The Gringos | Page 2

of the Mission which the
padres founded among the sand hills beside a great, uneasy stretch of
water which a dreamer might liken to a naughty child that had run away
from its mother, the ocean, through a little gateway which the land left
open by chance and was hiding there among the hills, listening to the
calling of the surf voice by night, out there beyond the gate, and lying
sullen and still when mother ocean sent the fog and the tides a-seeking;
a truant child that played by itself and danced little wave dances which
it had learned of its mother ages agone, and laughed up at the hills that
smiled down upon it.
The padres thought mostly of the savages who lived upon the land, and
strove earnestly to teach them the lessons which, sandal-shod, with
crucifix to point the way, they had marched up from the south to set
before these children of the wild. Also came ships, searching for that
truant ocean-child, the bay, of which men had heard; and so the hamlet
was born of civilization.
Came afterwards noblemen from Spain, with parchments upon which
the king himself had set his seal. Mile upon mile, they chose the land
that pleased them best; and by virtue of the king's word called it their
own. They drove cattle up from the south to feed upon the hills and in
the valleys. They brought beautiful wives and set them a-queening it
over spacious homes which they built of clay and native wood and
furnished with the luxuries they brought with them in the ships. They

reared lovely daughters and strong, hot-blooded sons; and they grew
rich in cattle and in contentment, in this paradise which Nature had set
apart for her own playground and which the zeal of the padres had
found and claimed in the name of God and their king.
The hamlet beside the bay was small, but it received the ships and the
goods they brought and bartered for tallow and hides; and although the
place numbered less than a thousand souls, it was large enough to
please the dons who dwelt like the patriarchs of old in the valleys.
Then Chance, that sardonic jester who loves best to thwart the dearest
desires of men and warp the destiny of nations, became piqued at the
peace and the plenty in the land which lay around the bay. Chance,
knowing well how best and quickest to let savagery loose upon the land,
plucked a handful of gold from the breast of Nature, held it aloft that all
the world might be made mad by the gleam of it, and raised the hunting
call.
Chance also it was that took the trails of two adventurous young
fellows whose ears had caught her cry of "Good hunting" and set their
faces westward from the plains of Texas; but here her jest was kindly.
The young fellows took the trail together and were content. Together
they heard the hunting call and went seeking the gold that was luring
thousands across the deserts; together they dug for it, found it, shared it
when all was done. Together they heeded the warning of falling leaf
and chilling night winds, and with buckskin bags comfortably heavy
went down the mountain trail to San Francisco, that ugly, moiling
center of the savagery, to idle through the winter.
Here, because of certain traits which led each man to seek the thing that
pleased him best, the trail forked for a time. One was caught in the
turgid whirlpool which was the sporting element of the town, and
would not leave it. Him the games and the women and the fighting
drew irresistibly. The other sickened of the place, and one day when all
the grassy hillsides shone with the golden glow of poppies to prove that
spring was near, almost emptied a bag of gold because he had seen and
fancied a white horse which a drunken Spaniard from the San Joaquin
was riding up and down the narrow strip of sand which was a street,

showing off alike his horsemanship and his drunkenness. The horse he
bought, and the outfit, from the silver-trimmed saddle and bridle to the
rawhide riata hanging coiled upon one side of the narrow fork and the
ivory-handled Colt's revolver tucked snugly in its holster upon the other
side. Pleased as a child over a Christmas stocking, he straightway
mounted the beautiful beast and galloped away to the south, still led by
Chance, the jester.
He returned in a week, enamored alike of his horse and of the ranch he
had discovered. He was going back, he said. There were cattle by the
thousands--and he was a cattleman, from the top of his white sombrero
to the tips of