.1 !,■ I m^^jm 
 
 The Jaws of Death 
 
THE 
 
 DaffoDil iLilJtarp 
 
 of 
 
 SHORTER NO F ELS 
 
 in one volume. 
 
 Pa/>ty, IS. 6d. ; cloth gilt, is. 
 
 By Grant Allen. 
 
 I. THE JAWS OF DEATH. 
 
 By George Knight. 
 
 II. SAPPHIRA OF THE 
 5TAGE. 
 
 By M. Donovan. 
 
 III. THE KAFFIR CIRCUS. 
 
 [June. 
 
 By Curtis Yorke. 
 
 IV. BECAUSE OF THE 
 CHILD. 
 
 Other Volumes at Monthly Inten-als. 
 
 London : JARROLD & SONS, 
 lo & II, Warwick Lanb, E.G. 
 
 'f 
 y 
 
HE Jaws 
 
 OF Death 
 
 BY 
 
 Grant Allen 
 
 SANS pron rr 
 
 SANS REPROCHC 
 
 A NOVEL 
 
 London 
 Jarrold & Sons 
 
 10 AND II WARWICK LANE E.G. 
 
 1896 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 -♦o*- 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. A Pioneer of Cooper's 
 
 X IKE ... ... ,,, 
 
 II. The Grand Piano ... 
 
 III. The Corner Lot 
 
 IV. To San Francisco ... 
 V. Li Sing, the Showman 
 
 VI. The Jaws of Death in 
 
 Real Earnest 
 VII. The Chance of a 
 Minute 
 
 I'AOE 
 
 -5 
 1 00 
 
The Jaws of Death. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A PIONEER OF COOPEr's PIKE. 
 
 "Enjoy the spring of Love and 
 Youth, 
 
 To some good angel leave the 
 rest ; 
 For Time will teach thee soon the 
 truth, 
 There are no birds in last year's 
 nest ! " 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 Why, certainly. A great 
 many folks ask me what it 
 was that turned my hair 
 white. And you don't often 
 see a young man of my age 
 with snow-white locks like 
 these, I'm aware. I con- 
 sider it a spkialitd. Well, 
 it was that awful night at 
 San Francisco that did it, if 
 
 7 
 
IF 
 
 you want to know. I tell 
 you, gentlemen, if ever any 
 fellow was rescued from the 
 jaws of death by the skin of 
 his teeth, it's the individual 
 that now stands before you. 
 But it's a long yarn, and a 
 dry yarn, and it'll take some 
 time to tell it properly. Let's 
 adjourn to the billiard-room, 
 and have it all out over a 
 brandy and soda, since you 
 will be inquisitive. I always 
 require a brandy and soda 
 myself when I tell that tale, 
 just to keep my mouth 
 moist ; the horror of the 
 thing comes back to me so 
 still, that it somehow seems 
 to dry my blood up. 
 
 But first, before I begin 
 to reach the tragedy of it — 
 for you may guess it was a 
 tragedy, and no mistake — 
 let me start fair with the 
 story how I came at all, an 
 Englishman born and bred, 
 and one of the Frekes of 
 Devonshire, to go to San 
 Francisco. 
 
 8 
 
FRANCISCO. 
 
 You've had a cursory look 
 round Cooper's Pike this 
 afternoon in my buggy, and 
 you can see what sort of a 
 city it is nowadays. There 
 isn't another manufacturing 
 town on the Pacific slope 
 that can hold a candle to 
 Cooper's Pike this minute 
 in the matter of industries. 
 We claim to do the biggest 
 trade in hardware of any 
 city in the State, and our 
 population ran out to over 
 seventy thousand souls at 
 the last enumeration. But 
 the Pike was a precious dif- 
 ferent sort of a place when 
 I first came here, ten years 
 since. A more one-horse 
 affair than it looked then 
 you never saw. 
 
 It was a miserable village 
 of a single long street, and 
 low at that, consisting in 
 about equal proportions of a 
 hotel, a dancing-saloon, three 
 American bars, a provision 
 store, a shooting-gallery, and 
 a Chinese laundry. People 
 
 9 B 
 
PEOPLE 
 
 said, those days, It was better 
 to live in vain than to live 
 in Cooper's Pike City. The 
 inhabitants reckoned about 
 forty men and three women ; 
 and so far as I could see 
 they didn't appear to have a 
 single immortal soul among 
 them. "Hallo ! " said I, when 
 I first set eyes on the town 
 of Cooper's Pike ; " here's a 
 pretty sort of place indeed 
 for me to bring Edith to ! " 
 
 And that reminds me that 
 I'd better start fair at the 
 very beginning, and tell you 
 who I was, and who was 
 Edith. 
 
 Well, I'd come fresh out 
 from the old country in those 
 days, like many another 
 young fellow of good family 
 and insufficient brains, to 
 seek my fortune in the 
 western territories. I'd been 
 a couple of years a medical 
 student at Bartholomew's 
 before I left home ; but Bar- 
 tholomew's and I didn't get 
 on together, somehow; and 
 
 lO 
 
AND 
 
 Bartholomew's had the mean- 
 ness to insinuate it was my 
 own fault rather than theirs, 
 for being a lazy young vaga- 
 bond, and neglecting anatomy 
 and physiology with impartial 
 carelessness. Perhaps it was ; 
 for I was never a dab at 
 books, and I didn't take 
 enthusiastically to dissect- 
 ing, either ; but anyhow, my 
 mother went on Bartholo- 
 mew's side, and shipped me 
 off to America to shift for 
 myself on a ranch or some- 
 thing. The dear old lady 
 meant to do her best lor me, 
 I don't doubt ; and so she 
 did in the end, as I guess 
 you'll judge if you look 
 around my residence here ; 
 for we're not what you call 
 indigent ; and by way of 
 settling me down in life as 
 a complete rancher — why, 
 she bought me a small town 
 lot for a nominal price in 
 Cooper's Pike City. Cooper's 
 Pike wasn't then on the 
 boom ; but a land company 
 II 
 
COMPANY 
 
 in England was doing its 
 best to boom it. She bought 
 it, on paper, at an agency in 
 Pall Mall ; and I, who didn't 
 know a ranch from a ten o* 
 spades in those days — I went 
 readily enough wherever the 
 mater chose to send me. 
 " Honour your father and 
 your mother/' was good 
 enough for me ; and, as my 
 mother wished it, I was pre- 
 pared to run my own ranch 
 undisturbed on a fifty-feet 
 frontage right here in Main 
 Street. 
 
 So having nothing to live 
 upon, and no prospects in 
 particular to look forward to 
 in life, I need hardly tell you 
 that the very first thing I did 
 on my way out, on board the 
 Scythia^ was to fall in love 
 with the prettiest and most 
 delicately nurtured girl in all 
 England. 
 
 Her name was Edith 
 Deverel — the Devonshire 
 Deverels, too — and she was 
 going out with her father, 
 
 12 
 
FATHER, 
 
 who was in the consular 
 service, to spread sweetness 
 and light in Yokohama. 
 
 As they were bound for 
 Japan, via San Francisco, 
 and as I was going in the 
 same direction as far as 
 Carson (where I was to 
 branch off for my property 
 on the Coopers Pike trail), 
 we naturally chummed up 
 from the very first day we met 
 on board ; and I've always 
 noticed that when a young 
 man and a young woman 
 chum up together on a 
 Cunard steamer, you may 
 smell wedding-cake looming 
 up indefinitely in the dim 
 distance. A mixed meta- 
 phor, is it, sir? Well, 
 perhaps it is ; we're not par- 
 ticular about mixing our 
 liquors, right out here in the 
 West. As long as we make 
 ourselves understood, we let 
 the rest slide. And I fancy 
 you more or less comprehend 
 my meaning. 
 
 So, to cut a long story 
 13 
 
STORY 
 
 short, and get into the thick 
 of things at once, as Horace 
 recommends — you see, I still 
 retain reminiscences of the 
 dear old Charterhouse — 
 before we reached New 
 York, we were regularly 
 engaged ; and likely to re- 
 main so for an indefinite 
 period. 
 
 At the moment, however, 
 that didn't trouble me much, 
 I was happy enough in 
 having induced Edith to be 
 mine for life ; and the mere 
 trifling fact that she was to 
 be mine at Yokohama, while 
 I was to be hers in the 
 territory of Nevada, six 
 thousand miles away, didn't 
 seem to interfere in the very 
 least with the depth and 
 serenity of our youthful 
 transports. Young people 
 don't duly appreciate at first 
 the importance of contiguity 
 in matters of this sort. They 
 think you can love one 
 another equally well in spite 
 of space-relations ; which, as 
 14 
 
AS 
 
 Euclid would say, is absurd 
 and impossible. If I was 
 one of the Bureau of National 
 Proverbs, I'd make the 
 children write at the top of 
 their copy - books, " Pro- 
 pinquity is the mother of 
 intersexual affection." 
 
 However, as far as Carson 
 City we went together very 
 happily over the Union 
 Pacific line to our various 
 destinations. The very name 
 seemed to give us a fortunate 
 omen. The Union Pacific 
 line ! Could anything on 
 earth be more delightful ? 
 Yokohama and Cooper's 
 Pike united together in the 
 bond of love and fortnightly 
 correspondence! We gloated 
 over the idea, and I almost 
 fancy I made it the subject 
 of my muse's first and only 
 sonnet. 
 
 But when I left the cars 
 at Carson City — yes, sir, I 
 have got Americanized, some, 
 in ten years at Cooper's 
 Pike; I frankly admit it; 
 
 J5 
 
IT; 
 
 the Pacific slope Is sur- 
 prisingly assimilative ; no- 
 where like it on earth for 
 absorbtive power — when I 
 left the cars at Carson City, 
 I began to feel in a vague 
 sort of way that perhaps I'd 
 done rather a mean thing in 
 asking Edith to throw her- 
 self away on a good-for- 
 nothing emigrant, who hadn't 
 a prospect in the world or a 
 red cent to bless himself 
 with. As I drove across 
 country on Jim Fletchers 
 stage to Cooper's Pike, three 
 days' journey over a road 
 which would make an Irish 
 carman's hair stand on end 
 with horror, this feeling 
 gradually deepened upon me. 
 And when at last I reached 
 Pike itself, and examined life 
 near the setting sun, on the 
 site of Edith's future home, 
 I felt in a moment I could 
 never ask that ethereal crea- 
 ture to come down from the 
 clouds and partake of hash 
 daily ina lumber-built shanty. 
 i6 
 
 
 \ 
 
SHANTY. 
 
 For there wasn't a stone 
 house anywhere in Cooper's 
 Pike, in those days, nor a 
 house of any sort except 
 right here on Main Street. 
 1 here wasn't a side walk, or 
 a horse-car, or a respectable 
 woman. The cross streets 
 were staked out to be sure, 
 at regular angles, in very 
 good style ; the company did 
 that ; but only the stakes 
 themselves as yet were 
 visible ; and as the Boys used 
 them for firing at in revolver 
 practice, they tended to 
 deteriorate before the city 
 grew up and obliterated them 
 entirely. 
 
 However, I was never one 
 to be daunted by hardships. 
 I set to work at once, with 
 the aid of Joe Ashley, the 
 barman at the saloon, to 
 construct myself a hut on my 
 fifty-feet frontage. It wasn't 
 much of a hut, I allow, for it 
 was built entirely of broken 
 cracker-boxes — I beg your 
 pardon, gentlemen ; I forgot 
 17 c 
 
FORGOT 
 
 you were from the other 
 side — packing cases for bis- 
 cuits. I bought them at the 
 grocery store for two days* 
 labour, splitting firewood ; 
 and when the hut was built, 
 a neater or more commodious 
 shanty of its sort you never 
 saw ; if only it had been 
 watertight, it would have 
 been replete with every 
 modern convenience. But 
 the rain dropping through 
 where the shingles misfitted 
 did keep one awake a bit at 
 night sometimes ; and I 
 must say the absence of a 
 floor was a distinct dis- 
 advantage, whenever one 
 had to sit with one's feet in 
 a puddle. But bless you, 
 you can't expect to have 
 French cookery and lectures 
 on Esoteric Buddhism in a 
 new settlement; you're not 
 fit for Nevada if you can't 
 put up with a little gentle 
 roughing it. 
 
 Well, of course I didn't 
 like to worry my old mater 
 18 
 
MATER 
 
 at home with small details 
 of that sort — she might have 
 thought I'd catch cold if she 
 knew I had to lie with the 
 drip from the roof falling on 
 to my blanket ; and she'd 
 have had her fears for my 
 morals, I expect, if she'd 
 learnt the antecedents of the 
 only ladies (all three of them 
 unmarried) then located in 
 the Cooper's Pike settlement. 
 So, just to let her down easy, 
 I put the best face upon it. 
 I wrote home as cheerfully 
 about things generally as I 
 could honestly write. I told 
 her I'd got myself a neat 
 small house built on the lot 
 she'd bought me ; that I was 
 on intimate terms with the 
 best society of the place ; 
 and that I hoped before long 
 to find some business open- 
 ing in the lumbering interest. 
 And indeed, Joe the barman 
 was very good society ; and 
 the demand for steady hands 
 to split firewood and drive 
 teams to the mines was 
 
 19 
 
WAS 
 
 regularly Increasing with the 
 pan-out of the silver. 
 
 For about three months I 
 went on picking up odd jobs 
 here and there, and living 
 from hand to mouth in a way 
 that afforded me lots of fun 
 for my money ; and I also 
 kept on writing to Edith at 
 Yokohama, assuring her al- 
 ways of my undying affection, 
 and of the absolute impossi- 
 bility of its ever assuming a 
 more tangible shape than 
 that afforded by a long fort- 
 nightly letter. But at the 
 end of three months, as I 
 was washing out molasses 
 barrels one day (at twenty 
 cents an hour) for my friend 
 at the grocery store, up 
 comes the stage from Carson 
 City, and Jim Fletcher jumps 
 off and steps along quite 
 important-like — " Howard 
 Freke, Esquire," says he, 
 with a polite bow, " I've got 
 a letter for you, sir. Boys, 
 this is an event that in- 
 augurates a new era. First 
 
 20 
 
FIRST 
 
 United States mall that 
 ever entered Cooper's Pike 
 City ! " 
 
 Naturally, the Boys all 
 crowded round me ; and 
 naturally, too, they shook 
 my hands, and congratulated 
 me and themselves warmly 
 upon this auspicious occur- 
 rence. They felt it was an 
 occasion for glasses all round ; 
 and on the strength of my 
 letter, I treated the company. 
 After that, I retired to my 
 own hut, to read the mater's 
 letter in peace and quietness. 
 
 Well, I don't want to say 
 anything disrespectful about 
 my mother, but I must con- 
 fess the contents of that first 
 communication from home, 
 read in the gloom of my 
 biscuit-box hut, did rather 
 amuse me. My mother hoped 
 I was very particular what 
 society I picked up with, and 
 that I attended Divine service 
 twice regularly on Sundays. 
 (The nearest church, those 
 days, was three days off, you 
 21 
 
YOU 
 
 must recollect, at Carson 
 City.) She hoped also I 
 had furnished my house 
 quietly and inexpensively, 
 and had been very careful 
 about sanitary arrangements, 
 and gone in for nice light 
 cheerful papers. She hoped 
 I would look after the house- 
 keeping accounts with rigour, 
 and not let the cook buy 
 fresh meat for stock, which 
 could be made every bit as 
 good from bones, and so 
 forth. She was surprised I 
 had got on so well at the 
 lumbering in so short a 
 time ; but she knew men got 
 good appointments easily in 
 the far West; and she was 
 always sure I'd do really 
 well, like a trueborn Freke, 
 if once I put my heart 
 thoroughly into it. And 
 then came the chief point 
 of all in the whole letter : 
 "As I wish to mark my 
 pleasure at your earnest 
 desire to help yourself in 
 your new home, and as I 
 
 22 
 
I 
 
 think it highly desirable you 
 should as far as possible 
 keep up your music — you 
 play so nicely, and musical 
 evenings are such a resource 
 to young men away from 
 home — I have decided to 
 contribute to the furnishing 
 of your house " — well, what 
 do you think, gentlemen ? — 
 "a new grand piano." 
 
 When I came to that, all 
 alone among my biscuit- 
 boxes, I burst out laughing. 
 Why, my whole hut itself 
 wasn't big enough for the 
 piano even to stand in ! 
 
 As soon as I'd finished 
 the letter, I went out, rather 
 shamefaced, to see the Boys 
 again. I didn't dare to tell 
 them the story about the 
 piano. I knew how they'd 
 laugh at me and at the dear 
 old mater. But I took it 
 for granted the confounded 
 thing would never get further 
 than Carson City at the very 
 outside. The bare idea of 
 bringing it right through 
 
 23 
 
THROUGH 
 
 to the Pike was just too 
 ridiculous ! 
 
 The dear old mater had 
 precious little notion what 
 sort of place the Pike was, 
 if she thought a piano would 
 be much in demand there. 
 
 24 
 
yiUlJil _ J llU»PiWI|(f»ll^«^«Fy">'j"l^!?JU"'llk\i"V'""»'Jp,»"W*ll." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE GRAND PIANO. 
 
 * J3e still, sad heart 1 and cease re- 
 pining ; 
 Behind the clouds is the sun still 
 
 shining ; 
 Thy fate is the common fate of all, 
 Into each life some rain must fall. 
 Some days must be dark and 
 dreary." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 About a week later I was 
 loafing around at the corner 
 by the Columbia Saloon, 
 waiting for any odd job that 
 might happen to turn up — 
 they wanted extra hands 
 sometimes at the crushing- 
 works if the ore was rich, 
 and I was never too proud 
 to do anything useful — when 
 all of a sudden I heard a 
 thundering noise down the 
 street in the direction of the 
 
THE 
 
 grocery store ; a noise as 
 if heaven and earth were 
 coming together, as Chicken- 
 picken says in the good old 
 nursery book. The Boys 
 had all turned out en masse^ 
 and were cheering like mad, 
 and waving their hands, and 
 laughing as I never saw 
 human beings laugh in this 
 world before, outside a 
 lunatic asylum. 
 
 And something or other 
 big was obstructing the 
 roadway. 
 
 "What's up?" I called 
 out to Joe Ashley, the bar- 
 tender, who was standing 
 down street a bit, looking 
 after the cooperage. 
 
 ** Dunno," Joe answered, 
 shading his eyes with his 
 hand and staring straight in 
 front of him. '* Seems like 
 a box coming up the road. 
 The darnedest big box that 
 ever came into the Pike, I 
 should say, by the look of 
 it. There's six mules to 
 draw it ; six mules, Indian 
 26 
 
INDIAN 
 
 file. Well, this is civilization, 
 an' no mistake. The other 
 day we landed a United 
 States mail ; and now, bless 
 me, if this ain't a cottage 
 grand, imported into the 
 settlement ! " 
 
 " A what f " I cried, grow- 
 ing pale with fright; for I had 
 a sort of presentiment all at 
 once of the trouble before 
 me. 
 
 "A cottage grand!" says 
 Joe. ^* A pianny, don't you 
 catch on } The Boys must 
 be preparing a surprise for 
 old Wesley. Well, this is 
 civilization and no mistake. 
 To think I should live to 
 see a cottage grand arriving 
 in triumph, with six mules in 
 single file, into the streets of 
 Cooper's Pike City.'* 
 
 He said "streets" in the 
 plural from pure force of 
 habit, I reckon, for there 
 was only the one, bar the 
 stakes and the bullet-holes. 
 
 Well, I did just tremble 
 when I knew what it was. 
 27 
 
WAS. 
 
 I set out for the front, as 
 you can readily conjecture, 
 with all my legs, and never 
 drew rein, metaphorically 
 speaking-, till I came right 
 up to the spot where the 
 Boys were cavorting, cheer- 
 ing, and hooraying. 
 
 " Hello, Freke ! " they 
 cried out, as I ran up to 
 them breathless. " Here's 
 a little present your girl's 
 been sending you from Old 
 England, most likely. A 
 small souvenir for you to 
 wear around your neck in a 
 locket. It's taken five days 
 to come across by the trail 
 from Carson City." 
 
 You can just judge of my 
 chagrin, gentlemen, when I 
 looked at that huge, big, 
 lumbering box, and read on 
 the side in plain English 
 letters, ** From Broadwood 
 and Co., London. Piano, 
 with care. This side up. 
 To be kept dry. Howard 
 Freke, Esq., Main Street, 
 Cooper's Pike, Nevada." 
 28 
 
NEVADA." 
 
 I could have thrown myself 
 under the wheels with rage 
 and shame. How on earth 
 could the mater ever have 
 made such a fool of me ? 
 
 "Where do you wish it 
 delivered, mister ?" the driver 
 in charge asked me, with a 
 broad grin on his stupid 
 mug. 
 
 *' Delivered ! " I cried, 
 fuming. " The Lord knows 
 where. Deliver it where you 
 like, and then go home. 
 There isn't a private house 
 in the Pike big enough to 
 hold it." 
 
 " Then what are we to do 
 with it ? " says the driver, 
 quite jauntily. 
 
 "Do with it?" says I. 
 ** Why, plump it down right 
 here ! I guess it won't much 
 matterobstructingthetraffic." 
 
 "Well, there's a trifle to 
 pay on it, for freight and 
 customs duty," says the 
 driver, with a smile, pulling 
 out a Union Pacific Railroad 
 Company's form. " Let's 
 29 
 
„ LET'S 
 
 see. This is it. Howard 
 Freke, Cooper's Pike City: 
 to collect — three hundred 
 and forty-seven dollars." 
 
 I sat down on the ground 
 in blank despair. I tore my 
 hair. I almost cried in my 
 agony. Three hundred and 
 forty-seven dollars, indeed ! 
 And I hadn't three hundred 
 and forty cents to my blessed 
 name. This was worse than 
 beggary. It was bankruptcy, 
 insolvency, disgrace, ruin ! 
 
 "I haven't got it ! " I cried. 
 ** Take the nasty thing back. 
 It isn't for me. I don't want 
 your piano. It must be for 
 another gentleman of the 
 same name. You may return 
 it, post free, by the next 
 delivery, this side up, to 
 Broadwood and Company, 
 London." 
 
 Well, the Boys began to 
 see I was really riled, and 
 that the affair was beginning 
 to take a serious turn for 
 me. The Boys are a genuine 
 good-natured lot, when one 
 30 
 
ONE 
 
 comes to know them ; and I 
 fancy they'd somehow taken 
 a sort of Hking to me, because 
 I was young and unsophisti- 
 cated, and knew a trifle about 
 dressing wounds, and could 
 sing them a sentimental song 
 in the evenings sometimes, 
 when they were in the right 
 mood, andwrote letters home 
 for some of the rougher lot 
 who couldn't write them- 
 selves, to their wives or 
 sweethearts. You mayn't 
 believe it, gentlemen, but 
 Cooper's Pike was so rough 
 in^ those days, that even a 
 rejected medical student was 
 a sort of a kind of civilizing 
 element. It was Joe the 
 bar-tender who began it. 
 *'Boys," said he, "it ain't 
 right the burden of the first 
 pianny that ever came into 
 Cooper's Pike City should 
 fall on the shoulders of a 
 single green youngster ; 
 especially as he don't happen 
 to have the costs of freight 
 lying handy in his pocket, 
 31 
 
POCKET, 
 
 which is an accident that 
 may happen to any gentle- 
 man any day, in a fresh 
 community. Now, this is 
 an opportunity that may not 
 again occur. We've got a 
 pianny to-day actually in our 
 midst ; and we've a talented 
 fellow- citizen, Howard Freke, 
 of England, who knows how 
 to play on it. What I pro- 
 pose is this, that we get up 
 a subscription to pay for the 
 freight on the instrument, 
 and that we put it in the 
 saloon, where Howard Freke 
 can discourse sweet music to 
 us while we take our liquor, 
 evenings. Those who are 
 in favour of this notion, put 
 their dollars in the hat ; those 
 who are against it, stand 
 aside in a row, so that we 
 may know which of the in- 
 habitants are darned eastern 
 skunks and which are gene- 
 rous, free-handed, Nevadan 
 gentlemen." 
 
 Well, the Boys caught 
 on to it with regular mining 
 
 32 
 
MINING 
 
 enthusiasm. Joe dropped 
 in a dollar, just to start the 
 game, as it were ; and Wes- 
 ley Smith, the saloon-keeper, 
 followed with ten, for he saw 
 it meant good business for 
 the liquor-trade interest. In 
 a quarter of an hour, Joe's 
 idea had panned out rich ; 
 they'd subscribed enough to 
 discharge that impossible 
 debt, as it seemed to me 
 at first; and they'd handed 
 over the money in due form 
 to the Union Pacific driver. 
 Then they all joined hands, 
 and escorted the piano home 
 to the saloon, where it was 
 solemnly opened with proper 
 celebration, and installed in 
 the place of honour over 
 against the fireplace. No- 
 thing would do for the Boys 
 after that but I must sit 
 down then and there and 
 play them ''Hail, Columbia." 
 I didn't know the score, to 
 speak of, but the Boys are 
 never very particular about 
 an accompaniment ; and 
 33 E 
 
AND 
 
 when I'd finished, they en- 
 cored it like mad ; and then 
 I gave them " God save the 
 Queen," by way of making 
 an international event of it. 
 After that, they stood drinks 
 all round to the driver and 
 his men, and voted a feed 
 of corn to the mules, and 
 solemnly declared the piano 
 public property, for the bene- 
 fit of the citizens of Cooper's 
 Pike City. 
 
 At the end of it all, just 
 as the fun of the joke was 
 beginning to subside, and 
 the company was half-in- 
 clined to disperse to its 
 own huts, a sudden thought 
 struck Joe, the bar-tender. 
 
 "Why, Boys," he called 
 out, standing on a chair to 
 make himself heard, *' it just 
 occurs to me, we've never 
 pay for this pianny itself at 
 all. All we've done is to 
 pay the freight of it. We 
 ought to get up another 
 subscription to buy the in- 
 strument from our talented 
 
 34 
 
TALENTED 
 
 friend Freke, and present it 
 in perpetuity to this city. 
 I reckon you wouldn't get a 
 piannylike that for a cent less 
 than three hundred dollars." 
 
 I confess I'd never thought 
 of that point of view myself. 
 I was so precious glad to 
 have got out of my scrape 
 that the value of the piano, 
 as an article of merchandise, 
 never even occurred to me. 
 
 " Oh, don't mind the cost," 
 said I, getting up on another 
 chair in my turn, and grow- 
 ing rather red. " That's all 
 right. So far as the original 
 price of the thing's con- 
 cerned, I don't mind making 
 a free gift of it to the city." 
 
 It was my first free gift 
 to the Pike, and I felt rather 
 proud of it. 
 
 The Boys, however, were 
 too generous to take it. 
 They wanted to send round 
 the hat again, and subscribe 
 for the purchase. Still, I 
 was sort of ashamed to re- 
 ceive their cash, after all 
 
 35 
 
ALL 
 
 their kindness ; so at the 
 end of ten minutes' talk, 
 we effected a compromise. 
 Wesley Smith, the saloon- 
 keeper, had got a corner lot — 
 same where the Central Gas 
 Office stands to-day ; and he 
 proposed to throw it in with 
 a month's board as payment 
 in full for the grand piano. 
 I didn't want to haggle, as 
 between gentlemen, so I 
 accepted the offer. I became 
 the owner before night of 
 that corner lot, with the 
 papers all duly signed, sealed, 
 and delivered ; and that was 
 the beginning, gentlemen, 
 of the Cooper's Pike manu- 
 facturing interest. 
 
 Yes, sir, that's so ; youVe 
 not been misinformed. It 
 was I that gave the San 
 Quentin Park to the city, 
 and that presented the Free 
 Public Library and Museum 
 to the Mechanics' Institute. 
 Oh no, that's nothing. I 
 don't look upon it as gene- 
 rosity at all ; I call it simple 
 
 36 
 
SIMPLE 
 
 justice. You see, It was all 
 luck that started me in life ; 
 I had no more right to it 
 than anybody else, by nature; 
 and I hold it all now in trust 
 for society. Whatever I give 
 ain't exactly what you can 
 call a free gift, is it ."^ It's 
 rather in the nature of a sort 
 of restitution, don't you see ? 
 a kind of rendering to Caesar 
 the things that are Caesar's — 
 giving back the people their 
 own, for their own sole use 
 and benefit. 
 
 '^ 
 
 7 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE CORNER LOT. 
 
 " We live in deeds, not years ; in 
 thoughts, not breaths. 
 In feelings, not in figures on the 
 
 dial. 
 We should count time by heart- 
 throbs. He most lives 
 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, 
 acts the best." 
 
 Philip Bailey. 
 
 You don't see what that 
 corner lot had to do with 
 the manufacturing interest 
 in the city, don't you ? Well, 
 that was rather a curious 
 little incident, too. It's worth 
 telling ; and it's part of the 
 same story. It just came 
 about this way, pretty much, 
 I take it. 
 
 When the piano was safely 
 housed and set up in the 
 Columbia Saloon, under 
 
 38 
 
UNDER 
 
 Wes. Smith s charge, but as 
 public property, the Boys 
 decided that I ought at least 
 to retain the packing-case. 
 A lot of good timber like 
 that, ready shaped and 
 planed, was worth something 
 on a Pike, I can tell you. 
 And as I'd been rather down 
 on my luck lately, and the 
 Boys liked me because I 
 could play them a lively tune, 
 evenings, and looked after 
 the two men that were hurt 
 when the roof fell, they 
 volunteered to help me 
 build a better hut out of it, 
 on that corner lot of three 
 and a half acres. Wesley 
 Smith bought the other lot 
 off me for an extension of 
 the saloon to hold the piano ; 
 and the Boys undertook to 
 raise me a house where the 
 rain wouldn't drip through, 
 and to pave it well with 
 rubble from the diggings. 
 
 Why, yes, we built the 
 house ; and though it's me 
 that says it, as oughtn't to 
 39 
 
TO 
 
 say It, a tidier hut you never 
 saw in any new diggings. 
 We were all rather proud of 
 that hut, as a specimen of 
 Nevadan architecture. The 
 evening it was finished, I 
 invited as many of the Boys 
 as could get in to partake of 
 square drinks all round, on 
 the strength of my week's 
 work as a help at the crush- 
 ing. The Boys turned up, 
 you may be sure, in full force, 
 and my one room was packed 
 as tight as the four walls 
 could hold, so that some of 
 us actually bulged out of the 
 window. But we had a high 
 old time of it for all that, 
 singing and jollifying, till the 
 room got so hot we could 
 hardly stand it. 
 
 ** There's a precious queer 
 smell in this hut," one of the 
 Boys said at last, sniffing up 
 a little high-toned; "seems 
 to me, Freke, there must be 
 something or other gone 
 wrong with your main 
 drainage." 
 
 40 
 
II MJ) ^mmfKrww^t^^^iKW\ ^ ij 
 
 DRAINAGE." 
 
 Well, I laughed at that, 
 for, of course, drainage of 
 any sort was an idea we 
 hadn't struck as yet on the 
 Pike; but, just to make 
 things pleasant, and keep 
 up the joke, I answered 
 naturally, " No, it isn't 
 drains, Pete; it's a leakage 
 in the gas-pipes you smell, 
 I fancy." 
 
 " By George ! " says Pete, 
 sniffing the air again, ''now 
 you come to say the word, I 
 believe it is gas I smell. The 
 gas is most certainly escap- 
 ing somewhere." 
 
 As he spoke, every man 
 Jack of us held his nose in 
 the air, and sniffed instinc- 
 tively after him. I can see 
 it now : such a picture 
 of aristocratic high-sniffing 
 noses, all poised in a row, 
 prospecting around, and all 
 critically mvestigating, you 
 never saw in your born days. 
 It was a thing to remember. 
 And well may I remember 
 it. Then we all of us turned, 
 41 F 
 
TURNED, 
 
 and looked at one another 
 with blank faces of surprise. 
 There was no denying it. 
 We couldn't say what tricks 
 the Boys might have been 
 playing us. But there, in 
 that one-horse town of cheap 
 kerosene lamps, and dear at 
 that, as clear as the human 
 nose could tell us, I assure 
 you, gentlemen, the gas was 
 escaping. 
 
 Joe Ashley, the bar- tender, 
 was the first to speak. "Yes, 
 sir. It's gas, and no mis- 
 take," he said, looking scared, 
 for we all of us felt there 
 was something mysterious 
 and just a wee bit uncanny 
 about it. 
 
 " The march of intellect's 
 something reeley surprising," 
 Pete put in, looking around. 
 *' Last week it was a pianny. 
 The week afore, it was mails. 
 This week, it's gas-works." 
 
 But most of us were a 
 
 good deal too thunderstruck 
 
 by that time for joking. We 
 
 took the thing seriously. 
 
 42 
 
SERIOUSLY. 
 
 You see, in those days, we 
 were hardly prepared for 
 miracles to take place in the 
 nineteenth century. We'd 
 been taught that the age of 
 miracles was past. I went 
 down on my hands and 
 knees, and began to examine 
 the floor narrowly, having a 
 vague sort of notion, don't 
 you understand, that the 
 gas-pipes would naturally 
 run underground, as they 
 always do in civilized coun- 
 tries. In a minute, sure 
 enough, I detected the leak. 
 A tiny jet of gas was forcing 
 itself up through a hole in 
 the floor, as distinct as ever 
 you smelt a leakage of gas 
 in a London lodging-house. 
 
 I struck a match, and 
 lighted the jet. It burnt 
 clear and beautiful, with a 
 full bright flame, as fine as 
 ever you saw in a London 
 burner. 
 
 We looked at one another, 
 and never said a word. 
 When I read in Keats 
 
 43 
 
KEATS 
 
 afterwards about Cortez and 
 his men, ''Silent, upon a peak 
 in Darien," it brought back 
 to me exactly how we all 
 looked at one another at the 
 moment of that discovery. 
 
 We'd none of us ever 
 heard of natural gas before : 
 it was a new thing then ; but 
 in a second, we all took in 
 the importance of the find. 
 We'd struck it rich ; of that 
 "we felt certain. The Boys 
 began prodding with knives 
 and sticks all over the floor, 
 and poking a match to the 
 jets ; and wherever they 
 prodded the gas came out, 
 a burst of it at once, till the 
 hut was a perfect Fourth of 
 July illumination. The fact 
 was, all that lot, and many 
 another lot in Cooper's Pike, 
 was a natural gas- reservoir. 
 But nobody'd happened to 
 build before on one of the 
 spots where the gas oozed 
 out ; and as long as it oozed 
 in the open air, it was so 
 slight a quantity, for the 
 
 44 
 
wrw>'n^<'!ii,i--i»*n«ijiMiiw I 
 
 THE 
 
 most part, that you never 
 perceived it. If it hadn't 
 been for the accident of my 
 sticking my hut above a 
 small vent, and filling my 
 room so full of people that 
 night that we got half suffo- 
 cated, I don't suppose the 
 gas would ever have been 
 discovered, and Cooper's 
 Pike would still be a town 
 of some two hundred in- 
 habitants. 
 
 As it was, however, we 
 rose to the situation. We 
 began prospecting at once. 
 We found the best outlets 
 were on my corner lot, though 
 there were others in other 
 parts of the city almost as 
 good; and before the week 
 was out we had to exploit 
 them. Nothing Hke it was 
 ever seen even here in the 
 west. The capital was sub- 
 scribed like water, and in 
 rather less than no time, the 
 Cooper's Pike Natural Gas 
 Supply Association, of which 
 I am president, was ready 
 45 
 
READY 
 
 to supply families or com- 
 mercial firms with gas in 
 any quantities at reasonable 
 rates ; for cooking, lighting, 
 house-warming, smelting, 
 engineering, mining, and 
 manufacturing purposes. So 
 rapid a revolution you never 
 saw. In three months, our 
 population numbered five 
 thousand souls, and Main 
 Street had already the airs 
 and graces of a fashionable 
 city. 
 
 You see, we made the 
 gas do just everything. It 
 does just everything still. It 
 lights the house ; it cooks the 
 dinner; It warms the parlour ; 
 it turns the mill ; it heats 
 the engine-boiler ; it crushes 
 the ore ; it works the factory ; 
 and it runs the mayor and 
 town council bodily. There's 
 nothing on earth done in 
 this city to-day but, if you 
 look into it closely, the 
 natural gas does it. We 
 base ourselves entirely on 
 natural gas. If the gas were 
 46 
 
WERE 
 
 to go out, we'd go out like 
 a candle. The city arms are 
 three gas-taps, proper, on a 
 field, vert ; and the motto 
 runs, "With it, we stand; 
 without it, we totter." 
 
 So, after all, I owed every- 
 thing in the end to my dear 
 old mater's blunder about 
 the grand piano. I f it hadn't 
 been for that, I should never 
 have owned the corner lot, 
 and never have become pre- 
 sident of the Cooper's Pike 
 Natural Gas Supply Asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 Of course I grew to be 
 rich, western fashion, right 
 off. Without an effort of 
 my own, the money began 
 to tumble in bewilderingly. 
 That's why I say I owe it 
 all to the public. Not but 
 what I manage to live com- 
 fortably on it myself too. I 
 allow myself a trifle for the 
 trouble of management. I 
 bought a new lot, right here 
 where we sit, and hxed up 
 a house on it — not the one 
 
 47 
 
ONE 
 
 you see, but its respectable 
 predecessor ; for naturally 
 I've gone on getting richer 
 and richer ever since, as the 
 city developed. Still, even 
 the first house was a very 
 convenient one, and I found 
 myself at once a person of 
 great importance in Nevada 
 generally. 
 
 The next twelve months 
 were a time of wonders. It 
 isn't often, even on the 
 Pacific slope, that a city has 
 grown up by magic like this 
 one. But here, you see, we 
 had the gas laid on to do the 
 work for us automatically, 
 and all we needed was the 
 hands and brains to guide 
 and direct it. The gas 
 quarried the stone for us, 
 and worked the drills, and 
 hoisted the cranes, and drove 
 the traction engines ; and 
 within the year, Main Street 
 had a frontage of fine stone- 
 built stores, and the stakes 
 at the side had developed 
 by a sort of Arabian Nights 
 
 48 
 
«W/«W"" 
 
 NIGHTS 
 
 method into broad avenues 
 of handsome residences fit 
 for respectable and cultured 
 families. There was society 
 in the Pike, now, there was 
 positively society. Ladies 
 with children drove in their 
 own buggies down the new- 
 made roads. A railroad 
 connected us with Carson 
 City, and another joined the 
 North California line by 
 Santander Junction. There 
 was every convenience and 
 comfort of life, except civil- 
 ized fields and farms about 
 us. And I was myself the 
 richest man, by a long chalk, 
 in the whole community. I 
 bossed the Pike ; that's the 
 long and short of it. 
 
 One little event happened, 
 however, before I made my 
 journey to San Francisco— 
 the journey that turned my 
 hair white— which I think I 
 ought to tell you about, 
 because it has some bearing, 
 in a way, upon the rest of 
 my story. One day, about 
 49 G 
 
ABOUT 
 
 six weeks after the discovery 
 of gas, while I was up to my 
 eyes in business, arranging 
 for the laying down of our 
 main supply pipes — for we 
 began from the very first on 
 the large scale with the 
 definite idea that Cooper's 
 Pike was to be a live city — 
 who should break into my 
 office but Joe Ashley, the 
 bar-tender, his eyes blood- 
 shot, his cheeks pale, and 
 his whole face looking very 
 much as if he'd made a night 
 of it, the evening before, to 
 very bad purpose. The poor 
 fellow seemed almost as if 
 he would burst out crying 
 before my very face. 
 
 " Hallo, Joe, " says I ; 
 " why, what on earth's the 
 matter, man ? " 
 
 "Drink, Mr. Freke, sir," 
 says he. " Drink. Drink. 
 Drink. That's just about 
 the name of it." 
 
 " How so ? " I asked, 
 sympathizing, for I was sorry 
 for Joe. 
 
 50 
 
JOE. 
 
 " Well, I met a few friends 
 at the saloon last nigrht," 
 Joe said, making a clean 
 breast of it, and looking very 
 penitent. "And I got pre- 
 cious lively. But that's not 
 the worst of it. One of them 
 friends must have been a bad 
 lot, for there's fifty dollars 
 missing from the till this 
 morning ; I don't know how ; 
 and I've got the sack ; and 
 I'm off to Frisco." 
 
 "Fifty dollars," I said, 
 pulling out my purse. ** Now, 
 Joe, you can't go and leave 
 the till fifty dollars short, can 
 you ? Take this, old fellow, 
 and settle up with the gover- 
 nor," says I, "and then come 
 back and have dinner with 
 me, and we'll talk things over." 
 
 For Joe was a very good 
 fellow at bottom, in spite of 
 his small failing ; and I could 
 never forget it was he who'd 
 laid the foundation of my 
 own fortunes, by getting up 
 the subscription to pay the 
 piano freight. 
 
 51 
 
FREIGHT. 
 
 Well, off Joe went, taking 
 his money like a man — it 
 isn't every one that knows 
 how to accept a favour 
 gracefully, I can tell you — 
 and by-and-by he came 
 back and talked things over ; 
 and I spoke to him like a 
 father about going to San 
 Francisco. You've no idea 
 what a lot of moral dignity I 
 developed all at once, on the 
 strength of being president 
 of the Natural Gas Supply 
 Association. You see, peo- 
 ple always think there's some- 
 thing extremely moral in the 
 possession of capital. Joe 
 listened to my preaching as 
 if I'd been twenty years his 
 senior, instead of being a 
 young fellow just out of his 
 teens. **And now, Joe," I 
 said, "before you go from 
 this, you've just got to sign 
 a little paper for me, if you 
 please, will you ? " 
 
 "What is it?" said Joe, 
 looking at it rather hard. 
 *' Note of hand for fifty ? " 
 
 5? 
 
FIFTY?" 
 
 " No, no," says I. " Note 
 of hand be blowed ! Not 
 that, my friend. Total 
 abstinence pledge for three 
 years certain." 
 
 "Will you sign it your- 
 self?" says Joe, drawing 
 back. 
 
 " Uyou will," I answered. 
 And I took up a pen, and 
 signed right there. And for 
 three years, gentlemen, just 
 for the sake of example, 
 never a drop of liquor passed 
 my teeth, I can promise you. 
 
 " Well, I ain't going to be 
 licked by a boy like you," 
 Joe said, examining my 
 signature with a sort of 
 admiring interest. "You're a 
 plucky one, you are. If j^^^^ 
 can stand the chaff you'll get 
 from the Boys, why, I ought 
 to be able to stand it, I 
 reckon. Here goes," said 
 Joe; and he took up the 
 pen; and for three years 
 after that, you may be sure, 
 he never touched another 
 glass of old Bourbon. 
 
 53 
 
BOURBON. 
 
 *' Now, if you go to San 
 Francisco," I said, putting 
 on a sort of patronizing air, 
 " don't you know, you'll want 
 a trifle to start you in life. 
 You're a good fellow, Joe, 
 and you did me a good turn 
 when I needed one badly. 
 There's two hundred dollars. 
 United States gold. You 
 keep that safe. And mind, 
 when it's gone, if you can't 
 get work, there's plenty more 
 any day where that lot came 
 from." 
 
 For the natural gas had 
 worked such an instanta- 
 neous revolution in my 
 financial position that a 
 couple of hundred dollars 
 was less to me than twenty 
 cents would have been six 
 weeks before, you may be 
 sure. And I rather liked 
 parading my new - made 
 wealth to Joe, I fancy. 
 
 Joe looked at it twice, and 
 then he looked at me. '* Mr. 
 Freke," he said, "you're a 
 brick, you are. I'll never 
 
 54 
 
NEVER 
 
 touch another drop again, 
 as long as I Hve ; and I'll 
 work like a horse till I've 
 paid you back this. And if 
 ever there's anything I can 
 do to help you, you count 
 on me, sir, and I'll try my 
 best for you." 
 
 And sure enough, Joe was 
 as good as his word. He 
 went down to San Francisco, 
 and there he got employ- 
 ment (partly by the aid of a 
 recommendation from me, 
 for, you see, I was beginning 
 to be a somebody on the 
 Pacific slope already), as a 
 clerk in the Pacific Steam 
 Navigation Company's ser- 
 vice. And before three 
 months were out, he'd sent 
 me back the two hundred 
 and fifty dollars. United 
 States gold, never having 
 had occasion to touch the 
 two hundred I lent him at 
 all, and having saved the 
 fifty out of his weekly wages. 
 I call that most honourable 
 of Joe Ashley, gentlemen. 
 
 55 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TO SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 " Whene'er a noble deed is wrought, 
 Whene'er is spoken a noble thought, 
 Our hearts, in glad surprise 
 To higher levels rise." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 How about Edith, do you 
 say, meanwhile? Well, gentle- 
 men, I didn't like to drag in 
 a lady's name more than I 
 could help in a billiard-room 
 conversation ; but if you ask 
 me point-blank, and you will 
 have the truth about it, why, 
 I don't mind confessing to 
 you that all this time I'd 
 been writing by every Pacific 
 mail, as regular as clock- 
 work, to Edith Deverel, and 
 keeping as straight, for 
 Ediths sake, as any young 
 
 56 
 
^fww^^l^v^w^wfpnmvr'W 
 
 YOUNG 
 
 fellow can hope to do on a 
 new mining station. The 
 means of grace aren't largely 
 developed, as a rule, in a 
 Pacific settlement, I saw 
 a good deal of the Boys, of 
 course, but as far as I could, 
 I held myself aloof from 
 drink or play ; and after I 
 signed the pledge, to en- 
 courage poor Joe, why, I 
 kept up the dignity of Presi- 
 dent of the Gas Association 
 by never going near the 
 Columbia Saloon at all, by 
 day or by night, and by 
 putting on my best London 
 clothes every Sunday morn- 
 ing, which was the nearest 
 approach to Divine service 
 we could manage at the 
 Pike, till the first Methodist 
 minister came over from 
 Carson to run a congrega- 
 tion. I don't want to talk 
 sentiment, that's not my line ; 
 but if you think there was 
 ever a minute of the day 
 when Edith was out of my 
 mind, or when thoughts of 
 57 H 
 
OF 
 
 what Edith would have 
 wished me to do didn't 
 influence my conduct, why, 
 all I can say is, you've got 
 a less vivid recollection than 
 I have of what sort of a 
 chap I was when I first set 
 up to run the Cooper's Pike 
 Natural Gas Association. 
 
 It was a full year, how- 
 ever, before I thought we'd 
 got things ship-shape 
 enough at the Pike to make 
 it possible for me to ask 
 such a lady as Edith to come 
 over as an elevating and 
 refining influence on Neva- 
 dan society. At the end of 
 that time, there were several 
 high-toned families settled 
 in the City whom I wouldn't 
 be ashamed to introduce to 
 my wife ; and the side- walks 
 were beginning to be fit for 
 the sole of Edith's foot to 
 tread upon. So I wrote and 
 asked her if she'd redeem her 
 pledge, and make me a long 
 sight happier than I could 
 possibly tell her (without 
 58 
 
(WITHOUT 
 
 exceeding half an ounce) 
 in a twenty-five cent letter. 
 In order to explain things a 
 bit at the same time, I also 
 wrote to her respected papa, 
 informing him that I was 
 now the president of the 
 Cooper's Pike Natural Gas 
 Association, and that if he 
 wanted anything reasonable 
 in the way of settlements, 
 my solicitor would be glad 
 to arrange matters with him 
 on what I trusted would be 
 a mutually satisfactory basis. 
 
 Edith herself never hesi- 
 tated for a moment ; I knew 
 she wouldn't ; and what was 
 odder still, her paj^a accepted 
 my financial proposals in the 
 same liberal spirit in which 
 they were intended. I took 
 it kindly of him that he was 
 willing to entrust me with 
 Edith. 
 
 So I arranged that my 
 bride was to come over in 
 the next Pacific Steam Navi- 
 gation Company's packet 
 from Yokohama for San 
 
 59 
 
SAN 
 
 Francisco ; and I determined 
 to go down to the Golden 
 Gate myself to meet her in 
 port on her first arrival. It 
 was agreed that she should 
 go, immediately she landed, 
 to the house of a lady in San 
 Francisco who knew her 
 father; and from there she 
 was to be married at the 
 earliest possible date, at the 
 First Episcopal Church in 
 Madison Street, and go up 
 country with me straight to 
 her new location. 
 
 Two days before the 
 vessel was due in port, I 
 started off by our new rail- 
 way line via Carson City, en 
 route for the Californian 
 capital. 
 
 Now, although we were 
 in daily business communi- 
 cation with the coast, I had 
 never myself been in San 
 Francisco before ; and it was 
 a real treat to me, I can tell 
 you, after eighteen months 
 of bustle and hurry in our 
 mushroom Pike, with its 
 60 
 
ITS 
 
 cranes and its derricks, to 
 find myself in a civilized 
 town once more, and to feel 
 I was again in touch with 
 old-world culture. So to 
 fill up the time before Edith 
 arrived, I began to hunt 
 about over the sights of the 
 city. 
 
 The first thing I did, how- 
 ever, on arriving at the 
 Palace Hotel, where I put 
 up my traps, was to go down 
 to the Pacific Steam Navi- 
 gation Company's bureau to 
 have a chat with Joe Ashley, 
 the former bar-tender. 
 
 Such a respectable man as 
 Joed developed into, under 
 the joint inMuence of tee- 
 totalism and the San Fran- 
 cisco air, you'd hardly ima- 
 gine unless you could have 
 seen him. 1 tell you, that 
 man wore a black coat, and 
 was courting a young lady 
 in an up-town book-store 
 who'd have done credit at 
 the head of any merchant's 
 table on the Pacific sea- 
 6i 
 
SEA- 
 
 board. It did my heart 
 good to see how nicely he 
 was prospering. 
 
 Joe gave my hand such a 
 wring as would have made a 
 good many Englishmen cry 
 out ; but I knew it was well 
 meant, and I thanked him 
 with tears of gratitude in 
 my eyes. Perhaps they 
 weren't altogether gratitude 
 either ; I'm not quite clear 
 about that ; but anyhow they 
 were tears, and that's the 
 main thing, isn't it ? He 
 told me the Sacramento^ that 
 Edith was coming by, 
 claimed to be the fastest 
 steamer on the Japan line, 
 and she might be in, per- 
 haps, that very evening. Or 
 perhaps she mightn't. But 
 she'd be telegraphed up, 
 anyhow, four hours in ad- 
 vance, from the Farallone 
 Islands, where they always 
 signal all approaching vessels. 
 As soon as ever the tele- 
 gram announcing that she'd 
 passed the lighthouse came 
 62 
 
CAME 
 
 safe to hand, Joe promised 
 to send a messenger up to 
 my hotel rigrht away with 
 the news, so that I'd have 
 ample time to put on my 
 store clothes, and come 
 down and meet Edith. 
 
 That night I went out and 
 had a peep at China Town. 
 I went the usual round of 
 the Chinese Theatre, and 
 the gambling hells, and the 
 hideous dens where the 
 yellow men poison them- 
 selves with fumes of opium. 
 But I won't describe them 
 all ; they've nothing par- 
 ticular to do with my story. 
 For it wasn't that night 
 that turned my hair grey; 
 not so bad as that; it was 
 the night after. It takes 
 more than China Town, a 
 good deal, to turn my hair 
 white, I can promise you 
 that; though China Town's 
 enough to make it stand on 
 end, if you've never been 
 there. I may be prejudiced, 
 but I don't know how it is, 
 
 63 
 
IS, 
 
 I never do take to the 
 Chinese somehow. 
 
 However, I never went 
 to bed that night. I was 
 too much on the look-out 
 for Edith's arrival. Every 
 hour, I expected to receive 
 a note from Joe Ashley 
 announcing that the Sacra- 
 mento was now in sight ; so 
 even after I got home from 
 that horrible sink of filth 
 and iniquity, I sat and read, 
 dozing at times in my chair, 
 and strolling out now and 
 again into the well-lighted 
 streets, just to keep myself 
 from dropping off and for- 
 getting about the steamer. 
 
 It was a tedious night, 
 and I was tired with travel- 
 ling. 
 
 Morning dawned at last, 
 and no news of the Sacra- 
 mento, About eight o'clock, 
 after a hasty breakfast, I 
 went down to the bureau 
 and saw Joe once more. 
 He told me there was now 
 no chance of the ship coming 
 
 64 
 
COMING 
 
 alongside before noon at the 
 earliest, so I might go out 
 again and spend the morn- 
 ing, if I liked, in seeing the 
 sights of San Francisco. 
 
 Once or twice in the course 
 of the day I called in again 
 at the office, but always with 
 the same stereotyped result : 
 ''Sacramento not yet tele- 
 graphed from the Farallone 
 Islands. At least four hours 
 before she arrives in 
 harbour." 
 
 To get rid of the day, 
 therefore, I went a regular 
 round of the San Francisco 
 lions. I drove through the 
 Golden Gate Park; I walked 
 in the Plaza; I inspected 
 the University; I tramped 
 along miles of church aisles 
 of every denomination, till I 
 was footsore and weary with 
 my needless exertions. In 
 the afternoon, I hired a hack, 
 and went down for an ex- 
 cursion by a fine boulevard 
 to the Cliff House, where I 
 sat on the verandah and 
 65 I 
 
AND 
 
 watched the sea-Iions on 
 Seal Rock, basking in the 
 sun, or wriggh'ng over the 
 crags with their discordant 
 barks, right in front of the 
 seats in that fashionable 
 restaurant. But all these 
 sights gave me very little 
 satisfaction. By four o'clock 
 I was back in Market Street 
 again, only to receive that 
 one invariable answer : ^^- 
 cramento not yet cabled ; call 
 again for news in three or 
 four hours." 
 
 "What else is there," I 
 said to Joe, with a despair- 
 ing yawn, for I was begin- 
 ning to get tired, ** worth a 
 fellow's going to see in this 
 great overgrown city } " 
 
 •* Well, I guess," said Joe, 
 ** there ain't anything much, 
 now you've done China 
 Town, and gone through the 
 Parks ; but you might put 
 in an hour, perhaps, at our 
 Madame Tussaud's." 
 
 "What! you don't mean 
 to say," I cried, "there's a 
 66 
 
A 
 
 Madame Tussaud's here in 
 San Francisco ? " 
 
 *'WelI, that ain't exactly 
 its official name," Joe an- 
 swered : '*we only call it 
 that for short, don't you see ? 
 Its regular title is the Central 
 M etropolitan Californian 
 Plastographic Museum, for 
 blending amusement and in- 
 struction in the education of 
 the masses." 
 
 "That's a good word, 
 Plastographic," I said, "if 
 it's in the right place, of 
 course ; but whereabouts 
 does the Metropolitan Cali- 
 fornian Museum hano- 
 out?" 
 
 "Corner of Washington 
 and Pacific," says Joe: 
 "eight blocks down. You 
 can't miss your way, and the 
 poster at the door's as big 
 as the City Hall, almost." 
 
 "What's the damage.?" 
 said I. 
 
 "A quarter," said Joe; 
 "and extra for the mur- 
 derers. But there's a guillo- 
 67 
 
GUILLO- 
 
 tlne there that's real fine for 
 the money." 
 
 Well, I never was what 
 you could call an enthusiastic 
 devotee of waxworks at any 
 time ; they don't come up to 
 my idea of art, like the Rom- 
 neys in my grandfather's 
 dining-room in Devonshire ; 
 and I was tired enough now 
 not to go out of my way if 
 Mont Blanc, Niagara Falls, 
 the Piazza of St. Marks, and 
 the Karnak Temples, had 
 all been on view at once 
 round the nearest corner ; 
 but somehow, I felt as if I 
 must do something by way of 
 working off my suppressed 
 excitement ; so just to pass 
 the time, I took the next 
 street car that came along, 
 and dropped myself down 
 corner of Washington and 
 Pacific, as Joe directed. 
 
 The San Francisco 
 Madame Tussaud's was ab- 
 surdly like the dear old ex- 
 hibition that used to hang 
 out in Baker Street when I 
 68 
 
I 
 
 was in London (Im told it's 
 been moved since, with the 
 progress of thought in the 
 old country, to the Maryle- 
 bone Road— ah, dear, what 
 changes!)— of course with 
 a distinct American flavour 
 thrown in as well; George 
 Washington, and Henry 
 Clay, and the Secretary of 
 the Treasury shaking hands 
 with the President, as a set- 
 off to the late Emperor of 
 the French in his corona- 
 tion robes, and the Royal 
 Family playing hunt-the- 
 slipper in the drawing-room 
 at Windsor — but on the 
 whole about as much alike 
 in its main features as you 
 expect everything to be now- 
 adays all the world over. 
 There was a Chamber of 
 Horrors, too, as Joe had 
 told me, for which you paid 
 an extra quarter ; and there 
 you could see Junius Brutus 
 Booth, in the act of assas- 
 sinating Abraham Lincoln; 
 as well as Guiteau on trial 
 69 
 
TRIAL 
 
 for his life, after shooting a 
 pasty-faced Garfield in wax 
 at the other end of the raised 
 exhibition platform. There 
 was the usual display of in- 
 telligent poisoners, and ras- 
 cally doctors, and ladies who 
 had anticipated their hus- 
 band's life - policies, and 
 gentlemen who being unable 
 to marry a couple of wives 
 abreast, had tried to manage 
 it single file by getting off 
 with the old love and on 
 with the new by the agency 
 of a gentle dose of arsenic 
 or antimony. Altogether, 
 a rather depressing spectacle 
 for a man who'd been up in 
 China Town all the night 
 before, and was just wait- 
 ing for his bride to arrive 
 by steamer from Yoko- 
 hama. 
 
 The most interesting 
 feature in the entire exhibi- 
 tion, however, was the 
 attendant or demonstrator, 
 who accompanied visitors 
 round the Chamber of 
 70 
 
OF 
 
 Horrors, and explained the 
 various groups, their crimes 
 and punishments, with pro- 
 found^ gusto. He was a 
 connoisseur in modes of 
 death, and his graphic de- 
 scriptions would have made 
 the fortune of any penny 
 dreadful. But what gave 
 him novelty was the fact 
 that he was a Chinaman, a 
 genuine Celestial in a yellow 
 silk robe and a long pigtail ; 
 and that he descanted on the 
 nature and deeds of the 
 various criminals with perfect 
 assurance in the most lovely 
 dialect of pigeon English. 
 At first, he merely amused 
 and interested me, that man ; 
 I took him as a study of 
 Oriental character ; I had no 
 idea how soon he was to 
 interweave himself in fixed 
 colours into the most awful 
 incident in m.y whole career. 
 Well, yes, gendemen, you're 
 about right there. I'm 
 coming at last in this long 
 yarn of mine to what it 
 71 
 
IT 
 
 actually was that turned my 
 hair white. 
 
 And you aren't far wrong 
 when you say that that 
 yellow-faced Mongolian had 
 a good deal to do with it. 
 
 72 
 
■^ Bl^l H"l^"^Iw™itHI " ■>.* 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LI SING, THE SHOWMAN. 
 
 *' The voyage through life is various 
 found. 
 The wind is seldom fair ; 
 Though to the straits of pleasure 
 bound, 
 Too oft we touch at care. 
 ^ Impervious danger we explore ; 
 
 ^ False friends, some faithless she : 
 Pirates and sharks are found ashore 
 As often as at sea." 
 
 DiBDIN. 
 
 He was a wonderful chap, 
 that Chinaman, and he spoke 
 a wonderful lingo. ** Here 
 see Mista Guiteau, Melican 
 gentleman, allee samee like 
 him shoot Plesident Gahfield 
 with loaded levolver at 
 Depot of Baltimoree and 
 Potomah Lailway. Plesident 
 stand at ease on platform, 
 73 K 
 
PLATFORM, 
 
 allee llkee so ; Guiteau comee 
 up, dlaw first-chop pistol ; 
 shootee Plesident. Plesident 
 fallee ; plenty blood jump 
 out ; blood flow down likee 
 water on platform ! " Then 
 he smiled a broad smile of 
 supreme content. He leered 
 at the victim. The contem- 
 plation of the shot, and the 
 wax blood on the floor, 
 seemed to afford to his mind 
 the supremest satisfaction. 
 I may be prejudiced, but 
 as I said just now, I never 
 did care lor these yellow- 
 faced Chinamen. 
 
 He would pass on to the 
 next. ** Here Missee Bland, 
 Melican lady, poison joss- 
 pigeon man," that's China- 
 Town for a parson, you know; 
 *• because he no love her 
 allee samee like she love 
 him — no want to marry her. 
 That not good murder. No 
 use for waxwork. No makee 
 blood. Not muchee for see. 
 Good waxwork murder 
 makee much blood. Fall 
 
 74 
 
FALL 
 
 out on floor. Mellcan eentle- 
 man likee see plenty blood 
 when he come visit wax- 
 work. So much more blood, 
 so much more Melican 
 gentleman give cash to 
 Chinaman." 
 
 He was about right as to 
 the prevailing taste, I don't 
 doubt ; but the stolid, cold- 
 blooded, Celestial way in 
 which he gloated over it all 
 was something truly ridicu- 
 lous, and yet awful too. I 
 followed him about just for 
 the mere curiosity of hear- 
 ing how he regarded things. 
 He was a study in character, 
 and as such he interested 
 me. 
 
 But the thing in the whole 
 exhibition that seemed to 
 afford him the profoundest 
 delight was the inevitable 
 working-model of a French 
 guillotine. So fine and so 
 realistic a guillotine I had 
 never seen before. On 
 its block lay a v/axwork 
 gentleman in eighteenth- 
 
 75 
 
EIGHTEENTH- 
 
 century dress, supposed to 
 represent King Louis the 
 Sixteenth, in the very act 
 of having his head cut off. 
 Nothing could be more in- 
 genious than the working of 
 this model. The head was 
 joined to the shoulders by a 
 coat of wax ; and if the party 
 in the chamber chose to sub- 
 scribe five dollars between 
 them, they could see the 
 king actually decapitated 
 before their very eyes for 
 that trifle. The money was 
 soon raised, and then the 
 Chinaman, with infinite glee, 
 proceeded to draw the bolt, 
 and let the axe fall on the 
 unfortunate monarch. I 
 never in my life saw any- 
 thing more hideous. " Why, 
 there's blood in it ! " I cried. 
 Medical student as I had 
 been, the horrible realism of 
 the thing fairly took my 
 breath away. 
 
 Li Sing smiled. ** Yes, 
 leal blood," he answered. 
 " Plenty blood spurt out, 
 76 
 
OUT, 
 
 allee samee likee LI Sing 
 leally cut him head off." 
 
 And then he explained it 
 to me. The head, neck, and 
 trunk, it seemed, were filled 
 with blood, real bullock's 
 blood, "put in flesh every 
 morninor;" it was Li Sings 
 business to fill it again, and 
 remake the neck with wax 
 after every performance. 
 When the axe fell, it cut 
 the head off clean, and at 
 the same time touched pro- 
 jecting springs on either 
 side, which released the im- 
 prisoned blood by atmos- 
 pheric pressure. The effect 
 was ghastly and. life-like in 
 the extreme — or, perhaps, I 
 ought rather to have said 
 death-like. You could al- 
 most believe it was a real 
 person being executed under 
 your eyes ; I know the sight 
 just turned me sick with 
 horror. 
 
 And yet Li Sing himself 
 exercised a curious fascina- 
 tion over me for all that. 
 
 n 
 
THAT. 
 
 His delight In this hideous 
 performance was so unmixed, 
 and his face so impassive 
 ■withal, while he gazed and 
 gloated, that I couldn't help 
 loitering behind after the 
 rest had gone to have a bit 
 of a talk with him. By way 
 of facilitating the interchange 
 of ideas, I gave him a dollar, 
 which he pocketed at once 
 with many fervent expres- 
 sions of Oriental gratitude. 
 I understood him to wish 
 that my great-great-grand- 
 father might be ennobled for 
 this munificent deed, and 
 that my remoter ancestors 
 might each receive a step up 
 in the table of precedence 
 in their existing place of 
 celestial residence. 
 
 "Melican gentleman lookee 
 tired," Li Sing said, after a 
 while, observing how I 
 leaned on my stick for sup- 
 port. " Melican gentleman 
 no wantee sittee ? " 
 
 " I'm not an American," I 
 said in reply. " I'm an Eng- 
 f 7S 
 
ENG- 
 
 lishman, from over the sea, 
 a stranger in San Francisco. 
 But I shouldn't mind sitting 
 down for a minute or two, if 
 you've got a stool handy." 
 
 Li Sing looked at me 
 hard ; after which (as it was 
 almost closing time) he 
 pushed Guiteau on his trial 
 unceremoniously from his 
 place, and handed me the 
 chair in which the waxwork 
 murderer had been peace- 
 fully seated. It was a very 
 comfortable chair indeed, 
 for a prisoner at the bar, and 
 I sank into it most ao-ree- 
 ably. '' You no know nobody 
 in Flisco, then, English- 
 man ?'' he inquired with 
 curiosity. 
 
 "No, nobody," I answered. 
 " I'm just down on a visit. 
 Not been long in America. 
 I go back to-porrow. But 
 I had an hour to spare this 
 afternoon, and I didn't know 
 what to do with it, so I just 
 strolled in casually to see the 
 waxworks." 
 
 79 
 
WAXWORKS." 
 
 Li Sing seemed interested. 
 ** Waxworks velly good," he 
 said. " Guillotine velly good. 
 Allee samee likee leally cut 
 head off. English gentleman 
 takee cup of tea ? Waitee 
 to see Li Sing clean up 
 guillotine and puttee back 
 head as^ain ? " 
 
 It was a hateful sight, and 
 yet I was very tired. And 
 I was still English enough 
 for the promise of a cup of 
 tea to appeal to all the 
 profoundest sentiments and 
 sympathies of my nature. 
 I nodded assent. I was 
 distinctly sleepy. A cup of 
 tea would help to wake me 
 up. And then I must go 
 down to the bureau once 
 more and inquire whether 
 they'd cabled the Sacramento 
 yet. 
 
 Li Sing went off to fetch 
 the tea and tea-pot. He 
 was in high spirits for a 
 Chinaman. He brewed the 
 mixture under my eyes with 
 a little spirit lamp. Of that 
 80 
 
THAT 
 
 I was glad, for after what 
 I'd seen of China Town the 
 evening before, I rather sus- 
 pected Chinese cleanliness. 
 But nothing could be nicer 
 or neater than Li Sing's five- 
 o'clock - tea arrangements. 
 He had a pretty little porce- 
 lain pot, and two dainty 
 cups of Oriental red ; and 
 he poured out the liquor 
 steaming, with cream and 
 sugar as a concession to 
 my western tastes ; and I 
 confess, better or more 
 stimulating tea than that I 
 never drank, and never shall, 
 I fancy. 
 
 However, I was so drowsy 
 even before I drank the tea 
 that I could hardly keep my 
 eyes open while he completed 
 his arrangements. Once or 
 twice, indeed, my head 
 dropped back listlessly in 
 Guiteau's chair ; and once 
 or twice I woke again with 
 a start, to see myself con- 
 fronted by Marat in his 
 bath, with Charlotte Corday, 
 8i L 
 
t 
 
 I 
 
 CORDAY, 
 
 as pale as death, In the act 
 of sticking a cheap Pittsburg 
 knife into him. And after 
 the tea, strange to say, I felt 
 sleepier still ; so sleepy, that 
 in less than ten minutes I'd 
 dozed off altogether, and was 
 conscious of nothing more 
 in the room around me, ex- 
 cept a vague sense that I 
 was sleeping in the midst of 
 a conclave of murderers. 
 
 My sleep, however, wasn't 
 unbroken by appropriate 
 dreams. I slept heavily, 
 almost as if I had been 
 drugged ; but I was dimly 
 conscious for all that, through 
 a haze of memory, of a sort 
 of hideous nightmare that 
 kept me strained and atten- 
 tive. I imagined I was a 
 slave on the middle passage. 
 My hands and feet were 
 bound with chains ; my arms 
 were tied ; somebody was 
 tugging away hard at the 
 fetters that clanked on my 
 ankles. A growing discom- 
 fort seemed to oppress my 
 82 
 
MY 
 
 limbs. I was sitting cramped 
 in a row with a dozen others. 
 But whiffs of China Town 
 seemed to intervene as welL 
 There was an odour as of 
 opium ; while the gangs of 
 slaves on either hand were, 
 not black, but yellow. And 
 up and down through the 
 human mass that thronged 
 the stifling hold in which I 
 gasped for breath, Li Sing, 
 the Chinaman, moved bland 
 and impassive, casting a 
 phlegmatic glance to right 
 and left as he paced the 
 floor, and murmuring to him- 
 self in his broken pigeon 
 English, "Good, good ; velly 
 good ; makee plenty blood ; 
 makee plenty kill for Meli- 
 can gentlemen." 
 
 83 
 
^^^ CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I 
 
 hi 
 
 M i 
 
 THE JAWS OF DEATH IN REAL 
 EARNEST. 
 
 *' Shadows are trailing, 
 My heart is bewailing, 
 li And tolling within 
 
 <'! Like a funeral bell." 
 
 ' Longfellow. 
 
 Bv-AND-BY, I was aware 
 of a trickling of water over 
 my feverish brow, and a 
 movement of air about my 
 burning throat. I was gasp- 
 ing and ill : my tongue was 
 j( dry, and my head aching. 
 
 I opened my eyes slowly ; 
 I stared around me with a 
 start. Li Sing was fanning 
 me with a fan, and apply- 
 ing eau-de-Cologne to my 
 aching forehead with a wet 
 towel. 
 
 No more than that seemed 
 
 84 
 
SEEMED 
 
 clear to me at first. I was 
 merely aware of an unpleas- 
 ant sensation of coming to, 
 much as I have since felt it 
 after having a tooth drawn 
 under gas at a modern 
 dentist's. 
 
 I raised my eyes feebly, 
 and saw Lucrezia Borgia 
 smiling down upon me from 
 her sallow, pallid bust, and 
 Mrs. Bates, the murderess, 
 preparing to stab her sleep- 
 ing victim. In a minute 
 more, I remembered where 
 I was, and recognized that 
 for some hours at least I 
 must^ have been sleeping 
 heavily. It was pitch-dark 
 without, and the Chamber 
 of Horrors was lighted up 
 within by a single kerosene 
 lamp, which just sufficed to 
 throw a ray of visible gloom 
 upon the distorted faces of 
 all those waxen murderers. 
 A terrible fear seized upon 
 me that the Sacramento 
 might by this time have 
 really come in, and that 
 85 
 
THAT 
 
 Edith might have found her- 
 self, on her landing, alone 
 among strangers. 
 
 I put my hand into my 
 pocket to feel for my watch ; 
 or at least, I tried to ; but 
 to my utter surprise, I dis- 
 covered I couldn't move a 
 joint of my arm. Was this 
 rheumatism or paralysis ? I 
 gave a mad wrench. Great 
 heavens ! what could it 
 mean ? Ah, gentlemen, you 
 may stare. My arms and 
 legs were tied ! Tied with 
 a stout new rope, that con- 
 fined me to the chair. I 
 was bound hand and foot in 
 Guiteau's seat, unable to 
 move a muscle for my own 
 deliverance. 
 ijj ''What does this mean, 
 !; you scoundrel ? " I burst out, 
 |i the sense of my helplessness 
 just beginning to dawn upon 
 me. " How dare you at- 
 tempt " 
 
 But before I could get 
 another word out, Li Sing 
 had stepped behind me 
 S6 
 
 II! 
 
ME 
 
 with dexterous rapidity, and 
 quicker than I knew what 
 was happening, sh'pped some- 
 thing adroitly into my mouth 
 between my open teeth — 
 something that prevented 
 me from uttering a single 
 cry or sound, and that no 
 strugghng on earth could 
 ever avail me to get rid of. 
 I recognized in a moment 
 that it was a cunningly 
 devised mechanical gag, with 
 indiarubber adjustments, like 
 those that are used for gag- 
 ging the mouths of guil- 
 lotined criminals. It formed 
 part of the apparatus of that 
 hideous show, and Li Sing 
 had shown it to us the after- 
 noon before with all the 
 other paraphernalia of his 
 hateful exhibition. 
 
 As soon as it was fitted 
 on, and I sat there, helpless 
 and speechless, but trembling 
 all over with rage, Li Sing 
 stepped back a couple ol* 
 paces deliberately, and cast 
 an admiring glance at his 
 
HIS 
 
 own careful preparations. 
 *' English gentleman, don't 
 be afraid," he said, in his 
 horrible jargon. ** Li Sing 
 only tly little piecey expeli- 
 ment. English gentleman 
 makee dollar present to Li 
 Sing. Li Sing go out buy 
 piecey lope while gentleman 
 sleepie, and tie up lope lound 
 English gentleman." 
 
 He smiled a bland smile 
 of infantile delight at his own 
 cleverness as he said it. But 
 his words appalled me. The 
 scoundrel had used my own 
 dollar that I gave him, to 
 buy the rope with which he 
 had bound me hand and foot 
 in the murderer's chair there. 
 
 Then it dawned upon me 
 slowly that he must have 
 hocussed my tea, and kept 
 me asleep there on purpose 
 while he bought the rope 
 and bound me. 
 
 I don't know whether the 
 Chinaman read this suspicion 
 in my angry eyes, but at any 
 rate he looked me back in the 
 
THE 
 
 face, and answered me almost 
 as if I had spoken to him. 
 "Yes, English gentleman," 
 he said, gazing across at me 
 pensively from those mild 
 almond eyes of his, " Li Sing 
 burn piecey opium in the 
 loom while gentleman sit 
 and wait for tea. Li Sing 
 put piecey Indian hemp in 
 tea-pot. Indian hemp velly 
 good for makee gentleman 
 sleep. Indian hemp bling 
 plenty dleam. Li Sing go 
 out and buy piecey lope 
 to tie gentleman up while 
 gentleman sleep there." And 
 he laughed musically. 
 
 A cold thrill of horror 
 coursed through my bones. 
 I realized in a flash the full 
 awfulness of the situation. 
 The impassive, phlegmatic, 
 pitiless yellow man had me 
 wholly at his mercy, and 
 could murder me, if he chose, 
 with no moi*e compunction 
 than you or I would show 
 at crushing a cockroach. 
 
 The very deliberateness 
 89 M 
 
DELIBERATENESS 
 
 with which he spoke and 
 moved had something in- 
 human in its crawHng cruehy. 
 He toyed with death as a 
 cat toys with a mouse. He 
 played with his victim, with 
 a smile on his face, as a boy 
 plays with a frog while he 
 mangles it mercilessly. 
 
 I may be prejudiced, 
 gentlemen, as I said before, 
 but somehow, I can never 
 quite trust those yellow-faced 
 Chinamen. 
 
 Presently, he disappeared 
 for a moment, and then came 
 back with a bucket of water. 
 He laid it by the side of the 
 guillotine, and worked the 
 knife up and down in the 
 groove to see if it went 
 smoothly without a hitch 
 anywhere. After that, he 
 sat down on a stool before 
 me, like a man who has 
 plenty of time to spare, and 
 needn't hurry himself. I 
 knew now he had awaked 
 me and refreshed me with 
 eau-de-Cologne in order that 
 90 
 
THAT 
 
 he^ might enjoy the full 
 delight of watching my 
 helpless misery. He looked 
 at me close, not savagely, 
 but good-humouredly (which 
 was ten thousand times 
 worse), and smiled once more 
 that bland, infantile smile ; 
 ** Li Sing workee guillotine 
 evelly day," he said slowly 
 and very distinctly, watching 
 my face as he spoke, to see 
 if it twitched ; " Li Sing 
 makee plenty blood flow ; 
 but never blood from living 
 Melican gentleman. Allee 
 time, Li Sing want to see 
 how guillotine workee on 
 living man. To-day, Eng- 
 lish gentleman come see Li 
 Sing; talkee Li Sing in 
 loom ; tellee Li Sing him 
 sdanger in Flisco. Li Sing 
 tinkee, this good time for tly 
 piecey expeliment. English 
 gentleman alone ; English 
 gentleman tired. Makee 
 English gendeman go sleepie 
 with Indian hemp in Gui- 
 teaus chair. Go out buy 
 
 91 
 
BUY 
 
 lope, tie English gentleman 
 up. Now go cut head off 
 English gentleman." 
 
 The stolid joy of blood 
 with which he spoke added 
 to the horror and awe of my 
 situation. In a moment, a 
 ghastly picture rose up before 
 my eyes. I thought of 
 Edith, coming alone by night 
 to that strange town, and 
 finding when she arrived her 
 future husband missing — 
 perhaps even learning at 
 once by what horrid fate he 
 had died. For her sake, I 
 fervently prayed one prayer. 
 If Li Sing killed me, I 
 trusted at least he would 
 escape detection. I trusted 
 he would destroy every trace 
 of blood. I trusted his 
 crime would never be dis- 
 covered. I trusted Edith 
 might never know the awful 
 truth as to my disappearance. 
 
 Li Sing looked at me once 
 
 more, and once more he 
 
 smiled. He seemed to read 
 
 my thoughts with Oriental 
 
 92 
 
ORIENTAL 
 
 cunning. *' Melican judge 
 never find out," he said, 
 shaking his shaved head till 
 the pigtail waved behind 
 him. ** Li Sing always 
 buy bucket of blood evelly 
 day in market. Plenty of 
 blood in Li Sing's drain. 
 Washee up allee right, makee 
 guillotine clean again. Takee 
 body to China Town, likee 
 Chinaman do. Sendee box 
 to China Town cemetelly 
 with body to belley him. 
 Chinaman no wantee know 
 what body I belly. English 
 gentleman stlanger in Flisco ; 
 got no fiends. Nobody 
 comee askee after English 
 gentleman." 
 
 He told me all his vile 
 scheme cynically, just so, 
 with a chuckle of delight. 
 Then he rubbed his hands 
 quietly in passive Celestial 
 joy. " Tly guillotine at last 
 on live gentleman's neck," 
 he said, hugging himself 
 with the pleasure of an ideal 
 achieved. " See plenty 
 
 93 
 
PLENTY 
 
 blood lun out ; live blood ; 
 warm, beautiful ! " 
 
 I groaned inwardly. It 
 was all I could do. I was 
 tied so tight from head to 
 foot that I couldn't move a 
 limb or a finger any way. 
 And Edith by this time 
 might be looking for me in 
 vain at every hotel in San 
 Francisco. 
 
 At last, after he had 
 gloated long enough over 
 my helpless condition, the 
 Chinaman rose again, and 
 came towards me cautiously. 
 He cut with his knife the 
 rope that bound me ex- 
 ternally to the chair, and 
 unwound it by stages. I 
 could see then that he had 
 used two pieces of rope, one 
 to tie me rigidly from head 
 to foot in a stiff, upright 
 position, and the other to 
 bind me to the chair, with 
 cramped legs, while he made 
 his final preparations for 
 guillotining me. 
 
 As the outer rope was 
 
 94 
 
WAS 
 
 loosed, I made one violent 
 effort to shake myself free ; 
 but all in vain. Li Sing had 
 done his work far too cleverly 
 for that. He was a practised 
 hand, for he had been an 
 assistant in a hospital at 
 Hong-Kong, he told me. I 
 couldn't wriggle a limb half 
 an inch either way under 
 those firm close knots of 
 his. 
 
 He lifted me in his arms, 
 all rigid as I lay, and carried 
 me over in his arms as one 
 might carry a log of cord- 
 wood, for I had no more 
 power of will or motion. 
 Then he laid me down on 
 the platform of the hideous 
 machine, and fitted my neck 
 into the horrible groove. I 
 looked up, and saw the 
 hateful knife gleaming over 
 my head. Li Sing looked 
 up too, and chuckled to 
 himself audibly. '* Plenty 
 blood lun, lun," he said. 
 *• Velly plitty expeliment. 
 Li Sing wantee allee time 
 
 95 
 
TIME 
 
 to see how guillotine workee 
 on Melican gentleman." 
 
 No, gentlemen ; I tell you, 
 it's not all prejudice. 
 
 The yellow man is as 
 pitiless as Nature herself. 
 He kills, and laughs. He 
 tortures, and enjoys it. 
 
 Li Sing stood watching 
 me with my head in the 
 groove, in my helpless agony, 
 for full five minutes. Evi- 
 dently, now he had gained 
 his heart's desire at last, he 
 couldn't bear to get over the 
 scene too quickly. He 
 wanted to drink it in, bit 
 by bit, and taste its full 
 flavour by rolling it delicately 
 on his mental palate. The 
 five minutes seemed to me 
 like a perfect eternity. But 
 I knew they were no more, 
 because he took out my 
 watch, and held it up visibly 
 before my eyes. I saw it 
 pointed to twenty minutes 
 past two in the morning. 
 •'Give you five minutes," 
 the Chinaman said, with the 
 
 96 
 
 I 
 
THE 
 
 watch in his hand. And 
 then, he counted them out 
 with dehberate slowness. 
 '• One . . . two . . . three 
 . . . four . . . and a quar- 
 ter .. . four and a half . . . 
 four and three quarters . . . 
 five ! And now for the 
 expeliment ! " 
 
 As he spoke, with stolid, 
 fiendish joy gleaming child- 
 ishly on his smooth face, he 
 clutched at the cord, and 
 gave a hasty pull to the 
 weighted machinery. I 
 closed my eyes, and knew 
 all was up. I had but one 
 last prayer : " Heaven grant 
 that Edith may never learn 
 it!" 
 
 How long a time a second 
 seems when you're waiting 
 for the axe of a guillotine to 
 fall! Slowly, slowly, the 
 awful thing slipped down. I 
 heard it slide in the groove 
 with incredible deliberate- 
 ness. I waited and wondered, 
 with my eyes closed. But 
 as the second lengthened 
 97 N 
 
LENGTHENED 
 
 itself out to half a minute at 
 least — half an eternity, rather 
 — I opened my eyes at last 
 once more, and glanced 
 patiently upward. 
 
 Li Sing stood gazing at 
 the knife with a disappointed 
 look. And the blade itself, 
 which I had heard sliding 
 slowly downward in its 
 groove, and grating against 
 the side, stuck in the machine 
 half a yard above me. 
 
 This was unspeakable 
 suspense, in the very jaws 
 of death. Why torture me 
 so by such delays ? Was it 
 chance that had done it, or 
 was Li Sing still playing 
 with me ? Was he trying 
 intentionally to prolong my 
 agony ? 
 
 But no. Something had 
 surely gone wrong with the 
 working of the machine. 
 There was a hitch^ clearly. 
 Li Sing lifted the knife 
 slowly into place once more, 
 and examined the weights 
 and pulleys with close atten- 
 
 98 
 
ATTEN- 
 
 tion. Then he slid it up 
 and down twice or thrice to 
 try it, and felt with his hand 
 for any obstruction in the 
 channelled groove. At last 
 he appeared to have found 
 it. He chuckled to himself 
 once more, and stood up on 
 the platform, gazing benignly 
 at the knife. All was ready 
 now for the final attempt. 
 At last my awful suspense 
 would be ended — by death ; 
 and in two minutes more I 
 should be free from a world 
 that grows such things as 
 these yellow-faced China- 
 men! 
 
 99 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CHANCE OF A MINUTE. 
 
 " The day is done, and the darkness 
 Falls from the wings of Night, 
 As a feather is wafted downward 
 From an eagle in his flight." 
 Longfellow. 
 
 What did he do then ? Well, 
 
 then, gentlemen, he adjusted 
 
 the weights, and put my neck 
 
 back on the block neatly, for 
 
 he'd kicked me aside for a 
 
 time with his foot while he 
 
 examined the machinery. He 
 
 kicked me aside carelessly, 
 
 as if I was a log of wood ; 
 
 but it was hardly a moment f 
 
 to stand on ceremony, you'll 
 
 admit, and I didn't insist. In 
 
 fact, I could neither move 
 
 nor speak, to remonstrate in 
 
 any way. 
 
 lOO 
 
WAY. 
 
 But that wasn't just what I 
 was going to tell you next. 
 I've told this story so often 
 now, I've got to tell it my own 
 way, or I can't get through 
 with it. You see, Tve been 
 leaving Edith rather in the 
 lurch all this time, and natural 
 politeness prompts one to re- 
 turn to the lady. Well, this 
 is how matters fared with 
 her while I was tied up. Of 
 course I wasn't there to see 
 it all myself; but I tell you 
 as it was told to me after- 
 wards. 
 
 About eight o'clock that 
 night the Sacramento was 
 telegraphed from the Faral- 
 lone Islands ; and Joe Ashley, 
 who was still on duty at the 
 bureau, awaiting the packet 
 — sent up a little note at the 
 Palace Hotel, where I was 
 staying, a?d where he ex- 
 pected to find me on the 
 look-out for Edith's arrival. 
 Four hours later, almost as 
 the clock was striking twelve, 
 the vessel came to an anchor 
 
 lOI 
 
ANCHOR 
 
 in the Golden Gate, and 
 passengers were allowed to 
 go ashore on the tender. 
 
 Now, it was part of Joe's 
 duty, as it happened, to see 
 the tender land her mails ; 
 so he was down on the wharf, 
 by good luck, when Edith 
 arrived there. If he hadn't 
 been there, Heaven knows 
 what might have happened. 
 He recognized her the 
 moment she came off the 
 steamer — for he'd seen her 
 photograph hanging up in 
 my hut at Cooper's Pike 
 here — so he touched his hat, 
 and went up to her like a 
 friend. "Miss Deverel, I 
 believe ? " says Joe. 
 
 And Edith nodded. 
 
 " Well, Mr. Freke's some- 
 where about on the look-out 
 for you, miss," Joe said, 
 politely, for he was always 
 a gentleman. ** Confounded 
 odd thing he ain't here to 
 the fore. He was up all 
 night yesterday, waiting for 
 you to arrive ; and I sent 
 
 I02 
 
SENT 
 
 him word to his hotel when 
 the Sacramento was cabled 
 from the Farallone Light, so 
 he's sure to be loafing around 
 somewhere on the wharf. 
 But I don't see him. Jest 
 you sit yourself down on 
 this coil of rope, miss," Joe 
 went on, looking around, 
 '* and I'll go up and find out 
 if he's fallen asleep in the 
 waiting-room. You see, he 
 was up all last night waiting 
 for the cable, so he's got a 
 sort of an excuse for being 
 sleepy this evening," Joe 
 says apologetically. For he 
 felt my remissness demanded 
 an apology. He had a ten- 
 der heart, Joe, and he was 
 sorry for Edith. And I 
 must admit that nothing but 
 circumstances ever which I 
 had no control — such as be- 
 ing tied on my back under 
 the axe of a guillotine by 
 a bloodthirsty Chinaman — 
 would ever have excused 
 my absence from the post 
 of duty at such a moment. 
 103 
 
MOMENT. 
 
 But circumstances, gentle- 
 men, are sometimes too 
 many for the best of us. 
 
 As for poor Edith, she 
 felt naturally bewildered at 
 finding herself left alone, 
 this way, at twelve o'clock 
 at night, on an open wharf, 
 with a strange man, in a 
 foreign city. If she grum- 
 bled a bit at my faithless- 
 ness, I can't blame her very 
 much ; for you see, she 
 could have very little idea 
 indeed how precious little 
 control I had over those de- 
 taining circumstances. How- 
 ever, there she sat, a little 
 apart from the crowd, on a 
 coil of rope, watching every 
 one who passed with an 
 eager eye, and waiting in 
 vain for me to come and 
 fetch her. 
 
 For ten minutes or more 
 she waited there, shivering. 
 Here was a pretty welcome, 
 indeed, for an English bride 
 to the country where she'd 
 come to meet her future 
 104 
 
FUTURE 
 
 husband ! At last Joe came 
 back, more bewildered than 
 ever. " I don't understand 
 this at all, miss," he said. 
 " It's a most astonishing 
 thing. Mr. Freke ain't any- 
 where about in the waiting- 
 rooms or saloon ; and I've 
 searched the whole wharf 
 without finding a trace of 
 him anyhow. This is darned 
 strange," Joe went on, look- 
 ing sheepish himself at my 
 not turning up. " All I can 
 tell you is, he's been down 
 at the bureau of the Pacific 
 every hour for the last 
 twenty-four, a'most, to ask if 
 the Sacramento was cabled 
 from the Farallones ; and he 
 meant to come down as 
 punctual as clockwork the 
 moment she was due. I 
 can't make it out. It beats 
 me altogether where the 
 durned thing can have laid 
 himself." 
 
 "Oh, dear," cried Edith, 
 wringing her hands, and 
 looking over the edge of 
 105 o 
 
 t * 
 
OF 
 
 the wharf, to where the lights 
 were dancing on the ripples 
 of the harbour ; " you don't 
 think he can have fallen into 
 the water, do you ? " 
 
 "No, I don't, miss," says 
 Joe, very positive, just to 
 quiet her mind a bit; for 
 the suggestion gave him 
 quite a start, it seemed so 
 very probable. ** But any- 
 how, we can't leave you 
 sitting out like this till Mr. 
 Freke turns up. I'll tell 
 you what I'll do. I'll hire 
 a hack and drive you up to 
 your friends ; and then I'll 
 light out for Mr. Freke's 
 hotel, and hunt him up, and 
 bring him along to the house 
 to see you." 
 
 "Oh, thank you," said 
 Edith, feeling quite grateful 
 to the man for his kindness, 
 for she didn't know herself 
 in the least what to do, and 
 it was a comfort for her to 
 have anybody at hand to 
 advise her. Happily, it 
 never even occurred to her 
 . io6 
 
HER 
 
 innocent soul that he might 
 be a crook — that's American 
 for a pickpocket — or she 
 might have been afraid to 
 accept his escort. But she 
 was too simple for that. 
 She thought no evil. So 
 Joe — he was always a good 
 fellow, Joe was — he hired a 
 hack, and saw her luggage 
 safely aboard, and piloted 
 her up to her friends' resi- 
 dence, on Jefferson Street, 
 close to the Presidio Reser- 
 vation. But as soon as he'd 
 got her safely stowed away 
 there — and of course, it took 
 some time to get the hack 
 and so forth — he hurried 
 away at the top of his 
 speed, with the very same 
 horse, to the Palace Hotel, 
 right down town on Mont- 
 gomery Street. 
 
 For he was frightened a 
 bit what had become of me, 
 Joe was. 
 
 The moment he reached 
 there, he rushed into the 
 bureau. Now, I suppose 
 107 
 
SUPPOSE 
 
 you know the Palace Hotel 
 is the biggest establishment 
 of its sort in the United 
 States, and they keep open 
 all night, with electric lights 
 burning ; and when Joe 
 looked at the clock, he saw 
 it was just on the stroke of 
 two, for it's a precious long 
 drive from the Presidio to 
 Montgomery. 
 
 " Hello, sir," says Joe, to 
 the hotel clerk at the register, 
 "has 1427, Mr. Freke, of 
 England, been toting around 
 this evening ? " 
 
 The hotel clerk looked at 
 the key, hung up on the peg, 
 and shook his head. ** Why, 
 1427 went out for a prome- 
 nade at two o'clock this 
 afternoon," he said, "and 
 hasn't returned since. I 
 guess he's making a night 
 of it away down in China 
 lown. 
 
 "By Jingo!" says Joe, 
 
 growing pale. " It's worse 
 
 than that, I'm afraid. Those 
 
 blamed yellow men must 
 
 108 
 
MUST 
 
 have drugged him and 
 robbed him." 
 
 "Very Hkely," says the 
 hotel clerk, quite jauntily, 
 going on with his books. 
 *' That's a common event. 
 A most ordinary occurrence 
 of life in China Town." 
 
 Well, when Joe heard 
 that, he didn't stop to wait 
 a moment longer. He ran 
 as fast as a pair of Kentucky 
 legs could carry him to the 
 nearest police-station, and 
 there he set what he knew 
 before a cute Western in- 
 spector. 
 
 *' When did you last see 
 him ? " says the inspector. 
 
 ** Four o'clock," says Joe. 
 " And then he told me he 
 was going to the Metro- 
 politan Plastographic." 
 
 "Halt there!" says the 
 inspector. ** That's the first 
 thing to try. We've a clue, 
 any way. There's a yellow- 
 skinned Mongolian sleeps 
 there to keep watch. I 
 know the fellow well. Li 
 109 
 
LI 
 
 Sing's his name. If murder 
 and robbery's up, it's his 
 friends that have done it. 
 These fellows always belong 
 to a gang, I believe. Not 
 but what," says he, " Li 
 Sing's always been a solitary, 
 well-behaved sort of a chap. 
 But there ! you never know 
 where you are with these 
 yellow - skinned Mongo- 
 lians ! " 
 
 So off the inspector started, 
 with Joe in tow; and at 
 twenty-five past two by 
 the City Hall clock, they 
 were standing abreast of 
 the Metropolitan Plastogra- 
 phic. 
 
 And it was twenty-five 
 past two, as I dare say you 
 recollect, by my own watch, 
 when Li Sing let the knife 
 drop for the first time in 
 that infernal guillotine. 
 
 When they reached the 
 door, they looked about for 
 a bell. But there wasn't 
 any, it seemed. Then the 
 inspector said, " We'd better 
 no 
 
BETTER 
 
 not disturb the fellow at his 
 game, perhaps. Let's go 
 round to the back. He 
 sleeps at the back, of course. 
 Hello! What's up? Why, 
 there's a light round yonder 
 in the first-floor window ! " 
 
 For the Chamber of Hor- 
 rors, though on the ground 
 floor from the front as you 
 entered, was one floor up at 
 the back of the house, the 
 level of the street being 
 raised somewhat above the 
 natural surface. 
 
 " Let's climb up," says the 
 inspector, "and see what's 
 afloat. Perhaps we shall 
 find them dividing the swag 
 there." 
 
 Well, they both climbed 
 up, and looked in at the 
 window. The blind was 
 down, but looking round the 
 corner, through the chink 
 of the sash, they could make 
 out something. " Hello, this 
 is odd." "This ain't any- 
 thing at all," said the in- 
 spector ; " I've seen Li Sing 
 III 
 
SING 
 
 do all that a hundred times 
 before. He's only arranging 
 the machinery of that durned 
 guillotine. Though he's 
 chosen a most remarkable 
 hour to do it in ! " 
 
 " But what's that under 
 it ? " Joe said, looking closer. 
 " That ain't the French 
 king. ... It ain't dressed 
 up right. . . . That's not 
 waxwork at all. . . . S'help 
 me God, inspector, that's 
 a living man the brute's 
 got under it ! " 
 
 At that precise moment, 
 with a violent effort, I rolled 
 myself over out of the way 
 of the axe ; and Li Sing 
 turned sharp round to put 
 me back on the block again. 
 
 Before he could do it, 
 however, the inspector and 
 Joe both gave a shriek of 
 horror. In a second they 
 had crashed through the 
 glass of the window, and 
 burst like thunder into the 
 dim-lighted room. Li Sing 
 turned round without a cry 
 
 112 
 
CRY 
 
 or a word. For one instant 
 he faced them, imperturbable 
 still, with that sphinx-like 
 smile upon his Mongolian 
 features. Then the full 
 consequences of the dis- 
 covery seemed to dawn upon 
 him suddenly. He flung up 
 his hands, and let go the 
 weights. That moment the 
 flashing knife descended with 
 lightning-like rapidity down 
 the grooves in my direction. 
 How it all happened next, 
 I could hardly tell for a 
 moment, for I was blinded 
 with blood, and stunned with 
 horror. But I felt at least 
 my head was still there. Li 
 Sing had been standing on 
 the platform, adjusting the 
 mechanism, and was stoop- 
 ing to replace my neck on 
 the fatal block, at the very 
 second when Joe and the 
 inspector entered. As he 
 flung up his arms and let 
 the weights go, the knife 
 descended, striking him on 
 the flat of his back, and 
 113 p 
 
AND 
 
 knocking him down sense- 
 less on the platform above 
 me. The blood spurted out 
 from his broken spine, and 
 he gave one wild shriek. 
 But I myself was unhurt. 
 I was only terribly stunned 
 and shaken. 
 
 In three minutes, the in- 
 spector had cut away the 
 ropes, and lifted me from 
 the floor, and brought in 
 some brandy. Li Sing lay 
 writhing half insensible on 
 the platform. He wasn't 
 dead. He lingered on for 
 three days, indeed, and was 
 conscious at times; but for 
 the most part he lay delirious 
 on a bed at the hospital, and 
 merely muttered to himself 
 feebly from time to time, 
 *' Plenty blood lun out. Eng- 
 lish gentleman stlanger in 
 Flisco. Li Sing only want 
 to tly piecey expeliment." 
 On the third day he died, in 
 fearful agonies. The injury 
 to his spine was quite irre- 
 parable. And it was better 
 114 
 
BETTER 
 
 so. If he had lived to be 
 tried, the mob to a certainty 
 would have caught him and 
 lynched him. 
 
 Well, yes, of course, I was 
 shaken a bit, no doubt. It 
 was ten days before I was 
 in a state to be married to 
 Edith ; and meanwhile, my 
 hair turned white as snow. 
 But Edith, when she saw it, 
 fully accepted my apology 
 for failing to meet her. 
 
 Why, certainly, I did my 
 level best for Joe, of course. 
 
 He's now the secretary of 
 the Cooper's Pike Natural 
 Gas Supply Association. 
 
 Did you happen to notice 
 that pleasant-looking gentle- 
 man in the yellow buggy, 
 with the fast-trotting mare, 
 that passed us with a nod 
 this afternoon in the San 
 Quentin Park ? 
 
 Well, that's Joe, gentle- 
 men. He's one of the most 
 prominent citizens of Coop- 
 er's Pike at the present 
 moment ; and Edith and I 
 
 115 
 
I 
 
 sometimes think that when 
 our Eustace grows up, and 
 comes home from Harvard, 
 he might do worse than 
 make a match of it some day 
 with Joe Ashley's Dolores. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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