continued Bill, lashing himself into a simulated rage, "who, in blank,
is running this yer team? Hey? Mebbe you think, sittin' up thar on the
box seat, you are. Mebbe you think you kin see round corners with that
thar eye, and kin pull up for teams round corners, on down grades,
a mile ahead?" But here Thatcher, who, with something of Lancelot's
concern for Modred, had a noble pity for all infirmities, interfered so
sternly that Yuba Bill stopped.
On the fourth day they struck a blinding snow-storm, while ascending the
dreary plateau that henceforward for six hundred miles was to be their
roadbed. The horses, after floundering through the drift, gave out
completely on reaching the next station, and the prospects ahead, to
all but the experienced eye, looked doubtful. A few passengers advised
taking to sledges, others a postponement of the journey until the
weather changed. Yuba Bill alone was for pressing forward as they were.
"Two miles more and we're on the high grade, whar the wind is strong
enough to blow you through the windy, and jist peart enough to pack away
over them cliffs every inch of snow that falls. I'll jist skirmish round
in and out o' them drifts on these four wheels whar ye can't drag one
o' them flat-bottomed dry-goods boxes through a drift." Bill had a
California whip's contempt for a sledge. But he was warmly seconded by
Thatcher, who had the next best thing to experience, the instinct
that taught him to read character, and take advantage of another
man's experience. "Them that wants to stop kin do so," said Bill
authoritatively, cutting the Gordian knot; "them as wants to take a
sledge can do so,--thar's one in the barn. Them as wants to go on with
me and the relay will come on." Mr. Wiles selected the sledge and
a driver, a few remained for the next stage, and Thatcher, with two
others, decided to accompany Yuba Bill. These changes took up some
valuable time; and the storm continuing, the stage was run under the
shed, the passengers gathering around the station fire; and not until
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