Camp and Travel in New Mexico [pp. 347-369]

Camip and Travel in Newz Mexico.
last night with us. To our surprise
Clark had forgotten his anxiety to meet
with old friends, and hung about camp,
acting uneasily. By and by he came to
us, and confessed that he knew no one
at Las Cruces, and had neither home
nor goal to steer for. This said, he
turned away and resumed a meditative
attitude beside the dead ashes of the
deserted camp. Meanwhile, Johnson
delivered his goods and sold a wagon,
and sent his teamster back with the
mules and harness, saying he would be
along himself as soon as he could make
a few purchases needed on his return
trip. The teamster had no taste for city
life and returned to us at once astride
one of the mules, saying that he had left
the other span standing on the plaza,
resting a leg at a time, while Johnson
laid in corn and the et ceteras.
Hour after hour we waited, and it was
near night when the driver spoke of returning to town to see if anything had
gone wrong with his boss, when we saw
the team coming, driverless. Whlen the
mules, unaided, had circled and put the
wagon where it stood the night before,
the teamster looked under the cover at
the back, and found Johnson lying flat
on his back, snoring loudly under fumes
of bad whisky. When aroused, Johnson came to our camp in a silly state,
pulled out a handful of greenbacks, and
boasted boyishly of his wealth. The
driver, having satisfied himself that the
money was safe, led his boss back to the
wagon to finish his sleep, and then unharnessed the mules and drove them
away to where the six others were feeding, a half mile off the road. He remained with them an hour, and drove
them in at dusk, made supper for himself and Clark, and as Johnson still
slept, he carried a cup of hot tea to the
wagon. The drunken man clambered
out, drank a little of the beverage, then
cast the cup and its contents high in the
air. The tea fell mostly in the fire,
shooting up a cloud of ashes: We were
watching them from our camp, never
having before seen the freighter intoxicated.
"I've got more money than anybody,"
we heard Johnson say, and Clark, who
had moved back a little to escape the
shower of ashes, drew his hat close over
his face as he sat with his hands clasped
over his knees.
The teamster was putting more brush
on the smoking coals, and trying to
blow it into a flame, when Johnson, fumbling in vain in his pockets for his wealth,
accused him good-naturedly of taking it.
"I did n't," said the man, looking up
into Johnson's face, "but I know it's
all right, as you had it when you come.
I see you put into your coat pocket, an'
there hain't been nobody about camp
since."
All immediately began a search for
the missing money, and after skirmishing around a while, Clark found a five
dollar bill hanging on a sage brush
about half way to our camp, and suggested that the money had blown away.
But as the wind was blowing from our
camp to theirs, the hired man rejected
the suggestion. Johnson came and
asked if any of his money had blown our
way, but we could not say that it had,
and he then concluded to sleep again,
and search for it by daylight.
Our mules needed shoeing, and we had
other repairs to be made, so in the
morning we drove into Las Cruces, and
camped where we could buy hay for our
mules. Clark followed us, and while
walking beside my team he told me that
he had not been moneyless, as he had
professed, but carried enough of a fortune with him to buy a pack and a saddle horse, and enough provision to take
him on to Texas with us. And to show
his appreciation of me, he wished to buy
me something. What should it be? A
horse and side saddle, or what?
"But you are not going to Texas," I
said; "and don't buy anything for me;
I have all I need or want."
1890.]
867.