Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1916 — GOLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GOLD

bu STEWART EDWARD WHITE

SYNOPSIS Talbot Ward’s challenge to Frank Munroe to a personal encounter to determine whether Munroe is fit to make a trip to California in search of gold is accepted. Munroe gets a hammerlock on Ward and Wins the bout. They choose the Panama route. Ward, It develops, is an old campaigner. On board ship they meet Johnny Fairfax and Yank Rogers. The four become partners. Arriving at Chagres, Talbot Wards knowledge of Spanish and his firm treatment of the native boatmen help wonderfully. The- party enters a tropical forest. CHAPTER V. The Village In the Jungle. THAT night we spent at a place called Pena Blanca, which differed in no essential from Gatun. We slept there in small sheds, along with twenty or thirty of our ship’s companions wedged tightly together. J*l dozen other similar sheds adjoined. We were all quarrelsome and disinclined to take much nonsense either from the natives or from each other. Also we needed and wanted food, and we had difficulty in getting it A dozen incipient quarrels were extinguished because the majority of the crowd would not stand for being bothered by the row. The next day was clearing, with occasional heavy dashing showers, just to keep us interested. The country began more to open up. We passed many grass savannahs dotted with palms and a tree something like our locust. Herds of cattle fed there. The river narrowed and became swifter. Along in the early forenoon we reached bolder shores in which the trap rock descended sheer beneath the sur-

face of the water. Directly ahead of us rose a mountain like a cone of verdure. We glided around the base of it and so came to Gorgona, situated on a high bluff beyond. This we had decided upon as the end of our river journey. To be sure we had bargained for Cruces, six miles beyond, but as the majority of our ship’s companions had decided on that route we thought the Gorgona trail might be less crowded. So we beached our boat and unloaded our effects and set forth to find accommodations for the present and mules for the immediate future.

At first there seemed slight chance of gettipg either. The place was crowded beyond its capacity. The Hotel Francaise, a shed and tent sort of combination with a muddy natural floor, was jammed. The few native huts were crowded. Many we saw making themselves as comfortable as possible amid their effects out in the open. Some we talked with said they had been there for over a week, unable to move because of lack of transportation. They reported much fever, and, in fact, w T e saw one poor shaking wretch, wistful eyed as a sick dog, braced against a tree all alone. The spirit was drained out of him, and all he wanted was 40-get back. While we were discussing what to do next our muslin clad ex-padrone, who had been paid and shaken by the hand some time since, approached smoking a longer cigar than ever. This he waved at us in a most debonair and friendly manner. “Bread on the water,” commented Talbot after a short conversation. "He says we have treated him like a brother and a true comrade in arms, which means that I did. Yon fellows, confound your spiteful souls, wanted to

thrr/w him overboard a dozen times. And now he says to follow him and he’ll get us a place to stay.” “Some native pigsty with fleas,” I remarked skeptically aside to Johnny. “You corn’,” begged the padrone, with a flash of teeth. We came bearing our household goods, because we could nowhere see any one to bear them for us. At that we had to leave the heaviest pieces on the beach. Talbot insisted on lugging his huge bundle of newspapers. “They may come in handy,” he answered us vaguely. “Well, they’re mine, and this is my back,” he countered to Johnny’s and my Impatience with such foolishness.

The padrone led up through town to the outskirts. There we came to a substantial low house of several rooms, with a veranda and veritable chimneys. The earth in front had been beaten so hard that even the downpour of yesterday had not appreciably softened it. To our summons appeared a very suave and courteous figure, that it appeared, of the alcalde of the place. “My fr’en’,” explained the padrone in English, for our benefit, “they good peepele. They wan’ estay. Got no place estay.” The alcalde, a portly gentleman with side whiskers and a great deal of dignity, bowed. “My house is all yours,” said be.

Thus, although arriving late, we stopped at the best quarters in the town. The sense of obligation to any one but our boatman was considerably relieved when next day we paid what we owed for our lodging. Also, had it not been for Talbot and Johnny, I am sure Yank and I would have taken to the jungle. There seemed to be required so much bowing, smiling, punctiliousness and elaborate complimenting that in a short time I felt myself in the precise mental attitude of a very small monkey shaking the bars of his cage with all four hands and gibbering in the face of some benign and infinitely superior professor. I fairly ached behind the ears ti*ymg to look sufficiently alert and bland and intelligent. Yank sat stolid, chewed tobacco and spat out of the window, which also went far toward stampeding me. Talbot and Johnny, however, seemed right at home. They capped the old gentleman’s most elaborate and involved speeches, they talked at length and pompously about nothing at all, their smiles were rare and sad and lingering—not a bit like my imbecile though well meant grinning—and they seemed to be able to stick it out until judgment day. Not until I heard their private language after it was all over did I realize they were not enjoying the occasion thoroughly. At dusk millions of fireflies came out, the earth grew velvet black, and the soft, tepid air breathed up from the river. Lights of the town flickered like larger yellower fireflies through the thin screen of palms and jungle, and the various noises, subdued by distance, mingled with the voices of thousands of insects and a strange booming from the river. I thought it very pleasant and wanted to stay out, but for some reason we were haled within. There the lamps made the low broad room very hot. We sat on real chairs, and the stilted exchange resumed. I have often wondered whether our host enjoyed it or Whether he did it merely from duty and was as heartily bored as the rest of us. A half naked servant glided in to tell us that we were wanted in the

next toord. We found there our gooa padrone and another, a fine tall man dressed very elaborated is short iack« et ana sut loose trousers, fan sewea with many silver buttons and ornaments. “He my fr’en’,” explained the padrone. “He harp dose, mulas.” With the gorgeous individual Talbot concluded a bargain. He was to furnish us riding animals at $lO each per

day and agreed to transport pur baggage at $G a hundredweight. The padrone stood aside, smiling cheerfully. “I ver’ good fr’en’, eh?” he demanded.

“My son,” said Talbot, with feeling, “you’re a gentleman and a scholar. Indeed, -I would go further and designate you as a genuine lallapaloozer!” The padrone seemed much gratified, but immediately demanded $5. This Talbot gave him. Johnny thought the demand went far toward destroying the value of the padrone’s kindness, but the rest of us differed. I believe this people, lazy and dishonest as they are, are nevertheless peculiarly susceptible to kindness. The man had started by trying to cheat us of our bargain; he ended by going out of his way to help us along. Having paid the alcalde, we sol forth. Our good padrone was on hand to say farewell to us at th,e edge of town. He gave us a sort of cup made from coeoanut husk, to which long cords had been attached. With these, he explained, we could dip up water without dismounting. We found them most convenient.

Shortly after we had left town and before we had really begun our journey in earnest we passed a most astonishing caravan going the other way. This consisted of sixteen'mules and donkeys under sole charge of three men armed with antiquated and somewhat rusty muskets. On either side of each mule, slung in a rope and plain to see. hung a heavy ingot of gold! Fascinated, we approached and stroked the satiny beautiful metal and wondered '".a on a road so crowded with tra' .e r . — r -i es su p.vcHnis a train su o f - . » *nl ”:sted to the three rn_ r ,od i «i *' ve>. nr? ous did this seem La, ">. • ,ins t, of the leader why it was a’.: n< “Whither would a thief i to How could be carry away tho.-e heart ingots?” the man propounded. Often around subsequent campfires we have in idle curiosity attempted to answer these two questions successfully, but have always failed. The gold was safe.-

We arrived in Panama In the afternoon, and we were all eyes, for here was a city taken directly from the pages of the “Boy’s Own rirate.” Without the least effort of the imagination we could see Morgan or Kidd or some other old swashbuckler, cutlass in teeth, pistols in hand, broad sashed, fierce and ruthless, rushing over the walls or through the streets, while the cathedral bells clanged wildly and women screamed. Everything about it was of the past, for somehow the modem signs of American invasion seemed temporary and to be blown away. The two story wooden houses with corridor and veranda across the face of the second story, painted in bright colors, leaned crazily out across the streets toward each other. Narrow and mysterious alleys led up between them. Ancient cathedrals and churches stood gray with age before grass grown plazas. And in the outskirts of town were massive masonry mins of great buildings, convent and colleges, some of which had never been finished.

We stopped over one day at the Fonda Americano and then, realizing that we were probably in for a long wait, found two rooms in a house off the main street These we rented from a native at a fairly reasonable rate. They were in the second story of a massive stone ruin whose walls had been patched up with whitewash. Outside the walls of the city was a large encampment of tents iff which dwelt the more impecunious or more economical of the miners. Here too had located a large hospital tent There was a great deal of sickness, due to the hardships of the Journey, the bad cllnjate, Irregular living, the overeating of fruit drinking, the total lack of sanitation. In fact only the situation of the city—out on an isthmus in the sea breezes —I am convinced, saved us from pestilence Every American seemed to possess a patent medicine of some sort, with which he dosed himself religiously in and out of season. A good many, I should think, must have fallen victims to these nostrums. Each morning regularly we went down to harass the steamship employees. Roughly speaking, some 300 of us had bought through passage before

leaving .New York, and It was announced that only fifty-two additional to those already aboard could be squeezed Into the first steamer. The other 248 would have to await the next Naturally every man was determined that he would not be left, for such a delay in such a place nt the time of a gold rush was unthinkable. The officials at that steamship office had no easy time. Each man wanted first of all to know just when the ship was to be expected, a thing no one could guess. Then he demanded his accommodations and had a dozen reasons why his claim should be preferred over that of the others. I never saw a more quarrelsome, noisy dog kennel than that steamship office. Why no one was ever shot there I could not tell you.

In the evening the main street was a blaze of light, and the byways were cast in darkness. The crowd was all afoot and moved restlessly to and fro from one bar or gambling place to another. Of the thousands or so of strangers we came In time to recognize by sight a great many. The journey home through the dark was perilous. We never attempted it except in company, and, as Johnny seemed fascinated with a certain game called Mexican monte, we often had to endure long waits liefore all our party was assembled. * One morning our daily trip to the steamship office bore fruit. We found the plaza filled with excited men, all talking and gesticulating. The much tired officials had evolved a scheme fgr dgciding which fifty-two of the 300 should go by Ibe first sliip.

By next morning the transportation official? had worked It out We could not all get into the offiee, so the drawing took place on the plaza outside. As each man’s name was called he stepped forward, showed his ticket and was allowed to draw slip from a box. If it proved to be a blank he went away: if he was lucky, he had his ticket vised on the spot Such a proceeding took the greater part of the day, but the excitement remained intense. No one thought of leaving even for the noon meaL Tank drew passage on the first steamer. Talbot, Johnny and I drew blanks. We walked down to the shore to talk over the situation. “We ought to have bought tickets good on this particular ship, not merely good on this fine,*’ said Johnny.

“Doesn’t matter what we ought to have done,” rejoined Talbot a little impatiently. “What are we going to do? Are we going to wait here until the next steamer comes along?” “That’s likely to be two or three mouths—nobody knows,” said Johnny. “No; it’s in six weeks, I believe. They tell me they’ve started regular trips on a new mail contract.” “Well, six weeks. If we stuy in this hole we’ll all be sick, we’ll bo broke, and in the meantime every ounce of gold In the country will have been picked up.” “What’s the alternative?” I asked. “Sailing vessel,” suld Talbot briefly. “That’s mighty uncertain,” I objected. “Nobody knows when one will get in, and when it does show up it’ll bo a mad scramble to get to her. There’s a mob waiting to go." “Well, it's one or the other. We can’t walk, and I don’t see that the situation is going to be much better when the next steamer does get here. There are a couple of hundred to crowd in on her, just counting those who are here and have tickets. And then there will be a lot more.”., “I’m for the sailing vessel,” said Johnny. “They come in every week or two now, and if we can’t make the first one we’ll have a good chance at the second or the third.” —. Talbot looked at me inquiringly. “Sounds reasonable,” I admitted. “Then we’ve no time to lose,” said Talbot decisively and turned away toward the tj>wn. —— Yank, who had listened silently to our brief discussion, shifted his rifle to his shoulder and followed. Shortly he fell behind, and we lost him. (To be continued.)

With the Gorgeous Individual Talbot Concluded a Bargain.