California -- Fiction; Western stories; Women pioneers -- Fiction
“A greaser!” exclaimed the Girl, uneasily. “Let me look.” And with that
she made a movement towards the window, but was held back by Johnson’s
detaining hand. All too well did he know that the Mexican was one of his
men waiting impatiently for the signal. So, with an air of concern, for
he did not intend that the Girl should run any risk, however remote, he
said authoritatively:
“Don’t go!”
“Why not?” demanded the Girl.
Johnson sat strangely silent.
“I’ll bolt the windows!” cried Nick. Hardly had he disappeared into the
dance-hall when a low whistle came to their ears.
“The signal--they’re waiting,” said Johnson under his breath, and shot a
quick look of inquiry at the Girl to see whether she had heard the
sound. A look told him that she had, and was uneasy over it.
“Don’t that sound horrid?” said the Girl, reaching the bar in a state of
perturbation. “Say, I’m awful glad you’re here. Nick’s so nervous. He
knows what a lot o’ money I got. Why, there’s a little fortune in that
keg.”
Johnson started; then rising slowly he went over to the keg and examined
it with interest.
“In there?” he asked, with difficulty concealing his excitement.
“Yes; the boys sleep around it nights,” she went on to confide.
Johnson looked at her curiously.
“But when they’re gone--isn’t that rather a careless place to leave it?”
Quietly the Girl came from behind the bar and went over and stood beside
the keg; when she spoke her eyes flashed dangerously.
“They’d have to kill me before they got it,” she said, with cool
deliberation.
“Oh, I see--it’s your money.”
“No, it’s the boys’.”
A look of relief crossed Johnson’s features.
“Oh, that’s different,” he contended; and then brightening up somewhat,
he went on: “Now, I wouldn’t risk my life for that.”
“Oh, yes, you would, yes, you would,” declared the Girl with feeling. A
moment later she was down on her knees putting bag after bag of the
precious gold-dust and coins into the keg. When they were all in she
closed the lid, and putting her foot down hard to make it secure, she
repeated: “Oh, yes, you would, if you seen how hard they got it. When I
think of it, I nearly cry.”
Johnson had listened absorbedly, and was strangely affected by her
words. In her rapidly-filling eyes, in the wave of colour that surged in
her cheeks, in the voice that shook despite her efforts to control it,
he read how intense was her interest in the welfare of the miners. How
the men must adore her!
Unconsciously the Girl arose, and said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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