Life Amongst the Modocs: Unwritten History/Chapter 14
CHAPTER XIV.
A HOUSE TO LET.
HAT night the Prince talked a long time with Paquita about the new country on the other side of the Shasta, and putting her account and my brief knowledge of the country together, we resolved to go there, where gold, according to her story, was to be had almost for the picking up, if the Indians did not interfere.
A new trouble arose. What was to be done with the two little savages? What would any other man have done ? Gone about his business and left them to shift for themselves! Had he not saved their lives? Had he not fed them through all that dread ful winter? What more should he do?"
One morning this man rested his elbows on the table, and with his face buried in his hands was a long time silent.
" Pack up," said the Prince, at last, to the little girl. In a few moments she stood by his side with
a red calico dress and some ribbons tied up in a
handkerchief in one hand, and a pair of moccasins in
the other.
The Doctor was anxious to get away more anxious, perhaps, than any one. For what had the camp been to him? If I could have had my way or say, I would have left this mysterious, sad-faced, silent man behind.
I think the Prince would have done the same. We cannot always have our own way, even with ourselves.
Why does the man not do thus and so, we say? What is there to hinder him? Who shall say yea or nay? Is he not his own master? No. No man is his own master who has a conscience.
If this man had been of stronger will, had he not been so utterly helpless and friendless, we could have left him, and would have left him gladly ; as it was, it was not a matter of choice at all.
Ponies were scarce, and mules were high-priced and hard to get, but the Doctor was not so poor as we, and he put his money all in the Prince s hands. So we had a tolerable outfit.
A very little pony would answer for me, the commonest kind could bear Paquita and her extra dress, while Klamat could walk and make his own way through the woods, like a greyhound.
The Prince procured a great double-barrelled shot gun, throwing buck-shot by the hand- full, for him self, and pistols for all, for we were going into the heart of a host ile country.
An officer, it was rumoured, was on the watch for the Doctor, and Klamat prepared to lead us by way of a blind trail, up the mountain side, without passing out by way of the Howlin Wilderness at The Forks.
One of the most interesting studies, as well as one of the rarest, is that of man in a state of nature. Next to that is the state of man removed from, or above the reach of, all human law, utterly away from what is still more potent to control the actions of men, public opinion the good or ill-will of the world.
As far as my observation has gone I am bound to say, that any expression on the subject would be highly laudatory of the native goodness of man. I should say, as a rule, he, in that state, is brave, generous, and just.
But in civilization I find that the truly j ust and good man is rarely prominent, he is hardly heard of, while some little sharp-faced commercial .meddler, who never spends or bestows a farthing without first balancing it on his finger, knd reckoning how much it will bring him by way of honour in return, is often counted the noblest man among you.
Therefore, I say that the truest men are those who are men for the sake of their manhood. A true man does a good deed for the sake of doing good, for the satisfaction of it, for the dignity that it gives him in his own eyes, and not the eyes of the world.
You see some noble and interesting thi ngs when
the winds have blown men away from the shore to where there is no law to punish crime, no public opinion to reward merit, where men act from within and not from without.
That aristocratic and highly respectable gentleman, the Hon. Mr. Perkins, of Perkinsville, who gave the thousand dollars to the Sanitary Commission, and a like sum to the church, and had it published over all the land, received offices and posts of honour for the same, and always cherished a fond hope that the facts would be appropriately set forth on his tomb stone, for which he had just contracted with a dealer, in finest Italian marble, and at a splendid bargain, too, as the man was about to fail and compelled to have the money, would probably have acted quite otherwise here.
Similar deeds done under the eyes of an approving world might not take place in the mountains where there is no public opinion, no press to pronounce a man a benefactor, no responding public to build a monument. Such gifts have their reward on earth. In fact, they are more than repaid. The glory is worth more than the gold ; and the poor are under no obligations whatever. u Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth " means very much more than is expressed.
With his moccasins bound tight about his feet and reaching up so as to embrace the legs of his buck skin pantaloons, his right arm freed from the hateful red-shirt sleeve which hung in freedom at his side,
some eagle feathers in his hair, and his rifle on his
shoulder, Klainat, with a beaming countenance, led
the way from the cabin.
The Prince had assigned him the post of honour, and he was carried away with delight. He seemed to forget that he was the only one on foot. No doubt he would gladly have given up the red shirt and buckskins, all but his rifle, with pleasure, at this supreme moment, had they been required, to insure his position as leader.
Alexander gave away to his friends the last of the spoils after a great battle. " And what have you kept for yourself ? " said one. " Hope and glory," he answered.
Klamat was an infant Alexander.
I followed, then Paquita, the Doctor next. The Prince took up a piece of charcoal from the heap of ashes outside the cabin, and wrote in great bold letters on the door :
" To LET."
We crossed the stream at a cabin below, just as the men were beginning to stir.
They seemed to know that something unusual was taking place. They straightened themselves in the fresh light and air, washed their hands and hairy faces in the gold-pans on the low pine stump by the door, but tried, or seemed to try, not to observe.
Once across the stream, Klamat led steeply up the hill for a time, then he would chop and cut to right and left in a zigzag route until we had
reached the rim of a bench in the mountain. Here
he stopped and motioned the Prince to approach, after
he had looked back intently into the camp and taken
sight by some pines that stood before him.
The Prince rode up to the boy and dismounted; when he had done so, the little fellow lifted three fingers, looked excited, and pointed down upon the old cabin. It was more than a mile away, nearly a mile below; but the sun was pitching directly down upon it, and all things stood out clear and large as life.
Three men rode quickly up to the cabin, leaned from their mules and read the inscription. The leader now dismounted, kicked open the door and entered. It does not take long to search a cabin, without a loft or even a bed to hide under, and the man did not remain a great while within.
Without even taking pains to close the door, to keep out coyotes and other things, as miners do, so that cabins may be habitable for some way farer, or fortune-hunters who may not have a house of their own, he hastily mounted and led the party down to the next cabin below.
The miners were evidently at breakfast, for the man leaned from his saddle and shouted two or three times before any one came out.
The door opened, and a very tall, black-bearded hairy man came forth, and walked up before the man leaning from his mule.
What was said I do riot know, but the bare headed, hairy man pointed with his long arm up the
mountain on the other side, exactly the opposite
course from the one that had been taken by the
fugitives.
Here the officer said something very loud, pushed back his broad-brimmed hat, and pointed down the stream. The long-armed, bare-headed, hairy man again pointed emphatically up the mountain on the other * side, and then wheeled on his heel, entered, and closed the door.
The interview had evidently not been a satisfactory one, or a friendly one to the officer, and he led his men slowly down the creek with their heads bent down intently to the trail. They did not go far. There were no fresh tracks in the way. The recent great rain had made the ground soft, and there was no mistaking the absence of the signs.
There was a consultation : three heads in broad hats close together as they could get sitting on their mules. Now a hat would be pushed back, and a face lifted up exactly in our direction. We had sheltered behind the pines. Klamat was holding the Prince s mule s nose to keep it from braying to those below. Paquita had dismounted a little way off, behind a clump of pines, and was plucking some leaves and grasses for her pony and the pack-mule to keep them still. The Doctor never seemed more stupid and helpless than now ; but, at a sign from Klamat, stole out to the shelter where Paquita stood, dismounted, and began to gather grasses, too, for his mule.
A poor, crooked, imitative little monkey he looked as lie bent to pluck the grass; at the same time watching Paquita, as if he wished to forget that there was any graver task on hand than to pluck grass and feed the little mules.
Mules are noisy of a morning when they first set out. The utmost care was necessary now to insure silence.
Had the wind blown in our direction, or even a mule brayed below, these mules in the midst of our party would have turned their heads down hill, pointed their opera-glasses sharply for a moment or two at the sounds below, and then, in spite of kicks or clubs, have brayed like trumpets, and betrayed us where we stood.
There was no excitement in the face of the Prince, not much concern. His foot played and patted in the great wooden stirrup, and shook and jingled the bells of steel on his Spanish spur, but he said no thing.
Sometimes the men below would point in this direction and then in that with their long yellow gauntlets, then they would prick and spur their mules till they spun round like tops.
When a man pricks and spurs his mule, you may be sure that he is bothered.
A Yankee would scratct^his head, pull at his ear, or rub his chin ; an Englishman would take snuff; a Missourian would take a chew of tobacco, and perhaps swear ; but a Californian in the m ountains
disdains to do anything so stupid and inexpressive. He kicks and cuffs and spurs his mule.
At length the leader set his spurs in the broad hair-sinch, with the long steel points of the rowels, and rode down to the water s edge. A twig was broken there. The Doctor had done that as we crossed, to get a switch for his mule, and brought down the wrath of Klamat, expressed, however, only in frightful grimaces, signs, and the flashing of his eyes. The officer dismounted, leaned over, brushed the burs aside, took some of them up, and examined them closely.
An arm was now lifted and waved authoritatively to the two men sitting on their mules in the trail, and they instantly struck the spurs in the broad sinch, and through into the tough skins of their mules, I think, for they ambled down toward the officer at a rapid pace and consternation ! One of them threw up his head and brayed as if for life.
The Prince s mule pointed his opera-glasses, set out his legs, took in a long breath, and was just about to make the forest ring, when his master sprung to the ground, caught him by the nose, and wrenched him around till he fell upon his haunches.
Here Klamat made a sign, threw the Doctor on his mule, left Paquita to take care of herself, and led off up the hill. We mounted, and followed as fast as possible; but the Prince s mule, as if in revenge, now stopped short, set out his legs, lifted his nose, and brayed till the very pine-quills quivered overhead.
N
After he had brayed to his satisfaction, he gave a sort of grunt, as if to say, u We are even now," and shot ahead. The little pack-mule was no trouble . He had but a light load, and, as if in gratitude, faith fully kept his place.
A pony or horse must be led. Anything but a mule will roam and run against trees, will lodge his pack in the boughs that hang low overhead, or, worse still, stop to eat of the branches or weeds, and grasses under foot. The patient, cunning little Mexican mule will do nothing of the sort. He would starve rather than stop to eat when on duty; and would as soon think of throwing himself down over one of the cliffs that he is familiar with as to injure or imperil the pack that has been trusted to his care, by butting against trees, or lodging under the boughs that hang above the trail. He stops the instant the pack is loose, or anything falls to the ground, and refuses to move till all is made right.
We could not keep pace with Klamat, hasten as we might, through the pines. Like a spirit, he darted here and there through the trees, urging and beckoning all the time for us to follow faster.
We could not see our pursuers now, yet we knew too well that they were climbing fast as their strong- limbed sturdy mules would serve them, the" hill that we had climbed an hour before. The advantage, on one hand, was theirs ; on the other, we had things somewhat our own way. The chances were about evenly balanced for escape without b lood.
Any one who frequents the mountains of the north will soon notice that on all the hill-sides facing the sun there is no undergrowth. You may ride there, provided you do not wedge in between the trees that grow too close together to let you pass, or go under a hanging bough, the same as in a park. But if you get on the north side of the hill, you find an under growth that is almost impassable for man or beast. Chaparral, manzanita, madrono, plum, white thorn, and many other kinds of shrubs and trees, contribute to make a perfectly safe retreat from men for the wild beasts of those regions. In a flight, this is the chief thing to do. Keep your eye on the lay of the hills, so that you may always be on the south side, or you will find yourself in a net.