For half an hour we remained upon the ground watching the evolutions of the miners, as they went through various military man[oe]uvres, and then we returned to the store to find that Smith had arrived during our absence, and had brought with him a large stock of goods, and that he and Fred were hard at work unloading them.
I of course joined them without delay, and by sundown the carts were unloaded, and the oxen secured for the night. We were all glad to see our partner, and innumerable were the questions with which we plied him, both before and after supper, and gladly did he answer them, and then produced for our perusal a pile of newspapers from Yankee land, which were worth more than ten times their weight in gold.
While we were sitting around our rude table, making up accounts and conversing about business, Steel Spring entered the store with as much assurance as a first class customer. Fred and Smith both welcomed him with a few remarks, but Steel Spring seemed somewhat hurried, and declined to be seated. At length he gave me a signal that he wished to communicate something to me in private, and I followed him to the door.
"I thought that I vould come and give ye a bit of news, 'cos ye alvays treated me vell," he said, in a low whisper, and after a careful glance around to see if there were listeners near at hand.
I acknowledged the remark, and he continued:—
"I heerd the commissioner give orders to-night that your 'osses should be seized in the morning for the sogers to ride on, and I think he is doing it out of spite." "But he has no right to touch private property," I remarked.
"Vot does you s'pose he cares for the right? He vill say that they is needed, and that is 'nough. You can't help yourselves, you can't. Vot is the use of talking?"
"But we will talk, and to some purpose," I replied, indignant at the outrage that was to be committed upon us.
"No, don't you say one vord, 'cos it vouldn't help the matter, and he could hinjure you more than the 'osses is vorth. Do you take and sell 'em. Don't you know some covey vot has got the ready tin vould buy 'em?"
"We had an offer this very morning for all three of the animals by the American stage company."