Gordon Young

“ It's yore money, Mullins!"
"Git a rope, fellers!" a drunken man squawked, and the cry was repeated.
"That's shore my money, boys!" said Mullins, plucking at the coins, greedily.
"Diamon' Gulch she don't give no thief time to pray!" said a miner proudly to Hales.
Some man had unsteadily hurried up the steps into the barroom and came back with two bottles of whisky. He waved both in wavering arms.
"Hoopee! Hang 'im!"
These men seemed bloodthirsty and many of them were drunken. Hales looked upon the gathering crowd with disgust. He believed as readily as any that the fellow was guilty. ”

“ They looked ahead to where a big man stood knee deep in icy water, shoveling gravel into a sluice box. As they came near he paused, leaned on his shovel, and regarded them with steady, untroubled, friendly gaze. He was a huge man. It would take many men and a strong rope to swing him.
"Howdy," said Bill Burton, taking out his pipe, feeling for tobacco. Then— "Say, if you ain't Dick Hales!" ”

“ CHAPTER XV 1 A small herd of lean long-horned wild cattle edged cautiously out of the trail on the bluff above the river and paused, peering and sniffing as they looked up and down the valley, and across into the camp. They were light tough cattle, used to feeding on parched grass and hunting their own water. They stared uneasily, then swung about, turning on the trail, meaning to go back. There was a headlong rush of two horsemen at their flanks, the shrill ya-i! of the vaqueros, and the cattle bolted down the steep trail, stumbling, sliding, falling. ”

“ The newspaper man had to slow him down time and again, for this man of the pen, being a born newspaper man, realized that the world was crowded with people who could write as well as himself, but that not often could one get down on paper the rich crisscross jargon, a mingling of city slums and camp slang, of this wise street-bred youngster, who was still nearly awed by the mountains, topped with pines, washed by whirling rivers. ”

“ But I've seen one innocent fellow—I thought him guilty as hell, too—— But, Dawes, I believe you are a dirty, cold blooded blackleg, and about the only reason you haven't taken a shot at me from a window, or when this door was opened, is because you know the miners would hang you!"
Dawes answered without a flicker in his tone, and his face, pale and thin as an ascetic's, remained inscrutable as ivory:
"You say that, sir, to an unarmed man—who is sick." ”

“ All us miners are the same. We work hard, then robbers get it. Them de Solas are gentlemen," said Burton bitterly, "'long side of saloonkeepers an' gamblers. Miners haven't a lick of sense. What's it all worth? What can I do? I don't know nothing but drinkin', gamblin' an' work. I can't set down an' do nothing. I don't have any sense when I start in spendin' money—but I'll be damned if gambler or woman gets Marty's share out o' me. I'll throw it back in the river first. Ain't I ever goin' to forget him, Mr. Hales?" ”

“ As my own daughters, to all of whom God has given worthy husbands, she will be treated. The gringos, señor, steal my cattle and horses. They drive my cattle into mining camps where men are hanged for stealing a shovel, but where all men eat stolen beef that is mine. The de Solas, señor, now take what men they can find to ride with them, and many vaqueros are among them, and some are thieves. ”

“ The miners up to Rainbow thought the world of him. They'd get round him an' get him to talkin' of London. Little devil, he never had no money in his life. Don't yet hardly know what money's for. Steal? Him! Rainbow she played out, so we come down here to winter——"
They crossed the river. Its high rocky banks showed how angry it could be when swollen by the winter rains. Hales kept to the foot log, but Burton, in hip boots, waded in, walk ing easily through the tumbling current.
They came into the street of Diamond Gulch. No one was in sight. They came near the Ohio House. ”

“ You fellows ain't seen anything of a little pee-wee luggin' a sack o' flour down the trail? He went f'r grub."
"Yes," said Jeb Nelson. "We seen him."
"Why, what's wrong?" demanded Burton, dropping his shovel, stepping from the water toward them. He towered above them and they were not small men. "What's wrong? What's happened to my pard?" He gazed anxiously from one to another, then steadily at Hales. "Tell me!"
"Your pardner," said Hales, "had some gold coins. There are not many in camp, in any camp. Mullins was robbed and the miners thought——"
Burton scowled dangerously. ”

“ Burton poked his foot at two large buckskin pouches that he had thrown contemptuously on the ground.
"You can buy a horse or mule. I mean to leave this afternoon. We can go together," Hales told him.
"I wouldn't buy nothin' in this camp. I'll walk."
"There's a good deal of dust to be packing along a trail."
"I don't care. What's the good of it, any of it? Gamblers, gamblers' women, an' storekeepers—biggest robbers of all! they get most of what us miners dig. I've worked hard all my life, been a sailor, been in lumber camps, now minin'. ”

“ Hales was standing outside of the cabin, rolling a cigaret. He felt a sort of inner trembling, like that of a man who has barely escaped from wretchedness, for he, as much as any one, had believed the little cockney guilty of thievery. At that moment across his memory there seemed to come the echo of a thundering voice that had swept with majestical passion over a mob of angered men, reckless men, who, too, had brought a rope.
"—better ten guilty men live than put to death one innocent——"
8 Burton walked by the side of Hales, telling how Little Pard had written to Miss Tesla and why ”

“ Then, quietly, with level gaze, "I, sir, have reasons that I shall never forget for hating you. But I never shot at any man, except at his face. I could not meet you face to face in San Francisco because my wrist was injured. ”

“ He was an odd little fellow, but youth nor oddness made a favorable impression on these outraged miners. His hat had been knocked off. His shirt, his boots, his trousers, were too large. But the little cockney did not appear really frightened. He stared about him in a kind of uneasy trustfulness, as if he knew miners too well to think that they would hurt him. Now and then an eager little hopeful smile broke through his earnestness.
"I never stole nuffin! 'Ones', boys! Me an' Bill kept that gold from wot we 'ad when we bought our houtfits in Sakermento. You jus' hask Bill! ”

“ A rope appeared with a noose on it. Miners frequently fitted the noose and even stretched a man's neck a bit to frighten him into a confession.
"It's your money, Mullins. You set the rope," said Jeb.
Mullins stepped forward. Men held Martin's hands. Mullins slipped the noose. Drunken hands grabbed the rope and jerked. The little cockney fell and writhed in the dust, choking, pulling at the rope. ”

“ He was a big fellow, might be dangerous. It was thirst, not fear of anybody, that made so many of the men reluctant to go a mile down the river. Jeb called upon the most sober. Hales and three other men marched off with Jeb, leaving Martin O'Day in the shadow of the Ohio House watched over by two men while other miners went trampling into the barroom for further drinks. ”

“ I jus' thought I'd show 'im there"—he gestured toward Jeb Nelson—"Colonel Nevinson wasn't honly one that 'ad coin!"
A drunken man howled:
"What the hell's gittin' the matter with this here camp, lettin' a damn thief talk!"
"Feriner at that!"
"I ain't no foreigner—I'm Henglish, I ham! Ask Mr. 'Ales there—I know 'im. You send f'r Bill! 'E'll tell yer!"
"Do you know this man?" Jeb Nelson asked Hales.
"No," said Hales, "I do not."
He had no recollection at all of a little cockney in a big cap at whom he had glanced for a moment in the Magnolia at the time Miss Tesla appeared to deal monte. ”

“ He moved his crippled hand slightly into view, and slightly turned his right hand, then pressed it again against his forehead.
"You've got a gun, or borrow one. We'll have the miners measure off any distance you say. All I ask is, just before the command to fire, you say whether or not you killed Tesla. Dawes, if you'll say yes, I'll give you the first shot!"
The gambler looked at him steadily for some time, gently rubbing his fingers back and forth along his brow. His bandaged hand lay against his breast. ”

“ You boys come up to the cabin. I'll show you that we got coin."
His stride was twice as long as that of the men with him. He stopped every few steps, turned, waited for them, and talked. To Hales he seemed a true Titan of the mountains; a massive man, well built, of prodigious strength and generous simplicity.
"——!" said Jeb Nelson aside to Hales. "It's good you stopped them boys. He ain't no more guilty 'n I am!"
They went to the doorway of the cabin, and Burton entered, saying:
"Crowd in, boys. Crowd in. Lots o' room. Guess I'll kick up a fire an' put on the bean pot. Have 'em warm. ”

“ But I want to stop in camp and have a word with that gambler, Dawes."
"Marty was wrong, I guess, in bein' afraid of him in feelin' funny about him. I guess he was one man in camp that didn't have nothin' to do with it. You didn't see nothin' of him? No. Neither did I. I'd have killed him particular if I had. I know I would."
Then Burton laid his curse upon Diamond Gulch, upon all the men in it, upon all who would ever come into it; and, as if the great Keeper of Vengeance heard, Diamond Gulch soon lost the yellow glint from among its sands, became played out; miners departed ”

“ We come on the ship tergether, me an' 'er."
5 Hales entered Diamond Gulch and stopped at the Ohio House for dinner. He learned at once from a barroom full of angered and half-drunken men that there had been a robbery of more than a thousand dollars in dust, and something near a hundred dollars in gold coin which Col. Nevinson had paid the night before.
Gold coins were about as rarely seen in the camps as women, as good women. If anything, coins were the more rare. ”

“ The miners went stamping into the dining-room, and shortly afterward there was a knock on Mr. Clifton's door.
"What is it, sir?" asked the gambler quietly.
"One of the boys said he seen yuh come in. Ain't yuh feelin' spry?"
"Thank you, Mr. Mullins, sir. But I am subject to headaches. At such times I wish to be alone and remain quiet. I will be all right in a day or two. But I find the attack I had yesterday returning."
"Don't feel well 'nough to see a feller f'r a minute, d' yuh?" asked Mullins through the closed door.
"No. Who?"
"Feller named Hales." ”

“ That gam'ler Dawes' e's up 'ere. Honly'e calls 'isself somebody else. Mr. Clifton. I've kept 'way from 'im, cause Bill 'e says if 'e's goin' by 'nother nyme an' was to see me an' knowed I knowed 'im, 'e might shoot me. Then Bill says' e'd 'ave to break 'is bloomin' 'ead for 'im. Bill says 'e udn't mind breakin' his bloomin' 'ead, but 'e'd 'ate orful to 'ave ter bury me. Bill says diggin' of a grave Bill is jes' so much waste labor. Bill 'e's the fines' man on hearth. Stryght! 'E stys away from camp so 'e won't want ter play monte. ”