IT was an easier task when all was over to set the littleAmazons on their horses than to keep them there, for by thetime we had perched one on her saddle, or pad rather, andadjusted her with the greatest nicety, another whom we hadjust left would lose her balance and fall with a scream tothe ground. It was almost as difficult as packing mules1 onthe prairie. For my part it must be confessed that I leftthe completion of the job to others. Curious andentertaining as the feast was, my whole attention was centredand absorbed in Arakeeta, which that artful littleenchantress had the gift to know, and lashed2 me accordinglywith her eyes more cruelly than she had done with her whip.
I had got so far, you see, as to learn her name, the firstinstalment of an intimacy3 which my demolished4 heart wasstaked on perfecting. I noticed that she refused the KAVAwith real or affected5 repugnance6; and when the passage ofarms, and legs, began, she slipped away, caught her animal,and with a parting laugh at me, started off for home. Therewas not the faintest shadow of encouragement in her saucylooks to follow her. Still, she was a year older thanJuliet, who was nearly fourteen; so, who could say what thoselooks might veil? Besides:
Das Naturell der FrauenIst so nah mit Kunst verwandt,that one might easily be mistaken. Anyhow, flight provokedpursuit; I jumped on to my horse, and raced along the plainlike mad. She saw me coming, and flogged the more, but beingthe better mounted of the two, by degrees I overhauled7 her.
As I ranged alongside, neither slackened speed; and reachingout to catch her bridle8, my knee hooked under the hollow ofhers, twisted her clean off her pad, and in a moment she laysenseless on the ground. I flung myself from my horse, andlaid her head upon my lap. Good God! had I broken her neck!
She did not stir; her eyes were closed, but she breathed, andher heart beat quickly. I was wild with terror and remorse9.
I looked back for aid, but the others had not started; wewere still a mile or more from Honolulu. I knew not what todo. I kissed her forehead, I called her by her name. Butshe lay like a child asleep. Presently her dazed eyes openedand stared with wonderment, and then she smiled. The tears,I think, were on my cheeks, and seeing them, she put her armsaround my neck and - forgave me.
She had fallen on her head and had been stunned10. I caughtthe horses while she sat still, and we walked them slowlyhome. When we got within sight of her hut on the outskirtsof the town, she would not let me go further. There wassadness in her look when we parted. I made her understand (Ihad picked up two or three words) that I would return to seeher. She at once shook her head with an expression ofsomething akin11 to fear. I too felt sorrowful, and worse thansorrowful, jealous.
When the night fell I sought her hut. It was one of thebetter kind, built like others mainly with matting; no doorsor windows, but with an extensive verandah which protectedthe inner part from rain and sun. Now and again I caughtglimpses of Arakeeta's fairy form flitting in, or obscuring,the lamplight. I could see two other women and two men. Whoand what were they? Was one of those dark forms an Othello,ready to smother12 his Desdemona? Or were either of them aValentine between my Marguerite and me? Though there was nomoon, I dared not venture within the lamp's rays, for hersake; for my own, I was reckless now - I would have thankedeither of them to brain me with his hoe. But Arakeeta camenot.
In the day-time I roamed about the district, about the TAROfields, in case she might be working there. Every eveningbefore sundown, many of the women and some of the well-to-domen, and a few whites, used to ride on the plain thatstretches along the shore between the fringe of palm grovesand the mountain spurs. I had seen Arakeeta amongst thembefore the LOOHOU feast. She had given this up now, and why?
Night after night I hovered13 about the hut. When she was inthe verandah I whispered her name. She started and peeredinto the dark, hesitated, then fled. Again the same thinghappened. She had heard me, she knew that I was there, butshe came not; no, wiser than I, she came not. And though Isighed:
What is worthThe rest of Heaven, the rest of earth?
the shrewd little wench doubtless told herself: 'A quietlife, without the fear of the broomstick.'
Fred was impatient to be off, I had already trespassed14 toolong on the kind hospitality of General Miller15, neither of ushad heard from England for more than a year, and theopportunities of trading vessels16 to California seldomoffered. A rare chance came - a fast-sailing brig, the'Corsair,' was to leave in a few days for San Francisco. Thecaptain was an Englishman, and had the repute of being a booncompanion and a good caterer17. We - I, passively - settled togo. Samson decided18 to remain. He wanted to visit Owyhee.
He came on board with us, however; and, with a parting bumperof champagne19, we said 'Good-bye.' That was the last I eversaw of him. The hardships had broken him down. He died notlong after.
The light breeze carried us slowly away - for the first timefor many long months with our faces to the east. But it wasnot 'merry' England that filled my juvenile20 fancies. Ileaned upon the taffrail and watched this lovely land of the'flowery food' fade slowly from my sight. I had eaten of theLotus, and knew no wish but to linger on, to roam no more, toreturn no more, to any home that was not Arakeeta's.
This sort of feeling is not very uncommon22 in early life. And'out of sight, out of mind,' is also a known experience.
Long before we reached San Fr'isco I was again eager foradventure.
How magnificent is the bay! One cannot see across it. Howimpatient we were to land! Everything new. Bearded dirtyheterogeneous crowds busy in all directions, - some runningup wooden and zinc23 houses, some paving the streets withplanks, some housing over ships beached for temporarydwellings. The sandy hills behind the infant town are beinglevelled and the foreshore filled up. A 'water surface' offorty feet square is worth 5,000 dollars. So that here andthere the shop-fronts are ships' broadsides. Already thereis a theatre. But the chief feature is the gambling24 saloons,open night and day. These large rooms are always filled withfrom 300 to 400 people of every description - from 'judges'
and 'colonels' (every man is one or the other, who is nothingelse) to Parisian cocottes, and escaped convicts of allnationalities. At one end of the saloon is a bar, at theother a band. Dozens of tables are ranged around. Monte,faro, rouge-et-noir, are the games. A large proportion ofthe players are diggers in shirt-sleeves and butcher-boots,belts round their waists for bowie knife and 'five shooters,'
which have to be surrendered on admittance. They come withtheir bags of nuggets or 'dust,' which is duly weighed,stamped, and sealed by officials for the purpose.
1 have still several specimens25 of the precious metal which Icaptured, varying in size from a grain of wheat to a mustardseed.
The tables win enormously, and so do the ladies of pleasure;but the winnings of these go back again to the tables. Fourtimes, while we were here, differences of opinion aroseconcerning points of 'honour,' and were summarily decided byrevolvers. Two of the four were subsequently referred toJudge 'Lynch.'
Wishing to see the 'diggings,' Fred and I went to Sacramento- about 150 miles up the river of that name. This was but apocket edition of San Francisco, or scarcely that. Wetherefore moved to Marysville, which, from its vicinity tothe various branches of the Sacramento river, was the chiefdepot for the miners of the 'wet diggin's' in NorthernCalifornia. Here we were received by a Mr. Massett - acurious specimen26 of the waifs and strays that turn up allover the world in odd places, and whom one would be sure tofind in the moon if ever one went there. He owned a littleone-roomed cabin, over the door of which was painted 'Officesof the Marysville Herald27.' He was his own contributor and'correspondent,' editor and printer, (the press was in acorner of the room). Amongst other avocations28 he was aconcert-giver, a comic reader, a tragic29 actor, and anauctioneer. He had the good temper and sanguine30 dispositionof a Mark Tapley. After the golden days of California hespent his life wandering about the globe; giving'entertainments' in China, Japan, India, Australia. Whereverthe English language is spoken, Stephen Massett had manyfriends and no enemies.
Fred slept on the table, I under it, and next morning wehired horses and started for the 'Forks of the Yuba.' A fewhours' ride brought us to the gold-hunters. Two or threehundred men were at work upon what had formerly31 been the bedof the river. By unwritten law, each miner was entitled to acertain portion of the 'bar,' as it was called, in which thegold is found. And, as the precious metal has to be obtainedby washing, the allotments were measured by thirty feet onthe banks of the river and into the dry bed as far as thisextends; thus giving each man his allowance of water.
Generally three or four combined to possess a 'claim.' Eachwould then attend to his own department: one loosened thesoil, another filled the barrow or cart, a third carried itto the river, and the fourth would wash it in the 'rocker.'
The average weight of gold got by each miner while we were atthe 'wet diggin's,' I.E. where water had to be used, wasnearly half an ounce or seven dollars' worth a day. We sawthree Englishmen who had bought a claim 30 feet by 100 feet,for 1,400 dollars. It had been bought and sold twice beforefor considerable sums, each party supposing it to be nearly'played out.' In three weeks the Englishmen paid their 1,400dollars and had cleared thirteen dollars a day apiece fortheir labour.
Our presence here created both curiosity and suspicion, foreach gang and each individual was very shy of his neighbour.
They did not believe our story of crossing the plains; theythemselves, for the most part, had come round the Horn; a fewacross the isthmus33. Then, if we didn't want to dig, what didwe want? Another peculiarity34 about us - a great one - was,that, so far as they could see, we were unarmed. At nightthe majority, all except the few who had huts, slept in azinc house or sort of low-roofed barn, against the walls ofwhich were three tiers of bunks35. There was no room for us,even if we had wished it, but we managed to hire a trestle.
Mattress or covering we had none. As Fred and I lay side byside, squeezed together in a trough scarcely big enough forone, we heard two fellows by the door of the shed talking usover. They thought no doubt that we were fast asleep, theythemselves were slightly fuddled. We nudged each other andpricked up our ears, for we had already canvassed36 thequestion of security, surrounded as we were by ruffians wholooked quite ready to dispose of babes in the wood. Theydiscussed our 'portable property' which was nil21; one decided,while the other believed, that we must have money in ourpockets. The first remarked that, whether or no, we wereunarmed; the other wasn't so sure about that - it wasn'tlikely we'd come there to be skinned for the asking. Thenarose the question of consequences, and it transpired37 thatneither of them had the courage of his rascality38. After abit, both agreed they had better turn in. Tired as we were,we fell asleep. How long we had slumbered39 I know not, butall of a sudden I was seized by the beard, and was consciousof a report which in my dreams I took for a pistol-shot. Ifound myself on the ground amid the wrecks40 of the trestle.
Its joints41 had given way under the extra weight, and Fred'sfirst impulse had been to clutch at my throat.
On the way back to San Francisco we stayed for a couple ofnights at Sacramento. It was a miserable42 place, with nothingbut a few temporary buildings except those of the Spanishsettlers. In the course of a walk round the town I noticed acrowd collected under a large elm-tree in the horse-market.
On inquiry43 I was informed that a man had been lynched on oneof its boughs44 the night before last. A piece of the rope wasstill hanging from the tree. When I got back to the 'hotel'
- a place not much better than the shed at Yuba Forks - Ifound a newspaper with an account of the affair. Drawing achair up to the stove, I was deep in the story, when a hugerowdy-looking fellow in digger-costume interrupted me with:
'Say, stranger, let's have a look at that paper, will ye?'
'When I've done with it,' said I, and continued reading. Helent over the back of my chair, put one hand on my shoulder,and with the other raised the paper so that he could read.
'Caint see rightly. Ah, reckon you're readen 'baout Jim,ain't yer?'
'Who's Jim?'
'Him as they sus-spended yesterday mornin'. Jim was apurticler friend o' mine, and I help'd to hang him.'
'A friendly act! What was he hanged for?'
'When did you come to Sacramenty City?'
'Day before yesterday.'
'Wal, I'll tell yer haow't was then. Yer see, Jim was aBritisher, he come from a place they call Botany Bay, whichbelongs to Victoria, but ain't 'xactly in the Old Country. Ijudge, when he first come to Californy, 'baout six monthsback, he warn't acquainted none with any boys hereaway, so hetook to diggin' by hisself. It was up to Cigar Bar whar hedug, and I chanst to be around there too, that's haow we gotto know one another. Jim hadn't been here not a fortnight'fore one of the boys lost 300 dollars as he'd made a cacheof. Somehow suspicions fell on Jim. More'n one of usthought he'd been a diggin' for bags instead of for dust; andthe man as lost the money swore he'd hev a turn with him; soJim took my advice not to go foolin' around, an' sloped.'
'Well,' said I, as my friend stopped to adjust his tobaccoplug, 'he wasn't hanged for that?'
''Tain't likely! Till last week nobody know'd whar he'd goneto. When he come to Sacramenty this time, he come with apile, an' no mistake. All day and all night he used to playat faro an' a heap o' other games. Nobody couldn't tell howhe made his money hold out, nor whar he got it from; butsartin sure the crowd reckoned as haow Jim was considerableof a loafer. One day a blacksmith as lives up Broad Street,said he found out the way he done it, and ast me to come withhim and show up Jim for cheatin'. Naow, whether it was asJim suspicioned the blacksmith I cain't say, but he didn'tcheat, and lost his money in consequence. This riled himbad, so wantin' to get quit of the blacksmith he began aquarrel. The blacksmith was a quick-tempered man, and aftersome language struck Jim in the mouth. Jim jumps up, andwhippin' out his revolver, shoots the t'other man dead on thespot. I was the first to lay hold on him, but ef it hadn't'a' been for me they'd 'a' torn him to pieces.
'"Send for Judge Parker," says some.
'"Let's try him here," says others.
'"I don't want to be tried at all," says Jim. "You all knowbloody well as I shot the man. And I knows bloody45 well asI'll hev to swing for it. Gi' me till daylight, and I'll dielike a man."'But we wasn't going to hang him without a proper trial; andas the trial lasted two hours, it - '
'Two hours! What did you want two hours for?'
'There was some as wanted to lynch him, and some as wantedhim tried by the reg'lar judges of the Crim'nal Court. Oneof the best speakers said lynch-law was no law at all, and noinnocent man's life was safe with it. So there was a lot ofspeakin', you bet. By the time it was over it was justdaylight, and the majority voted as he should die at onc't.
So they took him to the horse-market, and stood him on atable under the big elm. I kep' by his side, and when he wasgetting on the table he ast me to lend him my revolver toshoot the foreman of the jury. When I wouldn't, he ast me totie the knot so as it wouldn't slip. "It ain't no account,Jim," says I, "to talk like that. You're bound to die; andef they didn't hang yer I'd shoot yer myself."'"Well then," says he, "gi' me hold of the rope, and I'llshow you how little I keer for death." He snatches the cordout o' my hands, pulls hisself out o' reach o' the crowd, andsat cross-legged on the bough32. Half a dozen shooters wasraised to fetch him down, but he tied a noose46 in the rope,put it round his neck, slipped it puty tight, and stood up onthe bough and made 'em a speech. What he mostly said was ashe hated 'em all. He cussed the man he shot, then he cussedthe world, then he cussed hisself, and with a terr'ble oathhe jumped off the bough, and swung back'ards and for'ardswith his neck broke.'
'An Englishman,' I reflected aloud.
He nodded. 'You're a Britisher, I reckon, ain't yer?'
'Yes; why?'
'Wal, you've a puty strong accent.'
'Think so?'
'Wal, I could jest tie a knot in it.'
This is a vulgar and repulsive47 story. But it is not fiction;and any picture of Californian life in 1850, without somesuch faithful touch of its local colour, would be inadequateand misleading.
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mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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demolished
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| v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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repugnance
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| n.嫌恶 | |
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overhauled
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| v.彻底检查( overhaul的过去式和过去分词 )；大修；赶上；超越 | |
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bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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smother
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| vt./vi.使窒息；抑制；闷死；n.浓烟；窒息 | |
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hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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trespassed
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| （trespass的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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miller
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| n.磨坊主 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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caterer
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| n. 备办食物者，备办宴席者 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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champagne
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| n.香槟酒；微黄色 | |
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juvenile
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| n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的 | |
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nil
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| n.无，全无，零 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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zinc
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| n.锌；vt.在...上镀锌 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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avocations
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| n.业余爱好，嗜好( avocation的名词复数 )；职业 | |
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tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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isthmus
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| n.地峡 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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bunks
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| n.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的名词复数 )；空话，废话v.（车、船等倚壁而设的）铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 )；空话，废话 | |
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canvassed
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| v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的过去式和过去分词 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查 | |
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transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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rascality
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| 流氓性，流氓集团 | |
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slumbered
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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boughs
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| 大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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noose
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| n.绳套，绞索（刑）；v.用套索捉；使落入圈套；处以绞刑 | |
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repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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