CHAPTER XVI
DIVINE PROVIDENCE
The thundercaps were gleaming like silver in the heat when Wunpost rodeback to Jail Canyon; but he came on almost merrily, a sopping bath-towelabout his neck and his shirt pulled out, like a Chinaman's. These werethe last days of September when the clouds which had gathered for monthsat last were giving down their rain; and the air, now it was humid,seemed to open every pore and make the sweat run in rivulets. Wunpostperspired, but he was happy, and as he neared the silent house hewhistled shrilly for his dog. Good Luck came out for a moment, lookeddown at him reproachfully, and crawled back under the house, Yes, it washot in the canyon, for the ridge cut off the wind and the rimrockreflected yet more heat, but Wunpost was happy through it all. He hadtold Blackwater where it could go.
Not Eells and Lynch alone, but the citizens at large, collectively andas individuals; and he had planted the seeds of envy and rage to ranklein their hairy breasts. He had shown them his gold, to make them yearnto find it, and his money to make them envy him his wealth; and then hehad left them to stew in their own juice, for Blackwater was as hot asJail Canyon. He was riding a horse now, and, in addition to Old Walker,he had a third mule, heavily packed; and he was headed for the hills tohide still more food and water against the chase that was sure to come.Sooner or later they would follow on his trail, those petty, hatefulsouls who now sat in the barrooms and gasped like fish for breath; butthey were waiting, forsooth, for the weather to cool down and thecloudbursts to finish their destruction. And that was the very reasonwhy they would never find his mine--they were afraid to take hischances.
Mrs. Campbell and Wilhelmina were out on the back porch, which had beensprinkled until it was almost cool; and when Wunpost had unpacked andput his mules in the corral he came up the hill and joined them.Wilhelmina had returned to her proper sphere, being clothed in thefilmiest of gowns; and poor Mrs. Campbell, who was nearly prostrated bythe heat, allowed her to entertain the company. They sat in the denseshade of the umbrella trees and creepers, within easy reach of adripping olla; and after taking a huge drink, which started the sweatagain, Wunpost sank down on the cool dirt floor.
"It ain't so hot here!" he began encouragingly; "you ought to be down inBlackwater. Say, the wind off that Sink would make your hair curl. Iscared a lizard out of the shade and he hadn't run ten feet till hedisappeared in a puff of smoke. His pardner turned over and started tolick his toes----"
"Yes, it does look like rain," observed Billy with a twinkle. "How longsince _you_ started to herd lizards?"
"Who--me?" inquired Wunpost. "W'y, I'm telling you the truth. But say,it does look like rain. If they'd only spread it out, instead of dumpingit all in one place, it'd suit me better, personally. There was acloudburst last week hit into the canyon above me and I just made mygetaway in time, and where that water landed you'd think a hydraulicsluice had been washing down the hill for a year. It all struck in oneplace and gouged clean down to bedrock, and when she came by me therewas so much brush pushed ahead that it looked like a big, moving dam.Where's your father--up getting out ore?"
"Yes, he's up at the mine," spoke up Mrs. Campbell, "although I'vebegged him not to work so hard. The heat is almost killing him, but he'sso thankful to have his road done that he won't delay a minute. He'sused up all his sacks, but he's still sorting the ore so that he canload it right onto the trucks."
"Yes, that's good," commented Wunpost, glancing furtively at Billy, "Ihope he makes a million. He deserves it--he's sure worked hard."
"Yes, he has," responded Mrs. Campbell, "and I've always had faith inhim, but others have tried to discourage him. I believe I've heard yousay that his work was all wasted, but now everybody is envying him hissuccess. It all goes to show that the Lord cares for his own, and thatthe righteous are not forgotten; because Cole has always said he wouldrather be poor and honest than to own the greatest fortune in the land.And now it seems as if the hand of Providence has just reached down andgiven us our road--the Lord provides for his own."
"Looks that way," agreed Wunpost; "sure treating _me_ fine, too.There was a time, back there, when He seemed to have a copper on everybet I played, but now luck is coming my way. Of course I don't deserveit--and for that matter, I don't ask no odds--but this last mine I foundis a Sockdolager right, and Eells or none of 'em can't find it. I tookdown one mule-load that was worth ten thousand dollars, and when I wasshipping it you should have seen them Blackwater bums looking on withtears in their eyes. That's all right about the Lord providing for hisown, but I tell you hard work has got something to do with it, whetheryou believe in religion or not. I'm a rustler, I'll say that, and I workfor what I get, just as hard as your husband or anyone----"
"Ah, but Mister Calhoun," broke in Mrs. Campbell reproachfully, "we'veheard evil stories of your dealings with Eells. Not that we like him,for we don't; but, so we are informed, the mine that you sold him wassalted."
"Why, mother!" exclaimed Billy, but the fat was in the fire, for Wunposthad nodded shamelessly.
"Yes," he said, "the mine was salted, but don't let that keep you awakenights. I didn't _sell_ him the mine--he took it away from me andgave me twenty thousand for a quit-claim. And the twenty thousanddollars was nothing to what I lost when he robbed me and Billy of ourmine."
"Why--why, Mr. Calhoun!" cried Mrs. Campbell in a shocked voice, "didyou salt that mine on purpose?"
"You'd have thought so," he returned, "if you'd seen me packing the ore.It took me nigh onto two weeks."
Mrs. Campbell paused and gasped, but Wunpost met her gaze with a cold,unblinking stare. Her nice Scotch scruples were not for such as he, andif she crowded him too far he had an answer to her reproaches whichwould effectually reduce her to silence. But Billy knew that answer, andthe reason for the gleam which played like heat-lightning in his eyes,and she hastened to stave off disaster.
"Oh, mother!" she protested, "now please don't talk seriously to him orhe'll confess to almost anything. He told me a lot of stuff and I wasdreadfully worried about it, but I found out he only did it to tease me.And besides, you know yourself that Mr. Eells did take advantage of usand trick us out of our mine--and if it hadn't been for that we couldhave built the road ourselves without being beholden to anybody."
"But Billy, child!" she chided, "just think what you're saying. Is itany excuse that others are dishonest? Well, I must say I'm surprised!"
"Oh, you're surprised, are you?" spoke up Wunpost, rising ponderously tohis feet. "Well, if you don't like my style, just say so."
He reached for his hat and stood waiting for the answer, but Mrs.Campbell avoided the issue.
"It is not for us to judge our neighbors--the Bible says: Judge not,lest ye be judged--but I'm sorry, Mr. Calhoun, that you think so poorlyof us as to boast of the deception you practised. He's no friend of us,this Judson Eells, but surely you cannot think it was aught butdishonest to sell him a salted mine. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord,and because he took your property is no excuse for committing a crime."
"A _crime_!" repeated Wunpost, and turned to look at Billy, whohung her head regretfully. "Did you hear that?" he asked. "She says I'ma criminal! Well, I won't bother you folks any more. But before I go,Mrs. Campbell, I might as well tell you that these criminals sometimescome in danged handy. Suppose I'd buried that ore in Happy Canyon, forinstance, or over the summit in Hanaupah--where would the Campbellfamily be for a road? They wouldn't have one, _would_ they? Andthis here Providence that you talk about would be distributing itsrewards to others. But there's too many good people for the rewards togo around--that's why some of us get out and rustle. No, you want to bethankful that a criminal came along and took a flyer at being Providencehimself; otherwise you'd be stuck with your mine on your hands--becauseI gave you that road, myself."
He started for the door and Mrs. Campbell let him go, for the revelationhad left her thunderstruck. Never for a moment had she doubted that thesterling integrity of her husband had brought a special dispensation ofProviden
ce, and while her faith in Divine Providence was by no meansshaken, she did begin to doubt the miracle. Perhaps, after all, thisloud and boastful Wunpost had been more than an instrument ofProvidence--he might, in fact, have been a kindly but misguided friend,who had shaped his vengeance to serve their special needs. For he knewthey needed the road and, since he could salt a crevice anywhere, he hadlocated his mine up their canyon. And then Eells had jumped the mine andbuilt the road, and----Well, really, after all, it was no more thanright to go out and thank him for his kindness. He was wrong, of course,and led astray by angry passions; but Wilhelmina and he were friendsand----She rose up and hurried out after him.
The blazing light in the heavens almost blinded her sight as she steppedout into the sun; and high up above the peaks, like cones of burnishedmetal, she saw two thundercaps, turning black at the base and mountingon the superheated air. There was the hush in the air which she hadlearned to associate with an explosion such as was about to take place,and she looked back anxiously, for her husband was up the canyon and thedownpour might strike above Panamint. It was clouds such as these thathad come together before to form the cloudburst which had isolated theirmine, and though they now appeared daily she could never escape the fearthat once more they would send down their floods. Every day they strucksomewhere, and one more bone-dry canyon ran bank-high and spewed itsrefuse across the plain, and each time she had the feeling that theirsins might be punished by another visitation from on high. But she onlyglanced back once, for Wunpost was packing and Billy was looking onhopelessly.
"Oh, Mr. Calhoun!" she called, "please don't go up the canyonnow--there's a cloudburst forming above the peaks."
"I'll make it," he grumbled, cocking his eye at the clouds--and then hestopped and looked again. "There went lightning," he said; "that's amighty bad sign--they're stabbing out towards each other."
"Yes, I'm sure you'd better stay," she went on apologetically, "andplease don't think you're not welcome. But oh! this heat isterrible--I'll have to go back--but Billy will stop and help you."
She raised her sunshade as if she were fleeing from a rain-storm andhastened back out of the sun; and Wunpost, after a minute of carefulscrutiny, unpacked and squatted down in the shade.
"They're moving together," he said to Billy, "and see that lightningreaching out? This is going to bust the world open, somewhere. That's nocloudburst that's shaping up, it's a regular old waterspout; I know bythe way she acts."
He settled back on his heels to await the outcome, and as the thunderbegan to roll he turned to his companion and shook his head in ominoussilence. There were but two clouds in the sky, all the rest was blazinglight; and these two clouds were moving slowly together, or rather,towards a common center. One came on from the southeast, the other fromthe west, and some invisible force seemed to be drawing them towards thepeaks which marked the summit of the Panamints. The play of thelightning became almost constant, the rumbling rose to a tumult; andthen, as if caught by resistless hands, the two clouds rushed together.There was a flash of white light, a sudden blackening of the mass, andas Wunpost leapt up shouting a writhing funnel reached down as iffeeling for the palpitating earth.
"There she goes!" he cried; "it's a waterspout, all right--but it ain'tgoing to land near here."
He talked on, half to himself, as the great spiral reached andlengthened; and then he shouted again, for it had struck the ground,though where it was impossible to tell. The high rim of the canyon cutoff all but the high peaks, and they could see nothing but thewaterspout now; and it, as if stabilized by its contact with the earth,had turned into a long line of black. It was a column of falling water,and the two clouds, which had joined, seemed to be discharging theircontents down a hole. They were sucked into the vortex, now turned aninky black, and their millions of tons of water were precipitated uponone spot, while all about the ground was left dry.
Wunpost knew what was happening, for he had seen it once before, and ashe watched the rain descend he imagined the spot where it fell and thewreck which would follow its flood. For the Panamints are set on edgeand shed rain like a roof, the water all flowing off at once; and whenthey strike a canyon, after rushing down the converging gulches, thereis nothing that can withstand their violence. Every canyon in the range,and in the Funeral Range beyond, and in Tin Mountain and the Grapevinesto the north--every one of them had been swept by the floods from theheights and ripped out as clean as a sand-wash. And this waterspout,which had turned into a mighty cloudburst, would sweep one of them cleanagain. The question was--which one?
A breeze, rising suddenly, came up from the Sink and was sucked into thevortex above; the black line of the downfall turned lead-color andbroadened out until it merged into the clouds above; and at last, asWunpost lingered, the storm disappeared and the canyon took on the hushof heavy waiting. The sun blazed out as before, the fig-leaves hung downwilted; but the humidity was gone and the dry, oven-heat almost createdthe illusion of coolness.
"Well, I'm going," announced Wunpost, for the third or fourth time. "Shemust have come down away north."
"No--wait!" protested Billy, "why are you always in such a hurry? Andperhaps the flood hasn't come yet."
"It'd be here," he answered, "been an hour, by my watch; and believe me,that old boy would be coming some. Excuse _me_, if it should hitinto one end of a box canyon while I was coming up the other. My friendscould omit the flowers."
"Well, why not stay, then?" she pouted anxiously; "you know Motherdidn't mean anything. And perhaps Father will be down, to see if therewas any damage done, and we could catch him first and explain."
"No explaining for me!" returned Wunpost, beginning to pack; "you cantell them whatever you want. And if your folks are too religious to usemy old road maybe the Lord will send a cloudburst and destroy it. That'sthe way He always did in them old Bible stories----"
"You oughten to talk that way!" warned Wilhelmina soberly, "and besides,that's what made Mother angry. She isn't feeling well, and when youspoke slightingly of Divine Providence----"
"Well, I'm going," he said again, "before I begin to quarrel with_you_. But, oh say, I want to get that dog."
"Oh, it's too hot!" she protested, "let him stay under the house. He andRed are sleeping there together."
"No, I need him," he grumbled, "liable to be bushwhacked now, any time;and I want a dog to guard camp at night."
He started towards the house, still looking up the canyon, and at thegate he stopped dead and listened.
"What's that?" he asked, and glanced about wildly, but Billy only shookher head.
"I don't hear anything," she replied, turning listlessly away, "but Iwish you wouldn't go."
"Well, maybe I won't," he answered grimly, "don't you hear that kind ofrumble, up the canyon?"
She listened again, then rushed towards the house while Wunpost made adash for the corral. The cloudburst was coming down their canyon.