The place was comparatively deserted, owing probably to the distribution of mail. We had full s.p.a.ce to look about us; and I was never more astonished in my life. The outside of the building was rough and unfinished as a barn, having nothing but size to attract or recommend.
The interior was the height of lavish luxury. A polished mahogany bar ran down one side, backed by huge gilt framed mirrors before which were pyramided fine gla.s.ses and bottles of liquor. The rest of the wall s.p.a.ce was thickly hung with more plate mirrors, dozens of well-executed oil paintings, and strips of tapestry. At one end was a small raised stage on which lolled half-dozen darkies with banjos and tambourines. The floor was covered with a thick velvet carpet. Easy chairs, some of them leather upholstered, stood about in every available corner. Heavy chandeliers of gla.s.s, with hundreds of dangling crystals and prisms, hung from the ceiling. The gambling tables, a half dozen in number, were arranged in the open floor s.p.a.ce in the centre. Altogether it was a most astounding contrast in its sheer luxury and gorgeous furnishing to the crudity of the town. I became acutely conscious of my muddy boots, my old clothes, my unkempt hair, my red shirt and the armament strapped about my waist.
A relaxed, subdued air of idleness pervaded the place. The gamblers lounged back of their tables, sleepy-eyed and listless. On tall stools their lookouts yawned behind papers. One of these was a woman, young, pretty, most attractive in the soft, flaring, flouncy costume of that period. A small group of men stood at the bar. One of the barkeepers was mixing drinks, pouring the liquid, at arm"s length from one tumbler to another in a long parabolic curve, and without spilling a drop. Only one table was doing business, and that with only three players. Johnny pushed rapidly toward this table, and I, a little diffidently, followed.
The game was roulette. Johnny and the dealer evidently recognized each other, for a flash of the eye pa.s.sed between them, but they gave no other sign. Johnny studied the board a moment then laid twenty-two dollars in coin on one of the numbers. The other players laid out small bags of gold dust. The wheel spun, and the ball rolled. Two of the men lost; their dust was emptied into a drawer beneath the table and the bags tossed back to them. The third had won; the dealer deftly estimated the weight of his bet, lifting it in the flat of his left hand; then spun several gold pieces toward the winner. He seemed quite satisfied.
The gambler stacked a roll of twenty-dollar pieces, added one to them, and thrust them at Johnny. I had not realized that the astounding luck of winning off a single number had befallen him.
"Ten to one--two hundred and twenty dollars!" he muttered to me.
The other three players were laying their bets for the next turn of the wheel. Johnny swept the gold pieces into his pocket, and laid back the original stake against _even_. He lost. Thereupon he promptly arose and left the building.
CHAPTER XII
TALBOT DESERTS
I followed him to the hotel somewhat gloomily; for I was now the only member of our party who had not made good the agreed amount of the partnership. It is significant that never for a moment did either Johnny or myself doubt that Talbot would have the required sum. Johnny, his spirits quite recovered, whistled like a lark.
We arrived just in time for the first supper call, and found Talbot and Yank awaiting us. Yank was as cool and taciturn, and nodded to us as indifferently, as ever. Talbot, however, was full of excitement. His biscuit-brown complexion had darkened and flushed until he was almost Spanish-black, and the little devils in his eyes led a merry dance between the surface and unguessed depths. He was also exceedingly voluble; and, as usual when in that mood, aggravatingly indirect. He joked and teased and carried on like a small boy; and insisted on ordering an elaborate dinner and a bottle of champagne, in the face of even Johnny"s scandalized expostulations. When Johnny protested against expenditure, it was time to look out!
"This is on me! This is my party! Dry up, Johnny!" cried Talbot. "Fill your gla.s.ses. Drink to the new enterprise; the Undertakers" Mining Company, Unlimited."
"Undertakers?" I echoed.
"Well, you all look it. Call it the Gophers, then. Capital stock just eight hundred and eighty dollars, fully subscribed. I suppose it is fully subscribed, gentlemen?" He scrutinized us closely. "Ah, Frank! I see we"ll have to take your promissory note. But the artistic certificates are not yet home from the engravers. Take your time. Maybe a relative will die."
"Talbot," said I disgustedly, "if I hadn"t happened to smell your breath before supper I"d think you drunk."
"I _am_ drunk, old deacon," rejoined Talbot, "but with the Wine of Enchantment--do you know your Persian? No? Well, then, this:
"Drink to me only with thine eyes, And I"ll not ask for wine!"
"A woman!" grumbled the literal Yank.
"The best, the most capricious, the most beautiful woman in the world,"
cried Talbot, "whose smile intoxicates, whose frown drives to despair."
"What _are_ you drivelling about?" I demanded.
"The G.o.ddess fortune--what else? But come," and Talbot rose with a sudden and startling transition to the calm and businesslike. "We can smoke outside; and we must hear each other"s reports."
He paid for the dinner, steadfastly refusing to let us bear our share. I noticed that he had acquired one of the usual buckskin sacks, and shook the yellow dust from the mouth of it to the pan of the gold scales with quite an accustomed air.
We lit our pipes and sat down at one end of the veranda, where we would not be interrupted.
"Fire ahead, Yank," advised Talbot.
"There"s two ways of going to the mines," said Yank: "One is to go overland by horses to Sutter"s Fort or the new town of Sacramento, and then up from there into the foothills of the big mountains way yonder.
The other is to take a boat and go up river to Sacramento and then pack across with horses."
"How much is the river fare?" asked Talbot.
"You have to get a sailboat. It costs about forty dollars apiece."
"How long would it take?"
"Four or five days."
"And how long from here to Sutter"s Fort by horse?"
"About the same."
"Depends then on whether horses are cheaper here or there."
"They are cheaper there; or we can get our stuff freighted in by Greasers and hoof it ourselves."
"Then I should think we ought to have a boat."
"I got one," said Yank.
"Good for you!" cried Talbot. "You"re a man after my own heart! Well, Johnny?"
Johnny told his tale, a little proudly and produced his required two hundred and twenty dollars.
"You had luck," said Talbot non-committally, "and you ran a strong risk of coming back here without a cent, didn"t you? I want to ask you one question, Johnny. If you had lost, would you have been willing to have taken the consequences?"
"What do you mean?" asked Johnny blankly.
"Would you have been willing to have dropped out of this partnership?"
Johnny stared.
"I mean," said Talbot kindly, "that you had no right to try to get this money by merely a gambler"s chance unless you were willing to accept the logical result if you failed. It isn"t fair to the rest of us."
"I see what you mean," said Johnny slowly. "No; I hadn"t thought of it that way."
"Well, as I said, you had luck," repeated Talbot cheerfully, "so we needn"t think of it further." It was characteristic that Johnny took this veiled rebuke from Talbot Ward in a meek and chastened spirit; from any one else his high temper could never stand even a breath of criticism. "How about you, Frank?" Talbot asked me.
I detailed my experiences in a very few words and exhibited my gold slug.
"That"s the best I can do," I ended, "and half of that does not belong to me. I can, however, in a few days sc.r.a.pe up the full amount; there is plenty to do here. And barring bull luck, like Johnny"s, I don"t see much show of beating that, unless a man settled down to stay here."
Talbot stared at me, ruminatively, until I began to get restive. Then he withdrew his eyes. He made no comment.
"I suppose you have your money," suggested Yank to him, after a pause.