Devil's Ford

Devil's Ford
Bret Harte

Bret Harte

Devil's Ford

CHAPTER I

It was a season of unequalled prosperity in Devil’s Ford. The half a dozen cabins scattered along the banks of the North Fork, as if by some overflow of that capricious river, had become augmented during a week of fierce excitement by twenty or thirty others, that were huddled together on the narrow gorge of Devil’s Spur, or cast up on its steep sides. So sudden and violent had been the change of fortune, that the dwellers in the older cabins had not had time to change with it, but still kept their old habits, customs, and even their old clothes. The flour pan in which their daily bread was mixed stood on the rude table side by side with the “prospecting pans,” half full of gold washed up from their morning’s work; the front windows of the newer tenements looked upon the one single thoroughfare, but the back door opened upon the uncleared wilderness, still haunted by the misshapen bulk of bear or the nightly gliding of catamount.

Neither had success as yet affected their boyish simplicity and the frankness of old frontier habits; they played with their new-found riches with the naive delight of children, and rehearsed their glowing future with the importance and triviality of school-boys.

“I’ve bin kalklatin’,” said Dick Mattingly, leaning on his long-handled shovel with lazy gravity, “that when I go to Rome this winter, I’ll get one o’ them marble sharps to chisel me a statoo o’ some kind to set up on the spot where we made our big strike. Suthin’ to remember it by, you know.”

“What kind o’ statoo—Washington or Webster?” asked one of the Kearney brothers, without looking up from his work.

“No—I reckon one o’ them fancy groups—one o’ them Latin goddesses that Fairfax is always gassin’ about, sorter leadin’, directin’ and bossin’ us where to dig.”

“You’d make a healthy-lookin’ figger in a group,” responded Kearney, critically regarding an enormous patch in Mattingly’s trousers. “Why don’t you have a fountain instead?”

“Where’ll you get the water?” demanded the first speaker, in return. “You know there ain’t enough in the North Fork to do a week’s washing for the camp—to say nothin’ of its color.”

“Leave that to me,” said Kearney, with self-possession. “When I’ve built that there reservoir on Devil’s Spur, and bring the water over the ridge from Union Ditch, there’ll be enough to spare for that.”

“Better mix it up, I reckon—have suthin’ half statoo, half fountain,” interposed the elder Mattingly, better known as “Maryland Joe,” “and set it up afore the Town Hall and Free Library I’m kalklatin’ to give. Do THAT, and you can count on me.”

After some further discussion, it was gravely settled that Kearney should furnish water brought from the Union Ditch, twenty miles away, at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, to feed a memorial fountain erected by Mattingly, worth a hundred thousand dollars, as a crowning finish to public buildings contributed by Maryland Joe, to the extent of half a million more. The disposition of these vast sums by gentlemen wearing patched breeches awakened no sense of the ludicrous, nor did any doubt, reservation, or contingency enter into the plans of the charming enthusiasts themselves. The foundation of their airy castles lay already before them in the strip of rich alluvium on the river bank, where the North Fork, sharply curving round the base of Devil’s Spur, had for centuries swept the detritus of gulch and canyon. They had barely crossed the threshold of this treasure-house, to find themselves rich men; what possibilities of affluence might be theirs when they had fully exploited their possessions? So confident were they of that ultimate prospect, that the wealth already thus obtained was religiously expended in engines and machinery for the boring of wells and the conveyance of that precious water which the exhausted river had long since ceased to yield. It seemed as if the gold they had taken out was by some ironical compensation gradually making its way back to the soil again through ditch and flume and reservoir.

Such was the position of affairs at Devil’s Ford on the 13th of August, 1860. It was noon of a hot day. Whatever movement there was in the stifling air was seen rather than felt in a tremulous, quivering, upward-moving dust along the flank of the mountain, through which the spires of the pines were faintly visible. There was no water in the bared and burning bars of the river to reflect the vertical sun, but under its direct rays one or two tinned roofs and corrugated zinc cabins struck fire, a few canvas tents became dazzling to the eye, and the white wooded corral of the stage office and hotel insupportable. For two hours no one ventured in the glare of the open, or even to cross the narrow, unshadowed street, whose dull red dust seemed to glow between the lines of straggling houses. The heated shells of these green unseasoned tenements gave out a pungent odor of scorching wood and resin. The usual hurried, feverish toil in the claim was suspended; the pick and shovel were left sticking in the richest “pay gravel;” the toiling millionaires themselves, ragged, dirty, and perspiring, lay panting under the nearest shade, where the pipes went out listlessly, and conversation sank to monosyllables.

“There’s Fairfax,” said Dick Mattingly, at last, with a lazy effort. His face was turned to the hillside, where a man had just emerged from the woods, and was halting irresolutely before the glaring expanse of upheaved gravel and glistening boulders that stretched between him and the shaded group. “He’s going to make a break for it,” he added, as the stranger, throwing his linen coat over his head, suddenly started into an Indian trot through the pelting sunbeams toward them. This strange act was perfectly understood by the group, who knew that in that intensely dry heat the danger of exposure was lessened by active exercise and the profuse perspiration that followed it. In another moment the stranger had reached their side, dripping as if rained upon, mopping his damp curls and handsome bearded face with his linen coat, as he threw himself pantingly on the ground.

“I struck out over here first, boys, to give you a little warning,” he said, as soon as he had gained breath. “That engineer will be down here to take charge as soon as the six o’clock stage comes in. He’s an oldish chap, has got a family of two daughters, and—I—am—d–d if he is not bringing them down here with him.”

“Oh, go long!” exclaimed the five men in one voice, raising themselves on their hands and elbows, and glaring at the speaker.

“Fact, boys! Soon as I found it out I just waltzed into that Jew shop at the Crossing and bought up all the clothes that would be likely to suit you fellows, before anybody else got a show. I reckon I cleared out the shop. The duds are a little mixed in style, but I reckon they’re clean and whole, and a man might face a lady in ‘em. I left them round at the old Buckeye Spring, where they’re handy without attracting attention. You boys can go there for a general wash-up, rig yourselves up without saying anything, and then meander back careless and easy in your store clothes, just as the stage is coming in, sabe?”

“Why didn’t you let us know earlier?” asked Mattingly aggrievedly; “you’ve been back here at least an hour.”

“I’ve been getting some place ready for THEM,” returned the new-comer. “We might have managed to put the man somewhere, if he’d been alone, but these women want family accommodation. There was nothing left for me to do but to buy up Thompson’s saloon.”

“No?” interrupted his audience, half in incredulity, half in protestation.

“Fact! You boys will have to take your drinks under canvas again, I reckon! But I made Thompson let those gold-framed mirrors that used to stand behind the bar go into the bargain, and they sort of furnish the room. You know the saloon is one of them patent houses you can take to pieces, and I’ve been reckoning you boys will have to pitch in and help me to take the whole shanty over to the laurel bushes, and put it up agin Kearney’s cabin.”

“What’s all that?” said the younger Kearney, with an odd mingling of astonishment and bashful gratification.

“Yes, I reckon yours is the cleanest house, because it’s the newest, so you’ll just step out and let us knock in one o’ the gables, and clap it on to the saloon, and make ONE house of it, don’t you see? There’ll be two rooms, one for the girls and the other for the old man.”

The astonishment and bewilderment of the party had gradually given way to a boyish and impatient interest.

“Hadn’t we better do the job at once?” suggested Dick Mattingly.

“Or throw ourselves into those new clothes, so as to be ready,” added the younger Kearney, looking down at his ragged trousers. “I say, Fairfax, what are the girls like, eh?”

All the others had been dying to ask the question, yet one and all laughed at the conscious manner and blushing cheek of the questioner.

“You’ll find out quick enough,” returned Fairfax, whose curt carelessness did not, however, prevent a slight increase of color on his own cheek. “We’d better get that job off our hands before doing anything else. So, if you’re ready, boys, we’ll just waltz down to Thompson’s and pack up the shanty. He’s out of it by this time, I reckon. You might as well be perspiring to some purpose over there as gaspin’ under this tree. We won’t go back to work this afternoon, but knock off now, and call it half a day. Come! Hump yourselves, gentlemen. Are you ready? One, two, three, and away!”

In another instant the tree was deserted; the figures of the five millionaires of Devil’s Ford, crossing the fierce glare of the open space, with boyish alacrity, glistened in the sunlight, and then disappeared in the nearest fringe of thickets.

CHAPTER II

Six hours later, when the shadow of Devil’s Spur had crossed the river, and spread a slight coolness over the flat beyond, the Pioneer coach, leaving the summit, began also to bathe its heated bulk in the long shadows of the descent. Conspicuous among the dusty passengers, the two pretty and youthful faces of the daughters of Philip Carr, mining superintendent and engineer, looked from the windows with no little anxiety towards their future home in the straggling settlement below, that occasionally came in view at the turns of the long zigzagging road. A slight look of comical disappointment passed between them as they gazed upon the sterile flat, dotted with unsightly excrescences that stood equally for cabins or mounds of stone and gravel. It was so feeble and inconsistent a culmination to the beautiful scenery they had passed through, so hopeless and imbecile a conclusion to the preparation of that long picturesque journey, with its glimpses of sylvan and pastoral glades and canyons, that, as the coach swept down the last incline, and the remorseless monotony of the dead level spread out before them, furrowed by ditches and indented by pits, under cover of shielding their cheeks from the impalpable dust that rose beneath the plunging wheels, they buried their faces in their handkerchiefs, to hide a few half-hysterical tears. Happily, their father, completely absorbed in a practical, scientific, and approving contemplation of the topography and material resources of the scene of his future labors, had no time to notice their defection. It was not until the stage drew up before a rambling tenement bearing the inscription, “Hotel and Stage Office,” that he became fully aware of it.

“We can’t stop HERE, papa,” said Christie Carr decidedly, with a shake of her pretty head. “You can’t expect that.”

Mr. Carr looked up at the building; it was half grocery, half saloon. Whatever other accommodations it contained must have been hidden in the rear, as the flat roof above was almost level with the raftered ceiling of the shop.

“Certainly,” he replied hurriedly; “we’ll see to that in a moment. I dare say it’s all right. I told Fairfax we were coming. Somebody ought to be here.”

“But they’re not,” said Jessie Carr indignantly; “and the few that were here scampered off like rabbits to their burrows as soon as they saw us get down.”

It was true. The little group of loungers before the building had suddenly disappeared. There was the flash of a red shirt vanishing in an adjacent doorway; the fading apparition of a pair of high boots and blue overalls in another; the abrupt withdrawal of a curly blond head from a sashless window over the way. Even the saloon was deserted, although a back door in the dim recess seemed to creak mysteriously. The stage-coach, with the other passengers, had already rattled away.

“I certainly think Fairfax understood that I—” began Mr. Carr.

He was interrupted by the pressure of Christie’s fingers on his arm and a subdued exclamation from Jessie, who was staring down the street.

“What are they?” she whispered in her sister’s ear. “Nigger minstrels, a circus, or what?”

The five millionaires of Devil’s Ford had just turned the corner of the straggling street, and were approaching in single file. One glance was sufficient to show that they had already availed themselves of the new clothing bought by Fairfax, had washed, and one or two had shaved. But the result was startling.

Through some fortunate coincidence in size, Dick Mattingly was the only one who had achieved an entire new suit. But it was of funereal black cloth, and although relieved at one extremity by a pair of high riding boots, in which his too short trousers were tucked, and at the other by a tall white hat, and cravat of aggressive yellow, the effect was depressing. In agreeable contrast, his brother, Maryland Joe, was attired in a thin fawn-colored summer overcoat, lightly worn open, so as to show the unstarched bosom of a white embroidered shirt, and a pair of nankeen trousers and pumps.

The Kearney brothers had divided a suit between them, the elder wearing a tightly-fitting, single-breasted blue frock-coat and a pair of pink striped cotton trousers, while the younger candidly displayed the trousers of his brother’s suit, as a harmonious change to a shining black alpaca coat and crimson neckerchief. Fairfax, who brought up the rear, had, with characteristic unselfishness, contented himself with a French workman’s blue blouse and a pair of white duck trousers. Had they shown the least consciousness of their finery, or of its absurdity, they would have seemed despicable. But only one expression beamed on the five sunburnt and shining faces—a look of unaffected boyish gratification and unrestricted welcome.

They halted before Mr. Carr and his daughters, simultaneously removed their various and remarkable head coverings, and waited until Fairfax advanced and severally presented them. Jessie Carr’s half-frightened smile took refuge in the trembling shadows of her dark lashes; Christie Carr stiffened slightly, and looked straight before her.

“We reckoned—that is—we intended to meet you and the young ladies at the grade,” said Fairfax, reddening a little as he endeavored to conceal his too ready slang, “and save you from trapesing—from dragging yourselves up grade again to your house.”

“Then there IS a house?” said Jessie, with an alarming frank laugh of relief, that was, however, as frankly reflected in the boyishly appreciative eyes of the young men.

“Such as it is,” responded Fairfax, with a shade of anxiety, as he glanced at the fresh and pretty costumes of the young women, and dubiously regarded the two Saratoga trunks resting hopelessly on the veranda. “I’m afraid it isn’t much, for what you’re accustomed to. But,” he added more cheerfully, “it will do for a day or two, and perhaps you’ll give us the pleasure of showing you the way there now.”

The procession was quickly formed. Mr. Carr, alive only to the actual business that had brought him there, at once took possession of Fairfax, and began to disclose his plans for the working of the mine, occasionally halting to look at the work already done in the ditches, and to examine the field of his future operations. Fairfax, not displeased at being thus relieved of a lighter attendance on Mr. Carr’s daughters, nevertheless from time to time cast a paternal glance backwards upon their escorts, who had each seized a handle of the two trunks, and were carrying them in couples at the young ladies’ side. The occupation did not offer much freedom for easy gallantry, but no sign of discomfiture or uneasiness was visible in the grateful faces of the young men. The necessity of changing hands at times with their burdens brought a corresponding change of cavalier at the lady’s side, although it was observed that the younger Kearney, for the sake of continuing a conversation with Miss Jessie, kept his grasp of the handle nearest the young lady until his hand was nearly cut through, and his arm worn out by exhaustion.

“The only thing on wheels in the camp is a mule wagon, and the mules are packin’ gravel from the river this afternoon,” explained Dick Mattingly apologetically to Christie, “or we’d have toted—I mean carried—you and your baggage up to the shant—the—your house. Give us two weeks more, Miss Carr—only two weeks to wash up our work and realize—and we’ll give you a pair of 2.40 steppers and a skeleton buggy to meet you at the top of the hill and drive you over to the cabin. Perhaps you’d prefer a regular carriage; some ladies do. And a nigger driver. But what’s the use of planning anything? Afore that time comes we’ll have run you up a house on the hill, and you shall pick out the spot. It wouldn’t take long—unless you preferred brick. I suppose we could get brick over from La Grange, if you cared for it, but it would take longer. If you could put up for a time with something of stained glass and a mahogany veranda—”