by G. A. Henty
"Did you find water, Dave?"
"Yes, plenty of it, enough for the horses and the washing too."
Chapter XI.--Hard At Work.
Tom took the first watch in the morning. Dick rendered all theassistance he could to the men, who cut down a couple of the trees thatstood in the gorge, chopped them into eight-feet lengths, and then withwedges split them into boards, which they smoothed up with an adze. Allwere accustomed to the work, and by nightfall a deep trough wasconstructed, resting upon rockers like a cradle.
Next morning the work began; two men threw the gravel and sand into thecradle, the third kept it in motion, while whichever of the boys was offwatch brought water in two of the pails from the hole.
The horses were no trouble, finding plenty of coarse grass among therocks, and only requiring watering night and morning. Thrice a day thecontents of the cradle were cleared entirely out, and the gold that hadsunk to the bottom collected. Much, of it was in fine dust, but therewas also a large number of nuggets, varying in size from a pea to amarble. Each clear-up they obtained on an average eight or nine poundsof gold.
The fourth day Tom had come down from above at twelve o'clock, and foundthat the men had only just finished the clear-up, and had sat down tohave some food.
Having nothing to do, he strolled away to the spot where the Mexicanshad been massacred, a short distance away, on some ground at the side ofthe valley. Some three or four feet above the ground level of the bottomhe saw a charred stump of a pole sticking up; he went across to it.
"I suppose this is where the leader of the party had a tent or roughhut," he said.
He was confirmed in the belief by a number of bits of charred wood lyinground the pole.
"It was sort of arbor, I suppose," he said to himself.
There were several relics lying about: two boots shriveled by fire, atin cup flattened by some weight that had fallen on it, a pistol withits stock blackened by fire. He called the men to the spot.
"Yes, like enough it is as you say, Dick, but it is scarcely worthgetting up to look at."
"No, there is not much to look at, Dave, but you have been wonderingever since you came that you had not come upon any of the gold they musthave gathered, and you said you didn't believe the Indians had taken itaway. Now if this was the hut of the leader of the party, it struck methat it would most likely be kept here, and that it may be buriedsomewhere under this circle of ashes."
"Tom is right, mates," Dave said, "that is just where the gold would bekept, and there aint much doubt that they would bury it as they got it,so as to prevent anyone from taking any of it till it was divided up.Let us fetch our picks, Boston, and we will soon see if it is here. Letus try round the post first," he went on, when the three men fetchedtheir picks; "it will be either close to the middle of the hut, or elseon one side under where he made his bed."
The ground was sand, which had been washed up by an, eddy in one of thefloods, and they had struck but three or four blows with the pick, whenDave exclaimed:
"Here is something, boys!"
They had brought a shovel with them, and throwing aside the sand, theysaw a piece of leather.
"It is a bag," Joe said; "this is their hoard, sure enough."
Going down on their hands and knees, they pulled up bag after bag, eachabout fifty pounds in weight, until they had a pile on the surface ofeight bags.
"Eureka!" Dave exclaimed, as he lifted the last bag out of the hole."They had made something like a pile; no doubt they were a strong party,but even with that they must have been here a couple of months to havegot this lot together. Well, Boston," and he held out his hand, "we cango east again; we have struck it rich at last."
"You bet," Joe said briefly.
"How much is it?" Dick asked.
"Each of them bags weighs about fifty pounds, Dick."
Dick looked incredulous, and stooped to pick up one of the bags, and wasastonished at its weight.
"Fifty pounds if it weighs an ounce, and there are eight of them--fourhundred pounds of gold; think of that, lad; that is pretty nigh eightypounds apiece. I aint good at reckoning, but put it rough at two hundredand fifty dollars a pound, that is somewhere like two hundred thousanddollars each."
"Forty thousand pounds!" Dick exclaimed; "it does not seem possible."
"We aint got it to the settlements yet," Zeke said quietly; "them chapshad it, and they lost it. Don't let us figure it up much till we getbeyond the sound of the Apache war-whoop."
"Well, I will go on watch at the mouth," Dick said, "and then you cantalk things over together."
"Do, Dick; there is a lot more to look after than there was before, andit makes one feel one can't be too careful. Anyhow we won't stay a daylonger in this place. We will be off to-night."
Dick went nearly down to the mouth of the narrow gorge. He had expectedthey would find a treasure, and although this far exceeded hisanticipations, he did not feel the excitement the men had shown at thediscovery of the treasure. He sat down on a rock, and amused himselfwith the thought of the wonder there would be at home. Suddenly he heardthe sound of a horse's hoof, and grasping his rifle, stooped down behinda fallen rock. A moment later a mounted Indian dashed past the mouth ofthe rift. He was scarce twenty yards away, but Dick noticed the eaglefeathers of his head-dress, the rifle slung across his shoulder, and theleggings decorated with tufts of hair. It was but a moment, and then hewas gone. Dick waited a minute or two, and then ran in to tell theminers. They uttered an exclamation of alarm.
"He went right on," Dick said. "He didn't check the speed of his horseor glance my way."
"That is no sign," Zeke said. "The chances are that fellow has happenedon our trail maybe a mile, maybe fifty, back and he has just beenfollowing it. Why should he be riding so close to the cliffs if he wasnot tracking us?"
"But he didn't look in," Dick persisted.
"He warn't such a fool, lad. He knew well enough that if he glancedround, and there was anyone on watch there, he would have a bulletthrough him sartin."
"What shall we do? Shall we saddle up at once, Dave?" Boston Joe asked.
"We may as well pack the horses anyhow, Boston, but we can't go till itis dark. If a party like ours were to show up there, they would see usfrom the village sure. Do you run up, Dick, and keep a lookout with Tomat the village. You can crawl along, if you like, nearer to the edge,and make out if that fellow is riding there. If you see him go therecome down with the news, and tell Tom to hurry down as quick as he canif he sees a party setting out. We will have the horses saddled up bythe time you are down again."
Chapter XII.--Retreat.
Dick sprang up the hill, and, as soon as he joined Tom, astonished himwith the account of the discovery of the treasure collected by the otherparty, and also by the news that it was probable that the Indians wouldbe speedily upon them. All this he told him as he was crawling forwardtowards the edge of the cliff.
"There he goes!" he exclaimed, when they neared it. "Do you see himgoing up the slope toward the village? How clear the air is. Dave saysit is six miles there if it is a foot; it does not look more than one.
"Well, I must go and tell them below. Mind, Tom, the moment you see aparty issue out from there you crawl back to the path, and then hurrydown as quick as you can, but mind you don't tumble in your haste."
"That settles it," Dave said, when he heard the news. "If he had beengoing to that village he would have made for it straight, and not comealong under the cliffs until he was opposite to it. No; we have got tofight, that's sartin."
"If we were to mount that path at once, Dave, we could keep them fromclimbing up if there were hundreds of them."
"That is so, lad, but we could not stay there forever, and might be tookin the rear by another party. Besides, as soon as they find out that wehave left--they will do that pretty soon--they will be straight afterus. No, we have been talking it over while you have been away, and wehave agreed that we must hold the Canyon until it gets dark, and thenmake off. No d
oubt they know of this path, but they won't think as wehave found it out, and they will fancy that they have got us sure. Likeenough, as soon as they find we are ready for them here, they will senda messenger off to some village up behind us. There is one thing, hewill have a good way to go for we have seen no break in the cliffs forthe last twenty miles, and maybe they go much farther; anyhow, we havegot to risk it."
"I should think," Dick said, "that anyhow we might as well get thehorses up to the top of the path, ready to push on as soon as it getsdark. They can do it easily enough in daylight, but it would be a veryawkward job at night."
"Right you are, lad, that is a capital plan. We will do it at once. Wehave got everything wrapped up ready. One of us will stay up there withTom so as to guard the top of the path, in case any of the redskinsshould come down before we are ready to go forward. Three will be enoughto hold the Canyon."
"I will undertake the horse job," Boston Joe said. "As you say, three isenough here. They will think they are going to take us by surprise, andas soon as they find we are ready for them they will draw off fastenough. I reckon that fellow has counted our numbers, and no redskinwill try to force that pass with five Western rifles facing him."
Just as Joe began to mount the path, leading his horse, with the otherstied head to tail in a long line behind it, Tom appeared on the pathhigh up and shouted:
"Thirty or forty horsemen have just left the village, and are comingthis way."
"All right, Tom," Dick shouted back. "You are not to come down. Joe iscoming up with the horses."
"We have got plenty of time yet," Dave said, as soon as the string ofhorses had started on their way up; "it aint much past two o'clock yet,and it will be pretty nigh six hours afore we can make a start. There isa good fire, and we have kept down thirty pounds of flour; we shall havetime to bake that into bread before we start. We shan't have much timefor baking when we are once off, you can bet your boots."
Dick looked on with some wonder at the quiet and deliberate manner inwhich Dave mixed his dough.
"By the way, Dick," the latter said, looking up, "we have divided thatlot of gold we got here ourselves into five lots, and put one lot intothe blankets on each of our riding horses; it is like enough that if wecarry our own scalps back to the Settlements we shan't get any of thefour baggage ponies there with us. There is about twelve pound of goldin each blanket, so suppose we have to let the other ponies go, weshan't have made a bad job out of our journey after all."
"Have you filled the water-skins, Dave?"
"We filled the five small skins we carry ourselves, and one of theothers we daren't carry. Each of the horses has got two sacks of gold,one of them has got the water-skin, two others have got twenty pounds offlour each, which will be enough to last us with the loaf we are bakinghere till we get out of the Indian country; the others have got the teaand sugar. The one with the skin will be the heaviest load at first; butthe water will soon go, so that makes it even. Everything else we havegot to leave behind, except a kettle and this baking pan. We will takethem up as we go. Now that the loaf is fairly under way, we will getready for the redskins."
Chapter XIII.--The Redskin.
They took their post behind some rocks in front of them. The bottom wascomposed of sand and gravel, the only rock being that behind which Dickhad crouched, close to the entrance.
"Mind, we mustn't all fire at once," Dave said; "one must always beloading, and we will take it in turns to fire. Of course, if they make arush we must take to our six-shooters; but they aint likely to do that.I will fire first, Zeke, you follow me; I reckon they aint likely tomiss either of us."
Another quarter of an hour passed, and then suddenly a mounted Indianappeared at the mouth of the Canyon. He checked his horse and sat gazingup it. Dave's rifle cracked, and the Indian fell backward from hissaddle; and a sudden yell of anger and surprise rose outside. Anothermoment and a dozen figures appeared at the entrance. Zeke fired.
"Now, Dick!" Dave said a moment later, and the lad, whose rifle wasresting on the rock in front of him, pulled his trigger, and almostimmediately Dave fired again. Another moment and the mouth of the Canyonwas clear. Another Indian lay by the side of the first who had fallen.
"I reckon all the shots told," Dave said; "we could hardly miss thatclump. Now I don't think you will see any more of them; they know we arehere and they know we are ready for them, and it aint in Indian natureto throw away their lives charging up a place like this. They hadreckoned the five first would go down anyhow. Then they will guess thatwe have got pistols, and the redskins hate six-shooters like poison."
The time passed slowly, but the quiet in the Canyon remained undisturbed.
"I expect it is as I said, Zeke; they won't attack again by daylight,though I don't say as they won't try and crawl up when it gets dark, butI don't think as they will. If there is a village up in the hill behindus they will send round to it, and wait here till they hear a fightbegin inside. If there aint no village, half of them will ride round tocome down on us. However, they won't set about that at once. Injuns arenever in a hurry, and they think that they have got us safe in here andcan take things easy. If it is a long way round and they aint quite sureof the path, like enough they won't start until they calculate they willget there at daybreak, when they will guess that we shall be all prettywell worn out with keeping watch here."
"I guess that is about it, Dave. Anyhow, we can push out as soon as itbegins to get too dark for them to see us from the village acrossthere--that is, as soon as the sun has gone down behind the hills to thesouth."
Dave had from time to time left his post and gone to keep up the fireand to put a fresh batch of dough in the pan, and as soon as a shadowfell across the valley he said, "Now we will be off. I reckon there isno fear of the redskins getting round for a time; but I tell you thatgold makes one mighty fidgety."
Six loaves had been baked, and each taking two, while Dave, in addition,took the pan and kettle, they mounted the path. When they reached thetail of the string of horses Dave hailed Boston Joe, and a moment laterthe miner's head appeared on the edge of the cliff above them.
"Is it all clear?"
"Aye. I have seen nothing of them--ne'er a thing moving."
"Well, we will go at once, Joe. Even a redskin's eyes could not make usout from that village now."
The horses were at once set in motion. As soon as they had left the paththe cords were unfastened, and the five mounted.
"Which way, Dave?" Boston Joe asked.
"We had better make west. It is lucky we shall have the moon, for thereis no traveling over the hills in the dark if you don't know the way.Anyhow, we will make straight back at present, or we may come upon thosefellows riding round. We will go in Indian file. I will go first, with apony tied to mine. The two lads will follow, then either you, Zeke, orJoe, can take the last pony, and the other one ride in the rear, so thatyou can keep us well in sight, and yet be far enough off to use yourears."
For an hour they continued their course south, the ground rising as theywent. Then they reached a dip running west.
"We will follow this," Dave said; "it is the right direction anyhow, andit is as likely to take us down into the valleys again in time."
As they proceeded, the dip became more decided, and after two hours'riding the sides narrowed in.
"We shall strike a water-course soon," Dave said, turning round to speakto Tom, who was riding next to him. "The water that falls here has gotto make its way out somewhere, and this is the only way as it can go.Not that there is much water, for it is often months without rain."
Presently they found that the ground was covered with pebbles.
"There is the water-course, you see," Dave said.
The fall became steeper and steeper, and the ground more stony; lowtrees and bushes rose on the slopes on either side.
"We had best dismount here," Dave said; "it is growing mighty steep, andwe may come upon a sudden fall anywhere, and it is mighty difficult tojudge abo
ut depth in the moonlight."
The lads were heartily glad at the order, for they had for some timebeen momentarily expecting that their horses would come down over thebowlders.
"I will go twenty yards ahead," Dave said. "You had better loose thebaggage-ponies and let them pick their own way. Throw your bridles onyour horses' necks: they will go a deal safer so than if you wereleading them; the critters can pick their way anywhere if they have gottime and can look about."
Luckily the moon was still high and shot full down upon the path theywere traveling. Even on foot the lads found it difficult to make theirway down. Sometimes they had to climb over heaps of bowlders, sometimesto slide down smooth faces of rock so steep that they could not keeptheir feet upon them, and often it seemed so perilous that they wouldhave hesitated to attempt it had they not seen that Dave with his twohorses kept steadily on below them.
Chapter XIV.--In The Ravine.
The lads were surprised at the way their own horses followed, sliding ontheir haunches down the steepest places and picking their way amongrocks and bowlders. Six hours after starting they found themselves in adeep ravine, whose sides were covered with trees. They had now lost themoon, and it was far too dark for them to progress further.