The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-10
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new surveyor is watching the execution
of Judas on the plaza; for Jimmie James
expects to leave the New Carthagena
mines tomorrow for the Boise district in
Idaho.
When he reaches the road the chain
bearer seats himself upon log, waiting
there, according to orders, for the new
surveyor, whom he sees several hundred
wards below riding on horseback up the
zigzag road.
''Wish ed 'urry," Jimmie mutters wip-
ing the perspiration from his forehead on
the sleeve of his jacket
The chain-bearer is yet quite distance
from the Mexican camp, which is on the
summit of the mountain; but the atmos-
phere is so clear and still that he catches,
occasionally floating down from the white
church which be sees standing out near
the top of the mountain, a note from the
chant of the Spanish choir, grotesquely al
ternating now and again with the loud
noises of the village and the intoning of the
Italian priest celebrating the mass.
Far down the canyon voice, once melo-
dious but long since roughened and broken
by exposure, hard usage and hard fare,
Justify breaks out into song:
Angel de amor, mujer divna,
tn eres IL dueno del corazon.
Ultima luz, que mi iluminar.
Oy, no meniegas tn reSplendor-r-r-r.
Instantly followed by multitude of oaths,
shouts, repeated cracks of blacksnake
whip like a rafting fire of musketry, and
ending IN a mixed mass OF sounds rendered
indistinguishable by echo.
Hello, Jimmiel" cries Colonel Bestor,
slackening the gaIlop of his horse, whats
all that?'
Hits crazy Mig, sorr," was the reply.
81 les met i'm a-drivin' of is pack mules
loaded with mesquite wood down t the
Hinglish camp; wen l do go back TO the
top O the hill is mules'll be loaded with
barrels of water"
Il thought it might have something to
do with Judas" said the surveyor.
mo, sorr," Jimmie replied, adding what
the miner had said about the execution.
Colonel Bestor, who had arrived at New
Carthagena two DAYS ago, is an ex-artillery
officer who had to leave the army on ac-
count of failing health. 1t is not his Gus
tom to converse with his subordlnates
unless he is so inclined, and his chain
bearer did not dream of initiating an I'M
necessary conversation with his superior.
So in silence the colonel rides up the wind
ing way, followed on foot by Jimmie
James.
Presently from the heights, but mellowed
by the distance, comes the sound OF brass
band playing gay waltz.
At the church and the few houses of the
Mexican camp visible from this side of the
mountain pass out OF sight, the surveyor
and his attendant hear the report OF a Chi
nese bomb that is fired as a signal. And
now the firing of guns, the cracking OF
packs of firecrackers and bursting OF
bombs, the barking of dogs, the shouting
and the hurrahing and the universal hub
buD signify to Jimmie that the services OF
the church are almost done, or. IN the
opinion of the Mexicans, ought to be.
The surveyor is not so well informed.
"Get up he cried to his horse.
Eye needn't 'urry, sorr," shouted jim
ME.
But fearing he would be too late, the
colonel whips up his mustang. For on
his way to breakfast Colonel Bestor had
been asked for an aims toward paying for
the obsequies of Judas Iseariot, by no less
a person than Judas Iscariot himself. For
Spanish boy, riding more nearly on the
tail of jackass than any one who has not
seen such riding could believe possible,
met the surveyor coming out Of the office
and drawled out: "Plees-a Don Senior
Colonel Bestor to geef-a money for Judas
day?" at the same time making an efigy
of Senior Iscariot, which he was holding
on the front of his saddle, bow profoundly
and spread out his hands for gilt. Could
words more plainly have asked?
SoWhen he found he would have to pass
through~Jhe Mexican camp to reach the
old Union prospect, the depth of which he
had been ordered to measure, the new
surveyor had delayed leaving the Office
until shortly before the hour set for the
execution Of Judas. And now, fearing he
had waited too long, Colonel Bestor is urg-
ing on his pony, determined if possible to
be present at the death. But there is
really no need of haste, as Jimmie James
well knows.
By fast walking and by taking advan-
tage of short cuts the chain-bearer comes
over the ridge, in sight of the plaza, but at
higher elevation, just as Colonel Bestor
is dismounting from his yellow mustang
on the opposite side of the jail from the
crowd.
As Jimmie hurries toward the shelf
where. as though hanging in midair at
his feet, the Mexican camp is mainly built,
he sees the women coming out of the old,
tumbled-down, once whitewashed Roman
Catholic church and mingling with the
throng in the tiny plaza.
1t is motley crowd. Mexican men in
blue or maroon overalls and jumpers,
some of them wearing bright-colored
neckerchiefs and others with red sash
belts; here and there a Coruishman
dressed in Sunday broadcloth, and yonder
some in workaday clothes; poverty
stricken pigs, some DlacK ana some a
dingy, dirty white; dogs of every size and
breed and color, but almost all of them
ours; the jackass that had carried
Judas, gayly caparisoned; bare-footed
and bare-legged children, the ma
jority of them hatless; Spanish women,
the most of them old and yellow and
wizened, but among them few young
women with the rich, brown beauty pc
culiar to them, but old and young alike
dressed entirely in black, and with
black shawls, which the old women wear
as cowl, from beneath which shine pierre
ing black eyes, nothing else being visible
except their low foreheads and narrow
border of ebony-like hair; and several
Cornish women and girls, all of them, ex-
cept one, dressed IN the brightest of colors
and bedecked with ribbons and plumes.
The one exception is no other than Ellen
Truson, whose plain straw hat with a mar
row band of ribbon around it, and dress of
simple white, seem almost as striking by
the contrast with the others of her sex
who are around her as her rare beauty
would be anywhere; for she is of fair
complexion, with rosy cheeks and lips and
eyes of deepest blue, and fine, though jet
black hair.
All these people moving among them
selves, against the background OF the Mex
lean houses, once Of various colors, but