The wind lulled as if it feared to waken them. Feathery drifts of snow, shaken from the long pine boughs, flew like white winged birds, and settled about them as they slept. The moon through the rifted clouds looked down upon what had been the camp. But all human stain, all trace of earthly travail, was hidden beneath the spotless mantle mercifully flung from above.
They slept all that day and the next, nor did they waken when voices and footsteps broke the silence of the camp. And when pitying fingers brushed the snow from their wan faces, you could scarcely have told from the equal peace that dwelt upon them which was she that had sinned. Even the law of Poker Flat recognized this, and turned away, leaving them still locked in each others arms.
But at the head of the gulch, on one of the largest pine-trees, they found the deuce of clubs pinned to the bark with a bowie-knife. It bore the following, written in pencil in a firm hand:
BENEATH THIS TREE LIES THE BODY OF JOHN OAKHURST, WHO STRUCK A STREAK OF BAD LUCK ON THE 23D OF NOVEMBER 1850. AND HANDED IN HIS CHECKS ON THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850.
And pulseless and cold, with a Derringer by his side and a bullet in his heart, though still calm as in life, beneath the snow lay he who was at once the strongest and yet the weakest of the outcasts of Poker Flat.
MIGGLES
We were eight including the driver. We had not spoken during the passage of the last six miles, since the jolting of the heavy vehicle over the roughening road had spoiled the Judges last poetical quotation. The tall man beside the Judge was asleep, his arm passed through the swaying strap and his head resting upon it,altogether a limp, helpless looking object, as if he had hanged himself and been cut down too late. The French lady on the back seat was asleep too, yet in a half-conscious propriety of attitude, shown even in the disposition of the handkerchief which she held to her forehead and which partially veiled her face. The lady from Virginia City, traveling with her husband, had long since lost all individuality in a wild confusion of ribbons, veils, furs, and shawls. There was no sound but the rattling of wheels and the dash of rain upon the roof. Suddenly the stage stopped and we became dimly aware of voices. The driver was evidently in the midst of an exciting colloquy with some one in the road,a colloquy of which such fragments as bridge gone, twenty feet of water, cant pass, were occasionally distinguishable above the storm. Then came a lull, and a mysterious voice from the road shouted the parting adjuration
Try Miggless.
We caught a glimpse of our leaders as the vehicle slowly turned, of a horseman vanishing through the rain, and we were evidently on our way to Miggless.
Who and where was Miggles? The Judge, our authority, did not remember the name, and he knew the country thoroughly. The Washoe traveler thought Miggles must keep a hotel. We only knew that we were stopped by high water in front and rear, and that Miggles was our rock of refuge. A ten minutes splashing through a tangled byroad, scarcely wide enough for the stage, and we drew up before a barred and boarded gate in a wide stone wall or fence about eight feet high. Evidently Miggless, and evidently Miggles did not keep a hotel.
The driver got down and tried the gate. It was securely locked.
Miggles! O Miggles!
No answer.
Migg-ells! You Miggles! continued the driver, with rising wrath.
Migglesy! joined in the expressman persuasively. O Miggy! Mig!
But no reply came from the apparently insensate Miggles. The Judge, who had finally got the window down, put his head out and propounded a series of questions, which if answered categorically would have undoubtedly elucidated the whole mystery, but which the driver evaded by replying that if we didnt want to sit in the coach all night we had better rise up and sing out for Miggles.
So we rose up and called on Miggles in chorus, then separately. And when we had finished, a Hibernian fellow passenger from the roof called for Maygells! whereat we all laughed. While we were laughing the driver cried, Shoo!
We listened. To our infinite amazement the chorus of Miggles was repeated from the other side of the wall, even to the final and supplemental Maygells.
Extraordinary echo! said the Judge.
Extraordinary dd skunk! roared the driver contemptuously. Come out of that, Miggles, and show yourself! Be a man, Miggles! Dont hide in the dark; I wouldnt if I were you, Miggles, continued Yuba Bill, now dancing about in an excess of fury.
Miggles! continued the voice, O Miggles!
My good man! Mr. Myghail! said the Judge, softening the asperities of the name as much as possible. Consider the inhospitality of refusing shelter from the inclemency of the weather to helpless females. Really, my dear sirBut a succession of Miggles, ending in a burst of laughter, drowned his voice.
Yuba Bill hesitated no longer. Taking a heavy stone from the road, he battered down the gate, and with the expressman entered the inclosure. We followed. Nobody was to be seen. In the gathering darkness all that we could distinguish was that we were in a gardenfrom the rose bushes that scattered over us a minute spray from their dripping leavesand before a long, rambling wooden building.
Do you know this Miggles? asked the Judge of Yuba Bill.
No, nor dont want to, said Bill shortly, who felt the Pioneer Stage Company insulted in his person by the contumacious Miggles.
But, my dear sir, expostulated the Judge, as he thought of the barred gate.
Lookee here, said Yuba Bill, with fine irony, hadnt you better go back and sit in the coach till yer introduced? Im going in, and he pushed open the door of the building.
A long room, lighted only by the embers of a fire that was dying on the large hearth at its farther extremity; the walls curiously papered, and the flickering firelight bringing out its grotesque pattern; someone sitting in a large armchair by the fireplace. All this we saw as we crowded together into the room after the driver and expressman. Hello! be you Miggles? said Yuba Bill to the solitary occupant.
The figure neither spoke nor stirred. Yuba Bill walked wrathfully toward it and turned the eye of his coach-lantern upon its face. It was a mans face, prematurely old and wrinkled, with very large eyes, in which there was that expression of perfectly gratuitous solemnity which I had sometimes seen in an owls. The large eyes wandered from Bills face to the lantern, and finally fixed their gaze on that luminous object without further recognition.
Bill restrained himself with an effort.
Miggles! be you deaf? You aint dumb anyhow, you know, and Yuba Bill shook the insensate figure by the shoulder.
To our great dismay, as Bill removed his hand, the venerable stranger apparently collapsed, sinking into half his size and an undistinguishable heap of clothing.
Well, dern my skin, said Bill, looking appealingly at us, and hopelessly retiring from the contest.
The Judge now stepped forward, and we lifted the mysterious invertebrate back into his original position. Bill was dismissed with the lantern to reconnoitre outside, for it was evident that, from the helplessness of this solitary man? there must be attendants near at hand, and we all drew around the fire. The Judge, who had regained his authority, and had never lost his conversational amiability,standing before us with his back to the hearth,charged us, as an imaginary jury, as follows:
It is evident that either our distinguished friend here has reached that condition described by Shakespeare as the sere and yellow leaf, or has suffered some premature abatement of his mental and physical faculties. Whether he is really the Miggles
It is evident that either our distinguished friend here has reached that condition described by Shakespeare as the sere and yellow leaf, or has suffered some premature abatement of his mental and physical faculties. Whether he is really the Miggles
Here he was interrupted by Miggles! O Miggles! Migglesy! Mig! and, in fact, the whole chorus of Miggles in very much the same key as it had once before been delivered unto us.
We gazed at each other for a moment in some alarm. The Judge, in particular, vacated his position quickly, as the voice seemed to come directly over his shoulder. The cause, however, was soon discovered in a large magpie who was perched upon a shelf over the fireplace, and who immediately relapsed into a sepulchral silence, which contrasted singularly with his previous volubility. It was, undoubtedly, his voice which we had heard in the road, and our friend in the chair was not responsible for the discourtesy. Yuba Bill, who reentered the room after an unsuccessful search, was both to accept the explanation, and still eyed the helpless sitter with suspicion. He had found a shed in which he had put up his horses, but he came back dripping and skeptical. Thar aint nobody but him within ten mile of the shanty, and that ar dd old skeesicks knows it.
But the faith of the majority proved to be securely based. Bill had scarcely ceased growling before we heard a quick step upon the porch, the trailing of a wet skirt, the door was flung open, and with a flash of white teeth, a sparkle of dark eyes, and an utter absence of ceremony or diffidence, a young woman entered, shut the door, and, panting, leaned back against it.
Oh, if you please, Im Miggles!
And this was Miggles! this bright-eyed, full-throated young woman, whose wet gown of coarse blue stuff could not hide the beauty of the feminine curves to which it clung; from the chestnut crown of whose head, topped by a mans oil-skin souwester, to the little feet and ankles, hidden somewhere in the recesses of her boys brogans, all was grace,this was Miggles, laughing at us, too, in the most airy, frank, off-hand manner imaginable.
You see, boys, said she, quite out of breath, and holding one little hand against her side, quite unheeding the speechless discomfiture of our party or the complete demoralization of Yuba Bill, whose features had relaxed into an expression of gratuitous and imbecile cheerfulness,you see, boys, I was morn two miles away when you passed down the road. I thought you might pull up here, and so I ran the whole way, knowing nobody was home but Jim,andandIm out of breathandthat lets me out. And here Miggles caught her dripping oilskin hat from her head, with a mischievous swirl that scattered a shower of raindrops over us; attempted to put back her hair; dropped two hairpins in the attempt; laughed, and sat down beside Yuba Bill, with her hands crossed lightly on her lap.
The Judge recovered himself first and essayed an extravagant compliment.
Ill trouble you for that harpin, said Miggles gravely. Half a dozen hands were eagerly stretched forward; the missing hairpin was restored to its fair owner; and Miggles, crossing the room, looked keenly in the face of the invalid. The solemn eyes looked back at hers with an expression we had never seen before. Life and intelligence seemed to struggle back into the rugged face. Miggles laughed again,it was a singularly eloquent laugh,and turned her black eyes and white teeth once more towards us.
This afflicted person ishesitated the Judge.
Jim! said Miggles.
Your father?
No!
Brother?
No?
Husband?
Miggles darted a quick, half-defiant glance at the two lady passengers, who I had noticed did not participate in the general masculine admiration of Miggles, and said gravely, No; its Jim! There was an awkward pause. The lady passengers moved closer to each other; the Washoe husband looked abstractedly at the fire, and the tall man apparently turned his eyes inward for self-support at this emergency. But Miggless laugh, which was very infectious, broke the silence.
Come, she said briskly, you must be hungry. Wholl bear a hand to help me get tea?
She had no lack of volunteers. In a few moments Yuba Bill was engaged like Caliban in bearing logs for this Miranda; the expressman was grinding coffee on the veranda; to myself the arduous duty of slicing bacon was assigned; and the Judge lent each man his good-humored and voluble counsel. And when Miggles, assisted by the Judge and our Hibernian deck-passenger, set the table with all the available crockery, we had become quite joyous, in spite of the rain that beat against the windows, the wind that whirled down the chimney, the two ladies who whispered together in the corner, or the magpie, who uttered a satirical and croaking commentary on their conversation from his perch above. In the now bright, blazing fire we could see that the walls were papered with illustrated journals, arranged with feminine taste and discrimination. The furniture was extemporized and adapted from candle-boxes and packing-cases, and covered with gay calico or the skin of some animal. The armchair of the helpless Jim was an ingenious variation of a flour-barrel. There was neatness, and even a taste for the picturesque, to be seen in the few details of the long, low room.
The meal was a culinary success. But more, it was a social triumph,chiefly, I think, owing to the rare tact of Miggles in guiding the conversation, asking all the questions herself, yet bearing throughout a frankness that rejected the idea of any concealment on her own part, so that we talked of ourselves, of our prospects, of the journey, of the weather, of each other,of everything but our host and hostess. It must be confessed that Miggless conversation was never elegant, rarely grammatical, and that at times she employed expletives the use of which had generally been yielded to our sex. But they were delivered with such a lighting up of teeth and eyes, and were usually followed by a laugha laugh peculiar to Migglesso frank and honest that it seemed to clear the moral atmosphere.
Once during the meal we heard a noise like the rubbing of a heavy body against the outer walls of the house. This was shortly followed by a scratching and sniffling at the door. Thats Joaquin, said Miggles, in reply to our questioning glances; would you like to see him? Before we could answer she had opened the door, and disclosed a half-grown grizzly, who instantly raised himself on his haunches, with his fore paws hanging down in the popular attitude of mendicancy, and looked admiringly at Miggles, with a very singular resemblance in his manner to Yuba Bill. Thats my watch-dog, said Miggles, in explanation. Oh, he dont bite, she added, as the two lady passengers fluttered into a corner. Does he, old Toppy? (the latter remark being addressed directly to the sagacious Joaquin). I tell you what, boys, continued Miggles, after she had fed and closed the door on Ursa Minor, you were in big luck that Joaquin wasnt hanging round when you dropped in to-night.
Where was he? asked the Judge.
With me, said Miggles. Lord love you! he trots round with me nights like as if he was a man.
We were silent for a few moments, and listened to the wind. Perhaps we all had the same picture before us,of Miggles walking through the rainy woods with her savage guardian at her side. The Judge, I remember, said something about Una and her lion; but Miggles received it, as she did other compliments, with quiet gravity. Whether she was altogether unconscious of the admiration she excited,she could hardly have been oblivious of Yuba Bills adoration,I know not; but her very frankness suggested a perfect sexual equality that was cruelly humiliating to the younger members of our party.