The Golden Dream - Robert Michael Ballantyne (best biographies to read .txt) 📗

Congress to render spitting on floors and carpets a capital offence, you would fill the world with admiration and your own bosoms with self-respect, not to mention the benefit that would accrue to your digestive powers in consequence thereof!

All of the supper party were clad and armed in the rough-and-ready style already referred to, and most of them were men of the lower ranks, but there were one or two who, like Ned Sinton, had left a more polished class of mortals to mingle in the promiscuous crowd. These, in some cases, carried their manners with them, and exerted a modifying influence on all around. One young American, in particular, named Maxton, soon attracted general attention by the immense fund of information he possessed, and the urbane, gentlemanly manner in which he conveyed it to those around him. He possessed in an eminent degree those qualities which attract men at once, and irresistibly good nature, frankness, manliness, considerable knowledge of almost every subject that can be broached in general conversation, united with genuine modesty. When he sat down to table he did not grasp everything within his reach; he began by offering to carve and help others, and when at length he did begin to eat, he did not gobble. He "guessed" a little, it is true, and "calculated" occasionally, but when he did so, it was in a tone that fell almost as pleasantly on the ear as the brogue of old Ireland.

Ned happened to be seated beside Maxton, and held a good deal of conversation with him.

"Forgive me, if I appear inquisitive," said the former, helping himself to a handful of broken biscuit, "but I cannot help expressing a hope that our routes may lie in the same direction--are you travelling towards Sacramento city or the mines?"

"Towards the mines; and, as I observed that your party came from the southward, I suppose you are going in the same direction. If so, I shall be delighted to join you."

"That's capital," replied Ned, "we shall be the better of having our party strengthened, and I am quite certain we could not have a more agreeable addition to it."

"Thank you for the compliment. As to the advantage of a strong party, I feel it a safeguard as well as a privilege to join yours, for, to say truth, the roads are not safe just now. Several lawless scoundrels have been roving about in this part of the country committing robberies and even murder. The Indians, too, are not so friendly as one could wish. They have been treated badly by some of the unprincipled miners; and their custom is to kill two whites for every red-man that falls. They are not particular as to whom they kill, consequently the innocent are frequently punished for the guilty."

"This is sad," replied Ned. "Are, then, all the Indian tribes at enmity with the white men?"

"By no means. Many tribes are friendly, but some have been so severely handled, that they have vowed revenge, and take it whenever they can with safety. Their only weapons, however, are bows and arrows, so that a few resolute white men, with rifles, can stand against a hundred of them, and they know this well. I spent the whole of last winter on the Yuba River; and, although large bands were in my neighbourhood, they never ventured to attack us openly, but they succeeded in murdering one or two miners who strayed into the woods alone."

"And are these murders passed over without any attempt to bring the murderers to justice?"

"I guess they are not," replied Maxton, smiling; "but justice is strangely administered in these parts. Judge Lynch usually presides, and he is a stern fellow to deal with. If you listen to what the hunter, there, is saying just now, you will hear a case in point, if I mistake not."

As Maxton spoke, a loud laugh burst from the men at the other end of the table.

"How did it happen?" cried several.

"Out wi' the yarn, old boy."

"Ay, an' don't spin it too tight, or, faix, ye'll burst the strands," cried Larry O'Neil, who, during the last half-hour, had been listening, open-mouthed, to the marvellous anecdotes of grizzlies and red-skins, with which the hunter entertained his audience.

"Wall, boys, it happened this ways," began the man, tossing off a gin-sling, and setting down the glass with a violence that nearly smashed it. "Ye see I wos up in the mountains, near the head waters o' the Sacramento, lookin' out for deer, and gittin' a bit o' gold now an' again, when, one day, as I was a-comin' down a gully in the hills, I comes all of a suddint on two men. One wos an Injun, as ugly a sinner as iver I seed; t'other wos a Yankee lad, in a hole diggin' gold. Before my two eyes were well on them, the red villain lets fly an arrow, and the man fell down with a loud yell into the hole. Up goes my rifle like wink, and the red-skin would ha' gone onder in another second, but my piece snapped--cause why? the primin' had got damp; an' afore I could prime agin, he was gone.

"I went up to the poor critter, and sure enough it wos all up with him. The arrow went in at the back o' his neck. He niver spoke again. So I laid him in the grave he had dug for himself, and sot off to tell the camp. An' a most tremendous row the news made. They got fifty volunteers in no time, and went off, hot-fut, to scalp the whole nation. As I had other business to look after, and there seemed more than enough o' fightin' men, I left them, and went my way. Two days after, I had occasion to go back to the same place, an' when I comed in sight o' the camp, I guess there was a mighty stir.

"`Wot's to do?' says I to a miner in a hole, who wos diggin' away for gold, and carin' nothin' about it.

"`Only scraggin' an Injun,' he said, lookin' up.

"`Oh,' says I, `I'll go and see.'

"So off I sot, and there wos a crowd o' about two hundred miners round a tree; and, jest as I come up, they wos puttin' the rope round the neck of a poor wretch of an old grey-haired red-skin, whose limbs trembled so that they wos scarce able to hold him up.

"`Heave away now, Bill,' cried the man as tied the noose.

"But somethin' was wrong with the hitch o' the rope round the branch o' the tree, an' it wouldn't draw, and some time wos spent in puttin' it right. I felt sorter sorry for the old man, for his grave face was bold enough, and age more than fear had to do with the tremblin' o' his legs. Before they got it right again, my eye fell on a small band o' red-skins, who were lookin' quietly on; and foremost among them the very blackguard as shot the man in the galley. I knew him at once by his ugly face. Without sayin' a word, I steps for'ard to the old Injun, and takes the noose off his neck.

"`Halloo!' cried a dozen men, jumpin' at me. `Wot's that for?' `Scrag the hunter,' cries one. `Howld yer long tongues, an' hear what he's got to say,' shouts an Irishman.

"`Keep your minds easy,' says I, mountin' a stump, `an' seize that Injun, or I'll have to put a ball into him before he gits off'--for, ye see, I obsarved the black villain took fright, and was sneakin' away through the crowd. They had no doubt who I meant, for I pinted straight at him; and, before ye could wink, he was gripped, and led under the tree, with a face paler than ever I saw the face o' a red-skin before.

"`Now,' says I, `wot for are ye scraggin' this old man?' So they told me how the party that went off to git the murderer met a band o' injuns comin' to deliver him up to be killed, they said, for murderin' the white man. An' they gave up this old Injun, sayin' he wos the murderer. The diggers believed it, and returned with the old boy and two or three others that came to see him fixed off.

"`Very good,' says I, `ye don't seem to remimber that I'm the man what saw the murder, and told ye of it. By good luck, I've come in time to point him out--an' _this is him_.' An' with that I put the noose round the villain's neck and drawed it tight. At that he made a great start to shake it off, and clear away; but before you could wink, he was swingin' at the branch o' the tree, twinty feet in the air.

"Sarved him right," cried several of the men, emphatically, as the hunter concluded his anecdote.

"Ay," he continued, "an' they strung up his six friends beside him."

"Sarved 'em right too," remarked the tall man, whose partiality for the tin wash-hand basin and the tooth-brush we have already noticed. "If I had my way, I'd shoot 'em all off the face o' the 'arth, I would, right away."

"I'm sorry to hear they did that," remarked Larry O'Neil looking pointedly at the last speaker, "for it only shewed they was greater mortherers nor the Injuns--the red-skins morthered wan man, but the diggers morthered six.

"An' who are _you_ that finds fault wi' the diggers?" inquired the tall man, turning full round upon the Irishman, with a tremendous oath.

"Be the mortial," cried the Irishman, starting up like a Jack-in-the-box, and throwing off his coat, "I'm Larry O'Neil, at yer sarvice. Hooroo! come on, av' ye want to be purtily worked off."

Instantly the man's hand was on the hilt of his revolver; but, before he could draw it, the rest of the company started up and overpowered the belligerents.

"Come, gentlemen," said the host of the ranche, stepping forward, "it's not worth while quarrelling about a miserable red-skin."

"Put on your coat, Larry, and come, let's get ready for a start," said Ned; "you can't afford to fight till you've made your fortune at the diggings. How far is it to the next ranche, landlord?"

This cool attempt to turn the conversation was happily successful. The next ranche, he was told, was about ten miles distant, and the road comparatively easy; so, as it was a fine moonlight night, and he was desirous of reaching the first diggings on the following day as early as possible, the horses and mules were saddled, and the bill called for.

When the said bill was presented, or rather, announced to them, our travellers opened their eyes pretty wide; they had to open their purses pretty wide too, and empty them to such an extent that there was not more than a dollar left among them all!

The supper, which we have described, cost them two and a half dollars-- about ten shillings and sixpence a head, including a glass of bad brandy; but not including a bottle of stout which Larry, in the ignorance and innocence of his heart, had asked for, and which cost him _three dollars_ extra! An egg, also, which Ned had obtained, cost him a shilling.

"Oh, morther!"