Fixing it with his thumb,he looked up resignedly.The figure wearily detached itself from the door-post,and Jeff's eyes fell on his book."You won't stop,aunty?"he asked mechanically,as if reading aloud from the page;but she was gone.
A little ashamed,although much relieved,Jeff fell back again to literature,interrupted only by the charging of the wind and the heavy volleys of rain.Presently he found himself wondering if a certain banging were really a shutter,and then,having settled in his mind that it WAS,he was startled by a shout.Another,and in the road before the house!
Jeff put down the book,and marked the place by turning down the leaf,being one of that large class of readers whose mental faculties are butter-fingered,and easily slip their hold.Then he resumed his boots and was duly caparisoned.He extinguished the kerosene lamp,and braved the outer air,and strong currents of the hall and stairway in the darkness.Lighting two candles in the bar-room,he proceeded to unlock the hall door.At the same instant a furious blast shook the house,the door yielded slightly and impelled a thin,meek-looking stranger violently against Jeff,who still struggled with it.
"An accident has occurred,"began the stranger,"and"--but here the wind charged again,blew open the door,pinned Jeff behind it back against the wall,overturned the dripping stranger,dashed up the staircase,and slammed every door in the house,ending triumphantly with No.14,and a crash of glass in the window.
"'Come,rouse up!"said Jeff,still struggling with the door,"rouse up and lend a hand yer!"Thus abjured,the stranger crept along the wall towards Jeff and began again,"We have met with an accident."But here another and mightier gust left him speechless,covered him with spray of a wildly disorganized water-spout that,dangling from the roof,seemed to be playing on the front door,drove him into black obscurity and again sandwiched his host between the door and the wall.Then there was a lull,and in the midst of it Yuba Bill,driver of the "Pioneer"coach,quietly and coolly,impervious in waterproof,walked into the hall,entered the bar-room,took a candle,and,going behind the bar,selected a bottle,critically examined it,and,returning,poured out a quantity of whiskey in a glass and gulped it in a single draught.
All this while Jeff was closing the door,and the meek-looking man was coming into the light again.
Yuba Bill squared his elbows behind him and rested them on the bar,crossed his legs easily and awaited them.In reply to Jeff's inquiring but respectful look,he said shortly--"Oh,you're thar,are ye?"
"Yes,Bill."
"Well,this yer new-fangled road o'yours is ten feet deep in the hollow with back water from the North Fork!I've taken that yar coach inter fower feet of it,and then I reckoned I couldn't hev any more.'I'll stand on this yer hand,'sez I;I brought the horses up yer and landed 'em in your barn to eat their blessed heads off till the water goes down.That's wot's the matter,old man,and jist about wot I kalkilated on from those durned old improvements o'yours."Coloring a little at this new count in the general indictment against the uselessness of the "Half-way House,"Jeff asked if there were "any passengers?"Yuba Bill indicated the meek stranger with a jerk of his thumb.
"And his wife and darter in the coach.They're all right and tight,ez if they was in the Fifth Avenue Hotel.But I reckon he allows to fetch 'em up yer,"added Bill,as if he strongly doubted the wisdom of the transfer.
The meek man,much meeker for the presence of Bill,here suggested that such indeed was his wish,and further prayed that Jeff would accompany him to the coach to assist in bringing them up."It's rather wet and dark,"said the man apologetically;"my daughter is not strong.Have you such a thing as a waterproof?"Jeff had not;but would a bear-skin do?
It would.
Jeff ran,tore down his extempore window curtain,and returned with it.Yuba Bill,who had quietly and disapprovingly surveyed the proceeding,here disengaged himself from the bar with evident reluctance.
"You'll want another man,"he said to Jeff,"onless ye can carry double.Ez HE,"indicating the stranger,"ez no sort o'use,he'd better stay here and 'tend bar,'while you and me fetch the wimmen off.'Specially ez I reckon we've got to do some tall wadin'by this time to reach 'em."The meek man sat down helplessly in a chair indicated by Bill,who at once strode after Jeff.In another moment they were both fighting their way,step by step,against the storm,in that peculiar,drunken,spasmodic way so amusing to the spectator and so exasperating to the performer.It was no time for conversation,even interjectional profanity was dangerously exhaustive.
The coach was scarcely a thousand yards away,but its bright lights were reflected in a sheet of dark silent water that stretched between it and the two men.Wading and splashing,they soon reached it,and a gully where the surplus water was pouring into the valley below."Fower feet o'water round her,but can't get any higher.So ye see she's all right for a month o'sich weather."Inwardly admiring the perspicacity of his companion,Jeff was about to open the coach door when Bill interrupted.
"I'll pack the old woman,if you'll look arter the darter and enny little traps."A female face,anxious and elderly,here appeared at the window.
"Thet's my little game,"said Bill,sotto voce.
"Is there any danger?where is my husband?"asked the woman impatiently.
"Ez to the danger,ma'am,--thar ain't any.Yer ez safe HERE ez ye'd be in a Sacramento steamer;ez to your husband,he allowed Iwas to come yer and fetch yer up to the hotel.That's his look-out!"With this cheering speech,Bill proceeded to make two or three ineffectual scoops into the dark interior,manifestly with the idea of scooping out the lady in question.In another instant he had caught her,lifted her gently but firmly in his arms,and was turning away.