Gordon Young

“ It was the women of '49 and the '50's gaunt, fierce-eyed, unafraid, refined by a faith that is greater than grace of speech or smoothness of manner, wives and daughters worthy of men who dared the deserts and the mountains—it was these women who laid the hearthstones of California.
3 When Pete Gubbins and Hales reached Fred's House two other women had arrived in Fan Fare Bar; women of that calling old as the flesh of man, and wherever men go they come. ”

“ Hales explained to Mrs. Gubbins that Lucita understood no word of English; that she was the daughter of a high-caste Spanish family.
"I don't know what to do with her. She refuses any suggestion of returning home. I don't know how I would get her home if she would go. You see, she has been foolish because she loves a man."
"It do beat all," said Mrs. Gubbins, when she had heard Lucita's story, "what fools us women can be over a man! I mind how I thought I jes' shore would die if Pete Gubbins married some other gal!" ”

“ There's a butcher in camp. Use his saw."
"My God!" said Dr. Perle weakly.
"Why not talk it over with Joe and Yank?"
"Oh, Yank's willing enough. And I would—would, but I am afraid."
"Do you think, Dr. Perle, that that brother of yours, the lieutenant, would have hesitated at anything that seemed his duty?"
"No, no. No! But——"
"But what?"
"With the blood spurting from an artery, I know I couldn't tie a ligature. Look at my hands, rough as a miner's! I would have to cauterize!"
"Then cauterize," said Hales. "Yank's too good a man not to have his chance."
The young doctor was deeply moved. ”

“ With arms akimbo she gazed intently at Lucita, then asked abruptly:
"What'd you think, Mr. Hales, 'bout farmin' as ag'in minin'?"
Pete Gubbins glanced at him beseechingly, but Hales said:
"Mrs. Gubbins, I know nothing of mining. I don't know how long this gold will last. But I do know something of California land. It is very rich. If you can get where there is water, or where water can be put on it, you can raise anything. The Spaniards get vegetables and grain by hardly stirring the ground. The climate is mild all the year. I am a rancher." ”

“ Me, I'm a Georgy cracker—I don't need no rest."
"Don't talk to him," said the doctor. "He must be quiet. He can't sleep, but he may doze—I—I can do nothing more now. A little whisky at a time, very little, and a little water if he wants it—but quiet—must be alone now, with only one of you ladies——"
"I'm stayin'," said Maw Jones, and she pulled up a stool and sat down by the bunk. "You folks git out. Have somebody fetch water an'——"
"I'll fetch it—the whole damn river," said Joe quietly from the doorway. ”

“ They were dead tired, and would have liked nothing better than to drop into even the hardest bunk of the camp and sleep as they fell. But Fred, who had an eye for business as well as a weakness for debauchery, said the boys were all primed for a celebration and would be powerfully disappointed. Besides, their masters, the young dude gamblers, late of San Francisco, demanded that they look their most charming and be as spirited as if neither were weighted by more years than are comfortable for any woman. ”

“ From a distance as they approached the cabin, Hales saw the faint light through the doorway, and heard a woman's voice, loud and sharp. Children were yelling in shrill merriment. The woman simply lifted her voice above their racket.
"... a blamed shame, Pete Gubbins! That's all I got to say! A blamed shame! The idee of you men takin' the life of a feller critter what God A'mighty give jes' as much life to as he done to you! I don't care if this here is Californy—'t ain't no reason for men bein' worse 'n Injuns! Don't set there askin' me what I'd a-done! That ain't no fair way for to talk. ”

“ The two children, a boy of about four, a girl a year older, with their little tummies full of hot beans, cold river water and mother's freshly baked bread, had cut holes in a piece of old canvas and were trying to make their dog, some sort of hopeless mongrel, wear a dress. The dog, who had brought these children across the plains, had licked 'lasses off their little hands by way of sharing their dainties, and had warily watched the wagon when the whole family slept in a dead fatigue, now suffered the indignity of a nightgown with only a mild scrambling and writhing. ”

“ Some one went to Fred's House and came back with Pete Gubbins and Joe, more surly than ever, full of curses because Fred's House was wild with noise, and a fiddle kept the crowd dancing while Yank lay in his bunk suffering through all that racket.
"I was jes' comin' anyhow to ask if we couldn't bring Yank over to the Empire," said Joe. "A man he shore don't have many friends when he ain't got two good legs." ”

“ He had never cut off more than the joint of a finger from a human being.
"You boys git out o' here now," Mrs. Jones repeated, having taken the lantern from Pete Gubbins, and removing the chimney was preparing to wash it so that all the light from the flame would be at the service of the doctor. The miners had a habit of saying that Maw Jones washed everything she got her hands on, which was nearly true.
The men, with slow heavy steps, their eyes toward Yank, backed out reluctantly. ”

“ Maw Jones was wiping the chimney until it shone as if glazed with diamond dust. Mrs. Gubbins was bending over Yank, talking rapidly in a low tone, reassuringly.
"I don't think you ladies—I don't think you can stand it," said Dr. Perle, at that moment feeling that he himself could hardly endure what was coming. "You'd better let Captain Hales hold the lantern for me, Maw."
"Shucks," said Maw Jones, without emphasis and with finality.
"A woman what can't stand anything to help a human bein' an' feller critter ain't much of a woman," said Mrs. ”

“ As they reached the bar other men gathered near, and thus spoke Clay Freeman, ex-butcher of Syracuse, N. Y., for any who cared to hear.
"We got one lady in this here camp that is a lady. I mean Missus Gubbins. We got another one that though she does cuss some an' charge steep as a roof for washin' of our duds, is also a lady. I mean Missus Jones. Fan Fare is proud of 'em. But we ain't proud of havin' Fan Fare no rival of Sonora an' Hangtown, like in San Francisco, where so many women strictly speakin' ain't ladies. ”

“ They know he'll die less they cut off his leg, but they 'fraid! Yes, sir. Dr. Perle, he's jes' a young feller an' more hones' than the others, he tol' me hisself, 'Mrs. Gubbins, I'll tell ye hones' Injun, if I should cut off Yank's leg an' he died, as he shore would, the miners'd say I was a pore doctor, an I'd lose all my practise.
"That's what he tol' me right to my face. Know what I tol' him? I said, says I, 'Doc Perle, you're a mighty pore specyman of a doctor, you are, if you don't do yore best to help a sufferin' feller critter, what's as fine a man as Yank is! ”

“ The miners started to bring Yank into the cabin, then stopped, backed out. There were two bunks, one above the other; the top bunk was too high for him to lie in, and it would be difficult for Dr. Perle to work if he lay in the lower, because the upper would be in the way.
Dr. Perle spoke of this. Hales noticed, though no one else may have done so, that there was something almost hopeful in Dr. Perle's voice, as if, after all, circumstances would keep him from the ordeal he so greatly dreaded. ”

“ Joe roughly pushed through the circle, swore at Black Perry, said:
"We want this here lantern for Yank. Doc Perle's goin' cut off his leg. What you mean——"
The miners were not much given to thinking of any man as a hero, but Yank was as nearly one as any man among them could be. He had tried to stop a boulder that would have squashed his pard, and they had seen him suffer, silently. Voices stormed at Black Perry, fists swayed in menace. Interfere with Yank's operation, would he? ”

“ The cabin was reached by a winding trail that circled perilously among holes, some of them abandoned, which the miners, with no time to spend shoveling dirt unless to get at the gold, did not refill. Drunken men frequently broke their necks by toppling into such holes. ”

“ Gubbins spoke up:
"Pete Gubbins, you git the ax. You boys tear out that top bunk an' hurry too!"
"All right," said Gubbins readily, but moving with a kind of lank leisureliness, habitual with him whatever his hurry. He went outside to where he had been making pegs for shelves to be put in the cabin, and brought an ax.
"Here," said Joe, "you take holt o' this, Pete. I'll do the work."
Gubbins took the lantern; Joe took the ax, and stepped inside. The women moved back, standing clear of the swing of the ax.
"Keerful now, Joe," said Mrs. Jones. "Don't make no more muss'n you kin help." ”

“ Miss Tesla continues to reside at El Crucifijo, though, whatever Col. Nevinson may think of the matter, he is not now the owner of El Crucifijo. Miss Tesla's detestation of gambling, sir, is such that she has required that every dollar be withdrawn, at whatever sacrifice, immediately. ”

“ I don't suppose anybody can understand—except a doctor—but I'm going to go through the biggest adventure I ever imagined before this night is over. I cut off a man's finger once, but a leg!"
Mrs. Gubbins was watching from the cabin door and came out quickly to meet them, and the men with the stretcher, by a common impulse, stopped as she bent over Yank, brushing his forehead, saying quietly:
"You'll be all right, Yank. Don't ye be 'feard o' nothin'!"
As she came from the doorway another figure appeared, silhouetted grotesquely against the dim candlelight. This was Mrs. ”