CHAPTER XXIII.
GOOD LUCK AND BAD.
As the captain wanted to save every grain of gold in the pan, he washedvery carefully, and it was fully five minutes before the last of thesand and dirt was disposed of and they could come to a calculation as tothe value of the yellow metal left.
For gold there was, true enough, shining brightly before their eyes--andthere was more than this, too, for some of it was of a blackish color.The others could not believe in the value of this until Foster Portneyassured them that he had frequently heard of black gold being turned upin the Yukon district.
"Half an ounce at least," was the verdict arrived at by both the captainand Mr. Portney; "and that's eight dollars."
"Then we had better stay, hadn't we?" said Earl.
"Why, of course, Earl; you didn't expect to do much better than that,unless you struck nuggets."
"One fellow over to Gold Bottom said he was taking out a hundred dollarsto the panful," put in Randy.
"Fairy stories, my lad," answered the captain. "A claim as will turnout eight dollars to the pan is mighty good--as good as I'm a-lookin'fer just now."
"And we haven't gone very far into this gulch," put in the doctor. "Itmay be better further up."
"And it may be worse," said Foster Portney, "although I'm inclined tothink it will be better. We had best stake out our claims withoutdelay."
This was readily agreed to, and before they went back to the tents theyhad staked out three claims, one for each of the men. Earl might havetaken up a claim, too, being just old enough, but the three covered allthe ground which the party thought of any account. Each claim was fivehundred feet long and the upper one covered both gulches, which was anexcellent thing, as it would give them a fair amount of water by whichto do their washing. The posts firmly planted and marked, they walkedslowly back to camp, talking over the prospects and mapping out theirfuture work.
It was decided to move the tents to a more convenient locality, and aspot was readily found at a point above where the two gulches joined, orrather where the one gulch split into two. The transfer to this newhome-spot was made the next day by Earl, Randy, and the doctor, Mr.Portney and the captain going back to uncover several other portions ofthe claims, to ascertain, if possible, just what their values might be.
The next week was a busy one. The camp removed and put into comfortableshape, the next work was to dam up the gulch where the pocket had beenfound, so that all the water might flow through Mosquito Hollow, as thedoctor had facetiously dubbed the new diggings,--a name that stuck toit. This work was done by Randy and Dr. Barwaithe, while Earl joined thecaptain and his uncle in burning down the brush and getting rid of thetundra.
Before turning the water from Prosper Gulch into Mosquito Hollow, FosterPortney advised sinking several holes along the latter gulch, that anygold washed along by the flow would be caught. The captain put thesedown, and then came the long labor of cleaning the sand and dirt fromthe bedrock below. As it would have taken all summer to clean out theentire bottom of the gulch, only the deeper part was attacked and here arunway for the water was made, a foot to two feet wide.
The water had just been turned along Mosquito Hollow and washing begunwhen a party of prospectors from Forty Mile Post came along and espiedthe claims. They at once wished to know the particulars of the findmade, and, assured that there was gold there, one of the men lost notime in putting up his stakes below them, while two others went above.Inside of a week after this the Hollow boasted of eight claims, and alittle settlement sprung up at the Fork, as the miners named the spotwhere the Portney crowd had located.
"We'll have a town here before the summer is over," said Earl; but hewas not sorry to have company, especially as the newcomers were allhail-fellows-well-met and apparently honest to the core. Among them wasa young lawyer from Dakota, and he and Dr. Barwaithe soon became thewarmest of friends.
The short Alaska summer was now reaching its height, and flowers andberries were growing everywhere in the wildest profusion, while duringthe middle of the day the sun beat down so fiercely that they were oftencompelled to seek the shade for hours at a time.
"My gracious, the Hollow is like a pepper box!" said Randy one day, ashe came into camp with his shirt wet through with perspiration. "Not abreath of air stirring."
"And the hotter it is, the worse the flies are," added Earl. "I declare,they seem to bother me more than even the mosquitoes."
Usually it cooled off toward seven or eight o'clock, even though the sunstill shone well up in the sky, but this night proved as warm as the dayhad been, and most of the party went to sleep outdoors, unable to standit inside of the close tents. Outside, they had to wind their heads andnecks in mosquito netting and cover up their hands, to keep from beingpestered to death. It was the most uncomfortable twenty-four hours theyhad yet put in.
"The old Harry take Alaska!" burst out Dr. Barwaithe, finally. Onemosquito had alighted on his nose, and two others on his neck. "It'sworth all the gold you can get, and more, too, to stand these impudentpests. Oh!" And making half a dozen wild slashes he finally scrambled upand ran around the tents to throw his tormentors off.
The captain was suffering from a slight attack of scurvy, brought on byeating so much salt food. The doctor had given him some medicine, butthis did little good, and the captain was getting into a bad way whenone of the old miners, who had just come in, came to his aid.
"Eat tomatoes, cap'n," he said. "Best thing on airth fer scurvy. BillWatson wuz down with it wust way an' nuthin' helped him but tomatoes. Heeat 'most a bushel o' 'em, an' they made a new man o' him. Eattomatoes."
"Tomatoes may be very good," said the doctor. "They are a very strong,green vegetable, you know. You might try them."
And the captain did try them, first using up some of the cans broughtalong, and then buying a quart of fresh tomatoes at Dawson City, for twodollars. Sure enough, the tomatoes helped wonderfully, and about a weeklater the scurvy left him.
Nearly a month had now passed since the party had located at MosquitoHollow, and in that time they had taken out three small nuggets worthprobably fifty dollars apiece, and a little short of a hundred andfifty ounces of gold dust. Counting the gold dust as worth sixteendollars an ounce, this gave them, in round figures, twenty-five hundreddollars for their labor.
"Twenty-five hundred dollars!" said Earl. "That's a good deal more thanwe could earn at home."
Captain Zoss gave a deep sigh and shook his head. "I ain't satisfied,"he said. "I didn't come up to Alaska to work fer no five hundred amonth. I'm goin' elsewhar fer luck."
"You won't stay here?" asked Randy, quickly. He had begun to like thecaptain very much.
"No, lad; I'm yere to make a fortune or nuthin'. I quit the hollowter-morrow."
"Well, you have that right, captain, although I'm sorry to see you go,"said Foster Portney.
"Which means thet you an' the boys stay," answered the captain, quickly."I'm sorry ye won't go with me. I want ter try Hunker Creek."
"I think I'll stay," said Foster Portney, quietly. "I'll give the gulcha few weeks longer, for the way I look at it we're making wages and havethe chance to make a strike. What do you say, boys?"
Randy was in for following the captain, but a look from Earl made himchange the words on the end of his tongue. "I'll do as you think best,Uncle Foster."
"And so will I," said Earl.
Then they looked at the doctor, who was kicking the toe of his bootagainst the tent pole in speculative way. It was several seconds beforethe medical man spoke.
"I--I think I'll go with the captain," he said finally. "Not but that Ihate to part company," he added hastily. "But I came up here to make abig hit, and if I wanted to work for what we've been making here, Icould get it easier by going into Dawson City and hanging out myshingle--you all know that. I hope we part the best of friends."
"We will," said Foster Portney. "We'll divide our gold as per agreement,and also the outfits."
"And I'll give you m
y share of this gulch free," said the captain, andthe doctor said the same.
Of this, however, Foster Portney would not hear. He insisted on payingeach of them a hundred dollars, and drawing up regular papers, whichwere signed in the presence of two of the outside miners. On the dayfollowing the doctor and the captain packed up their traps, hired fourIndians to help them, and set off, first however, giving Mr. Portney andeach of the boys a hearty handshake. In a few minutes they were out ofsight.
"And now to work the Hollow for all it is worth," said Foster Portney,when they were left alone. "And remember, from henceforth, whatever weturn up belongs to us and to nobody else."
To Alaska for Gold; Or, The Fortune Hunters of the Yukon Page 26