Golden Graves [pp. 1-17]

Golden Graves.
should set in. Painfully I raised myself still
further; for want of any other signal, snatched
the blanket from the poor dead girl's body,
and waved it with all my strength; then fell
back fainting.
When I recovered, I found myself stretched
at full length in one of the wagons, upon
which the loading had been adjusted to make
for me as level a bed as possible. I was in
pain, but it was something to have recovered
my senses, and to know that I had been rescued from what had seemed certain death.
As I now groaned aloud in my return to consciousness, the pleasant, kindly face of some
one walking beside the wagon looked in, and
greeted me with a smile of sympathy.
"All right again, pard?" said the man.
"We found you almost gone, but I am a bit
of a surgeon myself, and have bound up
your knee as well as I could, and in a day
or two we may reach some place where it
can be better done. Don't speak now, if it
hurts you; but I will tell you how I think
the whole thing happened, and you can answer if I am not right. You had stayed too
long at the mine you and the boy-and
were trying to get out of it. That was so,
wasn't it?"
" Yes," I answered.
"And you would have got out of it, too,
if you hadn't happened to hurt yourself with
your own pistol, so as not to be able to go
any further. Wasn't that the fact?"
"Yes."
"And the boy-he was weaker than you,
and so he died first, only a little earlier than
you would have done, if we hadn't happened
to come along. Was he any relation to you?"
"None."
"Poor little fellow; it was hard on him
to die so, wasn't it? And I say, we buried
him just where he lay. That was right,
wasn't it? We had to do something; and
it was as pretty a spot as one could find for
miles around, perhaps. It wasn't as hard
work as you would have thought, for the
ground was kind of soft and loose, as though
it had been turned over before, though, of
course, that wasn't likely. We couldn't consult you about it, you know, for you were
out of your head; nor could we wait. But
it was all right, what we did, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
I turned my head away, and tried again
to sleep, and through the rest of that journey, once in a while, at long intervals, I
managed to do so. And so we plodded on,
until after three days we reached a settlement, and I was enabled to be lifted down
and lie by, awaiting in quiet whatever cure
could be effected.
What now remains for me to tell? That
everything was done for me that kindness
could suggest, but that, though my life was
saved, my injuries were too severe to be entirely repaired,-this scarcely needs recital.
And now I must always remain crippled,
and am very poor; doomed to go through
life, hopeless of anything better than to linger on, a useless wreck. But there was
the gold, you say? And why should I not
have taken it, needing it so much? For
what, after all, was Charley to me, that I
should have made the sacrifice for her?
All through that winter, when I lay suffering upon my back, I thought about that
treasure hidden in the lonely grave at Lokber Bar; and it tempted me in my dreams,
as well. I saw it lie there useless; gleaned
up by me, it would mean competence and a
restoration to my home and kindred. I had
given my word that I would not molest that
grave; should I always be able to resist?
Were it only Mark Sintley who lay buried
there, I knew that I would succumb. But
how-I reflected could I ever have the
heart to disturb poor little Charley, who in
her restful repose so close to him whom, in
spite of every indignity and wrong, she had
loved, seemed with her faithful presence to
be tenderly guarding him, and all the while,
with pleading eyes, to be gazing up at me,
in trustful reminder of my promise to her?
When the spring came, and I had painfully got again upon my feet, I started for
Lowber Bar. I did not then know what I
might be tempted to do when there. I only
knew that, as heretofore, I was being drawn
by an invisible impulse to the grave, and
must submit. When there, then the drama
16
[Jan.