CHAPTER IV
THE TRAIL GROWS LONESOME
Fort Riley was fifteen miles west. Progress was slow, on the crowdedroad, and at six o'clock the "Pike's Peak Limited" was glad to drawaside out of the dust and camp for the night near to a wagon labeled"Litening Express." The owner was a heavy, round-faced German, with afamily of buxom wife, and of six girls ranging from big to little. Hehad a chicken coop, a large cook stove set up for the evening meal, afeather mattress, and an enormous bale of gunny-sacks that formed a seatfor him while he watched the supper-getting.
Harry and Terry called easy greeting, and pretty soon he strolled over.
"Iss dat a wild boof'lo?" he queried.
"He was wild once, but he's tame now."
"You are de boys who made dot man loose his whiskey, mebbe."
"I guess we are," laughed Harry. It was astonishing, the speed withwhich news traveled among the overlanders.
"Dot was a goot t'ing. How far you say to dose gold mines, already?"
"'Bout six hundred miles. What are you doing with all those sacks?"
"I t'ink I poot my gold in dem, an' bring it back home."
"That'll be quite a load, won't it?" smiled Harry. "You know gold weighsmighty heavy."
"I haf a goot team," replied the German, not at all worried. "I fill mysacks, an' poot dem in my wagon, an' I come home in time for winter, an'den I am rich. I will be one of de richest men in Illinois. Mebbe nextyear I do it over."
"A very fine plan," remarked Harry, gravely. And the German returned tohis own fire, much satisfied.
"Jiminy! Is that the way?" blurted Terry, suddenly excited again. "Weought to've brought sacks."
"We've a sack of oats and a sack of flour, and I wouldn't trade 'em forhis sacks of gold--yet," retorted Harry.
This night the flickering camp-fires of the other gold-seekers twinkledall along the road. Fiddles were tuned up, to play "Monkey Musk," "MyOld Kentucky Home," "Yankee Doodle," and other tunes, and voices joinedin. What with the playing and singing, the barking of dogs and thenoises from cattle, sleep was difficult except for persons as tired aswere the "boys from the Big Blue."
At Fort Riley, which was a new army post, with massive stone buildings,near the juncture of the Smoky Hill River from the west and theRepublican River from the north, here forming the Kansas River, thenumber of outfits lessened. Some struck north, some took a short cutsouth for the Santa Fe Trail at the Arkansas River.
At Junction City, beyond, the last of the white settlements, the routeof the remaining "Pike's Peak Pilgrims" again split. The main portion ofthe travelers seemed to favor the new trail straight westward, up alongthe Smoky Hill River, and on they toiled, to "get rich in a hurry." Itwas the common report that the Smoky Hill River could be followed clearto the mountains, but this, as Harry and Terry afterward heard, proveduntrue.
Another portion turned off southward, for the Santa Fe Trail again. Agood government road led down to it. Only a few had decided uponattempting the newest trail of all: that to the northwest, for theRepublican by way of the divide between the Solomon River on the leftand the Republican, far on the right.
"We're on our way," tersely remarked Harry, as the "Pike's Peak Limited"left Junction City for the unknown. "It's liable to be lonesome, tillthe stages come."
However, several wagons had preceded; and this first night camp was madeat a creek, and close to another party also camped.
"Whar you boys from?" That was the first question.
"Do you calkilate to get thar with a buffalo and a yaller mule?" Thatwas the second question.
"How'll you swap dogs?" That was the third question.
And--"Do you figger on diggin' out your pound of gold a day?" was thefourth question. For Eastern papers had asserted that this was theregular output of the Pike's Peak country: a pound of gold a day to eachminer!
"Half a pound a day will suit us," responded Harry.
"Dearie me!" sighed the woman--a nice, motherly woman, the sight of whomimbued Terry with a little sense of homesickness. "We all count on apound a day for one hundred days, so as to buy a farm back in Missouri.Maybe, if the children and I dig, we can raise it to two pounds a day.That'll be two hundred pounds, which is a right smart amount of money."
Junction City having been put behind, now there was not even a cabin tobe seen. The high plain between the valley of the Solomon on the southand the valley of the Republican on the north stretched wide andunoccupied save by the squads of antelope, the scant trees marking thecreek courses, and the scattered white-canvased wagons ambling on.
It was a go-as-you-please march. Outfits wandered aside, seeking bettertrail or better camping-spot. Occasionally one had broken down, and washalted for repairs or rest. Already the chosen route was dotted withcast-off articles, abandoned to lighten the loads. Bedsteads, trunks,mattresses, chairs--and Harry, pointing, cried:
"There's the 'Lightning Express' stove!"
For the German's heavy cook-stove reposed, by itself, on theprairie--and odd enough it looked, too.
"Wish we'd come to his feather tick, some evening," quoth Terry.
Fuel, even buffalo chips (which were the dried deposits left by thebuffalo, and burned hotly) were scarce. The "Limited" aimed to camp eachevening at a creek, if possible, where trees might be found; but most ofthe dead wood had been used by other travelers, or by Indians, and thegreen willow and ash smudged. The sage and greasewood burned well, butburned out very quickly.
Duke and Jenny footed steadily, making their twelve and fifteen miles aday, up and down, into draws and out again, and the "Limited" seemed tobe gradually forging ahead. For a time, each night camp might beestablished (a very simple matter) in company with other pilgrims; andthe spectacle of the half-buffalo and the yellow mule pulling in, oralready waiting, invariably excited the one conversation.
"How far to Pike's Peak, strangers?"
"Five hundred miles or so, yet, I guess," would answer Harry, politely.
"It's an awful long trail, this way, ain't it? How far to theRepublican?"
"That I can't say."
Then the outfits would exchange travel notes and personal history.
But the trail was petering out, as Harry expressed, more and more, asthe creeks were being headed, and anxious gold-seekers swerved asidelooking for the Republican Valley and better water.
About noon one day a giant, solitary tree waited before. Severalwagon-tracks led for it, and Duke and Jenny followed of their ownaccord. It was a big cottonwood, with half the bark stripped from itstrunk by lightning.
"A store of good wood, there," remarked Harry. "Wonder why nobody'schopped it down."
"It's got a sign on it," exclaimed Terry. "See?" And--"'Pike's Peak PostOffice,'" he read, aloud.
The sign was plain; and presently the reason of the sign was plain. Onthe white surface of the peeled trunk was scrawled a number of names andother words.
"Pike's Peak or Bust!"
Underneath: "Busted! No wood, no water, no gold. Boston Party."
Also:
"Keep to the north."
"Climb this tree and you won't see anything."
"The jumping-off place."
"The Peoria wagon. All well."
"Bound for the Peak, are you?"
"'Litening Express'!" announced Harry. "Our German friend is stillahead."
"'Mr. Ike Chubbers'!" spelled out Terry, with difficulty. "Aw, shucks!He's this far already."
"Yes, and there he went!" laughed Harry, gleefully. "Those are sure histracks. He's sampling his barrel."
And by token of a weaving, wobbling, sort of drunken pair of wagon-wheeltracks that made a wide swing for the north, Pine Knot Ike evidently hadcontinued in a new direction.
"He's hunting the Republican," agreed Terry. "Hope we don't run intohim."
"Nope," declared Harry. "Once is enough. Hurrah!" he uttered. And heread: "'Stage line here. Sol Judy.'"
"That's so." And Terry peered. "But I don't see the line. Wonder which
way he went. There's a double arrow, pointing both ways. Wonder if it'shis. Wonder when he wrote here. If somebody hadn't written on top of himwith charcoal, a fellow might tell."
"Anyway, we won't turn off yet," declared Harry. "And if we stand here'wondering' we won't get anywhere at all. He said to keep northwest bythe high ground. Maybe that wagon track ahead is the Lightning Express.We'll keep going. Gwan, Duke! Jenny!"
"Sort of wish we'd gone by the Smoky Hill, don't you?" ventured Terry."We'd had more company."
"When we strike the Republican we'll find plenty company," assertedHarry. "This _is_ getting rather lonesome, I must confess."
Not a moving object was in sight. The "Pike's Peak Post Office" treestood here all by itself, as if waiting for the stages. And yet, Terrywell knew (unless the sights at Manhattan had been a dream), north andsouth of them thousands of people were trooping, trooping westward inlong, human rivers of creaking wagons.
He and Harry gave a last look behind and on either side, searching thebrushy expanse for other outfits; then they left the friendly cottonwoodand headed westward again, in the tracks of the wagon before. Butsuddenly Harry stopped.
"Pshaw! We forgot." And he limped hastily back to the tree. With hispencil he wrote on it. Of course! Terry returned to see.
"The Pike's Peak Limited. April 20, 1859. All well," announced thislatest inscription.
"Somebody will read it," quoth Harry. "It'll show we got this farourselves." And they returned, better satisfied, to the cart.
"There's one thing sure," continued Harry: "The less company we have,the more fuel and forage we'll find. We're getting into the buffalocountry, too. See?"
For the surface of the ground was cut deeply by narrow trails likecattle trails, but made by buffalo wending probably from water to water.Some of the trails had been freshly trodden.
"That means we'll have to look sharp after Duke and Jenny," warnedTerry.
They proceeded.
"Well, here come a party," remarked Harry. "But they're going the wrongway."
"Maybe it's some of the stage line surveyors."
The party, of three men, two of them horseback and one of them muleback,drew on at trot and rapid walk. The men were bearded, roughly dressed,and well armed with revolvers and rifles. Meeting the Pike's PeakLimited, they halted. So Harry and Terry halted.
"Howdy?"
"Howdy yourselves. Where you bound?"
"For the land of gold," cheerfully answered Harry.
"Land o' nothin'!" rebuffed the spokesman of the party. "Turn back, turnback, 'fore you starve to death."
"Why? Are you from the Pike's Peak mines?"
"We're from the Cherry Creek diggin's, young feller, but we didn't seeany mines there nor nowheres else. It's all a fake, and we're on our wayto tell the people so and save 'em their bacon."
"Aren't you bringing any gold?" exclaimed Terry. "Have you been therelong?"
"Long! Gold!" And he turned his pocket inside out. "That's the size ofyour elephant. We've been there since last November, sonny, and the goldis in your eye. That Pike's Peak craze is the biggest hoax everinvented. It's just a scheme of a few rascals to sell off town lots.They want to get people to come out yonder; and gold is the only thingthat'll persuade 'em into the barrenest, porest country on the face ofthe 'arth. We've been thar, so we know. We couldn't get out, in thewinter; but everybody's leavin' now, to tell the folks along all thetrails to face back and go home."
Terry felt a sinking of the heart. Harry also seemed to sober.
"What gold is it that's been sent out of there, then?" he asked.
"Californy gold! Fetched through from Californy. Never was taken out ofthat Pike's Peak country at all. Californy gold, used to fool the peoplewith, back in the States."
"But my father brought home two hundred dollars in gold, and he foundit there somewhere, himself--near Pike's Peak," argued Terry, withsudden thought. "We've already got a mine!"
"He did, did he? Waal, if he did he was lucky, and he was luckier to getout with it. Thar may be a little gold--thar's gold to be washed from'most any mountain stream, but you can't eat gold. Yon country's afreezin' country and a starvation country and an Injun country, fit forneither civilized man nor beast. The government'll need to step in andforbid people goin' to it. The hull of it ain't wuth an east Kansasacre."
"All right. Much obliged," said Harry. "So long."
"Goin' on?"
"We'll try a piece farther," said Harry. "How's the trail ahead? Did yousee any stage line stakes?"
"Stage line stakes! What you dreamin' of? That stage idee is anotherhoax. You'll find that out, together with a few other things. But ifyou're _set_ on bein' a pair of young fools, _go_ on. We haven't moretime to waste with you."
And forthwith the party spurred on its eastward way.
"Look out for Injuns," called one, over his shoulder.
"Humph!" mused Harry. "Doesn't sound very encouraging, but we can'tbelieve everything we hear, for and against, both. If we did, we'd neverknow _what_ to do. A fellow has to act on his own hook, sometimes, untilhe can judge by his own experience, where he can't depend on theexperience of others. That party may have secret reasons for talkingso." He eyed Terry. "Shall we go on, clear through? I don't think a fewdiscouragements will turn the wheel-barrow man back."
"I don't, either!" declared Terry, bracing. "Let's go on."
"Duke! Jenny! Hep with you!" responded Harry. "Hurrah for the Pike'sPeak Limited, and maybe the Lightning Express, too! But no German with awife and six girls and a feather bed shall beat this outfit. We'reliable to come on a stake, any time. And the next will be only a fewmiles, and the next another few miles, and at that rate we'll hit theRepublican River smack."
But to Terry, surveying the monotonous, empty landscape, single stakesplanted maybe days' journeys apart seemed rather small landmarks.
In mid-afternoon they did indeed overtake the "Litening Express." It washalted beside a small, stagnant water-hole, as if making early camp. Thewife and the six girls were sitting around, in disconsolate manner, andthe German himself was soaking his naked feet in the water.
"What's the matter here?" hailed the cheerful Harry. "Broken down?You're pointing the wrong way."
For that was so. The one wagon track beyond had doubled, and the wagon,from which the team had been unspanned, was heading east instead ofwest.
"Yah," stolidly answered the German. "We go back. Dere iss no elephant.Now we go back again home quick. We haf met some men who haf told us."
"Oh, pshaw!" uttered Harry. "You're half-way. Better go the rest of theway and see for yourself. You mustn't let a few wild rumors stop you."
"Don't you intend to fill your sacks?" added Terry.
"Dere iss no gold, so dey say; an' notting else," insisted the German.
"Once you believed there was, and now you believe there isn't," laughedHarry. "You might as well believe the first as the second, as far as youknow."
"And there is gold, because we've got a mine," encouraged Terry.
"Nein." And the German shook his head. "I set out to fill my sacks; dosemen say I cannot fill dem. So I go home. I t'ink you better go home,too. You camp here with us, an' I fix my feet, an' we haf a goot supper,an' den in mornin' we travel togedder."
"Nope, we're bound through," replied Harry. "This is no time of day forus to camp." And Terry was relieved to hear him say so, for the stagnantpool, with the German's feet in it, did not look very inviting. "Whatdid you find ahead?"
"Notting an' nobody," grumbled the German. "All joost like dis." And heswept his arm around to indicate the bare stretch of plains. "Purty soonyou see where I turn to go home, an' den you be all by yourself. I donot like it. I like peoples. So I go home."
"You didn't see any stake, did you?" queried Terry.
"What stake?"
"To mark the stage line."
"What for would dey poot any stage line where dey ain't peoples?"demanded the German.
"All right: how'll you sell
your mining tools?" asked Harry, with alertmind. "You've no use for them."
"Mebbe I dig garden. But I sell dem to you for one dollar an' half--dewhole lot."
"Done!" cried Harry. "And how about those sacks?"
"Dey iss goot potato sacks. But what will you gif me for dose sacks?"
"Four bits."
"Well, I guess you take dem. You t'ink to poot potatoes in dem? Nein,nein; you iss crazy. It iss as crazy as to t'ink to poot gold in dem."
When they left the German, who had resumed the soaking of his sore feetin the general pool, they were possessed of two new picks, two newspades, a cask of sauerkraut, and the bale of sacks.
"What'll we ever do with the sacks?" inquired Terry.
Harry scratched his long nose.
"Blamed if I know, yet," he admitted. "But you never can tell."
In about an hour they passed the place where the "Litening Express" hadturned about. Now there was no trail at all, except the endless buffalotrails. Somewhere they had lost even the hoof-prints of the threehorsemen.
They made late and solitary evening camp on the farther side of a deepcreek bed, whose banks had been broken down by crossing buffalo. Therewas so little water that Terry had to dig a hole, in order to get apailful for supper and breakfast. But in wandering about searching forbuffalo chips in the gloaming, he shouted gladly:
"Here's a stake--a new one! It says: 'Station 11'!"
Harry limped to inspect.
"Bully!" he enthused. "We don't care where the other ten are. This showswe're on the right road. Well, Mr. Station Master, I want supper andbeds for two, and a guide to the next station. What's the tariff, andwhat'll you trade for sauerkraut and gunny-sacks? But I wish yourcompany'd make your stations a little bigger, for this is a powerful bigcountry."
However, tiny as it was, the stake appealed as a human token. There weresigns, also, of an old camp, near the creek; and from the stakehoof-marks led away westward, as if to the next stake.
The Pike's Peak Rush; Or, Terry in the New Gold Fields Page 6