CAPTAIN TOMMY.
There was a gray streak of dawn just breaking through the black
tree-tops that tossed above the high, far, deep snow, on the mountain
that lifted to the east, as the door opened, and Bunker Hill came forth
alone. There were ugly clouds rolling overhead, mixing, marching, and
counter-marching, as if preparing for a great battle of the elements. On
the west wall of the mountain a wolf howled dolefully to his mate on the
opposite crest of the canon. The water tumbled and thundered through the
gorge below, and sent up echoes and sounds that were sad and lonesome as
the march to the home of the dead.
She came out into the gray day, slowly and thoughtfully, her head was
down, and when Limber Tim helped her over the fence she was shy and
modest, as if she herself had been the Widow.
He tried to ask about the Widow, but that awful respect for the other
sex that seems born with the American of the Far West, kept him silent;
and as Bunker Hill led on rapidly towards town and did not say one word
about the sufferer, he followed, as ignorant as any man in camp.
On the way the woman slipped on the wet and icy trail and fell, for she
was in terrible haste and terribly excited. Perhaps she cut her arm or
hand on the sharp stone as she fell, for as she hastily arose and again
hurried on, she kept rubbing and holding her right arm with her left.
She led straight to the Howling Wilderness, lifted the latch and
entered. She looked all around, but did not speak. She was in a great
hurry, and was evidently looking for some one she wished to find at
once. No man spoke to her now. The few found there at this hour were the
wildest and most reckless in the camp, but they were respectful, as if
in the presence of a lady born and bred a lady.
There was something beautiful in this silence and respect. Even the man
with the silver faro-box for a breastwork rose up and stood in her
presence while she remained. He did not do it on purpose. He would not
have done it the day before had she stood before him by the hour. He did
not even know when he arose, but when she bowed just the least bit, and
turned away and went out again into the cold and did not drink--did not
drink, mind you--did not even look at the crimson-headed man who had
risen up in perfect confidence, he found himself standing, and found his
heart filling with a kind of gallantry that he had not known before. He
had risen in her presence by instinct.
"Come, we must find Captain Tommy." The woman said this to Limber Tim as
they left the saloon, and then led swiftly on to Captain Tommy's cabin.
This Captain Tommy was a character and a power too, and, wretch as she
was, was a woman to be leaned upon, and trusted too to the last.
True, she was very plain. But you may adopt it as one of your rules of
life, and act upon it with absolute certainty, that, if you have to
trust any woman, trust a plain one, rather than a handsome one; for the
plain ones were not made to sell, else they too had been made handsome.
"Not to be too particular about a delicate subject," said old Baldy, who
had been fortunate enough to know her, "her memory possibly may reach
back to the Black Hawk War."
But the crowning feature of this woman was her enormous head of hair. It
was black as night and bushy as a Kanaka's; all about her head in a
heap, that seemed to be constantly in motion. But at the back and down
between her shoulders it had gathered into a queue, and hung down there
like a bell-rope with a black tassel at the end.
She generally kept her mouth closed. But men observed that, when she
wanted to say any thing, she pulled up her back, took hold of the
bell-rope, and pulled and pulled till her mouth came open; then she
would throw out her sunken breast, and wind and wind with her two hands,
and corkscrew at her back hair, and pull and twist and wind, until she
had wound herself up so tight that it was impossible to close either her
mouth or her eyes. After that she could talk faster than any man in the
world, and faster than a great many women, until she ran down, and the
bell-rope hung loose between her shoulders. Then her mouth would close
suddenly, and she would have to stop that instant, even if in the midst
of a sentence, until she could seize the bell-rope, pull herself open
and wind herself up again.
The Captain had admirers in the Forks; many and many a worshiper, and
not altogether without reason. There was about her a certain sweetness
of nature that contrasted well with the rough life in which she was
thrown; and the strong men noted this, and liked the sense of her
presence.
Besides that, this woman had a certain sincerity about her, a virtue
that is as rare as it is dear to man. I think, if we look at ourselves
clearly, we will discover that this one quality wins upon us more than
any other--that is more than beauty, more than gold--sincerity,
earnestness. For my part, I only make that one demand on any man or any
woman. You can not be graceful at will, or wealthy, or beautiful, or
always good-natured; but you can be in earnest. You can refuse to lie,
either in word or in deed. I demand that you shall be in earnest before
you shall approach me. Be in earnest even in your villainy.
The woman knocked on the door with her knuckles, and called through the
hole of the latch-string to the woman within; for Captain Tommy was also
a woman, and a woman of the order--of a less order even--than this good
Samaritan, who stood calling through the keyhole and shivering with the
cold.
There was an answer, and then the two stood there in the bleak, still,
cold, gray morning together. There was a noise of somebody dressing in
the dark very fast, a hard oath or two, the scratching of a match, the
lifting of a latch in the rear of a cabin, the sound of a man's boots
scratching over the stones of a back trail that led to the Howling
Wilderness, and then the door opened, and Bunker Hill led in instantly,
went right up to Captain Tommy, took her hand in her own, and whispered
in her ear.
The Captain caught her breath, and then with both hands up, as if to
defend herself, staggered close back against the wall. Then, as if
suddenly recovering herself, and coming upon a new thought, she relaxed
her lifted arms, let them fall, and rounding her shoulders, walked up to
the smouldering fire, turned her back, put her hands behind her, looked
at Bunker Hill sidewise, and said--
"Yer be darned!"
"It's so, Tommy, sure as gospel, and we want you. She wants you. She
sent for you--sent me, and you will come, for you are needed. I can't go
it all night. Some people must be there, and that some people must be
women."
"No, you don't play me! Go 'long with yer larks! Git!" The Captain was
getting out of temper. What was to be done? Bunker Hill went close up to
her, and, leaning up, whispered sharply in her ear.
The Captain only said, "Yer be blowed!" and turned and kicked the fire,
till it blazed up and filled the room with a rosy light, such only as
smouldering pine logs can throw out when roused up into a flame; and
then she turned around and looked at Bunker Hill as if she had firmly
made up her mind not to be hoaxed. She looked at the good-souled
hunch-back before her as if she would look her through; then suddenly
her eyes rested on one of her white cuffs. "What the devil's that on yer
sleeve? Been in a row again, eh?"
"Come, come, there's no time to lose. It's awful!"
Bunker Hill laid hold of Captain Tommy's arm, and attempted to drag her
to the door. She was getting desperate.
Tommy pulled back, and still kept looking at the excited woman's white
sleeve or cuff.
"What the devil's that on your sleeve? It looks like blood."
Bunker Hill lifted her arm, looking now herself, pulled back her sleeve,
and held it to the light.
"Blood it is! Will you believe me now?"
The stubborn woman, who had been standing on the defensive, with her
back to the fire, darted forward now all excitement, all sympathy. She
snatched her outer garments from the foot of the bed, where they had
lain all this interview, and threw them on her back. She did not stop to
fasten them. She caught a blanket from the bed, threw it over her head,
as she passed out all breathless, and left the cabin-door wide open,
with the fitful pine fire making ghosts on the floor, and the fitful
March morning riding in on the wind and sowing it with ashes.