Sidford F. Hamp

“ Percy and I had less cause for worry and more time for rest, but the work was beginning to tell upon us too. It was hard enough in any case, tramping over the rocks at the heels of a leader so eager and energetic as Jack, but the loss of one-third of one’s natural sleep made it almost unbearable. Day after day we became more and more tired; the tiredness seemed to accumulate, it became chronic; we dragged our feet after us as we walked; and as to running, nothing less than a ramping, raging grizzly bear could have induced us to run a step. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We’re all pretty well worn out; and what’s more, there is a snow-storm brewing; and a heavy snow might make it difficult to get out of the valley. We’ll put in one more day here, and the next morning we’ll pack up and get out. I hate to give up, but there’s nothing else for it that I see. We must go.”
“But look here, Jack,” said Percy. “It seems a pity to give up until we are obliged to do so. Let us take a day off to-morrow and rest up. And I believe we might leave off mounting guard at night if we all three were to sleep here in the fort; Ulysses would never let anyone come near us. ”

“ During the interval of waiting that ensued, Percy and I were the objects of general interest. We were made to tell our story with every detail; eliciting great applause when we described how we had sacrificed our next morning’s breakfast in order to make a torch. All the passengers who were awake, and all the train-crew besides, came up to shake hands with us and thank us, and to say all sorts of complimentary things; in fact it was quite an ovation, which lasted until the conductor had returned with the section-hands and the damaged bridge had been made safe again. ”

“ If we meet with no insurmountable obstacles we shall certainly get down to the settlements by following it.”
It was getting on for sunset, and we were beginning to look out for a suitable camping-place, when our ears caught the sound of a dolorous howling going on somewhere farther down the river. Ulysses did not approve of it, for he stepped to the front, his bristles erect, growling to himself, and walking in that stiff-legged manner dogs assume when they see an enemy approaching.
“Wolves,” said Jack, cocking his rifle; “keep your eyes open.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ We consumed ten or fifteen minutes of precious time searching for an available spot, but at last we found a place where the bluff had broken away, and clambering quickly to the top, we hurried over the hill and down to the railroad, where we set off down-wind as fast as we could walk—being afraid to run in the dark lest we should break our legs by tumbling through a cattle-guard. ”

“ Percy responded. “I was badly scared, I can tell you. Ulysses, old chap,” putting his arm around the dog, who was sitting with his chin in the air, blinking at the fire, “whenever I get my share of that gold we can’t find, you shall have a medal. Just you remember, now.”
“I’m afraid he’ll have to go without his medal, then,” said Jack; “because we must get out of here to-morrow as early as possible. I don’t like the look of things. I’m rather afraid the snow may catch us down here. Come, let us turn in; we shall want all the sleep we can get.” ”

“ Of these, I, Tom Swayne, the vicar’s son, was one.
As soon as it was discovered that there was a new boy, and that boy an American, Percy became a centre of attraction to the whole school. None of us had ever seen an American before, and we therefore inspected the newcomer with great interest. We found a sturdy, active, bright-eyed youngster, who, instead of being arrayed, as we had half expected, in striped trousers, a star-spangled coat, and a “chimney-pot” hat with the fur all turned the wrong way, was clothed like any of ourselves. ”

“ As I did so, Percy, who was slightly in the rear of me, whispered hastily:
“Tom; hold back. Let me get in front of you. I have a shotgun cartridge in my pocket, and I want to drop it near the water as a guide to Jack, in case he should be able to trail us this far.”
“All right,” said I, without looking round; and forging ahead he succeeded in dropping the cartridge without exciting the suspicions of our watchful guard; with great circumspection making it appear that he was intent only upon urging the reluctant mules to follow Bates’s horse. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It was Bates. At his exclamation of surprise on seeing us—for the moon was up—his face was at once surrounded by those of the three keepers, [36] who gazed in wonder at our unexpected appearance.
“Good-bye, Keepers,” cried Percy. “I’ve cut the rope in the chimney, and you can’t get out. I’m sorry to inconvenience you, but I’m afraid you are likely to starve to death. There’s plenty of fire-wood, and there are three sparrows and a blackbird hanging on a nail in the corner; they will keep you alive for a day or two; after that you can cook Bates. ”

“ There was a growling and a grumbling going on down below, and presently, puff! came a great ball of steam into our faces; we thought our eyebrows were gone. With admirable unanimity we jumped back and retreated to a more respectful distance.
Soon there was a great spasm, and a mass of hot water—tons of it—was jerked out of the crater. Percy and I, with one impulse, turned to fly, but Jack calling out, “It’s all right; it’s all right,” we stopped again; standing, however, all ready to run at the shortest notice.
This casting out of hot water was but the preliminary to a regular eruption. ”

“ We “up-ended” the pole and leaned it against the rocks, so that it should not be buried in the snow, and then Jack, for the third time that day, waded into the pool. In a short time he came splashing back again, and reported, as we had expected, that there was a gale blowing on the other side of the valley-wall.
“It’s no use to think of going on at present,” said he; “the snow is drifting badly out there. We should only lose ourselves; and the result of that would probably be that we should freeze to death or die of exhaustion, tired as we are, and wet through as we have been all day. ”

“ Percy and I walked over to look at them, and as we stood beside the fallen fragment which lay athwart the stream, our conversation—I forget why—turned upon the subject of the pot-holes and the gold button that Percy had found in one of them.
“That’s the hole,” said he, pitching a snowball into the water, “and I should like to know why that one should have had a nugget in it while the others had nothing but scales and grains.”
“What I should like to know,” said I, “is why we should find gold in the pot-holes and nowhere else. ”

“ I have said before that Jack did not profess to know much about gold-washing. Had his friend, the old prospector, been at hand, he would have told him that the extraction of gold from clay was a process of notorious difficulty and tediousness; but of this fact Jack was ignorant,—very fortunately for him, as it turned out. “A little learning is a dangerous thing,” perhaps, but, strange to say, the littleness of Jack’s learning in the art of gold-washing proved to be most advantageous to him. ”

“ THE CLEANING OF THE POT-HOLES “NO, no,” said Jack. “I think you ought to go home. Besides, it’s too dangerous. I don’t like the responsibility of taking you back there.”
“But look here, Jack,” Percy persisted. “We are given leave to stay if there is a good reason for staying; and surely we have a good enough reason now. When we set out from Golconda our chief object was to help you to find gold, and here is not only the best, but the only real chance we have had. ”

“ His duties, of course, obliged him to live on the spot, but thinking that a smoky town, swarming with rough sailors of all nations and with many undesirable characters, was not the best place for a boy, he cast about for a good school to which he might send his son. After many and careful inquiries he settled upon Moseley’s, and accordingly, at the end of one Christmas holidays, Percy being then fourteen years old, his father took him up there and left him, a forlorn little scrap of humanity, alone in a land of strangers. ”

“ Squeaky looked hard at Jack for a minute, and then, thinking perhaps that it would be as well to propitiate his captor, he replied:
“They’re in a little cabin on the other side of the valley down here. They’re all right; at least they were half an hour ago.”
“Very well,” said Jack. “Then I’ll go down and call upon them. You will have to stay here till I come back. I’ll leave you the dog for company; and let me recommend you to sit still—he bites sometimes. Here, Ulysses; mind him.” ”

“ There was a rustle in the grass, and the sound of breathing close to the elk-hide. Somebody was listening.
“Jack is sure to be back in three weeks,” Percy announced in an audible voice for the benefit of the listener. “Three weeks ought to be ample time, and you may be sure he won’t let the grass grow under his feet. As for ourselves, as there’s no chance that I see of getting out of this place, the best thing we can do is to make ourselves as comfortable as we can while we stay here.” ”

“ Selecting as the first to be tested the hole in which Percy had found the nugget, he went down upon his hands and knees and ladled up a spoonful of the deposit. Up came the spoon, brimming with sand, but the moment it reached the surface the current whisked away the contents, and the spoon was empty. This process had every appearance of being a failure.
“Hold up a second,” cried Jack; and off he ran once more to the camp, returning directly with a small tin cup in his hand. ”

“ At this point, whence we could see a long stretch of the Yellowstone Valley behind us, Squeaky ordered us to stop, and taking Jack’s field-glass, which he had appropriated to his own use, he examined the trail by which we had come up and all the country about with the greatest minuteness. Evidently he had a suspicion that Jack might be following. Our hearts were in our mouths while this examination was going on, and great was our relief when at length Squeaky put up the glass, and turning to Bates gruffly ordered him to go on. ”

“ My father and mother took a great liking for my American chum—they admired his brightness and his transparent honesty—and both of them, my mother especially, to make him feel that though a stranger in the land he was not exactly a foreigner, as a French boy would have been, made him welcome to the vicarage whenever he chose to come, and as we were always together, that was pretty often. On one of these occasions, a wet Saturday afternoon, Percy, poking about among the neglected volumes on the top shelves of the library, came upon a musty old leather-bound history of Hengist’s Castle. ”

“ He will run away, as a rule, from any dog that is more than half as big as himself. But get him into a corner where he has no chance to run farther, and it will be a bold dog that will venture within range of his snapping jaws.
That the coyote possesses good reasoning powers no one who is familiar with him will deny. He is aware, for instance, of the custom of the jack-rabbit to run in a circle when pursued, and on one occasion I saw him take advantage of that knowledge, to the disgust of our honest friend Ulysses. ”