Joaquin Miller

“ How quickly a man thinks at a time like this! What was to be done? He was alone and unarmed. There were, he believed, four burglars—no doubt, all well armed. The noise grew louder. There was a great battering at the frail door.
Suddenly Larison made his plan. He dashed the gold against the stone wall that formed the back of the chimney. The precious contents sank down safe in the deep ashes.
Then with one bound Larison sprang up high in the topmost bunk and covered his face as he groaned: “Smallpox! Smallpox!” ”

“ Then he descended, struck a match, and from the pine quills and pine knots to be had at the door for the picking up, he built a fire so bright that it lit up the laughing little stream through the open door.
He went out, washed his hands and face in the cool water, took a refreshing drink, returned to his cabin, closed the door, and dined heartily on cookies and cheese which the gruff but kind old captain had made him put in his pocket on leaving the boat.
Our young gold-hunter slept soundly. He was now “an honest miner,” with cabin, bunk, tools, claim,—all things, indeed, but gold. ”

“ The singular way in which the storekeeper had set down his name on the wall confirmed him in this. But why should those men come to rob him if they believed he had the smallpox? Was his gold more precious to them than life? ”