Gordon Young

“ Elvira also thought California a great country, but she did not look so far forward as to see old age. Old age, like her own death, was something of which she would never let herself think.
She restlessly craved excitement. Her instincts were, if not dramatic, at least theatrical. She spent her idleness in reading Spanish novels, revengeful of plot, through which women moved, artful and unforgiving, with jeweled daggers, worn secretly.
Even here in San Francisco, where there was little to buy and much gold, she was wasteful of money, but resourceful, very resourceful. ”

“ True, I had known her before, but I had nothing to do, nothing at all, with bringing her to California, or with what happened to her after she got here. No, sir!"
"Ah," said Elvira, inscrutably.
Col. Nevinson looked at her with suspicion:
"Why do you say that, 'Ah'?"
"Ah, no reason, my Colonel. What happened to her after she got here? Tell me more of her. Where is she now?"
"There is little to tell. She was married to a man she did not love. An Army officer who left her much alone—with good reason, too. Any man would soon have left her. She was crazy!" ”

“ Always he spoke of her as "the good Doña"; always he was respectful, even at such times as she, in a passion, might call him a thief and gallows fruit, and he would greatly frighten her by his steady stare and rapid speech that ran inflectionally, all in a breath, from humbleness to menace and back again. ”

“ Nevinson, overhearing, demanded:
"Who is the fool?"
Nearly always he spoke with an air of anger, even to friends.
"Don't know, Colonel. A Spanish-looking fellow, they say, that just rode in today. Made a winning at somebody's table. Then went crazy, I guess."
Stewart Dawes glanced toward the talebearer, but said nothing.
At the other side of the table another man of striking appearance was also playing heavily, and losing after a run of good luck. He was a young slender Spaniard, straight as a tent pole. His name was a proud one, Don José Roderigo Velazquez de Sola. ”

“ Nevinson.
"—I found out that he was telling here and there that I brought her to California—"
"Her! Who?" Elvira asked quickly, with something of jealous alarm. "Who are you talking about?"
"Ann Hales."
"Oh!" She sprang up, alert, interested, sensitively ready to be jealous.
"Oh, what?" demanded the Colonel bruskly. "What do you know of her?"
"Nothing, my Colonel. But somewhere—oh, quite vaguely—it seems I have heard—that name, haven't I? I wonder where?"
"Lee told two or three persons. By God, sir, I'll call any man to account for lies about me! Or woman, sir! Or woman! ”

“ Among much else that was priceless, though hardly scholastic, the mother had taught Elvira that the only things worth while to a woman were her beauty, other people's money, and that men should be kept underfoot—where they belonged. ”

“ He had reached San Francisco in the early spring of'49, and was, therefore, an old-timer. No man had more diversified business interests than Nevinson; he speculated audaciously, particularly in the lumber trade; he owned the controlling interest in stores throughout the mines, had money invested in gambling houses and city property. Yet his chief interest was in politics. When California became a State he expected to be United States Senator. Nevinson was domineering, generous with his friends, high-handed, and regarded any man who opposed him as an enemy. ”

“ Elvira exclaimed from the high-backed teak chair where she had been reading a Spanish novel. She did not rise, but her dark eyes widened with a moment's look of pleasurable excitement as Nevinson continued, striding toward her:
"It had to come! He got me here—" touching his right shoulder, as yet undressed—"but I put a piece of lead into his heart!"
Nevinson, with frowns and a manner of angry tenseness, together with some harsh names for Lee, remained standing and told of the encounter. He mentioned too that Bruce Brace had fired.
"—Brace missed. Hit the new mirror. Thunder strike his soul! ”

“ In a moment the lookout swept the Spaniard's coins into the bank's pile, and shifted the markers to show that half of Martin's sack belonged to the bank.
"'Oly 'eaven!" said Martin, looking up reproachfully at the Spaniard.
In a state of chills-and-fever tenseness, Martin began to play against what remained of his sack. Twice he had to bet the last ten dollars allowed him by the lookout's accounting, but he won. Then he kept on winning. The Spaniard lost, Nevinson lost, but the cockney won until he had the bag on his side of the table and some gold coins in his hand. ”

“ He spoke Spanish even with a slight accent, as he did English and French. She felt that he ought to be more of a grateful slave than he was.
But Elvira had been very glad that he was at hand when she wished to leave Havana. He, too, was ready and eager to reach California.
They had no sooner got to San Francisco than Ferdinand, with a guitar over his shoulders and a knife in his belt, set out for the mines. He returned shortly without callouses on his hands and with much gold. In a little while he was off for the mines again, returning soon. California, he said, was a great country. ”

“ I should say she was! But never a good woman, never! Her husband was killed during the war and—"
"Ah, perhaps that's how I have heard the name? There was much in the newspapers at one time—I read of it in Havana—about a Captain Hales who fought a duel between the armies. Yes, yes, I remember. He was a scout and—"
At any time it rather irritated Col. Nevinson to hear other men praised.
"All I know of him is that he was killed."
"But many men have been reported dead that lived, and everybody comes to California. What if he should appear?" asked Elvira slowly, but thrilled. ”

“ It was dust all right, just plain dust off the street mixed with bullets which gave the sack weight.
"Ah yes, señor. Veree clevar. You had nothing to lose."
"Nothin' to lose! Yer crazy. That gambler bloke 'e'd 'ave shot me quicker'n 'ell! I was bettin' me bloody life. ”