Show ou th R S es es THE STORY SO 60 FAR on their way to the newly discovered sold gold diggings at cottonwood colo in th the early seventies robert gilson easterner who tells the story and his partner buck hayden veteran miner secretly witness bandits hold up a stagecoach and make away with an express box among amone the victims are a young woman mrs deaner and mrs barnaby who intends to start SL AL restaurant at the camp all son on meets marcus handy an editor on his wiy to set bet up tho the cottonwood courier arriving at cottonwood they enter a saloon baloon where an altercation between two men one a pickpocket arouses the mob to demand the lyn lunching lynching ching or of the latter CHAPTER ill III continued 4 drop that rope I 1 came a voice a voice with ring and carry which seemed to dominate all the noise lie ile who spoke stood in the door silence tell fell again silence and quiet it seemed that everyone froze in the midst of whatever he was doln doles all except the newcomer ile he was a tall man with a heavy brown mustache and imperial ile he wore a black slouch hat of the G A it pattern and for all his height he moved with quick flowing certainty ile he did not wait for that mood of frozen hesitation t to 0 break in two strides he had crossed to one of the empty chairs pushed against the wall when the players dropped their game he stepped into it stepped just as lightly to the table his feet crunching on chips and the spilled stacks of twenty dollar gold pieces As the silence began to break into sinister mutterings rings lie he spoke again bring that rope here and that prisoner tool too I 1 i momentary silence again ile he stood Us its feet planted apart a drawn revolver in his left hand band which I 1 thought odd it rested so close to h his is body its muzzle a little lowered III nis eyes seemed to take us all in the leader of the mob stood alone i f ln n the middle of the floor he spoke sud suddenly deny i well lvell ban banz a city marshal as quick bulc k AS a pickpocket he said boys biang in ing on your rope rone its long iong enough for two i drop that rope came from the man on the table shifting hla his eyes shifting slightly the muzzle of his gun there the leader made his mistake the muzzle was turned away from bilm he had an instant to act nis ills hand went to ills his hip in the same instant I 1 had bad a glimpse of a dozen forms beginning a prudent drop toward the floor I 1 never saw the man on the table change the direction of ills his muzzle from the lie back door to tile the center of the floor the motion was too quick I 1 was mas only aware that its his right hand held flat had brushed across his gun eun the bang sent the crowd to the floor as a strike in bowling drops the ten pins ping the leader had his gun out and no more it dropped clattering to the floor ills his left hand went to ills his right bleeps biceps und and he sank slowly onto one knee A tall rangy man with a hat like a marshals inars hals pushed through the door charlie said the marshal take that prisoner there you with the rope come here the man with the rope walking unsteadily jer jerkily hily crossed the floor the audience was now beginning to get up and the marshal spoke again and again seemed to freeze everone into a grotesque statue Is there anybody else wants to shoot lie he inquired no one responded all right lie he continued theres been ro no lanchin lyn lyne chin liln in this camp yet and there wont be get that somebody fix up the man I 1 just shot iles hes only winged wined in the arm lie ile cast his ey eye e about again your blood was up boys kothen like a little blood to coot cool blood ills face had been as blank as a stone wall except for the steady ilabe of ills eyes but iset now he smiled and I 1 liked the way ills his eyes crinkled lie he leaped down from the table turned Ms ills back deliberately on the crowd began to strip the belt from the prisoners arms to snap on handcuffs the babble broke out again three minutes before it had an animal note now it sparkled nith bilth laughter before the marshal the deputy and their now dow prisoner passed out of the door tile poker players were sorting out chips and piles of gold pieces at bic the tables the bartenders were taking orders the stairs were black with an ascending crowd ire he Is sure a sho otin man remarked buck in a tone lone of deep admiration who might it be town marshal replied jim huffaker brit briefly fly name chris lile McGra Grath lh youre right lie he shoots 11 chos mayor of this ibis cump camp anyhow inquired buck kint none replied huffaker A town marshal ri like that Is all tile mayor we newl neer there theres our man I 1 tie its suO su dily donly broke off darting past the ti tables liles and alad laying hands on an individual who had just entered after all tills this space of years the feg urt un of talbot who warned to sell ills claim lihi grown a little dim in nind lie he wa to float into my ufa life for a day only 0 17 aria float out again never su nor or do I 1 remember many man v details of the long dicker which he rod ind jim conducted la in it a comparatively quiet corner of the black jak jar k 1 I suppose your title Is 0 inquired buck good as the gold dig said bald talbot got to be proved said sad buck spose we kin look into that after ive seen the claim now watching this transaction idly from the outside I 1 had perceived that talbot was eager to be gone I 1 was not surprised therefore when he said and I 1 felt with sInce sincerity 1 I wanted to be travel tr avelin ln tomorrow morrial why im sellin so cheap kotbin Not liin bin boea until I 1 see your titles right said buck stubbornly here huffaker came in with a solution well lf it chris mcgrath says its right and sound believe him wont you he got gotto ao do with it asked buck the NI whole ioIe works said huffaker he registers minin claims too Il lebbe allowed buck so forth we went under the burning stars and through the thinning crowd to find town marshal BIC mcgrath Grath we ran him to earth eartle in the tiny comstock lode saloon his foot on the bar rail his hand on a glass of water in two minutes the marshal had certified tidied unofficially but with certainty that no 32 placer held by william talbot was a bona fide claim without encumbrance As we left huffaker asked us about our lodging for the night that question had been dimly troubling me all the evening our blankets were with our packs in the public corral sleeping there on the wet trampled ground seemed out of the question 1 I sleep people in my shack huffaker keep up the fire all night so you dont ved need blankets we found indeed indeed a dozen men already snoring under the table of the restaurant wont cost you seelus we done cone so much business good night whispered our host as he departed to his hi quarters to in the rear I 1 threw myself down by the stove of the Golde Colde and with one side roasting and the other freezing slept until the cook woke me by stirring the fire tor for an early breakfast in spite of youth mountain air and fatigue I 1 was a little time in falling asleep these tied had been the most crowded and excited three days of my life cramped in every joint by one night on the bard floor buck talbot and I 1 rolled out and breakfasted by candlelight when we started forth the sun had risen for the world below but for us it shone as yet only on the white rimmed peaks above from the snows of the peaks the breeze came ln in puffs A little shrill and piercing at first touch once you had bad filled your lunge lung it whipped your blood like wine tile the public corral where we had left our stock and packs had as by magic changed over night the piles of boxes and barrels which had risen above us when we unpacked and hitched in the twilight had assumed new sha shapes pes and other piles were growing at the hands of the freighters the very horses mules and jacks the bang sent the crowd to the floor as a strike in bowling drops the ten pins seemed recent arrivals As we halted baited as we began to rub down our burros with gunny sacking in order to make them presentable for sale two mud spattered men on an blowing lathered drooping horses spurred into the alio corral without introduction or ado they hailed us wheres these galena locations asked the nearest up yon way up the hilll said buck scarcely glat glancing icing from his work with no further question they jerked the savage spanish bits in the lathered mouths of their weary mounts whirled and spurred straight glit over the mushy ground uphill now bill talbot was with us the dicker finished Sol shed we saddled mounted and started to inspect that end of our bargain which most interested us tal tai bots claim lay las a mile up the creek but the road was BO so jammed and miry that we elected to take a side trail across the hill which here started abruptly from the road and presently will aa irwim W in by will irwia i service flattened out into a my aly eyes were searching as althey they tied all the morning been searching halt half consciously ly I 1 dropped deliberately behind buck and bill talbot and suddenly my nerve centers gave a jump my cheeks checks a little tingle there was a sign painted with the crossline cross line of tho the IN turned the wrong way with the stems ot of the capitals nt at all angles from the perpendicular mrs barna bys boarding house open for business next tuesday it read behind it stood a tent the posts post sand and ridged poles in place but the cover flopping in a state of 0 collapse bent down earnestly and efficiently driving a tent peg with the hutt butt of a hatchet was a form which I 1 recognized as that of mrs barnaby in the rear a big sheet iron cook stove set up in the open field emitted a faint ghost of 0 smoke from its abbreviated pipe as though a fire which served to get breakfast was now dying out beside it were great packing boxes some open some still nailed shut and all in spite of the conspicuous sign handle with care lying as though some freighter had rolled them from the top of his load and simply let them drop over the nearest box bos head and shoulders halt half hidden stooped the figure of another woman As I 1 looked she dropped back on one knee her arms full of tin plates and faced me it was mrs deane and my first glorious impression was of her hair brown chestnut brown with the same light in ia the beating sun of the morning that one sees in molasses anay candy when it Is being pulled a tawny undertone which glistens I 1 had jerked up the head of my protesting horse was about to give spur and to retreat in confusion when she looked suddenly our way her face lightened with a smile in which I 1 read recognition and she dropped her load into a box bos then she rose tools took a step toward me embarrassment ran across me in a hot flush I 1 felt for an instant as I 1 did when at my first dancing lesson they told me to put my arm around the little lady she on her part was swaying across the uneven ground toward me her eyes most friendly but her smile with that same reserve now she stopped and held up palm outward a pair of strong but slender hands I 1 noted with one eye that the left had a ring on the third finger and as she dropped them with a pretty flutter that it was a plain gold band 1 I wont offer to shake hads she was saying disgraceful disgraceful disgrace fui with this unpacking so you landed safely I 1 I 1 hope you staked your claim 1 I think were staked I 1 said my embarrassment beginning to vanish to yield to gloomy interior reflections on that hat circlet of gold and you arrived safely yes were going to have a home soon sirs airs darnaby barnaby and I 1 weve been bee n sleeping under the edge of the canvas so far but its been great flint fortunately tuna tely it rained mrs birs barnaby at this moment rose up tip from the tent peg stood with one hand in the hollow of herback herl back and broke into the conversation broke in like a flood were goin to maybe were coln to if they deliver them pans and kittles that company robbin you right at the start and then leavin out the pans and kittles kitties and goodness knows become of the carpenter I 1 hired at ten dollars a day just to put the floor down which I 1 could do myself stampeded like a foot fool to the galens galena diggins I 1 guess and that sack of flour it flowed on without punctuation or grammar and from it all I 1 gathered that sirs mrs Eara Darn abys allys stake out was merely temporary she was i erect erecting log her tent on the ba bare re ground taking chances chancel that there would be no rain until the pile ot of lumber stacked in between the boxes became it floor and a tent frame anyhow we opan open on thursday it they e eat it oil off the stove concluded mrs barnaby 1 I hope I 1 may come to see you when you get settled I 1 said in parting I 1 had hesitated tor for abe proper word and when I 1 came out with that spilled settled suggestive of moving time in old ordered new england scenes mrs deane laughed her laugh I 1 had noticed that before ran a little gamut played a halt half tune but the veil of inscrutable reserve behind her eyes had thickened become momentarily a curtain the tha gamut of her laugh died away on a grace note and 1 I hope so was all she cepil replied led she wenc back to the boxes then and I 1 had to remember as I 1 withdrew and mounted that it would be bad manners to stare at her over my shoulder however as I 1 gathered rein and rode away I 1 did myself the luxury of another look she was in her graceful half kneeling pose beside I 1 the boxes the morning sun was making tall tawny ny gold of her hair I 1 CHAPTER IV Ever everyone youe who has picked wild berries knows the greedy joy in that innocent sport you are getting something for nothing and each bush as you approach li it holds out glittering promises of a branch so bent and loaded that you have only to scrape it in order to fill you veil call gold digging for the first thre or foar days at least raises the same game set of emot emotions runs vastly intensified all day long iong buck dug and I 1 rocked or I 1 dus dug and buck rocked afy feet were first wet through with standing in the polluted stream and then when I 1 worked from the bank congealed to chunks of ice by the shrill spring wind nevertheless I 1 worked with enthusiasm sly my reward was that period late in the day when we assembled the scrapings from the riffles fiffles of our washer and panned them down still finer with our skillet and an old dl then at last the tiny flecks of gold cold began to glitter in the yellow mud on the second day I 1 even found a nugget about twice as big as a buckshot this buck let me keep as a souvenir after all these years I 1 have it yet it was brutally hard work I 1 thought that our struggles on the road had toughened toughen edme me for anything but when I 1 woke on the second morning muscles which I 1 did not know I 1 possessed creaked and ached their protest sly aly hands looked and felt like inflamed red blisters and my wet clothes rubbed roe me raw in a dozen places above and below us along the stream other men in groups of tw twos 0 3 and threes tolled toiled with the same concentrated cent rated monotony and meantime I 1 As I 1 looked she dropped back on one knee her arms full of plates and faced me just about the shoulder of the hill lay hidden the fascination of cottonwood camp by day I 1 could hear in rattles and roars broken now and then by a louder sound of whose cause I 1 could only speculate as I 1 dug and rocked rocked and dug it was by night however that the sounds and glimpses of cottonwood became most alluring to youth and loneliness on the second night after we had stowed away our bacon and coffee I 1 had washed up shaved and brushed my hair with the intention of visiting camp buck had spoken suddenly from the corner of our eight by twelve cabin where he was mending a splintered shovel handle with wire to ask what ye up to Tb thought |