Puck — December 3, 1879 — page 11: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

PUCK. ~ ARCHIE GASCOYNE A ROMANCE OF SKYE, WRITTEN EXPRESSLY FOR PUCK, BY JOHN FRASER, AUTHOR OF «Effie: A Tale of Two Worlds;” « «Fair Fragoletta; “ Legends of Lorne; ssays from the Westminster;” ‘Duncan Fenwick’s Daughter;” Scottish Chapbooks;” A Dream of Life;”” “Lone Glengartney,” ete., ete., ete. CHAPTER XXIX, “Thane with stoute herte did Jason sette oute in queste of ye Golden Fleece, and ye ende of this Notable Historie is for to show all ye Marvellous and Strannge ‘Thinges which him did Befall.” —VYe Queste of the Golden Fleece. Ir must not be supposed that Archie had set out on his very doubtful and dangerous adven- ture without careful preparation aud thought. Having once made up his mind to do it he spared no pains to make himself familiar with every inch of the country so far as he possibly could. He had studied the lay of the land on the best local maps and charts he could find until he felt almost as if he could make his way through this otherwise 4erra incognita blind- folded. Nor was his task in one particular, and that’an all-important one, so difficult as it would have been at the time of poor Jim’s dis- mal tragedy. Seventeen years had passed since then, and in a mining district especially seven- teen years make a mighty difference. When Jim and his “ pardner,” Gentlemen Dick, tra- versed these wilds, they were wilds indeed. No road, not even the rudest pathway had existed, to guide them across those bleak and terrible mountain wastes. For hundreds and hundreds of miles around they might have wandered for many years and never come upon any sign of civilization or the trace of human foot-step. ‘Time had changed all that, and now a path- way, rude indeed, but still sufficiently marked to be easily followed had been trodden by innumerable feet of man and horse, and cut on the mountain sides lay myriad wagon wheels, So far as Archie could make out, the scene of the tragedy was in the immediate vicinity of a -hamlet called Duyvill Ranch, some thirty odd miles distant from Silver City, between which and it there was one resting-place—what the Scotch would call a half-way house—rejoicing in the euphonious title of Hell's Glen Station. ‘Thirty miles would not, in ordinary circum- stances, have been much for a sturdy young fellow to have covered in a day, but then these were not ordinary circumstances. To begin with, the snow offered no trifling impediment, as Archie was not long in discov- ering; and though, as we have seen, there was arude kind of pathway, this in many places was quite undiscernible and the stranger had to trust largely to his compass. The way, too, in many places was terribly steep; in not a few dangerous and almost indeed’ inaccessible. How any wagon could have been dragged up some of those rocky, narrow and well-nigh per- pendicular steeps it passed Archie’s compre- hension to know. Certainly he himself, all un- encumbered as he was, found many of them sufficiently hard to climb. These difficulties, however, he had in a measure anticipated, and had wisely resolved to break his journey at Hell's Glen Station, and, if he could obtain shelter of any kind, to halt there for the night. Next day, refreshed and strengthened, he could easily cover the rest of the ground, and reach his destination in good time to permit of his prospecting the ground before dark, He had taken the pre- caution of arming himself with two trusty re- volvers and a stout sword-stick, and had also changed his ordinary suit, which would have attracted too much notice, for clothes of a rougher and commoner kind. His knapsack was so light as to be no incumbrance whatever, and a few sandwiches, a flask of cold strong tea and one of brandy constituted his entire stock of provisions, ‘Thus equipped he put a “stout heart to a steep brae’’ and set out on his journey. It is not necessary to dwell upon the difficul- ties he encountered on this stage of his travels, though these were neither few nor trifling. Suffice it that though he made all possible speed, and there were few stouter pedestrians, it was late in the evening, when, after having several times lost his way and almost abandoned all hope of recovering it just then, his heart was cheered by the sight of lights far down in the hollow, faintly glimmering through the fast falling shadows. ‘This he felt certain was Hell's Glen Station, and so it proved to be, Arrived there he found the Station to consist of half-a-dozen wooden shanties, from one of which—by far the larger of them—a great blaze of light streamed out into the night, and lit up the white snow with garish brilliance. This was Hell’s Glen Hotel, a rude grocery store of unenviable notoriety kept by an Ohio man known far and wide as Buck-eyed Jim. On entering the place, wearied and footsore, Archie found himself in presence of a crowd of rough miners, their red and blue shirts, and long, sunken weather-tanned cheeks smeared with the yellow soil in whlch they had been working during the day. A rough crowd it was and a noisy, and the entrance of astranger created no little commotion, “Hullo, Stranger, hev a drink?” “Where the blazes do you hail from, Boss?” “What's the ne-ews from the village over tnar?”—meaning, it is to be presumed, Silver City. “Cold night, pardner, hev a place at the stove!”—and the like were. among the volley of salutations that greeted Archie on his en- trance, Meanwhile the Boss of the Hotel, the re- doubtable Buck-eyed Jim himself, waited pa- tiently until the stranger should make his wants known, Returning the rude but not unfriendly greet- ings showered upon him by these rough sons of the soil our hero advanced boldly to the bar, trying to look as much as possible “to the manner born.” He had resolved in order to avert suspicion to pass himself off as a miner, and enlist the good will of the men, “Coldish night, stranger,” slowly drawled he of the buck-eye, as he dexterously manipu- lated a fresh cock-tail;” guess you hev come a con-sid-erable way, neow ?”” “That's so, boss,” replied Archie, “and I do reckon I feel pretty con-siderably chawed up—I dew. Let's hev a whiskey hot. Gen- tlemen, will you jine in?” 635 A unanimous chorus of assent was the re- sponse. “Drinks all round, mister. Fact is, mates," continued Archie turning to the crowd, ‘I’m so darned glad to be in human society like agin that I feels like goin’ a buster, Here's to you, gentlemen all, and you too, boss; I've heerd ov you before—Give's a shake, old man.” Saying which Archie held out his hand to Buck-eyed Jim who, delighted to meet with what scemed likely to prove a profitable cus- tomer, and one quite after his own heart, seized the proffered digits in his own horny hand and gave Archie's such a squeezer and a shake as to make him wince with pain, ‘That was how our friend introduced himself to the company, at Hell’s Glen Station, and considering he was an amateur he acquitted himself not so badly. More drinks, of course, followed, though of these Archie took good care to take as little as he possibly could with- out running the risk of incurring suspicion. His hearty generosity and off-hand ways were quite after the miners’ own hearts and fashion, and though it was impossible for the observant among them, and there were such present, not to see that he was “several shakes" above them in point of education and birth, that did not militate against him. In these parts broken- down gentlemen were not so uncommon as to be in any wise remarkable, and if Archie’s hands were suspiciously white, and his man- ners, in spite of himself, suspiciously refined that was no business.of theirs, and they liked him all the better for it perhaps particularly as he was so free with his greenbacks, After some more rounds of drinks cards were ordered, and most of those present sat down to the regular business of the night —draw-poker, all fours, euchre and what- not; ready and cager to stake the day’s take on the hazard of the deal. ‘They would fain have had Archie take a hand, but he pleaded fatigue, and compromised matters by standing drinks round, He was not the only one who held aloof from the card-table. There was another present, rather superior to the rest in appearance and manners, who neither drank nor played; who had, moreover, watched Archie very closely ever since his entrance, After a time this gen- tleman introduced himself to the stranger as “Colonel Blake,” but he seemed to be more familiarly known as “Plug"—among his associ- ations—or, to be quite exact, “‘ Plug Ugly.” He was not a bad-looking man, was Plug, in spite of his nickname. As Archie learned sub- sequently, the soubriquet of “Ugly” had no reference to the Colonel's personal appearance, which was indeed far from being that, but had been bestowed upon him in gentle recognition of his reputation and skill as the deadliest shot in the county, Of this little incident Archie was at the tie ignorant, and he responded with apparent frankness and cordiality to the Colonel’s friendly overtures. “ Would he liquor?” “Well, he guessed not; he’d rayther not,” responded Archie, “Fact is he felt a trifle knocked up; had been walking all day and felt like lying down. Had to be up again by day- light, and didn’t feel like taking more liquor— thanks to the Colonel all the same.” ‘Then they got on the talk, and the Colonel did his level best to draw Archie out, The lad, however, was on his guard, and besides there was something—-he could hardly say what— in the gallant Colonel’s manner appearance— it might have been a sort of shifty, suspicious lovk in the inquisitive, little, cold grey eyes— which Archie did not like. In paying for the drinks he had incautiously exposed his richly-mounted and well-lined poc- ket-book, with the Gascoyne arms curiously comicbooks.com