CHAPTER XXXIV. A STARTLING INCIDENT.

The passengers in the stage now compared notes, and each gave an idea of the amount of his possessions. One of the miners owned up to five hundred dollars, another to eight hundred, and the teacher to two hundred. The farmers were still better provided.

“I’ve got about fifteen hundred myself,” said the black-eyed passenger. “Of course it belongs to my principal, not to me, but I shall be held responsible if I am robbed.”

“The boys haven’t spoken,” said one of the miners, jestingly. “Who knows but they may be the richest in the crowd.”

Robert laughed.

“If the road agent comes along,” he said, “he’ll get so much from me,” and he produced twenty dollars in gold.

“I’ve got so much,” said Grant, producing three quarter eagles, fifteen dollars.

284“You are better off than I thought,” said Robert.

“I didn’t think to include my wardrobe,” added Grant.

“If you won’t be offended,” said Robert, “I have a suit in San Francisco that is better than yours. We are not far from the same size. I am sure my father will let me give it to you.”

Grant grasped his hand cordially.

“You’re a good fellow, Rob, and a true friend,” he said. “If my friend in San Francisco doesn’t provide for me, I will accept your offer with thanks.”

“My friend,” said one of the farmers, addressing the teacher, “I take it you have been at the mines.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You don’t look very rugged, and I see you have a bad cough. Wouldn’t it suit you better to get some work in the city?”

“Perhaps you are right. I thought a life in the open air would improve my health, but I overestimated my strength. My lungs are weak, and bending over weakened me and brought on a hemorrhage.”

285“I take it you have never done hard work.”

“No; I was for fifteen years a teacher in Connecticut.”

“A brother of mine has a real estate office in ’Frisco. He wanted me to be his clerk, but I would rather be my own boss. If you would like the chance, I will recommend you to him.”

“Thank you,” said the teacher. “I have been feeling anxious about the future now that I find a miner’s life is too hard for me. If your brother will take me, I will gladly enter his employment.”

“Were you ever a miner?” asked a passenger of the black-eyed man.

“No; I never dug for gold. I travel for a firm in San Francisco.”

“Indeed! What firm? I am pretty well acquainted in ’Frisco.”

The black-eyed man smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

“My employers have cautioned me to be reticent about their business,” he said. “Still, before we part company, I may introduce myself.”

286“Oh, just as you wish!” said the passenger, not altogether pleased.

“Did any of you ever see Stephen Dike?” asked one of the miners, addressing himself generally.

One by one answered in the negative, till the turn came to the black-eyed man.

“I once caught a glimpse of him,” he said.

“What was his appearance?” asked one of the farmers.

“He looked to me like that gentleman,” and the speaker indicated the consumptive teacher.

This remark naturally led to a critical examination of the teacher, and the man next to him, on the impulse of the moment, moved a little farther away.

“You are sure you are not the man?” asked one of the farmers jocosely.

The teacher smiled.

“If I am,” he said, “I don’t think you would any of you feel very much afraid of me. I suspect that I shouldn’t be a success as a road agent. I haven’t the necessary 287physique. You are better equipped by nature for it than I.”

“I’ve got considerable muscle, that’s a fact,” said the farmer, who was a broad-shouldered, stalwart man. “But you don’t often find men of my build in the ranks of these gentry. They are more apt to be—well, like our friend here,” and he laid his hand on the shoulder of the black-eyed man.

“You compliment me,” said the latter, opening his mouth and showing a set of very white teeth. “I will tell my employer, when I reach ’Frisco, that I have been compared to Stephen Dike.”

“No offence, my friend!”

“None is taken. Indeed, I do consider it rather a compliment, for Dike is quite celebrated in his line.”

“Better be quite unknown than to be celebrated in that way!” observed the teacher.

“You have doubtless often remarked that to your pupils during your career as a pedagogue,” said the black-eyed man, with a sneer.

“It is quite possible that I may have done 288so,” answered the teacher calmly. “You agree to it, don’t you?”

“Oh, certainly!”

“Speaking of Dike,” remarked one of the miners, “a cousin of mine was returning from the mines, a year ago, with a thousand dollars in gold-dust—representing six months’ hard labor—when the wagon on which he was a passenger was stopped by this rascal. My cousin was not armed, nor was either of the three other passengers, and Dike, though single-handed, had no trouble in robbing them all.”

“What,” exclaimed one of the farmers, “did four men give in to one?”

“One man with two revolvers is a match for half a dozen unarmed men.”

“I don’t agree to that,” said the farmer. “I should be everlastingly mortified if I allowed one man to take such an advantage of me, if I had as many companions.”

“You think so,” said the black-eyed man, with a half sneer, “but if you were placed in like circumstances you would act just as he did.”

289“You think so,” said the farmer in his turn.

“I know so.”

“You are very confident. On what do you base your remark?”

“On human nature.”

The farmer looked at him curiously.

“Well, perhaps you are right,” he said. Then turning to the miner, he asked: “Well, did your cousin lose all his gold-dust?”

“Yes; every ounce of it.”

“That was hard lines.”

“It was, indeed. The poor fellow had been in the country a year. During the first six months he hadn’t a particle of luck. During the next six months he made the money referred to. With it he intended to go home and lift a mortgage from the house in which he lived. But when he saw the fruit of his hard labor forcibly wrested from him, he became discouraged, took to drink, and died of delirium tremens in ’Frisco three months since.”

“It was a hard case!” said the farmer in a tone of sympathy.

290“It was, indeed. That scoundrel, Stephen Dike, I hold responsible for my poor cousin’s death. There is one thing I live for,” and here he paused.

“Well?” said the black-eyed man. “What is it?”

“I want to meet the villain who killed him.”

“Suppose you should?”

“I would shoot him down like a dog.”

“That is, if you got the chance,” said the other, with an unpleasant smile.

“I would see that I had the chance if I ever met him.”

“Threatened men live long.”

“Look here!” broke in the farmer, eying the black-eyed man sharply. “You appear to take the part of this road agent.”

“Do I? Well, it is natural to me to take the part of one against many. You all seem to be down on poor Dike.”

“Poor Dike! Isn’t there good reason why we should be down upon him?”

“I don’t know. Probably the man has some good qualities.”

291“Not one!” exclaimed the miner who had told his cousin’s story. “Not one!”

“Well, well; you seem to know him. Considering how free we have been with his name, it would be a great joke if we should have him stop us on our way.”

“I don’t think it would be a joke at all,” said Robert.

“Nor I!” added Grant.

“Oh, he wouldn’t meddle with you boys,” said the black-eyed man. “He would fly at higher game; for instance, our friend there, and there,” indicating the farmer and the miner.

“I suppose you speak with authority?” observed the farmer.

“What do you mean?”

“You speak as if you were in this fellow’s confidence.”

“Do you mean to insult me?” exclaimed the black-eyed man angrily.

“Oh, calm yourself, my friend! Why should I mean it that way? You can’t take a a joke.”

“Oh, if it’s a joke, I don’t mind.”

292Then the talk about the famous road agent subsided. Gradually they passed beyond the limits of population, and entered a mountain defile, dark with frowning hills on each side.

“Let me get out a minute!” said the black-eyed man, signalling to the driver.

The stage stopped. Once upon the ground the black-eyed passenger drew out his revolvers, and levelling them at the astonished travellers, cried: “Hold up your hands, gentlemen; get ready to surrender all your valuables. I am Stephen Dike!”