Digging for Gold: Adventures in California

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER EIGHT.

  FRANK AND JOE TAKE TO WANDERING; SEE SOME WONDERFUL THINGS, AND HAVE ANARROW ESCAPE.

  Before our hero became convalescent, his comrade Douglas was "laid down"with dysentery. In these circumstances, the digging went on slowly, formuch of the time of Meyer and Graddy was necessarily occupied innursing--and truly kind and devoted, though rough, nurses they proved tobe in that hour of need.

  Gradually, but surely, Douglas sank. There was no doctor to prescribefor him, no medicine to be had for love or money. In that wretched huthe lay beside his sick friend, and conversed, as strength permitted, infaint low tones, on the folly of having thrown his life away for "meregold," and on the importance of the things that concern the soul. As hedrew near his end, the name of the Saviour was often on his lips, andoften did he reproach himself for having neglected the "greatsalvation," until it was _almost_ too late. Sometimes he spoke ofhome--in Scotland,--and gave many messages to Frank, which he begged himto deliver to his mother, if he should ever get well and live to returnhome.

  There was something in that "if" which went with a thrill to Frank'sheart, as he lay there, and realised vividly that his comrade wasactually dying, and that he too might die.

  One evening Joe entered the hut with more alacrity than he had done formany a day. He had a large nugget, just dug up, in his hand, and hadhastened to his companions to cheer them, if possible, with a sight ofit. Douglas was just passing away. He heard his comrade's heartyremarks, and looked upon the mass of precious metal.

  "Joe," he whispered faintly, "Wisdom is more to be desired than gold;`The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.'"

  He never spoke again, and died within an hour after that.

  At last Frank began to mend, and soon found himself strong enough totravel, he therefore made arrangements to leave Bigbear Gully with hisinseparable friend Joe. Meyer, being a very strong man, and in robusthealth, determined to remain and work out their claim, which stillyielded abundance of gold.

  "Meyer," said Frank, the evening before his departure, "I'm very sorrythat we are obliged to leave you."

  "Ya, das ist mos' miserable," said the poor German, lookingdisconsolate.

  "But you see," continued Frank, "that my remaining, in my present stateof health, is out of the question. Now, Joe and I have been talkingover our affairs. We intend to purchase three mules and set off underthe guidance of a half-caste Californian, to visit different parts ofthis country. We will continue our journey as long as our gold lasts,and then return to San Francisco and take passage for England,--for wehave both come to the unalterable determination that we won't try tomake our fortunes by gold-digging. We have sufficient dust to give us along trip and pay our passage to England, without making use of that bignugget found by Joe, which is worth at least 200 pounds; so we havedetermined to leave it in possession of Jeffson, to be used by you ifluck should ever take a wrong turn--as it will sometimes do--and youshould chance to get into difficulties. Of course if you continueprosperous, we will reclaim our share of it on our return hither."

  "Ah, you is too goot," cried the warm-hearted German, seizing Frank'shand and wringing it, "bot I vill nevair use de nuggut--nevair! Yousall find him here sartainly ven you do com bak."

  "Well, I hope so, for your own sake," said Frank, "because that willshow you have been successful. But if you get into low water, and donot use it, believe me I shall feel very much aggrieved."

  Next day about noon, our hero and Joe, with Junk, their vaquero, mountedtheir mules and rode away.

  "A new style o' cruisin' this," said Joe Graddy, one fine day, as theypulled up under the shade of a large tree, at a spot where the scenerywas so magnificent that Frank resolved to rest and sketch it.

  "New, indeed, and splendid too," he exclaimed enthusiastically, leapingoff his mule. "You can go shoot squirrels or bears if you like, Joe,but here I remain for the next three or four hours."

  As Frank had been in the habit of treating his friend thus almost everyday since starting on their tour, he was quite prepared for it; smiledknowingly, ordered the vaquero to tether the mules and accompany himinto the forest, and then, taking his bearings with a smallpocket-compass, and critically inspecting the sun, and a huge pinchbeckwatch which was the faithful companion of his wanderings, he shoulderedhis gun and went off, leaving the enthusiastic painter to revel in theglories of the landscape.

  And truly magnificent the scenery was. They had wandered by that timefar from the diggings, and were involved in all the grandeur of theprimeval wilderness. Stupendous mountains, capped with snow, surroundedthe beautiful valley through which they were travelling, and herbage ofthe richest description clothed the ground, while some of the trees wereso large that many of the giant oaks of old England would have appearedsmall beside them. Some of the precipices of the valley were fullythree thousand feet high, without a break from top to bottom, and themountain-ranges in the background must have been at least as high again.Large tracts of the low grounds were covered with wild oats and richgrasses; affording excellent pasturage to the deer, which could be seenroving about in herds. Lakes of various sizes were alive withwaterfowl, whose shrill and plaintive cries filled the air with wildmelody. A noble river coursed throughout the entire length of thevalley, and its banks were clothed with oaks, cypresses, and chestnuts,while, up on the mountain sides, firs of truly gigantic size rearedtheir straight stems above the surrounding trees with an air of toweringmagnificence, which gave them indisputable right to be considered thearistocracy of those grand solitudes.

  Of these firs Frank observed one so magnificent that, although anxiousto begin work without delay, he could not resist the desire to examineit closely. Laying down his book and pencil he ran towards it, andstood for some time in silent amazement, feeling that he was indeed inthe presence of the Queen of the Forest. It was a pine which towered toa height of certainly not less than three hundred and sixty feet, and,after careful measurement, was found to be ninety-three feet incircumference. In regarding this tree as the Queen, Frank was doublycorrect, for the natives styled it the "Mother of the Forest." The barkof it, to the height of a hundred and sixteen feet, was, in after years,carried to England, and built up in its original form in the CrystalPalace of Sydenham. It was unfortunately destroyed in the great firewhich a few years ago consumed a large part of that magnificentbuilding.

  But this was not the only wonderful sight that was seen that day. AfterFrank had finished his drawing, and added it to a portfolio which wasalready well filled, he fired a shot to recall his nautical comrade andthe vaquero. They soon rejoined him, and, continuing their journey,came to a waterfall which, in some respects, excelled that of thefar-famed Niagara itself.

  It had sounded like murmuring thunder in their ears the greater part ofthat day, and as they approached it the voice of its roar became sodeafening that they were prepared for something unusually grand, but notfor the stupendous sight and sound that burst upon them when, on turninground the base of a towering precipice, they came suddenly in full viewof one of the most wonderful of the Creator's works in that land.

  A succession of wall-like mountains rose in two tiers before them intothe clouds. Some of the lower clouds floated far below the highestpeaks. From the summit of the highest range, a river, equal to theThames at Richmond, dropt sheer down a precipice of more than twothousand feet. Here it met the summit of the lower mountain-range, onwhich it burst with a deep-toned sullen roar, comparable only to eternalthunder. A white cloud of spray received the falling river in its softembrace, and sent it forth again, turbulent and foam-bespeckled, towardsits second leap,--another thousand feet,--into the plain below. Theentire height of this fall was above three thousand feet!

  Our hero was of course anxious to make a careful drawing of it, buthaving already exhausted the greater part of the day, he was fain tocontent himself with a sketch, after making which they pushed rapidlyforward, and encamped for the night, still within sight and sound
of themighty fall.

  "D'you know, Joe," said Frank, leaning back against a tree stem, as hegazed meditatively into into the fire after supper was concluded, "ithas often struck me that men are very foolish for not taking fullpossession of the splendid world, in which they have been placed."

  Frank paused a few moments, but the observation not being sufficientlydefinite for Joe, who was deep in the enjoyment of his first pipe, noreply was made beyond an interjectional "h'm."

  "Just look around you," pursued Frank, waving his hand towards thelandscape, "at this magnificent country; what timber, what soil, what anamount of game, what lakes, what rivers, what facilities for farming,manufacturing, fishing,--everything, in fact, that is calculated togladden the heart of man."

  "Includin' gold," suggested Joe.

  "Including gold," assented Frank; and there it all lies--has lain sincecreation--hundreds of thousands of acres of splendid land _unoccupied_.

  "Ha! there's a screw loose somewhere," said Joe, taking the pipe fromhis lips and looking at it earnestly, as if the remark were addressed toit, "somethin' out o' j'int--a plank started, so to speak--cer'nly."

  "No doubt of it," said Frank; "and the broad acres which we now lookupon, as well as those over which we have lately travelled, are asnothing compared with the other waste but fertile lands in America, onwhich hundreds of thousands of the human race might live happily. Yet,strange to say, men seem to prefer congregating together in littleworlds of brick, stone, and mortar, living tier upon tier above eachother's heads, breathing noxious gases instead of the scent of flowers,treading upon mud, stone, and dust, instead of green grass, and dwellingunder a sky of smoke instead of bright blue ether--and this, too, in theface of the Bible command to `go forth and replenish the earth.'"

  "Yes, there's great room," said Joe, "for the settin' up of a gin'ralenlightenment an' universal emigration society, but I raither think itwouldn't pay."

  "I know it wouldn't, but why not?" demanded Frank.

  "Ah, why not?" repeated Joe.

  As neither of them appeared to be able to answer the question, they bothremained for some time in a profound reverie, Frank gazing as he waswont to do into the fire, and Joe staring through smoke of his owncreation at the vaquero, who reclined on the opposite side of the fireenjoying the tobacco to the full by letting it puff slowly out at hisnose as well as his mouth.

  "Joe," said Frank.

  "Ay, ay, sir," answered Joe with nautical promptitude.

  "I have been thinking a good deal about our affairs of late, and havecome to the conclusion that the sooner we go home the better."

  "My notions pre-cisely."

  "Moreover," continued Frank, "I think that we have come far enough inthis direction, and that it would be a good plan to return to BigbearGully by a different route from that by which we came here, and thushave an opportunity of seeing some of the other parts of the diggings.What say you to that?"

  "I'm agreeable," answered Joe.

  "Well then, shall we decide to commence our return journey to-morrow?"

  "By all means. Down wi' the helm, 'bout ship an' lay our course onanother tack by daylight," said Joe, shaking the ashes out of his pipewith the slow unwilling air of a man who knows that he has had enoughbut is loath to give up; "I always like to set sail by daylight. Itmakes one feel up to the mark so to speak, as if one had lost none ofthe day, and I suppose," he added with a sigh which resolved itself intoa yawn, "that if we means to start so bright an' early the sooner wetumble in the better."

  "True," said Frank, whose mouth irresistibly followed the example ofJoe's, "I think it will be as well to turn in."

  There was a quiet, easy-going lowness in the speech and motions of thetwo friends, which showed that they were just in a state of readiness tofall into the arms of the drowsy god. They rolled themselves in theirblankets, placed their rifles by their sides, their heads on theirsaddles, and their feet to the fire.

  Joe Graddy's breathing proclaimed that he had succumbed at once, butFrank lay for a considerable time winking owlishly at the stars, whichreturned him the compliment with interest by twinkling at him throughthe branches of the overhanging trees.

  Early next morning they arose, remounted their mules and turned back,diverging, according to arrangement, from their former track, and makingfor a particular part of the diggings where Frank had been given tounderstand there were many subjects of interest for his pencil. Wewould fain linger by the way, to describe much of what they saw, but thelimits of our space require that we should hasten onward, and transportthe reader at once to a place named the Great Canon, which, being a verysingular locality, and peculiarly rich in gold, merits description.

  It was a gloomy gap or gorge--a sort of gigantic split in the earth--lying between two parallel ranges of hills at a depth of several hundredfeet, shaped like a wedge, and so narrow below that there was barelystanding room. The gold all lay at the bottom, the slopes being toosteep to afford it a resting-place.

  The first diggers who went there were said to have gathered vastquantities of gold; and when Frank and Joe arrived there was quiteenough to repay hard work liberally. The miners did not work incompanies there. Indeed, the form of the chasm did not admit ofoperations on a large scale being carried on at any one place. Most ofthe men worked singly with the pan, and used large bowie-knives withwhich they picked gold from the crevices of the rocks in the bed of thestream, or scratched the gravelly soil from the roots of the overhangingtrees, which were usually rich in deposits. The gorge, about four milesin extent, presented one continuous string of men in single file, alleagerly picking up gold, and admitting that in this work they wereunusually successful.

  But these poor fellows paid a heavy price for the precious metal in theloss of health, the air being very bad, as no refreshing breezes couldreach them at the bottom of the gloomy defile.

  The gold at that place was found both in very large and very smallgrains, and was mixed with quantities of fine black sand, which theminers blew off from it somewhat carelessly--most of them being "greenhands," and anxious to get at the gold as quickly as possible. Thiscarelessness on their part was somewhat cleverly taken advantage of by akeen old fellow who chanced to enter the hut of a miner when Frank andJoe were there. He had a bag on his back and a humorous twinkle in hiseye.

  "Well, old foxey, what do _you_ want?" asked the owner of the hut, whohappened to be blowing off the sand from a heap of his gold at the time.

  "Sure it's only a little sand I want," said the man, in a brogue whichbetrayed his origin.

  "Sand, Paddy, what for?"

  "For emery, sure," said the man, with a very rueful look; "troth it'smyself as is gittin' too owld entirely for the diggin's. I was a brothof a boy wance, but what wid dysentery and rheumatiz there's little ornothin' o' me left, so I'm obleeged to contint myself wid gatherin' theblack sand, and sellin' it as a substitute for emery."

  "Well, that is a queer dodge," said the miner, with a laugh.

  "True for ye, it _is_ quare, but it's what I'm redooced to, so av you'llbe so kind as plaze to blow the sand on to this here tray, it'll bedoin' a poor man a good turn, an' costin' ye nothin'."

  He held up a tin tray as he spoke, and the miner cheerfully blew thesand off his gold-dust on to it.

  Thanking him with all the fervour peculiar to his race, the Irishmanemptied the sand into his bag, and heaving a heavy sigh, left the hut torequest a similar favour of other miners.

  "You may depend on it," said Frank, as the old man went out, "thatfellow is humbugging you. It is gold, not sand, that he wants."

  "That's a fact," said Joe Graddy, with an emphatic nod and wink.

  "Nonsense," said the miner, "I don't believe we lose more than a fewspecks in blowing off the sand--certainly nothing worth speaking of."

  The man was wrong in this, however, for it was afterwards discoveredthat the sly old fellow carried his black sand to his hut, and there,every night, by the agency of quicksilver, he extracted from th
e sanddouble the average of gold obtained by the hardest working miner in theCanon!

  At each end of this place there was a hut made of calico stretched on aframe of wood, in which were sold brandy and other strong liquors of themost abominable kind, at a charge of about two shillings for a smallglass! Cards were also to be found there by those who wished to gambleaway their hard-earned gains or double them. Places of iniquity these,which abounded everywhere throughout the diggings, and were the nightlyresort of hundreds of diggers, and the scene of their wildest orgies onthe Sabbath-day.

  Leaving the Great Canon, our travellers--we might almost term theminspectors--came to a creek one raw, wet morning, where a large numberof miners where at work. Here they resolved to spend the day, and testthe nature of the ground. Accordingly, the vaquero was directed to lookafter the mules while Frank and Joe went to work with pick, shovel, andpan.

  They took the "dirt" from a steep incline considerably above the winterlevel of the stream, in a stratum of hard bluish clay, almost as hard asrock, with a slight surface-covering of earth. It yielded prodigiously.At night they found that they had washed out gold to the value of fortypounds sterling! The particles of gold were all large, many being thesize of a grain of corn, with occasional nuggets intermixed, besidesquartz amalgamations.

  "If this had been my first experience o' them there diggin's," said JoeGraddy, as he smoked his pipe that night in the chief gambling anddrinking store of the place, "I would have said our fortin wos made, allbut. Hows'ever, I don't forget that the last pair o' boots I got costme four pound, an' the last glass o' brandy two shillin's--not to speako' death cuttin' an' carvin' all round, an' the rainy season a-comin'on, so it's my advice that we 'bout ship for home as soon as may be."

  "I agree with you, Joe," said Frank, "and I really don't think I wouldexchange the pleasure I have derived from journeying through this land,and sketching the scenery, for all the gold it contains. Nevertheless Iwould not like to be tempted with the offer of such an exchange!--Now,I'll turn in."

  Next morning the rain continued to pour incessantly, and Frank Allfreyhad given the order to get ready for a start, when a loud shouting nearthe hut in which they had slept induced them to run out. A band of menwere hurrying toward the tavern with great haste and much gesticulation,dragging a man in the midst of them, who struggled and protestedviolently.

  Frank saw at a glance that the prisoner was his former companionBradling, and that one of the men who held him was the stranger who hadbeen so badly wounded by him at the camp-fire, as formerly related.

  On reaching the tavern, in front of which grew a large oak-tree--one ofthe limbs of which was much chafed as if by the sawing of a rope againstit--the stranger, whose comrades called him Dick, stood up on a stump,and said--

  "I tell you what it is, mates, I'm as sure that he did it as I am of myown existence. The man met his death at the hands of this murdererBradling; ha! he knows his own name, you see! He is an escapedconvict."

  "And what are you?" said Bradling, turning on him bitterly.

  "That is no man's business, so long as I hurt nobody," cried Dickpassionately. "I tell you," he continued, addressing the crowd, whichhad quickly assembled, "I found this fellow skulking in the bush closeto where the body was found, and I know he did it, because he all butmurdered me not many months ago, and there," he continued, with a lookof surprise, pointing straight at our hero, "is a man who can swear tothe truth of what I say!"

  All eyes were at once turned on Frank, who stepped forward, and said--

  "I can certainly testify to the fact that this man Bradling did attemptto shoot the man whom you call Dick, but I know nothing about the murderwhich seems to have been perpetrated here, and--"

  "It's a young feller as was a quiet harmless sort o' critter," said oneof the bystanders, "who was found dead under a bush this morning withhis skull smashed in; and it's my opinion, gentlemen, that, since thisstranger has sworn to the fact that Bradling tried to murder Dick, heshould swing for it."

  "I protest, gentlemen," said Frank energetically, "that I did not_swear_ at all! I did not even _say_ that Bradling tried to murderanybody: on the contrary, I think the way in which the man Dick handledhis gun at the time when Bradling fired was very susp--"

  A shout from the crowd drowned the remainder of this speech.

  "String him up without more ado," cried several voices.

  Three men at once seized Bradling, and a rope was quickly flung over thebough of the oak.

  "Mercy! mercy!" cried the unhappy man, "I swear that I did not murderthe man. I have made my pile down at Bigbear Gully, and I'll give itall--every cent--if you will wait to have the matter examined. Stay,"he added, seeing that they paid no heed to him, "let me speak one word,before I die, with Mr Allfrey. I want to tell him where my gold lieshid."

  "It's a dodge," cried one of the executioners with a sneer, "but haveyour say out. It's the last you'll have a chance to say here, so looksharp about it."

  Frank went forward to the man, who was trembling, and very pale, andbegged those who held him to move off a few paces.

  "Oh! Mr Allfrey," said Bradling, "I am innocent of this; I _am_ anescaped convict, it is true, and I _did_ try to kill that man Dick, whohas given me provocation enough, God knows, but, as He shall be my judgeat last, I swear I did not commit _this_ murder. If you will cut thecords that bind my hands, you will prevent a cold-blooded murder beingcommitted now. You saved my life once before. Oh! save it again."

  The man said all this in a hurried whisper, but there was something sointensely earnest and truthful in his bearing that Frank, under a suddenand irresistible impulse, which he could not afterwards account for,drew his knife and cut the cords that bound him.

  Instantly Bradling bounded away like a hunted deer, overturning severalmen in his flight, and being followed by a perfect storm of bullets fromrifles and revolvers, until he had disappeared in the neighbouring wood.Then the miners turned with fury on Frank, but paused abruptly onseeing that he and Joe Graddy stood back to back, with a revolver ineach hand.

  Of course revolvers and rifles were instantly pointed at them, butfortunately the miners in their exasperation had discharged all theirfire-arms at Bradling--not a piece remained loaded!

  Several therefore commenced hurriedly to re-load, but Frank shouted, ina voice that there was no misunderstanding--

  "The first who attempts to load is a dead man!"

  This caused them to hesitate, for in those times men, when desperate,were wont to be more prompt to act than to threaten. Still, there weresome present who would have run the risk, and it is certain that ourhero and his friend would have then and there terminated their career,had not a backwoods hunter stepped forward and said:

  "Well now, ye air makin' a pretty noise 'bout nothin'! See here, I knowthat feller Bradling well. _He_ didn't kill the man. It was a Redskinas did it; I came up in time to see him do it, and killed the Redskinafore he could get away. In proof whereof here is his gun, an' you'llfind his carcase under the bank where the murder was committed, if ye'vea mind to look for it. But Bradling _is_ a murderer. I knows him ofold, an' so, although he's innocent of this partikler murder, I didn'tsee no occasion to try to prevent him gittin' his desarts. It's anothermatter, hows'ever, when you're goin' to scrag the men as let him off.If ye'll take the advice of an old hunter as knows a thing or two,you'll go to work on yer claims slick off, for the rains are comin' on,and they will pull ye up sharp, I guess. You'll make hay while the sunshines if you're wise."

  The opportune interference of this hunter saved Frank and Joe, who,after thanking their deliverer, were not slow to mount their mules andhasten back to Bigbear Gully, resolved more firmly than ever to wind uptheir affairs, and bid a final adieu to the diggings.