Hugh Pendexter

“ Probably lost your pile, and think you can get it back by jumping into Deer Crick,” continued the gambler sternly. “Yes, that's what your game is, damn you! You haven't guts enough to use either a gun or a knife, but must go to cluttering up the crick and cause folks to lose time in fishing you out. You will gamble, and when you lose you will snuff out your candle and leave us decent men to pay for burying you and spend time writing lying letters home to make them think you was killed by a cave-in or by Indians.”
“I’ve got to do something harder than dying,” protested Gilbert. ”

“ And many ships at sea are bringing thousands to the bay to learn by the same experience,” sighed Mr. Peters. “Why, sonny, if I wasn't an honest gambler I could make my fortune. Never heard of Joaquin Murieta before landing in Frisco?”
Gilbert shook his head.
“I only heard what men in the street said and what they said on the boat. Back East we don't get much news except that every one is finding gold.” ”

“ I chased him way to Marysville where he was finishing his watch below deck. To-morrow I'll take him up to Old Misery's place and get him in trim.”
“I signed, sir, on terms of a month on deck and no grog, and two weeks below with grog,” sullenly reminded Ben.
“Silence, you graceless dog!” roared Weymouth Mass. “You’re a day over the limit.”
Dropping his voice he continued to Mr. Peters: “Every one knows a Dutchman is lucky. Of course every one knows a sailor's lucky; luckier'n a Dutchman. Luckier'n a fool, even.”
“Of course,” readily agreed the gambler. ”

“ The Coloma men can wait. They'll learn you got the money from the express office, and they'll think you got tapped on the head. You've got to drop out of sight for a bit. Now I have a friend who has a camp in the foot-hills. Queer cuss, but all right. I'll see if he'll take you along. I'll have to tell him every thing; but he's to be trusted.
“If he says ‘yes’ you can go with him and get your nerve back, grow some whiskers, hunt for gold and try to make up the money you lost. You're too much of a damn fool to be wicked, and it won't help any one if you're hung. ”

“ He had interrupted an act by a troupe of Chinese jugglers and knife throwers. Five men were huddled at the left of the stage. At the other end, standing spread-eagle against a stout wall of planks, was a little dried-up celestial. Several knives were sticking into the planks a foot or more from his emaciated body.
“Kola, wanmayanka yo!” [1] shouted the mountain man. “I have had a war-dream. Where are the men to sit at the drum? He-hi-hi-hi! Where are the men at the drum?” ”

“ Then he neglected his beer and once more wearily endeavored to rearrange his thoughts and discover why he had done it. He feared it was because Maria had made him think of the dark-complexioned girl back home, but he tried not to admit as much. And what would the Vermont girl think if she could know the company he had kept after landing in San Francisco! She was sure to learn much of it. Therein was the curse of living. He must tell the men in Coloma, and they would write back home. ”

“ Phelps, of Grass Valley, hoarsely insisted it was too precious to belong to any one man as its ownership would permit the lucky owner to locate all the gold in California before any one else could get a smell. ”

“ Peters; and his fleshy cheeks expanded like toy balloons. “Sonny, you've made me believe the world's a lot bigger than I ever thought it was.”
Then he frowned heavily and drummed his fat fingers on the table.
“Wait a minute,” he growled. “Let’s glance over your cards. You're in for a heap of trouble if you don't lay low for a while. It won't do the Coloma men any good if you get hung. Nevada City is no place for you. By this time men are searching the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys for the young fellow who helped Joaquin to escape. They'll be up here, nosing around. ”

“ This country is made up in part of men from the East; and you come from mighty far off. Pennsylvania's my home. And let me tell you this for your own good: Outside of chopping trees, building cabins, using their long rifles, the Pikes are about the numbest lot we have. The Isthmus or Horn trip is s'posed to rub the corners off a man and educate him. Folks from Pike County come straight across the plains and miss that sort of an education. This is the idea: You place all you can raise on one bet, that for pure ignorance of life out here you beat any Pike greenhorn who ever came over the ridge. ”

“ Quartz mills were still in need of great improvements, but men of vision were now convinced that quartz must constitute the last era of mining. The first experience had been bitter, as rock assaying twenty-five cents a pound yielded, when crushed, only two or three cents, due to inability to save all the gold. And the cost of reduction was from forty to fifty dollars a ton. Ledge men were now boasting the work could be done for from six to fifteen dollars a ton as the outside figure. ”

“ There's a man who knows how to handle liquor.”
“He can handle a lot of it,” admiringly declared the gambler.
The bartender nodded violently.
“What's the news from Marysville?”
“Word come there's more murders up Bidwell's Bar way. They say Joaquin did the job. Two men was noosed with a rope and dragged off their hosses and killed. That's greaser style.”
Mr. Peters looked very grave and muttered:
“Some day that Mexican will stop a large hunk of lead. More than a year of his deviltry now. We've had enough.”
“That's about all I heard—was mighty busy chasing around after Ben. ”

“ When's Misery going back to camp?”
“To-morrow, he 'lows. Told the girl to start in the morning. He's on a little spree. Claimed in here the trip to the bay broke up the one he had started on after selling the last bear.” ”