CHAPTER II.
MR. HAMLIN TAKES A HAND.
The capture had been effected quietly. To the evident astonishment ofhis captor, Gabriel had offered no resistance, but had yielded himselfup with a certain composed willingness, as if it were only thepreliminary step to the quicker solution of a problem that was sure tobe solved. It was observed, however, that he showed a degree of cautionthat was new to him--asking to see the warrant, the particulars of thediscovery of the body, and utterly withholding that voluble explanationor apology which all who knew his character confidently expected him togive, whether guilty or innocent--a caution which, accepted by them assimply the low cunning of the criminal, told against him. He submittedquietly to a search that, however, disclosed no concealed weapon oranything of import. But when a pair of handcuffs were shown him, hechanged colour, and those that were nearest to him saw that he breathedhurriedly, and hesitated in the first words of some protest that rose tohis lips. The sheriff, a man of known intrepidity, who had the rapid andclear intuition that comes with courageous self-possession noticed italso, and quietly put the handcuffs back in his pocket.
"I reckon there's no use for 'em here; ef _you're_ willin' to take therisks, _I_ am."
The eyes of the two men met, and Gabriel thanked him. In that look herecognised and accepted the fact that on a motion to escape he would beinstantly killed.
They were to return with the next stage, and in the interval Gabriel wasplaced in an upper room, and securely guarded. Here, falling into hisold apologetic manner, he asked permission to smoke a pipe, which was atonce granted by his good-humoured guard, and then threw himself at fulllength upon the bed. The rising wind rattled the windows noisily, andentering tossed the smoke-wreaths that rose from his pipe in fitfulwaves about the room. The guard, who was much more embarrassed than hischarge, was relieved of an ineffectual attempt to carry on aconversation suitable to the occasion by Gabriel's simple directness--
"You needn't put yourself out to pass the time o' day with me," he said,gently, "that bein' extry to your reg'lar work. Ef you hev any friendsez you'd like to talk to in your own line, invite 'em in, and don't mindme."
But here the guard's embarrassment was further relieved by the entranceof Joe Hall, the sheriff.
"There's a gentleman here to speak with you," he said to Gabriel, "hecan stay until we're ready to go." Turning to the guard, he added, "Youcan take a chair outside the door in the hall. It's all right, it's theprisoner's counsel."
At the word Gabriel looked up. Following the sheriff, Lawyer Maxwellentered the room. He approached Gabriel, and extended with gravecordiality a hand that had apparently wiped from his mouth the lasttrace of mirthfulness at the door.
"I did not expect to see you again so soon, Gabriel, but as quickly asthe news reached me, and I heard that our friend Hall had a warrant foryou, I started after him. I would have got here before him, but myhorse gave out." He paused, and looked steadily at Gabriel. "Well!"
Gabriel looked at him in return, but did not speak.
"I supposed you would need professional aid," he went on, with a slighthesitation, "perhaps _mine_--knowing that I was aware of some of thecircumstances that preceded this affair."
"Wot circumstances?" asked Gabriel, with the sudden look of cunning thathad before prejudiced his captors.
"For Heaven's sake, Gabriel," said Maxwell, rising with a gesture ofimpatience, "don't let us repeat the blunder of our first interview._This_ is a serious matter; _may be_ very serious to you. Think amoment. Yesterday you sought my professional aid to deed to your wifeall your property, telling me that you were going away never to returnto One Horse Gulch. I do not ask you now _why_ you did it. I only wantyou to reflect that I am just now the only man who knows thatcircumstance--a circumstance that I can tell you as a lawyer is somewhatimportant in the light of the crime that you are now charged with."
Maxwell waited for Gabriel to speak, wiping away as he waited the usualsmile that lingered around his lips. But Gabriel said nothing.
"Gabriel Conroy," said Lawyer Maxwell, suddenly dropping into thevernacular of One Horse Gulch, "are you a fool?"
"Thet's so," said Gabriel, with the simplicity of a man admitting aself-evident proposition, "Thet's so; I reckon I are."
"I shouldn't wonder," said Maxwell, again swiftly turning upon him, "ifyou were!" He stopped, as if ashamed of his abruptness, and said morequietly and persuasively, "Come, Gabriel, if you won't confess to _me_,I suppose that I must to _you_. Six months ago I thought you animpostor. Six months ago the woman who is now your wife charged youwith being an impostor; with assuming a name and right that did notbelong to you; in plain English, said that you had set yourself up asGabriel Conroy, and that she, who was Grace Conroy, the sister of thereal Gabriel, knew that you lied. She substantiated all this by proofs;hang it," continued Maxwell, appealing in dumb show to the walls, "thereisn't a lawyer living as wouldn't have said it was a good case, and beenready to push it in any court. Under these circumstances I sought you,and you remember how. You know the result of that interview. I can tellyou now that if there ever was a man who palpably confessed to guiltwhen he was innocent, _you_ were that man. Well, after your conductthere was explained by Olly, without, however, damaging the originalevidence against you, or prejudicing her rights, this woman came to meand said that she had discovered that you were the man who had saved herlife at the risk of your own, and that for the present she could not, indelicacy, push her claim. When afterwards she told me that thisgratitude had--well, ripened into something more serious, and that shehad engaged herself to marry you, and so condone your offence, why, itwas woman-like and natural, and I suspected nothing. I believed herstory--believed she had a case. Yes, sir; the last six months I havelooked upon you as the creature of that woman's foolish magnanimity. Icould see that she was soft on you, and believed that you had fooledher. I did, hang me! There, if you confess to being a fool, I do tohaving been an infernal sight bigger one."
He stopped, erased the mirthful past with his hand, and went on--
"I began to suspect something when you came to me yesterday with thisstory of your going away, and this disposal of your property. When Iheard of the murder of this stranger--one of your wife's witnesses toher claim--near your house, your own flight, and the suddendisappearance of your wife, my suspicions were strengthened. And when Iread this note from your wife, delivered to you last night by one of herservants, and picked up early this morning near the body, my suspicionswere confirmed."
As he finished he took from his pocket a folded paper and handed it toGabriel. He received it mechanically, and opened it. It was his wife'snote of the preceding night. He took out his knife, still holding theletter, and with its blade began stirring the bowl of his pipe. Thenafter a pause, he asked cautiously--
"And how did _ye_ come by this yer?"
"It was found by Sal Clark, brought to Mrs. Markle, and given to me. Itsexistence is known only to three people, and they are your friends."
There was another pause, in which Gabriel deliberately stirred thecontents of his pipe. Mr. Maxwell examined him curiously.
"Well," he said, at last, "what is your defence?"
Gabriel sat up on the bed and rapped the bowl of his pipe against thebedpost to loosen some refractory encrustation.
"Wot," he asked, gravely, "would be _your_ idee of a good defence? Axinye ez a lawyer having experin's in them things, and reck'nin' to pay ezhigh ez eny man fo' the same, wot would _you_ call a good defence?" Andhe gravely laid himself down again in an attitude of respectfulattention.
"We hope to prove," said Maxwell, really smiling, "that when you leftyour house and came to my office the murdered man was alive and at hishotel; that he went over to the hill long before you did; that _you_ didnot return until the evening--_after_ the murder was committed, as the'secret' mentioned in your wife's mysterious note evidently shows. Thatfor some reason or other it was her design to place you in a suspiciousattitude. That the note shows that she
refers to some fact of which shewas cognisant and not yourself."
"Suthin' that she knowed, and I didn't get to hear," translated Gabriel,quietly.
"Exactly! Now you see the importance of that note."
Gabriel did not immediately reply, but slowly lifted his huge frame fromthe bed, walked to the open window, still holding the paper in hishands, deliberately tore it into the minutest shreds before the lawyercould interfere, and then threw it from the window.
"Thet paper don't 'mount ter beans, no how!" he said, quietly butexplanatively as he returned to the bed.
It was Lawyer Maxwell's turn to become dumb. In his astonishedabstraction he forgot to wipe his mouth, and gazed at Gabriel with hisnervous smile as if his client had just perpetrated a practical joke ofthe first magnitude.
"Ef it's the same to you, I'll just gin ye me idee of a de-fence," saidGabriel, apologetically, relighting his pipe, "allowin' o' course thatyou knows best, and askin' no deduckshun from your charges for advice.Well, you jess stands up afore the jedge, and you slings 'em a yarnsuthin' like this: 'Yer's me, for instans,' you sez, sez you, 'ezgambols--gambols very deep--jess fights the tiger, wharever and wheneverfound, the same bein' onbeknownst ter folks gin'rally, and spechil te mywife, ez was July. Yer's me been gambolin' desprit with this yer man,Victyor Ramyirez, and gets lifted bad! and we hez, so to speak, adifferculty about some pints in the game. I allows one thing, he allowsanother, and this yer man gives me the lie and I stabs him!' Stop--holeyour hosses!" interjected Gabriel, suddenly, "thet looks bad, don't it?he bein' a small man, a little feller 'bout your size. No! Well, thisyer's the way we puts it up: 'Seving men--_seving_--friends o' his,comes at me, permiskis like, one down, and nex' comes on, and we hez itmighty lively thar fur an hour, until me, bein' in a tight place, hez touse a knife and cuts this yer man bad!' Thar, that's 'bout the thing!Now ez to my runnin' away, you sez, sez you, ez how I disremembers owin'to the 'citement that I hez a 'pintent in Sacramento the very nex' day,and waltzes down yer to keep it, in a hurry. Ef they want to know wharJuly ez, you sez she gits wild on my not comin' home, and starts thatvery night arter me. Thar, thet's 'bout my idee--puttin' it o' course inyour own shape, and slingin' in them bits o' po'try and garbage, andkinder sassin' the plaintiff's counsel, ez you know goes down afore ajedge and jury."
Maxwell rose hopelessly,--"Then, if I understand you, you intend toadmit"----
"Thet I done it? In course!" replied Gabriel; "but," he added, with acunning twinkle in his eye, "justifybly--justifyble homyside, yemind!--bein' in fear o' my life from seving men. In course," he added,hurriedly, "I can't identify them seving strangers in the dark, sothar's no harm or suspicion goin' to be done enny o' the boys in theGulch."
Maxwell walked gravely to the window, and stood looking out withoutspeaking. Suddenly he turned upon Gabriel with a brighter face and moreearnest manner. "Where's Olly?"
Gabriel's face fell. He hesitated a moment. "I was on my way to theschool in Sacramento whar she iz."
"You must send for her--I must see her at once!"
Gabriel laid his powerful hand on the lawyer's shoulder. "Sheizn't--that chile--to knows anythin' o' this. You hear?" he said, in avoice that began in tones of deprecation, and ended in a note of sternwarning.
"How are you to keep it from her?" said Maxwell, as determinedly. "Inless than twenty-four hours every newspaper in the state will haveit--with their own version and comments. No; you must see her. She musthear it first from your own lips."
"But--I--can't--see--her just now," said Gabriel, with a voice that forthe first time during their interview faltered in its accents.
"Nor need you," responded the lawyer, quickly. "Trust that to me. _I_will see her, and you shall afterwards. You need not fear I willprejudice your case. Give me the address! Quick!" he added, as the soundof footsteps and voices approaching the room, came from the hall.Gabriel did as he requested. "Now one word," he continued hurriedly, asthe footsteps halted at the door.
"Yes," said Gabriel.
"As you value your life and Olly's happiness, hold your tongue."
Gabriel nodded with cunning comprehension. The door opened to Mr. JackHamlin, diabolically mischievous, self-confident and audacious! With afamiliar nod to Maxwell he stepped quickly before Gabriel and extendedhis hand. Simply, yet conscious of obeying some vague magneticinfluence, Gabriel reached out his own hand and took Jack's white,nervous fingers in his own calm, massive grasp.
"Glad to see you, pard!" said that gentleman, showing his white teethand reaching up to clap his disengaged hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "Gladto see you, old boy,--even if you have cut in and taken a job out of myhands that I was rather lyin' by to do myself. Sooner or later I'd havefetched that Mexican--if you hadn't dropped into my seat and taken up myhand. Oh, it's all right, Mack!" he said, intercepting the quick look ofcaution that Maxwell darted at his client, "don't do that. We're allfriends here. If you want me to testify, I'll take my oath that therehasn't been a day this six months that that infernal hound, Ramirez,wasn't jest pantin' to be planted in his tracks! I can hardly believe Iain't done it myself." He stopped, partly to enjoy the palpableuneasiness of Maxwell, and perhaps in some admiration of Gabriel'sphysique.
Maxwell quickly seized this point of vantage. "You can do your friendhere a very great service," he said to Jack, lowering his voice as hespoke.
Jack laughed. "No, Mack, it won't do! They wouldn't believe me! Thereain't judge or jury you could play that on!"
"You don't understand me," said Maxwell, laughing a little awkwardly. "Ididn't mean that, Jack. This man was going to Sacramento to see hislittle sister"----
"Go on," said Jack, with much gravity; "of course he was. I know that.'Dear brother, dear brother, come home with me now!' Certainly. So'm I.Goin' to see an innocent little thing 'bout seventeen years old, blueeyes and curly hair! Always go there once a week. Says he must come!Says she'll"----he stopped in the full tide of his irony, for, lookingup, he caught a glimpse of Gabriel's simple, troubled face and sadlyreproachful eyes. "Look here," said Jack, turning savagely on Maxwell,"what are you talking about anyway?"
"I mean what I say," returned Maxwell, quickly. "He was going to see hissister--a mere child. Of course he can't go now. But he must see her--ifshe can be brought to him. Can you--_will_ you do it?"
Jack cast another swift glance at Gabriel. "Count me in," he said,promptly; "when shall I go?"
"Now--at once."
"All right. Where shall I fetch her to?"
"One Horse Gulch."
"The game's made," said Jack, sententiously. "She'll be there by sundownto-morrow." He was off like a flash, but as swiftly returned, and calledMaxwell to the door. "Look here," he said, in a whisper, "p'r'aps itwould be as well if the sheriff didn't know I was _his_ friend," he wenton, indicating Gabriel with a toss of his head and a wink of his blackeye, "because, you see, Joe Hall and I ain't friends. We had a littledifficulty, and some shootin' and foolishness down at Marysville lastyear. Joe's a good, square man, but he ain't above prejudice, and itmight go against our man."
Maxwell nodded, and Jack once more darted off.
But his colour was so high, and his exaltation so excessive, that whenhe reached his room his faithful Pete looked at him in undisguisedalarm. "Bress us--it tain't no whisky, Mars Jack, arter all de doctorstole you?" he said, clasping his hands in dismay.
The bare suggestion was enough for Jack in his present hilarious humour.He instantly hiccuped, lapsed wildly over against Pete with artfullysimulated alcoholic weakness, tumbled him on the floor, and grasping hiswhite, woolly head, waved over it a boot-jack, and frantically demanded"another bottle." Then he laughed; as suddenly got up with the greatestgravity and a complete change in his demeanour, and wanted to know,severely, what he, Pete, meant by lying there on the floor in a state ofbeastly intoxication?
"Bress me! Mars Jack, but ye _did_ frighten me. I jiss allowed demtourists downstairs had been gettin' ye tight."
"You did--you degraded old ru
ffian! If you'd been reading Volney's'Ruins,' or reflectin' on some of those moral maxims that I'm justwastin' my time and health unloading to you, instead of making me thesubject of your inebriated reveries, you wouldn't get picked up sooften. Pack my valise, and chuck it into some horse and buggy--no matterwhose. Be quick."
"Is we gwine to Sacramento, Mars Jack?"
"_We?_ No, sir. _I'm_ going--alone! What I'm doing now, sir, is only theresult or calm reflection--of lying awake nights taking points and jestspottin' the whole situation. And I'm convinced, Peter, that I can staywith you no longer. You've been hackin' the keen edge of my finerfeelin's; playin' it very low down on my moral and religious nature,generally ringin' in a cold deck on my spiritual condition for the lastfive years. You've jest cut up thet rough with my higher emotions thetthere ain't enough left to chip in on a ten-cent ante. Five years ago,"continued Jack, coolly, brushing his curls before the glass, "I fellinto your hands a guileless, simple youth, in the first flush ofmanhood, knowin' no points, easily picked up on my sensibilities, andtravellin', so to speak, on my shape! And where am I now? Echo answers'where?' and passes for a euchre! No, Peter, I leave you to-night.Wretched misleader of youth, gummy old man with the strawberry eyebrows,farewell!"
Evidently this style of exordium was no novelty to Pete, for withoutapparently paying the least attention to it, he went on surlily packinghis master's valise. When he had finished he looked up at Mr. Hamlin,who was humming, in a heart-broken way, "_Yes, we must part_," varied byoccasional glances of exaggerated reproach at Pete, and said, as heshouldered the valise--
"Dis yer ain't no woman foolishness, Mars Jack, like down at dat yarMission?"
"Your suggestion, Peter," returned Jack, with dignity, "emanates from amoral sentiment debased by Love Feasts and Camp Meetings, and anintellect weakened by Rum and Gum and the contact of Lager Beer Jerkers.It is worthy of a short-card sharp and a keno flopper, which I have, Iregret to say, long suspected you to be. Farewell! You will stay hereuntil I come back. If I don't come back by the day after to-morrow, cometo One Horse Gulch. Pay the bill, and don't knock down for yourself morethan seventy-five per cent. Remember I am getting old and feeble. Youare yet young, with a brilliant future before you. Git."
He tossed a handful of gold on the bed, adjusted his hat carefully overhis curls, and strode from the room. In the lower hall he stopped longenough to take aside Mr. Raynor, and with an appearance of the greatestconscientiousness, to correct an error of two feet in the measurementshe had given him that morning of an enormous pine tree in whoseprostrate trunk he, Mr. Hamlin, had once found a peaceful, happy tribeof one hundred Indians living. Then lifting his hat with markedpoliteness to Mrs. Raynor, and totally ignoring the presence of Mr.Raynor's mentor and companion, he leaped lightly into the buggy anddrove away.
"An entertaining fellow," said Mr. Raynor, glancing after the cloud ofdust that flew from the untarrying wheels of Mr. Hamlin's chariot.
"And so gentlemanly," smiled Mrs. Raynor.
But the journalistic conservator of the public morals of California, inand for the city and county of San Francisco, looked grave, anddeprecated even that feeble praise of the departed. "His class are acurse to the country. They hold the law in contempt; they retard by theexample of their extravagance the virtues of economy and thrift; theyare consumers and not producers; they bring the fair fame of this landinto question by those who foolishly take them for a type of thepeople."
"But, dear me," said Mrs. Raynor, pouting, "where your gamblers and badmen are so fascinating, and your honest miners are so dreadfullymurderous, and kill people, and then sit down to breakfast with you asif nothing had happened, what are you going to do?"
The journalist did not immediately reply. In the course of some eloquentremarks, as unexceptionable in morality as in diction, which I regret Ihave not space to reproduce here, he, however, intimated that there wasstill an Unfettered Press, which "scintillated" and "shone" and "lashed"and "stung" and "exposed" and "tore away the veil," and became atvarious times a Palladium and a Watchtower, and did and was a great manyother remarkable things peculiar to an Unfettered Press in a pioneercommunity, when untrammelled by the enervating conditions of an effetecivilisation.
"And what have they done with the murderer?" asked Mr. Raynor,repressing a slight yawn.
"Taken him back to One Horse Gulch half an hour ago. I reckon he'd aslief stayed here," said a bystander. "From the way things are pintin',it looks as if it might be putty lively for him up thar!"
"What do you mean?" asked Raynor, curiously.
"Well, two or three of them old Vigilantes from Angel's passed yer aminit ago with their rifles, goin' up that way," returned the man,lazily. "Mayn't be nothing in it, but it looks mighty like"----
"Like what?" asked Mr. Raynor, a little nervously.
"Lynchin'!" said the man.