COLONEL DERRINGER’S LUCK.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5390, 6 July 1878, Page 2 (Supplement)

COLONEL DERRINGER’S LUCK.

(From'the Saturday Journal )

You were talkin' of strokes o’ luck, stranger —and how they often come jest when you don’t look for ’em. I’ll tell you another fact to add to that air—they most alius come from where you don’t look for ’em, neither ! Seems to me. Mister, as luck is some way like golddingin’—you put inter, a spot whar- thar oughter be seven.ounces to the pan, and you find nary grain ; and then, again, you think the hull gulch is kinder played out, and all you kindew is to leave—when, all to once, kerchunk ! out roll the nuggets inter yer hands, jest like peas from a pod. Them's my ideas, and I know what I’m sayin’, you bet! for the biggest streak, of luck as ever I struck kim jest that air way. And this was how it kirn out, if you keer to hear it; — Mayhap you’ve heern tell of a location called “ Jeffcptt’s Pan,” ’way down in Nevada, whar one o’ them little rivers thet come down from the Sierra spreads itself out inter a broad shallow roach, with a sort o’ palmetto jungle on each side. It got its name fust from a chum o’ mine, Sam Jeffoott, of Denver, who was down thar prospectin’, for a likely spot—for ho was a reg’lar Gambusino (gold-finder). Wal, he rode on ahead of his party, and happened upon this hyar spot, and the minute he clapped eyes on it, he knew it for a hand as ’twar safe to bet on, and concluded to fix thar. But jest then some darned thievin’ Dog-In-jnns, who war loafin’ around, kim along, and went for him straight; so he put for a cave in 'the rocks, whar only one could pass at a time, and thar ho kep’ the doorway with his sixshooter all through till sundown, when his party kim" up and stampeded ’em. Bather gritty of old Sam, warn’tit? , ; Wal, when the news of that find fust got about, the boys a’.l kim around like flies on to a molfosea-jir ; for they knew that old Sara war bound to strike pay gravel wharever he chipped in ; and for a month or two the hull flat was as busy as a huskin’. And thar war some-big piles made in them fust days, yon bet 1 Seth Garratt of Carson fetched up seventeen hundred dollars’ worth at one heft, and lost it all at euchre the same night to a Portigee from Sacramento; But avter the fust rush the find got smaller and poorer, and the boys began to calc’late that the spot war played out, and that it war ’bout time to leave. And so they did—the hull kit on ’em. Now, jest about this time, thar war a gang of Chinees' a-loafin’ about, who’d come down from Frisco, and war snuffin’ around all the old gulches that had heeu given up-as had ; and arter a bit, when the boys had all cleard oat, they liim to Jeff cot’s Pan, and squatted thar. They did nobody a cent o’ harm, barfin’ bein’ the greatest liars and cowards in creation (and o’ course they can’t holp that, poor critters, soein’ it’s their nater’) but for all that they got into a very close place'at >re 1 long. For a Chinese down Westis like a flyin’ fish at sea—thar’s somebody reachin' for him, lothin>do what be will; and the boys thar war rather a rough lot—’specially them from Skunk’s Misery and Dead Dog Hole ; and. they made it kiud’r rough for them poor haythons, so they did. At fast they only played tun on ’em, sitch as pepperin’ ’em with; lumps o’ quartz, or tyiu' ’em together by the pigtails, and setting dogs at ’em ; but when the yaller-skius didn't .take the hint, and clar out, some of the roughest ’uns swore they warn’t a-goin’ to have a lot o’ Chinee skunks sneakin' round, lookin’ for gold whar they couldn’t find none ; and they touched hands all round that they’d go up to the Chinee camp, and jest make a clean sweep o' the hull con sarn. Now, jest about this time it. happened that me and Sara Jeffcott, and ’bout a dozen more, cum prospectin’ round agin, thinking’ that even if the Pan war played out, there might be other bits as good somewiiar about. And, sure enough, we struck gold a little higher up the stream ; and then Sam (who was a right smart man forseein’ a chance) heored o’ this Chinee lot, and concluded, as they seemed down on their luck, to buy’em all up cheap, and set’em adiggin’ for him; for he knowed his only chance war to clean out the place afore nows on’t got .around, and the hull settlement crowded in and spiled it. So down he goes into the Chinee camp, to have a palaver with them, and see how. they felt 'bout workin’ a spell for him. ,

• The yaller-faoes seemed friendly enough, but they all looked glum os a fog when they heerd whar the location war, sayin’ ’twar a sight too near Skunk’s Misery ; and then the hull story kim out—how the boys had warned ’em to maka tracks, and sworn to sweep ’em dean if they didn’t; and that they had no peace for ’em, and darn’t call their souls their own. When Sam heerd that, he looked as black as thunder, and says to me, “I ain’t a-goiu to havo nary skunk a-spiliu’ my game, not if he brought ten thousand more behind him. Jim, will you stand by me?” I said I would, and the rest all said they would; audwewar jist talkin’ over the job, when, all to once, In rushes a Ohinee all on eend, as if the Injuns were a’ter him, yellin’ “Man come? man come I”

! That they war, sure ’nnff—a good twenty - five on ’em, which was long odds agin’ our fourteen; for as to gettiu’ any fight outer them Chinees, you might as well expect a prairie dog to stand up to a grizzly b’ar. However, we got one breeze :o’ luck to start with —there waru’t nary rifle among ’em, and not many sixshooters' neither ; for ’spebtin’ to find nothin’ hut Chinees, they thought their picks and bowiea war 'nnff to make a clean sweep o’ the hull lot. ’ ' When they scon us tbar, they looked oonsidrable streaked; for they didn’t cal’elate on a new hand in the game. But Sam gave ’em no ’ time to think, but began on ’em at once ; for hemsed alius to say, that when you see a feller cornin' for you straight, there’s nothing’ like meetiu’. him half way: The foremost o’ the gang were big Joe .Harris and Calaveras, whom I knowed'right out for a bad ’urn ; and as he kim stridin' albiig, as if he’d tread us all down like grass, Sam steps out into .the middle o’ the clearin’ to meet him, and says : “ GonTmen, air you a-comiu’ to visit any one here 1 I calculate ycu don't know as this is our location, and your names ain't down iu our census, nohow you kin fix it I” Wal," says Joe Harris, “I guess we’vo algoin’ to i clear* out them Chinese skunks, thot's oum sneakin' round our camp ; and wo mean clearin’ ’em out, you bet I” “ Wal," says Sam, quite cool, “I guess them Chinees are my workmen; and whoever touches 'cm’s got to talk to mo fust,”

I’d got my Derringer ready cocked in my jacket-pocket (I’m pretty smart with it, you bet 1 And tbet’s why they call me “ Ounnle 1 , Derringer"); and the rainnit I heerd that, I : knowed ’twar time to begin. Joe swore an oath as big as a pumkin, and went for Sam with his bowie; but afore he could 'strike, I fired" through ■. the linin’ o’ my pocket, and fchrowed him plum in his tracks. Sam plugged another the next minnit; and then the skvimmage; began in earnest. A mad business it war, as ever I seen—no 1 order or sense—but jest every man puttin’ his knife into the fust thing as kim nigh him. We fired off our revolvers in too great a hurry, considerin' thar war n’t: time to load agin; and so it kim hand to hand, and the odds bein’ agin’ us, we war fast • goin’ inter the back settlements, when, all at-, once, crash ! smash ! down kim a showex* o’ great lumps o quartz, list as if they fell from heaven, knockin’ over the Skunk’s Misery boys right and left. While, we/war busy rubbin’ each other' out, the Chinese gang had fetched a compass behind the bushes, and so took the enemy in the rear. . Thar war at least fifty on ’em, all peltin’ away, like' a ’lection down South ; and, with them behind, and ns iu front, Harris’ lot began to find themselves in rather a close place. So then Sam Jeffcot steps forrad, and sings out, “Throw down yer knives, or you’re every man a gone coon ! ’ Down went the toothpicks, and the Chinese picked’em up. Then Sam goes on : “Now, jest make tracks out o’ this, and don’t, come back no more, or you’ll get yer sarce hotter’u you like ! Me and my pardner’s took this hyar location, and I’ll have fifty more men on’t it in a week’s time ; so you’d best leave !” This was rather tall talk, X swar; for, to save his life, Sara couldn’t’ ha’ put a man on the ground bacrin’ them that war already ; and one of them war dead, and another putty nigh it. But the boys swallered every word on’t, and war only too glad to git away, carryin’ their killed and wounded 'long with ’em. And when the fun war all over, an old wizened heathen, with a pigtail like a tow-rope, who seemed to bo the boss of the gang, got up and thanked Sara and me in the very tallest kind o’ and vowed that we war the greatest fighters in the world, swift as the wind, and terrible as the lightning—jest like a Fourth o’ July o-ration and he said, if ever he or his people could do anything for us, done it,should be, and no mistake. I only larfcd at'all his parly-vooiu’, thinkin’ that all ho could do for us wouldn’t fill the bag much ; hut X warn’t quite right thar neither, as you’ll see presently. Aud now, for a bit, everything went fustchop. We parcelled out the yaller-skins into : gangs, and put one of our boys over each, as overseer ; and I tell ye, we did get a right smart chance o* work outer ’em, yoif bet 1 They warn’t our match for strength, of course, as how should they be, fed on scraps and shavings, as ’most all on ’em air ? but I can tell ye they keep up a good long spell when they are at it, and cost next to nothin' for their keep. Why, that’Frisco railway-track of ourn war ’most all done by Chinee gangs, and that war how we done it so cheap. Many a time did Sam Jeffcott aud I, avter we’d got. through with our own work (for we worked like woodchoppers our own selves, let alone overlookin’ the rest), come and stand over the yaller-faces as ■ they. worked, aud we’d come out with a bit of a song that Sam had brought with , him from Sacramento (they tell me now it’s in a book thet’s a-ruqnin’ all over the States) — “ Then I looked up at Nyo,; . And he gazed upon me, And he rose with a sigh. And he said, ‘ Can this be ? We are rained by Chinese cheap labor And he went for that heathen Chinee.'’ The work they had jist suited our Chineses, took the pickin’ and shovelliu’, and breakin’ o’stones, 1 and Bitch —for they hadn't pith enough for that ; but the pan-washin’ war the very thing for ’em, and they stuck at it from moruin’ till night, spoonin’ aud shakin’ and dribblin’ away. And X can tell ye, they fetched up a right smart lot o’ the stuff, jist at fust ; for thia war one o’ them spots whar it all lies on tlie suffo.ee, and you’ve nothin’ to do but jist to skim it like cream. As to the Skunk’s Misery boys, they never troubled us no more arber the whippin’ we giv* ’em ; and «o, for a goodish bit, we felt as gnod -as a hungry nigger over a dish o' hog and hominy. So, as I said, we went on for a spell, skimming it like cream; but tho worst o’ that is,thet if ye 'skim long enough, the cream’s bouudto peter out, and leave yer nothin’ but skim milk to go on with. And jest so it war with us. One day our Chinees fotched up nary grain o* gold,- and I shook my head. The next day they fetched up nary grain agin, and Sam he shook his head. Tho third ’twav jest the same story, and wo both shook our heads. So Sara calls up all the boys we’d been overseerin’, and says to ’em : * “Boys, it feels to me as if this hyar camp war putty nigh* played out ; aud what I should do- if I war by myself ’ud be to pay off them yaller-skins of our’n, and let ’em go whar they like, and then jest pack up the dust, and make tracks for a new location. That’s how I feel. How does it strike you Wal, the boys all said it war jest their idee, and that they froze to their cap’n, let him go whar he would ; and the sooner wo made tracks the better. So we mustei’ed our yaller faces, ’and paid ’em off to the last cent; and. then wo found that their boss man, the old boy with the everlastiu’ pigtail, war nowbar to. be found.

’“Chet's a pity,” says Sam, “for he was a willin’ hand, though I didn’t quite swaller all that tall talk o’ his’n about doin’. Bitch great things for us. However, he’s sure to jine the gang agin somewhar, so I guss we’ll jest give them his money to take nave on.” Wal, off went the Chinese, the hull. kit oh ’em; and we that stayed behind fell to cipherin’ up our take, and sharin’ it out all round. Sam and I bed jest lied our supper and our nip o’ whisky, and war talkin’ over our pipes 'bout wiiar we should go next, when up gets somethin’ beside us like a ghost. I war jest agoin’ to let stripat it with my six-shooter, when Sam sings out, — “ Hold hard, Jim—blest if ’tain’t old Longtail kirn baok’ngin." ' So it war, sure ’miff ; and we war glad to see him, for it looked well his freeziu’ to us this way,’stead of skedaddlin’ with the rest. So, afore we’d let himopenhiahoatUosayaworil, we giv’ him a good blow-out with what war left o’ the supper, and then wo began jawin’ at him for raissin’ pay-day ; and Sam war jest atellin’ him that he shouldn’t lose by it, for we’d make it up to him somehow—wheu the old boy holds up bis hand ano stops him short; “ No talkea.about that, master—that little pidgeon ” (business) ; “no matter make. You no sabbee where me come from. What you thinkee this, eh ?” f

He held out something in his long yellow claw that sparkled in the firelight fit to put, your eyes out. Sam looked at it—gi’n a kind o’ half-whoop, 'chokin' it down as it came out —and then pulled a nugget outer his pouch, and held it close to the thing the Chinee had handed him.

“ Wal, your child whips mine all to fits,” says he, “ thar ain’t no denyin’ it; so, if you’ve gut any more o’ them curio's in the shop, trot ’em out, and I’ll make a bid for the hull lot." The old Chinoe only grinned till be showed all his black teeth at once, and brought out a : couple more as good as the first. Sam looked ; at ’em both alongside o’ his’n, and then slapped his hand on his thigh, and larfed loud enough to shake the leaves’off the trees.

“ Wal," says he, “if this don’t whip creation, I’m a Dutchman I I won’t play no more, old feller—l’m fairly euchred this turn. Wash yen mouth out with a nip o' the Old Bye, and tell -us whar you got them cards, and what you'll take for the hull pack I” The old feller grinned again, like a fox-trap, and then began to tell us, in his queer jargon, all about it. He said he’d gone down agin to Jeffcott’s Pau jest to look around, and see if thar war any sign of more gold to be got out , ou ’t when, as he was a-loafiu’ along a little stream thot fell inter the main river jest at thet p’iut, his knife slips enter his belt, and tumbles inter the water. Wal, ho marked whar it fell, and began scoopin' away with his pan to try and fish it up again ; when, lo and behold ! the very fust scoop fetched up that air fust nugget as he showed us; and the other two kim presently arter, as slick as if they'd bin.called for. 1 ' :

Wal, he didn’t think no more 'bout findin’ his knife, you hot I He jest put for our camp, hot foot, to tell ns the news; and ho said if we’d go back him, and turn that, stream outer its course (which war no great shakes of a job)i ! we’d - find . gold -that any placer (goldfield) in the Sierra warn’t a circumstance to ; and thet we war heartily welcome to all on’t, in thanks for stannin’by him agin the Skunk's Misery lot. - “ By Time I” says Sam, clappin’ him on the back, “you’re-a tarnation honest feller-—a darned sight honoater nor some of our own folk, I bet my boots I Come along, then, and we'll jest put the job through, right away ; and you shall have a lumpin’ share, whether we find much or whether we find little I” t So off wo went; stranger, and, not to make a ten-fathom yarn outer noth’, wo made aitch a pile thot all our last diggiu’ .warn t a patch ou’t. I won't tell yer what my share War, for ’fraid yor wouldn't believe wo; but

'twar big enough to save me the trouble ot ever puttin’ hand to pick agin ; and if you’ll come and see me when you get to Frisco, you’ll see I kin pay my way and somethin’ over. Now, it strikes me as thct war somethin' of an adventur’. How does it strike you? David Ker. .