CHAPTER XXII.--_Perplexities at Alamar._
It has generally been the custom of biographers to treat their subjectafter he is resting peacefully in his grave, indifferent to the world'sopinion. Seldom has a man "_been written_" (in a biography) until he ispast knowing what is said of him in print. Epitaphs are non-committal,or laudatory only, and too brief; they are solely a charitable oraffectionate tribute to the dead, intended to please the living.Biographies--it is to be supposed--are intended, or should be,admonitory; to teach men by the example of the one held up to view--bethis an example to be followed or to be avoided. But if no offense beintended by the biographer, why wait until a man is forevermore beyondhearing what is said of him, before his fellows are told in what and howhe surpassed them so much as to be considered worthy of special notice?If he ought to be reproved, let him know it; and if we must worship himas a hero, let him know it also. Only such an irascible man--forinstance--as Dr. Johnson was, could have received the homage ofadmiration and reverence such as Boswell's, so impatiently, almostungratefully. It is more natural for man to receive incense at leastpassively, and endeavor to deserve it. Biographies, therefore, ought tobe intended, not to mislead readers, but to instruct them. From thispoint of view, then, it would be difficult to say flattering things ofMr. Darrell, and more difficult yet to say them of the other squattersof Alamar, in a biographical sketch.
Mr. Darrell did not receive the news of the appeal being dismissed asMrs. Darrell and Clarence had hoped. Mr. Darrell was evidently out ofhumor with the executive branch of the Government--with the AttorneyGeneral--and he discussed the matter with himself in many an animatedsoliloquy. High as his opinion of Congress was and had always been, he,in his ill humor, even went so far as to say--to himself--that this muchrespected body of legislators had been entirely too lenient with theconquered natives. Congress ought to have confiscated all their landsand "only allowed them one hundred and sixty acres _each_." The ideathat they (the conquered) should be better off than the Americans! Theyshould have been put on an equality with other settlers, and much honorto them, too, would have been thereby, for why should these _inferior_people be more considered than the Americans?
"Inferior? What are you talking about? It is enough to see one of thoseAlamar ladies to learn that they are inferior to nobody," said Mrs.Darrell, happening to overhear the last words of her lord's soliloquy."Neither are the Californians considered _better than Americans_ becausethe Government did not take _all_ their lands from them. I declare,William, you have gone back to your old unfortunate ideas which broughtso many troubles to us in Napa and Sonoma. You forget those troubles,and you are ready to bring them back again."
"No, I ain't; but I always will maintain that the Spanish Californiansshould not have a right to any more land than Americans."
"And they have not. The Government does not give them any more land; allthey ask and expect is that the Government may _not take away what theyhad_. You see this perfectly well, and you know that every time you havedisregarded this truth, we have suffered. This time it might lead toworse suffering, since it is Clarence that might be made very miserable;and if he is, so must I. Then good-by happiness for me."
"Why should Clarence be made miserable?"
"Because he is devotedly attached to Miss Mercedes; and if you are to bethe enemy of her family, perhaps she will not marry him."
"Marry him? Does Clarence think she will marry him? She marry asquatter?" He laughed derisively.
"Clarence is no squatter."
"He is the son of a squatter."
"You have been one, but if you keep your word, and this land is paidfor, you will not be a squatter."
"I suppose Clarence followed the girl to New York, believing she'llmarry him. I thought he would have more sense."
"If he did follow her, he would also be following his father's example."
Mr. Darrell blushed, but he smiled, for he was pleased. The recollectionof that tender episode of loving devotion was always very sweet to him.It had been a folly of which he was proud to cherish the memory.
But Mr. Darrell did not pursue the subject any further this time; hefelt he would be defeated if he continued it; it was best to beat amasterly retreat before he was routed. He made an orderly march towardthe stable, and Mrs. Darrell, remaining master of the field, busiedherself with her flower garden, where Alice presently joined her.
"Mamma dear, I overheard your conversation with papa; I hope you won'tlet him quarrel with the Don."
"I shall do my best to prevent it, but you see, he has all the settlersat his heels all the time worrying him about their claims. Any one mightsuppose that he induced them to come here, instead of being induced bythem. Since they heard that their appeal was dismissed, they have openlysaid to him that they rely entirely upon his assistance to retain theirhomes. This pleases him, it flatters him, but it is a piece of hypocrisyon their part, because the Don is too kind-hearted to eject them.Clarence says that the Don will let them keep their homesteads, on thesole condition that they put up fences to keep his cattle off."
"Can anything be more kind and generous?"
"But all his kindness is thrown away."
"At all events, there is this much to be said, that if papa will insistupon wanting to be a squatter, and favor squatters, he will find thatnot one of his family approves it. No, not even the children."
"I know it; Jane and Lucy feel very badly about it."
"And so does Everett; Webster don't like it either. We all feel verybadly to see papa so wrong, and the worst of it is, how it all mightaffect our darling Clarence, who is so sweet and so good to all ofus--yes, to everybody. I do hope he will marry Mercedes. I know sheloves him dearly. I am so afraid that papa will quarrel with the Don,and Clarence and Mercedes be separated. It would be awful."
If sweet Alice had said all she held in her dear heart, and which mightbe affected by the course that her father would pursue between thesettlers and the Don, she would have revealed other anxieties besidesthose she felt on Clarence's account. The thought that Victoriano, too,might be estranged from her, had made that dear heart of hers very heavywith forebodings. Gentle and loving though she was, she could not helpfeeling exasperated to foresee how miserable she and Clarence, andMercedes and Victoriano might all be, all on account of this squatterquarrel, which might so easily be avoided if those people were not soperverse, and her father upholding them, which was perversity, also.
Thus ran Alice's thoughts as she helped her mother to trim the fuschiasand train them up the posts of the porch, beside the honeysuckle androses, which already formed an arbor over the front steps. Occasionallyshe would look up the valley; it was time that Victoriano should beriding out with Gabriel or his father, superintending the gathering oftheir cattle, to be sent to the Sierra.
Strange as it may appear, now that the Government, by the dismissal ofthe appeal, acknowledged that Don Mariano's title was good, now, when bythis decision, the settlers should have made up their minds to leave thepremises or purchase their homesteads from the owner of the land, nowtheir disgraceful destruction of dumb animals was renewed with obviousvirulence, and every night the firing of rifles and shot-guns was heardall over the rancho. Don Mariano saw that this devastation was amalicious revenge, which he could not avert, so he began to collect hisstock to take them all to the mountains. About that time he received theletter in which Clarence proposed to buy all of his cattle, advising himto restock the rancho afterwards, when cleared of all trespassers. Heliked the proposition, and immediately gave orders to drive all thecattle to his sister's rancho as they were got together; there to be putin a valley and kept in a sort of depot, as they were gathered andbrought in bands of any number, to wait until Clarence returned. But asafterwards Don Mariano feared that by the time Clarence came back, therewould be no cattle left to sell, he now hastened their gathering anddecided to send them off as soon as possible. Patiently, and without aword of complaint, Don Mariano and his two sons would ride out every dayto s
uperintend personally the collecting of the cattle and sending themoff to his sister's rancho to the valley, where the rendezvous or depothad been established. Victoriano named this valley the "_rodeo triste_,"insisting that the cattle knew it was a "_rodeo triste_," and walked toit sadly, guessing that they were to be exiled and butchered. "Just likeourselves, the poor natives," he said, "tossed from one cruelty toanother still worse, and then crushed out." "_Rodeo triste_" was a veryappropriate name, considering the fact of its being different from thegay and boisterous gatherings of other years, when "the boys" of thesurrounding ranchos all assembled at Alamar to separate their cattle andhave a grand time marking and branding the calves; twisting the tails ofstubborn ones by way of a logical demonstration, a convincing argumentconveyed in that persuasive form, which was to a calf alwaysunanswerable and irresistible. Then the day's work and fun would wind upwith a hilarious barbecue. But this was all in the past, which had beenhappy, and was now a fading tableau.
Alice, watching from behind the honeysuckle, saw Don Mariano, his twosons and three _vaqueros_ ride down the valley. There they separated,each followed by a _vaquero_, going in different directions.
But Alice was not the only one watching the riders going out to gatherstray cattle. Though with very different sentiments from those whichagitated her loving heart, the entire population of the rancho had beenattentive, though unseen, spectators of the Don's proceedings. In theevenings the neighbors would come to relate to Darrell how many head ofcattle and horses they had seen pass by their farms, and renew theircomments thereon.
Thus six weeks passed. The remittitur from the Supreme Court to theUnited States District Court at San Francisco came. This caused a rippleof excitement among the settlers. Then a bigger one--a perfect tidalwave--was expected with the surveyors that would come to make the surveyof the rancho; and when this should be finished, then the grandest andlast effort must be made by the settlers to prevent the approval of it.Thus, at least, they would have more litigation, and while the case wasin the courts, they would still be on the rancho raising crops, andpaying no taxes and no rent, as they knew perfectly well that the Donwould never sue them for "rents and profits."
Everett had gone to town for the mail that day; letters from Clarencewere expected. The neighbors knew it, for by dint of asking questionsthey had learned to time the arrival of his letters, and would drop inquite accidentally, but unerringly, and in an off-hand manner ask ifthere was "any news from Mr. Clarence?" The Don, with his two sons andthree _vaqueros_, had gone out in search of his cattle, as usual, justas if no _remittitur_ had come. The settlers thought this was a mostexcellent subject to ventilate with their neighbor, Darrell; they camein goodly numbers, "to _revolve_ the matter, and talk it over in a_neighborly_ way," Mr. Hughes had said, with his perennial smile.
"Just so; sit down, sit down," Mr. Darrell replied; and when all havingdragged chairs and pulled them forward from between their knees, haddropped upon them, he added, "What may happen to be the matter we are torevolve?"
"Why, the remittitur, of course," Hughes replied, in his oiliest tones.
"Oh, I thought something new," Darrell remarked.
"That is a clincher, you know," Hughes replied.
"Yes, but we knew it was coming."
"Don't you think it queer that the Don be hurrying off his cattle, nowthat he's won his suit? Don't that look as if he don't put much trust inhis victory?"
"He trusts his victory, but he knows that more stock has been shot forthe last six weeks than for six months previous. He wants to save _afew_ head," said Romeo Hancock, smiling.
"Roper told me," said Hughes, ignoring what Romeo said, "that, if thesettlers wish it, this case might be kept in the courts for fiftyyears."
"After the land is surveyed?" Darrell asked.
"Yes, after the survey."
"We begin our new war by _objecting_ to the survey, I suppose; ain'tit?" Miller asked.
"That is what Roper says," Hughes replied.
"And, meantime, harass the enemy like the deuce," Gasbang added.
"Exactly; that is Roper's advice," said Mathews.
With a gesture of disgust, Romeo said: "Of course, no cattle having beenshot in this rancho before Roper advised it, let the harassing beginnow."
"Look here, young man, you had better get more years over your headbefore you talk so glibly," Billy Mathews snarled at Romeo.
"He is a settler like yourself, Mr. Mathews, and he has as good a rightto express his opinion, though he may not have the happiness of beingold," interposed Everett.
"It seems to me that all the young bloods on this rancho are either onthe fence or have bolted clean over to the other side, Mr. Darrell,"said Mathews, addressing his remarks to the elder Darrell, "but theyforget that there aren't girls enough to go round. There are only twoleft, if, as rumor says, Mr. Clarence has taken the blue-eyed one."
"Roper says those girls must have done good service in Washington to getthe appeal dismissed so quick." Gasbang said, grinning.
"And Roper is a dirty-minded dog to say that, and I'll make him eat hisdirty words, or I'll take his hide off of his filthy carcass," Everettsaid, jumping up from his seat, livid with anger.
"Sit still, Retty," Mr. Darrell said, "nobody minds what Roper says,except, perhaps, in law matters."
"Some people do mind what the whelp says, as he is quoted here," Everettargued.
"It oughtn't to be so. I don't like women's names mixed up in men'sbusiness."
"Roper only said that, because we heard that those girls were inWashington with a gay crowd, who took them from New York," Gasbangexplained.
"Yes, a crowd who went as guests of Mr. Lawrence Mechlin," Everettreplied; "a New York banker, and brother of this Mr. Mechlin here. Mr.Mechlin engaged a special car, as George wanted to take his wife andsister-in-law to visit the capital, and then two other families (of thehighest and best in New York) were invited, and all made a party tospend three weeks in Washington. Clarence being a friend of GeorgeMechlin's, was invited, also."
"That may all be, but we heard that the crowd was a gay one, runningabout the corridors and taking lunches at the Capitol with Senators,"Gasbang explained. "And as that is the way things are managed when thereare any axes to grind, Roper guessed that the girls had been pressedinto service to help with their smiles to bamboozle Senators."
"The vile little reptile; I'll put my heel on him yet," said Everett,with white lips.
"It isn't likely that Clarence would have stayed by, seeing Mercedessmiling improperly on anybody, if he cares for her. He wouldn't be a sonof mine if he did," said Darrell, frowning.
"No; that is all a very mean talk of Roper's. Attorney General Williamshad promised George Mechlin's uncle, six months ago, to dismiss theappeal as soon as the Supreme Court should be session, and, though itcuts us all to pieces, I must say he kept his word like a man; that'sall."
"Yes, it was that infernal, dandified puppy George Mechlin, who did themischief. I'll be even with him yet for it," Old Mathews growled.
"Why shouldn't George Mechlin help his father-in-law? Because it upsetsthe liver of the amiable Mr. Mathews?" asked Romeo, laughing.
"Keep quiet, Romeo," Old Hancock said, smiling.
"If George Mechlin hadn't helped, the thing would have been done in someother way. It had to come," Darrell said.
"I don't know about that; these Californians are too ignorant to knowhow to defend their rights, and too lazy to try, unless some Americanprompts them," Mathews replied.
"They know enough to employ a lawyer to defend their rights," Old Millerobserved.
"Yes; but, after all, they have to use influence in Washington," OldMathews insisted. "And what influence have they, unless it is by the aidof some American?"
"And the pretty daughters," added Gasbang.
"Never mind the pretty daughters," said Miller, seeing that Everettclenched his fists as if ready to pounce upon Gasbang at the nextprovocation. "The question now is, what is to be done? and wh
o is forus, and who against? The time has come when we have to count noses."
"Yes, what are you going to do, Mr. Darrell?" asked velvety Hughes, withhis sickly smile.
"Nothing. What is there for me to do? You heard me promise to the Donthat I would pay him for the land I was locating, if it was decided thatthe title was his."
"You said _when the title is settled_," Gasbang said.
"The title is settled as far as the Government is concerned. As you--thesettlers--and the Government were on one side, and the Don on the other,I guess he now naturally supposes I must regard the title as _settled_,since the principal opponent (the Government) has thrown up the sponge,"Darrell answered.
"But we haven't," said Mathews; "and as long as we keep up the fight Idon't see how the title can be considered settled."
"It is settled with the Government, which was the question when I mademy location," Darrell answered.
"But you ain't going to desert our cause?" Hughes asked. "You'll be ourfriend to the last, won't you?"
"Such is my intention, but what I might think I ought to do,circumstances will point out to me. Probably we will see our way betterafter the survey is made. Meantime, as the Don don't trouble any onewith orders to vacate, the best thing to do is to keep quiet."
"And spare his cattle," Romeo added, looking at Mathews.
"You seem to want to pick a quarrel with me, youngster," growledMathews.
"What makes you think so? Did _you_ ever shoot any of the Don's cattle,that you should appropriate my remarks to yourself? If you never did, Ican't mean you."
The boys, the young men, all laughed. Mathews arose, too angry to remainquiet.
"Next time I come to talk business--serious business--with men, with menof my age--I don't want to be twitted by any youngster. Children shouldbe seen, and not heard," said he, putting on his hat energetically.
"Why, Mr. Mathews, you shouldn't call me a youngster. You forget I am amarried man," Romeo replied, with great amiability. "I am a papa, I am.Our baby is now six months old; he weighed twelve pounds when he wasborn. Now, can you show us a baby of _your own_, only as old as that,and weigh half as much?"
The shout of laughter that followed these words was too much forMathews. The banging of doors as he left was the only answer he deignedto give.
"Mr. Mathews! Five pounds! Two-and-a-half, Mr. Mathews!" shouted Romeofrom the window, to the retreating form of Billy, swiftly disappearingin long strides along the garden walk.
"That is the hardest hit Mathews ever got. He is awfully sensitive abouthaving always been jilted and never been married," Miller said.
"He'll never forgive you," added old Hancock.
"He never has forgiven me for locating my claim either, but I manage tosurvive. One more grievance can't sour him much more," Romeo replied,laughing.
After Mathews had made his exit, the conversation went on moreharmoniously. Gasbang was now the only malignant spirit present, butbeing very cowardly, he felt that as Mathews' support was withdrawn, andthe other settlers were inclined to abide by Darrell's advice, he wouldbe politic; he would listen only and report to Peter Roper. Gasbang knewwell how unreliable Roper was, but as they were interested in sundryenterprises of a doubtful character, he consulted Peter in all matterswhen found sober.
Darrell's advice being to "keep quiet," the meeting soon broke up andthe settlers went home by their separate ways, all more or lesspersuaded that, after all, peace was the best thing all around. Old Mr.Hancock gave utterance to this sentiment as he stopped by the gate ofthe Darrell garden to say good-night to his neighbors.
"I heard the Don say that he does not blame us settlers so much fortaking his land as he blames our law-givers for those laws which induceus to do so--laws which are bound to array one class of citizens againstanother class, and set us all by the ears," Romeo said.
"Yes, I heard him say about the same thing, but I thought he said itbecause he was a hypocrite, and to keep us from shooting his cattle,"Gasbang added.
"No matter what might be his motive, the sentiment is kind anyway,"Hancock, senior, said.
"Perhaps," said the others, still unwilling to yield.