The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-01-14
A BELLE OF CANADA CITY,
BY BRET HARTE.
(Copyright, 1899, by Bret Harte.l
PART II.

uoNeNef, IL WIS pretty wen hHoNu lliiI
the amount of the defalcations had been
exaggerated; that it mad been preceded
10y the suspension of the Excelsior
bank" of San Francisco-of which
TriXit was also a managing director
Occasioned by the discovery of the with
drawal of securities for use i'll the
! branch bank at Canada City; that be
had fled the state eastward across the
Sierras, yet that, owing to the vigil,
ance of the police on the frontier, he
had failed to escape, and was IN hiding.
But there were adverse reports of
more sinister nature. 1t was said that
others were implicated; that they dare
not bring him to justice: it was pointed
out that there was more concern among
many who were not openly connected
with the bank than among its unfortu-
nate depositors. Besides the inevitable
downfall of those who had invested
their fortunes in it, there was distrust
or suspicion everywhere. Even TriXit's
enemies were forced to admit the say
ing that Canada City was the bank,
and the bank was Trixit."
Perhaps this had something to do
with an excited meeting of the direc
tors of the new mill, to whose discus
had been hurriedly summoned. When
the president told him that he had
been selected to undertake the difficult
and delicate mission of discovering the
whereabouts of Montagu TriXit, and, if
possible, procure an interview with
him, he was amazed What had the
new MILL which had always kept Itself
aloof from the bank and its methods,
to do with the disgraced manager? He
was still more astonished when the
president added bluntly:
''TriXit holds securities of ours for
money advanced to the mill by himself
privately. They do not appear on the
books, but if he chooses to declare
them as assets of the bank, it's a bad
thing for us. If he is bold enough to
keep them, he may be willing to make
some arrangement with us to carry
them on. If he has got away, or com
mitted suicide, as some say, it's for
you to find the whereabouts of the
securities and get them. He Is said TO
have been last seen near the summit.
You understand our posidon?'
Masterton did, with suppressed dis
gust. But he was young, and there was
the thrill of adventure in this. Il will
GO" he said quietly.
1--WE thought you would. You must
take the up stage tonight. Come again
and get your final instructions By the
way. you might get some information
at Trixit's house. You-er-er-are ac-
quainted with his daughter, l think?"
(Which makes it quite impossible for
me to seek her for such a purpose" said
Masterton coldly.
A few hours later he was on the coach
As they cleared the outskirts of the
town they passed two Cinnamon plod-
ding sturdily along in the dust of the
highway.
Mr.. Masterton started from a slight
doze in the heavy numbering mountain
wagon" which had taken the place of
the smart concord coach that he had left
at the last station. The scenery, too.
had changed; the four horses threaded
their way through rocky defiles of
stunted larches and hardy brush, T"
with here and there open patches of
shrunken snow. Yet at the edge of de
cliyities he could still see through the
rolled-up leather curtains the valley
below bathed in autumn the glistening
rivers half-spent with the long summer
drought, and the green slopes rolling up
wards into crest after crest of ascending
pines. At times drifting haze, always
imperceptibe from below, yelled the
view; chill wind blew through the We
hicle and made the steel sledge runners
that hung beneath the wagon ready to
be shipped under the useless wheels an
ominous provision. A few rude 'sta-
TONS" half blacksmith shops, half gro
Gerry, marked the deserted but well-Worn
road; long, narrow packers wagon or
a tortuous file of Cinnamon carrying
mysterious bundles depending from
bamboo poles, was their rare and only
company. The rough sheepskin jackets
which these men wore over their charac
teristic blue blousers and their heavy
leggings We're a new revelation to Mas
terton, accustomed to the thinly clad
coolie of the mines. They seemed a dis
tinct race
Il never knew those chaps get so high
up, but they seem to understand the
cold" he remarked.
The driver looked up and calculated
his disgust and his tobacco juice at the
same market.
Il reckon they're everywhar in Cali
forny whar YOU want 'em and whar you
don't; you take my word for it, afore
long Call1orny Will heV TO reckon Indt
she ginerally don't want 'em eff white
man has to live here. With a race tied
up together iii a language We can't I'M
derstand, ways that no Teller knows
from their praying to devils, swappin'
their wives, and havin' their bones
sent back to Chiny-wot are We goin' to
do, and where are ye? What are vel
goin' to make outer men that look so
much alike We can't tell them apart;
that think alike, and never in ways that
We kin catch onto! Fellers knotted to-
gether in some underhand secret way
o communication with each other, so that
if We kick a Chinaman UP here on the
Summit another Chinaman will squeal
in the valley! And the way they do it |
Just gets me! Look yer! I'll tell vel
somethin that happened, that's gospel
truth! Some of the boys that reckoned |
to hev some fun with the Chinee gang
over at Cedar Camp, started out one
afternoon to raid 'em. They CROPPED
along through the woods whar nobody
could see 'em; kalkilatiin to come down
with a rush on the camp over two miles
away. And nobody did see 'em, only |