L. Frank Baum

“ Every gold field yet discovered has been a magnet to draw men from every part of the civilized world. The result has been that the first discoverers seldom profit to any extent, while the horde they draw around them get the lion’s share. That has been our experience time and time again, for every member of our band is an experienced miner. We’ve been crowded from Colorado to Idaho, from Idaho to California, from California to the Black Hills, and back again. Finally we got word of a rich find of gold in Alaska; so, banding together, we chartered an old ship and started for the Yukon. ”

“ I always slept in my hut, surrounded by the store of merchandise and my sacks of gold; but the rest of the crew of the ship had huts of their own, Nux and Bryonia occupying one together.
One night, after I had been asleep for some hours, I was suddenly awakened by the muzzle of a pistol pressed close to my forehead. I opened my eyes, and saw Larkin standing beside me. A tallow candle had been lighted in the hut, and I could see his evil features distinctly.
“Now, my lad,” said he, “keep quiet an’ you won’t get hurt. But if you raise any rumpus or make a sound, I’ll blow your brains out.” ”

“ While listening to the conversation I have recorded, the black had stealthily reached up his hand and managed to extract from the bundle a tin of corned beef and a handful of ship’s biscuits. Then he wriggled carefully away, and in a few minutes had rejoined Nux and me, where we hid among the trees.
I think no food has ever tasted quite so delicious to me as did that tinned beef and stale biscuit. When divided amongst three there was little enough in each share, but it sufficed to allay our hunger and give us fresh strength and courage. ”

“ When twilight fell I arose and with some difficulty rolled the trousers to a place nearer the center of the rock, where there was a small natural hollow; and then Nux and I sat beside it and ate again sparingly of the food we had brought.
It was while we were thus occupied that an incident occurred that filled us with sudden panic. For before our faces a man’s head appeared above the edge of rock, and two dark eyes glared fixedly into our own. ”

“ So the only danger to be feared from you is your getting away before we’re ready to go with you. That was why we hesitated between murdering you and using your services to enable us to accomplish our task sooner than we otherwise could. We are not cut-throats, believe me, nor do we care to be responsible for the death of so many decent men. But the lust for gold has made my fellows desperate, and with immense fortunes within their grasp they will stick at nothing to protect themselves and their treasure.”
“That’s only natural,” growled Uncle Naboth. ”

“ The black was staring at the rocking-stone, now removed from our table-like refuge by a good twenty feet.
“How we get back again?” he asked, in perplexity.
“I don’t know,” said I. “That’s a question we’ll have to face afterward. The main thing is to get the gold, and it’s certain that if we can find no way to escape the robbers will be as badly off themselves.”
Nux shook his head.
“Dat won’ help us, Mars Sam,” he said, gravely.
But already I was engaged in eagerly peering over the edge of the peak to find the ledge by which the men had descended, and in an instant I discovered it. ”

“ I acknowledge that I watched her go with a lighter and happier heart than I had known for months.
“It was in this way that she once drove me from my old home, father,” I said. “But it can’t be such a bad world, after all. For, if the wicked sometimes appear to triumph, they are usually punished in the end, and now that Mrs. Ranck has passed out of our lives we ought to be very happy again.”
“We will be, Sam!” returned my father, earnestly, as he affectionately pressed my hand.
“Hooray!” yelled Uncle Naboth. ”

“ Nux roused me from my reflections by asking:
“What we do now, Mars Sam?”
“I don’t know,” I answered, despairingly. “If we can’t escape from this rock we are little better off than those poor fellows below us. See! the stone, as it fell, tore away the ledge completely.”
“No climb down, any way at all,” said Bry, squatting upon the rock and clasping his knees with his hands.
“We haven’t any rope, or enough clothing to make one,” I continued, striving to be calm and to force myself to think clearly. “But if we remain up here it won’t take us long to die of thirst or starvation. ”

“ When the sea grew calmer we floated upright upon the water and it was found our straits were not nearly so desperate as we had feared.
Yet our condition was serious enough to make me wonder what was to become of us. The rudder had been entirely washed away; the mainmast was gone; the mizzenmast had broken at the head and the foresail royals were in splinters. All the deck was cumbered with rigging; the starboard bulwarks had been stove in by the fallen mast, and our crew was lessened by three able seamen. ”

“ His height was enormous—at least six feet and three inches—and his chest was broad and deep as that of ancient Hercules. He was bearded like a gorilla with fiery red hair, which extended even to his great chest, disclosed through the open grey flannel shirt. There was no hat upon his head, and he wore no coat; but high boots were upon his feet and around his waist a leathern belt stuck full of knives and revolvers.
No stage pirate, no bandit of Southern Europe, was ever half so formidable in appearance as this terrible personage. ”

“ As soon as the thieves get back to the ledge we must go on, and keep the rock always between us and them, or we shall be lost.”
Nux nodded, and obeyed without a word. It was often hard to tell, by the sound of their voices, just how far up the ledge the men had progressed; but fortune favored us, and only once did we lag behind enough for the first of the robber band to espy us. But that first person, by good luck, proved to be Bryonia, and the clever black at once pretended to stumble and fall, and so held the men that followed him in check until Nux and I had escaped around the crag. ”

“ Then, one day, a schooner carried me to Plymouth, and the Captain, who was a kindly man, loaned me enough money to bring me to Batteraft where I thought I’d find my savings; enough to buy a new ship and start business again. But Mrs. Ranck met me with the news that my son had stripped the house of all my valuables and run away with a man that was known to be a pirate. My room was quite bare, I found, and Mrs. Ranck claimed she had hardly enough left of her savings to buy food with. ”

“ But soon he conceived an idea that these golden sands were deposited from some point in the mountains of the interior of the island, where solid gold abounded in enormous quantities. So he quit washing, and began a search for the imaginary “mountain of gold,” cutting a secret path through the thicket to the more open interior, and passing day after day in his eager quest. At first he urged some of his comrades to join him, but they only laughed at his idea, being well content to obtain the coveted gold in an easy way, where it lay plainly before their eyes. ”

“ Evidently the miners were not of one opinion concerning the new arrival.
“Let’s kill the nigger,” said Daggett. “Then we won’t run any chances.”
“Don’t be a fool,” retorted Larkin. “Bry can be useful to us. He’s the cook of the ‘Flipper’, I’m told, and besides helping to carry the gold, he can cook our meals when we get to sea, and help sail the ship.”
“If he’s run away from camp, why, he’s one of us,” said Judson, yawning and sitting down again. “And if it comes to a fight, he counts for one more on our side.” ”

“ At daybreak, however, Uncle Naboth and Ned Britton were up and anxiously exploring the coast; and presently they saw, a little distance away, the tall form of Bryonia walking carefully across our tree trunk. The black almost fell into the arms of Uncle Naboth, as he stepped off the tree and the old man’s first anxious question was:
“Where’s Sam?”
“Here I am, Uncle!” I called from my rock. “I’ll be with you in a minute, but we’ve got to get the gold over first.”
“The gold!” cried Uncle Naboth, in amazement. “Have you got it, then, after all?” ”

“ During the night a good breeze from the southwest swept us merrily along, and when daylight came we found ourselves close to a small, wooded island. It lay in the form of a horse-shoe, with a broad, protected bay in the center, and Captain Gay, anxious to examine his ship more closely, decided at once to enter the harbor and cast anchor. ”

“ By the advice of his shrewder brother-in-law my father converted all his accumulated treasures into money, which was safely invested in Government bonds that were deposited in a Boston bank.
“Whatever happens now,” observed Uncle Naboth, “nobody can’t rob you again; and if our business ventures proves unsuccessful, and Sam and I go bankrupt, you’ve always got something to fall back on in your old age.”
But success seemed to follow in the wake of the new firm, and the “Cleopatra,” as our ship is named, has made voyage after voyage with unvarying good fortune. ”

“ Daggett slid forward; the point of rock under him touched the islet and came to rest, and then he leaped off and stood safely upon the peak, while the rocking-stone, relieved of his weight, slowly returned to its former position.
A cheer went up from the men, and they hesitated no longer. Bry crept up the stone next, and was tipped gracefully upon the islet. One after another Hayes, Judson and Larkin mounted the rocking-stone and were deposited upon the rocky point, together with their bundles of gold and provisions. ”

“ Before I could reply, Uncle Naboth, who had witnessed the incident, strolled up to us and said:
“Nux is right, my lad. You never find a sailor sitting on the rail; they know too well how onreliable the motion of a ship is. If anybody drops overboard the chances o’ bein’ picked up alive is mighty slim, I tell you. Only fools put ’emselves into unnecessary danger, Sam. Take it on them orful railroad cars, for instance. Old travellers always wait ’till the train stops afore they gets on or off the cars. Them as don’t know the danger is the ones that gets hurt. ”

“ For my part, my leg was crushed by a falling mast, but I got entangled in the rigging and the mast floated me to a little island where a dozen fisher-folks lived. One was a bit of a doctor, and cut away my mangled leg and nursed me back to life. While I waited for a ship to touch the island I regained my strength and made myself a new leg out of cotton-wood. ”

“ We can’t pass by the forest with it, that’s certain; for Daggett and his followers would be sure to see us. On the other side, the cliff rises straight out of the sea, and there’s no way to escape around it. All we can do, then, is to carry the gold to the top of this rock.”
“Hm!” granted the Sulu. “Dat no good, Mars Sam.”
“Why not?”
“No way to get off top of rock.”
“True; but we can hide there, ’till the thieves go away to the ship. It isn’t likely they’ll climb up there again, for this cave is a better place to sleep in.” ”

“ Bry shook his head, decisively. He was an expert woodsman, and declared no man could penetrate the thick jungle that hemmed us in. Ned Britton also bore testimony to this fact; so we were obliged to sadly abandon any hope of escape, and stretched ourselves as comfortably as we might upon the ground to await the approach of morning.
With the first streaks of day the Major and a dozen of his men arrived, and without appearing to notice that we had slipped our bonds they drove us in a pack from the clearing and out upon the sands that bordered the inlet. ”

“ If you insist on dictatin’ what this partnership’s goin’ to do, you’ll probably run it on a rock in two jerks of a lamb’s tail, for you haven’t got the experience old Cap’n Steele had; but if you’re satisfied to let me take the tiller, an’ steer you into harbor, why, I’ll accept the job an’ do the best I can at it.”
50
“Uncle Naboth,” I replied, earnestly, “had you not been an honest man I would never have known you were my father’s partner, or that he had any interest in your business. But you’ve been more than honest. You’ve been kind to me; and I am only too glad to trust you in every way.” ”

“ I said, with a sigh of regret, “is to wait until they come out. It would be foolish to follow them into that place.”
Nux nodded an emphatic approval, and we proceeded to lie down upon our faces, so that our eyes just projected over the edge of the cliff, and in this position we watched as patiently as we could for something to happen.
It was fully an hour before the men reappeared. A distant sound of voices, raised high in angry dispute, was the first token that the desperadoes were quitting the interior of the rock. Then Larkin and Daggett came out and stood upon the ledge ”