Charley's fire, and gazed into it as intently as if they were
fire-worshipers awaiting the utterances of a salamanderish oracle.
But the doughty Puritans of Cromwell's time, while they trusted in God,
carefully protected their powder from moisture, and the devout
Mohammedan, to this day, ties up his camel at night before committing it
to the keeping of the higher powers; so it was but natural that the
anxious ones at Flatfoot Bar vigorously ventilated their own ideas while
they longed for light and knowledge.
"They ain't ornaments to camp, no way you can fix it, them Greasers
ain't," said a tall miner, bestowing an effective kick upon a stick of
firewood, which had departed a short distance from his neighbors.
"Mississip's right, fellers," said the host. "They ain't got the
slightest idee of the duties of citizens. They show themselves down to
the saloon, to be sure, an' I never seed one of 'em a-waterin.' his
liquor; but when you've sed that, you've sed ev'rythin'."
"Our distinguished friend, speaks truthfully," remarked Nappy Boney, the
only Frenchman in camp, and possessing a nickname playfully contracted
from the name of the first emperor. "_La gloire_ is nothing to them.
Comprehends any one that they know not even of France's most illustrious
son, _le petit caporal_?"
"That's bad, to be sure," said Texas, cutting an enormous chew of
tobacco, and passing both plug and knife; "but that might be overlooked;
mebbe the schools down in Mexico ain't up with the times. What I'm down
on is, they hain't got none of the eddication that comes nateral to a
gentleman, even, ef he never seed the outside of a schoolhouse. Who ever
heerd of one of 'em hevin' a difficulty with any gentleman, at the
saloon or on the crick? They drar a good deal of blood, but it's allers
from some of their own kind, an' up there by 'emselves. Ef they hed a
grain of public spirit, not to say liberality, they'd do some of their
amusements before the rest of us, instead of gougin' the camp out of
_its_ constitutional amusements. Why, I've knowed the time when I've
held in fur six hours on a stretch, till there could be fellers enough
around to git a good deal of enjoyment out of it."
"They wash out a sight of dust!" growled Lynn Taps, from the
Massachusetts shoe district; "but I never could git one of 'em to put up
an ounce on a game--they jest play by 'emselves, an' keep all their
washin's to home."
"Blarst 'em hall! let's give 'em tickets-o'-leave, an' show em the
trail!" roared Bracelets, a stout Englishman, who had on each wrist a
red scar, which had suggested his name and unpleasant situations. "I
believe in fair play, but I darsn't keep my eyes hoff of 'em
sleepy-lookin' tops, when their flippers is anywheres near their knives,
you know."
"Well, what's to be done to 'em?" demanded Lynn Taps. "All this jawin's
well enough, but jaw never cleared out anybody 'xcep' that time Samson
tried, an' _then_ it came from an individual that wasn't related to any
of _this_ crowd."
"Let 'em alone till next time they git into a muss, an' then clean 'em
all out of camp," said Chagres Charley. "Let's hev it onderstood that
while this camp cheerfully recognizes the right of a gentleman to shoot
at sight an' lay out his man, that it considers stabbin' in the dark's
the same thing as murder. Them's our principles, and folks might's well
know 'em fust as last. Good Lord! what's that?"
All the men started to their feet at the sound of a long, loud yell.
"That's one of 'em now!" ejaculated Mississip, with a huge oath. "Nobody
but a Greaser ken holler that way--sounds like the last despairin' cry
of a dyin' mule. There's only eight or nine of 'em, an' each of us is
good fur two Greasers apiece--let's make 'em git this minnit."
And Mississip dashed out of the door, followed by the other five,
revolvers in hand.
The Mexicans lived together, in a hut made of raw hides, one of which
constituted the door.
The devoted six reached the hut, Texas snatched aside the hide, and each
man presented his pistol at full cock.
But no one fired; on the contrary, each man slowly dropped his pistol,
and opened his eyes.
There was no newly made corpse visible, nor did any Greasers savagely
wave a bloody stiletto.
But on the ground, insensible, lay a Mexican woman, and about her stood
seven or eight Greasers, each looking even more dumb, incapable, and
solemn than usual.
The city fathers felt themselves in an awkward position, and Mississip
finally asked, in the meekest of tones:
"What's the matter?"
"She Codago's wife," softly replied a Mexican. "They fight in
Chihuahua--he run away--she follow. She come here now--this minute--she
fall on Codago--she say something, we know not--he scream an' run."
"He's a low-lived scoundrel!" said Chagres Charley, between his teeth.
"Ef _my_ wife thort enough of me to follow me to the diggin's, I
wouldn't do much runnin' away. He's a reg'lar black-hearted,
white-livered--"
"Sh--h--h!" whispered Nappy, the Frenchman. "The lady is recovering, and
she may have a heart."
"_Maria, Madre purissima_!" low wailed the woman. "_Mi nino--mi nino
perdido_!"
"What's she a-sayin'?" asked Lynn Taps, in a whisper.
"She talk about little boy lost," said the Mexican.
"An' her husband gone, too, poor woman!" said Chagres Charley, in the
most sympathizing tones ever heard at Flatfoot Bar. "But a doctor'd be
more good to her jes' now than forty sich husbands as her'n. Where's the
nearest doctor, fellers?" continued Chagres Charley.
"Up to Dutch Hill," said Texas; "an' I'll see he's fetched inside of two
hours."
Saying which, Texas dropped the raw-hide door, and hurried off.
The remaining five strolled slowly back to Chagres Charley's hut.
"Them Greasers hain't never got nothin'," said Mississip, suddenly; "an'
that woman'll lay thar on the bare ground all night 'fore they think of
makin' her comfortable. Who's got an extra blanket?"
"I!" said each of the four others; and Nappy Boney expressed the feeling
of the whole party by exclaiming:
"The blue sky is enough good to cover man when woman needs blankets."
Hastily Mississip collected the four extra blankets and both of his own,
and, as he sped toward the Mexican hut, he stopped several times by the
way to dexterously snatch blankets from sleeping forms.
"Here you be," said he, suddenly entering the Mexican hut, and
startling the inmates into crossing themselves violently. "Make the poor
thing a decent bed, an' we'll hev a doctor here pretty soon."
[Illustration: SUDDENLY, BY THE GLARE OF A FRESH LIGHT, THE BOYS SAW THE
FACE OF A RATHER DIRTY, LARGE-EYED, BROWN SKINNED MEXICAN BABY.]
Mississip had barely vanished, when a light scratching was heard on the
door.
A Mexican opened it, and saw Nappy Boney, with extended hand and bottle.
"It is the _eau-de-vie_ of _la belle France_," he whispered. "Tenderly
I have cherished, but it is at the lady's service."
Chagres Charley, Lynn Taps and Bracelets were composing their nerves
with pipes about the fire they had surrounded early in the morning. Lynn
Taps had just declared his disbelief of a soul inside of the Mexican
frame, when the door was thrown open and an excited Mexican appeared.
"Her tongue come back!" he cried. "She say she come over mountain--she
bring little boy--she no eat, it was long time. Soon she must die, boy
must die. What she do? She put round boy her cloak, an' leave him by
rock, an' hurry to tell. Maybe coyote get him. What can do?"
"What can we do?" echoed Lynn Taps; "turn out every galoot in camp, and
foller her tracks till we find it. Souls or no souls, don't make no
diff'rence. I'll tramp my legs off, 'fore that child shall be left out
in the snow in them mountains."
Within five minutes every man in camp had been aroused.
Each man swore frightfully at being prematurely turned out--each man
hated the Greasers with all his heart and soul and strength; but each
man, as he learned what was the matter, made all possible haste, and
fluently cursed all who were slower than himself.
In fact, two or three irrepressible spirits, consuming with delay,
started alone on independent lines of search.
Chagres Charley appeared promptly, and assumed command.
"Boys," said he, "we'll sprinkle out into a line a couple of miles long,
and march up the mountain till we reach the snow. When I think it's
time, I'll fire three times, an' then each feller'll face an' tramp to
the right, keepin' a keerful lookout for a woman's tracks p'intin'
t'ward camp. Ther can't be no mistakin' 'em, for them sennyritas hez the
littlest kind o' feet. When any feller finds her tracks, he'll fire, an'
then we'll rally on him. I wish them other fellers, instid of goin' off
half-cocked, hed tracked Codago, the low-lived skunk. To think of him
runnin' away from wife, an' young one, too! Forward, git!"
"They _hain't_ got no souls--that's what made him do it, Charley," said
Lynn Taps, as the men deployed.
Steadily the miners ascended the rugged slope; rocks, trees, fallen
trunks and treacherous holes impeded their progress, but did not stop
them.
A steady wind cut them to the bone, and grew more keen and fierce as
they neared the snow.
Suddenly Chagres Charley fired, and the boys faced to the right--a
moment later another shot rallied the party; those nearest it found
Nappy Boney in a high state of excitement, and leaning over a
foot-print.
"_Mon Dieu_!" he cried; "they have not the _esprit_, those Mexicans; but
her footprints might have been made by the adorable feet of one of my
countrywomen, it is so small."
"Yes," said Mississip; "an' one of them fellers that started ahead hez
found it fust, fur here's a man's track a-goin' up."
Rapidly the excited miners followed the tracks through the snow, and
found them gradually leading to the regular trail across the mountain,
which trail few men ventured upon at that season. Suddenly the men in
advance stopped.
"Here 'tis, I reckon!" cried Mississip, springing across a small cleft
in the rocks, and running toward a dark object lying on the sheltered
side of a small cliff. "Good God!" he continued, as he stooped down;
"it's Codago! An' he's froze stiff."
"Serve him right, cuss him," growled Lynn Taps. "I almost wish he _had_
a soul, so he could catch it good an' hot, now he's gone!"
"He's got his pack with him," shouted Mississip, "and a huggin' it ez
tight ez ef he could take it to--to wherever he's gone to.".
"No man with a soul could hev ben cool enough to pack up his traps after
seein' that poor woman's face," argued Lynn Taps.
Mississip tore off a piece of his trowsers, struck fire with flint and
steel, poured on whisky, and blew it into a flame.
Rapidly the miners straggled up the trail, and halted opposite
Mississip.
"Well, I'll be durned!" shouted the latter; "he ain't got no shirt on,
an' there's an ugly cut in his arm. It beats anything I ever seed!"
One by one the miners leaped the cleft, and crowded about Mississip and
stared.
It was certainly Codago, and there was certainly his pack, made up in
his poncho, in the usual Greaser manner, and held tightly in his arms.
But while they stared, there was a sudden movement of the pack itself.
Lynn Taps gave a mighty tug at it, extricated it from the dead man's
grasp, and rapidly undid it.
Suddenly, by the glare of a fresh light, the boys saw the face of a
rather dirty, large-eyed, brown-skinned Mexican baby; and the baby,
probably by way of recognition, raised high a voice such as the boys
never heard before on that side of the Rocky Mountains.
"Here's what that cut in his arm means," shouted a miner who had struck
a light on the trail; "there's a finger-mark, done in blood on the snow,
by the side of the trail, an' a-pintin' right to that ledge; an' here's
his shirt a-flappin' on a stick stuck in a snow-bank lookin' t'ward
camp."
"There ain't no doubt 'bout what the woman said to him, or what made him
yell an' git, boys," said Chagres Charley, solemnly, as he took a
blanket from his shoulders and spread it on the ground.
Mississip took off his hat, and lifting the poor Mexican from the snow,
laid him in the blanket. Lynn Taps hid the baby, rewrapped, under his
own blanket, and hurried down the mountain, while four men picked up
Codago and followed.
Lynn Taps scratched on the rawhide door; the doctor opened it.
Lynn Tapps unrolled the bundle, and its occupant again raised its
voice.
The woman, who was lying motionless and with closed eyes, sprang to her
feet in an instant, and as Lynn Taps laid his burden on the blankets,
the woman, her every dull feature softened and lighted with motherly
tenderness, threw her arms about the astonished Yankee, and then fell
sobbing at his feet.
"You've brought her the only medicine that'll do her any good," said the
doctor, giving the baby a gentle dig under the ribs as he picked up his
saddle-bags.
Lynn Taps made a hasty escape, and reached the saloon, which had been
hurriedly opened as the crowd was heard approaching.
The bearers of the body deposited it gently on the floor, and the crowd
filed in quietly.
Lynn Taps walked up to the bar, and rapped upon it.
"Walk up, boys," said he; "fill high; hats off. Here's Codago. Maybe he
_didn't_ have a soul, but if he _didn't_, souls ain't needed in this
world. Buttoms up, every man."
The toast was drunk quietly and reverently, and when it was suggested
that the Greasers themselves should have participated, they were all
summoned, and the same toast was drank again.
The next day, as the body of Codago was being carried to a newly dug
grave, on the high ground overlooking the creek, and the Mexicans stood
about, as if dumb staring and incessant smoking were the only
proprieties to be observed on such occasions, Lynn Taps thoughtfully
offered his arm to the weeping widow, and so sorrowful was she
throughout the performance of the sad rites, that Lynn Taps was heard to
remark that, however it might be with the men, there could be no doubt
about Mexican women's possessing souls. As a few weeks later the widow
became Mrs. Lynn Taps, there can be no doubt that her second husband's
final convictions were genuine.
THE LAST PIKE AT JAGGER'S BEND
Where they came from no one knew. Among the farmers near the Bend there
was ample ability to conduct researches beset by far more difficulties
than was that of the origin of the Pikes; but a charge of buckshot which
a good-natured Yankee received one evening, soon after putting questions
to a venerable Pike, exerted a depressing influence upon the spirit of
investigation. They were not bloodthirsty, these Pikes, but they had
good reason to suspect all inquirers of being at least deputy sheriffs,
if not worse; and a Pike's hatred of officers of the law is equaled in
intensity only by his hatred for manual labor.
But while there was doubt as to the fatherland of the little colony of
Pikes at Jagger's Bend, their every neighbor would willingly make
affidavit as to the cause of their locating and remaining at the Bend.
When humanitarians and optimists argued that it was because the water
was good and convenient, that the Bend itself caught enough drift-wood
for fuel, and that the dirt would yield a little gold when manipulated
by placer and pan, all farmers and stockowners would freely admit the
validity of these reasons; but the admission was made with a countenance
whose indignation and sorrow indicated that the greater causes were yet
unnamed. With eyes speaking emotions which words could not express, they
would point to sections of wheatfields minus the grain-bearing heads--to
hides and hoofs of cattle unslaughtered by themselves--to mothers of
promising calves, whose tender bleatings answered not the maternal
call--to the places which had once known fine horses, but had been
untenanted since certain Pikes had gone across, the mountains for game.
They would accuse no man wrongfully, but in a country where all farmers
had wheat and cattle and horses, and where prowling Indians and Mexicans
were not, how could these disappearances occur?
But to people owning no property in the neighborhood--to tourists and
artists--the Pike settlement at the Bend was as interesting and ugly as
a skye-terrier. The architecture of the village was of original style,
and no duplicate existed. Of the half-dozen residences, one was composed
exclusively of sod; another of bark; yet another of poles, roofed with a
wagon-cover, and plastered on the outside with mud; the fourth was of
slabs, nicely split from logs which had drifted into the Bend; the fifth
was of hide stretched over a frame strictly gothic from foundation to
ridgepole; while the sixth, burrowed into the hillside, displayed only
the barrel which formed its chimney.
A more aristocratic community did not exist on the Pacific Coast. Visit
the Pikes when you would, you could never see any one working. Of
churches, school-houses, stores and other plebeian institutions, there
were none; and no Pike demeaned himself by entering trade, or soiled his
hands by agriculture.
Yet unto this peaceful, contented neighborhood there found his way a
visitor who had been everywhere in the world without once being made
welcome. He came to the house built of slabs, and threatened the wife of
Sam Trotwine, owner of the house; and Sam, after sunning himself
uneasily for a day or two, mounted a pony, and rode off for a doctor to
drive the intruder away.
When he returned he found all the men in the camp seated on a log in
front of his own door, and then he knew he must prepare for the
worst--only one of the great influences of the world could force every
Pike from his own door at exactly the same time. There they sat,
yellow-faced, bearded, long-backed and bent, each looking like the
other, find all like Sam; and, as he dismounted, they all looked at him.
"How is she?" said Sam, tying his horse and the doctor's, while the
latter went in.
"Well," said the oldest man, with deliberation, "the wimmin's all thar
ef that's any sign."
Each man on the log inclined his head slightly but positively to the
left, thus manifesting belief that Sam had been correctly and
sufficiently answered. Sam himself seemed to regard his information in
about the same manner.
Suddenly the raw hide which formed the door of Sam's house was pushed
aside, and a woman came out and called Sam, and he disappeared from his
log.
As he entered his hut, all the women lifted sorrowful faces and retired;
no one even lingered, for the Pike has not the common human interest in
other people's business; he lacks that, as well as certain similar
virtues of civilization.
Sam dropped by the bedside, and was human; his heart was in the right
place; and though heavily intrenched by years of laziness and whisky and
tobacco, it _could_ be brought to the front, and it came now.
The dying woman cast her eyes appealingly at the surgeon, and that
worthy stepped outside the door. Then the yellow-faced woman said:
"Sam, doctor says I ain't got much time left."
"Mary," said Sam, "I wish ter God I could die fur yer. The children--"
"It's them I want to talk about, Sam," replied his wife. 'An' I wish
they could die with me, rather'n hev 'em liv ez I've hed to. Not that
you ain't been a kind husband to me, for you hev. Whenever I wanted meat
yev got it, somehow; an' when yev been ugly drunk, yev kep' away from
the house. But I'm dyin', Sam, and it's cos you've killed me."
"Good God, Mary!" cried the astonished Sam, jumping up; "yure
crazy--here, doctor!"
"Doctor can't do no good, Sam; keep still, and listen, ef yer love me
like yer once said yer did; for I hevn't got much breath left," gasped
the woman.
"Mary," said the aggrieved Sam, "I swow to God I dunno what yer drivin'
at."
"It's jest this, Sam," replied the woman: "Yer tuk me, tellin' me ye'd
love me an' honor me an' pertect me. You mean to say, now, yev done it?
I'm a-dyin', Sam--I hain't got no favors to ask of nobody, an' I'm
tellin' the truth, not knowin' what word'll be my last."
"Then tell a feller where the killin' came in, Mary, for heaven's sake,"
said the unhappy Sam.
"It's come in all along, Sam," said the woman; "there is women in the
States, so I've heerd, that marries fur a home, an' bread an' butter,
but you promised more'n that, Sam. An' I've waited. An' it ain't come.
An' there's somethin' in me that's all starved and cut to pieces. An'
it's your fault, Sam. I tuk yer fur better or fur wuss, an' I've never
grumbled."
"I know yer hain't, Mary," whispered the conscience-stricken Pike. "An'
I know what yer mean. Ef God'll only let yer be fur a few years, I'll
see ef the thing can't be helped. Don't cuss me, Mary--I've never knowed
how I've been a-goin'. I wish there was somethin' I could do 'fore you
go, to pay yer all I owe yer. I'd go back on everything that makes life
worth hevin'."
"Pay it to the children, Sam," said the sick woman, raising herself in
her miserable bed. "I'll forgive yer everything if you'll do the right
thing fur them. Do--do--everything!" said the woman, throwing up her
arms and falling backward. Her husband's arm caught her; his lips
brought to her wan face a smile, which the grim visitor, who an instant
later stole her breath, pityingly left in full possession of the
rightful inheritance from which it had been so long excluded.
Sam knelt for a moment with his face beside his wife--what he said or
did the Lord only knew, but the doctor, who was of a speculative mind,
afterward said that when Sam appeared at the door he showed the first
Pike face in which he had ever seen any signs of a soul.
Sam went to the sod house, where lived the oldest woman in the camp, and
briefly announced the end of his wife. Then, after some consultation
with the old woman, Sam rode to town on one of his horses, leading
another. He came back with but one horse and a large bundle; and soon
the women were making for Mrs. Trotwine her last earthly robe, and the
first new one she had worn for years. The next day a wagon brought a
coffin and a minister, and the whole camp silently and respectfully
followed Mrs. Trotwine to a home with which she could find no fault.
For three days all the male Pikes in the camp sat on the log in front of
Sam's door, and expressed their sympathy as did the three friends of
Job--that is, they held their peace. But on the fourth their tongues
were unloosed. As a conversationalist the Pike is not a success, but
Sam's actions were so unusual and utterly unheard of, that it seemed as
if even the stones must have wondered and communed among themselves.
"I never heard of such a thing," said Brown Buck; "he's gone an' bought
new clothes for each of the four young 'uns."
"Yes," said the patriarch of the camp, "an' this mornin', when I went
down to the bank to soak my head, 'cos last night's liquor didn't agree
with it, I seed Sam with all his young 'uns as they wuz a washin' their
face an' hands with soap. They'll ketch their death an' be on the hill
with their mother 'fore long, if he don't look out; somebody ort to
reason with him."
"'Twon't do no good," sighed Limping Jim. "He's lost his head, an'
reason just goes into one ear and out at t'other. When he was scrapin'
aroun' the front door t'other day, an' I asked him what he wuz a-layin'
the ground all bare an' desolate for, he said he was done keepin'
pig-pen. Now everybody but him knows he never had a pig. His head's
gone, just mark my words."
On the morning of the fourth day Sam's friends had just secured a full
attendance on the log, and were at work upon their first pipes, when
they were startled by seeing Sam harness his horse in the wagon and put
all his children into it.
"Whar yer bound fur, Sam?" asked the patriarch.
Sam blushed as near as a Pike could, but answered with only a little
hesitation:
"Goin' to take 'em to school to Maxfield--goin' to do it ev'ry day."
The incumbent of the log were too nearly paralyzed to remonstrate, but
after a few moments of silence the patriarch remarked, in tones of
feeling, yet decision:
"He's hed a tough time of it, but he's no bizness to ruin the
settlement. I'm an old man myself, an' I need peace of mind, so I'm
goin' to pack up my traps and mosey. When the folks at Maxfield knows
what he's doin', they'll make him a constable or a justice, an' I'm too
much of a man to live nigh any sich."
And next day the patriarch wheeled his family and property to parts
unknown.