Lone Pine: The Story of a Lost Mine

by A. M. Chisholm

  CHAPTER XXIV

  WEIGHING THE SILVER

  Twilight was falling as the armed band of Mexicans who had waited sincenoon around Don Nepomuceno's house saw through the dusk a long cavalcadeapproaching from the sierra, and in the front of it a lady mounted on ahorse, and a man running at her side. It was Manuelita returning,accompanied by Stephens and the Navajos. There were muttered threats andsonorous Spanish curses, deep if not loud, hurled against the raiders,and pistols were loosened in their holsters, and belts drawn tighter andadjusted, as the party drew near. There were men among the Mexicans whoburned to avenge the insult of the abduction, and were ready and eagerfor the signal to fight. All they waited for was the word to begin.

  But their ardour was momentarily checked by the older and moreexperienced among them. The cavalcade was suffered to approachpeaceably, and Don Nepomuceno running forward received his daughter inhis arms. No sooner was she seen to be safe out of the hands of theenemy, than the anger of the high-spirited young Mexicans broke forth inspite of their elders, and they raised the war-cry.

  At this juncture the voice of the American was heard above the tumult."Peace! peace!" he proclaimed loudly for all to hear, "it is peace. Iam responsible. A bargain has been made, and I am bound to see thatMahletonkwa and his people come to no harm at your hands. Anyone whotouches them attacks me now. My honour is pledged, so take notice all."

  "I do not see what right you have to bind us," cried a young Mexican,one of the two who had brought the news in the morning.

  Stephens handed the mare's rein to Pedro, who came running from thehouse, whither Don Nepomuceno had already conducted his daughter; heheld his Winchester at the ready, and ranged himself alongside ofMahletonkwa, who was in the saddle in front of his band.

  "I have the right of discovery," he declared boldly. "It was I who foundher with them, and made terms for her release. Those terms shall besatisfied to the last dollar in my pocket and the last cartridge in mybelt. Come, my friends," and he changed his tone a little here, "let usshow ourselves honourable men. Faith must be kept."

  His appeal was hardly needed by the older and more experienced Mexicans,who had dealt with the wild Indians too often before this not to agreewith him fully, and their influence quickly reduced the young hotheadsto reason. Assurances were given that the terms he had made should bekept, and the Navajos be freed absolutely from molestation.

  Don Nepomuceno hurried back from the house when he had restoredManuelita to the arms of her aunt, and embraced Stephens with effusion,calling him her saviour and deliverer.

  "Come aside with me one moment, my friend," said the American, holdinghim by the hand, and checking, as politely as might be, the flow ofthanks poured upon him, "there is something I must speak with you aboutat once." They moved a little apart from the spectators. "I made abargain with Mahletonkwa," said Stephens, "to guarantee him against anyinjury or retaliation for what has happened, and that has already beenaccepted by your good friends here. We were quite in the Indians' power,you know, and of course I was obliged to promise this. But I alsopromised Mahletonkwa a sum of money. In fact I must tell you that Ipromised him silver dollars enough to weigh down the rifle he carries;that will mean two hundred or two hundred and fifty, I expect. Now, Ihave not got them here, but I could easily get them by going to SantaFe, only that would take so much time; and what I wanted to ask is, whois there among the San Remo people, do you think, that could advance methe amount? I should like to settle Mahletonkwa's business right away."

  "But, my dear friend," cried Don Nepomuceno, "I will pay the money, ofcourse. Thank goodness, it is only a quarter of what he asked at first."

  "But it's my debt," interrupted the American. "I made the terms on myown hook entirely."

  "Impossible, dear friend," cried the Mexican, "absolutely impossible andout of the question! You touch on my honour. I am most grateful to youfor having succeeded in reducing his ridiculous demand by three-fourths,but not one _medio real_ can I suffer you to pay. I should be disgracedfor ever in the eyes of myself and of my people. Thank God, the Sanchezfamily can still pay their scot, if they are not so rich as they were.The silver shall be forthcoming immediately. Oh, there are ways andmeans,"--he nodded his head mysteriously,--"you shall see. How much didyou say will be needed?"

  "About twelve or thirteen pounds' weight of silver," returned Stephens;"at least so I guessed when I hefted his rifle."

  "Very well," said Sanchez, "if you will remain here and keep thepeace--I see some of our young men are hardly to be restrained--then Iwill go in and bring out the scales and the money, and he shall have hisprice."

  He went into the house, and in a few minutes Pedro appeared with threelong cottonwood poles and a rope. The poles were bound together at thetop so as to form a tripod higher than a man's head, and a piece of ropewas left hanging down from the apex. Then he brought out a beam with apair of large rude scales, and the middle of the beam being attached tothe rope the balance was formed. By this time it was dark, and Pedroreturned once more for some torches of pine, which were lit and threwtheir weird lights flickering over the faces of the bystanders. Thelurid glare lit up the swarthy, bearded faces of the Mexicans whocrowded round, and the dark, smooth cheeks and flashing eyes of theIndians, who, recognising that Stephens had power to protect them fromattack, dismounted and closed up the ring.

  Then from the darkness appeared Don Nepomuceno with a heavy leathernsack, and approached the scales.

  "Now, then, Mahletonkwa," said Stephens, "put your rifle in one of thosescales, put it on whichever side you choose, and my agreement is to putsilver enough in the other to pull it down."

  The Indian came forward, and stooping down placed his rifle on one sideof the balance. Don Nepomuceno stepped forward with the bag of silvertowards the other.

  "Wait one moment, senor, if you please," said Stephens to the latter."There is one little matter I wish to settle first. I think,Mahletonkwa," he addressed the Indian, "we agreed that I should giveyour rifle's weight in silver, was it not so?"

  The Indian assented.

  "Is your rifle loaded?"

  "It is."

  "And was that in the bargain?"

  "It was loaded when we made the bargain," answered the Navajo.

  "And is it loaded now in the same way?"

  The Indian remained silent.

  "I'm willing you should have the full weight of it loaded," saidStephens, "I don't make any objection to that. Will you, then, fire offthe load that's in it now, and put in another here before us all, thatwe may see how big a load you use?"

  The Indian sullenly indicated dissent.

  "We wish to have everything fair," said Stephens. "Why do you refuse?"

  "It is very well as it is," muttered Mahletonkwa, looking singularlydisconcerted.

  "Then will you put the ramrod into the bore and let us see how big aload you have got in it?" persisted the American. "Or would you preferthat I should do it for you?"

  He put out his hand as if to take the rifle for the purpose, but theNavajo sulkily caught it up himself. He spoke not a single word, andmaintained an impassive face as he picked out a little tuft of rag thatwas wedged inside the muzzle of the gun, and, tilting the barrelslightly forward, allowed sixty or seventy small round bullets to runout one after the other, plop, plop, plop, into the scale.

  A roar of scornful laughter went up from the Mexicans at thisdemonstration of the American's 'cuteness and the Indian's baffledcunning.

  Mahletonkwa deliberately swept the bullets back into his pouch, andreplaced the rifle in the scale.

  "Thank you," said Stephens, with quiet sarcasm; "now I think we canbegin. Don Nepomuceno, will you pour in the silver?"

  The bag was untied, and from the mouth of it a stream of big white roundcoins rattled into the opposite scale. Bigger and bigger grew the heap;the flickering torchlight played on dollars from Mexico and dollars thatbore the image and superscription of many an old Spanish king whoreigned before Mexico was a republic, on
coins stamped in the UnitedStates Mint, and on five-franc pieces that displayed the head of LouisNapoleon--pieces that had come over with the French army that for awhile had supported the rickety throne of ill-fated Maximilian. And nowthe stream ran slower and slower, and the rifle began to lift; theMexican stopped pouring, and taking a handful from the bag tossed themon to the pile one at a time. Gradually the rifle rose, the beam turned,the silver scale descended; yet one more dollar was thrown in and ittouched the earth. The tale was complete.

  "There's your silver, Mahletonkwa," said the American; "your rifle kicksthe beam. Are you satisfied now?"

  "I am satisfied," said the Navajo; "it is enough." He took a sack fromone of his men and poured the glittering stream into it.

  "_Basta!_" said Stephens. "Then it is settled. You acknowledge that mytongue is not double. I have done what I said I would do."

  "And now," he went on, addressing the bystanders, "I have only one wordmore to say to you. Let bygones be bygones. The senorita has beenbrought back safe and unharmed, and the matter is over and done with.Let no man molest these people in any way for it, now or at any futuretime. If any man among you does so, he makes himself my enemy, for I amsurety to the Indians in this. If he touches them, he must walk over mydead body. And to you, Navajos, I have one more word to say,"--he hadcaught sight while he was speaking of the sinister face of Backus amongthe crowd,--"be advised and go straight back to your own country. Don'thang about here; and above all don't touch whiskey. Take my advice andlet the sun of to-morrow find you ten leagues from San Remo--and sober.I have spoken."

  He turned away, and in company with Don Nepomuceno and his son retiredto the house, while the Indians remounted their horses and filed off inthe moonlight, and the assembly gradually dispersed.

  Inside the house Stephens found Manuelita in the sitting-room, withvarious female friends and relations who had gathered to see the heroineof such an adventure and to hear her story. Her shining eyes and flushedcheeks made her look more bewitching than ever, but he saw howoverstrained were her nerves, and he longed to turn out the cacklingcrowd and carry her off far away to some peaceful retreat where no fearor grief should ever dare to come near her again. But no sooner had heshown himself in the room than a stout old lady who had beenManuelita's nurse in childhood arose and fell upon his neck and kissedhim heartily.

  "Blessings on you!" she cried, with tearful loquacity, "and may the_Madre de Dios_ and all the blessed saints be with you and reward youfor your goodness." She clasped him to her heart. "You are a hero," shesaid, "a perfect hero! you have brought us back my dear child safe andunharmed from the clutches of those anathematised Indians, whom may thedevil fly away with!"

  Poor Stephens felt weak; he was helplessly taken aback.

  And then a second old lady, the mother of Pedro the peon it was thistime, who had been devoted to Manuelita for years, felt it incumbent onher also to demonstrate her gratitude to the deliverer of her darling,and she too bore down on him, and precipitated herself upon his shoulderto mingle her tears, her kisses, and her blessings with the other's.

  Stephens's feelings were indescribable.

  "'It never rains but it pours,'" he thought. "It's ten years since I'vebeen kissed by a woman, and now I'm hugged by two at once." Heendeavoured to extricate himself with becoming gratitude from theseentangling embraces, that he might advance to receive the thanks of DonNepomuceno's sister and her relations. Their expressions of gratitudeand admiration were not less ardent than those which had already beenshowered upon him, but to his immense relief they took a more decorousform. He acknowledged their compliments and their thanks as gracefullyas he could, longing all the time to escape from this ordeal and getaway as quickly as possible in order to take in hand the matter of theburial of the dead prospector.

  As soon as he could decently do so, he took the first opportunity againto call Don Nepomuceno apart. "I want to get you to lend me a spade," hesaid; "it will save me the journey of going back to the pueblo for one.I have a little trip to make up into the sierra to-night"; and heexplained to the Mexican how he had discovered almost by chance wherethe bones of the nameless victim of the Navajos were lying.

  Don Nepomuceno urged him to put it off. "_Manana, por la manana; porqueahora es tarde_"--"Leave it till to-morrow; it is too late now," hesaid. "Rest to-night; there is no hurry."

  "There's a good moon," said Stephens, "and I don't want to delay aboutit. It's all in a day's work anyhow. But can you lend me the spade, forif not I must go home after one?"

  "But certainly, my dear friend, assuredly I can. Everything I have is atyour service. Let me lend you a horse too, for your mare has done herwork; leave her here with me to eat corn, and to-morrow she will befresh."

  Stephens very willingly availed himself of this offer, and half an hourlater the sharp eyes of Felipe, watching hungrily for his enemy, saw thefigure he knew so well riding away quietly from Don Nepomuceno's housein the direction of the sierra, and he detected by the light of the moonthat he carried an unusual burden in the shape of a spade across thesaddle in front of him. Here in the open the boy did not see his chanceto make a sudden attack and take him by surprise at close quarters as hehad planned, and being puzzled by the sight of the spade, and full ofwonder as to what his errand could be, he ran full speed to thestorekeeper's house to inform him of it.

  As he arrived there, he saw another mysterious horseman ride away fromthe corral at the back of the house into the night, and had he been ableto get close enough to him he might have seen that he, too, bore aburden, for the rider was no other than the Navajo chief himself, andthe burden that he bore consisted of several bottles of Mr. Backus'sfiery whiskey, while a round number of what had lately been a part ofDon Nepomuceno's precious hoard of dollars were now lining the interiorof the storekeeper's wallet.

  Stephens's counsel had been disregarded. The Spaniards have a riddlingproverb which asks, "What is the cheapest thing on earth?" and theanswer is, "Good advice." In the eyes of the Navajo the advice to letwhiskey alone was very cheap indeed. The morrow's sun would find himneither ten leagues from San Remo nor sober.

  Felipe encountered Backus at his own door, and hastily recounted to himhow he had just seen the prospector ride off in the direction of thesierra with a spade across his saddle.

  "Be after him then, man," cried the storekeeper; "there's your chance,if you haven't lost it. He's gone after something with that spade, youbet. Keep him in sight, and don't ever let your eye be off him till hebegins to use it, and when he's busy at work with it, there's youropportunity. Or if you like to risk a fuss, show yourself boldly, and goup to him and mebbe he won't suspect what you mean to do. But don't missyour chance."

  Felipe was gone like a shot.

  No sooner had the boy disappeared than Backus began to regret it. He hadbeen rather flustered, before Felipe came up to him, by his interviewwith the Navajo chief, for Mahletonkwa had begun by taxing Backus withnot having kept Stephens from sending for the soldiers, by making awaywith his letters to the governor and the general, and he had retorted bydeclaring that he had done so, that no soldiers were coming, and that ifMahletonkwa had allowed himself to be bluffed he had only himself tothank for his idiocy. But they did not waste much time in disputing, forMahletonkwa's visit to him had not been to quarrel but to obtain liquor,while Backus's strongest desire was to become the possessor of a goodlylot of those shining dollars of Don Nepomuceno that had attracted hiscupidity.

  Now, however, on thinking over what Felipe had reported, a possibleexplanation of the spade flashed upon him. Suppose Stephens had got thesecret of the mine from the Navajos! He had remarked the vigour anddetermination with which the prospector had placed himself apparently onthe side of the Navajos as against the Mexicans when they arrived.Probably this was a return for their having shown him the mine, which,moreover, would account for the unaccountable delay of the party inarriving that afternoon.

  The idea of the prospector having stolen a march on him like this, inthe matt
er of the mine, irritated him intensely; he knew so littlepractically of mining that he thought it quite possible that Stephenshad started off thus in the night with a spade to dig up silver out ofan old mine, as a man might dig up the coins of a buried hoard. Filledwith this idea, he took a sudden resolution to follow Felipe and seewhat took place, and, if there was any secret worth getting hold of, todo his best to make himself master of it.

  He hastily belted on his revolver, caught up an overcoat, as herecognised that he might have to lie in wait for an indefinite time, andthe night air in the sierra was chill, and started forth on Felipe'strack. He knew the direction; and assuming that Stephens had taken thetrail for the sierra, according to the information Felipe had brought,he decided to take the same line.

  There were plough-lands across on this side of the Santiago River also,and the trail led through a part of these. Where it crossed the ditchthat supplied them with water he found the ground wet on the fartherbank, and fresh hoof-prints of a horse in the soft earth. Someone hadcrossed there on horseback not more than fifteen or twenty minutesbefore; yes, and there, close alongside, was the sharp-toed,inward-curved print of an Indian moccasin. Stephens and Felipe were bothahead of him.

  It was only in a place like this, where the soft earth retained a deepimpression, that he could pretend to recognise their tracks by the lightof the moon, but the fact that he had judged so accurately the coursethey were steering gave him confidence as he pressed forward, stillfollowing the line. And now the foot of the sierra was reached, and thetrail plunged abruptly into broken and rugged defiles. Onward he pushedwithout halting, encouraged again and again by detecting at intervalsthe tracks of the horse going ahead. At last, however, there came a longinterval, when he no longer saw the tracks. For a while he tried topersuade himself that it was only a chance that had caused him to failto notice them, but he came finally to where the trail crossed a littlecreek, and the ground was soft and the trees were open enough to let themoonlight fall clearly on the spot. The sign of the Indian horses thathad crossed it coming to San Remo during the afternoon was evident, butthe footprints of the horse he was following in the other direction werenot there. It was undeniable that he must have quitted the trail.

  "Now, whereabouts did the son of a gun leave it?" asked Backus ofhimself; "and how far back was it that I got a squint of his tracklast?" He pulled out a cold lunch, that he had brought along in hispocket, put on his overcoat, and sat down to take a rest and thinkthings over. If Stephens had simply turned off and camped near thetrail, he might have missed him by very little. Perhaps Felipe had beenable to keep him in sight, and had stuck to him.

  He started to take the back track, keeping a sharp watch out for likelyplaces for a rider to turn out on one side or other of the trail. Therewere plenty of them, but he found no sign in any of those that heexamined. And he had the exasperating sense, that trying to hit off alost trail by moonlight was as futile a job as a man ever undertook. Bydaylight a master of woodcraft may assure himself that he has not walkedover a hoofprint for which he is searching without seeing it, but thebest trailer that ever stepped can miss a thing by moonlight that by daywould be as plain to him as a printed book.

  "A fool's errand," he said to himself, "that's what I'm on. Here I mightbe comfortably at home and snug in bed, and instead of that I'm lost uphere in the sierra away along after midnight, and nary chance of findingwhat I come out after." He was thoroughly out of temper by this time,and his language was according. "Mine! d----n the mine! I believe thewhole thing is a holy fraud, and if anyone ever again catches me out inthe dark, on top of a rugged range of hills hunting for a mine thatnever existed, I'll give him leave to cut me into slices and fry me likeso much bacon." He sat down to rest a moment before deciding finallywhether to make any further effort, or just chuck and make the best ofhis way home.

  At this moment, faint but distinct, came the sound of a shot firedsomewhere in the mountain off to the south. Backus sprang to his feetinstantly, shaking himself free from his despondency like a cloak.

  "By the jumping Jemini!" he ejaculated, "there they are, I'll wager.Felipe must have managed to stick to the trail. Good for him! I wonderif he's managed to plug him? I'll just take a scout round that way andsee if I can spot anything."

  The moon was beginning to sink in the west, but there was light enoughfor him to pick his way through the trees and rocks in the direction ofthe shot. Suddenly he heard five shots in quick succession. They werenearer and clearer than before. But they were followed by absolutesilence. Again and again he paused to listen, but no sounds greeted hisear save those that belonged to the woods at night, till at last, afterscrambling up a rocky ridge, he became aware of a reflected lightshining at the foot of a cliff. That meant a camp-fire. Hist! was thatsomebody talking? If Felipe had killed his man properly, there was noone for him to talk to. He advanced a step or two cautiously, and pausedagain. He fancied he could hear a voice; he would put his ear to theground and see if he could not hear better so; he stooped, and sank onall fours as if he was after a deer, bending his head towards the earth,and as he did so he received a hard blow on his face, and a smart pangshot through his cheek, and at the same moment his ears were assailedby an angry, buzzing rattle.

  "My God!" he cried, "I'm stung by a snake!" He threw up his hand to hiswounded cheek and staggered to his feet, while the snake, havingdelivered his blow, slithered away to his home in the rocks. The agonyof the poison began to dart through his veins. He struggled blindlyforward towards the light, which now seemed ever so far away; he stoppedand drew out his knife, with the idea of cutting out the venom, but itwas right in his cheek; had it been in a finger he might have chopped itoff, but he could not slash away half his own face. He flung the knifewildly from him and reeled forward again, knocking against the trees ashe went like a blinded wolf. He had been struck by a big rattler with afull dose of venom in him after his winter's rest. His knees grew weak,and tottered under him; he fell, and struggled up again, only to fallonce more; fearful pains ran through him, and his body seemed too bigfor his skin.

  "Help," he cried, in a spent and broken voice; "help me! oh, help!" andhe pitched forward and lay prone on his face, writhing and digging hisnails into the ground.