Overland Tales

by Josephine Clifford

  _A BIT OF "EARLY CALIFORNIA."_

  That many strange and wonderful things happened in early times inCalifornia, is so trite a saying that I hardly dare repeat it. As mystory, however, is neither harrowing nor sentimental, I hope I mayventure to bring it before the reader.

  Long before the great Overland Railroad was built, there entered one dayone of the largest mercantile establishments in San Francisco ahandsome, athletic man, whose fresh, kindly face showed a record ofbarely five-and-twenty years, and whose slender fingers belied the ironstrength with which he could hold and tighten the threads forming thenet into which malefactors are said, sooner or later, always to run. Ifhe _was_ a detective officer, he had friends, because he had a warmheart; and in spite of all the dark phases of life that were brought tohis notice every day, he had not learned to disbelieve in the brightside, or the better instincts of humanity.

  The chief clerk of this establishment was Captain Herbert's (thedetective officer's) most intimate friend, and he had come to bid himgood-bye--perchance to charge him to guard the "fatherless and thewidowed," should the trip on which he was about to start out enddisastrously to him. "Early Californians" realized, better than anyother class of people, the uncertainty of life--particularly with thosewho had to cope with the desperadoes of that time; and the captainintended to start out as usual--with the determination to do or to die.

  "By-the-by," said young Taylor, laughing, to the senior partner of thefirm, studying the morning paper in the counting-room, "Mr. McDonald hasbeen silent for so long that I think it would be a good job, and aneconomical one, to commission the captain to hunt up the junior partnerof this firm, at the same time, and bring him in with the abscondingcattle-agent."

  The old gentleman took off his glasses, and folded the paper.

  "Yes; it's time Harry was home. I'm really getting uneasy about him.They may have tempted him with the prospect of a whole string of wivesas he passed through Salt Lake--whereas here he can have only one."

  "Give me his _carte-de-visite_, or the color of his hair and eyes,height, breadth, and weight, and I'll bring him, sure!" laughed thecaptain.

  "Thank you kindly, captain; but I don't know whether Mr. McDonald wouldappreciate your kind attentions; particularly," continued the oldgentleman, "if enhanced by those little steel bracelets you bring intorequisition sometimes."

  Twenty-four hours later the captain was hurrying, as fast as thestage-horses could run, to Salt Lake City, where, it was surmised, thedishonest cattle-agent would be found. A few hours' vigorous huntconvinced the captain that the object of his search was notthere--circumstances pointing backward to one of the smaller places hehad passed on his journey thither;--and the next stage that left had thecaptain for its occupant again. The only other passenger beside thecaptain and his one man, was a rather slender, well-built person, who,like himself and assistant, had both hands full, literally, to keep frombeing buried by the sides of bacon with which the stage was filledalmost to overflowing.

  When night set in, the coats of the captain and his man, and thewoollen shirt of their travelling companion, seemed all to have beenmade of the same material, thanks to the equalizing gloss which thetumbling sides of bacon had spread over everything; but they fought thepork as valiantly as ever true-believing Israelite had done. There waslittle rest for them through the night, and no sleep; the treacherousbacon-sides, that had been closely packed to serve as pillows, wouldunexpectedly slip away from under their weary heads; and the baconbarricades, laboriously built, would descend like an avalanche of blowsand hard knocks, when left unguarded by the drowsy travellers.

  Luckily the bacon was left, the next morning, at a little town where itwas wanted more than in the stage coach; and the captain, who had passednothing on the road without casting on it at least half of his keen,official eye, gathered enough information here to feel confident offinding his game in one of the little new places springing up on themail-line in Nevada. They reached the place next day at nightfall--itwas near the border of California--and the captain saw at a glance thatit would be warm work to cage any of the ill-favored birds who flockedabout this place. Warm work it would have been under any circumstances:but made more difficult by the fact that the man in question hadabsconded from his employers in British Columbia somewhere, had merelypassed through San Francisco with his plunder--some thirty-six thousanddollars--and could have defied all the law officers in California, ifthey came, as the captain did, with only the commission of thevictimized cattle-owner, but without the authority that the existingrelations between British Columbia and the United States made necessary.

  Among the gamblers and roughs loafing about the hotel, the captain'squick eye had soon lighted on the right man; and after quietly takinghis supper with his companions, he proceeded to arrest him. Of coursethere was an outcry and a hubbub among the patrons of this hotel, andthe captain, who knew where his customer came from, gave the guilty manto understand that lynching a man who was no better than a horse-thief,was nothing unusual in California and Nevada; but that if he, theprisoner, would promise to remain quietly up-stairs in the room with thecaptain's man, he himself would go back into the bar-room and try topersuade the people to desist from carrying out any horrible plans theymight have formed. The prisoner seemed to feel weak in the knees; askedpermission to lie down, and sadly but gently extended his hands to thealluring steel wristlets which the captain persuasively held out.Returning to the bar-room, the latter singled out the head bully,approached him confidentially, and whispered that on him he must dependfor assistance in keeping his obstreperous prisoner from breaking away;that he himself and his assistant were so tired out with a three-nights'ride and the fruitless chase, that they could hardly keep their eyesopen; and that after seeing the landlord he would return and consult howthey had best manage to keep their man safe.

  From there the captain went straight to the room of the stranger who hadcome in the stage with him; to him he told all the circumstances of thecase, and asked for his help. He was not mistaken in the man; and thestranger at once expressed his determination to aid the side of the lawand the right. Proceeding together to the room of the prisoner, thecaptain's assistant was instructed to procure, as secretly as possible,a conveyance for himself, the stranger, and the prisoner, to the nexttown--already in California--some thirty miles away. Then there weremore dark fears expressed concerning mobs and lawless proceedings, andhints thrown out, suggestive of the contempt in which horse-thieves andthe like were held, and a clump of trees was spoken of, that stood closeby the hotel and had been found convenient for hanging purposes beforethis. The stranger was left to guard the prisoner, and the captain madehis way to the bar-room, where he was examined in the most friendly andpatronizing manner, concerning "that little affair;" how much money theman had taken, whether the captain had yet recovered it, and what hemeant to do next. Not a cent of the money had been recovered as yet, thecaptain said (with thirty-five thousand dollars neatly tucked away abouthis person), but he hoped that with good help--winking at the mostill-favored among them--he would get both the man and his money safelyinto California. He was not sparing in treats, and had the crowd drinkthe health and success of everybody and everything he could think of,till at last, apparently overpowered with sleep, he beckoned the rowdyhe had spoken to before to one side. Familiarly tapping him on theshoulder, he said, trustingly:

  "Now, old fellow, remember, I depend on you, should any of these rascalshere make an attempt to assist my man in getting away from me. I'm tiredto death, and if you'd sit up for an hour or two longer, while I take ashort nap, I'd take it as a great kindness. At all events, I shallhandcuff my prisoner and myself together, so that he cannot leave thebed without my knowledge."

  The man swore a thousand oaths that he'd see the captain out of this,and then returned to his companions--to plot the release of the thievingcattle-agent, who, he felt certain, still had the stolen money abouthim. Tired out and sleepy, the captain certainly was; and, afterbarricading the door w
ith as much noise as possible (having previouslynailed boards across the window with a great deal of hammering), he laydown, and was soon in a sound sleep. Sometime after midnight he wasaroused by loud, heavy blows on the door. Of course, the captain knewwho was there, and what they wanted, just as well as though each memberof the rowdy delegation had sent in a card with name and object of thevisit engraved thereon. After considerable parleying, and some "bloody"threats, the barricade was slowly removed, the door opened, and thecaptain discovered, admiring a very handsome six-shooter in his hands.His confidential friend, the bully from the bar-room, was spokesman ofthe gang; and, after some hard staring and harder swearing, the truthdawned on the minds of these worthies, and they withdrew from the roomto search the rest of the house before taking farther measures.

  The captain resumed his broken slumbers, never dreaming that they wouldcarry proceedings any farther; but next morning, seated on the stagebeside the driver, he saw on the road the wreck of a turn-out, andgrouped about it a number of the would-be liberators of the nightbefore. They had "raised" a team somewhere, and had started in pursuitof the fat prize, hoping to outwit and outride justice for once. Thenight being dark and their heads very light, they had run full tiltagainst a tree in the road, which had the effect of killing one horse,stunning the other, and scattering the inmates of the wagonindiscriminately over the ground. Bully No. 1, and two stars of lessermagnitude, insisted on mounting the stage; and, on arriving at the nexttown, the captain, fearing that the local authorities would interfere onthe representation of these men, had his prisoner on the road againbefore they had time to take any steps, either legal or illegal.

  The horror of the prisoner can be imagined when he learned that theseterrible men, who were trying to get him out of the captain's hands inorder to mete out justice on their own account, were actually pursuinghim--probably with a rope ready to slip around his neck at the firstopportunity. He earnestly besought his protectors not to abandon him;for the captain had told him that he had no right to hold him asprisoner, and should have none until certain formalities had been gonethrough with in San Francisco.

  On they flew--without rest--still pursued by the three roughs, whoseemed to have gotten their spunk up when they found that the captainwas determined to escape from them with the man and the money theywanted so much. At last Sacramento was reached, and with it the highestpitch of danger. The prisoner was informed that the men were stillfollowing him, and that they would probably make an attempt to take himon the way from the hotel to the boat that was to carry them to SanFrancisco. All this was strictly true. Captain Herbert had only omittedto mention the fact that there would be among the number of captors amember of the Sacramento police, to which both the roughs had applied,setting forth that the man was illegally restrained of his liberty, etc.The prisoner shook in his boots, and probably wished in his heart thathe was safely back in British Columbia, with the cattle unsold, and hisemployer unrobbed. What was to be done? Time was flying, and he _must_be gotten on to that boat, or he might never see San Francisco; sofeared the captain as well as his prisoner.

  Again it was the intrepid stranger and travelling companion who came tothe rescue. The captain's plan was "hatched" and carried out in a verylittle while. With a pair of handcuffs clasped on his wrists, and hisarms securely tied behind, the obliging stranger was led to the boat bythe hard-hearted captain, who handled this free-will prisoner veryroughly--while the guilty cattle-agent was slinking along withunfettered hands by the side of the captain's assistant, to whom he"stuck closer than a brother." Just as the captain was hustling hisprisoner on to the gang-plank, a policeman stepped from the crowd, laidhis hand on the man's shoulder, and, amid the cheering of the roughs andthe angry protestations of the captain, led him to the office of thenearest justice. The _bona fide_ prisoner in the meantime slippedunnoticed on board, and was taken out of the cold, and kindly cared foron reaching San Francisco, by the proper authorities, who had beensummoned to meet the boat, by a telegram from the captain.

  An excited crowd had gathered around the door of the office into whichthe stranger had been brought. The intense disgust of the roughs can bebetter imagined than described when their eyes and ears convinced them,very much against their will, that their benevolent purposes could notbe carried out, and that _this_ "prisoner at the bar" had neverabsconded with anybody's money. They listened in dogged silence to theman's declaration that, far from being restrained of his liberty, he hadcome with the captain "just for fun," and had worn the handcuffs becausethey were just an easy fit.

  "And what is your name!" thundered the enraged justice.

  "Henry Fitzpatrick," was the quiet reply, "merchant, from San Francisco.I fell in with the captain at Salt Lake, where I was stopping on my wayhome from the States; and as he's a mighty clever fellow, I thought I'dgo all the way with him. Sorry you detained us, gentlemen--we both hadurgent business in San Francisco."

  He went his way in peace, though the real sinner--the thievingcattle-agent--had never been in as much danger of coming to harm at thehands of these men as was this inoffensive person.

  The captain saw no more of him till a day or two after his return to SanFrancisco. Entering the store of his friend Taylor, to tell him of hissafe return, he was surprised to see the stranger, Mr. HenryFitzpatrick, in the counting-room. The senior partner greeted him with:

  "Well, well, captain, so you brought Harry home with a pair of handcuffson, after all! Allow me to introduce my partner, Mr. Henry FitzpatrickMcDonald."

  "Happy to meet you again, captain. It _was_ fun, wasn't it, though? ButI didn't think it was necessary to give those inquisitive chaps atSacramento the benefit of my full name. I did not want them to say, incase I should ever run for office, that 'McDonald had been led throughthe country with a pair of handcuffs on.'"