Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/96

 ran away from Jack and took to the mountains when her people went on the war-path. The then wife was a white woman from Missouri, and, from all I can learn, a very good mate for Jack, excepting that prosperity turned her head and made her very extravagant. So long as Jack's mine was panning out freely Jack didn't mind much what she spent, but when it petered, and economy became necessary, dissensions soon arose between them, and it was agreed that they were not compatible.

"If you don't like me," said Mrs. Long one day, "give me a divorce and one-half of what you have, and I'll leave you."

"'Nuff sed," was Jack's reply, "'n' here goes."

The sum total in the Long exchequer was not quite $200. Of this, Jack laid to one side a double eagle, for a purpose soon to be explained. The remainder was divided into two even piles, one of which was handed over to his spouse. The doors of the wardrobe stood open, disclosing all of Jack's regal raiment. He seized a pair of trousers, tore them leg from leg, and then served in much the same way every coat, waistcoat, or undergarment he owned. One pile of remnants was assigned to the stupefied woman, who ten minutes previously had been demanding a separation.

Before another ten had passed her own choicest treasures had shared the same fate, and her ex-liege lord was devoting his attention to breaking the cooking stove, with its superstructure of pots and pans and kettles, into two little hillocks of battered fragments; and no sooner through with that than at work sawing the tables and chairs in half and knocking the solitary mirror into smithereens.

"Thar yer are," said Jack. "Ye 'v' got half th' money, 'n' yer kin now tek yer pick o' what's left."

The stage had come along on its way down to Sacramento, and Jack hailed the driver. "Mrs. Long's goin' down th' road a bit ter see some o' her kin, 'n' ter get a breath o' fresh air. Tek her ez fur ez this 'll pay fur, 'n' then she'll tell whar else she wants ter go."

And that was Jack Long's divorce and the reason why he left the mining regions of California and wandered far and near, beginning the battle of life anew as packer and prospector, and drifting down into the drainage of the Gila and into the "Shoo Fly" restaurant, where we have just met him.