George Manville Fenn

“ Only something beautiful to be admired. You couldn’t live on waterfalls and pine-trees here. Suppose I landed you two lads in that lovely gorge, where the water comes down like a veil of silver, and—yes, look, there’s a rainbow floating in that mist just above the big fall. Look at the ferns, and perfect shape of that great fir-tree, with its branches drooping right to the ground. You could sleep under its spreading boughs, and find a soft bed of pine-needles; but I don’t think it would be possible to climb up the sides of the gorge, and in a short time you would starve. ”

“ For another ten minutes he went on washing again, while I could see Esau, as he crept nearer and nearer, perspiring with impatience, and glancing up and down what in the setting sun now seemed to be a golden valley, for water, rocks, and the ferns seemed to be tinted of a ruddy yellow, and the tall fir-trees stood up like spires of gold.
At last I caught a glimpse of something bright again, but I could not be sure that there was more gold in the basket; it might only be the stones glistening in the wonderful ruddy light that filled the ravine. ”

“ I raised one finger of my right hand, and began to separate the little water-worn stones with my palm raised in the sunshine, and for a few moments neither spoke. Then as Esau suddenly caught sight of some half-dozen smoothly-ground scales, and a tiny flattened bead with quite a tail to it, he uttered a shout.
“Hooray!” he cried. “Gold! That beats old Quong; he never got as much as that in his tin plate. Yah! ’tain’t gold. Don’t believe it! it’s what old Gunson called Pyrrymids.”
“Pyrites? No,” I said. “It’s gold; I’m sure of it. Look what a beautiful yellow colour it is.” ”

“ It almost seemed as if that might be the case, and a curious feeling of awe used to come over me when we wandered up one of the little valleys, and were seated in the bright sunshine upon some moss-cushioned rock, listening to the murmur of the wind high up in the tall pines—a sound that was like the gentle rushing of the sea upon the shore.
Mr Raydon generally asked us where we had been, and laughed at our appetites.
“There, don’t be ashamed, Mayne,” he said, as he saw me look abashed; “it is quite natural at your age. Eat away, my lad, and grow muscular and strong. ”

“ As he spoke I felt my heart swell with hope; the gloomy feelings of disappointment passed away, and I found myself gazing with astonishment at Mr Gunson, whose morose, disfigured face seemed to brighten up and glow, while his eye flashed again, as when Mr Raydon finished speaking he leaned forward and grasped his hand.
“God bless you for those words,” he said; “you have made light shine into a darkened heart. I will do this thing. Heaven helping me, I will never seek for a grain of gold again.”
“I shall register your oath, Gunson,” said Mr Raydon, smiling. ”

“ Mr John shrugged his shoulders, and gave his wife and brother-in-law a half-sad, half-laughing look.
“I am not surprised,” he said, “I always was the most unlucky of men.”
“Nothing of the kind, sir,” retorted Mr Raydon. “You have had as much good fortune as other men—quite as much as I have. My dear John,” he added more gently, “we men have a bad habit of forgetting the good in our lives, and remembering all the bad. My dear fellow, half your troubles have been caused by your want of energy.” ”

“ In a few minutes we were where the smoke of our fire rose up in faint blue wreaths right above our heads, and all doubts of there being a way was at an end, for without the slightest hesitation the Indians went on, their leader evidently quite at home, though as I looked down I could only see rugged stones, without a trace of their having been worn by feet, while above us was the vast wall of rock along whose side we crept like so many ants, and below there was the river foaming and roaring along toward the mouth. ”

“ I was in the strangers’ quarters next day, talking in a whisper to Mrs John, while taking her turn at nursing poor Gunson, who still lay perfectly insensible, and so still that I gazed at him with feelings akin to terror, when Mr Raydon came in and walked straight to the bedside. We watched him as he made a short examination, and then in answer to Mrs John’s inquiring look—
“I can do nothing,” he said. “He is no worse. There is no fracture; all this is the result of concussion of the brain, I should say, and we can only hope that nature is slowly and surely repairing the injury.” ”

“ We had penetrated about a hundred yards, and stood upon a flat-topped rock, looking down at the roaring, swishing water, while before us everything appeared of a dark forbidding grey, in strange contrast to the bright slit of mossy green we could see when we looked back, in the midst of which rose up a column of smoke, and beside it the dark figure of Esau with his hand over his eyes, evidently peering in after us.
“The puzzle is difficult to make out, my lad,” said Gunson. “It’s hard work making your way through a country that has not been thoroughly mapped. ”

“ Work, sir—work. The same as I have done. I pay my poor rate, and I can’t afford to help other people. Good morning.”
I heard every word uttered as I sat on my stool in the outer office, and I felt as if I could see my employer, short, stout, fierce-looking and grey, frowning at the thin, pale, middle-aged man whom I had ushered in—Mr John Dempster he told me his name was—and who had come to ask for the loan of a little money, as he was in sore distress. ”

“ I cried.
“Bah!” said Mr Raydon, furiously. “How can I think otherwise, when I see you holding half-secret meetings with that man Gunson, who returns in force to destroy this place? Well, my lad, I wish you joy of your share, but, mark my words, this gold-seeking is miserable gambling, the work of men who will not see that the real way to find gold is in genuine honest work. Take the gold-seekers all round, and they would have made more of the precious metal by planting corn than by this digging and washing in the river-beds.” ”

“ Get stunned with stones before we know where we are. Here, look! what are they going to do?”
“Sit still, and you’ll see,” said Gunson; and he joined me in looking eagerly at the men, who ran the boat as far as they could go toward the shallow rapids by energetic use of their paddles, and then, at a grunt from the one who seemed to take the lead, they dropped their paddles in the canoe, and, as if by one movement, swung themselves over into the rapids, and began to wade and drag the vessel against the surging stream. ”

“ Mates, you won’t cave in and give up a claim like this?”
“No!” came in chorus. “It’s our claim, and we’ll fight for it.”
“It is Mr Gunson’s claim,” I cried, angrily; “and it was ours before he came.”
“If any one has a right to the claim, it is I,” said Mr Raydon; “and I give you warning, my men, if one of you is seen in these parts after to-day, he shall be hunted down and placed in irons till he can be sent back to the coast for attempted murder and robbery.”
“Don’t listen,” cried the big ruffian, hoarsely; and I could see that he was ghastly pale. “He’s nobody. He’s trying to scar’ you. ”

“ Yes, it is a pleasant thing to have been very ill, if only for the sake of the thankful sensation that comes the first time you go out once more in the bright sunshine.
How delightful it was, and what a long weary dream of misery I had passed through! I hardly knew even then how bad I had been. When I spoke to Esau he used to screw his face up full of wrinkles, and shake his head, while Mr Raydon was as reticent. ”

“ These wild places had a constant attraction for us, the greater that we were always in expectation of hearing a deer rush away, or catching sight of some fresh bird, while there was always a shivering anticipation of our coming face to face with a bear.
The sun came down glowing and hot into the ravine, where the strong aromatic scent of the pines floated to us laden with health as we toiled on higher and higher, leaping from rock to rock, wading or climbing, and often making use of a great pine-trunk for a bridge. ”

“ The men needed no spurring to get on out of the dense labyrinth of trees, through which we toiled on hot to suffocation, breathless, and in mortal dread of being overtaken by the fearful enemy roaring in our rear. For, so rapid was the advance of the fire, that for a certainty a ten minutes’ halt would have been enough to have brought the line of fire up to us.
“Don’t stop to look back,” cried Mr Raydon. “Press on, men; press on. Keep together.” ”

“ Look here, boy. I have been out in these glorious valleys many years now. The place is a perfect Eden, where nature smiles upon us, and wealth showers her golden gifts. You know my home, and that no troubles come, save some trifle with the Indians now and then. Do you know what would happen if it were known that this ravine teems with gold?”
“We should set to work and make fortunes of it, sir, and not let it be known.”
“Bah! Impossible, Gordon. In one month from now the news would have spread; and as long as the gold lasted, this place would be turned from a Paradise into a horror. ”

“ And as I lay there listening to the heavy breathing of my two companions, I began to think how easy it would be for the little Chinaman to crawl silently up and rob us of our money and valuables; then that there was nothing to prevent the Indians from making their way round among the trees and killing us all. I had read of Indian massacres, and a curious, hot sensation of dread came over me as I looked nervously round, half expecting that my fancies might not be without cause, and that my wakefulness was due to a sense of coming danger. ”

“ At last though we had passed the final vestige of a trail, and there was the valley before us with the mountains rising up steeply on either side, and our way to make along the steep slope crowded with trees or covered with the débris of great masses of rock which had broken from their hold hundreds upon hundreds of yards above us to come thundering down scattering smaller fragments, and forming a chaos of moss-covered pieces, over and in and out among which we had to make our way.
“Rather rough,” Gunson said, “but keep up your spirits: it will soon be much better, or much worse.” ”

“ Oh, then you want to fight, do you?”
“No,” said Gunson, standing firmly before him, “I don’t want to fight, neither do you, so go your way, and we’ll go ours.”
“After a bit, my lad,” cried the man, fiercely. “This isn’t England, but a country where a man can fight if he likes, so clear the course, some of you, and let’s see who’s best shot.” ”

“ I find that in my wild thirst for gold I have been acting as your good genii.”
“How?” said Mr Raydon.
“By bringing Mayne and you closer together than you would ever have been without this mistake. See what I have done for you too, in clearing the valley of this horrible gold!” he cried, merrily.
“But you’ve ruined the estate I was to have had,” said Mr John. “My brother and I went down and had a look at it, and it is one horrible black desert.”
“Pish, man!” cried Gunson; “may work for the best.”
“What!” cried Mr John; “are you mad?”
“No, sir. Never more sane; for the gold mania has gone. ”

“ When I opened my eyes again it was with a horrible sensation of sickness at my heart, and my eyes swam, but I could dimly make out Mr Raydon’s face, as he leaned over me, and I heard him say, as if he was speaking a very long way from me in a very small voice—
“That’s right; go on. Keep bathing his face.”
Then I heard Esau speak in a faint choking voice.
“Oh, sir! oh, sir! He won’t die, will he? Tell me he won’t die.” ”

“ I had often wished that Gunson knew of what we had found, for I thought that perhaps he was struggling on without a bit of good fortune. The thoughts passed from my mind directly, as Esau began to make casts with his line here and there, as if fishing in the grass.
“Well, I don’t mind,” he said. “Turn farmer, eh?—and plant trees, and cut trees down, and build a house. All right. It will be good enough, and you and me will go and shoot and fish. I shall like it. Shall we have old Quong?”
“I suppose so, if he’ll stay. There, let’s go on fishing, and take back some trout for Mr Raydon’s tea. ”

“ Then once more I seemed to wake up with a shrill-toned bell ringing loudly in my ears; and I lay with a terrible sensation of deathly faintness till I heard Esau say, close to me—“I’ll carry him, sir.”
“No, no, my lad.”
“But you don’t know how strong I am, sir.”
“We must not shake him more than we can help, and he must be in an easy position. Have you your knife? I left mine.”
“Yes, sir, here,” cried Esau; and then in a low voice, “Oh, poor chap! poor chap!—what have I done!” ”

“ We landed at a rough wharf at the mouth of the wide river, where a few shanties and a plank warehouse stood just in front of a forest of pine-trees, the stumps, five or six feet high, of many that had been cut down to make room for the tiny settlement, still standing up and forming a graceful curve all round from the ground to the place where the marks of the axe still looked white and yellowish red. ”

“ On the other side, as I stood by the last blazed tree, I had no difficulty in making out a vast mass of rock, for which I at once stepped out, and all proved to be so clear, there were so many landmarks in the shape of peculiar stones, falls, and clumps of trees, that I made my way easily enough, and felt no little pride in being so trusted to tramp through these vast solitudes with a pistol in my belt and my rifle over my shoulder. ”

“ In all my travels I have seen nothing more beautiful,” said Gunson; and he added laughing, “I never went up a river that was so rugged and so swift.”
It was just in such a nook as that which we had admired so much that the Indians ran the boat ashore about midday, and after making her fast in a glassy little pool, they signed to us to get out, after which they all sat down among the ferns, and under the shelter of the spreading boughs of a pine, and brought out some food. ”

“ What shall I do?”
“Hold your tongue. Do not say a word of your discovery to a soul. Above all, that friend of yours, Gunson, the prospector, must never know.”
“Not tell any one, sir? Not make use of our discovery?”
“No,” he said, firmly. “Promise.”
“Oh, I say!” cried Esau.
“And you too, sir!” said Mr Raydon.
I stood looking at him for a few minutes, thinking as he fixed his eyes on mine, and then I pressed his hand firmly.
“Yes, sir; I promise.” ”

“ I cried, angrily. “Who thinks you don’t want to play fair? No, no; don’t say any more about it. Now then: can we recollect this spot exactly?”
“Why, you said that there must be gold all along.”
“Yes, I know,” I cried; “but Mr Raydon may want to see the place, and we must bring him where we can find some and show him directly.”
“Well,” said Esau, “there’s a clump of fir-trees on this side, and a clump of fir-trees on that side.”
“Oh, you old stupid,” I cried, “when there are clumps of fir-trees everywhere. That won’t do.” ”

“ It was at one of these rapids that Esau, who had been very quiet and rather ashamed of himself, suddenly half rose in his place, exclaiming—
“Don’t let them go there; it isn’t safe.”
“They know best how to manage the canoe,” said Gunson quietly.
“But you won’t let them go up that bit of water? It’s like a mill-race.”
“Yes; only fiercer,” said Gunson coolly. “Feel startled, Gordon?”
“I do feel a bit nervous,” I said.
“And not ashamed to say so,” he replied, laughing. “Well, you are a strange lad. Of course you are not frightened, Dean?”
“Why it’s enough to scare any one,” cried Esau. ”