Soapy

“ Soapy's tone were curiously quiet, as though the idea had opened up an entirely new range of vision.
"Not that kind."
"Skunks has their good points, and I don't believe that no old man—I don't care whose he is—acts so bad as his folks paint him."
But Burdock had apparently lost interest in his own family affairs. He regarded Soapy as a spark of humanity in the wilderness, which, even though moving across Ragged River, at least redeemed the place from utter loneliness. ”

“ But if that person doesn't want it, and I'm pretty sure—that person—won't, you shall have it, I promise you. And now," said he, pocketing the ring and turning, still scowling, on Soapy, "you are one of M'Ginnis's gang, I fancy; anyway, if you see him you can tell him from me that if he gives me another chance I'll surely kill him for the foul beast he is."
"Sport," said Soapy, "I guess the Spider's right about you—anyway, you ain't my meat. An' as fer killin' Bud—you sure ain't goin' t' get th' chance—not while I have the say-so. S' long, sport!" and turning upon his heel, Soapy lounged away. ”

“ Two days later Soapy's ground dropped back to its former value, and the frenzy left him. He allowed that it was no use getting excited over stuff that ran only five dollars a pan, especially when the stuff was three feet down; and that evening, being possessed of fifteen thousand dollars in dust and nuggets, peace and a full stomach, he began to send across Ragged River leading questions whether, now a rich man, he should not take his chance of a welcome from the folks at home. ”

“ Burdock did not wash gravel so clean, but got through a third more stuff. This was important, as they might run out of that strip at any moment, and hunt for the next. It was the first time Soapy had felt his age, and he hated it. That night, the moon being full, he slipped to the water's edge to put in a little overtime. At the second pan he heard a laugh.
"I love to see my dear old father work," trolled a bass voice.
He straightened, hurled a string of oaths across Ragged River, and slunk back to camp, his beard wagging angrily.
"The way some folks is brought up nowadays!" he exploded. ”

“ Flandrau, Senior, did not glance at the sullen face of Lute Blackwell hovering in the background but he knew perfectly well that inside of an hour word would reach Soapy Stone that only an even break with Curly would be allowed.
The day passed without a meeting between the two. Curly grew nervous at the delay.
“I’m as restless as a toad on a hot skillet,” he confessed to Davis. “This thing of never knowing what minute Soapy will send me his leaden compliments ain’t any picnic. Wisht it was over.”
“He’s drinking himself blind. Every hour is to the good for you.” ”

“ What do you do?” asked Helen, impatiently. “Do you lie down and let Mr. Bannister and his kind drive their sheep over you?”
“Do we, Soapy?” grinned Texas. Yet it seemed to her his smile was not quite carefree.
“I’m not a cowman myself,” explained Soapy to the girl. “Nor do I run sheep. I—”
“Tell Miss Messiter what yore business is, Soapy,” advised Yorky from the end of the table, with a mouthful of biscuit swelling his cheeks.
Soapy crushed the irrepressible Yorky with a look, but that young man hit back smilingly.
“Soapy, he sells soap, ma’am. He’s a sorter city salesman, I reckon.” ”

“ French Dan’s pardner was afraid they might not agree about who was to have the bronch for a swift getaway. So he took no chances. There’s only one man alive to-day can swear that Soapy was the man with French Dan lying in the zacaton. And he’ll never tell, because he pumped the bullet into his friend. But one thing is sure. Soapy disappeared from Arizona for nearly two years. You can pick any reason you like for his going. That is the one I choose.”
“Same here. And the man that would shoot one partner in the back would shoot another if he had good reasons. ”

“ S'long."
Left alone, Soapy's languor gave place to swift action. In two strides, it seemed, he was in the saloon, had beckoned the quick-eyed bartender aside and put the question: "Where's the Kid, Jake?" ”

“ Burdock heard that groan, and learned shortly that Soapy reckoned he had cleaned up a thousand an hour for the last four hours, against which his rival had the one nugget last tossed across the creek. The latter cooked and ate in a kind of choking silence, and that, again, is the way of the wilderness. Enough is never enough. What the other fellow has determines one's own objective, and it was the irony of Ragged River that doubled on the man who dared not go back East, and halved on the one who ached to go. ”

“ I will, by God, I will!"
"'S right," nodded Soapy, staring into the boy's drawn face, "'s right, Bud; if ever I see a killer—th' Kid's sure it!"
Slowly the glare died out of Spike's eyes, his body drooped, and sighing, he pillowed his heavy head upon the table and fell into a drunken slumber. For a while the two men sat there hearkening to his stertorous breathing, then Soapy laughed soft and mirthlessly. "You sure got th' Kid all worked up an' mad enough t'—kill, eh, Bud? If he does get up against this guy Geoff—this guy Geoff's sure goin' t' cash in—sudden. ”

“ Rarely would any money be found, but people liked to be fooled if it is done the right way. To get them "biting" he might let one of the bills go to a confederate who was seemingly just one of the crowd. It was a money-making business as a rule for there were ordinarily quite a number of "easy-marks" around. They got the soap anyway. So came the name "Soapy."
Well, it was the same old clever, crooked game in other bigger and bolder forms that he now worked in Skagway, with the gun-play in addition. ”

“ The policeman’s mind refused to accept Soapy even as a clue. Men who smash windows do not remain to parley with the law’s minions. They take to their heels. The policeman saw a man half way down the block running to catch a car. With drawn club he joined in the pursuit. Soapy, with disgust in his heart, loafed along, twice unsuccessful.
On the opposite side of the street was a restaurant of no great pretensions. ”

“ I didn't know you were present.”
“What was she going to do?” demanded the Sheriff of Trigger Island.
“There's no use telling you now. It's too late. Polly has gone to a place I don't dare mention, so what's the use talking about it?”
“I can't go 'round pinchin' fallen parrots,” growled Soapy. “Besides, I'm the feller that learned her most of the cuss-words old Bob never heard before. I never saw a bird that was so anxious to improve. She used to set there with her ear cocked, just simply crazy to learn something new. ”

“ I'm—oh, I'm too low-down an' rotten!"
"Sure!" nodded Soapy. "But she's good, an' she's a woman; an' good women are only made t' forgive, I reckon."
"But there's Geoff! I—I couldn't face Geoff."
"That's because you think a heap too much about a low-down rotten guy called Spike. I guess it's about time you began t' think about your sister f' a change. Well, s' long, Kid, I guess I'll be movin'; this pail comes a bit sharp after an hour of it."
So saying, Soapy rose, nodded, and strolled away, still twirling the revolver upon that long and dexterous finger. ”

“ Soapy made out 'e couldn't sleep in 'is bed at night—which wasn't sayin' much, seein' we mostly slep' in our seats or saddles them nights—becos 'e hadn't read a chapter o' the Testament first. An' the old sky-pilot was a little bit surprised—he'd 'a bin more surprised if 'e knew Soapy as well as I did—an' a heap pleased, and most of all bowed down wi' grief becos 'e 'adn't no Testament that was supernumary to War Establishment, and so couldn't issue one to Soapy. ”

“ I struck the logs with the axe, and yelled there was somebody in there who would get burned; I busted in the door to the outer room, and then the one into where you were locked up—the other fellows following. I don't know what the other fellows around the fire will think you were doing in there; but I guess they won't ask any questions. Fellows don't ask questions in Soapy's town; it doesn't do them much good if they do."
[5] "Skookum House": Chinook Indian term for prison—literally "strong" house.
John and George expressed their gratitude very simply. ”

“ I had all the luck.”
“Looked to me like you were making yore own luck, kid,” Bad Bill differed.
The paroled convict went into the house, swearing to get even. His face was livid with fury.
“You wouldn’t think a little thing like a whaling given fair and square would make a man hold a grudge. My system has absorbed se-ve-real without doing it any harm.” Sam stooped to inspect 97 a rapidly discoloring eye. “Say, Curly, he hung a peach of a lamp on you.”
Soapy made no comment in words, but he looked at Flandrau with a new respect. ”

“ But amateurs of the picturesque, if yet there be such in this business-like world, may care to follow Sophy from Morpingham to Paris, to share her flight from the doomed city, to be with her in the Street of the Fountain, at venerable Praslok, on Volseni's crumbling wall, by the banks of the swift-flowing Krath at dawn of day—to taste something of the spirit that filled, to feel something of the love that moved, the heart of Sophy Grouch of Morpingham, in the county of Essex. ”

“ Lionel and Sophy are now seated on yon moss-grown trunk; on either side the old gray-haired man, as if agreeing for a while even to forget each other, that they may make him feel how fondly he is remembered. Sophy is resting both her hands on the old man's shoulder, looking into his face, and murmuring in his ear with voice like the coo of a happy dove. Ah! fear not, Sophy; he is happy too—he, who never thinks of himself. Look—the playful smile round his arch lips; look—now he is showing off Sir Isaac to Vance; with austere solemnity the dog goes through his tricks ”

“ As for Sophy, I can tell you, I’ve had a pretty time with her! I wish you joy of that young lady, Arthur!” and he laughed heartily, the good old man, at the excellence and originality of his joke. “And so you’re off to the Pembertons? old family friends, you say—All right; just as well to keep those sort of people up, I daresay, though I can’t say I have many of the kind to trouble me. No young ladies there though, eh, to worry Sophy? You young London fellows are not always to be trusted,” and again he laughed—a genial hearty laugh that did one good to hear. ”

“ How I shall dote upon her! Oh, my dear brother! you must not keep her all to yourself. You must let me have some share of her!"
I caught her to my bosom: "You shall--you shall!" cried I, "my dear Sophy; we will all live for each other!"
* * * * *
The conversation with Sophy heightened the illusions of my mind; and the manner in which she had treated my daydream identified it with facts and persons and gave it still more the stamp of reality. I walked about as one in a trance, heedless of the world around and lapped in an elysium of the fancy.
In this mood I met one morning with Glencoe. ”

“ Yes, you do see before you, grown up to become the pride of those who cherish her, that Sophy who—"
"Sophy!" cried Lionel advancing; "it is so, then! I knew you were no stroller's grandchild."
Sophy drew up: "I am, I am his grandchild, and as proud to be so as I was then."
"Pardon me, pardon me; I meant to say that he too was not what be seemed. You forgive me," extending his hand, and Sophy's soft hand fell into his forgivingly.
"But he lives? is well? is here? is—" Sophy burst into tears, and Lady Montfort made a sign to Lionel to go into the garden, and leave them. ”

“ Soap, who sat like a Hindoo idol, busily employed in patching an old blue coat with still older brown rags, and humming most mournfully the air of “Ye banks and braes of bonny Doon,” giving it a nasal twang that came direct from Jedediah Soap, who was a member of the Long Parliament.
“Soap,” says Cato, “you haan’t got no goose, nor nothin’, haan’t ye, for Aunt Nabby?”
Soap was a literal (not literary) man, who as he called his daughter Propriety, and having but one eye, was likewise called Justice, that is by some that were classical. “Priety,” says he, “gin Cato the largest goose.” ”

“ But this writing was not yet clear to Sophy. She toiled through the hot, clogging sands, and what was traced upon them seemed to her only the wanton hieroglyphics of the wind ... the wild wind that blew men and women hither and thither like rootless stalks. Yet she believed in this vaster and more splendid meaning that Life kept hidden, under all its dark pranks and sardonic jesting. She imagined Life, in those days, as a huge, Afrit clown, under whose motley is secreted the Seal of Solomon. ”

“ So it came to pass that little Sophy Waldron was received into her grandfather's house all unknowing that it was her grandfather's.
He saw her for a few moments on the day of her arrival.
"I hear you are going to be made strong and well," was the old man's greeting.
"Yes," returned Sophy, with a wise look. "They are going to try and mend me straight. I hope they won't make a mistake this time. Mistakes are so vexatious."
"When you are well would you like to live with me? I want a little girl about the house."
"What for? You have lots and lots of people to do things for you." ”

“ The letter to Sophy ran thus:
"Darling, forgive me; I have stolen away from you, but only for a few days, and only in order to see if we cannot gain the magic home where I am to be the Genius, and you the Princess. I go forth with such a light heart, Sophy dear. I shall be walking thirty miles a day, and not feel an ache in the lame leg; you could not keep up with me—you know you could not. So think over the cottage and the basket-work, and practice at samplers and pin-cushions when it is too hot to play; and be stout and strong against I come back. ”