It was high noon at Tres Pinos. The three pines from which it gained its
name, in the dusty road and hot air, seemed to smoke from their balsamic
spires. There was a glare from the road, a glare from the sky, a glare
from the rocks, a glare from the white canvas roofs of the few shanties
and cabins which made up the village. There was even a glare from the
unpainted red-wood boards of Roscommon's grocery and tavern, and a
tendency of the warping floor of the veranda to curl up beneath the
feet of the intruder. A few mules, near the watering trough, had shrunk
within the scant shadow of the corral.
The grocery business of Mr. Roscommon, although adequate and sufficient
for the village, was not exhausting nor overtaxing to the proprietor;
the refilling of the pork and flour barrel of the average miner was the
work of a brief hour on Saturday nights, but the daily replenishment of
the average miner with whisky was arduous and incessant. Roscommon spent
more time behind his bar than his grocer's counter. Add to this the fact
that a long shed-like extension or wing bore the legend, "Cosmopolitan
Hotel, Board or Lodging by the Day or Week. M. Roscommon," and you
got an idea of the variety of the proprietor's functions. The "hotel,"
however, was more directly under the charge of Mrs. Roscommon, a lady of
thirty years, strong, truculent, and good-hearted.
Mr. Roscommon had early adopted the theory that most of his customers
were insane, and were to be alternately bullied or placated, as the case
might be. Nothing that occurred, no extravagance of speech nor act,
ever ruffled his equilibrium, which was as dogged and stubborn as it was
outwardly calm. When not serving liquor, or in the interval while it was
being drank, he was always wiping his counter with an exceedingly dirty
towel,--or indeed anything that came handy. Miners, noticing this
purely perfunctory habit, occasionally supplied him slily with articles
inconsistent with their service,--fragments of their shirts and
underclothing, flour sacking, tow, and once with a flannel petticoat
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