CHAPTER XXII.
THE ARRIVAL AT MURPHY'S.
One morning about eleven o'clock they came in sight of Murphy's. Itwas only a mining-settlement of the most primitive description. Afew tents and cabins, with rough, bearded men scattered here andthere, intent upon working their claims, gave it a picturesqueappearance, which it has lost now. It was then a more importantplace than at present, however, for the surface diggings areexhausted, and it is best known-to-day by its vicinity to the famousCalaveras grove of big trees.
"So this is Murphy's?" said Ben, rather disappointed. "It doesn'tseem to be much of a place."
"You didn't expect to see a regular town, did you?" asked Bradley.
"I don't know. I hardly knew what to expect. It seems a roughplace."
"And I suppose the people seem rough, too?"
"Yes."
"So they are in appearance; but you can't tell what a man has been,by his looks here. Why, the man that worked the next claim to me wasa college graduate, and not far away was another who had been mayorof a Western city."
"And were they dressed like these men here?" asked Ben.
"Quite as roughly. It won't do to wear store-clothes at the mines."
"No, I suppose not; but these men look like immigrants just comeover."
Bradley laughed.
"Wait till we have been at work a little while, and we shall look nobetter," he said, laughing.
"What is that?" asked Ben suddenly, stopping short while anexpression of horror came over his face.
Bradley followed the direction of his finger, and saw suspended froma tree the inanimate body of a man, the features livid anddistorted, and wearing an expression of terror and dismay, as if hisfate had come upon him without time for preparation.
"I reckon that's a thief," answered Bradley unconcernedly.
"A thief! Do they hang people for stealing out here?"
"Yes, they have to. You see, my lad, there ain't any laws here, norcourts. If a man steals, the miners just take the matter into theirown hands, and if there ain't a doubt of it, they hang him as soonas they catch him."
"It's horrible!" said Ben, who had never before seen the victim of aviolent death.
"Maybe it is, but what can we do?"
"Put him in prison," suggested Ben.
"There ain't any prisons, and, if there were, there would be nobodyto keep them."
Just then Bradley was hailed by a rough-looking man, whom at homeBen would have taken for a tramp.
"What, Bradley, back again? I didn't expect to see you here?"
"I didn't expect to come, Hunter, but I fooled away my money in'Frisco, and have come back for more."
"And who's this boy-your son, or nephew?"
"No; he's no kin to me. I ran across him down to 'Frisco. Ben, letme make you acquainted with my old chum, Frank Hunter. He isn't muchto look at, but-"
"I have seen better days," interrupted Hunter, smiling. "I wasrather a dandy in my college days at old Yale, though I don't looklike it now."
Ben regarded him with surprise. He had not dreamed that thissun-brown, bearded man, in the roughest of mining-garbs, had everseen the inside of a college.
Hunter smiled at the boy's evident surprise.
"I don't look like a college graduate, do I? But I assure you I amnot the worst-dressed man in camp. My friend, the mayor, isrougher-looking than I. Some time I hope to return to the haunts ofcivilization, and then I will try to conform to habits which I havealmost forgotten."
"How are you making out, Hunter?" asked Bradley.
"Pretty well. I have made more here in six months than I did bythree years' practise of law before I came out here."
"Do you like it as well, Mr. Hunter?" Ben could not help askingcuriously.
"No, I don't; but then, it's only for a time, as I say to myselfwhen I get tired of the rough life I am leading. When I've made arespectable pile I shall start for 'Frisco, and take passage home,put up my shingle again, and wait for clients with money enough topay my board while I'm waiting. A young lawyer needs that always."
"Perhaps you'll be Judge Hunter, in time," said Bradley.
"I've served in that capacity already," said Hunter unexpectedly,"and that not longer ago than yesterday. Do you see that poor wretchup there?" and he pointed to the suspended body already referred to.
"Yes; what did he do?"
"He was a notorious thief-served a term in the penitentiary East forstealing, and came out here to practise his profession. But thisclimate is unhealthy for gentlemen in that line of business."
"Did he rob anybody here?"
"Yes; you remember Johnson?"
"Is he still here?"
"He is about ready to go home, with money enough to lift themortgage from his farm. We all knew it, for Johnson was so happythat he took everybody into his confidence. He had all his moneytied up in a bag which he kept in his tent.
"Imprudent, of course, but we haven't any banks or safes here,"added Hunter, meeting the question in Ben's eyes. "Well, thisrascal, Ross, wormed himself into his confidence, found out exactlywhere the bag was kept, and night before last, in the middle of thenight, he crept to the tent, and was in the act of carrying off thebag, when, as luck would have it, my friend, the mayor, who wastaking a night walk in the hope of curing a severe headache, cameupon him.
"Ross showed fight, but was overpowered, and tied securely tillmorning. When morning came we tried him, I being judge. He was foundguilty, and sentenced to be hung. The sentence was carried intoeffect in the afternoon. He won't steal any more, I reckon."
Ben took another hasty look at the dangling criminal whose end hadbeen so sudden and horrible, and he shuddered.
"Why don't you take him down?" he asked.
"It was ordered that he hang for twenty-four hours, as a warning toany others in camp who might be tempted to steal. The time isn't upyet.
"You are a young gold-hunter," said Hunter, scanning over hero'syouthful face.
"Yes, I am," Ben confessed; "but I had to earn a living, and Ithought I could do it better here than at home."
"Are you from the East?"
"I am from Hampton, in New York State."
"I know something of Hampton," said Hunter. "I have never beenthere; but I have a distant relative living there."
"Who is it?" asked Ben, with interest. "I know everybody there."
"I dare say you know my relative, for I am given to understand thathe is the great man of Hampton."
"Mayor Sturgis?"
"Yes, that is his name. He married a cousin of my mother, so therelationship is not very close. He is rich, isn't he?"
"He is the richest man in Hampton."
"I suppose he is aware of that fact," said Hunter, laughing.
"If he isn't, his son, Sam, is," replied Ben. "Sam wanted to engageme as his servant before I came away. He wanted me to black hisboots."
"And you objected, I suppose?"
"I wouldn't work for Sam Sturgis for a hundred dollars a month!"said Ben emphatically.
"Then you don't like him?"
"He is very big-feeling," said Ben, using a boy's word, "and likesto boss all the rest of the boys. He thinks he is far above us all."
"He ought to come out here. California takes the airs out of a manif he has any. We are all on an equality here, and the best manwins-I mean the man of the most pluck-for success doesn't depend onmoral excellence exactly. Well, old friend, are you going to settledown among us again?"
It was to Bradley this question was addressed.
"I don't know. I'm here on a little matter of business, along ofthis boy. Is Richard Dewey here now?"
"Dewey? No. He had poor luck, and he dusted a month ago."
Ben and his companion exchanged glances of disappointment.
"Where did he go?" asked Bradley, who was evidently gettingdiscouraged.
"He was going to the mountains," he said. "He had been studying upsomething about minerals, and he had an idea that he'd find a richledge
among the Sierras that would pay better than thissurface-mining."
"Is there anybody that knows what direction he took?"
"My friend, the mayor, knows as well as any man. Dewey was his nextneighbor, and often talked over his plans with him."
"Then we will go and see the mayor."
"No need of going, here he comes."