Creede

“ We've known that for long. Jim Cleve goes out to kill Creede. He comes in with Creede's gold-belt—and a lie!... We think Cleve is the crooked one.”
“No! You're way off, Gulden,” replied Kells, earnestly. “That boy is absolutely square. He's lied to me about Creede. But I can excuse that. He lost his nerve. He's only a youngster. To knife a man in his sleep—that was too much for Jim!... And I'm glad! I see it all now. Jim's swapped his big nugget for Creede's belt. And in the bargain he exacted that Creede hit the trail out of camp. You happened to see Creede and went after him yourself.... ”

“ As the years went by, a ceaseless tide of immigration flowed in upon the beautiful Territory until the locality where the Creedes had their home was thickly dotted with cabins and tents, and fields of golden grain supplanted the verdure of the virgin sod. As the population increased, game became scarce, and then, as the recognized [17] leader, young Creede, at the head of a band of boyish associates, penetrated the wilds far to the northward in pursuit of their favorite sport. ”

“ She is too pretty a girl and too inexperienced to be exposed to the associations of a mining camp like Creede, where there are so few decent women, without great danger. She has got courage and an earnest purpose, and those qualities are a woman’s best safeguard; but still, she is only a girl of nineteen or twenty and she doesn’t realize what a delicate thing a woman’s reputation is. ”

“ In one hand he held a crumpled scrap of paper, the writing on which he now proceeded to read over again for the twentieth time.
“Please not to be out of the way this evening, as I may possibly want you on important business.—T. Hoskyns.”
“Ugh!” growled Creede in disgust, as he flung the paper into the fire. “One might work one’s heartstrings out for old Hoskyns, and there would never be an extra half quid for a poor devil on pay-day. I wish Mr. Bristow would take to the business. He’s one of the right sort, he is. ”

“ The "Lone Spruce," as the place was called, had done a rushing business in the "boom" days; but Ruby Camp was dying, even as Silver Cliff, Gunnison, and dozens of other camps have died since—as Creede is dying to-day—and business was slow. A drunken Ute reeled in and wanted to play poker, shake dice, or shoot with any dog of a white man in the place. ”

“ When the wig, beard, and moustache had been duly arranged, and the bedclothes pulled close up round Creede’s neck, Tom stepped back as far as the door in order to study the general effect. It was highly satisfactory. When the gas was turned down to the minimum point at which it was allowed to burn during the night, no one, without close examination, could have told that the man lying on the bed was other than Lionel Dering. ”

“ I suppose it is a matter of no little trouble to find any one, unless you happen upon him, in such a mad rush as has set in for Creede. I met Whitehead of the News, who is just back from there, and he says that not only are the platforms even of the cars crowded, but men actually ride on top from Alamosa over, in the craze to get there. What insanity! How can such a rush of people be housed and fed in a camp that contained but five little cabins ninety days ago! ”

“ When the statement is made that this mine for some time paid a monthly dividend of ninety thousand dollars, it is easy to figure the daily income of any or all of the gentlemen interested in the property. What a striking example for the monometallist who argues that silver can be produced at a profit at the present prices; but it stands as a well-known fact, that, taking the whole output of Creede camp from the date of the discovery of the Amethyst vein to the present time, every ounce of silver that has gone down the Rio Grande has cost the producers more than a dollar. ”

“ There’s the pole over yander front o’ Min’s place we strung Soapy and Bob to, an’ there wuzn’t no inquest on them—not much there wuzn’t, for the coroner himself helped at the lynchin’—everybody helped ’ceptin’ that pigeon-livered cad of a preacher. He wanted to deliver a lecture to the crowd on the majesty of the law an’ that kind o’ thing, but he got left on his little [13] game that time. Oh, he’s too slow for this camp, mister. The preacher that can’t keep up with the band wagon, ain’t got no business monkeyin’ around a live mining camp like Creede. ”

“ By the aid of this discovery,—for it is mine, and mine only,—I am enabled to draw tears in the 'Débats,' and convulse with laughter in the 'Constitutionnel;' and while writing of the torrid zone in one journal, I have an Icelander as my hero in another. Men stare at the range of my knowledge of life under aspects so various and discordant; and well may they wonder, were I to draw upon my own unassisted faculties. But it is men like you, Cregan, I want,—shrewd, sharp, ready-witted dogs; quick to remark, and quicker to report. ”

“ I always wrote, after my habit, in the morning; I never turned to “Con Cregan” until nigh midnight; and I can still remember the widely different feelings with which I addressed myself to the task I liked, and to a story which, in the absurd fashion I have mentioned, was associated with wounded self-love.
It is scarcely necessary for me to say that there was no plan whatever in this book. My notion was, that “Con Cregan,” once created, would not fail to find adventures. The vicissitudes of daily poverty would beget shifts and contrivances; with these successes would come ambition and daring. ”

“ I might be treated as a thief,—I, Con Cregan, who had registered a solemn vow in my own heart to be a “gentleman”! Such an indignity should not be entertained, even in thought. Yet was it very hard for one in possession of such an admirable wardrobe to want a dinner; for one so luxuriously apparelled on the outside, to be so lamentably unprovided within. From the solution of this knotty question I was most fortunately preserved by the arrival of a corporal of the—th, who came with an order from Captain Pike that I should at once repair to his quarters in the Upper Town. ”

“ The gentle wind that shook the orange-blossoms seemed made to bear its odors to my senses; all Nature appeared tributary to my enjoyment. And only to think of it! all this adulation was for poor Con Cregan, the convict's son; the houseless street-runner of Dublin; the cabin-boy of the yacht; the flunkey at Quebec; the penniless wanderer in Texas; the wag of the “Noria,” in Mexico. What a revulsion, and how sudden and unexpected! ”

“ Not so with you, Con Cregan! You have hydrogen in you,—you have the buoyant element that soars above the vulgar herd. These are not the partial sentiments of a dear friend, Con, they are the current opinions of the world about you. How soon the 'Captain' saw what stuff you were made of! How long was old Pike in detecting the latent powers of your intellect?” What a shout of laughter followed these words! ”

“ Nature had not been generous to me in the article of a father: what great harm if I invented one for myself? Fortune had placed my birth beneath the thatched roof of an Irish cabin: was it not generous of me to call it the ancient baronial seat of the Cregans? She started me poor and in rags: I was above repining, and called myself rich and well-nurtured. ”

“ But Con, my friend, you have a natural aptitude for every shade of color, and for every station and condition. Courage, my boy! although in the rear rank at present, you 'll march in the van yet. Nature has been gracious with you, Mr. Cregan!” said I, warming with the subject, while, with my hands deep down in my coat-pockets, I walked backward and forward before the glass, stealing sidelong glances at myself as I passed; “there are fellows who, born in your station, would have died in it, without a bit more influence over their fate in this life than a Poldoody oyster ”

“ CREW or CREWE, Sir THOMAS, (1565–1634) , speaker of the House of Commons, third son of John Crew of Nantwich, brother of Sir Ranulphe Crew [q. v.] , by Alice, daughter of Humphrey Mainwaring, was a member of Gray's Inn, where he was elected Lent reader in 1612. He was returned to parliament for Lichfield in 1603. In 1613 he was one of the counsel for the Bishop of London, the plaintiff, in a suit against the dean and chapter of Westminster, his brother Ranulphe being for the defendants. ”

“ Creery's cue to pause and smack her lips with unction. "'If he is the person you so accurately describe, he is a Captain Lisle, a black sheep who was turned out of a regiment in Bengal on account of some very shady transactions on the turf.'"—"He told me himself he was fond of riding," Mrs. Creery would supplement, as if this fact clenched the business. "'He was bankrupt, and had a fearful notoriety in every way. No woman who respected herself would be seen speaking to him! ”

“ A small creel or basket is prepared for the occasion, into which they put some stones; the young men carry it alternately, and allow themselves to be caught by the maidens, who have a kiss when they succeed. After a great deal of innocent mirth and pleasantry, the creel falls at length to the young husband’s share, who is obliged generally to carry it for a long time, none of the young women having compassion upon him. ”

“ The Cree story is the better one. It has a fine human motive which the other lacks, and also it drops, a much-needed tribute on the worn altar of domesticity.
When a fire is lighted with birch bark and tamarack knots, we sit beside it and are more merry than you could believe.
The sweetheart of Jacques dances for us to the well-cadenced rhythm of a Tea Song. I cannot spell her Indian name, but it means "Fat of the Flowers," by which term they express our word "nectar." The cree is a droll language. ”

“ Creery.
"And so you have been up playing tennis at the General's," to Mr. Quentin. "I saw your peon going by with your bat and shoes; but what has brought you over to Ross, Mr. Lisle—I thought you rarely left the mainland?" fastening on him now for that especial reason.
"I don't often come over," he replied, parrying the question.
"You've been shopping in the bazaar," she continued; "you have been buying collars."
"Mrs. Creery is unanswerable—she is gifted with 'second sight.'" (All the same it was not collars, but cartridges, that he had purchased.) ”

“ Crewe.
“Ah, my dear, one must take a less superficial view of men and their motives—an excellent phrase, Mr. Garrick—if one desire to arrive at a complete understanding of both,” said Mrs. Thrale. “I am sure that so excellent an observer as Mrs. Crewe will, upon reflection, perceive that the best chance an elderly gentleman has of captivating the heart of a young woman is by fighting for her. Mr. Long is clearly aware of this elementary truth. He is a brave man, and he is ready to risk his life in order that he may have a chance of winning his lady.” ”

“ Crelle saw just one perfectly safe way of taking care of her daughter, Claire Belle—that was to keep every man up the bank, or not less than thirty rods distant in midstream. This was her practise, and for that reason there wasn't a river-man from Pittsburgh, Knoxville, and St. Louis to New Orleans who did not regard the widow as the least agreeable lady on the rivers.
There were some men—no less than a dozen, in fact—who would have had no designs whatever on the daughter if only the widow had been kindly disposed. ”

“ But one that stood by whispered in my ear that the bishop himself do not spend one groate to the poor himself. The sermon done, a good anthem followed with violls, and the King come down to receive the sacrament.
"1662-3—February 1st.—This day Creed and I walking in White Hall did see the King coming privately from my Lady Castlemaine's; which is a poor thing for a Prince to do: and so I expressed my sense of it to Creed in terms which I should not have done, but that I believe he is trusty in that point."
The court of James II. is hardly worth mention. ”

“ Still other contingencies rose to my mind, but Donald Roy and Creagh made light of them.
“Havers! If he is the man you have drawn for me he will never be letting a smirr of rain interfere with his plans; and as for the other road, it will be a river in spate by this time,” the Highlander reassured me.
“Sure, I’ll give you four to one in ponies the thing does not miscarry,” cried Creagh in his rollicking way. “After the King comes home I’ll dance at your wedding, me boy; and here’s to Mrs. Montagu that is to be, bedad!” ”

“ His father had been in the diplomatic service, and had married a daughter, the only daughter, in fact, of old Lord Crediton, who became Cyril’s guardian after the death of his parents. I don’t think that Lord Crediton cared very much for Cyril. He had never really forgiven his daughter for marrying a man who had not a title. He was an extraordinary old aristocrat, who swore like a costermonger, and had the manners of a farmer. I remember seeing him once on Speech-day. He growled at me, gave me a sovereign, and told me not to grow up “a damned Radical” like my father. ”

“ Creedon looked from the little hole in the floor to the wretched woman slumped in the chair where Craig and I held her wrists.
“Spirits?” was the one word he uttered.
Kennedy nodded a reply. “A wave of superstition is sweeping over the world to-day. To her, conscience has meted out punishment—to confess. It is as one who slays the conscience-stricken with a child's toy rubber dagger!” ”

“ Crewe entered, the hall boy closed the door, and he found himself face to face with a comfortable, smooth-faced man seated with great placidity on a rocking-chair in the centre of the room, between the bed and the marble-topped table: a man to whom, evidently, a rich abundance of thought was sufficient company, for he had neither newspaper nor book. ”