Show J W 1 ry ov TT TT T T ID ism U m 0 CP C P by WILL IRWIN copyright by will irwin I 1 VM barvic 1 THE STORY SO FAR on their way to the new cottonwood gold eold diggings in colorado in the early seventies robert gilson easterner find and his partner duck buck haydon hayden a veteran miner witness the holdup hold up of a stage crape coach from which the express box la is stolen before the bandits are seared scared oil off among amone the he holdup hold up victims are mrs birs constance plane deane and mrs barnaby Barn RbY who intends to open a restaurant in cottonwood gilson meets meats marcus handy editor on his way to start the cottonwood courier arriving in town gilson and hayden bayden together purchase a mining claim A threatened lynching lunching lyn ching to Is averted by the bravery of chris mcgrath Mo Grath town marshal CHAPTER IV continued we listened to him until long after midnight even then I 1 lay awake tor for hours weaving golden and melodramatic dreams and when I 1 woke next morning the dally daily routine of calm college life in the seventies seemed flat and uninspiring that mood passed of course I 1 am toot not sure whether I 1 ever tallied talked to tilden again certainly it was not of the west I 1 must have seen him on the day when we took our diplomas and our conventional illusory advice from the president dent but I 1 do not remember I 1 was graduated with a cum laude as befitted a gentlemen gentleman I 1 had proved a good scholar but not too good so I 1 found myself back in my moth ers colonial homestead by common with my future as undetermined as on the day when I 1 matriculated at harvard Harva pd it had always been understood that in spite of the family money I 1 should do something our ou r stock eatock was still near enough to the stony Z soil of new england to despise a loafer my father dying when I 1 was a child from the lingering consequences of his wound at cold harbor arbor Et had incorporated before his death the wholesale wool house in doston boston which was the foundation of our prosperities ties and had turned his other properties into railroad bonds in my mother true to type judicious generosity was awed with native thrift and economy through her conservative but intelligent management the margin of the fortune had bad increased even during the hard elmp of 73 by the terms of my fathers fatI fers will my mother as executrix must dole out to roe me such sums as were necessary to my support and maintenance te nance on my thirtieth birthday the fortune would be divided there were only three heirs my mother my sister emily now finishing at a select seminary for young ladies in boston and L I 1 and in the course of time and nature halt half of my mothers share mould come to me my future while undetermined was secure far tar far too secure I 1 passed the summer in Co hasset basset trying to inhibit thought of the future a pleasant period on the surface but below that vaguely unsatisfactory I 1 sought excitement in a flirtation which came near to being an entanglement with NellIe Ferris petite plump as was then the fashion in women delicately featured dowered cowered with an active little mind and an acute little wit I 1 suppose that it if I 1 had bad remained in Co hasset would have done inq lt full work As it was the affair never went further than kissing good by when I 1 started west I 1 was reading one night by the student lamp in the library and mother was writing letters at the escrito escritoire lre in the corner when I 1 looked up to find tier her eyes fixed on me with an expression hard yet quizzical I 1 retain yet a picture of her as slie she looked that night she was forty five in that era a woman of her years had long anticipated the inevitable given up bright colors and such youthful trip perles as croquet and sea bathing and was preparing for her era of caps and knitting I 1 thought of her from the viewpoint of twenty two as incredibly aged yet tet as she sat there facing me her chestnut brown hair dressed in the innumerable waves and small curls url of current fashion showed no thread of white the old lace of her sunday about her throat and bosom from somewhere amidst a foam of 0 lace one of her plump but shapely forearms supported a tapered hand blind which was tapping a penholder against her lips her other hand lay stretched out outon on the desk toward me in an attitude altitude which merely hinted at affection mothers affections ran so deeply that she expressed them with difficulty we new englanders are mill very near in spirit to old england and we show it in nothing so go ditch as in our abby repression of our deepest dee peLt t emolins emo lons rob said bald my mother what do you propose to do next enter anter law school la in the tall fall I 1 replied not until I 1 expressed it in that bald manner did I 1 realize how little the law interested me and then pursued my mother continuing to tap her penholder against he be tightened lips h practice I 1 suppose some repeated my mother lyly aad od 2 somehow rob does that gaic ague Dri allure you no said 1 I jerked suddenly into frankness with her and with myself no it 0 I 1 mother nodded 1 I thought sol so I 1 and suddenly my lazy young mind stirred sit and began to function with will realities I 1 knew why life file in Co Colins basset set had seemed so flat and why my mind not through fear but through boredom had bad been refusing to picture the future tilden during that hint all night talk in harrisons room had planted in me a seed more vital than either of us knew it had bad been germinating all this time now suddenly it sprouted to the surface and 11 mother I 1 think I 1 want to go west I 1 said she kept her eyes on mine but there was a break in her voice as she replied not for good oh no I 1 said L I 1 just for a year or so then I 1 walked to the window lest she see what might be in my face stood looking out at the lights of co hasset basset harbor mother spoke very gently from behind me 1 I had thought of every possibility but that I 1 was about to suggest that you go to sea for a while my tribe away back were seafaring people its far front from genteel the west her inference that the forecastle of a deep sea vessel stood notable for an atmosphere of gentility amused me ine so that I 1 dared turn back from the window and show my face but theres steel in you said moth er now she was looking down into the pigeonholes of her old mahogany desk though its never been tempered yet and some generations of gentlemen no rob come through that of course theres danger dreadful things happen out there mother had never in her life traveled west of albany and had formed her picture from the newspapers papers ill risk that sala said 1 I my youthful pride in my own courage slightly piqued true replied mother 1 I said you had steel in you perhaps for me it so easy then mother did what she had not done since I 1 was a little boy she had always kissed hissed me perfunctorily at meeting and parting but now she held out her arms to me I 1 came to her and she patted and petted me silently I 1 looked up presently to see that she elie was crying without sobs or sniffles just the big tears coursing down her cheeks I 1 wiped her eyes and 1 I wont go if you feel that way about it I 1 said whereupon she became at once her old peppery self she snatched the handkerchief away from me finished the drying process at ar 1 jerked out dont be a fool robert so we sat down and planned it all out practically I 1 remembered something tilden had said during that con ers ersa atlon tion in holworthy hall you dont get that sort of thing in california any more were growing civilized nowadays the real wildlife wildlife lies in the people are just beginning to break into them offhand and without further thought I 1 chose the then came the matter of funds and there my mother became steel and adamant it if my wander years were going to do me any good she said I 1 must pay my own way she would get me out there she would get me back if necessary and in any event I 1 must not stay more than two years this at first both hurt and piqued me I 1 had pictured myself leaping from adventure to adventure without thought of the morrow and always with plenty in my pockets the cold hard reality of making a living had my west but by the time I 1 had slept on the matter I 1 perceived dimly that the true adventure must be sweetened with practical effort otherwise it Is all plums and no suet and I 1 accepted mothers conditions of course I 1 missed the deeper realities of her decision as youth always does I 1 had to let maturity and experience ripen my own understanding before I 1 could appreciate the fullness of her sacrifice to the development of my character it took a woman of her reed breed and time to do it others would merely have thought of 0 it or would have pulled back at the last moment mother played the game through only aben I 1 reached denver did she seem to repent a little of her bargain with herself and me from her first letter dropped a money order for three hundred dollars 1 I am sending this so she wrote because I 1 am not sure there are banks out there you are not to spend it now I 1 know of course that you will follow my wishes it is just a reserve in case you are in trouble or for any other unexpected contingency but I 1 did not at first follow the trail of adventure clear through denver was the railroad terminus last thrust of the civilization I 1 knew then as now BOW it stood gateway to the established in a cheap hotel down by the union station with fifty dollars in my pocket and the world before me I 1 spent two lays duys acell acclimating mating my lungs to the rarefied atmosphere und and my spirit to these entertaining new surroundings roun dings before I 1 counted my money and thought of my material situation the rocky mountain news displayed columns of advertisements under the heading bending help wanted I 1 ran them over teamsters ra railroad 11 road construction gangs shovel gangs daugs rn miners iners my eye grasped at this item I 1 took the matter to the clerk at our hotel my bureau of information on all things western I 1 found that minor miner meant not a romantic prospector following the trail of fortune but virtually a common cognion laborer in the dark bowels of the earth my face must have shown my spurt of dismay tor for the ilia clerk suddenly asked youre educated aint you yes said 1 I and inhibited myself from froin saying how bow much I 1 was educated college breeding I 1 had found already did not recommend a young man in the far west if you hustle out there quick said the clerk you can get a chocking checking job in the grading gang out by long mount friend of mine had it happen to know lies hes quitting today checking I 1 asked keepin time on the gang hiring and firing mostly firing nowadays said the clerk I 1 drove out to Long mount in a rented livery buckboard buch board making no do more of a small matter I 1 got the job buckled down to it with all the interest in the world with the boss a taciturn and cynical old westerner whom I 1 never came really to know I 1 batched in a board shack uncommunicative as he I 1 next morning I 1 was weighing sugar and learning to wrap bundles bundies 4 was he did teach me something about that essential western art shooting ile he himself handled a 45 43 colts with such magic efficiency as to make me kupect supe suspect ct that his big silence concealed a past the autumn rains came there were light knowin snows in the heights above and they spread over the peaks a bridal veil which with each succeeding storm grew heavier when it had become a blanket of snow we finished our job and paid off I 1 was out of work and I 1 had but forty dollars ahead then luck served me another good durrf settling up our business with belch mann the german grocer from eliom we drew our commissary I 1 found that he needed a clerk so next morning I 1 was weighing sugar and learning to rap bundles and had found on curtis street a modest boarding place there I 1 remained all winter denser demer in those days interested me but after all it was not the west I 1 had come to see and to live the west I 1 wanted lay beyond that white mountain a barrier when spring came I 1 would go somewhere it descended upon us suddenly bringing the cotton cottonwoods woods to bud overhead to an impenetrable morass the unpaved roadways underfoot and sharp on that the rocky mountain afountain news splashed across its first page the story of a strike at cottonwood ton wood which I 1 knew as a mining camp but recently opened somewhere up in the ranges I 1 closed out with who he nearly wept to see me abandon a good job for the illusory business of mining and went with my winter savings to jumping off place for the dash across the peaks I 1 intended to proceed by stage next neighbor on th the floor of a big tent which served as a lodging house honse I 1 met buck breakfasted with him reviewed the prospect of reaching cottonwood in time to stake a decent claim became intrigued with his honesty his chirlly revealed experience his technical knowledge of his business duck buck wils was just out of a partner one shorty who had come down with him front from idaho having fallen before the wiles of woman and taken himself a wife la in denver hesitatingly I 1 made bold to propose that we join forces adding that I 1 had a little money for this contingency I 1 felt justified me in dipping into my mothers emergency fund buck accepted with a promptness which in him amounted to eagerness so a day later we were toiling behind our jack trains toward cottonwood this di digging gang along bear creez was therefore my first encounter with actual hard bard physical work and when the fascination of golden sand began to pall I 1 realized that man does not by choice toll with the sweat of his big face but by hard necessity ile fie must discipline himself to work with his hands life had not given me that form of discipline at first unconsciously then consciously I 1 began to loaf when bucks back was turned I 1 stood long on minutes at a time contemplating the mountains or trying to peer round the opaque corner of the hill at cottonwood camp I 1 invented chores an hour ahead of the event I 1 was wag waiting for bucks cheerful well better lay off and clean up kid and about the fourth day we found the clear white bottom of the stream bed streaked with another kind of sand troublesome to shovel and almost impossible to rock and wash in color a dirty yellowish white in substance it resembled very hard engar its heavy particles enamel surfaced and shiny like those of ordinary bottom sand were yet extremely brittle they ground under pressure into a cutting powder as hard as emery A dozen times that day we ne were forced to stop work and scrape this dl disturbing substance from the riffles fiffles of our washer and when we cleaned up an experimental pan we found not it a streak of gold disgusted duck buck pulled up stakes and moved operations to the hlll other bank uis ills reward which quite restored his drooping spirits was a good days yield all day he had been cursing the strange substance that night however he forgave it sufficient ly to scoop up a double handful and inspect it by the light of our candle D n college bred mining expert might think he saw something in n this here stuff he remarked what for example I 1 asked oh most anything that come into his mind I 1 guess what a mining expert looks for aint value all lie he needs is a sucker Saran tay brought the longest hours of nay MY life to my indescribable relief duck buck atre ve even evea before the sun gun had dipped below the western range the signal for quitting time we cleaned up the rocker cooked a hasty supper I 1 bathed st shivering in the creek shaved put on my single dingle clean shirt and that suit of store clothes which I 1 had unpacked and hung up in the vain hope that some of its creases would |