Tracks of a Rolling Stone Part 18

Das Naturell der Frauen Ist so nah mit Kunst verwandt,

that one might easily be mistaken. Anyhow, flight provoked pursuit; I jumped on to my horse, and raced along the plain like mad. She saw me coming, and flogged the more, but being the better mounted of the two, by degrees I overhauled her. As I ranged alongside, neither slackened speed; and reaching out to catch her bridle, my knee hooked under the hollow of hers, twisted her clean off her pad, and in a moment she lay senseless on the ground. I flung myself from my horse, and laid her head upon my lap. Good G.o.d! had I broken her neck! She did not stir; her eyes were closed, but she breathed, and her heart beat quickly. I was wild with terror and remorse. I looked back for aid, but the others had not started; we were still a mile or more from Honolulu. I knew not what to do. I kissed her forehead, I called her by her name. But she lay like a child asleep. Presently her dazed eyes opened and stared with wonderment, and then she smiled. The tears, I think, were on my cheeks, and seeing them, she put her arms around my neck and-forgave me.

She had fallen on her head and had been stunned. I caught the horses while she sat still, and we walked them slowly home. When we got within sight of her hut on the outskirts of the town, she would not let me go further. There was sadness in her look when we parted. I made her understand (I had picked up two or three words) that I would return to see her. She at once shook her head with an expression of something akin to fear. I too felt sorrowful, and worse than sorrowful, jealous.

When the night fell I sought her hut. It was one of the better kind, built like others mainly with matting; no doors or windows, but with an extensive verandah which protected the inner part from rain and sun. Now and again I caught glimpses of Arakeeta's fairy form flitting in, or obscuring, the lamplight. I could see two other women and two men. Who and what were they? Was one of those dark forms an Oth.e.l.lo, ready to smother his Desdemona? Or were either of them a Valentine between my Marguerite and me? Though there was no moon, I dared not venture within the lamp's rays, for her sake; for my own, I was reckless now-I would have thanked either of them to brain me with his hoe. But Arakeeta came not.

In the day-time I roamed about the district, about the _taro_ fields, in case she might be working there. Every evening before sundown, many of the women and some of the well-to-do men, and a few whites, used to ride on the plain that stretches along the sh.o.r.e between the fringe of palm groves and the mountain spurs. I had seen Arakeeta amongst them before the _Loohou_ feast. She had given this up now, and why? Night after night I hovered about the hut. When she was in the verandah I whispered her name. She started and peered into the dark, hesitated, then fled.

Again the same thing happened. She had heard me, she knew that I was there, but she came not; no, wiser than I, she came not. And though I sighed:

What is worth The rest of Heaven, the rest of earth?

the shrewd little wench doubtless told herself: 'A quiet life, without the fear of the broomstick.'

Fred was impatient to be off, I had already trespa.s.sed too long on the kind hospitality of General Miller, neither of us had heard from England for more than a year, and the opportunities of trading vessels to California seldom offered. A rare chance came-a fast-sailing brig, the 'Corsair,' was to leave in a few days for San Francisco. The captain was an Englishman, and had the repute of being a boon companion and a good caterer. We-I, pa.s.sively-settled to go. Samson decided to remain. He wanted to visit Owyhee. He came on board with us, however; and, with a parting b.u.mper of champagne, we said 'Good-bye.' That was the last I ever saw of him. The hardships had broken him down. He died not long after.

The light breeze carried us slowly away-for the first time for many long months with our faces to the east. But it was not 'merry' England that filled my juvenile fancies. I leaned upon the taffrail and watched this lovely land of the 'flowery food' fade slowly from my sight. I had eaten of the Lotus, and knew no wish but to linger on, to roam no more, to return no more, to any home that was not Arakeeta's.

This sort of feeling is not very uncommon in early life. And 'out of sight, out of mind,' is also a known experience. Long before we reached San Fr'isco I was again eager for adventure.

How magnificent is the bay! One cannot see across it. How impatient we were to land! Everything new. Bearded dirty heterogeneous crowds busy in all directions,-some running up wooden and zinc houses, some paving the streets with planks, some housing over ships beached for temporary dwellings. The sandy hills behind the infant town are being levelled and the foresh.o.r.e filled up. A 'water surface' of forty feet square is worth 5,000 dollars. So that here and there the shop-fronts are ships'

broadsides. Already there is a theatre. But the chief feature is the gambling saloons, open night and day. These large rooms are always filled with from 300 to 400 people of every description-from 'judges' and 'colonels' (every man is one or the other, who is nothing else) to Parisian cocottes, and escaped convicts of all nationalities. At one end of the saloon is a bar, at the other a band. Dozens of tables are ranged around. Monte, faro, rouge-et-noir, are the games. A large proportion of the players are diggers in shirt-sleeves and butcher-boots, belts round their waists for bowie knife and 'five shooters,' which have to be surrendered on admittance. They come with their bags of nuggets or 'dust,' which is duly weighed, stamped, and sealed by officials for the purpose.

I have still several specimens of the precious metal which I captured, varying in size from a grain of wheat to a mustard seed.

The tables win enormously, and so do the ladies of pleasure; but the winnings of these go back again to the tables. Four times, while we were here, differences of opinion arose concerning points of 'honour,' and were summarily decided by revolvers. Two of the four were subsequently referred to Judge 'Lynch.'

Wishing to see the 'diggings,' Fred and I went to Sacramento-about 150 miles up the river of that name. This was but a pocket edition of San Francisco, or scarcely that. We therefore moved to Marysville, which, from its vicinity to the various branches of the Sacramento river, was the chief depot for the miners of the 'wet diggin's' in Northern California. Here we were received by a Mr. Ma.s.sett-a curious specimen of the waifs and strays that turn up all over the world in odd places, and whom one would be sure to find in the moon if ever one went there. He owned a little one-roomed cabin, over the door of which was painted 'Offices of the Marysville Herald.' He was his own contributor and 'correspondent,' editor and printer, (the press was in a corner of the room). Amongst other avocations he was a concert-giver, a comic reader, a tragic actor, and an auctioneer. He had the good temper and sanguine disposition of a Mark Tapley. After the golden days of California he spent his life wandering about the globe; giving 'entertainments' in China, j.a.pan, India, Australia. Wherever the English language is spoken, Stephen Ma.s.sett had many friends and no enemies.

Fred slept on the table, I under it, and next morning we hired horses and started for the 'Forks of the Yuba.' A few hours' ride brought us to the gold-hunters. Two or three hundred men were at work upon what had formerly been the bed of the river. By unwritten law, each miner was ent.i.tled to a certain portion of the 'bar,' as it was called, in which the gold is found. And, as the precious metal has to be obtained by washing, the allotments were measured by thirty feet on the banks of the river and into the dry bed as far as this extends; thus giving each man his allowance of water. Generally three or four combined to possess a 'claim.' Each would then attend to his own department: one loosened the soil, another filled the barrow or cart, a third carried it to the river, and the fourth would wash it in the 'rocker.' The average weight of gold got by each miner while we were at the 'wet diggin's,' _i.e._ where water had to be used, was nearly half an ounce or seven dollars' worth a day.

We saw three Englishmen who had bought a claim 30 feet by 100 feet, for 1,400 dollars. It had been bought and sold twice before for considerable sums, each party supposing it to be nearly 'played out.' In three weeks the Englishmen paid their 1,400 dollars and had cleared thirteen dollars a day apiece for their labour.

Our presence here created both curiosity and suspicion, for each gang and each individual was very shy of his neighbour. They did not believe our story of crossing the plains; they themselves, for the most part, had come round the Horn; a few across the isthmus. Then, if we didn't want to dig, what did we want? Another peculiarity about us-a great one-was, that, so far as they could see, we were unarmed. At night the majority, all except the few who had huts, slept in a zinc house or sort of low-roofed barn, against the walls of which were three tiers of bunks.

There was no room for us, even if we had wished it, but we managed to hire a trestle. Mattress or covering we had none. As Fred and I lay side by side, squeezed together in a trough scarcely big enough for one, we heard two fellows by the door of the shed talking us over. They thought no doubt that we were fast asleep, they themselves were slightly fuddled. We nudged each other and p.r.i.c.ked up our ears, for we had already canva.s.sed the question of security, surrounded as we were by ruffians who looked quite ready to dispose of babes in the wood. They discussed our 'portable property' which was nil; one decided, while the other believed, that we must have money in our pockets. The first remarked that, whether or no, we were unarmed; the other wasn't so sure about that-it wasn't likely we'd come there to be skinned for the asking.

Then arose the question of consequences, and it transpired that neither of them had the courage of his rascality. After a bit, both agreed they had better turn in. Tired as we were, we fell asleep. How long we had slumbered I know not, but all of a sudden I was seized by the beard, and was conscious of a report which in my dreams I took for a pistol-shot. I found myself on the ground amid the wrecks of the trestle. Its joints had given way under the extra weight, and Fred's first impulse had been to clutch at my throat.

On the way back to San Francisco we stayed for a couple of nights at Sacramento. It was a miserable place, with nothing but a few temporary buildings except those of the Spanish settlers. In the course of a walk round the town I noticed a crowd collected under a large elm-tree in the horse-market. On inquiry I was informed that a man had been lynched on one of its boughs the night before last. A piece of the rope was still hanging from the tree. When I got back to the 'hotel'-a place not much better than the shed at Yuba Forks-I found a newspaper with an account of the affair. Drawing a chair up to the stove, I was deep in the story, when a huge rowdy-looking fellow in digger-costume interrupted me with:

'Say, stranger, let's have a look at that paper, will ye?'

'When I've done with it,' said I, and continued reading. He lent over the back of my chair, put one hand on my shoulder, and with the other raised the paper so that he could read.

'Caint see rightly. Ah, reckon you're readen 'baout Jim, ain't yer?'

'Who's Jim?'

'Him as they sus-spended yesterday mornin'. Jim was a purticler friend o' mine, and I help'd to hang him.'

'A friendly act! What was he hanged for?'

'When did you come to Sacramenty City?'

'Day before yesterday.'

'Wal, I'll tell yer haow't was then. Yer see, Jim was a Britisher, he come from a place they call Botany Bay, which belongs to Victoria, but ain't 'xactly in the Old Country. I judge, when he first come to Californy, 'baout six months back, he warn't acquainted none with any boys hereaway, so he took to diggin' by hisself. It was up to Cigar Bar whar he dug, and I chanst to be around there too, that's haow we got to know one another. Jim hadn't been here not a fortnight 'fore one of the boys lost 300 dollars as he'd made a cache of. Somehow suspicions fell on Jim. More'n one of us thought he'd been a diggin' for bags instead of for dust; and the man as lost the money swore he'd hev a turn with him; so Jim took my advice not to go foolin' around, an' sloped.'

'Well,' said I, as my friend stopped to adjust his tobacco plug, 'he wasn't hanged for that?'

''Tain't likely! Till last week n.o.body know'd whar he'd gone to. When he come to Sacramenty this time, he come with a pile, an' no mistake.

All day and all night he used to play at faro an' a heap o' other games.

n.o.body couldn't tell how he made his money hold out, nor whar he got it from; but sartin sure the crowd reckoned as haow Jim was considerable of a loafer. One day a blacksmith as lives up Broad Street, said he found out the way he done it, and ast me to come with him and show up Jim for cheatin'. Naow, whether it was as Jim suspicioned the blacksmith I cain't say, but he didn't cheat, and lost his money in consequence. This riled him bad, so wantin' to get quit of the blacksmith he began a quarrel. The blacksmith was a quick-tempered man, and after some language struck Jim in the mouth. Jim jumps up, and whippin' out his revolver, shoots the t'other man dead on the spot. I was the first to lay hold on him, but ef it hadn't 'a' been for me they'd 'a' torn him to pieces.

'"Send for Judge Parker," says some.

'"Let's try him here," says others.

'"I don't want to be tried at all," says Jim. "You all know b.l.o.o.d.y well as I shot the man. And I knows b.l.o.o.d.y well as I'll hev to swing for it.

Gi' me till daylight, and I'll die like a man."

'But we wasn't going to hang him without a proper trial; and as the trial lasted two hours, it-'

'Two hours! What did you want two hours for?'

'There was some as wanted to lynch him, and some as wanted him tried by the reg'lar judges of the Crim'nal Court. One of the best speakers said lynch-law was no law at all, and no innocent man's life was safe with it.

So there was a lot of speakin', you bet. By the time it was over it was just daylight, and the majority voted as he should die at onc't. So they took him to the horse-market, and stood him on a table under the big elm.

I kep' by his side, and when he was getting on the table he ast me to lend him my revolver to shoot the foreman of the jury. When I wouldn't, he ast me to tie the knot so as it wouldn't slip. "It ain't no account, Jim," says I, "to talk like that. You're bound to die; and ef they didn't hang yer I'd shoot yer myself."

'"Well then," says he, "gi' me hold of the rope, and I'll show you how little I keer for death." He s.n.a.t.c.hes the cord out o' my hands, pulls hisself out o' reach o' the crowd, and sat cross-legged on the bough.

Half a dozen shooters was raised to fetch him down, but he tied a noose in the rope, put it round his neck, slipped it puty tight, and stood up on the bough and made 'em a speech. What he mostly said was as he hated 'em all. He cussed the man he shot, then he cussed the world, then he cussed hisself, and with a terr'ble oath he jumped off the bough, and swung back'ards and for'ards with his neck broke.'

'An Englishman,' I reflected aloud.

He nodded. 'You're a Britisher, I reckon, ain't yer?'

'Yes; why?'

'Wal, you've a puty strong accent.'

'Think so?'

'Wal, I could jest tie a knot in it.'

This is a vulgar and repulsive story. But it is not fiction; and any picture of Californian life in 1850, without some such faithful touch of its local colour, would be inadequate and misleading.

CHAPTER x.x.xII