And with a sudden movement he produced something he held between his fingers, and which he threw into his mouth. He'd got the vile habit, he told me, one time when he was in hiding among some Chinese.
"Oh, it's been 'ell 'ere," continued Hawkins, "when the boss 'as been away a long time, an' the dope 'as all run out. Oh, I 'ave run round this 'ell 'ole, and tried to climb the rocks, and tore my 'ands; and once I like to broke my neck in a fall."
He told me that when Duran was away the only other inhabitant was a black, called Limbo. Hawkins said that it must be he was named for the place he lived in. The two were engaged in the gold-digging; and even when Duran was gone, the black kept spurring him at the work. For when the "boss" came back, and there wasn't a showing to please him, Hawkins said there was "'ell to pay."
"But I sye, pard," he went on, giving me a poke in the side, "Hi'm slick, Hi am; an' when your friends gets us out o' this, an' the boss is gone, you an' me'll come back, and I'll show you enough o' the yeller stuff, 'id syfe awye, to keep us in dope, and drinks, an' livin' 'igh all our d'ys."
Night had turned the place into a dark pit, and the mosquitoes were abroad on their nightly foray. I struggled to my feet, and got my crutch under my arm, telling Hawkins that my friends would be expecting to hear from me; and I began to hobble back down the dark vale. It was with some feeling of disrelish that I accepted Hawkins' shoulder, to assist me in steadying myself on this unwonted leg. Hawkins hoped that my friends were as high-class niggers as myself. "Leave me alone to know a 'igh-toned nigger when I sees one," he said. The irregular twitching of his shoulder proved rather a doubtful support, and more than once all but upset me. But he certainly made my progress more rapid.
"It happens my friends are all white," I told him, "except one; and he's less than half black, the rest of him being Indian."
"You don't sye!" cried Hawkins, coming to a sudden stop. "I'll be very 'appy to meet some folks of my own degree—meanin' no disrespect to you; you ain't just a common nigger, you know."
I disclaimed any disposition to take umbrage at his show of preference for the white race; and we continued our walk.
When we arrived opposite Duran's ladder, I detected the rattle of stones over at the cliff wall. I began to fear that Duran had returned, till I heard low voices, and then I got the conviction that it was my friends, who were coming down by Duran's rope stairway. I hurried over close, and called to them, directing them down the inclined ledge. And at last Norris and Ray stood before me.
"I couldn't keep this kid, Norris, back any longer," explained Ray. "I had to tell him how the ladder worked, and—"