Page:A La California.djvu/414

358 A bottle was placed before him. Pouring a glass nearly full, Gabe raised it in his hand, held it between the light and his eye, and after gazing at it affectionately for a few moments, said:

"Here's to we uns; may we all have heaps of luck and water when the winter breaks."

"We'll all drink to that!" exclaimed the miners as they raised the glasses to their lips and poured the liquid fire down their throats.

"As I remarked, when I first came in, times are right peart on Rabbit Creek, ain't they?'

"Yes, sorter, kind o' peart," responded one of the group. "The fact is, times has been infernally dull for a long while, and 'twas necessary for to do something to bust the shell. Things having got a boost, there is a right smart chance of peartness goin' on." The speaker was the proprietor of a faro game, who, being anxious to cultivate Mr. Husker's acquaintance, sought to improve the occasion. He was a large-framed, bull-necked, dark-eyed, scowling- countenanced fellow, known by the name of Chadwick, who, rumor declared, had, since his advent into California, killed one or two men and robbed a great many others, but during his residence on Rabbit Creek he had conducted himself in a manner to give no offense. His features were marked with several deep scars, which gave evidence of his having participated in many a desperate combat, while the bowie-knife and revolver in his belt indicated that he was prepared for war at any moment.

By eleven o'clock between three and four hundred