The Wedge of Gold

  CHAPTER VII.

  A DINNER PARTY.

  And Sedgwick, what of him? He had gone, as he said, "to see Jack through,as Jack had stood by him in Ohio," but when Grace Hamlin--or GraceMeredith, which was her real name--at their summons entered the parlor hewas transfixed. Just medium height was she, slight but perfect in form,with darkish-brown eyes and clear-cut features, a golden chestnut curlymass of hair, the hand of a queen, and the hand-clasp of a sincere, trueand happy woman. And poor Jim was lost in a moment.

  He called up all his self-possession, and did the best he could, buthe seized the first opportunity to get away where he could think. Onceoutside the house, he hailed a cab, told the driver to jog around foran hour or two, and then land him at the ---- Hotel. Once started, hesettled back and began to cross-question himself, and to moralize overthe situation.

  "I have seen prettier girls than this one, seen them in Ohio, in Texas,in Virginia City, and they never gave me an extra heart-beat. What is thematter with me now? When that girl smiled up in my face, welcomed me asher brother's friend, and told me she was glad I had come with him, allthe clutches broke off my cage, and I thought I would in a moment bringup in the sump below the 1,700 foot level, smashed so they would have tosew the pieces up in canvas to bring me to the surface. It is a clearcase that I am gone, and what the mischief am I going to do? Suppose Ibrace up and try to win her, and fail, then I shall be done for sureenough. The old world so far has had no particular attractions for me,and were I to ask her to look at me, and she, like a sensible womanthat she is, should first look surprised at my assurance, and thenrespectfully decline, what would there be left for me? Suppose again, Icould fool her into accepting, then what? I, a rough Nevada miner, linkedfor life with a London fairy--beauty and the beast--what would I do withher? In this babel, what could I do? What could she do on the old Jasperfarm on the hill? I have it. I won't see her again. I will go and pack mygrip, tell Jack I have received a cable which takes me home, and I willleave to-morrow.

  "But then I could not go as I came. Those steady brown eyes would followme; when the sunlight would turn its glint on gold and purple clouds, herchestnut curls would be sure to flash before my eyes, and then therewould be a voice crying to me ceaselessly: 'You who prided yourself onbeing brave enough to do any needed thing, you on the first real triallowered your flag and fled in a panic. A nice fix I have got myself into.All my life, through all my dare-devil days, on the ranges in Texas, downamid the swelling clay of the Comstock, everywhere, my soul has beenequal to the occasion, and I have been able to acquit myself in a way notto attract attention to my deficiencies. But now my heart has gone backon me; a pair of eyes have confused my vision, and a little hand hasknocked me out on the first round. I am in a deuce of a fix, surely."So he rattled on to himself.

  The driver was a garrulous whip. From time to time he had been callingdown to Sedgwick the names of famous points of interest along the route,which had been unheeded by the absorbed occupant of the cab. Finally thedriver explained that a certain structure was Westminster Abbey.

  "And what is Westminster Abbey?"

  "It is where kings and queens and great soldiers and scholars areburied," said cabbie.

  "Burial lots come high there, do they not?" said Sedgwick.

  "Why, man, there are no lots sold there," said cabbie. "It is a placewhich was hundreds of years ago set aside for England's great dead to beburied in. The brightest dream of an Englishman is to rest there atlast."

  "Do they dream when they get there?" asked Sedgwick.

  "Why, man," said cabbie, "when they get there they are dead."

  "Great place!" said Sedgwick.

  "The greatest in all England," replied cabbie.

  "Do you know of any Englishmen who are in a hurry to be carried there?"said Sedgwick.

  "O, no," said cabbie, "the best of them are not in any hurry about it."

  "You Englishmen must be a queer race, to be always dreaming of going to aplace and still are never anxious to start," said Sedgwick.

  Cabbie gave up trying to explain the majesty of the great Abbey to one soutterly obtuse as Sedgwick seemed to be. He drove on in silence for halfan hour or forty minutes before he rallied enough to speak again. Then hepointed to a structure and called down to Sedgwick that the place wasNewgate.

  "What is there peculiar about Newgate?" asked Sedgwick.

  "Why, it is the famous Newgate prison," said cabbie.

  Sedgwick roused himself and asked, "What do they do in Newgate?"

  "What do they do?" said cabbie, "what do they do? Why, they hang peoplethere sometimes."

  "Get down, please, and ask them what they will charge to hang me," saidSedgwick. He did not smile; he seemed in sober earnest.

  Cabbie looked at him for an instant, then whipped up his horses andhurried him to the hotel. Arriving there, he sprang down and said, "Thisis your hotel." Sedgwick got out and was walking off mechanically, whencabbie said, "Five shillings, please, sir." Sedgwick, with "O, I hadforgotten," handed the man a guinea, and passed into the hotel. Cabbielooked after him, then tapped his forehead as much as to say, "He is offin the upper story," and mounting his box, drove away.

  Sedgwick went to his rooms, threw off his coat, opened a window, satdown, put his heels on the table, lighted a cigar which went out in amoment, and an hour later when Browning, radiant, joyous, and exulting,returned, he found him there, still holding the unlighted cigar in hismouth, his feet still on the table, and a puzzled, undecided, andabsorbed look on his face.

  Browning rushed up to him, crying, "Jim, congratulate me, I have seenher, and it is all settled. She is an angel, Jim, and she has promised tobe my wife. O, but God is good to me."

  "I am glad, old man, I rejoice with you," said Sedgwick. "I hope with allmy heart no cloud will ever cross the sunshine of your lives." Then herelapsed again into his moody way.

  "What ails you, Jim?" asked Browning. "Does this great babel oppress yourspirits?"

  "I believe it does, Jack," he answered. "I was just thinking as you camein that I had better pull out for home. The atmosphere here is like adrift without any air-pipe."

  "Nonsense," said Browning; "you cannot go. You must wait for my wedding.It would be all spoiled without you. I was planning it on the way. Itwill be in the church, of course, just before midday. You will be thebest man--as usual. You and my sister shall do the honors that day. Allmy friends will be there. I will have the church smothered in flowers.I will corrupt the organist, bribe the choir, double-bank the preacher inadvance, and we will all have a rousing time. We will, by Jove!"

  Sedgwick smiled at his friend's happiness, and said: "Did you ever thinkthat maybe I would be a little out of training for a performance of thatkind? I think I would sooner risk keeping my seat on a wild mustang."

  "You can do it, Sedgwick," said Jack. "You must do it. I would not feelhalf married unless you were present, and then, did you not promise tocome and see me through?"

  "Who will give away the bride?" asked Sedgwick.

  The question seemed to startle Browning. "That reminds me," he said,doubtingly, "that I have neither seen my governor nor old man Jenvie.I left home telling mother and Grace that before I went home to live Iwould have to be invited by the governor. And that reminds me, too, Jim,there must not be a word about my money. I have only carried the ideathat I worked for three years in the mines in America. They will reckonit up and conclude that if I was prudent I may have saved L400 or L500."

  "That reminds me," said Sedgwick, "that no one must know that I haveanything more than the savings of three or four years' work. It wouldgive you away if the facts were known about my little fortune. But, Jack,could you not get along just as well without me? You ought to be in yourown home and ought to enjoy every moment of time, while I am, in thisvast waste of houses, what one solitary monkey would be in a SouthAmerican wilderness."

  "I will not hear of it, old pard," said Browning. "You see, if thegovernor asks me home you will go with me, and we
will cabin together asof old. We will, by Jove! If he does not, then you must help me hold thefort in this hotel until I can bring my wife here," and he blushed likea girl when he spoke the word "wife."

  The day wore heavily away. It was almost dark when a carriage stoppedat the hotel and the cards of Archibald Hamlin and Percival Jenvie werebrought in. Browning received them, and glancing at them handed them toSedgwick, whispering, "They are the old duffers, Jim," caught up his hat,said to the servant, "Show me the gentlemen," and followed him out of theroom.

  He was absent a full half-hour. When he returned the two old menaccompanied him and were presented to Jack. They were very gracious,invited Sedgwick to come with his son and make his son's home his homewhile in London.

  Sedgwick was shy when there were ladies present, but men did notdisconcert him.

  He thanked Mr. Hamlin for his kind invitation, but begged to be excused,adding, "I am but a miner, not yet a month from underground. I have liveda miner's life for years. You do not understand, but that is not a goodschool in which to prepare a student for polite society."

  "Tut, tut," said the old gentleman, with English heartiness. "We havea big, rambling old house. You can have your quarters there. When youbecome bored you can retreat to them. You shall have a key and go andcome when you please. We should all be hurt were not Jack's friend madewelcome under our roof so long as he pleased to remain in London."

  "Well, let me think it over to-night. If I can gather the courage, maybeI will accept to-morrow," said Sedgwick.

  Then Jenvie interposed, saying, "Mr. Sedgwick, let us make a compromise.My house is but a step from Hamlin's; make it your home half the time.Really it should be. In England friends only stop at hotels whentraveling."

  "Come, Jim," said Jack; "you see it must be, and that is the right thing.Ours are old-fashioned people, just up from Devonshire. What would youhave thought had I insisted upon stopping at that hotel at the stationnear your father's house?"

  Sedgwick yielded at last. Their trunks were packed in a few minutes, thebill settled, and they drove away.

  Reaching the Hamlin home they were shown at once to their apartments, andwere informed that so soon as they were ready dinner would be served.

  They were not long in dressing, and together they descended to theparlor. Besides the family, the Jenvie family were also present. Gracemet them at the door, shook hands with Sedgwick, and welcomed him with aword and a smile which set all his pulses bounding, and, taking his arm,presented him to the strangers; then shouted gaily: "Follow us! dinneris waiting."

  Sedgwick was given the seat at the right of his host; Grace took the seatat his right, with Jack and Rose opposite.

  The ladies were radiant in evening costume, and Sedgwick with a mightyeffort threw off the depression which had burdened the day and appearedat his very best.

  Mrs. Hamlin, judging shrewdly that perhaps it would relieve the strangerfrom embarrassment to engage him in conversation, with beautiful tactbrought him to tell the company of his own country, remarking that "Weinsular people have but a vague idea at best of America."

  With a smile, Sedgwick replied: "I do not know very much myself of mynative country, for since I left school (here he glanced at Jack and hiseyes twinkled) I merely wandered slowly through the southwestern States,almost to the Gulf in Texas, then bending north and west again, continueduntil I reached the eastern slope of the Sierras, and then made a diveunderground and remained there until Jack determined to go home, and Icame along to take care of him."

  Here Miss Jenvie interposed and said: "What was the most precious thingyou ever found in the mines, Mr. Sedgwick?"

  "Considering who asked the question, it would be cruel not to tell you itwas Jack," he replied.

  All laughed, and Miss Jenvie said: "Is it true, did you and Jack firstmeet underground?"

  "Indeed we did," said Sedgwick, "and we were neither of us handsomelyattired. I thought he was a gnome; he thought me a Chinese dragon."

  Then Miss Grace interposed; "Mr. Sedgwick," said she, "is not Texas aland where there are a great many cattle?"

  "Millions of them," was the reply.

  "And is not that the region where the cowboy is also found?" shecontinued.

  "There are a few there, surely," said Sedgwick, and looking across thetable he saw a smile on Jack's face.

  "They are good riders and good shots, are they not?" Grace asked.

  "Some of them ride well, and nearly all of them shoot well," saidSedgwick.

  "I would like to go there," said Grace, impetuously; "it must be a jollylife." Then looking at her mother, she laughed gaily and said: "If everone of those cowboys, with broad hat and jingling spurs, comes this way,you had better lock the doors, mamma, if you want to keep me."

  Sedgwick kept a steady face, but his heart was throbbing so that hefeared the company would hear it.

  Then Jenvie asked Sedgwick if mining in Nevada was not mostly carried onby rough and rude men.

  Sedgwick's face became grave in a moment, as he said: "We must judge menby the motives behind their lives, if we would get at what they reallyare. There are married men and single men at work in the mines. Themarried men have wives and little children to support. They wish to havetheir dear ones fed and clothed as well as other generous people feed andclothe their families. They want their children educated. They have,moreover, all around them examples of rich men who a year or five yearsprevious were as humble and poor as they now are. The young men havehopes quite as sweet, purposes quite as high. This one is to build up alittle fortune for some one he loves; this one has a home in his mind'seye which he means to purchase; this one has relatives whom he dreams ofmaking happy, while others have visions of honors and fame, so soon assomething which is in their thoughts shall materialize.

  "Then the occupation itself and the results have a tendency, I think, toexalt men. To begin with, the work is a steady struggle against nature'stremendous forces. The rock has to be blasted, the waters controlled, theconsuming heat tempered, the swelling clay confined, and to do this menhave to employ great agents. A silver mine generally has Desolationplaced as a watch above it. To work it everything has to be carried toit. The forest away off on some mountain side has to be felled and hauledto the spot. For many months the great Bonanza has received within itmonthly 3,000,000 feet of timbers, machinery equal to that in the holdsof mighty steamships has to be set in place and motion; drills are keptat work 2,000 feet underground, from power supplied on the surface;hundreds of men have to be daily hoisted from and lowered into thedepths; there has to be a precision and continuity that never fail, andthe men who plan and carry on that work emerge from it after a few yearsstronger, brighter, clearer-brained and braver men than they ever wouldhave been except for that discipline.

  "Then what they produce is something which makes the labor of everyother man more profitable, for it is something which is the measure ofvalues, something which all races of men recognize at once, somethingindestructible and peculiarly precious, which can be drawn into athread-like silk, or hammered into a leaf so thin that a breath willcarry it away; it is the very spirit of the rock, the part that isimperishable. Moreover, it is labor made immortal, for, tried by fire, itgrows bright and loses no grain of its weight. Could we find a piece ofthe beaten gold that overlaid the temple of Israel's greatest king, itwould, to-day, represent the labor of one of those miners that toiled inOphir and fell back to dust thirty generations before the Christ wasborn.

  "Moreover, it is and has been from the first one of the measures of thecivilization of nations. Where gold and silver are in general circulationamong the people they are always prosperous, their children are alwayseducated, and the advance is so marked that it can be measured by decadesof years. A nation's decay or enlightenment can be traced by thedecreasing or increasing volume of gold and silver in circulation.

  "Miners thus engrossed, producing such a substance, and carrying suchhopes and aspirations in their souls, as a rule, grow stronger, moremanly
and more true.

  "I do not say that there are not many rough characters among them. I donot say that when the influence of true women is in great part withdrawnfrom any class of men, they do not more and more gravitate towardsavagery, for they but follow a natural law; but the tenderest, truest,bravest, best, most generous and most just men I have ever known havebeen miners in the far West of the United States."

  While talking, Sedgwick had seemed to forget where he was, but ashe ceased he glanced across the table and noticed a look of fullappreciation on Rose's face, and smiling, he added: "I was talking forJack's sake, Miss Rose."

  It was a pleasant dinner, and a pleasant evening followed. There was arunning fire of conversation, broken only when the young ladies sang orplayed. When Sedgwick first heard Grace sing, he sat, as he saidafterward, "in mortal terror lest wings should spread out from her whiteshoulders and she should disappear through the ceiling."

  In point of fact, she sang well, but she was not nearly ethereal enoughto want to give up the substantial earth to take to the ether.

  But amid all the contending emotions, Sedgwick kept a furtive watch uponthe two old men. They were exceedingly gracious, but they gave Sedgwickthe impression that they were striving too hard to be agreeable.

  Jack was in the seventh heaven. He tried to conceal his joy, but everymoment he would glance at Rose Jenvie with a look in his eyes which wasenough to show any miner where his bonanza was. Sedgwick was wildlysmitten, himself, but he kept his wits about him enough to watch and tryto fathom what in the bearing of the old men for some inexplainablereason disturbed him.

  When the company separated and sought their respective apartments, Jackwent to his own room, threw off his coat, put on slippers and lighted acigar, crossed the hall, first tapped upon the door of Sedgwick's room,then pushed it open, walked in, closed the door, and then burst out with"Jim, is she not a glory of the earth?"

  "I think she is, indeed," was the reply. Sedgwick was thinking of Grace.

  "Is there another such girl in all the world, Jim?" said Jack.

  "I don't believe there is, old boy; not another one," said Sedgwick.

  "What a queenly head she has! What a throat of snow! What an infinitegrace! 'Whether she sits or stands or walks or whatever thing she does,'she is divine," said Jack.

  "She impressed me just that way," said Sedgwick.

  "Not too short, not too tall, with just enough flesh and blood to keepone in mind that while she is divine, she is still a woman," said Jack.

  "Only base metal enough to hold the precious metal in place," saidSedgwick.

  So Jack rattled on in the very ecstasy of his love, and so Sedgwick,quite as deeply involved, replied; the one talking of Rose, the otherof Grace.

  At length, however, Sedgwick roused himself and said: "Jack, old boy,tell me how the old men received you."

  "With open arms," said Jack. "My step-father grasped both my hands, saidhe was hasty in banishing me as he did, that his heart had been filledwith remorse ever since, that he had sought in vain to find me. And oldman Jenvie, with a hearty welcome and jolly laugh, declared that I servedhim exactly right when I floored him; that it had made a better man ofhim ever since, and that he was glad to welcome me back to England."

  Sedgwick listened, and when Jack ceased speaking there was silence fora full minute, until Jack said:

  "What are you thinking of, Jim?"

  "Nothing much," said Sedgwick; "only, Jack, I have changed my mind.I will stay and help you through the wedding; only hurry it along asswiftly as you conveniently can."

  "There is something on your mind, Jim," said Jack. "What is it, oldfriend?"

  "Nothing, Jack; nothing but a mean suspicion, for which I can give myselfno tangible excuse for entertaining," asked Sedgwick.

  "Suspicion, Jim! Which way do the indications lead?" asked Jack.

  "I will tell you, old friend. In Nevada we would say that these old menare too infernally gushing in their welcome to you. I fear there issomething wrong behind it all; though, as I said, it is a mere suspicionwhich I cannot explain to myself; only, Jack, I will stay to the wedding,and be sure to give no hint to any soul in England that I have more thanmoney enough to make a brief visit, and then to return to America. And donot permit what I have said to worry you, for I have no backing for myimpressions."

  Then Jack went to his room to sleep and to dream of Rose Jenvie, and Jimwent to bed, not to sleep, but to think of Grace Meredith.