CHAPTER IX
THE TESTIMONY OF BILL UGGER
Sacramento City at that date had a rude but effective government of itsown. An alcalde and other city officers had been elected; and certainunwritten laws, for the protection of life and property, had beenpromulgated and were strictly enforced. Lynching, in the sense that weknow it to-day, was almost unknown. There were no disorderly mobs, who,under the spurs of their own brutal passions, strung up their victimsunheard and without even the semblance of a fair trial. Justice, ifsudden, was usually careful to see that it was justice and not brutalitythat rendered the verdict. And yet, many of these early trials had theoutward semblance of lynching-bees in the swift severity of theirpunishments. A murderer would be arrested, tried, convicted, anddecently hanged, all before sundown of the same day. The mob spirit wasthere, but usually held in check by the sturdy manhood of the Americanminers, who had nearly all come from law abiding and law respectingcommunities.
This swift severity of Justice was, in a sense, compelled by theunusual, the almost unprecedented conditions surrounding life in a cityborn suddenly in a wilderness. There were few locks and bars and bolts,or, even, doors, in Sacramento City at that time; and large sums in goldand great values in goods were often left exposed and almostunprotected. The thief, under such circumstances, had to be dealt withseverely and promptly; or the property of no one would be safe. Therewere no regularly established courts in the city to try criminals, nowritten code of laws to dictate methods of procedure, no court officialsto enforce mandates, and no safe jails in which to confine prisoners.Under such circumstances the people had to form their own courts, maketheir own laws, and see that they were enforced; or have no laws; andthe criminal had to be dealt with summarily. The thief was sometimeswhipped, or, even, cropped, that is his ears were cut off, and he wasalways driven from the city, and warned not to come back under penaltyof death. The murderer, when proven guilty to the satisfaction of thepeople, was always hanged. No prisoners were held. They were provenguilty and sentence pronounced and executed at once; or they were setfree.
Such was Sacramento City in 1849, the Sacramento City in which Thure andBud now found themselves under arrest for the horrible crime of murder,the most serious crime that can be charged against a human beinganywhere, but rendered especially serious in the present case by thepeculiar surrounding circumstances. In all the city, so far as eitherboy knew, they did not have a friend, or even an acquaintance, who couldvouch for them--and yet, before the sun set that night, they must provethemselves innocent of the crime charged, or, in all human probability,be hanged!
The alcalde's office was small, only a few of the great crowd of men whohad followed the sheriff and his prisoners could get inside of it; and,when the alcalde saw the size of the gathering outside of his office andlearned the serious nature of the charge against the two boys, he atonce ordered the "court" to be held under the big oak in thehorse-market, where there would be room for all to see and hear howjustice was dispensed. Accordingly all started at once for thehorse-market, situated near the bottom of K Street, where an immenseevergreen oak stood in the middle of the street, furnishing an agreeableshade for many feet around and a fittingly picturesque scene for theholding of such a trial as was about to take place.
The method of procedure, on arriving at the horse-market, was simple buteffective. The alcalde took his station near the trunk of the great oak,and summoned the prisoners and their accusers before him, while thecrowd gathered in a grim and stern-faced circle around this improvisedcourtroom.
"What is the crime the prisoners are charged with?" and the alcaldeturned to the sheriff.
"Murder!" answered the sheriff briefly.
"Who makes the accusation?"
"Those two men standing there," and the sheriff indicated the bigred-headed man with the broken nose and the small man with thepock-marked face, who now stood just behind the sheriff and his twoprisoners.
"Stand forth by the side of the prisoners," commanded the alcalde.
The two men shuffled awkwardly forward and stood uneasily by the side ofThure and Bud, their eyes shifting restlessly from the face of thealcalde to the faces of the surrounding crowd.
For a couple or more minutes the alcalde studied the faces of the twoboys and the faces of their two accusers in silence. Evidently he wasendeavoring to form an opinion of the characters of the prisoners andtheir accusers; but, what that opinion was, his face did not betray.
"Why do you accuse these two young men of murder?" and the alcaldesuddenly fixed his eyes upon the face of the man with a broken nose.
"Because I seen 'em do it," answered the man. "Me an' my pard, Spike,seen 'em do it. Ask him," and he turned to the small man, who stoodclose by his side.
"And you are both willing to make oath that you saw these two young men,who are little more than boys, commit the awful crime of murder?" thealcalde continued.
"Yes," promptly responded both men.
"Then, may God have mercy on your souls, if the accusations are false!What have you to say to the accusation? Guilty; or, not guilty?" and thealcalde turned abruptly to Thure and Bud.
"Not guilty," answered Thure, his face very white. "We--"
"That will do for the present," interrupted the alcalde. "Gentlemen, howshall the case be tried?" and he turned to the surrounding crowd ofstern-faced men.
"Give 'em a jury, an' git a-goin'," called a rough voice impatiently.
"Do you wish a trial by jury?" and again the alcalde turned to Thure andBud.
"Yes," answered both boys.
"The trial will be by jury," announced the alcalde. "I summon to act asthis jury," and his eyes searched the circle of surrounding faces, as heslowly called out the names of twelve men, who, as their names werecalled, stepped forth and took their stations by the side of the alcaldeand in front of the prisoners and their accusers.
When the twelve jurymen had been selected, all were solemnly sworn bythe alcalde to render a true and just verdict, according to the evidencepresented; and the trial of Thure and Bud for the murder of JohnStackpole, the miner, was ready to begin.
During all this time Thure and Bud had been doing some very serious andsome very rapid thinking. At first the suddenness and the unexpectednessof the rush of men upon them in the busy street, followed so swiftly bytheir arrest and the dreadful accusations of the two men, whom they hadevery reason to believe had committed the crime themselves, had almostcompletely benumbed their faculties; but this condition of mind hadlasted only a short time, and long before they reached the place oftrial their minds were busy with the dreadful problem of how to provethemselves innocent of the crime charged, when two men were ready toswear that they saw them commit the crime, and when they did not have,could not have, a single witness who could swear to the truthfulness oftheir statements concerning the miner's death. No one but themselves hadseen him die; and, so far as they knew, no one but themselves and theiraccusers knew the cause of his death. If they only had time to sendhome--But, even if they had witnesses from home, what could they prove?Only that the two boys had brought the dead miner home and had buriedhim; and that would be no proof that they had not killed him andinvented the story of the two robbers.
True, on their side, they could accuse the two men of committing themurder themselves; but they had no positive proofs that they were guiltyof the crime, only the description of his assailants given them by thedying miner. There might be other men with broken noses and pock-markedfaces. All that they could swear to of their own knowledge was that oneof the men they had seen murdering the old miner was larger than theother. They had not got near enough to the murderers to be able torecognize them again, even if they should see them, except by thedescription given by the murdered man. And for them to accuse the twomen, who had caused their arrest, of the murder, in itself would looksuspicious to those who did not know the real facts and would have atendency to make them doubt their whole story of the death of the miner.
Then there was anoth
er matter that troubled the two boys greatly. Whyhad the two men accused them thus publicly of the murder of the miner?Why had they run this risk of turning suspicion against themselves? Theymust feel very certain that the "evidence" they would produce wouldconvict; or, they never would have dared to have chanced accusing themof the crime; for their acquittal would be almost sure to turn suspicionin their own direction. True, there was the skin map, and, possibly, theaccusation was some scheme to get the map into their possession; but,how could their hanging bring this about? If they were hanged, the mapand its meaning would be almost sure to be made public; and then everyman in Sacramento City would have as good a chance of finding the Caveof Gold as would the two scoundrels themselves, a condition of thingsthat both boys felt quite sure the two men were exceedingly anxious toavoid, and the map itself would be almost certain to be kept from them.
Then, again, the possession of the skin map itself was the cause of thegravest anxiety and dread. If they confessed to its possession it wouldreveal to all the secret of the Cave of Gold, something that they werealmost ready to give their lives to prevent, and would not help theircase in the least. Indeed, under the circumstances it would, probably,be considered the strongest possible circumstantial evidence of theirguilt.
But, what if the alcalde should order them searched and the map befound? Or, what if the two men, becoming desperate, should ask that theybe searched, to see if anything that belonged to the miner could befound in their possession, and the buckskin bag and the gold nugget andthe skin map should all be discovered in their place of concealmentunder Thure's left shoulder?
When the two horns of a dilemma are both equally long and sharp, how,then, can the peril be avoided?
Indeed, the longer and the closer Thure and Bud looked at theirsituation, the more dreadful and impossible of remedy it appeared. Howcould they prove their innocence, when they did not have a singlewitness to appear in their defense? How could their youth andinexperience, friendless and alone, hope to combat successfully with thecunning and the experience of these two unprincipled men, who would stopat nothing to accomplish their ends? But, they were not the kind of boysto give up a fight for life, as long as they could strike back; and themore difficult their situation appeared, the more grimly determined theybecame to win out somehow, or, at least, to die fighting.
"Not a word of the skin map and the Cave of Gold," hastily warned Thurein a whisper to Bud, as the alcalde, having completed the tale of thejury, again turned to them. "Tell everything just as it happened, butthat. The telling of that would not help us a bit; and, if it were knownthat we had a map and a gold nugget that had belonged to the miner, itwould look suspicious and might hurt us a lot; and we don't want to giveaway the Cave of Gold, not if we can help it."
"Right," whispered back Bud. "It's got to be our word against the wordof those two cowardly villains, I reckon," and he glared furiously inthe direction of the two men. "We've just got to beat them some way,"and his young face grew grim and stern.
By this time the jurymen had all seated themselves comfortably on theground on both sides of the alcalde, and were ready to hear thetestimony.
"You may step forward and be sworn," and the alcalde's eyes signaled outthe big man with a broken nose.
The man stepped up in front of the alcalde, who sat on a stump, with abarrel standing on end in front of him and an old worn Bible lying ontop of the barrel.
"Hold up your right hand," commanded the alcalde, his keen eyes fixingthemselves sternly on the red, brutal face; "and repeat the oath afterme."
The man's right hand went up with a sort of spasmodic jerk.
"I do solemnly swear," began the alcalde slowly, "that the testimony Iam about to give in the case now before the court, shall be the truth,the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and may God eternally damnmy soul, if I knowingly utter a false word."
Hesitatingly and with a whitening face, the man slowly repeated thisoath.
"Kiss the Bible," commanded the alcalde; "and may God blister the lipsthat have touched His holy book, if they suffer a false word to passbetween them."
The man hesitated a moment: and then, at a muttered objurgation from hiscompanion, he bent and hastily pressed his lips against the cover of theholy book.
"What is your name and business?" In this rude and informal court thealcalde not only acted as judge, but also examined all witnesses.
"William Ugger, Bill Ugger, for short," answered the man, his eyesshifting restlessly from face to face as he spoke. "Me an' my pard arebound for th' diggin's."
"Now, remembering that you have sworn to speak nothing but the truth andthat your lips have just kissed the holiest of books, you may tell thejury and the people here assembled what you know of this alleged murderof the miner, John Stackpole. Be as brief as possible, please," and thealcalde's eyes, as well as the eyes of every man gathered there,fastened themselves on the face of Bill Ugger.
"Wal," and the shifting eyes fixed themselves for a few brief moments onthe ground in front of the big feet, "it happened like this. Me an' mypard, Spike, thar," and he nodded toward his companion, "was on our wayfrom San Francisco tew Sacramento City an' th' diggin's a-hossback.Somehow we happened tew git off th' reg'lar trail, me an' Spike did; an''long 'bout noon, three days ago, we comed tew a leetle valley, with aleetle stream of water a-runnin' through it, an' a string of trees an'brush a-growin' 'longside th' water. Both on us bein' tired, we'd bena-goin' since sun-up, we found a nice shady spot 'longside th' water,an', tyin' our hosses tew th' trees, both on us laid down for a shortsnooze. Course I don't know how long we'd ben a-snoozin', but, I reckon,'twas 'bout a couple of hours, when we was both jerked out of a soundsleep by a yell of agony that sounded as if it comed from a man what hadben struck a mortal blow. Nat'rally that yell startled me an' Spike sum,bein' that we both had been sound asleep; an', maybe, for a minute wesot a-lookin' intew each other's eyes, doin' nuthin'. Then Spike says:'Sounded human, Bill. Like sumone had got his,' an' I seed that he wasa-shiverin'; for 'tain't none pleasant tew be waked out of a sound sleepby th' death-cry of a human. 'An' it sounded as if it comed from rightayond that leetle clump of bushes,' an' he pointed a shakin' fingertoward a leetle clump of bushes, 'bout a rod away, that shut out ourview of th' valley. 'I reckon we'd better investergate,' an' we bothbegan a-crawlin' toward that clump of bushes, not havin' heard no moresounds.
"Wal," and the shifty eyes shot swift glances from the face of thealcalde to the faces of the jury and the surrounding crowd, to note theeffect of his words, "when we got tew them bushes an' looked through'em--" He paused and laid a hand solemnly on the Bible lying on top ofthe barrel in front of the alcalde--"so help me God! this is what wesaw. Th' valley in front of th' bushes was level an' open, so that wecould see clear 'cross it; an', 'bout twenty rods from whar we was, wesaw a man strugglin' violently on th' ground with two other men atop ofhim, while three hosses stood a leetle ways off a lookin' at 'em; an',even as we looked, we saw one of th' men flash a knife above his headan' plunge it down, an' th' man on th' ground stopped strugglin'.
"This was a leetle more'n Spike an' I was a-willin' tew stand for, an'we both jumps up out of th' bushes, an', drawin' our pistols, we had norifles, we yells an' starts for them two men. Both on 'em jumps tewtheir feet, an' grabs up their rifles, an', afore you could say Jack,they had th' both on us covered, we not bein' near enough tew useour pistols. But we was close enough tew see 'em plain; an', aforeGod!--" The man stopped abruptly and, whirling suddenly about, pointeda finger dramatically directly into the face of Thure--"it was that youngvillain a-standin' thar what had his gun a-pointin' straight at me!"
Thure, in utter astonishment, took a quick step backward; and then,suddenly realizing what that pointing finger meant, backed by thosestartling words, he lost all control of himself for the moment andleaped straight toward Bill Ugger.
"It's a lie! A lie!" he yelled, as with all his young strength hestruggled furiously with the great bulk of his antagonist. But, beforeeithe
r could do the other any harm, the strong hands of the sheriffseized Thure by the shoulders.
"Here, you young catamount!" and he jerked Thure violently backward, andlifted the butt of his heavy revolver threateningly, while his facehardened. "Quit it, or--" and the heavy butt descended lightly onThure's head by way of warning.
"But he lied! Every word that he uttered was a lie!" and tears of ragegathered in Thure's eyes.
"Young man," the alcalde was now standing on his feet, all the sympathygone from his face, "you will give me your word of honor not in any wayagain to do violence to the decorum of this court during this trial, orI shall order the sheriff to bind you hand and foot. Do I have yourpromise?" and he fixed his eyes sternly on the white face of Thure.
For a moment Thure stood silent. Then his young face hardened and hislips tightened into two thin straight lines. Reason again had firm holdof the helm.
"I promise," he answered quietly; "and I ask the court's pardon for myviolent action. But the damnable lies told by that--"
"That will do," interrupted the alcalde. "Sheriff, if either of theprisoners forgets himself or our presence again, bind him hand and foot.Now," and he turned to Bill Ugger, who, as soon as Thure had been tornfrom him, had again returned quietly to his place before the officialbarrel, his red face flushed and his little eyes shining with triumph,"you may go on with your testimony, William Ugger. You were saying thatyou recognized one of the prisoners as one of the murderers and that hehad you covered with his rifle. Remembering your oath and comprehendingfully what your dreadful accusation means to a fellow human being, youstill swear that the man who sprang up from the prostrate body andleveled his rifle at you was this prisoner?" and the alcalde's liftedhand indicated Thure.
The interest of the crowd surrounding the court had by this time becomeintense. Men were breathing heavily and their faces had hardened and anugly look had come into their eyes. All now stretched their headsforward, as they listened almost breathlessly for the reply of BillUgger.
"I do," answered the man grimly. "I saw his face plain, a-lookin' at meabove th' top of his rifle."
A deep growl went up from the surrounding crowd, a sound more like thethroat mutterings of a monstrous tiger than anything human. The sheriffstarted and his keen eyes swiftly searched the circle of faces.
"I reckon thar ain't no need of waitin' for more testimony," cried ahoarse voice. "They was seen killin' th' man; an' that's all we wantstew know. Let jedgement be pronounced, an' we'll 'tend tew th' ex'cutin'of it."
"Right!" yelled another. "There's no need of wasting more--"
"Silence!" thundered the alcalde, leaping to his feet. "This court, acourt elected by your own authority, is trying the prisoners; and, bythe Eternal Andrew Jackson! they shall not be declared guilty until theyhave been heard in their own defense, until they have been proven guiltyin full accordance with the laws of this city. William Ugger, you may goon with your testimony. There will be no further interruptions," and thealcalde quietly laid a couple of big revolvers down on top of thebarrel, one on each side of the Bible.
At this moment and when all eyes were bent on the alcalde, Thure felt aslight jerk on his coat sleeve, and, glancing down, saw that the smallerof their accusers, the pock-marked man, had moved up close to his sideand that it had been his hand that had jerked his sleeve.
"Read at once," and the man swiftly slipped a piece of paper into hishand. "It is your only hope," and he moved away, not having once evenglanced toward Thure.
Thure, stepping a little behind Bud and holding the paper so that noeyes but his own could see it, cautiously opened the note and slowlyread these words:
If you wil give us the miners map and promice tu say nuthin bout the gold kave Bill and me wil sudenly diskuver that we is mistakin in thinkin that you was the ones tu kil old Stakpole and you wil go free. If you dont you wil both hang afore sun down tu nite and al the gold in Caleforny aint wurth as much tu you as is yur lives. If you agrees tu this nod yur hed 2 times. If you dont git redy tu hang.
The note was unsigned; and no signature was necessary. Its meaning wasplain. The two boys were to surrender the skin map to the two scoundrelsand say nothing about the Cave of Gold; or, the dreadful plot, in whosemeshes they found themselves so tightly ensnared, was to be followed outto its horrible conclusion. The motive back of the two men's action nowstood revealed. They expected to frighten the two boys into giving upthe skin map and into keeping secret their knowledge of the Cave ofGold. But, what a fiendish plot! And with what diabolical cunning it hadall been worked out and was being executed!
Thure read the note through slowly; and, in a flash, he had comprehendedthe whole atrocious, scheme and with what devilish cunning circumstanceshad been manipulated to bring about their present terrible situation;but, only the furious look in his eyes showed how the note had affectedhim.
"From Pockface," he whispered, as he quietly slipped the paper intoBud's hand. "Read it on the sly; and then give me your answer."
Bud cautiously took the note and opened it, wondering greatly at itscoming from Pockface. He read it through slowly, comprehendingly; andthen he turned and glanced into Thure's face. One look was sufficient.
During all this time Pockface's eyes had been covertly watching theboys.
Bud now waited until he saw that the man's eyes were upon him, then hedeliberately raised the piece of paper to his mouth, spit on it, and,bending down, placed it under the heel of his boot, ground it to piecesin the ground, and, defiantly turning his back on the man, gave hisattention to the doings of the alcalde.
The two scoundrels had misjudged the courage and the pluck of twoAmerican boys like Thure Conroyal and Bud Randolph; and, judging fromthe scowls that disfigured their faces and the ugly light that flashedinto their eyes, at the sight of Bud's actions, in their disappointment,they would show them no mercy. They would get the map, or they wouldhang the boys. Indeed, this action on their part now became almostnecessary; for, if they did not succeed in hanging the boys, the boys,in all probability, would succeed in hanging them.
This dramatic byplay had taken but a short time in the enacting and hadpassed unnoticed in the excitement occasioned by the threats from thesurrounding crowd and the placing of the alcalde's two big revolvers bythe side of the Bible on top of the barrel standing in front of him.When it was over and Thure and Bud again gave their attention to thecourt, Bill Ugger was about to continue with his testimony, the majorityof the crowd having shown themselves so plainly in sympathy with theactions of the alcalde that the rougher ones evidently thought it wiseto keep quiet.
"As I was a-sayin'," continued Bill Ugger, when everything had quieteddown again, "afore we could git near enough tew th' murderers tew useour pistols, they held us up with their rifles, an' ordered us tew gitan' git lively; an', by way of makin' plain their meaning that skunk,"and he glared at Thure, "sent a bullet a-whistlin' so close tew my earsthat it made this hole through th' brim of my hat," and the man held uphis wide-brimmed hat and pointed with his finger to a little round holein the brim close to the crown. "Three inches more tew one side an' he'da-got me, tew.
"Wal, me an' Spike didn't stop tew argy none after that; but got backahind them bushes an' trees as sudden as our legs would take us. But,"and Ugger paused and glared at Thure and Bud, "if I knowed I was on mydeathbed an' a-goin' tew die in five minits, I'd be willin' tew swearthat th' tew murderers was them tew boys a-standin' thar. We saw theirfaces plain an' thar ain't no mistake," and his eyes flashed an uglylook in the direction of Thure and Bud.
"Of course," continued Bill Ugger, "they didn't dare follow us, 'cause,if they did, they knowed we could hide ahind a tree an' pot 'em, whichwe'd ben sum glad tew do," and his eyes glowed vindictively. "Wal, wewaited, hid ahind th' bushes an' trees, not darin' tew show ourselvesan' bein' tew far off tew do any pistol shooting a-hopin' that they'dride off an' leave th' body of th' man they'd robbed an' probablykilled, but they was tew cunnin' tew do that; for, in a leet
le while,they throwed th' body, like it was a bag of grain, across th' back ofone of th' hosses an' tied it thar; an' then they rode off, a-leadin'th' hoss with th' body on it ahind 'em. Me an' Spike waited 'til they'dgone out of sight over th' top of a distant hill an' then we made forth' spot of th' killin'. Th' grass was sum tread up an' bloody; an'lyin' in th' blood an' partly tread intew th' ground, we found this,"and Ugger thrust his hand into one of his pockets and pulled out a smalldaguerreotype-case, perhaps a couple of inches square, on which could beplainly seen ominous stains of red.
"This," and he held up the small case where all could see, "has insideof it th' picter of as handsum a lady as I ever seed; an' under th'picter is writ, in a woman's writin,' these words: Tew my belovedhusband, John Stackpole'; an' we reckoned, me an' Spike did, as how th'murdered man's name must a-ben John Stackpole. See for yourselves," andhe handed the case to the alcalde, who, after opening it and looking atthe picture inside and the blood stains on the outside, passed it on tothe jury, who examined it carefully.
"Of course," continued Ugger, after he had watched the effect of thedaguerreotype on the alcalde and the jury for a minute, "bein' bound forth' diggin's an' knowin' 'twould be almost useless tew try an' trail th'murderers, me an' Spike at once started on our way ag'in for SacermentoCity, not expectin' tew see them murderers ag'in, leastwise not so soon.We got intew th' city this mornin'; an' was a-standin' on th' streeta-lookin' at th' humans a-passin' by, when who should come a-ridin'along right afore our eyes, but them tew identickle young fellers whatwe had seen kill that man; an', of course, bein' honest an' law-abidin'men, me an' Spike seen tew it that they didn't git away a second time.Now, I reckon, that's all I've got tew tell, only," and again his eyesturned vindictively to Thure and Bud, "thar ain't ben no mistake madean' you've got th' right men; an' if they don't hang afore night, thenthar ain't no justice in Sacermento City. I'm done."
The alcalde sat for a moment looking straight in front of him. Evidentlyhe was swiftly reviewing the man's testimony to see if there were anypoints that needed clearing up; but everything had been told,apparently, in such a clear, straightforward manner that there seemed tobe nothing that needed explaining, and, with a sigh as he thought of theyouthfulness of the prisoners, the alcalde turned to the jury.
"Would you like to ask the witness any questions?" he inquired.
"No. Everything seems to have been told as clear and as straight as astring," one of them replied, and all the others nodded their assent tothis, statement.
"Have the prisoners any questions they wish to ask the witness?" and thealcalde turned to Thure and Bud.
For a moment the two boys consulted together. Then Thure said quietly:"No, there is nothing that either of us would care to ask that man."
"The prisoner is dismissed for the present," and the alcalde motionedBill Ugger to step back from in front of the barrel.