He lived in a small cabin at the bottom of the
mountain; I talked with him some. "The fact is," he said, "we are
an hour late this morning; we always make it a point to 'do it'
before dawn, so the passengers can't see anything; they are
almost sure to get stampeded if we come down by daylight."
I mentioned this road afterwards in San Francisco, and learned
that it was a famous road, cut out of the side of a solid
mountain of rock; long talked of, long desired, and finally
built, at great expense, by the state and the county together;
that they always had the same man to drive over it, and that they
never did it by daylight. I did not inquire if there had ever
been any accidents. I seemed to have learned all I wanted to know
about it.
After a little rest and a breakfast at a sort of roadhouse, a
relay of horses was taken, and we travelled one more day over a
flat country, to the end of the stage-route. Jack was to meet me.
Already from the stage I had espied the post ambulance and two
blue uniforms. Out jumped Major Ernest and Jack. I remember
thinking how straight and how well they looked. I had forgotten
really how army men did look, I had been so long away.
And now we were to go to Fort Yuma and stay with the Wells' until
my boxes, which had been sent around by water on the steamer
"Montana," should arrive. I had only the usual thirty pounds
allowance of luggage with me on the stage, and it was made up
entirely of my boy's clothing, and an evening dress I had worn on
the last night of my stay in San Francisco.
Fort Yuma was delightful at this season (December), and after
four or five days spent most enjoyably, we crossed over one
morning on the old rope ferryboat to Yuma City, to inquire at the
big country store there of news from the Gulf. There was no
bridge then over the Colorado.
The merchant called Jack to one side and said something to him in
a low tone. I was sure it concerned the steamer, and I said:
"what it is?"
Then they told me that news had just been received from below,
that the "Montana" had been burned to the water's edge in Guaymas
harbor, and everything on board destroyed; the passengers had
been saved with much difficulty, as the disaster occurred in the
night.
I had lost all the clothes I had in the world - and my precious
boxes were gone.
