to your not +likin' red hair or a game leg" (it may be here recorded that +Blazing Star had, for no reason whatever, attributed these +unprepossessing qualities to the mysterious advertiser), "you might +let ME in. You might say ez how I used to jest worship that ring +with you, and allers wanted to borrow it on Sundays. If anything +comes of it--why--WE'RE PARDNERS!" + +A serious question was the outfitting of Cass for what now was felt +to be a diplomatic representation of the community. His garments, +it hardly need be said, were inappropriate to any wooing except +that of the "maiden all forlorn," which the advertiser clearly was +not. "He might," suggested Fauquier, "drop in jest as he is-- +kinder as if he'd got keerless of the world, being lovesick." But +Cass objected strongly, and was borne out in his objection by his +younger comrades. At last a pair of white duck trousers, a red +shirt, a flowing black silk scarf, and a Panama hat were procured +at Red Chief, on credit, after a judicious exhibition of the +advertisement. A heavy wedding ring, the property of Drummond (who +was not married), was also lent as a graceful suggestion, and at +the last moment Fauquier affixed to Cass's scarf an enormous +specimen pin of gold and quartz. "It sorter indicates the +auriferous wealth o' this yer region, and the old man (the senior +member of Bookham & Sons) needn't know I won it at draw poker in +Frisco," said Fauquier. + +"Ef you 'pass' on the gal, you kin hand it back to me and I'LL try +it on." Forty dollars for expenses was put into Cass's hands, and +the entire community accompanied him to the cross roads where he +was to meet the Sacramento coach, which eventually carried him +away, followed by a benediction of waving hats and exploding +revolvers. + +That Cass did not participate in the extravagant hopes of his +comrades, and that he rejected utterly their matrimonial +speculations in his behalf, need not be said. Outwardly, he kept +his own counsel with good-humored assent. But there was something +fascinating in the situation, and while he felt he had forever +abandoned his romantic dream, he was not displeased to know that it +might have proved a reality. Nor was it distasteful to him to +think that Miss Porter would hear of it and regret her late +inability to appreciate his sentiment. If he really were the +object of some opulent maiden's passion, he would show Miss Porter +how he could sacrifice the most brilliant prospects for her sake. +Alone, on the top of the coach, he projected one of those +satisfying conversations in which imaginative people delight, but +which unfortunately never come quite up to rehearsal. "Dear Miss +Porter," he would say, addressing the back of the driver, "if I +could remain faithful to a dream of my youth, however illusive and +unreal, can you believe that for the sake of lucre I could be false +to the one real passion that alone supplanted it." In the +composition and delivery of this eloquent statement an hour was +happily forgotten: the only drawback to its complete effect was +that a misplace of epithets in rapid repetition did not seem to +make the slightest difference, and Cass found himself saying "Dear +Miss Porter, if I could be false to a dream of my youth, etc., +etc., can you believe I could be FAITHFUL to the one real passion, +etc., etc.," with equal and perfect satisfaction. As Miss Porter +was reputed to be well off, if the unknown were poor, that might be +another drawback. + +The banking house of Bookham & Sons did not present an illusive nor +mysterious appearance. It was eminently practical and matter of +fact; it was obtrusively open and glassy; nobody would have thought +of leaving a secret there that would have been inevitably +circulated over the counter. Cass felt an uncomfortable sense of +incongruity in himself, in his story, in his treasure, to this +temple of disenchanting realism. With the awkwardness of an +embarrassed man he was holding prominently in his hand an envelope +containing the ring and advertisement as a voucher for his +intrusion, when the nearest clerk took the envelope from his hand, +opened it, took out the ring, returned it, said briskly, "T'other +shop, next door, young man," and turned to another customer. + +Cass stepped to the door, saw that "T'other shop" was a +pawnbroker's, and returned again with a flashing eye and heightened +color. "It's an advertisement I have come to answer," he began +again. + +The clerk cast a glance at Cass's scarf and pin. "Place taken +yesterday--no room for any more," he said, abruptly. + +Cass grew quite white. But his old experience in Blazing Star +repartee stood him in good stead. "If it's YOUR place you mean," +he said coolly, "I reckon you might put a dozen men in the hole +you're rattlin' round in--but it's this advertisement I'm after. +If Bookham isn't in, maybe you'll send me one of the grown-up +sons." The production of the advertisement and some laughter from +the bystanders had its effect. The pert young clerk retired, and +returned to lead the way to the bank parlor. Cass's heart sank +again as he was confronted by a dark, iron-gray man--in dress, +features, speech, and action--uncompromisingly opposed to Cass--his +ring and his romance. When the young man had told his story and +produced his treasure he paused. The banker scarcely glanced at +it, but said, impatiently,-- + +"Well, your papers?" + +"My papers?" + +"Yes. Proof of your identity. You say your name is Cass Beard. +Good! What have you got to prove it? How can I tell who you are?" + +To a sensitive man there is no form of suspicion that is as +bewildering and demoralizing at the moment as the question of his +identity. Cass felt the insult in the doubt of his word, and the +palpable sense of his present inability to prove it. The banker +watched him keenly but not unkindly. + +"Come," he said at length, "this is not my affair; if you can +legally satisfy the lady for whom I am only agent, well and good. +I believe you can; I only warn you that you must. And my present +inquiry was to keep her from losing her time with impostors, a +class I don't think you belong to. There's her card. Good day." + +"Miss Mortimer." It was NOT the banker's daughter. The first +illusion of Blazing Star was rudely dispelled. But the care taken +by the capitalist to shield her from imposture indicated a person +of wealth. Of her youth and beauty Cass no longer thought. + +The address given was not distant. With a beating heart he rung +the bell of a respectable-looking house, and was ushered into a +private drawing-room. Instinctively he felt that the room was only +temporarily inhabited; an air peculiar to the best lodgings, and +when the door opened upon a tall lady in deep mourning, he was +still more convinced of an incongruity between the occupant and her +surroundings. With a smile that vacillated between a habit of +familiarity and ease, and a recent restraint, she motioned him to a +chair. + +"Miss Mortimer" was still young, still handsome, still fashionably +dressed, and still attractive. From her first greeting to the end +of the interview Cass felt that she knew all about him. This +relieved him from the onus of proving his identity, but seemed to +put him vaguely at a disadvantage. It increased his sense of +inexperience and youthfulness. + +"I hope you will believe," she began, "that the few questions I +have to ask you are to satisfy my own heart, and for no other +purpose." She smiled sadly as she went on. "Had it been +otherwise, I should have instituted a legal inquiry, and left this +interview to some one cooler, calmer, and less interested than +myself. But I think, I KNOW I can trust you. Perhaps we women are +weak and foolish to talk of an INSTINCT, and when you know my story +you may have reason to believe that but little dependence can be +placed on THAT; but I am not wrong in saying,--am I?" (with a sad +smile) "that YOU are not above that weakness?" She paused, closed +her lips tightly, and grasped her hands before her. "You say you +found that ring in the road some three months before--the--the--you +know what I mean--the body--was discovered?" + +"Yes." + +"You thought it might have been dropped by some one in passing?" + +"I thought so, yes--it belonged to no one in camp." + +"Before your cabin or on the highway?" + +"Before my cabin." + +"You are SURE?" There was something so very sweet and sad in her +smile that it oddly made Cass color. + +"But my cabin is near the road," he suggested. + +"I see! And there was nothing else; no paper nor envelope?" + +"Nothing." + +"And you kept it because of the odd resemblance one of the names +bore to yours?" + +"Yes." + +"For no other reason + +"None." Yet Cass felt he was blushing. + +"You'll forgive my repeating a question you have already answered, +but I am so anxious. There was some attempt to prove at the +inquest that the ring had been found on the body of--the +unfortunate man. But you tell me it was not so?" + +"I can swear it." + +"Good God--the traitor!" She took a hurried step forward, turned +to the window, and then came back to Cass with a voice broken with +emotion. "I have told you I could trust you. That ring was mine!" + +She stopped, and then went on hurriedly. "Years ago I gave it to a +man who deceived and wronged me; a man whose life since then has +been a shame and disgrace to all who knew him. A man who, once, a +gentleman, sank so low as to become the associate of thieves and +ruffians; sank so low, that when he died, by violence--a traitor +even to them--his own confederates shrunk from him, and left him to +fill a nameless grave. That man's body you found!" + +Cass started. "And his name was--?" + +"Part of your surname. Cass--Henry Cass." + +"You see why Providence seems to have brought that ring to you," +she went on. "But you ask me why, knowing this, I am so eager to +know if the ring was found by you in the road, or if it were found +on his body. Listen! It is part of my mortification that the +story goes that this man once showed this ring, boasted of it, +staked, and lost it at a gambling table to one of his vile +comrades." + +"Kanaka Joe," said Cass, overcome by a vivid recollection of Joe's +merriment at the trial. + +"The same. Don't you see," she said, hurriedly, "if the ring had +been found on him I could believe that somewhere in his heart he +still kept respect for the woman he had wronged. I am a woman--a +foolish woman, I know--but you have crushed that hope forever." + +"But why have you sent for me?" asked Cass, touched by her emotion. + +"To know it for certain," she said, almost fiercely. "Can you not +understand that a woman like me must know a thing once and forever? +But you CAN help me. I did not send for you only to pour my wrongs +in your ears. You must take me with you to this place--to the spot +where you found the ring--to the spot where you found the body--to +the spot where--where HE lies. You must do it secretly, that none +shall know me." + +Cass hesitated. He was thinking of his companions and the collapse +of their painted bubble. How could he keep the secret from them? + +"If it is money you need, let not that stop you. I have no right +to your time without recompense. Do not misunderstand me. There +has been a thousand dollars awaiting my order at Bookham's when the +ring should be delivered. It shall be doubled if you help me in +this last moment." + +It was possible. He could convey her secretly there, invent some +story of a reward delayed for want of proofs, and afterward share +that reward with his friends. He answered promptly, "I will take +you there." + +She took his hands in both of hers, raised them to her lips, and +smiled. The shadow of grief and restraint seemed to have fallen +from her face, and a half-mischievous, half-coquettish gleam in her +dark eyes touched the susceptible Cass in so subtle a fashion that +he regained the street in some confusion. He wondered what Miss +Porter would have thought. But was he not returning to her, a +fortunate man, with one thousand dollars in his pocket! Why should +he remember he was handicapped, by a pretty woman and a pathetic +episode? It did not make the proximity less pleasant as he helped +her into the coach that evening, nor did the recollection of +another ride with another woman obtrude itself upon those +consolations which he felt it his duty, from time to time, to +offer. It was arranged that he should leave her at the "Red Chief" +Hotel, while he continued on to Blazing Star, returning at noon to +bring her with him when he could do it without exposing her to +recognition. The gray dawn came soon enough, and the coach drew up +at "Red Chief" while the lights in the bar-room and dining-room of +the hotel were still struggling with the far flushing east. Cass +alighted, placed Miss Mortimer in the hands of the landlady, and +returned to the vehicle. It was still musty, close, and frowzy, +with half-awakened passengers. There was a vacated seat on the +top, which Cass climbed up to, and abstractedly threw himself +beside a figure muffled in shawls and rugs. There was a slight +movement among the multitudinous enwrappings, and then the figure +turned to him and said, dryly, "Good morning!" It was Miss Porter! + +"Have you been long here?" he stammered. + +"All night." + +He would have given worlds to leave her at that moment. He would +have jumped from the starting coach to save himself any explanation +of the embarrassment he was furiously conscious of showing, +without, as he believed, any adequate cause. And yet, like all +inexperienced, sensitive men, he dashed blindly into that +explanation; worse, he even told his secret at once, then and +there, and then sat abashed and conscience stricken, with an added +sense of its utter futility. + +"And this," summed up the young girl, with a slight shrug of her +pretty shoulders, "is YOUR MAY?" + +Cass would have recommenced his story. + +"No, don't, pray! It isn't interesting, nor original. Do YOU +believe it?" + +"I do," said Cass, indignantly. + +"How lucky! Then let me go to sleep." + +Cass, still furious, but uneasy, did not again address her. When +the coach stopped at Blazing Star she asked him, indifferently: +"When does this sentimental pilgrimage begin?" + +"I return for her at one o'clock," replied Cass, stiffly. + +He kept his word. He appeased his eager companions with a promise +of future fortune, and exhibited the present and tangible reward. +By a circuitous route known only to himself, he led Miss Mortimer +to the road before the cabin. There was a pink flush of excitement +on her somewhat faded cheek. + +"And it was here?" she asked, eagerly. + +"I found it here." + +"And the body?" + +"That was afterward. Over in that direction, beyond the clump of +buckeyes, on the Red Chief turnpike." + +"And any one coming from the road we left just now and going to-- +to--that place, would have to cross just here? Tell me," she said, +with a strange laugh, laying her cold nervous hand on his, +"wouldn't they?" + +"They would." + +"Let us go to that place." + +Cass stepped out briskly to avoid observation and gain the woods +beyond the highway. "You have crossed here before," she said. +"There seems to be a trail." + +"I may have made it: it's a short cut to the buckeyes." + +"You never found anything else on the trail?" + +"You remember, I told you before, the ring was all I found." + +"Ah, true!" she smiled sweetly; "it was THAT which made it seem so +odd to you. I forgot." + +In half an hour they reached the buckeyes. During the walk she had +taken rapid recognizance of everything in her path. When they +crossed the road and Cass had pointed out the scene of the murder, +she looked anxiously around. "You are sure we are not seen?" + +"Quite." + +"You will not think me foolish if I ask you to wait here while I go +in there"--she pointed to the ominous thicket near them--"alone?" + +She was quite white. + +Cass's heart, which had grown somewhat cold since his interview +with Miss Porter, melted at once. + +"Go; I will stay here." + +He waited five minutes. She did not return. + +What if the poor creature had determined upon suicide on the spot +where her faithless lover had fallen? He was reassured in another +moment by the rustle of skirts in the undergrowth. + +"I was becoming quite alarmed," he said, aloud. + +"You have reason to be," returned a hurried voice. He started. It +was Miss Porter, who stepped swiftly out of the cover. "Look," she +said, "look at that man down the road. He has been tracking you +two ever since you left the cabin. Do you know who he is?" + +"No!" + +"Then listen. It is three-fingered Dick, one of the escaped road +agents. I know him!" + +"Let us go and warn her," said Cass, eagerly. + +Miss Porter laid her hand upon his shoulder. + +"I don't think she'll thank you," she said, dryly. "Perhaps you'd +better see what she's doing, first." + +Utterly bewildered, yet with a strong sense of the masterfulness of +his companion, he followed her. She crept like a cat through the +thicket. Suddenly she paused. "Look!" she whispered, viciously, +"look at the tender vigils of your heart-broken May!" + +Cass saw the woman who had left him a moment before on her knees on +the grass, with long thin fingers digging like a ghoul in the +earth. He had scarce time to notice her eager face and eyes, cast +now and then back toward the spot where she had left him, before +there was a crash in the bushes, and a man,--the stranger of the +road,--leaped to her side. "Run," he said; "run for it now. +You're watched!" + +"Oh! that man, Beard!" she said, contemptuously. + +"No, another in a wagon. Quick. Fool, you know the place now,-- +you can come later; run!" And half-dragging, half-lifting her, he +bore her through the bushes. Scarcely had they closed behind the +pair than Miss Porter ran to the spot vacated by the woman. +"Look!" she cried, triumphantly, "look!" + +Cass looked, and sank on his knees beside her. + +"It WAS worth a thousand dollars, wasn't it?" she repeated, +maliciously, "wasn't it? But you ought to return it! REALLY you +ought." + +Cass could scarcely articulate. "But how did YOU know it?" he +finally gasped. + +"Oh, I suspected something; there was a woman, and you know you're +SUCH a fool!" + +Cass rose, stiffly. + +"Don't be a greater fool now, but go and bring my horse and wagon +from the hill, and don't say anything to the driver." + +"Then you did not come alone?" + +"No; it would have been bold and improper." + +"Please!" + +"And to think it WAS the ring, after all, that pointed to this," +she said. + +"The ring that YOU returned to me." + +"What did you say?" + +"Nothing." + +"Don't, please, the wagon is coming." + + . . . . . . + +In the next morning's edition of the "Red Chief Chronicle" appeared +the following startling intelligence:-- + + +EXTRAORDINARY DISCOVERY + +FINDING OF THE STOLEN TREASURE OF WELLS, FARGO & CO. OVER $800,000 +RECOVERED + +Our readers will remember the notorious robbery of Wells, Fargo & +Co.'s treasure from the Sacramento and Red Chief Pioneer Coach on +the night of September 1. Although most of the gang were arrested, +it is known that two escaped, who, it was presumed, cached the +treasure, amounting to nearly $500,000 in gold, drafts, and +jewelry, as no trace of the property was found. Yesterday our +esteemed fellow citizen, Mr. Cass Beard, long and favorably known +in this county, succeeded in exhuming the treasure in a copse of +hazel near the Red Chief turnpike,--adjacent to the spot where an +unknown body was lately discovered. This body is now strongly +suspected to be that of one Henry Cass, a disreputable character, +who has since been ascertained to have been one of the road agents +who escaped. The matter is now under legal investigation. The +successful result of the search is due to a systematic plan evolved +from the genius of Mr. Beard, who has devoted over a year to this +labor. It was first suggested to him by the finding of a ring, now +definitely identified as part of the treasure which was supposed to +have been dropped from Wells, Fargo & Co's boxes by the robbers in +their midnight flight through Blazing Star. + + +In the same journal appeared the no less important intelligence, +which explains, while it completes this veracious chronicle:-- + +"It is rumored that a marriage is shortly to take place between the +hero of the late treasure discovery and a young lady of Red Chief, +whose devoted aid and assistance to this important work is well +known to this community." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext Found At Blazing Star, by Bret Harte + diff --git a/old/fabst10.zip b/old/fabst10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed2bded --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fabst10.zip |