CHAPTER XV.
IN THE DANCE-HOUSE.
"Chassey to the right, chassey to the left, swing your partners round,and all promenade!" sang Old Dad, fiddler and master of ceremonies atAntler, British Columbia.
It was early in June. The moon was riding high above the pine-trees, andthe men of the night-shifts were dropping in one by one for a dance withLilla and Katchen before going to supper.
Claw-hammer coats and boiled shirts were not insisted upon in the Antlerdance-house, so most of the men swaggered in in their gray suits andlong gum boots, all splashed with blue mud, and took their waltz just aswe should take our sherry and bitters, as a pleasant interlude betweenbusiness and dinner.
Some fellows found time to eat and sleep, and a few were said to wash,but no one could afford to waste time in changing his clothes at theCariboo gold-mines in '62. When your overalls wore out you just handedyour dust over the store-keeper's counter and got into a new pair rightthere, and some fellows took off their gum boots when they lay down fora sleep. Wasn't that change enough?
At any rate the hurdy girls were content with their partners, and theirpartners were all in love with the "hurdies."
Now, it may be that some unfortunate person who knows nothing ofanything west of Chicago may read this book, and may want to know what a"hurdy" is or was, for, alas! the "hurdies," like the dodo, are extinct.
Be it known then to all who do not know it already, that the hurdy-gurdygirls (to give them their full title) were douce, honest lassies fromGermany, who, being fond of dancing and fond of dollars, combinedbusiness with pleasure, and sold their dances to the diggers at so manypinches of dust per dance. It was an honest and innocent way of earningmoney, and if any sceptic wants to sneer at the gentle hurdies, thereneed be no difficulty in finding an "old-timer" to argue with him; onlythe arguments used in Cariboo are forcible certainly, and might evenseem somewhat "rocky" to a mild-mannered man.
Well, now you know what a "hurdy" was, and when I tell you that a troopof hurdies had just come up from Kamloops, you will understand thatAntler was very much _en fete_ on this particular June night.
Indeed, the long wooden shanty known as the dance house was full tooverflowing, full of miners having what they considered a goodtime--dancing in gum boots, drinking bad whisky, singing songs, andswearing wonderfully original "swears." But there was no popping ofpistols, no flashing of bowie-knives at Antler. That might do very wellin Californian mining camps, but in British Columbia, in early days,even the strong men had been taught by a stronger to respect the law.
So Old Dad took command in the noisy room, and was under no apprehensionfor his personal safety. He might be dead drunk before morning or"dead-broke" before the end of the season, but there was very littlechance that a stray bullet would end his career before that terribletime came round when the camp would be deserted, and he would have tosneak away to the lower country to earn his living by pig-feeding and"doing chores."
But the pig-feeding days were far distant still, so that this mostdissolute yet tuneful fiddler continued to incite his clients to freshefforts in dancing.
There were those, though, even at Antler, who were too staid, or tooshy, or too stolid to dance, and for the benefit of such as these smalltables had been arranged, not too far from the refreshments--smalltables at which they could sit and smoke in peace.
At one of these, in a pause between the dances, a tall, fair-hairedgirl, all smiles and ribbons, came to a halt before a solitary,dark-visaged misanthrope, who sat abstractedly chewing the end of anunlit cigar.
LILLA ACCOSTS THE COLONEL IN THE DANCE-HOUSE.]
"What's the trouble, Colonel? Have you anyone murdered?"
The words were lightly spoken, and a laugh rippled over the speaker'spretty face, but no answering smile came into the smoker's deep-seteyes. On the contrary, he sprang to his feet with so fierce an oath thatLilla started back, and the smokers at the next table turned withsavage scowls to see who it was who dared to swear at their littleGerman sweetheart.
"By mighty, I believe the girl's right!" said one of these; "the fellowlooks pretty scared."
"Like enough. A fellow who cain't speak civil to a woman might doanything," growled another. This last was a Yankee, and Yankees have agreat respect for the ladies, all honour to them for it.
Meanwhile the colonel and the dancing-girl stood facing each other, thesmile dying out of her face as the scowl died out of his. She washalf-frightened, and he had overheard his neighbours' remarks, andrecognized the necessity for self-control.
"I beg your pardon, Lilla. What a brute you must think me! But don't youknow better than to wake a sleeping dog suddenly?"
"But no dog is so mean as to bite a woman," protested Lilla.
"That's so, and _I_ only barked. I've been so long packing all alonethat I have lost my company manners. Won't you forgive me, Lilla?" andhe held out his hand to her. Now it was part of Lilla's business to pouroil upon the troubled waters of society at Antler, and, besides, thecolonel was an old acquaintance and excellent dancer, so Lilla took hishand.
"Well, I'll try, but you pay me a fine. See, not once have you asked meto dance this time in Antler. Now dance with me."
"Is that all, Lilla? Come then." And so saying he offered the girl hisarm, and walked away with her to another part of the room out ofear-shot of the angry Yankee.
"I wanted to talk to you, Lilla," he began; but just then the musicstruck up, and the girl, who had quite recovered her spirits, beat theground with a pretty impatient toe, exclaiming, "The talk will keep;come on now, we mustn't lose a bar of it." And then, as her partnersteered her gracefully over the floor, she gave a little contented sighand muttered, "So you have not forgotten. Ach, himmel! this is todance."
And indeed the dark-faced man might have committed many crimes, but hewas not one to trample upon a woman's tenderest feelings by treading onher toes, tearing her dress out at the gathers, and disregarding goodmusic.
On the contrary, he had a perfect ear for time, steered by instinct, andheld his partner like one who was proud of her and wanted to show heroff to advantage.
When the music ceased, and not until then, Lilla and the colonel stoppeddancing, and the girl had just enough breath left to say in a tone ofabsolute conviction:
"You _must_ be a good man, I think, you dance so well."
"Of course I'm a good man, Lilla," laughed her partner. "Why should Inot be?"
"Well, I don't know, but you frightened me pretty bad just now. What wasit with you?"
"Oh, nothing--at least nothing much. I was sulky and you startled me.Are you never sulky, Lilla?"
"What is that sulky, _traurig_?" asked the girl.
"No, not quite. More like what you feel when a frock won't fit you,Lilla."
"So! I understand: well, wherefore are you sulky?"
"I can't sell my freight at my price. Just think what rough luck it wasfor me that Bacon Brown got in so soon after me. And after bringing thestuff so far and _at such a cost too_!" and again for a moment thecolonel's face looked white and drawn in the lamp light.
The Frazer river trail was a bad one, but once its perils were passedthere seemed to be no reason why an old packer should turn pale at themere memory of them.
"Ach, sacrifice!" cried the girl. "You sell your bacon a dollar a pound,and you call that sacrifice. Have you no shame?"
"All very well for you, Lilla. You are a girl who owns a gold-mine; I'monly a poor packer. By the way, have you done anything more about Pete'sCreek since last season?"
"No, but I think I'll do something soon."
"Better send me to find it for you, Lilla, before someone else gets holdof it, and give me a share in it for my work. I'll take you, and youkeep the creek. How will that do?"
"And what do I become--ach, I mean what shall I get for my share?"
Her partner laid his hand upon his heart and made her his mostimpressive bow, but the girl only burst out laughing merrily. Perhapsthe noise and bright lights
of a dance-house are unfavourable tosentiment.
"Ach so, Colonel. Bacon a dollar a pound, and you will trade yourselffor the richest gold-mine in Cariboo and me! _Danke schoen_," and shecurtsied to him laughingly.
"As you please, Lilla. But will you bet me that I don't know where yourcreek is?"
"I know you don't know anything about it, except what I told you lastfall."
"Don't be too sure. You'd better trust me, Lilla. It isn't the otherside of the Frazer in the Chilcotin country, is it?"
"I told you so much, and then--"
"It isn't up at the head of the Chilcotin?"
"On which bank?"
"The right."
"Ach so! I knew you didn't know," and then the girl stopped, and for amoment suspicion looked out from her simple blue eyes. Lilla wasn'tquite sure whether her dancing partner had not been trying to pump her.
But the colonel saw the look, and knowing that he had obtained all theinformation which he was likely to get, he deftly turned theconversation into a fresh channel.
"Of course it's only my chaff, Lilla. I would rather have the prettygold on your head than all the gold in Pete's Creek, even if there wassuch a place, which I doubt. But who is the new invalid you arenursing?"
"A Britisher as you are, Colonel; only I find him better-looking,"replied Lilla mischievously.
"He might easily be that, Lilla. I'm getting old, my dear, with waitingfor you. But how did you find this new treasure?"
"Bacon Brown brought him in."
"Brown brought him in! When?"
"Three days from to-day--when his train came along."
"Where did he find him? Is he one of his men?"
"Ach no. I tell you he is English not Yankee. Brown found him dying onthe trail."
"On the trail! Where?"
"I don't know quite where, but somewhere between this place and wherethe trail forks for Williams Creek."
Whilst the girl had been speaking her companion had shifted hisposition, so that he now stood with his back to the light, so that nocasual observer would have noticed even if his face should turn whiteand his hand shake.
"What is your friend like, and what was the matter with him, Lilla?"asked the colonel after a while, with a certain show of carelessness,dropping out his words disjointedly between his efforts to light acigar.
"Well, I can hardly tell you, he lies down all the time. He is too weakto stand up, but he looks a fine man, tall and big--oh, very big, andhair like a Deutscher's, and blue eyes, more blue, I think, than mine;"and she opened those pretty orbs very wide to let her questioner see howvery blue eyes would have to be to be bluer than her own.
"Is that so, and Lilla is half in love with him already? Oh, Lilla,Lilla! And when will this beautiful person be well again?"
"Don't talk foolishness," replied the girl, blushing furiously. "Howcould I love a man who has the 'jim-jams?'"
"The 'jim-jams!' What! from drink?"
"I don't know. But there, there's the music, come along;" and once moreLilla bore away the best waltzer in Antler to the tune of some slowrhythmical German air.
During the dance the girl said nothing, and after it was over she lefther partner for someone else (mind you, dancing meant business forLilla); but towards the end of the evening she sought out the colonelagain, and leading him on one side, said:
"What will you do when you have sold your freight?"
"I don't know. Anything. Why?"
"I have a fancy, and you shall not laugh at me. Pete gave me the map tofind his creek when he died. That is good. Now comes another Englishman,also dying. I am, what do you call it--_aberglaeubig_?"
"I don't know superstitious perhaps?"
"Perhaps superstitious. Suppose this man gets well, he has no money, heis dead-broke, and very young. Do you see?"
"I see. You say he is ill and a 'dead-beat.' Most of your patients arethat way, Lilla."
"No, he is not a 'dead-beat.' I think he is--ach, well no matter. Butsee here, if you will give money for the outfit and grub, and take thisman along when he is well again, I will give you the map, and you twocan take half the mine between you. Is that good?"
"But why give him a quarter of your mine?"
"I give you a quarter also; and I tell you Pete was English, and you sayyou are English, and he is English. I think Pete would have liked it so,and this shall bring me luck."
"As you please, Lilla. I would go for you for nothing. Shall I have themap to-night?" And at that moment the light fell upon the man's face,which he had moved somewhat during the conversation, and showed that themouth was twitching and the eyes glittering with strong excitement whichwould not be entirely suppressed.
"No, not to-night. When Corbett is well. I may change my mind beforethen, you know, and give you all the mine, and myself too--who knows!"
And with a nod and a smile, half mocking, half friendly, Lilla thehurdy girl turned on her heel and left the dancing-room for a littlepoorly furnished chamber, where, behind a Hudson Bay blanket hung up asa curtain, lay Ned Corbett in the first quiet sleep he had enjoyed sinceBacon Brown found him insensible upon the trail which leads to Antler.