Calico Palace (32 page)

“‘An army have I mustered in my thoughts

Wherewith already France is overrun…’”

“What’s that?” asked Kendra. “More Shakespeare?”

“Yes.”

“Marny, what are you up to now?”

Marny answered slowly, as if thinking while she talked.

“Well, dear, at present I’m—what might be called—an unemployed adventuress.”

She picked up the cards again and looked down at them as she went on.

“Delbert really gave me a jolt when he went off with that dust of mine. It takes capital to start a new Calico Palace and I’m not sure I have enough. Mr. Archwood sounds like just what I need.”

Thoughtfully, she began to review his charms.

“Money to invest. Manners of a gentleman. No wife to clutter things up. Owns a vacant lot. And the lot faces the plaza—ideal place for a gambling parlor. He has to wait here until some of those runaway sailors come back, so he might as well use the time. And he came to California looking for experiences.”

Kendra thought again that Marny was really like a cat. A charming and lovable cat, to be sure; but even the most lovable cat had a genius for finding the warmest spot in the room, and taking it. After a moment of silence Marny fanned the cards in her beautifully expert fashion and snapped them together again.

“Kendra,” she said, “I think your friend Mr. Archwood is about to fall in love.”

The next morning they woke to find the sun already sending darts through the mist. It was going to be a cheerful day. While coffee steamed on the brazier Marny made a proposal.

On a day like this, she said, dining outdoors would be a frolic instead of merely something they had to do. Hadn’t Archwood told Kendra he would come by to see how she was? When he arrived, would Kendra invite him to dinner? “I’ll provide the food and drinks,” said Marny, “and help in every way I can.”

Kendra had never been asked to help a doxy get a man. She was fascinated, and at the same time uncertain how to play her part. “But at dinner,” she said—“will you want me there?”

“Oh yes,” said Marny. “Let’s invite Hiram and Pocket, and make it a party. We’ll carry the brazier outside, and have charcoal broiled steaks—right? And do you need any clothes? When I went to Shiny Gulch I left a trunk in a warehouse belonging to the New York Store.”

Kendra told her about the trunk Eva had put in care of Mrs. Chase. Marny said she would hire a cart and bring this at the same time as her own.

She brought the trunks; she also brought steaks, potatoes, and yellow squash; bread and butter, and some really excellent French wine she had procured by telling Mr. Fenway she wanted the best no matter what it cost. She said Hiram and Pocket would be here. In fact, they were already here. She had not told them that the purpose of the dinner was to enchant Mr. Archwood, but she had told them they were to dine on charcoal broiled steaks. They had come over with some tall sticks and several bolts of mosquito netting. Now they were making a pavilion, in which dinner could be cooked and served without bother from flies.

Kendra went down with Marny to look. “It’s luxury!” she exclaimed, while Marny said, “I love you all,” and meant it.

The men finished the pavilion and went off to buy new shirts for the party. Kendra was unpacking her trunk when Serena Watson, wife of the clerk, came up to tell her Mr. Archwood was in the store.

Kendra went down. Marny had told her what to do.

She led Mr. Archwood into the storeroom, where there was less bustle than in front. They sat on goods-boxes, while Kendra thanked him again for his help yesterday and said she and Marny were quite comfortable in the room over the store. After a few minutes’ talk she asked him if he would not come to an early dinner this afternoon and meet the friends who had been with her at Shiny Gulch. Mr. Archwood accepted gladly, saying the meals at Mrs. Beecham’s were pretty dull.

“We’ll have dinner behind the store, by the well,” said Kendra. “This way, I’ll show you.”

They went out by the back door. And there, on a bench by the well, demurely hemming a handkerchief, was Marny.

Marny wore a dress of plain gray muslin. She knew the value of simplicity, and besides, she wanted Archwood to notice herself and not her clothes. The sunlight made flashes in her hair, and as she stitched, her deft freckled hands were all grace. Kendra introduced Mr. Archwood. Marny greeted him like a perfect lady. While she went on sewing, they chatted about the welcome bright weather, and she said she was glad he was coming to dinner.

In a few minutes Mr. Archwood was aglow with happy surprise. From the argument between Messrs. Chase and Fenway yesterday, he had learned enough about Marny to be interested. But Chase and Fenway had not spoken of her exciting figure, her green eyes and red hair and freckles. And they had not said—they did not know—that when she felt like it Marny could blend her tempting looks with the manner of a young lady from a finishing school. Mr. Archwood wanted to know her better.

They had dinner at five o’clock. Kendra and Marny had set up the brazier in the pavilion, and built a campfire to cook the vegetables. For seating they had spread their old bedrolls on the ground; for napkins they had bought some unbleached muslin and cut it into squares. Their plates were miners’ eating-pans; their forks and spoons were cut from cattle horns; their knives were the sort miners were demanding these days, small and sharp, equally useful for slicing steak, scraping gold out of a crack in the rocks, or slitting a man’s throat.

Kendra thought the whole scene had a wild splendor—the great sunset over the hills, the smoke wandering up through the mosquito net, Archwood with his urbane elegance and the other men in their red shirts and corduroy pants; the firelight flickering on Marny’s hair and on her hands as she poured the wine. Kendra herself had put on one of the frilly aprons she used to wear when she served the officers Alex brought home to dinner. Here by the campfire it gave her a piquant charm.

Archwood sat on a bedroll eating steak from a pan, sipping burgundy from a tin cup, and for the first time really sharing the excitement of California gold. He had never seen a placer. He had no idea how a man twirled a pan to part the sand from the gold flakes. He did not know what a rocker was. He asked a hundred questions and the others liked answering. Hiram and Pocket told him about their scheme to set up shop at Sutter’s Fort.

When they talked about Sutter, Archwood’s eyes widened with surprise. Now, instead of being merely a listener, he had some news of his own. As he heard of Sutter’s grandiose tales he began to laugh.

Expelled from Switzerland for his free opinions? A soldier in the guard of the king of France?

He told them a fellow passenger of his on the ship
Huntress
had been Sutter’s son Johann, and young Johann had never heard any of this. Johann said his father had run away from home because he was about to be jailed for debt. He had left a wife and four children behind him. For fourteen years they had not heard from him, not until last year when he had sent them a letter saying he was now lord of a great property in California. Young Johann had set out for the new country, to see what his father was really doing here.

Archwood’s hearers, who had suspected something of the sort, laughed merrily.

Neither of the girls talked much, but they were both enjoying the party. Kendra was happy because again, as at Shiny Gulch, she was needed. Without her there would have been no party. Marny too was happy. While the men talked she listened with a warm amusing friendliness, the way of a woman used to liking people and having them like her back. She did not need words. She was there, and every man of them knew it.

When the main meal was over Kendra rinsed the tin cups and poured coffee. Marny produced more tin cups and poured brandy. Archwood and Hiram accepted, Pocket as usual shook his head. The brandy was of equal quality with the burgundy she had served earlier.

For a while they lingered around the fire, talking with lazy after-dinner enjoyment. When the sunset was fading into the dark, Archwood said it was time to go. Outside the pavilion he drew Kendra aside. After thanking her for the best meal he had had since he left New York, he again offered his services in any way he might be of use in the days ahead. He spoke sincerely. She had no doubt that he liked her. But she noticed with amusement that it was Marny he was speaking to when he asked if he might call again.

When he had gone out of sight Marny said to Kendra, “You did the cooking, so now it’s our turn. Go on upstairs. The boys and I will clear up.”

Pocket was already drawing water from the well, Hiram building up the fire to heat it. Kendra gratefully left them to their task. They cleared up, and Marny and Hiram finished the brandy.

A
RCHWOOD DID CALL AGAIN,
the next day. This time he and Marny sat together on the bench by the well and she told him about her plan to open a gambling parlor.

For several days, in long conversations on the bench, they talked it over. Marny made him a clear business proposition. While she let him know that the proposition included her own dramatic self, primarily she offered him a chance to make money. Archwood liked to make money, but hitherto his interests had lain in the fields of commerce. He had been into gambling parlors only as a player. Until now he had never thought of himself as concerned with one.

But Marny’s offer promised the adventure he had been looking for. And Marny herself would have been an adventure even without the gambling parlor. However, Archwood was in no hurry.

“Answer me this,” he said. “And speak the truth. I can usually tell when people are lying. Do you run a straight table?”

Marny’s eyes looked squarely into his. “Yes,” she said.

Archwood looked back at her with an unswerving gaze. “Always?”

“Yes,” said Marny.

“Why?”

“Several reasons. For one thing, I don’t want to get shot. For another, when you cheat there’s no fun in the game. But mainly I don’t cheat because I don’t need to.”

Archwood was smiling shrewdly. “Go on. You were about to say something else. Why don’t you ‘need to’?”

“Because I can win by my wits,” said Marny. “I have card sense. That’s a talent. Either you have it or you haven’t. And I can remember which cards have turned up. In plain words, I’m good.”

He was laughing, with admiration. “I like that. I mean, I like you for saying it. I’ve no use for people who belittle themselves.”

“And I have the surest hands in the business,” said Marny. “Look.”

Holding out one hand, she showed him. In the curve between her thumb and forefinger, where most people have only a bit of cushiony flesh, years of practice had given Marny a muscle like a steel spring.

“You
are
good,” he said.

“Yes,” said Marny. “Some things I can’t do. I can’t cook, I can’t play a piano or sing a tune. But when I deal cards, I never make a mistake.”

Archwood was convinced. Within two weeks after he and Marny had met each other, workmen were leveling a spot at one side of Archwood’s empty lot on Kearny Street. Marny told Kendra they planned to set up a small tent in this corner. Thus she could go into business promptly, and continue while they were putting up larger quarters. This should not take long, she said, for workers were getting easier to find. At the upper placers the rains had begun. More men were coming to town, and not all of them brought pokes full of gold. Even in this first rich season some men had been unlucky; others had blithely drunk and gambled away all the gold they found. Now they had to take jobs before they could buy supplies to go back and look for more.

Meanwhile, the Blackbeards with Lulu and Lolo were living at the back of Archwood’s lot, in a shelter they had made of canvas and packing boxes. Hiram and Pocket slept on their bedrolls outdoors. Marny and Kendra, in their room over the store, were faring about as well as anybody could fare in the dusty disorder of San Francisco.

Chase and Fenway had so much business to attend to that for days at a time they seemed to forget the girls were there at all. When they did meet, Mr. Chase was affable. (Apparently Mrs. Chase had raised no objection to Marny, or possibly she did not even know Marny was living in the store.) Mr. Fenway looked as sad as usual, but when he passed he did manage to say a dismal “Good morning.” The clerk Ralph Watson and his wife Serena were proving a likable pair.

The Watsons had come out during the summer with a wagon train from Missouri. Upon hearing of gold, Ralph’s first thought had been to set out for the hills. He had desisted partly because of the high pay offered him by Chase and Fenway, but mostly because of the urging of his wife. Serena was a sturdy young woman but she was a heartbroken one. She had borne a baby in a covered wagon, and the baby had not been strong enough to live through the rigors of the desert. Serena wanted no more adventures. To the joy of Marny and Kendra, she was an energetic young woman, glad to earn gold dust by doing laundry and sewing for her new neighbors.

Archwood found a tent, small but strong, for the Calico Palace. He also managed to buy enough lumber to put a floor under it, and to order a bar and card tables made in a furniture shop. Before long he and Marny would be ready for business.

But they were not as happy as they might have been. To the exasperation of them both, the miners who had rented Archwood’s house on Washington Street still refused his offer to refund the rent and would not budge. Archwood had to continue living at Mrs. Beecham’s in a room with three other men, while Marny stayed with Kendra in the room over the store. Nobody could suggest a place for them to live because there wasn’t any. Every shack and shanty in town was full. The City Hotel, built to accommodate forty persons, was now housing a hundred and sixty. They slept in two shifts, half of them at night and half in the daytime. They never had time to air the beds, and the bugs were swarming.

As Loren was expected back from Honolulu before long, Marny said that when the miners did get out of the house, Kendra could live there with herself and Archwood. Kendra exclaimed gratefully, “Thank you! And I’ll cook dinner every day.”