Tracks Of A Rolling Stone by Henry J. Coke (free e reader txt) 📖
- Author: Henry J. Coke
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Again. After This The Kettle Was Never Robbed. Four Days
Later We Were Annoyed With Such A Stench That It Was A
Question Of Shifting Our Quarters. In Hunting For The
Nuisance Amongst The Thicket Of Wormwood, The Dead Wolf Was
Discovered Not Twenty Yards From Our Centre.
The Reader Would Not Thank Me For An Account Of The
Monotonous Drudgery, The Hardships, The Quarrellings, Which
Grew Worse From Day To Day After We Left Fort Laramie. Fred
And I Were About The Only Two Who Were On Speaking Terms; We
Clung To Each Other, As A Sort Of Forlorn Security Against
Coming Disasters. Gradually It Was Dawning On Me That, Under
The Existing Circumstances, The Fulfilment Of My Hopes Would
Be (As Fred Had Predicted) An Impossibility; And That To
Persist In The Attempt To Realise Them Was To Court
Destruction. As Yet, I Said Nothing Of This To Him. Perhaps
I Was Ashamed To. Perhaps I Secretly Acknowledged To Myself
That He Had Been Wiser Than I, And That My Stubbornness Was
Responsible For The Life Itself Of Every One Of The Party.
Doubtless Thoughts Akin To These Must Often Have Haunted The
Mind Of My Companion; But He Never Murmured; Only Uttered A
Hasty Objurgation When Troubles Reached A Climax, And
Chapter 23 Pg 123Invariably Ended With A Burst Of Cheery Laughter Which Only
The Sulkiest Could Resist. It Was After A Day Of Severe
Trials He Proposed That We Should Go Off By Ourselves For A
Couple Of Nights In Search Of Game, Of Which We Were Much In
Need. The Men Were Easily Persuaded To Halt And Rest.
Samson Had Become A Sort Of Nonentity. Dysentery Had
Terribly Reduced His Strength, And With It Such Intelligence
As He Could Boast Of. We Started At Daybreak, Right Glad To
Be Alone Together And Away From The Penal Servitude To Which
We Were Condemned. We Made For The Sweetwater, Not Very Far
From The Foot Of The South Pass, Where Antelope And Black-
Tailed Deer Abounded. We Failed, However, To Get Near Them -
Stalk After Stalk Miscarried.
Disappointed And Tired, We Were Looking Out For Some Snug
Little Hollow Where We Could Light A Fire Without Its Being
Seen By The Indians, When, Just As We Found What We Wanted,
An Antelope Trotted Up To A Brow To Inspect Us. I Had A
Fairly Good Shot At Him And Missed. This Disheartened Us
Both. Meat Was The One Thing We Now Sorely Needed To Save
The Rapidly Diminishing Supply Of Hams. Fred Said Nothing,
But I Saw By His Look How This Trifling Accident Helped To
Depress Him. I Was Ready To Cry With Vexation. My Rifle Was
My Pride, The Stag Of My Life - My Alter Ego. It Was Never
Out Of My Hands; Every Day I Practised At Prairie Dogs, At
Sage Hens, At A Mark Even If There Was No Game. A Few Days
Before We Got To Laramie I Had Killed, Right And Left, Two
Wild Ducks, The Second On The Wing; And Now, When So Much
Depended On It, I Could Not Hit A Thing As Big As A Donkey.
The Fact Is, I Was The Worse For Illness. I Had Constant
Returns Of Fever, With Bad Shivering Fits, Which Did Not
Improve The Steadiness Of One's Hand. However, We Managed To
Get A Supper. While We Were Examining The Spot Where The
Antelope Had Stood, A Leveret Jumped Up, And I Knocked Him
Over With My Remaining Barrel. We Fried Him In The One Tin
Plate We Had Brought With Us, And Thought It The Most
Delicious Dish We Had Had For Weeks.
As We Lay Side By Side, Smoke Curling Peacefully From Our
Pipes, We Chatted Far Into The Night, Of Other Days - Of
Cambridge, Of Our College Friends, Of London, Of The Opera,
Of Balls, Of Women - The Last A Fruitful Subject - And Of The
Future. I Was Vastly Amused At His Sudden Outburst As Some
Start Of One Of The Horses Picketed Close To Us Reminded Us
Of The Actual Present. 'If Ever I Get Out Of This D-D Mess,'
He Exclaimed, 'I'll Never Go Anywhere Without My Own French
Cook.' He Kept His Word, To The End Of His Life, I Believe.
It Was A Delightful Repose, A Complete Forgetting, For A
Night At Any Rate, Of All Impending Care. Each Was Cheered
And Strengthened For The Work To Come. The Spirit Of
Enterprise, The Love Of Adventure Restored For The Moment,
Believed Itself A Match For Come What Would. The Very
Animals Seemed Invigorated By The Rest And The Abundance Of
Chapter 23 Pg 123Rich Grass Spreading As Far As We Could See. The Morning Was
Bright And Cool. A Delicious Bath In The Sweetwater, A
Breakfast On Fried Ham And Coffee, And Once More In Our
Saddles On The Way Back To Camp, We Felt (Or Fancied That We
Felt) Prepared For Anything.
That Is Just What We Were Not. Samson And The Men, Meeting
With No Game Where We Had Left Them, Had Moved On That
Afternoon In Search Of Better Hunting Grounds. The Result
Was That When We Overtook Them, We Found Five Mules Up To
Their Necks In A Muddy Creek. The Packs Were Sunk To The
Bottom, And The Animals Nearly Drowned Or Strangled. Fred
And I Rushed To The Rescue. At Once We Cut The Ropes Which
Tied Them Together; And, Setting The Men To Pull At Tails Or
Heads, Succeeded At Last In Extricating Them.
Our New-Born Vigour Was Nipped In The Bud. We Were All
Drenched To The Skin. Two Packs Containing The Miserable
Remains Of Our Wardrobe, Fred's And Mine, Were Lost. The
Catastrophe Produced A Good Deal Of Bad Language And Bad
Blood. Translated Into English It Came To This: 'They Had
Trusted To Us, Taking It For Granted We Knew What We Were
About. What Business Had We To "Boss" The Party If We Were
As Ignorant As The Mules? We Had Guaranteed To Lead Them
Through To California [!] And Had Brought Them Into This
"Almighty Fix" To Slave Like Niggers And To Starve.' There
Was Just Truth Enough In The Jeremiad To Make It Sting. It
Would Not Have Been Prudent, Nay, Not Very Safe, To Return
Curse For Curse. But The Breaking Point Was Reached At Last.
That Night I, For One, Had Not Much Sleep. I Was Soaked From
Head To Foot, And Had Not A Dry Rag For A Change. Alternate
Fits Of Fever And Rigor Would Alone Have Kept Me Awake; But
Renewed Ponderings Upon The Situation And Confirmed
Convictions Of The Peremptory Necessity Of Breaking Up The
Party, Forced Me To The Conclusion That This Was The Right,
The Only, Course To Adopt.
For Another Twenty-Four Hours I Brooded Over My Plans. Two
Main Difficulties Confronted Me: The Announcement To The
Men, Who Might Mutiny; And The Parting With Fred, Which I
Dreaded Far The Most Of The Two. Would He Not Think It
Treacherous To Cast Him Off After The Sacrifices He Had Made
For Me? Implicitly We Were As Good As Pledged To Stand By
Each Other To The Last Gasp. Was It Not Mean And Dastardly
To Run Away From The Battle Because It Was Dangerous To Fight
It Out? Had Friendship No Claims Superior To Personal
Safety? Was Not My Decision Prompted By Sheer Selfishness?
Could Anything Be Said In Its Defence?
Yes; Sentiment Must Yield To Reason. To Go On Was Certain
Death For All. It Was Not Too Late To Return, For Those Who
Wished It. And When I Had Demonstrated, As I Could Easily
Do, The Impossibility Of Continuance, Each One Could Decide
For Himself. The Men Were As Reckless As They Were Ignorant.
Chapter 23 Pg 124However They Might Execrate Us, We Were Still Their Natural
Leaders: Their Blame, Indeed, Implied They Felt It. No
Sentimental Argument Could Obscure This Truth, And This
Conviction Was Decisive.
The Next Night And The Day After Were, From A Moral Point Of
View, The Most Trying Perhaps, Of The Whole Journey. We Had
Halted On A Wide, Open Plain. Due West Of Us In The Far
Distance Rose The Snowy Peaks Of The Mountains. And The
Prairie On That Side Terminated In Bluffs, Rising Gradually
To Higher Spurs Of The Range. When The Packs Were Thrown
Off, And The Men Had Turned, As Usual, To Help Themselves To
Supper, I Drew Fred Aside And Imparted My Resolution To Him.
He Listened To It Calmly - Much More So Than I Had Expected.
Yet It Was Easy To See By His Unusual Seriousness That He
Fully Weighed The Gravity Of The Purpose. All He Said At The
Time Was, 'Let Us Talk It Over After The Men Are Asleep.'
We Did So. We Placed Our Saddles Side By Side - They Were
Our Regular Pillows - And, Covering Ourselves With The Same
Blanket, Well Out Of Ear-Shot, Discussed The Proposition From
Every Practical Aspect. He Now Combated My Scheme, As I
Always Supposed He Would, By Laying Stress Upon Our Bond Of
Friendship. This Was Met On My Part By The Arguments Already
Set Forth. He Then Proposed An Amendment, Which Almost Upset
My Decision. 'It Is True,' He Admitted, 'That We Cannot Get
Through As We Are Going Now; The Provisions Will Not Hold Out
Another Month, And It Is Useless To Attempt To Control The
Men. But There Are Two Ways Out Of The Difficulty: We Can
Reach Salt Lake City And Winter There; Or, If You Are Bent On
Going To California, Why Shouldn't We Take Jacob And Nelson
(The Canadian), Pay Off The Rest Of The Brutes, And Travel
Together, - Us Four?'
Whether 'Das Ewig Wirkende' That Shapes Our Ends Be
Beneficent Or Malignant Is Not Easy To Tell, Till After The
Event. Certain It Is That Sometimes We Seem Impelled By
Latent Forces Stronger Than Ourselves - If By Self Be Meant
One's Will. We Cannot Give A Reason For All We Do; The
Infinite Chain Of Cause And Effect, Which Has Had No
Beginning And Will Have No End, Is Part Of The Reckoning, -
With This, Finite Minds Can Never Grapple.
It Was Destined (My Stubbornness Was None Of My Making) That
I Should Remain Obdurate. Fred's Last Resource Was An
Attempt To Persuade Me (He Really Believed: I, Too, Thought
It Likely) That The Men Would Show Fight, Annex Beasts And
Provisions, And Leave Us To Shift For Ourselves. There Were
Six Of Them, Armed As We Were, To Us Three, Or Rather Us Two,
For Samson Was A Negligible
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