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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. 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