Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1886-05-08
THE BANK OF CALIFORNIA

H BANK OF CALIFORNIA
BY PRENTICE MULFoRD.
CHAPTER XVI.
I do not think that crushing blows" a.
when first delivered. A wound in a vital
part may cause at first but little pain. People
are often represented as overwhelmed imme-
diately by sudden news Of any great misfor-
tune.
So far as I know by personal experience
in such matters, the Overwhelming"
''crushing," agonizing process may hardly
commence with the reception of its news.
Its the prolonged Woodworking process
afterward that causes the misery. Its the
perpetual going over and over, not the same
ground IN which your calamity is based. but
the calamity itself, Viewed in all manner Of
situations, with ever varying lights and
shades; a mental operation in character kalei-
dioscopic. The pieces are the same, but they
are ever arranging themselves in different
forms This may go on for days, weeks,
months. l believe that many a man or wo-
man has said to themselves, when their great
trouble first fell On them, ''Wen, l can bear
it." who found a week afterward, that it was
too grievous to be borne with patience or
resignation. The only means Of relief would
lie in dismissing the matter entirely from
ones mind. Unfortunately such matters,
with the great majority, will not be dismissed.
They are guests unwelcome, armed and
offensive, who quarter themselves and come
to stay.
When are We to have the era of mental
atheism, when minds will arrive at such
strength and dexterity as to be able to toss
of a trouble from the brain as they would a
rubber ball from the hand and forget all
about it at pleasures
I did not go home Immediately after
Blanche's departure from the store. spent
the afternoon wandering aimlessly over
gulch, fiat and neutrality-suspicious., SO that
I was out Of sight and sound of human
beings. I took no thought of physical exer-
ton. I fed at any sound of labor-the
stroke Of picks, the grating of shovels, the
rasping of pebbles in the rockers, and plunged
from such indications of human presence
into the dense growth Of chapparal.
I had not then met my deepest misery. I
had indignation to sustain me-. l was indig-
nant at Blanche, that she also should have
tried and condemned me without a hearing.
There is a certain %buoyancy and stimulus in
indignation. It is several degrees above dis
enlargement and despair.
But the mind doesn't seem capable of en-
tertaining fully more than mt emotion at
once. So, when my indignation had worn
of its finest edge other emotions commenced
their play. They seemed all DESTROYS of
shaving a whack" at me.
l pass over wonder at Blanche's sudden ap-
p%earance; ut curiosity to ascertain how she
heard of me and the accusation against me,
and at the sudden recollection that the aunt
whom she had 80 frequently visited in New
York was by name Pratt, and that probably
Jedediah was her husband. I came at last
to my love for the former Blanche Seton, OF
Eastport: at nv grief for ito Lace and ut ms
despair a. this last prop was thus so suddenly
taken from me. Everything solid seemed to
have tumbled from under me. I was alone
and friendless amid suspicion, growing
prejudice, averted faces, whispered lies, and
back of all these stood the being on earth
most loved, transformed at once from an
angel of mercy into an Implying and mis-
taken judge.
These were my thoughts for days and
nights. They were my company-a numer
Gus and busy crowd. They were kept alive
by the frequent sight of Blanche about
Pratt's cabin. Mine was but three hundred
yards distant. She had a house put up fol
her own accommodation. For assistants sht
had every man on the Bar-save myself.
The crowd was absolutely hungry to d.
something for Miss Seton. The area OF
which her cloth-covered house was erected
alongside Of Pratt's, was leveled as if BY
magic. If Miss Seton wished a bowldel
pitched out of the way they were ready ant
liable to remove a hundred. Volunteer
went up the mountain, cut young sapling
and built her a fence. Pratt's we'll wa
cleaned and deepened.
Fifty men with picks and shovels cleared tn
trail leading from her residence to the store O
in~tercepting bushes AMI impeding powders
one evening after knocking off work from
the claims, a physical inference that in thei
estimation, Miss Seton would probably wan
often to "go shopping" or possibly drol
down Of an evening and have q chat wit
the boys. If Miss Seton had desired tn
enormous bulk Of Scrub mountain to be re
moved, l think the matter would have bee
seriously considered. In all this Mr.. Wi
liam Setter was the lady's s~elf-constitute
right hand man, and even while working 0
his claim would be seized with spasn Of AM
iety and solicitude in her behalf, and rushu
to Pratt's in a chronic state of fuss-abouI
and-do-littleness.
Why did l not seek an interview wit
Blanche and endeavor to justify myselfl
did make the attempt, or rather paved til
way for one. I owed her three hundred do
lars. I sent her tho money with intere!
due, through Rankin, explaining to him Il
circumstances under which the debt was col
tracted. This, of course, let Rankin into
portion of my secret. Fortunately, he was
man who could keep secrets. He realize
that there was money in this kind Of bankin
also, and that cash and confidence often 9
together.
His manne toward me in this business W.
serious m considerate. He seemed to r
spect the burden he knew I was carrying
and he was one of the few with a mind il
herently judicial that demanded clear pro-
before any conviction.
I felt for a while relieved after having il
trusted this commission to Rankin. He sal
to me nothing of the Pratt matter. But
thoughts can be felt, I knew that he symp
thized to some extent with my lonesome al
miserable situation.
Blanche sent back, through Rankin, only
formal receipt for the money. To my +
quest for an interview she made the folio,
ing reply:
II would prefer not to see you under t
nr0sent circumstances