IT was a singularly sharp night, and clear as the heart of a diamond.
Clear nights have a trick of being keen. In darkness you may be cold and
not know it; when you see, you suffer. This night was bright enough to
bite like a serpent. The moon was moving mysteriously along behind the
giant pines crowning the South Mountain, striking a cold sparkle from the
crusted snow, and bringing out against the black west the ghostly
outlines of the Coast Range, beyond which lay the invisible Pacific. The
snow had piled itself, in the open spaces along the bottom of the gulch,
into long ridges that seemed to heave, and into hills that appeared to
toss and scatter spray. The spray was sunlight, twice reflected: dashed
once from the moon, once from the snow.
In this snow many of the shanties of the abandoned mining camp were
obliterated, (a sailor might have said they had gone down) and at
irregular intervals it had overtopped the tall trestles which had once
supported a river called a flume; for, of course, “flume” is _flumen_.
Among the advantages of which the mountains cannot deprive the
gold-hunter is the privilege of speaking Latin. He says of his dead
neighbor, “He has gone up the flume.” This is not a bad way to say, “His
life has returned to the Fountain of Life.”
While putting on its armor against the assaults of the wind, this snow
had neglected no coign of vantage. Snow pursued by the wind is not
wholly unlike a retreating army. In the open field it ranges itself in
ranks and battalions; where it can get a foothold it makes a stand; where
it can take cover it does so. You may see whole platoons of snow
cowering behind a bit of broken wall. The devious old road, hewn out of
the mountain side, was full of it. Squadron upon squadron had struggled
to escape by this line, when suddenly pursuit had ceased. A more
desolate and dreary spot than Deadman’s Gulch in a winter midnight it is
impossible to imagine. Yet Mr. Hiram Beeson elected to live there, the
sole inhabitant.
Away up the side of the North Mountain his little pine-log shanty
projected from its single pane of glass a long, thin beam of light, and
looked not altogether unlike a black beetle fastened to the hillside with
a bright new pin. Within it sat Mr. Beeson himself, before a roaring
fire, staring into its hot heart as if he had never before seen such a
thing in all his life. He was not a comely man. He was gray; he was
ragged and slovenly in his attire; his face was wan and haggard; his eyes
were too bright. As to his age, if one had attempted to guess it, one
might have said forty-seven, then corrected himself and said
seventy-four. He was really twenty-eight. Emaciated he was; as much,
perhaps, as he dared be, with a needy undertaker at Bentley’s Flat and a
new and enterprising coroner at Sonora. Poverty and zeal are an upper
and a nether millstone. It is dangerous to make a third in that kind of
sandwich.
As Mr. Beeson sat there, with his ragged elbows on his ragged knees, his
lean jaws buried in his lean hands, and with no apparent intention of
going to bed, he looked as if the slightest movement would tumble him to
pieces. Yet during the last hour he had winked no fewer than three
times.
There was a sharp rapping at the door. A rap at that time of night and
in that weather might have surprised an ordinary mortal who had dwelt two
years in the gulch without seeing a human face, and could not fail to
know that the country was impassable; but Mr. Beeson did not so much as
pull his eyes out of the coals. And even when the door was pushed open
he only shrugged a little more closely into himself, as one does who is
expecting something that he would rather not see. You may observe this
movement in women when, in a mortuary chapel, the coffin is borne up the
aisle behind them.
But when a long old man in a blanket overcoat, his head tied up in a
handkerchief and nearly his entire face in a muffler, wearing green
goggles and with a complexion of glittering whiteness where it could be
seen, strode silently into the room, laying a hard, gloved hand on Mr.
Beeson’s shoulder, the latter so far forgot himself as to look up with an
appearance of no small astonishment; whomever he may have been expecting,
he had evidently not counted on meeting anyone like this. Nevertheless,
the sight of this unexpected guest produced in Mr. Beeson the following
sequence: a feeling of astonishment; a sense of gratification; a
sentiment of profound good will. Rising from his seat, he took the
knotty hand from his shoulder, and shook it up and down with a fervor
quite unaccountable; for in the old man’s aspect was nothing to attract,
much to repel. However, attraction is too general a property for
repulsion to be without it. The most attractive object in the world is
the face we instinctively cover with a cloth. When it becomes still more
attractive—fascinating—we put seven feet of earth above it.
“Sir,” said Mr. Beeson, releasing the old man’s hand, which fell
passively against his thigh with a quiet clack, “it is an extremely
disagreeable night. Pray be seated; I am very glad to see you.”
Mr. Beeson spoke with an easy good breeding that one would hardly have
expected, considering all things. Indeed, the contrast between his
appearance and his manner was sufficiently surprising to be one of the
commonest of social phenomena in the mines. The old man advanced a step
toward the fire, glowing cavernously in the green goggles. Mr. Beeson
resumed:
“You bet your life I am!”
Mr. Beeson’s elegance was not too refined; it had made reasonable
concessions to local taste. He paused a moment, letting his eyes drop
from the muffled head of his guest, down along the row of moldy buttons
confining the blanket overcoat, to the greenish cowhide boots powdered
with snow, which had begun to melt and run along the floor in little
rills. He took an inventory of his guest, and appeared satisfied. Who
would not have been? Then he continued:
“The cheer I can offer you is, unfortunately, in keeping with my
surroundings; but I shall esteem myself highly favored if it is your
pleasure to partake of it, rather than seek better at Bentley’s Flat.”
With a singular refinement of hospitable humility Mr. Beeson spoke as if
a sojourn in his warm cabin on such a night, as compared with walking
fourteen miles up to the throat in snow with a cutting crust, would be an
intolerable hardship. By way of reply, his guest unbuttoned the blanket
overcoat. The host laid fresh fuel on the fire, swept the hearth with
the tail of a wolf, and added:
“But _I_ think you’d better skedaddle.”
The old man took a seat by the fire, spreading his broad soles to the
heat without removing his hat. In the mines the hat is seldom removed
except when the boots are. Without further remark Mr. Beeson also seated
himself in a chair which had been a barrel, and which, retaining much of
its original character, seemed to have been designed with a view to
preserving his dust if it should please him to crumble. For a moment
there was silence; then, from somewhere among the pines, came the
snarling yelp of a coyote; and simultaneously the door rattled in its
frame. There was no other connection between the two incidents than that
the coyote has an aversion to storms, and the wind was rising; yet there
seemed somehow a kind of supernatural conspiracy between the two, and Mr.
Beeson shuddered with a vague sense of terror. He recovered himself in a
moment and again addressed his guest.
“There are strange doings here. I will tell you everything, and then if
you decide to go I shall hope to accompany you over the worst of the way;
as far as where Baldy Peterson shot Ben Hike—I dare say you know the
place.”
The old man nodded emphatically, as intimating not merely that he did,
but that he did indeed.
“Two years ago,” began Mr. Beeson, “I, with two companions, occupied this
house; but when the rush to the Flat occurred we left, along with the
rest. In ten hours the Gulch was deserted. That evening, however, I
discovered I had left behind me a valuable pistol (that is it) and
returned for it, passing the night here alone, as I have passed every
night since. I must explain that a few days before we left, our Chinese
domestic had the misfortune to die while the ground was frozen so hard
that it was impossible to dig a grave in the usual way. So, on the day
of our hasty departure, we cut through the floor there, and gave him such
burial as we could. But before putting him down I had the extremely bad
taste to cut off his pigtail and spike it to that beam above his grave,
where you may see it at this moment, or, preferably, when warmth has
given you leisure for observation.
“I stated, did I not, that the Chinaman came to his death from natural
causes? I had, of course, nothing to do with that, and returned through
no irresistible attraction, or morbid fascination, but only because I had
forgotten a pistol. This is clear to you, is it not, sir?”
The visitor nodded gravely. He appeared to be a man of few words, if
any. Mr. Beeson continued:
“According to the Chinese faith, a man is like a kite: he cannot go to
heaven without a tail. Well, to shorten this tedious story—which,
however, I thought it my duty to relate—on that night, while I was here
alone and thinking of anything but him, that Chinaman came back for his
pigtail.
“He did not get it.”
At this point Mr. Beeson relapsed into blank silence. Perhaps he was
fatigued by the unwonted exercise of speaking; perhaps he had conjured up
a memory that demanded his undivided attention. The wind was now fairly
abroad, and the pines along the mountainside sang with singular
distinctness. The narrator continued:
“You say you do not see much in that, and I must confess I do not myself.
“But he keeps coming!”
There was another long silence, during which both stared into the fire
without the movement of a limb. Then Mr. Beeson broke out, almost
fiercely, fixing his eyes on what he could see of the impassive face of
his auditor:
“Give it him? Sir, in this matter I have no intention of troubling
anyone for advice. You will pardon me, I am sure”—here he became
singularly persuasive—“but I have ventured to nail that pigtail fast, and
have assumed the somewhat onerous obligation of guarding it. So it is
quite impossible to act on your considerate suggestion.
“Do you play me for a Modoc?”
Nothing could exceed the sudden ferocity with which he thrust this
indignant remonstrance into the ear of his guest. It was as if he had
struck him on the side of the head with a steel gauntlet. It was a
protest, but it was a challenge. To be mistaken for a coward—to be
played for a Modoc: these two expressions are one. Sometimes it is a
Chinaman. Do you play me for a Chinaman? is a question frequently
addressed to the ear of the suddenly dead.
Mr. Beeson’s buffet produced no effect, and after a moment’s pause,
during which the wind thundered in the chimney like the sound of clods
upon a coffin, he resumed:
“But, as you say, it is wearing me out. I feel that the life of the last
two years has been a mistake—a mistake that corrects itself; you see how.
The grave! No; there is no one to dig it. The ground is frozen, too.
But you are very welcome. You may say at Bentley’s—but that is not
important. It was very tough to cut: they braid silk into their
pigtails. Kwaagh.”
Mr. Beeson was speaking with his eyes shut, and he wandered. His last
word was a snore. A moment later he drew a long breath, opened his eyes
with an effort, made a single remark, and fell into a deep sleep. What
he said was this:
“They are swiping my dust!”
Then the aged stranger, who had not uttered one word since his arrival,
arose from his seat and deliberately laid off his outer clothing, looking
as angular in his flannels as the late Signorina Festorazzi, an Irish
woman, six feet in height, and weighing fifty-six pounds, who used to
exhibit herself in her chemise to the people of San Francisco. He then
crept into one of the “bunks,” having first placed a revolver in easy
reach, according to the custom of the country. This revolver he took
from a shelf, and it was the one which Mr. Beeson had mentioned as that
for which he had returned to the Gulch two years before.
In a few moments Mr. Beeson awoke, and seeing that his guest had retired
he did likewise. But before doing so he approached the long, plaited
wisp of pagan hair and gave it a powerful tug, to assure himself that it
was fast and firm. The two beds—mere shelves covered with blankets not
overclean—faced each other from opposite sides of the room, the little
square trapdoor that had given access to the Chinaman’s grave being
midway between. This, by the way, was crossed by a double row of
spike-heads. In his resistance to the supernatural, Mr. Beeson had not
disdained the use of material precautions.
The fire was now low, the flames burning bluely and petulantly, with
occasional flashes, projecting spectral shadows on the walls—shadows that
moved mysteriously about, now dividing, now uniting. The shadow of the
pendent queue, however, kept moodily apart, near the roof at the further
end of the room, looking like a note of admiration. The song of the
pines outside had now risen to the dignity of a triumphal hymn. In the
pauses the silence was dreadful.
It was during one of these intervals that the trap in the floor began to
lift. Slowly and steadily it rose, and slowly and steadily rose the
swaddled head of the old man in the bunk to observe it. Then, with a
clap that shook the house to its foundation, it was thrown clean back,
where it lay with its unsightly spikes pointing threateningly upward.
Mr. Beeson awoke, and without rising, pressed his fingers into his eyes.
He shuddered; his teeth chattered. His guest was now reclining on one
elbow, watching the proceedings with the goggles that glowed like lamps.
Suddenly a howling gust of wind swooped down the chimney, scattering
ashes and smoke in all directions, for a moment obscuring everything.
When the firelight again illuminated the room there was seen, sitting
gingerly on the edge of a stool by the hearthside, a swarthy little man
of prepossessing appearance and dressed with faultless taste, nodding to
the old man with a friendly and engaging smile. “From San Francisco,
evidently,” thought Mr. Beeson, who having somewhat recovered from his
fright was groping his way to a solution of the evening’s events.
But now another actor appeared upon the scene. Out of the square black
hole in the middle of the floor protruded the head of the departed
Chinaman, his glassy eyes turned upward in their angular slits and
fastened on the dangling queue above with a look of yearning unspeakable.
Mr. Beeson groaned, and again spread his hands upon his face. A mild
odor of opium pervaded the place. The phantom, clad only in a short blue
tunic quilted and silken but covered with grave-mold, rose slowly, as if
pushed by a weak spiral spring. Its knees were at the level of the
floor, when with a quick upward impulse like the silent leaping of a
flame it grasped the queue with both hands, drew up its body and took the
tip in its horrible yellow teeth. To this it clung in a seeming frenzy,
grimacing ghastly, surging and plunging from side to side in its efforts
to disengage its property from the beam, but uttering no sound. It was
like a corpse artificially convulsed by means of a galvanic battery. The
contrast between its superhuman activity and its silence was no less than
hideous!
Mr. Beeson cowered in his bed. The swarthy little gentleman uncrossed
his legs, beat an impatient tattoo with the toe of his boot and consulted
a heavy gold watch. The old man sat erect and quietly laid hold of the
revolver.
Bang!
Like a body cut from the gallows the Chinaman plumped into the black hole
below, carrying his tail in his teeth. The trapdoor turned over,
shutting down with a snap. The swarthy little gentleman from San
Francisco sprang nimbly from his perch, caught something in the air with
his hat, as a boy catches a butterfly, and vanished into the chimney as
if drawn up by suction.
From away somewhere in the outer darkness floated in through the open
door a faint, far cry—a long, sobbing wail, as of a child death-strangled
in the desert, or a lost soul borne away by the Adversary. It may have
been the coyote.
* * * * *
In the early days of the following spring a party of miners on their way
to new diggings passed along the Gulch, and straying through the deserted
shanties found in one of them the body of Hiram Beeson, stretched upon a
bunk, with a bullet hole through the heart. The ball had evidently been
fired from the opposite side of the room, for in one of the oaken beams
overhead was a shallow blue dint, where it had struck a knot and been
deflected downward to the breast of its victim. Strongly attached to the
same beam was what appeared to be an end of a rope of braided horsehair,
which had been cut by the bullet in its passage to the knot. Nothing
else of interest was noted, excepting a suit of moldy and incongruous
clothing, several articles of which were afterward identified by
respectable witnesses as those in which certain deceased citizens of
Deadman’s had been buried years before. But it is not easy to understand
how that could be, unless, indeed, the garments had been worn as a
disguise by Death himself—which is hardly credible.