CALKINS'S SILENT PARTNERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 10058, 27 July 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

CALKINS'S SILENT PARTNERS.

Ttiß Pacts Connected witii tiie Dissolution op Grimwood & 00. It was on a clear, still, Btarlit night in May that the Theosophist, Calkins, and myself slowly rode abreast along the broad, sandy track marking the last Bta/fe of our desert journey to our goal, the railway station, twenty miles away. I found the Tbeosophist eagerly ready to enlighten me as to the various abatruao tenets of hiß creed. "Yon must not," he said, continuing our conversation, " {all into the common error of coifonnding the 'Lingo Sharira' — the third of the seven essential elements entering Into the composition of the being we call ' man ' — with the ' Manas ' or fifth principle. The ' Lioga Sharira,' the true Astral form — the ethereal image and counterpart of (he physical body — is but rarely seen disconnected from Its fellow principles, and then only at some exceptional crisis as the natural dissoluti 'n of the seven elements, commonly spoken of as ' Death.' Even when thus associated, it has no distinot individuality, and is incapable of independent action. On the other hand, tbe ' Mauas,' or human bouI — 'to be always carefully distinguished from the ' Bnddhi,' or spiritual soul— when vitalized and given energy by the fourth principle, ' Kama-Kups,' may, by an adept, be instantly launohed to distant places aa a visible and efficient agent, and such projected imago is often but incorrectly referred to as an Aetral body. I trust I make myself clear on this important point 1 " " Perfectly," I responded ; "I think, in fact, I am quite sure I follow you ! But are these phantasms always obedient to recall P Are there never instanci a wbfro, through unforeseen conditions, their return is altogether cut off or disastrously retarded ? " "Occasionally calamities of that kind are but too well authenticated," ropliod (be Thcosopbißt, with a sigh. "In sach event, the direfnl results, both to the projected prineiplrs and to those from whom they have been severed, are maddoning (o contemplate." '' Right you are, Cap ! In cases like you waß Bpoakiu' of, it's a pretty rocky look-out all round, sure enough ! " interjected Calkin's, in an impressively lugubrions tone. " Salt won't save 'em then ! Neither the ' pro-jec-tor ' nor 'pro-jue-tee,' like them 'jtck-leg' lawyers used to put it wheu I was officutin' 'b corones. Just cut tho lines, and 's you say, the jig's up lor all concerned ! " and be shook his head mournfully, as if In contemplation of the dismal situation he had thun vaguely pictured. "I had a qneor time once, with a couplo of tlieiu Australs," continued Calkins, taking advantage of the Bilence of amazement which his unexpected reflections had Induced. " They didn't mean no harm whatover, I'll allow, but all the sau)o, they just naturally 1 onohred mo out of my birthright,' as a preacher might say." " Whilo I confess I do not altogether grasp ynur meaning, Mr Calkins," said tho Theo'ophist, with interest, "at the same time I shall be much gratified to have your ucoouDt of what must have been a most singular experience." " You'll allow it was singular, all right enough, when you've board ma

out, Cap," continued Calkins ; " I oonsidor it thfl bowilderin'eat thing ever I was mixed np In, and that's sayin' considerable. " In the spring of '70, mo anil old man Grlmwood— ' Bombay ' Grimwood, the boys called him, on account of him so often referrin' to a pace called Bombay, where he'il lived a long time before ever he'd floated out to California — was driftin' on the main ledge of the old Black-and-tan— a claim me and Hombay'd looated way out on tho edge of the desert, eaat of Ooyota Holes. Hhe showed up fine between solid walls, dlppin' at an angle of about forty-five plumb into the middle of the hill, and the ore was free millln 1 , oasy worked, and high grade. We just had the world by the hoels, we thought, and we wouldn't have been far out in our reokonin', if things had only worked alonpr, aa we'd a right to calculate they would, in an ordinary, natural sort of way. But they didn't, all the came, and all on account of me bein' so tangled up with Bombay, he bein 1 just what he was, and havin' had what folks call a hiatory. "He was orowdin' sixty at the time I'm speakin' of, but he was a powerful lively worker, and_ know more about mines end things in general than any man I ever run across. He never talked much concernln' himself, but now and then he'd let drop somethiu' about his goin's on, way baok when ho was young, and puttin' this and that together, ] made oat as he'd lived In the I«j?es till he was nigh on to thirty, and was runoin' a ohnroh there when he'd quit. Also that he'd got switohed off the laat few years before he'd left into studyiu' Into all that necromanoin' business the natives was up in ; and somehow that and a eudden sickness he had broke him all up and sent him out of the country. Since then he'd been wa- derln', and all the time just droppin' down hill. "Well, as I was sayin 1 , we was openin' up a body of first-olasß ore in the drift, and me and Bombay was feelin' pretty good over the prospect ahead of us. Ever since the ledge bad been shoivin' up that promisln', Bombay'd sort of braced np, and looked younger by ten years than ever I'd seen him, 'My iuck is turnin', Calkins,' or ' Things ia comin' my way at last, and it ain't any too soon,' he'd say now and then. Sure enough, things was comin' his way, and mine, too, if only. I'd known it ; but they wasn't the kind we was expeetin' or'd been anyways caloulatin' on. " One evenin' in June, me and Bombay'd just came down the hill from the oross-cut, and was gettiu 1 supper ready. I'd gone down to the spring just below camp to get water, and Bombay was potterin' round the fire altendia' to the oookin'. We was both feelin' pretty good over tho day's work, for we'd opened up a rich stringer, comin' into the ledge, and the quartz was widenin'. I filled my bnoket and was slow gettin' back up the hill, and when I Btruok the flat where the camp was, I stopped to get a breath, at?d looked up over toward the fire. There was Bombay attendln' to the bacon, and olose behind him, set tin' side by aide on a rock, stiff and still as gate-posts, was two of the queerest figures I ever sco outside of a dime museum. I set down the bncket and rubbed my , eyes to make sure I want dreamln*. The handle of the bucket rattled as I set it down, and the figures on the rook heard it, and turned their faces towards me both together, like they was bein' worked with the same set of wheels ; and Birobay looked at me, 100, and, sqaiotin' Irs eyes for the smoke, laughed and sung out, askin' if I had seen spooks about— on account of me looktn' pale, and pop eyed, aud scared, I reckon. Then, from me not answerin' and still gazln' dnmbfoundered at the rock, Bombay stood up and looked there, too. It w»« gettin 1 dink, but still in the flicker id' red of the firelight, I could see his face growin' gray, and he took to shakin' all over, and lot drop the frvin'pau, spilliu' out the bacon into the fire. "Seem' how ho was beiu' affeofed, I begun gettin' riled, and asked them waxey-faoed figures on the rook who they wbi and what they was try in' to got at, hangin' 'round camp that way sayin' nothin 1 ! But my remarks didn't have no effeot on 'em. There they continued slltiu', eti'l and atarin'. They was both Bort of faded out and unreallookin', and every now and then you'd want to rest your eyes to make sure they was really there. Both of their faces was young, but sort of unhealthy, and tircd-out lookin', and one of 'em, who was dressed li.cc a preacher, with a long-tailed black coat buttuned up tight iv front, seemed to me to favour Bombay, only, oE conrse, lookin' younger. The other was dark complected, had straight, black hair, and was all wrapped up in a long yellow cloak, though the night wasn't no ways cool. " I got Bombay away from the fire and laid him oat on his blankets. He was all of a shiver, and 's quick 'a he'd stretched out with me, settin' there besido him, be begnn right away makin' ro relations. His talk got now and then kind of ramblin', but it all come to this : that before- he'd quit the Injees, he'd got bo's he could do what you was speakia' of a while back — what you called ' projecting his Astral,' if I recollect. Well, the last time he took to projectln', he struok juat the worst kind of luck. He'd sent his Astral off to foreign partis on some little matter of business, and then right away after he'd done that while he was out.ridin', he got pitohed off his horse, and his head hit a rock. Then he never knew nothin' what happened till he come out of a brain foyer, resultin' from his fall, and found he'd clean forgot all his little oonjurin' dodges, and couldn't no ways make out how he'd ever get back his Astral again. So, naturally, he got disgusted aud quit the country. But bis Astral, after wanderin' 'round loose all them years, somehow mirao'loußly settles down that evenin' in camp, bein' the dough-facod dummy in the preacher's coat. The other freak, he allowed, was some other lost Astral, just travelling 'round keepin' his one company. " Bombay wouldn't eat no supper ; but my appetite bein' of the complain! n' kiad that don't stand neglect, no matter what's hnpponin', I started up the fire again and got some coffoo and bacon. So'a to be hos-pit-able to friends of Bombay's, I askod them Astrals to come up to the fire, and be snoiable, and have a bite ; bat they just stared at me glum aud solemn, and continued fiottin' where they wac Then I give np tryin' to entertain 'em, and, bein' dead beat out, turned in and waVt long in geltin' oft* to alcop. " Next morniu", there them Astrals was Bottin' on the ground one each side of Bombay, who was still sleepin'. He woke up when he heard me stirrin' ; but before he'd opened his eyes them Aslralg was settin' un the rock again, just like they was night before. Bombay wasn't feelin' first-rato, on account of the shock he'd had ; but after breakfast, though I advised his stor>piii' down in camp, he, bein' stubborn, insisted on goin' on up to the mino same an usual. Ho waa terrible put out at the idea of his Astral turnin' up that way and brlngin' along his fiiond in the long, yellow cloak, and seemed sort of shamefaced about it. " We wont on up to the dump to start in to work on tho drift, and when we'd ;ot half-way up the hill, we stopped to rest a minute— the trail bein' steep and Bombay bein' no ways fit for aDy sort of work— and facin 1 'round, wo set 1 down tnd looked back below to the

r imp. Then we bad a ourprie?. The rock whero the Astrala had been sitlin' ■■- as empty, and tbey want nowhere to l>a seen. At the notion of them bavin' v.iraoosed, old Bombay's spirits commanded rlsin' right away, and mine did, too, and we went on up, both feelin' rlieerfulor. Bat when we got to the damp, there them Astrals was ahead of v i, slttin' side by side on a pile of laggin' nnd lookiu' waxier and solomner than i-ver. As you can Imaging, me and Bombay was both considerable set back Ht seem' 'era waitin' there ; but I didn't make no remarks about it, noein' how kind of pot about Bombay was gettin' at the Idea of them Aatrals etiokln' to him so. I tried to make him feel easy by laugbin' it rff. and told Uim we'd take 'em both in as partners and call the new deal ' Grim'ivood & Oo.' But Bombay want in no mood for banterip', and went at hia work glammer-lookin' than ever I seen Mm. " When we come out of the tnnnel for dinner, the snrpriein'esfc thins; we'd atreck yet begun happenin' ! It seemed them two Australs was takin' me up dead in earnest on what I'd said just jokln' about Grlmwood & 00. They was still settin' on. the pile of laggin' when we come out, but when we'd got the covers of the dinner cans off, and was just settlin' down, we looked O?er toward the laggin', and they'd both disappeared ! Next minute we heard the dull Bound of a pick, 'way in, on the drift, and a little later on the rumblin' of a wheelbsrrow, arowin' louder as it got toward the mouth of the tunnel. Then Bombay's partio'lar Aatral came staggerin' out with an empty barrow, >ut with the handles strainin' on him, like it was filled olean up with the heaviest kind of ore, and wheif he tipped it, though there want nothln' to be dumped, you could hear rock tumblin', just like the barrow'd been full ! We made a Bhort noonin', and when we got up (o go inside again, tho sound of the piok stopped right away, and there them Astrals was, cettin' on the laggin' same as before ! For all this aound of work goin' on, the tools was JQBt where we'd left 'em, and nothin' seemed in anyways disturbed. " We was iow-Bpirited, thinkiu' of the kind of partners we'd got in with us, and feelin' half-hearted like about our work, we quit for the day earlier'n common. No sooner'd we started down to camp than them Astrals begun operatin' again, and kept at it without any let-up all night long. We could hear the barrow ratnblin', and a sound like waste fallin' down the dump whenever we'd wake up. When we went up next mornin', there them Astrah both was, juat comin' out of the mouth of the tunnel, lookin' tired and stained up, like they'd been workio'. Still, on goin' on into the drift, things was jast whero we'd left 'em night before, and not a pound of rock waa anyways disturbed. " This aort of business went on for a week, them Astrals quittin' when wo come up, and goin 1 to work again whenever we'd quit. I begun to find all thU was wearin' on my system, and aa for Bombay, he showed clear signs oi breakin' down. He kept gettin' weaker and weakor, never complainin' or sayin' much, but slnkin' all the time, and on the seventh night after them Astrals come he died. I buried him right there, under a desert willow, puttiu' up a timber at the head of his firavo, with 'B. G.'— standin' for 'Bombay Qrimwood ' — in big letters out on it. Them Astrals seemed to know all about what was goin' on, and knocked off work long enough to attend what little fnneral there was, settin' down a few feet away, starin* at me while I was buryin' him, and then went on up to attend to their foolin' in the tnnnel cnoe more. They looted more unreal and faded-out like than ever, and next day, when I went up to the drift, they'd changed so— particularly Bombay's ABtral— that I'd hardly've known 'em. " I tried keepin' on with the work that day, but I waa so all broke up through the strain on me ever since them. Astrals had come, that with that and Bombay's dyin' bo unexpected, I found my nerves was glvin' way, and that same afternoon I put things to rights about camp, hunted up my burro, and started in off the desert for a rest. " I'd oarried in specimens of our best rock, and showed 'em 'round considerable, and some Eastern mon, lookin' out for a promisin' proapect, seen it, and Btruok a bargain on the claim providiu' it come up to representations. So, about six weeks after I'd ooma in, I went out again with them, and tbeir expert to show 'em. the property. " We'd got into oamp after dark, and the first thing I heard, ft hen we'd started up a fire, and was settled down for supper, was the rumble of a barrow up by the tunnel, and the rattle and roll of rook slidin' down the dump. The Eastern men and the expert heard It, too, of oonrae, and right away expressed surprise at me not tellin* 'em work was goio' on on the claim. I tried to turn it off aomehow, but didn't noways satisfy 'em. Tbey begun lookin' suspicions one to another, and right away after supper instated on us all goin' up to the damp. "We'd hear the noise of the barrow as we climbed up, and when we come to the month of tho tnnnel, you could catch plain enough the sound of a piok 'way in on the drift. Before ever we'd a chanod to light candles to go on in to inspect the ledge, we could see, 'way back in the tunnel and oomin' towards us all the time, a Bort of pale green light, without much shape, but bein' abont the height and someways the figure of a man. It came out of the tunnel right past where we was standin', wheelin' a barrow, which havin' tipped at the end of the dump, it started right away back In again. " Of coarse I knew well enough what was up. It was jast the' faded-out remains of old Bombay's Astral peggin' away, just tho same as when I'd left, but I couldn't no ways start in and explain all this to my company, 'l'he fe.ct was, I didn't get much chance for oxplainin 1 . I'd often heard tell about capital bein' timid ; but that evenin* capital — let alone bein' timid — waa just scared stiff, olean through and through, and them two Eastern capitalists and their expert went just kitin' downhill back to oamp with their coat-tails a-flyin'. "After that, I couldn't bring 'em 'round to even talk about the claim. AH they wanted, they said, wbb to get tight away back off the desert. Of oourse all this broke up the deal on the Black-and-Tan, they olaimin' there was drawbacks to the property which I hadn't represented. So we all went m, and I laid off for a time, feolln' considerable broke up and dlsoonraged. " When I went back the following spring, I found that Grim wood & Co. had faded out altogether and quit work for good, but the bunker boys, who knew the claim well, had come up between times and jumped it, claimin' I hadn't done enough assessment work the past year to hold it. I consulted my lawyer, Oolonel MoVey, and he advised against me conteßtin' their claim, bo I just give it np. It riled me, though, considerable, when I heard the followin' fall how tho Buukers 'd sold out for big money, to think of me bein' done that way out of what by all rights belonged to me, and all on account of bein' mixed up with Grimwood & Co. "Them's the lights of the station, gentleman, you can just see over yonder. I reckon wo won't bo more'n an hour now gettin' In."