Hugh Pendexter

“ We'll eat and walk down to Phelps' camp. Younker, you're dog-tired and best stay here.”
And he nudged Gilbert's leg with the toe of his moccasin.
“Can't see your colors,” growled the sailor, dropping heavily on the grass. “Two much land. Every breeze is a squall over the weather bow. Come of quitting blue water.”
“Now, Ben! None of that,” rumbled Weymouth Mass. Then to Gilbert: “I'd think you'd go in for hunting gold. You look to be able-bodied. Somewhere in these old mountains is the mother-lode. The source of all gold! Thrown up by a volcano. Some one will find it some time. ”

“ It wa'n't smooth and round and worn, neither.”
“Well, powwow, then you folks can hunt for gold all you want to so long as you don't trouble my animals,” replied Old Misery. “And a blind squirrel can pack all the gold you find to Nevada City in one eye.”
“We'll keep the hosses and mules in the lower opening and make our camp there till we've staked claims. As to not finding gold we don't agree with you,” said Phelps with a laugh. “This place is your home. You fetched some likely-looking gold to Nevada City. It wa'n't river gold. I'm enough of a ledge man to know you've struck a rich lode. ”

“ Heave short! Too much land,” complained Sailor Ben.
Weymouth seated himself and stirred up the coals and mildly inquired:
“What were you doing in the little brush shelter, Misery? I almost stepped on it.”
“What'n hell you want to come prowling round in the woods for?” snorted the mountain man wrathfully. “Had a notion you'd find gold hanging on the pines? Huh!” Aside to Gilbert he explained: “I raised a lodge and was working my medicine hard when the big lummox come crashing along and sp'iled everything. But this ain't eating.” ”

“ Old Misery fished a small bag from his shirt and from it extracted a tiny bit of gold shaped like an Indian moccasin, and declared:
“That's the only bit of gold I ever took a shine to. Looks like a Crow moccasin. It's strong medicine; I'd rather have it than to dream of hawks. Needn't begin making wolf eyes. It come from Coarse Gold Gulch in Fresno. ”

“ Even if they find ounce-diggings they won't stick. Next place is bound to be better and richer. Always moving around and hunting for something better.”
“Weymouth is round here now,” Old Misery informed them. “Fetched Sailor Ben up to sober him off. If he can keep Ben sober he'll find a heap of gold. But it takes Ben so long to git over a spree that by the time he's ready to prove his luck he'll full-cocked to git drunk again. Weymouth says he won't try him after this season. Think of the medicine in that salt-water cuss just going to waste!” ”

“ I ain't 'going back home in the spring,' as Weymouth Mass and Pretty Soon Jim and a lot more keep yepping about. I don't want a fine house. I don't like houses. They hamper a man.I like to wander and see what's on t'other side the mountain. And there's always some new mountain to coax me along. Almighty must 'a' wanted folks to prowl round 'em, else why did He make 'em?
“They never was built up just for b'ars and eagles to look at. And how can a man wander if he's tied to a house; or carries along a mule-load of gold? ”

“ Younker, the man who writ them lies wa'n't no common Frenchman. He must 'a' been an old mountain man in his day. Every squaw crazy over 'em! It ain't no book for Maria to read. Too free 'n' easy. But we'll finish it in a night or two if it bu'sts a gut.”
Morning came with sprightly assurance to the valley. When Gilbert turned out of the cabin it was to find Old Misery was gone. His blankets hung on the limb of a tree. The fire showed the mountain man had eaten his breakfast. Gilbert prepared his food and ate slowly, his eyes on the second cabin, and hoping the girl Maria would join him. ”

“ The robber on four legs comes to steal. They fight! Is it not? All day one hides away, one comes to steal. Jus' like men. Down in the valley of the Sacramento, where there are many oaks, they hide and steal all the time.”
Her enjoyment of the woods warfare was that of a little child. Gilbert found it difficult to reconcile this simplicity with the cunning and sophistication she had displayed in seducing him to appropriate others' gold and gamble it away. ”

“ And I'll give you a couple pounds of it if you'll stand against the cabin and let me heave knives at you as I did that long-tailed cuss. But I can't have Grass Holler overrun for nothing. You name four or five men to come in here and prospect. When they find what 'pears to be pay-dirt, or rich ledge, t'others can come in and locate, and I'll move on. I'll have Bill Williams keep to his hole under the overhanging ledge and the men must keep clear of him. T'other bears are only cubs. One tied up is six months and past and has a dangerous mouth, but he don't mean no more harm'n a kitten. ”

“ Those old-timers must 'a' got it all.”
“Let's get back to the beginning,” suggested Phelps. “Misery, we've named a committee of five men to prospect your valley. Now, Weymouth, all this Bible gold happened several years ago. We want to know about gold of to-day. Have you found any likely prospects?”
“Not yet. But I will. I'll find the mother-lode. Ben's luck will begin working after I get the rum-thoughts out of his head. Luck and gold are the queerest things in the world except a woman.” ”

“ Look at that fool girl bear. She gits more fun out of life than Weymouth Mass and Sailor Ben does. See Bill Williams taking his rest like a sensible man. Then think of them heyoka men we left scrambling and sweating to stake out claims on that bench down below. Them young wolves are tame as dog-pups because they have 'nough to eat. Same with the panther kittens. 'Nough in the world for all of us to eat, but some cusses want to git more'n they ever can eat. That means other folks must go hungry. That brings on fighting, and then hell's to pay. How's 'Merica, Maria? ”

“ T'other one ain't hardly got her teeth yet.”
“You talk reasonable,” admitted Phelps. “And you're either bluffing, or it's another wild-goose chase. I'll go back and talk with the boys.”
Old Misery walked back to his cabin and ordered Bill Williams under the ledge and fastened a stout chain to a hind leg. The bear did not like it and said as much.
“Now, Bill, be sensible,” pleaded the mountain man. “It's good medicine for you. It won't be for long.”
He called for Gilbert to show himself. Maria entered her cabin as the young man emerged from the pines. ”

“ Out prospecting some'ers. Think of men grubbing among rocks and digging in dirt, their eyes looking at the ground, when all they have to do is to take it easy and watch the sky and them mountains yonder! ”

“ Fast as they find a man that answers the description he'll be taken to the bay and the door-tender will look him over. Folks at the bay now think he separated from Murieta after they went through the winder. People saw the Mexicans running up the street and swear he wasn't with them. Between you'n me he come north. If he was going Stockton or Mariposa way he'd kept along with the band. He's either up this way or laying low in Frisco. Others think it, too. They've finished with Sacramento and are combing Marysville by this time. But come down to camp and we'll have some fun. ”

“ He does not see me.”
“S'pose we have a powwow with him,” mumbled Old Misery, turning in behind the third cabin and climbing the slope.
For Gilbert's benefit he explained:
“Some Injuns caught him in a trap. They was going to eat him. I bought the old cuss with some wolf-skins. They're keen to have wolf-skin leggings as it's good medicine. I'm beginning to think he don't thank me for keeping him out of an Injun stomach. He's one of the things that never takes to civ'lization. Wants to wander and see things and places!” ”

“ Weymouth in formed them, fearing to lose his audience. “One old Persian king got together seventeen million dollars' worth of gold.”
“Hold on,” growled Phelps. “Leave that for Sailor Ben to tell.”
“But it's true,” firmly insisted the Massachusetts man. “If you think that's a fair-to-middling lot of gold what do you say to a king in Egypt, who, says history, was worth eighty-six million dollars in gold?”
“I'd say hist'ry's a damned old liar!” roared the mountain man belligerently, the brandy making him argumentative. “No one can count as high. ”

“ If they'd only written to Plumb to go to San Francisco and get the money instead of having me carry it to him, but they wouldn't chance his having died before the letter reached Coloma.”
“Yankees don't like to take chances,” growled Old Misery. “But they was right. Men move 'round mighty sudden out here. And drop out of sight. And, mebbe, the folks back home thought you'd be able to deliver the dust.”
Gilbert groaned.
The mountain man continued:
“But fretting 'n' fussing don't dress any hides. 'Stead of looking back and being sorry look ahead and see how the muss can be mended.” ”

“ Mebbe he struck it rich then. If he's a lucky cuss to foller you'll soon see him. Your five men can dog him round. No knowing when Ben's medicine may begin working.”
“He's damned unlucky,” growled Phelps, frowning. “Up here last season, eh? The boys will lose their appetite for this place when I tell them Weymouth has had the run of the place. What say to dropping into our camp to-night? Fetch young Ounce-Diggings here along. If Weymouth and the sailor show up, fetch them.” ”