Two men were sitting together in an inner room in a saloon in New
Orleans.
'I was never more surprised than when you came in yesterday, Bob;
regular floored I was. It was only a few days ago I was thinking over
that rig we were in together. We made a good bit out of that.'
'Yes, we didn't do badly. I have wished sometimes since that I had been
as deep in it as you were, and had bolted and cleared out altogether.'
'Yes, I made most out of it; but then you see I ran most risk by a long
way. You might have got a year or two for being mixed up in it, but what
with nobbling the horse and what with having to pretty near choke the
stable-boy, I should have got fourteen years safe. You could have been
with me in that if you had been game, instead of only taking the part of
getting round the girl, and persuading her to get the stable boy to slip
out to see her for five minutes. If the fools had played their part
better we should have got off without my having to meddle with him, but
she made such a poor story of it that he suspected something was up and
came back again and just met me as I was dropping from the window of the
loft. He knew me by sight, and there was nothing to do but to bolt,
while as you had been swelling it with those false moustaches no one
twigged you from the girl's description, and you were able to spend your
money at home.'
'Well, it did not do me much good. It went after the rest quick enough.'
'You knew where to find me from Laxey, I suppose? I know he is a pal of
yours.'
'Yes, we work together sometimes. We knew each other years and years
ago, when we both had money to spend, and spent it and more besides. He
had more than I had. He came into a biggish fortune when he came of age,
but ran through it in a couple of years. Then he had a bit of luck on
the turf, and more luck still they used to say at cards at the clubs he
belonged to, till he was one day kicked out of one of them, and that did
for him altogether, and he came down to the three-card dodge and games
of that sort. Yes, he was wonderfully clever at cards; could do almost
anything with them. I have seen him bet a company all round that he cut
a king three times following, let them shuffle them as much as they
liked, and he never touched the cards till he cut, and I never saw him
miss it though there were a score of men round looking at his fingers.'
'Aye, I have seen him do that trick, and nobody was ever able to make
out how he did it. He could make the cards do 'most anything. I have
written to him half a dozen times within the last few years, telling him
what an opening there was out here for a chap with such talents as he
has got; but I told him straight it was of no use his coming unless he
was ready to play with pistols as well as with cards, and I expect that
is what has kept him away. I fancy it was, from what he wrote. Laxey's
weak point was that he never had nerve--if it had not been for that, he
could have made money anywhere.'
'Well, he gave me your address. It suited my book to be out of England
for a few months, and when I had got across the water I said to myself,
"I will go down and see Joe Murdoch at New Orleans." I am not as handy
with the cards as Laxey, and I don't know who is, but I have worked the
three-card trick, and many an evening when Laxey and I have been
together, in my room or his, we spent an hour or two over the cards, and
he has put me up to some of his tricks, and I have worked at them when I
have had nothing else to do and could not sleep, till I have come to do
some of them pretty near as well as he does. I don't mean to say that I
thought of going into that line when I came down here, but I said to
myself, "There is Joe Murdoch; we have played more than one game
together, and I can trust him and I think he can trust me. He has been
out here six years, and I expect he must know the ropes and can give me
some good advice, whether we go in for anything together or not."'
'That is so, Warbles. We can run straight together, or if we don't run
together perhaps I can put you on to a line of country where you may
make good running for yourself. You left England suddenly, I suppose?'
The other nodded.
'Turf business?'
'No; I suppose they would call it money under false pretences. I only
ran dark; it was a girl I have got here with me that did the trick.'
'Brought a girl over with you, Warbles? Well, I should not have thought
you would have bothered yourself with a girl out here.'
'Well, no, I don't suppose I should if it hadn't been that I expected to
make her useful. She goes as my daughter, and she looks on me as an old
friend of her father's.'
'Is that so?' the other asked doubtfully.
'That is so, Joe. The girl is straight--as straight as a line. I met
her--never mind how I met her--but I saw she was a sharp girl and would
be a good-looking one, and it struck me that such a girl could be made
very useful. I had her taught a bit and trained, and I fancy she could
pass anywhere as a lady. Well, you know when a respectable gentleman of
my age with an uncommon pretty daughter arrives at a big hotel, say at
Scarborough or Brighton, and the girl is clever, you can see for
yourself that there is money to be made in lots of ways. Young men make
the acquaintance of the gentleman for the sake of the girl. They will
come up to his rooms and, after a little supper, they may take a hand at
ecarte. Then you see a young girl can get round a young flat with some
pitiful story or other, and get a loan from him to meet temporary
difficulties. Then when the time gets near for leaving, she may take a
fancy to a few things from jewellers and have them sent to choose from.
Altogether there is no end of money to be made if the game is played
well.'
'Yes, I see that. But your coming over here shows that the game can be
cut short.'
'No, that is the game I am going to play when I go back. We worked in a
different direction last time and brought it off. I think we might have
stopped safely enough, but I had particular reasons for wanting to get
here out of the way, so I tell you I ran off the track and came over
here. Do you think that game could be played here?'
'Not much,' the other replied. 'At some of the summer resorts it might
be done, but it could not last long. There ain't enough big towns and
places to work in; besides, at our hotels there ain't the same chance of
getting to know people that there is at home, or in Paris, or in those
places. People sit down to a little table to themselves to their meals,
and there is no sort of general meeting-place. You would find it very
hard to work it. Got some money, I suppose?'
'About five hundred pounds, Joe.'
The other smoked in silence for two or three minutes.
'Twenty-five hundred dollars,' he said at last, 'is a tidy sum, but it
would not go far here. Besides, if you are thinking of doing anything
with the cards you would have to move about. It wouldn't do to bide too
long anywhere. They are up to most tricks, I can tell you, and they
would think here no more of shooting a man they had a suspicion of
playing false than you would of eating your dinner. Stores are paying
well here, because there is a crowd of people going through to the West,
and most of them lay in their stock for the journey here, but
twenty-five hundred dollars would go no way towards a store. If I were
to sell out, I could with what I could get for this place and what I
have got by me put as much more in. Still, five thousand dollars would
be no use for a store that would make anything of a show. I have thought
a good deal about going West myself.'
'West?' the other repeated doubtfully.
'Yes, to California; there is big money to be made out there; I don't
mean in digging for gold. In a place like that it don't want a deal of
capital. A big tent and a few casks of spirits and a stock of cheap
wines and some tables and benches is about all; but that would be too
much for me by the time I had made the journey across. With your money
and mine I don't know that we mightn't manage it, and if we could it
ought to pay big money. I could run the saloon, you could work the card
rig in a room behind, and if the girl is as good-looking as you say she
is, she would fetch them in crowds if she looked after the bar. There
are no end of mining camps, I hear, and the miners just chuck their gold
about, and one could move off from one to another when we found the game
playing out.'
'It sounds a good thing,' Warbles said, 'but it is a long journey, isn't
it?'
'Well, yes, it's a long journey, there's no denying that, but there are
hundreds of people starting every week. Most of them go by the Southern
route, but I am told it is a much better way to go up the river by
steamer to a place called Omaha, which is growing into a big town, and
strike across from there.'
'It is not the difficulty but the time I am thinking of. I only intended
to stop for a few months.'
'What difference will that make? You want to get money, I suppose? Well,
you would get as much in a week there as you would in a month by your
scheme, which might be cut short any day, and you might find yourself
with your hair cropped and in for five years. Why, from what I have
heard, there are men coining money out there at drinking-saloons, and
after two or three years of it we might cut it and go home, and keep
race-horses of our own if we liked.'
'Well, I will think it over, Joe. It is a biggish thing to decide on,
but there ought certainly to be money in it. As you say there is no
chance of getting five years, but it seems to me from what I have heard
of it there is a goodish chance of a pistol-bullet or a stab from a
bowie-knife.'
'I expect all that there is exaggerated; besides the rows are between
the men that drink, and not between them and those that sell drink; as
to the cards there is no occasion to do any hanky panky with them,
unless you see you have got a greenhorn to deal with and the chances are
good. The cards pay anyhow: they bring men into the place and they help
to sell the drink.'
'Well, I will think it over,' Warbles repeated. 'I am getting tired of
doing nothing all day; how I shall get through three or four months of
it is more than I can think. Perhaps I might as well do this as anything
else. The girl would certainly be useful. To tell you the truth she is
pretty difficult to manage, and I am not sure she might not after a time
kick over the traces altogether; but I don't think she would mind what
we are talking about; I am sure it will be more to her taste than the
other. Well, I will come in again in the morning; it is too big a thing
to be decided on straight off.'
Warbles went back to his hotel. A girl was standing at the window,
looking out upon the river; she turned round as he entered.
'Well, have you settled anything?' she asked. 'I am sick of doing
nothing, but just thinking and thinking.'
'Care killed a cat, Linda,' the man said lightly. 'Thinking is a pure
waste of time. I have had a long talk with Murdoch and he has put an
entirely new idea into my head.'
'An honest idea, of course,' she said scornfully.
'You may scarcely believe me, but you are right, my dear; it is a
strictly honest line.'
The girl looked at him intently.
'Well, let us hear what it is,' she said; 'you promised me the other
should be the last. I did not believe it, and told you so. I shall find
it hard to believe that there is not something crooked about this
somewhere.'
'Well, there; isn't it just honest trade?' and he repeated the
conversation he had had with Murdoch, omitting, however, all allusions
to his skill at cards. Her face brightened as he went on.
'That will do,' she said; 'I should say that will do first-rate. When I
was a young 'un I often peeped in at the doors of big public-houses. I
used to think the women behind the bars had a fine time of it. I should
not think so now--at least, not in a big town--but in places like those
you talk of, it would be different altogether. I should like the
journey, too; it would be like going with gipsies, which I used to think
would be the happiest life in the world. I was afraid when we got out
here you would be wanting to do another thing like the last, and I would
not have helped you--at any rate, not till we were getting down to our
last shilling. But I like the thought of this, and I will do my best for
you. I suppose they are a rough wild lot out there, but I think I can
take care of myself. But this time, mind, I shall want a share; I am not
going to work for years and then be thrown over when it suits you. I
will have my share of the profits paid over to me once a week or once a
month at the outside, and will put it away where I like. How much are
you going to put into this thing?'
'I told him I could manage five hundred, and he said he could do the
same, but I doubt whether that will be enough to carry it out properly.'
'Well, you have got two thousand left now. You said you would go halves
with me. I don't want that, but give me five hundred and you can tell
this man that I have got that money of my own and am ready to put it in
with yours, but that I am going to have an even share. I know you are
calculating that my good looks will draw, and no doubt they will. I am
not a fool, and can see what you are after; and I can see, too, that it
won't be an easy game for me to play. These miners, with their pistols
and their knives, are not like the young fellows who come into a London
bar. They will be in real earnest out there, and it will be a dangerous
game to play with them. One has got to be pleasant with everyone and not
to give a smile more to one than to another; not to give one the right
to think that he has a chance or causes him to believe that another has
a better one than he has.'
'I think that is rather too much, Sal,' Mr. Warbles said, doubtfully. 'I
have always been kind to you.'
'There is no occasion to have any lying between us,' she broke in. 'Why
you took me up and paid for me for years I don't know, and I don't
suppose I ever shall know, but, at any rate, I know you well enough to
be sure that it was not out of pure kindness. If it had been, would you
have put me into the hands of a woman who was always drunk? Would you
have left me to be brought up in that court, to grow up a young thief,
who might any day have been taken off and hauled before a beak? Do you
think I am such a fool as to swallow that? Then came the time when you
took me away, I saw you look me over. I saw that you said to yourself,
"She will do."
'What I was to do for you I neither knew nor cared. You said you would
have me taught--that was enough for me. Then I had three quiet years,
and I made the most of them. You told me something that first day about
expecting me to be useful to you, and when the time came I carried out
your orders. It was only right to do so; you had bought my services. It
was a bargain--but don't let us call it anything else. From the first
you had an object in saving me from starving or from the workhouse, and
I suppose you thought that object was worth spending money on. But
certainly the object was not kindness. You were always kind when you
came to see me once a year all the time I was with that woman, and it is
for that more than anything else that I am ready to help you and to
carry out your orders, but I don't want to be altogether at your mercy,
still less at the mercy of the man you are going to take as partner.
'I will work with you but not under you. I don't want to interfere in
your plans, and as you would be two to one of course you could outvote
me if I did. Still, it will give me a better position if it is known
that I am your partner and not your drudge, and I shall know that I
cannot be cast off or thrown aside and left alone and friendless, and
that I can, if I like, wash my hands of the business.'
'I would not mind agreeing,' Mr. Warbles said, after sitting rubbing his
chin thoughtfully for some time. 'I should not mind your having a third
of the profits, and I think that would be fair enough seeing that you
would put in a third of the capital; and as you rightly suppose, we
consider that you would prove a great help to us. But suppose you took
it into your head to marry, where should we be then?'
The girl waved her hand impatiently. 'I am not likely to marry,' she
said.
'So you think at present, Linda, and so a good many other girls have
thought. Still, there it is. I have got to put the matter before
Murdoch, and it has got to be put in a business shape. Would you be
willing, if we agree with you that as long as you remain with us you
take a third share of the profits, in case of your leaving us, either to
marry or for any other cause, to forfeit your third of the concern? You
see if you weren't to do that your husband, if you had one, might set
himself down as a third owner; or, supposing you did not marry, you
might get a good offer for your share and sell out, and that would not
be fair on us.'
'No, that would not be fair. Yes, I would agree to that. I am to be
joint proprietor with you both, and to take my third of the profits to
do what I like with, but if I leave you I forfeit all I have in the
concern. We will have the agreement made before a lawyer. As far as I am
concerned, there shall be two copies made; one I will take with me, the
other I shall leave with him, so that if by any chance I lose mine I
shall be able to prove my rights. Of course, I have no fear with you,
papa; no man would wrong his daughter, but when there is a third person
in the matter it is as well that one should look after oneself.'
Mr. Warbles with difficulty repressed an angry ejaculation; however, he
was so impressed with the value of his ally that he mastered himself,
and said with an attempt at a smile, 'I had no idea you were such a
businesslike young woman, Sally.'
'I have always had to take care of myself a good deal,' she said
quietly, 'and I mean to do so as long as I can. Now it is time to go
down to lunch, I think; then we might go for a drive and have a look at
the place. Are you going to see your friend again to-day?'
'No, I told him I must think the matter over, and see whether you liked
the idea before I decided one way or the other.'
Joe Murdoch offered no objection whatever when Mr. Warbles informed him
of the conditions on which alone Miss Myrtle--for they had adopted
another name when booking for New Orleans--consented to join in the
venture.
'It is her money, I suppose, that she puts in?' he asked.
'It is her share of the last thing we pulled off.'
'Ah, well, it is hers then. Well, it is only fair that she should have a
third. You were quite right in insisting that if she left us she should
forfeit all further share in it. I don't like her any the worse for
being able to look after her own interests. One wants a long-headed girl
for this business; a weak fool, who would be ready to throw herself away
on the first good-looking miner with his pockets well filled, would be
of no use to us at all. One who would be inclined to flirt right and
left might be worse still, for there would be a shooting affair in the
place in no time. One wants just what I think she is, by your account of
what she said, a cool-headed, clever woman, who has the wit to see that
the best game is to steer clear of them all, show no preference to
anyone, and to give no one an excuse for being jealous. She is exactly
the one we want. I think even better of the thing than I did before,
Warbles. The extra five hundred will make all the difference in our
outfit; I should say it would take us five hundred to get across, but
then we should have the waggon and horses, and they would do to take the
tent or the frame and boardings of the house up, to work backwards and
forwards to the nearest town for spirits and food, and would pay its
expenses by hauling things for storekeepers. I reckon it is a first-rate
look-out.'
'Where would you buy the outfit?'
'Well, we can get a waggon in pieces all numbered and ready to put
together when we get to Omaha. We shan't want a very heavy one as there
are only three of us. We had better buy horses here; there is no saying
how much we might have to pay at Omaha; or, what would be better, I can
send a letter by a boat that starts this evening to a man I know who has
a farm near the last steamboat stopping-place, about a hundred miles
this side of Omaha, and give him a commission to buy me four of the
strongest horses he can get there, and to drive them to Omaha so as to
meet us by next Thursday's boat. There will be nothing to keep us beyond
then.'
'No, the sooner we are off the better. I suppose you know pretty well
what are the things people take with them?'
'Yes; it is generally about the same thing, flour, bacon, tea and sugar,
molasses, and baking-powder. Of course we shall want a few pounds of
salt and some pepper and mustard, and a keg of salt butter. That about
fills the list. Have you got any firearms?'
'No.'
'You will want a brace of Colts--that's revolvers, you know--and a bowie
knife, which is handy for all sorts of things. I have got everything.
The first thing to do is to have this agreement made; I can find a man
to draw it up.'
'That won't do. The girl said this morning that she should ask the
landlord of the hotel for the name of one of the most respectable
lawyers in our place, and should go with us when we give our
instructions to him.'
'Good,' Murdoch said; 'she must be chock full of good sense. It is clear
that there will be no getting over her easily. She is right, you know,
quite right; for the man I was thinking of going to might not have taken
sufficient care of her copy.' And he winked at his associate.
'That is what she suspected, no doubt,' Mr. Warbles said, in an injured
tone. 'After all I have done for her, it is hard to be distrusted.'
'It must be, I should say, Warbles, mightily hard, after, as you say,
all you have done for her.'
'She said when I came out she'd get the name and address before I came
back, and that I had better bring you with me, so that we could go
together at once. You had better tog yourself up a bit.'
'I should think so. You are such a respectable looking swell, Warbles,
that I ain't fit to walk down the street with you, let alone to be
introduced to a young lady. Well, just look at that paper for a few
minutes.'
Mr. Warbles sat down and amused himself until Murdoch's return in
watching the young man in charge of the bar who, having been up till
four o'clock in the morning, was now languidly wiping down the counter,
decanting liquids from one bottle to another, washing glasses, and
generally setting things straight. When Murdoch appeared he was dressed,
and Mr. Warbles looked at him approvingly.
'This is my English suit,' Murdoch explained. 'I have not put it on ten
times since I came over. You see, people here mostly wear either black
or white, with waistcoats cut low so as to show a lot of white shirt. I
dress their way, of course; as a rule it don't do to look peculiar;
besides, there is rather a prejudice against Britishers down here, and
it is no use rubbing them down the wrong way. If you dress as other
people do, and keep a quiet tongue in your head, you have a good chance
of steering clear of rows. Of course you cannot always do that when you
are running a saloon, but even here you can do fairly well if you keep
your eyes open and act according to character. If it is a great big
swaggering sort of bully who gets drunk and kicks up a row, I have
pistols always handy behind the bar, and when I jump over with one in
each hand I can generally get him out as quiet as a lamb. If I see that
it is a regular hard case, a fellow who means downright mischief, I lie
low and take no heed, only sending out my man quietly to fetch a
constable. As a rule he never finds one, still it makes all the
difference. If there is a man shot and an inquest the next morning I am
able to prove that I did my best to put a stop to the matter, and so I
get off without being blamed; for a New Orleans jury are not fools
enough to suppose anyone is going to shove himself between two angry men
when their hands go to their pistol pockets.'
When they arrived at the hotel Mr. Warbles asked his companion to stop
outside while he fetched the girl down.
Joe Murdoch had been prepared to see a good-looking young woman, but he
was completely taken aback by the appearance of the girl who came out
with Mr. Warbles. He had been on English racecourses long enough to be
able to distinguish a lady when he saw her, and he at once decided that
this girl would pass for one in any society. She was well but quietly
dressed, had a graceful walk and a good carriage, while her face was
exceptionally pretty. 'My eye,' he muttered to himself, 'wherever did
Warbles pick her up?'
'This is my old friend, Joe Murdoch, Linda'--for the name of Sally had
been dropped as being vulgar and objectionable, from the day her
training had begun. 'This is my adopted daughter, Joe.'
'Glad to meet her, I am sure,' Mr. Murdoch said, with a humility
altogether uncommon to him. 'I am very glad to think that we are going
to travel together, Miss Myrtle.'
'I shall be glad to travel anywhere, Mr. Murdoch. This seems to me a
dreary place.'
'Not dreary when you know it; far from that. It is a stirring place,
except in the old French quarters, but one wants to know it.'
'We took a drive yesterday,' Linda said; 'and it seems to me that it is
the worst smelling and most unhealthy sort of place I was ever in.'
'Well, yes, I can't say much for it in that way, and occasionally we get
yellow fever here bad, but I have never had an attack myself. Whose
office are we going to, Warbles?'
'I wish you would call me Myrtle,' the latter said irritably; 'there is
no good in calling up that old name here.'
'We are going to Mr. Searle's,' Linda said quietly; 'this is the street
I think. I got the directions how to find it at the hotel. He is a
respectable lawyer, I am told.'
'Very much so, Miss Myrtle, quite highly so. I believe that he is a very
sharp fellow too, and it is not always the two things go together. He
was with his father; the old man died two years ago, and now the young
one has got it all in his own hands. He does all the best shipping
business here.'
On entering they found that Mr. Searle was disengaged, and were at once
shown into his office.