The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-02-19
THE MYSTERY OF THE WILL.

6OOOoAA oOOs
If a man is "out at the elbows" in
California let him take off his coat and
carry it on his shoulder, as in Italy. This
will conceal the condition of things andhe
will be quite as comfortable, for the coat
here is rather a luxury than a necessity.
If a man is out Of bread, let him eat meat,
for in almost any f~ence-corner sits a rab-
bit, with a premium on his head in many
counties, waiting to be killed and eaten.
On any hedge sings a lark; in any,dimple
of the hills from here to Mexico the quail
pipes with his many notes the whole year
through. A gun and a load of shot, or
simpler still a stout cord and a bent bush
for snare and spring and you have meatin
abundance any hour in the day and meat
too, fit for a king.
As for the matter of a bed, that is as
simple of solution as the out-at-the-elbow
coat. Every redwood tree is OF itself not
only a tent, impervious to rain or sun, but
it is almost an entire hotel. For example
the whole space and circle It's spa
cious and shapely boughs, an area OF from
twenty-five to one hundred feet IN diam
eter, is one continuous carpet. Carpet!
1t is a cushion; a cushion that has cost
half a century of time to make perfect.
1t is of a soft subdued old gold hue you
sink into it at every step. And yet so
elastic is this carpet that a horse can make
no impression as he passes ever with his
iron feet. And the fragrance of it! All
the spices of the Orient are not more de-
licious, dreamful, luxurious. You are in
vited to repose by this perfume, and
of silence, and large iberality of nature,
by every reckoning tree in a redwood
forest.
John Gray had literally eaten his "last
crust" but a heavy fowling-piece, bor-
rowed from a neighboring hut, leaned in
the corner and he was not without re-
sources. Besides when you go out to sea
here even with the crudest sailors, you
will find tumbled about the deck some
where or in the bottom of the boat heaps
of big sea crabs, shrimps, and so on.
Bread, thick crusted, and Of the best, rolls
of butter like gold, boiled eggs by the half
bushel-these little details are always at
hand here where a spanking sail against
the thousands of miles of uncontaminated
air of the vast Pacific gives you ready
relish. These things, let it be repeated,
are as much a part of the boat outfit as
one of it's planks. And you help yourself
as l~eisurely and fully to them all as you
do to the air. But in the presence of all
the majesty that attends you here who
shall bend down his face to describe the
art of tearing asunder the legs of a sea
crab? And who shall stop the thunder
of the sea of seas booming and booming
against the granite battlementS that wall
in the gold pieces of California to say how
that this man or that woman suddenly
grew hungry, and gracefully leaning over,
caught up from alunch basket and adroitly
peeled a boiled egg?
John Gray was eager to get back to his
cabin and be alone. He threw himself
in at the open door, hastily struck a light
and then drew forth his maps from their
hiding place near his heart.
Opening these on the table, he tried to
apply what knowledge he had that day
gained to the solution of the one great
problem. For now he was certain beyond
possibility of doubt of the truth of his
theory. The Buried river was a fact He
had sailed by its mouth. He had heard it
muttering in its muddy bed below. The
great Buried River that once had drained
all the world west of the Rocky Noun
tains and flowed from Salt Lake to the
sea had had the Golden Gate for its mouth.
He was sitting at that moment above
the bubbling, roaring waters of the Buried
River. He had not a dime in his pocket;
but down there, deep down almost as the
level of the ocean was a river that was
literally paved with gold.
He went to the door and looked out.
The moon was setting fast in the Golden
Gate; little time to lose. He must look
into that Indian well that night and be-
fore Farla could possibly come back from
the Island.
A pang, a sharp pain almost shot
through his heart as he fastened out and
down the steep decliv1ty into the dense
thicket and thought of Farla away out on
her precipitous rock in the sea. She had
been good to him. And now that she
was absent from her temple he was about
to enter it and pilage it of her secret;
plumber her house and she away from
home; possibly in peril.
Passing around by a blind path through
a tangle of musk that made the air heavy
with perfume in the dew, he came sud-
denly to a deep ravine flowing to the
west. A dense tangle of chapparel and
all sorts of o~verhanging boughs and briers
seemed to bar his way here; but throwing
himself on his hands and knees he was
soon able to rise and walk erect in the
moist gravel bed of the little blind stream.
He advanced a few PAGES, for all this lit
tie dingle of dense growth down here in
the face of nature was not bigger than a
little green plot at best. All about the
hills hung over it and men and cattle
passed daily to and fro and round about;
but clearly nothing ever entered here save
the silent priestess of the haunted Indian
well; and even she came and went in the
most stealthy way.
The moon was at his back, but very
low, as he paused in the little open space
In the heart of the dense copse. But what
bright and shining fancy circle of silver
was that before him and almost at his feet2
1t was whittier, lighter than the moonlight
and rose almost to his waist. He put
Al hrn I--1 IL n-A-