Calico Palace

by Gwen Bristow

  When they had finished and the men lay on the grass talking, they agreed that Pocket and Hiram would ride down to Sutter’s Fort with packhorses and bring back food supplies. While they were gone Ning and Ted would work the rocker, and the gold they took would be shared with Pocket and Hiram when they came back.

  Ning said this would be better all round, for Pocket and Hiram would take the gold they had already gathered, and leave it at the store for safekeeping. Here at Shiny Gulch, so far there had been no thievery. Men left gold at their camping places, in bottles and cans and anything else that would hold it. But with no-goods like Stub Crawford moving in, they’d better be on guard.

  The long June day was still glimmering. As she looked at the glow on the peaks Kendra thought how well she felt. She was tired, they were all tired, but there was nothing wrong with being tired at the end of the day. All it meant was that they would sleep soundly and be ready for tomorrow.

  Tomorrow they would have to eat beans and jerky again, but she would flavor the stew with wild dill instead of sage. And she would fill a pan with an herb Ning had shown her. This was a charming little plant three or four inches high, with a stem that went up straight through a round flat leaf, and then, half an inch or so above the leaf, produced a little pink flower. Ning said the plant had no name he had ever heard of. But the leaf made a good salad, so they called it “miners’ lettuce.”

  Hiram, who had been lying flat, lazily watching the clouds, raised himself on his elbow. “Hey, what’s that?”

  The others looked around, all now hearing a clatter of hoofs. Foxy was riding up the strip as fast as his horse could carry him, shouting as he rode. Evidently he was giving an alarm, for men were dropping their pans, and women grabbing their children.

  Hiram was already running to find out what the trouble was. As they scrambled to their feet Ted’s arm went around Kendra’s shoulders. Farther down the strip she saw Marny and Lolo come to the entrance of the tent, Delbert just behind them. Hiram met Foxy, heard his news, and came dashing back, his big feet pounding on the earth as he ran.

  “That damned Stub Crawford,” he panted, “has trundled his rotgut down around the turn and is trading it to the Abs.”

  His hearers gasped with anger. A drink that would merely give a white man a glow would turn an Ab into a dangerous beast, and every man in camp knew it. Hiram continued,

  “Ellet tried to stop him but Stub was on a whining jag—nobody would help a poor fellow make a living, and when he was hungry and begged for food some ruffian tried to kill him—”

  “Bastard,” said Pocket. “Excuse me, ma’am.”

  “If Pocket had tried to kill him,” Kendra said indignantly, “he’d have done it.”

  “The Abs are going wild,” said Hiram. “If we don’t go down and hold them where they are they’ll be all over camp.”

  Along the strip groups of armed men were already gathering. Above their voices Kendra was almost sure she could hear the howling of the drunken savages down below. Her mind told her she could not, they were three miles away, but her ears thought she could all the same.

  Ning had been conferring with Delbert and the Blackbeards. He told Kendra that she and Marny and the Hawaiian girls would spend the night in the tent, with Delbert on guard outside. Ning and the Blackbeards would also stay behind as camp guards, while Ted and Pocket and Hiram would join the posse.

  Ted walked with Kendra down to the tent and kissed her goodby. Inside, she saw that the gold had vanished from the tables and the liquor from the bar. On the bar burned a single candle, and at either end of the tent Marny had laid a bedroll, one for Lulu and Lolo, the other for Kendra and herself.

  Kneeling by the first bedroll, she told the girls to go to sleep. A moon was rising, she said, and the men outside could see any approaching danger. Her manner was so calm, her voice so warm and soothing, that before long she had quieted their fears and they lay down.

  Kendra sat on the other bedroll. This one was near the bar, and the candle flickered above it. She looked up as Marny came to join her.

  “How level-headed you are, Marny!” she exclaimed.

  “Thanks,” said Marny, and sat down on the bedroll too, her arms around her knees. “But really, I don’t think we have anything to be scared of. The Abs are a long way off. Ning’s guarding your gold, and ours is out of sight. As soon as we opened the Calico Palace I fixed up a hiding place, in case we should ever need one.”

  There was a pause. Lulu and Lolo, reassured by Marny, were falling asleep. The sounds of the voices outside were dwindling, as the men who were to guard the Abs went down to the village and those who were to guard the camp paced in silence. Kendra was glad Marny had a safe hiding place for her treasure. It was like Marny to be prepared.

  She spoke thoughtfully. “Marny, you never leave anything to chance, do you? You always think ahead.”

  In the half-dark she saw Marny pull reflectively at a lock of her red hair. “Well, I’d not say always—nobody can foresee everything—but I do try to arrange things the way I want them. Now what, pray, are you laughing at?”

  For Kendra had begun to laugh, trying to smother her laughter but not succeeding. “I just this minute had an idea,” she returned. “It came to me as I was saying you don’t leave anything to chance.”

  Marny was laughing too. “What is it, Kendra?”

  “You planned to get aboard the Cynthia without Captain Pollock’s knowing it until the ship was out to sea. You arranged for everything to happen just the way it happened. Didn’t you?”

  Marny answered in a voice quivery with mirth. “Of course I did. I knew he wouldn’t want me aboard because he’s a prig and I’m a bad girl. But the only other vessel due to leave for San Francisco was a dirty old tub full of rats, and I wasn’t going to sail on that.”

  “So you told your friend Mr. Galloway you were too busy to buy your own ticket, and wouldn’t he please buy it when he bought his—”

  “Right, dear.”

  “—in the name of Miss Marcia Roxana Randolph.”

  “That is my name,” said Marny.

  “But Loren didn’t know it nor Captain Pollock either and you knew they didn’t. And you knew Loren had never been to your gambling place and was almost certain not to recognize you, but to be doubly sure you dressed and talked like a lady on her way to a church tea party—”

  Marny said demurely, “I was well brought up. I’m not a lady but I know how to act like one.”

  “But Captain Pollock would have recognized you, so you didn’t go to table that evening nor the next morning. You weren’t seasick, were you?”

  “No, I felt fine. I just wanted to keep out of sight. I’d brought some fruit with me, I ate that.”

  “So by the time he saw you, it was too late.” Kendra sighed with admiration. “You planned every single detail.”

  Marny shook her head. “No I didn’t, Kendra,” she said soberly. “Up to here, you’re right. But I didn’t plan anything else. If you’ve guessed so much you’ve probably guessed the rest of the story, and that just happened.”

  Kendra had not meant to speak of this. She was too modest to bring up a subject that belonged to Marny’s private life. But since Marny had brought it up herself, she answered,

  “I didn’t guess that. Ted did.”

  “Well, Delbert didn’t, and if you told him he wouldn’t believe it, he thinks he’s too captivating.”

  There was another pause. They could hear the sigh of the wind, an occasional call of a bird or the rustle of a night-prowling animal, and now and then a voice outside saying things were all right. Evidently the men who had gone down to the Ab village were holding the Abs there. Marny spoke softly as she went on.

  “Kendra, I knew Pollock had given me yearning glances, but then so had most of the other men who came into our place in Honolulu. I didn’t know he was so excited about me. Maybe I should have thought of that, but I didn’t. All I thought about was getting to San Francisco. But a voyage, day
after day and night after night, you know how dull it can get.”

  Kendra remembered her own dreary weeks at sea. She remembered how careful Loren had been not to touch even her elbow unless it was needful. She understood this better now than she had then. “Yes,” she said, “I know.”

  “And at night,” said Marny, “the stateroom was dark and stuffy and I was restless. When I couldn’t sleep, I would put on a wrapper and go sit in the cabin under the skylight. There was more air in the cabin, and I could watch the stars and the clouds, and hear the men on deck, and see the moon come up. The moon was beautiful, getting bigger every night. After a while I would get sleepy and go back to bed. I never bothered anybody.”

  There in the dim flicker of the candle, Marny sounded so innocent.

  “Then one night, Captain Pollock came into the cabin. He didn’t expect to find me there. He stopped, he stood looking at me, and I looked at him. We could see each other perfectly well. He was dressed, but he wasn’t wearing his coat, and his shirt was open at the throat and it made him look so different—you know how formal he is all day. As for me, I was right under the skylight, and the moonshine was pouring through. And my hair was down and I had on nothing but a nightgown and a silk wrapper over it—”

  Marny paused a moment. Kendra could almost see her there, in her light silk robe, her hair shimmering and her green eyes shining under the moon. Marny said,

  “So, things started to happen. After a while I said—oh, whatever one says on these occasions, you never remember afterward.”

  Marny turned, and through the flickers she looked at Kendra squarely.

  “Kendra, I didn’t plan that when I took the Cynthia.”

  “Of course you didn’t,” said Kendra. “Are people supposed to plan things like that?”

  With a whisper of laughter, Marny shook her head. She continued, “Well, the next morning I was waked up by the wind screaming in the sails. The ship was tossing like a handkerchief. The storm had started.”

  Marny shrugged and shivered.

  “I really did get seasick after that, and I was scared half to death. And then that crazy fool said I caused the storm! Does he think I’m a witch?”

  Kendra felt the same uneasiness she always felt before this aspect of Captain Pollock, but she did not want to admit it. She said, “Let’s hope he makes a million dollars trading in China and goes back to New York and stays there.”

  “Right,” said Marny, and yawned. “Meantime, let’s go to sleep.”

  They had not undressed, but now, as everything was quiet, they decided it would be safe to do so and sleep in their chemises. They carefully placed their clothes on the bar so they could get dressed on a moment’s notice if they had to, and lay down on the bedroll under a blanket Marny had provided. From outside they could hear Delbert’s steady footsteps as he walked up and down, guarding the tent.

  “Delbert is a good watchman,” Kendra remarked.

  “Delbert loves money,” said Marny.

  Kendra spoke abruptly. “Marny, are you in love with Delbert?”

  Marny began to laugh. “Good heavens no. I’m not that big a fool.”

  “Then—why do you like him?”

  In the darkness Marny’s laughter was soft and candid. “Well, I like money too.” After a moment she added, “And Delbert doesn’t talk. Kendra, my whole family was full of words. They talked all the time. They talked in languages old and new. They quoted everything from the ancient Greeks to the morning paper. They talked to me, at me, about me. Why can’t you be like the rest of us? What’s going to become of you? Oh dear, what are we going to do with that girl? It’s refreshing to live with somebody who doesn’t give a damn what becomes of me and keeps his mouth shut.”

  After a moment Marny added,

  “Besides, dear, you know the facts of life. He’s rather good there too. Now go to sleep.”

  21

  NOT ALL THE ABS had had a chance to try Stub’s liquor, and before morning a drunken stupor had overtaken most of those who had. However, to be sure, the guards kept watch till sunrise. They came back red-eyed and weary and sputtering with rage. After being up all night they would now have to sleep, and this meant the waste of a day. Not a Sunday either, but a workday that should have been full of gold. If Stub ever showed his rat-face around here again—

  Some of the men had wanted to shoot him last night. But Pocket had insisted that it was enough to march him a mile down the river with a warning that they would shoot him if he ever came back. Pocket said he did not like to kill people unless it was really necessary.

  They had to rest that day, but the next morning Pocket and Hiram, with Delbert and one of the Blackbeards, took the pack-horses and set out for Sutter’s Fort. They were strongly armed, for the horses were carrying three thousand ounces of gold. When she had told them goodby Kendra went to look for mustard leaves. The sun was hot, and gathering the wild plants was hard work. But they stretched her food supply, now so scant that if Pocket and Hiram didn’t come back soon she feared she would have to buy from Ellet, cockroaches and all.

  The very next day, however, Foxy approached her to ask if she would buy some provisions he and his friends had brought with them. The boys had decided to move on and look for richer diggings. Who could tell, maybe they would find the Big Lump. The farther upstream they went the steeper the way would be, and the mules had to carry their picks and pans. No use piling on bulky foodstuffs. They were taking only jerky and hardtack. Foxy wanted to sell Kendra a bag of potatoes and another bag of dried peas.

  Kendra knew she ought to tell him that if he tried to live on jerky and hardtack, with no vegetable food at all, he would get scurvy. But she knew that Ning and other frontiersmen had said this till the townsmen were tired of hearing it. She also knew she ought to say that if he would stay in one place and work he would be more likely to get rich than if he kept looking for some marvelous spot where he could pick up a hundred ounces a day. But like the warnings about scurvy this had already been said, and still many men spent more time looking for new placers than they spent gathering gold after they had found one. And nobody wanted free advice anyway, and she did want the peas and potatoes, and Foxy wanted to sell them, and if she didn’t buy them somebody else would.

  So she bought them. She paid with gold dust, ten times what she would have paid for peas and potatoes last spring in San Francisco, and she and Foxy were both happy with their bargain.

  Several days later Marny also had a happy surprise. A peddler came up to Shiny Gulch driving a wagon holding a little salt pork and a lot of good wine and brandy. The peddler told them their friends had reached the fort before he left. All fine, he reported.

  Marny bought his liquor, and lifted the limit on drinks at the Calico Palace. The peddler then divided the pork among several purchasers, and turned back toward the fort rejoicing.

  Marny rejoiced too. But Kendra, standing with Marny in front of the tent, looked sadly at the small piece of pork in her basket. “Why on earth,” she exclaimed, “didn’t he bring more meat?”

  “There wasn’t room in the wagon,” Marny returned with some surprise.

  “But he should have brought more meat and less liquor.”

  “Why?” asked Marny.

  “Because people need food. They don’t need liquor.”

  “Kendra dear,” said Marny, “he’s not in business to do good deeds. He’s in business to make money. And people will pay better prices for things they don’t need than for things they do.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “I didn’t say it made sense,” Marny replied serenely. “I said that’s the way people are. I get two ounces a quart for liquor—who’d pay two ounces of gold for a quart of milk?”

  Of course, Kendra thought with a start, she was right. Kendra asked, “Why are people that way?”

  “I don’t know,” said Marny. “All I know is, that’s the way they are. It’s time to set up my bar.”

  With a wave of go
odby, she turned and entered the tent. Kendra went back to her own campsite, where Ted was resting on the grass after his afternoon plunge in the pool. She sat down by him to tell him he must get a haircut and a shave. The men in camp cut each other’s hair now and then when it grew long enough to be a bother, but these were clumsy jobs at best, and Ted had not used a razor since they left San Francisco two months ago. His beard was an inch long and it stuck out in all directions. Now, however, a barber had come to Shiny Gulch. He had brought shears and razors, and had spread the news that while he expected to pan gold on weekdays he was going to add to his income by barbering on Sundays.

  Ted demurred. Why should he get a shave? The man would charge an outrageous price and his beard would only grow back.

  Kendra insisted. “If you had a nice neat beard like Delbert’s—”

  “My darling,” Ted answered with a lazy stretch, “that’s as much trouble as keeping clean-shaved.”

  “Your head,” said Kendra, “looks like a bunch of straw with eyes in it. And when you kiss me your whiskers scratch.”

  “But sweetheart, it’s natural for a man to be whiskery.”

  “If you’ll go to the barber Sunday morning,” said Kendra, “and get a shave and haircut, I’ll have a clean gingham shirt all ready for you.”

  “I’d rather you gave me a new pair of boots,” said Ted, looking sadly at those he was wearing. Bruised by rocks and water, boots and shoes wore out faster than anything else in the gold fields.

  “They’ll bring those from the fort,” said Kendra. “Go to the barber Sunday morning and at noon I’ll have a regal dinner. Peas cooked with chunks of pork, and fried potatoes—or would you rather have them boiled?”

  After a few more protests Ted yielded. Kendra was learning that if she really made up her mind to something Ted would yield, as he had when she wanted to get married and he did not. They seldom disagreed, but when they did, she liked knowing she could get her own way.

  Sunday morning the barber set up shop under a tree. His chair was a fallen log, his razor strop hung on the tree trunk, and leaning against the tree was a piece of cracked mirror in which he showed his customers the change in their faces. Many of the men scoffed at the idea of getting dandified in the wilderness, but others liked it, and most of the married men, such as Ted, went to the barber whether they liked it or not. Shaved and shorn, wearing his clean gingham shirt, Ted did look well as he came back toward the cook-fire, where Kendra was preparing the dinner she had promised.