"You'll have to get a new pair of trousers, Mills, but as he doesn't keep clothing, we'll have to get some canvas and cut you out a pair.I traded off the beans he let me have for some tobacco for the Right Bower at the other shop, and got them to throw in a new pack of cards.These are about played out.We'll be wanting some brushwood for the fire; there's a heap in the hollow.Who's going to bring it in? It's the Judge's turn, isn't it? Why, what's the matter with you all?"The restraint and evident uneasiness of his companions had at last touched him.He turned his frank young eyes upon them; they glanced helplessly at each other.Yet his first concern was for them, his first instinct paternal and protecting.He ran his eyes quickly over them; they were all there and apparently in their usual condition."Anything wrong with the claim?" he suggested.
Without looking at him the Right Bower rose, leaned against the open door with his hands behind him and his face towards the landscape, and said, apparently to the distant prospect: "The claim's played out, the partnership's played out, and the sooner we skedaddle out of this the better.If," he added, turning to the Old Man, "if YOU want to stay, if you want to do Chinaman's work at Chinaman's wages, if you want to hang on to the charity of the traders at the Crossing, you can do it, and enjoy the prospects and the Noah's doves alone.But we're calculatin' to step out of it.""But I haven't said I wanted to do it ALONE," protested the Old Man with a gesture of bewilderment.
"If these are your general ideas of the partnership," continued the Right Bower, clinging to the established hypothesis of the other partners for support, "it ain't ours, and the only way we can prove it is to stop the foolishness right here.We calculated to dissolve the partnership and strike out for ourselves elsewhere.
You're no longer responsible for us, nor we for you.And we reckon it's the square thing to leave you the claim and the cabin, and all it contains.To prevent any trouble with the traders, we've drawn up a paper here--""With a bonus of fifty thousand dollars each down, and the rest to be settled on my children," interrupted the Old Man, with a half-uneasy laugh."Of course.But--" he stopped suddenly, the blood dropped from his fresh cheek, and he again glanced quickly round the group."I don't think--I--I quite sabe, boys," he added, with a slight tremor of voice and lip."If it's a conundrum, ask me an easier one."Any lingering doubt he might have had of their meaning was dispelled by the Judge."It's about the softest thing you kin drop into, Old Man," he said confidentially; "if I hadn't promised the other boys to go with them, and if I didn't need the best medical advice in Sacramento for my lungs, I'd just enjoy staying with you.""It gives a sorter freedom to a young fellow like you, Old Man, like goin' into the world on your own capital, that every Californian boy hasn't got," said Union Mills, patronizingly.
"Of course it's rather hard papers on us, you know, givin' up everything, so to speak; but it's for your good, and we ain't goin'
back on you," said the Left Bower, "are we, boys?"The color had returned to the Old Man's face a little more quickly and freely than usual.He picked up the hat he had cast down, put it on carefully over his brown curls, drew the flap down on the side towards his companions, and put his hands in his pockets.
"All right," he said, in a slightly altered voice."When do you go?""To-day," answered the Left Bower."We calculate to take a moonlight pasear over to the Cross Roads and meet the down stage at about twelve to-night.There's plenty of time yet," he added, with a slight laugh; "it's only three o'clock now."There was a dead silence.Even the rain withheld its continuous patter, a dumb, gray film covered the ashes of the hushed hearth.
For the first time the Right Bower exhibited some slight embarrassment.
"I reckon it's held up for a spell," he said, ostentatiously examining the weather, "and we might as well take a run round the claim to see if we've forgotten nothing.Of course, we'll be back again," he added hastily, without looking at the Old Man, "before we go, you know."The others began to look for their hats, but so awkwardly and with such evident preoccupation of mind that it was not at first discovered that the Judge had his already on.This raised a laugh, as did also a clumsy stumble of Union Mills against the pork barrel, although that gentleman took refuge from his confusion and secured a decent retreat by a gross exaggeration of his lameness, as he limped after the Right Bower.The Judge whistled feebly.
The Left Bower, in a more ambitious effort to impart a certain gayety to his exit, stopped on the threshold and said, as if in arch confidence to his companions, "Darned if the Old Man don't look two inches higher since he became a proprietor," laughed patronizingly, and vanished.
If the newly-made proprietor had increased in stature, he had not otherwise changed his demeanor.He remained in the same attitude until the last figure disappeared behind the fringe of buckeye that hid the distant highway.Then he walked slowly to the fire-place, and, leaning against the chimney, kicked the dying embers together with his foot.Something dropped and spattered in the film of hot ashes.Surely the rain had not yet ceased!
