A Waif of the Mountains Part 11

Parson Brush did a good deal of thinking. When through with his pupil, he was accustomed to take long walks into the mountains, his hands clasped behind his back and his head bowed in meditation. It is safe to conclude that Conscience was getting in its work with him.

And so the seasons came and went and the years rolled on. Varick Thomson, an old miner, who had spent years of fruitless toil in the diggings of Australia, lay down and died, and the parson officiated at his funeral. Two other miners grew weary of the poor success in Dead Man's Gulch and went off on a prospecting tour deeper into the mountains. A year later another prospecting party came upon two skeletons, near a small stream of water, which after careful examination, were p.r.o.nounced to be those of their former friends, doubtless victims of the ferocity of the red men. Three vagrant miners straggled into New Constantinople one night and were hospitably entertained at the Heavenly Bower. Their appearance was against them, and, when they announced their intention of making their home at Dead Man's Gulch, the suggestion to them to move on was made in such terms that they acted upon it and were never seen there again. Thus it came about that New Constantinople, instead of increasing in population and making a bid for the chieftaincy among the new towns in the West, was actually shrinking in numbers.

And all this time, Nellie Dawson was growing fast. Her beautiful mind kept pace with the expansion of her body. Her natural grace and perfection of figure would have roused admiration anywhere. Her innocence and goodness were an ever present benison to the rough miners, who had long since learned to check the hasty word, to restrain the rising temper and to crush the wrongful thought in her presence.

After a time, Maurice Dawson took possession of one of the deserted cabins which he fitted up, or rather the community fitted up the princ.i.p.al apartment for the young queen, whose rule was supreme. No one else was permitted to share the building with them, though visitors were constant and Nellie herself continually pa.s.sed to and fro among her friends.

But those who watched Dawson saw that a change had come over him.

Formerly there was a quiet waggery in his nature, much like that of Budge Isham, which led him to enjoy the rough pleasantries of his companions, though he rarely took part in them, except as an inciting cause. One of his greatest pleasures had been to sit in the Heavenly Bower and exchange reminiscences with his friends, but all that came to an end. Night after night pa.s.sed without his face being seen in the place. Those who called at the cabin were treated hospitably, but he was reserved and moody, and often failed to hear the words addressed to him. It was evident that there was something on his mind, though he showed no disposition to make a confidant of any one.

CHAPTER IX

THE CLOUD OF WAR

"I KNOW the cause of Dawson's trouble," remarked Vose Adams, late one night at the Heavenly Bower.

"What is it?" asked Wade Ruggles, while the rest listened intently.

"On my last trip to Sacramento, two months ago, I brought him a thick letter: that's what is raising the mischief with him."

"But what was in the letter to make him act so queer?"

"How should I know? do you expect me to open and read all the letters I bring through the mountains?"

"Bein' as you couldn't read the big letters the parson has painted on the side of the rock a foot high," said Al Bidwell sarcastically, "there ain't much danger of your doin' that, which the same is lucky for them as gits love letters like myself regular by each mail."

"Which the same you won't git any more onless you sling your remarks a little more keerful," warned the mail carrier.

"And the same being that you can't read the directions writ onto them, I don't see how you're going to help yourself."

"The postmaster at Sacramento is very obligin'," was the significant comment of Vose.

Bidwell saw the dangerous ground on which he was treading, and made it safe by a jesting remark and an invitation to Adams and the rest to join him at the bar.

"We was on the subject of Dawson," remarked Ruggles from his seat, for all had learned long before of the uselessness of inviting him to drink; "and it's the opinion of Vose, I understand, that it was the letter that has made the change in him."

"There ain't any doubt about it," said Adams; "fur the attack took him right after; I noticed the difference in him the next day. He sets by himself these evenings after the little gal has gone to bed, smoking his pipe, without any light in his shanty, and thinking hard."

Wade smoked thoughtfully a minute and then remarked:

"I wonder whether it wouldn't be a good idee to app'int a committee to wait on Dawson and ask him what the blazes is the matter and whether we can't do nothin' to make a man of him agin."

Since Ruggles had become accustomed to act as chairman at the discussions in the Heavenly Bower, he had developed a strong faith in committees.

"That's a piece of the most onspeakable foolishness that I've run aginst since I settled in New Constantinople," observed the landlord with a contemptuous sniff; "the minute the committee arrove and stated their bus'ness, Dawson would kick 'em out of his shanty and clean across the street, and he'd be lacking in the instincts of a man if he didn't do that same thing."

"Mr. Ortigies forgits that I didn't mean to suggest that _he_ was to be a member of the committee; I meant they should be _gentlemen_; consequently that bars him out and there wouldn't be no trouble."

"I understand your sarcasm, Wade, but your words would leave you off the committee likewise; but may I ask what the members would ask him when they knocked at his door?"

"Any gentleman wouldn't be at a loss what to say, fur he would only hev to remark sorter careless like that he had observed the man was acting so queer that we was afeard he was troubled with remorse over some crime he'd committed, and about which he had got notice that the officers was lookin' fur him, but that if he'd trust us and give a description of the officers, so there wouldn't be any mistake, we'd watch fur 'em up the trail and pick 'em off afore they could profane New Constantinople with their presence."

This was a prodigious sentence for Wade, and he leaned back and smoked his pipe with considerable self-complacency, but it impressed none of his hearers as he expected. Parson Brush shook his head.

"It isn't a very wise way of introducing yourself to a man by a.s.suming that he is a fugitive from justice. In the first place, I am sure there is nothing of the kind in the case of Dawson. He has probably heard some news from the East that troubles him."

"That's just what I was sayin'," broke in Ruggles.

"But not of the nature intimated by you."

"What else can it be?"

"It might be one of a dozen things; I know you are all wrong in your guesses."

Every eye was fixed upon the parson, for all were anxious to learn at what he was hinting. His face was unusually grave, but he stopped speaking, as if he deemed it indiscreet to say anything more. He noticed the looks and whetted the curiosity by adding:

"I have been so disturbed over the change in Dawson that I called on him last night and had a talk with him."

"And what did you learn?" asked Budge Isham, the moment Brush showed an inclination to stop talking.

"Well, it was hard work to draw him out, but finally he told me he had received a letter from the East, which made him think he would have to leave us. That isn't the worst."

All were breathless, afraid to give utterance to the dread that until then was vague and indistinct in their minds.

"He thinks he must take his daughter Nellie with him."

"What! Take her away from us? That can never be allowed."

None felt the anguish of the announcement keener than the man who made it, but he looked calmly into the angry faces and said:

"You forget, my friends, that she is his child and he has the moral and legal right to do what he thinks is best for her."

"But where are _our_ rights?" demanded Wade Ruggles; "they mustn't be forgot."

"We haven't any,--not a single one. But I am satisfied that one cause of Dawson's distress of mind is the very question you have asked. He can never cease to be deeply grateful to all of us for what we have done for him and his child. He doesn't wish to take her away for it will be as painful to her as to us. But friends," continued the parson, with a sense of right that was creditable to him, "Dawson's first duty is to his child. She is now twelve years old, quite a large girl and is growing fast. She has never seen girl or woman since she was brought here; she will soon be a young woman; she requires a.s.sociation with others of her own s.e.x; her welfare demands this; her education and proper training can never be obtained in this mining settlement."

"Eddycation!" exclaimed Vose Adams; "what have you been doing with her all this time? She must be as far along in her studies and eddycation as me and Ruggles."

"It is to be hoped so," replied the parson with a smile; "I doubt whether she will meet any one of her age as proficient in book learning as herself, but there remains music, etiquette, and above all, the social customs and accomplishments which can be acquired nowhere except in the abode of civilization. There is none upon whom this blow will fall more heavily than myself, but I have no right to interpose when a man is doing his duty."

An exploding bomb could not have caused more consternation than the news brought by the parson. Every one felt the truth of his words and respected him for their utterance, but it was like asking them to consent to the blotting of the sun from the heavens.

"I see a way out of it," finally remarked Wade Ruggles with a brightening face; "we can compermise."

"In what way?"