第2章 PROLOGUE(2)
"Look you!"said Masters,peremptorily,"ye want about three fingers of straight whiskey to set you right,and you've got to take it with me.D--n it,man,it may be the last drink we take together!Don't look so skeered!I mean--I made up my mind about ten minutes ago to cut the whole d--d thing,and light out for fresh diggings.I'm sick of getting only grub wages out o'this bill.So that's what I mean by saying it's the last drink you and me'll take together.You know my ways:sayin'and doin'with me's the same thing."It was true.Slinn had often envied Masters'promptness of decision and resolution.But he only looked at the grim face of his interlocutor with a feeble sense of relief.He was GOING.And he,Slinn,would not have to explain anything!
He murmured something about having to go over to the settlement on business.He dreaded lest Masters should insist upon going into the tunnel.
"I suppose you want to mail that letter,"said Masters,drily.
"The mail don't go till to-morrow,so you've got time to finish it,and put it in an envelope."Following the direction of Masters'eyes,Slinn looked down and saw,to his utter surprise,that he was holding an unfinished pencilled note in his hand.How it came there,when he had written it,he could not tell;he dimly remembered that one of his first impulses was to write to his wife,but that he had already done so he had forgotten.He hastily concealed the note in his breast-pocket,with a vacant smile.Masters eyed him half contemptuously,half compassionately.
"Don't forget yourself and drop it in some hollow tree for a letter-box,"be said."Well--so long!--since you won't drink.
Take care of yourself,"and,turning on his heel,Masters walked away.
Slinn watched him as he crossed over to his abandoned claim,saw him gather his few mining utensils,strap his blanket over his back,lift his hat on his long-handled shovel as a token of farewell,and then stride light-heartedly over the ridge.
He was alone now with his secret and his treasure.The only man in the world who knew of the exact position of his tunnel had gone away forever.It was not likely that this chance companion of a few weeks would ever remember him or the locality again;he would now leave his treasure alone--for even a day perhaps--until he had thought out some plan and sought out some friend in whom to confide.His secluded life,the singular habits of concentration which had at last proved so successful had,at the same time,left him few acquaintances and no associates.And in all his well-laid plans and patiently-digested theories for finding the treasure,the means and methods of working it and disposing of it had never entered.
And now,at the hour when he most needed his faculties,what was the meaning of this strange benumbing of them!
Patience!He only wanted a little rest--a little time to recover himself.There was a large boulder under a tree in the highway of the settlement--a sheltered spot where he had often waited for the coming of the stage-coach.He would go there,and when he was sufficiently rested and composed he would go on.
Nevertheless,on his way he diverged and turned into the woods,for no other apparent purpose than to find a hollow tree."A hollow tree."Yes!that was what Masters had said;he remembered it distinctly;and something was to be done there,but what it was,or why it should be done,he could not tell.However,it was done,and very luckily,for his limbs could scarcely support him further,and reaching that boulder he dropped upon it like another stone.
And now,strange to say,the uneasiness and perplexity which had possessed him ever since he had stood before his revealed wealth dropped from him like a burden laid upon the wayside.Ameasureless peace stole over him,in which visions of his new-found fortune,no longer a trouble and perplexity,but crowned with happiness and blessing to all around him,assumed proportions far beyond his own weak,selfish plans.In its even-handed benefaction,his wife and children,his friends and relations,even his late poor companion of the hillside,met and moved harmoniously together;in its far-reaching consequences there was only the influence of good.It was not strange that this poor finite mind should never have conceived the meaning of the wealth extended to him;or that conceiving it he should faint and falter under the revelation.Enough that for a few minutes he must have tasted a joy of perfect anticipation that years of actual possession might never bring.
The sun seemed to go down in a rosy dream of his own happiness,as he still sat there.Later,the shadows of the trees thickened and surrounded him,and still later fell the calm of a quiet evening sky with far-spaced passionless stars,that seemed as little troubled by what they looked upon as he was by the stealthy creeping life in the grasses and underbrush at his feet.The dull patter of soft little feet in the soft dust of the road,the gentle gleam of moist and wondering little eyes on the branches and in the mossy edges of the boulder,did not disturb him.He sat patiently through it all,as if he had not yet made up his mind.
But when the stage came with the flashing sun the next morning,and the irresistible clamor of life and action,the driver suddenly laid his four spirited horses on their haunches before the quiet spot.The express messenger clambered down from the box,and approached what seemed to be a heap of cast-off clothes upon the boulder.
"He don't seem to be drunk,"he said,in reply to a querulous interrogation from the passengers."I can't make him out.His eyes are open,but he cannot speak or move.Take a look at him,Doc."A rough unprofessional-looking man here descended from the inside of the coach,and,carelessly thrusting aside the other curious passengers,suddenly leant over the heap of clothes in a professional attitude.
"He is dead,"said one of the passengers.
The rough man let the passive head sink softly down again."No such luck for him,"he said curtly,but not unkindly."It's a stroke of paralysis--and about as big as they make 'em.It's a toss-up if he ever speaks or moves again as long as he lives."