Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1881 — “AG OF NO GO. ” [ARTICLE]

“AG OF NO GO. ”

The deep little gorge was not a thoroughfare. A party of prospecting miners had found that out, in the early days, by walking to the end of the dark recess in the mountain; and before they turned back the place was named “No Go.” But gold was thereabout, and the stream that tumbled down from the height provided water for the delvers’ pans. Therefore “No Go ” became a bustling settlement, though it did not change its name to something indicative of its prosperity. A stamp-mill was being built, and machinery was beginning to take the place of men’s arms in the processes of mining. Some of the miners had deserted their cabins and taken to boarding at the Spread Eagle, a house made of planed boards, and containing a painted bar-room. Supper was over at the Spread Eagle, and the mistress, leaning her back against the bar and her elbows on it, carelessly faced a crowd of her boarders and others. A few of these rough residents of “ No Go” knew that her name was Agnes Brinkley, but the Brinkley was hardly ever heard, and the Agnes was in common usaffe shortened to Ag. She was not over thirty, and her face was not hideous. Her blindest friends could claim nothing further for her looks. She was six feet in height, her form was ungainly and muscular, her red hair was cropped like a man’s, and her coarse features were freckled and weather marked. Her heavy eyebrows were now lifted in surprise, for the barroom assemblage was not only larger than usual so early in the evening, but the men stood in a clump, .instead of sprawling over benches, chairs and tables.

‘ ‘l’d like to be told what ye mean by grinniu’ an’ sneakin’ round yer like a pack o’hungry wolves.” Agsaid; “Ye’ve had yer grub, hain’t ye?” The voice was harsh, but good-na-tured, and the rude words were understood by all to be joose. Her question brought a hesitant spokesman to the front. He went so far toward taking off his hat as to push it to the back of his head, and said: “It's this way, Ag. The boys has been a tliinkin’ as they’d like to give ye a kind o’ testi-moni-yal, ’specially sence ye had the bar-room painted. They feels yer public spirit. Wal, it’s come to a bead, an’ it’s out thar in the -wugin. W e did expec' to bring Jedge Low up from Pinkeyville to make a presentashing speech, but lie’s got a hung jewry in a hoss case and can’t come. So we’ll jes’ have it brung right in, without no more talk.” Some of the men went out and lifted a big mirror from a wagon in front of the house. They had trouble getting it through the door-way without scraping the gilt off the heavy frame. Ags face flushed when she saw it, which might have been taken as evidence of delight; but her suddenly lowered brows aud compressed lips would have svarned the company of an outbreak if they had not been too busy with the mirror to observe her. They leaned it carefully against the wall, crowding in front of oiie another to see themselves in it, and then turned toward Ag. Her black aspect drove the jollity out of their faces. The last time any of them had seen her look like that was when she broke a pitcher and the Pinkeyville champion’s head. “Stan’ aside,” the spokesman cried, with a brave attempt at hilahty, “an’ give Ag a view of herself.” They stiffly obeyed, eyeing the enraged woman. She seized a bottle of whisky by the neck with one brawny lnind and flung it with all her might at the mirror, shattering both plate and missile and spattering the beverage on the wall. “Thar’s my feelin's, fully expressed,” she said, replacing her elbows on the bar, swelling her broad chest and glaring at the astounded miners. “Hevin’ been insulted in my own house I makes a forcible remark. The frame’s left an’ ye kin tote it right out, er I’ll crunch it.” “Why, Ag—” the spokesman began. “I never made no claim ez I wasn't ez homely ez a hedgehog,” she interrupted, and her snort, bristling hair seemed to be like quills on the ugly beast mentioned, “an’ I knowed I was rougher’n the roughest of ye. Very well. Ye mus’n’t make no sport of my looks, however. Ye might o’ ’spicioned as I wouldn’t take no such joke. A glass for me to look in! Why, cuss ye, why didn’t ye have me photygraphed, an’ done with it?”

"I sw’ar we didn’t mean nothin’ oncivil, Ag— all the boys’ll sw’ar we didn’t.” The spokesman looked around for confirmation and support, and saw that those in the rear were breaking quietly for the door. It was plain that Ag was in a fury, and would not long control herself. Bottles and glasses were within her reach, and a knife and revolver were known to hang under the bar. A close observer of her character had described her as “hell on impulse.” In her pres ent condition she was extra hazardous. The ret/eat became a stampede when she threw out her arm toward the weapons, aud she was left alone. The re treaters came together under a shed a few rods from the Spread Eagle. High indignation was profanely expressed, and a proposition to mob Ag and burn her house was received with an enthusiastic “Hooray.” But a conservative voice said that she was not much to blame, taking the view of the matter that she did, and it was a good time for them to make an experiment in forbearance. “An'what in thunder would we do es the Spread Eagle was gone, an’ not another bar in No Go?” That remark presented a startling truth, and no more was heard about destroying Ag’s house. Then somebody laughed with an infectious “ha, ha,” and the woman’s exploit came quickly into favor as a piece of rare fun. This view of the matter prevailed when Billy Wilk, otherwise William Wilkinson joined the group. Billy Wilk was not too young to have a beard; his flannel shirt was as red and coarse as anybody’s, his long boots as heavy; and his soft hat as slouohy; yet he lacked some of the acoomplisments of pomjades, He pould apt |wsar at

glibly, he waa constantly lapsing into good English, and he could not drink the ordinary whisky of the town without a grimace. He had contributed to the giftmirror, and a fall account of its reception was given to him. “An’ what does Billy Wilk think of that ?” the narrator concluded. “Why, that Ag’s a woman, after all,” said Bifly, “and therefore sensitive about her personal appearance. What we want to do is to convince her that no joke was intended. Now isn’t that so, boys ?” Everybody said something that meant yes. “I move,” said one “that Billy Wilk be appointed a convincin’ committee. He’s the only camp that dar go into the Spread Eagle jes now, ’thout casin’ hisself in bilir iron. Oh, Ag won’t hurt him —we all knows she’s soft on Billy.” “Nonsense,” Billy interposed. “ ’Taint no nonsense, nuther. When Ag keeps a seprit bottle for Billy Wilk, jea’ ’cause he’s got a faint-hearted stummic, it’s a case o’ clear gone on Billy Wilk. So Billy’s the man to send in to squar us with Ag. Eh? Say ‘Aye,’if I’m talkin’ wise.” A roar of “Ayes” was decisive. Billy entered the Spread Eagle on his mission of conciliation. Ag had not changed her attitude in the slightest. Her back was still against the bar, and her sharply bent elbow rested on it for support. Her face was yet hard with anger, but tears was trickling down it, and she could not dash them away so quickly but that Billy saw them. • ~ , “ ,Val, Hilly Wilk,” she said harshly, “was you in the gang in makiu’ fun o’ me?” “I was with the boys in getting that glass up from Frisco, certainly,” he said; “but it wasn’t done for sport, at all. It was meant for a sober, serious testimonial. They hadn't the sligliest notion of a joke.” She took down a large lamp from the wall, thrust it close to his face, and gazed eagerly into his eyes. “See hyar, Billy Wilk,” she said, “if you will look me squar in the face and toll me so I’ll believe ye. Thar aint nothin’ I wouldn’t take on your word o’ honor, ’less you said I wasn’t the homeliest woman ye ever seed, an’ likely ye mouglit even make me think ye’d somewhar come across an onsightlier critter than I be, if ye tried. Ye never lied to me, f’illy. Ye never told me that ye cared a snap o’ yer Angers for me, cause yer don’t. That’s squar as a die. considerin’ that yer know l love every hair in yer head, Billy Wilk.” Billy had known it, as she said, but nothing of the kind had ever been spoken between them, and he did not find her blunt avowel comfortable to receive. “Oh, ye needn’t blush,” and she put the lamp back in its place. “I don’t, ’cause I ain’t ashamed o’ lovin’ ye. Es ye told me ye cared a durn fer me, then ye might blush, either for the first lie to the, er fer shame that ye fell in love with Ag, o’ No Go. Shake, Billy.” His hand though hardened by toil, was smaller than the one that gripped it. “We’re good friends at all events,” he said. “You kin bet; pards, if ye like, an’ thar’s no man in camp I’d rather jii; ban’s with.”

She took the only bottle of good whisky in the house from a drawer under the bar, half filled two glasses, clinked her own against his, and emptied it in half the time he was occupied in a similar occupation. “How are you gettin’ on with Runnel Dingley’s daughter Nell ?” Billy choked on the last swallow of his whisky, and Ag’s hand came down with a helpful thump on his back. “ I—Colonel Dingley—daughter jNell. ” he sputtered. “Them’s the biggest o’ the words. Take a glass o’ water. Ye didn’t think I know’d it. Swaller some more water. Thar ain’t a thing ye do, Billy—thar ain’t an ounce of gold dust ye lay by, or a headache ye have, or a button off yer clothes—that I don’t know it.. Did ye s’pose that gal’s photygrapli could be in your room an’ I not light onto it ? Be ye chokin’ yet ? Mebbe it’s emoshing makes you so red. Wal, I axed ye ’bout the gal.” “I’ve no objection to telling you, Ag.” He drummed on the counter uneasily, however, while she leaned over quite composedly from the other side. “I reckon lam in love with Colonel Dingley’s daughter, and I shouldn’t wonder if she’d guessed it; but that is all, upon my word. It isn’t strange that a fellow should let his heart go to the first pretty girl that come into a rough settlement like this; and she—well, Ag, her hair is so yellow, her eyes so blue, her cheeks so pink, her form so fragile, and altogether—,” “So different from the only other woman in No Go.” “I didn’t say that, Ag.” “Well, it’s a durned' sight more descriptive than what ye did say. Go on, Billy. ” ‘ ‘l’ve been doing some work for Colonel Dingley, you know, over at the new mill, and she’s in the office a good deal. That’s where I’ve met her, and—that's all there is of it.” He had no intention of telling Ag how Nell Dingley, during the two months she had been at No Go, had completely enthralled him; how she had at times seemed to invite him on, until he all but avowed his love, and again had repelled him with a sudden reserve. He did not fancy the mistress of the Spread Eagle for a confidant; but she was not to be put off. “That’s all there is of it?” she echoed, mockingly. “Be you a man? Have ye axed her to marry you?” “No.” “Then go straight as the Lord an’ a crooked path’ll let ye to the Runnel’s house, an’ put it to her fa’r and squar. Ye won’t? Then yer a fool. Wliar’s the gal as would say ‘No’ to Billy Wilk? I seen her a-lookin’ at ye t’other day, when ye warn’t awares, an’ she loves ye, Billy—jes’ as sure as I do, an’ mebbe jes’ as much. Off with ye, now—off with ye.” There were faces at the window. The miners had grown impatient, and were watching their ambassador in his conversation with Ag, though they could not hear it. One of them ventured to open the door. “Come in, Bantam,” said Billy, “and bring the boys, Ag understands it now.” “Wlioo-oop, hooray!” shouted Bantam.

The whole party crowded noisily into the bar room. “’Twas a misunderstandin’, and I apolygizes,” said Ag heartily. “What’s more, I sets ’em up. Ye can drink all ye want in the Spread Eagle twixt now and midnight, but ye can’t pay a cent. ” A yell and a wild rush to the bar was the unanimous response. In the midst of the hilarious uproar Billy Wilk slipped out, unobserved by any one except Ag, who was performing wonderful feats with glasses and bottles behind the bar. He went diretly to Nell Dingley. The carousal at the Spread Eagle surpassed all its predecessors. Probably the free bar was the cause of it. Not that the assembled gentlemen of No Go selfishly drank faster because there was nothing to pay; but the absence of finance confined the operations to liquor and facilitated them. In a single half hour the company was dead drunk, aud the rest were nqprly so, with two exceptions. Ag had drank an amount which to her was in effect nothing at all. The other sober person in the room was tall, lean, long-haired aud sallow. He did not show a miner’s clothes or manners. He might have been a gambler, or preacher, according to how the uninformed observer construed his closely ftbpreß fact, panger, aud

smooth garb. Why he was there he could not himself have explained. He had not drunk with the roysters, nor en tered in the least into the fellowship of their spree. The lack of any other way of spending the evening was probably the only explanation of his presence. The others knew him as Arnold Watts, an associate in some capacity of Col. Dingley in the mill enterprise, and their opinions differed as to the rumor that gave him the distinction of killing two men and wounding a third at a scrimmage down at Guillion’s Bar. Those who believed this story spoke of him with becoming respect; those who did not were occasionally insolent to his face. Ag watched him furtively, while seeming to be wholly engaged in emptying bottles into tumblers. He sat in a tipped-back chair, with his half-closed eyes idly following the antics of the men who were yet on their feet, and a glass of whisky untouched on the table beside him. When Billy Wilk returned, Ag saw that Nell Dingley had rejected him. She did not need to ask him whether the girl said “yes” or “no.” She paused in her work "involuntarily, because she was dumbfounded. That any woman could resist Billy’s wooing was beyond her comprehension. She covertly beckoned him to the bar, and poured from the hidden bottle, out of sight, a brimmer from the private stock. He caught up the glass and drank the whisky in gulps. Leaning across the bar. and closing her hands over one of his fists, she said: “She must be foolin’ ye Billy. Gals will amoose theirselves. Durn her white hide. ” “She didn’t fool me, Ag. ” And Billy was low, rapid and earnest in his speech. “She owned she loved me. There wasn’t a shadow of coquetry in all she did. I’ve had her in my arms, Ag—right a-top my heart, here —” “Thar—don’t mind that. What made her jilt ye? Skip the rest, an’ get to that. ” “Because she must marry the mar who sits at the table—Arnold Watts. Don’t glare at him—he mustn’t know what she’s told me. He’s the real owner of the mill, because he owns Colonel Dingly, and he demands the Colonel’s daughter for a wife. He carries in the belt under his shirt a note which the Colonel was somehow driven to forgo. So it’s prison for the father, or the altar .with the girl. It’s heaven’s truth, Ag, for she said so. Oh, I could kill the scoundrel. ” He turned from the bar toward Watts so ferociously, and spoke so loud, that even Bantam, who had been motionless on his back for ten minutes, sat up and stared. Ag was outside the bar in an instant, grasping Billy in her brawny arms, and forcing him to the door leading to the boarders’ rooms. “The pizen’s got to his top,” she said, forcing a laugh. “Thar’s the trouble with brainy chaps—they liaint got no capacity. He’s only fit for bed, an’ that’s wliar he’s gone. ” The onslaught was so unexpected that Billy was hustled into the passage before he had time to object, and if he had resisted he would have been no match for the woman who held him.

“Ye musn’t shout yer secret, Billy. What was ye thinkin’ on? Waggle to yer room, lock yerself in, and fergit whar ye put the key.” Billy obeyed mechanically, and Ag, after watching him to his door with a semblance on her rugged face of the tender expression which is the outward mark of a woman’s love, returned to the bar-room. The episode had not impressed the fuddled observers deeply, and they asked her no questions. Even Watts’ curiosity was not aroused. She eyed him closely for awhile until she was satisfied on that point. Then creases came between her eyebrows, and an ominous compreooion to her lipo. But wlifttovor she meditated, there was a lack of her accustomed impulsiveness. Folding her bared arms, sho apparently surveyed the company. The revelry of the survivors was too far along to be disturbed by her black scowling. Only Arnold Watts saw it, and he was soon aware that her eyes were gleaming at him. Her aspect alarmed liim, if it did not disturb his placid exterior, and he rose from his chair to retire. The whisky was still in the glass by his side. Ag strode across the room. “Be ye too proud to drink with the boys?” she cried. “Wall, I reckon nobody would touch the glass after ye—so the juice mouglit ez well be throw d away. ” She caught up the tumbler and daslied its contents into his face. He took the act for what it seemed—the wanton insult of a sudden bar-room foe who wanted a fight. Nor did the others discern any difference between her manner now and when they had seen her a freckless assailant on previous occasions. He paused an instant, as though hesitating to encounter a woman, and would have retreated if she had not gripped his arm and whirled him round. The spectators intuitively cleared a space. Sleepers were quietly poked and awakened. There was a moment of silent expectation. Then Ag’s right arm straightened out, and her fist reached his face with a loud “spat.” Instantly they were together, wrestling furiously, tramping heavily to and fro, knocking over chairs and tables, and writhing in each others’ locked arms. Then they flew apart, and for an instant stood panting and glaring. The woman was first to close agii «. Darting upon her antagonist, she wrenched him off' his feet, strained him across her hip, and flung him heavily to the floor. The feat hadn’t been easily done. The muscles in her arms had bulged like an athlete’s, and the cords had risen with the tension. She stood, with her bosom heaving and her wild face aglow; but only for an instant, for when Watts began to scramble to his feet she threw herself upon him, and bore him down again. ‘ ‘Give me the note ye’ve got it in your belt,” she hoarsely whispered; “the forged note—l know it is thar—or I’ll have your life. ” She whipped out a knife. He was not a coward. The gleam of the blade did not make him obey. But her knee was on his breast, aud her hand on his throat. She felt for the belt, and like a flash cut it through his clothes. To pull open the pocket required both her hands, and when the choking stopped, he cried out with an oath that she was robbing him. A terrific blow on his mouth prevented him from being understood by the excited spectators. The papers in the belt were torn out, and then, crumpling them into a wad in her hands, she let him get up. He staggered back, drew a revolver, and fired before any one could hinder. Ag clapped her hand to her side, and blood ran out on the papers. She turned unsteadily half way round, and fell on her face.

“Call Billy Wilk,” she said; “call him quick. ” Billy heard the shot and was already bending over her. “Here—here,” she continued in a whisper, “the crooked note is in this lot of papers. btick ’em in your pocket. Thar.” Arnold Watts undertook to slip out, but a dozen hands grabbed him. “I’ve got too much lead in me to ever git up ag’in, boys,” Ag continued, speaking with increased difficulty, “so, goodbye. Don’t bar no ill-will about the lookin’ glass. Come close, Billy.” He was holding her head on his knee. “Shake hands. I ain’t sorry fer what I’ve done, an’ not much for what’s happened to me. The gal’s vourn, Billy—God bless you—ye wanted the pretty critter, and 1 was bound ye should have her. Take care o’ that note, an' ” Billy felt the grip of her hand relax, but a smile stayed on her face uqtH she was dead, aud afterword,

Tliere was only one thing that conld possibly happen to Arnold Watts. He knew it so well that he did not utter a word of protest The drunken, and exasperated miners hanged him. The job was not as neat as though the accustomed tree had been used, instead of the empty frame of the big mirror; but they would not leave out that sentimental element, and Watts was the only sufferer by the bungling. —San Francisco Argonaut.