The Wedge of Gold

by C. C. Goodwin

  CHAPTER XIX.

  THE WEDGE OF GOLD.

  The voyagers were glad enough to stand once more on the solid earth. Ithad been twenty-one days since they had left London.

  Quickly as they could they made arrangements for a journey inland. Theychartered conveyances to go to the end of the road and sent forward tothe capital to charter a train of riding and pack animals, with a fullcorps of attendants, to meet them where they had to take the trail. Theyemployed, moreover, a civil engineer and a half-dozen frontiersmen, Boersand Kaffirs, who knew the country well.

  Studying their maps and the description supplied them by the former ownerof the mine, they calculated the mine was distant some 250 miles, andthat it would require some thirty-five days to make the examination andreturn to D'Umber, the town on Port Natal Roadstead.

  Sedgwick had written daily to his bride, sending the letters from everyport called at.

  Now he wrote her that it would probably be forty days before he couldforward her another letter.

  When everything was ready they started on their trip. The men were allBoers and Kaffirs, except the engineer; all strong, good-natured men, butthe least bit suspicious of their employers. They had come in an Englishship, wore English clothing, and if their English accent was not quite upto the standard the natives could not make the distinction.

  They examined Jordan's saddle with a great deal of curiosity, as it was,with the rest of the luggage, put upon the wagon. One of them, in brokenEnglish, asked about it; where in England he found it.

  He laughingly answered that they could not make any such saddle inEngland; that it was a Mexican saddle. Then the Boer wanted to know if hewere a Mexican.

  "Not by a blamed sight," said Jordan. "Do I look like er greaser?"

  The Boer looked at him helplessly.

  "Did you never har of ther United States?" asked Jordan.

  The Boer shook his head. "Never har of America and Americans?" Jordanasked.

  The Boer smiled. He had heard of Americans, and asked eagerly if Jordanand his friend came from America.

  "Yo' may bet yo'r everlastin' broken Dutch diaphram that we did," saidJordan, at which the Boer hurried to tell his companions that the twostrangers were not English, notwithstanding their clothing.

  The first eight days of the journey, the travelers found excellent roads,and averaged twenty-seven miles a day. They did not go by the capital,but turned off to the left.

  The first day the road lay mostly over the coast mountains. Toward nightthey entered upon the table-lands of Natal, which were generally level,except where, here and there, a low mountain spur had to be crossed. Itwas a grassy country, sparsely dotted with palms, with here and theretimber in sight up ravines that ran down from the hills, and occasionallythey ran upon clusters of heath-flowers. Indeed, the whole country wascovered with flowers of rare beauty, but mostly odorless. It was all newand strange, and was noted with keen interest by the two Americans. Itwas the rainy season, and the road was soft in places, and some of thestreams were pretty high. But they got along without serious trouble. Onehad been in Nevada, the other in Arizona, and both in Texas.

  The first night they camped by a little stream, ate their supper, andspread their beds by some willows on the grass. It was a perfectly calmnight, and in that clear air the stars shone magnificently.

  As they were smoking their pipes after supper Sedgwick pointed out toJordan the constellation of the Southern Cross as a sight which theirfriends in the North-land could never see unless they crossed theequator.

  Jordan looked at the stars some time in silence, and then said: "Themstars is been shinin' thar allus, and yit, Jim, they wuz outer sight o'us. To see 'em we had ter cross ther line. Who can tell, Jim, what newstars'll shine on us when thet other line, thet men call death, shall becrossed, and our eyes shall be given ther new light beyond?"

  He paused a moment, and then went on: "I'z been prospered. When I war aboy I went to ther wah. I war in many a fight. Men as loved life mightilywuz killed all 'round me; many another brave feller tuk sick and died.Not a scratch cum ter me.

  "I made er stake easy-like in ther mines. I've dun well 'nuff; and yit,Jim, if thar should cum ther summons ter-night, and I knowd I'd got tergo, I wouldn't hev a sorrer 'cept thet we haven't passed on ther mineyit."

  Then Sedgwick realized that in the selfishness of his own loneliness atleaving his bride, he had forgotten his friend, and that he had all thetime been concealing a deeper grief and trying to cheer him.

  "Dear old Tom," he said humbly. "I have been absorbed and selfish sincewe left England. I did not realize my own selfishness. We have found newstars in the sky. Let us trust that no sorrows will come to us that willnot be cheered by stars behind them, and let us nurse the hope that thisjourney is but a discord in our lives that will make the music of themsweeter when it shall be passed."

  "Shore enuff," was Jordan's answer. "I war once down at the bottom ofther Colorado Canon. It war terrible. I never seen a place so desolateand wild; but, Jim, I looked up along the walls hundreds of feetoverhead, and thar in ther daylight, away off in ther infinite sky,some stars war shinin'."

  So there, in the starlight, on that lonely table-land in South Africa,the two true men clasped hands in silence, and their hearts drew nearerto each other than they had ever been drawn before.

  The second day, the road in places skirted a forest in which the yellowtree and the great beech were the most prominent trees, creepers grewaround them, and vines trailed over their branches; marvelously tintedflowers mingled with them, and the scene was enchanting.

  More than once a band of antelope was seen scudding away in the distance;here and there a zebra fled from before them, and once a pair of giraffeswere discerned afar off over the plain. Though it was the beginning ofwinter, the tsetse fly bothered their stock a good deal, but the Boerscut branches from the trees and covered the animals with them when thesun was hottest and the insects most troublesome.

  After the fourth day the road began to ascend, and at last the point wasreached where the vehicles had to be given up, and the saddle and packanimals from the capital had to be brought into use. The real hills hadbeen reached. The trail ran over a succession of sharp mountain ridges,and narrow valleys. It was not a well-made trail on the ridges, and theflanks of the ridges were so abrupt and rocky that progress was veryslow; moreover, it was clear that to build a road on the line of thetrail, over which heavy loads could be hauled, would be a most expensive,almost impossible, undertaking.

  It required three days to make the trip of forty miles.

  Finally, though, the last summit was crossed, and after a heavy descent,there spread out another valley, and on a ridge beyond, from the mountainside, could be seen something like a dump, with rock piled upon it. Thetwo friends recognized the spot at the same moment and stopped theiranimals in the trail to take in the surroundings. They estimated that themountains must be a spur of the Drakenberg Range, that they were withinthe basin drained by the head waters of the Vaal River, and that theywere in the Southwestern Transvaal. The mountains of that point had ageneral course northeast and southwest, and it was clear that the minewas practically over the range in approaching from the direction of PortNatal.

  "It's all right," said Jordan, "'cept it seems to me like we orter uv cumdown on ther other side of Africa, and cum in from ther West. From thisway it would need a pack train of bald eagles ter bring in supplies,while ter get a mill in--Good Lord!"

  "I fear you are right, as usual, Tom," said Sedgwick, "but if, as Isuspect, the mine is of no account, it will not matter much."

  "'Zactly," said Jordan. "Thar's no use tryin' ter put up collateral onwhich ter borrer trouble 'fore we know anythin' 'bout ther mine."

  So they pressed on and made their camp that night near a great springthat the miners had lived by while opening the mine. Next morning bothAmericans were up early, and, the breakfast disposed of, they went to themine with buckets of water and hammers.

  They kept
their natives pounding rock all day, while they washed thesamples. They took the ore from every part of the dump. The result wasmost satisfactory. "It will assay more than $30," said Jordan. "I believeit will work up to $30 by mill process, for it's perfectly free gold oreand not too fine."

  The next day the inclines were all explored, and samples taken, step bystep--taken and marked, as they proceeded. The ore body where practicallyexposed was carefully measured, and where any change was discernible itwas noted and special samples taken. The floor of the lowest levelreached was not only sampled, but a hole a couple of feet below thelowest excavation was dug, and the samples were saved.

  The vein was a contact between slate and granite, and was very regular insize, and apparently in quality. The vein was exposed for probably 600feet, and thence up the hill it was covered with debris. It was almostnight when the camp was reached, and the men were very tired.

  Next morning the samples taken the previous day were crushed andcarefully washed.

  When all was finished, Jordan said: "Jim, it's a honest mine. Ther onlydrawback is ther place. I've no idee what er road would cost, but itwould take a power o' money, sho."

  It was decided to try to explore the slope of the range they were on, upand down, to see if a break in it could not somewhere be found. Theytried it to the north, and soon found themselves in a mighty gorge, withgreat mountains closing them in from every direction except the one fromwhich they had come. They returned to camp, and one more day was gone.The next morning they started early to the south, and toiled until eleveno'clock, to find themselves once more ambuscaded by the precipitoushills. Again they made their way back to camp, without comfort, exceptthat they had passed through a great forest of beech and yellow woodsufficient for fuel and mine timbers for years.

  Next morning when they had finished breakfast, Sedgwick asked Jordan whathis idea was by that time as to the best course to proceed.

  Jordan shook his head, and said: "I'm afeerd we must try to build therroad or invent a berloon."

  From the spring there ran a considerable stream off at right angles fromthe mine, and in exactly the opposite direction from whence they hadcome.

  Sedgwick said: "Tom, that stream, unless it sinks, finds its way to thesea after awhile. We are in for it; a day or two more will not count.Suppose for awhile we follow that stream and see where it leads us."

  "Agreed--a good idee," said Jordan. Taking with them two Boers, theengineer, and a pack animal with food and some blankets, they bade therest keep the camp, as they might be absent two or three days. Theystarted down the stream. It flowed in a general course to the west. Aftera mile or more from the camp, the banks widened out into a wooded valley,several hundred yards across, but when six or seven miles had beentraveled the valley narrowed down again, and the mountains closing in,made what, at a little distance, seemed a solid wall in front. "Headedoff once more, I fear," said Sedgwick.

  "The stream keeps up a full head. It must git through ther hillssomewhar," said Jordan.

  "True enough," said Sedgwick. They followed it to the very base of thehill, to find that there it made a bend at right angles to the south andflowed through a cleft of the mountain not much wider than the streamitself. Into this they entered, and pursued their way for about 600yards, when the stream again turned through another mighty fissure to thewest, and ran a quarter of a mile farther, when another large valleyopened out which was some five miles across. In this valley the streamsank in the sands and was lost. The travelers skirted the valley, keepingclose to the hills where the ground was hard. Reaching the other sidethey found a narrow opening through which the stream had once flowed.They followed a winding way for two or three miles, the chasm bearing alittle west of south, emerging at last into an open country. A fringe ofwillows was seen low on the southern horizon. The Boers said they knewthe stream, the course of which was marked by the willows; that it was abig creek, along which their people had stock farms. They marked theobscure opening through which they had traced their way out of themountains and started for the creek and possible ranches. The Boers saidthat farmers' roads ran from these ranches out to the main road over therange to the east, the road which they had come up on from Port Natal.They pressed on another seven or eight miles, and a rude house, halfdug-out, came in view, distant a couple of miles.

  They approached it, and from the people living there the Boers learnedthat it was seventeen miles out to the main road, over a good farmers'road all the way. They camped at the house, or near the house, all night.One of the residents brought in a fine young antelope, which they boughtand cooked, and they suppered royally on antelope, hard tack and coffee.Next morning they returned to the mine, reaching there early in theafternoon. They had been out from Port Natal seventeen days, had foundand sampled the mine, and explored a natural pass for a road.

  How to proceed was the next question. Sedgwick's idea was that bothshould return to the seashore, proceed to England, and order a mill fromSan Francisco, because they knew that there were no good patterns forquartz mill machinery on the continent; and both agreed that should themill be built in England and shipped thence to South Africa, the factwould be published and all their plans would be interfered with.

  Jordan was silent for awhile; at last he said: "Jim, I ken understandthet ther thot uv goin' back ter London ez mighty enchantin' ter yo'. Butthet's a game girl, thet thar young wife o' yourn; she listed fo' thiswah ez well ez yo,' er she'd never let yo' cum away. Yo' must go by therstraightest track fer San Francisco and bring ther mill. I'll stay andhev some rock ready for crushin' when ther mill cums."

  "But, dear old friend," said Sedgwick, "it will take a year, perhaps, toget a mill here from San Francisco. To leave you here--you would die ofthe horrors with no company but these Boers."

  "How d' yer know but I'd make a pretty good Boer or Kaffir my own selfwith er little practice?" asked Jordan. "We'll stay over ter-morrer andgit some work goin'; then I'll go with yer ter the coast and get some menand things I need. I'll cum back; you'll go ter Frisco, and everything'llbe lovely."

  "No," said Sedgwick, "you go to San Francisco, and I will stay and workthe mine. It was I who proposed this thing; of right I should meet theheaviest sacrifices." But Jordan was obstinate, declaring that he wouldenjoy himself at the mine, and after a long discussion his programme wasagreed to. In the morning Jordan took the engineer and three nativesto the top of the hill, where the mine was covered with debris; walkedalong to where the mountain, as it sloped to the west, was very abrupt,and there set the Boers to making an open surface cut.

  They went to work, and Jordan and the engineer went to measuring to seewhere, down the hill, a tunnel would have to be started to tap the lode500 feet deep. It was so sharp a hillside that the tunnel site would beonly 1,260 feet horizontally from a point 500 feet below the open cut.Jordan engaged the engineer to remain with all the men who would stay,and begin that work if the indications on the hill would justify, andalso to build a rude stone house at the spring, large enough toaccommodate a dozen people.

  Then they climbed the hill again and found the croppings of the ledgeuncovered in the cut. Being tested, these croppings were found richerthan the ore on the dump lower down, where the vein had been opened.

  Next morning, with two saddle animals, one pack animal and one Boer toride another horse and lead the pack horse, the two Americans startedback for Port Natal. They followed over the route they had traced out twodays before to the ranch, then took a road traveled by the stockmen, andon the second night from the mine came to a house on the main road toPort Natal, which was six or seven miles nearer their destination thanthe point where they had left the road and taken the trail for the mine.

  They hired a Boer to go up and bring back their wagons. They came nextmorning. The best rig was selected, and the two friends started for theseashore. In eight days they were back at Port Natal, having made theround trip in twenty-eight or twenty-nine days. On arriving at theseashore they found that no steamer was in port bou
nd North, but therewas a fine steamer in the roadstead that was to sail next day forMelbourne, Australia.

  Sedgwick's plan had been to go back to London, take his wife and gothence, via New York, to San Francisco. But no ship was awaiting him, andthe agent of the Northern Line did not know when a ship would sail. Itwould have to come first, and might return soon, or might lie in portfifteen or twenty days. So, talking the matter over with Jordan, bothconcluded that the best thing was to try the voyage via Australia. AgainSedgwick begged Jordan to go, yet he kindly, but firmly refused, saying,"I must hev my way this time, Jim."

  Accordingly, Sedgwick engaged passage to Melbourne, then wrote his wifewhat they had found; that he had decided it was best to go by Australiato San Francisco; that, if prosperous, he hoped to reach that port inforty-eight or fifty days; that he would be detained there probably sixtydays, and would then return to Africa via England, hoping to be with herin one hundred and twenty days, and to be able to remain with her for amonth.

  Jordan found six English miners and engaged them to go with him, boughtas full an outfit as possible, through a trader ordered more, including aportable saw-mill from England, made an arrangement with Sedgwick how tosend and receive news, and the two tired men lay down to take their lastnight's rest together for, as they calculated, at least six or sevenmonths, perhaps a full year.

  It was a memorable night to both, and the confidences they exchanged andthe sacred trusts they each assumed, they never forgot.

  In the morning Jordan started back for the mountains and their solitudes;Sedgwick boarded the steamer, which later in the day started on itsvoyage, and the sea for Sedgwick was a counterpart of the solitude whichthe mountains held for Jordan, except that at Port Natal he had receivedfrom his Grace the greetings which her soul had given his soul throughthe mornings and evenings of the first twenty days of her married life.They were to be his balm through all the days of his imprisonment onboard ship, and he felt that they would be sufficient. But it grievedhim to think that poor, brave, sorrowing, but cheerful and clear-brainedJordan had no such comforters.

  "It is very lonely, my glorified one," she wrote; "the roar of the greatcity seems to me an echo of the voice of the ocean, of the wildernessthat surrounds you; but I would not have it different, for I kept sayingto myself: 'He is doing his duty, and beyond the horizon that bounds oureyes now, I know that higher joy awaits us which comes of a consciousnessof a great trust bravely executed.' Be of good cheer, my love; it will beall right in the end, for the heavens themselves bend to be the stay ofsteadfast souls when with a holy patience they struggle for the right, asGod gives them to see the right.

  "I will wait for you, and in thinking what you have undertaken, and ofthe persistence required to carry your work through, will try to catchyour own grand spirit, try to exalt myself by imitating your patienceand faith, and thus be more worthy of you when once more it is given meto clasp your dear hands, and to gaze into your true eyes, which are mylight."

  As Sedgwick read, his eyes became suffused until he could not see thepage before him because of his tears.

  "See," he said to himself; "a man's love is selfish; it is a woman's lifeand light, and yet my beautiful wife loses sight of herself, and all herwords are but an inspiration for me to go on and conquer if I can. ThankGod for the treasure that has been given me! And may God comfort her andcomfort brave and true Jordan!"