"No wonder that twenty dollars a day is small wages, out here. What an enormous amount of money there must be in circulation! Grab an end, Charley. Come along, Grigsby. Let"s inspect our quarters."
XV
THE SIGHTS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Charley took one end of the trunk, his father the other, and piloted by the hotel man, with Mr. Grigsby, lugging the hand baggage, in their wake, they climbed two flimsy flights of stairs to the third floor!
The hotel man led the way down a narrow hall of rough boards, and flung open a door.
"Here"s your room," he announced, shortly. "Don"t ask for what you don"t see. We haven"t got it. You"re lucky, gentlemen, not to be obliged to sleep in a tent--and San Francisco nights are cold. Five dollars each, please."
"Certainly," said Mr. Adams; and he and Mr. Grigsby settled for the party.
"Well," remarked Mr. Grigsby, when the hotel man alertly left, "I"ve been in worse quarters."
"Don"t b.u.mp your head," warned Mr. Adams.
It was a dormer room. The ceiling, of bare rafters, sloped sharply.
The walls also were bare, made of unsurfaced boards, warped and cracked. There were two "beds": one a low bunk, home-made and solid but not pretty, the other a wobbly canvas cot. Each had a pair of gray blankets as bedclothes. There were a couple of rickety chairs, a home-made table bearing a wash pitcher and a tin basin, with a towel hanging from a nail over it, beside a cracked looking-gla.s.s, and in the end of the room a small window dulled by dust. Charley tried to look out through the window, but could dimly see only the tops of the roofs, across. From below, and from the city around, floated in through the thin floors and walls a medley of voices and bustle.
"Guess we"d better unpack some of our stuff, and sort what washing we want done," quoth his father, cheerily. "When we take it out we can look about and get what other supplies we need; eh, Grigsby? What are your plans?"
"Same as yours, if you say so," answered the Fremonter.
"You mean to say you"ll go along with Charley and me?"
"Why, yes. This town"s too crowded for me, already. Doesn"t strike me as a very healthy place to loaf in. Money, money; that"s all I"ve heard. So I"m off for the diggin"s, like the rest."
"Good. Shake," approved Mr. Adams, and Charley felt delighted. The Fremonter was such a fine man; a loyal friend in need. "We"ll stick together as long as you can stand our company."
"Agreed," quoth Mr. Grigsby, shaking. "There"ll be room enough in the hills for us to spread out, if we want to."
They overhauled their baggage and wrapped their wash in some old newspapers that had been stuffed into the trunk. Then they sallied forth.
"Pshaw! There"s no lock on the door," exclaimed Charley"s father. "I hate to leave all our stuff scattered around, in that fashion."
"It"ll be all right, I reckon," said Mr. Grigsby. "Ask the clerk about it."
"The door to our room has no lock," spoke Mr. Adams, to the hotel man, when they had tramped below. "We"ve got quite a bunch of goods lying open."
"That"s all right, sir," answered the clerk. "They"ll not be touched.
Not a door in this hotel has a lock. Thieves are given short shift in San Francisco, and they know it. You can leave a bucket of gold out in the street and it"ll all be there when you want it again."
"Beg your pardon, gentlemen," spoke a voice near at hand, "but I see you"re carrying a newspaper or two. Would you sell them?"
He was a brusque, bearded man, in miner costume, but he spoke like a person of education.
"I"ll give you a dollar apiece," cried another man, hurrying forward; and almost immediately the three in the Adams party were surrounded by a crowd.
"Wait a minute," bade the first man. "I was here first. I"ll give you a dollar apiece."
Charley gasped. Were they crazy?
"But, gentlemen, these are only some old papers we happened to have as fillers," protested Mr. Adams, as much astonished as Charley.
"How many have you got?" demanded the second speaker.
"Probably a dozen."
"Where from?"
"St. Louis; two or three from New York, maybe."
"I"ll give you eight dollars for the lot."
"Give you nine," bid somebody else.
"But they"re six weeks old, gentlemen," informed Mr. Adams.
"Only six weeks old?" queried the first man. "I"ll give you ten dollars for a dozen! And here"s your money." He held out a ten-dollar gold piece.
"Go up and get the other papers, Charley," directed Mr. Adams. "If these men are crazy it isn"t our fault. When you see the papers, if you don"t want them you needn"t take them, sir," he said to the man.
"I"ll take them," laughed the man, grimly. "Papers only six weeks old?
Why, stranger, that"s fresh news out here. You can sell a thousand at a dollar apiece."
"Wish I had them, then," remarked Mr. Adams. And Charley scuttled away. He brought back all the crumpled papers that he could find.
They sold every one--the first lot at ten dollars for a dozen, and the three more, in which the washing was wrapped, at dollar apiece on delivery later!
"This will pay for our washing, at least," commented Mr. Adams. "Is there a laundry near here?" he asked, of the clerk.
"Right around the corner."
"Thank you."
They went out--Charley sighing as he thought of the big stack of old newspapers, back home. Why, they might have brought out a hundred more! What a queer town this was, where people would pay a dollar apiece for old papers! He resolved to write to his mother the first thing, and tell her when _she_ came out to bring every old paper she could find.
The air was much chillier than when they had arrived. A strong, gusty wind was blowing, carrying clouds of dust, and because of this, and a raw fog, the sunshine had waned from gold to gray. Nevertheless, something in the atmosphere made them all step out briskly.
Around the corner of the plaza a torn canvas sign before a dingy tent-house said: "Washing Done." And in through the open door they filed. A short, stout Frenchman, apparently, stood behind the board counter, and bowed at their approach. He wore a little black spike or goatee, and his face fairly shone above a collarless shirt. From a room behind sounded vigorous scrubbing and rinsing.
"You do washing?" demanded Mr. Adams.
"Oui, m"sieur."
"Here"s some. When can we get it?"