第52章

"YOU think so," he said querulously, apparently ignoring everything but the practical fact,--"and maybe others do; but that's where you're mistaken.It don't pay.It may pay HIM to be runnin' me as his particular friend, to be quotin' me here and there, to be gettin' credit of knowin' me and my friends and ownin' me--by Gosh! but I don't see where the benefit to ME comes in.Eh?Take your own case down there at Eureka Gulch; didn't he send for me just to show me up to you fellers? Did I want to have anything to do with the Eureka Company?Didn't he set me up to give my opinion about that shaft just to show off what I knew about science and all that? And what did he get me to join the company for? Was it for you? No!Was it for me?No!It was just to keep me there for HIMSELF, and kinder pit me agin you fellers and crow over you! Now that ain't my style!It may be HIS--it may be honest and simple and loyal, as you say, and it may be all right for him to get me to run up accounts at the settlement and then throw off on me--but it ain't my style.I suppose he let on that I did that.No?He didn't?Well then, why did he want to run me off with him, and out the whole concern in an underhand way and make me leave with nary a character behind me, eh?

Now, I never said anything about this before--did I? It ain't like me.I wouldn't have said anything about it now, only you talked about MY being benefited by his darned foolishness. Much I've made outer HIM."Despicable, false, and disloyal as this was, perhaps it was the crowning meanness of such confidences that his very weakness seemed only a reflection of Captain Jim's own, and appeared in some strange way to degrade his friend as much as himself.The simplicity of his vanity and selfishness was only equalled by the simplicity of Captain Jim's admiration of it.It was a part of my youthful inexperience of humanity that I was not above the common fallacy of believing that a man is "known by the company he keeps," and that he is in a manner responsible for its weakness; it was a part of that humanity that I felt no surprise in being more amused than shocked by this revelation.It seemed a good joke on Captain Jim!

"Of course YOU kin laugh at his darned foolishness; but, by Gosh, it ain't a laughing matter to me!""But surely he's given you a good position on the 'Guardian,'" I urged."That was disinterested, certainly.""Was it? I call that the cheekiest thing yet.When he found he couldn't make enough of me in private life, he totes me out in public as HIS editor--the man who runs HIS paper! And has his name in print as the proprietor, the only chance he'd ever get of being before the public.And don't know the whole town is laughing at him!""That may be because they think HE writes some of the articles," I suggested.

Again the insinuation glanced harmlessly from his vanity."That couldn't be, because I do all the work, and it ain't his style," he said with naive discontent."And it's always the highest style, done to please him, though between you and me it's sorter castin' pearls before swine--this 'Frisco editing--and the public would be just as satisfied with anything I could rattle off that was peart and sassy,--something spicy or personal.I'm willing to climb down and do it, for there's nothin' stuck-up about me, you know; but that darned fool Captain Jim has got the big head about the style of the paper, and darned if I don't think he's afraid if there's a lettin'

down, people may think it's him! Ez if! Why, you know as well as me that there's a sort of snap I could give these things that would show it was me and no slouch did them, in a minute."I had my doubts about the elegance or playfulness of Mr.Bassett's trifling, but from some paragraphs that appeared in the next issue of the "Guardian" I judged that he had won over Captain Jim--if indeed that gentleman's alleged objections were not entirely the outcome of Bassett's fancy.The social paragraphs themselves were clumsy and vulgar.A dull-witted account of a select party at Parson Baxter's, with a point-blank compliment to Polly Baxter his daughter, might have made her pretty cheek burn but for her evident prepossession for the meretricious scamp, its writer.But even this horse-play seemed more natural than the utterly artificial editorials with their pinchbeck glitter and cheap erudition; and thus far it appeared harmless.

I grieve to say that these appearances were deceptive.One afternoon, as I was returning from a business visit to the outskirts of the village, I was amazed on reentering the main street to find a crowd collected around the "Guardian" office, gazing at the broken glass of its windows and a quantity of type scattered on the ground.But my attention was at that moment more urgently attracted by a similar group around my own office, who, however, seemed more cautious, and were holding timorously aloof from the entrance.As I ran rapidly towards them, a few called out, "Look out--he's in there!" while others made way to let me pass.With the impression of fire or robbery in my mind, I entered precipitately, only to find Yuba Bill calmly leaning back in an arm-chair with his feet on the back of another, a glass of whiskey from my demijohn in one hand and a huge cigar in his mouth.Across his lap lay a stumpy shotgun which I at once recognized as "the Left Bower," whose usual place was at his feet on the box during his journeys.He looked cool and collected, although there were one or two splashes of printer's ink on his shirt and trousers, and from the appearance of my lavatory and towel he had evidently been removing similar stains from his hands.Putting his gun aside and grasping my hand warmly without rising, he began with even more than his usual lazy imperturbability:

"Well, how's Gilead lookin' to-day?"

It struck me as looking rather disturbed, but, as I was still too bewildered to reply, he continued lazily: