THIKTEEN 
 
 Stories of the Far West 
 
 BY 
 
 FOEBES IIEERMANS 
 
 SYRACUSE N. Y. 
 C. W. BARDEEN PUBLISHER 
 
 1887 
 

 
 COPYRIGHT 1*87 
 
 BY 
 
 FORP.ES HEERMANS. 
 
/ 
 
 T5S 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 IS 
 
 DEDICATED 
 
 TO THE ONE PERSON IN WHOSE LITERARY TASTE THE AUTHOR 
 
 HAS ENTIRE CONFIDENCE 
 THE MAN WHO BUYS IT 
 
 M161718 
 
BY WAT OF EXPLANATION. 
 
 So far as the author knows, this book has no par 
 ticular i mission ; it was not even written to c fill a 
 long felt want, and if any reader should discover a 
 want that it does fill, nicely, he will confer a favor on 
 the author by notifying him to that effect by mail. 
 
 As to the title THIRTEEN the author claims 
 that its merit lies in its utter irrelevancy. 
 
 As to the stories themselves, he wishes to say that 
 they are reports of actual experiences, written up from 
 his note-book, with such changes in names, places and 
 minor incidents as his personal safety seems to require. 
 Some attempt has also been made to expurgate the 
 language sufficiently to bring it within civilized lim 
 its, without wholly losing its idiomatic flavor. 
 
 The author awaits the verdict of the public with 
 trepidation, but meekly submits his work and starts 
 at once for the FAR EAST. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 I. SHINGLES 9 
 
 II. THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 25. 
 
 III. ALANASCAR AND HIS UNCLE 41. 
 
 IV. THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGRE 58. 
 
 V, THE DESCENT OF UNCOMPAHGRE 76. 
 
 VI. BURIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE 81 . 
 
 VII. THE WEDDING AT PUERTA DA LUNA 94. 
 
 VIII. ON WATCH WITH THE NIGHT HERD 113. 
 
 IX. DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 123. 
 
 X. THE ASSAYER S STORY 159. 
 
 XL THE LOG OF A LANDSMAN 197. 
 
 XII. MOLOKAI DEATH S VALLEY 198. 
 
 XIII. THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIRE.. ..241. 
 
I. SHINGLES. 
 
 There was no question about it, the mining camp 
 at Clay s Gulch was wide awake. You might know 
 that by looking at the door of the Oasis, the principal 
 establishment in the place for the dissemination of li 
 quids. Through this door, which stood wide open as 
 if to let in a little of the pure air and sunshine, so 
 plentiful without, so rare within, where the fumes of 
 whiskey and tobacco hung thick and fetid, might be 
 seen some of the residents of Clay s Gulch ; men in 
 rough dress, whose stern faces that bright morning in 
 June seemed harder and sterner than ever. For the 
 camp had been having a night of it, anyone could tell 
 you that ; and the consequences of that night had been 
 unpleasant, even to those who were used to that sort 
 of thing, as most of the men of the Gulch were. 
 
 Bob Stortles was lying dead in what he had called 
 his house, and a little blue spot on his left temple in 
 dicated clearly the cause of his death. It needed no 
 coroner s inquest to settle that ; there wasn t a man 
 in the camp who couldn t swear to what Bob had 
 died of. 
 
 And that wasn t all ! Mrs. Bob Stortles was lying 
 dead in the same cabin, and the cause of her death was 
 equally well known consumption. 
 
 Bob was one of those men who failing to get along 
 in the East had gone West to do better. That was 
 A 
 
A 
 
 ; ,10,. SHINGLES. 
 
 two years ago, and he had as regularly failed there as 
 before. He left a young wife behind him to do the 
 best she could and take care of the baby that was born 
 a half year after. Bob couldn t help them any; 
 he had all he could do to keep himself from starv 
 ing, but when at last she wrote that she was dying, he 
 borrowed the money and sent for her to come to him. 
 Shingles was the man who lent it to him, and Shin 
 gles was Bob s partner. Not that Shingles was any 
 richer than Bob, for he wasn t, but he had a few odd 
 trinkets that he had managed to save through all his 
 ups and downs and well, Bob got some money, and 
 Mrs. Bob came to Clay s Gulch. 
 
 " You see, old man," said Bob to Shingles, after he 
 had sent for his wife, " I look at it in this way ; the at 
 mosphere is Al for Sally in course, an the stirrin 
 round and me bein with her ll brace her up. And 
 there s the Kid! it ll do lot s for the Kid." 
 
 Shingles assented to this with a nod. That was his 
 way. He never had anything to say ; a nod or a shake 
 of the head was a whole paragraph with him. He had 
 never been heard to utter a complete sentence but once 
 and that was when he and Bob were working the 
 " Ghostly Hole " claim, and found a nugget. Bob used 
 to relate the story in the Oasis, telling how Shingles, 
 taken by surprise had exclaimed : 
 
 "It s worth a thousand, Bob!" 
 
 It was worth a thousand but it was soon gone. Bob 
 took it to the bank, sold it, and the same evening lost 
 the money to Major Burke at poker. 
 
 "Who d a thought the blamed fool held fours ? " Bob 
 said to Shingles next day, " why, he drew three ! " 
 
THE COMPLETE THING. 11 
 
 Shingles never complained ; you really couldn t tell 
 from the looks of him that he ever thought of the 
 matter. But then, that was another of Shingle s pe 
 culiarities. He wasn t popular in the camp ; he was 
 hardly known, while Bob was everybody s friend. 
 Shingles loved Bob in that silent, enduring way, the 
 strong sometimes feel for the weak, and Bob accepted 
 the homage thus paid him, and assumed to be Shingles s 
 protector. 
 
 When Mrs. Bob and the baby came, matters did not 
 improve, but rather grew worse. If it hadn t been for 
 Shingles, more than once they would have starved. 
 But all that he did and all that Bob tried to do, was 
 of no avail, and three months after she arrived Mrs. 
 Bob died. That night Bob went into the camp ; he was 
 in trouble, poor fellow, and he did what he d often 
 done before, drowned his care in rum. The story is 
 short. Inflamed by the liquor, he quarreled with a 
 stranger, and making a motion to draw his pistol, the 
 next moment Bob was with his wife and the little blue 
 spot on his temple told the story. 
 
 Then occurred an event which for a time caused 
 some little talk in Clay s Gulch. The man who shot 
 Bob was sent after him at just midnight. As Captain 
 Fish, the proprietor of the Oasis, and the most influ 
 ential man in the place, remarked, with grim humor : 
 
 " Taint the shootin of him so much that we object 
 to, but it s the shootin of him now, his wife bein* 
 dead an him a havin on his hands a little Kid. In 
 this case I don t see ez we kin do less n the complete 
 thing." 
 
SHINGLES. 
 
 And they did the complete thing, and then there 
 were three lying dead in the camp. 
 
 The question of a place of burial for Bob and his 
 wife, being deemed of small importance, was left to 
 Shingles to decide. 
 
 " You know d him best, you know, bein his pard- 
 ner," said the Sheriff, who acted as Master of Cere 
 monies, " an bein familiar with his tastes, I reckon 
 you can guess pretty close w r hat he d fancy for a 
 shaft." 
 
 Shingles nodded and pointed to the claim he and 
 Bob had worked for a time and then abandoned. 
 
 "There!" he said. 
 
 " What ! the Ghostly Hole ! " said the Sheriff. 
 
 Shingles nodded again. 
 
 " Well, I dunno but you re right," said the Sheriff 
 after a thoughtful pause, " taint good for nothin 
 else," and so Bob and his wife were buried there. 
 
 Then the question arose : " What ll we do with the 
 Kid ? " and a meeting of the Committee was called to 
 settle it. Mrs. Bob had been the first woman in the 
 camp, and this was the first baby, and the novelty of 
 the situation made it a perplexing one. Promptly at 
 two o clock on the day after the funeral, the meeting 
 came to order in the back room of the Oasis, Captain 
 Fish in the chair. He opened the proceedings with 
 a short speech. 
 
 u You know the situation, gen lemen," he said ; 
 " here s a Kid less n two year old, an orphan, gen le 
 men and poor " here the committee nodded as one 
 man " and I won t say how it become an orphan, for 
 you all know." The committee nodded again. "I 
 
AN ODD PAIR. 13 
 
 reckon we d better send it to the States, to some of its 
 folks ; it ll die here. What d ye say ? " 
 
 The plan seemed to the committee the only feasible 
 one, and after due deliberation, Tom Redway rose and 
 offered a resolution to that effect. He was interrupted 
 by the entrance of Shingles. E~o one had thought of 
 him before, though it was he who had been taking 
 care of the baby since its mother s death. He slowly 
 .advanced to where the committee sat and said : 
 
 " Ex-c^s^ me, boys, but it ain t goin east. It can t ! 
 It aint got no folks nor no money. It s Bob s Kid, 
 boys, and " here his voice shook a little " I reckon 
 to take care of it myself." 
 
 The committee was amazed ; Shingles had never be 
 fore said so much they did nt know he had it in him 
 and for a moment they were speechless. When 
 they recovered they burst into a simultaneous cheer ; 
 they slapped him on the back ; they punched him in 
 the ribs ; they invited him to drink and the way then 
 most in vogue showed their approval of his course. 
 By acclamation he was appointed guardian and the 
 Committee adjourned, relieved to have the quesion so 
 easily settled. 
 
 Then a new life began for Shingles and he had a 
 hard struggle to get along. Little Bob, twas so he 
 called the baby girl, though he always spoke of her to 
 others as Miss Bob, while she was a tender care to him, 
 troubled him greatly. He had to be with her con 
 stantly ; he had but little time to work and earn the 
 bread they both must eat, and often he went to bed 
 hungry, though little Bob had enough, you may be 
 sure. Shingles daily grew poorer, and if the boys 
 
14 SHINGLES. 
 
 hadn t now and then helped him out on the sly, he and 
 little Bob would have had a much harder time than they 
 did, and that was very hard indeed. But through all 
 his troubles Shingles never flinched ; he had devoted 
 his life to the child and he did his duty as he under 
 stood it manfully. 
 
 The odd association of Shingles and Bob at first 
 seemed very strange to the camp, but in a little while 
 the two became an institution. No body ever saw 
 Shingles without Bob or Bob without Shingles ; they 
 were always together. Yet still his luck held on the 
 same. The only change noticed in him was that he 
 talked more than formerly. 
 
 "What s come over you, Shingles?" Jack Farmer 
 asked him one day; " You talk so much; didn t use to!" 
 
 "It s along of Miss Bob," Shingles answered,. 
 " somebody s got to learn her to talk so I just thought 
 I would." 
 
 Jack told with great effect, every night for a week,, 
 to a never tiring audience in the Oasis, of a little ad 
 venture he had met with, " up to Shingleses ! " 
 
 " Yes siree ! you d orter been there," he used to 
 say. " I m a married man myself, m wife bein in 
 the States, an I know what s what. I just looked in 
 th door an I ll be jiggered if there wa nt old Shin 
 gles down on his knees before the fire a washin 
 that baby like he was its mother." [Here Jack was 
 always interrupted by murmurs of approval.] 
 was as funny as four kings. An there was the Kid 
 a laughin and a carryin on, an old Shingles talkin 
 to it an bein so soft an smooth and every now an 
 then sir, that Kid would just splash a lot of water up 
 
15 
 
 into old String s face an laugh, an then he d laugh too 
 an 5 well it beat me, that s all it beat me, clean." 
 
 The prosperity of Clay s Gulch meanwhile steadily 
 increased; it was mentioned in the Denver papers 
 as a remarkable example of a prosperous mining 
 camp ; people nocked to it from all parts, and by 
 the time Little Bob was four years old the place had 
 undergone great changes. And with the changes in 
 the place had come changes in Bob. She had learned 
 to walk, to talk, and to think in a childish way. She 
 had never been sick a day, and the out-door life she 
 led made her hardy and strong. By degrees Shingles 
 began to get ahead a little and prosper, for now that 
 Bob could take care of herself he devoted more time 
 to his work. But still he kept her closely by him ; 
 he seemed unhappy when at rare and short intervals she 
 was out of his sight. The two were the most popular 
 persons in camp ; he because of his wonderful care 
 and tender love for the child and she because well, 
 because she was Little Bob. She had a free, off-hand 
 way with her that hit the fancy of the men and con 
 trasted oddly with Shingles taciturnity. She always 
 called him Shingles, he had taught her to do so. She 
 was not afraid of anyone, and she used the slang of 
 the camp in an easy way that sounded odd yet attract 
 ive, while her grammar was that of Shingles. It got 
 to be a regular thing for the men to stroll out to call 
 on Bob and Shingles every pleasant Sunday afternoon, 
 to inquire how they were getting along. Shingles 
 received them gravely ; he realized that he was of 
 minor importance, and he made no effort to entertain 
 the guests, but let Bob play the important part. 
 
16 SHINGLES. 
 
 " Me an Shin les," she would tell her admirers, 
 " dot a dood mine, but we need some more tapital, 
 doesn t we Shin les ? " 
 
 And he would nod his head slowly, while the visit 
 ors would roar with laughter and slap their legs 
 resoundingly, to express their amusement. 
 
 As Shingles began to get ahead, though it was very 
 slowly at first, he became extravagant in the direction 
 of Bob. No one ever went to Denver from the camp 
 without having some little commission to execute for 
 him. In this way Bob became the owner, among 
 many other things, of a gold watch, massive cameo 
 .ear-rings and brooch, and a pug dog, the last her great 
 est treasure. Once when Colonel Moody went east, 
 "for the purpose of enlisting idle capital in develop 
 ing the vast mineral resources of the country," Shin 
 gles asked him to buy Bob a suit of clothes. " An it 
 ought to be the la-test thing for style," he added. He 
 had always dressed Bob as a boy, because he had once 
 heard her express profound contempt for girls in gen 
 eral. The Colonel willingly accepted the commission 
 and brought back with him four suits of boy s cloth 
 ing, of different sizes and of the most elaborate pat 
 terns imaginable. 
 
 "I reckoned Bob would grow some, you know," he 
 said half apologetically, as he handed the bundle to 
 Shingles, "they most generally do, so I just allowed for 
 it. There aint nothin to pay," and off he walked, 
 leaving Shingles his firm friend from that day. 
 
 As the camp grew and prospered, its appearance 
 underwent a change ; it began t0 wear a settled look ; 
 permanent buildings replaced the old wooden struc- 
 
BOB WONT GO. 17 
 
 tures ; a railroad at last reached there and Clay s 
 Gulch became a town of importance. With these 
 changes came women, and among them Jack Farmer s 
 wife who, when she heard from Jack the story of 
 Shingles and Little Bob went straight to see them. 
 She pitied Little Bob, and she pitied poor Shingles 
 too, and she urged him to send Bob to her, to live 
 with her children. She was one of the kind you some 
 times find in just such places ; a woman you could 
 trust your soul with and have no fear. 
 
 " It seems to me, Mr. Shingles," she said, "the lit 
 tle girl would be better away from the that is, if she 
 could be with children of her own age," and as she 
 spoke her kindly blue eyes filled with tears as she 
 thought of the child s unhappy lot. She didn t know 
 Shingles then. 
 
 Poor Shingles was upset ; he had never been called 
 Mr. Shingles before, and the thought of parting with 
 Bob quite unmanned him. His life had been a lonely 
 one until she came ; he had never loved or been loved 
 before, and as he sat there, Little Bob quietly perched 
 on his knee and quite unconscious of what was going 
 on, two big tears rolled down his rough cheeks. Then 
 he seized her in his arms and clasping her tight to his 
 breast, kissed her silently. 
 
 She looked up in surprise, 
 
 " What oo tryin for, Shingles?" she asked. 
 
 Shingles shook his head ; he couldn t speak. 
 
 " Oh ! oo is ; I seed oo ! " 
 
 " Bob ; " said Shingles, at length ; " this lady wants 
 to take you with her to play with her little girls. 
 Will you got" 
 
18 SHINGLES. 
 
 " To teep me always ? " she said, her eyes staring 
 large and round at Shingles. 
 
 " Yes always. Will you go ? " 
 
 " No-o- ! " cried Bob, and the next instant she was 
 sobbing on his shoulder. He didn t attempt to console 
 her ; indeed, he didn t know how to. He had never 
 seen her cry like that before ; it troubled him and al 
 most before he knew it he and Bob were in tears to 
 gether. Mrs. Farmer, not knowing what else to do, 
 left them there, thinking the time had not yet came to 
 part them. 
 
 And then another change was noticed in Shingles. 
 From being careless in his dress he became noted for 
 his fine attire. No one who knew him ever intimated 
 that this was remarked. It was generally understood 
 that it was on little Bob s account. 
 
 But Brown, the new proprietor of the Oasis and 
 successor to Captain Fish, (who departed this life 
 through holding three aces and two kings against his 
 opponent s three kings and two aces and being a little 
 slow with his pistol), rallied Shingles a little. 
 
 "What s up, boy?" he said, " goin courtin ? 
 Where does she live ? " 
 
 Shingles did not take this in the wildly humorous 
 way Brown meant it he never did take things in a 
 humorous way and passed on without a nod. 
 
 That night Brown told the story in the Oasis, giving 
 it all the droll emphasis he was capable of, but it fell 
 flat. 
 
 "I ll tell you why he looked like a gentleman; 
 growled Tom Redwaj r . " Little Bob was five years 
 old last week ; remember that ! " 
 
19 
 
 Every Sunday Shingles might be seen, clean shaven 
 and dressed in his finest suit of checkered clothes r 
 seated in a front pew of the largest church in Clay s 
 Gulch, and little Bob was always with him. If the 
 weather was bad he carried her all the way in his arms,, 
 or as she much preferred to ride, on his back. 
 
 " I didn t think a little gospel d do Miss Bob any 
 harm," he said, apologetically, to the minister who 
 called on him one day. As if to develop this theory 
 he every Sunday afternoon read to Bob parts of the 
 Bible, spelling the words slowly out and expounding 
 their meaning in a manner suited, as he thought, to 
 her youthful intelligence. 
 
 Captain Peters, a deputy sheriff, and popularly 
 known as " Little Casino," related with great glee at 
 the Oasis one Sunday evening, (at which time, in 
 deference to public opinion no liquor was sold between 
 seven and half-past, and no game allowed but poker),, 
 how he had that day called on Bob. 
 
 " There was old Shing, with the kid in his arms,, 
 an her fast asleep. There he was, sawin away about 
 Moses and Li-jah, and his kull congregation asleep.. 
 I most bust when I looked but I didn t dare laugh 
 fear I d wake Bob, so I just came away silent." 
 
 All this time Shingles kept pegging along in his 
 mine, not making much, but still making a little. If 
 he hadn t been Shingles, everyone would have laughed 
 at him for persisting in working a claim that had 
 never been a good one and could not, by any possi 
 bility, improve. 
 
 " What you wastin your time over that hole for ? " 
 asked the sheriff, himself known as " Big Casino " ; 
 
20 SHINGLES. 
 
 " there s lots better ore all round ye. Give it up, man, 
 and stake out a new claim." 
 
 But Shingles shook his head. 
 
 " Can t do it Sherf ; this claim belonged to Old Bob 
 .an now its Miss Bob s, an I, bein her trus-tee, got to 
 work it fer her." 
 
 So he kept on, sometimes doing well, sometimes 
 poorly ; working hard in the tunnel all day and sit 
 ting up half the night over his books. He had taught 
 Bob her letters and she was almost through words of 
 one syllable. He found it necessary to study hard, 
 lest she should get ahead of him. Still he persevered, 
 for he couldn t bear to think of her going away to 
 .school yet awhile. 
 
 And now occurred an event which Clay s Gulch 
 remembered for many a day. Bob was a little more 
 than six years old and Shingles well, never mind 
 how old he was, no one ever knew, not even Shingles 
 himself. It was a warm, clear day in May; matters 
 had not been going very well with Shingles for some 
 time, in fact they had been going very badly. Once 
 or twice he had almost lost courage and in his heart 
 he believed the Sheriff was right and his mine Bob s 
 mine was played out. Each night for a month past, 
 -as he left the tunnel, he felt low spirited, and each 
 night as he caught sight of Bob he forgot his trouble 
 and answered her question : 
 
 " How s our mine, Shingles ? " with a cheerful : 
 " All right, little Bob." 
 
 On this particular morning he felt unusually down 
 hearted, but he didn t pause for that and entered the 
 tunnel. He did not appear at noon, and Bob went to 
 
IN THE TUNNEL. 21 
 
 look for him. Such a thing as his being late had never 
 occurred before and she was surprised and troubled. 
 
 " Shin gles ! " she called at the mouth of the tun 
 nel, and " Shin gles ! " was echoed out to her again, 
 but that was all. No cheery u Ay ! ay ! little Bob ! " 
 but only "Shin gles" thrice repeated by the lone 
 some echoes of the rocks. Bob was troubled ; she was 
 quite old enough to think for herself, yet she couldn t 
 understand it. She ventured a little way into the tun 
 nel, cold and damp, and called again : " Shingles ! " 
 and still the echoes only answered. Her heart beat 
 fast. She knew he must be in the tunnel, and again 
 she advanced a few steps and called, and again she 
 heard no answer but her own voice. Frightened now, 
 she fancied she saw in the darkness ahead of her all sorts 
 of fearful things ; goblins, ghosts and demons ; the sto 
 ries of elves and sprites she used to delight in now came 
 back to her mind and she shuddered in terror. The 
 slow trickle of the water down the sides of the tunnel 
 seemed like the hiss of snakes, and a piece of earth, 
 falling from the roof, sounded like the flutter of in 
 visible wings. Still she kept on ; Shingles was in the 
 tunnel somewhere and she must find him ; and she 
 went on till she could go on no further. Across her 
 path lay a pile of rock ; the tunnel ended and yet- 
 where was he ? She called again and waited for an 
 answer, and again the hollow echoes mocked her. 
 But in another instant she heard a sound that made 
 her heart bound with fear ; she started for the light, 
 yet paused again to listen. This time the sound was 
 plainer it was Shingles voice : 
 
 " Bob, you there ? " she heard, hollow and strange. 
 
SHINGLES. 
 
 " Oh Shingles ! " cried Bob, " where are you ? " 
 
 "In here," said Shingles, "I m ketched Bob, 
 run fur the boys," and almost before he had spoken 
 Bob was gone. Like a flash she darted from the tun 
 nel s mouth, past the goblins, past the elves, out into 
 the blessed sunlight and then where ? The nearest 
 mine was a mile away, but Bob didn t think of the 
 distance. " Shingles was ketched ! " that was enough 
 and away she dashed down the rough path. It was well 
 for Bob now that her life had been spent in the moun 
 tains, and it was well for Shingles too. On she ran, 
 never pausing, never heeding, scarcely seeing where 
 she went, yet never stumbling nor falling she couldn t 
 fall ; wasn t Shingles ketched, and musn t she get him 
 out? In an incredibly short time she reached the 
 other mine it was Jack Farmer s gasping and sob 
 bing, her cheeks lined with tears. Jack saw her com 
 ing ; he knew something was wrong and he ran to 
 meet her. 
 
 " Hullo ! Bob ! What s up ? " he cried. 
 
 " Shingles ketched ! " was all she could say as she 
 dropped down crying as if her heart would break. 
 But Jack didn t need to be told any more. With a 
 shout he summoned his three companions, and point 
 ing to Bob, silently explained it all. Then, picking 
 her up in his great, strong arms, he started on a run 
 for Shingles mine, followed by his men. 
 
 " There ! there Bob ! " he said consolingly, " it s all 
 right ; we ll have him out; everybody gits ketched now 
 an then." 
 
 He couldn t talk very much ; he was running too fast, 
 and Bob cried herself out on his kindly shoulder. 
 
MAKING A WILL. 23 
 
 At last they found Shingles, or what was left of him, 
 and carried him out into the daylight. He was badly 
 hurt ; the doctor who had been summoned from the 
 town shook his head when he saw him, and whispered 
 something to Jack. He nodded grimly ; he knew as 
 well as the doctor it was all up with Shingles ; he had 
 seen that sort of thing before. Shingles watched their 
 faces with that hungry look he had so often worn be 
 fore little Bob had come into his life. Then he spoke 
 slowly and painfully. 
 
 "I reckon i und stand ye I m ketched in earn 
 est," he said. 
 
 " Yes," said the doctor, gravely, " I think I ought 
 to tell you you cannot get well." 
 
 Just then one of the men who had rescued Shingles 
 whispered something to Jack. He started and en 
 tered the tunnel. 
 
 "You had better make your will," continued the 
 doctor, " If you haven t done so," 
 
 " It s all right," said Shingles, the cold sweat stand 
 ing on his forehead ; " I done it long ago I give 
 and bequeath to my beloved ward Miss Bob 
 Stortles the hull of my worldly goods where 
 ever found and may God have mercy on my 
 soul Amen taint much I m leavin ye Bob 
 don t cry Bob we all got to go sometime I done 
 my duty by ye Bob cordin as I seen it taint 
 much but its all yourri an " 
 
 Just then Jack returned, greatly excited. " Shin 
 gles ! " he cried, "do you know what that cave did 
 for you?" 
 
 Shingles shook his head ; he knew well enough ; it 
 
24 SHINGLES. 
 
 had done him to death, but lie didn t want to say so 
 before Bob. 
 
 " It has made you rich," said Jack; " it has showed 
 up the vein, at last, and you re a millionaire." 
 
 A happy smile lit up Shingle s pale face. " Taint 
 fur me its fur Bob," he said. " She s the million 
 aire I m dyin Jack but it s all right Bob s rich 
 I ve made you an your wife guardeens, Jack 
 you ll be kind to Bob, won t you ? I m happy 
 now." Bob was sobbing like a child. " Kiss me 
 Bob dear an I give an bequeath to my beloved 
 ward Miss Bob Stortles the hull of my worldly 
 goods wherever found and may God have 
 mercy on my " and Shingles was dead. 
 
 That night Jack told the story to the men who 
 went to his house. Everyone in the camp wanted to 
 hear of it and before he had gotten half through the 
 rough men were blinking their eyes and rubbing their 
 coat sleeves across their faces. 
 
 " There was them two," said Jack, his voice grow 
 ing a little husky as he went on, " him old Shingles 
 lying there dead, an little Bob kneelin by his side 
 an sayin the prayers he had taught her. It was 
 mor n I could stand," and he buried his face in his 
 hands and cried like a child. 
 
II. THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 There were five of us in the coach, a huge, solid 
 affair, resembling an immense box. It rested on 
 enormous leather straps that allowed it to swing with 
 a motion that is best described by saying it was diag 
 onal, though in fact it was not diagonal at all. One 
 moment we found ourselves sliding toward the fore 
 most corner on the left, as the wheel on that side 
 dropped heavily into some almost bottomless hole ; 
 the next instant we would be flying with pleasant 
 unanimity through the rear window on the right, and 
 again, seeking to force an outlet through the roof or 
 floor. But the resultant of tkese motions, put together, 
 added and divided, is most nearly described by the 
 word diagonal and so diagonal it is. 
 
 All five of the passengers were riding inside, for it 
 was a day in November cold and cloudy, and a light 
 snow was spasmodically falling, as if really uncertain, 
 whether to stop or go on, but on the whole, rather in 
 favor of going on, it being a characteristic of western 
 habits never to give up anything for any cause what 
 ever, once it was began. So, while a seat outside 
 just at that time was better than no seat at all, 
 it was by no means so desirable as a seat inside^ 
 which is coming it pretty strong against the outside, 
 certainly. 
 
 B l (25) 
 
26 THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 The road we were to traverse led through the moun 
 tains of Colorado, from the mining camp of Green 
 wood (though why Greenwood none can say it was 
 way above timber line) to Leadville. It was fairly 
 good wheeling, as that word is understood in the 
 Rockies, but six stout mules had all they could do 
 to manage the coach. One moment they were groan 
 ing and straining up some steep incline; the next 
 fairly lifted from their feet as we dashed furiously 
 down a hill, our speed only partially checked by the 
 brake, which Tommy the driver would frantically 
 apply. 
 
 Everyone in the west has a title of some sort, no 
 matter whether he has a right to it or not, and the five 
 men in the coach were known as the Colonel, the Major, 
 the Judge, the Doctor and the Professor. It is sur 
 prising how soon one becomes acquainted with his 
 companions in such a place. Whether this is due to 
 the commonalty of sensations that govern the passen 
 gers, as the vehicle lurches to the right or left, or the 
 sociability of the men themselves, I can t say. The 
 fact remains however, and in less than half an hour 
 after we had started, I was on familiar terras with the 
 past history, present occupation, size of pile, and name 
 of each of my fellow travelers. 
 
 On the coach was an Express box, said to contain 
 $30,000 in bullion, the product of the Greenwood 
 mines. In a rack near the driver s feet hung two 
 Colt s revolvers and a Winchester rifle. The road was 
 considered safe enough, for no robbery had occurred 
 there since the camp had been in existence, still the 
 stage company preferred to take reasonable pre 
 cautions. Hence the weapons. 
 
WESTERN EXHORTATION. 27 
 
 After we had exchanged our names and such parts 
 of our personal history as we felt free to give, we re 
 lapsed into silence. The Westerner, although a soci 
 able, is not a talkative animal ; he converses in heats. 
 For a time our quiet was unbroken, save by the 
 groaning and creaking of the coach, the cracking of 
 the driver s whip and his rapidly uttered oaths. 
 
 Perhaps it is well that justice can never be done 
 in 1 print to the profanity of the western mule driver. 
 It is as impossible to describe as the singing of some 
 beautiful aria by some sweet voiced singer. Not that 
 the two can be compared in any way ; I merely wished 
 to illustrate the utter inadequacy of words in type to 
 represent the sounds. 
 
 It was at the end of one of Tommy s flowery peri 
 ods, (which came to our rescue when the coach, stuck 
 fast at the foot of a veritable Hill of Difficulty, had 
 at last been dragged up by the mules, inspired by the 
 out-pouring) that the gentlemen occupying the mid 
 dle seat left, broke the silence. We knew him as 
 Professor Blood, "the hull owner of the Blackeye 
 mine of Greenwood, an several others." It was at 
 the close of Tommy s exhortation I say, which began 
 softly arid slowly, then gradually increased in volume, 
 speed and power, until the flow was simply overwhelm 
 ing, that the Professor remarked pleasantly : 
 
 " Tommy seems to swear tol able easy, I m thinkin . 
 Tis a great gift ; wonderful what twill do sometimes. 
 When I was a teamin it up to Leadville, I would a 
 bet willin I could cuss a dead mule up a six hundred 
 foot grade, with a load, and all by the parts o speech. 
 It s just like anythin else though, takes practice." 
 
28 THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 " Those was great days," he went on with a ret 
 rospective sigh, " great days. We was gettiri twenty 
 and thirty cents a pound fur stuff, an makin slathers 
 o money : an losin it too," he added with a laugh. 
 
 " I member comin down over the divide one night 
 alone, with three thousan dollars in my pocket, when 
 a d d road agent held me up an cleaned me out. 
 I was pretty blamed mad but I had to ante." 
 
 " I d like to know," said the Doctor, " how one or 
 two men can stop and rob a dozen, all well armed. 
 It looks as if they had no nerve. I don t think I d 
 stand it." 
 
 The Judge whistled softly at this remark ; the 
 Major smiled and made a pretence of wiping the win 
 dow with his coat sleeve and looking out ; the Colonel 
 expectorated mournfully. The Professor alone was 
 calm. 
 
 " Pardner," said he looking the Doctor in the eye, 
 and tapping him gently on the knee as he spoke, " was 
 you ever held up ? " 
 
 The Doctor shook his head. 
 
 " I thought likely," said the Professor significantly. 
 " Just look here : when you are stopped you ante 
 quietly and perlitely. It s runnin too much of a risk 
 to object. If any man is lookin fur a chance to climb 
 the golden stairs, through barm of his buzzum for his 
 fellow creatures without compensation let him. It 
 aint in my line, I m pretty sure, an so I say, if ever 
 you re held up you jest fork without any back talk 
 it s really the cheapest, and a long way the safest." 
 
 These sentiments seemed to meet with universal 
 approval from the other occupants of the coach, and 
 
29 
 
 the Doctor, quite crushed by the weight of opinion 
 against him relapsed into silence. 
 
 After this the conversation became desultory. Now 
 -and then a passenger would volunteer a remark 
 which sometimes elicited a reply and sometimes did 
 not. Often, as the road led up some steep incline, 
 we would get out and walk, to restore, by exercise, 
 the circulation in our benumbed limbs. Twice the 
 coach stopped at relay stations, where fresh mules 
 were harnessed in the place of the tired out animals. 
 The stations were nothing more than rough log stables, 
 with accomodations for the men who fed and cared 
 for the mules. 
 
 The snow had been falling all the afternoon in fine 
 flakes, and had spread over the earth a thin white 
 cover that partially hid the roughness of the moun 
 tains and whitened the light that came through the 
 clouds, into which we sometimes drove. The road 
 was becoming very heavy and our progress slow, when 
 to our relief the coach, about four o clock, entered a 
 small park of a few hundred acres and pulled up in 
 front of Sampson s twelve miles from Leadville. 
 While fresh mules were being harnessed we alighted, 
 and stepped into the room that served as bar, office, 
 parlor and reading room, for Sampson s was a hotel as 
 well as a relay station. 
 
 The establishment was owned and managed by Mr. 
 Sampson and his wife Almiry, or to put it in another 
 way, Sampson s and Sampson himself were controlled 
 by Almiry. A modern Delilah she, who, when she 
 married Sampson had, speaking figuratively, clipped 
 his locks and left him deprived of all ambition. There 
 
30 THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 was a rumor current that Sampson drank, a rumor not 
 altogether without foundation, since no one had ever 
 seen him entirely sober. His sole duty was to tend 
 bar, and when not occupied in ministering to the 
 liquid wants of others, he was looking after himself. 
 There was but one beverage sold at Sampson s whis 
 key though there hung upon the wall back of the 
 rough bar, an illuminated card, setting forth in fly- 
 specked characters, the superior merits of Hall s 
 Jamaica Ginger. But as for the Ginger, that was 
 not to be had. Nor were there any indications, be 
 yond dusty lithographs nailed askew to the wooden 
 partitions, that Soda Water, Seltzer, or Mumm s 
 Extra Dry, were procurable on demand. And so it 
 was fortunate that the systems of those passengers 
 who needed stimulation, craved whiskey only, for 
 that was positively all there was. On the sticky bar 
 stood a half-dozen thick, dirty glasses, side by side 
 with the long-necked bottle, half filled with an amber 
 fluid, while a rude sign fixed to the wall just over 
 Sampson s bald and somewhat inflamed head, set forth 
 in terse, though rather profane terms, the business 
 principles of the establishment, to wit : 
 
 "IN GOD WE TRUST; 
 ALL OTHERS PAY CASH." 
 
 We had not noticed at first, in the dim light of the 
 room, the figure of a woman, clad in deep black and 
 wearing a heavy veil drawn over her face. She sat in 
 a dark corner and seemed to shrink from observation. 
 But when Tommy entered, after looking to his cattle, 
 and had fortified his nerves with four fingers of the 
 " reg lar thing," swallowed without a murmur, Al- 
 
LOVELY WOMAN. 31 
 
 miry took him aside and engaged him in earnest con 
 versation, and her gestures then for the first time 
 directed our attention to the woman. 
 
 Our halt was necessarily short and we were soon 
 back in the coach ; the mules had been changed 
 and we were ready to start. But Tommy lingered, 
 and when at length he appeared at the door, seemed 
 in no hurry. He stood there, slowly drawing on his 
 gloves and surveying the scene with a carelessly criti 
 cal eye and an expression of countenance that seemed 
 to indicate that as for him, if he were to be given the 
 chance, he could make a good deal better world than 
 this one easy. In his mouth was a cigar, tipped up 
 at such an angle that the glowing end nearly touched 
 the wide brim of his sombrero. The Major, irrever 
 ently inspired, voiced the sentiments of the party 
 when he remarked, in a drawling tone : 
 
 " I reckon that after bein the angel Gabriel, for 
 pure glory an so forth I d ruther be a driver to a 
 coach, than most anythin ! " 
 
 Just then there appeared in the doorway the lady 
 in black, whom Thomas gallantly offered his arm to 
 and thus escorted to the coach. As they approached, 
 the Colonel gave a little groan. ""We re goin to 
 have lovely woman along with us," he said, plain 
 tively. Consternation was depicted on each face 
 when the coach door was opened and Tommy looking 
 in, remarked authoritatively : " Sorry gen lemen, but 
 I shall hev to trouble you. Here s a lady goin to 
 Leadville an she s goin inside. Jump in, marm ! " 
 and in the young woman jumped with remarkable 
 
32 THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 lightness, and took the vacant seat in the forward 
 corner. 
 
 " Cornel, you ll look after her," said Tommy at the 
 door ; " she s in my charge. Widder of Smith, she 
 is ; him that was killed down to the Walker mine last 
 month, but she don t savvy a word of English, 
 bein French. You know d Smith didn t ye, Cornel ? " 
 
 "Yes, I know d him well enough, but I never 
 know d he had a widder. I ll look after her in 
 English," growled the Colonel, and the door slammed 
 and the stage rolled ahead. 
 
 As we pulled out the clouds parted for an instant and 
 a bright ray of sunlight lit up the coach, striking full 
 upon the dark veil of our new companion. It made 
 briefly visible the outlines of her face, and those of 
 us who were fortunate to catch a glimpse of it were 
 convinced that the lady had great beauty. Indeed, the 
 Judge, who had a happy facility of expression, ac 
 quired from a long, though not lucrative practice at 
 the bar, leaned over to the Doctor and whispered in 
 tones of fervent admiration : 
 
 " She s as pretty as Cle-op-e-try, by Jove ! " to 
 which the Doctor responded with an assenting nod of 
 much vigor. 
 
 Nowhere in the world is a lady more certain of re 
 spectful consideration than in the wild West. She is 
 invariably treated with a chivalrous gallantry that is 
 really magnificent ; men hasten to do her homage and 
 are proud to be commanded by her. Still the pres 
 ence of Mrs. Smith in the coach acted on the party 
 as a little restraint, which the Judge and the Colonel 
 vainly endeavored to dispel. 
 
33 
 
 " Fond of traveling ma am ? " said the latter, in his 
 best off-hand style, as he leaned towards her and smiled 
 handsomely. The lady made no reply and the Judge 
 knocked the Colonel s elbow. 
 
 " Sh ! Cornel ! " he said ; " you don t s pose she un 
 derstands you, when it s as much as /can do to untan 
 gle your ideas from your words. She speaks French ! " 
 
 The Colonel accepted the rebuke meekly and made 
 no further conversational effort. The road became 
 more and more difficult as we advanced, and the fresh 
 mules were unruly and drove very hard. Several 
 times, in bad places, they had balked, and the coach 
 had swung around in a way that would have upset a 
 lighter vehicle, yet no exclamation of alarm escaped 
 from the lady, who sat motionless in her corner. 
 
 " Tumble bad place to be held up long here," said 
 the Major, after an unusually long silence, during 
 which the coach had slowly pounded over a huge rock 
 and then slid off with an unpleasant scrunch. U I 
 should hate to be stopped here, for I have a little mat 
 ter of twelve hundred dollars about me, which I don t 
 care to lose. Of course we re all friends here ? " he 
 hastily asked. 
 
 We were, and it then came out that each man was 
 carrying various sums of money, ranging from five 
 hundred to four thousand dollars, the last amount be 
 ing the property of the Colonel, who described accu 
 rately how he had concealed it in a package sewed in 
 his clothing next to his body, where it was quite in 
 accessible to dishonest persons. 
 
 " I reckon it ll take a pretty smart chap to find that," 
 he remarked complacently, as he slapped his hand on 
 
34- THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 the spot where the treasure was concealed. We could 
 not deny this, and murmurs of admiration were heard 
 at his shrewdness. All this time in fact since we left 
 Sampson s the mysterious Mrs. Smith had not moved 
 or changed her position. She still kept her veil down, 
 and in the slowly waning light her black dress seemed 
 to emphasize the shadows in the coach. 
 
 "Judge," said the Major, at length, " It must be 
 lonesome for her. You re consid able of a lingo-ist, 
 couldn t you give her a little touch in the native, just 
 to be perlite ? " 
 
 The Judge looked embarrassed and scratched his- 
 head confusedly. 
 
 "Why, mebbe I might rack out some French," he 
 said, "it aint much to do, but er what 11 I say? You 
 got to be mighty circumspec in talkin French to a 
 lady it s a terrible^ free langwidge." 
 
 Both the military men were impressed by this, the 
 Colonel particularly so, and fora moment his face was 
 expressive of painful perplexity. 
 
 " Well, just say somethin civil," he said at length ; 
 " ask her if she wants the winder up. Taint likely 
 she does, but you might ask her." 
 
 "Oh no! Cornel," said the Judge, "not that. 
 That partickler word winder in French" here the 
 Judge lowered his voice to a whisper, " is cussin an ? 
 you ll hev to excuse me. That s where /draw the line." 
 
 " Well, chin your own way then," said the Colonel 
 testily, " though I reckon I can open a winder fur a 
 lady in French without breakin any of the Com 
 mandments. Only say somethin or we ll think you 
 don t know how." 
 
A LITTLE PASEAR. 35- 
 
 This was touching the Judge on a tender spot, and 
 looking at the Colonel with an air of haughty dignity, 
 he said slowly : 
 
 " If it ll amuse the boys, I reckon I ll take a little 
 pasear, though I m a trifle rusty in my langwidges 
 just now. Had consid able practice too, down in San 
 Migell county." 
 
 Then with a soft ahem ! and a flourish of his hand 
 kerchief he leaned forward, and casting a bewitching 
 smile at the lady, murmured : 
 
 " Buenos dias, senora. Habeis vosotros er that 
 is como esta vey ? " 
 
 The lady made no answer ; in fact seemed not to 
 hear, but the Judge was in nowise disconcerted. 
 
 " Reckon she was thinkin of the late lamented, and 
 didn t wholly catch on to my idee," he remarked 
 pleasantly. " I ll open another lead," and again he 
 smiled as he murmured : 
 
 " These gen lemen " indicating us with a graceful 
 and comprehensive sweep, ".fotft gen lemen, and well 
 acquainted with good sassiety, hev asked me to pass 
 their compliments to you ina am, which I now do. 
 Er el tiempo es bien inconstanty senora, and esta 
 er ; " the Judge concluded the sentence with a 
 gesture. " It s a little remark in the vernacular of the 
 French," he explained, "an I reckon it ll fetch her." 
 
 It certainly did seern to have some effect, for the 
 lady uttered a sound strangely like a chuckle, but said 
 nothing. 
 
 " Judge," said the Colonel, after waiting a reason 
 able time for an answer, " I m afraid your langwidges 
 have been so to speak tampered with. I ve always 
 
36 THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 allowed there was some difference between French 
 and Spanish, myself" 
 
 The Judge waxed indignant. " A joke s a joke an 
 all right," he said, " but I didn t s pose there was a man 
 here but knowed the roots of the two langwidges was 
 the same, an if you can only confine your talkin to 
 roots an you gen rally can in genteel sassiety it 
 makes no odds whether it is French or Spanish." 
 
 "All right Judge, all right," said the Colonel, 
 soothingly ; " of course we know d that well an good, 
 but a man must have his little joke now an then. 
 But ask her in your roots if she s any objection to 
 smoke." 
 
 The Judge partly mollified did not essay this in 
 speech, but beginning even farther back than "roots," 
 managed to ask the questions by signs. The lady 
 nodded her assent with vivacity, and drawing a silver 
 case from her pocket, took therefrom a cigarette, which 
 after raising her veil a little she placed between her 
 lips. At first we were amazed, but the Colonel, with 
 that savoir vivre which had always distinguished him 
 and made him so popular with the sex, quickly recov 
 ered himself, and gallantly offered the lady a light, 
 which she graciously accepted. Then murmurs of admi 
 ration were heard. The Major audibly compared her 
 " a butterfly and a whip-poor-will, by Gad ! " the Col 
 onel swore the " she took him, blamed if she didn t," 
 while the Judge repeated his former opinion and de 
 clared that "she was a reg lar Cle-op-etry from the 
 word go." The Professor was silent but I have rea 
 son for believing that he endorsed all the others. 
 
EVENING ON THE ROAD. 37 
 
 " What I admire in lovely wimmiri," said the 
 Colonel, as we sat there quietly smoking, " is the er 
 the ability she possesses to adapt herself to circum 
 stances, as illustrated in the above. We are all friends 
 here i n course so we can be comfortable, but I m 
 safe in sayin I shall be glad to git to Leadville. That 
 little matter of four thousand dollars I got sewed into 
 mv Judge, sure the lady can t understand Eng 
 lish my in fact, gen lemen, my shirt," said the 
 Colonel frankly, again indicating the exact location 
 of the treasure, " is a tax on my mind, an I want to 
 git it off." 
 
 Outside the snow had ceased falling and the 
 dusk of a winter s evening was slowly deepening into 
 darkness. High up on the slope that rose on our 
 right stood a solitary pine tree, that had pushed its 
 way through the rocks, and now stood, lonesome and 
 sad, by night and day, keeping a melancholy watch on 
 the valley. The sun, long since hidden to us below, 
 shot a ray as a good-night message, and for an instant 
 the tree was ablaze ; then the light died quickly out and 
 we were in semi-darkness again. The road wound its 
 way around the face of a high cliff ; on one side tow 
 ered a wall of rock sheer three hundred feet ; on the 
 other sunk an unsoundable chasm. Tommy sat on the 
 box, his two lamps lit, and his tongue playing a rapid 
 accompaniment to his whip. Inside, the small 
 reflector at the end of the coach only served to make 
 the night without seem darker than it was. Silently 
 we sat there smoking, the ends of our cigars alter 
 nately glowing and dimming in the dingy air. An 
 unusual volley of oaths from the box, a cracking of 
 
38 THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 whips, a shouting, and then the stopping of the coach 
 with a lurch startled us out of our quiet. Then a 
 shout from Tom as he spoke to his cattle, and a voice, 
 ringing like a bugle, was heard from the rocks above. 
 
 " Come ! none o 5 that ! Make a straight haul for it, 
 d n you ! Throw off that box ! Lively now ! Put 
 up your hands an git down ! Everyone of you, git 
 down!" 
 
 Sorrowfully we obeyed. The description the Pro 
 fessor had given a few hours before of our probable 
 sensations was exactly true. A pair of six-shooters, 
 held in the hands of a stalwart man, whose face was 
 partly concealed by a black mask, hastened our 
 descent, and in a moment we found ourselves ranged 
 in line, with our hands above our heads, a meek, un 
 happy, cowed group. At one end of the line stood 
 Tommy, swearing savagely at his luck ; at the other 
 stood the Colonel, cool, impassive, dignified, confi 
 dent in the security of his treasure. The last to 
 descend was the widow, but a widow no longer, for 
 out of the coach there sprang an active young fellow, 
 of slender but sinewy build, smooth shaven, dressed in 
 the conventional garb of the western rider, and carry 
 ing in his hand a nickle plated six shooter. And this 
 was Mrs. Smith who did not speak English. Any 
 one standing near the Judge at that time, might have 
 heard an exclamation, both forcible and profane. The 
 "widow" heard it, for with a little laugh he (or she) 
 touched his finger to his lips and said : 
 
 " Hush, Judge ! that s cussin , an you draw the line 
 there, you know." 
 
NO HURRY TO MOVE. 39 
 
 And then he proceeded to search the pockets of his 
 fellow travelers, as if it were a very common-place 
 affair, which it certainly was not, and relieve them of 
 their valuables, his associate keeping guard meantime. 
 Down the line he went, doing his work quickly but 
 carefully, but before he was done the other began 
 to grow impatient. 
 
 " Hurry up, Jim ! " he said. " Ain t you most 
 through ? We re late." 
 
 " All done but this one," said Jim, the quondam 
 widow, as he halted before the Colonel. " He s got 
 four thousand dollars sewed plum to his shirt. I 
 reckon I ll hev to rip the old coon open to git it." 
 Saying which he drew his knife and with a quick 
 movement, as if to disembowel the Colonel, slipped 
 the point through his clothing, and with a wrench 
 pulled out the package. 
 
 " Sorry to trouble you, gents," said the larger man, 
 bowing politely, "but I won t detain you much longer, 
 fur I know you want to git to Leadville. I hope this 
 old gen leman," pointing to the rent in the Colonel s 
 dress, " won t take cold. He must be careful good 
 men are scarce." The Colonel snorted. " You will 
 kindly stand just where you are till I give the word. 
 There is a few friends of mine a lookin at us from 
 them rocks, and I really wouldn t move very much if I 
 was you I really wouldn t, fur their guns is all hair 
 triggers an dreadful liable to go off. You won t 
 move now, will you ? 
 
 We would not! Wild horses could not have 
 dragged us from that spot, for up in the rocks we fan 
 cied we could see two shining barrels, aimed truly at 
 
40 THE WIDOW OF THE LATE SMITH. 
 
 us, and we were really anxious to remain quiet. Be 
 fore we knew it we were alone ; our new acquaintances 
 had vanished in the dusk, and an instant later we heard 
 the same voice, ringing out above us: 
 
 u Git into the coach now and git ! " 
 
 And we got. 
 
 But we were no longer the cheerful party we had 
 been. Outside we could hear Tommy swearing all 
 sorts of new and exuberant oaths, at himself, the com 
 pany, the mules, the coach, and the road-agents. Inside, 
 not a* word was spoken until the Judge, stooping 
 down, lifted into view the black skirt that the former 
 widow had worn. A sad smile stole over his face and 
 he whispered, mournfully : 
 
 Boys, I m reg larly d d ! " 
 
 To which the Colonel added a short postscript: 
 
 " It s just h 1 ! " 
 
III. ALA NASCAR AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 It was a bright clear morning in early October, in 
 the year eighteen hundred and-I ve-forgotten-exactly, 
 that I mounted my horse and started on a solitary 
 ride from Monmouth, Fremont County, Colorado, 
 to the new mining camp of Kirby, which lay in the 
 shadow of Mount Uncompahgre. The day before I 
 had purchased my mount, and by a dispensation of a 
 kindly Providence had secured an A 1 animal. So 
 at least the man I bought him of earnestly assured 
 me. 
 
 Said he : " Young feller, it s easy seen you aint no 
 tenderfoot, an you know ezactly what you require in 
 the hoss line. Now, if you want a hoss that ll buck 
 an tear round, this hoss won t suit you. Or if you re 
 lookin for somethin that ll jest take the bit in his 
 teeth an scoot till you can t see, an pitch an kick 
 till everything blue, why we can t trade that s all. 
 This hoss aint that kind. If he s well took care of 
 though, you can ride him to Jerus lem and back 
 easy. He ain t wild ; he s jest strong." 
 
 Although I had no intention of going to Jerusalem at 
 
 that time, I purchased the horse. If he were capable 
 
 of making such a pilgrimage as that, I reasoned, he 
 
 must be a good animal, for are we not told that 
 
 c (41) 
 
42 ALANASCAE AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 " Jordan is a hard road to travel " ? After the sale was 
 completed the dealer congratulated me on my choice. 
 
 " The moment I seen ye, I knowed what you 
 wanted," he said. " A reg lar, sure nuff hoss, that s got 
 plenty of sand an nothin mean about him. An there 
 he is !. Aint he a blamed little rustler ! I dunno what 
 my wife ll say to me lettin him go. He s a genoine 
 pet ; reg larly sets down to dinner with us sometimes." 
 
 The horse was fairly speedy, but neither handsome 
 nor intelligent, Still he was not particularly vicious, 
 and as long as we remained in sight of the town, 
 showed no signs of eccentricity, other than an un 
 quenchable inclination to roll, without waiting for me 
 to dismount, and an embarrassing desire to taste my 
 legs. But so long as he didn t buck I overlooked 
 these faults. It was not until we had advanced several 
 miles on our journey that Rastus (I called him Rastus 
 because of his gentle disposition) first discovered to 
 me a gay little habit of shying, a most absurd trick 
 considering his age. 
 
 My saddle was of the Mexican pattern, with a high 
 cantle behind and a higher pommel in front. This 
 pommel was a sure safeguard for the integrity of my 
 neck in case of a stumble, but opened a long vista of 
 deadly perils to my viscera. Yet in spite of my fears, 
 or possibly because of them, Kastus neither stumbled 
 nor bucked, and although he several times shied half 
 across the State, I managed to keep him company. As 
 we advanced generally sideways Rastus developed 
 new peculiarities, before unsuspected. He had three 
 steps, which in a little while I was able to classify into 
 
EASTUS. 43 
 
 the waltz, polka and all promenade. He would start 
 with the waltz, glide gracefully into the polka, and 
 then evolve himself into the all promenade before I 
 realized he had started. He was infinite in his variety; 
 he seemed like an unfinished part of the Universe 
 always in a period of transition. I have never yet 
 seen a fellow creature riding on a rail, but when I do 
 I shall know how to sympathize with him. 
 
 Thus I jogged bumped is perhaps a better word 
 along on my weary way. I was in light rig, carrying 
 no baggage besides a blanket, a Winchester carbine, 
 and a revolver, the weapons being more for effect than 
 use, as I had long before learned that a man is quite 
 as safe if he is unarmed as when he bristles with 
 breech-loaders. 
 
 Away we went, Rastus and I ; now we sidled, now 
 we backed ; one moment we waltzed and the next it 
 was all hands round in the grand chain. The ground 
 was still bare of snow, even at that altitude, and only 
 the summits of the mountain peaks were white ; the 
 rest of the land was brown and dry. The road was 
 plain and unmistakable, running south through the 
 mountains ; and now and then an opening in the wall 
 in front of me disclosed the snowy peak of Mt. Un- 
 compahgre, that rose 14,235 feet in air. The ride to 
 Kirby was a rough one of sixty miles, through a coun 
 try of wild beauty. On all sides were mountains, 
 some snow-covered, some plainly capped in decorous 
 brown. During the first hour I was fully occupied 
 in learning the individualities of Rastus, for his 
 versatility in steps momentarily threatened to cripple 
 me for life ; but in time we arrived at an understand" 
 
44 ALANASCAR AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 ing either I became used to him or he began to tire y 
 and then we proceeded slowly and sedately. 
 
 It was about four in the afternoon that I reached 
 the top of a long ascent, steep, rocky and difficult, and 
 paused a moment to rest and look about. Before me 
 lay the narrow roadway, winding around the precip 
 itous incline like a thread wound about an orange. 
 Down the slope of the hill, grew a few pines, scrub 
 and scanty. The sun was just resting on the spire of 
 some unnamed peak at my right, and it lit up with 
 sparkling brilliancy the snowy top of Uncompahgre, 
 visible between the intervening crests. In the east 
 a blue haze wavered and trembled like the hot smoke 
 from some huge fire. 
 
 Rastus had no dancing steps then ; no rhythmical 
 measures trod he, as he stood there on the summit, 
 tired out, legs wide apart, tail drooping, and flanks heav 
 ing as he sucked in the thin air. Seeing that my way 
 now led down hill and with a footing insecure for a 
 horse, I dismounted and proceeded on foot. We had 
 advanced in this way perhaps a mile, when turning a 
 corner around a huge rock Rastus gave a snort, in 
 dicative of surprise, and looking up I beheld a stranger. 
 He was extremely meagre, lanterned-jawed and tall,, 
 with a very long and narrow face, and this appear 
 ance was exaggerated by the tuft of dusty brown 
 whisker that hung from his chin. His dress was odd, 
 for he wore upon his head a torn and much battered 
 army-cap, that had once been blue, but was then of an 
 uncertain brown. He was clothed in a buckskin shirt,, 
 its fringes tattered and ragged, breeches of the same,, 
 worn inside enormous boots, red with the accumulated 
 
THE UNCLE. 45 
 
 mud of years, and on the right foot was strapped a 
 gigantic spur, silver-plated where the plating had not 
 worn off. His arms consisted of a battered cavalry 
 sabre, the scabbard indented and scratched, and a six- 
 shooter and cartridge belt, buckled loosely about his 
 waist. And then the horse ! Like his master, tall, 
 thin, sorrowful of visage, and tired. His front legs 
 were bent at the knees, as if his strength was hardly 
 capable of sustaining his w r eight ; and a melancholy 
 drooping of his lower jaw was offset by a comical and 
 involuntary movement of his ears. Suspended from 
 the saddle-horn was a scabbard of ragged leather, from 
 which stuck out the butt of a carbine, while a pair of 
 well-filled saddle-bags were fastenedtothecantle.be- 
 hind. As I rounded the turn of the road, which was 
 there heavily shaded by pines, I came suddenly upon 
 these strange figures. The man stood by the horse s 
 side, resting his hand on the saddle and gazing into 
 the distance in silent contemplation. The instant he 
 perceived me, he made a lightning movement of his 
 right hand, and levelling a six-shooter cried : 
 " Halt ! Advance and give the countersign ! " 
 I was in a dilemma ; how could I halt and advance 
 too? Besides, I knew no countersign, and if I were 
 to guess and make a mistake I ran a risk. As I stood 
 there in chilly doubt, another person came forth out 
 of the woods, leading a mule which he had evidently 
 been feeding, and laying his hand on the other s arm, 
 checked him with a gesture. 
 
 The second man was in strange contrast to the first, 
 with his round, bullet head and broad, flat face, yet 
 wearing withal a look of good-natured shrewdness, 
 
46 ALANASCAK AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 considerably heightened by the merry light in his eyes 
 and by a habit he had of, at times, slowly dropping 
 his left eye-lid in an irresistibly comical manner. This 
 wink was very expressive; he could graduate it. to 
 anything. Sometimes he would close his eye entirely; 
 sometimes there would be just the faintest tremor of 
 the lid ; but each had its own significance. His mule 
 was a tall, lank animal, carrying a huge Mexican sad 
 dle, much the worse for wear, to which, as in the other 
 case, there were tied a pair of well-filled saddle-bags. 
 
 Not without some doubts of my new companions 
 did I accept the invitation of the younger to, " light 
 an set awhile." I much preferred to ride on, but one 
 can safely do things in the East he dare not try in 
 Colorado, and I reluctantly joined them. The tall 
 man paid no further attention to me, but stood rigid 
 and upright by his horse s head, and either would not 
 or could not hear me ; the younger was much interest 
 ed in my past, present and future, and overwhelmed 
 me with questions. After a five-minutes stop I start 
 ed on, for I had a long distance to go before dark and 
 a growing doubt of Rastus troubled me. As I made 
 ready, I saw the young man advance toward the tall 
 stranger and respectfully hold his stirrup for him to 
 mount ; and then he himself, with many groans and 
 infinite labor, climbed into his place on the mule and 
 followed after us. I was not altogether pleased with 
 my fellow travelers, but I could not u shake them." 
 
 We rode along the narrow path in single file, the 
 old man several hundred feet in advance; behind him 
 I came, with the fat squire in the rear, groaning and 
 puffing, and pounding his unshod heels into the flanks- 
 
ALANASCAE. 47 
 
 of the mule in desperate efforts to keep up with the 
 cavalcade. Upon reaching the valley where the road 
 widened out, the squire, with some difficulty, urged 
 his mule into a trot, and rode to my side. He pulled 
 up abreast of me and with the comical droop of his left 
 eyelid, said abrabtly : 
 
 " TV old man s a rum snoozer, ain t he ? 
 
 I nodded. 
 
 " Queer n a unicorn ; leetle mite touched here, ye 
 know," he added, placing his finger just over his half 
 closed eye, " but square from the ground up. Oh ! 
 cert nly." 
 
 Then with his hand he described a circle in the air 
 just above the crown of his head, and leaning half 
 out of his saddle, whispered confidentially, nodding 
 toward the other : " Scalped ! He was ! Yes sir ! 
 An it s e-fected his hull nervous systum." 
 
 It was plainly true ; he looked like a seedy member 
 of that misguided and not too clean band, the Salva 
 tion Army. 
 
 "Is your friend a religious enthusiast ? " I asked. 
 
 " Him ! the Guv nor ! Well, I guess you aint never 
 heard him swear," he chuckled. " Oh ! yes ! he s a 
 religious enthoosiast with the bark on, he is ! No sir ! 
 we re travelin to do good" Then riding close to me, 
 he whispered, with the slightest possible wink: " Lixir 
 of Life, ye know ! two dollars a bottle or three for 
 five ; that s us ! See ? " 
 
 I endeavored to assume a look of intelligent ap 
 preciation, but I must have failed, for my companion 
 went on : 
 
48 ALANASCAR AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 " Cures anythin ye know, from biles to brain 
 fever, but is specially valooble in strengthnin the 
 nerve functions of the systum. Behold ! The Guv nor 
 is a living example of before usin ; me after usin . 
 If one bottle don t cure ye buy another an so on," and 
 my new friend again winked spasmodically, and slip 
 ping his hands over his figure to call attention to its 
 rotundity, allowed an infectious smile to play about 
 the corners of his mouth. It was too much for me, 
 and I laughed outright. 
 
 " Was you ever up to Clay s Gulch ? " he asked, 
 after a short pause. 
 
 I admitted that I had been there more or less. 
 
 " That s where I come from Clay s Gulch," he said 
 cheerfully, as if delighted to find we had something in 
 common ; " though I was formally from Illinoy. Got 
 a second-cousin livin in Chicago this minute ; name 
 of Reuben Stone same name as me." 
 
 He bowed in that graceful manner that always 
 marks the accomplished man of the world, and I ac 
 knowledged the introduction by feebly imitating him. 
 
 " I aint allus been thus," he continued, evidently 
 referring to his pecuniary condition. u I used to live 
 up to Denver th metropulus of the Rockies an so 
 forth before I got unfortunate in bizness. That was 
 five year ago in June. I used to act there in the 
 slickest dime museum ever you did see Mondays, 
 Wednesdays and Fridays as the Medicine Chief of the 
 Sioux Nation, and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Satur 
 days as the Wild Man of Borneo, which was my 
 fav rfte character an much cooler n the Medicine 
 Chief, fur they kept the room warm count of the 
 
OUK ENCAMPMENT. 49 
 
 Tatooed Man from Polynesy, an the Medicine Chief 
 had to wear a buffalo skin, which made the pores 
 dreadful open an liable to catch cold, interf erin some 
 with the war whoop, though addin to its gashlyness. 
 Oh ! I ve seen life, I can tell you. Two dollars a day 
 / used to get." 
 
 We slowly advanced across the valley into which 
 the sun s rays had long ceased to penetrate, and the dull 
 gray light of evening enveloped us. We were still 
 many miles from the ranch where I had expected to 
 pass the night, and a glance at Rastus convinced me 
 that he was quite incapable of reaching there. I 
 did not relish the prospect of spending the night out 
 of doors, nor did I much care for the society of the 
 Medicine Chief of the Sioux Nation, but there was no 
 help for it, and so I suggested to him that we had better 
 stop at the first suitable place and camp for the night. 
 He agreed, and we rode on in the increasing darkness, 
 until we came to a small pine grove, at the edge of 
 which flowed a slender stream. Here we halted, but 
 the old man, who all this time had ridden in advance 
 of us, kept on. I pointed out this fact to the Medicine 
 Chief. 
 
 " Oh durn it, yes ! " he cried disgustedly ; "fire yer 
 gun at him ; he s deefer n the deadly upas tree." 
 
 I accepted the comparison, although I was not then 
 aware that the upas was any harder of hearing than 
 many other varieties of trees ; but I declined to shoot 
 the old gentleman in order to attract his attention, 
 and the Wild Man was compelled to ride after him 
 and bring him back a task not performed without 
 some difficulty. 
 
50 AL ANA SOAK AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 A fire was soon made, and after eating what was 
 left in our pouches and it was very little we pre 
 pared for the night. I had previously unsaddled 
 Rastus, watered him and picketed him where he could 
 feed on such grass as there was. I carried my saddle, 
 blanket and rifle down by the fire, and, building up a 
 huge blaze, wrapped myself up and waited for what 
 might come. My companions made a pile of their 
 accoutrements, carefully stowing the saddle-bags on 
 top of the heap, handling them very tenderly ; for they 
 were " chuck full of Lixir," as Reuben assured me. 
 This done the old man went to sleep and we two lay 
 there silently smoking our pipes. In the woods 
 behind us we could hear our animals, munching the 
 leaves of the shrubs and occasionally stepping on some 
 dry twig that broke with a loud snap. The fire in 
 front glowed warm and bright, and the sap in the 
 green wood, made into steam by the heat, now and 
 then would burst with a loud report, and send the 
 embers flying, meteor-like, through the darkness. The 
 old man, completely buried in his blanket, was peace 
 fully snoring at my right hand, while at my left lay 
 the Wild Man, flat on his back, a stubby pipe in his- 
 mouth, and his right leg waving spasmodically in the 
 air, as he endeavored to interpose his foot between his 
 eyes and some of the darting flames that sprang up 
 from the fire. At length, for the sake of saying 
 something, I remarked : 
 
 " Your friend seems to be asleep ! " 
 
 " Friend ! " cried the Wild Man contemptuously,, 
 rolling over on his right side so as to face me, " he 
 aint HQ friend! he s my uncle!" 
 
OLD JIM BARKER. 51 
 
 I hastily apologized for my mistake, and a short 
 silence ensued, at last broken by my companion. 
 
 " When you was up to Clay s Gulch last time, did 
 you hear anythin how old Jim Barker was comin r 
 on ? " he asked hesitatingly. " Him that owns th 
 Hard Heart mine and th grocery story, I mean. 
 Does th claim seem to be openin up pretty mid- 
 dlin rich ? " 
 
 I informed him that, according to all reports, old 
 Jim Barker was in a very prosperous financial condi 
 tion. Reuben sighed wearily ; he was plainly grow 
 ing nervous as we talked, for he puffed with increas 
 ing rapidity on his pipe, and allowed his foot to wander 
 along paths of puzzling eccentricity. From where I 
 lay, his boot looked like a tremendous black comet, 
 wheeling along an epicycloidal orbit, across a red sky. 
 His attitude at this moment, indicated deep and 
 troubled thought, from which he at length roused 
 himself to say emphatically : 
 
 " I consider that old Jim Barker is a dog-gone 
 mean rooster, sir. He never had another dollar till he 
 struck the Hard Heart claim grub-staked a man 
 for it, ye know an now he swears that any feller 
 that gits Miss Car line Barker his daughter, ye know 
 hez got to size his pile. It aint a square play, but 
 I know a likely young feller that holds the joker over 
 him, and when the time comes, sir Here he stayed 
 his foot suddenly in its orbit, and winking a wink of 
 tremendous meaning whispered : " We re engaged ! " 
 and instantly relapsed into gloomy silence, leaving 
 me in doubt, at first, whether he referred to Jim or 
 to Miss Car line. 
 
-52 ALANASCAR AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 " But I tell you, pardner," he said, at length, " I 
 propose to e-quire the hand of Miss Car line, in spite 
 of unjust conditions. Me an th Guv nor there, 
 we ve got th slickest little thing in them saddle-bags 
 -ever you did see. Beats minin , for there aint no 
 risks ; it s dead sure an all profit." 
 
 "What is it ?" I asked. 
 
 " Why, that Lixir I was mentionin to you just now. 
 It s the blamedest thing fur a weak intelleckyou ever 
 did see. Try it and see for yourself. It s simply 
 rattlin brain food, blamed if taint." 
 
 " What is it made of ? " I innocently asked. 
 
 Reuben slowly closed his left eye quite shut, arid 
 thrust his tongue into his cheek, as if to intimate that 
 he was not entirely green, not at that moment cer 
 tainly. 
 
 " Well, you see that s a secret," he chuckled, " but 
 I don t mind tellin you that there s f ossiforus,a couple 
 of ingredients, an consid able whiskey in it. Them 
 two ingredients gives it range ; the fossiforus is brain 
 food an the whiskey is good for everythin else. 
 Powerful scope it has ; old man s invention." 
 
 " Well," said I, " if it is so good for the brain why 
 doesn t the old man try it himself ? " 
 
 " Hush ! " he said. " I m tumble afraid he will 
 .some day. Wouldn t do though ; he aint got the con 
 stitution to stan it, R"o sir ! We re sellin this Lixir 
 fur two dollars a bottle, three fur five. Them saddle 
 bags contain over three hunderd bottles, an I cal late 
 -we shall hev quite a bunch of money when they re gone. 
 Then we ll begin again an double up an so on, and 
 
BY AND BY. 53- 
 
 blame me if in a year we aint rollin in money. Then 
 look out for Car line. Still it s a tumble feelin , this- 
 knowin you can t get her short of jest so many dollars. 
 It ketches me at times right plumb here," and he laid 
 his hand tenderly on that part of his chunky frame 
 known in popular anatomy as the bread-basket, and 
 sighed wearily. 
 
 " But Car line aint a bit like th old man. No sir ! 
 she takes after her ma. Oh ! she s all right an solid 
 for yours truly, you can just bet," he continued hope 
 fully. ^Besides, old Barker may die some day ; he s 
 got the asthmy bad. An when we re spliced we ll 
 enjoy life. No tendin fires or cookin or washin " 
 dishes then ; no sir ! Two kinds of meat fur dinner 
 the ushill vegetables, in course an pie as a wind up. 
 Expensive, I ll allow, but what s the use o scrimpin. 
 They ll be three or four wimmen to look after the 
 childern with hot an cold water in every room, an 
 every p. m. I an Car line we ll take our little pasear 
 in the park fur our healths an go to the opry in th ? " 
 evenin ." 
 
 " But suppose old Barker objects or Car line changes 
 her mind," I suggested warningly. 
 
 He held his foot quite still an instant and looked at 
 me in surprise. 
 
 "Object! " he exclaimed, "how can he object when 
 he sees my pile? He ll be glad enough, an as fur 
 Car line you aint never seen I an her together. No- 
 sir, the tachment is mutual. An besides, a couple o 
 million dollars aint to be sneezed at, off-hand, I kin- 
 tell you, not these times. 
 
 " The way we sells it is this," he said, changing the- 
 
54 ALANASCAR AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 direction of his talk. " You see, the Guv nor there is 
 so to speak oddish, and of a figger that attracts at 
 tention. "Well, that s the dodge. We go up to some 
 minin camp where there s lots o money, an we ride 
 up and down, the Guv nor on his hoss and^his sword 
 drawd, an me on my mule, carryin a banner sayin : 
 * Try Lixir of Life fur the Nerves, an so on, an the 
 thing bein new an catchy we sells our stock. There s 
 most usually a lot of men up to the camps what drink 
 mighty free, an bein badly broke up, and havin that 
 tired f eelin an sense of goneness as per full directions 
 on th label, they ll buy a bottle to try, an it tastin 
 like whiskey an bein medicine besides, they ll usually 
 buy two. Then we skip, an when we get back there, 
 six months after, and the men what bought th Lixir 
 first-time being all of em dead, an th others havin 
 forgot about it, why we sells some more an so forth. 
 That s our little game, an I cal late after this trip we ll 
 start an outfit. We ve got our hull fortune in them 
 saddle-bags, but we re goin to make a big thing. 
 Double our money every time." 
 
 The fire by this time had burned low, and my com 
 panion got up to replenish it. The night was perfect 
 for that time of year, calm, clear and cold. So bril 
 liant were the stars that they seemed almost within 
 reach, and the Milky Way lay like a broad white cestus 
 on the dark background of the sky. There was no 
 moon, and save where the fire lit up the scene, every 
 thing was in absolute darkness. Reuben, having heaped 
 up a huge pile of green fir boughs upon the fire, 
 resumed his place by me and proceeded with his story. 
 
 " I aint just rightly decided yet where we ll live 
 
ADVANTAGES OF NEW YORK. 55 
 
 when we re married," he said. u I m thinkin some of 
 Denver, but they is objections to it, an I dnnno s 
 Car line would be best suited there anyhow. I reckon 
 New York s the place after all. I aint never been 
 there myself, but I m pretty sure it s tli place. When 
 a man s got money he should live up to it that s my 
 idee an it bein the money centre they is nachally 
 more chances for investment there. A man don t 
 want his hull pile in one thing, you know. A few hun- 
 derd thousan in stocks, the same in some good bonds 
 never mind the intrust so long s the security is there 
 say fifty thousan in the bank for runnin expenses an 
 a casional fl} r er, an then let whatever you please 
 stay right here in this Lixir bizness, fur it s a sure 
 thing. Aint that bout right ? " 
 
 It seemed to me it was just right. 
 
 " Yes, I reckon N Y is the place. Car line can do 
 her shoppin an rustle round in great style. One of 
 the childern 11 be sickly of course, an we must have 
 the best doctors in the country, an the others ll need 
 to be eddicated. Of course we ll have a country house 
 fur summer an when the childern git older we ll buy 
 em a yacht, an go mosey in off, say round the 
 world. Aint that about the right idee ? " 
 
 Again I had to admit that it was. 
 
 " A man can live in good shape in IN" Y if he 
 knows how. I ll sit down with a nigger waiter fur 
 breakfast. Then I ll mosey off in my private coup to 
 the bank, an the president 11 say: Good mornin , Mr. 
 Stone ! what can I do for you an then I ll say : c I 
 want maybe fifty thousan , maybe a hunderd , an 
 then he ll say : Oh certainly ! Cashier, just let Mr. 
 
56 ALANASCAK AND HIS UNCLE. 
 
 Stone hev whatever he wants an take his word for 
 it. Then I ll just roll it up an stick it in my pocket 
 an off again, an double my money before dinner. I 
 tell you money makes money every time, an it s just 
 as easy. An when old Jim Barker busts up an he 
 will, sure I ll just put him on an allowance an you 
 bet it ll be blamed small, an 7 I ll make him rustle for 
 it, too." 
 
 At this moment Reuben was interrupted by a noise 
 in the woods back of us ; the horses were evidently 
 badly frightened probably by a black bear or moun 
 tain lion and they stampeded wildly towards the fire. 
 Before we could jump to our feet they were within 
 the circle of light, trembling and snorting violently. 
 After them came the terrified mule; slower and 
 half blind, it blundered stupidly into the pile of sad 
 dles and fell heavily upon them. There was a muf- 
 fied crash, and Reuben sprang forward with a cry of 
 dismay, while the mule, frantic with fear, entangled 
 in the straps and unable to rise, kicked and tore the 
 saddles and saddle-bags to pieces, and the " boss brain 
 food " poured out upon the dry earth. 
 
 Reuben was overwhelmed at first with the extent 
 of his misfortune. " Our hull stock in trade is ruin 
 ed ! he moaned. " Farewell forever, Car line ! fare 
 thee well ! " But in a few moments he regained his 
 composure and began to look at the situation more 
 philosophically. 
 
 " P raps we can fix it up some way," he said hope 
 fully. " Maybe Car line 11 hev to wait a spell longer, 
 but Lord ! she don t mind ; she s just that kind. 
 Never say die ! Fossiforous is cheap an this kind o 
 
NEXT MOKNING. 57 
 
 whiskey aint so very high neither, an as for th in 
 gredients we can omit them. I guess it ll come out 
 all right." 
 
 During all the excitement the Guv nor slept, never 
 stirring, and tired out I too soon dropped off. The last 
 thing I saw was Reuben, seated in meditative solitude 
 before the fire, into which he was absent-mindedly 
 tossing bits of bark, and repeating to himself : " Yes 
 sir, that s just the kind Car line is ; fossif orous is cheap 
 an we ll omit the ingredients." 
 
 When I awoke it was broad daylight ; the sun was 
 shining brightly ; the air was cold, and the ground 
 covered with a white frost. I looked about me 
 in vain for my companions. Both the Guv nor and 
 Reuben had stolen away like the Arabs, and 
 with them had gone Rastus. In his place stood the 
 dissipated, one-eyed mule, weary and desolate of ap 
 pearance. My saddle, which I had used as a pillow, 
 together with my arms and blanket remained un 
 touched, but Rastus, light of my life, was gone forever. 
 
 In the dead gray ashes of last night s fire was a 
 small bottle wrapped up in a bit of brown paper, on 
 which was written these words : 
 
 Deer sir mak you a present of som of our stok in trade all they 
 is lef if yure nurv aint stiddy in morn try it take carr of the muel 
 hese yurn frely we got to rassel for mor capitul it beets hell how 
 hard times is good by Ruben. 
 
 i) 
 
IV. THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGRE, 
 
 Eight thousand feet above us shone the glistening, 
 snowy summit of Uncompahgre, a giant dome of 
 white, that here and there the refracted light of 
 the rising sun, just sleepily crawling out of bed, col 
 ored pale red or yellow. The darknes* of the night 
 just past still lingered in the west, while in the east 
 the sky was blazing with the morning. High above 
 its surroundings towered Uncompahgre, with never a 
 consort in sight, though round about, in every direc- 
 iton, were the lesser peaks that made up a part of the 
 great mountain system. 
 
 There were four in our party, and we were about to 
 do the impossible ; to make the ascent of the moun 
 tain in January a feat no one had ever accomplished. 
 Or to be quite accurate no one had ever made the 
 descent at that season. A year before, a prospector 
 named Forsyth, against the advice of every one, had 
 started to climb to the summit. That he was suc 
 cessful was proved by finding him, seven months 
 after, at the bottom of a twenty foot snow drift, a few 
 rods from the top. He was quite dead. It was this 
 little circumstance that troubled me. There would be 
 no particular satisfaction in ascending the mountain if 
 I could not get down again. In fact, as I looked 
 
 (58) 
 
OUR EQUIPMENT. 59 
 
 at it, quite half the pleasure in mountain-climbing 
 is the getting down safely. 
 
 We left Kirby at sunrise on the morning of Janu 
 ary 12th. There had been a heavy fall of snow the 
 day before, which had rendered all trails impassable. 
 We therefore had to seek a new route. Our party 
 consisted of four, namely, two brothers, Jim and 
 Bill Russell natives of the State, strong, active and 
 skilled in mountain climbing, learned in many years 
 experience as prospectors. The third member was 
 Robert Dawson, a young mining engineer, and the 
 superintendent of the Pay Rock mine at Kirby. The 
 fourth was myself. The storm which for three days 
 had raged about the mountain was over, and the weather 
 was bright and clear and even mild, for that altitude. 
 We were warmly dressed in heavy woolen clothing, 
 wore stout walking shoes, shod with hobnails, and 
 carried, strapped to our shoulders, knapsack fashion, 
 small packs weighing about fifteen pounds each. In 
 them we stowed an aneroid barometer, a registering 
 thermometer, provisions consisting of dried beef and 
 biscuit, and a blanket. In addition to this, each man 
 carried a staff, a pair of snow-shoes and a coil of strong 
 rope, about thirty feet long, wound over the left 
 shoulder and under the right arm, in such a man 
 ner as to leave the arms comparatively free. It can 
 be seen that our load was neither light nor easy, but 
 we traveled with as little as we dared. 
 
 A short distance out of the camp we entered the 
 blind canyon of Oknee ; Bill was in advance, Bob 
 Dawson and I followed, while Jim brought up the 
 rear. The chasm was narrow and bounded on either 
 
60 THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGKE. 
 
 side by abrupt walls of gray rock, here and there en 
 livened by spots of snow or bunches of fir apparently 
 growing out of the solid stone. Occasionally, as the 
 gorge turned to the right or left, we could see the 
 Peak, glowing like a gilded spire in the early morning 
 sunlight. For an hour our way led us up this canyon, 
 and our progress was quite rapid, there being no ob 
 struction but the snow, which was there covered with a 
 crust sufficiently strong to bear us. At last we entered 
 a long, narrow amphitheatre, the upper end being 
 blocked by perpendicular walls of rock, rising sheer 
 five hundred feet, while the lower end through which 
 we had entered seemed closed by the interlocking 
 scarps of the gorge. Except for the musical trickle 
 of the snow water and the occasional crash of some mass 
 of rock, heaved from its place by the frost, we heard 
 no sound save our own labored breathing, made diffi 
 cult by the thin air of our great attitude of 12,500 feet 
 above the tides. 
 
 A short rest here and then we proceeded to devise 
 means of escape. The walls that encompassed us 
 seemed impregnable ; at first we could perceive but 
 one exit and that by the way we had come. But a& 
 we approached the upper left-hand corner of the 
 chamber, we saw what in the dim light we had be 
 fore overlooked ; that was a series of niches in the 
 otherwise smooth cliff. No regular steps, nor indeed 
 an incline, but six or seven shelves in the face of the 
 rock, which had been made by the decrepitation of the 
 stone. It was a very dubious pathway, narrow and 
 sloping away from the cliff so as to make the footing 
 very insecure, but it seemed practicable. 
 
OUT OF THE CANYON. 61 
 
 "We soon had our preparations completed. The first 
 shelf was about twelve feet above our heads quite 
 beyond reach and there were no crevices or projec 
 tions in the rock to aid us in climbing. Forming a 
 three-sided pyramid by standing close together and 
 locking arms, Bill, being the lightest, mounted upon 
 our shoulders. From here he could easily reach the 
 shelf. Getting as firm a hold of it as he could, he 
 gave a spring that sent us staggering away, and left 
 him hanging in the air. Then with a quick, power 
 ful effort he threw himself up upon the ledge. Once 
 there, he passed the noose of the rope he had 
 taken up with him over a point of rock, and 
 lowered the other end to us. With this rope 
 he drew up our packs and we finally followed 
 him. The next shelf was but ten feet above us, and 
 the next but eight feet above that, and these distances 
 we easily passed. But from there on the way seemed 
 closed, for above us rose a smooth wall, fully seventy- 
 five feet, unbroken by any crack or projection. The 
 narrow ledge on which we stood hardly gave us a 
 footing, and any unguarded movement on our part 
 would certainly have resulted in throwing us over the 
 dge. After a short survey of the situation Jim took 
 three ropes and carefully knotting them together, lean 
 ed far out over the ledge, sustained in his position by 
 our united weights, we having hold of his arm. He 
 swung the long noose twice about his head and then, 
 by a powerful effort, shot it up into the air. It fell 
 short of the shelf nearly ten feet, and dropped back 
 into the gulf, detaching as it went a shower of loose 
 fragments. Again and again he tried this. The 
 
62 THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGKE. 
 
 third time the rope landed on the ledge but did not 
 catch, and it was not until the seventh cast that he was- 
 successful ; then the noose settled down over a pro 
 jection in the rock and held fast. Up this rope start 
 ed Bill and a moment later a shout from him apprised 
 us of his safety. Then our packs followed, and 
 lastly we. I went first and it was a long and hard 
 climb. I continually bumped against the rocks, bruis 
 ing my hands and body. Halfway up I stopped to 
 rest out of breath. It was an exciting moment. 
 Above me, thirty feet, was the shelf on which Bill 
 stood ; far below me was the dark gorge. Curiously 
 enough, at this time, hanging as I was on a slender r 
 insecurely fastened rope, I was not in the least nerv 
 ous, and I surveyed the scene about me almost with 
 pleasure. A moment only I paused ; then w r erit on 
 again and soon stood on the rock by Bill s side. Bob 
 and Jim followed me, and once more we were grouped 
 together. From this point up the climbing was les& 
 difficult ; it was like ascending some very steep incline. 
 Bill would go ahead, hanging to the rocks, like a fly, 
 with his toes and fingers, until he reached some rest 
 ing place where he could contrive to attach a rope,, 
 when we all followed, carrying the packs and steady 
 ing ourselves by the cord. In this way, after two 
 hours of hard work, we reached the top and turned to 
 look back into the crevasse out of which we had just 
 emerged. 
 
 It was nearly a thousand feet to the bottom and 
 not altogether a pleasant prospect. But around and 
 above us the sight was grand. Down the side- 
 at Our left stretched the mountain slope, until it 
 
THE SCENE. 63 
 
 blended with the foothills that rose here and 
 there like gigantic waves. The buildings in Kirby 
 were distinctly visible, and we could see even the 
 people in the street. Above us stood the ever-pres 
 ent peak, white and sparkling. The view was unde 
 niably magnificent, and I turned to Bob. 
 
 "Isn t it superb?" I asked in a whisper. 
 
 " Possibly," he answered indifferently ; " but take 
 away the mountains and it wouldn t amount to much." 
 
 I turned away impatiently ; he was a Philistine. 
 
 Another short rest and we started ahead. At first 
 the climbing was easy ; the snow was still covered 
 with a crust that supported us, and we advanced 
 rapidly up the steep and rocky incline. We were 
 congratulating ourselves on our great progress when 
 our way was suddenly stopped by a crevasse, about 
 fifty feet wide, but of vast depth. It extended to 
 our right and left a long distance, and a short survey 
 convinced us that we could not go around it ; we must 
 cross it. The question was how, and we sat down in 
 the snow to rest and consult. A barometrical obser 
 vation showed our elevation to be 13,700 feet, and the 
 exceedingly rarefied air made our breathing very 
 painful. 
 
 - " How deep d ye call this, offhand ? " asked Bill of 
 his brother. 
 
 "Wai," said Jim, slowly closing one eye and as 
 suming an air of calculation, "I guess t s bout two 
 thousan feet, more or less; it s quite a drop." 
 
 It was plainly impossible to climb down it and up 
 the other side. Cautiously crawling to the edge we 
 looked over. The walls of the canyon went down 
 
64: THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGRE. 
 
 without a break ; worse than that, the opposite side 
 slanted back from the top, so that the ascent would be 
 extra hazardous ; very much like climbing up the side 
 of a house and getting over the eaves. 
 
 " We might chuck a rope across, 5 said Bill, "and 
 get over onto that. How far kin you throw, Jim ? " 
 
 Jim closed his left eye again, took a survey of the 
 scene and making a rapid mental calculation said : " I 
 reckon I kin do it." 
 
 Taking the four lengths of rope we had brought, he 
 carefully knotted them together again and coiling up 
 the slack loosely, stepped to the edge of the precipice, 
 carrying the large noose in his right hand. With his 
 eye he carefully estimated the distance to a small 
 boulder that was perched upon the opposite side of 
 the crevasse. Then he slowly swung the loop 
 about his head, opening it out into a circle by a 
 peculiar twist of his hand. Again and again did the 
 rope weave about his head, until at last he sent it fly 
 ing through the air across the gulf. The first and 
 second throws were failures the noose missed the 
 boulder ; but the third time it settled down over the 
 rock and held fast, our united weights being unable 
 to move it. We then secured the end we held to a 
 jagged spike of stone that stuck up near the edge 
 and our bridge was done. Over this frail pathway of 
 a single rope, knotted and chafed, we must go. It 
 certainly seemed like flying in the face of a previously 
 beneficent Providence, but we had gone too far to 
 turn back ; besides, we were afraid to. 
 
 Our knapsacks had become exceedingly annoying, 
 and chafed our shoulders painfully; but we could not 
 
THE BRIDGE. 65 
 
 leave them, as we should certainly need our provisions 
 and blankets, so we secured them again in place 
 in such a way as to leave our arms tolerably free, 
 and made ready for the crossing. 
 
 Jim went first : he claimed this privilege, saying 
 the bridge was his and he was going anyhow. We 
 let him ; it is always best to defer to others in little 
 matters of this kind. Besides the rope might break. 
 We watched him carefully let himself over the edge 
 of the cliff and then, grasping the cord over his head, 
 saw him make his way across hand over hand. It 
 took less than a minute for him to reach the other 
 side, yet it seemed an hour to us. Bob went next, and 
 he went in good style, never looking down, but 
 straight ahead. Midway in the passage he stopped to 
 rest. It was a moment of great anxiety to all of us. 
 The strain on the rope was tremendous ; as he hung 
 there in the middle, his weight of 160 pounds stretched 
 the cord dangerously. I momentarily expected to 
 hear it snap, and to see him sent flying into the depths 
 below. But it hel,d and he reached the other side in 
 safety. 
 
 Then it was my turn, and as I stepped to the edge, 
 Bill called to me : 
 
 " Look here," he said, " just throw your weight ez 
 light ez ye kin onto th rope, fer it s beginnin to chafe." 
 
 I examined it and found that where it touched the 
 rock it had been worn so much as seriously to impair 
 its strength. 
 
 "I reckon it ll go all right," said Bill, "if you re 
 careful ; anyhow twont break fore ye git to the 
 middle." 
 
OD THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGKE. 
 
 This was not eminently reassuring. There was but 
 very little satisfaction in knowing that it would 
 not break until I was in the very centre, and I drew 
 a lightning picture of myself, hanging in mid air, to a 
 thread ; then I saw myself striking on the jagged 
 rocks beneath, and so lifelike was the sketch that 
 I could actually hear the unresilient thud I made. 
 It was very realistic but disagreeable. My reverie 
 was interrupted by William, who inquired facetiously : 
 
 "Wai, what ye cipherin on now. Warnt thinkin 
 of jumpin it, was ye? " 
 
 I carefully wrapped my handkerchief about the 
 rope where it was chafed and started. Again I was 
 surprised and pleased to find how cool I was ; all my 
 fears had been anticipatory ; my nerves were firmer 
 than when I stood on the rock. I took great pains 
 not to jar or strain the rope unnecessarily, and I never 
 felt lighter in my life. A third of the way across I 
 stopped, and threw my left leg over the rope to re 
 move the strain on my arms. The scene around me 
 was a wild one. Below, many hundred feet, yawned 
 the black chasm, its bottom only visible here and 
 there, where the sunlight penetrated it. A moment 
 sufficed to rest me and I went on. When I reached 
 the middle, the rope sagged perilously, and it seemed 
 as if I could feel the strands parting. I shut my eyes 
 and hurried over the dangerous spot. I passed it 
 safely, and then began the ascent. This was compar 
 atively easy, for though it was up-hill, I knew the 
 worst was over and that I was secure. Another in- 
 instant and I was standing by Dawson and Jim. 
 
 Bill followed me and being much the lightest of the 
 
SNOW-SHOES. 67 
 
 party, got over safely, although one strand of the rope 
 parted as he passed the centre. The next question 
 was, how to loosen the further end of our bridge, and 
 this was quickly settled. We all laid hold of the rope 
 and with a "yo ! heave ho ! " fairly broke it off where 
 it had worn thin. 
 
 Before going further we ate our lunch of pern mi- 
 can and biscuit, and took a short rest. But it was a 
 very short one, for we were still nearly a thousand 
 feet from the top, and our time was limited. The 
 snow over which our way now lay had become too 
 soft to walk on safely, and we had to resort to snow- 
 shoes. 
 
 Any one who has ever worn these conveniences re 
 members his first experience. I do mine. To begin 
 with, the shoes are unnecessarily long and many times 
 too wide. It is absolutely impossible to walk in them 
 in the ordinary manner, or rather, it is impossible to 
 take more than one step in that way. The most in 
 experienced can always take one step, and if he stops 
 there is all right. Unlike so many things in this life, 
 in snow-shoeing it is the second step that counts. For 
 you step on your heels ; you step on your toes ; you step 
 on everything but the snow, and you end finally by 
 standing on your head and wildly trying, feet in air, to 
 step on the galaxy above. Few succeed in this however, 
 and only these who are suffocated in the drifts and as 
 cend the golden staircase. I wonder if they still wear 
 their snow-shoes or depend on their wings. And if 
 wings then why is the staircase but I wander. 
 
 Fortunately for the success of our expedition we 
 had all had some experience with snow-shoes, and 
 
68 THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGKE. 
 
 could walk in them with tolerable ease, so in a few 
 minutes we were on our way again. Our path led 
 over an immense snow field, on which a hard crust 
 had formed the night before, but which the sun had 
 now so softened as to render walking without snow- 
 shoes impossible. The field was of immense depth, 
 of glacial formation, being plainly part of the ice field 
 that formed one wall of the mountain. During the 
 summer the hot sun melts the snow and ice, and the 
 streams thus created dig for themselves channels in 
 the glacial fields in exactly the same manner that the 
 mountain torrents have ploughed the deep canyons 
 through the rocks. 
 
 These channels are generally narrow but very deep, 
 and when the frost comes, it hardens the ice walls and 
 fixes them immovably. These fields are also pierced 
 by many small shafts, unusually made in this way. 
 Some dark-colored object, a leaf or a stone perhaps, 
 falls upon the snow. Because of its color it absorbs 
 great quantities of heat, which the white snow reflects, 
 and so the stone sinks rapidly below the surface. A 
 shaft is thus bored into the ice field and often extends 
 many feet down. In this manner the glaciers be 
 come seamed and honeycombed by these narrow, deep 
 openings over which, in winter, the snow drifts, form 
 ing bridges, often too slender to more than support 
 their own weights, yet which effectually conceal the 
 dangerous pitfalls beneath. In order to avoid plung 
 ing into one of these abysses, we tied ourselves to 
 gether with our ropes. Jim again took the lead, I 
 -came second, then Dawson, and Bill last. The cord 
 
DANGEROUS ICE FIELDS. 69 
 
 was securely knotted under our arms, with a space of 
 about twenty feet separating us. 
 
 We proceeded very cautiously, yet as rapidly as 
 possible, for we still had a long distance to traverse 
 and many obstacles to overcome. Our way up the 
 slope was at a slight incline, and we advanced about 
 a mile and a half without accident. We were often 
 made aware of our peril by hearing our footsteps re 
 verberate with a muffled echo as we crossed some frail 
 snow arch that spanned an abyss. Once Bill, striking 
 the iron point of his staff sharply into the crust, saw it 
 disappear from his sight as he relaxed his hold on it. 
 It had pierced the snow and fallen into the cavern 
 beneath. It was interesting to note the celerity with 
 which we hastened forward just then ; we seemed to 
 be actuated by a common impulse particularly Bill. 
 
 All at once without warning I felt a sharp tug 
 on the rope, that nearly threw me backwards; then a 
 shout, followed by the rush and roar as of an avalanche. 
 Had there been any slack between Jim and myself I 
 should certainly have been pulled down, but the rope 
 being taut, I managed, with the help of his great 
 weight and strength, to maintain my position and half 
 turn around. I found I was standing on the extreme 
 edge of a crevasse, into which Dawson and Bill had 
 been thrown by the breaking of the snow bridge that 
 had carried Jim and myself safely over. They were 
 sustained only by the rope, and Bill, as he swung up 
 against the wall of the cut, must have been badly 
 bruised. It was fortunate for all of us that they were 
 light and we heavy, else we should have been pulled 
 into the pit with them. As it was, our position was 
 
70 THE ASCENT OF ITNCOMPAHGRE. 
 
 serious enough. By careful maneuvering we con 
 trived to work the rope into a Y shape crack on the 
 edge of the precipice and wedging it there were thus 
 enabled partially to remove the strain upon our breasts. 
 Still we dared not move, and we were obliged to 
 maintain a rigid position, straining every muscle to 
 prevent being drawn over the edge. Our snow-shoes 
 complicated the matter, for because of them we could 
 get no grip on the snow. Standing where I did I 
 could look straight down into the gulf. The green, 
 icy walls looked unpleasantly cool where the sun 
 light touched them, but most of the cavern was in 
 semi-darkness. It was a fascinating sight and one I 
 gazed at earnestly, until I was aroused by Dawson, 
 his voice sounding strangely sonorous, backed by the 
 echoes. u Whenever you get tired boys, we re ready to 
 change ends," he said. 
 
 We were tired already, but not able to change, for 
 an unguarded movement, a slip, and we should all go 
 into the pit together. I leaned over slightly, and en 
 deavoring to assume a jesting tone, said : 
 
 u This place looks like the mouth of a hole, boys." 
 "/reckon we ll find it the mouth of h 1 if any 
 thing happens to that rope," said Bill profanely. 
 " Well, hang on ! " I said, " hang on ! " 
 A smothered laugh came from Dawson. " Thanks, 
 dear boys," he said, " but the advice is quite unneces 
 sary ; you are the ones to hang on ; we can t let go if 
 we tried." 
 
 All this happened in much less time than it takes 
 to tell it, and the two men had not been in the hole a 
 minute before we were working to release them. By 
 
IN THE CKEVASSE. 71 
 
 throwing his weight heavily on the rope, Jim 
 managed to get down upon his knees, and with the 
 utmost difficulty removed his snow-shoes, so that 
 his spiked soles gave him a better hold on the ice. 
 Then I contrived to do the same, and we were ready. 
 What made our task so difficult was the fact that the 
 two men were securely tied fastened together, and so 
 we had to raise them both at once. This our strength 
 was unequal to, for while we could maintain them 
 where they were, being aided by the friction of the 
 rope against the rocks, the same friction worked 
 equally against our efforts to pull them up. We 
 made several desperate attempts to do this, but were 
 obliged to desist, lest we should wear the rope. 
 
 "Don t hurry yourselves, gentlemen," saidDawson 
 from below ; "not the slightest good in hurrying, but 
 I should like to get out sometime this month. I have 
 an engagement on the 27th and to-day is the 12th." 
 
 Jim began to grow excited. " Hang on ! boy, hang 
 on ! " he shouted. 
 
 " Dear Jim," said Dawson, plaintively, " have we 
 not assured you that we could not let go ? We re tied ! 
 We cannot slip unless you do, but we re slowly freez 
 ing to death. A few short hours and all will be over." 
 
 A chuckle from Bill showed that he was alive at 
 any rate. 
 
 " Bill ! " shouted Jim, " can t you ontie yourself an 
 come up the rope ? " 
 
 " I ve been tryin to all this time, but the durned 
 galoot that tied this rope made such a cussed knot in it 
 I can t." 
 
72 THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGRE. 
 
 " Oh ! the ingratitude of man ; " said Bob. " I my 
 self well and truly tied that knot and now I am called 
 a galoot. William, you re another. Cut it ! " 
 
 " Yes, I guess I will ; here goes ; look out." There 
 was quiet for a few seconds, followed by jerks and 
 fierce pulls on the rope ; then we heard Bob s voice? 
 saying : " Excuse me, Bill, but if you could take 
 your left snow-shoe out of my eye I should feel 
 duly grateful. It seems to impair my sight a trifle." 
 
 Then came a half laugh from Bill and the next in 
 stant his head appeared above the edge of the cliff, 
 and he stood by my side, looking as cool and 
 calm as ever. He still wore his snow shoes which he 
 had been unable to remove without losing, and which 
 had occasioned Bob s remonstrance. He quickly 
 kicked these off and joined us upon the rope. The 
 weight was now largely on our side so that we were 
 easily able to pull up Dawson, and once more we stood 
 together. 
 
 We had little time to waste however ; it was nearly 
 four o clock ; the sun was just touching the mountain 
 tops ; the air was rapidly becoming colder and the light 
 was fading. We saw we could never reach the sum 
 mit that night and our object then was to make our 
 selves as comfortable as possible. Even as we spoke 
 the sun was gone ; the mountain summit looked bare 
 and cold ; a biting chill swept over us. The night 
 had come. We hurried on to find a place to camp. 
 There was very much less danger now of breaking 
 through the crust, for the strong hand of frost had 
 strengthened all the snow bridges. We found a place 
 
ABOVE TIMBER BELOW ZERO. 73 
 
 that was sheltered, and went into camp there. 
 
 I have never passed such another night in all my life. 
 The cold was intense ; we were without any fire, with 
 only some rocks to keep the wind off and but one light 
 blanket apiece. Before lying down we set the regis 
 tering thermometer and read the barometer. The 
 temperature was 4 Far. above zero ; the barometer 
 indicated an altitude of 13,820 feet. 
 
 We had all we could do that night to keep from 
 freezing, but we contrived it some way. We did not 
 dare go to sleep, and we passed the time keeping 
 each other awake. It was a wonder we did not freeze 
 our hands or feet. Morning came at last and found 
 us worn out, cold and stiff. In our scrambles of the 
 day before we had pounded ourselves considerably, 
 and the cold served to develop these bruises until we 
 ached all over. At daylight the mercury showed a 
 temperature of 12 below zero. We ate a meagre 
 breakfast of biscuit and pemmican and drank a little 
 whiskey. Hot tea we knew was much better than, 
 spirits at such a time, but there was an insuperable ob 
 jection to tea then we didn t have any. After 
 breakfast we approached the final obstacle. This 
 presented tremendous difficulties, seemingly insur 
 mountable, but we had gone too far to turn back, short 
 of complete success. 
 
 We found ourselves standing at the foot of a wall 
 of stone, forming the sides of a rocky cylinder, which 
 made the cap or crown of the mountain peak. The 
 wall was fully sixty feet high at its lowest point, and 
 
74: THE ASCENT OF UNCOMPAHGKE. 
 
 to reach the summit we must scale this cylinder. This 
 we did as the day before we had ascended the side of 
 the canyon, that is, by casting a noose over a point of 
 rock and then going up the rope, hand over hand ; and 
 at exactly four minutes past ten o clock, on the morn 
 ing of the thirteenth day of January, we stood on the 
 apex of Uncompahgre and looked about us. 
 
 The scene was one of indescribable grandeur ; we 
 were surrounded by the Rolling Eockies, but rocky 
 then in name only, for everything was softened and 
 whitened by the snow. Below us were the mountain 
 slopes, rising in graceful curves until they could rise 
 no further and the mountain peaks were formed. I 
 have watched the sea during a storm, and the appear 
 ance of the waves at that time, as seen from the main- 
 topsail yard, was wonderfully like the sight we looked 
 down upon from the summit of Uncompahgre. The 
 yeasty foam that covered the crests of the waves 
 made them white as snow, and in the south we saw 
 the peaks of Wilson and Lamborn, looking like two dis 
 masted wrecks. For miles and miles about us stretched 
 the mountains, rising up and up, until the white out 
 lines of their summits blended with and were lost in 
 the clouds they pierced. The bright morning sun 
 shone on the qcean of frozen billows beneath us, and 
 added to the strangeness of everything, for while the 
 eastern slopes were sparkling in the yellow light, the 
 western sides were still shrouded in dusk. A sense of 
 remoteness came over me as I stood there ; I felt like 
 the Last Man. " What countless ages it has taken to 
 
MEDITATION. 75 
 
 get this world into its present condition," I thought, 
 
 " and how many more will it be before " 
 
 " Look ahere ! " said Bill, rudely interrupting my 
 reverie ; " you look as if you was thinkin of buyin 
 the hull bloomin universe. What do you call it wuth, 
 now ? " 
 
V. THE DESCENT OF UNCOMPAHGRE. 
 
 After making observations with the barometer 
 and determining the altitude to be 14,226 feet, we pre 
 pared to make the descent. A careful examination of 
 our rope disclosed that it had become very much worn 
 and shortened. It would be necessary to use it with 
 extreme care. But the greatest difficulty that pre 
 sented itself was how to detach the cord after we had 
 all descended to the slope beneath. Various plans 
 were proposed and rejected as impracticable, and after 
 an hour s fruitless talk, we were forced to the painful 
 conclusion that one of our party must be left behind 
 to cast off the noose. The certainty that this was 
 unavoidable was very depressing. 
 
 Then arose the interesting question : " Who should 
 stay ? " and we decided this by lot. I tore four leaves 
 out of my note book, and on three wrote " Go" and on 
 the other " Sta/y" I folded them up into exactly 
 similar pellets, and buried them deep in a snow 
 drift. Simultaneously, we all inserted our hands into 
 the snow, and groping about, each brought out his 
 paper. I never shall forget the look of dread that 
 overspread the faces of my companions as they pro 
 ceeded to read their fate. Bob looked at his slip and 
 his face lit up as he read, " Go ! " Bill nervously tore 
 
 (76) 
 
DESERTED. 77 
 
 his as lie opened it and fairly shouted as he saw he 
 was safe. As for phlegmatic Jim, when he heard the 
 others announce their luck he turned coolly to me and 
 said : " It s even chance twixt me an you, boy. I 
 aint looked at mine nor you at yours ; how ll ye 
 trade, sight unseen, just fur luck ? " 
 
 It seemed absolutely ghastly to jest at such a time, 
 but I handed him my unopened sheet, and looking at 
 the one he gave me I saw, " Stay ! " Like a fool I 
 had given away my life. 
 
 Our leave-taking was short. My companions warm 
 ly pressed my hand, and promised to return at once 
 to my rescue. Bob said, with the tears in his eyes : 
 
 " Good-bye, old fellow, good-bye ! Keep up> 
 won t you ? " (This was rubbing it in a little, I 
 thought ; I couldn t help keeping up.) " I d never leave 
 you in the world if I weren t sure I should see you to 
 morrow. You ve got provisions and blankets, and you 
 can amuse yourself with the barometer and thermome 
 ter. Good-bye ! God bless you," and he was over 
 the cliff before I could say a word. So were the 
 others, and in a minute more I heard them calling out 
 to me, at the base of the rock, to cast off the rope. 
 Mechanically I did so, and as I looked down upon 
 them Bob sang out cheerily, " Keep up, old man ; 
 I ll be up to-morrow," but I heard him indis 
 tinctly. 
 
 My companions had promised to head a party for 
 my rescue, but I knew it would be useless to do so. 
 Our own ascent had taken a day and a half ; the 
 mountain was hourly becoming more difficult, and 
 
78 THE DESCENT OF UNCOMPAHG-KE. 
 
 should another snow-storm come on, the way would be 
 closed for months. Moreover, allowing that they did 
 succeed in re-ascending the mountain, could I live un 
 til they reached me ? For the cold was intense ; the 
 thermometer then read 20 below, and that meant 
 death to me. Of course a fire was out of the question,, 
 but I did the best I could ; I wrapped myself up in my 
 blankets and burrowed in the snow to my chin. 
 
 The day was beautiful ; the sky blue and clear, as it 
 so often is in Colorado, and the air transparent to a 
 remarkable degree. My companions were just in 
 sight, skimming rapidly along on their snow-shoes. As 
 I watched them I fell asleep, and slept soundly and 
 drearnlessly for four hours. When I awoke it was- 
 about three in the afternoon, but a change had come 
 over the scene. At first I could not recall where I 
 was, but gradually a realization of my position stole 
 over me. Slowly freezing and starving to death on 
 the top of a lonely mountain ! I reproached my com 
 panions for deserting me ; I reproached my weakness 
 in allowing them to go ; I regretted ever having left 
 home I did a lot of silly and useless things just then. 
 Silly and useless they certainly were, for they neither 
 helped nor comforted me. 
 
 The sun, which at eleven o clock shone bright and 
 clear, was now obscured by thick clouds; the wind 
 was rising and moaned around the rocky corners in a 
 ghostly way. A fierce mountain storm was begin 
 ning. The air appeared to be peopled with spirits ; I 
 seemed to be made up of two persons ; one my right 
 hand the other my left. " Up here," said my left 
 hand, " is it not a proper abode for the homeless souls- 
 
A MOUNTAIN STORM. 79 
 
 of dead men ? Could they be less in the world and 
 still out of it in any other place ? " " What of it ? " 
 said my right hand, to my left hand questioner: 
 " Shall we not soon be ourself a dead man?" I laughed 
 as I noticed the odd use of the editorial we. 
 
 It grew dark very rapidly, and as the day faded I 
 could faintly see the scattered lights of Kirby. 
 Nearer to rne a little way up the slope shone the 
 white gleam of an electric arc light, that the Pay 
 Rock Mining Company kept burning over their shaft- 
 house. I even fancied I could hear the clink of the 
 drills that I knew were at work in the mine. But 
 this was impossible, for no sounds could have traveled 
 such a distance in that rare air. My senses were 
 keenly active, and I took an extraordinary interest in 
 my physical condition. I lost the feeling of mental 
 depression that had lately overcome me ; every nerve 
 was now taut, and for the first time since my comrades 
 left me I began to think I could escape. I counted 
 my respirations and found I was breathing thirty 
 times a minute; my pulse was making ninety-five 
 beats. Suddenly, the air seemed to grow colder ; the 
 wind which had been blowing with fearful velocity 
 lulled for an instant, and then down came the snow 
 in great white flakes. 
 
 It was a mountain storm true enough, for the snow 
 filled the air in an almost solid mass. I could only 
 breathe by sheltering my face in my hands. The gale 
 began with redoubled fury, and seemed to fairly shake 
 the mountain, as it struck against it with tremendous 
 force. It caught my blankets and rushed them out 
 
80 THE DESCENT OF UNCOMPAHGKE. 
 
 into the wind-swept blackness about me ; it almost 
 carried me over the cliff and I barely saved myself by 
 taking shelter behind a boulder. As I crouched 
 there, I felt it rocking ; it swung a little as if poised 
 
 on its centre ; then it fell with a . 
 
 I find I am getting into a very awkward position, 
 without the least show for escape alive, and I think 
 I had better leave matters where they are. My im 
 pression is that I jumped finally. 
 
VI. BURIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE. 
 
 There is a saying current in the Rocky Mountains 
 that u If you want to go anywhere you d better start 
 two days before you re ready," implying by this that 
 otherwise you are sure to be late. Those travelers on 
 a certain train on a certain road in Colorado, during 
 the month of a certain January established the truth 
 of this saw beyond a perad venture. 
 
 It was a southern bound train, and when it reached 
 Colorado Springs it ran into a heavy snow-storm. At 
 Pueblo the gale was at its height, and twenty miles 
 beyond, the road became impassable and the train 
 stuck fast in a drift. The fires in the locomotive were 
 soon extinguished and the huge mass became inert 
 and helpless. 
 
 Only those who have been snow-bound on an open 
 prairie can form any idea of our situation and our 
 powerlessness. The wind roared and howled as it 
 blew down upon us a furious storm from the north 
 east, and the snow fell upon everything, swiftly cover 
 ing the land and burying the train out of sight. There 
 was snow everywhere. To the eastward for hundreds 
 of miles, lay a vast, rolling prairie, yet so fast fell the 
 snow and so blinding was it, that our vision was 
 bounded a few yards away by a thick, impenetrable 
 wall of white. Westward, twenty-five miles, were 
 
 (81) 
 
82 BURIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE. 
 
 the mountains, yet between them and us hung a screen 
 of snow-flakes and they were invisible. To the north 
 and south stretched the railroad that bound us with iron 
 ties to civilization, but this too was buried deep out of 
 sight. The very air was turned into a solid bank of 
 snow, and we fairly gasped for breath as we faced 
 the storm. 
 
 A curious way the snow seemed to fall. Tumbling 
 down one moment the broad white flakes came ; tumb 
 ling up the next they went, as if suddenly met by 
 some force that sent them bounding into the air, back 
 whence they started. Kaleidoscopic figures in white 
 danced and played all manner of merry games to the 
 music of the North Wind, that whistled a discordant 
 and shrill refrain through the crevices and round the 
 corners of the car. A Midwinter Night s Dream it 
 was, and it was cold too, bitter cold ! Snow ! snow ! 
 snow ! it was everywhere and it was everything. The 
 train was snow ; the land was snow ; the air w r as snow. 
 It seemed as if the Earth had suddenly put^on a white 
 veil and been married to Jack Frost. 
 
 Once or twice there loomed up through the mists 
 that enveloped us, the forms of stray cattle, drifting 
 helplessly before the storm like rudderless ships, 
 but even these were white with the snow, and no 
 sooner did we see them than they disappeared and 
 nothing remained but the blank walls. 
 
 Twenty hours we lay thus, dull and desperate. 
 Twenty hours, with nothing to do but be miserable, 
 and nothing to look at but each other. Four passen 
 gers sat in the smoking compartment of the Pullman 
 car Las Vegas. Three were men with large mining 
 
HUNGKY. S3- 
 
 interests in New Mexico ; they had spent many years 
 in the mountains and had prospered. They were 
 known to each other as the Colonel, the Professor and 
 the Judge, and I soon fell into the habit of thus ad 
 dressing them. 
 
 Why these four men were in the smoking-room it 
 would be difficult to say, for they were not smoking ; 
 they had long been deprived of that luxury. Tobacco 
 in any form, at the end of twenty hours, was as much 
 a stranger as Hope. The train boy, who at Pueblo 
 experienced considerable difficulty in selling his cigars 
 at five cents apiece, within four hours after we were 
 blockaded cleared out his entire stock at a net price of 
 twenty-five cents, and was heard later bitterly regret 
 ting not having asked fifty. This was American en 
 terprise. 
 
 At the end of twenty hours in the drift we were 
 apparently no nearer rescue than at the beginning, 
 for the snow still fell and the wind still blew and the 
 banks of white grew higher and higher. We had ex 
 hausted all the available devices for killing time, such 
 as card-playing, reading, chatting and sleeping. There 
 was but one thing we had not tried to any extent, and 
 that was eating. During all that time we had fasted, 
 and the depression of spirits that always accompanies 
 an empty stomach, slowly settled down upon us, and 
 we sat silent and sullen, eying one another in a half- 
 savage way, neither reassuring nor calculated to raise 
 the general tone of the party. The car began to grow 
 unpleasantly cool ; the penetrating wind found out 
 the unchinked crevices and made frantic efforts to- 
 reach us, and it became necessary to put on our over- 
 
84 BUEIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE. 
 
 coats. I shall never forget the look of mingled sur 
 prise and joy that spread over the Judge s rugged 
 face, as he thrust his hand into the pocket of his 
 overcoat and pulled out, wrapped in a piece of old 
 newspaper, a genuine doughnut. Neither can I ad 
 equately describe my own feelings. For it was none of 
 your imitation affairs, that can be digested in a week 
 or less. Not at all ! This was a real, tangible con 
 trivance, ring-shaped, brown and harder than Christian 
 Charity. There could be no question about its genuine 
 ness, and its appearance was hailed by the four with 
 emotion. No matter if it was so dry and tough it was 
 impossible to break ; all the better, in fact, since it 
 would take so much longer to digest, and thus give our 
 stomachs more occupation. With the nicest care and 
 mathematical exactness the treasure was cut into four 
 equal parts, and quickly vanished down four throats. 
 Then a most remarkable change came over the faces 
 of all. From being gloomy and despondent, we be 
 came light-hearted and talkative ; pleased as to the 
 past and hopeful as to the future. The humanizing ef 
 fect of the doughnut was wonderful. 
 
 " It occurs to me," said the Colonel, " that the hull 
 of a man s moral intelligence is located, to a degree, 
 in his er stummick. Fifteen minutes ago I was 
 fightin ugly ; now if a feller was to smite me, I 
 reckon I d let it pass." 
 
 The Judge cleared his throat with a loud ahem ! 
 and remarked slowly : 
 
 " That quarter-section of doughnut done me good 
 too. I remember once," here he settled himself in 
 his seat and assumed the attitude of a man about to 
 
ON THE MAROON CREEK ROAD. 85- 
 
 relate a story, " I remember once I was ketched into 
 a little snow-slide up in the mountains, when the cir 
 cumstances was peculiar. I had been prospectin all 
 the fall up in the Gunnison country, I and Major Bill 
 Tuttle, my pardner, and when winter came we lowed 
 we d just put up a shanty on the Maroon Creek road 
 and live there till spring. You see, we was not flush 
 just then, an we wanted to be ekernomical. We 
 picked out a likely spot on a pretty tol able steep hill, 
 but protected by a heavy gro th of timber from 
 snow-slides, and we put up a very substantial log 
 cabin. You know the kind, Cornel ; the rear end was 
 the dirt of the hill an the ruff sloped forward, made 
 of clay." The Colonel nodded. 
 
 " Well, it was a right likely place, and afore we 
 was done a party of four other prospectors come 
 along, and built themselves a camp side by side. On 
 the mornin of the 13th day of January I member 
 the day like as if twas yesterday as we run short of 
 grub, Bill lowed he d go to the railroad an fetch 
 some in fore snow come. I didn t mind beiri alone, fur 
 there was my neighbors close to hand, and we all 
 passed the time pretty quietly an comfortably, play- 
 in old sledge or poker. 
 
 " Well sir, on the 20th of that month, just a week 
 after Bill left, it come on to snow, an it certainly did 
 snow for all twas worth, an could git credit for, just 
 like it s doin now. It snowed for two days an 
 nights steady and then let up an begun to thaw. 
 On the night of the 22d, I was over to the other 
 cabin with the boys, havin a little D. P. an maybe a 
 little somethin to keep the snow out snow s a power- 
 
86 BUKIED TJNDEK AN AVALANCHE. 
 
 fnl bad thing for a man to git into him in winter, 
 Cornel, as you know taint so disastrous in summer 
 an long about twelve I started for home. It was 
 snowin then powerfully, an th old shanty was half 
 out o sight, but I got there and tumbled into bed, just 
 coutered as I was, : here the Judge waved his hand 
 in graceful accompaniment to the quotation, and the 
 Colonel nodded approvingly. 
 
 u I closed the door, it was a very heavy one and 
 fitted snug ; the heavy shutter over the single winder 
 was shut already, an then I went to sleep. When I 
 woke up the room was dark an cold. Some ways I 
 didn t feel sleepy, sort of slept out, so I got up an lit 
 a match an looked at my watch. It pointed to ten 
 o clock and eight minutes, which was mighty surpris- 
 in to me, for I didn t cal late I had just slept clear 
 into the next night, for twas night I knew, bein so 
 dark. The watch was going regular, an then I started 
 for th door to have a look at the weather. But there 
 warnt any weather to be seen, for I couldn t git the 
 door open. I pushed, an I kicked, an I pounded, 
 but she wouldn t budge, and all at once it come to 
 me that I was buried in the snow ! 
 
 " Gen lemen, when that impression struck me, at 
 first I was amazed and dumfounded, but I was soon 
 all right. As I figgered it out, a snow-slide had, like 
 as not, come down the mountain, an just covered up 
 the old shanty out o sight. And I figgered that as 
 it come rippin down the slope it went tearin through 
 them trees, breakin em off an pullin em up, and 
 they just stretched over the cabin an sort o bolstered 
 up the snow, so s to keep it from smashin in the ruff. 
 
IN THE DARK. 87 
 
 But I lowed they was a fearful weight on the old 
 shanty, an I set to work, first thing, proppin it up. 
 I knew as long as that snow laid over the cabin I 
 could never dig through it, cause of the trees and 
 limbs, for I d never an axe by me, an all I could do 
 was to wait for help to come. If the men in th other 
 cabin warnt buried themselves, or killed, they d dig 
 me out, and if they was, I knew Bill ud be back fore 
 long. On y two things bothered me : First, I 
 couldn t have a fire, by reason of the chimley bein 
 stopped by the snow, an they was no way fur the 
 smoke to git out, and so I might freeze to death. Sec 
 ond, was the starvin . When Bill left me I was 
 mighty short o pervisions, and for the last two days I 
 was entirely out an had been boardin over to the 
 other camp, expectin to pay back when Bill come. 
 
 u Well, gen lemen, I made a careful search through 
 the cabin fur somethin to eat, an all I found was a 
 little salt pork, a small piece of salt codfish, a little 
 bit o taller candle, an some bakin powder. The 
 candle I lowed not to burn, but just keep fur the 
 last in the case of sickness, but the pork and codfish 
 I cut up into little chunks, and found I had bout 
 enough to sustain me fur three days, allowin fair ra 
 tions each day. I realized that I musn t scrimp my 
 self, fur if I was to get weak I d succumb to the cold. 
 There was just one thing I didn t think of then, an 
 that was water. I wasn t takin very much water 
 them days, an so I naturally overlooked it. 
 
 " Well, as soon as I made my plans, I eat some of 
 my first day s allowance, and blowin out the candle, 
 found myself in darkness. But before doin this I 
 
88 BURIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE. 
 
 looked at my watch and saw twas u few minutes past 
 leven. Then, in order to keep warm and occupy 
 my mind, I begun dancin and jumpin about, 
 exercisin as much as the narrer limits an darkness 
 would allow. I kept this up more or less for may be 
 three hours, till I was out o breath and dead tired, 
 and then feelin warm and drowsy, I rolled myself up 
 in all the blankets they was in the cabin and lay down 
 on the bunk and fell asleep. 
 
 " Well sir, I was woke up by a most awful thirst ; 
 my mouth and throat fairly ached, and my tongue was 
 dry and parched. The feelin was terrible, an hardly 
 realizin my situation I jest jumped up to get some 
 water. But I d no sooner touched the floor than the 
 hull thing flashed into my mind ; I was helpless. All 
 round me was water, water everywhere, an nary 
 drop to drink. " Here the Judge made a slight pause 
 to note the effect of this quotation, which being well 
 received he went on : 
 
 " !N"o sir ; not a drop, for I couldn t reach the snow 
 to save my life ; I was bound in too tight. The win 
 der I knew was barred, an the door I had already 
 tried to open an failed. In the hope of gettin some- 
 thin to moisten my throat, I bit a piece off en the tal 
 ler candle an slowly swallered it. It was disgustin 
 but it give me a little relief. But from that moment 
 the dreadful horror of my situation slowly grew on 
 me ; the cold got more intense, an I slowly felt its chill 
 creepin over me, as I sat there motionless in the 
 dark. Hours passed so ; my mouth and throat were 
 still unrnoistened and my distress grew greater with 
 each minute. I begun to feel drowsy, an this grad- 
 
DYING OF THIRST. 89 
 
 ually got worse, till at last I wrapped myself in my 
 blankets an fell asleep again, an dreamed ; dreamed 
 of brooks an streams. I could just hear em ripplin 
 an chirpin through the medders, clear an bright. I 
 plunged my face into the water an drank, but still 
 I was thirsty. Or I caught some in a bright glass an 
 watched the cool dew gather on the outside, but when 
 I went to drink, no water trickled down my parched 
 throat, an I woke more distressed than ever. 
 
 " I had slept, it seemed to me, bout five hours, for 
 I had been worn out, body an mind. No change had 
 taken place, an the cabin was as dark an colder n 
 ever. Now I ain t a man that s easy beat ; I ve been 
 up an down too off n to be discouraged, but that awful 
 thirst seemed to parch my very soul, and my pluck 
 just withered up. I was partially dazed. I judged 
 I had been in the cabin then bout twenty-four hours, as 
 my watch showed it was a little past one. I just sat 
 there and let the time slip slowly by ; I dared not ex 
 ercise, for the exertion increased my thirst, which was 
 already almost maddenin , so I wrapped myself in my 
 blankets an lay in my bunk. Then in the darkness 
 about me I saw all kinds of ghostly things. Once,, 
 standin by my side appeared the figger of a man that 
 I recognized as Henry Freeman, a miner who had 
 been killed by my side in a mine-cave a year before. 
 A moment later, hanging from the bend in the stove 
 pipe I saw the body of Coal Oil Jimmy, a desperado 
 who I saw hanged by the Vigilantes in eighteen eighty. 
 Then, before me danced rows of small fig^ers, of fan 
 tastic shapes ; now up, now down they went, till my 
 brain reeled an I thought I was goin mad. All this 
 
90 BUKIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE. 
 
 time I felt I was steadily losin strength starvin . I 
 hadn t eaten anythin in a great many hours an my 
 thirst also made me very weak. I saw I could not 
 hold out much longer. 
 
 " Suddenly a new horror came to me I feared I was 
 in danger of suffocatirr, for I noticed the oxygen 
 of th air was becomin exhausted. The snow had 
 packed so tightly around the cabin as to prevent the 
 air gettin in. There seemed to be no way to meet 
 this danger, an the greatness of it at first overcome 
 me. But by givin the situation careful thought I come 
 to the conclusion that if I could reduce my breath- 
 in s from eighteen to twelve a minute, I should save 
 one-third of the air in the room, or make it go one- 
 third further. So I tried to do this, an with some suc 
 cess. But all this time my thirst was steadily increas- 
 in , an I suffered terrible torment. The agony was 
 dreadful ; my tongue was swollen to great size and 
 was cracked an bleedin . I could not close my teeth 
 together; my mouth was parched an hot; my throat 
 smarted an burned so that every breath sent a stingin 
 pain down into my chest. The cold increased or I 
 became more affected by it, as 1 grew weaker an in 
 spite of my distress a powerful drowsy f eelin 
 overcome me. I resisted it as well as I could, dreadin 
 lest I should freeze to death, but though I realized the 
 danger of it, I fell asleep, an was tormented by pain 
 ful dreams of death an disaster. 
 
 "I don t know how long I slept, but I woke as tired 
 and weary an sad as before. 
 
 " The thirst of yesterday was now worse than ever. 
 I was most crazy with it ; it was difficult to breathe ; 
 
SUFFOCATING. 91 
 
 the air was certainly losin its oxygen ; my head felt 
 light and giddy, while a gnawin pain in my stomach 
 told me that I was starvin . Still I could have en 
 dured it all but for the thirst, which was awful. 
 I could think of nothin but water, and the knowledge 
 that within a few feet of me lay ice an snow in vast 
 quantities, only served to make it worse. I could not 
 sit still ! I could not think ! I raged up an down 
 the cabin ; I pounded on the door ; I dashed my weight 
 against it, but it was firm and hardly rattled. There 
 was no doubt about it, I was a prisoner, and \* ould 
 soon be a madman or dead unless help came. My ex 
 ertion, in consequence of the bad air and my weakness, 
 soon exhausted me and I sat down to rest. But I 
 couldn t rest ! My tongue, enormously swollen, al 
 most stopped my breathin , an I feared I was slowly 
 suffocatin in that way. I began, at last, to realize that 
 I was goin to die, for my neighbors must all be dead 
 to have left me buried so long. Perhaps Bill was 
 also lost. 
 
 " As I sat there in the darkness I heard a sound, 
 the first not made by myself in the three days I had been 
 in the cabin. It was somethin diggin in the snow. 
 At first I could not make out what it was, but I be 
 lieved it was some wild animal, a wolf or coyote, that 
 had discovered the existence of the cabin. But in a 
 few -minutes I heard voices murmurin indistinctly; 
 then talkin and laughin they were very near. 
 The men approached very rapidly; I tried to shout, bat 
 my throat refused to give forth more than a hoarse 
 croak. More laughter ! The rescuers were close at 
 hand. How could they laugh at such a time, not 
 
92 BUEIED UNDER AN AVALANCHE. 
 
 knowin but I was dead ! Nearer an nearer they come, 
 till at last, after what seemed hours of waitin , they 
 reached the door an bust it open with a crash. With 
 the inrush of the cold air an dazzlin light I fainted. 
 When I come to, Bill my pardner was standin* 
 over me, smilin , and near him was two of the boys 
 from the other camp. Bill looked at me steadily for 
 a minute, and then he says : 
 
 " You must have been pretty bilin lately, Judge, 
 cord in to the looks of this cabin. 
 
 " Water ! " was all I could say. 
 
 " ; Aha ! " says Bill. " i I knowed I was right. But 
 sody is better ; Chimmy, just ring the bell and tell 
 Caesar to fetch some B. and S. I feel a little that 
 way myself. 
 
 " His jokin was quite lost on me, and weak as I was 
 I rushed to the door and greedily swallowed a hand- 
 full of snow. Bill looked at me sadly. Judge, he 
 says, You d better reform. It ll be a case of snakes 
 before you know it. 
 
 " 4 What day s this ? " I asked, still confused, for 
 now that my thirst was temp rarily relieved I felt the 
 effects of my fast. " It s two P. M. in the afternoon of 
 the 23rd day of January, Anni Domino, 1881, " says 
 Bill ; " and accordin to the alminick the moon was 
 full same time you was, an that s last night. 
 
 " It was just so. I had been locked up in that cabin 
 from twelve o clock one night until two the next day, 
 and that was all. There was no avalanche, nor snow 
 slide ; there had been plenty of air ; the door was not 
 fastened at all, and could have been opened easy if 
 
93 
 
 I hadn t tried to push it out when it actually 
 swung in." 
 
 The Judge paused, carefully shifted his long legs, 
 and looked benignantly upon us. 
 
 "Well, but look ahere," cried the Colonel, in great 
 excitement, " why didn t you try it both ways ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the Judge slowly, " that s the very 
 question the boys asked me." 
 
 " Well then, all I ve got to say is that you were a 
 perfect blamed fool," the Colonel continued, in a dis 
 gusted tone ; " a reg lar cussed tenderfoot, by Jove !" 
 
 The Judge smiled sweetly. "The very identical 
 expression that Bill used," was all he said. 
 
VII. THE WEDDING AT PUERTA DA LUNA. 
 
 The sun shone down upon Puerta da Luna* with a 
 yellow glare that was blinding in its intensity. The 
 red dust, through which an occasional horse or mule 
 kicked a cloudy way, rose sluggishly from the earth, 
 then slowly settled back, hot and scorching, upon the 
 traveler. The air was baking, and it quivered and 
 shrivelled in a way that made one fairly gasp. 
 
 Down below the town flowed Rio Pecos lazy and 
 dirty its alkaline waters seeming, in the fiery sun 
 light, to boil, as they flowed with languid difficulty 
 around the sand bars that blocked them in. The 
 plaza of the town for every Mexican town is built 
 upon a plaza was a grand affair, being bounded on 
 one side by the town itself, and on the other three 
 by the horizon. The founder of Puerta da Luna was 
 a man of large ideas, and he intended that the town 
 should have room to grow. It certainly had all the 
 advantages in this respect that ever a town had, f9r 
 there was nothing for hundreds of miles to stop its ex 
 tending in three directions. Yet there it stood, at the 
 advanced age of one hundred and fifty years, a sad 
 
 *Lippincott s Gazetteer spells this Puerto de Luna, but Governor 
 Walker himself insisted that it should be Puerta da Luna, and so that 
 spelling has been retained here. 
 
 (94) 
 
HIGH NOON. 95 
 
 monument of neglected opportunities. It is doubt 
 ful if it had increased in size by a single house in the 
 last century. Indolence was the only industry there ; 
 a liking for work would have made a man s sanity 
 questionable. The white men, who from time to time 
 had gone to Puerta da Luna, at first carried with them a 
 breezy air of bustle and enterprise, and each avowed 
 his intention of " waking things up, sir ! " But their 
 energy and ambition were soon burnt out of them 
 by the hot suns of the desert, and the sleepy influences 
 of the place overcame them. 
 
 Close by the town rises the bluff of a mesa, and 
 from there we can look down upon Puerta da Luna 
 actually, as we do figuratively at all times. Below 
 us, on our left, we see the cacti and ocatillas crisping 
 in the heat, and the white face of the land glowing in 
 the fierce noon sun. We see the red clay roofs of the 
 town itself, and our eye is caught by its one frame 
 building, the Dew Drop Palace of Pleasure, that 
 lifts its warped and splintered walls to the extraor 
 dinary height of two stories. Near at hand is the 
 little adobe church, older than the town itself, that 
 holds within its walls that precious relic, the holy 
 image of Santa Blasa, to whose shrine often come 
 barren women, who kneeling and praying, return 
 thence to their homes, and are made happy within 
 the year. 
 
 Beyond the town we see the river again, and the 
 quivering heat that rises from its sand bars is as 
 visible as a fog. Everything else is yellow or 
 red, and the baking earth is quite unmasked by the 
 green of vegetation, save for the cactus or sage, things 
 
yb THE WEDDING AT PTJERTA DA LUNA. 
 
 that are but the mockery of living, growing plants. One 
 can almost believe he has left the abode of earthly 
 dwellers and has been transported to another planet, 
 because of the strangeness of everything about him. 
 Or else he can fancy, on some cruel hot day, that he is 
 seeing the death of the earth. The wither and blight 
 of the desert, the decay of old age are everywhere. 
 Even the children seem to be centuries old, their 
 parched, sun-burnt little bodies making them look 
 like animated mummies. 
 
 During the day one seldom sees a moving thing ex 
 posed in the heat. But as the light wanes and the sun 
 drops behind the mesas in the west, the town slowly 
 awakens. The air is still hot, but not with the dry 
 and scorching heat of noon-time; the sands still glow 
 with the stored-up caloric, accumulated during the 
 day, but the night-wind that follows the sun reaches 
 the town as the daylight fades, and then, of a sudden 
 it is cool. Slowly the people rouse themselves from 
 their lethargy. The doorsteps and narrow piazzas that 
 abut upon the plaza become populous with life, and 
 the sounds of guitars and castanets are heard, playing 
 an accompaniment to some melodious soprano, singing 
 a long-remembered song of Castile or Andalusia : a 
 song brought here, may be, by some singer in Cortes s 
 band, three hundred and fifty years ago. 
 
 A curious state of affairs exists in Fuerta da Luna, 
 as in many other New Mexican towns. There are two 
 races there, the Mexican or Hispanio- American, and 
 the White or American, as they are called, and these 
 two races do not commingle readily. It being a 
 frontier town, many of the riff-raff of the country 
 
WALKEK. 97 
 
 have drifted there, and have earned by their lawless 
 ness a bad name for the place. Not even the exhaust 
 ing, enervating climate has entirely subdued the vi 
 tality of this element, and it now and then breaks out 
 in some mad feat of blood. 
 
 Twenty years ago old " Guv nor " Walker came to 
 Puerta da Luna, determined to make a success of his 
 life. At that time he possessed brains, pluck and a 
 little money, which he had saved from the wreck the 
 war had made of his fortune, for the " Guv nor " had 
 been on the side of the south. And what had he 
 actually done for himself ? Nothing ! The fatal in 
 fluences of the place had grown about him and he was 
 ainbitionless. Yet in spite of his loss of energy, the 
 old man still carried himself with courtly dignity. 
 Twenty years, in Puerta da Luna had not entirely 
 worn away the polish of his Kentucky breeding. The 
 Governor was tall in figure and stately in manner yet, 
 and though he dressed shabbily, you would never think 
 it was less than broadcloth and linen he wore. He was 
 fond of reminiscence also, and wielded much influ 
 ence in the hamlet. The Governor was looked up to 
 by all, and where fair dealing and honest arbitration 
 was desired he was appealed to, though it was seldom 
 that any other arbitrator than the six-shooter was 
 needed. 
 
 The Dew Drop was his property, as was also the ad 
 joining small store, where might be purchased many 
 things, such as tobacco,calico, bacon, flour, cheap saddles 
 and baking-powder. Nothing ever gave the Governor 
 more pleasure than to collect about him in the Dew 
 Drop half a dozen companions who would listen to his 
 
98 THE WEDDING AT PUERTA DA LUNA. 
 
 stories of by-gone days. It used to be whispered in 
 Puerta da Luna that during the war the Governor had 
 been guilty of some tremendous, unmentionable act 
 of treason against the United States, and that he 
 was waiting for it to blow over before returning to 
 Kentucky. One would think that in twenty years it 
 had had time to be forgotten, yet still he lingered. " I 
 was thinkin of going back this summer," he would 
 say, as regularly as the spring came around, " but I 
 reckon I ll wait now till fall. Don t quite see how I 
 kin leave my bizriess." 
 
 Seated with his hearers about him, the Governor 
 would warm to his work. " Forty de Luny was not 
 what it used to be," he would protest, with a sorrow 
 ful shake of the head, as if " Forty de Luny " had ever 
 been anything different since the Christian era began. 
 " It was gettin too near the settlers ; it wouldn t be 
 long before there d be a railroad runnin slap in front 
 of the Dew Drop, and where would old Guv nor 
 Walker be then ? Dead, sah ! that s th idea dead of 
 a broken heart." Here the old fellow s feelings al 
 ways mastered him, and he found it necessary to 
 stimulate. 
 
 " When I fust come here," he would say, " we used 
 to hev great times. It was at the close of the wah, 
 sah, and there was a lively scatterin of the boys for 
 certain reasons. Old Forty was very gay in those 
 days ; too gay almost, for we was obliged to get up a 
 little company of vigilantes, in order to s6rt of steady 
 things. There used to be some tol able quick shootin 
 for all that. I member once a chap named Bill 
 Thomas let off his six-shooter into a crowd and killed 
 
GOOD OLD TIMES. 99 
 
 three Greasers. We had to tie him up, on account of 
 pop lar opinion, though it didn t seem hardly fair, 
 they bein only Mexikins. You see, Bill was after a 
 feller he had a right to kill on sight, and these Grea 
 sers sort o got plum in line, so, not bein able to shoot 
 round, he tried goin through em, killin em by the 
 way, as it were, incidentally, and I always said it was- 
 a mistake to hang him. 
 
 " There is a couple of holes here," he would add,, 
 with a small laugh, pointing to the wooden bar, " that 
 has a story. It was before I was proprietor, bein only 
 tendin bar, when one day, while the usual game wa& 
 goin on, a little feller, Manuel Manzanares, waltzes in 
 and sallies up to the bar an calls for some whiskey. 
 Well, it just filled him up to the edge, and he whipped 
 out his gun an sayin he hadn t got any money, cov 
 ered me an backed fur the door. I dodged behind 
 the bar, whipped out my pistol and cal lated to git pay 
 that way. Well, I caught him, caught him twice in 
 fact, an could have caught him three times if it had 
 been necessary, but it warnt. An the cur us thing 
 about it all was that there was two other men hit 
 same time, an it was claimed I did it, though I only 
 pulled twice, an both those leads was found in 
 Manuel. Well, it became convenient for me to go 
 to Yegas just about then, and i must ve stayed away 
 several months. Cur us, ain t it, to think of a man s- 
 havin to leave Forty for such a thing as that ? We 
 were mighty strict in those days, sah ; most too strict." 
 
 But it was with the ladies the Governor was most 
 popular. There was always about him an air of re 
 spectful homage and attention, no matter who the 
 
100 THE WEDDIXG AT PUERTA DA LUNA. 
 
 woman was, that at once won her regard. As he 
 strolled across the plaza he was constantly bowing his 
 .salutations to one or another senora, and his sombrero 
 was being beaten isochronally with his stately gestures. 
 There wasn t a house within fifty miles of Puerta da 
 Luna at which the white haired old "Guv nor"was 
 not welcome, and though the envied of all men for 
 his taking qualities with the sex, no one ever ques- 
 tiened his right to their favor. 
 
 Great things were to happen in Puerta da Luna 
 this night, when the bright moon, hanging high in the 
 lunar pathway, shone through her "gates" upon the 
 sands of the desert. The moon was half full, and she 
 offered herself as a noble example of temperance and 
 moderation to the roisterers on earth ; an example alas, 
 neither understood nor followed, for Puerta da Luna 
 was undeniably drunk. 
 
 The occasion of this unusual hilarity was the cele 
 bration of the marriage of PI acid e Baca y Baca, eldest 
 son and heir of Don Selso Baca, the wealthiest and 
 best known ranchero in San Miguel County. The 
 title to thousands of acres of dry, red land was 
 vested in Don Selso, it having descended to him from 
 his father, who in turn had received it from his father, 
 .and so on back, until you could trace the title straight 
 to the great land grant, given in the year 1723 to Don 
 Ferdigo Baca by the Spanish King. Besides the land 
 he owned, hundreds of cattle bore Don Selso s brand 
 and thousands of sheep were watched by his herders. 
 On the banks of the Pecos stood his house, and near 
 it was his orchard and vineyard a few acres wrested 
 from the drought and made fertile by the alkaline 
 
PLACIDE AND MARIA DOLORES. 101 
 
 waters of the river, which had been led thither through 
 rude canals. Here grew fine fruit ; peaches, pears, 
 apricots, plums ; melons too of such tremendous girth 
 that I dare not give their dimensions. In the 
 vineyard grapes could be plucked, the bunches 
 rivaling in size and flavor the celebrated samples 
 brought back by the original investigating committee 
 from the land of Canaan. From these grapes wine 
 had been made, and this, the wine of Baca, was 
 expected to add to the innocent hilarity of this 
 joyful occasion. 
 
 Placide son of Don Selso Baca had that after 
 noon led to the altar in the little church, the blushing 
 daughter of Don Anton Chico herself called Maria 
 Dolores. In front of that altar they had knelt and 
 clasped hands, while the swarthy little priest had mum 
 bled and stumbled through his unfamiliar mass, and 
 at length they had walked out, they who had entered 
 as two, forever bound together as one. And by this 
 marriage were united the houses of Baca and Chico ; 
 the rights and titles to the two estates were joined, 
 and there was great rejoicing. 
 
 Invitations had been sent out for miles around, bid 
 ding the ranchmen come and be merry, and an hour 
 after sunset the town was alive with swaggering cow 
 boys, dressed in their best ; all wearing broad som 
 breros, fancifully colored shirts, bright flowing neck 
 ties, curious little high heeled-boots, into which were 
 tucked their trousers, and huge, jingling spurs, buckled 
 over their in steps. 
 
 The two Dons had united to celebrate the notable- 
 event becomingly. They had secured the large room 
 
102 THE WEDDING AT PUEKTA DA LUXA. 
 
 over the Dew Drop for an " Assembly Room," and 
 had craftily appointed Governor Walker Master of 
 Ceremonies. The bar of the Dew Drop was thrown 
 open to all comers, and long before the hour for the 
 Ball had arrived, Free Whiskey and the fiery Mescal 
 had made themselves felt. Now and then, some in 
 toxicated reveler might be seen in the shimmer of the 
 moonlight on the plaza, arguing with his unstable 
 shadow, and as he swung his arms, to emphasize with 
 gestures his flowery, albeit disjointed sentences, the 
 earth would slip from under him and he would fall 
 limp in the dust. A companion, himself apostrophiz 
 ing the night, wandering spirally by, and seeing the 
 prostrate form, would pause in pity, when from under 
 him the world would whirl, and he too would repose 
 in drunken dustiness. Then a merry laugh from some 
 dusky senorita would set vibrating the clear night air, 
 as the two roisterers would attempt to rise, then fall, 
 stagger and fall again, singing swanlike as they sank 
 to the unsteady ground. Fainter would grow their 
 voices and fainter, diminuendo last and lost effort, 
 prostrate would they lie, drunk dusty happy. 
 
 The upper room of the Dew Drop was, this night, 
 devoted to Terpsichore, and presented a truly attractive 
 appearance. Around the rough, unceiled interior were 
 hung flags, in an ineffectual attempt to conceal the 
 bareness of the walls, while from the naked rafters 
 overhead were suspended two flimsy chandeliers, hold 
 ing kerosene lamps which shed a smoky, dingy light 
 about. Through the cracks in the warped and creaking 
 floor came the heat, the smoke, the odors and the pro 
 fanity of the bar-room below. The atmosphere in 
 
THE BALL ROOM. 103 
 
 the Ball room was like that of an oven, arid the four 
 narrow windows served to ventilate it but poorly. 
 
 In a frontier town like Puerta da Luna, society is 
 not defined and hedged about as it is where what is 
 called civilization has made more progress. Still it 
 has its limitations even there. Not every one was 
 bidden to the Ball that night, and a resolute, active 
 young fellow, with a significant six-shooter hanging 
 at his right hip, stood by the door as the guests 
 passed in, and closely scanned each face. Not every 
 one was admitted, but nearly every one, and by ten 
 o clock the scene was one of entrancing beauty. It was 
 eloquently described by the Governor, as he stood in 
 the doorway, as being " bewitchin pon me soul, 
 hie !" 
 
 Seated on the benches about the room were the 
 ladies, becomingly dressed in white. They were of 
 various nationalities, from the light-haired, fair-corn- 
 plexioned dame of Saxon descent, to the dusky belle, 
 whose shining black hair and dark skin be 
 trayed the mixture of Spanish and Indian blood. 
 They were of all ages, for no maiden was without 
 her chaperon. They are very particular about this 
 little point in Puerta da Luna, though the v fact that 
 the ball was to be given over a bar-room was accepted 
 as a matter of course. Besides, where else could it be 
 given ? 
 
 Lounging about the door, in awkward, uneasy atti 
 tudes were the men ; brave enough, all of them, yet 
 none daring now. Every one felt ill at ease ; the Ball 
 seemed to be a funeral. But on the appearance of the 
 wavering Governor, a change took place. He wan- 
 
104: THE WEDDING AT PUEETA DA LUNA. 
 
 dered across the room, vainly endeavoring to follow 
 undeviatingly a crack in the floor, through which 
 arose the vapors from beneath. Cautiously he ap 
 proached the band a fiddle, guitar and accordeon. 
 Arriving at the side of the fiddler he laid his hand in a 
 free and easy manner on his shoulder and with this 
 support, endeavored to lean over and whisper confiden 
 tially in his ear. But he miscalculated, either as to 
 the strength of his prop, or his own stability, for he 
 lost his balance, and making a clutch in the air was 
 only saved from disaster by the accordion. Then, 
 realizing that he was not in proper condition to 
 deliver the speech with which he had intended to open 
 the ball, with a delicate sense of the fitness of 
 things, he removed his sombrero and swinging it about 
 his head shouted lustily, " Hurrah! " and the festivi 
 ties began. With the first note of the music, a cow 
 boy, inspired by the wine of Baca, dashed with a wild 
 " Whoop ! " toward the row of ladies, and seizing one at 
 random, rattled away in a mad, jingling waltz. Then 
 others followed, encouraged by his example, and in a 
 few minutes the floor was covered with dancing 
 couples. Round and round they went ; the warped 
 boards creaking, the glass of the lamps rattling,and the 
 men whispering soft curses to themselves as they col 
 lided with one another. The Governor did not dance, 
 but stood by the door, leaning heavily against the 
 wall, his sombrero tipped over his eyes and a benevo 
 lent smile on his lips, as he beat unsteady time to the 
 music with his forefinger. 
 
 While the ball was at its height there appeared in 
 the low, narrow doorway at the head of the ladder- 
 
THE LITTLE OLD MAN. 105 
 
 like stair, the figure of a stranger. A little old man, 
 bow-legged, with arms of unnatural length, and clad 
 in faded blue-jeans. His small face was wizened 
 and parched ; no trace of a beard was visible on his 
 sunken cheeks, and his small eyes, set unpleasantly 
 close together and unframed by eyebrows, glanced 
 restlessly about. Bob Lynch and Rube Friday were 
 standing near the door as the stranger appeared, and 
 as he hesitated about entering, Rube, in that easy bonne 
 camaraderie manner that became his style so well, 
 stepped up to him and hitting him a substantial blow 
 on the back, that seemed to shrivel him up, until 
 small as he had been before, he appeared even smaller 
 then, said : 
 
 " Hello ! Major ! Glad to see ye. Lookin fur a 
 chance to jingle yer spurs, hey ? " 
 
 "JSTo sir," said the stranger slowly, "I m lookin 
 fur my little boy. You aint seen him, now, I reckon ? " 
 
 " Seen him ! " said Rube, winking facetiously to 
 the others who stood near. " Oh yes ! I ve seen him. 
 Little feller, pinafore, pink curls, bout so high an 
 answers to the name o Bub." 
 
 "Y-e-s," said the stranger doubtfully, " I guess that s 
 him. Where is he ? Hev you seen him lately ? " 
 
 " Well, I should say I hed ! Less see " here 
 
 Rube assumed an air of deep abstraction, occasionally 
 varied by heat-lightning movements of his left eyelid, 
 of so humorous a nature as to send everyone of the 
 bystanders into ill-repressed spasms of laughter. 
 
 " Less see ; where was it I see Bub last? Just you 
 
 wait 1 I got a powerful mem ry fur furgettin things." 
 G 
 
106 THE WEDDING AT TUEKTA DA LUNA. 
 
 Here Rube pressed the back of his hand against 
 his forehead and assumed an air of meditation. 
 
 " Where wuz it I seen Bub last ? He was a 
 well mannered chap, wasn t he? Had fust rate 
 comp ny manners sort o swallered the juice when 
 talkin to ladies, so to speak ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " said the old man eagerly ; " where 
 did you say you seen him ? " 
 
 " Tryin to recollec . There wuz a feller like that 
 had some trouble up to the X Bar X ranch a year or 
 so ago, and never quite recovered from it. Got ketched 
 into a lariat someways an it affected his breathin per 
 manently. Made a mistake about the brand on some 
 hosses through bein short sighted. At least that s 
 the way it come to me." 
 
 "It wasn t Willie, I know," said the old man. 
 
 " ISTo, I reckon not, myself. Then there wuz a fel 
 ler down to the Half -circle-diamond place, down near 
 the Laberde grant, that got into a misunderstandin 
 with the boss an hed to pull his freight to save his 
 head. Thet couldn t hev been Bub now, I reckon ? " 
 
 "No," said the old man, "that couldn t ve been 
 Willie. He left home four year ago, an I aint 
 heard bout him but onct, an then they told me they d 
 seen him out near Forty de Luny, an so I come look- 
 in for him. I m from Missouri, myself." 
 
 "Well," said Eube, generously, " You keep right 
 on as long as you feel, like it. Lord ! I guess this is 
 a free country, an a man can look fur the devil if he 
 wants to." 
 
 The others acknowledged the humor of this remark 
 by a quavering laugh, and dispersed. 
 
THE WINE OF BACA. 107 
 
 The dancing went merrily on. Too merrily most of 
 the ladies soon thought, and in a little while they took 
 their departure, escorted to their domiciles by their 
 attendants and chaperons. Then, such was the effect 
 of the wine of Baca and the fiery Mescal, that the 
 scene in the Assembly room became something in 
 describable. The slim walls rocked with the blows 
 of heavy feet that fell upon the flimsy floor ; the 
 rafters shook and the lamps burned dim. Up through 
 the splintered boards still came the smoke, 
 the heat, and the odors from the Dew Drop bar 
 beneath. The noise slowly grew fainter below, as one 
 by one the celebrants, overcome by the fiery potions, 
 sank helplessly down to the floor and slumbered in 
 their awkward positions. One by one they fell, until 
 not a soul sat upright to maintain the power of mind 
 over spirits. Most proud would the two Dons have 
 been could they then have seen how faithfully their 
 friends were rejoicing with them. Proud also would 
 have been the young Placide and his blushing Maria 
 Dolores, could they have seen the Dew Drop then. 
 
 Up stairs but four still kept their feet; the rest 
 snored noisily. Off in obscure meekness, in one corner, 
 sat the little old man, his small eyes closed to the 
 smoke and shadows ; for he too slept. Out on the 
 floor were four booted and spurred raneheros, hard- 
 headed and well-balanced, who showed but little the 
 worse for their merriment. They were tripping a jig 
 to a fantastic measure, and the music was making des 
 perate, though ineffectual efforts to keep up with them. 
 Away they went, their heels rattling noisily and their 
 spurs tinkling merrily. While they were thus occupied a 
 
108 THE WEDDING AT PUERTA DA LUNA. 
 
 second stranger appeared in the doorway. The dancer& 
 were too busy to notice him, and so failed to perceive 
 the two pistols he carried, one in each hand. He wa& 
 appearantly not over twenty years old, smooth-faced, 
 short and thick-set. He was dressed in the garb of 
 the country ; his light grey eyes glistened in the 
 smoky light, and his thin, compressed lips showed 
 he was what Rube called a " nervy little cuss." For a 
 moment he surveyed the scene from the door, then ad 
 vancing towards the centre of the room, and halting be 
 fore the dancers, said quietly : 
 
 " Reckon you d better throw up your hands, gents. n 
 
 The dancers stopped instantly; they were sober 
 enough to know what the outcome would be if they 
 resisted. Besides, in compliance with a request of 
 Don Selso s, they had left their pistols at the bar, and 
 so were unarmed and helpless. They quietly held up 
 their hands and stood there in a row. 
 
 " I m sorry to trouble you gents," continued the 
 stranger, apologetically ; " specially as we re unac 
 quainted, an I hope you wont think me rude. If the 
 fellers down stairs had panned out anythin like, I d 
 never hev come near ye, fur I know ez well ez anyone 
 there s a time fur work an a time fur play. But I 
 never see just such a pauper outfit as they was ; I aint 
 made enough to buy a drink, an so, if you ll ex-euse 
 me, I shall hev to ax you to be so kind." 
 
 When the stranger had accepted the various offer 
 ings thus forced upon him, he found himself in pos 
 session of nearly two hundred dollars, and three gold 
 watches. 
 
MUKPEK. 109 
 
 " Really gents, " he said, with a polite little bow, 
 " you re men after me own heart. You are rich, 
 well-mannered, an open-handed. You ll be pleased 
 to know that this little contribution of yours will be 
 used to endow an orphan asylum an the little 
 orphans will pray for you every night, which will be 
 be very gratifying I m sure." The four victims 
 were silent, Rube Friday alone showing by a 
 grimace his vexation of spirit. " Perhaps, now 
 we ve been so intimate and friendly, you d like to 
 know my name," the stranger continued. " I m 
 pop larly known as Billy the Kid. See here!" He 
 raised his right hand arid with his pistol snuffed out 
 one of the remaining lights. He still kept his victims 
 in control by holding the other pistol in his left hand, 
 pointed straight at them. 
 
 The old man, who had been dozing in the dark cor 
 ner all this time, was awakened by the shot, and 
 catching sight of the stranger as he stood fronting the 
 four men, ran wildly toward him, shouting : " Willie ! 
 Willie ! " All were startled, none more than the rob 
 ber, at seeing this strange figure in the obscure light. 
 He hesitated an instant, but with four resolute, 
 angry men behind him he dared not pause, a delay 
 might be fatal; besides, in the dim, smoky room, 
 he did not recognize the stranger. With a light 
 ning gesture, he raised his pistol and the old 
 man fell to the floor dead. Quick as a flash for 
 it was all over in a second he faced the four again, 
 and covering thehi with a revolver in each hand, 
 backed to the door, and bowing there, said : "Good 
 night, gents ; " then with a third shot he extinguished 
 
110 THE WEDDING AT PUERTA DA LUNA. 
 
 the last light, and the room was in darkness. A 
 moment later the sound of galloping hoofs was- 
 heard as he rode off. 
 
 It took but a very little time for the four men to 
 reach the open air in pursuit. As they ran through 
 the bar-room they reached behind the bar and took 
 from the rack, rifles and revolvers. In front of the 
 saloon, tied to a low railing, were some thirty horses, 
 all saddled and bridled, and on four of these the 
 men quickly mounted. The moon was still shining 
 brightly, and objects on the white sands of the desert 
 were distinguishable at a great distance. 
 
 Placidly as ever flowed the Eio Pecos, its gleaming 
 sand bars looking whiter than usual, and down toward 
 the river was visible the figure of the robber, riding 
 rapidly. 
 
 " The cuss has shot his father, the old man, dead,, 
 an got away with my watch," said Kube, as he pressed 
 his horse into a hard gallop ; " an he ll hev to swing 
 fur it, I m thinkin , if there s any justice in Porty de 
 Luny." 
 
 " He s makin fur th river," said Hank Pennel,. 
 who had been watching him closely." 
 
 " Well, he d better look out how he crosses long 
 here," said Jim Pardee, the third rider. 
 
 "Boggy?" 
 
 " Boggy as hell !" 
 
 Doggedly the four kept after the one. He had a 
 long start and a better horse, and he gained on them 
 perceptibly. His brain too, was Clearer than theirs, 
 for he had not been drinking. He rode diagonally 
 toward the river, aiming to reach it about a mile below 
 
IN THE QUICKSAND. Ill 
 
 the town. Once on its banks, he did not hesitate, but 
 dashed boldly in for the other side. He had gotten 
 about half way across ; the water was up to his horse s 
 shoulder, when suddenly the animal stopped, reared 
 slightly, then struggled furiously as it slowly sank 
 under, caught in the treacherous quicksands of the 
 river. The instant the rider perceived the plight of 
 his horse, he slipped out of the saddle into the water, 
 and started to wade across, mercifully sending a bul 
 let into the horse s brain before he left its side. 
 The water rose to his breast, but there was no current, 
 and he pushed boldly forward, holding his rifle and 
 pistols above his head. But he too had taken but a 
 few steps when his footing slipped away from him, 
 and he found himself gripped in the sand and slowly 
 sinking. Down, down he went ; struggle as hard as 
 he might, it was all the same ; he was fast and helpless. 
 He felt the cool water creep up on his breast, little by 
 little ; now it touched his shoulder now his throat 
 
 Just at this moment his four pursuers dashed up, 
 and halted at the edge of the stream. The head of 
 the robber was plainly visible above the water, upon 
 which the moonlight fell so that its reflections lit up 
 his eyes until they glowed phosphorescently. 
 
 " What ll we do now ? " said Jim to the others. "I 
 could pitch a rope over him a,n[ snake him out in no 
 time, if you say so. Shall I ? " 
 
 " It don t seem to me ez if twas policy," said Rube 
 slowly, " we shall hev to hang him anyhow, an it ll 
 save trouble in buryin him, an make a neater job all 
 round if we let him slide." Then raising his voice 
 he said, " Say you ! we was goin to hang you when 
 
112 THE WEDDING AT PUEKTA DA LUNA. 
 
 we ketched you, but we ve concluded to let you off 
 this time. No thanks ! you re quite welcome ! " 
 
 The only answer the doomed man made to this was 
 to level the pistol he still held above his head, and 
 fire. The ball whistled close to Eube s shoulder. 
 
 " As ungrateful a cuss as ever I seen," Rube mut 
 tered, " but game." 
 
 He was clear game. He never uttered a sound, 
 but silently waited his inevitable death. Little by 
 little he sank ; the water rose past his mouth, past 
 his nostrils his eyes; then a few bubbles 
 
 Mechanically and in awed silence, a little over 
 come by what they had done, the four men rode back 
 to the town. The dawn was faintly showing in the 
 east, and the moonlight was slowly growing yellow as 
 the day drew near. As they pulled up in front of 
 the Dew Drop and dismounted, Rube suddenly 
 slapped his hand on his pocket and exclaimed : 
 
 " Sold, I swear ! He s got my watch." 
 
 The river still rolls on, silent and yellow ; the air 
 above its white sand-bars still quivers in the heat; but 
 there is nothing to mark the grave of the desperado, 
 and his only funeral oration was Rube s remorseful 
 reflection. 
 
VIII. ON WATCH WITH THE NIGHT HERD. 
 
 The day had been one of hard work, for we had 
 picked up many cattle that morning, " on circle," and 
 the afternoon had been most busily spent in branding 
 and sorting the herd. There were five wagons in the 
 Round-up party ; thirty-seven men all told, and two 
 hundred and fifty-six horses. When we came to clean 
 up the herd at sunset we found that there were near 
 ly three thousand head of cattle that had to be guard 
 ed and watched all night. 
 
 The life of a cowboy is one of constant hardship 
 and peril. He is in the saddle, riding a vicious horse, 
 from sunrise to sunset, and often stands guard two 
 hours of the night besides. He eats beef, fried in 
 lard and cooked until it resembles a dried leaf. He 
 is supplied with the yellowest imaginable doughy bis 
 cuits, and the water he drinks is often so bitterly alka 
 line as to be nauseating. During the day he suffers 
 from the heat and lack of food and drink ; during the 
 night from the cold and wet. The little time he has 
 for sleep he often spends in a pool of water, for his 
 bed is made in the open air with the sky for a roof. 
 He is as completely isolated from the world as if he 
 were on a remote island ; he knows nothing of what 
 is happening in civilization, and fortunately doesn t 
 care. He is exposed to constant danger of life and 
 
 (113) 
 
ON WATCH WITH THE NIGHT HERD. 
 
 limb ; associates with rough men ; hears hard talk and 
 sees wild deeds. Is it a wonder then that the cow 
 boy has acquired a reputation for reckless disregard 
 for his own and other people s lives ? The very exis 
 tence he leads obliges him to be indifferent to danger, 
 and removed as he is from many of the restraints of 
 law and society, he is very apt to go to an extreme. 
 The riders are sometimes men who have been unable 
 to live in law-abiding communities,and have gone to the 
 frontier to escape the restraints of civilization. These 
 men may prosper at first, but never for long. For a 
 time they act the part of the bully and bravo with 
 great success, but some day they are sure to meet their 
 fate personified in some-quiet spoken, mild-mannered 
 man who gets the " drop on them " and brings them 
 up with a round turn and a short shrift. 
 
 The captain of a Eound-up party has great 
 powers placed in his hands, and the man who occupies 
 that position must be naturally fitted to command. 
 He should know the cattle business from A to Z. 
 Moreover, he must be perfectly familiar with the 
 country through which the Round-up is to work, for 
 much depends on him whether the land is carefully 
 searched for the cattle, since a knowledge of the water 
 ing-places is of the utmost importance. He must 
 have good executive abilities, and be possessed of firm 
 ness joined to good temper. He is invested with al 
 most autocratic powers, and while he certainly has not 
 the legal right to put anyone to death, there are 
 many instances* known where men have been tried 
 before him for gross crimes murder or cattle-stealing 
 convicted, sentenced, and executed. 
 
EVENING. 115 
 
 By a territorial law no man is allowed to carry a 
 pistol on the Round-up, and the reasons for this are 
 obvious. In the first place it is quite unnecessary for 
 any one s personal safety that he should be .armed. 
 In the second place, the men being all quick tempered, 
 are very apt to resent with pistols if they are armed 
 some slight grievance, that otherwise they would let 
 pass, or settle with a rough-and-tumble fight. In the 
 third place, the life of the Round-up renders the re 
 volver dangerous to the owner himself, because of the 
 liability to accidents. 
 
 After supper, the eating of which takes an incredi 
 bly short time, pipes are lit and the men have their 
 short loafing time. Some play cards; some mend their 
 clothes or harness ; some even wrestle or spar a little, 
 though not very actively, for there is not a rider who 
 is not dead tired, though not one would willingly ad 
 mit it. Here a musically inclined cowboy is playing 
 a fiddle or accordion to a group of listeners, who now 
 and then interrupt him to call for some favorite air. 
 There is a group discussing some event of the day. 
 The great staple of conversation is the horse, though 
 one hears much about saddles, bridles, boots,slickers and 
 spurs. Every man has some hobby about an outfit and 
 likes to ventilate it. 
 
 " What party is the L J Bar wagon workin with 
 this spring ? " you hear one man ask. 
 
 " They re with the Fort Summer Round-up, workin 
 north." 
 
 " Is Dutch Jake ridin with them now ? " 
 
 ! th old man bounced him ; said he used to 
 
116 ON WATCH WITH THE NIGHT HERD. 
 
 stampede the herd tryin to talk United States and 
 he wouldn t have him round." 
 
 The humor of this remark is received with a light 
 laugh, and it is a specimen of much of the talk. 
 
 It is at this time of the day that the picturesque 
 side of the cowboy s life is seen. The heavy wagons, 
 witli their white canvass covers, are drawn up in a 
 row at the edge of the stream, and around them are 
 grouped the men. They are all young, some even 
 boyish-looking (I never saw an elderly cowboy), but 
 they have sinewy, well-knit frames, and fresh, open 
 faces. At seven o clock, the first guard of two men 
 goes on duty. Their business is to picket the herd 
 that is drawn up a few hundred feet from camp, and 
 their watch extends until ten o clock, when they are 
 relieved. By eight the beds of the men are stretched 
 out near the wagons, and before many minutes the 
 camp is asleep, each man wrapped in a heavy tar 
 paulin to keep off the dew and rain. The horses 
 that are to be ridden later by the reliefs are tied near 
 at hand, with saddles loosely cinched in place. In 
 front of the captain s wagon hangs a lantern, the only 
 light allowed after night-fall. 
 
 When I turned in at 8:30 it was not dark, but a few 
 stars had appeared overhead, and it bade fair to be a 
 pleasant night. I expected to watch in the third re 
 lief, from 12 to 2, and as I was a green hand I was 
 simply to ride as a companion to the regular guard. 
 It seemed as if I had been asleep but ten minutes when 
 I felt myself roughly shaken, and a voice shouted in 
 my ear : 
 
THE THIED BELIEF. 11T 
 
 " Third relief ! git up, pardner ! " 
 
 I was brim full of sleep and it was hard work wak 
 ing up, but when I had my eyes fairly open, I hastily 
 pulled on my boots, buckled up my spurs, slipped on 
 my coat and hat, and picking up my bridle out of rny 
 bed, stumbled over to my pony, already saddled. I 
 quickly fastened the bridle over his head and tightened 
 the cinches, and had just finished this when my com 
 panion appeared out of the gloom, on his horse. 
 
 "Ready?" he asked. 
 
 My answer was to mount, and the next moment we 
 were riding out into the darkness, in the direction of 
 the herd. The night was as black as a pocket ; heavy 
 clouds had rolled up and shut out the stars, and there 
 was a feel of rain in the air. 
 
 " Got yer slicker by ye ? " asked Rube, my com 
 panion. 
 
 " Yes," I told him. 
 
 A slicker is an oil cloth coat, made for horsemen ,. 
 and so constructed as to completely cover the person 
 of the wearer and his saddle. It is usually carried 
 tied to the cantle, ready for use at all times, for dur 
 ing the round-up season in New Mexico, it rains nearly 
 every day. 
 
 We paused to catch the sound of the restless cattle,, 
 and rode on again when we had located this. On 
 reaching the herd we found the guard, relieved it, 
 and then began our watch. There were three of us 
 " on " that night ; the two regular men and myself. 
 For the sake of the society, I rode with Rube, and a& 
 we circled round the herd he sang merrily. He had 
 a long repertory of words, all fitted conveniently to 
 
118 ON WATCH WITH THE NIGHT HEED. 
 
 the same sounds, but his favorite verse sounded some 
 thing like this : 
 
 " O der sling-iling O der sling-Hung, fur hatz pun ahoy ! 
 
 Aus ler opree scouse ler dopee, 
 
 Dum blitz her adoy." 
 
 " That s German," said he complacently, after he 
 had repeated it a good many times. " You allus got 
 to sing to the cattle in the night, fer if they didn t 
 hear you comin you might skeer a skittish heifer into 
 stampedin , by ridin on to her sudden." 
 And Rube roared out again : 
 
 " Aus les opree scouse ler dopee, 
 Dum blitz her adoy," 
 
 till 1 expected to hear the herd rush away into the 
 night. 
 
 Round and round them we went. It was pitch 
 dark, and the wind from the north came piping up 
 with a cool dampness in it that foretold a storm. 
 
 It blew in clouds the dust into which the many thou 
 sand hoofs had ground the red clay, and sent it sting 
 ing into our faces, the alkalai making our throat and 
 eyes smart painfully. The cattle, which had been ly 
 ing down and quietly reposing, became restless and 
 surged now this way, now that, as some impatient 
 animal urged its way out from the centre of the mass. 
 And dark ! it was never so dark before or since, I be 
 lieve. Certainly it could never be darker. 
 
 " Gurus sort of feel, aint it, hearin all them cattle 
 breathin ? " says a voice by my side. It is my com 
 panion, and though I can almost touch him, I can not 
 see him. 
 
119 
 
 " Trul} 7 ," I say, "it sounds a little like the noises 
 of the sea ; it makes one feel quite lost out here, en 
 veloped in the vast, impenetrable blackness of the 
 night." 
 
 Reuben coughs slightly. He evidently thinks iny 
 language is above my business, but he merely remarks 
 that the night is a " Caution." Just then his horse 
 makes a quick jump away from the herd and I fancy 
 I can see the white form of a cow that has slipped out 
 from the bunch, searching for her calf, which she has 
 lost. Away she goes across the prairie, and Rube 
 after her and I after him. She keeps her lead for a 
 few yards and then he catches her ; she doubles, 
 twists and turns, but the smart little pony follows 
 every movement and slowly heads her back into the 
 herd. Time and again she tries to break away, but 
 as often as she does she is met and turned, and at last, 
 trots back with the other cattle, Rube muttering as he 
 rejoins me that, for " cussed contrariness he^d like to 
 have someone show him something to beat a cow, less 
 it was a woman, and yet where the difference was he 
 couldn t for the blessed life of him see." 
 
 I privately suspect that Reuben has had the best 
 impulses of a confiding heart cruelly betrayed, at 
 some time or other; he seems to be very bitter, 
 and to take it out of the cow at every opportunity. 
 
 We resume our tiresome ride round and round the 
 herd, and as we pass the other guard we exchange 
 a few words. 
 
 " Herd blamed uneasy to-night," says one voice. 
 
 "Dredful ! /reckon we re going to have a storm, 
 replies the other voice. 
 
120 ON WATCH WITH THE NIGHT HERD. 
 
 "/ex-pect! Got half a mind to call the cap n; guess 
 better hold on a little though," and we drift apart in 
 the darkness and continue our patrol. Half a dozen 
 times does Rube ride away at full speed after some 
 truant cow, and each time does he drive her back, 
 kt cussin " her obstinacy. The cattle are getting more 
 and more restless. 
 
 " Don t like the looks of things not in the least," 
 he says at last. " The herd is actin like as if the 
 storm was plum here." As he speaks a flash in the 
 west lights up the scene for an instant, and then comes 
 the low, bass rumble of the thunder. At once we 
 hear another sound, nearer at hand and more unearthly. 
 It is the cattle which, startled by the coming storm 
 they have long been dreading, are now upon their 
 feet, alert and anxious. Suddenly, almost without 
 warning, a wild steer makes a dash for liberty and in 
 stantly the whole herd with a rush that shakes the 
 earth are off in a mad stampede. It is as irresist 
 ible as a tidal wave. We are caught in the fearful 
 panic and hurried along, helpless. Our position is 
 one of deadly peril. Surrounded by wild animals, 
 which we cannot see, pressed on all sides by their 
 hot flanks, our safety depends entirely upon our horses. 
 Should they stumble, or we become unseated, we 
 should be instantly trampled to death by the sense 
 less brutes, whose headlong flight momently increases 
 their terror. This is the greatest danger the cowboy 
 is exposed to, and many a stalwart fellow has been 
 thus killed in a night stampede. 
 
 By spurring hard to the front of the herd, by 
 shouting and yelling and a vigorous use of the lash, we 
 
OUT ON THE PKAIKIE. 121 
 
 succeed in slowly checking them, but not until after 
 they have run a mile or more, and not until we have 
 lost many stragglers out of the bunch. The storm is 
 rapidly approaching ; the lightning is frequent ; the 
 thunder incessant ; the cattle wildly uneasy. As 
 each report tears the air into shreds, we can hear them 
 answer it with convulsive movements or low bellowings. 
 
 " I reckon we ll hev to hev em out, Rube," comes 
 to us out of the darkness ; " we can t begin to 
 hold em, an they ll be all over God s creation in an 
 hour at this rate." 
 
 " I guess that s so, though I hate to do it," says 
 Rube regretfully. Then to me : " Pardner, wont 
 you ride into camp an tell the old man the facts in 
 the case." 
 
 And so I start. Two miles or more away I can see 
 a spark, looking like a tiny star. This is the lantern 
 in front of the captain s wagon, and touching my 
 weary broncho with the steel I ride toward it. It is a 
 singular sensation and a novel one, out there in the 
 pitch dark night, a cold wind blowing rain and thun 
 der from the north. Behind me is a herd of three 
 thousand wild cattle, churning and crowding, and con 
 trolled by only two men. In front is space, with the 
 single star to guide me forward. 
 
 But it was hardly the time for reverie, for I could 
 hear the rain as it came sweeping over the plains. I 
 dashed into camp and rode straight to the captain s 
 wagon. I didn t have to tell him what the trouble 
 was, for no sooner did he hear the rain and thunder 
 than he was up and dressed, booted, spurred and coat 
 ed. He hurried toward his pony, shouting, " Horses ! 
 H 
 
122 ON WATCH WITH THE NIGHT HEED, 
 
 Horses ! " The effect was magical. Where before 
 had lain sleeping men, covered with white tarpaulins, 
 now appeared hurrying forms, groping for boots, hats 
 and bridles. The cooks lit their lanterns and re 
 plenished the fires, and in three minutes a dozen men 
 were mounted and on the way to the relief. I rode 
 with them, as it was supposed that I knew the location 
 of the herd, but we should never have found it but 
 for the vivid lightning, that lit up the scene, and 
 now and then disclosed the low, black shadow of the 
 cattle. 
 
 All the rest of the night we guarded them. Rain ! 
 How it did rain ! Every man wore his " slicker," but 
 this was soon wet through. My heavy sombrero, 
 which when dry was as hard as a board, grew limp and 
 flabby, and hung around my face dejectedly. The 
 rain streamed from my hat, my coat, my boots, until 
 I looked like a broken water-pipe with the head full 
 on. By daylight the storm ceased and we were or 
 dered back to camp, the wettest, f orlornest looking 
 group imaginable. The herd then was over three 
 miles from the wagons, the stampede and the storm 
 having carried them that far ; for cattle drift before 
 the wind much as a disabled vessel does at sea, 
 
IX. DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 He certainly was an odd one that is, if a fancied 
 resemblance to Cervantes hero, modernized, can be 
 .said in any way to constitute eccentricity. 
 
 It was down on the Pecos that Captain Dick Hosier 
 first met and adopted him. Captain Dick was rid 
 ing over from the X Bar X ranch to the Barzee, of 
 which he was the general manager, one pleasant morn 
 ing in October, and had just reached the ford by the 
 Laberde grant, intending to cross the river, when up 
 on the opposite bank he spied a stranger. A citizen 
 of New Mexico approaches his fellow man with cau 
 tion. Almost the first thing an acquaintance with 
 the best society in that country teaches him is 
 narrowly to inspect a chance comrade, and to loosen 
 his pistol in its holster when coming within range. 
 And so, before starting his horse into the water, 
 Captain Dick had a look at the man across the stream. 
 
 The two were not very far apart fifty yards or so, 
 for the Pecos was not wide there and at that distance 
 Dick saw that the other was a tall, gaunt man of about 
 fifty. His face was partly hidden behind a thin, 
 scraggly beard, that grew randomly out of a dark, 
 sun-burnt skin : a tangled forest of hair hung from his 
 chin, while his cheeks were like the open prairie, with 
 only an occasional sage-brush spear to break the 
 
 (123) 
 
DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 smooth monotony. The narrowness of his face was 
 accentuated by two small eyes, set in close to either 
 side of a thin, pointed nose; and his head-covering still 
 further exaggerated this effect, for in place of the 
 customary sombrero he wore a small, knit skull-cap, 
 that fitted tight to his head. This cap had once been 
 black, but the sun and the rain had faded it until it 
 had become a rusty brown, and so nearly the color 
 of his clayey hair that at a glance he appeared to be 
 bare-headed. Altogether the first impression he 
 created was his resemblance to a straight line length 
 without breadth or thickness. But he seemed harm 
 less enough, and Captain Dick started to cross the 
 river, giving his broncho a needless touch with the steel 
 to hasten him. The stream was high and the current 
 swift, and although the horse was stout and sure-footed, 
 he found it no light task to breast the flood. Half 
 way over the water rose above the stirrups, and Dick 
 loosed his feet and sat cross-legged on the saddle. 
 When at length he reached the bank, and halted there 
 a moment, the stranger gravely saluted him, and said 
 slowly : 
 
 "Mornin 5 Cap it s bout leven o clock,, ain t it? " 
 A nearer view disclosed several things that Dick 
 had not noticed before his dress for one thing. A 
 ragged, faded velveteen jacket ineffectually covered 
 the upper part of his person, while his lower limbs 
 were cased in a pair of heavy leather " shapps." They 
 had evidently been made for a much shorter man 
 than their present owner, for there was a yawning gap 
 between the lower ends and the deer-skin moccasins 
 that covered his feet. He was armed cap-a-pie, with a 
 
HIS AEMOE. 125 
 
 Winchester carbine over his shoulder, a heavy 
 Colt s revolver (45) and knife at his waist, and enor 
 mous rusty spurs, with jingling chains, on his feet. 
 His saddle had once been a gorgeous affair of stamped 
 leather, with silver trimmings, one a grandee might 
 have used ; but now it was tattered and torn, hopeless 
 ly beyond respectability. The leather was worn away 
 in huge patches and the naked wood of the tree ap 
 peared unblushingly in sight. The horse matched the 
 saddle and the rider. Altogether the stranger looked 
 like a bandit who had been unfortunate in business, 
 yet his smile was cherubic in its sweetness. 
 
 "If you re goin to Santy Rosy we might ride 
 7 long together," he said in a mild voice, and although 
 Dick much preferred to go alone, he assented, and 
 they rode on. 
 
 " I heard tell down to the Cross-circle-diamond 
 ranch that they was wantin a cook up to the Barzee," 
 the stranger said slowly, " so I just pulled my freight 
 to strike the job. Know if it s so ? " 
 
 " Yes, it is so, Dick answered; " I m from the Barzee 
 myself. Can you cook ? " 
 
 " Yes," he said slowly; " I Jew cook, if you aint 
 too pertickler. I aint fond o cookin but I kw do it. 
 I kin fry beef, make a tol able sallyratus biscuit an a 
 middlin fair pie outen most anythin . But I aint 
 enjoyed cookin much since I reformed. 
 
 " I used to be as bad as any of em," he continued, 
 leaving Dick in some doubt as to whether he referred 
 to his cooking or his morals, " but I seen th error of 
 my way an stopped on the brink. I got religion," 
 he spoke of it as if it were an article he had pur- 
 
126 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA KOSA. 
 
 chased " I got religion with a feller I was herdin 
 sheep with down on the Gallinas, four year ago. He 
 let me into the ways of the righteous an I m walkin 
 in the straight path now an forevermore. Leastways,, 
 I m walkin when I aint ridin ," he added solemnly 
 and accurately. 
 
 They soon reached Santa Rosa. Captain Dick had 
 to stop there a short time on business with the black 
 smith and the harness maker (the two were one in 
 Santa Rosa), and so, riding up in front of the Maver 
 ick Inn, he dismounted. His new friend called after 
 him : " I reckon I ll just nachally wait round till you 
 come out, an look over the sights." 
 
 A half hour later Dick walked out to his horse, 
 drawing on his gloves preparatory to mounting, and 
 then discovered that his new companion had a weak 
 ness. In the language of Gov. Walker, "he was 
 gellorious." He had employed his half-hour well, 
 and he stood at that moment leaning heavily against a, 
 post and singing in lugubrious and wavering tones : 
 
 " Touched with a sympathy within, 
 How weak our feeble frame. " 
 
 Dick was puzzled at first to know what to do with 
 him. He had previously determined to take him to- 
 the ranch, for he did need a cook there, yet when he 
 saw his condition he hesitated. Not just because the 
 man was drunk looking from a moral standpoint 
 but because, being drunk, he was difficult of transpor 
 tation. But Dick knew that a cowboy can often ride 
 when he cannot walk ; so with a little assistance he 
 rolled the stranger into his saddle and the two started. 
 For the first few miles they proceeded on a walk ;. 
 
127 
 
 then as the stranger grew slightly sober, and his 
 seat in the saddle became more assured, they broke 
 into a trot and were riding at this gait when, making 
 a sudden turn in the road, around the point of a mesa, 
 they came upon a herd of burros, driven by three 
 Mexicans ; two boys and an old man. These hurriedly 
 scattered out of the way, and as the two riders rattled 
 by, the old man saluted them with a respectful : 
 
 " Buenos dias, senores ! " 
 
 They had passed them but a few yards when Dick s 
 companion pulled up, and turning to him, said with 
 drunken gravity : 
 
 " Did ye see tha Greaser make face t me ? He 
 suit me an I m goin t rebuke irn," and he unslung 
 his rifle. 
 
 " No, no ! he didn t make a face at you" Dick said, 
 endeavoring to quiet him ; " that was at me." 
 
 " Thas all ri , but aint you goin t ave sas fas hun ? " 
 
 " No, not now ; to-morrow, perhaps." 
 
 u Thas all ri , but you re my frien an goo f ler, an 
 I ll ave sas fas hun for you," and before Dick could 
 stop him the stranger threw his rifle to his shoulder 
 and fired. It was a chance shot, of course, but it was 
 a true one, and down went the old man and the burro 
 he was riding, both apparently dead. The avenger of 
 his honor looked smilingly at Dick, and then at his 
 victims, lying in the dust, and said pleasantly : " Th 
 man t wont do that fur fren aint worth name o 
 man. How s that fur a shot, eh ? " 
 
 Dick was seriously alarmed, for not only did he 
 realize the sin of killing an unarmed man even in 
 New Mexico but he knew the fellow-countrymen of 
 
128 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 the victim would work reprisals on him by stealing his 
 stock and annoying his men in every possible way. 
 And he was still more disturbed when he saw his 
 companion preparing to shoot again. 
 
 " Hold on ! " he cried, "you ve killed him ; that s 
 enough ; you d better get out of here now as quick as 
 you can." 
 
 u Killed him all ri , on y he aint th one. Here goes 
 fur nother wash th lill f ler jump," and Dick had 
 just time to strike up the muzzle of the rifle when it 
 was discharged again. Then, in desperation, he seized 
 his companion s bridle, and facing him down the road, 
 laid his "cuert" smartly over the horse s back, and in an 
 other moment they had rattled out of sight around a 
 turn in the road. It afterward turned out that the 
 burro was killed, but the Mexican was unhurt beyond 
 a very bad fright. 
 
 That evening the men sat around the fire in the 
 bunk-room at the ranch house, talking and passing 
 the time as usual. The new arrival had been installed 
 as cook, with a monthly compensation of forty dollars 
 and board, and he was at that moment in the kitchen 
 attending to his duties. Jim Carroll the foreman, who 
 was popularly believed to possess fine literary acquire 
 ments, shamefully wasted in cow-punching, was quite 
 taken with the cook s appearance and with Captain 
 Dick s adventure of the morning, and he declared that 
 henceforth the new comer should be known as Don 
 Quixote de Santa Rosa, which name was adopted by 
 acclamation and promptly shortened to Don. 
 
 "Still I can t make him out," said Reuben Friday ; 
 " not in the least ; he says he s a worker in the vine- 
 
HIS MANNER OF SPEECH. 129 
 
 yards an he s gone to cookin to help out, but / think 
 he s a stray from the Kio Grandy ; Maverick maybe, 
 fur I don t see no brand on him." 
 
 "No, he aint a Maverick," said Bill Coleman, u fur 
 he told me he belonged to the Band of Hope outfit, 
 and was out lookin over the range, roundin up. I 
 reckon he hadn t better make any con verts in our herd ; 
 some folks might think he was stealin cattle." 
 
 Day by day the men learned to like the Don. He 
 had such a modest way about him ; he was never 
 blustering, never profane, but always quiet and cheer 
 ful. He was not didactic or puritanical, but he had 
 a singular habit of interspersing scriptural selections 
 through his conversations that at first was very puz 
 zling to the men. He did this without the slightest 
 notion of the incongruity or of the unpleasant effect it 
 had on some, for he did it all in a deeply reverent way. 
 He never drank again, and was deeply mortified at his 
 one unfortunate lapse. It is true he could not cook 
 true indeed, that he made worse failures than any 
 cowboy ever made before but somehow no one could 
 find fault with him. 
 
 " Them biscuits hev got consid able sallyratus in 
 7 em, I expect," he used to say, apologetically, as he 
 daily laid a pan of heavy, saffron-colored lumps of 
 dough on the table, " but it seems to take a heap of it 
 t operate on this flour. I cal late there s four parts 
 sallyratus to three of flour fear ye not death but 
 you won t mind it with a little raw onion and plenty 
 o salt." 
 
 His mode of cooking beef too, was darkly mysteri 
 ous. There would appear on the table, three times a 
 
130 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA KOSA. 
 
 day, a dingy, blackened pan, filled with a something 
 or other, floating in melted grease, and as the Don laid 
 it down he would smile benevolently, seeming to say 
 that no one could guess what that contained, not if he 
 were to try a week. 
 
 " Th foundation fur it is fried beef," he would say, 
 " but there is other things in it fur to give it twang 
 I bring ye tidings of joy such as chopped pertaters 
 an pork. It s got consid able nourishment into it, 
 though it don t look so very good." 
 
 One day there was great excitement at the Barzee 
 the Don had been there about four months then for a 
 neighbor rode up and reported that there was to be a 
 dance the next night at the " Widder Davis s," four 
 miles up Los Tanos. 
 
 "The " Widder " was the relict of the late Jim 
 Davis, who came to an untimely end some five years 
 before by reason of his pistol s missing fire. Besides 
 the Widder, Davis had left behind him a son and a 
 daughter. They had prospered, and "by shrewd and 
 careful management of what the old man had be 
 queathed them, had become possessed of a fair ranch 
 and a bunch of seven hundred cattle. The son was a 
 harum-scarum fellow, even for a cow-puncher ; the 
 Widder was admitted to be a Rustler. As for the 
 daughter Mirandy she was the belle of San Miguel 
 County. Few who saw her could resist her fascinations. 
 She was none of your sickly wee things ; that kind 
 does not flourish on the frontier. No, Mirandy was 
 " stout, strong and handsome with.il." And yet, 
 frontier born and bred though she was, she had all the 
 coquettish ways that some think are only acquired by 
 
MIKANDY. 131 
 
 a society training, but which are in truth as much a 
 part of woman s make-up as her back hair. It was a 
 liberal education to see Mirandy modestly drop her eye 
 lids when one of her admirers was touching on dan 
 gerous ground, or to hear her say, " Get along now 
 Bill, or I ll lam ye," and to note the stalwart cuff she 
 administered to Bill, if he attempted to steal a kiss. 
 Admirers she had by the score, suitors by the dozen, 
 but never an accepted lover among them all. She wa& 
 believed to be heart whole and fancy free, a condition 
 which added an indefinable charm to her society. 
 
 Of course such an event as a dance was hailed with 
 pleasure, and every one at once made ready. There 
 was a greasing of boots and a polishing of spurs and 
 a dusting of clothing all that day and the next. The 
 time for starting was impatiently waited, but at last it 
 came, and the party was off a cavalcade of six, in 
 cluding the Don. The dance did not differ greatly 
 from the usual affairs of that kind. No one was shot^ 
 no one was even physically hurt ; but there was one of 
 the party who was apparently wounded in a serious 
 way. I refer to the Don and the Don s very suscepti 
 ble heart. The attentions that he lavished upon both 
 the Widder and Mirandy that night were the cause of 
 much remark. With what grace did he lead the matron 
 out on the floor, and take his place at the head of the 
 reel ; with what a stately bow did he salute her as the 
 accordion and fiddle struck up Money-musk ; with 
 what ease and dignity did he guide his buxom partner 
 down the middle, his huge spurs and chains playing a 
 jingling accompaniment to the music, and then, when 
 
132 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA KOSA. 
 
 the dance was over, how gallantly did he lead her to a 
 seat and hurry to get her some negus. To see him 
 you d have thought he was a carpet-knight born and 
 bred, instead of the cook of the Barzee ranch. 
 
 And then, when he appealed to Miss Mirandy for 
 the favor of her hand in the bolero, how cleverly 
 he showed his versatility. With the dame he had been 
 dignified ; with the maiden he was as agile and grace 
 ful as Jose Garcia, the handsome young Mexican, 
 said to be the best dancer and the worst liar in San 
 Miguel County. The other dancers paused to watch 
 the two as they swayed and pirouetted to the music, 
 and when at last they stopped, cheered them right 
 heartily. It would be worth a good deal to you could 
 you have seen the gallant way in which the Don led 
 his breathless partner to a seat, and stood by her side, 
 fanning her with a huge palm leaf that raised such a 
 breeze in the room as to blow out one of the lights. 
 And not the worst part of it all either, was to see the 
 savage scowl that came over Jose Gracia s swarthy 
 face at finding himself hitherto the best dancer in 
 all the county, just beaten by a cook. The Don 
 treated Jose s ill humor with the haughty disdain that 
 it merited and led out Mirandy to supper. 
 
 " It beats all how he kin round-up an cut out just 
 the heifer he wants, every time, while we fellers can t 
 even git outen the corral," said one disconsolate wall 
 flower, envious of the Don s popularity with the sex. 
 
 But the Barzee men were proud to find themselves 
 so well represented on the floor. 
 
 As they rode back to the ranch after the ball was 
 -over, the Don was the only silent one in the party. 
 
133 
 
 He was evidently turning something over in his mind, 
 and gave no heed to what was said to him, though 
 Jim Carrol swore that he heard him mutter to him 
 self something about maiden s tears and lover s fears, 
 and so it was promptly agreed that the Don was in love. 
 
 The effect of his new attachment became at 
 once noticeable in his cooking. Instead of the biscuits 
 having four parts saleratus to three of flour, the pro 
 portion became as five to two. His " Irish stew " de 
 generated into something beyond belief or description ; 
 his dishes were never washed. " I don t want you 
 waddys to git too blame finicky take no thought 
 bout what ye shall eat," he explained. 
 
 " Look here, Don !" roared Jim one morning, as the 
 Don absent-mindedly emptied a pot of boiling coffee 
 on his wrist ; "What d ye mean ? I aint a cup ! " 
 
 I know it, Jimmie, I know it," said the Don 
 mildly ; " fight ye the good light I ll make some more 
 in a minute," and Jim had to be contented with that 
 apology. 
 
 Every evening after supper the Don would mount 
 Rozinante and ride away to court his Dulcinea del 
 Tanos. ]STo one ever knew what time he returned, but 
 he always had breakfast of a certain kind ready by 
 sunrise. He was extremely reticent about his affairs 
 and gave no hint concerning them, nor could the men 
 judge from his manner how he prospered. It wasn t 
 even known whether it was the mother or the daugh 
 ter he sought. 
 
 " Come, Don " said Kube once, at supper, " we re 
 old friends, you know, and you ought to tell us. Is 
 it the Widder or Mirandy ? " 
 
134: DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA KOSA. 
 
 The Don merely smiled his pleasant smile and said 
 softly ; " It s both all flesh is grass, Keuben," and 
 that was all they got from him. 
 
 u I d like to know how he gits along," said one of 
 the boys one evening, as the Don rode away ; " though 
 if love an affection is anyways influenced by sally- 
 ratus, I reckon he ll get thar, Eli." 
 
 "Wai," said Shorty, as he reared his six-foot body 
 in front of the fire, and faced the party, " If he un 
 dertakes to hitch up th Widder, he wants to cinch 
 his saddle pretty snug or he ll git throwd. Women 
 are a queer lot." 
 
 It was generally understood that when Shorty spoke 
 of Women he knew what he was talking about ; he 
 had been married himself more or less several times, 
 and his knowledge had been gained by long and bit 
 ter experience. 
 
 This condition of affairs continued through most of 
 the winter. Regularly every night the Don rode away 
 into the darkness, and regularly the next morning he 
 was to be seen bending over the cracked stove, stirring 
 round and round his unholy concoctions. He was 
 never late and his demeanor never varied from day to 
 day. The only change noticeable about him was that 
 already mentioned his cooking which finally be 
 came so bad that even the cowboys objected. Still the 
 Don received the complaints as if they were words of 
 praise, and went on his quiet, dogged way, unmoved 
 and smiling. 
 
 But one morning he appeared at breakfast, looking 
 but the battered wreck of his former self. Dark cir 
 cles of black framed his eyes and one was swollen shut. 
 
135 
 
 His velveteen jacket was torn up the back and a sleeve 
 was gone. His right wrist seemed to be sprained and 
 he limped as he walked. He received the chaffing in 
 silence. 
 
 " Hullo, Don ! " cried Kube ; " what s up ? Widder 
 must hev bin extry fectionate last night." 
 
 "It s all along of his bronk, that is," said Shorty. 
 " He s bin feedin it some of his cussed sallyratus bis 
 cuit on the sly, till the beast got to feelin so good 
 it most kicked the head ofFn him." 
 
 The Don resolutely refused to disclose the cause 
 of his dilapidated appearance, and went about his du 
 ties wearing a piece of raw beef tied over his eye, but 
 otherwise as if nothing unusual had happened. But 
 that evening, instead of mounting Rozinante and rid 
 ing away, he took his seat by the fire, and briefly told 
 his story. 
 
 " It ll set your minds at rest, maybe, if I tell you 
 bout it," he said, " an so I cal late to do it. That 
 night spell ago when we went over to the Davis s 
 to the dance, I was quite took with the looks of Miss 
 Davis an Mirandy, an I says to myself like as not 
 you need converting most every one does in this coun 
 try an for brass will I give you gold, I says ; yea, 
 much gold, says I. Well, last night a young f ler rode 
 up an got off n his hoss an come in. The Widder 
 didn t seem to shine to him, but Mirandy called him 
 Bobby." Here the Don paused and repeated thought 
 fully: " Yes, sir, she called him Bobby, right before 
 my eyes." Then resuming his story: "Well, he 
 talked a good deal an acted s if he owned San Migell 
 County ; indulgin freely in ripartee an other little 
 
136 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 things, till finally I says : My friend, are you lookin 
 to be saved ? an then he says, he wasn t thinkin 
 about himself, but he reckoned he d hev to keep his 
 eye on his hoss, so long as I was about, if he wanted to 
 save him. Then Mirandy laughed, so I turned to 
 her an I says: It would seem as if that young man s 
 been poorly brought up; he s a Mexikin, aint he? 
 Well that s bout all I distinctly remember now ; 
 there s a interval in my life where all is naught." 
 Here the Don made an attempt to smile that was lost 
 in the swelling of his cheek. u Th only way you can 
 be free with any one in this country is to get th drop 
 on him. I reckon 1 won t go there so often, after 
 this." 
 
 And from that day his visits ceased altogether. 
 
 Spring came at last, though the transition from win 
 ter was so gradual that we should hardly have noticed 
 the change but for Jim Carrol, whose poetic nature was 
 stirred by the advent of the new season, and who took 
 every opportunity to assure us that, " The earth 
 again is young and fair, ethereal mildness fills the air, 
 spring, gentle spring smiles on the land, and May 
 flowers bloom on every hand." 
 
 With the warmer weather came the usual work on 
 the range. More riders were needed, and the Don 
 was relieved from his duties as cook and sent out to 
 look up stray cattle. This change in his labors he 
 hailed with pleasure, although it meant a loss of ten 
 dollars a month and harder work. 
 
 " I ve allers held that cookin warnt no proper busi 
 ness fur a white man," he said; "but I done it 
 
SPRING WORK. 137 
 
 blessed are the meek an it s conquered my pride in 
 great shape." 
 
 Preparations for the Spring Round-up were rapidly 
 made ; the wagons were examined and repaired ; the 
 horses were driven up from the pasture and corralled 
 in a convenient place ; new horses were broken in and 
 old ones shod. Men were sent out over the range to 
 examine the watering-places, with orders to pull out 
 of the boggy ground about them any Barzee cattle that 
 had become mired and unable to extricate themselves. 
 These duties were hard and disagreeable, having 
 neither the excitement nor the social pleasures incident 
 to a Round-up, but the Don performed his part will 
 ingly. One morning he rode away from the ranch with 
 instructions to examine carefully a certain specified 
 territory that lay in the west. His route led up Los 
 Tanos and as he started, Rube, who was preparing to 
 ride south, called out to him, in unconscious quotation 
 of Tony Weller : " Beware o th Widder, Don!" To 
 which the Don replied with a wave of his hand : 
 " Thanks, Reuben judge ye not others," and disap 
 peared around a bend in the stream. 
 
 It was the afternoon of the second day of his excur 
 sion that found him approaching the Horse- shoe V 3 
 ranch. It had been a perfect day in April, that best 
 of all months in New Mexico. The gramma grass 
 had exchanged its winter coat of silver for a fresher 
 one of green ; the few trees that grew along the river 
 were bright in leaf and blossom. Even the sombre 
 sage-bush had put off its mournful gray and the cactus 
 was gorgeous in its yellow flowers. The cattle too 
 seemed to feel the benign influences of spring, and as 
 I 
 
138 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA EOSA. 
 
 the Don drew near, hurried helter-skelter across the 
 vegas, followed in frisky content by their wobbly, 
 long-legged calves. The prairie-dogs squeaked in their 
 hundred holes, and here and there a rattlesnake might 
 be seen, gliding rapidly away on the approach of a 
 man. 
 
 The Don dismounted at the ranch house, and having 
 unsaddled Rozinante and turned him into the corral, 
 strode into the bunk-room. 
 
 " I m from the Barzee," he said to one of two oc 
 cupants there, " an I ll put up with ye the birds of 
 the air hev nests till to-morrer." 
 
 " Well ! " said one of the men, " what s the news 
 over to the Barzee way ? " 
 
 " Nuthin much ! " said the Don as he took a seat on 
 a bunk and commenced to whittle. 
 
 The two men resumed their interrupted conversa 
 tion. 
 
 " You was sayin th cattle was lookin well up your 
 way ? " said one. 
 
 " Middlin , though th old man is growlin bout th 
 range gettin crowded." 
 
 " Well, he s bout right more blamed tenderfeet 
 rushin in with their Texas cattle, that don t know a 
 yearlin from a parara-dog. /say there ought to be 
 some law bout it." 
 
 " Guess that s so ! Any strangers round here ? " 
 
 " Naw, ceptin him," pointing to the Don. 
 
 " Him ! Oh, he aint no stranger. He s nothin 
 but a graven image." 
 
 The two men chuckled over this remark, which the 
 Don heard but declined to notice. 
 
NIGHT AT THE KANCH. 139 
 
 " Seen Mack lately ? " 
 
 " Mack ! yes, week ago. Had the spring fever bad 
 then ; delerious. Thought I was his grandfather .first 
 an then swore I was the devil." 
 
 " Well, you might hev bin his grandfather all the 
 same. Mack s got a pecooliar pedigree." 
 
 " Haw ! haw ! Well, so long ! I must be gettin ." 
 
 " Well, so long ! " 
 
 Bed time comes early at a ranch, and there were a 
 -dozen men packed away in the bunk-room that night, 
 when Texas, the foreman, shied his spurred boot at 
 the candle. Yet, although the Don was tired, for he 
 had ridden far and hard, he could not sleep. He was 
 dissatisfied with his lot. He had a soul above his 
 work, and yet he had succeeded in nothing else. He 
 had always had a lofty ideal in Woman an ideal that 
 had been rudely shaken several times, but still stood 
 upright and yet he had not been fairly treated by the 
 sex. There was that little incident at the Widder 
 Davis s he still recollected the details of that per 
 fectly. Indeed, there were one or two black and blue 
 spots on his body yet. Still for all that, his chivalrous 
 regard for Woman as Woman was unabated,thoua-h 
 when you came to particularize well, that was a dif 
 ferent matter. He was partially roused from his reverie 
 by hearing a voice over in the darkest corner of the 
 room say : 
 
 " Wai, Jim was sayin you punched the feller s head 
 till he didn t know nothin ." 
 
 " Guess 1 didn t hurt him very much then, fur he 
 didn t know nothin afore." 
 
 " Haw ! haw ! best ever heard ; must tell Jim that." 
 
140 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 " Why, the feller called me a Mexikin," said the 
 second voice ; " I d a right t hev pumped lead into 
 him fur that, hedn t I ? " 
 
 " Surely, but Jim was sayin you called the feller a 
 hoss-thief." 
 
 "Don t recollec bout that. Might a done so; 
 never could recollec little things." 
 
 " Haw ! haw ! When did you say you was goin to 
 run the gal off ? " 
 
 " To-morrer, I ex-pec . She ll be all alone up to the 
 place. Th Widder s gone to Yegas and Tom Davis 
 well, you know him ? " 
 
 "Yes, /know him. So you cal late to run her off 
 to-morrer, when her nat eral guardeen is away, eh 
 Bob ? " 
 
 " Yes, an make for Santy Rosy," said Bob. "And 
 I d like mighty well if you could be there then, Billy. 7 
 
 The Don saw it all. This was the young man he had 
 had the trouble with at the Widder s that night last 
 winter, and now he was going to forcibly abduct 
 Mirandy in the absence of her mother and brother. 
 All the chivalry in the Don s nature was roused at 
 this. He determined to thwart the scheme, and save 
 the lovely damsel from the clutches of the villain. He 
 would his thoughts were again interrupted. 
 
 " How was you lowin to do it, if it s a fair question, 
 Bob ? " said the first voice. 
 
 "It surely is. Why, I was just a goin to put her 
 on a pony and then dust for Santy Rosy. I figgered 
 to f oiler the old overland stage trail, till we come to 
 the Montezumy Marshes, and then cross lots. There 
 is a path over that bog near the spring, that only two 
 
THE PLOT DISCLOSED. 
 
 fellers I and Kube Friday know an I ll save five 
 mile over follerin the rud, that way. Shouldn t care 
 to try it with a female gen rally, but ez we aint lied 
 rain in six months I reckon the bog aint very shaky ! " 
 
 " Yes, you kin do it, I guess. Well, good night 
 Bob ! " 
 
 " Well, good night Bill ! Say Bill ! " 
 
 "Huh!" 
 
 "You d orter been there to the Widder s that night 
 and seen old Ten Commandments. One two three 
 down he went. One two three down again. 
 No guns drawd ; just stan up an knock down. Haw! 
 haw!" 
 
 The hurnor of the situation evidently appealed to 
 Bill as well as Bob, and for some time nothing was 
 heard but the sound of subdued chuckling. 
 
 " Bill Eansom ! " said voice No. 2 at length. " I 
 want you to be over to Santy Rosy to-morrow at three 
 o clock. You re goin to stand by me, aint you ? " 
 
 "You bet I ll be there;. if I aint, I don t want an 
 other cent in this world." Silence followed for a 
 while ; then Bill drew a long sigh and murmured : 
 
 " Well, good night Bob ; good luck ! " 
 
 " Well, good night, Bill, old boy," and the camp 
 slept. 
 
 Before sunrise next morning the Don left the 
 Horseshoe Y 3 ranch. He had passed a sleepless 
 night thinking over what he had heard, and as he placed 
 his left foot in the stirrup and mounted Rozinante, 
 he swore a reverential oath, that, come what might, 
 Mirandy should be saved. It was true he had not 
 been well treated, either by the Widder or Mirandy, 
 
142 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA KOSA. 
 
 he told himself again, yet love yer enemies he d heap 
 coals of fire on their heads, and do them good for 
 evil. That had been his principle in life, ever since he 
 reformed. Besides, what man of spirit and honor 
 could see such an outrage committed and not intefere ? 
 Even if the girl were a stranger to him, he could not 
 do less than shoot the villain, and restore her to her 
 weeping family. But when she was his heart s-ease 
 Mirandy ! Rejoice, for the hour is at hand ! 
 
 He pulled out his carbine from its holster under his 
 leg to see if it was all right. And yet, wasn t shooting 
 too good for a man who would treat a woman as Bob 
 Green was going to treat Mirandy. Shouldn t he be 
 hanged ? Then he examined the raw-hide lasso that 
 hung from his saddle-horn, in painful doubt on this 
 question. 
 
 He would intercept the party at the Montezuma 
 crossing, he told himself, and show Bob Green that 
 there was one man of honor and courage still left in 
 San Miguel County. And he d do the deed single- 
 handed; perhaps Mirandy would smile upon him a little 
 for that perhaps she d marry him. B hold th bride 
 groom cometh perhaps. His head grew dizzy at 
 this thought, and he pushed his horse into a hard 
 gallop and rode out of sight of the ranch. 
 
 When the sun rose that morning, it lit up a perfect 
 day. Here and there on the rolling mesas, stood a 
 sentinel cactus or pinion, that split up the yellow 
 light into long lanes that lay softly on the lea. As- 
 the day grew older and the shadows shorter, one 
 might have noticed a small, cumulus cloud in the west, 
 hanging close to the line where land and sky joined. 
 
DOWN LOS TANOS. 143 
 
 This cloud grew larger and darker as it sailed up 
 toward the zenith, and others followed it until the 
 blue was hidden behind the gray. Then swift zig 
 zag streaks of gold darted from one part of the 
 heaven to another, and dull, rumbling peals of thunder 
 followed the flashes. There was coming a storm in 
 April an extraordinary occurrence in New Mexico. 
 
 Down the road that skirted Los Tanos might have 
 been seen two persons a man and woman riding 
 at full speed. The man sat bolt upright in his sad 
 dle a perpendicular line from his shoulder would 
 have touched his hip, his knee and his heel, and he 
 stuck as close to the leather as if he had been tied 
 there. Beside him galloped the woman, mounted 
 upon a spirited chestnut mare, which she rode on a 
 side-saddle. Upon her head she wore a huge, white 
 sombrero, tied tightly under her chin, and from be 
 neath this her hair had slipped and hung in- masses 
 down her back. Her riding-habit was a long, flowing 
 skirt of some dark brown material, and her left 
 foot although concealed by her dress carried a 
 spur, with which she now and then urged her steed 
 onward. The man looked anxiously up at the sky, 
 and turning to his companion, said : 
 
 " Can t you git a little more outen the mare, Mir- 
 andy ? We must git across the Montezumy bog afore 
 the rain comes, if we want to git married this year. 
 Least bit o water there 11 make the rud too soft." 
 
 " I don t low I kin do anythin better, Bob," said 
 Mirandy ; " still I ll try." She spurred the mustang 
 again and again. To each prick of the steel the ani- 
 
144 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 mal responded with a few vicious jumps, then settled 
 back again into the lope. 
 
 " It s no use, Bob," she said ; " I can t git him 
 outen this gait." 
 
 " Well, we must take our chances then," said Bob. 
 " We can t turn back now ; the Widder 11 be after 
 us in two hours with a possy." 
 
 Before them stretched the low, flat expanse of the 
 marsh, extending to the right and left for several 
 miles. To look at, the surface of the bog appeared 
 to be a hard crust, baked dry and stiff, and covered 
 with a white coating of alkali, through which grew 
 no manner of living plant. So parched had the land 
 become that it was split and seamed with cracks, that 
 yawned for moisture. Down through the middle of 
 this desert flowed the sluggish stream that came 
 from the Montezuma spring, a curious natural phe 
 nomenon, that yielded a water as bitter and heavy as 
 that of the Dead Sea, yet strange to say, nourished a 
 row of trees, willow and pine, with here and there a 
 scaly, narrow-chested cypress, that grew along the 
 edges of the creek. These trees were the only green 
 things for miles the land elsewhere presented a bare, 
 desolate appearance. 
 
 Across this bog there was a faint path, which could 
 be traversed in the dry season ; but once let the crust 
 become wet, and it turned to a slimy mud, that yielded 
 to the weight of man or horse, and gripped so tightly 
 what it seized that self-relief was impossible. 
 
 Just before the two riders reached the edge of the 
 bog, the storm, which had been gathering all the 
 morning, suddenly burst upon them. Sharp flashes of 
 
ACROSS THE BOG. 145 
 
 lightning darted from one black cloud to another, and 
 loud, rumbling thunder answered the flashes. Then 
 came the rain. The man hurriedly sprang from his 
 horse, and untying his slicker, which he had carried 
 tightly bound to his saddle, wrapped the huge 
 yellow oil-cloth coat about the girl, and mounting 
 again, pulled his sombrero down over his face. 
 
 " Wai, we got to go on, Mirandy. ~No use stoppin 
 here. In half an hour the creek will be up so s we 
 can t cross anyhow. How s your mare ? Skittish, 
 least bit ? " 
 
 "Wai, yes, special when there s a storm like this 
 yere." 
 
 " Wai, I reckon I d better slip a hackamore over 
 her head an lead her then ; jest give her a loose rein 
 an she ll go all right." 
 
 Thus they advanced across the bog. The rain 
 poured down in sheets, as it does in the tropics. The 
 water soon obliterated the path, and the dry earth 
 greedily drank up the moisture. The ground grew 
 softer and softer every moment. Twice Bob s horse 
 sank to the knees, and once the mare narrowly escaped. 
 But at length they reached the stream that flowed 
 through the marsh and gave it its name It was per 
 haps fifty feet wide ; shallow, sluggish and evil-look 
 ing, with rocky banks that gave refuge to innum 
 erable rattlesnakes and lizards. Pausing a moment 
 on the edge to assure himself that his companion was 
 all right, Bob started to ride into the creek. 
 
 "Don t you f oiler me, Mirandy," he said, "till I 
 pull on th tug ; this bottom s nasty long here, special 
 since this rain begun." 
 
146 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 All this time the Don had been concealed in ambush 
 a few yards off, and dripped disconsolately in the rain 
 which was falling. He had reached his present posi 
 tion with great difficulty. The trail across the bog 
 was quite unknown to him, and he had been obliged 
 to dismount and lead his horse. The storm that 
 followed had washed out his tracks, and prevented 
 those who came after from suspecting his presence. 
 He was too far away to hear what Bob said to Mirandy, 
 but he could see her sad face her eyes seemed big 
 with tears and her long brown hair that hung down 
 her back, resting in wet masses on the yellow slicker, 
 gave her the look of some lovely martyr maiden, in 
 the grasp of a vicious giant. He burned to distin 
 guish himself ; to rescue helpless virginity from the 
 power of the monster. Not only was here an inno 
 cent female being carried off by force, but she was 
 his innamorata the Dulcinea del Tanos whom he 
 had so long worshiped, silently but faithfully. 
 
 He watched Bob ride into the stream ; he saw his 
 horse lifted off its feet and carried down by the flood 
 current ; he saw him recover a foot-hold again ; then he 
 heard Bob shout to Mirandy : u Go back ! go back ! " 
 and he realized that the horse was fast in the bog 
 for Bob was cutting him right and left with his heavy 
 riding-whip, while the animal was churning the water 
 into suds in his frantic efforts to escape. 
 
 Now was the Don s chance. There was the wicked 
 monster, helpless to harm his Dulcinea, whilst here 
 was he, her savior, free and unfettered. So touching 
 Kozinante with his heel, he dashed out from behind 
 the chapparal, and rode straight at Mirandy. She 
 
TO THE RESCUE. 147 
 
 gave a little scream when she saw him coming ; it was 
 not like Mirandy to indulge in such a feminine weak 
 ness, but just then her nerves were quite upset. The 
 Don endeavored to reassure her. " Fear not maiden 
 fly with me. I will save you," he said, and he laid 
 his hand upon her bridle rein. 
 
 " Halt ! " cried a voice. 
 
 The Don looked up and his eye caught sight of a 
 shining object, that seemed suspended in the air with 
 out support, like the coffin of Mahomet. It appeared 
 to occupy space to the exclusion of everything else, 
 for the Don could see nothing beside the sinister look 
 ing weapon, except the more sinister eye of Bob, that 
 glistened behind it. 
 
 He saw it was a pistol, and although he showed no 
 emotion, he mentally raved at his own rashness. 
 He had stupidly put his head into the lion s mouth ; 
 Bob had got the drop on him with a 45, at ten yards. 
 A nice predicament truly, for one who wished to 
 appear well before Mirandy. 
 
 " What you monkeyin bout here fur ? " asked Bob 
 sternly, and his gray eyes looked wicked as he 
 snapped out his words. " Put yer hands up put em 
 up, I say ! " 
 
 The Don reluctantly obeyed. It was a most hu 
 miliating position for a knight like himself to be 
 placed in just as he was about to rescue his own 
 Dulcinea but what could he do ? He was not afraid, 
 he was simply yielding to circumstances and Bob s 
 persuasive air and six-shooter when he raised his 
 hands and sat there on Rozinante, dripping from 
 every angle. 
 
148 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA EOSA. 
 
 Bob studied the situation a moment. " What hed 
 we better do, Mirandy ?" he asked. "I ve a notion 
 to turn my 45 loose into him fur mixin himself up 
 in fam ly affairs. How d he get here, anyway ? " 
 
 " Better get outen that quag first, Bob," said 
 Mirandy with great good sense ; " you kin shoot him 
 most any time." 
 
 " That s bout so, I guess. Look here, you," he said 
 to the Don, " what you hangin round here fur, any 
 how?" 
 
 " I come here to rescue Innercence from a villain, 
 an to have Vengeance," said the Don, with an effort, 
 for his position, with his hands above his head, was a 
 tiresome as well as a ridiculous one. 
 
 "Haw! haw!" laughed Bob, hoarsely. "You 
 seem to be doin it in great shape. None o that ! Put 
 em up ! " he added sharply, as the Don lowered his 
 aching arms a little. 
 
 " Wai, you are a tenderfoot," said Mirandy, look 
 ing at him scornfully. " Fust place, I aint innercent, 
 an Bob aint a villain. We re on our way to Santy 
 Rosy to get married ! " 
 
 Married ! The Don was thunderstruck. He had 
 not expected this. It was not an abduction but an 
 elopement after all. Here was he blocking the wheels 
 of Love s chariot when he believed he was pushing 
 them out of the Slough of Despond. Mirandy going 
 to marry Bob ! Then she could no longer be his Dul- 
 cinea ! What should he do ? At first he trembled 
 with indecision and doubt, but in a moment, like the 
 true knight he was, he bowed to the lady s choice, 
 and saluted her gracefully. Mirandy watched his 
 
THE WAY OUT. 
 
 face attentively, and as he bent forward in obeisance,, 
 said : 
 
 " I reckon you kin put up your gun, Bob. He s all- 
 solid," and Bob returned his pistol to its holster. 
 
 Then the Don set manfully to work to smooth the- 
 path of true love, which thus far had been rough 
 enough. If he could not be the very best man, he would 
 be the next best, and he hurriedly untied the raw-hide 
 lasso that hung in a neat coil from the saddle-horn, 
 just in front of his right knee. All this time Bob had 
 been seated on his mired horse, in mid-stream, quite 
 powerless to help himself or his animal. The Don 
 rode to the edge of the bank and said : 
 
 u I cal late to chuck this over ye, Bob, and git ye 
 outen thar. Look out ! " Bob nodded his ac- 
 quiesence. 
 
 Very deftly the Don swung the loop about his head, 
 opening it at each turn with a gentle movement of his 
 wrist ; then, when it had acquired just the right 
 momentum he let it slip from his hand. It went 
 weaving and twisting through the air, and settled down 
 over Bob s shoulders. Taking a turn of the free end 
 about his saddle-horn, the Don backed Rozinante 
 away from the stream, and in another second Bob, 
 wet and muddy, stood by Mirandy s side. The Don 
 did nothing by halves, and when he saw Mirandy 
 jump to the ground to greet her lover, he discreetly 
 turned his head, and endeavored, though ineffectu 
 ally, not to hear the sounding smack that followed. 
 That little matter over, once more he swung his 
 lasso and once more it shot snakily through the 
 air. This time the open loop dropped over the 
 
150 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 head of the horse. Now the Don had his hands full ; 
 the animal reared and struggled and snorted, but the 
 effect of the strong, steady pull was apparent in time, 
 and at last the horse stood upon the bank muddy, 
 trembling and weak. 
 
 About four o clock that afternoon a party of three 
 rode into Santa Rosa. In spite of their wet and bedrag 
 gled appearance it was plain that two of them were in 
 excellent spirits. The third was silent and preoccupied. 
 The rain had long since ceased ; the warm sun had dis 
 persed the clouds, and the blue sky was without a spot 
 or speck. The party rode straight to the little adobe 
 church built years ago by an over-sanguine mission 
 ary, but now a long time unoccupied. It stood gable- 
 end to the plaza ; its ridge ornamented with a bell- 
 tower that sheltered a voiceless bell. To the rail in 
 front of the church were hitched three or four sad 
 dled ponies, while loitering in the shade were as many 
 men, dressed in their best, with freshly greased boots 
 and clean-shaven faces, that showed white by contrast 
 with their sun-burned necks and foreheads. 
 
 " Well, boys ! here we be ! " cried Bob cheerfully, 
 as he drew up. " Everythin all right, Bill ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Bill Ransom, as he stepped up and lay 
 ing his hand on Mirandy s rein, helped her to dis 
 mount. "How d ye do, ma am? You re lookin 
 well !" 
 
 Then noticing the Don he leaned over to Bob and 
 whispered: " Good Gawd ! Bob ! What s that ? 
 Some new kind of fam ly ghost ? " 
 
 " He s my hated rival," said Bob complacently ; " an 
 he s goin to give the bride away, owin to the un- 
 
MARRIED. 151 
 
 avoidable absence of her mother." Here he winked 
 at Bill in a very facetious manner. 
 
 " Give us all away, you mean," growled Bill. " Looks 
 s if he d bin locoed," but no one seemed to hear him. 
 
 " Wai, come on now, boys," said Bob, as he gallant 
 ly tucked Mirandy s arm through his " Come along ! 
 Less get this little exper ment over. Is the Hon able 
 Justice Parker on deck an sober, Bill ? " 
 
 "The Hon able Justice Parker, I regret to say," 
 said Bill slowly, " is on deck remarkably so but 
 far from sober. He attempted to clean out the 
 Maverick at exactly two p. m., an we had to tie 
 him an put him to bed, where he now is, a ravin 
 maniac from too much strong drink." 
 
 Bob uttered a very profane ejaculation. 
 
 " Curse him ! I give him five dollars in advance 
 cause he promised to keep straight till after the 
 weddin ," he said. " What we goin to do ? Tom 
 Davis an the widder 11 be here in an hour with a 
 possy, an I want to git married fore they come. 
 There s sure to be a fight an I want to leave Mirandy 
 all right in case I git hit." 
 
 The Don stepped forward. " If you re lookin fur 
 some one to marry ye," he said, " I reckon I kin help 
 ye out do good fur evil as I m qualified to that ex 
 tent, hevin a license to preach an marry." 
 
 It was a very short ceremony as the Don perform 
 ed it, and he brought it to a close in a style that some 
 of the guests thought a little abrupt. " Walk ye in 
 the narrer rud I pronounce ye both one an the 
 same." 
 
152 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA ROSA. 
 
 Indeed, Bill Ransom was much dissatisfied with 
 the whole affair. 
 
 " Less make him do it over again," he said ; " taint 
 more n half bindin as tis now. I could ve done it 
 better n that m self." 
 
 But Bob would not hear of it. 
 
 " No, siree ! " he said; "we re married an thet s 
 enough. There s no double or quits about this. I m 
 satisfied if Mirandy is," and Mirandy said she was, 
 entirely so. 
 
 u An now gen lemen, said Bob, a few moments 
 later, standing in front of the Maverick bar, " here s 
 my thanks to all, an good-bye." He slowly raised his 
 glass, and held it an instant between his eye and the 
 light. " Mirandy an I cal late to rid over to Forty de 
 Luny to-night ; it s only twenty-five mile an we ve 
 borrowed a couple o fresh hosses, an to-morrow we ll 
 go on up to my place on th Lupy creek. A week 
 from to-day we ll hev a dance, an you re all to come. 
 By that time the Widder 11 be all solid, I reckon. 
 I m sorter glad we didn t meet her to-day ; she s so 
 devilish sensitive she d shot some one, sure." 
 
 As Bob and Mirandy rode away, they were sped on 
 their journey by a salute from a dozen revolvers. 
 Bill Ransom, who felt that he occupied the position 
 of best man, was determined that the affair should 
 come nothing short of complete success, and he hur 
 riedly pulled off his huge riding-boot and threw it 
 after them, spur and all. " Not hevin a slipper," he 
 said, " I fired my boot fur luck though its God s 
 mercy it didn t hit em." 
 
NEW RESPONSIBILITIES. 153 
 
 A year from that day saw very few changes in 
 San Miguel County. The Widder and Tom had long 
 since forgiven Bob and Mirandy, who were living 
 quietly at Bob s ranch on the Lupy creek. With 
 what Mirandy had brought him, added to his own, 
 Bob found himself owner of 350 cows, which made 
 him quite a man of property. But then, there was 
 every reason why he should be, since he was a man 
 of family also. " Yes, sir ; it s a boy, just as certain as 
 the world," he had announced at Santa Eosa, "but he s 
 redder an softer n what I s posed babies gen rally 
 was. I m sorter fraid to touch him, fear he ll break 
 in two, but he s a healthy breather." 
 
 This addition to his responsibilities made Bob more 
 sedate and steady -going than before. He worked hard, 
 early and late, and his only play-time was at night, 
 when he took his seat by the fire and watched Mirandy 
 and the baby. " Lord ! it s the queerestest thing, to set 
 here an see you dressin an undressin that there kid, 
 Mirandy, just as if you d never done nothin else all 
 yer life. "Where ever you larned it, I can t think ; " 
 and Mirandy would look up at Bob and smile, but not 
 in her old coquettish way. Another expression, more 
 thoughtful and tender, had taken its place now. 
 She was still the same buxom, stalwart Mirandy she 
 had ever been, but now she had a new object in life ; 
 she felt that new responsibilities required new man 
 ners. It was quite a picture to see those three Mirandy 
 seated in a low rocking-chair before the huge, open 
 clay fire-place, filled with a roaring wood fire, with 
 her baby on her lap, and Bob by her side, watching 
 her with a smile of gratified pride, as she fussed and 
 
154 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA EOSA. 
 
 cooed over the boy. " It beats all," he used to say, 
 " which likes it the best you or him or me. " 
 
 Sometimes the Don would ride over from the Bar- 
 zee, where he was still attached as cook, and spend the 
 evening. His regard for Mirandy was as deep as ever, 
 but since her marriage it had taken a different form, 
 being now more of a paternal nature, for he had come 
 to look upon her almost as a daughter. 
 
 The Don he was still known by that name had 
 appropriated the empty little chapel at Santa Eosa, 
 wherein Bob and Mirandy had been married, and 
 every Sunday morning during the winter, he had 
 ridden over from the Barzee ranch and preached 
 there. His success in that direction had been no bet 
 ter than his attempts at cooking, but he was not cast- 
 down, and persevered faithfully. " San Migell is 
 pretty stony ground, but it aint all rock," he would 
 say hopefully. 
 
 The new spring opened promisingly. The price 
 of cattle was unusually high ; a very severe winter had 
 raged over the northern ranges, in Dakota, Montana 
 and Wyoming, and the losses among the cattle there 
 had been enormous, in some instances entire herds hav 
 ing died from cold and starvation. The stockmen of 
 San Miguel County were jubilant, for their own losses 
 had been very few, the Barzee estimate being less than 2 
 per cent. ; and this, added to the fact that three-year- 
 old steers were bringing $30 and likely to bring $35, 
 made every one happy and prospectively rich. 
 
 With the return of spring, as in former years, men 
 started out over the range on preliminary surveys, in 
 preparation for the Round-up. Thus it happened that 
 
155 
 
 Bob left Mirandy and the baby at his ranch one morn 
 ing and rode away. He had kept no assistants all 
 winter ; he did his own work, knowing it was his duty 
 to economize for his family s sake, and so Mirandy was 
 left alone, but neither he nor she were troubled about 
 this . Mirandy was quite able to take care of herself. 
 
 The next afternoon about five o clock, a horseman 
 rode at a hard gallop over the prairie towards Bob s 
 ranch, and checked his horse in front of the door. 
 Mirandy stepped out to see who it was, but not until 
 she had shaded her eyes with her hand did she recog 
 nize the Don. " Wai, I declar ! " she said, " ef taint 
 you ! Wont ye light ? " but the Don declined the 
 invitation, rather abruptly. 
 
 u Mirandy," he said, u I hearn down on th Pecos 
 that there was a band of Injuns out from th Reserva 
 tion, loose, and 
 
 " Injuns ! " cried Mirandy incredulously. " Why, 
 there aint no Injuns within two hundred mile of this 
 yere ! " 
 
 " Ef you d seen the things I ve seen," said the Don 
 slowly, " you d say there was Injuns within ten mile 
 of this yere broke out of th Mescalero reservation 
 they shot at Rube Friday, an they re runnin off stock 
 an killin anyone they kin ketch. You must git your 
 baby and come with me to the Barzee till this thing s 
 settled." 
 
 Mirandy demurred at first she warnt afraid of no 
 Injuns, she said but the recollection of her baby de 
 cided her, and in a few minutes they were riding rapid 
 ly towards the Barzee, twelve miles away. Yery ten 
 derly the Don carried the child, wrapped in a heavy 
 
156 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA EOS A. 
 
 blanket, while Mirandy rode at his side, her eyes con 
 stantly on the bundle. As they reached the top of a 
 mesa, two miles from their destination, they paused, a 
 moment to breathe their horses. Suddenly the Don 
 noticed a commotion in a bunch of cattle behind him ; 
 they were running in evident alarm ; then he heard a 
 rifle shot and then another. His keen little eyes in 
 stantly detected the cause of the disturbance. 
 
 "There they be! Kide! Mirandy, ride!" and 
 away they dashed down the hill. Spur, spur and spare 
 not ! Ride, ride for your lives, ride ! They had a 
 good half mile the start, and if they could only main 
 tain it they were safe. Mirandy s horse was fresher 
 and speedier than the Don s, and she had constantly to 
 slow up for* him, but he rode steadily along, giving 
 his entire attention to the child. And yet they had to 
 ride carefully too, for if a horse should step into a prai 
 rie-dog s hole, or even stumble, it would be fatal. On 
 they went through the dust their pursuers very slow 
 ly gaining on them, and keeping up a continued firing. 
 It seemed as if they must be hit, but they rode on 
 and on, never swerving nor halting a moment. Once 
 a rifle-ball furrowed the rim of Mirandy s sombrero ; 
 once the Don s right stirrup was splintered ; but still 
 they kept on, on, on, with the yelling fiends behind 
 them. 
 
 At last they neared the ranch (the dusk was slowly 
 turning into night) and once there they were safe, for it 
 was garrisoned by a dozen men good shots, well 
 armed and daring, every one. As they dashed along 
 the trail they came to a place where it forked ; the 
 main track ran around a mesa bluff and down into the 
 
OVEK THE BLUFF. 157 
 
 valley where the house stood, but there was a shorter 
 path, leading straight over the cliff, down which it was 
 possible, with great care, to lead a horse. It was rocky 
 and steep, there being a straight jump of five feet in 
 one place. As they approached the fork, the Don 
 motioned Mirandy to take this path, and without hes 
 itation she rode for the bluff and disappeared over the 
 edge with the Don close after. How they ever reached 
 the bottom alive is still a mystery in the county, but 
 they did, and a few moments later pulled up in front 
 of the Barzee ranch. The men crowded to the door 
 one bearing a lantern to see who the new arrivals were, 
 and to learn what the firing had been about. No one 
 suspected then that the Don had been hit ; he still bore 
 the baby very tenderly on his left arm, while with his 
 right he steadied himself by the saddle-horn. It was 
 not until his charge had been transferred to Mirandy s 
 <3are that he reeled, and Rube Friday had just time to 
 catch him as he lurched heavily from his horse. As 
 they laid him gently on the ground he fainted, and 
 the blood welled through his lips, which he had till 
 then kept tightly closed. They carried him into the 
 house and endeavored to staunch the blood, but it was 
 a hopeless case he had been shot through the lung. 
 It was a solemn scene that the dim rays from the 
 smoky lantern lit up in the Barzee ranch, that night. 
 Around the dying man were grouped the stern-faced 
 riders, while at his head knelt Rube, vainly endeavor 
 ing to force some stimulants past his lips. After 
 a little he revived and looked about him on the 
 familiar faces. 
 
158 DON QUIXOTE DE SANTA KOSA. 
 
 " Boys ! " he said very faintly, " they re safe, Mi- 
 randy an th baby deliver me from mine offences- 
 an forgive 
 
 That s all. 
 
 One of the men turned to the conch where the baby 
 lay. " He s asleep ! " he whispered. " So is the Don, n 
 said Rube, as he reverently drew the rough blanket, 
 over the poor old fellow s face. 
 
X. THE ASSAYER S STORY. 
 
 I am the assay er of Phoenix. That is to say, I was, 
 for Phoenix no longer exists, except upon a map of 
 Colorado, published A. D. 1876. The edition is out 
 of print now, but I have a copy in my possession. 
 Looking at it I can see that PHCENIX (in capital let 
 ters) lies in the very heart of the Sangre de Cristo range 
 of the great Kocky system. That is, Phoenix used to lie 
 there, for as I said before, Phoenix happens to be dead 
 now. Whether she will some day rise from her ashes, 
 somewhat scattered at the- present moment, and prove 
 herself worthy of that reputation for immortality so 
 long connected with her name, I can t say. On the 
 whole I hope not. For Phoenix dead is better than 
 Phoenix living that is, this Phoenix is. Not that I 
 bear the place a grudge, for I do not, but I believe I 
 have the interest of mankind at heart when I say again 
 on the whole I hope not. 
 
 The three red lines radiating from Phoenix (on the 
 map of Colorado, 1876) represent railroads projected. 
 The three lines of stakes and bench-marks that wind and 
 twist up through the Sangre de Cristo mountains rep 
 resent the present condition of the aforesaid railroads. 
 They died a bornin . During the heyday of its brief 
 existence, Phoenix dreamt nights and worked days for 
 railroad communication with the trunk lines, and just 
 
 (159) 
 
160 
 
 as everything was fixed, Phoenix passed away, leaving 
 nothing to mark its grave but a few battered sheds 
 and dump-heaps, say two hundred holes in the ground, 
 and half as many rough, wooden crosses, rising out of 
 the western mountain slope the cemetery. 
 
 I am sure you will admit that Phoenix had a most 
 undesirable location, when you hear that it was eleven 
 thousand feet above the sea ; that it was seventy miles 
 from a railroad, from civilization, from anywhere. 
 Upon three sides of it rose the stony sides of the 
 mountains, while the fourth was guarded by a per 
 pendicular wall of rock, that stood a thousand feet 
 straight up in the clear air. Sprinkled here and there 
 upon the steep slopes were the rough shaft-houses of 
 the mines, and cl ose to them were conical piles of 
 broken rock the dump-heaps. 
 
 The state of affairs in Phoenix may be best described 
 in the words of Justice Shallow to Sir John Falstaff: 
 "Barren, barren, barren ; beggars all, Sir John, beg 
 gars all. Marry, good air." 
 
 The only desirable thing that Phoenix possessed in 
 exhaustless quantities was good air. And that was 
 often of such an unpleasant temperature as to render 
 a very little of it a good deal to much. 
 
 When I first saw Phoenix it was but two months 
 old, yet claims had already been staked out there, 
 which, according to their owner s estimates prov 
 erbially too small, contained sufficient treasures 
 to pay the debts of all the nations in the world 
 and leave a handsome surplus for contingent ex 
 penses. The main thing was to get this treasure 
 
WINTER IN PH03NIX. 161 
 
 out no one doubted it was there and a great and 
 glorious future was predicted for the camp. 
 
 As long as the land was bare of snow, Phoenix could 
 be reached by a hard and dangerous ride, but during 
 the long winter months of that altitude, it was cut off 
 from the world by huge white barriers, that buried 
 the mountain passes deep out of sight. If you were 
 to object to Phoenix as a residence on this account and 
 say in the hearing of one of her citizens that it 
 must be lonesome living there, without news of the 
 rest of the world, the aforesaid citizen would prompt 
 ly reply that the thing was just even, after all, for the 
 rest of the world then had no news of Phoenix. It is 
 this magnificent local pride that makes the Westerner 
 the valuable citizen he certainly is. 
 
 During the season of snow, no man dared travel the 
 mountain paths of the Sangre de Cristo. Avalanches 
 raced elephantine games of tag down the slopes ; the 
 wicked winds played hide-and-seek in the hollows and 
 canyons, piling up the snow into hills and digging deep 
 valleys between them, until the face of the land was 
 changed. The cold was so bitter that, but for its daz 
 zling light, you could truly believe the fires of the 
 sun were extinguished forever. 
 
 Thus it happened that they who were in Phoenix 
 when the first snows of winter came, were there pro 
 vided they had not come to an untimely end mean 
 while when the spring sun had loosed the clasp that 
 bound the white mantle over the breast of the earth. 
 It was a motley crowd that wintered in the camp its first 
 year, and in it were found all sorts and conditions of 
 men who at the first reports of the discovery of the 
 
162 
 
 mines had instantly dropped whatever they had in 
 in hand, whether pen, spade or spare ace, and 
 started for the camp. And among the thousand 
 and odd was the undersigned, John Warner, Mining 
 Engineer. An unkind Providence, or lack of funds 
 the two are much the same, after all detained me 
 there. My success in prospecting during the fall had 
 been very poor. I had not then learned the golden 
 and silvern secret of mining, namely, to let some one 
 else do the hard work. Thus, instead of bettering my 
 condition I had so impaired it that it became a burn 
 ing and a freezing question with me how I should 
 live, for provisions were scarce and dear, and I was 
 very poor. Just when I was mentally comparing the 
 various methods of suicide with involuntary, slow 
 starvation, the death of a resident of the camp, gave me 
 the chance I wanted. The Assayer of Phoenix, Peter 
 Ashe by name, got into a little difficulty with a miner, 
 through making a mistake in his report on some ores, 
 and the position of assayer became vacant in conse 
 quence. 
 
 Mr. Ashe, in his professional capacity, had sworn 
 that certain specimens from a certain claim assayed 
 165 ounces of silver, three ounces of gold and 21 per 
 cent, of lead to the ton, and largely upon the strength 
 of this report the mine was bonded to a contemplat 
 ing purchaser for $20,000. It very soon turned out 
 that the mine was worthless, and the unfortunate pur 
 chaser obtained a meagre satisfaction at sight in the 
 usual way. At the informal inquest it was shown 
 that Mr. Ashe had been paid $10,000 by the former 
 owner of the property, coincidently with the unfor- 
 
TfiE ASSAY OFFICE. 
 
 tunate error in his report, and a verdict in accordance 
 with the testimony was rendered. 
 
 In consequence of Mr. Ashe s untimely demise, the 
 camp was without a competent assayer, and seizing 
 the chance, I stepped into the vacant position. I was- 
 backed by several influential men, Colonel Crocker 
 among others. The Colonel was the discoverer by 
 purchase of Phoenix, and had an extended acquain 
 tance in the camp. 
 
 " You jump right in an take the outfit," he said. 
 " I ll back you. You can act as ex-e-cu-tor of the un 
 fortunate diseased, don t you see, an do your assayin 5 " 
 same time." 
 
 And I did so. 
 
 I found a fairly well equipped laboratory, contain 
 ing a muffle furnace in tolerable repair ; two sets of 
 balances, one a cheap pair, the other a very good one 
 by Troemner ; a Supply of crucibles, scorifiers, cupels- 
 and all the other apparatus and chemicals necessary 
 for the work. The assay office was made of green y 
 unplaned boards, battened outside with cleats and 
 sheated within with old illustrated newspapers, princi 
 pally Police Gazettes, pasted up two thick. Although 
 these precautions were quite ineffectual to keep out 
 the cold, the pictures gave the room a delightfully 
 cosey and refined appearance, in marked contrast to- 
 the other houses in the camp. 
 
 Major Oswald, Colonel Crocker s partner, was never 
 tired of studying this gallery of art treasures. He 
 was especially pleased with one full-page picture, rep 
 resenting " The Lynching of One-Eared Mike by the 
 Vigilantes of San Juan." Perhaps his interest was- 
 
164 
 
 partly due to his having been present at the death of 
 the aforesaid Michael, and the picture therefore re 
 called pleasant memories. The engraving was fasten- 
 ed to the wall near the furnace, just where the glow 
 from the fire lit it up to great advantage. 
 
 " To look at that picture," the Major would remark, 
 with a critical squint of his left eye, " you d almost 
 think you was in the saloon at Paree, durn me ! " 
 
 Colonel Crocker was best pleased with a full length 
 portrait of " Mile. Rosalba Confetti, premieure dan- 
 seuse, as she appears when about to make her wonder 
 ful leap for life, from one flying trapeze to another," 
 and he used to protest, " that she didn t have a fair 
 show, pasted up in a dark corner, where the light was 
 so devilish bad." 
 
 " Give her a chance," he would say, " an she ll get 
 away from anythin in her line, sure. I know what 
 I m talkin about too, for I ve seen every first-class 
 show this side the Missouri river." 
 
 My house was a low, one-story affair, of so flimsy 
 construction that when the wind from the mountains 
 swept down through the valley it used " to rack an 
 twist an shake to its very roots," as the Major said, 
 in humorous reference to its being built upon stumps 
 of trees. The interior was divided by a couple of 
 blankets into two rooms, the front being the laboratory 
 and office; the rear "a combination libery, settin - 
 room and boo-dore, all in one," according to the 
 Colonel. 
 
 I had plenty of work to do, for in spite of the severe 
 winter, the mines were kept open and operated. They 
 never stop digging in Colorado, and never will, 
 
A NEW CLIENT. 165 , 
 
 until the mountains are leveled with the plains. And 
 even then they won t, for they ll set out to make some 
 new mountains. When that time comes, I shall have a 
 suggestion to make about the mountains. 
 
 One stormy evening in January, I had just finished 
 work on some specimens from the "Big Six " mine, 
 and was clearing away my table and furnace, when the 
 door was suddenly opened, and there was blown into 
 the room, along with a tremendous gust of twenty- 
 below-zero atmosphere, an odd figure of a man. 
 
 " Evenin , pardner," said the figure, from behind a 
 ragged, worsted muffler, that completely hid his face 
 and disguised his voice. He backed himself up 
 against the door to try if it was shut, and then ad 
 vanced a step into the room. " Evenin pardner," he 
 said again. " Cussed mean weather, aint it ? " 
 
 I made no reply to this other than a nod ; the state 
 of the weather was so obvious it didn t need any more 
 attention. The stranger went on : 
 
 " You don t happen to know now if the ass-sayer is 
 about, do ye ? " 
 
 I signified that I was acting in that capacity, just 
 then. 
 
 " You ! " By this time the stranger had unwound 
 the wrapping about his face it seemed as if he never 
 would get unswathed and advancing towards the 
 fire, stood with outstretched hands before the glow 
 ing mouth of the muffle. He was a short and plump 
 little old man, and his rosy face was framed by a rim 
 of yellowish- white beard, thickly matted by icicles, 
 frozen there by the cold, mountain winds. He wore 
 a frayed and tattered buffalo-skin coat, from which 
 
166 
 
 the fur had been rubbed in huge blisters. Upon his 
 feet were enormous cowhide boots, seemingly all 
 wrinkles, while his head was ornamented by a cap 
 matching his coat. 
 
 " So you re th ass-sayer, eh ! Wai, I dunno but 
 it s all right. I m gettin so nothin surprises me now- 
 days. I want to see you on partickler an private biz- 
 ness." 
 
 He glanced suspiciously into the dark corners of the 
 room, and then, cautiously inserting a grimy hand into 
 the bosom of his shirt, drew forth a small piece of 
 stone. He touched a corner of it to his tongue, and 
 holding it close to the furnace, so that the light should 
 glance upon the moistened surface, asked with an air 
 of assumed indifference : 
 
 " There ass-sayer, what d ye call that, off-hand ? " 
 
 I told him I thought it was a piece of rock which 
 it most undoubtedly was, and 
 
 " Of course it is," he interrupted impatiently, " I 
 know that, but what s the value of its argentiferous 
 contents ! Give us an ass-say." 
 
 He handed the specimen to me, and I went to work. 
 The steady crunch, crunch of the ore-pulverizer, as I 
 ground the rock into powder, was the only sound 
 heard except the whistling of the wind outside. 
 While I worked the stranger wandered uneasily about 
 the room, as if in search of something. 
 
 "Cussed mean weather," he said at last, with a 
 dreary poverty of conversational resource. " I dunno 
 as I ever see it much worse, an I ve seen consid able 
 weather too, fust an last." 
 
PROCESSES. 167 
 
 I made no attempt to answer him, nor did he seem 
 to expect it, but went on from time to time with his 
 monologue. 
 
 " Ores runnin pretty good now ? " he asked of the 
 furnace, " or aint ye doin much count of snow? I 
 dunno s I ever see just such a winter s this in a long 
 time. Come to think, not since seventy-one." 
 
 By this time I had prepared my samples for the fire ; 
 four small clay scorifiers were duly weighted with 
 proper quantities of powdered ore, and covered with a 
 thin coating of oxide of lead, and I carried them to 
 the furnace. The old man watched me anxiously as 
 I raised the cups, one by one, in the tongs, and pushed 
 them into the hot muffle, and when the last one was 
 safely deposited he gave a deep sigh of relief. 
 
 " I allus took lots of amusement in ass-sayin," he 
 said, as if to explain his interest ; " it s so cussed scien 
 tific. I kin do a little of it m self, off-hand, as fur 
 as gettin the button goes an so forth, but then I 
 weaken. When you come to cipherin you ve got me. 
 Ought turns ought s ought an carry ought is about s 
 fur s I kin go." 
 
 The ore in the scorifiers rapidly melted in the hot 
 muffle, and at the end of twenty minutes the first step 
 was completed ; the rock had given up its impurities 
 to the oxide of lead, and there was left only a small 
 button of alloy, containing lead, and possibly silver and 
 and gold. I drew out the scorifiers from the furnace, 
 and the old man observing me carefully as I hammered 
 the round balls into clean, bright cubes, dropped 
 them into little white, bone-ash cupels, and put them 
 back into the muffle. 
 
168 
 
 " It s this dog-gone-slap-me-on-the-back familiarity 
 with science that gets me," he cried enthusiastically. 
 " You just take a piece of ore grind her up stick 
 her in the fire " here he picked up one of the red-hot 
 scorifiers to illustrate, and instantly dropped it with a 
 muttered, " Hottish, aint it ! " " an there you be. 
 When it s cooked you pull her out, weigh her, an 
 find, may be there s fifty ounces of silver, maybe a 
 hunderd, or may be" here he lowered his voice to a 
 confidential whisper ; " maybe there s two or three 
 hunderd ; it aint unushill, and I know a mine that " 
 
 He checked himself, and looked mysterious. 
 
 Within the furnace the little metallic cubes were 
 soon melted, and from the surface of the fluid there 
 arose red vapors, that wavered and floated in the hot 
 space of the muffle ; then lazily crawled to the chim 
 ney s mouth and vanished. Slowly these vapors rew 
 less ; slowly the molten metal shrank, until at last 
 nothing was left in the cupels but tiny, glowing beads, 
 that winked and twinkled like stars. The fire test 
 was done, and these little specks contained all the 
 precious metal there was in the samples ; the baser 
 elements had been driven off. 
 
 Then I withdrew the cupels, and carefully lifting up 
 the little beads with pincers, took them to the light. 
 They were very tiny hardly visible, but they were 
 large enough to suit the stranger. 
 
 " Oh, maybe not ! " he cried, " may-be NOT ! Per 
 haps th Old Man hasn t struck it this time ! Oh no ! 
 certainly not ! " 
 
 Accurately weighing the beads on the fine balance, 
 I found that the ore contained only six ounces of 
 
THE RESULT. 169 
 
 silver to the ton, a very poor quality of rock indeed 
 for Phoenix, in those days. But the old man 
 didn t think so. 
 
 "That ll do for a beginin ," he said, " but you 
 wait a little. You let me get into th vein a ways, an 
 I ll show ye some three or four hunderd ounce rock, 
 sure. Just now you was sayin ores was runnin poor, 
 wasn t you ? I guess you ll talk t other side soon s I 
 git th Mary Ann Billings after her m wife you 
 know" he added with an explanatory wave of his 
 hand " after I get her to payin dividen s." 
 
 Just then Colonel Crocker and Major Oswald came 
 in, covered with snow, and filling the close room with 
 the cool, fresh odor of the pure air. The stranger 
 stepped briskly forward, and with a polite little bow 
 said cheerfully: 
 
 " Ah, Cornel ! good evenin ! Always at it, you see, 
 always at it. Just havin a little ass-sayin done now. 
 I d like to make you acquainted with m friend the 
 ass-sayer. Cornel, the ass-sayer gen lemen, be ac 
 quainted ! " 
 
 The Colonel and the Major bowed gravely to the 
 little man, and he bowed and smiled back at them. 
 
 " My name s Elisha R. Billings, you know," he said, 
 u but most every one in th camp calls me th Old Man. 
 Cussed mean weather, aint it ? I dunno s I ever see 
 a wuss winter since seventy-one, an I aint sure but it s 
 longer." 
 
 The old man monopolized the talk that evening. 
 " Speakin of claims," he said, " I know where there s 
 a mine that s wuth well, I dunno s I can say ex 
 actly what it is wuth but it ass-says way up, as my 
 
170 
 
 friend the ass-sayer will say," and he looked at me 
 for corroboration. 
 
 He resolutely refused to tell where this mine was, 
 but he had it all snug and buttoned up tight in his 
 vest pocket well, slightly he should think so oh 
 certainly, and he winked with an expression abso 
 lutely machiavelian, and repeated " Oh certainly ! " 
 in a diminuendo, until his voice was lost in the laby 
 rinth of his beard. He bade us good-night about nine, 
 and with a cheerful promise to call again, he went out 
 into the darkness. 
 
 Those who passed that winter in Phoenix and lived 
 through it, will not soon forget their experience. 
 Never before, in the memory of the oldest miner in 
 the camp, had the snow lain so deep on the mountains ; 
 never before had the winds been so cruel or the cold 
 so bitter. The very wild beasts came down out of 
 their lairs, and sought a refuge in the camp. The bar 
 keeper of the " Poodle Dog " one morning found a 
 wild-cat behind an empty barrel, and humanely killed 
 it, " rather than let it suffer." For days at a time no 
 man dared leave his house, lest he should be over 
 whelmed and lost in the snow. The valley seemed 
 to be the dwelling-place of storms. After seventeen 
 days of this weather in February there came a lull, 
 and a few of the bolder men ventured out among the 
 hills on snow-shoes. They came back with a report 
 that the ten miners who had been working the Ava 
 lanche mine, a claim up Eagle Gulch, only half a mile 
 from the camp, had been buried in a slide, and were 
 
THE FIRST ASSISTANT. 171 
 
 lying, frozen to death, beneath hundreds of tons of 
 snow and ice. It was impossible to find their bodies 
 then ; the spring sun alone could release them. 
 
 For a few days the sky was blue, the sun shone and 
 the snow sparkled ; then the storm-clouds swept down 
 again from the mountains, and the wind, the snow and 
 the cold sported in wanton merriment about us 
 " a savage trinity," truly. Day after day the white 
 heaps rose higher and higher in the one street of 
 Phoenix, and men had to labor hard to keep their 
 dwellings from being crushed flat under the tremen 
 dous pressure. 
 
 I am sure I cannot tell if you were to ask me how 
 It was brought about, but in a very little time after 
 his first visit, the Old Man was domiciled in my house, 
 and acting as First Assistant Assayer for the camp 
 of Phoenix. To this day, the manner in which he in 
 sinuated himself into the position is a mystery to me. 
 Perhaps it was our mutual love for science ; perhaps 
 it was his good-humor and optimism that won me over. 
 At all events, he soon became as much a part of the 
 laboratory as the furnace itself. He was by no means 
 a useless article either, for he learned to tend the fire 
 and pulverize the ores for assaying, very skillfully. He 
 entered into this latter work with such enthusiasm 
 that in two days he had ground up every bit of rock 
 in the office, including some very choice specimens I 
 intended to preserve as curiosities. His interest in his 
 new profession, as he called it, was great, and grew 
 greater every day. 
 
 " I tell you what," he said one day, pausing in his 
 work at the pulverizer, " it aint so difficult bein an 
 
172 
 
 ass-sayer, after all. What you got to do is to make 
 your reports l)ig enough. If you find the ore runs, 
 say 30 ounces to the ton, why write her down 35. 
 That ll tickle the miner, an when he sells his ore to 
 the smelter, an they on y pay him fur thirty, why he 
 wont blame you ; he ll swear the smelter is cheatin* 
 him outen his hard earnin s. Then he ll git you to 
 make some more ass-says, an so forth just to prove he 
 is right. If you work the cards you kin git lots of 
 bizness that away." 
 
 The Old Man had not been living with me three 
 days before I found myself admitted to a " full and 
 equal pardnership in the Mary Ann Billings mine, 
 with all her dips, spurs, angles and sinuosities as afore 
 said." This generous act on his part was due partly 
 to the feeling of friendship he had for me, and partly 
 to sheer benevolence. Half was as good as all to him ; 
 the Mary Ann was too valuable a property for one man 
 to hold, he said. This cussed concentration of capi 
 tal would play the devil with the body politic in time, 
 and like the true philosopher he was, he practiced 
 what he preached. I am not a man of lively imagin 
 ation being a Mining Engineer, as I ve told you 
 and I have had much experience with Holes-in-the- 
 ground-mines, that never paid back the recording fees 
 to their owners ; but the enthusiasm and dead-sureness 
 of the Old Man, took me clean off my feet, and I soon 
 fell into line with him in cheering for the Mary Ann. 
 
 And still, this may not seem so strange to anyone 
 who has been among the silver mines, and observed 
 the mad stampedes that sometimes take place there, 
 when hundreds of thinking and breathing men will 
 
173 
 
 often lose their self-control and commit the most ab 
 surd follies, just because some one else does. 
 
 So it happened that in a very short time, I be 
 lieved as fully in the Mary Ann as the Old Man him 
 self, and though I never visited the claim, I took his 
 reports for gospel, and even caught myself enlarging 
 on them a little. 
 
 " Talk about your mines, Johnny," the Old Man 
 would say, as we seated ourselves before the furnace of 
 an evening, " there s where you git it. I ve bin in this 
 bizness risin twenty year, an I never see a prettier 
 prospec fur a reg lar teaser than the Mary Ann, an 
 we re th boys to prove it." 
 
 Twice a week he would mysteriously disappear and 
 return at dark, tired out, but triumphant. " I ve been 
 lookin her over," he would explain ; " lookin after her 
 dips, spurs, angles an so forth, an she s all there, you 
 bet." 
 
 He invariable brought back samples of rock which 
 he requested me to analyze, but he seemed in no ways 
 disconcerted whenever I informed him that they con 
 tained no silver, as was generally the case. On the 
 contrary he appeared to be amused. 
 
 " Silver ! " he would exclaim. " Silver in them 
 specimens ! I should rayther say not ! Them stones" 
 here he would point his finger at them impressively 
 " them stones aint out of our mine. Well, hardly ! I 
 just brought em in fur you to practice on. You 
 don t expect to find native silver in snow-drifts, do 
 you ? " 
 
 After that I let the Old Man assay his own samples. 
 
174: 
 
 Besides his scientific studies, he developed a fine 
 appreciation for literature and art, and when not en 
 gaged in his professional duties spent much time in re 
 viewing the pictures that constituted the wall-paper of 
 the house. He always read the letter-press accompany 
 ing the engravings, but with some difficulty, and could 
 never accurately connect the two. Thus, he would 
 attentively study a column upon " The Careless Boy, 
 Champion Light- Weight Slugger," and endeavor to 
 fit the description of this noted pugilist to Mile. Eos- 
 alba Confetti, with but indifferent success. Her por 
 trait, by the way, had a never-ending attraction for 
 him. Still he did not accept it without criticism. 
 
 " The lady looks as if she d catch cold," he would 
 say musingly ; "it s a middlin light outfit she s got on ;. 
 wouldn t do fur these altitudes." 
 
 How much more elegant was that than the Major s 
 comment on the same subject. "Rayther leggy, I call 
 it," was what he said. 
 
 Day by day our enthusiasm over the mine in 
 creased, and we longed for spring, that we might get 
 to work. The Old Man s graphic description of the 
 splendid appearance of the Mary Ann, her extraor 
 dinary richness and quantity, her desirable location,. 
 " just where you can slam the ore out on a gravity 
 rud " and her many other good points, completely 
 carried me away, and made me dissatisfied with my 
 humdrum life as an assayer. The samples he brought 
 back, too, began to show up well, according to his- 
 assays. Not one was under two hundred ounces, 
 and once he had one, which he told me, in an awe 
 struck whisper, " unless I ve made a mistake it s a 
 
A FAMINE IN CAMP. 175 
 
 thousan an eight ounces of silver an seventeen 
 of gold. Johnny, we re millionaires ! Less take 
 suthin ! " 
 
 Towards the middle of February a new danger 
 menaced the camp famine. An insufficient quan 
 tity of supplies had been laid in to carry us through 
 until spring, and our situation became alarming. The 
 price of provisions rose enormously. Flour was three 
 dollars a pound and only to be had by favor. Meat, 
 except a little tainted sow-belly pork, was a delicacy 
 quite unknown, and as for tea, coffee, sugar or salt, 
 they were never even thought of. Yet all this time, 
 the saloons kept open night and day (there seemed to 
 be plenty of whiskey) ; the gambling houses were 
 crowded and the proprietors made independent for 
 tunes, although the amount of money in circulation 
 was comparatively small. 
 
 As February drew to a close the prospects of the 
 camp became very gloomy, and starvation seemed 
 near. A party of men made a desperate attempt to 
 escape from the valley. There were thirteen in all 
 an unlucky number some said and they started on 
 snow-shoes on the morning of the 26th. Many thought 
 they would succeed, as they were active and hardy, 
 and knew the mountains well. Four days later there 
 crawled into camp, on hands and knees, one of 
 the band, the only one left alive. The others had 
 been caught in an avalanche and smothered. This man 
 James Russell was walking in the rear of the party 
 at the time, and so escaped, and managed to make his 
 way back to Phoenix after enduring terrible suffering. 
 
1Y6 
 
 Both his hands and his feet were frozen, and he died 
 three days later. 
 
 Just as we had eaten the last pound of flour, it oc 
 curred to some one that the barracks of three of the 
 mines, whose men had been killed by the snow-slides, 
 were stocked with provisions ; and parties were at once 
 organized to dig out the supplies and bring them 
 into camp. I attended the sale of the provisions and 
 purchased, for twenty-five dollars, a venerable, moth- 
 eaten looking ham, and that evening the Old Man and 
 I dined like princes. 
 
 " It s a trifle dry," he said, " but then, what of it ? 
 It. quenches your hunger. If we on y had the ma 
 terials here I could make a gay little Sally Lunn or 
 floatin i-le-and, but then we aint, so what s th odds ? 
 But what bothers me most just now is, how we re to 
 git our ore to the smelter. It ll cost too much to 
 pack it seventy mile on burros ; still, when we re 
 gittin five and six hunderd ounces of silver outen a 
 ton we hadn t orter kick very much, had we ? An 
 then, of course, we can put in a con-centrator. Still 
 we must have a railrud in time. Run her right up 
 Eagle Gulch ; it s on y sixty mile, air line, to the 
 main track, an allowin ten fur angles an sinuosities 
 makes seventy, don t it ? Just check me up when 
 you see me gittin off. Well, say seventy mile at 
 we can do it for a hunderd thousand a mile, can t we ? 
 Yes, that ll cover it, an that makes the rud cost seven 
 hunderd thousand ! What ? Oh ! seven million, is it ? 
 Well, another ought or two is all the same. Well, say 
 seven million for a neat little rud slap up to the camp. I 
 tell you, Johnny, I an you, we ll build her next spring, 
 
177 
 
 ship our ores fur nothin and beat the other boys to 
 death. An when they want to buy us out, maybe 
 we ll sell an maybe we wont, just as it happens." 
 
 The next morning the Old Man had disappeared, 
 and with him had gone the venerable ham, all our 
 provisions. I confess it was in no pleasant frame of 
 mind, that I went to the grocery-store and expended 
 my entire capital on a little flour. I didn t appreciate 
 the Old Man s eccentricities, just then. 
 
 At night he returned, as lively and chipper as ever. 
 
 "Just been out to see her," he said, as he took 
 off his ragged fur coat. " Didn t know but suthin 
 had happened to her, but there she was, snug as a 
 reg lar old bug in a devilish little rug, with that cute 
 little notice just stickin up outen th snow, reciting 
 to wit, how I the undersigned claim so an so. I tell 
 you Johnny, I was relieved." 
 
 But just then the question of rations was upper 
 most in my mind, and I asked him : " What have 
 you done with that ham ? " in much the same tone I 
 would have accused him of murder. 
 
 " Well now, Johnny, I low perhaps that wasn t 
 quite the fair thing, my takin the ham, but poor lit 
 tle Billy Strong you know Billy ? well, he was just 
 starvin to death, an sick, an dead broke, an so well, 
 he s got the ham, an I told him to come here, now an 
 then, him an his family, an git suthin to eat. I 
 know d you wouldn t mind ; you can just charge it to 
 me. You don t mind so very much, now, do you 
 Johnny ? " 
 
 Mind ! God bless the little man, I should say I 
 didn t mind, and I liked him better than ever then. 
 
178 
 
 But after that nothing would do but we should have a 
 regular set of books. 
 
 " May as well begin right," he said. " Our bizness is 
 gittin so large an complicated we never can keep 
 track of it." And so I took an old note-book in which 
 I had kept a record of my assays, and wrote at the 
 top of a clean page : " Billings and Warner Mary 
 Ann Mine," and our books were opened. 
 
 " Just hold it into the light, Johnny, so s I can see 
 it," he said. " There, that s it ; neat, ain t it ? Bil 
 lings & "Warner ! Me an you. Joint pardners in the 
 Mary Ann. An now write Charge Elisha R. Bil 
 lings one partly-used ham, per Billy Strong, debtor. 
 If I m dog-gone fool enough to fling away a ham like 
 that, why make me pay for it, that s all. The mine ll 
 stan it, I guess. Git it down in writtin , slick, Johnny. 
 Joint pardners in the Mary Ann ! Great, isn t it ? Less 
 take su thin on that." 
 
 One afternoon the Old Man stopped me at my work 
 on some samples for the "Not Much" mine, (the 
 name was singularly prophetic, not only of the mine, 
 but of Phoenix also), and said : " Johnny, less I 
 an you go out an look her over to-day. You aint 
 seen her yet, an bein a joint pardner, you d orter git 
 familiar with her dips an spurs." 
 
 It was rather late when we started, the sun set early 
 in Phoenix that winter, and the air was cold. As we 
 proceeded in the direction the Old Man said the claim 
 lay, we came to a ricketty old cabin, half buried out of 
 sight in the snow Before this he stopped. 
 
 " Johnny," he said appealingly, " you don t mind 
 goin in with me, do you ? There s a sick man in 
 
WHERE HIS CHARITY WAS BESTOWED. 179 1 
 
 there, I d r ally like to see a minute ; he aint a long 
 ways from dyin , I m afeared." 
 
 The shanty was a wretched, tumble-down affair, and 
 through its splintered walls the wind and snow drifted 
 unhindered. We put aside the board that answered 
 for a door and entered. There was no fire in the 
 room ; in one corner we saw the form of a man, 
 buried beneath a pile of tattered blankets. His face 
 was thin, terribly thin and white, and except for his 
 slow, gasping breathing, he seemed to be dead. Dying 
 he certainly was. But what surprised me most wa& 
 to see a child, not over ten years old apparently, from 
 her size, though a woman to judge from her pinched,, 
 shrivelled little face. She was dressed in an old 
 blanket, through which a hole had been cut for her 
 head and two smaller ones for her arms. A piece of 
 rope bound the folds about her waist. Yet in spite of 
 this garment, the child was almost frozen with the 
 cold. She kept her place by the head of the sick man, 
 but nodded slightly to the Old Man as we entered, 
 He was visibly affected by what he saw, and turning to 
 me, said with a trifling shake in his pleasant voice : 
 
 " This is Bob Strong, ye know ; what there is left of 
 him." Then to the little girl : "How is he to- day r 
 Nellie ? " 
 
 "Bad, Mr. Billings, dreadful bad. We re most 
 starvin an I m so hungry." 
 
 The tears came to the Old Man s eyes. " It s tough r 
 I swear it s tough, Johnny," he said, huskily. " Aint 
 it too bad that everyone aint got a Mary Ann mine 
 back of em ? Don t you think you d better come with 
 me an this gen lemen, Nellie? " 
 
180 THE ASSAYER S STORY. 
 
 "Oh, but father! "she cried, "he ll soon be well 
 when the warm weather comes." 
 
 Yes, before the warm weather should come he 
 would be well, for as we stood there, a fit of coughing 
 seized him ; it seemed as if it would tear his poor, 
 worn body asunder ; then came a gush of blood from 
 his mouth ; a gasp and he was well, indeed. 
 
 No more pain or hunger for him ; no more trouble 
 or sorrow ; no more striving after what he could never 
 reach, nor regretting what was past recall. Lucky, 
 some say. I m sure I don t know. I hope so ; he 
 never had any luck before. 
 
 We did not visit the Mary Ann that day, but when 
 the shadows of the mountains had veiled the snowy 
 valley, we covered up the body of Strong, and after 
 the Old Man had spoken a short prayer, we went back 
 to camp, with Nellie between us. 
 
 From that time she was as much a partner in 
 the mine as the Old Man or I. At first her grief was 
 excessive, but she was so young and so hopeful, and 
 the Old Man devoted himself so earnestly to her, that 
 in a little while she became as merry and light-hearted 
 as himself. This is not the place to discuss the wrong 
 done the child in bringing her to a mining camp. It was 
 & cruel thing to do but the one who was responsible 
 for it was buried under the snow, and the Old Man, 
 like the warm-hearted old grandfather he was, took 
 her straight to his heart, and saved her life and soul. 
 
 It was a pleasure to him to find in Nellie an atten 
 tive listener, and he would hold forth to her by the 
 hour on the inexhaustible resources of the Mary Ann. 
 His favorite position was with his back to the furnace, 
 
RELAXATION. 181 
 
 one hand in his pocket and the other swaying to em 
 phasize his words. 
 
 " You shell ride in your kerridge, Nell, an be a sure 
 nuff lady," he used to tell this ten-year-old child ,- 
 " you shell marry a prince ; live in a gold palace and be 
 happy forever after. But never forgit, child," he- 
 would add impressively, " that you re a joint pardner, 
 an that you must live up to the responsibilities that 
 the position kerries with it." 
 
 When the Old Man grew tired of being serious, he 
 and Nellie would indulge in a little blind-man s buff 
 in the office, until the room looked as if an elemental 
 disturbance had been traveling that way. 
 
 " Never mind, Johnny, never mind ! " he would say, 
 with the utmost good-nature, if I found fault at hav 
 ing my cupels broken or my samples scattered ; " charge 
 it to the Mary Ann ; she kin stand it. It s only been 
 a couple of the pardners havin a little frolic." 
 
 The way the Old Man and Nellie made things in- 
 the cabin jump sometimes, would have driven a nerv 
 ous man frantic. I was not over-burdened with nerves 
 at that time, being only twenty-three, still I must 
 admit that once or twice I was on the point of speak 
 ing out. 
 
 The number of miles that those two rode, evenings,, 
 over the Phoenix and Eagle Gulch Kailroad (on passes, 
 the Old Man being the engineer, president and brake- 
 man of the corporation, and Nellie the conductor and 
 passengers generally), would have worn out any ordin 
 arily constructed road-bed. The furnace was a capi 
 tal locomotive, and our two chairs and an empty bar 
 rel made such a train of cars you couldn t tell them 
 
182 
 
 * 
 
 from real in the dark. Sometimes, as general man 
 ager, (also riding on a pass), I would go over the road 
 on a tour of inspection, and then, how we would swing 
 down the Gulch to the Junction. The president and 
 engineer, being anxious to show up the property, would 
 rattle over that seventy miles at a hair-raising speed, 
 keeping up a tremendous whistling through an old 
 blow-pipe. We always started behind time, yet never 
 failed to make a good connection with the Denver 
 Express, and after the run was over the engineer 
 would come to me, and taking out his watch, would 
 say : " There sir, how s that for runnin ? Seventy- 
 one mile in sixty-three minutes ? " And then I would 
 shake hands with him, and ask what he d take, and 
 we d have something mixed out of two broken crucibles, 
 with a little yellow slag in the bottom for lemon-peel : 
 and very often the conductor would join us. 
 
 When the Colonel or the Major dropped in, they 
 were always invited to ride, and the Old Man presented 
 them with perpetual free-passes, which they thank 
 fully accepted, and gravely showed to the conductor 
 Nellie every trip they made. 
 
 Once, in going around a sharp curve, the baggage- 
 car (the flour-barrel) went into the creek, and the 
 brakeman was killed. But the president, who was on 
 board, was luckily unhurt, and soon had things 
 straightened out. 
 
 One night, coming down the grade just out of 
 Phoenix, the engineer let the train run away with him, 
 and the engine (the furnace) was upset. For a few 
 minutes it looked as if the entire outfit, including the 
 Assay office would be burned, but by hard work, the 
 
BUSINESS ACTIVITY. 183 
 
 fire was extinguished, and the damage charged to the 
 Old Man, on the partnership books of Billings, War 
 ner & Co. 
 
 I never saw so much enthusiasm as the Old Man 
 displayed over this railroad. At first it even sup 
 planted the mine in his affections, but after a while he 
 consolidated them, and thus relieved himself of much 
 extra work. Although he enjoyed running the pas 
 senger trains over his road, he became absolutely radi 
 ant when he backed his engine up to a line of flat-cars, 
 loaded with ore from the Mary Ann mine. The 
 number of pounds of pay-rock he thus took down the 
 mountains was millions. I figured once that he hauled 
 to the smelter that winter a little over 500,000 tons 
 of ore, not a ton running under $500, as he positively 
 assured me, making a total valuation of two hundred 
 and fifty million dollars. Not altogether a bad winter s 
 work, we both agreed, even allowing but half of it as 
 clear profit, not to mention the handsome sum the 
 railroad earned us, something like twenty per cent, on 
 its cost. 
 
 The capacity of the road was enormous. The Old 
 Man and Nellie would often take down five trains of 
 cars in an evening, and the actual running time was 
 so shortened that I have known them to make the 
 whole seventy-one miles in a shade under four min 
 utes by the watch. I venture to say there is not 
 another railroad in the country that can do seventy- 
 one miles in a shade under four minutes, night after 
 night, without an accident. 
 
 Thus the winter wore away ; our lives being bright 
 ened, and sweetened I m sure, by Nellie s presence in 
 
184 
 
 the house. She had a lovely disposition, and her short 
 contact with the world had in no wise hardened her, 
 though she was sometimes as grandmotherly in her 
 ways as the Old Man was grandfatherly in his. 
 
 At last it seemed as if spring had really come. The 
 warm March suns broke the fetters that bound the 
 land, and the streams once more began their interrupt 
 ed labors of plowing the mountain s face. The canyon 
 of Eagle Creek was full to the brim with a rushing, 
 roaring torrent of water and snow and ice. 
 
 The air was mild ; the cold winds had been tamed 
 into quiet zephyrs. The barkeeper of the Poodle- 
 Dog composed a song both words and music upon 
 the season, with appropriate local hits, that was en 
 cored three times at the Hall of Delight, and made 
 his reputation in a night. 
 
 The camp had survived the winter, and every one 
 was happy. Then the Old Man began to get restless. 
 
 u We must be gittin to work, Johnny," he said one 
 evening. " We must sure-ly be gittin to bizness. I 
 reckon I ll mosey out to-morrow to look at her again. 
 Maybe th notice 11 want fixin up a little. You kin 
 clean up your ass-sayin work ; we wont do any more 
 o that for any but Billings, Warner & Co., joint pard- 
 ners in the Mary Ann. That ll keep you busy an 
 more too, for ass-sayin these high-priced ores takes 
 con sid able cipherin ." 
 
 The morning came and the Old Man started off in 
 high spirits. " I ll be back by sundown," he said, as 
 he kissed Nellie good-bye : " on y want to see if she s 
 there. This has been such a cussed mean winter I 
 
185 
 
 dunno s I ever see much worse I want to look her 
 up. Good-bye, Nell ! So long, Johnny ! " and away 
 he went, smiling and happy. 
 
 But he never came back. The spring which we all 
 thought had come to Phoenix to stay, was in fact, 
 only coquetting with winter, and that afternoon ran 
 down the mountain to the valley, chased by the winds. 
 The storm began, as all mountain storms do, with 
 awful unexpectedness, and the winds blew and the 
 snow fell, and in a few hours the face of the land was 
 white again. And it was in this storm that the Old 
 Man perished. We never knew exactly how, but we 
 believed he wandered through the blinding snow, and 
 fell at last, into the roaring hell of Eagle Gulch. 
 
 Late that summer a party of engineers, surveying 
 through the canyon for the railroad that the Old Man 
 had himself projected, and over which we three had 
 taken so many exciting rides, came upon a skeleton, 
 still clothed in a ragged buffalo-skin coat, in the pockets 
 of which were found some specimens of quartz. ~No 
 one doubted for a moment that these bones were the 
 mortal remains of the Old Man, and we made a grave 
 for him in the canyon, at the foot of a towering spire 
 of rock, that formed a truly noble monument. At the 
 foot of the grave we put up a rough board, with this 
 inscription : 
 
 ELISHA R. BILLINGS, 
 
 THE OLD MAN. 
 DISCOVERER OP THE MARY ANN MINE. 
 
 Died March, 187. 
 L 
 
186 THE ASSAYER S STORY. 
 
 That s all ; that s my story. Not much of a story, is 
 it? How s that? About Nellie! Oh, she s a 
 woman now. Where is she ? Not far off, I should 
 Look there ! see that boy over there, trying to walk 
 isn t he a baby for you? Well, that s mine and 
 her s. 
 
 What s that ? About the Mary Ann mine ! Why, 
 to be sure ! Well there never was any mine and there 
 never had been. But there look at him now isn t 
 he a baby for you ? 
 
XI. THE LOG OF A LANDSMAN. 
 
 SATURDAY, MARCH 27. I mentally patted myself on 
 the back and drank to my pleasant voyage as the Zea- 
 landia swung away from her dock in San Francisco, 
 and slowly turning her bow down the bay, steamed 
 out through the Golden Gate. It was a perfect day, 
 warm and bright, with just enough wind to give mo 
 tion to the water. A thin haze hung over the land 
 and softened the rough outlines of the hills that rose 
 up from the edge of the bay. The island of Alcatraz 
 looked misty and blue in the afternoon light, and the 
 seals that were sporting in the harbor stared at us with 
 an indifference born of long familiarity, as we sped 
 by. Through the Gate we went, and then out to sea. 
 A breeze from the north-east was tumbling the green 
 waters into high hills of foam, and blew us merrily 
 south on our course. At five o clock we lost the land 
 and were bowling along thirteen knots in fine style. 
 There are but few passengers on board and they were 
 all present at dinner, evidently thinking, " Let us eat 
 and drink for to-morrow it may be impossible." 
 
 Among them are all sorts and conditions of men 
 and some women. There is the Tarry Yachtsman, 
 who wears a braided jacket, a nautical cap, and whiskers 
 that are little better than airy nothings. He carries 
 oakum in his pocket, smells unpleasantly of pitch, and 
 
 (187) 
 
188 THE LOG OF A LANDSMAN. 
 
 talks in a breezy way of " reef points and " boom 
 jiggers," that is particularly refreshing. He has given 
 the captain many useful little suggestions about the 
 management of his ship, and makes me feel very 
 thankful he is on board to advise with in case of a 
 storm. 
 
 Then there is the man who is " never seasick, sir." 
 Confound him ! what business has such a person to go 
 to sea ? And the man who " doesn t know whether he 
 will be sick or not," but invariably is. (I belong in 
 this class.) He wears a mingled look of Doubt and 
 Hope, until he catches sight of some one already in the 
 throes, when with an " I too have been at Philippi " 
 expression, he rushes hurriedly away, and though not 
 seen again, is heard. 
 
 Then there is the young man who thinks going to 
 sea is " nice ; " who calls everything delicious, and 
 whose digestion is dubious or more. And the elderly 
 lady, in curls and spectacles, who has never been to 
 sea before, and who is nervous and unhappy now. And 
 the newly married pair, who little think how soon 
 their rapture will be changed to woe. And the two 
 missionaries, pale but determined, who are manifestly 
 too thin to become popular with the Islanders. And 
 several young ladies, in charge of a matronly dame. 
 They are delighted with everything, and exclaim : 
 u Oh ! " at short intervals during the voyage, but not 
 always from joy. 
 
 There have been times when I was sick at sea, but 
 then I was on the Atlantic. That such a misfortune 
 could happen to me on the calm Pacific, I believed 
 impossible, and I went to dinner with a light heart. 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 189 
 
 Not only that, but at nine o clock I sat down to tiffin. 
 In the night the winds arose in their might, and they 
 smote the vessel, and she did roll and pitch most 
 dreadfully. How everything creaked and groaned ! I 
 did, I remember, now. 
 
 SUNDAY. SECOND DAY. When this morning came 
 I found myself somewhat upset ; the thought of break 
 fast was disquieting to me. Last night was a rough 
 one . About three bells I heard the Tarry Yachtsman 
 who occupies the next stateroom to mine remark 
 that he feared the ship was going down. I was glad 
 to hear of something that was going down ; it was 
 nothing about me. All doubts as to whether I am go 
 ing to be sick or not are .at an end. I am simply 
 dreadfully ill. Why do people assure you that it will 
 do you good, and why does the man who never is sick 
 look into your stateroom and tell you to " go it ! " as 
 if you were doing anything else, or could possibly help 
 " going it," for any worldly gift mentionable ? 
 
 I know of nothing more prostrating to a person of 
 nervous temperament than to have to put on his own 
 shoes after a rough night. Your land lubber, who has 
 never been to sea, may tell you that it is all a "matter 
 of will " ; and he may prove to you very logically, that 
 you need never be sick, if you are only possessed of 
 sufficient resolution and firmness. All I say is let 
 him try it ! The will has nothing to do with the mat 
 ter, or if it has then the brain is not the seat of the 
 intelligence. [Mem. The Pacific is misnamed ; it 
 should be called the Terrific.] My state room is at the 
 end of a long passage, and down it comes the sound of 
 
190 THE LOG OF A LANDSMAN. 
 
 much distress. The steward tells me that the Tarry 
 Yachtsman is seriously ill, and one of the men who are 
 " never sea-sick, sir ! " (there are two on board) is in a 
 dangerous condition. My only remaining, watery 
 hope is that they will both die ; the world can spare 
 them. I begin to think the world will have to spare 
 me. With infinite labor I managed to get up on deck 
 this afternoon ; how I did it I cannot quite say ; I am 
 not even prepared to swear I did do so, but I think I 
 did, as I retain a lively impression of seeing many 
 waves and much water in a state of disgusting activity. 
 I also have an idea that I grossly insulted some one,, 
 and that he was only restrained by force from knock 
 ing me down. I wish he had ; I d have turned to him 
 the other also with pleasure. 
 
 At noon we were in Latitude 35 41 North ; Longi 
 tude 126 50 West ; distance from San Francisco- 
 233 miles. x 
 
 The night is closing in black and stormy ; the wind 
 is blowing hard from the north-west, and I am dis 
 mally sick. I wish it were to-morrow ! 
 
 MONDAY. THIRD DAY. It is to-morrow ! I wish it 
 were yesterday ! For I am, if possible, much worse, 
 oh, very much ! The ship is rolling her rails under, 
 and I can hear the Tarry Yatchsman exclaim at each 
 dip : " Oh Lord ! " What can he mean ? I have 
 passed the day wearily in my stateroom, and now the 
 darkness has shut in on us again. As I lie in my 
 berth, tossed this way and that, I feel a wild, at time& 
 an irresistible, impulse. Can this be death ? 
 
 TUESDAY. FOURTH DAY. I am better ! I rejoice 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 191 
 
 that it is to-day. The sea once more looks blue, the 
 sky bright, the ship gay. I now think I shall live. I 
 am not sure of it, but I dare to hope. I am still un 
 able to eat, but I can think of dinner without anguish. 
 I ventured on deck during the afternoon. How grand 
 the sea looked and how dizzy it made me ! It was 
 raining hard, but it was rather a relief to get wet ; it 
 diverted my mind. I was doing very well until that 
 insufferable nuisance, the man who is never seasick, 
 (the other is not expected to live, thank Heaven ! ) 
 recommended me to try a little bacon and molasses. 
 Then I hurried to my stateroom and had a relapse. 
 I ll have that man s blood if I live through this. 
 
 WEDNESDAY. FIFTH DAY. I am quite well ! But six 
 passengers were present at breakfast and I was one of 
 them. I find I really like life at sea. True, it is mo 
 notonous and very unpleasant at first, but you get 
 used to all that in time. But what a constitution 
 Columbus must have had ! 
 
 The air is growing perceptibly warmer ; the officers 
 are all dressed in white duck and look enviably cool. 
 A rumor circulated through the ship this afternoon 
 that the Tarry Yachtsman was dead. Investigation 
 disclosed the fact that he had not been out of his berth 
 since the first night, and that he was still breathing 
 but that was all. I suppose he is not accustomed to 
 steamers, and the vibrations of the engines disturb 
 him. He is only used to a a yot, doncherknow ! " I 
 feel peculiarly blood-thirsty to-day and should delight 
 in seeing the Innocents slain. The Tarry Yachtsman is 
 an Innocent. With the sinking of the sun the wind 
 
192 THE LOG OF A LANDSMAN. 
 
 arose and blew hard from the north-east. I never 
 knew such a place as this is for wind ! 
 
 THURSDAY. SIXTH DAY. Last night was very rough 
 and the ship rolled her rails under. I collapsed again 
 and when morning came I was so occupied with other 
 duties that I quite forgot about breakfast. Some one 
 told me that I was a Jonah. He is mistaken ; I am 
 the whale ! 
 
 By noon, however, the sea went down, and one by 
 one the passengers reappeared. I was shown a very 
 interesting contrivance by one of the missionaries. It 
 was a preventive or cure for seasickness, and much re 
 sembled the popular form of chest-protector in appear 
 ance. He said he had tried it on the bo s n, and was 
 gratified at its entire success. Had also tried it on 
 himself, but the conditions were not entirely favorable, 
 and it rather aggravated than soothed. Even as we 
 were talking, he would leave me suddenly, and return, 
 each time looking paler and thinner. Poor fellow ! 
 
 At noon we were in Latitude 26 2 North ; Longi 
 tude 146 29 West ; distance run from San Francisco 
 1,405 miles. 
 
 All the afternoon the wind was light from the north 
 east ; the sky was clear, the air warm and the sea a 
 deep blue, only broken here and there by the white 
 crest of some lazy wave, urged into sluggish motion 
 by the soft trade-winds. The passengers have nearly 
 all recovered from their troubles, and are sitting around 
 the deck, looking very cool and comfortable in their 
 white clothing. What a pleasure going to sea would 
 be if we could only skip the first three days, and how 
 
BETTER NOW. 193 
 
 delightful is this complete freedom from all responsi 
 bility that one feels on shipboard. We haven t even 
 to think about living. The entire charge of our ex 
 istence is taken out of our hands and given into the 
 keeping of the captain. Our duties are merely to 
 breathe now and then, and to eat when we feel that 
 way. And then again, what a tremendous satisfaction 
 it is to know that our dinners are secured and settled 
 on us until the voyage is ended ! It is true that we 
 may not care to eat all the dinners we are entitled 
 to, but there they are ours on demand. It is like 
 having a balance at the bank. 
 
 The night shuts in upon us very quickly when the 
 sun drops down behind the sea on our right ; the twi 
 light in these low latitudes is very brief, but we hard 
 ly miss the daylight, for the full moon more than re 
 places it, and sailing o er summer seas is very pleasant, 
 truly. 
 
 The air is soft and balmy, but laden with the salt 
 moisture that the trade-wind picks up in its long 
 journey across the ruffled bosom of the Pacific. We 
 do not dance ; that requires too much exertion, but we 
 listen approvingly when the missionaries sing a mild 
 song, or watch the moonlight as it sprinkles over the 
 water on our left. 
 
 FRIDAY. SEVENTH DAY. To-day all the passengers 
 are out except the Tarry Yachtsman, who still hovers 
 over a watery grave. The air is decidedly warmer. 
 I went down into the fire-room, but could stay there 
 only a few minutes. The temperature rose to 160 Far. 
 whenever the furnace doors were opened. A disciple 
 
194 THE LOG OF A LANDSMAN. 
 
 of Calvin would have found in that room a practical 
 illustration of a sinner s hereafter. 
 
 We are almost within the tropical zone. We have 
 the same clear sky and dark blue waters that we had 
 yesterday, but were it not for the cool trade-winds we 
 should suffer from the heat. As it is, our only en 
 deavor is to do nothing. We sit under the awning on 
 the hurricane deck and talk in a listless way, or are silent 
 even more listlessly. We look out upon the transparent 
 sea and watch a school of flying fish, frightened from 
 the water by our ship, and see them go scurrying 
 away, for all the world like a flock of birds. Now we 
 discover the fin of some huge shark, that is swimming 
 doggedly after us. Straight down we gaze and " nine 
 fathoms deep " behold, in fancy, some monster of the 
 sultry sea. The chambered nautilus floats by, and for a 
 moment we exclaim " Oh ! " rapturously, but only once. 
 The exertion is too great, even for this beautiful sight. 
 Our only thought is to be idle in the easiest way, 
 and so we pass the day, and at night we sit in the moon 
 light and listen to the songs of the sea. One sweet- 
 voiced soprano sings Ariel s chant : 
 
 " Full fathom five thy father lies; 
 
 Of his bones are coral made; 
 Those are pearls that were his eyes: 
 
 Nothing of him doth fade, 
 But doth suffer a sea change 
 Into something rich and strange. 
 Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: 
 
 Ding-dong ! 
 Hark ! now I hear them, Ding-dong, bell ! " 
 
 And in answer to the call the ship s bell sounds 
 mournfully, one-two-three-four. 
 
THE EIGHTH DAY. 195 
 
 Then the stalwart, red-faced captain growls out in 
 his deep, hoarse bass : 
 
 " Loud roared the dreadful thunder, 
 
 The rain a deluge show rs, 
 The clouds were rent asunder, 
 
 By lightning s vivid powers. 
 The night was drear and dark, 
 Our poor devoted bark, 
 Till next day there she lay, 
 In the Bay of Biscay, O ! " 
 
 At eight bells (midnight) we turn in and dream that 
 the Tropic of Cancer has suddenly been materialized 
 and stretches like a chain across our path, and we can 
 only pass by going under or over it. 
 
 SATURDAY. EIGHTH DAY. The dream has not come 
 true ; we are in the Tropics ; anyone can tell you that, 
 for it is very, very hot. Our thoughts and occupa 
 tions are the same as yesterday ; that is, we think 
 and do as little as is compatible with a mundane, or 
 semi-amphibious existence. At noon we were in 
 Latitude 21 41 North ; Longitude 151 21 West ; 
 distance from San Francisco 2,021 miles. It is too 
 warm to write more now ; besides, there is nothing 
 more to write. 
 
 LATER We rapidly neared the islands, till at two- 
 o clock in the afternoon we sighted Molokai, and at 
 half past three, Oahu, upon which is Honolulu, rose 
 to view. It looked very rugged and picturesque ; it& 
 black volcanic rocks rising straight out of the sea, 
 which dashed itself into impotent spray against 
 them. 
 
196 THE LOG OF A LANDSMAN. 
 
 We steamed along the south-eastern shore of Oahu 
 all the afternoon, and at eight o clock reached the 
 mouth of Honolulu harbor, where we were boarded 
 by the pilot. He was a grievous disappointment. I 
 expected to see a stalwart native, clothed in his own 
 unconscious dignity and a ring in his nose, come out 
 to meet us in an immense canoe, rowed by twenty 
 men, similarly dressed with the exception of the 
 dignity. The pilot was to board us and salute the 
 captain with a stately bow, at the same time expres 
 sing a hope, in pure Sandwich, that he was well. 
 Whereupon the captain was to drop upon one knee 
 and humbly admit that he was well or at any rate 
 so-so. Then the stalwart native was to lift him to his 
 feet and say : " Rise up my faithful servant and 
 let her come starboard." I was fully prepared to hear 
 that this native was no other that the king himself, or 
 at least the Prime Minister. But how was I dis 
 appointed ! For the pilot was, in fact, a squatty 
 white man, with a divil of a brogue, a torn shirt and a 
 collar in the wash where his shirt should have been 
 and he along with it. 
 
 With this fraud in charge we went on once more. 
 Out of the darkness on all sides of us, we could hear 
 voices uttering strange sounds, uncouth and harsh, 
 and now and then a canoe would be visible. After 
 what seemed like an interminable delay, we reached 
 the dock and landed with our baggage. Then, stow 
 ing ourselves in a vehicle, driven by a native who 
 said he spoke English (and he did enough to beat us 
 out of five times the proper fare), we started pell-mell 
 for the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. And we got there, 
 
ASHORE. 19T 
 
 though how, I never can say. Briggs (he is the one 
 that was never seasick, and very nearly died), never 
 looks on the bright side of anything, and he found fault 
 because we were upset once in turning a sharp corner 
 but Briggs wants the Earth, I think. He got a little 
 of it that time, however some on his trousers and 
 some in his mouth yet he grumbled still. For my 
 part, I was satisfied I fell on Briggs. 
 
 At ten o clock we drove up in front of the Hotel,, 
 and a few minutes later were settled in large, airy 
 rooms, cool and comfortable. But still I seemed to be 
 on shipboard, for the floor rose and fell, and the mos 
 quito netting looked like the Zealandia s jib. 
 
XII. MOLOKAI-DEATH S VALLEY. 
 
 u For my part," said the Doctor, as he poured a 
 little water into his claret ; " for my part I don t think 
 so. You say, Jack, that Hawaii is as near Paradise as 
 you expect to get. Good admit that it is, but 
 what does that prove ? Have you not said the same 
 thing of twenty other places ? Did you not say it as 
 you floated on the Lake of Lucerne, one moonlight 
 night ? Eh ! Did you not whisper it into the ear of 
 Donna Dolores, as you glided in a gondola down the 
 Grand canal in Venice, taking care the while not to 
 waken the duenna, her mother, who was lending 
 propriety to the affair ? Eh ! Did you not say it one 
 night in Cairo ? Or one midnight at Delmonico s ? 
 Come, you are altogether too quickly moved Jack ; too 
 easily influenced by your environment. You should 
 have been a poet instead of a rambler." 
 
 It was true what the Doctor had said ; and now that 
 I have cut my eye-teeth, now that 1 have seen the 
 world, the flesh, and necessarily therefore, a little bit 
 of the devil, I am convinced that Delmonico s is not 
 such a poor substitute for an urban Paradise. Take 
 it on a winter s night after the opera. What can look 
 more like a conventional and highly proper Garden 
 of Eden than the big room there ? Over in the eastern 
 corner we see a gay young fellow sipping his Pom- 
 
 (198) 
 
PARADISE AND HAWAII. 199 
 
 mery, tres sec, with his bediamonded Dulcinea by his 
 side. He stands for Adam before the fall ; she for 
 Eve, and mightily she looks it from the waist up. 
 Then outside is the poor devil, who is turning a discor 
 dant tune out of a wheezy box, and freezing to death 
 sixteen hours a day in order that he may beg enough 
 to warm him the other eight. He is Adam after the 
 fall. If you want to see his Eve, go oh ! go any 
 where ; you can t make any mistake, God knows, about 
 a little matter of that sort. 
 
 But I have jumped from Hawaii to New York. 
 
 The Doctor s attack upon me was received by the 
 others with a laugh, and he was encouraged to go on. 
 
 " You say," he continued, " because you ve just eaten 
 a capital dinner" the Colonel, our host, bowed " or 
 because your conscience is not troublesome probably 
 from inanition or because your digestion is good and 
 your purse lined, that this is your idea of Paradise. 
 Good ! Admit that this is like it. But there was a 
 serpent hidden in Eden, you remember, and there is 
 a serpent in Hawaii." 
 
 " I thought there were no snakes on the islands," 
 said Van Baalen, the literal. Yan comes from New 
 York, and otherwise than bemg rich, is not a very bad 
 fellow. 
 
 I found it necessary to defend myself and my posi 
 tion, so I said : 
 
 " It comes pretty near my idea of Adam s sensa 
 tions to be awakened in the morning by the perfume 
 of orange blossoms stealing into the room, though he 
 must have been quite incapable of appreciating the 
 poetry of it, since he had nothing to contrast Eden with. 
 
200 
 
 ]S"o ! I still maintain that Hawaii as I have seen it 
 is a very fair modern Paradise with rural ac 
 companiments. I have found no serpent here." 
 
 " And still I don t think so," persisted the Doctor. 
 " Do you for one moment believe that Adam ever 
 underwent the sorrows of breakfasting, in Eden? 
 Don t you know that he had a cup of chocolate in bed, 
 and never dressed for the day before eleven ? Com 
 pare his system with the Hawaiian and be dumb. 
 Here, at eight o clock, you order what you please of a 
 Chinaman, who doesn t understand you, and at nine 
 as he hasn t returned you look him up. You find 
 him asleep under a palm tree. It does no good to 
 kill him I ve tried that, and find it really delays 
 matters for you must then get another waiter and 
 begin all over again. There is so much red tape in 
 Hawaii. The best way is to kick the fellow ; thus 
 soothing your own spifits and stimulating him ; con 
 vincing him in fact, that the Chinese must go. Don t 
 you see your error now, Jack ? Adam never had any 
 waiter to trifle with his peace of mind." 
 
 Here the Doctor absent-mindedly emptied the re 
 mainder of the claret into his own glass and filled up 
 mine with water. " What I meant in the first place," 
 he continued, thoughtfully watching a vortex ring 
 of smoke that Yan Baalen had puffed out over the table, 
 " was, that at this moment, while we are living lives of 
 comfort, enjoying health and mental ease, surrounded 
 by a tropical profusion of flowers, and gazing upon a 
 scene of absolutely fairy beauty, yet still we are within 
 striking distance of this serpent. We " 
 
AT LAHAINA. 201 
 
 "Let s go out on the veranda," interrupted the 
 Colonel. " We can have our cigars and coffee there 
 where it is cooler." And we arose and went out. 
 
 "We had been dining with the Colonel, the owner of 
 a vast sugar plantation on Maui, one of the Hawaiian 
 or Sandwich Islands. His home was situated on the 
 south-western coast of the island, at a little place called 
 Lahaina. The house was a low, one-story building, 
 with wide doors and windows ; completely encircled 
 by a broad piazza, and embowered in a garden, in which 
 grew, with wasteful profusion, all manner of trees 
 and shrubs ; bananas, oranges, palms and huge-leaved, 
 wide-spreading exotics of the southern sea. The soft 
 air, stirred by the trade-wind, was so laden with the 
 odors of the rose, gardenia, hibiscus and oleander, that 
 it seemed to have the consistency of some rich syrup, 
 too dense to be breathable. Five of us sat out upon 
 the piazza there, the Colonel, the Doctor, Yan Baalen, 
 Kapana, a native Hawaiian Chief or Alii, and my 
 self. . The Colonel usually spent a few months of 
 each year at Lahaina, and with him he brought his 
 wife and two daughters, just grown to womanhood. 
 He was a portly, white-haired, red-cheeked old fellow, 
 and rich beyond the dreams of avarice. 
 
 The Doctor was a true cosmopolite. His father was 
 French whence his name of Lebrun ; his mother was 
 English. He was born in London city ; lived the first 
 twenty years of his life in the United States, and only 
 the Lord knows where after that. Or rather, only the 
 Lord knows where not after that, for I believe he 
 had been in every country on the globe, and had only 
 been prevented from exploring space through lack of 
 M 
 
202 MOLOKAI DEATH S VALLEY. 
 
 the necessary means of locomotion. He had been a 
 surgeon in the Confederate Navy during the war of 
 the rebellion ; attached to the Garde Mobile, during 
 the Franco-Prussian conflict ; had fought with the 
 Turks against Russia, and been in charge of a Bul 
 garian hospital, during the little difficulty between Bul 
 garia and Servia. And now he had come to Hawaii 
 in search of new excitement, after having just returned 
 from an expedition to the Arctic seas. 
 
 Kapana was one of the finest specimens of physical 
 development I ever saw. Six feet two he stood ; 
 weighing two hundred and fifty pounds, yet so well 
 proportioned that he did not look massive. His skin 
 was dark ; his short black hair curly, but not kinky, 
 and his face, though heavy, was not ill-looking. There 
 were a certain glitter in his eye and a heaviness about 
 his brows that gave him an appearance of sternness, al 
 most ferocity, contrasting with the peculiarly mourn 
 ful lines of his mouth. He rarely spoke, but smoked 
 like a furnace. 
 
 As for Yan Baalen and myself nothing. We 
 were merely travelers, seeing what we could one day 
 and forgetting it the next. 
 
 We all seated ourselves comfortably upon the wide 
 piazza, where we could catch a glimpse of the white 
 sea, and smoked awhile in silence. Within the house, 
 around a dim lamp, sat the ladies ; the Colonel s wife 
 and his two daughters, and two native wahine, 
 handsome, refined women, guests of our hostess. They 
 were playing softly on guitars, and humming mourn 
 ful Hawaiian airs. The scene was absolutely enchant 
 ing. Ulysses could never have deserted Calypso had 
 
THE CUKSE OF HAWAII. 203 
 
 she dwelt in such a place ; Telemachus would have 
 laughed if Mentor had urged him away from La- 
 haina at the full of the moon. Thus was I thinking 
 when the Colonel s voice roused me. 
 
 " Suppose you tell us, Doctor," he said, " what is 
 this serpent that lurks in our Paradise." 
 
 " In two words," the Doctor answered, " I mean the 
 curse of Leprosy." 
 
 We were all silent again ; we did not even move, 
 but I could see the cigar that Kapana was smoking 
 glow hot in the darkness, and I fancied I saw his glit 
 tering eyes and lion-like brows behind it. But of 
 course that was my fancy. 
 
 " There is no cure for the leper," the Doctor went 
 on slowly ; " no hope, no life. He is one of God s 
 accursed, doomed to die by inches ; avoided by men ; 
 feared and fearful. For even under the lime-light 
 of nineteenth century investigation, the disease re 
 mains what it has been for thousands of years a 
 mystery. And it is this curse, lurking in the green 
 forests of Hawaii, that has changed it from Paradise 
 to a plague-spot." 
 
 " But how is the disease contracted ? " asked Yan 
 Baalen. " You medical men must know that." 
 
 " No, not even that," said the Doctor. Again I fan 
 cied I saw Kapana s eyes shining through the darkness. 
 " It is not contagious or infectious as those terms are 
 generally used ; neither is it necessarily hereditary. It 
 is not impossible that the poison may be carried by 
 mosquitoes, as is sometimes the case in Elephantiasis." 
 
 " An extremely agreeable theory, upon my word," 
 
204 
 
 said Yan 3 slapping his cheek ; " there goes one of the 
 little beggars now." 
 
 " The inorganic world is a perfect world," went on 
 the Doctor, not noticing the interruption. " So many 
 parts of hydrogen and oxygen combined always make 
 water ; so many parts of chlorine and sodium always 
 make salt. We know to a surety that certain results 
 are invariably produced by certain causes. The laws of 
 the inorganic world are immutable. But in the organic 
 everything is uncertain ; there we can be sure of 
 nothing except Death, which really means the resolu 
 tion of organism back to its inorganic elements. You 
 introduce a grain of arsenic into a gallon of water, 
 and that arsenic is always detectable. You introduce 
 a poison into the circulation of an animal, and it may 
 or may not be discoverable. Leprosy is caused by the 
 inoculation of an active animal poison into a man s 
 blood. This poison will generate the disease in one 
 person and not in another. Leprous parents may have 
 all their children tainted, or only one or two, or even 
 none at all. This may happen when only the father 
 or the mother is affected, but transmission through 
 the mother is more constant. Again, the disease may 
 skip several generations and reappear when the 
 memory of it has been forgotten. The circumstances 
 that seem particularly to favor its extension are a damp 
 and humid atmosphere, and a diet consisting largely 
 of fish. All these conditions exist in Hawaii, where 
 the warm air is laden with moisture and where the 
 natives subsist mainly upon poi, fruit, and sea-food." 
 
 The Doctor paused a moment ; then, seeing the look 
 of eager attention on the faces of Yan and myself, and 
 
HOPELESS HAWAII. 205 
 
 being thus assured of at least two hearers, he went on 
 with his monologue. 
 
 " Leprosy is identified with the disease known along 
 the Nile and its Delta 1,500 B. C., and the disease 
 common to-day in Asia, Africa, South America, West 
 Indies, parts of Europe and Hawaii. It was endemic 
 with the Jews at the time of their exodus from Egypt, 
 as you may see by reading Leviticus xiii, and was 
 prevalent for hundreds of years after, as any of the 
 books of the New Testament will tell you." 
 
 " Is there no hope for Hawaii ? " said a voice be 
 hind a glowing cigar tip. " Can the disease never be 
 eradicated ? " 
 
 " Never, I believe," answered the Doctor, " short of 
 the practical extermination of the native race, and 
 that, at the present rate, will soon be completed ; 
 perhaps by the end of this century. When Captain 
 Cook discovered these islands, about a hundred years 
 ago, he estimated the population at 400,000 ; to-day 
 the natives number less than 40,000. Possibly this 
 fearful death-rate is what Herbert Spencer calls, i one 
 of the mild and beneficient results of civilization, r 
 added the Doctor, grimly, " but it doesn t strike 
 me so." 
 
 I was right about it : I could see shining out of the 
 darkness the face of Kapana, glowing with a dull 
 phosphorescence that disclosed his massive brows, under 
 which his glassy eyes glistened strangely. I rubbed 
 my own eyes once or twice, thinking that I did not 
 see clearly ; I pinched myself to make sure I did not 
 dream. But I was awake and I was not mistaken. It 
 was curious the others did not see it. 
 
206 
 
 " I must say, Doctor," said the Colonel, "you have 
 not chosen a very agreeable topic to discuss on such 
 a night as this. I am used to this sort o thing, but I 
 feel as if I were sitting alongside of an actual leper, 
 b Gad, I do ! Ho, Puna ! bring us some more cham 
 pagne ! Champagne is a good preventive, isn t it 
 Doctor ?" 
 
 The Doctor laughed softly. " There is no preven 
 tive but to keep away from the infection, but cham 
 pagne isn t a bad thing to try," he said. " The disease 
 does not generate spontaneously but spreads by the 
 
 bacillus of but here comes the ladies; let u& 
 
 change the subject," and out upon the broad piazza 
 they stepped. 
 
 " Didn t I hear you calling for more champagne, 
 papa?" said Louise, the younger daughter. "You 
 have had quite enough, sir, for your good, and at this 
 time of night, too." 
 
 " Well, you know, Lou," said her father, " the Doctor 
 has been saying such unpleasant things I just wanted 
 to take the bad taste out of my mouth." 
 
 By this time the ladies were seated. They were 
 dressed in rustling gowns of white dresses that 
 would have rivalled many worn at the Italian Opera 
 in Paris, or at a ball in the Faubourg Kue St. Honore ; 
 and out into the warm, sensuous night, as they came, 
 the frou-frou of the fabrics tinkling in our ears, the 
 sight of so much loveliness, carried me from the Purga 
 tory whither the Doctor had led us, to the Eden where 
 I would be. The ladies grouped themselves together 
 where the light from the room within fell faintly 
 upon them, and was reflected back again by their 
 
THE ENVIRONMENT. 207 
 
 white shoulders and arms. Talk not to me of the 
 pleasures of gratified ambition greed revenge. Old 
 campaigner though I am, I still believe there is no 
 joy so great as the tender sorrow of loving, and while 
 I was long past that sort of thing, I could feel for Yan 
 Baalen, that night at Lahaina, when he whispered : 
 " By Jove, Jack ! this is Paradise Regained, serpent 
 or no serpent." 
 
 For I do not see how one could help feeling senti 
 mental there ; the moon had at last forced a zig-zag 
 hole through the green roof over us, and the white 
 dresses and forms of the ladies stood out in superb 
 relief, like negative silhouettes, against the dark back 
 ground of the tropical foliage. About their necks 
 they wore leis of ohias and gardenias, and in their 
 hair, roses. Behind them, in the shadow, sat Kapana. 
 
 Yan, inspired by the place and the hour, sprang to 
 his feet, and addressing the moon-lit sea and Louise 
 recited the sonorous lines of Lorenzo : 
 
 In such a night 
 
 Troilus, methinks, mounted the Trojan walls, 
 And sighed his soul toward the Grecian tents, 
 Where Cressid lay that night. 
 
 In such a night 
 
 Stood Dido with a willow in her hand 
 Upon the wild sea- banks, and waft her love 
 To come again to Carthage." 
 
 The ladies applauded him. 
 
 " What were you talking about as we came out ? " 
 one of them asked. 
 
 " Comparing our present position with that of Adam 
 and Eve," said the Doctor. 
 
208 MOLOKAI DEATH S VALLEY. 
 
 " And which did you decide was the pleasanter ? " 
 asked Marjorie. 
 
 " Oh ! our own is decidedly better," said the Doctor. 
 u Adam and Eve had no father or mother to begin 
 with ; they knew not the flavor of Pommery sec, with 
 just enough ice in it" here the Doctor sipped a little 
 from his glass " they had nothing to gossip about, 
 and although they ruled supreme on earth they were 
 not even well dressed." 
 
 Louise modestly dropped her eyes to the diamond 
 locket that hung from the lei about her round white 
 neck, but the others laughed merrily. Our hostess 
 screened a yawn behind her fan ; this was not very 
 entertaining for her. 
 
 " Come girls, give us a song or two, and then we ll 
 leave the men to their cigars," she said. 
 
 And without more urging, they sang to us one of 
 the old Hawaiian songs : a mournful love chant, with 
 a soft thrumming accompaniment on the native guitar. 
 
 " Moa popo ku u ike i ka nani 
 ISTa pua rose o Maimawililo, 
 II aila hiaai na manu ; 
 Miki ala i ka nani o ka liko 
 
 O ka halia lo-ha i hiki mai, 
 Ke hone ae nei ku u manawa 
 O oe no ka u ipo aloha ; 
 A lo ko i hana nei." 
 
 Chorus Aloha oe, aloha oe 
 
 E ke ona-ona i-ka lipo 
 
 Sweet Rose of Maunawililo, 
 Day after day thy beauty grows, 
 The wild winds kiss the sweet red lips 
 Of thy petals rare and ripe, fair Rose. 
 
NIGHT AT LAHAINA. 209 
 
 Sweet memories often come to me, 
 Soft tender thoughts of days gone by, 
 When thou wert mine and I was thine ; 
 Before our hearts w r ere seared and dry. 
 
 Chorus Farewell to thee to thee farewell ! 
 
 Sweet Rose, my love, my life farewell ! 
 
 At length the ladies rose to go. It was very late, they 
 said, and they must retire. As for us, we could sit on 
 forever, if we liked ; it surely was too lovely a night 
 to waste in sleeping, but they had their good looks 
 such as they were and their complexions to think 
 about ; and leading the way went madam, curtesying 
 and saying: " Aloha oe!" then the others: "Good 
 night ! Aloha to all ! " and we returned to our chairs 
 and cigars. No one knew what time it was, no one 
 cared ; the air was soft, the moon still bright, the 
 cigars excellent. And so we sat on and on, until of 
 a sudden the moonlight grew dim ; the breeze which 
 had died down piped up again. In the foliage about 
 us the awkward call of the mynah bird was heard ; a 
 yellow light appeared in the east, and a new day was 
 announced. 
 
 " Bless my soul ! " said the Colonel, " it s to-morrow 
 morning ! I had no idea it was as late as that. Well, 
 I think I ll take about forty winks, myself ; you gentle 
 men can do as you please," and off he went to bed. 
 For my part I did not care to sleep, and I strolled 
 down to the beach and watched the surf as it came 
 booming in upon the sand. 
 
 Close to the water s edge at Lahaina stood a group 
 of royal palms, tall, slender and graceful ; their tops 
 formed of a cluster of leaves that waved lightly in the 
 
210 
 
 morning air. Back from the shore was the village, bur 
 ied beneath groves of bread-fruit, banana and orange 
 trees ; while behind it, six thousand feet in air, rose 
 the ancient volcano of Eaka, its green sides split here 
 and there by dark, gloomy canyons. In and out of 
 the grass huts that straggled along the beach went the 
 native women, looking like gorgeously tinted butter 
 fly s in their brilliantly colored garments. At my feet 
 lay the Pacific, stretching away for miles a sur 
 face of deep, dark blue, save where the water con 
 cealed some wonderful coral grotto, which lit up the 
 waves until they became the golden color of the western 
 sky in a September afternoon. Off in the northern 
 distance, floating in the air above the water, was a 
 huge purple cloud, that seemed to drift, now this way, 
 now that, as the hurrying winds, caught in some of its 
 cavernous recesses, whirled it hither and thither. The 
 color of the cloud changed with the changing skies 
 above ; now smiling as the sun fell full upon it, now 
 frowning as some wanton shadow danced over the 
 azure fore-ground. " Surely," thought I " there at 
 least, is Paradise ; such a place is too lovely for this 
 curse to enter. One could rest forever in those soft 
 purple beds, soothed by the lullaby of a Siren : 
 
 " Where the shadows are blue, 
 And the light is gold; 
 Where the 
 
 " And yet," said an unmusical voice at my side, 
 " that Paradise, as you call it, is the most dreadful 
 spot in the world." I turned and found it was 
 Kapana who had spoken ; Kapana, lusty of limb and 
 mild of manner, but in the daylight innocent of that 
 
MORNING AT LAHAINA. 211 
 
 ghastly appearance, so dreadful at night. " It is the 
 living hell, hoaaloha*" he said ; " the grave of the 
 living. Do not look at it too long, lest it poison your 
 eyes." 
 
 I smiled in amusement ; such fancies might do for 
 midnight but I was not so nervous as that now. 
 
 " Do not smile, hoaaloha," he went on gravely, "for 
 it is Molokai dwelling place of the lepers. Look 
 again now ! " 
 
 I looked again. The shadowy outlines seemed to 
 have grown hard and black ; I could see the white 
 surf, beating on the dark volcanic rocks that formed 
 its iron sides ; I could see the yawning caverns that 
 led into the home of living fire. 
 
 " Let us go away, hoaaloha," said Kapana, seizing 
 my arm ; " let us go away. It is not good to look at 
 Molokai too long. I cannot ! I am myself pau loa i 
 kamake quite used up. Let us go away." 
 
 And we strolled down the beach, and for a while 
 watched the natives bathing in the tremendous surf. 
 At length he said to me : " I am going this morning 
 on a short visit to Wailuku, upon the northern side of 
 this island. It is my home such a home as I have 
 left. Will you be my guest ? We shall go in a large 
 canoe and be absent a week. You need take nothing 
 I will entertain you in the old Hawaiian style. Will 
 you not go, hoaaloha ? Your friends are in no hurry j 
 no one ever is in a hurry in Hawaii, and they will 
 await your return contentedly here at Lahaina." 
 
 And I went. 
 
 Friend. 
 
filS 
 
 II. 
 
 "If you will take your seat amidships and not mind 
 a little water, we shall go through the surf all right," 
 said Kapana to me, and so, placing myself in the centre 
 of the large double canoe I awaited developments. 
 Eight naked natives seized the boat, and upon the 
 reflux of a huge wave, rushed it forward. For an in 
 stant, just as it met the incoming roller, it wavered, 
 but with a shout the men shoved us outside the 
 breakers and then clambered in, their brown skins 
 shining with the salt water. Kapana stood in the 
 the stern, steering-oar in hand ; his calm, impression- 
 less face and magnificent stature giving him the ap 
 pearance of some huge bronze statue. 
 
 The wind being strong and nearly aft, a spe 
 cies of mainsail and jib were set, and under these 
 we ran rapidly along the south-west coast of Maui. 
 The light canoe, following the motions of the long 
 waves, rose and fell with the rythmical regularity of a 
 & pendulum. On our right were the precipitous, 
 black lava cliffs of the island, against which the sea 
 beat with useless fury, while here and there, fantastic 
 cascades sprang over the edge of the wall, embroider 
 ing the dark expanse with silvery threads. 
 
 " Is it not beautiful ? " said Kapana to me. " I see 
 it often very often and yet, I love it more than 
 ever now. How hard it will be to leave this to die. 
 What have my people done that this curse has been 
 visited upon them ? " He pointed with a stately ges 
 ture to Molokai, blue in the distance. " Is it not 
 pitiful ? My people are dying ; in a little while we 
 
NEAKEK TO MOLOKAI. 213 
 
 shall be extinct ; the world will know us no more. 
 Why are we thus damned ? Is it because we were 
 once cannibals idolaters ? But what can you know 
 more than others ? The curse is everywhere in Hawaii. 
 It reaches the high the low the rich the poor 
 though there are no poor in Hawaii except they who 
 live there" Again he pointed to Molokai, growing 
 more distinct as we neared it. 
 
 " Listen, hoaaloha ! " he slowly continued. " I was 
 married, once ; I had a wife, and she was very beauti 
 fulthen. And she bore me three children they 
 are dead now, my children and she is dead also- 
 over there." Once more he pointed to Molokai. "I 
 have not seen her in five years," he went on thought 
 fully. " Five years ! White men say the Hawaiians 
 have no parental instinct ; that we are incapable of an 
 enduring love. But I loved Kola and our children 
 yet I rejoiced yes, I was happy when they died, 
 one by one, for I had learned of the curse that was 
 upon them. Five years ago she was she went away, 
 though for a year before that I knew what was surely 
 coming. But she had to go at last she who had once 
 been so beautiful ; she who had been called the Rose 
 of Maunawililo. Her cheeks became seared, her 
 voice harsh, her but pardon, this is unpleasant for you. 
 Look ! let us go a little nearer to Molokai ; we are no 
 longer superstitious about it, are we ? But we must 
 not go too near ; I do not want to see Kola again." 
 
 On we swung through the tumbling waters ; nearer 
 and nearer we drew to the land. It lost its cloud-like 
 appearance ; its harsh outlines grew apparent ; we 
 could see its walls of rock, rising perpendicularly from 
 
214: 
 
 
 
 the sea for thousands of feet, here and there gashed 
 with deep, black canyons. It was well named Molo- 
 kai Aina Pali, The Island of Precipices. 
 
 It was with something very like awe that I watched 
 the island as we ran towards it ; it was such a mysterious 
 place ; so awful in its possibilities. I felt as though* it 
 were the ante-room to the Hall of Death. 
 
 " Kapana ! " I said at last ; " do not go too near ; it 
 is not right." 
 
 " Fear not, hoaaloha " said he ; " I cannot go too 
 near. Look! look!" he cried suddenly; "see them 
 there!" 
 
 I strained my eyes, and when my sight became ad 
 justed to the new focus, I seemed to see strange figures 
 on the shores ; not men, and yet not anything else. 
 
 " This is near enough, Kapana," I urged. "Near 
 enough ; I am a coward ; let us go away." 
 
 He made no reply, but kept the boat steadily on 
 its course, his form standing rigidly in the stern and 
 his glittering eye fixed upon the land, as if striving to 
 distinguish something there. Again I spoke : 
 
 " Let us turn now," I said " we have seen all there 
 is this is enough, and it has been very pleasant." 
 
 " No, it is not near enough," he said harshly, " and 
 the joke has only just begun. You may find it will last 
 for years." I began to think he was insane. 
 
 " See here ! " he cried, " Here s a joke for you ! " 
 He tore away the sleeve that bound his right arm. 
 " Look at this and tell me if this isn t a joke ! " The 
 arm was horribly scarred ; great patches of dead white 
 or black skin, showed the rotting flesh beneath ; at the 
 elbow was a festering sore, open to the bone. I 
 
IN THE WATER. 215 
 
 shrank back at the sigfit he was a leper ! Kapana 
 laughed discordantly at my disgust. " Ah ha ! you do 
 not like it, eh ! It is not pleasant, you think. But 
 you shall see much more than this, soon. Yes, wait 
 till we find Kola, my wife. She will be something 
 worth seeing, I warrant you. This is nothing but 
 she she will be a sight ! " 
 
 He was plainly beside himself, almost violently in 
 sane,, and capable of doing mischief though I did not 
 realize it at the moment. "But you must not go 
 there ! " I weakly protested. 
 
 " But I will go there," he answered. " I want to 
 show you all of Paradise last night you wished to 
 see it now you shall have the chance. And my 
 Kola she will be the Eve ! " 
 
 We were now but a mile from the land, and hurry 
 ing towards it every moment. Frenzied at my own 
 powerlessness, I grappled with Kapana. I might as 
 well have attempted to overthrow the pyramids. His 
 enormous strength had not yet been undermined by 
 the disease, and he flung me easily into the bottom of 
 the canoe. But in doing this he lost his balance ; the 
 boat gave a lurch and I was in the water. With the 
 roaring of the waves in my ears I sank down down 
 to rest. 
 
 Then followed silence and night ! 
 
 Yet in one way I was conscious I did not com 
 pletely lose my identity. At first I knew who I was, 
 yet could not realize where I was, until all at once it 
 came to me I was dead ! and I laughed to think I had 
 died so easily. Yes, I was dead, and these objects about 
 me were but denizens of the next world. Queer sort 
 
216 MOLOKAI DEATH S VALLEY. 
 
 of an affair, the next world is, I thought ; somewhat dif 
 ferent from the common idea of it. And this little 
 matter of dying that I used to dread so much, is rather 
 pleasant than otherwise. 
 
 Then I felt myself swiftly lifted up by some 
 invisible force and carried onward through darkness. 
 There came a desperate pain in my heart a clutch 
 at my throat. I experienced two peculiar sen 
 sations one, physical a desire to breath ; the other, 
 mental an attempt to think. I no longer felt that 
 buoyancy of spirits I did at first. With a shock, as of a 
 physical injury, my senses partially returned to me. 
 I drew a little cool air into my lungs I tried to speak, 
 and my returning consciousness fled again. I knew 
 nothing or rather I knew everything. I became a 
 mere idea an abstraction. I felt that I could under 
 stand the meaning of Infinity ; that I was an integral 
 part of it. And yet I was helpless hopeless. This, 
 then, is Death the final Death I thought when my 
 soul is to be ground up into Nothing and this dust of 
 Nothing is to be scattered out through Space. Death 
 means Darkness, both to Body and Soul ; Death means 
 absolute Annihilation eternal, black Night. 
 
 Slowly I felt my powers of understanding this, 
 fade. I knew that the end was coming then, with a 
 puff, as of a candle extinguished, I lost all sentience. 
 It was over the end had come. 
 
 Very slowly and very painfully I opened my eyes 
 after what seemed, to my returning consciousness, a 
 lapse of eons of years, and looked about me on a scene 
 that was startling and horrible. I awoke to semi- 
 
THE AWAKENING. 217 
 
 consciousness with a feeling of melancholy, such as 
 the eaters of opiuin must feel, when deprived of their 
 drug. It was a complete relaxation of every nerve 
 a loss of every hope. I seemed to have gone be 
 yond death (I could realize what that meant then, 
 though I cannot now), and to have seen most horrible 
 and sickening sights, the memory of which was still 
 haunting me in the figures I looked upon. I found 
 myself lying upon an irregular plain, at one end of 
 which was a black wall of rock that rose perpendicu 
 larly in the air several thousand feet, without a break 
 or foothold, absolutely impregnable. 
 
 Around me were clustered, what might once have 
 been human beings, but from whom now almost the 
 last vestiges of humanity had been stricken off by the 
 transformation that Death had worked upon them. 
 Here was a man whose hands were gone at the wrists, 
 yet who waved the frightful, unhealed ends in wild 
 gesticulations in the air ; there was one, standing un 
 concernedly upon the raw and bloody stumps of 
 his legs, shortened to the knees. I saw two women ; 
 the face of one was a mass of hideous corruption, 
 her nose and ears were literally dropping off ; in the 
 cheek of the other was a great hole that laid open the 
 half of her face ; her eyes were unshaded by eye 
 lashes or eyebrows, her hair was of a disgusting 
 yellowish-white color, and hung about her head 
 in snaky, Medusa-like locks. In her arms she 
 carried a year-old babe, whose skin was clean and 
 undefiled a really beautiful child making the con 
 trast with the others all the more dreadful. I saw 
 a woman whose head was entirely denuded of hair 
 
218 
 
 great white patches covered her dark skin wherever 
 it was visible, and she was blind for in the sockets 
 where her eyes had once been, now swelled hideous 
 tubercles, red and slimy. A young girl of fifteen stood 
 by her, and she like the rest, was cruelly scarred with 
 great discolored blotches upon her face and neck, while 
 her hands were like a skeleton s bony and stiff ; the 
 nails had dropped off ; the joints were laid bare by 
 festering sores, or were swollen and red ; her eye-lids 
 and lips were raw and bloody. And yet these people, 
 in spite of their horrible appearance, seemed not to 
 think of it. They were talking and laughing, one with 
 another, and pointing and looking at me such of 
 them as had eyes to see with. 
 
 Their voices added another horror to the scene. 
 Harsh, shrill, discordant with some ; miserable, wheez 
 ing, puny sounds with others. And when one of them 
 laughed aloud it was the man without legs I cov 
 ered up my face with my hands, and shuddered in 
 ineffable disgust. 
 
 With an effort I controlled myself at last, and spoke 
 to the one nearest me. It cost me a tremendous ex 
 ertion to do this, on account of both the man s repul 
 sive appearance and the dread I had of hearing my 
 own voice, sounding cracked and shrill like the others. 
 But no attention was paid to me. I endeavored to 
 sit up, but the change of position set my head whirl 
 ing, and I became deathly sick. Just at this moment 
 the objects about me moved a little and I saw, coming 
 toward me, a strange figure. It was that of a man, 
 dressed in the garb of a priest of the Order of Jesus. 
 He was of slender build and erect carriage, and but 
 
FATHER DAMIEN. 219 
 
 for a certain heaviness of brow, a glassy look in his 
 eyes, and here and there, white or brown patches on his 
 forehead and ears, he would have been a really hand 
 some man. There was, in the lines of his mouth, a 
 look of benignity, combined with firmness, that was 
 very winning. He appeared to be about 40 years 
 old. He approached my side, and kneeling down 
 said in English, though with a marked French accent: 
 " Ah ! he is not dead ! Dieu soit remercie ! " He 
 poured out a little liquor into a cup. " Drink this ! 
 it will do you good ! " he said. " No, do not touch me" 
 he added, hastily, as I rested my hand a moment on 
 his shoulder. " It were better you did not." 
 
 I drank off the liquor it was brandy and as I did 
 so the priest watched me. " I had only just heard of 
 your misfortune," he said, " and I hurried here to 
 you. Can you walk a little way ? " 
 
 " I think so," I answered, " although I am weak yet, 
 
 but where am I ? Is this ? " I was going to ask 
 
 if it was hell, but checked myself. The priest smiled 
 .sadly he understood my meaning. "Yes, this is 
 Molokai Death s Valley," he said, "and those 
 whom you see here are really but the dead alive." 
 
 He turned and spoke a few words in Hawaiian to 
 the hideous things about me, and they slowly moved 
 away, talking unconcernedly and merrily, in shrill, 
 discordant voices. 
 
 " You say this is Molokai," I said, " the asylum of 
 the lepers. But how did I come here ? I cannot 
 remember." 
 
 " You were upset in a canoe," said the priest, " and 
 
220 
 
 brought here by the crew, who swam ashore. They 
 thought you were dead." 
 
 The whole affair flashed through my mind. " But 
 where is Kapana ? " I asked. " Was he drowned ? " 
 
 " If Kapana is the alii who was with you, he is still 
 alive," said the priest ; " but did you know he was a 
 leper ? Just now he seems a little insane lepers are 
 sometimes afflicted in that way at certain stages of 
 the disease. But let us go to my house slowly 
 this way, M sieu voila ! " 
 
 And off we started together at a very slow pace, 
 towards a group of houses that stood a half-mile back 
 from the sea. As rny strength and confidence gradually 
 returned to me, I was able to take note of my sur 
 roundings. I found myself upon a point of land of 
 triangular shape, two sides being bounded by the sea ; 
 the other, or base, was formed by the wall of rock 
 already spoken of. The triangle was a high plateau, 
 that stood straight up a hundred feet from the water, 
 except at two places, where short strips of sand formed 
 landing places. The area of the triangle was about 
 ten square miles, I should say, and sloped gently up 
 wards towards the centre. Here rose a high, rocky 
 mound, perhaps a quarter mile in diameter, forming 
 the extinct crater of the volcano of Kohukoo, its black 
 rocks yet undraped in green. But the sloping plains 
 about the crater were bright in the luxuriant vege 
 tation of the orange, bread-fruit, banana, fig and palm 
 trees. The manienie grass clothed the earth with a 
 tight-fitting garment, while the flowers were every 
 where. It was a truly noble sight, and made me for 
 get for a moment where I was. But only for a mo- 
 
EEMINISCENCE. 221 
 
 >ment. The very voice even of ray companion told 
 me that I was in the company of a leper, and reminded 
 me that this spot was occupied only by the human 
 outcasts of the world. As we walked toward a little 
 group of white cottages, the good priest, in a few 
 words, gave me an account of himself and the place. 
 He had landed on Molokai, he said, in September, 
 1873, having come from Belgium here. 
 
 Had M sieu ever been in Anvers in Antwerp? 
 Yes ? Ah ! then he had seen the Cathedral there ; did 
 not M sieu think it the finest Cathedral in all Europe ? 
 That spire, so light, so graceful and slender, yet so 
 strong. And then that sweet carillon of bells ! What 
 is that like more than an angel s harp ! And did not 
 M sieu recollect those two paintings by Rubens ? Ah, 
 si magnifique ! (he crossed himself), the Elevation and 
 the Descent from the Cross. And the old fountain in 
 front of the Cathedral, that brave Quentin Matsys 
 made, and but pardon, this was silly in him. But 
 he had once been a priest in that same grand old 
 Anvers Cathedral, and when he met some one who had 
 seen it, and its pictures and and its delicate spire 
 there is nothing in the world more beautiful, is there 
 M sieu ? he could not help it it seemed as if he 
 were once more there. Jesu ! but it was a blessed 
 place ! And now he had other things to do besides 
 dreaming. 
 
 He had come to Molokai, he said, because he be 
 lieved it his duty as a priest. He had left the old 
 world s comforts and its chances of preferment, to carry 
 God s word and the promise of Salvation in Christ unto 
 these poor people. And M sieu can see that they need 
 
222 MOLOKAI- 
 
 comfort spiritual, since they cannot have comfort 
 physical. 
 
 " Do they live long, these lepers, M sieu asks ? 
 Mais oui helas yes, only too long ; it is sluggish dis 
 ease ; all the more dreadful for that. Sometimes they 
 will be lepers twenty years and not die, yet growing 
 more horrible every day. Still, it is a mercy that 
 they gradually loose their sensitiveness ; the disease 
 deadens all their susceptibilities. 
 
 " M sieu asks my name ! A thousand pardons, I 
 should have told it before. They call me Father 
 Damien ; it is my priestly name, as M sieu of course 
 understands. 
 
 " ~No one can imagine the dread I had of coming here 
 in the first place, M sieu. Again and again my heart 
 failed me ; I felt like an irresolute man about to com 
 mit suicide. Arid yet, even while I halted, I knew I 
 should go, for I was ordered by a more than Earthly 
 power, and although my weak flesh protested yet I 
 came. I knew I was going to a living death ; that I 
 was forever giving up the world, but a Jesuit priest 
 must have no thought or fear of such things. 
 
 " Have I succeeded in my labors to my hopes, M sieu 
 asks ? No no one ever quite does that, but that I 
 have done good here I m sure I can say. Yoyez r 
 M sieu : I have built me two small churches ; I have 
 established two schools for leper children ; I have 
 preached the word to these poor wretches ; I have 
 taught morality and cleanliness, and brought some 
 little order out of the former confusion. It is small, 
 what I have done, but it is something. When I came 
 here in 1873 I found eight hundred unfortunates, liv- 
 
THE MISSION OF THE SACKED HEAET. 223 
 
 ing together in inconceivable wretchedness. The 
 dead were buried without ceremony, in shallow 
 nameless graves ; the dying passed away without 
 absolution. ISTow we have a hospital, in which the 
 poor can come to die ; they go not hence un r 
 shriven, nor are they buried without the rights 
 of the church. God knows my work has been 
 imperfect, but I have done my best, and when 
 my turn comes I shall be ready." 
 
 I was wonderfully impressed with his manner and 
 with himself. Since the Christian era began I could 
 think of few nobler instances of self-sacrifice than this 
 of which he spoke so quietly. Men had given up their 
 lives for country or for others, but none had deliber 
 ately walked into the mouth of a yawning grave, as 
 this priest had solely actuated by the desire to help 
 others knowing that in time he too must contract the 
 dreadful evil and himself become like the loathsome 
 objects about him. To a sensitive man such as he 
 was there could be no greater torture than to see, 
 in the hideous faces that he looked upon every day, 
 the pictures of what he soon must be himself. He 
 had buried himself alive when he landed on Molokai, 
 and went to face a death that might be prolonged for 
 many years. If ever a martyr deserved to be canon 
 ized, this Father Damien did, I thought. 
 
 By this time, in spite of our slow progress, we had 
 reached a little wooden church, whose short spire I 
 had seen far out at sea. It was painted white, and 
 the bright clean appearance of the building and the 
 grounds about it, was noticeable. Facing it, and a 
 hundred feet away, was a small, two-story cottage, also 
 
224: 
 
 painted white, and with windows and doors shaded by 
 green blinds. Entering, I found the cottage consisted 
 of two rooms, scrupulously clean, but with bare floors, 
 and walls unadorned except by some pictures of Catho 
 lic Saints, and a shelf, upon which stood a few well- 
 worn books. A couch in one corner and two rough 
 chairs comprised all the furniture. 
 
 " If M sieu will come this way," said the priest, " I 
 will show him how to get dinner. Although it may 
 seem inhospitable, it would not be prudent for me 
 to prepare the food I being a leper but M sieu 
 will find plenty of fruit, oranges, bananas and figs, that 
 are clean and untainted, and perhaps the juice of a 
 cocoanut, if he wishes it. Meantime I will attend to 
 one or two little duties and then we will talk more, 
 for it is a greater pleasure than I can express, to meet 
 one with whom I can converse." 
 
 As I sat eating the oranges and bananas, I suddenly 
 thought of Kapana again, and when the priest returned, 
 I asked about him. 
 
 " If you mean the alii you were speaking of before," 
 he answered, " he is alive, but he seems to be some 
 what affected mentally. I believe I told you he was a 
 leper." I bowed ; I knew that before. " I think 
 he has been brooding over his misfortunes so long that 
 his mind has become unbalanced. It sometimes 
 affects them so, though usually the Hawaiiaris are 
 too ignorant and thoughtless to care about anything 
 whatever. But this Kapana was a man of good 
 ability once. All the other men in the canoe were 
 saved of course ; it is impossible to drown a Hawaiian. 
 Two of them are already lepers, though in the first 
 
KALAWAO. 225 
 
 stages ; the other six are as yet clean, but such is their 
 indifference to the disease that they have decided to 
 stay here upon Molokai. But if M sieu is not too 
 tired, we might walk out a little way over the land ; 
 we can then see something of this place. But first 
 let me tell you something of it." 
 
 " This point we are on," he said, " is the Leper Set 
 tlement of Kalawao. It is practically inaccessible, 
 except by water, being bounded on two sides by the 
 sea and on the third by the pali. To this place are 
 sent all lepers, as fast as the Health officers of the 
 Government discover them. Once here there is no 
 escape for them but death. There have been landed 
 on this point, since the establishment of the Colony, 
 twenty years ago, 3,101 lepers of whom 1,985 were 
 males and 1,116 females. There are alive to-day 689, 
 showing that 2,412 have died of the disease in twenty 
 years. M sieu asks if there are but eight hundred 
 cases of leprosy in all Hawaii. Ah no ! There are 
 many more cases than that, four or five hundred per 
 haps, but they are not known. The natives have no 
 fear of the disease, and will conceal a leper from the 
 officers, by hiding him in the forests, or under mats, 
 until the risk of detection is past. I tell you M sieu, 
 leprosy lurks in the green forests of Hawaii, just as 
 the serpent lies hid in the grass. 
 
 " Each leper is supplied by the Government* with 
 weekly rations," continued the priest, " consisting of 
 twenty-one pounds ofpoi, or rice andjpoi, and seven 
 
 *The biennial appropriation by the Hawaiian Government for the care 
 of the lepers is $100,000, but this is insufficient and should be largely in 
 creased. 
 
226 
 
 pounds of beef or mutton, besides a certain quantity 
 of milk, kerosene oil, and soap, and a small supply of 
 clothing. Those who have the means often build 
 houses for themselves ; those who are poor are housed 
 by the Government. There is a hospital, established 
 for the reception of the worst cases, and it is here 
 that the lepers come, one by one, to die. As M sieu 
 can see, there are two villages on the point, the one at 
 the northern side is called Kalaupapa ; the other on the 
 southern is called Kalawao. It is at Kalaupapa that the 
 steamer lands, once in six weeks, and this is our only 
 means of communication with the world." 
 
 " And now let us see for ourselves what there is in 
 Kalawao. En avant, M sieu ! " he said, smiling to 
 hear himself use such a military expression. And 
 picking up his staff and hat, he and I went out 
 together. 
 
 A little way from his cottage we passed a group of 
 children playing. Some were clean, but many bore 
 upon their bodies the unmistakable signs of the dread 
 ful plague. " It is the pitifullest sight," said the 
 good man " to see these tiny children, all suffering 
 from the curse, visited upon them for no fault of their 
 own. Allons M sieu ! there is worse coming." 
 
 As we walked slowly along, we saw advancing 
 towards us, two figures, and as we neared them I per 
 ceived one of them to be Kapana ; the other was a 
 woman. She was dressed in the native lioloku of red 
 cotton cloth, and it was not until we were quite near 
 that I perceived her dreadful appearance. Her face 
 was seamed and riven with the leprosy. One ear 
 had been eaten away ; one eye was sightless. Her 
 
THE ROSE OF MAUNAWILILO. 227 
 
 right arm was twisted and shrunken ; her fingers 
 were claw-like and paralyzed, while wretched sores 
 appeared upon her hands. Her hair was turned to a 
 yellowish white, her eye-brows were gone, and her 
 lips were raw and bloody. As if to accentuate her 
 dreadful appearance, about her neck, swollen with 
 the sores and scales of leprosy, she wore leis of bright 
 yellow and red flowers, and in her hair her horrible, 
 snaky hair roses. 
 
 " Ah, ha ! hooaloha ! " cried Kapana as soon as he 
 saw me. " And so here you are ! And you were not 
 drowned after all ! Never mind, there is no hurry 
 about dying. You ve heard of Kola, my wife ? Well, 
 this is she." The horrible figure made a grotesque 
 curtesy and in a shrill voice cried: " Aloha oe ! " and 
 extended her hand as if to shake mine. But I shrank 
 away from the disgusting contact with fear. Kapana 
 laughed harshly. 
 
 u Ah, ha ! he cried, "so you are afraid she will de 
 file you, are you ? You who are so clean ! Are you 
 not glad I brought you here ? And is not my Kola 
 beautiful ? " and again he laughed discordantly, while 
 the thing by his side echoed it shrilly. He touched 
 his finger to her seared cheek. " See ! " he said, " here 
 is the Rose of Maunawililo ; it was to my Kola that 
 that song was written. Don t you remember? 
 
 " The wild winds kiss the sweet red lips 
 Of thy petals rare and ripe, fair Rose. 
 
 "Look now at her sweet red lips?" and he pointed 
 to her seared cheeks, and grinned horribly. 
 
 I turned away in disgust at Kapana and his words, 
 and followed the priest down the path. A few rods 
 
228 MOLOKAI DEATH S VALLEY. 
 
 beyond we entered the hospital inclosure. The hos 
 pital consisted of a dozen detached cottages, cleanly 
 whitewashed, outside and in. Within the buildings 
 were 48 patients, 28 males and 20 females, all momently 
 expecting to die, yet dreading death most strangely. 
 Never have I beheld such sights as I saw there. Of all 
 the sickening and repulsive libels and hideous carica 
 tures upon the human face and form that I had before 
 looked upon, none compared with these new sights 
 in the hospital. Here I saw those about to die ; those 
 whom the dreadful disease had at last almost con 
 quered. If one can imagine the appearance of a corpse 
 exhumed after being a week buried he may have an 
 idea of some of the lepers slowly dying in the hospital 
 at Kalawao. On every hand was Death, in its most 
 horrible shapes. There was nothing peaceful nothing 
 hopeful everything was as dreadful as it could be ; 
 worse than I had before thought possible. It seemed 
 like looking into some tomb, and throughout all the 
 rooms there prevaded the peculiar sickening odor of 
 the grave, that but added to this impression. Here was 
 what had been a pretty child of ten ; now a loathsome, 
 rotting mass. There lay the putrefying, yet breathing 
 remains of what one time had been a young maiden. 
 All ages were there in the hospital, from the child 
 of a few years, to the old man of seventy, yet 
 all so dreadfully disfigured by the disease as to be in 
 distinguishable one from the other. 
 
 The horrors of Dante s Inferno, I believe, were out 
 done by the sights in the hospital. Death ! death ! 
 death ! on every side. Not that quiet, peaceful death, 
 where the smiling soul glides away into space and 
 
THE PEIEST S ADVICE. 229^ 
 
 leaves a benediction on the frame that so long gave 
 it shelter. No here everything was frightful. It 
 seemed as if the body had long since died, and that 
 life was lingering in a corpse unburied, u whose only 
 duty was to die," and yet which could not. Through 
 the rooms blew the soft air from off the warm ocean, 
 but it could not purify the corruption there. Outside, 
 the land was gay with the most brilliant flowers and 
 luxuriant vegetation ; everything was bright and fresh 
 and clean within everything was foul and hideous. 
 Why could not these things die and hide their corrup 
 tion out of sight. " For this corruptible must put on 
 incorruption" it were a mercy to all if they did 
 now. The contrast between the fresh glories of the 
 tropical vegetation without, and the horrors of the 
 dying within was indescribable. 
 
 As the priest and I were walking through the 
 buildings, a native attendant approached and spoke to 
 him in the Hawaiian tongue. He turned to me 
 and said : 
 
 " He tells me that one of the lepers is dying and I 
 must go to him. Will you not return to my house 
 and await me there? I shall not be long." 
 
 It was with a feeling of immense relief that I turned 
 away from that Chamber of Horrors and hurried 
 back to the cottage, hardly daring to look behind me. 
 lest I should see myself followed by some inquisitive, 
 corpse : and I took my seat on the veranda of the, 
 priest s house, thankful that I had seen the last of 
 those sights, which I cannot forget, and yetj which I 
 am thankful my pen cannot accurately describe. 
 
230 
 
 III. 
 
 "Now, M sieu," said the priest, as he rejoined me, 
 " the first thing we must think about is how to get 
 you away from this dreadful place. I believe I am 
 consulting your own wishes when I say this, for no one 
 would stay here long unlesss " here he smiled sadly 
 "unless he has work to do. God sent me here to 
 labor among these unfortunates, and now I am my 
 self afflicted. Yet I looked for this when I came ; 
 I knew it would surely happen, and so I am not cast 
 down. I shall labor here until the end cometh but 
 this is not what I wanted to talk about." 
 
 He paused for a minute, then slowly continued : 
 " No, M sieu, you must not tarry. Every moment that 
 you pass here is fraught with danger to you. There 
 is pollution everywhere. You have to-day seen what 
 a dreadful curse this leprosy is ; do not, I beg you, 
 stay here and run the risk of contagion." His voice 
 shook a little with the earnestness of his words, and 
 he paused a moment. 
 
 "Do not think me inhospitable, M sieu, in thus urg 
 ing you away, for a slow and horrible death inevitably 
 awaits you if you linger." 
 
 I could not help feeling moved by the good priest s 
 words and manner, and I assured him that I wished, 
 above all things, to escape from the place. I was 
 sick, soul and body, with the awful sights I had that 
 day seen many so dreadful as to be indescribable on 
 these pages, and of which I have not even dared to 
 hint. ~No grave or charnel house could have offered 
 more horrors than I saw on Molokai. 
 
THE WAY OUT. 231 
 
 " You may leave by the Government steamer, 
 M sieu," continued the priest, " but unfortunately she 
 will not be here again in five or six weeks perhaps 
 longer." 
 
 " Is there no other way, then ? " I asked. " Must I 
 stay here six weeks ? Is there no small boat in which 
 I can sail to Maui ? " 
 
 " None," said the priest. " No boat but the Gov 
 ernment vessel is allowed to land or leave here ; the 
 lepers are forbidden to own canoes and indeed, they 
 are all too feeble to handle them. But there is another 
 way by which you can leave, though it is very difficult 
 and dangerous." 
 
 " It cannot be more dangerous than living here six 
 weeks," I said. 
 
 " No," answered the priest, " that is so ; it is not. 
 You must climb to the main part of the island, by 
 ascending that cliff. Once at its summit you can 
 easily reach the village of Hulahoke. The steamer 
 Likelike touches there every two weeks, and on her 
 you can embark for Honolulu or Lahaina." 
 
 " But," said I, " I cannot fly and so I can never 
 scale that precipice that rises three thousand feet 
 straight up." 
 
 " There is a slender path up the pali" said the 
 priest. " It is a very insecure one, the more so now 
 since a recent earthquake has rent the face of the 
 cliff. Still, I think you can scale it, if you are will 
 ing to try." 
 
 "lam willing to try anything," I said earnestly. 
 " I must leave this spot, for I believe I should lose my 
 reason if I were to stay here a month." 
 
232 
 
 The priest smiled faintly. "Yes, M sieu, you 
 are quite right ! It would be wicked to rest here 
 unless you have work to do. Yes you must go, but 
 not to-night. See ! the sun is almost set ; it will be 
 dark soon and no one can venture along the face of 
 the pali save in the clear light of day. To-morrow, 
 at sunrise, you shall start, and I will send with you a 
 native as a guide He is not a leper yet, though he 
 lives here on Kalawao, where his ancestors have lived 
 for many generations. Before long the curse will 
 smite him it is as inevitable as death itself but as 
 yet he is clean." 
 
 As the westering sun slowly sank into the sea, the 
 air which had been very hot all day grew cooler, and 
 the soft trade-winds blew a refreshing draught 
 through the cottage. We moved our chairs out upon 
 the narrow veranda, and sat there awhile in silence. 
 The long rolling surges of the Pacific beat with a 
 ceaseless shock against the black rocks that formed 
 the point. About us on every hand grew trees and 
 flowers, with the splendid profusion of the tropics. 
 The land glowed in its bright dress of warm colors or 
 looked fresh in the cool green of grass and leaf. In 
 front of the cottage stood a cluster of palms, their 
 tops waving softly in the breezes, and between their 
 slender trunks we saw the sea, red in the evening 
 light. Just as the sun touched the water the bell 
 in the little church tower tolled musically, and the 
 priest arose : 
 
 " M sieu will excuse me," he said; " but it is sun 
 set, and at this hour I hold a service in my chapel. 
 But perhaps M sieu will care to go ? " 
 
OEA PRO NOBIS. 233 
 
 " Above all things ! " I said, and followed him into 
 the little chapel. 
 
 It was a beautiful sight to see the good Father that 
 evening, and to note the earnestness and devoutness 
 with which he conducted the splendid services of his 
 church. Yet it seemed like a Mass in Purgatory to me, 
 when I looked about on the congregation assem 
 bled there. For every one had been stricken every 
 one was doomed, and upon the bodies of each were 
 the dreadful signs of their coming fate. Hands, fin 
 gers, feet sometimes were gone; cheeks were festering, 
 lips were raw and bleeding ; voices were harsh and dis 
 cordant. 
 
 Among the worshipers were everywhere the evi 
 dences of approaching death. I saw children of 
 tender ages, upon whose elfish, wizened faces were 
 deep scars and furrows and blistering sores. Then 
 youths and maidens, who should have been enjoying 
 the health and beauty of happy lives, but who stood 
 there upon the edges of too early, and yet too tardy 
 graves. And old men and women, whose twilight of 
 life was black midnight, as mournful and sad as can 
 be imagined. But why go on ? I am only repeating 
 what I have already written dwelling upon horrors 
 that are better forgotten. 
 
 As I sat there in the slowly waning light, surround 
 ed by these repulsive remnants of humanity, the scene 
 was ghastly and fearful. And when I heard the 
 priest chant his Orapro nobis, I felt that if ever a 
 prayer were answered his would be. 
 
 It was with a feeling of relief and thankfulness that 
 I stepped out into the fresh air again, and felt the soft 
 
234 
 
 wind blowing upon my face, and caught the sweet 
 perfume of the flowers that grew about the cottage. 
 Yery late that night did the good Father and I sit 
 up, talking of many things, or looking off at the white 
 sea. For a while I was alone, the priest having been 
 called away to see some poor creature whose death was 
 happily near. And in his absence my thoughts were of 
 him and his noble martyrdom. Who says this is not 
 the age of gallant deeds? I thought. Who says men 
 are less brave than of old ? " Greater love hath no 
 man than this, that a man will lay down his life for his 
 friend," said Christ. And men are doing this every 
 day; in battle, in shipwreck, in burning building, 
 in engine-cab, where a moment s tarrying means 
 death to the engineer and life to the passengers be 
 hind him. We read of such deeds constantly. But 
 this act of Father Damien s is of a higher order than 
 those, for he has thoughtfully and cheerfully entered 
 this Yalley of the Shadow of Death, 
 
 " Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 
 Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind," 
 
 and knowingly stepped into the open grave. And his 
 heroism seems all the more splendid, when one thinks 
 that he went to Molokai, strong in body and active in 
 brain ; in every way one whom the world would have 
 welcomed, for graces both of person and of mind ; in 
 every way one for whom the world had charms. And 
 this man had come to this foul spot, under every stone of 
 which is hidden the curse, solely actuated by his belief 
 in a future life, and that it was his mission to point 
 out to these afflicted people the way to salvation. The 
 thought returned to me with increasing force, how 
 
NIGHT AT KALAWAO. 235 
 
 dreadful it must be to him to daily see in the 
 hideous faces and corrupted bodies, the pictures of 
 what he soon must be, and to know that for years he 
 will linger thus, growing daily worse; longing for 
 that day s sun that shall see the kindly earth close over 
 him, and for that moment when he shall stand forth 
 clean and pure and take his place high among the 
 saints. 
 
 When at length the priest returned to the cottage, 
 lie sank down wearily in his chair. " Each day I find 
 I lose my strength, he said. " When I first carne 
 here I could work the day long and not tire ; now the 
 smallest exertion wearies me. Et maintenant je suis 
 bien faible." 
 
 The night was a perfect one. In front of us stood 
 the palms, their leafy tops swaying in the breeze ; be 
 yond them was the white moonlit sea. Save for the 
 dull noise of the waves on the rocks and the mourn- 
 full note of some singer whose voice was happily 
 softened by the distance we heard no sound. |The 
 little cottage w r as embowered in flowers, and the whole 
 scene was one of as much beauty as that I had looked 
 upon at Lahaina the night before. Yet there I had 
 been surrounded by men and women in perfect health; 
 the men handsome, stalwart, manly; the women as 
 beautiful as women could be. Here at Kalawao I 
 had seen no man or woman who was not far uglier 
 than death; hideous, revolting libels on humanity, 
 very one. 
 
 As the sun rose next morning I stood ready to start 
 to climb out of the Dreadful Yalley, into which I had 
 so strangely and unwillingly entered. Since my first 
 
236 
 
 meeting with Kapana I had not seen him. So many 
 things had occupied my mind that I had forgotten 
 him, or if I thought of him at all, it was merely as a 
 leper one of a full six hundred. And since he had 
 not come near me again, I believed he had forgotten 
 me, which I did not regret. 
 
 I was accompanied on my way to the foot of the 
 pali, which I was to scale, by Father Damien and a 
 young native, Upala by name. He was a descendant 
 of the original dwellers on Kalawao an alii or chief 
 and the only one remaining. He was a man of 
 great size, and proportionately strong. Since he knew 
 no English and I but little Hawaiian, our conversation 
 was necessarily limited. As we approached the tre 
 mendous cliff it looked absolutely impregnable. For 
 a few hundred feet above its base, it was clothed in 
 a dense garment of green, but beyond that rose a 
 blank wall in which I could see no mark nor crevice. 
 At the foot of the pali, Upala, who was leading, 
 turned abruptly to the left and skirted along its base- 
 until he came to what looked like an irregular flight of 
 steps, hewn in the solid rock. Here we halted and 
 waited for the priest, who followed painfully and 
 slowly. 
 
 " Now M sieu," he said, as soon as he could recover 
 hiScbreath, ".we must part. I am very thankful for 
 this brief visit ; it has given me great pleasure, but 
 you must go." I held out my hand to him. 
 
 " No, my son," he said, shaking his head sadly. 
 " You must not touch me; but I give you my blessing, 
 and I rejoice that I can send one out of Molokai who 
 is not unclean. Say to the beautiful world you are 
 
UP THE PALI. 237 
 
 going back to, that I arn doing Christ s work here, 
 and that I am happy in that work. Say that the holy 
 message of the church daily carries comfort to these 
 poor doomed wretches. And now, adieu ; Pax 
 vobis cum ! " and he was gone.* 
 
 Once out of the grove, we halted to rest, for the 
 sun was already hot and scorching. Then I perceived 
 -a narrow, zig-zag mark on the face of the wall, which 
 was the path we were to follow. At first the ascent 
 was easy, not steep nor perilous ; then it grew more 
 difficult, broken by ragged steps, or the path sloped 
 away from the face of the cliff, until it seemed to 
 give no hold for hand or foot. More and more slowly we 
 went ; once we came to an abrupt termination of the 
 path a wall of rock rose in front of us. But we 
 surmounted this in some way, how I cannot now 
 recollect, and then paused to rest. 
 
 At first I dared not look over the edge, but in a few 
 minutes my nerves became adjusted to the situation, and 
 I enjoyed the sight. We were half way up ihepali, 
 fifteen hundred feet in the air. Off in the shadowy 
 distance, I could see Maui, but that was all that 
 
 * The splendid self-sacrifice of Father Damien is only one of many 
 instances of this kind. Twelve sisters of the Franciscan Convent of 
 St. Anthony, at Syracuse, N. Y., have gone to Hawaii within the last 
 three years, and have devoted their lives to this work. Seven of them, 
 Mother Marianne and Sisters Crescentia, Martha, Leopoldina, Carolina, 
 Irene and Cyrilla are now living in Honolulu, in charge of the Leper 
 Hospital and the Kapiolani Home for leper children. Four of them, 
 Sisters Bonaventura, Renata, Ludovica and Benedicta are at the Malu- 
 lani Hospital, at Wailuku, on the island of Maui. The twelfth, Sister 
 Antonella, is dead. The work these noble women are accomplishing is 
 beyond praise. They have not been permitted to go to Molokai, though 
 the writer was told by one of them that she was willing and anxious to 
 do so, and only waited the consent of her Superior. 
 
238 
 
 specked the blue expanse of water. Below was the- 
 triangle of land, its outlines sharply defined by the 
 black rocks that formed its boundaries. Two clusters 
 of tiny white houses marked the leper villages of 
 Kalawao and Kalaupapa. Near the centre of the 
 triangle was a great yawning hole, its black sides 
 uncovered with green. This was the dead crater 
 of Kahukoo, and as the shadows just then fell upon it, 
 it seemed to be bottomless a fit burial-place for the 
 lepers. Here and tnere I could see moving specks, 
 but a merciful distance at last veiled their hideousness. 
 
 Up and up we went once more ; the path grew nar 
 rower and more slippery. Once I should have fallen 
 if Upala had not caught my arm. I shuddered as I 
 saw the huge piece of rock on which I had been stand 
 ing slip away from the wall and plunge into the abyss 
 beneath. I waited in vain to hear it strike ; we were 
 too far above it for the sound to reach us, for we were 
 suspended mid-way between sea and sky. The higher 
 we went the further off seemed the summit, and the 
 more fearful the gulf below looked. Nothing but 
 the horror of returning again into the Dreadful 
 Yalley drove me on. 
 
 At last we reached the top, hot, parched and 
 trembling with weakness. If it had been twenty 
 feet further I should never have succeeded. Even 
 Upala, accustomed as he was to such work he had 
 ascended and decended ihepali hundreds of times 
 was completely exhausted. To add to our discomfort 
 Jhe sun which had all along been shining hotly, was 
 suddenly obscured, and a hard rain set in. We were 
 enveloped in mist, and the Dreadful Valley below us 
 
BACK AT LAHAINA. 239 
 
 was shut out of sight. I was not sorry ; I had seen 
 enough of it and its horrors. If I could only forget 
 everything about it but the memory of its guardian 
 angel, Father Damien ! 
 
 At five that afternoon we reached Hulahoke, and 
 two days later I was again carried through the surf at 
 Lahaina in a canoe but this time I was alone. 
 
 IY. 
 
 "And so you ve spent the last week in travel, Jack ! " 
 said the Doctor to me, as once again I found myself 
 seated at the Colonel s dinner table. " Well, and 
 where have you been and what have you seen, if I 
 may presume to ask ? " 
 
 " I have walked through the Valley of Death," I 
 said, " and I have seen the Serpent in Paradise." 
 
 Somehow, I did not feel like telling my story that 
 evening, though urged by the Doctor to do so. Every 
 thing was too fresh in my mind ; the sights I had 
 lately seen I remembered so vividly that I could not 
 then describe them without a return of the same hor 
 ror I felt as I looked upon the lepers. And so it was 
 but a short time before we rose and went out into the 
 open air. As we stepped upon the veranda, Van 
 took my arm and led me off into a dark corner. 
 
 "Jack!" he said seriously, "I ve got something to say 
 to you, and this is my first chance. Do you know I 
 don t believe there is any serpent here ; this place is 
 a pure, unadulterated Eden. Look there if you don t 
 believe me." 
 
 I turned and saw the ladies, as once before I had 
 seen them, seated just where the moonlight touched 
 
240 
 
 their white dresses and soft rounded shoulders ; I saw 
 the leis about their necks and the roses in their hair, 
 but I did not see, as I almost feared I should, the glassy 
 eyes and heavy brows of Kapana. As we stood there, 
 looking on the fair sight, one of the group turned her 
 head, as if to look at us, and the moonlight showed the 
 lovely face of Louise. 
 
 " And Jack ! " whispered Yan earnestly ; " see 
 there ! Didn t I tell you ! She Louise some day 
 will that is Jack we re engaged ! " 
 
 Faith, I didn t wonder then that Yan thought La- 
 haina the new Paradise ; so should I if I had been in 
 his place, or if I could only have forgotton Molokai. 
 
 " And Jack ! " he continued ; " there is something 
 else. Do you know, old man, you ve changed tre 
 mendously since the other day. Seem to have grown 
 older. You can t be in love for that makes a man 
 feel young. I can almost fancy myself a young man 
 to-night." (The venerable speaker was in his twenty- 
 second year). " I wonder if you know how white your 
 hair is." 
 
 " By the way, Jack ! " said the Doctor, as Yan and I 
 returned to our chairs; "there s one thing you cer 
 tainly can tell us. What has become of Kapana ? 
 The ladies are anxious to know." 
 
 But even that I could not tell them then. 
 
XIII. THE HOIK OF EVERLASTING FIRE. 
 
 FIRST LEGEND. 
 
 An ancient Hawaiian legend* relates, that : " Once 
 upon a time the wicked goddess Pele dwelt in the fiery 
 lake of Hale-mau-mau, Home of Everlasting Fire, in 
 the volcano of Kilauea. Here in the midst of the 
 flames she held her court, surrounded by her atten 
 dant sprites; the unearthly noises of the burning 
 mass were the music of their dances and revelry, and 
 they bathed in the red surf of the fiery billows that 
 dashed against the sides of the crater. 
 
 " Pele was the chief goddess. Her principal fol 
 lowers were Ka-ma-hu-alii, King of Steam; Ka-poha- 
 i-JcaJii-ola, King of the Explosions in the Palace of 
 Life ; Ke-ua-Tte-po, god of the Night Rains ; Kane- 
 hekili, god of Thunder and Ke-o-ahikama-kaua, 
 Fire-Thrusting Child of War. These were brothers, 
 and like Vulcan, two of them were deformed. 
 Makole-wawahi-waa, Fiery -eyed Canoe-breaker; Ili- 
 aJca-wawahi-lani, Heaven-dwelling Cloud-breaker, 
 and several others of longer names and similar defin 
 itions. These latter were sisters. 
 
 " The whole family were regarded with the great 
 est awe. The volcano was their principal residence, 
 but occasionally they renovated their constitutions 
 
 * Jarves History of the Hawaiian Islands. 
 
 (241) 
 
242 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIKE. 
 
 amid the snows of the mountains. At such times 
 their journeys were accompanied by earthquakes, 
 eruptions, and heavy thunder and lightning. All were 
 malignant spirits, delighting in acts of vengeance and 
 destruction. The numerous eruptions with which the 
 island was devastated, were ascribed to their enmity. 
 "Pele was of a particularly vengeful disposition; 
 her greatest pleasure was to destroy, and often, with 
 out the slightest cause, she would turn loose her 
 dreadful messengers and ravage the land. The least 
 irregularity in her worship, a failure in the observ 
 ance of the smallest ceremony, was enough to precipi 
 tate death and destruction upon the people. The 
 natives were the slaves of her priests, a numerous and 
 wealthy body, who were held in the highest reverence, 
 and were thought to control the fires of the all-power 
 ful goddess. To insult them, break their taboo, or 
 neglect to send offerings was to call down certain 
 destruction. 
 
 " Pele had also a very implacable spirit, arid when 
 once aroused nothing but some great sacrifice would 
 appease her. Vast numbers of hogs were thrown into 
 the crater of Kilauea when any fear of an eruption 
 was entertained, or to stay one already begun. Offer 
 ings were annually made to keep her in good-humor, 
 and no traveler dared venture near her precincts with 
 out seeking her good will. 
 
 Often, ordinary sacrifices proved unavailing, and 
 human victims were offered up to mollify her devilish 
 anger ; and there is no tradition extant, wherein such 
 an offering is said to have proved unavailing. And 
 
HUMAN SACRIFICE. 
 
 the higher the rank of the victim the sooner was Pele 
 appeased. 
 
 Once the great King, Kamehameha I, sought to 
 check a vast river of lava flowing down from Mauna 
 Hualalai, and which was carrying destruction to all 
 the land. Many lives and much property had been 
 destroyed, and still the flow continued. Thereupon, 
 Kamehameha, attended by a large retinue of chiefs 
 and priests, approached the river, and having cut off 
 a piece of his own hair, threw it into the burning 
 lava, after proper incantations, and the flow stopped. 
 
 In Hawaii it is known to be true that the sacrifice 
 of a single victim of the rank of Alii or Chief, will 
 instantly check the most violent eruption, when every 
 other offering has failed to assuage Pele s anger. And 
 it is believed to this day, that the goddess dwells in 
 Hale-mau-mau, the Home of Everlasting Fire, and 
 that the earthquakes and eruptions that devastate the 
 land from time to time, are the evidences of her evil 
 disposition, excited by some slight or accident. 
 
 SECOND LEGEND. 
 
 Another legend runneth thus : Once upon a time 
 a good many thousand years ago, in fact volcanic 
 fires were burning upon all the Hawaiian islands. 
 Then there dwelt in the huge pit of Haleakala (House 
 of the Sun), upon the island of Maui, a fierce and 
 wicked demon, Wahokiho by name. This volcano of 
 Haleakala was the largest in the world, being more 
 than twenty-five miles in circumference, and filled to- 
 the very brim with molten lava. And while the 
 demon lived in the House of the Sun, Pele dwelt in, 
 
THE HOME OF EVEKLASTING FIRE. 
 
 the Home of Everlasting Fire, upon the adjacent 
 island of Hawaii. 
 
 Ever since the beginning of time these two evil 
 spirits had been bitter enemies, and each had striven 
 to overwhelm the other. Long before Man appeared 
 this contest raged, and language is taxed to describe 
 the terrible battles between the two, backed as they 
 were by the gigantic forces of the burning world, and 
 .-actuated by a fiercer than human hate. For hundreds 
 of years the combat lasted; the atmosphere was black 
 with dense, sulphurous clouds of smoke ; there was 
 no sun ; the ocean was boiling hot ; millions of tons 
 of molten lava were vomited forth, and in time the 
 Hawaiian islands were formed, built up from the bot 
 tom of the Pacific. 
 
 For a long time the struggle \vas a very even one, 
 but at length the demon, being a little the stronger, 
 began to get the better of the goddess. Then she, 
 f orseeing her inevitable destruction, begged for peace, 
 and sent a messenger to Wahokiho, acknowledging 
 his superior power, and praying him not to destroy 
 her. The demon replied that he would spare her if 
 -she would become his wife. At this Pele demurred, 
 for in the Hawaiian mythology, the rank of a god 
 dess is far above that of a demon. She took several 
 days to think over the matter, and Wahokiho, becom 
 ing impatient, renewed his attack. Thereupon Pele 
 hastily accepted his terms and married him. 
 
 As neither Wahokiho nor Pele were allowed to ap 
 pear upon the surface of the earth, the demon dug 
 for himself a tunnel, running under the sea, between 
 Haleaka and Hale-mau-mau, and through this passage 
 
A PANORAMA OF THE WORLD. 245- 
 
 he used to go, when visiting his own or his wife s 
 house. And the story relates that from the marriage 
 of the two dates the failing of the fires in the House 
 of the Sun. For, being no longer actuated by hatred 
 against Pele, and being, in point of fact, henpecked, 
 the demon neglected his duties as fireman, and little 
 by little Haleakala grew cold, until at last it died out 
 entirely. 
 
 Then Pele, having Wahokiho in her power, and 
 hating him worse than ever since she became his wife, 
 drove him out into the world, and he is believed to- 
 have perished miserably, for nothing was ever after 
 wards heard of him. 
 
 DESCRIPTION. 
 
 Upon the island of Hawaii is Hilo, its capital. As 
 we enter the mouth of the bay on which it stands, we 
 see before us a panorama of the whole world. The ca 
 noe in which we are seated floats upon the broad bosom 
 of the blue Pacific, that heaves in long, deep respira 
 tionssoundless until the waves finally break in surf 
 upon the beach. There we see groups of figures; 
 white men, half-bloods and natives ; some dressed in 
 European costumes, many only in their dusky skins. 
 They represent the three divisions of men civilized, 
 half-civilized and savage. 
 
 The town itself presents a delightful picture of a 
 tropical settlement. It is buried deep in foliage, and 
 but for a few gleaming spots of white, and three 
 church spires, spindling above them, one can hardly 
 believe there is a town there at all. 
 
 The land about Hilo gives forth fruits and flowers 
 with prodigal bounty. The plantations of sugar- 
 
24:6 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIEE. 
 
 cane are the finest in the world ; the kalo root grows 
 so abundantly that it is said the product of an acre of 
 ground made into poi will feed a thousand men 
 for a year. Bananas, oranges, and cocoa-nuts grow wild. 
 It rains almost daily in Hilo, for it is upon the wind 
 ward side of the island, where the moisture-laden 
 trade-winds reach it, and so, with the hot sun and 
 the wet and eager earth, vegetation is rank and pro 
 lific. 
 
 The eye, wandering over the scene, at first searches 
 in vain for something noticeable. A narrow strip of 
 white sand and a few dark figures, indistinctly outlin 
 ed against the back-ground of dense, tropical foliage 
 are all one sees. But behind the town, rising some 
 what steeply, are the rich lands and pastures of the 
 hill-sides. Here, as below, almost the only color is 
 green deep, rich and fresh. Then, looking upward 
 still further, we are attracted by two snow-covered 
 mountain peaks, nearly fourteen thousand feet above 
 us; Mauna Kea, the White Mountain, upon the 
 right, and Mauna Loa, the Great Mountain, upon the 
 left ; both often so veiled in clouds we cannot see 
 where the mountains end and the mists begin. 
 
 To the left of Mauna Loa, and ten thousand feet 
 below its summit, is the volcano of Kilauea, in which 
 is the Home of Everlasting Fire. When not hidden 
 behind the low-flying clouds of the trade-winds, we 
 see that Kilauea, by day, is surmounted by a pillar of 
 smoke, that rises up in air, until the breeze catches it 
 and drifts it away to leaward. By night the sky is 
 illumined by the glow from the fiery crater beneath ; 
 
FEOM THE EQUATOB TO THE POLE. 
 
 a great red canopy seems to be suspended from the 
 clouds and lends a gorgeous dressing to the scene. 
 
 The mystery of it all too, adds to the fascination, 
 for it is very unearthly to see, through the mists of a 
 dark, wet night, that dull glare up in the sky, and to 
 hear, above the boom of the surf that beats eternally 
 upon the beach, a long moaning sound, that some 
 times floats down the mountain slope. The natives 
 call it Pele s breathing. It is very strange, very un 
 canny, and one cannot hear it, even for the hun 
 dredth time, without starting. 
 
 Looking at the land from the bay then, we can go, 
 in imagination, from the equator to the pole in an in 
 stant. At the water s edge the sun burns with a 
 tropical fervor, and the air is moist and enervating. 
 Back from the coast we shall find the life and vege 
 tation of the temperate zones. There we northerners 
 put aside that slothful, languid feeling so oppressive 
 below. Farther up upon the summit of Mauna Kea 
 where the snow rests unmelted all the year round, 
 we shiver in the polar temperature of perpetual win 
 ter. In Hilo we wonder what is worse than too much 
 heat, and look longingly up at the snowy mountain ; 
 upon Mauna Kea we think regretfully of the warmth 
 of Hilo below. 
 
 Besides the general interest that every mountain 
 posseses for us, Mauna Loa has a mysterious and awful 
 attraction of its own. For festering in its side, like 
 vast leprous sores on a giant s body, are two huge 
 volcanos, the largest living fires in the world. Close 
 to the very apex of the mountain is the crater of Mo- 
 kuaweoweo, six miles in circumference ; and ten 
 
248 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIRE. 
 
 thousand feet below it is Kilanea, larger and fiercer 
 than the other, and within whose fiery precincts dwells 
 the wicked goddess, Pele. 
 
 One can form no idea of the awfulness of the deso 
 lation, of the horrible, ghastly ugliness of Kilauea, 
 until he has stood upon the brink of the crater and 
 looked down into it. There are no words, no matter 
 by whom put together, that can describe the scene ; 
 there are no colors, no matter how cunningly mixed 
 and spread, that can picture it. One needs the vast- 
 ness, the huge dreary emptiness of space ; the deathly 
 quiet, save for the hiss of steam and the curl of the 
 sulphurous smoke, that rises in thin columns out of 
 the crater, to accent the horrors of the place to the 
 full. 
 
 Riding up from the sea, one comes upon Kilauea 
 very suddenly. The path has led us past sugar and 
 coffee plantations and pasture lands ; over slopes of 
 rough ad lava, so ragged and jagged as to be absolute 
 ly impassable except along narrow paths hewn across 
 them. Then over expanses of pahoe-hoe lava, where 
 we have to pick a careful way, for the fields are seamed 
 and honey-combed with tunnels and subterranean 
 chambers. Once past these dangers, we enter a dense 
 forest, climb a steep incline, and pull up our horses 
 just in time to save ourselves from plunging into the 
 awful crater that yawns in misty expectancy at our 
 very feet. 
 
 At first we do not see it at its worst ; the extent of 
 its hideousness is mercifully hid by clouds. But 
 when at length these are slowly rolled aside, we look 
 upon a scene that is frightful in its malignant extent 
 
BY PELE S PIT. 249 
 
 and desolation. We behold a deep, elliptical pit, seven 
 miles around, walled in by cliffs, eight hundred feet 
 high. Everything before us is black as midnight, and 
 the rocks are so twisted and shattered and deformed 
 as to be absolutely hideous. A floor of black lava 
 covers the bottom of the crater, and here and there 
 through it rise columns of pestilential vapors, deadly 
 to life. It is a picture of fearful desolation, of death 
 materialized ; yet back from the edge a little way 
 vegetation grows rankly and densely. It is but one 
 more of the amazing contrasts one sees in Hawaii. 
 Kilauea has the same place in a landscape that the 
 leper would have in a genre picture. 
 
 As if to magnify the ugliness of the crater, we have 
 but to turn our backs to the pit and look upon the 
 magnificent white dome of Mauna Loa, or farther 
 away and more dimly seen, the summit of Mauna Kea, 
 both gleaning white and pure in the sunlight. 
 
 It is at night that Kilauea is seen at its best, for 
 then the darkness hides the black hole, and conceals 
 the vastness of the huge caldera. But by night or day 
 we hear the sighing of the wind among the sharp 
 rocks ; the faint hiss of steam and that occasional 
 moaning sound, the breathing of Pele, that each time 
 blanches our cheeks and makes us start in nervous 
 fear. A little tremble of the earth, a sound as of 
 some giant gasping for breath, a pause, and then that 
 long shuddering sigh followed by a moment of ab 
 solute silence, that is even more fearful than the 
 sounds ; and the whistling of the winds and the hiss 
 of steam begins again. 
 
250 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIRE. 
 
 When night falls upon the mountain, we have sight 
 for but one thing in Lau Pele (Pele s Pit) and 
 that is the Home of Everlasting Fire wherein 
 dwells the goddess. There are other pools of molten 
 lava within the precincts of the pit, but this, Hale-mau- 
 mau, is the one of them all. It is a long and danger 
 ous journey there across the thin lava floor of the 
 crater. Great cracks yawn beneath our feet, leading 
 down, perhaps, to the end of Infinity. The lava be 
 comes so hot that our feet are blistered, the rain that 
 is falling becomes steam ; yet still we keep on, until 
 we reach a jagged wail of lava that extends across 
 our path. Slowly and painfully we climb this and 
 then face to face we stand with the most awful sight 
 in this world. For we see nothing but the red blazes 
 of the Everlasting Fire. It is in front of us, to the 
 right and to the left of us. Instinctively we look 
 back, thinking we must be surrounded by fire, and 
 are half disappointed at finding only black space there. 
 
 At first the surface of the molten lava is smooth 
 and glowing, but even as we look it breaks forth into 
 violent motion ; now surging this way, now that, in 
 great red billows. Then, for an instant, it lulls, and 
 there comes to us that long deep sigh of Pele s 
 breathing, doubly startling, now that we are standing 
 on the very threshhold of her House of Fire. 
 
 When this sound has swept past us, down the 
 mountain, the lake once more becomes agitated, as by 
 a storm. The force of the billows of lava is tremen 
 dous ; they sway in long waves, poise themselves for 
 an instant to gather fresh force, then rush onward and 
 dash against the red-hot walls of the crater in burning 
 
H ALE-M AU-MAU. 251 
 
 surf. At intervals the glowing surface is skimmed 
 over with a thin coating of hardened lava, but this is 
 no sooner formed than the heat shatters it with a 
 wicked crack ! and the burning surface is again ex 
 posed. Everthing we see is fearful, overwhelming. 
 The goddess Pele must be indeed a devilish spirit, 
 we think, to dwell in such a place. 
 
 As we stand watching the scene, a thick smoke- 
 cloud slowly settles down over the burning pool, and 
 we turn away, nearly blinded with the glare. But 
 a moment later, the wind brushes aside the dingy 
 pall, and then the lake appears in another mood. 
 
 At its very centre are four curious mounds, or small 
 pyramids, floating upon the surface of the lava, and 
 rising and falling with the hot billows of the flood. 
 From their apices spout forth flame and sparks, recall 
 ing the most magnificent fireworks. And as we watch 
 them, they slowly separate, and in couples move to 
 opposite sides of the lake. Then they advance again 
 toward the centre, pause, swing with majestic undul 
 ations upon a high rolling wave, and slowly retire to 
 the edge. They seem to be dancing a minuet. 
 Again and again is this repeated, faster and faster do 
 they move, until at last the black smoke sweeps down 
 over the scene, shutting it out from view, and we 
 hurry away. Darkness falls upon everything, and 
 slowly and wearily we grope our way back over the 
 treacherous floor of the crater, and once more stand 
 upon the firm footing of the rocks about the Pit. The 
 smoke has cleared away over the lake and the misty 
 sky is red with the light from the Home of 
 Everlasting Fire. And as we watch the waving blaze, 
 
252 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIRE. 
 
 there comes to us the hoarse rumble, a shock a pause 
 and that long, deep sigh, as of a dying giant, so mys 
 terious and awful the breathing of Pele. Hardly has 
 it passed when we see the ruddy glow in the sky 
 grow pale, and looking of! towards the east, behold 
 the sun rising up out of the sea, once more to show 
 us new horrors and to announce the end and the begin 
 ning of a new chapter. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 In the annals of Hawaii this is related : That once 
 upon a time not very many years ago two travelers 
 had journeyed over the island of Hawaii ; had ascend 
 ed Mauna Hualalai, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa ; had 
 looked into the volcano of Kilauea and stood upon the 
 brink of Hale-mau-mau, the Home of Everlasting 
 Fire. Then, surfeited at last with the horrors of the 
 place, they had descended the mountain toward the 
 sea. Stopping at noon at the small grass hut of a 
 native, they left their horses there, and started to 
 make a short excursion on foot, across an immense 
 field of pahoe-hoe lava, that lay at their right hand. 
 
 It is known that the hills and mountains of Hawaii,. 
 being of lava, are undermined by subterranean passages 
 and chambers, which pierce them with a vast net 
 work of tunnels and galleries. These are created by 
 the cooling of the lava-flow upon the surface, thus 
 forming a crust, from under which the molten sub 
 stance beneath glides. Often, merely short, blind 
 leads are thus made, but not seldom several passages 
 are united and form a curious labyrinth, in which one 
 unacquainted with the clue might easily become lost. 
 
THE DEAD CRATEK. 253 
 
 As the two travelers, accompanied by a native guide, 
 were making their way with some difficulty over the 
 billowy surface of the pahoe-hoe, they came suddenly 
 upon a small opening in the field. It was circular, 
 about a hundred yards in diameter, an extinct crater 
 plainly, and though its fires had been dead for cen 
 turies, its steeply sloping sides were still bare of 
 vegetation. The black rocks were covered with a 
 green, slimy ooze, and the pool of stagnant water at 
 the bottom of the hole was jet-black, smooth and 
 glassy as a leper s eye. A dank haze, which even the 
 hot sun could not dispel, hung over the opening, and 
 the only sign of life visible was an unhealthy fungus, 
 that clung here and there to the slippery rocks with 
 vice-like tenacity. Everything spoke of death ; the 
 crater seemed as if it might be some ghastly charnel 
 pit, and the mist that overhung it had that sickening 
 odor we associate with such places. 
 
 Yet, in spite of its repulsive appearance, the travel 
 ers resolved to descend into it and seek a little shelter 
 from the burning sun, which was fairly splitting their 
 heads with its fierce rays. In the wall of the crater 
 opposite to where they stood was a narrow, verti 
 cal gash, disclosing a passageway leading somewhere 
 into the lava field, and they thought that in the shadow 
 of this tunnel they should find some protection. 
 
 With much difficulty they made their way down the 
 slippery rocks to the opening, and entered it. The 
 change from the heat and glare without to the cool, 
 half-light within was very grateful to the men. 
 Except for the reflection that came through the en 
 trance, the tunnel was dark, but they could see that it 
 
254 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIEE. 
 
 stretched out before them into the heart of the lava 
 field, until its walls seemed to come together in a 
 sharp point, with that curious effect in perspective- 
 noticed in long tunnels. The roof of the passageway 
 was out of reach ; the walls about ten feet apart. 
 
 The curiosity of the two men was excited by the 
 singularity of the place they found themselves in, 
 and after a short rest they started to explore it a lit 
 tle. But by neither threat nor persuasion could they 
 induce their native guide to accompany them. He 
 insisted that it was dangerous ; that they were com 
 ing within forbidden limits and that Pele would be 
 angry at them for trespassing ; that they would be 
 suffocated by gas and that they ran in the way of a 
 hundred other dangers. So they left him at the tun 
 nel s mouth and started on without him. 
 
 They had advanced but a few rods, when a turn in 
 the passage shut off the light from behind them, and 
 they halted, irresolute. Neither was timid, but the 
 overwhelming horrors of Kilauea were fresh in their 
 minds, and they felt themselves still under the spell 
 of the volcano. But when their eyes had become ac 
 customed to the darkness, they thought they could see 
 a very faint glimmer of light ahead of them, and to 
 ward this they proceeded. Taught by the experience 
 acquired in their explorations in Hawaii, they ad 
 vanced with great care, never taking a step until they 
 were certain it was safe. The darkness of the passage 
 made this necessary, and it was well they were thus 
 prudent, for twice they stayed their feet upon the 
 edges of bottomless chasms, whose existence they dis 
 covered only by feeling their faces fanned by the cur- 
 
THE SUBTERRANEAN CHAMBER. 255 
 
 rents- of air that rose out of them, and hearing, far 
 beneath them, the faint sound of falling waters. 
 
 But the crevices were narrow, and across them the 
 men sprang and went on. As they advanced the light 
 grew stronger, until the tunnel widened and they 
 found themselves in a large chamber. An opening in 
 the roof, where the lava crust had fallen in, served to 
 admit the light, and the two explorers saw that the 
 room was circular in form, and about fifty feet in 
 diameter. The roof, which was thirty feet from the 
 floor, was supported by irregularly placed columns of 
 twisted lava. 
 
 Walking around the periphery of the room, the 
 men noticed three passages leading out of it. One was 
 that by which they had entered; the other two led off 
 somewhere into the heart of the great lava field un 
 der which they were. Near the centre of the chamber, 
 and directly beneath the opening in the roof, was a 
 symmetrically shaped block of lava, not unlike the 
 frustum of a pyramid, its base being about four feet 
 square, and its height five feet ; upon its four faces 
 were rude carvings and hieroglyphs, wholly undeci 
 pherable. A thick covering of dust and fine ashes 
 lay upon everything, and showed plainly that it was 
 long since the chamber had been visited by man. 
 
 Upon the floor, at the base of the pyramid, the ex 
 plorers found a very small and grotesquely carved 
 idol. It was lying upon its side, almost buried in the 
 dust, and had evidently fallen there from the top of 
 the pile. The blow had split it through the very 
 centre, but the two halves were still joined by a few 
 tough slivers. The image was made of some dark, heavy 
 
256 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIKE. 
 
 wood, and emitted a faint odor, not unlike that of 
 sandal-wood. 
 
 Searching further in the chamber, the men found 
 four worn and tattered Kahilis great tufts of feath 
 ers, mounted upon bamboo poles, and often used in 
 native ceremonies. They also discovered three heavy, 
 knotted clubs, such as were sometimes carried by 
 warriors and priests, and used by them with deadly 
 effect ; and a pile of calabashes, lying in a confused 
 heap in the darkest part of the room and covered 
 with dust and fine ashes. 
 
 In spite of the ventilating aperture in the roof, the air 
 was strongly impregnated with sulphurous .gases, and 
 the men, finding themselves becoming affected by the 
 fumes, started hurriedly for the exit. As they did so 
 one of them picked up the little idol it was no larger 
 than a common doll and placed it in the pocket of 
 his shooting-coat. Halting an instant, in doubt as to 
 which passage they should take, they heard hurrying 
 toward them, from somewhere in the heart of the 
 great mountain, the long, deep sigh of Pele s breathing. 
 They felt a blast of wind, rushing out of the tunnel 
 then came the moaning, faint at first, then growing 
 louder- a hoarse rumble, and the rocks about them 
 creaked and splintered in the shock of an earthquake. 
 The men had never heard these sounds so distinctly 
 before, nor felt the breath of the spirit blowing on 
 their faces, and these gave an unpleasant reality to the 
 superstition. The awful fear which an earthquake 
 always engenders in the bravest, seized them, and for 
 an instant they were helpless. But with the passing 
 of the shock, they recovered their self-possession, 
 
LIFE IN HILO. 257 
 
 and hurried from the tunnel out into the sunlight 
 again, and so on down to Hilo. 
 
 And in the course of time, they departed from Ha 
 waii and went into other lands, and saw new sights, 
 but before doing so they were received by the Princess 
 Likelike, sister of the reigning king, Kalakaua, and 
 Governess of the island of Hawaii. And to her, as a 
 present, the travelers gave the grotesque little idol 
 which they had found in the chamber in the great 
 iield of pahoe-hoe, and the Princess accepted the gift, 
 and thanked them. Then they sailed away and 
 Hawaii nei knew them no more. 
 
 The people of Hilo had lived so long under the 
 charm of their environment, had so yielded themselves 
 to the influences of the enervating climate of the 
 place, and to the absolute freedom from care that was 
 their birthright, that they had come to believe the 
 world was made solely for them. Living though they 
 did within the shadows of two terrible volcanoes, 
 wherein fires were forever burning, they forgot the 
 threat thus constantly extended, or believed that 
 nothing could awaken those fires into activity. If 
 they thought at all, it was that within the boundaries 
 of Hawaii might be found both the beginning and the 
 end of the world. The Pacific lay broad before them, 
 but it led to nowhere, they believed ; it was only water, 
 and there were no paths on the water. And so they 
 passed their days in idleness and pleasure, and gave no 
 thought for anything save the Now. 
 
 Therefore they did not notice that night after 
 night the clouds that had overhung Kilauea since 
 before their traditions began, were now slowly grow- 
 
258 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIRE. 
 
 ing brighter; nor that day by day, the column of 
 smoke grew denser and blacker, and spread out over 
 the cloudy sky until the daylight became dusk. 
 
 They may have perceived that the shuddering sound 
 of Pele s breathing came more frequently hurrying 
 down the mountain slopes, to startle them from their 
 sleep or revelry, but with the thoughtlessness of their 
 race, they noticed it only to forget it. 
 
 Within the Home of Everlasting Fire, a great change 
 had taken place since the two travelers stood upon its 
 brink. The molten lava had risen in the Pit, until the 
 immense caldera was full to the brim of a white-hot 
 fluid that surged now this way, now that, in desperate 
 efforts to beat down the walls that hemmed it in, 
 Yet for a long time the rocks resisted the blows, and 
 the people of Hilo lived on, undisturbed by the im 
 pending danger. 
 
 But one night, they were suddenly awakened to a 
 realization of their peril. The land was shaken by 
 violent earthquakes ; we are told that three hundred 
 and ninety-one heavy shocks were felt in twenty- 
 four hours; the earth was never quite still. The 
 sound of Pele s breathing was heard with alarming 
 frequency, coming louder and more distinct each 
 time ; the column of smoke above the Pit became 
 denser than the air, and cooling as it rose, rolled back 
 down the slopes, darkening the streets of Hilo, and 
 then slowly drifted out to sea. By night, the heavens 
 were ablaze, and the land was lighted up as if it were 
 sun-time. 
 
 Then, of a sudden, the swaying of the earth ceased; 
 the side of the mountain was cleft, as if with a gigantic 
 
RELENTLESS PELE. 
 
 axe, and through this opening there gushed a river 
 of molten lava, that hurried on its destructive way to 
 the sea. 
 
 Down the slope it crept a huge, glowing stream 
 four miles wide scorching, terrrible, irresistible. 
 It withered the forests with its fiery breath, and 
 turned the streams into vapor. It plowed down 
 hills and filled up valleys ; nothing could delay its- 
 steady advance. 
 
 The natives, at last aroused from their apathy, be 
 came wild with terror. They ascribed the eruption to 
 Pele, and sought by all known means to propitiate 
 her. Every sort of sacrifice was offered up ; cattle 
 and hogs by the hundreds ; calabashes of poi, fruit, 
 flowers ; everything that tradition showed had hereto 
 fore been acceptable to the goddess everything but 
 human life. 
 
 Yet still the flow continued, rolling daily nearer 
 and nearer to the sea, and still the volcano gave no 
 signs of abating. All accounts agree that the scene 
 was one of awful grandeur an exhibition of terrible 
 and relentless power. Many of the very old or very 
 young died overcome by terror. The teachings of 
 civilization were forgotten by the Hawaiians, and 
 Pele was worshiped as she had been before the islands 
 were discovered by the white men. Yet all the offer 
 ings made to propitiate her were of no avail ; the 
 mighty red-hot river still held its slow, persistent way 
 down to Hilo. 
 
 Then there appeared no one knew whence he 
 came an old man, who announced that he wasKanoa, 
 a high priest of Pele. He was of gigantic stature,. 
 
260 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIKE. 
 
 and though of great age, carried himself as upright 
 as a youth. He declared that the flow was an evi 
 dence of the goddess s anger, and that unless she were 
 immediately pacified, Hilo and all it contained would 
 be destroyed. He told the people that Pele was pro 
 voked because one of her secret temples had been 
 invaded by impious strangers, the taboo broken, and 
 an idol carried away. This idol, Kanoa said, was 
 Wahokiho, once the husband of Pele, and demon of 
 the House of the Sun. By her direction, it had been 
 placed in a temple in the heart of Mauna Loa, when 
 ;she drove him out into the world ; and the priest pre 
 dicted that with the release of Wahokiho from con 
 finement, the fires of Haleakala would soon be re 
 kindled and the old fight between the demon and 
 the goddess would be resumed. 
 
 This prediction, coming at such a time, added to the 
 terror of the excitable natives, and they clamored 
 loudly for the punishment of the men who had broken 
 Pele s taboo. The Princess Likelike, albeit a well- 
 educated, intelligent woman, became herself influenced 
 by the popular superstition ; and from the fact that 
 ^he had been the custodian of the idol, ignorant of its 
 name and character, she believed that she had become 
 the object of Pele s wrath, and that nothing but her 
 death as a sacrifice would save Hilo and its people 
 from total annihilation. This superstition was shared 
 by the Hawaiians almost without exception, although 
 a few of the mosf intelligent believed that the re 
 turning of the idol to Pele would suffice to calm her. 
 
 Meantime, these reports, coming to the hearing of 
 the Princess, served to confirm her in her belief that 
 
THE PRINCESS LIKELIKE. 261 
 
 she was the chosen victim of Pele s anger. The 
 continued slow advance of the great lava river ~ 
 the destruction of lives and property ; the increase 
 of the heat and smoke and the growing terror of 
 the natives, made the scene in Hilo a most extraor 
 dinary one. Night was literally turned into day, and 
 the sullen booming of Pele s breathing, now coming 
 bursting forth more and more rapidly as if she were 
 growing impatient for her revenge, added greatly to- 
 the superstitious fright of the people. 
 
 On the evening of the second of February, the lava 
 was within a mile of the town, and before morning, 
 would reach the sea and destroy Hilo and everything 
 remaining in it. The place was deserted : not a soul 
 dared stay upon land, but the bay was crowded with 
 boats, themselves crowded with people, who lingered 
 near to catch a last glimpse of their homes. The 
 glare from the molten lava lit up the cloudy sky r 
 and the trade-winds, blowing the smoke up the moun 
 tain, left the scene in full view. 
 
 The Princess, in spite of her fixed belief that she 
 was the selected object of Pele s anger, had fled with 
 the others to the water, and was seated there in her 
 canoe, in the centre of a large fleet. She had but one 
 attendant, the high priest Kanoa. While all, white 
 and native, were watching the slow advance of the 
 lava flow, and counting the minutes until it should 
 reach the sea, two figures seated in a small canoe were 
 observed making their way swiftly towards the land. It 
 was not until they had passed through the surf and 
 reached the beach, that the Princess Likelike and, 
 Kanoa were recognized. 
 
262 THE HOME OF EVERLASTING FIRE. 
 
 The two paused a moment there, when Kanoa 
 handed the Princess a long staff of bamboo, upon 
 which was fastened the idol of Wahokiho. Holding 
 this high above her head, she advanced alone through 
 the deserted streets of Ililo, straight toward the flow, 
 now but half a mile away. When the natives saw her 
 approaching the deadly stream they set up the long 
 mournful death-wail, and chanted the song sung at 
 the dying of a chief. 
 
 " Ue, ue! ua make kuu alii 
 Ua make kuu haku, kuu boa; 
 Kuu lioa i ka wa o ka wi, 
 Kuu hoa i paa ka aina, 
 Kuu hoa i kuu ilihune 
 Kuu hoa i ka ua me ka makani; 
 * Kuu hoa i wela a ka la 
 
 Kuu hoa i ka ino, 
 Kuu hoa i ka malie 
 Kuu hoa i na kai awalu; 
 Ue, ue! na hala kun hoa, 
 Aole e hoi hou mai. " 
 
 And as this chant arose from the singers in the 
 boats the Princess walked on steadily through the town 
 toward the lava, bearing the idol high above her head; 
 and louder and louder rose the wailing from the 
 water. 
 
 While all were watching her, a quick change in the 
 wind swept the smoke back down the mountains, over 
 the bay, and the figure of the Princess disappeared 
 behind the black, enveloping clouds. The wailing 
 ceased and all gazed at the spot where she had 
 last been seen. At this moment, there came hurrying 
 down the mountain the long, low sigh of Pele s 
 
THE END. 263 
 
 breathing ; it ended with a shock, and those who were 
 looking saw the opening in the mountain, through 
 which the lava had been flowing, grow dark as the 
 edges of the gash were drawn together. The eruption 
 was over, and Hilo and its inhabitants were saved. 
 
 That night the land was visited by a tremendous 
 storm. The lightning was incessant and the rain fell 
 in sheets, cooling the crust of the lava into stone; and 
 in the morning the people returned to their lovely 
 village and began again their life of lazy indifference. 
 
 ALOHA ! 
 
Ho er mans 
 
 MJL61718 
 
 H459 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY