DEAREST MAMMA,--When you hear of all I have to tell you you will wonder
I can write so quietly. But I will make myself, and keep everything in
its place, so that you get a clear picture.
We started early yesterday morning in the private car, for a junction,
or terminus (I am not sure which) called Hot Creek,--everyone in the
best of spirits after a send off from all our friends. Marcus Aurelius's
face to welcome us on board was enough to rejuvenate anyone, simply
a full moon of black and white smiles, and I am sure he is the first
person Merécdès has confided her love affair to, for he seems to watch
over her and Gaston like a deus ex machina.
Nelson and I sat out on the observation veranda again, and he told me
many things of all this land, and how often the poor adventurers coming
out West will climb on to the irons under the trains, and then cling for
countless miles, chancing hideous death to be carried along; and how,
sometimes, they will get lost and die of starvation. And just then, in
the grimmest country of absolutely arid desert valley, between highish
barren hills, we saw a beautiful lake of blue water with green trees
reflected in it, and when I looked at Nelson his eyes were sad. Nothing
could have seemed more cool or refreshing; it made one long to jump
out of the train and go and bathe, for now, though still early in the
spring, it is getting very hot. "It is nothing but a mirage," Nelson
said. "There is no water there and no trees. It comes and goes in this
part of the desert according to the state of the atmosphere, and it has
been the cause of many a poor fellow's end." How treacherous, Mamma! How
cruel of Nature to treat her children so! And then he put his head back
and pulled his hat over his eyes.
"A mirage," he said, like one dreaming. "Guess it's often like
life." And then he told me of the curious effect it had had upon his
imagination the first time he had seen it, when alone with his burros,
prospecting; how it seemed to say to him to make a reality of green
and prosperity out of the parched world, and how his thoughts always
returned there when he had successes, and he dreamed of a day when he
should rest a little by just such a lake. "To rest my soul," he said,
"if I have any; to rest it with someone I should love."
And, as once before, the Senator broke in upon us with his cheery,
charming voice, "Guess you two are talking like high-flown poet coons,"
he said, "and there is breakfast to be thought of, and happy things like
that." And then as Nelson went in front he stepped back and put his kind
hand under my chin, and raised it and looked straight into my eyes.
"Little daughter," he said, "little friend, p'raps your heart's aching
for someone over the sea, but don't make his heart ache, too, now.
Promise me." And of course I won't, Mamma, and of course I promised.
Isn't it a queer world? And all mirage, as Nelson said. Well, now let us
get on and laugh and be gay. An eleven o'clock breakfast was our usual
fun; you can't imagine such a well arranged party, never a jar or
disagreement, like, I am sure, we should be having if there were
Englishwomen. In a flock Americans are infinitely more agreeable to deal
with. I expect it is in the blood, having had to spend such quantities
of time, all women together, while the men are away.
The moment we finished our food we drew up at our destination, and in
this wilderness there was a telegraph station and a few shanties, but it
could all be lit by electric light! The most strong, paintless, hardy
looking automobiles were awaiting us, into which we climbed, a
very close pack. The maids and valets had all been left behind at
Osages--think of asking Agnès to really rough it, even if there had been
room! So we had all to attend to the luggage, and were only allowed a
teeny hand bag each, with a nighty and comb and brush in it. Our hair
and faces were already grey with dust, and all sense of appearance had
been forgotten.
I sat between Lola and Nelson, with the little Vinerhorn and the
secretary in front of us, while the Senator was next our chauffeur, whom
they addressed as "Bob"--a friend, not an employé. The rest of the party
squashed into the other motors and so we started, ours leading over a
track, not a road; the sage brush had been removed, that was all, and
there were deep ruts to guide us. We flew along with a brilliant blue
sky overhead, high hills which presently grew mountainous on either
side, and what seemed an endless sea of greenish drab scrub before. Once
or twice we passed tired, weary-looking men plodding on foot, and I did
wish we could have picked them up and helped them along; but there was
not an inch of room. The ruts were so extremely deep that I certainly
should have been pitched out but that Nelson held me tight. Mr.
Vinerhorn frowned so when he held Lola, too, that he was obliged to
leave her alone, and I am sure she must have had a most uncomfortable
journey. I suppose this little Randolph has picked up that selfish
jealous trait in England with his clothes, only thinking of _his_
emotions, not his wife's comfort, quite unlike kind Americans. After
about an hour we began to go up the steepest hills on the winding track,
and got among pine trees and great boulders, up and up until the air
grew quite chill; and then as we turned a sharp corner the most unique
scene met our view. I told you before I can't describe scenery, Mamma,
but I must try this, because it was so wonderful, and reminded me of the
pictures in Paradise Lost illustrated by Doré, when the Devil looks down
on that weird world.
A grey-sand, flat place far below us, about fifty miles across,
surrounded by mountains turning blue in their shadows in the afternoon
light--it might have been a supremely vast Circus Maximus or giants'
race course, and there was the giant towering above the rest, with a
snow cap on his head, peeping from between the lower mountains. It
seemed it could not be possible we could descend to there, but we did,
the track getting more primitive as we went on, and once on the edge of
a precipice we met a waggon and team of eight mules driven by a Mexican
with a cracking whip, and getting past might have tried your nerves, but
no one notices such things in a country of this sort!
Every atom of food for Moonbeams has to be drawn over this ninety miles
of desert by waggons or mule carts, and every drop of water comes in six
miles from the camp. What splendid pluck and daring to wrest gold from
the earth under such circumstances! What general would fight an enemy so
far from his food supply?
We seemed to be no time being raced and shaken over the flat sand basin,
meeting and passing more teams on the way, and twice a petrol and drink
station of one board shed, and a man with a jolly Irish face and a gun
openly in his belt, to attend to it. We had no breakdowns, and just at
sunset got into the one and only street of Moonbeams. But there were no
stone houses or anything but sheds of one storey, generally, and more
often rows of tents. The Moonbeams is not three months old! So quickly
do these places grow when a rush for newly discovered rich gold is made.
We had passed quantities of "claims" on the way; piles of stones like
little cairns marking their four corners; and I wonder if in five
hundred years the socialists of that day will scream and try to
demonstrate that the descendants of those brave adventurers have no
right to their bit of land, but should give it up to them, who only talk
and fume and do no work upon it.
Everyone was in from the mines, which are all close, shafts sticking
up from every hill and heaps of broken rock and earth rising like mole
hills. The straggling street was full of men, and I should not think
in the world there can be a collection of more splendid looking
humanity--all young and strong and wholesome. The Senator says life is
so impossibly difficult here that only those in the best of health can
stand it, and to face such chances requires the buoyancy and hope of
youth. Whatever the cause they were all lovely creatures, just like our
guardsmen, numbers tall and slender and thin through, and many of them
might have been the Eton eleven or Oxford eight, and all with the
insouciance and careless grace I have already told you of.
You know what I mean by "thin through," Mamma: that lovely look of
narrow hips and slender waist and fine shoulders, not padded and not
too square, and looked at sideways not a bit thick; the chest, not the
tummy, the most sticking out part, and the general expression of race
horses. You would have to melt off layers of hips and other bits of most
of the Eastern American, and then alter the set of their bones to get
them to resemble any of these. And yet I suppose they are all Americans,
too, drifted here from other States; but they look so absolutely
different; I expect they are not the conglomeration of all nations who
have emigrated, like in New York, but the original pure stock. Or can it
be the life after all? In any case it is too attractive, and I wish you
could see them, Mamma?
They welcomed the Senator and his party as friends, and as we went at
walking pace they conducted us to the hotel. And it was a hotel!!! Think
of one long, long board barn of two storeys high, not finished quite,
being built, with kind of little rabbit hole rooms off each side of a
long passage on both floors, in some the boards not meeting, so that you
can see into the next person's apartment, or into the open air as the
case may be, and in all, if a knot is out of the wood, a peep hole! The
flimsiest door not fitting, with the number of each room printed on a
bit of paper and fastened on with a tack; furniture consisting of a
rickety iron bed, a box that has been a packing case for a table,
another for a washstand, a rough single chair, sometimes a rocking
chair, and all crowned by a looking-glass that makes half your nose in
one part of your face, and one eye up in your forehead--too deliciously
comic. It was all very clean, except the bed clothes, but we won't speak
of them; their recollection shivers me.
Octavia and Tom had one room at the very end, and the rest of our
party had to scatter where we could, as numbers were taken, and it was
difficult to get even enough to go round. Mine was a very grand one,
because it had newspapers pasted on the boards partition, but it was
very deceptive, because one could not at once discern the knots and
cracks, and anyone might surprise one by poking a finger through in
unexpected places. Gaston had the next on my right, and Mercédès and
Columbia the one beyond him, and I did wonder, under the circumstances,
which of us he would peep at. I felt it would be me, because Mercédès
and Columbia being jeune filles, and he being a Frenchman, they would be
sacred. Nelson and the Senator together had a rather larger one on my
left, and that side my newspapers were torn, but I felt no apprehension.
The chivalry of American men is temptation proof.
Downstairs there was a bar and gambling saloon in one, with a sort of
hall place, a few feet square, but no dining room or any place for food.
It was merely a shelter from outside air. One had to trot along the
street to another shed called a restaurant, for meals.
How we laughed and the fun we had over it all! Nothing has delighted us
so much. Only Randolph Vinerhorn doesn't like it, but he is afraid to
say it before the Senator, though I heard him grumbling from across the
passage to Lola because he has not got his valet to shave him! Tom, of
course, is just as happy as we are. How I _love_ an adventure, Mamma!
Did you ever? And if you could see Tom in his flannel shirt and his
shabbiest old grey suit, and a felt slouch hat, you could not tell him
from one of these lovely miners. Octavia says she is getting in love
with him again on account of it. Her one unfortunately had to stay in
Osages, but the one with the beautiful teeth has come in his place.
We couldn't wash or brush up much because we had only each either a
cracked pudding dish or an old cake tin to wash in, but we did our best
and started off for our dinner. Three of the most prominent young mine
owners had invited us to a feast, and when we got to the tent in which
it was held we found that was the chief restaurant, and lots of miners
were already there at different tables.
Ours was a long one in the middle and much grander than the rest,
because it had a bit of marbled white oil cloth on it for a cloth. The
dears all the people were, and the kind generous spirit to ask us to a
feast when food was so scarce and expensive! And fancy, Mamma, in the
middle was a bouquet of yellow daisies, and they were worth their weight
in gold--yellow daisies brought over ninety miles of desert, and how
many hundred miles of train!
None of the people at the other tables took the slightest notice of our
party; beyond a friendly greeting to those they knew, they did not even
glance our way; think of the beautiful manners, and the difference, too,
if these had been rough men of any other country in an eating house. I
tell you these Westerners are a thing apart for courtesy and respect to
women--a lesson to all the world; and the food was not at all awful, and
we had the best of champagne! while the tent was lit by electric light,
and had a board floor and benches for seats. We were so gay at dinner,
and while we were finishing, news came, I do not know how, that the
desperado, Curly Grainger, and his comrades, were in the camp. The man
next me told me, and I never thought to tell Nelson, who was at my other
side, which was foolish, as events proved.
After it, when they had made some speeches to bid us all welcome, we
went out to see the sights--principally a private gambling saloon where
they were playing extremely high, about seven men intent on poker, some
with green shades over their eyes of talc, which gave the strangest
livid glow on their faces, and made them look like dead men. After each
round a felt-slippered bar-tender would slip in and give them all drinks
in small glasses--rum and milk and different things--and I am sure one
of the desperadoes was playing, his villainous face was in such contrast
to the others.
Their revolvers were all up on a shelf, because, as the proprietor told
us, "They so often got to shootin' one another when they played as high
as that," he found it "more conducive to a peaceable evenin' if their
guns were handed out before they began!" How such things must add to the
excitement of a game, Mamma!
The lowest stake was one thousand dollars and some had twenty-five
thousand dollars in front of them. There was a queer intent ominous
hush, and we watched in silence for a while, and then went to a most
quaint sort of theatrical entertainment--songs and dances going on, the
most primitive stage at one end, while a bar and drinks were at the
other. We only stayed about five minutes, because it did not seem
quite the place for girls, although everyone treated us with the most
scrupulous respect, instantly hushing their jokes as we approached,
and making way for us like courtiers for foreign royalties in a
drawing-room. And when we got out in the street there appeared to be
some excitement in the air. Hundreds of men were loitering about or
talking in groups, and the Senator, much to our disappointment, made us
go back to the hotel. It was only about half past nine o'clock, and we
thought to go to bed an extremely dull proceeding. But we did not like
to question or argue, and obediently went upstairs. And when the Senator
and Nelson saw us safely in our rooms, with the secretary and Mr.
Vinerhorn left to be a sort of guard to us, they all went out again to
show Tom more sights.
Everything was perfectly quiet; the hotel is against the mountain and
rather away from the main and only regular street.
Then, left to ourselves we felt just like naughty children, obliged to
get into some mischief, and when Mercédès suggested we should change all
the numbers on the doors, it seemed a nice outlet for us! Octavia had
gone to her room, or, she says, she would not have let us, and Lola and
her Randolph had retired, too, while the secretary had gone down to the
bar, so there was no one to prevent us. It was, of course, very naughty
of us, Mamma, and I dare say we deserved all that followed, but it was a
funny idea, wasn't it? The only ones we did not change were our own two;
everyone else's in the hotel, and there were about thirty-six rooms
altogether, we mixed all up and then we scampered in to bed!
There were only little oil lamps here, the electric lights not having
been fixed yet, and when I piled all the bed clothes on the floor and
rolled myself up in the quilt, I was off to sleep in a minute.
It did not seem very long afterwards when drunken footsteps came up the
passage and woke me up, and then a fumbling at the Senator's door and
frightful swearing because the key would not fit. The creature, whoever
it was, was perfectly furious, and one could hear him muttering "29, yes
it's 29," and then fearful oaths, and at last, with a shove, he wrenched
down the crazy door and got into the room and I suppose was too sleepy
or drunk to notice it was not his own, and retired to the Senator's bed!
Because I could hear him snoring next me through the cracked partition.
A little while after, in the still of night air, there was a distant
murmur of voices, and then some shots rang out. It was a grim, sinister
sound, and in about ten minutes running feet were heard, and two or
three men came up the passage. They banged at Lola's door; hers had been
24 and was now 201. They cursed and swore and demanded to come in, and
at last a voice said, "I'm Curly Grainger," and then some terrible
oaths. "Open this minute, Jim; we've done for two of 'em, but they've
got Bill, and you must come and bail him out."
No answer, of course, as Lola was crouching terrified in bed, Randolph
just as frightened, I suppose, while even through the Vicomte's room I
could hear Columbia and Mercédès giggle, and I, too, for a minute felt
inclined to laugh, it seemed too dramatic to be real. But the voices got
menacing and then the excitement began! With the most dreadful language
they just kicked down the door, intending to pull "Jim" out of bed, I
suppose, and when they saw it was one of the strangers' rooms, I suppose
the idea came to them they might do a little robbery as well.
Suddenly there was a rush of feet and more men came up the stairs. I got
out of bed, wondering what would be best to do, when I heard Lola shriek
and a shot in the passage. So I felt I must go to her help and opened
the door, and such a scene, Mamma! There were seven of the most awful
looking men you ever saw, the ones who, I told you, had come into the
dance hall at Osages. Among them Lola and Randolph in night clothes,
were already lined up against the wall, with their hands above their
heads. While one brute stood at the end of the passage pointing his gun
at them, one of the others was rifling their room, others had kicked
down the girls' door and one was at the end by Octavia's. None of the
other people, miners of sorts, except one man's wife, had come in yet,
as it was not more than half past ten o'clock! She was soon pulled out,
too, and one brute seized me and roughly threw my hands up while he held
a gun to my head. I did feel very frightened, Mamma, but it was all
so terribly exciting, it was quite worth while. I wish I had had a
revolver. I would have used it in a minute. As it was I just watched
from under the brute's arm. Every door was broken down then, and as
noiselessly as they could they ransacked each room. If we had attempted
to scream they would have shot us dead. The girls were speechless with
terror, only Octavia looked a contemptuous tragedy queen in her white
nighty, and the miner's wife had a face of petrified rage; she wasn't
a bit frightened, either. Then up the stairs ran the secretary and the
proprietor's wife, a kind amusing old woman. She had evidently seen this
sort of hold up before (it is called a "hold up," Mamma), for she called
out: "Don't be afraid, ladies, dears, they won't hurt you if you don't
yell"; and then she bolted down the stairs again like a rabbit to get
help, while my brute turned his attention from me for a minute to fire
after her. She had got past the turn of the stairs, but he caught the
secretary in the ankle, and he fell with a groan on the floor.
It was an unpleasant situation, wasn't it, Mamma, six women in
nightgowns with their hands above their heads, Randolph an object of
misery with his pink silk pyjamas torn, and the secretary lying in a
pool of blood, unconscious, by the stairs, while two wretches covered
the whole party with their revolvers!
It seemed an eternity before the men had finished ransacking the rooms,
swearing terribly at finding so little there; and then they came out and
made for the door at the end, which had an outside staircase leading
on to the mountain. At last a noise of voices like distant thunder was
heard getting nearer and nearer, and before they could kick that door
down and escape, Nelson and Tom dashed up the stairs, their revolvers in
their hands; and the last coherent thing I remember was seeing Nelson
take instant aim and shoot the man who was holding the gun to my head as
he had his finger on the trigger to shoot me; and if Nelson had given
him a second more to aim he would have blown my brains out; but being so
quick, Nelson's bullet must have reached him as he fired at me, for his
shot went off through the roof. As the brute fell, there seemed to be a
general scrimmage, but the rest got off through the end door, which they
at last broke down, just as the Senator and the Vicomte and the other
miners came up the stairs. Wasn't it thrilling, Mamma? I would not have
missed it for worlds, now it is over.
I suppose the bullet which killed my assailant grazed a scrap of my
shoulder, or perhaps it was his gun going off did it, anyway I felt it
wet. The next instant I was in Nelson's arms, being carried into my
room. His face was again like death, and he bent over me.
"My God, have I hurt you?" he said in an agonised voice. "My darling, my
lady, my love----" But I don't feel as if I ought to tell you the rest
of his words, Mamma. They burst from him in the anguish of his heart,
and he is the dearest, noblest gentleman, and I feel honoured and
exalted by his love.
I reassured him as well as I could. I told him I was not really hurt at
all, only a little grazed, and I helped him to soak up the blood with my
handkerchief, and then for a few minutes I felt faint and can't remember
any more.
I don't suppose I could have been stupid for more than five minutes,
but when I came to, Octavia was there with a quilt pinned over her
nightgown, and she and the Senator were bathing my shoulder, and even
that little cut hurt rather and I fear will leave a deep scar.
The poor secretary had his ankle broken, but otherwise was unhurt, and
nobody minded at all about the man Nelson had killed. They only wished
he had exterminated more of them. And Tom and the Vicomte are having the
time of their lives, for as soon as dawn broke they joined the Sheriff
with a posse, aided by the state police in pursuit of the escaped
desperadoes, and as the _Moonbeams Chronicle_ prints it today, "A
general round up of bad men is in progress."
Fancy us having the luck to come in for all this, Mamma, and to see
the real thing! The Senator had only been joking, he said, when he had
promised us that, as all this sort of excitement is a thing of the past
in camps, which are generally perfectly orderly now; and he thought by
making us go to bed he was causing us to avoid seeing even a little
quarrelling in the streets.
None of the dear real miners would have touched us, and by some strange
chance not one of the men of our party had heard that the famous
desperadoes were arrived in the town. They will all be lynched if they
are caught, of course, so I can't help rather hoping they will get away.
Perhaps it would be a lesson to them, and I hate to think of any more
people being killed. But, of course, if Nelson had not had the nerve to
fire, just like William Tell, the man would have blown my brains out,
and as you know, Mamma, I have always despised mawkish sentiment, and I
would rather he was dead than me, so I shan't let myself think a thing
more about it, only to be deeply and profoundly grateful to Nelson for
saving my life.
We are going back to Osages this afternoon, and now I must stop, dearest
Mamma.
Your affectionate daughter,