'Leave, or I'll shoot you dead! I've five more shots in this one, and
two more revolvers in my pockets, and I'm not afraid!' Arthur yelled,
jumping about like a maniac, as for the time being he was, and so
startling the robbers that they fled precipitately, followed for a
little distance by Arthur, who leaped from the stage and started in
pursuit, with a revolver in each hand, and ball after ball flying ahead
of him as he ran.
When at last he came back, the passengers flocked around him, grasping
his hands and blessing him as the preserver of their money, if not of
their lives. After that Arthur was a lion, whom all people in the valley
wished to see and talk with, and with whom the landlord bore as he had
never borne with a guest before, for Arthur found fault with the rooms,
which he likened to bath-tubs, and fault with the smells which came from
the river, and fault with the smoke in the parlour, but made ample
amends by the money he spent so lavishly, the scores of photographs he
bought, and the puffs he wrote for the San Francisco papers, extolling
the valley as the very gate of heaven, and the hotel as second only to
the Palace, and signing himself "Bumble Bees."
He went on every trail, and started for the highest possible peak, and
when he stood on the top of old Capitan and looked down upon the world
below, he capered and shouted like a madman, singing at the top of his
voice, "Mine eye have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord, glory,
glory, hallelujah!" until the rocky gorges rang with the wild echoes
which went floating down the valley below, where the sun was shining so
brightly and the grass was growing so green.
Pages:
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648