diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 2924902 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/8585-h.htm | 2781 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/222.jpg | bin | 0 -> 56514 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/225.jpg | bin | 0 -> 104539 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/227.jpg | bin | 0 -> 97366 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/229.jpg | bin | 0 -> 85128 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/230.jpg | bin | 0 -> 20833 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/231.jpg | bin | 0 -> 34635 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/233.jpg | bin | 0 -> 91872 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/234.jpg | bin | 0 -> 43807 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/236.jpg | bin | 0 -> 22096 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/237.jpg | bin | 0 -> 35781 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/240.jpg | bin | 0 -> 104888 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/242.jpg | bin | 0 -> 116787 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/244.jpg | bin | 0 -> 98912 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/246.jpg | bin | 0 -> 94878 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/249.jpg | bin | 0 -> 54586 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/250.jpg | bin | 0 -> 62584 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/253.jpg | bin | 0 -> 75211 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/254.jpg | bin | 0 -> 80650 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/256.jpg | bin | 0 -> 98844 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/257.jpg | bin | 0 -> 35080 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/260.jpg | bin | 0 -> 60509 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/263.jpg | bin | 0 -> 77341 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/265.jpg | bin | 0 -> 142242 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/266a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 45832 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/266b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 52897 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/268.jpg | bin | 0 -> 52415 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/271.jpg | bin | 0 -> 57970 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/273.jpg | bin | 0 -> 63815 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/275.jpg | bin | 0 -> 69914 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/276.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31305 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/279.jpg | bin | 0 -> 48277 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/280.jpg | bin | 0 -> 52164 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/282.jpg | bin | 0 -> 72075 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 92383 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/dedication.jpg | bin | 0 -> 18584 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/enlarge.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1139 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/frontispiece1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 172417 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/frontispiece2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 188678 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/spine.jpg | bin | 0 -> 55618 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585-h/images/titlepage.jpg | bin | 0 -> 98270 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585.txt | 2116 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 8585.zip | bin | 0 -> 46213 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/rit4w10h.zip | bin | 0 -> 2921496 bytes |
48 files changed, 4913 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8585-h.zip b/8585-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5052066 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h.zip diff --git a/8585-h/8585-h.htm b/8585-h/8585-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92156f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/8585-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2781 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<title>Roughing It, Part 4</title> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {background:#faebd7; margin:10%; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; } + HR { width: 33%; text-align: center; } + blockquote {font-size: 97% } + .figleft {float: left;} + .figright {float: right;} + .toc { margin-left: 15%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + CENTER { padding: 10px;} + // --> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + +<h2>ROUGHING IT, By Mark Twain, Part 4 </h2> +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's Roughing It, Part 4., by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Roughing It, Part 4. + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: July 2, 2004 [EBook #8585] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUGHING IT, PART 4. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<br> +<hr> +<br><br><br><br><br><br> + + +<center><img alt="cover.jpg (90K)" src="images/cover.jpg" height="1071" width="733"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><img alt="spine.jpg (54K)" src="images/spine.jpg" height="1071" width="307"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center> +<h1>ROUGHING IT, Part 4</h1> +<br><br> +<h2>By Mark Twain</h2> +</center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><img alt="frontispiece1.jpg (168K)" src="images/frontispiece1.jpg" height="643" width="903"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<a name="frontispiece2"></a> +<center><img alt="frontispiece2.jpg (184K)" src="images/frontispiece2.jpg" height="1020" width="600"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><img alt="titlepage.jpg (95K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" height="1064" width="705"></center> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><img alt="dedication.jpg (18K)" src="images/dedication.jpg" height="273" width="425"></center> + +<br><br><br><br> +<center><h2>PREFATORY.</h2> </center> +<br> +<p>This book is merely a personal narrative, and not a +pretentious history or a philosophical dissertation. It is a +record of several years of variegated vagabondizing, and its +object is rather to help the resting reader while away an idle +hour than afflict him with metaphysics, or goad him with science. +Still, there is information in the volume; information concerning +an interesting episode in the history of the Far West, about +which no books have been written by persons who were on the +ground in person, and saw the happenings of the time with their +own eyes. I allude to the rise, growth and culmination of the +silver-mining fever in Nevada—a curious episode, in some +respects; the only one, of its peculiar kind, that has occurred +in the land; and the only one, indeed, that is likely to occur in +it.</p> + +<p>Yes, take it all around, there is quite a good deal of +information in the book. I regret this very much; but really it +could not be helped: information appears to stew out of me +naturally, like the precious ottar of roses out of the otter. +Sometimes it has seemed to me that I would give worlds if I could +retain my facts; but it cannot be. The more I calk up the +sources, and the tighter I get, the more I leak wisdom. +Therefore, I can only claim indulgence at the hands of the +reader, not justification.</p> + +<p>THE AUTHOR.</p> +<br><br><br><br> +<center><h2>CONTENTS.</h2></center> + +<blockquote><blockquote> + +<p><a href="#ch31">CHAPTER XXXI.</a> The Guests at "Honey Lake Smith's"—"Bully Old +Arkansas"—"Our Landlord"- -Determined to Fight—The Landlord's +Wife—The Bully Conquered by Her—Another Start—Crossing the +Carson—A Narrow Escape—Following Our Own Track—A New +Guide—Lost in the Snow</p> + +<p><a href="#ch32">CHAPTER XXXII.</a> Desperate Situation—Attempts to Make a +Fire—Our Horses leave us—We Find Matches—One, Two, Three and +the Last—No Fire—Death Seems Inevitable—We Mourn Over Our Evil +Lives—Discarded Vices—We Forgive Each Other—An Affectionate +Farewell—The Sleep of Oblivion</p> + +<p><a href="#ch33">CHAPTER XXXIII.</a> Return of Consciousness—Ridiculous +Developments—A Station House—Bitter Feelings—Fruits of +Repentance—Resurrected Vices</p> + +<p><a href="#ch34">CHAPTER XXXIV.</a> About Carson—General Buncombe—Hyde vs. +Morgan—How Hyde Lost His Ranch- -The Great Landslide Case—The +Trial—General Buncombe in Court—A Wonderful Decision—A Serious +Afterthought</p> + +<p><a href="#ch35">CHAPTER XXXV.</a> A New Travelling Companion—All Full and No +Accommodations—How Captain Nye found Room—and Caused Our +Leaving to be Lamented—The Uses of Tunnelling—A Notable +Example—We Go into the "Claim" Business and Fail—At the +Bottom</p> + +<p><a href="#ch36">CHAPTER XXXVI.</a> A Quartz Mill—Amalgamation—"Screening +Tailings"—First Quartz Mill in Nevada—Fire Assay—A Smart +Assayer—I stake for an advance</p> + +<p><a href="#ch37">CHAPTER XXXVII.</a> The Whiteman Cement Mine—Story of its +Discovery—A Secret Expedition—A Nocturnal Adventure—A +Distressing Position—A Failure and a Week's Holiday</p> + +<p><a href="#ch38">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</a> Mono Lake—Shampooing Made Easy—Thoughtless +Act of Our Dog and the Results—Lye Water—Curiosities of the +Lake—Free Hotel—Some Funny Incidents a Little Overdrawn</p> + +<p><a href="#ch39">CHAPTER XXXIX.</a> Visit to the Islands in Lake Mono—Ashes and +Desolation—Life Amid Death Our Boat Adrift—A Jump For Life—A +Storm On the Lake—A Mass of Soap Suds—Geological Curiosities—A +Week On the Sierras—A Narrow Escape From a Funny +Explosion—"Stove Heap Gone"</p> + +<p><a href="#ch40">CHAPTER XL.</a> The "Wide West" Mine—It is "Interviewed" by +Higbie—A Blind Lead—Worth a Million—We are Rich At Last—Plans +for the Future</p> + +</blockquote></blockquote> + + +<br><br><br><br> + +<center><h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2></center> +<center> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td> + + + +116. <a href="#222">"MR. ARKANSAS ...</a><br> +117. <a href="#225">AN ARMED ALLY</a><br> +118. <a href="#227">CROSSING THE FLOOD</a><br> +119. <a href="#229">ADVANCE IN A CIRCLE</a><br> +120, <a href="#230">THE SONGSTER</a><br> +121. <a href="#231">THE FOXES HAVE HOLES-TAIL-PIECE</a><br> +122. <a href="#233">A FLAT FAILURE</a><br> +123. <a href="#234">THE LAST MATCH</a><br> +124. <a href="#236">DISCARDED VICES</a><br> +125. <a href="#237">FLAMES-TAIL-PIECE</a><br> +127. <a href="#240">IT WAS THUS WE MET</a><br> +128. <a href="#242">TAKING POSSESSION</a><br> +129. <a href="#244">A GREAT EFFORT</a><br> +130. <a href="#246">REARRANGING AND SHIFTING</a><br> +131. <a href="#249">WE LEFT LAMENTED</a><br> +132. <a href="#250">PICTURE OF TOWNSEND'S TUNNEL</a><br> +133. <a href="#253">QUARTZ MILL</a><br> +134. <a href="#254">ANOTHER PROCESS OF AMALGAMATION</a> <br> +135. <a href="#256">FIRST QUARTZ MILL IN NEVADA</a><br> +136. <a href="#257">A SLICE OF RICH ORE</a><br> +137. <a href="#260">THE SAVED BROTHER</a><br> +138. <a href="#268">ON A SECRET EXPEDITION</a><br> +139. <a href="#265">LAKE MONO</a><br> +140. <a href="#266a">RATHER SOAPY</a><br> +141. <a href="#266b">A BARK UNDER FULL SAIL</a><br> +142. <a href="#268">A MODEL BOARDING HOUSE</a><br> +143. <a href="#271">LIFE AMID DEATH</a><br> +144. <a href="#273">A JUMP FOR LIFE</a><br> +145. <a href="#275">"STOVE HEAP GONE"</a><br> +146. <a href="#279">INTERVIEWING THE "WIDE WEST"</a><br> +147. <a href="#280">WORTH A MILLION</a><br> +148. <a href="#282">MILLIONAIRES LAYING PLANS</a><br> + + +</td></tr> +</table> +</center> + + +<br><br><br><br> + + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch31"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>There were two men in the company who caused me particular +discomfort. One was a little Swede, about twenty-five years old, +who knew only one song, and he was forever singing it. By day we +were all crowded into one small, stifling bar-room, and so there +was no escaping this person's music. Through all the profanity, +whisky-guzzling, "old sledge" and quarreling, his monotonous song +meandered with never a variation in its tiresome sameness, and it +seemed to me, at last, that I would be content to die, in order +to be rid of the torture. The other man was a stalwart ruffian +called "Arkansas," who carried two revolvers in his belt and a +bowie knife projecting from his boot, and who was always drunk +and always suffering for a fight. But he was so feared, that +nobody would accommodate him. He would try all manner of little +wary ruses to entrap somebody into an offensive remark, and his +face would light up now and then when he fancied he was fairly on +the scent of a fight, but invariably his victim would elude his +toils and then he would show a disappointment that was almost +pathetic. The landlord, Johnson, was a meek, well-meaning fellow, +and Arkansas fastened on him early, as a promising subject, and +gave him no rest day or night, for awhile. On the fourth morning, +Arkansas got drunk and sat himself down to wait for an +opportunity. Presently Johnson came in, just comfortably sociable +with whisky, and said:</p> + +<p>"I reckon the Pennsylvania 'lection—"</p> + +<p>Arkansas raised his finger impressively and Johnson stopped. +Arkansas rose unsteadily and confronted him. Said he:</p> + +<p>"Wha-what do you know a—about Pennsylvania? Answer me that. +Wha—what do you know 'bout Pennsylvania?"</p> + +<p>"I was only goin' to say—"</p> + +<p>"You was only goin' to say. You was! You was only goin' to +say—what was you goin' to say? That's it! That's what I want to +know. I want to know wha—what you ('ic) what you know about +Pennsylvania, since you're makin' yourself so d—-d free. Answer +me that!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Arkansas, if you'd only let me—"</p> + +<a name="222"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="222.jpg (55K)" src="images/222.jpg" height="630" width="306"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"Who's a henderin' you? Don't you insinuate nothing agin +me!—don't you do it. Don't you come in here bullyin' around, and +cussin' and goin' on like a lunatic—don't you do it. 'Coz I +won't stand it. If fight's what you want, out with it! I'm your +man! Out with it!"</p> + +<p>Said Johnson, backing into a corner, Arkansas following, +menacingly:</p> + +<p>"Why, I never said nothing, Mr. Arkansas. You don't give a man +no chance. I was only goin' to say that Pennsylvania was goin' to +have an election next week—that was all—that was everything I +was goin' to say—I wish I may never stir if it wasn't."</p> + +<p>"Well then why d'n't you say it? What did you come swellin' +around that way for, and tryin' to raise trouble?"</p> + +<p>"Why I didn't come swellin' around, Mr. Arkansas—I +just—"</p> + +<p>"I'm a liar am I! Ger-reat Caesar's ghost—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, please, Mr. Arkansas, I never meant such a thing as that, +I wish I may die if I did. All the boys will tell you that I've +always spoke well of you, and respected you more'n any man in the +house. Ask Smith. Ain't it so, Smith? Didn't I say, no longer ago +than last night, that for a man that was a gentleman all the time +and every way you took him, give me Arkansas? I'll leave it to +any gentleman here if them warn't the very words I used. Come, +now, Mr. Arkansas, le's take a drink—le's shake hands and take a +drink. Come up—everybody! It's my treat. Come up, Bill, Tom, +Bob, Scotty—come up. I want you all to take a drink with me and +Arkansas—old Arkansas, I call him—bully old Arkansas. Gimme +your hand agin. Look at him, boys—just take a look at him. Thar +stands the whitest man in America!—and the man that denies it +has got to fight me, that's all. Gimme that old flipper +agin!"</p> + +<p>They embraced, with drunken affection on the landlord's part +and unresponsive toleration on the part of Arkansas, who, bribed +by a drink, was disappointed of his prey once more. But the +foolish landlord was so happy to have escaped butchery, that he +went on talking when he ought to have marched himself out of +danger. The consequence was that Arkansas shortly began to glower +upon him dangerously, and presently said:</p> + +<p>"Lan'lord, will you p-please make that remark over agin if you +please?"</p> + +<p>"I was a-sayin' to Scotty that my father was up'ards of eighty +year old when he died."</p> + +<p>"Was that all that you said?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that was all."</p> + +<p>"Didn't say nothing but that?"</p> + +<p>"No—nothing."</p> + +<p>Then an uncomfortable silence.</p> + +<p>Arkansas played with his glass a moment, lolling on his elbows +on the counter. Then he meditatively scratched his left shin with +his right boot, while the awkward silence continued. But +presently he loafed away toward the stove, looking dissatisfied; +roughly shouldered two or three men out of a comfortable +position; occupied it himself, gave a sleeping dog a kick that +sent him howling under a bench, then spread his long legs and his +blanket-coat tails apart and proceeded to warm his back. In a +little while he fell to grumbling to himself, and soon he +slouched back to the bar and said:</p> + +<p>"Lan'lord, what's your idea for rakin' up old personalities +and blowin' about your father? Ain't this company agreeable to +you? Ain't it? If this company ain't agreeable to you, p'r'aps +we'd better leave. Is that your idea? Is that what you're coming +at?"</p> + +<p>"Why bless your soul, Arkansas, I warn't thinking of such a +thing. My father and my mother—"</p> + +<p>"Lan'lord, don't crowd a man! Don't do it. If nothing'll do +you but a disturbance, out with it like a man ('ic)—but don't +rake up old bygones and fling'em in the teeth of a passel of +people that wants to be peaceable if they could git a chance. +What's the matter with you this mornin', anyway? I never see a +man carry on so."</p> + +<p>"Arkansas, I reely didn't mean no harm, and I won't go on with +it if it's onpleasant to you. I reckon my licker's got into my +head, and what with the flood, and havin' so many to feed and +look out for—"</p> + +<p>"So that's what's a-ranklin' in your heart, is it? You want us +to leave do you? There's too many on us. You want us to pack up +and swim. Is that it? Come!"</p> + +<p>"Please be reasonable, Arkansas. Now you know that I ain't the +man to—"</p> + +<p>"Are you a threatenin' me? Are you? By George, the man don't +live that can skeer me! Don't you try to come that game, my +chicken—'cuz I can stand a good deal, but I won't stand that. +Come out from behind that bar till I clean you! You want to drive +us out, do you, you sneakin' underhanded hound! Come out from +behind that bar! I'll learn you to bully and badger and browbeat +a gentleman that's forever trying to befriend you and keep you +out of trouble!"</p> + +<p>"Please, Arkansas, please don't shoot! If there's got to be +bloodshed—"</p> + +<p>"Do you hear that, gentlemen? Do you hear him talk about +bloodshed? So it's blood you want, is it, you ravin' desperado! +You'd made up your mind to murder somebody this mornin'—I knowed +it perfectly well. I'm the man, am I? It's me you're goin' to +murder, is it? But you can't do it 'thout I get one chance first, +you thievin' black-hearted, white- livered son of a nigger! Draw +your weepon!"</p> + +<p>With that, Arkansas began to shoot, and the landlord to +clamber over benches, men and every sort of obstacle in a frantic +desire to escape. In the midst of the wild hubbub the landlord +crashed through a glass door, and as Arkansas charged after him +the landlord's wife suddenly appeared in the doorway and +confronted the desperado with a pair of scissors! Her fury was +magnificent. With head erect and flashing eye she stood a moment +and then advanced, with her weapon raised. The astonished ruffian +hesitated, and then fell back a step. She followed. She backed +him step by step into the middle of the bar-room, and then, while +the wondering crowd closed up and gazed, she gave him such +another tongue-lashing as never a cowed and shamefaced braggart +got before, perhaps! As she finished and retired victorious, a +roar of applause shook the house, and every man ordered "drinks +for the crowd" in one and the same breath.</p> + +<a name="225"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="225.jpg (102K)" src="images/225.jpg" height="585" width="594"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The lesson was entirely sufficient. The reign of terror was +over, and the Arkansas domination broken for good. During the +rest of the season of island captivity, there was one man who sat +apart in a state of permanent humiliation, never mixing in any +quarrel or uttering a boast, and never resenting the insults the +once cringing crew now constantly leveled at him, and that man +was "Arkansas."</p> + +<p>By the fifth or sixth morning the waters had subsided from the +land, but the stream in the old river bed was still high and +swift and there was no possibility of crossing it. On the eighth +it was still too high for an entirely safe passage, but life in +the inn had become next to insupportable by reason of the dirt, +drunkenness, fighting, etc., and so we made an effort to get +away. In the midst of a heavy snow-storm we embarked in a canoe, +taking our saddles aboard and towing our horses after us by their +halters. The Prussian, Ollendorff, was in the bow, with a paddle, +Ballou paddled in the middle, and I sat in the stern holding the +halters. When the horses lost their footing and began to swim, +Ollendorff got frightened, for there was great danger that the +horses would make our aim uncertain, and it was plain that if we +failed to land at a certain spot the current would throw us off +and almost surely cast us into the main Carson, which was a +boiling torrent, now. Such a catastrophe would be death, in all +probability, for we would be swept to sea in the "Sink" or +overturned and drowned. We warned Ollendorff to keep his wits +about him and handle himself carefully, but it was useless; the +moment the bow touched the bank, he made a spring and the canoe +whirled upside down in ten-foot water.</p> + +<a name="227"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="227.jpg (95K)" src="images/227.jpg" height="584" width="620"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Ollendorff seized some brush and dragged himself ashore, but +Ballou and I had to swim for it, encumbered with our overcoats. +But we held on to the canoe, and although we were washed down +nearly to the Carson, we managed to push the boat ashore and make +a safe landing. We were cold and water- soaked, but safe. The +horses made a landing, too, but our saddles were gone, of course. +We tied the animals in the sage-brush and there they had to stay +for twenty-four hours. We baled out the canoe and ferried over +some food and blankets for them, but we slept one more night in +the inn before making another venture on our journey.</p> + +<p>The next morning it was still snowing furiously when we got +away with our new stock of saddles and accoutrements. We mounted +and started. The snow lay so deep on the ground that there was no +sign of a road perceptible, and the snow-fall was so thick that +we could not see more than a hundred yards ahead, else we could +have guided our course by the mountain ranges. The case looked +dubious, but Ollendorff said his instinct was as sensitive as any +compass, and that he could "strike a bee-line" for Carson city +and never diverge from it. He said that if he were to straggle a +single point out of the true line his instinct would assail him +like an outraged conscience. Consequently we dropped into his +wake happy and content. For half an hour we poked along warily +enough, but at the end of that time we came upon a fresh trail, +and Ollendorff shouted proudly:</p> + +<p>"I knew I was as dead certain as a compass, boys! Here we are, +right in somebody's tracks that will hunt the way for us without +any trouble. Let's hurry up and join company with the party."</p> + +<p>So we put the horses into as much of a trot as the deep snow +would allow, and before long it was evident that we were gaining +on our predecessors, for the tracks grew more distinct. We +hurried along, and at the end of an hour the tracks looked still +newer and fresher—but what surprised us was, that the number of +travelers in advance of us seemed to steadily increase. We +wondered how so large a party came to be traveling at such a time +and in such a solitude. Somebody suggested that it must be a +company of soldiers from the fort, and so we accepted that +solution and jogged along a little faster still, for they could +not be far off now. But the tracks still multiplied, and we began +to think the platoon of soldiers was miraculously expanding into +a regiment—Ballou said they had already increased to five +hundred! Presently he stopped his horse and said:</p> + +<p>"Boys, these are our own tracks, and we've actually been +circussing round and round in a circle for more than two hours, +out here in this blind desert! By George this is perfectly +hydraulic!"</p> + +<a name="229"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="229.jpg (83K)" src="images/229.jpg" height="545" width="598"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Then the old man waxed wroth and abusive. He called Ollendorff +all manner of hard names—said he never saw such a lurid fool as +he was, and ended with the peculiarly venomous opinion that he +"did not know as much as a logarythm!"</p> + +<p>We certainly had been following our own tracks. Ollendorff and +his "mental compass" were in disgrace from that moment.</p> + +<p>After all our hard travel, here we were on the bank of the +stream again, with the inn beyond dimly outlined through the +driving snow-fall. While we were considering what to do, the +young Swede landed from the canoe and took his pedestrian way +Carson-wards, singing his same tiresome song about his "sister +and his brother" and "the child in the grave with its mother," +and in a short minute faded and disappeared in the white +oblivion. He was never heard of again. He no doubt got bewildered +and lost, and Fatigue delivered him over to Sleep and Sleep +betrayed him to Death. Possibly he followed our treacherous +tracks till he became exhausted and dropped.</p> + +<a name="230"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="230.jpg (20K)" src="images/230.jpg" height="295" width="255"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Presently the Overland stage forded the now fast receding +stream and started toward Carson on its first trip since the +flood came. We hesitated no longer, now, but took up our march in +its wake, and trotted merrily along, for we had good confidence +in the driver's bump of locality. But our horses were no match +for the fresh stage team. We were soon left out of sight; but it +was no matter, for we had the deep ruts the wheels made for a +guide. By this time it was three in the afternoon, and +consequently it was not very long before night came—and not with +a lingering twilight, but with a sudden shutting down like a +cellar door, as is its habit in that country. The snowfall was +still as thick as ever, and of course we could not see fifteen +steps before us; but all about us the white glare of the snow-bed +enabled us to discern the smooth sugar-loaf mounds made by the +covered sage-bushes, and just in front of us the two faint +grooves which we knew were the steadily filling and slowly +disappearing wheel-tracks.</p> + +<p>Now those sage-bushes were all about the same height—three or +four feet; they stood just about seven feet apart, all over the +vast desert; each of them was a mere snow-mound, now; in any +direction that you proceeded (the same as in a well laid out +orchard) you would find yourself moving down a distinctly defined +avenue, with a row of these snow-mounds an either side of it—an +avenue the customary width of a road, nice and level in its +breadth, and rising at the sides in the most natural way, by +reason of the mounds. But we had not thought of this. Then +imagine the chilly thrill that shot through us when it finally +occurred to us, far in the night, that since the last faint trace +of the wheel-tracks had long ago been buried from sight, we might +now be wandering down a mere sage-brush avenue, miles away from +the road and diverging further and further away from it all the +time. Having a cake of ice slipped down one's back is placid +comfort compared to it. There was a sudden leap and stir of blood +that had been asleep for an hour, and as sudden a rousing of all +the drowsing activities in our minds and bodies. We were alive +and awake at once—and shaking and quaking with consternation, +too. There was an instant halting and dismounting, a bending low +and an anxious scanning of the road-bed. Useless, of course; for +if a faint depression could not be discerned from an altitude of +four or five feet above it, it certainly could not with one's +nose nearly against it.</p> + +<a name="231"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="231.jpg (33K)" src="images/231.jpg" height="246" width="554"> +</center> +<br><br> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch32"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>We seemed to be in a road, but that was no proof. We tested +this by walking off in various directions—the regular +snow-mounds and the regular avenues between them convinced each +man that he had found the true road, and that the others had +found only false ones. Plainly the situation was desperate. We +were cold and stiff and the horses were tired. We decided to +build a sage-brush fire and camp out till morning. This was wise, +because if we were wandering from the right road and the +snow-storm continued another day our case would be the next thing +to hopeless if we kept on.</p> + +<p>All agreed that a camp fire was what would come nearest to +saving us, now, and so we set about building it. We could find no +matches, and so we tried to make shift with the pistols. Not a +man in the party had ever tried to do such a thing before, but +not a man in the party doubted that it could be done, and without +any trouble—because every man in the party had read about it in +books many a time and had naturally come to believe it, with +trusting simplicity, just as he had long ago accepted and +believed that other common book-fraud about Indians and lost +hunters making a fire by rubbing two dry sticks together.</p> + +<p>We huddled together on our knees in the deep snow, and the +horses put their noses together and bowed their patient heads +over us; and while the feathery flakes eddied down and turned us +into a group of white statuary, we proceeded with the momentous +experiment. We broke twigs from a sage bush and piled them on a +little cleared place in the shelter of our bodies. In the course +of ten or fifteen minutes all was ready, and then, while +conversation ceased and our pulses beat low with anxious +suspense, Ollendorff applied his revolver, pulled the trigger and +blew the pile clear out of the county! It was the flattest +failure that ever was.</p> + +<a name="233"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="233.jpg (89K)" src="images/233.jpg" height="514" width="616"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>This was distressing, but it paled before a greater +horror—the horses were gone! I had been appointed to hold the +bridles, but in my absorbing anxiety over the pistol experiment I +had unconsciously dropped them and the released animals had +walked off in the storm. It was useless to try to follow them, +for their footfalls could make no sound, and one could pass +within two yards of the creatures and never see them. We gave +them up without an effort at recovering them, and cursed the +lying books that said horses would stay by their masters for +protection and companionship in a distressful time like ours.</p> + +<p>We were miserable enough, before; we felt still more forlorn, +now. Patiently, but with blighted hope, we broke more sticks and +piled them, and once more the Prussian shot them into +annihilation. Plainly, to light a fire with a pistol was an art +requiring practice and experience, and the middle of a desert at +midnight in a snow-storm was not a good place or time for the +acquiring of the accomplishment. We gave it up and tried the +other. Each man took a couple of sticks and fell to chafing them +together. At the end of half an hour we were thoroughly chilled, +and so were the sticks. We bitterly execrated the Indians, the +hunters and the books that had betrayed us with the silly device, +and wondered dismally what was next to be done. At this critical +moment Mr. Ballou fished out four matches from the rubbish of an +overlooked pocket. To have found four gold bars would have seemed +poor and cheap good luck compared to this.</p> + +<p>One cannot think how good a match looks under such +circumstances—or how lovable and precious, and sacredly +beautiful to the eye. This time we gathered sticks with high +hopes; and when Mr. Ballou prepared to light the first match, +there was an amount of interest centred upon him that pages of +writing could not describe. The match burned hopefully a moment, +and then went out. It could not have carried more regret with it +if it had been a human life. The next match simply flashed and +died. The wind puffed the third one out just as it was on the +imminent verge of success. We gathered together closer than ever, +and developed a solicitude that was rapt and painful, as Mr. +Ballou scratched our last hope on his leg. It lit, burned blue +and sickly, and then budded into a robust flame. Shading it with +his hands, the old gentleman bent gradually down and every heart +went with him—everybody, too, for that matter—and blood and +breath stood still. The flame touched the sticks at last, took +gradual hold upon them—hesitated—took a stronger +hold—hesitated again—held its breath five heart-breaking seconds, +then gave a sort of human gasp and went out.</p> + +<a name="234"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="234.jpg (42K)" src="images/234.jpg" height="365" width="410"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Nobody said a word for several minutes. It was a solemn sort +of silence; even the wind put on a stealthy, sinister quiet, and +made no more noise than the falling flakes of snow. Finally a +sad-voiced conversation began, and it was soon apparent that in +each of our hearts lay the conviction that this was our last +night with the living. I had so hoped that I was the only one who +felt so. When the others calmly acknowledged their conviction, it +sounded like the summons itself. Ollendorff said:</p> + +<p>"Brothers, let us die together. And let us go without one hard +feeling towards each other. Let us forget and forgive bygones. I +know that you have felt hard towards me for turning over the +canoe, and for knowing too much and leading you round and round +in the snow—but I meant well; forgive me. I acknowledge freely +that I have had hard feelings against Mr. Ballou for abusing me +and calling me a logarythm, which is a thing I do not know what, +but no doubt a thing considered disgraceful and unbecoming in +America, and it has scarcely been out of my mind and has hurt me +a great deal—but let it go; I forgive Mr. Ballou with all my +heart, and—"</p> + +<p>Poor Ollendorff broke down and the tears came. He was not +alone, for I was crying too, and so was Mr. Ballou. Ollendorff +got his voice again and forgave me for things I had done and +said. Then he got out his bottle of whisky and said that whether +he lived or died he would never touch another drop. He said he +had given up all hope of life, and although ill-prepared, was +ready to submit humbly to his fate; that he wished he could be +spared a little longer, not for any selfish reason, but to make a +thorough reform in his character, and by devoting himself to +helping the poor, nursing the sick, and pleading with the people +to guard themselves against the evils of intemperance, make his +life a beneficent example to the young, and lay it down at last +with the precious reflection that it had not been lived in vain. +He ended by saying that his reform should begin at this moment, +even here in the presence of death, since no longer time was to +be vouchsafed wherein to prosecute it to men's help and +benefit—and with that he threw away the bottle of whisky.</p> + +<a name="236"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="236.jpg (21K)" src="images/236.jpg" height="266" width="307"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Mr. Ballou made remarks of similar purport, and began the +reform he could not live to continue, by throwing away the +ancient pack of cards that had solaced our captivity during the +flood and made it bearable.</p> + +<p>He said he never gambled, but still was satisfied that the +meddling with cards in any way was immoral and injurious, and no +man could be wholly pure and blemishless without eschewing them. +"And therefore," continued he, "in doing this act I already feel +more in sympathy with that spiritual saturnalia necessary to +entire and obsolete reform." These rolling syllables touched him +as no intelligible eloquence could have done, and the old man +sobbed with a mournfulness not unmingled with satisfaction.</p> + +<p>My own remarks were of the same tenor as those of my comrades, +and I know that the feelings that prompted them were heartfelt +and sincere. We were all sincere, and all deeply moved and +earnest, for we were in the presence of death and without hope. I +threw away my pipe, and in doing it felt that at last I was free +of a hated vice and one that had ridden me like a tyrant all my +days. While I yet talked, the thought of the good I might have +done in the world and the still greater good I might now do, with +these new incentives and higher and better aims to guide me if I +could only be spared a few years longer, overcame me and the +tears came again. We put our arms about each other's necks and +awaited the warning drowsiness that precedes death by +freezing.</p> + +<p>It came stealing over us presently, and then we bade each +other a last farewell. A delicious dreaminess wrought its web +about my yielding senses, while the snow-flakes wove a winding +sheet about my conquered body. Oblivion came. The battle of life +was done.</p> + +<a name="237"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="237.jpg (34K)" src="images/237.jpg" height="458" width="312"> +</center> +<br><br> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch33"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>I do not know how long I was in a state of forgetfulness, but +it seemed an age. A vague consciousness grew upon me by degrees, +and then came a gathering anguish of pain in my limbs and through +all my body. I shuddered. The thought flitted through my brain, +"this is death—this is the hereafter."</p> + +<p>Then came a white upheaval at my side, and a voice said, with +bitterness:</p> + +<p>"Will some gentleman be so good as to kick me behind?"</p> + +<p>It was Ballou—at least it was a towzled snow image in a +sitting posture, with Ballou's voice.</p> + +<p>I rose up, and there in the gray dawn, not fifteen steps from +us, were the frame buildings of a stage station, and under a shed +stood our still saddled and bridled horses!</p> + +<p>An arched snow-drift broke up, now, and Ollendorff emerged +from it, and the three of us sat and stared at the houses without +speaking a word. We really had nothing to say. We were like the +profane man who could not "do the subject justice," the whole +situation was so painfully ridiculous and humiliating that words +were tame and we did not know where to commence anyhow.</p> + +<p>The joy in our hearts at our deliverance was poisoned; +well-nigh dissipated, indeed. We presently began to grow pettish +by degrees, and sullen; and then, angry at each other, angry at +ourselves, angry at everything in general, we moodily dusted the +snow from our clothing and in unsociable single file plowed our +way to the horses, unsaddled them, and sought shelter in the +station.</p> + +<p>I have scarcely exaggerated a detail of this curious and +absurd adventure. It occurred almost exactly as I have stated it. +We actually went into camp in a snow-drift in a desert, at +midnight in a storm, forlorn and hopeless, within fifteen steps +of a comfortable inn.</p> + +<p>For two hours we sat apart in the station and ruminated in +disgust. The mystery was gone, now, and it was plain enough why +the horses had deserted us. Without a doubt they were under that +shed a quarter of a minute after they had left us, and they must +have overheard and enjoyed all our confessions and +lamentations.</p> + +<p>After breakfast we felt better, and the zest of life soon came +back. The world looked bright again, and existence was as dear to +us as ever. Presently an uneasiness came over me—grew upon +me—assailed me without ceasing. Alas, my regeneration was not +complete—I wanted to smoke! I resisted with all my strength, but +the flesh was weak. I wandered away alone and wrestled with +myself an hour. I recalled my promises of reform and preached to +myself persuasively, upbraidingly, exhaustively. But it was all +vain, I shortly found myself sneaking among the snow-drifts +hunting for my pipe. I discovered it after a considerable search, +and crept away to hide myself and enjoy it. I remained behind the +barn a good while, asking myself how I would feel if my braver, +stronger, truer comrades should catch me in my degradation. At +last I lit the pipe, and no human being can feel meaner and baser +than I did then. I was ashamed of being in my own pitiful +company. Still dreading discovery, I felt that perhaps the +further side of the barn would be somewhat safer, and so I turned +the corner. As I turned the one corner, smoking, Ollendorff +turned the other with his bottle to his lips, and between us sat +unconscious Ballou deep in a game of "solitaire" with the old +greasy cards!</p> + +<a name="240"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="240.jpg (102K)" src="images/240.jpg" height="602" width="614"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Absurdity could go no farther. We shook hands and agreed to +say no more about "reform" and "examples to the rising +generation."</p> + +<p>The station we were at was at the verge of the Twenty-six-Mile +Desert. If we had approached it half an hour earlier the night +before, we must have heard men shouting there and firing pistols; +for they were expecting some sheep drovers and their flocks and +knew that they would infallibly get lost and wander out of reach +of help unless guided by sounds.</p> + +<p>While we remained at the station, three of the drovers +arrived, nearly exhausted with their wanderings, but two others +of their party were never heard of afterward.</p> + +<p>We reached Carson in due time, and took a rest. This rest, +together with preparations for the journey to Esmeralda, kept us +there a week, and the delay gave us the opportunity to be present +at the trial of the great land-slide case of Hyde vs. Morgan—an +episode which is famous in Nevada to this day. After a word or +two of necessary explanation, I will set down the history of this +singular affair just as it transpired.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch34"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>The mountains are very high and steep about Carson, Eagle and +Washoe Valleys—very high and very steep, and so when the snow +gets to melting off fast in the Spring and the warm surface-earth +begins to moisten and soften, the disastrous land-slides +commence. The reader cannot know what a land-slide is, unless he +has lived in that country and seen the whole side of a mountain +taken off some fine morning and deposited down in the valley, +leaving a vast, treeless, unsightly scar upon the mountain's +front to keep the circumstance fresh in his memory all the years +that he may go on living within seventy miles of that place.</p> + +<p>General Buncombe was shipped out to Nevada in the invoice of +Territorial officers, to be United States Attorney. He considered +himself a lawyer of parts, and he very much wanted an opportunity +to manifest it—partly for the pure gratification of it and +partly because his salary was Territorially meagre (which is a +strong expression). Now the older citizens of a new territory +look down upon the rest of the world with a calm, benevolent +compassion, as long as it keeps out of the way—when it gets in +the way they snub it. Sometimes this latter takes the shape of a +practical joke.</p> + +<p>One morning Dick Hyde rode furiously up to General Buncombe's +door in Carson city and rushed into his presence without stopping +to tie his horse. He seemed much excited. He told the General +that he wanted him to conduct a suit for him and would pay him +five hundred dollars if he achieved a victory. And then, with +violent gestures and a world of profanity, he poured out his +grief. He said it was pretty well known that for some years he +had been farming (or ranching as the more customary term is) in +Washoe District, and making a successful thing of it, and +furthermore it was known that his ranch was situated just in the +edge of the valley, and that Tom Morgan owned a ranch immediately +above it on the mountain side.</p> + +<a name="242"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="242.jpg (114K)" src="images/242.jpg" height="666" width="589"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>And now the trouble was, that one of those hated and dreaded +land-slides had come and slid Morgan's ranch, fences, cabins, +cattle, barns and everything down on top of his ranch and exactly +covered up every single vestige of his property, to a depth of +about thirty-eight feet. Morgan was in possession and refused to +vacate the premises—said he was occupying his own cabin and not +interfering with anybody else's—and said the cabin was standing +on the same dirt and same ranch it had always stood on, and he +would like to see anybody make him vacate.</p> + +<p>"And when I reminded him," said Hyde, weeping, "that it was on +top of my ranch and that he was trespassing, he had the infernal +meanness to ask me why didn't I stay on my ranch and hold +possession when I see him a-coming! Why didn't I stay on it, the +blathering lunatic—by George, when I heard that racket and +looked up that hill it was just like the whole world was +a-ripping and a-tearing down that mountain side—splinters, and +cord-wood, thunder and lightning, hail and snow, odds and ends of +hay stacks, and awful clouds of dust!—trees going end over end +in the air, rocks as big as a house jumping 'bout a thousand feet +high and busting into ten million pieces, cattle turned inside +out and a-coming head on with their tails hanging out between +their teeth!—and in the midst of all that wrack and destruction +sot that cussed Morgan on his gate-post, a-wondering why I didn't +stay and hold possession! Laws bless me, I just took one glimpse, +General, and lit out'n the county in three jumps exactly.</p> + +<p>"But what grinds me is that that Morgan hangs on there and +won't move off'n that ranch—says it's his'n and he's going to +keep it—likes it better'n he did when it was higher up the hill. +Mad! Well, I've been so mad for two days I couldn't find my way +to town—been wandering around in the brush in a starving +condition—got anything here to drink, General? But I'm here now, +and I'm a-going to law. You hear me!"</p> + +<p>Never in all the world, perhaps, were a man's feelings so +outraged as were the General's. He said he had never heard of +such high-handed conduct in all his life as this Morgan's. And he +said there was no use in going to law—Morgan had no shadow of +right to remain where he was—nobody in the wide world would +uphold him in it, and no lawyer would take his case and no judge +listen to it. Hyde said that right there was where he was +mistaken—everybody in town sustained Morgan; Hal Brayton, a very +smart lawyer, had taken his case; the courts being in vacation, +it was to be tried before a referee, and ex-Governor Roop had +already been appointed to that office and would open his court in +a large public hall near the hotel at two that afternoon.</p> + +<p>The General was amazed. He said he had suspected before that +the people of that Territory were fools, and now he knew it. But +he said rest easy, rest easy and collect the witnesses, for the +victory was just as certain as if the conflict were already over. +Hyde wiped away his tears and left.</p> + +<p>At two in the afternoon referee Roop's Court opened and Roop +appeared throned among his sheriffs, the witnesses, and +spectators, and wearing upon his face a solemnity so +awe-inspiring that some of his fellow- conspirators had +misgivings that maybe he had not comprehended, after all, that +this was merely a joke. An unearthly stillness prevailed, for at +the slightest noise the judge uttered sternly the command:</p> + +<p>"Order in the Court!"</p> + +<p>And the sheriffs promptly echoed it. Presently the General +elbowed his way through the crowd of spectators, with his arms +full of law-books, and on his ears fell an order from the judge +which was the first respectful recognition of his high official +dignity that had ever saluted them, and it trickled pleasantly +through his whole system:</p> + +<p>"Way for the United States Attorney!"</p> + +<p>The witnesses were called—legislators, high government +officers, ranchmen, miners, Indians, Chinamen, negroes. Three +fourths of them were called by the defendant Morgan, but no +matter, their testimony invariably went in favor of the plaintiff +Hyde. Each new witness only added new testimony to the absurdity +of a man's claiming to own another man's property because his +farm had slid down on top of it. Then the Morgan lawyers made +their speeches, and seemed to make singularly weak ones—they +did really nothing to help the Morgan cause. And now the General, +with exultation in his face, got up and made an impassioned +effort; he pounded the table, he banged the law-books, he +shouted, and roared, and howled, he quoted from everything and +everybody, poetry, sarcasm, statistics, history, pathos, bathos, +blasphemy, and wound up with a grand war-whoop for free speech, +freedom of the press, free schools, the Glorious Bird of America +and the principles of eternal justice! [Applause.]</p> + +<a name="244"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="244.jpg (96K)" src="images/244.jpg" height="539" width="596"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>When the General sat down, he did it with the conviction that +if there was anything in good strong testimony, a great speech +and believing and admiring countenances all around, Mr. Morgan's +case was killed. Ex- Governor Roop leant his head upon his hand +for some minutes, thinking, and the still audience waited for his +decision. Then he got up and stood erect, with bended head, and +thought again. Then he walked the floor with long, deliberate +strides, his chin in his hand, and still the audience waited. At +last he returned to his throne, seated himself, and began +impressively:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, I feel the great responsibility that rests upon me +this day. This is no ordinary case. On the contrary it is plain +that it is the most solemn and awful that ever man was called +upon to decide. Gentlemen, I have listened attentively to the +evidence, and have perceived that the weight of it, the +overwhelming weight of it, is in favor of the plaintiff Hyde. I +have listened also to the remarks of counsel, with high +interest—and especially will I commend the masterly and +irrefutable logic of the distinguished gentleman who represents +the plaintiff. But gentlemen, let us beware how we allow mere +human testimony, human ingenuity in argument and human ideas of +equity, to influence us at a moment so solemn as this. Gentlemen, +it ill becomes us, worms as we are, to meddle with the decrees of +Heaven. It is plain to me that Heaven, in its inscrutable wisdom, +has seen fit to move this defendant's ranch for a purpose. We are +but creatures, and we must submit. If Heaven has chosen to favor +the defendant Morgan in this marked and wonderful manner; and if +Heaven, dissatisfied with the position of the Morgan ranch upon +the mountain side, has chosen to remove it to a position more +eligible and more advantageous for its owner, it ill becomes us, +insects as we are, to question the legality of the act or inquire +into the reasons that prompted it. No—Heaven created the ranches +and it is Heaven's prerogative to rearrange them, to experiment +with them around at its pleasure. It is for us to submit, without +repining.</p> + +<a name="246"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="246.jpg (92K)" src="images/246.jpg" height="578" width="601"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"I warn you that this thing which has happened is a thing with +which the sacrilegious hands and brains and tongues of men must +not meddle. Gentlemen, it is the verdict of this court that the +plaintiff, Richard Hyde, has been deprived of his ranch by the +visitation of God! And from this decision there is no +appeal."</p> + +<p>Buncombe seized his cargo of law-books and plunged out of the +court-room frantic with indignation. He pronounced Roop to be a +miraculous fool, an inspired idiot. In all good faith he returned +at night and remonstrated with Roop upon his extravagant +decision, and implored him to walk the floor and think for half +an hour, and see if he could not figure out some sort of +modification of the verdict. Roop yielded at last and got up to +walk. He walked two hours and a half, and at last his face lit up +happily and he told Buncombe it had occurred to him that the +ranch underneath the new Morgan ranch still belonged to Hyde, +that his title to the ground was just as good as it had ever +been, and therefore he was of opinion that Hyde had a right to +dig it out from under there and—</p> + +<p>The General never waited to hear the end of it. He was always +an impatient and irascible man, that way. At the end of two +months the fact that he had been played upon with a joke had +managed to bore itself, like another Hoosac Tunnel, through the +solid adamant of his understanding.</p> + + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch35"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>When we finally left for Esmeralda, horseback, we had an +addition to the company in the person of Capt. John Nye, the +Governor's brother. He had a good memory, and a tongue hung in +the middle. This is a combination which gives immortality to +conversation. Capt. John never suffered the talk to flag or +falter once during the hundred and twenty miles of the journey. +In addition to his conversational powers, he had one or two other +endowments of a marked character. One was a singular "handiness" +about doing anything and everything, from laying out a railroad +or organizing a political party, down to sewing on buttons, +shoeing a horse, or setting a broken leg, or a hen. Another was a +spirit of accommodation that prompted him to take the needs, +difficulties and perplexities of anybody and everybody upon his +own shoulders at any and all times, and dispose of them with +admirable facility and alacrity—hence he always managed to find +vacant beds in crowded inns, and plenty to eat in the emptiest +larders. And finally, wherever he met a man, woman or child, in +camp, inn or desert, he either knew such parties personally or +had been acquainted with a relative of the same. Such another +traveling comrade was never seen before. I cannot forbear giving +a specimen of the way in which he overcame difficulties. On the +second day out, we arrived, very tired and hungry, at a poor +little inn in the desert, and were told that the house was full, +no provisions on hand, and neither hay nor barley to spare for +the horses—must move on. The rest of us wanted to hurry on while +it was yet light, but Capt. John insisted on stopping awhile. We +dismounted and entered. There was no welcome for us on any face. +Capt. John began his blandishments, and within twenty minutes he +had accomplished the following things, viz.: found old +acquaintances in three teamsters; discovered that he used to go +to school with the landlord's mother; recognized his wife as a +lady whose life he had saved once in California, by stopping her +runaway horse; mended a child's broken toy and won the favor of +its mother, a guest of the inn; helped the hostler bleed a horse, +and prescribed for another horse that had the "heaves"; treated +the entire party three times at the landlord's bar; produced a +later paper than anybody had seen for a week and sat himself down +to read the news to a deeply interested audience. The result, +summed up, was as follows: The hostler found plenty of feed for +our horses; we had a trout supper, an exceedingly sociable time +after it, good beds to sleep in, and a surprising breakfast in +the morning—and when we left, we left lamented by all! Capt. +John had some bad traits, but he had some uncommonly valuable +ones to offset them with.</p> + +<a name="249"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="249.jpg (53K)" src="images/249.jpg" height="296" width="589"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Esmeralda was in many respects another Humboldt, but in a +little more forward state. The claims we had been paying +assessments on were entirely worthless, and we threw them away. +The principal one cropped out of the top of a knoll that was +fourteen feet high, and the inspired Board of Directors were +running a tunnel under that knoll to strike the ledge. The tunnel +would have to be seventy feet long, and would then strike the +ledge at the same dept that a shaft twelve feet deep would have +reached! The Board were living on the "assessments." [N.B.—This +hint comes too late for the enlightenment of New York silver +miners; they have already learned all about this neat trick by +experience.] The Board had no desire to strike the ledge, knowing +that it was as barren of silver as a curbstone. This reminiscence +calls to mind Jim Townsend's tunnel. He had paid assessments on a +mine called the "Daley" till he was well-nigh penniless. Finally +an assessment was levied to run a tunnel two hundred and fifty +feet on the Daley, and Townsend went up on the hill to look into +matters.</p> + +<p>He found the Daley cropping out of the apex of an exceedingly +sharp- pointed peak, and a couple of men up there "facing" the +proposed tunnel. Townsend made a calculation. Then he said to the +men:</p> + +<p>"So you have taken a contract to run a tunnel into this hill +two hundred and fifty feet to strike this ledge?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, do you know that you have got one of the most expensive +and arduous undertakings before you that was ever conceived by +man?"</p> + +<p>"Why no—how is that?"</p> + +<p>"Because this hill is only twenty-five feet through from side +to side; and so you have got to build two hundred and twenty-five +feet of your tunnel on trestle-work!"</p> + +<a name="250"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="250.jpg (61K)" src="images/250.jpg" height="416" width="494"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The ways of silver mining Boards are exceedingly dark and +sinuous.</p> + +<p>We took up various claims, and commenced shafts and tunnels on +them, but never finished any of them. We had to do a certain +amount of work on each to "hold" it, else other parties could +seize our property after the expiration of ten days. We were +always hunting up new claims and doing a little work on them and +then waiting for a buyer—who never came. We never found any ore +that would yield more than fifty dollars a ton; and as the mills +charged fifty dollars a ton for working ore and extracting the +silver, our pocket-money melted steadily away and none returned +to take its place. We lived in a little cabin and cooked for +ourselves; and altogether it was a hard life, though a hopeful +one—for we never ceased to expect fortune and a customer to +burst upon us some day.</p> + +<p>At last, when flour reached a dollar a pound, and money could +not be borrowed on the best security at less than eight per cent +a month (I being without the security, too), I abandoned mining +and went to milling. That is to say, I went to work as a common +laborer in a quartz mill, at ten dollars a week and board.</p> + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch36"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>I had already learned how hard and long and dismal a task it +is to burrow down into the bowels of the earth and get out the +coveted ore; and now I learned that the burrowing was only half +the work; and that to get the silver out of the ore was the +dreary and laborious other half of it. We had to turn out at six +in the morning and keep at it till dark. This mill was a +six-stamp affair, driven by steam. Six tall, upright rods of +iron, as large as a man's ankle, and heavily shod with a mass of +iron and steel at their lower ends, were framed together like a +gate, and these rose and fell, one after the other, in a +ponderous dance, in an iron box called a "battery." Each of these +rods or stamps weighed six hundred pounds. One of us stood by the +battery all day long, breaking up masses of silver-bearing rock +with a sledge and shoveling it into the battery. The ceaseless +dance of the stamps pulverized the rock to powder, and a stream +of water that trickled into the battery turned it to a creamy +paste. The minutest particles were driven through a fine wire +screen which fitted close around the battery, and were washed +into great tubs warmed by super-heated steam—amalgamating pans, +they are called. The mass of pulp in the pans was kept constantly +stirred up by revolving "mullers." A quantity of quicksilver was +kept always in the battery, and this seized some of the liberated +gold and silver particles and held on to them; quicksilver was +shaken in a fine shower into the pans, also, about every half +hour, through a buckskin sack. Quantities of coarse salt and +sulphate of copper were added, from time to time to assist the +amalgamation by destroying base metals which coated the gold and +silver and would not let it unite with the quicksilver.</p> + +<a name="253"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="253.jpg (73K)" src="images/253.jpg" height="449" width="523"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>All these tiresome things we had to attend to constantly. +Streams of dirty water flowed always from the pans and were +carried off in broad wooden troughs to the ravine. One would not +suppose that atoms of gold and silver would float on top of six +inches of water, but they did; and in order to catch them, coarse +blankets were laid in the troughs, and little obstructing +"riffles" charged with quicksilver were placed here and there +across the troughs also. These riffles had to be cleaned and the +blankets washed out every evening, to get their precious +accumulations—and after all this eternity of trouble one third +of the silver and gold in a ton of rock would find its way to the +end of the troughs in the ravine at last and have to be worked +over again some day. There is nothing so aggravating as silver +milling. There never was any idle time in that mill. There was +always something to do. It is a pity that Adam could not have +gone straight out of Eden into a quartz mill, in order to +understand the full force of his doom to "earn his bread by the +sweat of his brow." Every now and then, during the day, we had to +scoop some pulp out of the pans, and tediously "wash" it in a +horn spoon—wash it little by little over the edge till at last +nothing was left but some little dull globules of quicksilver in +the bottom. If they were soft and yielding, the pan needed some +salt or some sulphate of copper or some other chemical rubbish to +assist digestion; if they were crisp to the touch and would +retain a dint, they were freighted with all the silver and gold +they could seize and hold, and consequently the pan needed a +fresh charge of quicksilver. When there was nothing else to do, +one could always "screen tailings." That is to say, he could +shovel up the dried sand that had washed down to the ravine +through the troughs and dash it against an upright wire screen to +free it from pebbles and prepare it for working over.</p> + +<p>The process of amalgamation differed in the various mills, and +this included changes in style of pans and other machinery, and a +great diversity of opinion existed as to the best in use, but +none of the methods employed, involved the principle of milling +ore without "screening the tailings." Of all recreations in the +world, screening tailings on a hot day, with a long-handled +shovel, is the most undesirable.</p> + +<a name="254"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="254.jpg (78K)" src="images/254.jpg" height="422" width="607"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>At the end of the week the machinery was stopped and we +"cleaned up." That is to say, we got the pulp out of the pans and +batteries, and washed the mud patiently away till nothing was +left but the long accumulating mass of quicksilver, with its +imprisoned treasures. This we made into heavy, compact +snow-balls, and piled them up in a bright, luxurious heap for +inspection. Making these snow-balls cost me a fine gold +ring—that and ignorance together; for the quicksilver invaded +the ring with the same facility with which water saturates a +sponge—separated its particles and the ring crumbled to +pieces.</p> + +<p>We put our pile of quicksilver balls into an iron retort that +had a pipe leading from it to a pail of water, and then applied a +roasting heat. The quicksilver turned to vapor, escaped through +the pipe into the pail, and the water turned it into good +wholesome quicksilver again. Quicksilver is very costly, and they +never waste it. On opening the retort, there was our week's +work—a lump of pure white, frosty looking silver, twice as large +as a man's head. Perhaps a fifth of the mass was gold, but the +color of it did not show—would not have shown if two thirds of +it had been gold. We melted it up and made a solid brick of it by +pouring it into an iron brick-mould.</p> + +<p>By such a tedious and laborious process were silver bricks +obtained. This mill was but one of many others in operation at +the time. The first one in Nevada was built at Egan Canyon and +was a small insignificant affair and compared most unfavorably +with some of the immense establishments afterwards located at +Virginia City and elsewhere.</p> + +<a name="256"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="256.jpg (96K)" src="images/256.jpg" height="518" width="594"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>From our bricks a little corner was chipped off for the +"fire-assay"—a method used to determine the proportions of gold, +silver and base metals in the mass. This is an interesting +process. The chip is hammered out as thin as paper and weighed on +scales so fine and sensitive that if you weigh a two-inch scrap +of paper on them and then write your name on the paper with a +course, soft pencil and weigh it again, the scales will take +marked notice of the addition.</p> + +<p>Then a little lead (also weighed) is rolled up with the flake +of silver and the two are melted at a great heat in a small +vessel called a cupel, made by compressing bone ashes into a +cup-shape in a steel mold. The base metals oxydize and are +absorbed with the lead into the pores of the cupel. A button or +globule of perfectly pure gold and silver is left behind, and by +weighing it and noting the loss, the assayer knows the proportion +of base metal the brick contains. He has to separate the gold +from the silver now. The button is hammered out flat and thin, +put in the furnace and kept some time at a red heat; after +cooling it off it is rolled up like a quill and heated in a glass +vessel containing nitric acid; the acid dissolves the silver and +leaves the gold pure and ready to be weighed on its own merits. +Then salt water is poured into the vessel containing the +dissolved silver and the silver returns to palpable form again +and sinks to the bottom. Nothing now remains but to weigh it; +then the proportions of the several metals contained in the brick +are known, and the assayer stamps the value of the brick upon its +surface.</p> + +<p>The sagacious reader will know now, without being told, that +the speculative miner, in getting a "fire-assay" made of a piece +of rock from his mine (to help him sell the same), was not in the +habit of picking out the least valuable fragment of rock on his +dump-pile, but quite the contrary. I have seen men hunt over a +pile of nearly worthless quartz for an hour, and at last find a +little piece as large as a filbert, which was rich in gold and +silver—and this was reserved for a fire-assay! Of course the +fire-assay would demonstrate that a ton of such rock would yield +hundreds of dollars—and on such assays many an utterly worthless +mine was sold.</p> + +<p>Assaying was a good business, and so some men engaged in it, +occasionally, who were not strictly scientific and capable. One +assayer got such rich results out of all specimens brought to him +that in time he acquired almost a monopoly of the business. But +like all men who achieve success, he became an object of envy and +suspicion. The other assayers entered into a conspiracy against +him, and let some prominent citizens into the secret in order to +show that they meant fairly. Then they broke a little fragment +off a carpenter's grindstone and got a stranger to take it to the +popular scientist and get it assayed. In the course of an hour +the result came—whereby it appeared that a ton of that rock +would yield $1,184.40 in silver and $366.36 in gold!</p> + +<a name="257"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="257.jpg (34K)" src="images/257.jpg" height="435" width="329"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Due publication of the whole matter was made in the paper, and +the popular assayer left town "between two days."</p> + +<p>I will remark, in passing, that I only remained in the milling +business one week. I told my employer I could not stay longer +without an advance in my wages; that I liked quartz milling, +indeed was infatuated with it; that I had never before grown so +tenderly attached to an occupation in so short a time; that +nothing, it seemed to me, gave such scope to intellectual +activity as feeding a battery and screening tailings, and nothing +so stimulated the moral attributes as retorting bullion and +washing blankets—still, I felt constrained to ask an increase of +salary. He said he was paying me ten dollars a week, and thought +it a good round sum. How much did I want?</p> + +<p>I said about four hundred thousand dollars a month, and board, +was about all I could reasonably ask, considering the hard +times.</p> + +<p>I was ordered off the premises! And yet, when I look back to +those days and call to mind the exceeding hardness of the labor I +performed in that mill, I only regret that I did not ask him +seven hundred thousand.</p> + +<p>Shortly after this I began to grow crazy, along with the rest +of the population, about the mysterious and wonderful "cement +mine," and to make preparations to take advantage of any +opportunity that might offer to go and help hunt for it.</p> + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch37"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>It was somewhere in the neighborhood of Mono Lake that the +marvellous Whiteman cement mine was supposed to lie. Every now +and then it would be reported that Mr. W. had passed stealthily +through Esmeralda at dead of night, in disguise, and then we +would have a wild excitement—because he must be steering for his +secret mine, and now was the time to follow him. In less than +three hours after daylight all the horses and mules and donkeys +in the vicinity would be bought, hired or stolen, and half the +community would be off for the mountains, following in the wake +of Whiteman. But W. would drift about through the mountain gorges +for days together, in a purposeless sort of way, until the +provisions of the miners ran out, and they would have to go back +home. I have known it reported at eleven at night, in a large +mining camp, that Whiteman had just passed through, and in two +hours the streets, so quiet before, would be swarming with men +and animals. Every individual would be trying to be very secret, +but yet venturing to whisper to just one neighbor that W. had +passed through. And long before daylight—this in the dead of +Winter—the stampede would be complete, the camp deserted, and +the whole population gone chasing after W.</p> + +<p>The tradition was that in the early immigration, more than +twenty years ago, three young Germans, brothers, who had survived +an Indian massacre on the Plains, wandered on foot through the +deserts, avoiding all trails and roads, and simply holding a +westerly direction and hoping to find California before they +starved, or died of fatigue. And in a gorge in the mountains they +sat down to rest one day, when one of them noticed a curious vein +of cement running along the ground, shot full of lumps of dull +yellow metal. They saw that it was gold, and that here was a +fortune to be acquired in a single day. The vein was about as +wide as a curbstone, and fully two thirds of it was pure gold. +Every pound of the wonderful cement was worth well-nigh $200.</p> + +<a name="260"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="260.jpg (59K)" src="images/260.jpg" height="681" width="329"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Each of the brothers loaded himself with about twenty-five +pounds of it, and then they covered up all traces of the vein, +made a rude drawing of the locality and the principal landmarks +in the vicinity, and started westward again. But troubles +thickened about them. In their wanderings one brother fell and +broke his leg, and the others were obliged to go on and leave him +to die in the wilderness. Another, worn out and starving, gave up +by and by, and laid down to die, but after two or three weeks of +incredible hardships, the third reached the settlements of +California exhausted, sick, and his mind deranged by his +sufferings. He had thrown away all his cement but a few +fragments, but these were sufficient to set everybody wild with +excitement. However, he had had enough of the cement country, and +nothing could induce him to lead a party thither. He was entirely +content to work on a farm for wages. But he gave Whiteman his +map, and described the cement region as well as he could and thus +transferred the curse to that gentleman—for when I had my one +accidental glimpse of Mr. W. in Esmeralda he had been hunting for +the lost mine, in hunger and thirst, poverty and sickness, for +twelve or thirteen years. Some people believed he had found it, +but most people believed he had not. I saw a piece of cement as +large as my fist which was said to have been given to Whiteman by +the young German, and it was of a seductive nature. Lumps of +virgin gold were as thick in it as raisins in a slice of fruit +cake. The privilege of working such a mine one week would be +sufficient for a man of reasonable desires.</p> + +<p>A new partner of ours, a Mr. Higbie, knew Whiteman well by +sight, and a friend of ours, a Mr. Van Dorn, was well acquainted +with him, and not only that, but had Whiteman's promise that he +should have a private hint in time to enable him to join the next +cement expedition. Van Dorn had promised to extend the hint to +us. One evening Higbie came in greatly excited, and said he felt +certain he had recognized Whiteman, up town, disguised and in a +pretended state of intoxication. In a little while Van Dorn +arrived and confirmed the news; and so we gathered in our cabin +and with heads close together arranged our plans in impressive +whispers.</p> + +<p>We were to leave town quietly, after midnight, in two or three +small parties, so as not to attract attention, and meet at dawn +on the "divide" overlooking Mono Lake, eight or nine miles +distant. We were to make no noise after starting, and not speak +above a whisper under any circumstances. It was believed that for +once Whiteman's presence was unknown in the town and his +expedition unsuspected. Our conclave broke up at nine o'clock, +and we set about our preparation diligently and with profound +secrecy. At eleven o'clock we saddled our horses, hitched them +with their long riatas (or lassos), and then brought out a side +of bacon, a sack of beans, a small sack of coffee, some sugar, a +hundred pounds of flour in sacks, some tin cups and a coffee pot, +frying pan and some few other necessary articles. All these +things were "packed" on the back of a led horse—and whoever has +not been taught, by a Spanish adept, to pack an animal, let him +never hope to do the thing by natural smartness. That is +impossible. Higbie had had some experience, but was not perfect. +He put on the pack saddle (a thing like a saw-buck), piled the +property on it and then wound a rope all over and about it and +under it, "every which way," taking a hitch in it every now and +then, and occasionally surging back on it till the horse's sides +sunk in and he gasped for breath—but every time the lashings +grew tight in one place they loosened in another. We never did +get the load tight all over, but we got it so that it would do, +after a fashion, and then we started, in single file, close +order, and without a word. It was a dark night. We kept the +middle of the road, and proceeded in a slow walk past the rows of +cabins, and whenever a miner came to his door I trembled for fear +the light would shine on us an excite curiosity. But nothing +happened. We began the long winding ascent of the canyon, toward +the "divide," and presently the cabins began to grow infrequent, +and the intervals between them wider and wider, and then I began +to breathe tolerably freely and feel less like a thief and a +murderer. I was in the rear, leading the pack horse. As the +ascent grew steeper he grew proportionately less satisfied with +his cargo, and began to pull back on his riata occasionally and +delay progress. My comrades were passing out of sight in the +gloom. I was getting anxious. I coaxed and bullied the pack horse +till I presently got him into a trot, and then the tin cups and +pans strung about his person frightened him and he ran. His riata +was wound around the pummel of my saddle, and so, as he went by +he dragged me from my horse and the two animals traveled briskly +on without me. But I was not alone—the loosened cargo tumbled +overboard from the pack horse and fell close to me. It was +abreast of almost the last cabin.</p> + +<p>A miner came out and said:</p> + +<p>"Hello!"</p> + +<p>I was thirty steps from him, and knew he could not see me, it +was so very dark in the shadow of the mountain. So I lay still. +Another head appeared in the light of the cabin door, and +presently the two men walked toward me. They stopped within ten +steps of me, and one said:</p> + +<p>"Sh! Listen."</p> + +<a name="263"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="263.jpg (75K)" src="images/263.jpg" height="487" width="568"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>I could not have been in a more distressed state if I had been +escaping justice with a price on my head. Then the miners +appeared to sit down on a boulder, though I could not see them +distinctly enough to be very sure what they did. One said:</p> + +<p>"I heard a noise, as plain as I ever heard anything. It seemed +to be about there—"</p> + +<p>A stone whizzed by my head. I flattened myself out in the dust +like a postage stamp, and thought to myself if he mended his aim +ever so little he would probably hear another noise. In my heart, +now, I execrated secret expeditions. I promised myself that this +should be my last, though the Sierras were ribbed with cement +veins. Then one of the men said:</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what! Welch knew what he was talking about when +he said he saw Whiteman to-day. I heard horses—that was the +noise. I am going down to Welch's, right away."</p> + +<p>They left and I was glad. I did not care whither they went, so +they went. I was willing they should visit Welch, and the sooner +the better.</p> + +<p>As soon as they closed their cabin door my comrades emerged +from the gloom; they had caught the horses and were waiting for a +clear coast again. We remounted the cargo on the pack horse and +got under way, and as day broke we reached the "divide" and +joined Van Dorn. Then we journeyed down into the valley of the +Lake, and feeling secure, we halted to cook breakfast, for we +were tired and sleepy and hungry. Three hours later the rest of +the population filed over the "divide" in a long procession, and +drifted off out of sight around the borders of the Lake!</p> + +<p>Whether or not my accident had produced this result we never +knew, but at least one thing was certain—the secret was out and +Whiteman would not enter upon a search for the cement mine this +time. We were filled with chagrin.</p> + +<p>We held a council and decided to make the best of our +misfortune and enjoy a week's holiday on the borders of the +curious Lake. Mono, it is sometimes called, and sometimes the +"Dead Sea of California." It is one of the strangest freaks of +Nature to be found in any land, but it is hardly ever mentioned +in print and very seldom visited, because it lies away off the +usual routes of travel and besides is so difficult to get at that +only men content to endure the roughest life will consent to take +upon themselves the discomforts of such a trip. On the morning of +our second day, we traveled around to a remote and particularly +wild spot on the borders of the Lake, where a stream of fresh, +ice-cold water entered it from the mountain side, and then we +went regularly into camp. We hired a large boat and two shot-guns +from a lonely ranchman who lived some ten miles further on, and +made ready for comfort and recreation. We soon got thoroughly +acquainted with the Lake and all its peculiarities.</p> + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch38"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>Mono Lake lies in a lifeless, treeless, hideous desert, eight +thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is guarded by +mountains two thousand feet higher, whose summits are always +clothed in clouds. This solemn, silent, sail-less sea—this +lonely tenant of the loneliest spot on earth—is little graced +with the picturesque. It is an unpretending expanse of grayish +water, about a hundred miles in circumference, with two islands +in its centre, mere upheavals of rent and scorched and blistered +lava, snowed over with gray banks and drifts of pumice-stone and +ashes, the winding sheet of the dead volcano, whose vast crater +the lake has seized upon and occupied.</p> + +<a name="265"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="265.jpg (138K)" src="images/265.jpg" height="620" width="863"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The lake is two hundred feet deep, and its sluggish waters are +so strong with alkali that if you only dip the most hopelessly +soiled garment into them once or twice, and wring it out, it will +be found as clean as if it had been through the ablest of +washerwomen's hands. While we camped there our laundry work was +easy. We tied the week's washing astern of our boat, and sailed a +quarter of a mile, and the job was complete, all to the wringing +out. If we threw the water on our heads and gave them a rub or +so, the white lather would pile up three inches high. This water +is not good for bruised places and abrasions of the skin. We had +a valuable dog. He had raw places on him. He had more raw places +on him than sound ones. He was the rawest dog I almost ever saw. +He jumped overboard one day to get away from the flies. But it +was bad judgment. In his condition, it would have been just as +comfortable to jump into the fire.</p> + +<a name="266a"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="266a.jpg (44K)" src="images/266a.jpg" height="399" width="392"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>The alkali water nipped him in all the raw places +simultaneously, and he struck out for the shore with considerable +interest. He yelped and barked and howled as he went—and by the +time he got to the shore there was no bark to him—for he had +barked the bark all out of his inside, and the alkali water had +cleaned the bark all off his outside, and he probably wished he +had never embarked in any such enterprise. He ran round and round +in a circle, and pawed the earth and clawed the air, and threw +double somersaults, sometimes backward and sometimes forward, in +the most extraordinary manner. He was not a demonstrative dog, as +a general thing, but rather of a grave and serious turn of mind, +and I never saw him take so much interest in anything before. He +finally struck out over the mountains, at a gait which we +estimated at about two hundred and fifty miles an hour, and he is +going yet. This was about nine years ago. We look for what is +left of him along here every day.</p> + +<a name="266b"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="266b.jpg (51K)" src="images/266b.jpg" height="380" width="513"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>A white man cannot drink the water of Mono Lake, for it is +nearly pure lye. It is said that the Indians in the vicinity +drink it sometimes, though. It is not improbable, for they are +among the purest liars I ever saw. [There will be no additional +charge for this joke, except to parties requiring an explanation +of it. This joke has received high commendation from some of the +ablest minds of the age.]</p> + +<p>There are no fish in Mono Lake—no frogs, no snakes, no +polliwigs—nothing, in fact, that goes to make life desirable. +Millions of wild ducks and sea-gulls swim about the surface, but +no living thing exists under the surface, except a white feathery +sort of worm, one half an inch long, which looks like a bit of +white thread frayed out at the sides. If you dip up a gallon of +water, you will get about fifteen thousand of these. They give to +the water a sort of grayish-white appearance. Then there is a +fly, which looks something like our house fly. These settle on +the beach to eat the worms that wash ashore—and any time, you +can see there a belt of flies an inch deep and six feet wide, and +this belt extends clear around the lake—a belt of flies one +hundred miles long. If you throw a stone among them, they swarm +up so thick that they look dense, like a cloud. You can hold them +under water as long as you please—they do not mind it—they are +only proud of it. When you let them go, they pop up to the +surface as dry as a patent office report, and walk off as +unconcernedly as if they had been educated especially with a view +to affording instructive entertainment to man in that particular +way. Providence leaves nothing to go by chance. All things have +their uses and their part and proper place in Nature's economy: +the ducks eat the flies—the flies eat the worms—the Indians eat +all three—the wild cats eat the Indians—the white folks eat the +wild cats—and thus all things are lovely.</p> + +<p>Mono Lake is a hundred miles in a straight line from the +ocean—and between it and the ocean are one or two ranges of +mountains—yet thousands of sea-gulls go there every season to +lay their eggs and rear their young. One would as soon expect to +find sea-gulls in Kansas. And in this connection let us observe +another instance of Nature's wisdom. The islands in the lake +being merely huge masses of lava, coated over with ashes and +pumice-stone, and utterly innocent of vegetation or anything that +would burn; and sea-gull's eggs being entirely useless to anybody +unless they be cooked, Nature has provided an unfailing spring of +boiling water on the largest island, and you can put your eggs in +there, and in four minutes you can boil them as hard as any +statement I have made during the past fifteen years. Within ten +feet of the boiling spring is a spring of pure cold water, sweet +and wholesome.</p> + +<p>So, in that island you get your board and washing free of +charge—and if nature had gone further and furnished a nice +American hotel clerk who was crusty and disobliging, and didn't +know anything about the time tables, or the railroad +routes—or—anything—and was proud of it—I would not wish for a +more desirable boarding-house.</p> + +<a name="268"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="268.jpg (51K)" src="images/268.jpg" height="292" width="603"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>Half a dozen little mountain brooks flow into Mono Lake, but +not a stream of any kind flows out of it. It neither rises nor +falls, apparently, and what it does with its surplus water is a +dark and bloody mystery.</p> + +<p>There are only two seasons in the region round about Mono +Lake—and these are, the breaking up of one Winter and the +beginning of the next. More than once (in Esmeralda) I have seen +a perfectly blistering morning open up with the thermometer at +ninety degrees at eight o'clock, and seen the snow fall fourteen +inches deep and that same identical thermometer go down to +forty-four degrees under shelter, before nine o'clock at night. +Under favorable circumstances it snows at least once in every +single month in the year, in the little town of Mono. So +uncertain is the climate in Summer that a lady who goes out +visiting cannot hope to be prepared for all emergencies unless +she takes her fan under one arm and her snow shoes under the +other. When they have a Fourth of July procession it generally +snows on them, and they do say that as a general thing when a man +calls for a brandy toddy there, the bar keeper chops it off with +a hatchet and wraps it up in a paper, like maple sugar. And it is +further reported that the old soakers haven't any teeth—wore +them out eating gin cocktails and brandy punches. I do not +endorse that statement—I simply give it for what it is +worth—and it is worth—well, I should say, millions, to any man +who can believe it without straining himself. But I do endorse +the snow on the Fourth of July—because I know that to be +true.</p> + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch39"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>About seven o'clock one blistering hot morning—for it was now +dead summer time—Higbie and I took the boat and started on a +voyage of discovery to the two islands. We had often longed to do +this, but had been deterred by the fear of storms; for they were +frequent, and severe enough to capsize an ordinary row-boat like +ours without great difficulty—and once capsized, death would +ensue in spite of the bravest swimming, for that venomous water +would eat a man's eyes out like fire, and burn him out inside, +too, if he shipped a sea. It was called twelve miles, straight +out to the islands—a long pull and a warm one—but the morning +was so quiet and sunny, and the lake so smooth and glassy and +dead, that we could not resist the temptation. So we filled two +large tin canteens with water (since we were not acquainted with +the locality of the spring said to exist on the large island), +and started. Higbie's brawny muscles gave the boat good speed, +but by the time we reached our destination we judged that we had +pulled nearer fifteen miles than twelve.</p> + +<p>We landed on the big island and went ashore. We tried the +water in the canteens, now, and found that the sun had spoiled +it; it was so brackish that we could not drink it; so we poured +it out and began a search for the spring—for thirst augments +fast as soon as it is apparent that one has no means at hand of +quenching it. The island was a long, moderately high hill of +ashes—nothing but gray ashes and pumice-stone, in which we sunk +to our knees at every step—and all around the top was a +forbidding wall of scorched and blasted rocks. When we reached +the top and got within the wall, we found simply a shallow, +far-reaching basin, carpeted with ashes, and here and there a +patch of fine sand. In places, picturesque jets of steam shot up +out of crevices, giving evidence that although this ancient +crater had gone out of active business, there was still some fire +left in its furnaces. Close to one of these jets of steam stood +the only tree on the island—a small pine of most graceful shape +and most faultless symmetry; its color was a brilliant green, for +the steam drifted unceasingly through its branches and kept them +always moist. It contrasted strangely enough, did this vigorous +and beautiful outcast, with its dead and dismal surroundings. It +was like a cheerful spirit in a mourning household.</p> + +<a name="271"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="271.jpg (56K)" src="images/271.jpg" height="513" width="407"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>We hunted for the spring everywhere, traversing the full +length of the island (two or three miles), and crossing it +twice—climbing ash-hills patiently, and then sliding down the +other side in a sitting posture, plowing up smothering volumes of +gray dust. But we found nothing but solitude, ashes and a +heart-breaking silence. Finally we noticed that the wind had +risen, and we forgot our thirst in a solicitude of greater +importance; for, the lake being quiet, we had not taken pains +about securing the boat. We hurried back to a point overlooking +our landing place, and then—but mere words cannot describe our +dismay—the boat was gone! The chances were that there was not +another boat on the entire lake. The situation was not +comfortable—in truth, to speak plainly, it was frightful. We +were prisoners on a desolate island, in aggravating proximity to +friends who were for the present helpless to aid us; and what was +still more uncomfortable was the reflection that we had neither +food nor water. But presently we sighted the boat. It was +drifting along, leisurely, about fifty yards from shore, tossing +in a foamy sea. It drifted, and continued to drift, but at the +same safe distance from land, and we walked along abreast it and +waited for fortune to favor us. At the end of an hour it +approached a jutting cape, and Higbie ran ahead and posted +himself on the utmost verge and prepared for the assault. If we +failed there, there was no hope for us. It was driving gradually +shoreward all the time, now; but whether it was driving fast +enough to make the connection or not was the momentous question. +When it got within thirty steps of Higbie I was so excited that I +fancied I could hear my own heart beat. When, a little later, it +dragged slowly along and seemed about to go by, only one little +yard out of reach, it seemed as if my heart stood still; and when +it was exactly abreast him and began to widen away, and he still +standing like a watching statue, I knew my heart did stop. But +when he gave a great spring, the next instant, and lit fairly in +the stern, I discharged a war-whoop that woke the solitudes!</p> + +<a name="273"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="273.jpg (62K)" src="images/273.jpg" height="416" width="551"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>But it dulled my enthusiasm, presently, when he told me he had +not been caring whether the boat came within jumping distance or +not, so that it passed within eight or ten yards of him, for he +had made up his mind to shut his eyes and mouth and swim that +trifling distance. Imbecile that I was, I had not thought of +that. It was only a long swim that could be fatal.</p> + +<p>The sea was running high and the storm increasing. It was +growing late, too—three or four in the afternoon. Whether to +venture toward the mainland or not, was a question of some +moment. But we were so distressed by thirst that we decide to try +it, and so Higbie fell to work and I took the steering-oar. When +we had pulled a mile, laboriously, we were evidently in serious +peril, for the storm had greatly augmented; the billows ran very +high and were capped with foaming crests, the heavens were hung +with black, and the wind blew with great fury. We would have gone +back, now, but we did not dare to turn the boat around, because +as soon as she got in the trough of the sea she would upset, of +course. Our only hope lay in keeping her head-on to the seas. It +was hard work to do this, she plunged so, and so beat and +belabored the billows with her rising and falling bows. Now and +then one of Higbie's oars would trip on the top of a wave, and +the other one would snatch the boat half around in spite of my +cumbersome steering apparatus. We were drenched by the sprays +constantly, and the boat occasionally shipped water. By and by, +powerful as my comrade was, his great exertions began to tell on +him, and he was anxious that I should change places with him till +he could rest a little. But I told him this was impossible; for +if the steering oar were dropped a moment while we changed, the +boat would slue around into the trough of the sea, capsize, and +in less than five minutes we would have a hundred gallons of +soap- suds in us and be eaten up so quickly that we could not +even be present at our own inquest.</p> + +<p>But things cannot last always. Just as the darkness shut down +we came booming into port, head on. Higbie dropped his oars to +hurrah—I dropped mine to help—the sea gave the boat a twist, +and over she went!</p> + +<p>The agony that alkali water inflicts on bruises, chafes and +blistered hands, is unspeakable, and nothing but greasing all +over will modify it—but we ate, drank and slept well, that +night, notwithstanding.</p> + +<p>In speaking of the peculiarities of Mono Lake, I ought to have +mentioned that at intervals all around its shores stand +picturesque turret-looking masses and clusters of a whitish, +coarse-grained rock that resembles inferior mortar dried hard; +and if one breaks off fragments of this rock he will find +perfectly shaped and thoroughly petrified gulls' eggs deeply +imbedded in the mass. How did they get there? I simply state the +fact—for it is a fact—and leave the geological reader to crack +the nut at his leisure and solve the problem after his own +fashion.</p> + +<p>At the end of a week we adjourned to the Sierras on a fishing +excursion, and spent several days in camp under snowy Castle +Peak, and fished successfully for trout in a bright, miniature +lake whose surface was between ten and eleven thousand feet above +the level of the sea; cooling ourselves during the hot August +noons by sitting on snow banks ten feet deep, under whose +sheltering edges fine grass and dainty flowers flourished +luxuriously; and at night entertaining ourselves by almost +freezing to death. Then we returned to Mono Lake, and finding +that the cement excitement was over for the present, packed up +and went back to Esmeralda. Mr. Ballou reconnoitred awhile, and +not liking the prospect, set out alone for Humboldt.</p> + +<p>About this time occurred a little incident which has always +had a sort of interest to me, from the fact that it came so near +"instigating" my funeral. At a time when an Indian attack had +been expected, the citizens hid their gunpowder where it would be +safe and yet convenient to hand when wanted. A neighbor of ours +hid six cans of rifle powder in the bake-oven of an old discarded +cooking stove which stood on the open ground near a frame +out-house or shed, and from and after that day never thought of +it again. We hired a half-tamed Indian to do some washing for us, +and he took up quarters under the shed with his tub. The ancient +stove reposed within six feet of him, and before his face. +Finally it occurred to him that hot water would be better than +cold, and he went out and fired up under that forgotten powder +magazine and set on a kettle of water. Then he returned to his +tub.</p> + +<p>I entered the shed presently and threw down some more clothes, +and was about to speak to him when the stove blew up with a +prodigious crash, and disappeared, leaving not a splinter behind. +Fragments of it fell in the streets full two hundred yards away. +Nearly a third of the shed roof over our heads was destroyed, and +one of the stove lids, after cutting a small stanchion half in +two in front of the Indian, whizzed between us and drove partly +through the weather-boarding beyond. I was as white as a sheet +and as weak as a kitten and speechless. But the Indian betrayed +no trepidation, no distress, not even discomfort. He simply +stopped washing, leaned forward and surveyed the clean, blank +ground a moment, and then remarked:</p> + +<a name="275"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="275.jpg (68K)" src="images/275.jpg" height="426" width="524"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"Mph! Dam stove heap gone!"—and resumed his scrubbing as +placidly as if it were an entirely customary thing for a stove to +do. I will explain, that "heap" is "Injun-English" for "very +much." The reader will perceive the exhaustive expressiveness of +it in the present instance.</p> + +<a name="276"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="276.jpg (30K)" src="images/276.jpg" height="247" width="574"> +</center> +<br><br> + + +<br><br> +<a name="ch40"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<h2>CHAPTER XL.</h2> +</center> +<br> + + +<p>I now come to a curious episode—the most curious, +I think, that had yet accented my slothful, valueless, heedless +career. Out of a hillside toward the upper end of the town, +projected a wall of reddish looking quartz-croppings, the exposed +comb of a silver-bearing ledge that extended deep down into the +earth, of course. It was owned by a company entitled the "Wide +West." There was a shaft sixty or seventy feet deep on the under +side of the croppings, and everybody was acquainted with the rock +that came from it—and tolerably rich rock it was, too, but +nothing extraordinary. I will remark here, that although to the +inexperienced stranger all the quartz of a particular "district" +looks about alike, an old resident of the camp can take a glance +at a mixed pile of rock, separate the fragments and tell you +which mine each came from, as easily as a confectioner can +separate and classify the various kinds and qualities of candy in +a mixed heap of the article.</p> + +<p>All at once the town was thrown into a state of extraordinary +excitement. In mining parlance the Wide West had "struck it +rich!" Everybody went to see the new developments, and for some +days there was such a crowd of people about the Wide West shaft +that a stranger would have supposed there was a mass meeting in +session there. No other topic was discussed but the rich strike, +and nobody thought or dreamed about anything else. Every man +brought away a specimen, ground it up in a hand mortar, washed it +out in his horn spoon, and glared speechless upon the marvelous +result. It was not hard rock, but black, decomposed stuff which +could be crumbled in the hand like a baked potato, and when +spread out on a paper exhibited a thick sprinkling of gold and +particles of "native" silver. Higbie brought a handful to the +cabin, and when he had washed it out his amazement was beyond +description. Wide West stock soared skywards. It was said that +repeated offers had been made for it at a thousand dollars a +foot, and promptly refused. We have all had the "blues"—the mere +sky- blues—but mine were indigo, now—because I did not own in +the Wide West. The world seemed hollow to me, and existence a +grief. I lost my appetite, and ceased to take an interest in +anything. Still I had to stay, and listen to other people's +rejoicings, because I had no money to get out of the camp +with.</p> + +<p>The Wide West company put a stop to the carrying away of +"specimens," and well they might, for every handful of the ore +was worth a sun of some consequence. To show the exceeding value +of the ore, I will remark that a sixteen-hundred-pounds parcel of +it was sold, just as it lay, at the mouth of the shaft, at one +dollar a pound; and the man who bought it "packed" it on mules a +hundred and fifty or two hundred miles, over the mountains, to +San Francisco, satisfied that it would yield at a rate that would +richly compensate him for his trouble. The Wide West people also +commanded their foreman to refuse any but their own operatives +permission to enter the mine at any time or for any purpose. I +kept up my "blue" meditations and Higbie kept up a deal of +thinking, too, but of a different sort. He puzzled over the +"rock," examined it with a glass, inspected it in different +lights and from different points of view, and after each +experiment delivered himself, in soliloquy, of one and the same +unvarying opinion in the same unvarying formula:</p> + +<p>"It is not Wide West rock!"</p> + +<p>He said once or twice that he meant to have a look into the +Wide West shaft if he got shot for it. I was wretched, and did +not care whether he got a look into it or not. He failed that +day, and tried again at night; failed again; got up at dawn and +tried, and failed again. Then he lay in ambush in the sage brush +hour after hour, waiting for the two or three hands to adjourn to +the shade of a boulder for dinner; made a start once, but was +premature—one of the men came back for something; tried it +again, but when almost at the mouth of the shaft, another of the +men rose up from behind the boulder as if to reconnoitre, and he +dropped on the ground and lay quiet; presently he crawled on his +hands and knees to the mouth of the shaft, gave a quick glance +around, then seized the rope and slid down the shaft.</p> + +<a name="279"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="279.jpg (47K)" src="images/279.jpg" height="549" width="271"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>He disappeared in the gloom of a "side drift" just as a head +appeared in the mouth of the shaft and somebody shouted +"Hello!"—which he did not answer. He was not disturbed any more. +An hour later he entered the cabin, hot, red, and ready to burst +with smothered excitement, and exclaimed in a stage whisper:</p> + +<p>"I knew it! We are rich! IT'S A BLIND LEAD!"</p> + +<p>I thought the very earth reeled under me. +Doubt—conviction—doubt again—exultation—hope, amazement, +belief, unbelief—every emotion imaginable swept in wild +procession through my heart and brain, and I could not speak a +word. After a moment or two of this mental fury, I shook myself +to rights, and said:</p> + +<p>"Say it again!"</p> + +<p>"It's blind lead!"</p> + +<p>"Cal, let's—let's burn the house—or kill somebody! Let's get +out where there's room to hurrah! But what is the use? It is a +hundred times too good to be true."</p> + +<p>"It's a blind lead, for a million!—hanging wall—foot +wall—clay casings—everything complete!" He swung his hat and +gave three cheers, and I cast doubt to the winds and chimed in +with a will. For I was worth a million dollars, and did not care +"whether school kept or not!"</p> + +<a name="280"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="280.jpg (50K)" src="images/280.jpg" height="490" width="394"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>But perhaps I ought to explain. A "blind lead" is a lead or +ledge that does not "crop out" above the surface. A miner does +not know where to look for such leads, but they are often +stumbled upon by accident in the course of driving a tunnel or +sinking a shaft. Higbie knew the Wide West rock perfectly well, +and the more he had examined the new developments the more he was +satisfied that the ore could not have come from the Wide West +vein. And so had it occurred to him alone, of all the camp, that +there was a blind lead down in the shaft, and that even the Wide +West people themselves did not suspect it. He was right. When he +went down the shaft, he found that the blind lead held its +independent way through the Wide West vein, cutting it +diagonally, and that it was enclosed in its own well-defined +casing-rocks and clay. Hence it was public property. Both leads +being perfectly well defined, it was easy for any miner to see +which one belonged to the Wide West and which did not.</p> + +<p>We thought it well to have a strong friend, and therefore we +brought the foreman of the Wide West to our cabin that night and +revealed the great surprise to him. Higbie said:</p> + +<p>"We are going to take possession of this blind lead, record it +and establish ownership, and then forbid the Wide West company to +take out any more of the rock. You cannot help your company in +this matter—nobody can help them. I will go into the shaft with +you and prove to your entire satisfaction that it is a blind +lead. Now we propose to take you in with us, and claim the blind +lead in our three names. What do you say?"</p> + +<p>What could a man say who had an opportunity to simply stretch +forth his hand and take possession of a fortune without risk of +any kind and without wronging any one or attaching the least +taint of dishonor to his name? He could only say, "Agreed."</p> + +<p>The notice was put up that night, and duly spread upon the +recorder's books before ten o'clock. We claimed two hundred feet +each—six hundred feet in all—the smallest and compactest +organization in the district, and the easiest to manage.</p> + +<p>No one can be so thoughtless as to suppose that we slept, that +night. Higbie and I went to bed at midnight, but it was only to +lie broad awake and think, dream, scheme. The floorless, +tumble-down cabin was a palace, the ragged gray blankets silk, +the furniture rosewood and mahogany. Each new splendor that burst +out of my visions of the future whirled me bodily over in bed or +jerked me to a sitting posture just as if an electric battery had +been applied to me. We shot fragments of conversation back and +forth at each other. Once Higbie said:</p> + +<p>"When are you going home—to the States?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow!"—with an evolution or two, ending with a sitting +position. "Well—no—but next month, at furthest."</p> + +<p>"We'll go in the same steamer."</p> + +<p>"Agreed."</p> + +<p>A pause.</p> + +<p>"Steamer of the 10th?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. No, the 1st."</p> + +<p>"All right."</p> + +<p>Another pause.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going to live?" said Higbie.</p> + +<p>"San Francisco."</p> + +<p>"That's me!"</p> + +<p>Pause.</p> + +<p>"Too high—too much climbing"—from Higbie.</p> + +<p>"What is?"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of Russian Hill—building a house up +there."</p> + +<p>"Too much climbing? Shan't you keep a carriage?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. I forgot that."</p> + +<p>Pause.</p> + +<a name="282"></a> +<br><br> +<center> +<img alt="282.jpg (70K)" src="images/282.jpg" height="412" width="552"> +</center> +<br><br> + +<p>"Cal., what kind of a house are you going to build?"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking about that. Three-story and an attic."</p> + +<p>"But what kind?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't hardly know. Brick, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Brick—bosh."</p> + +<p>"Why? What is your idea?"</p> + +<p>"Brown stone front—French plate glass—billiard-room off the +dining- room—statuary and paintings—shrubbery and two-acre +grass plat—greenhouse—iron dog on the front stoop—gray +horses—landau, and a coachman with a bug on his hat!"</p> + +<p>"By George!"</p> + +<p>A long pause.</p> + +<p>"Cal., when are you going to Europe?"</p> + +<p>"Well—I hadn't thought of that. When are you?"</p> + +<p>"In the Spring."</p> + +<p>"Going to be gone all summer?"</p> + +<p>"All summer! I shall remain there three years."</p> + +<p>"No—but are you in earnest?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I am."</p> + +<p>"I will go along too."</p> + +<p>"Why of course you will."</p> + +<p>"What part of Europe shall you go to?"</p> + +<p>"All parts. France, England, Germany—Spain, Italy, +Switzerland, Syria, Greece, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, Egypt—all +over—everywhere."</p> + +<p>"I'm agreed."</p> + +<p>"All right."</p> + +<p>"Won't it be a swell trip!"</p> + +<p>"We'll spend forty or fifty thousand dollars trying to make it +one, anyway."</p> + +<p>Another long pause.</p> + +<p>"Higbie, we owe the butcher six dollars, and he has been +threatening to stop our—"</p> + +<p>"Hang the butcher!"</p> + +<p>"Amen."</p> + +<p>And so it went on. By three o'clock we found it was no use, +and so we got up and played cribbage and smoked pipes till +sunrise. It was my week to cook. I always hated cooking—now, I +abhorred it.</p> + +<p>The news was all over town. The former excitement was +great—this one was greater still. I walked the streets serene +and happy. Higbie said the foreman had been offered two hundred +thousand dollars for his third of the mine. I said I would like +to see myself selling for any such price. My ideas were lofty. My +figure was a million. Still, I honestly believe that if I had +been offered it, it would have had no other effect than to make +me hold off for more.</p> + +<p>I found abundant enjoyment in being rich. A man offered me a +three- hundred-dollar horse, and wanted to take my simple, +unendorsed note for it. That brought the most realizing sense I +had yet had that I was actually rich, beyond shadow of doubt. It +was followed by numerous other evidences of a similar +nature—among which I may mention the fact of the butcher leaving +us a double supply of meat and saying nothing about money.</p> + +<p>By the laws of the district, the "locators" or claimants of a +ledge were obliged to do a fair and reasonable amount of work on +their new property within ten days after the date of the +location, or the property was forfeited, and anybody could go and +seize it that chose. So we determined to go to work the next day. +About the middle of the afternoon, as I was coming out of the +post office, I met a Mr. Gardiner, who told me that Capt. John +Nye was lying dangerously ill at his place (the "Nine-Mile +Ranch"), and that he and his wife were not able to give him +nearly as much care and attention as his case demanded. I said if +he would wait for me a moment, I would go down and help in the +sick room. I ran to the cabin to tell Higbie. He was not there, +but I left a note on the table for him, and a few minutes later I +left town in Gardiner's wagon.</p> + + + + + +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Roughing It, Part 4. +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUGHING IT, PART 4. *** + +***** This file should be named 8585-h.htm or 8585-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/8/5/8/8585/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/8585-h/images/222.jpg b/8585-h/images/222.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a226078 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/222.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/225.jpg b/8585-h/images/225.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..45a6157 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/225.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/227.jpg b/8585-h/images/227.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ac43bb --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/227.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/229.jpg b/8585-h/images/229.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0243f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/229.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/230.jpg b/8585-h/images/230.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..69c3db3 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/230.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/231.jpg b/8585-h/images/231.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..54eb3c4 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/231.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/233.jpg b/8585-h/images/233.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..551f0f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/233.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/234.jpg b/8585-h/images/234.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec64157 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/234.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/236.jpg b/8585-h/images/236.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3418f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/236.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/237.jpg b/8585-h/images/237.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec31d21 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/237.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/240.jpg b/8585-h/images/240.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a163386 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/240.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/242.jpg b/8585-h/images/242.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d76d834 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/242.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/244.jpg b/8585-h/images/244.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4f78b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/244.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/246.jpg b/8585-h/images/246.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..31136cc --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/246.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/249.jpg b/8585-h/images/249.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a77c18 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/249.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/250.jpg b/8585-h/images/250.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3647695 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/250.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/253.jpg b/8585-h/images/253.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..967a695 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/253.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/254.jpg b/8585-h/images/254.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4f3b82 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/254.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/256.jpg b/8585-h/images/256.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f688fb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/256.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/257.jpg b/8585-h/images/257.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7df8f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/257.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/260.jpg b/8585-h/images/260.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..91151e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/260.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/263.jpg b/8585-h/images/263.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da6358c --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/263.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/265.jpg b/8585-h/images/265.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ea9d671 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/265.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/266a.jpg b/8585-h/images/266a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7374ae1 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/266a.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/266b.jpg b/8585-h/images/266b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fd8048 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/266b.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/268.jpg b/8585-h/images/268.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3cca2e --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/268.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/271.jpg b/8585-h/images/271.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a71596 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/271.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/273.jpg b/8585-h/images/273.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0315843 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/273.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/275.jpg b/8585-h/images/275.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9d398a --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/275.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/276.jpg b/8585-h/images/276.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..90d4215 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/276.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/279.jpg b/8585-h/images/279.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..51077ea --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/279.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/280.jpg b/8585-h/images/280.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..354daca --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/280.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/282.jpg b/8585-h/images/282.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..62b87cb --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/282.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/cover.jpg b/8585-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5580b66 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/dedication.jpg b/8585-h/images/dedication.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e47454 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/dedication.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/enlarge.jpg b/8585-h/images/enlarge.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..34c47df --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/enlarge.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/frontispiece1.jpg b/8585-h/images/frontispiece1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..60509ca --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/frontispiece1.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/frontispiece2.jpg b/8585-h/images/frontispiece2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..10b497e --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/frontispiece2.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/spine.jpg b/8585-h/images/spine.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7098d23 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/spine.jpg diff --git a/8585-h/images/titlepage.jpg b/8585-h/images/titlepage.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..969db82 --- /dev/null +++ b/8585-h/images/titlepage.jpg diff --git a/8585.txt b/8585.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ff3f9fa --- /dev/null +++ b/8585.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2116 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Roughing It, Part 4., by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Roughing It, Part 4. + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: July 2, 2004 [EBook #8585] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUGHING IT, PART 4. *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + ROUGHING IT + + by Mark Twain + + 1880 + + Part 4. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +There were two men in the company who caused me particular discomfort. +One was a little Swede, about twenty-five years old, who knew only one +song, and he was forever singing it. By day we were all crowded into one +small, stifling bar-room, and so there was no escaping this person's +music. Through all the profanity, whisky-guzzling, "old sledge" and +quarreling, his monotonous song meandered with never a variation in its +tiresome sameness, and it seemed to me, at last, that I would be content +to die, in order to be rid of the torture. The other man was a stalwart +ruffian called "Arkansas," who carried two revolvers in his belt and a +bowie knife projecting from his boot, and who was always drunk and always +suffering for a fight. But he was so feared, that nobody would +accommodate him. He would try all manner of little wary ruses to entrap +somebody into an offensive remark, and his face would light up now and +then when he fancied he was fairly on the scent of a fight, but +invariably his victim would elude his toils and then he would show a +disappointment that was almost pathetic. The landlord, Johnson, was a +meek, well-meaning fellow, and Arkansas fastened on him early, as a +promising subject, and gave him no rest day or night, for awhile. On the +fourth morning, Arkansas got drunk and sat himself down to wait for an +opportunity. Presently Johnson came in, just comfortably sociable with +whisky, and said: + +"I reckon the Pennsylvania 'lection--" + +Arkansas raised his finger impressively and Johnson stopped. Arkansas +rose unsteadily and confronted him. Said he: + +"Wha-what do you know a--about Pennsylvania? Answer me that. Wha--what +do you know 'bout Pennsylvania?" + +"I was only goin' to say--" + +"You was only goin' to say. You was! You was only goin' to say--what +was you goin' to say? That's it! That's what I want to know. I want to +know wha--what you ('ic) what you know about Pennsylvania, since you're +makin' yourself so d---d free. Answer me that!" + +"Mr. Arkansas, if you'd only let me--" + +"Who's a henderin' you? Don't you insinuate nothing agin me!--don't you +do it. Don't you come in here bullyin' around, and cussin' and goin' on +like a lunatic--don't you do it. 'Coz I won't stand it. If fight's what +you want, out with it! I'm your man! Out with it!" + +Said Johnson, backing into a corner, Arkansas following, menacingly: + +"Why, I never said nothing, Mr. Arkansas. You don't give a man no +chance. I was only goin' to say that Pennsylvania was goin' to have an +election next week--that was all--that was everything I was goin' to say +--I wish I may never stir if it wasn't." + +"Well then why d'n't you say it? What did you come swellin' around that +way for, and tryin' to raise trouble?" + +"Why I didn't come swellin' around, Mr. Arkansas--I just--" + +"I'm a liar am I! Ger-reat Caesar's ghost--" + +"Oh, please, Mr. Arkansas, I never meant such a thing as that, I wish I +may die if I did. All the boys will tell you that I've always spoke well +of you, and respected you more'n any man in the house. Ask Smith. Ain't +it so, Smith? Didn't I say, no longer ago than last night, that for a +man that was a gentleman all the time and every way you took him, give me +Arkansas? I'll leave it to any gentleman here if them warn't the very +words I used. Come, now, Mr. Arkansas, le's take a drink--le's shake +hands and take a drink. Come up--everybody! It's my treat. Come up, +Bill, Tom, Bob, Scotty--come up. I want you all to take a drink with me +and Arkansas--old Arkansas, I call him--bully old Arkansas. Gimme your +hand agin. Look at him, boys--just take a look at him. Thar stands the +whitest man in America!--and the man that denies it has got to fight me, +that's all. Gimme that old flipper agin!" + +They embraced, with drunken affection on the landlord's part and +unresponsive toleration on the part of Arkansas, who, bribed by a drink, +was disappointed of his prey once more. But the foolish landlord was so +happy to have escaped butchery, that he went on talking when he ought to +have marched himself out of danger. The consequence was that Arkansas +shortly began to glower upon him dangerously, and presently said: + +"Lan'lord, will you p-please make that remark over agin if you please?" + +"I was a-sayin' to Scotty that my father was up'ards of eighty year old +when he died." + +"Was that all that you said?" + +"Yes, that was all." + +"Didn't say nothing but that?" + +"No--nothing." + +Then an uncomfortable silence. + +Arkansas played with his glass a moment, lolling on his elbows on the +counter. Then he meditatively scratched his left shin with his right +boot, while the awkward silence continued. But presently he loafed away +toward the stove, looking dissatisfied; roughly shouldered two or three +men out of a comfortable position; occupied it himself, gave a sleeping +dog a kick that sent him howling under a bench, then spread his long legs +and his blanket-coat tails apart and proceeded to warm his back. In a +little while he fell to grumbling to himself, and soon he slouched back +to the bar and said: + +"Lan'lord, what's your idea for rakin' up old personalities and blowin' +about your father? Ain't this company agreeable to you? Ain't it? If +this company ain't agreeable to you, p'r'aps we'd better leave. Is that +your idea? Is that what you're coming at?" + +"Why bless your soul, Arkansas, I warn't thinking of such a thing. My +father and my mother--" + +"Lan'lord, don't crowd a man! Don't do it. If nothing'll do you but a +disturbance, out with it like a man ('ic)--but don't rake up old bygones +and fling'em in the teeth of a passel of people that wants to be +peaceable if they could git a chance. What's the matter with you this +mornin', anyway? I never see a man carry on so." + +"Arkansas, I reely didn't mean no harm, and I won't go on with it if it's +onpleasant to you. I reckon my licker's got into my head, and what with +the flood, and havin' so many to feed and look out for--" + +"So that's what's a-ranklin' in your heart, is it? You want us to leave +do you? There's too many on us. You want us to pack up and swim. Is +that it? Come!" + +"Please be reasonable, Arkansas. Now you know that I ain't the man to--" + +"Are you a threatenin' me? Are you? By George, the man don't live that +can skeer me! Don't you try to come that game, my chicken--'cuz I can +stand a good deal, but I won't stand that. Come out from behind that bar +till I clean you! You want to drive us out, do you, you sneakin' +underhanded hound! Come out from behind that bar! I'll learn you to +bully and badger and browbeat a gentleman that's forever trying to +befriend you and keep you out of trouble!" + +"Please, Arkansas, please don't shoot! If there's got to be bloodshed--" + +"Do you hear that, gentlemen? Do you hear him talk about bloodshed? So +it's blood you want, is it, you ravin' desperado! You'd made up your +mind to murder somebody this mornin'--I knowed it perfectly well. I'm +the man, am I? It's me you're goin' to murder, is it? But you can't do +it 'thout I get one chance first, you thievin' black-hearted, +white-livered son of a nigger! Draw your weepon!" + +With that, Arkansas began to shoot, and the landlord to clamber over +benches, men and every sort of obstacle in a frantic desire to escape. +In the midst of the wild hubbub the landlord crashed through a glass +door, and as Arkansas charged after him the landlord's wife suddenly +appeared in the doorway and confronted the desperado with a pair of +scissors! Her fury was magnificent. With head erect and flashing eye +she stood a moment and then advanced, with her weapon raised. The +astonished ruffian hesitated, and then fell back a step. She followed. +She backed him step by step into the middle of the bar-room, and then, +while the wondering crowd closed up and gazed, she gave him such another +tongue-lashing as never a cowed and shamefaced braggart got before, +perhaps! As she finished and retired victorious, a roar of applause +shook the house, and every man ordered "drinks for the crowd" in one and +the same breath. + +The lesson was entirely sufficient. The reign of terror was over, and +the Arkansas domination broken for good. During the rest of the season +of island captivity, there was one man who sat apart in a state of +permanent humiliation, never mixing in any quarrel or uttering a boast, +and never resenting the insults the once cringing crew now constantly +leveled at him, and that man was "Arkansas." + +By the fifth or sixth morning the waters had subsided from the land, but +the stream in the old river bed was still high and swift and there was no +possibility of crossing it. On the eighth it was still too high for an +entirely safe passage, but life in the inn had become next to +insupportable by reason of the dirt, drunkenness, fighting, etc., and so +we made an effort to get away. In the midst of a heavy snow-storm we +embarked in a canoe, taking our saddles aboard and towing our horses +after us by their halters. The Prussian, Ollendorff, was in the bow, +with a paddle, Ballou paddled in the middle, and I sat in the stern +holding the halters. When the horses lost their footing and began to +swim, Ollendorff got frightened, for there was great danger that the +horses would make our aim uncertain, and it was plain that if we failed +to land at a certain spot the current would throw us off and almost +surely cast us into the main Carson, which was a boiling torrent, now. +Such a catastrophe would be death, in all probability, for we would be +swept to sea in the "Sink" or overturned and drowned. We warned +Ollendorff to keep his wits about him and handle himself carefully, but +it was useless; the moment the bow touched the bank, he made a spring and +the canoe whirled upside down in ten-foot water. + +Ollendorff seized some brush and dragged himself ashore, but Ballou and I +had to swim for it, encumbered with our overcoats. But we held on to the +canoe, and although we were washed down nearly to the Carson, we managed +to push the boat ashore and make a safe landing. We were cold and +water-soaked, but safe. The horses made a landing, too, but our saddles +were gone, of course. We tied the animals in the sage-brush and there +they had to stay for twenty-four hours. We baled out the canoe and +ferried over some food and blankets for them, but we slept one more night +in the inn before making another venture on our journey. + +The next morning it was still snowing furiously when we got away with our +new stock of saddles and accoutrements. We mounted and started. The +snow lay so deep on the ground that there was no sign of a road +perceptible, and the snow-fall was so thick that we could not see more +than a hundred yards ahead, else we could have guided our course by the +mountain ranges. The case looked dubious, but Ollendorff said his +instinct was as sensitive as any compass, and that he could "strike a +bee-line" for Carson city and never diverge from it. He said that if he +were to straggle a single point out of the true line his instinct would +assail him like an outraged conscience. Consequently we dropped into his +wake happy and content. For half an hour we poked along warily enough, +but at the end of that time we came upon a fresh trail, and Ollendorff +shouted proudly: + +"I knew I was as dead certain as a compass, boys! Here we are, right in +somebody's tracks that will hunt the way for us without any trouble. +Let's hurry up and join company with the party." + +So we put the horses into as much of a trot as the deep snow would allow, +and before long it was evident that we were gaining on our predecessors, +for the tracks grew more distinct. We hurried along, and at the end of +an hour the tracks looked still newer and fresher--but what surprised us +was, that the number of travelers in advance of us seemed to steadily +increase. We wondered how so large a party came to be traveling at such +a time and in such a solitude. Somebody suggested that it must be a +company of soldiers from the fort, and so we accepted that solution and +jogged along a little faster still, for they could not be far off now. +But the tracks still multiplied, and we began to think the platoon of +soldiers was miraculously expanding into a regiment--Ballou said they had +already increased to five hundred! Presently he stopped his horse and +said: + +"Boys, these are our own tracks, and we've actually been circussing round +and round in a circle for more than two hours, out here in this blind +desert! By George this is perfectly hydraulic!" + +Then the old man waxed wroth and abusive. He called Ollendorff all +manner of hard names--said he never saw such a lurid fool as he was, and +ended with the peculiarly venomous opinion that he "did not know as much +as a logarythm!" + +We certainly had been following our own tracks. Ollendorff and his +"mental compass" were in disgrace from that moment. + +After all our hard travel, here we were on the bank of the stream again, +with the inn beyond dimly outlined through the driving snow-fall. While +we were considering what to do, the young Swede landed from the canoe and +took his pedestrian way Carson-wards, singing his same tiresome song +about his "sister and his brother" and "the child in the grave with its +mother," and in a short minute faded and disappeared in the white +oblivion. He was never heard of again. He no doubt got bewildered and +lost, and Fatigue delivered him over to Sleep and Sleep betrayed him to +Death. Possibly he followed our treacherous tracks till he became +exhausted and dropped. + +Presently the Overland stage forded the now fast receding stream and +started toward Carson on its first trip since the flood came. We +hesitated no longer, now, but took up our march in its wake, and trotted +merrily along, for we had good confidence in the driver's bump of +locality. But our horses were no match for the fresh stage team. We +were soon left out of sight; but it was no matter, for we had the deep +ruts the wheels made for a guide. By this time it was three in the +afternoon, and consequently it was not very long before night came--and +not with a lingering twilight, but with a sudden shutting down like a +cellar door, as is its habit in that country. The snowfall was still as +thick as ever, and of course we could not see fifteen steps before us; +but all about us the white glare of the snow-bed enabled us to discern +the smooth sugar-loaf mounds made by the covered sage-bushes, and just in +front of us the two faint grooves which we knew were the steadily filling +and slowly disappearing wheel-tracks. + +Now those sage-bushes were all about the same height--three or four feet; +they stood just about seven feet apart, all over the vast desert; each of +them was a mere snow-mound, now; in any direction that you proceeded (the +same as in a well laid out orchard) you would find yourself moving down a +distinctly defined avenue, with a row of these snow-mounds an either side +of it--an avenue the customary width of a road, nice and level in its +breadth, and rising at the sides in the most natural way, by reason of +the mounds. But we had not thought of this. Then imagine the chilly +thrill that shot through us when it finally occurred to us, far in the +night, that since the last faint trace of the wheel-tracks had long ago +been buried from sight, we might now be wandering down a mere sage-brush +avenue, miles away from the road and diverging further and further away +from it all the time. Having a cake of ice slipped down one's back is +placid comfort compared to it. There was a sudden leap and stir of blood +that had been asleep for an hour, and as sudden a rousing of all the +drowsing activities in our minds and bodies. We were alive and awake at +once--and shaking and quaking with consternation, too. There was an +instant halting and dismounting, a bending low and an anxious scanning of +the road-bed. Useless, of course; for if a faint depression could not be +discerned from an altitude of four or five feet above it, it certainly +could not with one's nose nearly against it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +We seemed to be in a road, but that was no proof. We tested this by +walking off in various directions--the regular snow-mounds and the +regular avenues between them convinced each man that he had found the +true road, and that the others had found only false ones. Plainly the +situation was desperate. We were cold and stiff and the horses were +tired. We decided to build a sage-brush fire and camp out till morning. +This was wise, because if we were wandering from the right road and the +snow-storm continued another day our case would be the next thing to +hopeless if we kept on. + +All agreed that a camp fire was what would come nearest to saving us, +now, and so we set about building it. We could find no matches, and so +we tried to make shift with the pistols. Not a man in the party had ever +tried to do such a thing before, but not a man in the party doubted that +it could be done, and without any trouble--because every man in the party +had read about it in books many a time and had naturally come to believe +it, with trusting simplicity, just as he had long ago accepted and +believed that other common book-fraud about Indians and lost hunters +making a fire by rubbing two dry sticks together. + +We huddled together on our knees in the deep snow, and the horses put +their noses together and bowed their patient heads over us; and while the +feathery flakes eddied down and turned us into a group of white statuary, +we proceeded with the momentous experiment. We broke twigs from a sage +bush and piled them on a little cleared place in the shelter of our +bodies. In the course of ten or fifteen minutes all was ready, and then, +while conversation ceased and our pulses beat low with anxious suspense, +Ollendorff applied his revolver, pulled the trigger and blew the pile +clear out of the county! It was the flattest failure that ever was. + +This was distressing, but it paled before a greater horror--the horses +were gone! I had been appointed to hold the bridles, but in my absorbing +anxiety over the pistol experiment I had unconsciously dropped them and +the released animals had walked off in the storm. It was useless to try +to follow them, for their footfalls could make no sound, and one could +pass within two yards of the creatures and never see them. We gave them +up without an effort at recovering them, and cursed the lying books that +said horses would stay by their masters for protection and companionship +in a distressful time like ours. + +We were miserable enough, before; we felt still more forlorn, now. +Patiently, but with blighted hope, we broke more sticks and piled them, +and once more the Prussian shot them into annihilation. Plainly, to +light a fire with a pistol was an art requiring practice and experience, +and the middle of a desert at midnight in a snow-storm was not a good +place or time for the acquiring of the accomplishment. We gave it up and +tried the other. Each man took a couple of sticks and fell to chafing +them together. At the end of half an hour we were thoroughly chilled, +and so were the sticks. We bitterly execrated the Indians, the hunters +and the books that had betrayed us with the silly device, and wondered +dismally what was next to be done. At this critical moment Mr. Ballou +fished out four matches from the rubbish of an overlooked pocket. To +have found four gold bars would have seemed poor and cheap good luck +compared to this. + +One cannot think how good a match looks under such circumstances--or how +lovable and precious, and sacredly beautiful to the eye. This time we +gathered sticks with high hopes; and when Mr. Ballou prepared to light +the first match, there was an amount of interest centred upon him that +pages of writing could not describe. The match burned hopefully a +moment, and then went out. It could not have carried more regret with it +if it had been a human life. The next match simply flashed and died. +The wind puffed the third one out just as it was on the imminent verge of +success. We gathered together closer than ever, and developed a +solicitude that was rapt and painful, as Mr. Ballou scratched our last +hope on his leg. It lit, burned blue and sickly, and then budded into a +robust flame. Shading it with his hands, the old gentleman bent +gradually down and every heart went with him--everybody, too, for that +matter--and blood and breath stood still. The flame touched the sticks +at last, took gradual hold upon them--hesitated--took a stronger hold +--hesitated again--held its breath five heart-breaking seconds, then gave a +sort of human gasp and went out. + +Nobody said a word for several minutes. It was a solemn sort of silence; +even the wind put on a stealthy, sinister quiet, and made no more noise +than the falling flakes of snow. Finally a sad-voiced conversation +began, and it was soon apparent that in each of our hearts lay the +conviction that this was our last night with the living. I had so hoped +that I was the only one who felt so. When the others calmly acknowledged +their conviction, it sounded like the summons itself. Ollendorff said: + +"Brothers, let us die together. And let us go without one hard feeling +towards each other. Let us forget and forgive bygones. I know that you +have felt hard towards me for turning over the canoe, and for knowing too +much and leading you round and round in the snow--but I meant well; +forgive me. I acknowledge freely that I have had hard feelings against +Mr. Ballou for abusing me and calling me a logarythm, which is a thing I +do not know what, but no doubt a thing considered disgraceful and +unbecoming in America, and it has scarcely been out of my mind and has +hurt me a great deal--but let it go; I forgive Mr. Ballou with all my +heart, and--" + +Poor Ollendorff broke down and the tears came. He was not alone, for I +was crying too, and so was Mr. Ballou. Ollendorff got his voice again +and forgave me for things I had done and said. Then he got out his +bottle of whisky and said that whether he lived or died he would never +touch another drop. He said he had given up all hope of life, and +although ill-prepared, was ready to submit humbly to his fate; that he +wished he could be spared a little longer, not for any selfish reason, +but to make a thorough reform in his character, and by devoting himself +to helping the poor, nursing the sick, and pleading with the people to +guard themselves against the evils of intemperance, make his life a +beneficent example to the young, and lay it down at last with the +precious reflection that it had not been lived in vain. He ended by +saying that his reform should begin at this moment, even here in the +presence of death, since no longer time was to be vouchsafed wherein to +prosecute it to men's help and benefit--and with that he threw away the +bottle of whisky. + +Mr. Ballou made remarks of similar purport, and began the reform he could +not live to continue, by throwing away the ancient pack of cards that had +solaced our captivity during the flood and made it bearable. + +He said he never gambled, but still was satisfied that the meddling with +cards in any way was immoral and injurious, and no man could be wholly +pure and blemishless without eschewing them. "And therefore," continued +he, "in doing this act I already feel more in sympathy with that +spiritual saturnalia necessary to entire and obsolete reform." These +rolling syllables touched him as no intelligible eloquence could have +done, and the old man sobbed with a mournfulness not unmingled with +satisfaction. + +My own remarks were of the same tenor as those of my comrades, and I know +that the feelings that prompted them were heartfelt and sincere. We were +all sincere, and all deeply moved and earnest, for we were in the +presence of death and without hope. I threw away my pipe, and in doing +it felt that at last I was free of a hated vice and one that had ridden +me like a tyrant all my days. While I yet talked, the thought of the +good I might have done in the world and the still greater good I might +now do, with these new incentives and higher and better aims to guide me +if I could only be spared a few years longer, overcame me and the tears +came again. We put our arms about each other's necks and awaited the +warning drowsiness that precedes death by freezing. + +It came stealing over us presently, and then we bade each other a last +farewell. A delicious dreaminess wrought its web about my yielding +senses, while the snow-flakes wove a winding sheet about my conquered +body. Oblivion came. The battle of life was done. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +I do not know how long I was in a state of forgetfulness, but it seemed +an age. A vague consciousness grew upon me by degrees, and then came a +gathering anguish of pain in my limbs and through all my body. I +shuddered. The thought flitted through my brain, "this is death--this is +the hereafter." + +Then came a white upheaval at my side, and a voice said, with bitterness: + +"Will some gentleman be so good as to kick me behind?" + +It was Ballou--at least it was a towzled snow image in a sitting posture, +with Ballou's voice. + +I rose up, and there in the gray dawn, not fifteen steps from us, were +the frame buildings of a stage station, and under a shed stood our still +saddled and bridled horses! + +An arched snow-drift broke up, now, and Ollendorff emerged from it, and +the three of us sat and stared at the houses without speaking a word. +We really had nothing to say. We were like the profane man who could not +"do the subject justice," the whole situation was so painfully ridiculous +and humiliating that words were tame and we did not know where to +commence anyhow. + +The joy in our hearts at our deliverance was poisoned; well-nigh +dissipated, indeed. We presently began to grow pettish by degrees, and +sullen; and then, angry at each other, angry at ourselves, angry at +everything in general, we moodily dusted the snow from our clothing and +in unsociable single file plowed our way to the horses, unsaddled them, +and sought shelter in the station. + +I have scarcely exaggerated a detail of this curious and absurd +adventure. It occurred almost exactly as I have stated it. We actually +went into camp in a snow-drift in a desert, at midnight in a storm, +forlorn and hopeless, within fifteen steps of a comfortable inn. + +For two hours we sat apart in the station and ruminated in disgust. +The mystery was gone, now, and it was plain enough why the horses had +deserted us. Without a doubt they were under that shed a quarter of a +minute after they had left us, and they must have overheard and enjoyed +all our confessions and lamentations. + +After breakfast we felt better, and the zest of life soon came back. +The world looked bright again, and existence was as dear to us as ever. +Presently an uneasiness came over me--grew upon me--assailed me without +ceasing. Alas, my regeneration was not complete--I wanted to smoke! +I resisted with all my strength, but the flesh was weak. I wandered away +alone and wrestled with myself an hour. I recalled my promises of reform +and preached to myself persuasively, upbraidingly, exhaustively. But it +was all vain, I shortly found myself sneaking among the snow-drifts +hunting for my pipe. I discovered it after a considerable search, and +crept away to hide myself and enjoy it. I remained behind the barn a +good while, asking myself how I would feel if my braver, stronger, truer +comrades should catch me in my degradation. At last I lit the pipe, and +no human being can feel meaner and baser than I did then. I was ashamed +of being in my own pitiful company. Still dreading discovery, I felt +that perhaps the further side of the barn would be somewhat safer, and so +I turned the corner. As I turned the one corner, smoking, Ollendorff +turned the other with his bottle to his lips, and between us sat +unconscious Ballou deep in a game of "solitaire" with the old greasy +cards! + +Absurdity could go no farther. We shook hands and agreed to say no more +about "reform" and "examples to the rising generation." + +The station we were at was at the verge of the Twenty-six-Mile Desert. +If we had approached it half an hour earlier the night before, we must +have heard men shouting there and firing pistols; for they were expecting +some sheep drovers and their flocks and knew that they would infallibly +get lost and wander out of reach of help unless guided by sounds. + +While we remained at the station, three of the drovers arrived, nearly +exhausted with their wanderings, but two others of their party were never +heard of afterward. + +We reached Carson in due time, and took a rest. This rest, together with +preparations for the journey to Esmeralda, kept us there a week, and the +delay gave us the opportunity to be present at the trial of the great +land-slide case of Hyde vs. Morgan--an episode which is famous in Nevada +to this day. After a word or two of necessary explanation, I will set +down the history of this singular affair just as it transpired. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +The mountains are very high and steep about Carson, Eagle and Washoe +Valleys--very high and very steep, and so when the snow gets to melting +off fast in the Spring and the warm surface-earth begins to moisten and +soften, the disastrous land-slides commence. The reader cannot know what +a land-slide is, unless he has lived in that country and seen the whole +side of a mountain taken off some fine morning and deposited down in the +valley, leaving a vast, treeless, unsightly scar upon the mountain's +front to keep the circumstance fresh in his memory all the years that he +may go on living within seventy miles of that place. + +General Buncombe was shipped out to Nevada in the invoice of Territorial +officers, to be United States Attorney. He considered himself a lawyer +of parts, and he very much wanted an opportunity to manifest it--partly +for the pure gratification of it and partly because his salary was +Territorially meagre (which is a strong expression). Now the older +citizens of a new territory look down upon the rest of the world with a +calm, benevolent compassion, as long as it keeps out of the way--when it +gets in the way they snub it. Sometimes this latter takes the shape of a +practical joke. + +One morning Dick Hyde rode furiously up to General Buncombe's door in +Carson city and rushed into his presence without stopping to tie his +horse. He seemed much excited. He told the General that he wanted him +to conduct a suit for him and would pay him five hundred dollars if he +achieved a victory. And then, with violent gestures and a world of +profanity, he poured out his grief. He said it was pretty well known +that for some years he had been farming (or ranching as the more +customary term is) in Washoe District, and making a successful thing of +it, and furthermore it was known that his ranch was situated just in the +edge of the valley, and that Tom Morgan owned a ranch immediately above +it on the mountain side. + +And now the trouble was, that one of those hated and dreaded land-slides +had come and slid Morgan's ranch, fences, cabins, cattle, barns and +everything down on top of his ranch and exactly covered up every single +vestige of his property, to a depth of about thirty-eight feet. Morgan +was in possession and refused to vacate the premises--said he was +occupying his own cabin and not interfering with anybody else's--and said +the cabin was standing on the same dirt and same ranch it had always +stood on, and he would like to see anybody make him vacate. + +"And when I reminded him," said Hyde, weeping, "that it was on top of my +ranch and that he was trespassing, he had the infernal meanness to ask me +why didn't I stay on my ranch and hold possession when I see him +a-coming! Why didn't I stay on it, the blathering lunatic--by George, +when I heard that racket and looked up that hill it was just like the +whole world was a-ripping and a-tearing down that mountain side +--splinters, and cord-wood, thunder and lightning, hail and snow, odds and +ends of hay stacks, and awful clouds of dust!--trees going end over end +in the air, rocks as big as a house jumping 'bout a thousand feet high +and busting into ten million pieces, cattle turned inside out and +a-coming head on with their tails hanging out between their teeth!--and +in the midst of all that wrack and destruction sot that cussed Morgan on +his gate-post, a-wondering why I didn't stay and hold possession! Laws +bless me, I just took one glimpse, General, and lit out'n the county in +three jumps exactly. + +"But what grinds me is that that Morgan hangs on there and won't move +off'n that ranch--says it's his'n and he's going to keep it--likes it +better'n he did when it was higher up the hill. Mad! Well, I've been so +mad for two days I couldn't find my way to town--been wandering around in +the brush in a starving condition--got anything here to drink, General? +But I'm here now, and I'm a-going to law. You hear me!" + +Never in all the world, perhaps, were a man's feelings so outraged as +were the General's. He said he had never heard of such high-handed +conduct in all his life as this Morgan's. And he said there was no use +in going to law--Morgan had no shadow of right to remain where he was +--nobody in the wide world would uphold him in it, and no lawyer would take +his case and no judge listen to it. Hyde said that right there was where +he was mistaken--everybody in town sustained Morgan; Hal Brayton, a very +smart lawyer, had taken his case; the courts being in vacation, it was to +be tried before a referee, and ex-Governor Roop had already been +appointed to that office and would open his court in a large public hall +near the hotel at two that afternoon. + +The General was amazed. He said he had suspected before that the people +of that Territory were fools, and now he knew it. But he said rest easy, +rest easy and collect the witnesses, for the victory was just as certain +as if the conflict were already over. Hyde wiped away his tears and +left. + +At two in the afternoon referee Roop's Court opened and Roop appeared +throned among his sheriffs, the witnesses, and spectators, and wearing +upon his face a solemnity so awe-inspiring that some of his +fellow-conspirators had misgivings that maybe he had not comprehended, +after all, that this was merely a joke. An unearthly stillness +prevailed, for at the slightest noise the judge uttered sternly the +command: + +"Order in the Court!" + +And the sheriffs promptly echoed it. Presently the General elbowed his +way through the crowd of spectators, with his arms full of law-books, and +on his ears fell an order from the judge which was the first respectful +recognition of his high official dignity that had ever saluted them, and +it trickled pleasantly through his whole system: + +"Way for the United States Attorney!" + +The witnesses were called--legislators, high government officers, +ranchmen, miners, Indians, Chinamen, negroes. Three fourths of them were +called by the defendant Morgan, but no matter, their testimony invariably +went in favor of the plaintiff Hyde. Each new witness only added new +testimony to the absurdity of a man's claiming to own another man's +property because his farm had slid down on top of it. Then the Morgan +lawyers made their speeches, and seemed to make singularly weak ones +--they did really nothing to help the Morgan cause. And now the General, +with exultation in his face, got up and made an impassioned effort; he +pounded the table, he banged the law-books, he shouted, and roared, and +howled, he quoted from everything and everybody, poetry, sarcasm, +statistics, history, pathos, bathos, blasphemy, and wound up with a grand +war-whoop for free speech, freedom of the press, free schools, the +Glorious Bird of America and the principles of eternal justice! +[Applause.] + +When the General sat down, he did it with the conviction that if there +was anything in good strong testimony, a great speech and believing and +admiring countenances all around, Mr. Morgan's case was killed. +Ex-Governor Roop leant his head upon his hand for some minutes, thinking, +and the still audience waited for his decision. Then he got up and stood +erect, with bended head, and thought again. Then he walked the floor +with long, deliberate strides, his chin in his hand, and still the +audience waited. At last he returned to his throne, seated himself, and +began impressively: + +"Gentlemen, I feel the great responsibility that rests upon me this day. +This is no ordinary case. On the contrary it is plain that it is the +most solemn and awful that ever man was called upon to decide. +Gentlemen, I have listened attentively to the evidence, and have +perceived that the weight of it, the overwhelming weight of it, is in +favor of the plaintiff Hyde. I have listened also to the remarks of +counsel, with high interest--and especially will I commend the masterly +and irrefutable logic of the distinguished gentleman who represents the +plaintiff. But gentlemen, let us beware how we allow mere human +testimony, human ingenuity in argument and human ideas of equity, to +influence us at a moment so solemn as this. Gentlemen, it ill becomes +us, worms as we are, to meddle with the decrees of Heaven. It is plain +to me that Heaven, in its inscrutable wisdom, has seen fit to move this +defendant's ranch for a purpose. We are but creatures, and we must +submit. If Heaven has chosen to favor the defendant Morgan in this +marked and wonderful manner; and if Heaven, dissatisfied with the +position of the Morgan ranch upon the mountain side, has chosen to remove +it to a position more eligible and more advantageous for its owner, it +ill becomes us, insects as we are, to question the legality of the act or +inquire into the reasons that prompted it. No--Heaven created the +ranches and it is Heaven's prerogative to rearrange them, to experiment +with them around at its pleasure. It is for us to submit, without +repining. + +"I warn you that this thing which has happened is a thing with which the +sacrilegious hands and brains and tongues of men must not meddle. +Gentlemen, it is the verdict of this court that the plaintiff, Richard +Hyde, has been deprived of his ranch by the visitation of God! And from +this decision there is no appeal." + +Buncombe seized his cargo of law-books and plunged out of the court-room +frantic with indignation. He pronounced Roop to be a miraculous fool, an +inspired idiot. In all good faith he returned at night and remonstrated +with Roop upon his extravagant decision, and implored him to walk the +floor and think for half an hour, and see if he could not figure out some +sort of modification of the verdict. Roop yielded at last and got up to +walk. He walked two hours and a half, and at last his face lit up +happily and he told Buncombe it had occurred to him that the ranch +underneath the new Morgan ranch still belonged to Hyde, that his title to +the ground was just as good as it had ever been, and therefore he was of +opinion that Hyde had a right to dig it out from under there and-- + +The General never waited to hear the end of it. He was always an +impatient and irascible man, that way. At the end of two months the fact +that he had been played upon with a joke had managed to bore itself, like +another Hoosac Tunnel, through the solid adamant of his understanding. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +When we finally left for Esmeralda, horseback, we had an addition to the +company in the person of Capt. John Nye, the Governor's brother. He had +a good memory, and a tongue hung in the middle. This is a combination +which gives immortality to conversation. Capt. John never suffered the +talk to flag or falter once during the hundred and twenty miles of the +journey. In addition to his conversational powers, he had one or two +other endowments of a marked character. One was a singular "handiness" +about doing anything and everything, from laying out a railroad or +organizing a political party, down to sewing on buttons, shoeing a horse, +or setting a broken leg, or a hen. Another was a spirit of accommodation +that prompted him to take the needs, difficulties and perplexities of +anybody and everybody upon his own shoulders at any and all times, and +dispose of them with admirable facility and alacrity--hence he always +managed to find vacant beds in crowded inns, and plenty to eat in the +emptiest larders. And finally, wherever he met a man, woman or child, in +camp, inn or desert, he either knew such parties personally or had been +acquainted with a relative of the same. Such another traveling comrade +was never seen before. I cannot forbear giving a specimen of the way in +which he overcame difficulties. On the second day out, we arrived, very +tired and hungry, at a poor little inn in the desert, and were told that +the house was full, no provisions on hand, and neither hay nor barley to +spare for the horses--must move on. The rest of us wanted to hurry on +while it was yet light, but Capt. John insisted on stopping awhile. +We dismounted and entered. There was no welcome for us on any face. +Capt. John began his blandishments, and within twenty minutes he had +accomplished the following things, viz.: found old acquaintances in three +teamsters; discovered that he used to go to school with the landlord's +mother; recognized his wife as a lady whose life he had saved once in +California, by stopping her runaway horse; mended a child's broken toy +and won the favor of its mother, a guest of the inn; helped the hostler +bleed a horse, and prescribed for another horse that had the "heaves"; +treated the entire party three times at the landlord's bar; produced a +later paper than anybody had seen for a week and sat himself down to read +the news to a deeply interested audience. The result, summed up, was as +follows: The hostler found plenty of feed for our horses; we had a trout +supper, an exceedingly sociable time after it, good beds to sleep in, and +a surprising breakfast in the morning--and when we left, we left lamented +by all! Capt. John had some bad traits, but he had some uncommonly +valuable ones to offset them with. + +Esmeralda was in many respects another Humboldt, but in a little more +forward state. The claims we had been paying assessments on were +entirely worthless, and we threw them away. The principal one cropped +out of the top of a knoll that was fourteen feet high, and the inspired +Board of Directors were running a tunnel under that knoll to strike the +ledge. The tunnel would have to be seventy feet long, and would then +strike the ledge at the same dept that a shaft twelve feet deep would +have reached! The Board were living on the "assessments." [N.B.--This +hint comes too late for the enlightenment of New York silver miners; they +have already learned all about this neat trick by experience.] The Board +had no desire to strike the ledge, knowing that it was as barren of +silver as a curbstone. This reminiscence calls to mind Jim Townsend's +tunnel. He had paid assessments on a mine called the "Daley" till he was +well-nigh penniless. Finally an assessment was levied to run a tunnel +two hundred and fifty feet on the Daley, and Townsend went up on the hill +to look into matters. + +He found the Daley cropping out of the apex of an exceedingly +sharp-pointed peak, and a couple of men up there "facing" the proposed +tunnel. Townsend made a calculation. Then he said to the men: + +"So you have taken a contract to run a tunnel into this hill two hundred +and fifty feet to strike this ledge?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, do you know that you have got one of the most expensive and +arduous undertakings before you that was ever conceived by man?" + +"Why no--how is that?" + +"Because this hill is only twenty-five feet through from side to side; +and so you have got to build two hundred and twenty-five feet of your +tunnel on trestle-work!" + +The ways of silver mining Boards are exceedingly dark and sinuous. + +We took up various claims, and commenced shafts and tunnels on them, but +never finished any of them. We had to do a certain amount of work on +each to "hold" it, else other parties could seize our property after the +expiration of ten days. We were always hunting up new claims and doing a +little work on them and then waiting for a buyer--who never came. We +never found any ore that would yield more than fifty dollars a ton; and +as the mills charged fifty dollars a ton for working ore and extracting +the silver, our pocket-money melted steadily away and none returned to +take its place. We lived in a little cabin and cooked for ourselves; and +altogether it was a hard life, though a hopeful one--for we never ceased +to expect fortune and a customer to burst upon us some day. + +At last, when flour reached a dollar a pound, and money could not be +borrowed on the best security at less than eight per cent a month (I +being without the security, too), I abandoned mining and went to milling. +That is to say, I went to work as a common laborer in a quartz mill, at +ten dollars a week and board. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +I had already learned how hard and long and dismal a task it is to burrow +down into the bowels of the earth and get out the coveted ore; and now I +learned that the burrowing was only half the work; and that to get the +silver out of the ore was the dreary and laborious other half of it. +We had to turn out at six in the morning and keep at it till dark. +This mill was a six-stamp affair, driven by steam. Six tall, upright +rods of iron, as large as a man's ankle, and heavily shod with a mass of +iron and steel at their lower ends, were framed together like a gate, and +these rose and fell, one after the other, in a ponderous dance, in an +iron box called a "battery." Each of these rods or stamps weighed six +hundred pounds. One of us stood by the battery all day long, breaking up +masses of silver-bearing rock with a sledge and shoveling it into the +battery. The ceaseless dance of the stamps pulverized the rock to +powder, and a stream of water that trickled into the battery turned it to +a creamy paste. The minutest particles were driven through a fine wire +screen which fitted close around the battery, and were washed into great +tubs warmed by super-heated steam--amalgamating pans, they are called. +The mass of pulp in the pans was kept constantly stirred up by revolving +"mullers." A quantity of quicksilver was kept always in the battery, and +this seized some of the liberated gold and silver particles and held on +to them; quicksilver was shaken in a fine shower into the pans, also, +about every half hour, through a buckskin sack. Quantities of coarse +salt and sulphate of copper were added, from time to time to assist the +amalgamation by destroying base metals which coated the gold and silver +and would not let it unite with the quicksilver. + +All these tiresome things we had to attend to constantly. Streams of +dirty water flowed always from the pans and were carried off in broad +wooden troughs to the ravine. One would not suppose that atoms of gold +and silver would float on top of six inches of water, but they did; and +in order to catch them, coarse blankets were laid in the troughs, and +little obstructing "riffles" charged with quicksilver were placed here +and there across the troughs also. These riffles had to be cleaned and +the blankets washed out every evening, to get their precious +accumulations--and after all this eternity of trouble one third of the +silver and gold in a ton of rock would find its way to the end of the +troughs in the ravine at last and have to be worked over again some day. +There is nothing so aggravating as silver milling. There never was any +idle time in that mill. There was always something to do. It is a pity +that Adam could not have gone straight out of Eden into a quartz mill, in +order to understand the full force of his doom to "earn his bread by the +sweat of his brow." Every now and then, during the day, we had to scoop +some pulp out of the pans, and tediously "wash" it in a horn spoon--wash +it little by little over the edge till at last nothing was left but some +little dull globules of quicksilver in the bottom. If they were soft and +yielding, the pan needed some salt or some sulphate of copper or some +other chemical rubbish to assist digestion; if they were crisp to the +touch and would retain a dint, they were freighted with all the silver +and gold they could seize and hold, and consequently the pan needed a +fresh charge of quicksilver. When there was nothing else to do, one +could always "screen tailings." That is to say, he could shovel up the +dried sand that had washed down to the ravine through the troughs and +dash it against an upright wire screen to free it from pebbles and +prepare it for working over. + +The process of amalgamation differed in the various mills, and this +included changes in style of pans and other machinery, and a great +diversity of opinion existed as to the best in use, but none of the +methods employed, involved the principle of milling ore without +"screening the tailings." Of all recreations in the world, screening +tailings on a hot day, with a long-handled shovel, is the most +undesirable. + +At the end of the week the machinery was stopped and we "cleaned up." +That is to say, we got the pulp out of the pans and batteries, and washed +the mud patiently away till nothing was left but the long accumulating +mass of quicksilver, with its imprisoned treasures. This we made into +heavy, compact snow-balls, and piled them up in a bright, luxurious heap +for inspection. Making these snow-balls cost me a fine gold ring--that +and ignorance together; for the quicksilver invaded the ring with the +same facility with which water saturates a sponge--separated its +particles and the ring crumbled to pieces. + +We put our pile of quicksilver balls into an iron retort that had a pipe +leading from it to a pail of water, and then applied a roasting heat. +The quicksilver turned to vapor, escaped through the pipe into the pail, +and the water turned it into good wholesome quicksilver again. +Quicksilver is very costly, and they never waste it. On opening the +retort, there was our week's work--a lump of pure white, frosty looking +silver, twice as large as a man's head. Perhaps a fifth of the mass was +gold, but the color of it did not show--would not have shown if two +thirds of it had been gold. We melted it up and made a solid brick of it +by pouring it into an iron brick-mould. + +By such a tedious and laborious process were silver bricks obtained. +This mill was but one of many others in operation at the time. The first +one in Nevada was built at Egan Canyon and was a small insignificant +affair and compared most unfavorably with some of the immense +establishments afterwards located at Virginia City and elsewhere. + +From our bricks a little corner was chipped off for the "fire-assay"--a +method used to determine the proportions of gold, silver and base metals +in the mass. This is an interesting process. The chip is hammered out +as thin as paper and weighed on scales so fine and sensitive that if you +weigh a two-inch scrap of paper on them and then write your name on the +paper with a course, soft pencil and weigh it again, the scales will take +marked notice of the addition. + +Then a little lead (also weighed) is rolled up with the flake of silver +and the two are melted at a great heat in a small vessel called a cupel, +made by compressing bone ashes into a cup-shape in a steel mold. The +base metals oxydize and are absorbed with the lead into the pores of the +cupel. A button or globule of perfectly pure gold and silver is left +behind, and by weighing it and noting the loss, the assayer knows the +proportion of base metal the brick contains. He has to separate the gold +from the silver now. The button is hammered out flat and thin, put in +the furnace and kept some time at a red heat; after cooling it off it is +rolled up like a quill and heated in a glass vessel containing nitric +acid; the acid dissolves the silver and leaves the gold pure and ready to +be weighed on its own merits. Then salt water is poured into the vessel +containing the dissolved silver and the silver returns to palpable form +again and sinks to the bottom. Nothing now remains but to weigh it; then +the proportions of the several metals contained in the brick are known, +and the assayer stamps the value of the brick upon its surface. + +The sagacious reader will know now, without being told, that the +speculative miner, in getting a "fire-assay" made of a piece of rock from +his mine (to help him sell the same), was not in the habit of picking out +the least valuable fragment of rock on his dump-pile, but quite the +contrary. I have seen men hunt over a pile of nearly worthless quartz +for an hour, and at last find a little piece as large as a filbert, which +was rich in gold and silver--and this was reserved for a fire-assay! Of +course the fire-assay would demonstrate that a ton of such rock would +yield hundreds of dollars--and on such assays many an utterly worthless +mine was sold. + +Assaying was a good business, and so some men engaged in it, +occasionally, who were not strictly scientific and capable. One assayer +got such rich results out of all specimens brought to him that in time he +acquired almost a monopoly of the business. But like all men who achieve +success, he became an object of envy and suspicion. The other assayers +entered into a conspiracy against him, and let some prominent citizens +into the secret in order to show that they meant fairly. Then they broke +a little fragment off a carpenter's grindstone and got a stranger to take +it to the popular scientist and get it assayed. In the course of an hour +the result came--whereby it appeared that a ton of that rock would yield +$1,184.40 in silver and $366.36 in gold! + +Due publication of the whole matter was made in the paper, and the +popular assayer left town "between two days." + +I will remark, in passing, that I only remained in the milling business +one week. I told my employer I could not stay longer without an advance +in my wages; that I liked quartz milling, indeed was infatuated with it; +that I had never before grown so tenderly attached to an occupation in so +short a time; that nothing, it seemed to me, gave such scope to +intellectual activity as feeding a battery and screening tailings, and +nothing so stimulated the moral attributes as retorting bullion and +washing blankets--still, I felt constrained to ask an increase of salary. +He said he was paying me ten dollars a week, and thought it a good round +sum. How much did I want? + +I said about four hundred thousand dollars a month, and board, was about +all I could reasonably ask, considering the hard times. + +I was ordered off the premises! And yet, when I look back to those days +and call to mind the exceeding hardness of the labor I performed in that +mill, I only regret that I did not ask him seven hundred thousand. + +Shortly after this I began to grow crazy, along with the rest of the +population, about the mysterious and wonderful "cement mine," and to make +preparations to take advantage of any opportunity that might offer to go +and help hunt for it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +It was somewhere in the neighborhood of Mono Lake that the marvellous +Whiteman cement mine was supposed to lie. Every now and then it would be +reported that Mr. W. had passed stealthily through Esmeralda at dead of +night, in disguise, and then we would have a wild excitement--because he +must be steering for his secret mine, and now was the time to follow him. +In less than three hours after daylight all the horses and mules and +donkeys in the vicinity would be bought, hired or stolen, and half the +community would be off for the mountains, following in the wake of +Whiteman. But W. would drift about through the mountain gorges for days +together, in a purposeless sort of way, until the provisions of the +miners ran out, and they would have to go back home. I have known it +reported at eleven at night, in a large mining camp, that Whiteman had +just passed through, and in two hours the streets, so quiet before, would +be swarming with men and animals. Every individual would be trying to be +very secret, but yet venturing to whisper to just one neighbor that W. +had passed through. And long before daylight--this in the dead of +Winter--the stampede would be complete, the camp deserted, and the whole +population gone chasing after W. + +The tradition was that in the early immigration, more than twenty years +ago, three young Germans, brothers, who had survived an Indian massacre +on the Plains, wandered on foot through the deserts, avoiding all trails +and roads, and simply holding a westerly direction and hoping to find +California before they starved, or died of fatigue. And in a gorge in +the mountains they sat down to rest one day, when one of them noticed a +curious vein of cement running along the ground, shot full of lumps of +dull yellow metal. They saw that it was gold, and that here was a +fortune to be acquired in a single day. The vein was about as wide as a +curbstone, and fully two thirds of it was pure gold. Every pound of the +wonderful cement was worth well-nigh $200. + +Each of the brothers loaded himself with about twenty-five pounds of it, +and then they covered up all traces of the vein, made a rude drawing of +the locality and the principal landmarks in the vicinity, and started +westward again. But troubles thickened about them. In their wanderings +one brother fell and broke his leg, and the others were obliged to go on +and leave him to die in the wilderness. Another, worn out and starving, +gave up by and by, and laid down to die, but after two or three weeks of +incredible hardships, the third reached the settlements of California +exhausted, sick, and his mind deranged by his sufferings. He had thrown +away all his cement but a few fragments, but these were sufficient to set +everybody wild with excitement. However, he had had enough of the cement +country, and nothing could induce him to lead a party thither. He was +entirely content to work on a farm for wages. But he gave Whiteman his +map, and described the cement region as well as he could and thus +transferred the curse to that gentleman--for when I had my one accidental +glimpse of Mr. W. in Esmeralda he had been hunting for the lost mine, in +hunger and thirst, poverty and sickness, for twelve or thirteen years. +Some people believed he had found it, but most people believed he had +not. I saw a piece of cement as large as my fist which was said to have +been given to Whiteman by the young German, and it was of a seductive +nature. Lumps of virgin gold were as thick in it as raisins in a slice +of fruit cake. The privilege of working such a mine one week would be +sufficient for a man of reasonable desires. + +A new partner of ours, a Mr. Higbie, knew Whiteman well by sight, and a +friend of ours, a Mr. Van Dorn, was well acquainted with him, and not +only that, but had Whiteman's promise that he should have a private hint +in time to enable him to join the next cement expedition. Van Dorn had +promised to extend the hint to us. One evening Higbie came in greatly +excited, and said he felt certain he had recognized Whiteman, up town, +disguised and in a pretended state of intoxication. In a little while +Van Dorn arrived and confirmed the news; and so we gathered in our cabin +and with heads close together arranged our plans in impressive whispers. + +We were to leave town quietly, after midnight, in two or three small +parties, so as not to attract attention, and meet at dawn on the "divide" +overlooking Mono Lake, eight or nine miles distant. We were to make no +noise after starting, and not speak above a whisper under any +circumstances. It was believed that for once Whiteman's presence was +unknown in the town and his expedition unsuspected. Our conclave broke +up at nine o'clock, and we set about our preparation diligently and with +profound secrecy. At eleven o'clock we saddled our horses, hitched them +with their long riatas (or lassos), and then brought out a side of bacon, +a sack of beans, a small sack of coffee, some sugar, a hundred pounds of +flour in sacks, some tin cups and a coffee pot, frying pan and some few +other necessary articles. All these things were "packed" on the back of +a led horse--and whoever has not been taught, by a Spanish adept, to pack +an animal, let him never hope to do the thing by natural smartness. That +is impossible. Higbie had had some experience, but was not perfect. He +put on the pack saddle (a thing like a saw-buck), piled the property on +it and then wound a rope all over and about it and under it, "every which +way," taking a hitch in it every now and then, and occasionally surging +back on it till the horse's sides sunk in and he gasped for breath--but +every time the lashings grew tight in one place they loosened in another. +We never did get the load tight all over, but we got it so that it would +do, after a fashion, and then we started, in single file, close order, +and without a word. It was a dark night. We kept the middle of the +road, and proceeded in a slow walk past the rows of cabins, and whenever +a miner came to his door I trembled for fear the light would shine on us +an excite curiosity. But nothing happened. We began the long winding +ascent of the canyon, toward the "divide," and presently the cabins began +to grow infrequent, and the intervals between them wider and wider, and +then I began to breathe tolerably freely and feel less like a thief and a +murderer. I was in the rear, leading the pack horse. As the ascent grew +steeper he grew proportionately less satisfied with his cargo, and began +to pull back on his riata occasionally and delay progress. My comrades +were passing out of sight in the gloom. I was getting anxious. I coaxed +and bullied the pack horse till I presently got him into a trot, and then +the tin cups and pans strung about his person frightened him and he ran. +His riata was wound around the pummel of my saddle, and so, as he went by +he dragged me from my horse and the two animals traveled briskly on +without me. But I was not alone--the loosened cargo tumbled overboard +from the pack horse and fell close to me. It was abreast of almost the +last cabin. + +A miner came out and said: + +"Hello!" + +I was thirty steps from him, and knew he could not see me, it was so very +dark in the shadow of the mountain. So I lay still. Another head +appeared in the light of the cabin door, and presently the two men walked +toward me. They stopped within ten steps of me, and one said: + +"Sh! Listen." + +I could not have been in a more distressed state if I had been escaping +justice with a price on my head. Then the miners appeared to sit down on +a boulder, though I could not see them distinctly enough to be very sure +what they did. One said: + +"I heard a noise, as plain as I ever heard anything. It seemed to be +about there--" + +A stone whizzed by my head. I flattened myself out in the dust like a +postage stamp, and thought to myself if he mended his aim ever so little +he would probably hear another noise. In my heart, now, I execrated +secret expeditions. I promised myself that this should be my last, +though the Sierras were ribbed with cement veins. Then one of the men +said: + +"I'll tell you what! Welch knew what he was talking about when he said +he saw Whiteman to-day. I heard horses--that was the noise. I am going +down to Welch's, right away." + +They left and I was glad. I did not care whither they went, so they +went. I was willing they should visit Welch, and the sooner the better. + +As soon as they closed their cabin door my comrades emerged from the +gloom; they had caught the horses and were waiting for a clear coast +again. We remounted the cargo on the pack horse and got under way, and +as day broke we reached the "divide" and joined Van Dorn. Then we +journeyed down into the valley of the Lake, and feeling secure, we halted +to cook breakfast, for we were tired and sleepy and hungry. Three hours +later the rest of the population filed over the "divide" in a long +procession, and drifted off out of sight around the borders of the Lake! + +Whether or not my accident had produced this result we never knew, but at +least one thing was certain--the secret was out and Whiteman would not +enter upon a search for the cement mine this time. We were filled with +chagrin. + +We held a council and decided to make the best of our misfortune and +enjoy a week's holiday on the borders of the curious Lake. Mono, it is +sometimes called, and sometimes the "Dead Sea of California." It is one +of the strangest freaks of Nature to be found in any land, but it is +hardly ever mentioned in print and very seldom visited, because it lies +away off the usual routes of travel and besides is so difficult to get at +that only men content to endure the roughest life will consent to take +upon themselves the discomforts of such a trip. On the morning of our +second day, we traveled around to a remote and particularly wild spot on +the borders of the Lake, where a stream of fresh, ice-cold water entered +it from the mountain side, and then we went regularly into camp. We +hired a large boat and two shot-guns from a lonely ranchman who lived +some ten miles further on, and made ready for comfort and recreation. +We soon got thoroughly acquainted with the Lake and all its +peculiarities. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +Mono Lake lies in a lifeless, treeless, hideous desert, eight thousand +feet above the level of the sea, and is guarded by mountains two thousand +feet higher, whose summits are always clothed in clouds. This solemn, +silent, sail-less sea--this lonely tenant of the loneliest spot on earth +--is little graced with the picturesque. It is an unpretending expanse +of grayish water, about a hundred miles in circumference, with two +islands in its centre, mere upheavals of rent and scorched and blistered +lava, snowed over with gray banks and drifts of pumice-stone and ashes, +the winding sheet of the dead volcano, whose vast crater the lake has +seized upon and occupied. + +The lake is two hundred feet deep, and its sluggish waters are so strong +with alkali that if you only dip the most hopelessly soiled garment into +them once or twice, and wring it out, it will be found as clean as if it +had been through the ablest of washerwomen's hands. While we camped +there our laundry work was easy. We tied the week's washing astern of +our boat, and sailed a quarter of a mile, and the job was complete, all +to the wringing out. If we threw the water on our heads and gave them a +rub or so, the white lather would pile up three inches high. This water +is not good for bruised places and abrasions of the skin. We had a +valuable dog. He had raw places on him. He had more raw places on him +than sound ones. He was the rawest dog I almost ever saw. He jumped +overboard one day to get away from the flies. But it was bad judgment. +In his condition, it would have been just as comfortable to jump into the +fire. + +The alkali water nipped him in all the raw places simultaneously, and he +struck out for the shore with considerable interest. He yelped and +barked and howled as he went--and by the time he got to the shore there +was no bark to him--for he had barked the bark all out of his inside, and +the alkali water had cleaned the bark all off his outside, and he +probably wished he had never embarked in any such enterprise. He ran +round and round in a circle, and pawed the earth and clawed the air, and +threw double somersaults, sometimes backward and sometimes forward, in +the most extraordinary manner. He was not a demonstrative dog, as a +general thing, but rather of a grave and serious turn of mind, and I +never saw him take so much interest in anything before. He finally +struck out over the mountains, at a gait which we estimated at about two +hundred and fifty miles an hour, and he is going yet. This was about +nine years ago. We look for what is left of him along here every day. + +A white man cannot drink the water of Mono Lake, for it is nearly pure +lye. It is said that the Indians in the vicinity drink it sometimes, +though. It is not improbable, for they are among the purest liars I ever +saw. [There will be no additional charge for this joke, except to +parties requiring an explanation of it. This joke has received high +commendation from some of the ablest minds of the age.] + +There are no fish in Mono Lake--no frogs, no snakes, no polliwigs +--nothing, in fact, that goes to make life desirable. Millions of wild +ducks and sea-gulls swim about the surface, but no living thing exists +under the surface, except a white feathery sort of worm, one half an inch +long, which looks like a bit of white thread frayed out at the sides. If +you dip up a gallon of water, you will get about fifteen thousand of +these. They give to the water a sort of grayish-white appearance. Then +there is a fly, which looks something like our house fly. These settle +on the beach to eat the worms that wash ashore--and any time, you can see +there a belt of flies an inch deep and six feet wide, and this belt +extends clear around the lake--a belt of flies one hundred miles long. +If you throw a stone among them, they swarm up so thick that they look +dense, like a cloud. You can hold them under water as long as you +please--they do not mind it--they are only proud of it. When you let +them go, they pop up to the surface as dry as a patent office report, and +walk off as unconcernedly as if they had been educated especially with a +view to affording instructive entertainment to man in that particular +way. Providence leaves nothing to go by chance. All things have their +uses and their part and proper place in Nature's economy: the ducks eat +the flies--the flies eat the worms--the Indians eat all three--the wild +cats eat the Indians--the white folks eat the wild cats--and thus all +things are lovely. + +Mono Lake is a hundred miles in a straight line from the ocean--and +between it and the ocean are one or two ranges of mountains--yet +thousands of sea-gulls go there every season to lay their eggs and rear +their young. One would as soon expect to find sea-gulls in Kansas. +And in this connection let us observe another instance of Nature's +wisdom. The islands in the lake being merely huge masses of lava, coated +over with ashes and pumice-stone, and utterly innocent of vegetation or +anything that would burn; and sea-gull's eggs being entirely useless to +anybody unless they be cooked, Nature has provided an unfailing spring of +boiling water on the largest island, and you can put your eggs in there, +and in four minutes you can boil them as hard as any statement I have +made during the past fifteen years. Within ten feet of the boiling +spring is a spring of pure cold water, sweet and wholesome. + +So, in that island you get your board and washing free of charge--and if +nature had gone further and furnished a nice American hotel clerk who was +crusty and disobliging, and didn't know anything about the time tables, +or the railroad routes--or--anything--and was proud of it--I would not +wish for a more desirable boarding-house. + +Half a dozen little mountain brooks flow into Mono Lake, but not a stream +of any kind flows out of it. It neither rises nor falls, apparently, and +what it does with its surplus water is a dark and bloody mystery. + +There are only two seasons in the region round about Mono Lake--and these +are, the breaking up of one Winter and the beginning of the next. More +than once (in Esmeralda) I have seen a perfectly blistering morning open +up with the thermometer at ninety degrees at eight o'clock, and seen the +snow fall fourteen inches deep and that same identical thermometer go +down to forty-four degrees under shelter, before nine o'clock at night. +Under favorable circumstances it snows at least once in every single +month in the year, in the little town of Mono. So uncertain is the +climate in Summer that a lady who goes out visiting cannot hope to be +prepared for all emergencies unless she takes her fan under one arm and +her snow shoes under the other. When they have a Fourth of July +procession it generally snows on them, and they do say that as a general +thing when a man calls for a brandy toddy there, the bar keeper chops it +off with a hatchet and wraps it up in a paper, like maple sugar. And it +is further reported that the old soakers haven't any teeth--wore them out +eating gin cocktails and brandy punches. I do not endorse that +statement--I simply give it for what it is worth--and it is worth--well, +I should say, millions, to any man who can believe it without straining +himself. But I do endorse the snow on the Fourth of July--because I know +that to be true. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +About seven o'clock one blistering hot morning--for it was now dead +summer time--Higbie and I took the boat and started on a voyage of +discovery to the two islands. We had often longed to do this, but had +been deterred by the fear of storms; for they were frequent, and severe +enough to capsize an ordinary row-boat like ours without great +difficulty--and once capsized, death would ensue in spite of the bravest +swimming, for that venomous water would eat a man's eyes out like fire, +and burn him out inside, too, if he shipped a sea. It was called twelve +miles, straight out to the islands--a long pull and a warm one--but the +morning was so quiet and sunny, and the lake so smooth and glassy and +dead, that we could not resist the temptation. So we filled two large +tin canteens with water (since we were not acquainted with the locality +of the spring said to exist on the large island), and started. Higbie's +brawny muscles gave the boat good speed, but by the time we reached our +destination we judged that we had pulled nearer fifteen miles than +twelve. + +We landed on the big island and went ashore. We tried the water in the +canteens, now, and found that the sun had spoiled it; it was so brackish +that we could not drink it; so we poured it out and began a search for +the spring--for thirst augments fast as soon as it is apparent that one +has no means at hand of quenching it. The island was a long, moderately +high hill of ashes--nothing but gray ashes and pumice-stone, in which we +sunk to our knees at every step--and all around the top was a forbidding +wall of scorched and blasted rocks. When we reached the top and got +within the wall, we found simply a shallow, far-reaching basin, carpeted +with ashes, and here and there a patch of fine sand. In places, +picturesque jets of steam shot up out of crevices, giving evidence that +although this ancient crater had gone out of active business, there was +still some fire left in its furnaces. Close to one of these jets of +steam stood the only tree on the island--a small pine of most graceful +shape and most faultless symmetry; its color was a brilliant green, for +the steam drifted unceasingly through its branches and kept them always +moist. It contrasted strangely enough, did this vigorous and beautiful +outcast, with its dead and dismal surroundings. It was like a cheerful +spirit in a mourning household. + +We hunted for the spring everywhere, traversing the full length of the +island (two or three miles), and crossing it twice--climbing ash-hills +patiently, and then sliding down the other side in a sitting posture, +plowing up smothering volumes of gray dust. But we found nothing but +solitude, ashes and a heart-breaking silence. Finally we noticed that +the wind had risen, and we forgot our thirst in a solicitude of greater +importance; for, the lake being quiet, we had not taken pains about +securing the boat. We hurried back to a point overlooking our landing +place, and then--but mere words cannot describe our dismay--the boat was +gone! The chances were that there was not another boat on the entire +lake. The situation was not comfortable--in truth, to speak plainly, it +was frightful. We were prisoners on a desolate island, in aggravating +proximity to friends who were for the present helpless to aid us; and +what was still more uncomfortable was the reflection that we had neither +food nor water. But presently we sighted the boat. It was drifting +along, leisurely, about fifty yards from shore, tossing in a foamy sea. +It drifted, and continued to drift, but at the same safe distance from +land, and we walked along abreast it and waited for fortune to favor us. +At the end of an hour it approached a jutting cape, and Higbie ran ahead +and posted himself on the utmost verge and prepared for the assault. If +we failed there, there was no hope for us. It was driving gradually +shoreward all the time, now; but whether it was driving fast enough to +make the connection or not was the momentous question. When it got +within thirty steps of Higbie I was so excited that I fancied I could +hear my own heart beat. When, a little later, it dragged slowly along +and seemed about to go by, only one little yard out of reach, it seemed +as if my heart stood still; and when it was exactly abreast him and began +to widen away, and he still standing like a watching statue, I knew my +heart did stop. But when he gave a great spring, the next instant, and +lit fairly in the stern, I discharged a war-whoop that woke the +solitudes! + +But it dulled my enthusiasm, presently, when he told me he had not been +caring whether the boat came within jumping distance or not, so that it +passed within eight or ten yards of him, for he had made up his mind to +shut his eyes and mouth and swim that trifling distance. Imbecile that I +was, I had not thought of that. It was only a long swim that could be +fatal. + +The sea was running high and the storm increasing. It was growing late, +too--three or four in the afternoon. Whether to venture toward the +mainland or not, was a question of some moment. But we were so +distressed by thirst that we decide to try it, and so Higbie fell to work +and I took the steering-oar. When we had pulled a mile, laboriously, +we were evidently in serious peril, for the storm had greatly augmented; +the billows ran very high and were capped with foaming crests, +the heavens were hung with black, and the wind blew with great fury. +We would have gone back, now, but we did not dare to turn the boat +around, because as soon as she got in the trough of the sea she would +upset, of course. Our only hope lay in keeping her head-on to the seas. +It was hard work to do this, she plunged so, and so beat and belabored +the billows with her rising and falling bows. Now and then one of +Higbie's oars would trip on the top of a wave, and the other one would +snatch the boat half around in spite of my cumbersome steering apparatus. +We were drenched by the sprays constantly, and the boat occasionally +shipped water. By and by, powerful as my comrade was, his great +exertions began to tell on him, and he was anxious that I should change +places with him till he could rest a little. But I told him this was +impossible; for if the steering oar were dropped a moment while we +changed, the boat would slue around into the trough of the sea, capsize, +and in less than five minutes we would have a hundred gallons of +soap-suds in us and be eaten up so quickly that we could not even be +present at our own inquest. + +But things cannot last always. Just as the darkness shut down we came +booming into port, head on. Higbie dropped his oars to hurrah--I dropped +mine to help--the sea gave the boat a twist, and over she went! + +The agony that alkali water inflicts on bruises, chafes and blistered +hands, is unspeakable, and nothing but greasing all over will modify it +--but we ate, drank and slept well, that night, notwithstanding. + +In speaking of the peculiarities of Mono Lake, I ought to have mentioned +that at intervals all around its shores stand picturesque turret-looking +masses and clusters of a whitish, coarse-grained rock that resembles +inferior mortar dried hard; and if one breaks off fragments of this rock +he will find perfectly shaped and thoroughly petrified gulls' eggs deeply +imbedded in the mass. How did they get there? I simply state the fact +--for it is a fact--and leave the geological reader to crack the nut at his +leisure and solve the problem after his own fashion. + +At the end of a week we adjourned to the Sierras on a fishing excursion, +and spent several days in camp under snowy Castle Peak, and fished +successfully for trout in a bright, miniature lake whose surface was +between ten and eleven thousand feet above the level of the sea; cooling +ourselves during the hot August noons by sitting on snow banks ten feet +deep, under whose sheltering edges fine grass and dainty flowers +flourished luxuriously; and at night entertaining ourselves by almost +freezing to death. Then we returned to Mono Lake, and finding that the +cement excitement was over for the present, packed up and went back to +Esmeralda. Mr. Ballou reconnoitred awhile, and not liking the prospect, +set out alone for Humboldt. + +About this time occurred a little incident which has always had a sort of +interest to me, from the fact that it came so near "instigating" my +funeral. At a time when an Indian attack had been expected, the citizens +hid their gunpowder where it would be safe and yet convenient to hand +when wanted. A neighbor of ours hid six cans of rifle powder in the +bake-oven of an old discarded cooking stove which stood on the open +ground near a frame out-house or shed, and from and after that day never +thought of it again. We hired a half-tamed Indian to do some washing for +us, and he took up quarters under the shed with his tub. The ancient +stove reposed within six feet of him, and before his face. Finally it +occurred to him that hot water would be better than cold, and he went out +and fired up under that forgotten powder magazine and set on a kettle of +water. Then he returned to his tub. + +I entered the shed presently and threw down some more clothes, and was +about to speak to him when the stove blew up with a prodigious crash, and +disappeared, leaving not a splinter behind. Fragments of it fell in the +streets full two hundred yards away. Nearly a third of the shed roof +over our heads was destroyed, and one of the stove lids, after cutting a +small stanchion half in two in front of the Indian, whizzed between us +and drove partly through the weather-boarding beyond. I was as white as +a sheet and as weak as a kitten and speechless. But the Indian betrayed +no trepidation, no distress, not even discomfort. He simply stopped +washing, leaned forward and surveyed the clean, blank ground a moment, +and then remarked: + +"Mph! Dam stove heap gone!"--and resumed his scrubbing as placidly as if +it were an entirely customary thing for a stove to do. I will explain, +that "heap" is "Injun-English" for "very much." The reader will perceive +the exhaustive expressiveness of it in the present instance. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. +I now come to a curious episode--the most curious, I think, that had yet +accented my slothful, valueless, heedless career. Out of a hillside +toward the upper end of the town, projected a wall of reddish looking +quartz-croppings, the exposed comb of a silver-bearing ledge that +extended deep down into the earth, of course. It was owned by a company +entitled the "Wide West." There was a shaft sixty or seventy feet deep +on the under side of the croppings, and everybody was acquainted with the +rock that came from it--and tolerably rich rock it was, too, but nothing +extraordinary. I will remark here, that although to the inexperienced +stranger all the quartz of a particular "district" looks about alike, an +old resident of the camp can take a glance at a mixed pile of rock, +separate the fragments and tell you which mine each came from, as easily +as a confectioner can separate and classify the various kinds and +qualities of candy in a mixed heap of the article. + +All at once the town was thrown into a state of extraordinary excitement. +In mining parlance the Wide West had "struck it rich!" Everybody went to +see the new developments, and for some days there was such a crowd of +people about the Wide West shaft that a stranger would have supposed +there was a mass meeting in session there. No other topic was discussed +but the rich strike, and nobody thought or dreamed about anything else. +Every man brought away a specimen, ground it up in a hand mortar, washed +it out in his horn spoon, and glared speechless upon the marvelous +result. It was not hard rock, but black, decomposed stuff which could be +crumbled in the hand like a baked potato, and when spread out on a paper +exhibited a thick sprinkling of gold and particles of "native" silver. +Higbie brought a handful to the cabin, and when he had washed it out his +amazement was beyond description. Wide West stock soared skywards. It +was said that repeated offers had been made for it at a thousand dollars +a foot, and promptly refused. We have all had the "blues"--the mere +sky-blues--but mine were indigo, now--because I did not own in the Wide +West. The world seemed hollow to me, and existence a grief. I lost my +appetite, and ceased to take an interest in anything. Still I had to +stay, and listen to other people's rejoicings, because I had no money to +get out of the camp with. + +The Wide West company put a stop to the carrying away of "specimens," and +well they might, for every handful of the ore was worth a sun of some +consequence. To show the exceeding value of the ore, I will remark that +a sixteen-hundred-pounds parcel of it was sold, just as it lay, at the +mouth of the shaft, at one dollar a pound; and the man who bought it +"packed" it on mules a hundred and fifty or two hundred miles, over the +mountains, to San Francisco, satisfied that it would yield at a rate that +would richly compensate him for his trouble. The Wide West people also +commanded their foreman to refuse any but their own operatives permission +to enter the mine at any time or for any purpose. I kept up my "blue" +meditations and Higbie kept up a deal of thinking, too, but of a +different sort. He puzzled over the "rock," examined it with a glass, +inspected it in different lights and from different points of view, and +after each experiment delivered himself, in soliloquy, of one and the +same unvarying opinion in the same unvarying formula: + +"It is not Wide West rock!" + +He said once or twice that he meant to have a look into the Wide West +shaft if he got shot for it. I was wretched, and did not care whether he +got a look into it or not. He failed that day, and tried again at night; +failed again; got up at dawn and tried, and failed again. Then he lay in +ambush in the sage brush hour after hour, waiting for the two or three +hands to adjourn to the shade of a boulder for dinner; made a start once, +but was premature--one of the men came back for something; tried it +again, but when almost at the mouth of the shaft, another of the men rose +up from behind the boulder as if to reconnoitre, and he dropped on the +ground and lay quiet; presently he crawled on his hands and knees to the +mouth of the shaft, gave a quick glance around, then seized the rope and +slid down the shaft. + +He disappeared in the gloom of a "side drift" just as a head appeared in +the mouth of the shaft and somebody shouted "Hello!"--which he did not +answer. He was not disturbed any more. An hour later he entered the +cabin, hot, red, and ready to burst with smothered excitement, and +exclaimed in a stage whisper: + +"I knew it! We are rich! IT'S A BLIND LEAD!" + +I thought the very earth reeled under me. Doubt--conviction--doubt +again--exultation--hope, amazement, belief, unbelief--every emotion +imaginable swept in wild procession through my heart and brain, and I +could not speak a word. After a moment or two of this mental fury, I +shook myself to rights, and said: + +"Say it again!" + +"It's blind lead!" + +"Cal, let's--let's burn the house--or kill somebody! Let's get out where +there's room to hurrah! But what is the use? It is a hundred times too +good to be true." + +"It's a blind lead, for a million!--hanging wall--foot wall--clay +casings--everything complete!" He swung his hat and gave three cheers, +and I cast doubt to the winds and chimed in with a will. For I was worth +a million dollars, and did not care "whether school kept or not!" + +But perhaps I ought to explain. A "blind lead" is a lead or ledge that +does not "crop out" above the surface. A miner does not know where to +look for such leads, but they are often stumbled upon by accident in the +course of driving a tunnel or sinking a shaft. Higbie knew the Wide West +rock perfectly well, and the more he had examined the new developments +the more he was satisfied that the ore could not have come from the Wide +West vein. And so had it occurred to him alone, of all the camp, that +there was a blind lead down in the shaft, and that even the Wide West +people themselves did not suspect it. He was right. When he went down +the shaft, he found that the blind lead held its independent way through +the Wide West vein, cutting it diagonally, and that it was enclosed in +its own well-defined casing-rocks and clay. Hence it was public +property. Both leads being perfectly well defined, it was easy for any +miner to see which one belonged to the Wide West and which did not. + +We thought it well to have a strong friend, and therefore we brought the +foreman of the Wide West to our cabin that night and revealed the great +surprise to him. Higbie said: + +"We are going to take possession of this blind lead, record it and +establish ownership, and then forbid the Wide West company to take out +any more of the rock. You cannot help your company in this matter +--nobody can help them. I will go into the shaft with you and prove to +your entire satisfaction that it is a blind lead. Now we propose to take +you in with us, and claim the blind lead in our three names. What do you +say?" + +What could a man say who had an opportunity to simply stretch forth his +hand and take possession of a fortune without risk of any kind and +without wronging any one or attaching the least taint of dishonor to his +name? He could only say, "Agreed." + +The notice was put up that night, and duly spread upon the recorder's +books before ten o'clock. We claimed two hundred feet each--six hundred +feet in all--the smallest and compactest organization in the district, +and the easiest to manage. + +No one can be so thoughtless as to suppose that we slept, that night. +Higbie and I went to bed at midnight, but it was only to lie broad awake +and think, dream, scheme. The floorless, tumble-down cabin was a palace, +the ragged gray blankets silk, the furniture rosewood and mahogany. +Each new splendor that burst out of my visions of the future whirled me +bodily over in bed or jerked me to a sitting posture just as if an +electric battery had been applied to me. We shot fragments of +conversation back and forth at each other. Once Higbie said: + +"When are you going home--to the States?" + +"To-morrow!"--with an evolution or two, ending with a sitting position. +"Well--no--but next month, at furthest." + +"We'll go in the same steamer." + +"Agreed." + +A pause. + +"Steamer of the 10th?" + +"Yes. No, the 1st." + +"All right." + +Another pause. + +"Where are you going to live?" said Higbie. + +"San Francisco." + +"That's me!" + +Pause. + +"Too high--too much climbing"--from Higbie. + +"What is?" + +"I was thinking of Russian Hill--building a house up there." + +"Too much climbing? Shan't you keep a carriage?" + +"Of course. I forgot that." + +Pause. + +"Cal., what kind of a house are you going to build?" + +"I was thinking about that. Three-story and an attic." + +"But what kind?" + +"Well, I don't hardly know. Brick, I suppose." + +"Brick--bosh." + +"Why? What is your idea?" + +"Brown stone front--French plate glass--billiard-room off the +dining-room--statuary and paintings--shrubbery and two-acre grass plat +--greenhouse--iron dog on the front stoop--gray horses--landau, and a +coachman with a bug on his hat!" + +"By George!" + +A long pause. + +"Cal., when are you going to Europe?" + +"Well--I hadn't thought of that. When are you?" + +"In the Spring." + +"Going to be gone all summer?" + +"All summer! I shall remain there three years." + +"No--but are you in earnest?" + +"Indeed I am." + +"I will go along too." + +"Why of course you will." + +"What part of Europe shall you go to?" + +"All parts. France, England, Germany--Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Syria, +Greece, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, Egypt--all over--everywhere." + +"I'm agreed." + +"All right." + +"Won't it be a swell trip!" + +"We'll spend forty or fifty thousand dollars trying to make it one, +anyway." + +Another long pause. + +"Higbie, we owe the butcher six dollars, and he has been threatening to +stop our--" + +"Hang the butcher!" + +"Amen." + +And so it went on. By three o'clock we found it was no use, and so we +got up and played cribbage and smoked pipes till sunrise. It was my week +to cook. I always hated cooking--now, I abhorred it. + +The news was all over town. The former excitement was great--this one +was greater still. I walked the streets serene and happy. Higbie said +the foreman had been offered two hundred thousand dollars for his third +of the mine. I said I would like to see myself selling for any such +price. My ideas were lofty. My figure was a million. Still, I honestly +believe that if I had been offered it, it would have had no other effect +than to make me hold off for more. + +I found abundant enjoyment in being rich. A man offered me a +three-hundred-dollar horse, and wanted to take my simple, unendorsed note +for it. That brought the most realizing sense I had yet had that I was +actually rich, beyond shadow of doubt. It was followed by numerous other +evidences of a similar nature--among which I may mention the fact of the +butcher leaving us a double supply of meat and saying nothing about +money. + +By the laws of the district, the "locators" or claimants of a ledge were +obliged to do a fair and reasonable amount of work on their new property +within ten days after the date of the location, or the property was +forfeited, and anybody could go and seize it that chose. So we +determined to go to work the next day. About the middle of the +afternoon, as I was coming out of the post office, I met a Mr. Gardiner, +who told me that Capt. John Nye was lying dangerously ill at his place +(the "Nine-Mile Ranch"), and that he and his wife were not able to give +him nearly as much care and attention as his case demanded. I said if he +would wait for me a moment, I would go down and help in the sick room. +I ran to the cabin to tell Higbie. He was not there, but I left a note +on the table for him, and a few minutes later I left town in Gardiner's +wagon. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Roughing It, Part 4. +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROUGHING IT, PART 4. *** + +***** This file should be named 8585.txt or 8585.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/8/5/8/8585/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/8585.zip b/8585.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..329555e --- /dev/null +++ b/8585.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06afe02 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #8585 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8585) diff --git a/old/rit4w10h.zip b/old/rit4w10h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5bfc7f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rit4w10h.zip |
