But he must stir. There would be prisoners, eager to talk. Their speech would weave a noose about his neck.
He did not glance again at the gold, gleaming there where the honest people of Wahpeton would find it. Striding from the cabin he swung on one of the horses that stood saddled and ready among the trees. The lights of the camp, the roar of the distant voices fell away behind him, and before him lay what wild destiny he could not guess. But the night was full of haunting shadows, and within him grew a strange pain, like a revelation; perhaps it was his soul, at last awakening.
Gents on the Lynch
Blue Lizard, Colorado, September 1, 1879.
Mister Washington Bearfield, Antioch, Colorado.
Dear Brother Wash:
Well, Wash, I reckon you think you air smart persuading me to quit my job with the Seven Prong Pitchfork outfit and come way up here in the mountains to hunt gold. I knowed from the start I warn't no prospector, but you talked so much you got me addled and believing what you said, and the first thing I knowed I had quit my job and withdrawed from the race for sheriff of Antioch and was on my way. Now I think about it, it is a dern funny thing you got so anxious for me to go prospecting jest as elections was coming up. You never before showed no anxiety for me to git rich finding gold or no other way. I am going to hunt me a quiet spot and set down and study this over for a few hours, and if I decide you had some personal reason for wanting me out of Antioch, I aim to make you hard to ketch.
All my humiliating experiences in Blue Lizard is yore fault, and the more I think about it, the madder I git. And yet it all come from my generous nature which cain't endure to see a feller critter in distress onless I got him that way myself.
Well, about four days after I left Antioch I hove into the Blue Lizard country one forenoon, riding Satanta and leading my pack mule, and I was passing through a canyon about three mile from the camp when I heard dawgs baying. The next minute I seen three of them setting around a big oak tree barking fit to bust yore ear-drums. I rode up to see what they-- treed and I-- a Injun if it warn't a human being! It was a tall man without no hat nor gun in his scabbard, and he was cussing them dawgs so vigorous he didn't hear me till I rode up and says:--ey, what you doin'tup there?-- He like to fell out of the crotch he was setting in, and then he looked down at me very sharp for a instant, and said:--taken refuge from them vicious beasts. I was goin'talong mindin'tmy own business when they taken in after me. I think they got hyderphoby. I--l give you five bucks if you--l shoot--m. I lost my gun.----don't want no five bucks,--I says.--ut I ain't goin'tto shoot--m. They--e pecooliar lookin'tcritters, and they may be valurebul. I notice the funnier-lookin'ta animal is, the more money they--e generally wuth. I--l shoo--m off.-- So I got down and says:--it!--and they immejitly laid holt of my laigs, which was very irritating because I didn't have no other boots but them. So I fotched each one of them fool critters a hearty kick in the rear, and they give a yowl and scooted for the tall timber.
--ou can come down now,--I says.--ern it, them varmints has rooint my boots.----ake mine!--says he, sliding down and yanking off his boots.
--w, I don't want to do that,--I says, but he says :--insists! It-- all I can do for you. Witherington T. Jones always pays his debts, even in adversity! You behold in me a lone critter buffeted on the winds of chance, penniless and friendless, but grateful! Take my boots, kind stranger, do!--
Well, I was embarrassed and sorry for him, so I said all right, and taken his boots and give him mine. They was too big for him, but he seemed mighty pleased when he hauled--m on. His-- was very handsome, all fancy stitching. He shaken my hand and said I-- made him very happy, but all to once he bust into tears and sobbed:--ore Joe!----ore who?--I ast.
--oe!--says he, wiping his eyes on my bandanner.--y partner, up on our claim in the hills. I warned him agen drinkin'ta gallon of corn juice to inoculate hisself agen snake-bite--before the snake bit him--but he wouldn't listen, so now he's writhin'tin the throes of delirium tremens. It would bust yore heart to hear the way he shrieks for me to shoot the polka-dotted rhinocerhosses which he thinks is gnawin'this toes. I left him tied hand and foot and howlin'tthat a striped elephant was squattin'ton his bosom, and I went to Blue Lizard for medicine. I got it, but them cussed dawgs scairt my hoss and he got away from me, and it'sl take me till midnight to git back to our claim afoot. Pore Joe--l be a ravin'tcorpse by then.-- Well, I never heard of a corpse raving, but I couldn't stand the idee of a man dying from the d.t.--, so I shucked my pack offa my mule, and said:--ere, take this mule and skeet for yore claim. He--l be better-- walkin't I-- lend you Satanta only he won't let nobody but me ride him.-- Mister Witherington T. Jones was plumb overcome by emotion. He shaken my hand again and said:--y noble friend, I--l never forgit this!--And then he jumped on the mule and lit out, and from the way he was kicking the critter-- ribs I reckoned he's pull into his claim before noon, if it was anywheres within a hundred miles of there. He sure warn't wasting no time. I could see that.
I hung his boots onto my saddle horn and I had started gathering up my plunder when I heard men yelling and then a whole gang with Winchesters come busting through the trees, and they seen me and hollered:--here is he?----e heard the dawgs bayin'tover here,--says a little short one.--don't hear--m now. But they must of had him treed somewheres clost by.----h, Mr. Jones,--I said.--ell, don't worry about him. He-- all right. I druv the dawgs off and and lent him my mule to git back to his claim.-- At this they let forth loud frenzied yells. It was plumb amazing. Here I-- jest rescued a feller human from a pack of ferocious animals, and these hombres acted like I-- did a crime or something.
--e helped him git awayl--they hollered.--e-- lynch him, the derned outlaw!----ho you callin'ta outlaw?--I demanded.---- a stranger in these parts. I-- headin'tfor Blue Lizard to work me a claim.----ou jest helped a criminal to escape!--gnashed they, notably a big black-bearded galoot with a sawed-off shotgun.--his feller Jones as you call him tried to rob a stage coach over on Cochise Mountain less-- a hour ago. The guard shot his pistol out of his hand, and his hoss got hit too, so he broke away on foot. We sot the dawgs on his trail, and we-- of had him by now, if you hadn't butted in! Now the dawgs cain't track him no more.----all--m back and set--m on the mule-- trail,--sejests a squint-eyed cuss.--s for you, you cussed Texas hill-billy, you keep on travelin't We don't want no man like you in Blue Lizard.----o to the devil, you flat-nosed buzzard,--I retort with typical Southern courtesy.--his here-- a free country. I come up here to hunt gold and I aim to hunt it if I have to lick every prospector in Lizard Ca--on! You cain't ride me jest because I made a honest mistake that anybody could of made. Anyway, I-- the loser,--ause he got off with my mule.----w, come on and le-- find the dawgs,--says a bow-legged gun-toter with warts. So they went off up the ca--on, breathing threats and vengeance, and I taken my plunder on my shoulder and went on down the ca--on, leading Satanta. I put on Mister Jones-- boots first, and they was too small for me, of course, but I could wear--m in a pinch. (That there is a joke, Wash, but I don't suppose you got sense enough to see the p--nt.)
I soon come to the aidge of the camp, which was spread all over the place where the canyon widened out and shallowed, and the first man I seen was old Polk Williams. You remember him, Wash, we knowed him over to Trinidad when we first come to Colorado with the Seven Prong Pitchfork outfit. I hailed him and ast him where I could find a good claim, and he said all the good ones had been took. So I said, well, I-- strike out up in the hills and hunt me one, and he says:--hat you know about prospectin't I advises you to git a job of workin'tsome other man't claim at day wages till they-- a new strike up in the hills somewheres. They-- bound to be one any day, because the mountains is full of prospectors which got here too late to git in on this--. Plenty of jobs here at big wages, because nobody wants to work. They all wants to wade creeks till they stub their fool toe on a pocket of nuggets.----ll right,--I said.----l pitch my camp down on the creek.----ou better not,--says he.--hese mountains is full of hyderphoby skunks. They crawls in yore blankets at night and bites you, and you foam at the mouth and go bite yore best friends. Now, it jest happens I got a spare cabin which I ain't usin't The feller who had it rented ain't with us this mornin'taccount of a extry ace in a poker game last night. I--l rent it to you dirt cheap--ten dollars a day. You--l be safe from them cussed skunks there.-- So I said:--ll right. I don't want to git hyderphoby.-- So I give him ten dollars in advance and put my plunder in the cabin which was on a slope west of the camp, and hobbled Satanta to graze. He said I better look out or somebody would steal Satanta. He said Mustang Stirling and his outlaws was hiding in the hills clost by and terrorizing the camp which didn't even have a sheriff yet, because folks hadn't had time to elect one, but they was gittin so sick of being robbed all the time they probably would soon, and maybe organize a Vigilante Committee, too. But I warn't scairt of anybody stealing Satanta. A stranger had better take a cougar by the whiskers than to monkey with Satanta. That hoss has got a disposition like a sore-tailed rattlesnake.