“You go in there, Stumpy,” said a prominent citizen known as “Kentuck,” addressing one of the loungers.  “Go in there, and see what you kin do.  You’ve had experience in them things.”

Perhaps there was a fitness in the selection.  Stumpy, in other climes, had been the putative head of two families; in fact, it was owing to some legal informality in these proceedings that Roaring Camp—­a city of refuge—­was indebted to his company.  The crowd approved the choice, and Stumpy was wise enough to bow to the majority.  The door closed on the extempore surgeon and midwife, and Roaring Camp sat down outside, smoked its pipe, and awaited the issue.

The assemblage numbered about a hundred men.  One or two of these were actual fugitives from justice, some were criminal, and all were reckless.  Physically they exhibited no indication of their past lives and character.  The greatest scamp had a Raphael face, with a profusion of blonde hair; Oakhurst, a gambler, had the melancholy air and intellectual abstraction of a Hamlet; the coolest and most courageous man was scarcely over five feet in height, with a soft voice and an embarrassed, timid manner.  The term “roughs” applied to them was a distinction rather than a definition.  Perhaps in the minor details of fingers, toes, ears, etc., the camp may have been deficient, but these slight omissions did not detract from their aggregate force.  The strongest man had but three fingers on his right hand; the best shot had but one eye.

Such was the physical aspect of the men that were dispersed around the cabin.  The camp lay in a triangular valley between two hills and a river.  The only outlet was a steep trail over the summit of a hill that faced the cabin, now illuminated by the rising moon.  The suffering woman might have seen it from the rude bunk whereon she lay,—­seen it winding like a silver thread until it was lost in the stars above.

A fire of withered pine boughs added sociability to the gathering.  By degrees the natural levity of Roaring Camp returned.  Bets were freely offered and taken regarding the result.  Three to five that “Sal would get through with it;” even that the child would survive; side bets as to the sex and complexion of the coming stranger.  In the midst of an excited discussion an exclamation came from those nearest the door, and the camp stopped to listen.  Above the swaying and moaning of the pines, the swift rush of the river, and the crackling of the fire rose a sharp, querulous cry,—­a cry unlike anything heard before in the camp.  The pines stopped moaning, the river ceased to rush, and the fire to crackle.  It seemed as if Nature had stopped to listen too.