His Own Petard.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13991, 28 August 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

His Own Petard.

(Bv. Herman WhitakeF in the"..'.; Sun .set." America.) ~:',',,'-..': ;:'

Halting his burro at .th.e 'pohU:„wher.( the pack trail .slid ' around cm? liioilii tanf 3 , bare slioulder into a mnbeieu caiivon, old man uregg lo.Ju.u ,11011. thai. high, altitude bac.v and over tljewide prospect.' ' ' ..'.:'".,, , A tiiousand feet bek.w lull), ~cathedral redwoods lifted dim spires out ot a black gorge, looking, for all their hundreds of lect of height, no larger,t.liail Uiristmas trees. Across and iar'away, grim, naked mountains thrust, slarl.. peaks up to a llaming slcy. Devoid ol ihe timber and chaparral that drapeu th • lower Mopes with a black maui.le, these loomed n. the royal purple 01 evening, rockv, riv-11, seamed and gashed bv slid.- and quake, sterile . ami ,i.le-sol-it'e as on the dav that a world.convulsion raised then, out of the seeching <ea Awesome, oppressive,-.in then iniiiiite .savagery to a lirst glance, striking the soul with a start led'sense ; ol its own insignificance, they brouglit-.m----1o the prospector's eyes only'-the . satisfaction, tlie pleasant glow-witn which a man regards the prospect .ol Hearing home. Though the trail ran half., mile along each side of the canyon, tin camp which he hail left a week: ago on ~ prospecting trip lay J"-s-t. belnncl the next shoulder, and he could ha v. thrown a stone across and into tlir charing where Harry Roberts was ;te build, his cabin. '.'.'! . ,",j His eve Uinkled while his guzzled beard w : agged to a. laugh as- he noted the increased area. " Hwn piutmg in some big licks whilst I was gone. Don't blame him with seeh' a p.vHj bird waiting to Hit into the nest. V>h>, there he is! No 'taiirt: its Jim Bird. What is he up to?" . . . .. V man, who was chopping into the base of a tree on the further side-of the clearing, had suddenly sprung -hehind a brush pile, over .the top oi which th-. prospector could see him', listening. ~ , .' ~ . 1 ••Seen me, 1 reckon. he niutteied. •■ \'o he's going right back to work But what's he scairt ofr ' An what is he doing flier,', anyway? ' ll ' s , ,' last man I'd have expected to see helping Harrv out." ... , 7' few paces on, n bay tree ollered thick ambush, and after »7'.»« ;'»« Illlilnil l into its deep sha< «, he J.p •« through the foliage and watched th« ,„„„ until, half an hour later, he shouldered his axe and swung oil <m, ■ t c trail around the shoulder towaid the e-mp. "Nearest tree to stump." he muttered. "I »■ take, .. look as I go by." • Dusk was now falling thickly. Quarter of an hour later he had to hgl'.t a ,„,,,.), to examine the free. hopped half through,' (he cut w as "on t he -side opposite to that, on which lie hud seen Bird working, and not until he struck his fourth match did he discover the ;.-<.erei. of the man's labours, a- wcll--I'illed cavity just above the roots .Covered ov, i- with chips and leaves: •••Mv God!" he exclaimed, dropping the match. " My God! 1 innst brine; the boys out at once to look' i't tins.' Stopping, however, before he had gained half way back to his patient iienst. he stood, thinking, then with/a sudden grim chuckle. "No, there's

a bettPr way!" he •retraced his steps; carefully re-covered the hole. sat. down on a'stump and lithis pipe. "'Twon't do to follow him. iir too close.' '

Night, indeed, had ck/sed: in before the'clatter of his pack brought Bill, his partner, to the door of their shack.

"Found anything:'" Gregg repeated Bill's question. •• "Well—yes. Take a look at this." And when, having, car ried the object, in to the band of liid: 1 - that- lay like a ribbon of gold, on '.he rick'dusk, 'Bill swore his surprise, ne added, "Twenty mure where that came from. Tell y-u about it? Wait till we {jet. inside." \ -

Though the camp already cut .son rthiugof a figure on the latest maps a; "Golden Cfty," it was little more/ than an aggregation of shacks that shouldereach other for room over a swale . t the head of "a canyon. Like the 'Hundred and odd other towns which have sprung up —and decayed —like mushrooms in tjie, California Sierra, ds la tiire depended altogether upon the permanence of the strike that called t :oto existence Until it made good in this! respect and the railroad was brought in from Big Bluffs, fifty miles away,- it would remain isolated as, though on a lonely island, arid the miners would continue to deal out amniig tjiemselves such justice as ■ was required without aid of judge or sheriff. As'for'size, its status- may he ganged by the'' fact that, starting out after, -nipper, it took Bill and Gregg less than half an hour to make the round of the huts—all but one—and bring up, at the store. '

,; lie's there." Peeping in, Bill indicated a young fellow whose frankly honest face almost touched that of the girl, who leaned to him across the ■on nte r:

She was no beauty—scarcely pretty- — but she had that which is-more potent than mere regularity of feature, a sweet wholvsomoness of expression that told of perfect health, masses of rich brown hair, a figure that llowed at every movement into new and pleasing moulds. Her eyes, listening to her sweetheart, glowed softly as those of a mother deer. Tenderness enwrapped, enveloped her, came out from her like' an-exhalation' affecting the two old fellows without the door. Gregg, a. widower;,- Bill, "the bachelor, each harked back to a memory —one to something lost, the other to that which he had never gained.

.'"Pretty as a picter," Bill whispered. " Ain't they ?" Gregg nodded. "My God! Tliink—if I hadn't come along just when 1 did ?" "'The .sou of a gun!" Bill whispered, sharply. "Well, let's in. Hello, Nellie!' How goes it, Harry " "Not so very fast," the young fellow answered their smiling greetings.

"' At least, it seems slow to us eh Nell?" ,

•'.Speak for yourself;" she laughed, tossing her-head. Blit' her eyes gave soft .assent and her red lips /trembled into a smile of delight as Gregg went on. '" Well, that's just what we!re thinking. It's a shame we didn't tiling of a bee. before, but w'o haven't lost,- much time sence. We've spoken every man in camp to give you a day to-morrow—even Jim Bird- "

"No, no!" the young fellow interrupted. "Not him. Re " •'-Oh, Harry!" the girl burst in. ! 'Why not? '"lf he wants to make up- —" But .lie stopped her. "If he'd been "potent to give me a fair run, Nell . But. when he wrote you them King letters- " . • '•'.'Twasn'l; ever proved on him— for sure." -'But you know that some of'the "things he said was known only tor mt■llr him. No, sir. "When I lhave to take a dav from "

"Come here, Harry." Gregg beckoned him aside. " I reckon you kin trust me:-' Well —me an' Bill have a reason for wan tin' .Jim there, an' allowing that wo don't put you under any'obligation to him, nor aim at, a make-up, will you let us have our way? No, I can't tell you -more —just yet. What's more, we won't let you near the place to-morrow. All you have to do is to take your girl into Big Bluffs an-' get married. We'll see the rest. ' There, T knew you would!. Now go back to her." With a nod and smile to the girl, the partners passed out , into the night, speaking only once, on their way back to their cabin. Jerking a thumb at a darks hut. Bill said, " He'd have kicked a Jittle harder if he'd known you hadn't asked Jim yet." " What he don't know won't grieve him," Gregg answered. "As for Jim he'll keep, without spoiling, till tomorrow morning."

. Dawn brought the pair of them back to Bird's cabin. • A tall fellow, well built and handsome but with, blue starev eyes that were pale almost to .\hiteness, 'he looked quickly up from the bacon he was frying when Gregg stated his errand. The old man's face, however, was impenetrable -as the bronze it stimulated. Bill appeared to be absorbinglv interested in a specimen of ore he picked from the table. So active suspicion was lulled, and whatever . cause he may have had for secret uneasiness, Bird liid it. under a heartv answer.

"Sure! I'll be glad to. Be out. as soon as I've swallowed breakfast." Half an hour later, a stream of men: rough fellows in blue jeans and jumpers, poured to Roberts's clearing. Mountains mould men in their own stern likeness, and though but a scattering if ~ld-timers were of the younger breed of the West, the faces followed the tvpe, revealed, as in a tracing, the bronzed pattern of '49. Tts spirit, too, was there—the light-he.artedness, kindly simplicity, the imperturbability bred of iron conditions. Moving " lon K> thev chatted, whistled, sang. Though curiosity must have been devouring their vitals like the fox of the story, no man looked hack at Bird, who was coming along with Gregg; no glance betray, d unusual interest as, arrived at the 'clearing, they gathered about them. ~ , -i •■'one thing more, boys', he. saici, after giving necessary instructions concerning division of lahour. " 1 «<m t have to tell you 'thai the man who has come out this morning to help build a homo for his rival has earned his ri'dit to down the first tree. 1 ointin.r. he finished, "There's a nice log ovTu- there, Jim—next, to the. last stump." , , , ,- The man, who was volubly discussing the nierits of the ore specimen with Bill on the ed>'e of the crowd, looked up and as he read the hard intelligence in the old man's eves.- confusion swept his ffl'-e in a red tide, to fade the next instant to a livid white. Caught unprepared, he stood for a moment like a man stunned, then as the instinct of self-preservation asserted itselt through a whirl of blind feeling, he betrair to walk across the clearing. sloWlv, stumbling over hush and logs. •••Not that one—too big. Next to rour right." . , ~ , - ' Halting, he looked hack, blinking, then obedient 1o the pointing linger, he corrected Ins intentional deflection. Arrive",! at the tree, he leaned on his nxe handle and looked around. Down the canyon a vi.sta of dist-int mountains glorious in the purple and rose of sunrise, onenod -Wove g'oomy snires. High over these, though .evel with his gaze, a hawk cut the sl-rp air wit I', 1 ', wide pinions. In the foreground

, ■ ' • ;-'••■ : I f. ■ . stood the men, .silent and somb.ro —now. Between himself and them a. hip; madrono—which Roberts had spared to shade his dooryard—thrust out a strong limb, gruesome 'in 1 its .suggestiveness. Hastily averting his eyes he tried to moisten his hands, chopper's habit dominating his paralysis of l'ear. But his dry tongue refused the office, and, suddenly swinging the axe, lie struck wildly, blindly, releasing the handle as the edge bit the wood, and so fell on ais knees, outstretched hands shielding his face., "What's tlit; matter, .Tim?" a sarcastic, voice, called. "Chip shy? ( At your age?" • But ho was already up and yielding, this time only, : a start to the first blow, be fell to, plying the axe in a paroxysm of fury, swung and'chopped without let or pause till the tree toppled and came- down with a resounding crash. Then he stood, wet, livid face turned to . the crowd, astonishment struggling with fear lor possession' of his white eyes.'

On their part the watchers' faces reflected his surprise. While he chopped, the composite expression had •noved from sombre expectancy through wonder to doubt, and now questioning glances were turned to Gregg. "Come out of that, .T'rm!" he called, and when the man had gained almost to them, he pulled his pistol and fired into the roots of the stump. ' Instantly, indeed, before the canyon could return an echo, came a strident roar,_ deafening detonation that shook the ground under the feet and sent a thundrous volley, peal on, peal, along the distant mountains. A pillar of ■lust rose' before their eyes, and from its whorl the stump circled out and fell for down the slope. ■ "Twenty sticks of dynamite under that tree." Old inan G'regg broke a long silence. " All ready for' Harry when he came out this morning." His keen blue glance stabbed the shrinking culprit. " Calculated, that we'd allow he'd blown himself up 'trying to lift that stump, didn't you, Jim? What abort it hoys?"

u T;,vne}i him! Lynch him!" As'tin 1 verdict onmo from all around the man seemed to shrink, to shrivel into oven .'.mallev compass: a 'slow shivr went through him, limb by limb. Ho looked fit the madrono. "Lvnoh him?" .Gre<r«; : looked •Mound. "-What, dirtv our hands with K-mnes that even t'm devil don't want. There's a law on the outside that, no man h"S ti have his life nut in danger twi-e for. the same offence, an' T ■lllow tli.it we're aiming to <io city iuctieo one hett"'-. Why 'that hl :l s+ didn't lift T-doti't know, von tl»n'.t ! mow. be do.h't know —for he fixed it tb" best bo know with a cap to every stick. Bet it didn't. Tf over there wa= a 'nan that needed hamritm a «•> 11. Jim Bird, it's you: but if 1 know anvtbin't of this edmn it's too fon<l of ohonsini its., own eoninanv to send a m;.., where be p - mt want '-'" — even to lioV!" ~, i i • .' \s .rrowlim: assent followed . I'"? oh.noe a-ou-d. he went en. " H ''on t crp- quite l'ai>- to tl"> folks outside. 1 doubt we 6ufrl.it to. bnn«r you. But vmir life's h'.on in rln'mw onoe t>u? ""Tiiiii". an' here's yw ('"'"ncc. Vyt fifty miles between yon-sclf an' th;<cam" by to-morrow. ■ If you don't He looked at the madrono.