Gold

by Stewart Edward White

  CHAPTER VIII

  PANAMA

  We arrived early in the afternoon, and we were all eyes; for here was acity taken directly from the pages of the Boy's Own Pirate. Without theleast effort of the imagination we could see Morgan or Kidd or someother old swashbuckler, cutlass in teeth, pistols in hand, broad sashed,fierce and ruthless rushing over the walls or through the streets, whilethe cathedral bells clanged wildly and women screamed. Everything aboutit was of the past; for somehow the modern signs of American invasionseemed temporary and to be blown away. The two-story wooden houses withcorridor and veranda across the face of the second story, painted inbright colours, leaned crazily out across the streets toward each other.Narrow and mysterious alleys led up between them. Ancient cathedrals andchurches stood gray with age before grass-grown plazas. And in theoutskirts of town were massive masonry ruins of great buildings, conventand colleges, some of which had never been finished. The immense blockslay about the ground in a confusion, covered softly by thousands oflittle plants; or soared against the sky in broken arches and corridors.Vegetation and vines grew in every crevice; and I saw many full-sizedtrees rooted in midair. The place was strongly fanciful; and I loved tolinger there. To me the jungle seemed like an insidiously beautifulcreature enveloping thus, little by little, its unsuspecting prey. Theold gray tumbled ruins seemed to be lost in dreams of their ancientdays. And through the arches and the empty corridors open to the skybreathed a melancholy air from a past so dead and gone and buried andforgotten that of it remained no echo, no recollection, no knowledge,nothing but squared and tumbled stones.

  To tell the truth I generally had these reflections quite to myself. Thebody of the town was much more exciting. The old dilapidated andpicturesque houses had taken on a new and temporary smartness ofmodernity--consisting mainly of canvas signs. The main street was ofhotels, eating houses, and assorted hells. It was crowded day and night,for we found something over a thousand men here awaiting the chance oftransportation. Some had been here a long time, and were broke anddesperate. A number of American gambling joints did a good business.Native drinking houses abounded. The natives were in general a showylot, but too lazy even to do a good job at fleecing the stranger withintheir gates. That was therefore undertaken--and most competently--by theenterprising foreigners of all nations. Foreigners kept two of the threehotels, as is indicated by their names--Hotel Francaise, Fonda Americano,and the Washington House. Americans ran the gambling joints. French andGermans, mainly, kept the restaurants.

  We stopped over one day at the Fonda Americano; and then realizing thatwe were probably in for a long wait, found two rooms in a house off themain street. These we rented from a native at a fairly reasonable rate.They were in the second story of a massive stone ruin whose walls hadbeen patched up with whitewash. The rooms were bare and geometricallycat-a-cornered and extraordinarily chilly, like vaults; but they gaveout on a charmingly unkempt walled garden with a stone fountain in themiddle whose features were all rounded by time and blurred with moss,with tall ragged bananas and taller wind-swept palms, and a creepinglush tangle of old plants, and the damp soft greenness of moss and theelfin tinkling of little waters. On our balcony the sun shone strong; sothat we could warm our chilled bones gratefully like lizards against awall.

  We tried all the restaurants, one after the other, and found them aboutequally bad. We also went in--once--for a real Spanish dinner. Itconsisted of a succession of dishes highly seasoned with the hottestsort of pepper, generally drowned in rich gravy, and composed of suchthings as cheese, chunks of meat, corn meal, and the like. Any one ofthese dishes would have been a fine strength test for the averageunsophisticated stomach; but your true Spanish dinner consists of adozen of them. We had horrible indigestion.

  In one place, kept by a German, we were treated very disagreeably, andovercharged so badly that Yank vowed he intended to get even. As to justhow he was going to do it, he maintained a deep silence; but he advisedus he would eat there the following evening. Also he asked four or fiveother men, with whom we had become friendly, to meet us at therestaurant. We met, ate our meal leisurely, and had a very good time.

  "Now," said Yank to us, "when we get up, you fellows all go right outthe front door and keep going until you get to the Fonda bar, and thereyou wait for me. No lingering, now. Do as you are told."

  We did as we were told. After about fifteen or twenty minutes Yanksauntered in.

  "Now," said Johnny, "I hope you'll explain. We're much obliged for yourdinner party, but we want to know what it is all about."

  "Well," chuckled Yank, "I just dealt the Dutchman what you might callidle persiflage until you fellows had been gone a few minutes, and thenI held him out my dollar. 'What's that?' says he. 'That's a dollar,'says I, 'to pay for my dinner.' 'How about all those other fellows?'says he. 'I got nothing to do with them,' says I. 'They can pay fortheir own dinners,' and after a while I come away. He was having somesort of Dutch fit, and I got tired of watching him."

  Outside the walls of the city was a large encampment of tents in whichdwelt the more impecunious or more economical of the miners. Here toohad been located a large hospital tent. There was a great deal ofsickness, due to the hardships of the journey, the bad climate,irregular living, the overeating of fruit, drinking, the total lack ofsanitation. In fact only the situation of the city--out on an isthmus inthe sea breezes--I am convinced, saved us from pestilence. EveryAmerican seemed to possess a patent medicine of some sort with which hedosed himself religiously in and out of season. A good many, I shouldthink, must have fallen victims to these nostrums.

  Each morning regularly we went down to harass the steamship employees.Roughly speaking some three hundred of us had bought through passagebefore leaving New York: and it was announced that only fifty-twoadditional to those already aboard could be squeezed into the firststeamer. The other two hundred and forty-eight would have to await thenext. Naturally every man was determined that he would not be left; forsuch a delay, in such a place, at the time of a gold rush wasunthinkable. The officials at that steamship office had no easy time.Each man wanted first of all to know just when the ship was to beexpected; a thing no one could guess. Then he demanded hisaccommodations; and had a dozen reasons why his claim should bepreferred over that of the others. I never saw a more quarrelsome noisydog-kennel than that steamship office. Why no one was ever shot there Icould not tell you.

  After bedevilling the officials for a time, our business for the day wasover. We had the privilege of sauntering through the streets, of walkingdown the peninsula or of seating ourselves in any of the numerous barsor gambling halls. All were interesting; though neither the streets northe gambling places were in full action until late afternoon.

  About four o'clock, or half after, when the invariable siesta was over,the main street began to fill with idlers. The natives wore white, withwide soft straw hats, and lounged along with considerable grace. Theywere a weak, unenergetic, inoffensive race, always ready to get off thesidewalk for other nations provided the other nations swaggeredsufficiently. The women, I remember, had wonderful piles of glossy blackhair, arranged in bands and puffs, in which they stuck cigars. Thestreets were very narrow. When a vehicle came along, we all had to makeway for it; as also for the gangs of prisoners connected with heavy ironchains around their necks. These were very numerous; and I can hear yetas the leading notes of the place, the clinking of their chains, and thecracked jangling of some of the many cathedral bells.

  There was a never-failing joy to us also in poking around the odd placesof the town. The dim interiors of cathedrals, the splashed stones ofcourtyards, the shadows of doorways, the privacies of gardens all luredus; and we saw many phases of native life. Generally we were looked onat first with distrust. There were a number of roughs among the goldseekers; men whose brutal instincts or whose merely ignorant love ofhorseplay had now for the first time no check. They found that thenative could be pushed off the sidewalk, so they pushed him off. I oncesaw a number of these men
light their cigars at altar candles. ButTalbot's Spanish and our own demeanour soon gained us admission.

  Thus we ran across a most delightful institution. We were rambling in avery obscure portion of town when we came to quite a long wall unbrokensave by a little wicket gate. A bell pull seemed to inviteinvestigation; so we gave it a heave. Almost immediately the gate swungopen and we entered.

  We found ourselves in a wide space paved with smooth great slabs ofrocks, wet as though from a recent rain. The space was thickly built upby small round huts of reeds, but without roofs. In the centre was awell, probably ten or twelve feet wide, over which slanted a cross armand wheel for the drawing of water. No human being was in sight; thegate had been unlatched by an overhead cord.

  We shouted. In a minute or so a very irascible old woman hobbled to usfrom some mysterious lurking place among the reed huts. She spokeimpatiently. Talbot questioned her; she replied briefly, then turned andhobbled off as fast as she could go.

  "What did she say?" some one asked Talbot curiously.

  "She said," replied Ward, "literally this: 'Why don't you take any ofthem without bothering me? They are all ready.' I imagine she must meanthese bird cages; though what they are for I couldn't tell you."

  We investigated the nearest. It was divided into two tiny rooms eachjust big enough to hold a man. In one was a three legged stool; in theother stood two tall graceful jars of red clay, their sides bedewed withevaporation. A dipper made from a coconut lay across the top of one ofthem.

  "Bath house!" shouted Johnny, enchanted.

  The water in the porous earthen jars was cold. We took each a hut andpoured the icy stuff over us to our heart's content. All except Yank. Helooked on the proceedings we thought with some scorn; and departedcarrying his long rifle.

  "Hey!" shouted Johnny finally, "where's the towels?"

  To this inquiry we could find no substantial answer. There were notowels. The old woman declined to come to our yells. She was on hand,however, when we were ready to depart, and took one American dime aspayment for the three of us. This was the only cheap thing we found inPanama. We came every day, after the hour of siesta--with towels. Yankrefused steadfastly to indulge.

  "I'm having hard enough dodging to keep clear of fever'n ager now," hetold us. "You don't seem to recollect what neck of the woods I comefrom. It's a fever'n ager country out there for keeps. They can't keepchickens there at all."

  "Why not?" asked Johnny innocently.

  "The chills they get shakes all the feathers off'n 'em," replied Yank,"and then they freeze to death."

  In the evening the main street was a blaze of light, and the bywayswere cast in darkness. The crowd was all afoot, and moved restlessly toand fro from one bar or gambling hell to another. Of the thousand or soof strangers we came in time to recognize by sight a great many. Thejourney home through the dark was perilous. We never attempted it exceptin company; and as Johnny seemed fascinated with a certain game calledMexican _monte_, we often had to endure long waits before all ourparty was assembled.

  One morning our daily trip to the steamship office bore fruit. We foundthe plaza filled with excited men; all talking and gesticulating. Themuch tired officials had evolved a scheme, beautiful in its simplicity,for deciding which fifty-two of the three hundred should go by the firstship. They announced that at eleven o'clock they would draw lots.

  This was all very well, but how did the general public know that thelots would be drawn fairly?

  The officials would permit a committee of citizens to be present.

  Not by the eternal! Where would you get any one to serve? No member ofthat committee would dare accept his own ticket, provided he drew one.No one would believe it had been done honestly.

  Very well. Then let fifty-two out of three hundred slips of paper bemarked. Each prospective passenger could then draw one slip out of abox.

  "It's all right, boys," the observers yelled back at those clamouring inthe rear.

  One of the officials stood on a barrel holding the box, while a clerkwith a list of names sat below.

  "As I call the names, will each gentleman step forward and draw hisslip?" announced the official.

  We were all watching with our mouths open intensely interested.

  "Did you ever hear of such a damfool way of doing the thing?" saidTalbot. "Here, give me a boost up!"

  Johnny and I raised him on our shoulders.

  "Gentlemen! gentlemen!" he cried a number of times before he could beheard above the row. Finally they gave him attention.

  "I'm a ticket holder in this thing; and I want to see it done right. Iwant to ask that gentleman there what is to prevent the wrong man fromanswering to a name, from drawing a slip without having any right to?"

  "The right man will prevent him," answered a voice. The crowd laughed.

  "Well, who's to decide, in case of dispute, which is the right man andwhich the wrong man? And what's to prevent any man, after the drawing,from marking a blank slip--or making a new slip entirely?"

  "That's right!" "Correct!" shouted several voices.

  The officials consulted hurriedly. Then one of them announced that thedrawing would be postponed until the following morning. Each was tobring his steamship ticket with him. The winners in the drawing must beprepared to have their tickets countersigned on the spot. With thisunderstanding we dispersed.

  This was Talbot Ward's first public appearance; the first occasion inwhich he called himself to the attention of his fellows assembled inpublic meeting. The occasion was trivial, and it is only for this reasonthat I mention it. His personality at once became known, and remembered;and I recollect that many total strangers spoke to him that evening.

  By next morning the transportation officials had worked it out. We couldnot all get into the office, so the drawing took place on the Plazaoutside. As each man's name was called, he stepped forward, showed histicket, and was allowed to draw a slip from the box. If it proved to bea blank, he went away; if he was lucky, he had his ticket _vised_on the spot. Such a proceeding took the greater part of the day; but theexcitement remained intense. No one thought of leaving even for the noonmeal.

  Yank drew passage on the first steamer. Talbot, Johnny, and I drewblanks.

  We walked down to the shore to talk over the situation.

  "'YOU HOUNDS!' HE ROARED. 'DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO SNEAKOFF!'"]

  "We ought to have bought tickets good on this particular ship, notmerely good on this line," said Johnny.

  "Doesn't matter what we _ought_ to have done," rejoined Talbot alittle impatiently. "What are we _going_ to do? Are we going towait here until the next steamer comes along?"

  "That's likely to be two or three months--nobody knows," said Johnny.

  "No; it's in six weeks, I believe. They tell me they've started regulartrips on a new mail contract."

  "Well, six weeks. If we stay in this hole we'll all be sick; we'll bebroke; and in the meantime every ounce of gold in the country will havebeen picked up."

  "What's the alternative?" I asked.

  "Sailing vessel," said Talbot briefly.

  "That's mighty uncertain," I objected. "Nobody knows when one will getin; and when it does show up it'll be a mad scramble to get to her.There's a mob waiting to go."

  "Well, it's one or the other. We can't walk; and I don't see that thesituation is going to be much better when the next steamer does gethere. There are a couple of hundred to crowd in on her--just countingthose who are here and have tickets. And then there will be a lot more."

  "I'm for the sailing vessel," said Johnny. "They come in every week ortwo now; and if we can't make the first one, we'll have a good chance atthe second or the third."

  Talbot looked at me inquiringly.

  "Sounds reasonable," I admitted.

  "Then we've no time to lose," said Talbot decisively, and turned awaytoward the town.

  Yank, who had listened silently to our brief discussion, shifted hisrifle to his shoulder and followed. Shortly he fell behind
; and we losthim.

  We accompanied Talbot in some bewilderment, for there was no ship insight nor in prospect, and we could not understand any reason for thishaste. Talbot led the way directly to the steamship office.

  "I want to see Brown," he asserted, naming the chief agent for thecompany.

  The clerk hesitated: Brown was an important man and not to be disturbedfor trivial matters. But Talbot's eye could be very assured.

  "What is your business with Mr. Brown?" asked the clerk.

  "It is with Mr. Brown," said Talbot firmly, "and I may add that it is toMr. Brown's own interest to see me. Tell him just that, and that Mr.Talbot Ward of New York City desires an immediate interview."

  The clerk was gone for some moments, to the manifest annoyance of adozen miners who wanted his attention. When he returned he motioned usto a screened-off private office in the rear.

  "Mr. Brown will see you," said he.

  We found Brown to be a florid, solidly built man of fifty, with a keeneye and a brown beard. He nodded to us briefly and looked expectant.

  "We three men," said Talbot directly, "hold three tickets on your line.We were not fortunate enough to get passage on the next steamer, and ourbusiness will not permit us to wait until the one after. We want ourmoney back."

  Brown's face darkened.

  "That is a matter for my clerks, not for me," he said curtly. "I wastold your business was to my advantage. I have nothing to do withtickets."

  "One minute," said Talbot. "There are between two and three hundred menin this town each one of whom bought a ticket from your company in NewYork in the expectation, if not under the understanding, that they wereto get through passage immediately."

  "No such thing was expected or guaranteed," interposed Brown abruptly.

  "Not guaranteed, nor expected by you--by us, yes."

  "I cannot argue that matter. I have no further time for you. Good-day."And Brown once more reached his hand toward his bell.

  "Suppose," said Talbot softly, leaning forward. "I should put it intothe heads of those three hundred men that they ought to get theirpassage money back?"

  Brown's hand stopped in midair.

  "They are large, violent, armed men; and they are far from pure homeinfluences," went on Talbot mockingly. "Here's a sample of them," saidhe indicating my huge frame. "And there are a thousand or so more, notdirectly interested but dying for excitement."

  "Are you trying to intimidate me, sir?" demanded Brown.

  "I am just stating conditions."

  "You are threatening me."

  "Ah, that is different," said Talbot Ward.

  Brown sat lost in thought for some moments. Then he reached forward andat last struck the bell.

  "Let me have your tickets," he commanded us shortly.

  He endorsed them and handed them to the clerk, together with a writtenorder. We all sat in absolute silence for perhaps five minutes. Then theclerk returned with a handful of gold. This Brown counted over andshoved across to Talbot. The latter also counted it, and thrust it inhis pocket.

  "Now," said Brown, with something approaching geniality, "I am countingon your honour to say nothing of this outside. I am gambling on yourevident class in life at home."

  "You have our promise, and it will be kept," said Talbot rising. "Butundoubtedly within two days you will think I am the biggest liar unhung.There will be many more who will think of this same simple plan ofgetting a refund on their tickets and who will blab it out to every oneon the street. You would do well to make your plans now as to how youintend to deal with them. But remember, I, nor my friends, will have hadnothing to do with it."

  "I understand that there will be plenty making your same demand," saidBrown, "but I doubt any of them will think of urging that demand."

  We left. As a matter of interest, Talbot's prediction was correct; as,indeed, Brown had immediately recognized it would be. Talbot had onlythe advantage of thinking a little quicker than the next man, of actingimmediately, and of allowing no time for reflection to the other. Thesteamship office had a strenuous time. Talbot's threat had this much ofreal significance: that there was, lacking him, no organizeddemonstration. Each man went for himself and demanded his money back. Ina few rare cases he got it; but was generally bluffed out, or blandlyreferred back to the New York offices, or reasoned out. The situationcame near to riot, but in some difficult manner it was tided over. A fewsettled down to wait for the next steamer. The majority decided forsailing ships, and pocketed their steamer tickets in hopes of futurereimbursement. One score of fanatics and ignoramuses, in dense ignoranceas to the nature of the journey, actually started out to row to SanFrancisco in an open boat! They were never heard of again. One or twoparties modified this plan by proceeding in fishing boats to theextremity of the peninsula of Lower California, and thence marchedoverland to San Diego. Their sufferings in that arid region were great,but they managed to arrive many months later.

  We returned to our lodgings, congratulating Talbot on the promptitude ofhis action, for already we saw determined looking men hurrying acrossthe plaza toward the offices.

  At our place we found that Yank had not returned. At first we thoughtnothing of this; but about dusk we found that all his belongings haddisappeared.