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The Story of a Mine, a novel by Bret Harte |
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Part 1 - Chapter 3. Who Claimed It |
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_ PART I CHAPTER III. WHO CLAIMED IT The fog had already closed in on Monterey, and was now rolling, a white, billowy sea above, that soon shut out the blue breakers below. Once or twice in descending the mountain Concho had overhung the cliff and looked down upon the curving horse-shoe of a bay below him,--distant yet many miles. Earlier in the afternoon he had seen the gilt cross on the white-faced Mission flare in the sunlight, but now all was gone. By the time he reached the highway of the town it was quite dark, and he plunged into the first fonda at the wayside, and endeavored to forget his woes and his weariness in aguardiente. But Concho's head ached, and his back ached, and he was so generally distressed that he bethought him of a medico,--an American doctor,--lately come into the town, who had once treated Concho and his mule with apparently the same medicine, and after the same heroic fashion. Concho reasoned, not illogically, that if he were to be physicked at all he ought to get the worth of his money. The grotesque extravagance of life, of fruit and vegetables, in California was inconsistent with infinitesimal doses. In Concho's previous illness the doctor had given him a dozen 4 grain quinine powders. The following day the grateful Mexican walked into the Doctor's office--cured. The Doctor was gratified until, on examination, it appeared that to save trouble, and because his memory was poor, Concho had taken all the powders in one dose. The Doctor shrugged his shoulders and--altered his practice. "Well," said Dr. Guild, as Concho sank down exhaustedly in one of the Doctor's two chairs, "what now? Have you been sleeping again in the tule marshes, or are you upset with commissary whisky? Come, have it out." But Concho declared that the devil was in his stomach, that Judas Iscariot had possessed himself of his spine, that imps were in his forehead, and that his feet had been scourged by Pontius Pilate. "That means 'blue mass,'" said the Doctor. And gave it to him,--a bolus as large as a musket ball, and as heavy. Concho took it on the spot, and turned to go. "I have no money, Senor Medico." "Never mind. It's only a dollar, the price of the medicine." Concho looked guilty at having gulped down so much cash. Then he said timidly: "I have no money, but I have got here what is fine and jolly. It is yours." And he handed over the contents of the precious tin can he had brought with him. The Doctor took it, looked at the shivering volatile mass and said, "Why this is quicksilver!" Concho laughed, "Yes, very quick silver, so!" and he snapped his fingers to show its sprightliness. The Doctor's face grew earnest; "Where did you get this, Concho?" he finally asked. "It ran from the pot in the mountains beyond." The Doctor looked incredulous. Then Concho related the whole story. "Could you find that spot again?" "Madre de Dios, yes,--I have a mule there; may the devil fly away with her!" "And you say your comrades saw this?" "Why not?" "And you say they afterwards left you,--deserted you?" "They did, ingrates!" The Doctor arose and shut his office door. "Hark ye, Concho," he said, "that bit of medicine I gave you just now was worth a dollar, it was worth a dollar because the material of which it was composed was made from the stuff you have in that can,--quicksilver or mercury. It is one of the most valuable of metals, especially in a gold-mining country. My good fellow, if you know where to find enough of it, your fortune is made." Concho rose to his feet. "Tell me, was the rock you built your furnace of red?" "Si, Senor." "And brown?" "Si, Senor." "And crumbled under the heat?" "As to nothing." "And did you see much of this red rock?" "The mountain mother is in travail with it." "Are you sure that your comrades have not taken possession of the mountain mother?" "As how?" "By claiming its discovery under the mining laws, or by pre-emption?" "They shall not." "But how will you, single-handed, fight the four; for I doubt not your scientific friend has a hand in it?" "I will fight." "Yes, my Concho, but suppose I take the fight off your hands. Now, here's a proposition: I will get half a dozen Americanos to go in with you. You will have to get money to work the mine,--you will need funds. You shall share half with them. They will take the risk, raise the money, and protect you." "I see," said Concho, nodding his head and winking his eyes rapidly. "Bueno!" "I will return in ten minutes," said the Doctor, taking his hat. He was as good as his word. In ten minutes he returned with six original locaters, a board of directors, a president, secretary, and a deed of incorporation of the 'Blue Mass Quicksilver Mining Co.' This latter was a delicate compliment to the Doctor, who was popular. The President added to these necessary articles a revolver. "Take it," he said, handing over the weapon to Concho. "Take it; my horse is outside; take that, ride like h--l and hang on to the claim until we come!" In another moment Concho was in the saddle. Then the mining director lapsed into the physician. "I hardly know," said Dr. Guild, doubtfully, "if in your present condition you ought to travel. You have just taken a powerful medicine," and the Doctor looked hypocritically concerned. "Ah,--the devil!" laughed Concho, "what is the quicksilver that is IN to that which is OUT? Hoopa, la Mula!" and, with a clatter of hoofs and jingle of spurs, was presently lost in the darkness. "You were none too soon, gentlemen," said the American Alcalde, as he drew up before the Doctor's door. "Another company has just been incorporated for the same location, I reckon." "Who are they?" "Three Mexicans,--Pedro, Manuel, and Miguel, headed by that d----d cock-eyed Sydney Duck, Wiles." "Are they here?" "Manuel and Miguel, only. The others are over at Tres Pinos lally-gaging Roscommon and trying to rope him in to pay off their whisky bills at his grocery." "If that's so we needn't start before sunrise, for they're sure to get roaring drunk." And this legitimate successor of the grave Mexican Alcaldes, having thus delivered his impartial opinion, rode away. Meanwhile, Concho the redoubtable, Concho the fortunate, spared neither riata nor spur. The way was dark, the trail obscure and at times even dangerous, and Concho, familiar as he was with these mountain fastnesses, often regretted his sure-footed Francisquita. "Care not, O Concho," he would say to himself, "'tis but a little while, only a little while, and thou shalt have another Francisquita to bless thee. Eh, skipjack, there was a fine music to thy dancing. A dollar for an ounce,--'tis as good as silver, and merrier." Yet for all his good spirits he kept a sharp lookout at certain bends of the mountain trail; not for assassins or brigands, for Concho was physically courageous, but for the Evil One, who, in various forms, was said to lurk in the Santa Cruz Range, to the great discomfort of all true Catholics. He recalled the incident of Ignacio, a muleteer of the Franciscan Friars, who, stopping at the Angelus to repeat the Credo, saw Luzbel plainly in the likeness of a monstrous grizzly bear, mocking him by sitting on his haunches and lifting his paws, clasped together, as if in prayer. Nevertheless, with one hand grasping his reins and his rosary, and the other clutching his whisky flask and revolver, he fared on so rapidly that he reached the summit as the earlier streaks of dawn were outlining the far-off Sierran peaks. Tethering his horse on a strip of tableland, he descended cautiously afoot until he reached the bench, the wall of red rock and the crumbled and dismantled furnace. It was as he had left it that morning; there was no trace of recent human visitation. Revolver in hand, Concho examined every cave, gully, and recess, peered behind trees, penetrated copses of buckeye and manzanita, and listened. There was no sound but the faint soughing of the wind over the pines below him. For a while he paced backward and forward with a vague sense of being a sentinel, but his mercurial nature soon rebelled against this monotony, and soon the fatigues of the day began to tell upon him. Recourse to his whisky flask only made him the drowsier, until at last he was fain to lie down and roll himself up tightly in his blanket. The next moment he was sound asleep. His horse neighed twice from the summit, but Concho heard him not. Then the brush crackled on the ledge above him, a small fragment of rock rolled near his feet, but he stirred not. And then two black figures were outlined on the crags beyond. "St-t-t!" whispered a voice. "There is one lying beside the furnace." The speech was Spanish, but the voice was Wiles's. The other figure crept cautiously to the edge of the crag and looked over. "It is Concho, the imbecile," said Pedro, contemptuously. "But if he should not be alone, or if he should waken?" "I will watch and wait. Go you and affix the notification." Wiles disappeared. Pedro began to creep down the face of the rocky ledge, supporting himself by chemisal and brush-wood. The next moment Pedro stood beside the unconscious man. Then he looked cautiously around. The figure of his companion was lost in the shadow of the rocks above; only a slight crackle of brush betrayed his whereabouts. Suddenly Pedro flung his serape over the sleeper's head, and then threw his powerful frame and tremendous weight full upon Concho's upturned face, while his strong arms clasped the blanket-pinioned limbs of his victim. There was a momentary upheaval, a spasm, and a struggle; but the tightly-rolled blanket clung to the unfortunate man like cerements. There was no noise, no outcry, no sound of struggle. There was nothing to be seen but the peaceful, prostrate figures of the two men darkly outlined on the ledge. They might have been sleeping in each other's arms. In the black silence the stealthy tread of Wiles in the brush above was distinctly audible. Gradually the struggles grew fainter. Then a whisper from the crags: "I can't see you. What are you doing?" "Watching!" "Sleeps he?" "He sleeps!" "Soundly?" "Soundly." "After the manner of the dead?" "After the fashion of the dead!" The last tremor had ceased. Pedro rose as Wiles descended. "All is ready," said Wiles; "you are a witness of my placing the notifications?" "I am a witness." "But of this one?" pointing to Concho. "Shall we leave him here?" "A drunken imbecile,--why not?" Wiles turned his left eye on the speaker. They chanced to be standing nearly in the same attitude they had stood the preceding night. Pedro uttered a cry and an imprecation, "Carramba! Take your devil's eye from me! What see you? Eh,--what?" "Nothing, good Pedro," said Wiles, turning his bland right cheek to Pedro. The infuriated and half-frightened ex-vaquero returned the long knife he had half-drawn from its sheath, and growled surlily: "Go on then! But keep thou on that side, and I will on this." And so, side by side, listening, watching, distrustful of all things, but mainly of each other, they stole back and up into those shadows from which they might like evil spirits have been poetically evoked. A half hour passed, in which the east brightened, flashed, and again melted into gold. And then the sun came up haughtily, and a fog that had stolen across the summit in the night arose and fled up the mountain side, tearing its white robes in its guilty haste, and leaving them fluttering from tree and crag and scar. A thousand tiny blades, nestling in the crevices of rocks, nurtured in storms and rocked by the trade winds, stretched their wan and feeble arms toward Him; but Concho the strong, Concho the brave, Concho the light-hearted spake not nor stirred. _ |
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