Fool's Gold

by Steve Stroble

he hightailed it out of Alabama and left his tribe in a hurry. He came up to Cherokee territory in Georgia. Took up with a Cherokee squaw and they had a daughter. Then two years later they passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830.”

  “How did you meet him?”

  “He was supplying deer meat to the miners in exchange for gold. We bought it from him every time he came around. We were all mighty sick of beans and flour. Things went fine for a spell. But after they moved the Choctaws over to Indian Territory in 1831, they went after the rest of them. Luckily they didn’t go after the Cherokees until 1838. They took the Seminoles, Creek, and Chickasaw before they got around to the Cherokees last of all.”

  “What happened to your Choctaw friend?”

  “Well he was a survivor, for the most part. When he heard that the Cherokees were the next to be moved he made a deal with me. He offered me half his gold if I would take him as far as Texas. He thought he and his wife and kid could pretend to be my slaves. I had the itch to be moving on anyways so I agreed.”

  “Didn’t the army stop you?”

  “More than once. But I had a lawyer fix up an official looking document saying that I had bought them fair and square. That cost me most of the gold he gave me to smuggle them out. At least it fooled all the soldiers.”

  “So they made it to Texas?”

  “Yeah. We all did. But then the parents both took sick and died. Lots of the injuns they marched off to Indian Territory died the same way from disease.”

  Thomas searched his memory of recent American history. “They called it The Trail of Tears?”

  “That’s right. Anyways, I took Little Hawk under my wing after her parents died. I gave her that name because she’s so feisty. She sure came in handy whenever I run into injuns on the way to California. She can speak Choctaw, Cherokee, and a couple other tribes’ tongues too. When she doesn’t know a language she gets by on sign language.”

  Thomas’ mind raced ahead to the only possible conclusion. “She’s the one you married? But she’s so much younger than you!”

  “Now don’t start getting evil thoughts. At least I waited until she was 17. I didn’t touch her until we got hitched either. One of the padres saw how I was all the time looking at her and told me we had best get married. Now, listen. They shoot injuns for sport here in California. I don’t need a drunk skunk of a miner shooting me or cutting me up with his knife because he hears how I married one.” McBride winked.

  “Do you have children with her?”

  “Yes, indeed. One that I’ve seen and another that I haven’t laid eyes on yet. That’s one more reason for me to go on back home.”

  Thomas felt his resolve melting away. Being a prospector for gold was totally different from the accounts he had read about a year earlier. However, his expectations of wealth were undergoing a slower death than his resolve. His only hope now lay in Rudolph. Perhaps their planned meeting on Christmas day would bring good news that the company from Elmira had hit a bonanza. Thomas was certain that Rudolph could help him join in their good fortune. McBride sensed his hesitation.

  “So this is where we part company, Thomas?” He closed the full suitcase. “I’ve cashed in the gold we found since you joined us last spring, minus what was spent of course. That plus what you got for the claim and equipment leaves each of us with $53.33.” McBride counted out Thomas’ share and handed it to him. He then reached for his doctor’s bag. “This room’s paid up until next week. You can have it. Before we go, let me listen to your lungs one last time.”

  He placed his stethoscope on Thomas’ back and ordered him to breathe deeply. After listening intently for a moment, he gave Thomas a final warning.

  “Your lungs aren’t real bad but they sound like they’re still struggling a wee bit. There’s a chance you’ve had pneumonia or maybe you’re still carrying it.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A disease that can kill you if you aren’t careful. Any work you do this winter has to be done inside out of the rain and cold so you can heal up fully.” The doctor wagged his finger. “It’d be best if you came along with Mr. Yee and me to Los Angeles. The climate there is warm and dry. That’s what you need to recuperate properly.”

  Yee had finished dressing and packing his suitcase.

  “But you said the gold is gone from the mountains there.”

  McBride sighed as he put the stethoscope away and stood up. “Thomas, don’t be a fool like me. I’ve spent almost half my life looking for gold. Go back to furniture making and farming. You won’t be rich but you can still be happy. I have met very few rich people who are happy. I know the rancho owners around Los Angeles. If you, Mr. Yee, and I go in together we could buy a chunk of land from them. You could bring your family out here. Mr. Yee can cook for us. You can farm and make furniture. I can doctor. We’d get by. The rancho owners have money. They’d buy your furniture.”

  Unwilling to commit himself before talking to Rudolph, Thomas begged off. “I appreciate your kindness.” He grabbed McBride’s hand and shook it, then Yee’s. “I will think on it, as you Americans say. You have so many funny sayings in English.”

  “Mr. Yee, you mind going on downstairs and ordering us a late breakfast?” He handed Yee a couple of dollars. “Can’t be traveling on an empty stomach, you know.”

  Having ingested nothing but opium smoke and that morning’s coffee during the last three days, Yee readily agreed. McBride waited until he could no longer hear Yee’s footsteps going down the hotel’s third floor corridor.

  “Sorry to be pulling out of here so quick, Tommy. But the sooner I get Mr. Yee away from Sacramento and its opium dens the better off he’ll be.”

  “There aren’t any opium dens in Los Angeles?”

  “Only one that I knew of when I left. But that’s been a while ago. Los Angeles is more like a sleepy little town than a city. There’s hardly any people down there compared to Sacramento.”

  “How will you get there?”

  McBride stood and grabbed the handle of his suitcase. “We’ll catch one of the riverboats from here down to San Francisco. Then we’ll hop aboard a ship headed to Central or South America to pick up any Argonauts headed up here. Most all of the boats stop off in Los Angeles.” McBride tipped his hat as the door shut behind him.

  Thomas felt completely well within three days. He spent the next five weeks working odd jobs around Sacramento as he pined for Christmas and his long-awaited reunion with Rudolph. His favorite employment was sweeping and cleaning buildings or tents with wooden floors. Yee had done such work until he read of his would-be bride’s fate. He had told Thomas to dump all of the dirt swept up from the floors into his backpack and to take it back to the hotel room where he could use the wash basin to sift through the dirt for gold. Usually gold dust or flakes would be recovered.

  With thousands of transient miners in Sacramento using their gold to buy everything they desired or showing it off to brag about, invariably part of it ended up on the floors of saloons, hotels, stores, gambling dens, or theaters. Yee had said that the best time to sweep was after a brawl because during the fight the gold would often spill from pouches or card tables where it had been placed as bets. Thomas had even swept up small nuggets after lengthier fights that had involved more than two customers. Gradually proprietors of the businesses caught on and started to sweep the floors themselves.

  Christmas day arrived at last. Dressed in a recently purchased secondhand suit, Thomas sauntered over to the appointed hotel to meet Rudolph. He barely recognized the muscular, gaunt, and bearded man who approached him in the lobby. At first Thomas believed him to be a stranger, another miner perhaps.

  “Mein Kumpel!” Rudolph yelled the German for “my friend” as he came toward him.

  “Rudolph? Is that really you?”

  Rudolph grabbed Thomas’ hand and shook it as if he were pumping a well’s handle. “Don’t you remember me? Has gold fever ruined your mind?” He reverted to English.

  Thomas grinned. �
�But you look so different.”

  Indeed he did. Gone was almost 30 pounds of fat that he once had carried, replaced by 25 pounds of hard muscle. The thousands of miles he had traveled by foot to get to California had transformed him, mentally and emotionally as well as physically. While Thomas had been more dominant in their relationship back East, it was Rudolph who now took command as he steered his friend toward the dining room and ordered two steaks and baked potatoes.

  “Steak?’ Thomas’ eyes grew wide. “You have become rich then? Can I join your company? I’ve lost my mining partners. I can’t wait to join you. Where is your claim?”

  Rudolph grabbed his glass of beer off of the tray before the waiter could place it on the table. He raised it in a toast as the waiter set another glass in front of Thomas. Two huge gulps later Rudolph’s beer was gone. Thomas ignored his brew and waited for an answer.

  “Rich? Ha! I’m lucky to be alive!”

  Thomas ate his dinner in silence as Rudolph detailed his months’ long journey from Elmira by stage, rail, riverboat, horseback, and foot first across the Midwest and then plains, mountains, deserts, and too many rivers, streams, and creeks to recall all of them. Instead of dessert Rudolph ordered two more beers. Anxious to know how he had fared in his quest for gold, Thomas interrupted Rudolph’s saga at the point in which the company was cresting the Sierra.

  “But what happened