The Puntacooset Colony, Chapters I-III [pp. 1-15]

The Puntacooset Colony.
and red shirt faced with black bands. This
simple costume, so unlike the ordinary constrained dress of a working man in the city,
gave something of a picturesque air to his
whole appearance, and even as he sat and
watched the blaze of his camp-fire, added to
the impression of physical completeness: an
impression that was vastly increased as,
after a moment, he arose, and exhibited his
whole person erect-tall, shapely, powerful,
and well-built; large of hands and feet, and
consequently not moulded after any weak
or girlish idea, but, still, attractive with its
suggestion and assurance of manly force and
resolution.
Having arisen from his resting posture,
Mark Redfern stood for a moment gazing
over the plain; then stooping, adjusted more
carefully the little pot of coffee that sinmmered upon the embers; then again straightening himself, advanced to greet a new
comer who leisurely sauntered forward from
a neighboring tent. A man of smaller and
less powerful build, more delicate in feature
— an older man, whom no one would have
called handsome, regarding him merely in
his physical development, but who bore upon his face the impress of superior education
and intelligence; exhibiting upon his whole
person, indeed, the marks of a higher social
position.
This man, at first strolling forth as though
uncertain in which direction to bend his
steps, quickened his pace slightly as he saw
that he was observed, and reaching forth,
cordially shook the hand of the other.
"A fine day again, Mark —a glorious day,
indeed, is it not?"
"It's always a fine day here till winter,
they say," was the answer, "and then we
have all our bad days together. But sit
down, Judge, do, and take a cup of coffee with me."
"For a moment only," replied the other.
"You see I have my own coffee bubbling
at the fire, and now that I am cook, I must
watch that the sticks do not give way and
upset the whole affair. For a moment, oply,
therefore. Well, Mark, and the mine —does
it begin to pay at last?"
" Too early to tell that, as yet," Mark
replied. "You see I have gone into the
deep mining, preferring the chance of a
splendid yield to the certainty of a small return from the shallow diggings. It will be a
week's hard labor yet before I touch the bottom rock and know my luck."
"And the chances?"
"Bad, I think. Yesterday the man on
my right finished his hole, and found nothing. The day before that, the man on the
left finished his, and likewise found nothing. So it is not very likely that a fortune
is stored away in the fifteen feet between;
is it?"
"In faith, no. I think, indeed that if I
were you, I would give up the place and try
some other."
"No; I mustn't do that, sir. For you
see, my work is already half done, and it
would be a pity to leave it. And after
all, the chances are not so desperate. These
pockets of gold sometimes stow themselves
away in very queer places. Four days ago
— your party had not yet come in, and so
you may not have heard about it —a Mexican knocked away the thin partition wall
between two abandoned holes and took
out fourteen pounds. And suppose I were
leave this place; where should I go,
Judge Markham? Don't you know that
every other place is already taken up and being worked? If our party had been a little
more prudent —"
"If you had gone out to buy the tobacco
in place of Ohio's Pride, eh, Redfern? You
would have kept a tighter rein upon your
tongue, I think."
"Not much doubt of that, of course,
Judge Markham. We had a fortune at our
feet, and in a minute it was taken away
from us by the foolish chattering of one man.
I suppose it is hardly worth while to think
about that now. In a week or so I shall
1887.]