It Is Never Too Late to Mend — Chapter LXV, part 2
Crash!
went ten thousand cradles; the mine had breakfasted.
I wish I could give the European reader an idea of the magnitude of this sound whose cause was so humble.
I must draw on nature for a comparison.
Did you ever stand upon a rocky shore at evening when a great storm has suddenly gone down, leaving the waves about as high as they were while it raged?
Then there is no roaring wind to dull the clamor of the tremendous sea as it lashes the long re-bellowing shore.
Such was the sound of ten thousand cradles; yet the sound of each one was insignificant.
Hence an observation and a reflection--the latter I dedicate to the lovers of antiquity--that multiplying sound, magnifies it in a way science has not yet accounted for; and that, though men are all dwarfs, Napoleon included, man is a giant.
The works of man are so prodigious they contradict all we see of any individual's powers; and even so when you had seen and heard one man rock one cradle, it was all the harder to believe that a few thousand of them could rival thunder, avalanches, and the angry sea lashing the long reechoing shore at night.
These miserable wooden cradles lost their real character when combined in one mighty human effort; it seemed as if giant labor had stretched forth an arm huge as an arm of the sea and rocked one enormous engine, whose sides where these great primeval rocks, and its mouth a thundering sea.
Crash!
from meal to meal!
The more was Robinson surprised when, full an hour before dinner-time, this mighty noise all of a sudden became feebler and feebler, and presently human cries of a strange character made their way to his ear through the wooden thunder.
“What on earth is up now?
” thought he--“an earthquake?
” Presently he saw at about half a mile off a vast crowd of miners making toward him in tremendous excitement.
They came on, swelled every moment by fresh faces, and cries of vengeance and excitement were now heard, which the wild and savage aspect of the men rendered truly terrible.
At last he saw and comprehended all at a glance.
There were Jem and two others dragging a man along whose white face and knocking knees betrayed his guilt and his terror.
Robinson knew him directly; it was Walker, who had been the decoy-duck the night his tent was robbed.
“Here is the captain!
Hurrah!
I've got him, captain.
This is the beggar that peppered the hole for me, and now we will pepper him!
” A fierce burst of exultation from the crowd.
They thirsted for revenge.
Jem had caught the man at the other end of the camp, and his offense was known by this time to half the mine.
“Proceed regularly, Jem,” said Robinson.
“Don't condemn the man unheard.
” “Oh, no!
He shall be tried, and you shall be the judge.
” “I consent,” said Robinson, somewhat pompously.
Then arose a cry that made him reflect.
“Lynch!
Lynch!
a seat for Judge Lynch!
” and in a moment a judgment-seat was built with cradles, and he was set on high, with six strange faces scowling round him for one of his own clique.
He determined to back out of the whole thing.
“No, no!
” cried he; “that is impossible.
I cannot be a judge in such a serious matter.
” “Why not?
” roared several voices.
“Why not?
Because I am not a regular beak; because I have not got authority from the Crown.
” There was a howl of derision.
“We give you authority!
” “We order you to be judge!
” “We are King, Lords, and Commons!
” “Do what we bid you, or,” added a stranger, “we will hang you and the prisoner with one rope!
” Grim assent of the surrounding faces; Robinson sat down on the judgment-seat not a little discomposed.
“Now then,” remonstrated one; “what are you waiting for?
Name the jury.
” “Me!
” “Me!
” “Me!
” “I!
” “I!
” “I!
” and there was a rush for the office.
“Keep cool,” replied another.
“Lynch law goes quick, but it goes by rule.
Judge, name the jury.
” Robinson, a man whose wits seldom deserted him, at once determined to lead, since he could not resist.
He said with dignity: “I shall choose one juryman from each of the different countries that are working in this mine, that no nation may seem to be slighted, for this gold belongs to all the world.
” “Hurrah!
Well done, judge.
Three cheers for Judge Lynch!
” “When I call a country, give me a name, which I will inscribe on my report of the proceedings.
I want a currency lad first.
” “Here is one.
William Parker.
” “Pass over.
France.
” “Present.
Pierre Chanot.
” “Germany.
” “Here.
Hans Muller.
” “Holland.
” “Here.
Jan Van der Stegen.
” Spain and Italy were called, but no reply.
Asleep, I take it.
“United States.
” “Here.
Nathan Tucker.
” Here Robinson, casting his eyes round, spied McLaughlan, and, being minded to dilute the severity of his jury, he cried out, “Scotland.
McLaughlan, you shall represent her.
” No answer.
“McLaughlan,” cried several voices, “where are ye?
Don't you hear Judge Lynch speak to you?
” “Come, McLaughlan, come over; you are a respectable man.
” Mr. McLaughlan intimated briefly in his native dialect that he was, and intended to remain so; by way of comment on which he made a bolt from the judgment-hall, but was rudely seized and dragged before the judge.
“For Heaven's sake, don't be a fool, McLaughlan.
No man must refuse to be a juryman in a trial by lynch.
I saw a Quaker stoned to death for it in California.
” “I guess I was thyar,” said a voice behind the judge, who shifted uneasily.
McLaughlan went into the jury-box with a meaning look at Robinson, but without another audible word.
“Mercy!
mercy!
” cried Walker.
“You must not interrupt the proceedings,” said Judge Lynch.
“Haud your whist, ye gowk.
Ye are no fand guilty yet,” remonstrated a juror.
The jury being formed, the judge called the plaintiff.
“The man sold me a claim for thirty pound.
I gave him the blunt because I saw the stuff was glittery.
Well, I worked it, and I found it work rather easy, that is a fact.
” “Haw!
haw!
haw!
” roared the crowd, but with a horrible laughter, no placability in it.
“Well, I found lots of dust, and I took it to the merchant, and he says it is none of it gold.
That is my tale.
” “Have you any witnesses?
” “I don't know.
Yes, the nigger; he saw it.
Here, Jacky, come and tell them.
” Jacky was thrust forward, but was interrupted by McLaughlan as soon as he opened his mouth.
The Scottish juror declined to receive evidence but upon oath.
The judge allowed the objection.
“Swear him in, then,” cried a hundred voices.
“Swear?
” inquired Jacky, innocently.
Another brutal roar of laughter followed.
Jacky was offended.
“What for you laugh, you stupid fellows?
I not a common black fellow.
I been to Sydney and learn all the white man knows.
Jacky will swear,” added he.
“Left your hond,” cried McLaughlan.
“It is no swearing if you dinna left your hond.
” “Dat so stupid,” said Jacky, lifting his hand peevishly.
This done, he delivered his evidence thus: “Damme I saw dis fellow sell dirt to dis fellow, and damme I saw dis fellow find a good deal gold, and damme I heard him say dis is a dam good job, and den damme he put down his spade and go to sell, and directly he come back and say damme I am done!
” “Aweel,” said McLaughlan; “we jaast refuse yon lad's evidence, the deevelich heathen.
” A threatening murmur.
“Silence!
Hear the defendant.
” Walker, trembling like an aspen, owned to having sold the claim, but denied that the dust was false.
“This is what I dug out of it,” said he;
and he produced a small pinch of dust.
“Hand it to me,” said the judge.
“It seems genuine.
” “Put it to the test.
Call the merchant for a witness,” cried another.
A party ran instantly for Levi.
He refused to come.
They dragged him with fearful menaces.
“A test, old man; a test of gold!
” The old Jew cast his eyes around, took in the whole scene, and with a courage few of the younger ones would have shown, defied that wild mob.
“I will give you no test.
I wash my hands of your mad passions, and your mockeries of justice, men of Belial!
” A moment's silence and wonder, a yell of rage, and a dozen knives in the air.
The judge rose hastily, and in a terrible voice that governed the tumult for an instant said: “Down knives!
I hang the first man that uses one in my court.
” And during the momentary pause that followed this he cried out: “He has given me a test.
Run and fetch me the bottle of acid on his table.
” “Hurrah!
Judge Lynch forever!
” was now the cry, and in a minute the bottle was thrust into the judge's hand.
“Young man,” said Isaac solemnly, “do not pour, lest Heaven bring your soul to as keen a test one day.
Who are you that judge your brother?
” Judge Lynch trembled visibly as the reverend man rebuked him thus, but, fearing Isaac would go farther and pay the forfeit of his boldness, he said calmly: “Friends, remove the old man from the court, but use respect.
He is an aged man.
” Isaac was removed.
The judge took the bottle and poured a drop on that small pinch of dust the man had last given him.
No effect followed.
“I pronounce this to be gold.
” “There,” put in McLaughlan, “ye see the lad was no deceiving ye; is it his fault if a' the gowd is no the same?
” “No!
” whimpered Walker, eagerly, and the crowd began to whisper and allow he might be innocent.
The man standing behind the judge said, with a cold sneer: “That is the stuff he did not sell--now pour on the stuff he sold.
” These words brought back the prejudice against the prisoner, and a hundred voices shouted, “Pour!
” while their eyes gleamed with a terrible curiosity.
Judge Lynch, awestruck by this terrible roar, now felt what it is to be a judge; he trembled and hesitated.
“Pour!
” roared the crowd, still louder and more fiercely.
McLaughlan read the judge's feeling, and whimpered out, “Let it fa', lad--let it fa'!
” “If he does our knives fall on him and you.
Pour!
” Robinson poured.
All their fierce eyes were fixed on the experiment.
He meant to pour a drop or two, but the man behind him jogged his arm, and half the acid in the bottle fell upon Walker's dust.
A quantity of smoke rose from it, and the particles fizzed and bubbled under the terrible test.
“Trash!
a rope--no!
dig a hole and bury him--no!
fling him off the rock into the water.
” “Silence!
” roared Robinson, “I am the judge, and it is for me to pronounce the verdict.
” “Silence!
hear Judge Lynch!
” Silence was not obtained for five minutes, during which the court was like a forest of wild beasts howling.
“I condemn him to be exposed all day, with his dust tied round his neck, and then drummed out of the camp.
” This verdict was received first with a yell of derisive laughter, then with a roar of rage.
“Down with the judge!
” “We are the judges!
” “To the rock with him!
” “Ay, to the rock with him.
” With this, an all-overpowering rush was made, and Walker was carried off up the rock in the middle of five hundred infuriated men.
The poor wretch cried, “Mercy!
mercy!
” “Justice!
dog,” was the roar in reply.
The raging crowd went bellowing up the rock like a wave, and gained a natural platform forty feet above the great deep pool that lay dark and calm below.
At the sight of it, the poor wretch screamed to wake the dead, but the roars and yells of vengeance drowned his voice.
“Put his dust in his pocket,” cried one, crueler than the rest.
Their thirst of vengeance was too hot to wait for this diabolical proposal; in a moment four of them had him by the shoulders and heels;
another moment and the man was flung from the rock, uttering a terrible death-cry in the very air; then down his body fell like lead, and struck with a tremendous plunge the deep water that splashed up a moment, then closed and bubbled over it.
From that moment the crowd roared no longer, but buzzed and murmured, and looked down upon their work half stupidly.
“Hush!
” “What is that?
” “It is his head!
” “He is up again!
” “Can he swim?
” “Fling stones on him.
” “No!
Let him alone, or we'll fling you atop of him.
” “He is up, but he can't swim.
He is only struggling!
he is down again!
” He was down, but only for a moment; then he appeared again choking and gurgling.
“Mercy!
mercy!
” “Justice, thieving dog!
” was the appalling answer.
“Save me!
save me!
Oh, save me!
save me!
” “Save yourself!
if you are worth it!
” was the savage reply.
The drowning, despairing man's head was sinking again, his strength exhausted by his idle struggles, when suddenly on his left hand he saw a round piece of rock scarce a yard from him.
He made a desperate effort and got his hand on it.
Alas!
it was so slimy he could not hold by it;
he fell off it into the water; he struggled up again, tried to dig his feet into the rock, but, after a convulsive fling of a few seconds, fell back--the slimy rock mocked his grasp.
He came up again and clung, and cried piteously for help and mercy.
There was none!
--but a grim silence and looks of horrible curiosity at his idle struggles.
His crime had struck at the very root of their hearts and lives.
Then this poor, cowardly wretch made up his mind that he must die.
He gave up praying to the pitiless, who could look down and laugh at his death-agony, and he cried upon the absent only.
“My children!
my wife!
my poor Jenny!
” and with this he shut his eyes, and, struggling no more, sank quietly down!
down!
down.
First his shoulders disappeared, then his chin, then his eyes, and then his hair.
Who can fathom human nature?
that sad, despairing cry, which was not addressed to them, knocked at the bosoms that all his prayers to them for pity had never touched.
A hasty, low and uneasy murmur followed it almost as a report follows a flash.
“His wife and children!
” cried several voices with surprise; but there were two men this cry not only touched, but pierced--the plaintiff and the judge.
“The man has got a wife and children,” cried Jem in dismay, as he tried to descend the rock by means of some diminutive steps.
“They never offended me--he is gone down, ---- me if I see the man drowned like a rat--Hallo!
--Splash!
” Jem's foot had slipped, and, as he felt he must go, he jumped right out, and fell twenty feet into the water.
At this the crowd roared with laughter, and now was the first shade of good-nature mixed with the guffaw.
Jem fell so near Walker that on coming up he clutched the drowning man's head and dragged him up once more from death.
At the sight of Walker's face above water again, what did the crowd, think you?
They burst into a loud hurrah!
and cheered Jem till the echoes rang again.
“Hurrah!
Bravo!
Hurrah!
” pealed the fickle crowd.
Now Walker no sooner felt himself clutched than he clutched in return with the deadly grasp of a drowning man.
Jem struggled to get free in vain.
Walker could not hear or see, he was past all that; but he could cling, and he got Jem round the arms and pinned them.
After a few convulsive efforts Jem gave a loud groan.
He then said quietly to the spectators, “He will drown me in another half minute.
” But at this critical moment out came from the other extremity of the pool Judge Lynch, swimming with a long rope in his hand; one end of this rope he had made into a bight ere he took the water.
He swam behind Walker and Jem, whipped the noose over their heads and tightened it under their shoulders.
“Haul!
” cried he to Ede, who held the other end of the rope.
Ede hauled, and down went the two heads.
A groan of terror and pity from the mob--their feelings were reversed.
“Haul quick, Ede,” shouted Robinson, “or you will drown them, man alive.
” Ede hauled hand over hand, and a train of bubbles was seen making all across the pool toward him.
And the next moment two dripping heads came up to hand close together, like cherries on a stalk; and now a dozen hands were at the rope, and the plaintiff and defendant were lifted bodily up on to the flat rock, which came nearly to the water's edge on this side the pool.
“Augh!
augh!
augh!
augh!
” gasped Jem.
Walker said nothing.
He lay white and motionless, water trickling from his mouth, nose and ears.
Robinson swam quietly ashore.
The rocks thundered with cheers over his head.
The next moment, “the many-headed beast” remembered that all this was a waste of time, and bolted underground like a rabbit, and dug and pecked for the bare life with but one thought left, and that was GOLD.
“How are you, Jem?
” “Oh, captain, oh!
” gasped poor Jem, “I am choked--I am dead--I am poisoned--why, I'm full of water; bring this other beggar to my tent, and we will take a nanny-goat together.
” So Jem was taken off hanging his head, and deadly sick, supported by two friends, and Walker was carried to the same tent, and stripped and rubbed and rolled up in a blanket; and lots of brandy poured down him and Jem, to counteract the poison they had swallowed.
Robinson went to Mr. Levi, to see if he would lend him a suit, while he got his own dried.
The old Jew received my lord judge with a low, ironical bow, and sent Nathan to borrow the suit from another Israelite.
