Sidford F. Hamp

“ When I got home about dusk that evening, I found that some one had broken into my house and had stolen a hind-quarter of elk, a box of matches, a frying-pan, and—of all queer things to select—a bear-trap. What on earth any one can want with a bear-trap at this season of the year, I can’t think, when there is hardly a bear out of his winter-quarters yet; and if he was he’d be as thin as a rail. I found the fellow’s tracks easily enough—tall man—big feet—long stride—and trailed them down the gulch to a point where another man had been sitting on a rock waiting for him. ”

“ The wind leaped upon us like a wild beast, and instantly the whole atmosphere seemed to go crazy. Our little, creaking cabin shook and trembled so that the mud “chinking” fell out upon the floor; several of the stones composing our chimney came tumbling into the fireplace; three or four times our door was dashed from its fastenings—when the room was filled with snow in an instant—and hard work we had to get it back again. ”

“ What astute vagabonds are those coyotes, the street-arabs of the wilderness, their wits sharpened by the unceasing competition for a livelihood with their hungry relations, and with all the other carnivorous beasts of the field,—to say nothing of several of the birds of the air! With what persistency would they sit around our camp-fire at night and serenade us with their doleful howlings, and how silently would they glide away into the darkness when the indignant Ulysses rushed forth to devour them! ”

“ To ascertain the nature of the leak was the work of a moment; to trail the sled to Mrs. Appleby’s back yard was the work of five minutes; but having done this, Yetmore was at fault, for, knowing well enough that neither the widow nor her son were capable of such an undertaking, he was at a loss to imagine who the culprit might be.
It was only when Tom Connor a minute later stepped into the store and arranged that story of the leaky oil-barrel which he had described as being “agreeable”to Yetmore, that the storekeeper arrived at a true understanding of the whole matter. ”

“ Percy and I felt rather stiff and extremely sleepy when Jack aroused us next morning while yet the stars were shining, and prodigious were the yawns with which we greeted our companions and each other. A hot and plentiful breakfast, however, soon put us to rights, and as soon as it was despatched Jack and the ranchman set to work packing the mules, while we two subordinates looked to the saddling of the horses. ”

“ Beneath a tree, stretched on a mat of fallen pine-needles, just on the very outer edge of the slide, lay our old friend, the hermit, who, when he saw us approaching, raised himself on his elbow, and waving his other hand to us, called out cheerily:
“How are you, boys? Glad to see you! You’re welcome—more than welcome!”
“Hurt, Peter?”cried Joe, running forward and throwing himself upon his knees beside the injured man.
“A trifle. No bones broken, I believe, but pretty badly bruised and strained, especially the right leg above the knee. I find I can’t walk—at least not just yet.” ”

“ Knowing nothing, and for the time suspecting nothing, of any such underground passage, Jack lay still, waiting for our reappearance, or at least for a sight of the smoke of our camp-fire, until dark, when he went back to the dry gully where he had left the horse and dog, and riding part way down the mountain again he made camp for the night. In a secluded hollow well concealed by the trees he lighted a little fire, and wrapping himself in the saddle-blanket, he passed a rather comfortless night; for at that altitude and at that time of year the night-frosts were decidedly sharp. ”

“ Why should we? Who is he?”
“Why, Peter the Hermit, of course. I should have thought the presence of the raven would have enlightened you: he is always described as going about in company with a raven.”
“So he is. I’d forgotten that. But, on the other hand he is always described also as being half crazy, and certainly there was no sign of such a thing about him that we could see. Was there, Joe?”
“No. Nobody could have acted more sensibly. Who is he, Mr. Crawford? And why does he live all by himself like that?” ”

“ If we lose a whole day by going up to Sulphide to notify Tom, it would give Long John a chance to get in ahead of us and perhaps beat us after all.”
The bare idea of such a catastrophe was too much for me. I sprang out of my chair, crying, “We’ll go, Joe! And we’ll start at once! How are we to get up there, Peter? There must be any amount of snow; and we are neither of us any good on skis, even if we had them.” ”

“ I blurted out, unable any longer to keep down the momentous question we all of us had in our minds.
“Stay here all winter?” cried Jack—and he actually managed to scare up a laugh. “Not we! Why, Percy, where’s your American enterprise? Where’s your English bull-doggedness, Tom? Do you think we’ll give in at one failure? Not we, indeed! If we should be unable to get over this rock, why, then, we’ll just go up our ladder and walk home over the mountains. ”

“ If the presence of gold in the pot-holes had been a puzzle to us before, what were we to think of the conjuring trick that Nature had played upon us now? Without a word—for, indeed, we had nothing to say—we hurried back to the cabin, outside which was Jack, busy chopping wood. To him Percy held out his hand just as he had done to me. ”

“ The trail continued to lead straight away for the mountain without diverging to one side or the other, and for five or six miles we followed it until the stunted cedars began to give place to pine trees, when we decided that we might as well stop, especially as for some time past there had ceased to be any blood-marks on the stones and we had been following only the occasional imprint of the bear’s paws in the patches of sand. ”

“ At the disclosure of this villainous scheme Percy and I quaked with fear. Our bunk was not so high but that a tall man could overlook it, and should one of them strike a match for any purpose he could hardly fail to discover us, and discovery, we had little doubt, would mean death; for that they should feel any compunction at putting two witnesses out of the way was not to be expected of these ineffable rascals, who, for the sake of a few dollars, were planning in cold blood the murder of an unknown number of innocent people. ”

“ Joe was quite right. There was, and there still seems to be, no end to it.
The effect of Tom Connor’s strike on Mount Lincoln was just what my father had predicted: our whole district took a great stride forward; the mountains swarmed with prospectors; the town of Sulphide hummed with business; our new friend, Yetmore, doing a thriving trade, while our old friend, Mrs. Appleby, followed close behind, a good second.
As for Tom, himself, he is one of our local capitalists now, but he is the same old Tom for all that. ”

“ To tell the truth, Tom Connor, in spite of his forty years, was no more than an overgrown boy, in whose simple character the love of justice and the love of fun jostled each other for first place. He believed he had discovered an opportunity to “take a rise” out of Yetmore and at the same time to compel the misappropriator of other people’s goods to restore the widow’s property. ”

“ ALL ACCOUNTS SQUARED THAT very day we started on our tramp into the unknown wilderness, trusting that the stream would, as Percy had said, “bring us out somewhere.”
Heavily laden with a week’s provisions, our rifles, two blankets each, the axe, and last, though by no means least in importance, the little bags of gold-washings, and leaving all the rest of our camping outfit behind, we bade adieu to our late residence and set out, full of hope that now indeed we were homeward bound. ”