THE NOVELIST. THE MYSTERY OF Margaret Willoughby.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4455, 7 November 1885, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NOVELIST. THE MYSTERY OF Margaret Willoughby.

BY JOSEPH HATTON. CHAPTER IV. after three years. Things had gone wrong with me in many ways since that holiday visit I made to a corner of Kent iv England. What may not occur in three years ! Look over your own record and think. It is only, as it wero, the other day that I was sitting at the vicar's table, free, independent, happy. There wero possibilities in the future that on reflection, might cause mo a little anxiety. But I had particular reason to reflect, and I did not. But what a tangled path was beforo me!

Since I got into the train at Sandwich to go home to London, onthatpleasant summer evening threo years ago, I hud been plucked at college, fallen in love, quarrelled with my family; and in a wild moment of despair resolved to cross the seas and seek my fortune.

America has always had a special charm for me, ever since the first novel I hsd read by Cooper, undrecent new discoveries of gold and silver inspired mo with hopes that wero as glorious as they wero quixotic. I had no practical knowledge of mining; but I was blessed with a strong constitution. I was born of an aristocratio family ; but I had almost a roligious respect for labor. I was well oducated ; "though I failed to get a degree at Oxford. While I had somo facility with my pen, I could also ride and shoot, andonco I had mowed half an aero of heavy gross for a wager. 'In America,' Isaid, 'thero is no degradation in honest labor. A young fellow may bo a carter ono year, And a Congressman the next; ho may bo a dock-laborer to-day, and if he makes money to-morrow iv tho same city, decent society does not say to him,' Get out; you must not spoak to us ; you wero a dock-laborer yesterday.' lam strong, willing, not a fool, not quite penniless ; and havo I not you ns a stimulus to exertion— you, my dear, dear Margaret!' Yes, her name was Margaret Willoughby. She little knows how much I have suffered for hor sake. But let mo not say for her sako, seeing that thero was underlying all I did tho selfish desiro of earning money enough to mako her my wife. Uncivilized people would call it getting money enough to buy hor. So far as her father (ho called himself her father) was concerned, ho would not havo quarrelled with the phraso—ho was ready to sell hor. As for mo, had she been a slave in tho market, and la richman, I would have bought her and Bother free, Then when sho possessed her liberty I would havo laid my life and fortunes at her feet. How strange is Destiny, Fato, the Future, or whatever it may be called. When I sat at the vicar's table and marvelled at his opening a trap-door in his dining-room to drop hia wine-bottle into the rivor as a, cooler ; when I listened to his story of the old house; when I wandered about the deserted garden and looked over tho wall at tho tide slipping out to sea, I had never heard of nor seen my love, I was enjoying a vacation rendered necessary by over-study; and I had no more idea that the year following would sco mo upon tho ocean going forth ' to seek my fortunes ' iv a strange land.

Yet, since then, New York had seen mo almost a waif aud stray in her commercial quarters, seeking a clerkship; Brooklyn had cast mo off osi) 'clover fellow,' if I could only ' find my vocation ;' Washington had given mo gentleman-like but profitless employment ; St. Louis hadmado me the driver of a mule team ; and Chicago had taught mo to speculate in corn and pork. For you must know that I carried from London a credit note of two hundred and fifty pounds, and I sworo to myself that should bo my nest-egg ; I vowed if I could not increase it, rather than break into it I would starve. And I nearly did starve in New York. I think it must bo harder for a poor fellow to live in tho Empire City than m London. It was fortunate for me that I discovered tho free lunch houses. I lived for threo weeks on ouo ' good square meal for ten cents' a day. But I stuck to my nest-egg. Brooklyn honored roe with aclerkship in a dry goods store, but complimented urn most on my knowledge of literature and London. St, Louis introduced me to a humble knowledge of the wool trudo; and tho great rivul city of Chicago mado a telegraph clerk of me. In threo monthsl wan promoted toquite a responsible position. The newspaper despatches passed through my hands. I had saved a hundred dollars. Two young follows, -who had associations with tho Board of Trade, took mo to tho Exchange. I bought some hogs. Ou paper, of course, I mado fivo hundrod dollars. I wrote home to Margaret that I was, indeed, making my fortune at last. By the same mail Itold my mother that I had at last discovered tho highway of wealth, and that she might look for mo coming home in a year or two at the most a millionaire. For my two friends said mv knowledge of European politics, which wero at that timo in a very troubled stato,— Europe seemed to bo on theevoof wnr) —gavo me a tremendous advantage as a speculator in wheat and pork, two commodities that went up und down in tho market to thetuuoof European probabilities and possibilities.

At tho height of my success, I fell into the lowest depths of loss and disaster. I was ' broke,' and so was my nest-egg. In my despair I had cashed my credit note. It was at about this timo that tho fortunes of ' Tho Revenere' silver mine wero much talked of in Chicago. I had read, with great interest, in somo newspaper bcforellef tEngland, an account of the discovery of silver at Drummond' s Gulch, and remember to have thought tho massacro of Indians a piece of shocking barbarity; but the cablegrams had, it turned out, only given us half the story. I mention the affair in this placo bctiauso a stranger in tho Grand Pacific Hotel at Chicago recalled it to my memory in a curious aud unexpected way, and also because my fortunes became mixed up with those of that wonderful region beyond tho Becky Mountains.

Drummond's Gulch is named after the man who rescued it from the Indians. _ It is a simple story. Ten miners from California prospected this region. Not far from a picturesque bend of the Gunnison River they were surrounded by Piute Indians. Both sides fought desperately, Tho whites knew they must either conquer? or d(o. They gave no quarter, aud expected none. All fmt ono of them fell. Boss Drummond, whom they had elected captain, escaped, carrying with hima wounded comr jdo. Under co ver of tho night ho brought his friend out of tho fight into the bush, in spito of his own desperate hurts. The Indians wore too much maided to go in search of Drummond, who succeeded in convoying his friend to a hunter's post ou the rivor. Hero they were both cared for; but only Drummond survived, and it was many days before ho was fit to travol. His protectors wero a small party of American trappers, who had in their company several friendly Indians of tho Uto tribe, by whom he was eventually oonyoyod to tho nearest white settlement. Hero ho succeeded in recruiting a new company of adventurous pro.spectors, who wont forth not only in Boarch of mineral troasures, but pledged to a bitter vengeance ou the Piutes.

They succeeded in obtaining both. Almost at the scene of tho first massacre they surprised ono Indian villugo. The work was short, sharp, and bloody. Among the trophies of their victory they found relics of the murdered whites. Drummond lost thrco of his men. Tho Indians, twonty in number, wero killed to a man ; tho squaws and children were supplied with food, and driven forth. A strong stockade was built and fortified, ' a cemetery begun with the three dead "vi'li'tos, and a boufiro mado of tbe yjllago and its dead defeudors, who were cremated among such household goods as the uew-cohiurs (lid not euro to annex.

A vein of coal was discovered near a creek of tho river ; galena lodes, currying cerussite

"nliir.o3tone, were next found in abundance; and, finally, their investigations led to silver mining operations on a fairly large scale. Drummond and his friends exhausted their capital within twelvo months, but secured considerable property rights, and were soon enabled to attract fresh capitalists and fresh hands.

Within two years, ' Tho Revenge' silver mine of Dnimmond's Gulch was well known asa great proporty, and tho site of the Indian village was alive with the pioneers of a new world. A 'preachingshop, bar-room,print-ing establishment, and general store laid tho I foundation of tho great city that is growine lup there. It was, indeed, in its infancy when I arrived there one evening in the fall, tho only passenger by the first mail stage that ' had ever started thither from Kimballs, which was itself little better than a mining camp, twenty miles from Gunnison, that had just built its first school-houso. How camo I to go to Drummond's Gulch ? you naturally ask. Well, it was in this wise: One evening—the very day I was ' broke' at Chicago—l was sitting in tho great hall of tho great hotel there wondering what I should do, when a stranger entered into conversation with me. Ho was a tall, dark, black-haired fellow, rather pale, but stout of limb, and ho smoked tho largest cigar I had ever seen. Ho had brown eyes, was cleanshaven, except for a greyish tuft of hair on his cliin, and he woro jaok boots. 'You look kinder blue,' he said. ' I cannot look bluer than I feel,' I answered. He handed mo a cigar, and beckoned a darkey. ' Givo tho gentleman a light.' 'Yes, sab.' Tho colored attendant went to the counter, ; brought a match, lighted it on hisbreecheSj handed it to me, and I blew n cloud after, him as ho shuffled over the marblo floor. ' Poker ?' nsked the stranger. ' No,' I said.' «Pork ?' 'Yes.' ' You look it.' ' And wheat,' I answered. ' So,' he said, smoking. ' I'd rather lose ten thousand dollars at poker and have a good timo, than win twenty at cornering pork ; it's a mean business. ' It is,' I said. ' Broke ?' he asked. ' Yes,' I said. ', ' Dead broke ?' 'Dead,'l answered. Somo fellows might have resented the inquisitiveness of tho stranger. Not I. The most superficial observer can tell when a stranger means to he rude, and when ho is sympathetic, when his questions aro tho result of more curiosity, and when they aro intended to bo kindly. ' English ?' ho asked. ' Yes.' 'Ah!' he said, chewing his tromendous cigar, tho fellowtowhiehlchowed in friendly sympathy, for there was something genera; ous in the man's manner, though ho hud a curious, uncouth, brigand-liko nppearancb generally. ' Como out here to make money f' 'To try.' ' Can't do much that way in tho old country ?' ' Takes so long.' ' Pork aint no pood for a boy.' ' No. I made monoy at first.' •Novices always do. I'd always backn grainger in his first hand.' ' Would you ?' ' And tho greenest player's first bluff. Are you a college chap ?' • Yes.' ' Thought so. Know two of 'em at Tombstone. I trusted 'em, and they paid up like whito mon. Evor heard of Drummond's Gulch ?' ' I have.'

'Go there. Try silver. Pork disagrees with stronger financial digestionsthan yours. I like you. You are ono of them Britishers who tell no lies when you aro dead broke and don't want to beg. Stranger, I believo in you. My name is Manwaring Wilkess; lam a Tombstone City banker. I will give you a letter to Drummond, and I will lend you a thousand dollars to start you. Let's havo a drink, and say no more about it.' We did have a drink; we did say no moro about it.; and, with a thousand dollnrs in my pocket-book, the next day I started for the Rockies and Drummond's Gulch. i

'You are just the chap for Drummond. What ho wants is a secretary as will look after his affairs, and not let overy loafer skin him when he's drunk.'

' Oh, he gets drunk,' I said. 'As thunder. But don't you mind that. Ho's a bit of a crank when he's sober, and don't you mind that. When he's drunk ho's eithor for cuddling a chap or shooting him; and he'll drink his money away, or fight for other fellows' pocket-books at poker liko a Piute Indian after a wounded scalp. That's Boss Drummond to his boots, you bet!' 'I don't bot,' Isaid. * Oh, you don't!' ho repliod. ' What do you call cornering iv pork ?' 'Dealing in hogs,' I said, smiling, for he had thrust a bundle of notes into my hands.

'You'll do,' ho said. 'Hard monoy is better than profits ou paper. Silver licks pork. I'vo tried both. Givo my love to Boss Drummond. Tell him Manwaring Wilkess is your friend. Good luck to you —and tell me how you get on.' And so we parted ; he, as ho said, for as ' sweet a home as ever you seo,' at Tombstone City ; I for tho Rookies, and the scene of tho last fight between tho reds and whites at Drummond's Gulch.

CHAPTER V. I MAKE TIIE ACatJAINTASCB OF THE BOSS OT drummond's OTJLOU. 'Do I know Manwaring G. Wilkess, youngster? Why, yes, I know 'Manny Wilks,' and that's the samo fellow,' said a bronzed athlete, in canvas trousers and a red shirt, standing in the doorway of ' Tho Castle,' as tho local bar-room was called. ' Hero is a letter from him,' I said. 'Dick Drummond, tho Boss of Drummond's Gulch,' road tho athlete, repeating tho address on tho envelope. ' Yes, that's what thoy call me. That's my nioknamo.,' 'I mot Mr Wilkess at Chicago,' I said, 'and ho was good enough to say that—' . . , , „ ' He is a friend of mine, interrupted tho Boss, as ho opened my letter. ' That is so, and if ho wants me to prove it ho has only to Bay so. Wo aro chums iv a way, and liko each other.' Ho was one of tbe first in at Tombstone. I was tho first hero. That gives us a sympathetic affinity, as you would put it, being a scholar.' Whilo ho was talking he was reading my letter, ' Ono of them college chaps, ho says you aro. Woll, no matter whether it's true or a Ho, you aro welcome on this letter,' ho said. ' I was educated at Oxford, but couldn t tako a degree,' I said, ' and I don't want to bo considered a scholar, nor anything more than a laborer. I want to work and earn monoy.' ' Make him your secretary—that s the idea, your introducer says,' tho Boss ropliod. ' What do I want with a socretary P But there, come in. Have some lunch F Is this your trunk i ' ~,,•, ' Yes, I'll have somo lunch, Isaid; 'and that's my trunk.' ' Hero, Lady Ann,* said tho Boss to a middle-aged woman, who was leaning on a shapely elbow that rested on a rough counter, ' what can you do for my friend '(' ' Whut can you do for him, is moro to tho point, I should say,' she answerod, without moving. ' I cun pay for anything ho wants, and for all you can do for him,' was tho quick reply, ' Can ho sleep hore f' 'No, ho can't,' she answered. ' You can give him somo lunch ; and 111 have sonic, too.' ' Jim !' she screamed, still without moving, ' lunch for tho Boss and his friend.' A negro appeared, aud laid a napkin upon a small tablo in a corner of the barroom. Upon tho napkin ho placod glasses of icerwater (it is a very long way from

civilization on the American continent where you cannot get ice), a dish of pickles, another of crackeis, two pats of butter, some strips of corned boef, a box of sardines, and a piece of chcefO. ' A bottle of -wine,* said tho Boss.

Lady Ann beckoned Jim, pointing to a cup-board on hor side of tho counter. Ho opened it, took out a bottle of champagne,' uncorked it, filled two glasses, and placed them before the Boss and myself.

' Won't you honor us ?' asked tho Boss, turning to tho lady, and at tho samo timo directing Jim to bring another glass. ' I'll put my lips to it,' she said, languidly. 'Hero wo go.' As she raised the glass to her lips wo lifted ours, and repeating her salutation. * Horo wo go,' all three of us tossed off tho wine.

' His lordship out ?' inquired the Boss, infiting mo, in dumb show, to fall to. ' Gono to Tho Hut with the whiskey you ordered. It come by tho stage.' ' Then, without furthor remarks, but in response to tho sound of voices high in quarrel in an adjoining room, sho disappeared. "There's a faro-bank inside,' said my host. ' and sho keeps the boys quiet. Lady Ann's tho only woman in the Gulch. They call me the Boss, but sho is the boss.'

' A fino woman, and has been beautiful,' I said.

' Yo3; quite celebrated, I believe, as a girl, in New York, and was a queon, in hor way, among a certain set in 'Frisco,' hb said.

•Yon call her Lady Ann ?' I remarked, enquiringly. 'Her husband is Sir Thomas Montgomery —so tho story goes—a real sweet little thing, as sho sometimes says herself—ayoung Eng' lish baronet, who was obliged to leavo his own country within a year of coming into his title. It is quito a romance, in its way. He is a mild, blonde, simpering youth, a good deal of a fool, but recites pootry liko an angel, and writes it, too, sometimes. Wo call him Sir Tommy—of toner, Tommy—and ho is quite a character, in his way. Sho took a fancy to him at 'Frisco, and he to her; so much so that ho proposed to her and married her. The miners came in for miles to the wedding—right ovor tho mountains from Greystono, over the Lonelaud Pass, from Timbcrlirie, and I don't know where and tho fun was kept up for a week ; two funerals finished it, though the row was oyer poker, and had really nothing to do with the wedding. Manny Wilks took an interest in the pair. It was through him thoy came here. They had ten thousand dollars, which thoy invested in Revenge shares, and the only bar-room and gambling saloon that we sanction here. Lady Ann has no rival; all tho men worship her, and het word is law.'

When her ladyship returned fromquelling the disturbance, I took quiet opportunities to glance at her, in a furtive, respectful way. She wns.l should say, awoman ol thirty-five; an oval face, olive comploxion, dark, wavy hair, a large mouth, blue eyes, atriflo bloated as to figure ; a woman whoso life was told in her face—a blighted flower, a handsome creature who had been born under a malignant star, a child of tho gutter, who, snatched out of vicious surroundings when young, might have been a brilliant woman ofsociety. Sho was expensively dressed inn grey silk dress, decorated with crimson ribbons, her dark, wavy hair bound close to hor head. It was her clear blue eyes that impressed yon at first sight other; they woro an incongruity, but a fascinating incongruity, taken into account with her olive complexion and hor black hair. I

■ They'll get to shooting,' sho said, as she loaned once more on tho counter, '' Ugly Sam* and 'Bill Hicks." Sho said: * ' Sam' had his iron out and tho other would ha' been thero right away if I hadn't gono in. I can't always bo at their elbows.''

'I wouldn't try,' said tho Boss ; 'if they would only guarantee to kill each other out* right when they begin, I think wo could spare them.' ' I hate shooting,' she answered. • So do I; but it makes a ehango, and gives the boys something to talk about,' said the Boss.

Then turning to mo, he said, ' You'll find the Gulch rather dull.'

■ Oh, I don't know that; you can make it lively sometimes—nobody more so.' ' You think no, Lady Ann,' ho said. ' I guess he's been telling all about me; I can draw his picture for you, Mister,' she said. ' Ah, you flatter me,' he said, smiling; ' but let us have another bottle first.' ' Jim !' called the hostess.

The darkey came, and the Boss, raising his glass, said: ' Hero's to your ladyship.' ' And ' hero wo go," said sho ; but she refused to drink moro than ono glass. • And you know I only tako it out of politeness/ sho said, ' just to sweotcn the bottle, as my little Tommy says.' ' Now for my picture !' said my host. ' As our new comor is to share Tho Hut with mo, at all evonts for a day or two, he may liko to know what his host is like.'

' Why don'tyou introduce him? Ithought you Englishmen were all such hands at what Tommy calls ceremonials.' • I bog your pardon, Lady Ann,' said my host, with somewhat of a sarcastic air. ' Let mo present to you—' Here he thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out Wilkess' letter, and having looked into it, ho continued :

' Permit mo the honor of presenting to you Mr Hickory Maynard, a friend of our friend Manwaring G. Wilkess, Esquiro, of the Tombstone Solid Bank. I rose aud bowed. 'That will do, Mister Sarcasm—l only wanted to know his name.' '' Hickory' lam called by my friends,' I said. ' Very well, then, I don't envy you. Dick Drummond is tho devil!' ' Thank you,' said Dick. ' More or less of a crank when he's sober, and ho aint full totnight; hps crazy outright when ho's drunk. I amt going to say a word aforo his face that I wouldn't say bohlnd his back.' ' Go on, Lady Ann, you aro always original,' said thdßoss. ' And a truth-teller,' she said. • Yes, T will own it—though the truth should not always bo told.' ' Toll it and shamo—' • Mo P' said Dick.

' And shame tho old 'un,' sho wont on. ' Some men ought novor to drink.' ' Where would tho Castle be then f' asked Dick. 'Bust!' she oxclaimed, 'and a good job too. Sir Thomas and me could do without it, and would, only it gives him occupation ; poor little chap ho' 4go wrong if he was idle, and I'd go wrong if I didn't live among a set as wants keeping in good older, and having an oxamplo set 'em.' ' By Jove, it's truo !' said tho Boss ; ' but go on, tell Hickory what I'm liko when I am a nice example,' ' A fiend or regular rank as nobody can do anything with,' she said. * It's a word and a blow with some boys, it's a blow and a word with you. Your pistol first, your remarks aftor; that's you.'

' I'm a brute, eh f" 'Yes, a brute, and yet your'ro mostly right; and I say to Tommy. 'He's a boast, but the others is generally in the wrong ;' though I havo heard some of tho boys say they'd rather havo him on the drunk than on the sober lay, when ho sulks and has tho blues, and goes prowling about like a bear with a soro head.'

' A soro heart, Lady Ann,' said tho Boss, «would be a better simile.'

' Well, a sore heart if you liko ; and grind* inghis teoth, aud walldngmiles on miles, and staring at tho mountains, and looking liko a man as has held two pairs and been bluffed out of the pot by a brokon sequence. Tommy says you'vo something awful— hateful, lie says, bless his ignorance—on your mind.' 'Tommy's right,'ho answered. 'Outof tho mouths of babos is the truth spokon.'

' Indeed,' she said, ' Tommy'<* na habo ; the Gulch hasn't his courage to trie test I guess whenever it does ho'll be found all

there, just as hisancestries was at Aginoourt, you bot!'

' I believe it,' said Dick, «though I am a brute with a blow and a word ; and I know Tommy's a deuced sight braver than I am.' •I don't say that by a sight!' she an-; swered. ' But I do !' ' What ? and tho Gulch is callod aftor you 'cause you won it with your blood, just as Tommy's ancestries did old England. Go on, Boss, you can't drag compliments out of Lady Ann that fashion.' ' JYcccssc est faecrc sumplitm, gui quavit lucrum,' said Dick, surprising me by his burst into tho classics not more than he surprised Lady Ann. ' Well f" sho said. «Now, sir, he is getting ugly.' , ' I looked at hor enquiringly. ' He'll call for whiskey next,' she said, 'and he'll not have it to-night.' Dick smiled grimly and emptied his| glass.

' Woll, give it a name. What's your doublo-Duteh mean ? Sir Thomas is not hero to tell mo.' , ■ j

'I beg pardon, Mr Maynard, afcllow who quotes Latin is a cad—l have always noticed it—but I havo memories, and they break out into tho words of a dear old scholar who was my only friend.' 'Don't mumble, or I shall go away. Now hurry up, translate that gibberish.' j ' Itmeans thatafellowoan't expeot to wiri anything unless he stakes something; we pooled our lives in tho Gulch and busted thi Indian banks; that is my reply to your comi pliment, Lady Ann.' j ' Then why didn't you say so ? Ah ! here conies Sir Thomas; I hear him swearing in poetry at tho ostler, 'Arry, as he calls him.' ' • Then we'll go home,' said Dick,' rising; ' Chargo the lunch, give my lovo to his lordi ship, send 'Arry up to The Hut with Mr Maynard's luggage.' He took my arm, and we strode out toi gother into the sunset

'I believe you are in luck,' ho said, as we walked along the rough road. ' I like you: perhaps that is good for you—it may be bad; but if you want money, you are in the centre of tho richest fields of gold, silver, copper and coal in tho world. You cannot begin to estimato its prospects, and this Gulch, which is bursting with silver, yes, bulging with it is but an atom in the general sum. And if I possessed all of it, if it wero all coined into American eagles or English sovereigns, and packed hero to bo carted wherever 1 liked, 1 would give every coin of it for an interview of ten minutes with .'

(TO BK OONTOrmjD.)