CHAPTER XIV
PAT CASEY HELPS OUT
He hastened back to the cabin with his eyes popping.
"Our water's gone!"
"What!"
"It is. There's not enough to fill a tin cup!"
"Great Scotland!" And setting aside the skillet and dropping his fork,Harry rushed out to see for himself.
"Wonder if the blamed thing's drying up," he hazarded. "Well, we've gota pailful for drinking and cooking, anyway. And after breakfast we'lltry to find out what's happened."
They had not yet explored the little draw down which the water drained;it was shallow and uninteresting; but they did not need to go far tofind out "what had happened." Around the shoulder of the first bend theyarrived at a branch draw on the other side of their low hill, and werein the midst of some more claims.
Water from a spring had been feeding the little draw and the branch drawboth; but now a sluice had been set up, taking away so much that therewas none left for the little draw.
Several men were at work with the sluice. They paid no attention totheir visitors until Harry interrupted the nearest.
"Look here. You men have taken our water."
The man turned around short. He was the giant who had commented onTerry's big pan and on the condition in general of the Golden Prizeprospect.
"What you talkin' about?" he growled. "Who are you an' where you comefrom? Oh, it's you, is it?" he added, to Terry--and Terry had the notionthat he had known perfectly well who they were and where they were from,before speaking.
"Yes," answered Terry. "And this is my partner. You aren't leaving usany water for our own sluice."
"You have all that comes, haven't you?"
"We haven't all that ought to come, though," answered Harry, a bitsharply because the giant's tone was decidedly rough. "You've dug theditch to your sluice higher up than necessary, and it lowers the levelof the spring so much that no water enters our gulch at all. The streamused to split, didn't it?"
"Split nothin'. Trouble is, your gulch is runnin' dry. You ought to'vefiggered on that, now that the snow's all melted off and sunk in. Mostof those little gulches dry up, come toward summer."
"The stream used to split, and feed through this gulch, just the same,"insisted Harry. "You can see the channel. I hold that we're entitled toa share of this spring. And if you'd move your ditch a foot or two we'dget enough, and you'd have plenty yourselves."
"You're entitled to just what drains into your gulch, an' we're entitledto what drains into ours," growled the giant. "This water's in ourgulch, ain't it--spring and all?"
"I don't know that it is, by rights," retorted Harry. "The spring'spretty close to being at the dividing point. And anyway, we're notasking you for your water; we're asking for ours."
"Now look-ee here," and the giant tapped his revolver butt: "By miners'law we're entitled to a share o' what water comes down our gulch, an' byminers' law you're entitled to a share o' what water comes down yourgulch, alluz considerin' there's any to share. If your claim was wuth apicayune I'd advise you to hold on till next spring, when mebbe you'dget a leetle water again from natteral drainage; but as it ain't wuth apicayune I'd advise you to get off an' look elsewhar. Anyhow, you getoff this ground mighty quick; for if you're huntin' trouble you'll findit in a bigger dose than you can handle."
"It looks to me like a deliberate scheme to run us off," began Harry,hotly. But he checked himself. "Come on, Terry," he bade.
"Did you see Pine Knot Ike?" exclaimed Terry, as they returned, withheads up, to their own ground. "I did--he was down below, with anotherman."
"Yes, I saw him." Back at their sluice again they stood undecided. Harryscratched his long nose and surveyed about. "Confound 'em! It's a dirtymean trick. If they'd change the head of their sluice ever so littlewe'd have enough water and so would they. But they've fixed it so thatwhen they shut off to clean up the water all flows the other way. Let'ssee. We can get water for the cabin from that creek down below. Mightpan with it, too--only we'd spend most of our time carrying the dirtdown or the water up."
But when they went down to the creek, to investigate, they were curtlytold by a camper there that his claim and others extended all along onboth sides, and that they were entitled to the water themselves.
"You can help yourselves to drinking water, and that's all," he granted."I'm sorry, strangers, but if you're on a dry prospect I reckon you'dbetter get out."
"Not yet!" retorted Harry. "Not," he added to Terry, "as long as we canmake _pie_! Come on. We'll find Pat."
They had not seen Pat Casey for several days. As they descended thegulch, it seemed busier and more crowded than ever. Five thousand peoplewere here now, according to report, and all the surrounding gulches werethronged, also. Sluices were running, others were being set up--and thethought of their own dry, useless sluice, and the gold that _must_ bewaiting, and the way they had worked to prepare for getting it, madeTerry half sick. His father would laugh, and George would be a pest.Yes, George would poke all manner of fun at them.
Pat wasn't where they had expected to find him.
"Pat Casey? The red-headed Irishman, you mean? He's across yonder, andhe's struck it rich. You'll find him over there, strangers, washing out$50 and more a day."
So Pat had moved. He was waist deep in a trench that showed signs ofsoon being a tunnel; and when from the brink they hailed him, heclambered out. All mud and perspiration was Pat.
"B' gorry, Oi'm glad to see yez," said Pat. "Oi've been thinkin' o' yez,but what with gettin' rich Oi've no time for calls. Oi bought out themen who were gopherin' here, an' now the deeper Oi go the richer Oi am.Sure, yez are lookin' at a millionaire, 'most. An' how are things withyou boys?"
They told him. Pat scratched his head.
"Too bad, too bad. An' a dirty trick. But, faith, there ain't waterenough to go 'round, an' that's a fact; not sayin', though, that they'reactin' square, at all. For they ain't. Are yez in need?" He winked."Jist come into me house a minute."
He led them into his bough hut, and from underneath his bunk fished outan oyster can.
"Heft it, wance," he invited.
It was heavy.
"Help yourselves, lads," he insisted.
But Harry laughed.
"Not yet, thanks, Pat. We've got a little to tide us along. What I wantto know is, how's your appetite for pie?"
"Two dollars apiece for pie, an' two pies a day: wan for breakfast an'wan for supper; an' on Sunday wan for dinner besides," promptly answeredPat.
"It's a go," pronounced Harry.
"Will it take the both o' yez to make pie?" queried Pat. "Sure, ye looklike a husky boy," he said, to Terry. "Let your partner make the pies,an' ye turn your hand to helpin' me at the sluice. Oi need another goodworker. Oi fired the wan Oi had only this very mornin' because he satdown too frequent. Oi'll give ye a dollar an' a half a day, an' ye canfetch down me pies."
"That's a bargain," accepted Terry. "Wait till I get my spade."
When he and Harry arrived again at their own property they found thegiant there. He was standing in their hole, and inquisitively pokingabout.
"Here! What are you doing?" challenged Harry.
"No harm meant," apologized the giant. "But you're down to bed-rock an'that's a fact. Still, a man might wash out a little dust, from spots, Ireckon, if he had the water. Now, the truth is we're sorry for you boys.You've put consider'ble time an' labor in on this prospect, an' we'rewillin' to do the right thing. How'll you sell?"
"For how much?" demanded Harry.
"The property's no good to you; never would amount to anything greatanyhow; it's too rocky. But I'll tell you what we'll do: We'll give you$100 for your claim, to save hard feelin's, an' we'll take the chance o'pannin' out enough when there's water, to pay us back. I expec' we'lllose, but we'd rather lose than have the hard feelin's. You get thehundred dollars an' the experience."
"We'll keep the experience and the claim, too; eh, Terry?" Harryanswered. "And there's something y
ou men can keep: you can keep _off_.What's that in your hand? A piece of our rock? Drop it!"
"THE GIANT SAT DOWN WITH AN EXPLOSIVE GRUNT, AND HARRYSTOOD OVER, SCARCELY PANTING, REVOLVER DANGLING IN HAND"]
"Cock-a-doodle-do!" jeered the giant. "Mebbe I picked up this rock herean' mebbe I picked it up somewheres else. But I drop it when I getready. You crow mighty loud for a young rooster without any spurs."
The giant was standing confidently agrin, resting at ease on one leg,his hand on his hip--but he did not know Harry. With a single jump Harryhad reached him, quicker than the eye could follow had jerked therevolver from its scabbard and at the same time with a twist of the foothad knocked loose the propping leg. The giant sat down with an explosivegrunt, and Harry stood over, scarcely panting, revolver dangling inhand.
"We wear our spurs on the inside, like a cat's claws," he said. "Now yousit there till you drop that piece of rock."
But the giant looked so ugly and menacing, as he glared about, thatTerry flew to the cabin for the shot-gun. He was back with it in ajiffy--and the giant was already slowly rising to his feet. He haddropped the piece of rock.
"'Tisn't wuth sheddin' blood for," he grunted. "Your hull property isn'twuth the lead in a bullet. But I admit you did for me mighty clever.Where'd you l'arn that trick?"
"We're as full of tricks as you are," retorted Harry. "Here's your gun.You needn't keep him covered, Terry. He's going."
"Then you refuse our offer, do you?"
"Yes. You can't buy even the privilege of walking across this land for ahundred dollars or a thousand dollars."
"All right. You can squat here till you starve an' dry up, then. Mebbeyou have the trick o' livin' on nothin', but I doubt it. I'd like toknow that wrestlin' trip, though--I'll give you an ounce o' dust to showme."
"No, you can't buy that, either," laughed Harry.
"That preacher feller gone away?" queried the giant, with a jerk of thehead toward the True Blue claim.
"Yes," said Harry, shortly. "He's quit."
With a calculating glance around, the giant stalked off. They watchedhim go. Harry picked up the piece of rock.
"Wonder what he wanted of this," mused Harry. "It doesn't look anydifferent from lots of the other rock. White quartz, I reckon, with ironrust in it. We could have given him a bushel of the same. He didn't findit lying loose, though. He cracked it off from somewhere. That's a freshbreak."
They searched about curiously a minute for the source of the fragment.It was a smooth knob, the size of a large walnut, showing rusty white atthe fracture.
"We can't wash rock, anyhow," quoth Terry. "It just clogs up the sluice.We wash the dirt."
"And we can't wash even that now. It seems queer, though, that thatoutfit would want to buy this claim after saying it's worthless. Youdidn't want to sell, did you?"
"No," stoutly declared Terry. "Not unless we have to, to pay dad back."
"Not as long as we can sell pies and make day wages, at any rate," addedHarry. "There are just as good ways of getting money as digging it outthe ground. If those fellows bother us we've tricks for all their legsas fast as they bring 'em over." He stuffed the piece of rock into hispocket. "I'll keep this for luck," he said.
Harry alertly started in on preparations for his pie-baking; he hadhopes of enlisting other customers than Pat. Terry shouldered spade andpick, and trudged off to help Pat.
He found Pat much excited.
"Have ye heard the grand news? No? Why, sure, the great editor man,Horace Grayley, be comin' to the diggin's! He's on his way already--himan' other cilibrated citizens all the way from New York. The boys arearrangin' a rayciption for 'em tomorrow; an' b' gorry, 'tis mesilf willhave the honor o' lettin' the great Grayley, who be the editor o' theNew York _Tribyune_, wash the gold with his own hands from this verypit. Faith, if Oi don't make his pans rich for him my name's not PatCasey."
When that evening Terry, wet and dirty and tired, went home, the word ofthe approach of Editor Horace Greeley and party had aroused muchinterest through the gulch.
He found everything ship-shape but quiet at the cabin, where Harry hadbaked several pies and a batch of bread and hung out some washing. Asign, of wrapping paper and charcoal lettering, now announced:
GREGORY GULCH BAKERY Apple Pie Bread, Etc. HARRY REVERE & CO.
The Pike's Peak Rush; Or, Terry in the New Gold Fields Page 16