Silver and Gold: A Story of Luck and Love in a Western Mining Camp
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CHAPTER XV
A NIGHT FOR LOVE
There was music that evening in the Bunker Hill mansion but DenverRussell sat sulking in his cave with no company but an inquisitivepack-rat. He regretted now his curt refusal to join the Hills at supper,for Drusilla was singing gloriously; but a man without pride is adespicable creature and Old Bunk had tried to insult him. So he went tobed and early in the morning, while the shadow of Apache Leap still laylike a blanket across the plain, he set out to fulfill his contract.Across one shoulder he hung a huge canteen of water, on the other a sackof powder and fuse; and, to top off his burden, he carried a long steelchurn-drill and a spoon for scooping out the muck.
The discovery hole of Bunker's Number Two claim was just up the creekfrom his own and, after looking it over, Denver climbed up the bank andmeasured off six feet from the edge. Then, raising the steel bar, hestruck it into the ground, churning it rhythmically up and down; and asthe hole rapidly deepened he spooned it out and poured in a little morewater. It was the same uninteresting work that he had seen men do whenthey were digging a railroad cut; and the object was the same, to shootdown the dirt with the minimum of labor and powder. But with Denver itbecame a work of art, a test of his muscle and skill, and at eachdownward thrust he bent from the hips and struck with a deep-chested"Huh!"
An hour passed by, and half the length of the drill was buried at theend of the stroke; and then, as he paused to wipe the sweat from hiseyes, Denver saw that his activities were being noted. Drusilla waslooking on from the trail below, and apparently with the greatestinterest. She was dressed in a corduroy suit, with a broad sombreroagainst the sun; and as she came up the slope she leapt from rock torock in a heavy pair of boys' high boots. There was nothing of thesinger about her now, nor of the filmy-clad barefooted dancer; thejagged edge of old Pinal would permit of nothing so effeminate. Yet,over the rocks as on the smooth trails, she had a grace that was all herown, for those hillsides had been her home.
"Well, how's the millionaire?" she inquired with a smile that made hisfond heart miss a beat. "Is _this_ the way you do it? Are you justgoing to drill one hole?"
"That's the dope," replied Denver, "sink it down ten feet and blow thewhole bank off with one shot. It's as easy as shooting fish."
"Why, you're down half-way, already!" she cried in amazement. "How longbefore you'll be done?"
"Oh, half an hour or so," said Denver. "Want to wait and see the blast?I learned this system on the railroad."
"You'll be through, then, before noon!" she exclaimed. "You're actuallymaking money."
"Well, a little," admitted Denver, "but, of course, if you're notsatisfied----"
"Oh, I'm satisfied," she protested, "I was only thinking--but then, it'salways that way. There are some people, of course, who can make moneyanywhere. How does it feel to be a millionaire?"
"Fine!" grinned Denver, chugging away with his drill, "this is the waythey all got their start. The Armstrong method--and that's where Ishine; I can break more ground than any two men."
"Well, I believe you can," she responded frankly, "and I hope you have agreat success. I didn't like it very well when you called me a quitter,but I can see now what you meant. Did you ever study music at all?"
Denver stopped his steady churning to glance at her quickly and then henodded his head.
"I played the violin, before I went to mining. Had to quit then--itstiffens up your fingers."
"What a pity!" she cried. "But that explains about your records--I knewyou'd heard good music somewhere."
"Yes, and I'm going to hear more," he answered impressively, "I'm notgoing to blow my money. I'm going back to New York, where all thosesingers live. The other boys can have the booze."
"Don't you drink at all?" she questioned eagerly. "Don't you even smoke?Well, I'm going right back and tell father. He told me that all minersspent their money in drinking--why wouldn't you come over to supper?"
She shot the question at him in the quick way she had, but Denver didnot answer it directly.
"Never mind," he said, "but I will tell you one thing--I'm not a hobominer."
"No, I knew you weren't," she responded quickly. "Won't you come over tosupper to-night? I might sing for you," she suggested demurely; butDenver shook his head.
"Nope," he said, "your old man took me for a hobo and he can't get theidea out of his head. What did he say when you gave me this job?"
"Well, he didn't object; but I guess, if you don't mind, we'll only dothree or four claims. He says I'll need the money back East."
"Yes, you will," agreed Denver. "Five hundred isn't much. If I was flushI'd do this for nothing."
"Oh, no," she protested, "I couldn't allow that. But if there_should_ be a rush, and father's claims should be jumped----"
"You'd have the best of them, anyway. I wouldn't tempt old Murray toofar."
"No," she said, "and that reminds me--I hear that he's made a strike.But say, here's a good joke on the Professor. You know he thinks he's amining expert, and he's been crazy to look at the diamond drill cores;and the other day the boss driller was over and he told me how he gotrid of him. You know, in drilling down they run into cavities where thelime has been leached away, and in order to keep the bore intact theypour them full of cement. Well, when the Professor insisted upon seeingthe core and wouldn't take no for an answer, Mr. Menzger just gave him asection of concrete, where they'd bored through a filled-up hole. AndMr. Diffenderfer just looked so wise and examined it through hismicroscope, and then he said it was very good rock and an excellentindication of copper. Isn't that just too rich for anything?"
"Yeh," returned Denver with a thin-lipped smile. And then, before hethought how it sounded: "Say, who is this Mr. Menzger, anyway?"
"Oh, he's a friend of ours," she answered drooping her eyelashescoquettishly. "He gets lonely sometimes and comes down to hear mesing--he's been in New York and everywhere."
"Yes, he must be a funny guy," observed Denver mirthlessly. "Anyrelation to that feller they call Dave?"
"Oh, Mr. Chatwourth? No, he's from Kentucky--they say he's the last ofhis family. All the others were killed in one of those mountainfeuds--Mr. Menzger says he's absolutely fearless."
"Well, what did he leave home for, then?" inquired Denver arrogantly."He don't look very bad to me, I guess if he was fearless he'd be backin Kentucky, shooting it out with the rest of the bunch."
"No, it seems that his father on his dying bed commanded him to leavethe country, because there were too many of the others against him. ButMr. Menzger tells me he's a professional killer, and that's why OldMurray hired him. Do you think they would jump our claims?"
"They would if they struck copper," replied Denver bluntly. "And oldMurray warned me not to buy from your father--that shows he's got hiseye on your property. It's a good thing we're doing this work."
"Weren't you afraid, then?" she asked, putting the wonder-note into hervoice and laying aside her frank manner, "weren't you afraid to buy ourclaim? Or did you feel that you were guided to it, and all would be forthe best?"
"That's it!" exclaimed Denver suddenly putting down his drill to gazeinto her innocent young eyes. "I was guided, and so I bought it anyhow."
"Oh, I think it's so romantic!" she murmured with a sigh, "won't youtell me how it happened?"
And then Denver Russell, forgetting the seeress' warning at the verymoment he was discussing her, sat down on a rock and gave Drusilla thewhole story of his search for the gold and silver treasures. But at theend--when she questioned him about the rest of the prophecy--he suddenlyrecalled Mother Trigedgo's admonition: "Beware how you reveal youraffection or she will confer her hand upon another."
A shadow came into his blue eyes and his boyish enthusiasm was stilled;and Drusilla, who had been practicing her stage-learned wiles, suddenlyfound her technique at fault. She chattered on, trying subtly to ensnarehim, but Denver's heart was now of adamant and he failed to respond toher approaches. It was not too late yet to heed the wo
rds of theprophecy, and he drilled on in thoughtful silence.
"Don't you get lonely?" she burst out at last, "living all by yourselfin that cave? Why, even these old prospectors have to have somepardner--don't you ever feel the need of a friend?"
There it was--he felt it coming--the appeal to be just friends. Butanother girl had tried it already, and he had learned about women fromher.
"No," he said shortly, "I don't need no friends. Say, I'm going to loadthis hole now."
"Well, go on!" she challenged, "I'm not afraid. I'll stay here as longas you do."
"All right," he said lowering his powder down the hole and tamping itgently with a stick, "I see I can't scare _you_."
"Oh, you thought you could scare me!" she burst out mockingly, "Isuppose you're a great success with the girls."
"Well," he mocked back, "a good-looking fellow like me----" And then hepaused and grinned slyly.
"Oh, what's the use!" she exclaimed, rising up in disgust, "I might aswell quit, right now."
"No, don't go off mad!" he remonstrated gallantly. "Stay and see the bigexplosion."
"I don't care _that_ for your explosion!" she answered pettishlyand snapped her fingers in the air.
It was the particular gesture with which the coquettish Carmen was wontto dismiss her lovers; but as she strode down the hill Drusilla herselfwas heart-broken, for her coquetry had come to naught. This big Westernboy, this unsophisticated miner, had sensed her wiles and turned themupon her--how then could she hope to succeed? If her eyes had no allurefor a man like him, how could she hope to fascinate an audience? AndCarmen and half the heroines of modern light opera were all of themincorrigible flirts. They flirted with servants, with barbers, withstrolling actors, with their own and other women's husbands; until thewhole atmosphere fairly reeked of intrigue, of amours and coquettishescapades. To the dark-eyed Europeans these wiles were instinctive butwith her they were an art, to be acquired laboriously as she had learnedto dance and sing. But flirt she could not, for Denver Russell hadflouted her, and now she had lost his respect.
A tear came to her eye, for she was beginning to like him, and he wouldthink that she flirted with everyone; yet how was she to learn tosucceed in her art if she had no experience with men? It was that, infact, which her teacher had hinted at when he had told her to go out andlive; but her heart was not in it, she took no pleasure in deceit--andyet she longed for success. She could sing the parts, she had learnedher French and Italian and taken instruction in acting; but she lackedthe verve, the passionate abandon, without which she could neversucceed. Yet succeed she must, or break her father's heart and make hisgreat sacrifice a mockery. She turned and looked back at Denver Russell,and that night she sang--for him.
He was up there in his cave looking down indifferently, thinking himselfimmune to her charms; yet her pride demanded that she conquer himcompletely and bring him to her feet, a slave! She sang, attired infilmy garments, by the light of the big, glowing lamp; and as her voicetook on a passionate tenderness, her mother looked up from her work.Then Bunker awoke from his gloomy thoughts and glanced across at hiswife; and they sat there in silence while she sang on and on, thegayest, sweetest songs that she knew. But Drusilla's eyes were fixed onthe open doorway, on the darkness which lay beyond; and at last she sawhim, a dim figure in the distance, a presence that moved and was gone.She paused and glided off into her song of songs, the "Barcarolle" from"Love Tales of Hoffman," and as her voice floated out to him Denver roseup from his hiding and stepped boldly into the moonlight. He stood therelike a hero in some Wagnerian opera, where men take the part of gods,and as she gazed the mockery went out of her song and she sang of lovealone. Such a love as women know who love one man forever and hold allhis love in return, yet the words were the same as those of falseGiuletta when she fled with the perfidious Dapertutto.
"Night divine, O night of love, O smile on our enchantment Moon and stars keep watch above This radiant night of love!"
She floated away in the haunting chorus, overcome by the madness of itsspell; and when she awoke the song was ended and love had claimed hertoo.