by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER XIX.
STRIKING IT RICH.
TWICE the party of gold-diggers shifted their location, each timefollowing a rush to some freshly-discovered locality; but no stroke ofgood fortune attended them. At the end of each week a few ounces of goldremained to be added to the pile after the payment of expenses, but sofar the earnings of the carriers far exceeded those of the diggers. Oneday, as Abe and Frank were just starting on their way down toSacramento, they met three men coming along, each leading two ladenhorses. As the two teams met there was a shout of recognition.
"Hello, Abe! I have been asking for you of every one since we got heresix months ago, but no one seemed to know your party."
"We have been asking for you too," Abe said. "It seems curious that weshould be here so long and never run agin each other; but there are sucha lot of mining camps, and every one works too hard to spend much timethinking about his neighbours. I expected we should run across eachother one of these days. And how goes it with you? How's every one?"
"We are broke up a bit," John Little said. "It wasn't to be expected aswe should hang together long after we once got out here; one thought oneplace best, and another another; but I and my two mates here, and longSimpson, and Alick, and Jones, we have stuck together."
"And where are you now?" Abe inquired.
"Well, I will tell you, Abe, and I wouldn't tell any one else; but Isaid to you, 'If we ever makes a strike you are in it.' We have beenprospecting up in the gulches of the North Yuba. We found as we couldn'tget places worth working in the other camps, so we concluded it war bestto find out a spot for ourselves; so we six have been a-grubbing anddigging up among the mountains, and I tell you we have hit it hot. Wethree, washing with pans for four hours one morning, got outeight-and-twenty ounces of gold."
"That was something like," Abe said, in admiration.
"I reckon it war. Well, we covered the place up, and left our threemates to look arter it, telling them not to dig or make any sign untilwe came back. We sold the waggons and teams when we first got over, forthey were no good to us in the mountains, and bought horses so as tokeep ourselves supplied with provisions. We agreed before we began workwe would come down to the town and get enough to last us, then we wouldmove up quietly at night to our find, stake out our claims, and begin towork. Now if you and your four mates likes to join us, you are welcome."
"Well, that's a downright friendly offer, mate, and you bet we acceptit. We had one capital stroke of luck, but since that worked out wehaven't done much at digging, though Frank here and me has done veryfair, trucking goods up from Sacramento. Where are your women?"
"Well," the other said, "we had some trouble about them. You see tharain't many women up at the camps, they are rough places, and not fit forthem. So we agreed that for the present it were best they should keepout of it. So we bought a little place with ten or twelve acres ofground, down at the foot of the hills, and there our wives and the kidsare stopping. There's a big orchard, and they are raising vegetables,and when we goes down for supplies we brings up a load or two of fruitand vegetables, and rare prices they fetch, I can tell you, more norenough to keep them all down there. But we have agreed to bring two ofthem up now to cook and wash, and leave the others to look arter theplace and the kids. Simpson and Jones ain't married, you know. Womenhave a right to claims as well as men, and of course we shall take upfor those we bring up, as well as for two big lads; so that will give usten claims, besides the extra claims for discovery. So with your fiveclaims we can get hold of a tidy bit of ground. We are going to takethese stores up now, and leave them in charge of our friends in thegulch, who will keep them hid in the woods, and then we can go back andbring up the women and a cargo of vegetables."
"Well, in four days we will meet you here. I will take all the horsesand load them up. We were going to bring up flour for the storekeeper,but now we will get stores for ourselves. We will bring as much as wecan get along with. We can sell what we don't want, for there is sure tobe a rush in a short time. Frank shall go back and tell the storekeeperwe ain't a-coming with the flour."
This was arranged, and four days later Abe and his party arrived at thespot agreed on, and an hour or two later the cavalcade, with the threemen, two women, and two boys of fifteen or sixteen years old, came up,and the united party started together. It was some fifty miles to thespot where the gold had been discovered. Sometimes they wound along indeep valleys, passing several camps in full operation. At the last camp,which was a small one, a few questions were asked them as to theirdestination.
"We are just going a-prospecting for the mountain of gold," Abe replied,"and as we have got six months' stores aboard we mean to find it. Wewill send you down a few nuggets when we get up there."
"We shall have some of them after us in a day or two," John Little said;"every one suspects every one else; and they will make a pretty story ofit, I guess, thinking as we shouldn't have brought the women up all thisdistance without having some place in our minds."
At last they arrived at their destination, the mouth of a little gorgerunning off the deep valley of the north Yuba. The gorge widened outinto a narrow valley, and the party made its way among the pebbles andboulders at its bottom for a quarter of a mile, and then three men cameout from among the trees and greeted them heartily.
"No one has been up here?" John Little asked.
"Two chaps came up and prospected about a bit, but they did not seem tohit on the right place; at any rate they went away again."
"All the better," John said. "Now let us stake out our claims at once,then we are all right, whoever comes."
The spot selected was at the head of the little valley; it ended hereabruptly, and the stream came down forty feet precipitously into ahollow.
GOLD-WASHING--A GOOD DAY'S WORK.]
"This looks a likely spot, indeed," Abe said; "there must have been athundering great waterfall here in the old days. I expect it wore a holefor itself in the rock, and if it is as rich as you say on the surface,there is no saying how rich it may be when we get down to the bed rock."
They had already settled that the two parties should work inpartnership, and as, including the women and boys, they numberedfifteen, and could take up the five claims which, by mining law, thediscoverer of a new place was entitled to, they had in all twentyclaims, which gave them the whole of the little amphitheatre at the footof the fall for a distance of fifty yards down.
The men all set to work with their axes, and by nightfall much had beendone. Frank's party had their tent, and the two small tents of the otherparty were allotted to the married couples. A rough hut was got up forthe rest of the men; this was to act as the kitchen and general room. Astorehouse was erected of stout logs, with earth piled thickly over itto keep out the wet, and here their stores were securely housed. Thetents and huts were on the slope, where the rocks widened out twentyyards below the bottom of their claim.
It was late in the second evening before the work was done. All wereanxious to test the ground, but it was agreed not to touch it until theyhad housed themselves. At daybreak they were at work, and soon all werewashing out pans of gravel at the stream; the results fully justifiedtheir expectations,--there being a residuum of glittering grains at thebottom of each pan varying in weight from a pennyweight to a quarter ofan ounce.
"Now," Abe said, "I should suggest that we makes a big cradle, fifteenfeet long by three feet wide, and hang it on cross poles so as to beable to rock it easily; then we will dam up the stream at the top of thefall, and lead it down straight through a shoot into the cradle; ofcourse the shoot will have a sluice so as to let in just as much wateras we want, and that way two men will do the work of eight or tenwashing."
Abe's plan was agreed to, and all the men set to work to construct thedam, cradle, and shoot.
It took two days' hard labour before all was in readiness, and then thework began in earnest. Two men swayed the cradle, four others shovelledthe gravel and dirt into it, three continually stirred t
he contents andswept off the large stones and pebbles from the top, while the other twocarried them away beyond the boundaries of their claims.
At the lower end of the cradle was a sheet of iron perforated withholes, large at the top, but getting smaller lower down, and altogetherclosed four inches from the bottom; through these holes the sand andgravel flowed away. All day they worked vigorously and withoutintermission, and great was the excitement when, at the end of the day'swork, they proceeded to clear-up by emptying the cradle and examiningthe bottom. A shout of satisfaction arose as the particles of gold wereseen lying thickly in the gravel at the bottom of the cradle. Verycarefully this was washed out, and it was found that there were overfifty ounces of gold dust.
"I believe," Abe said, "that we have hit upon the richest spot inCaliforny. Ef it's like this on the surface, what is it going to be likewhen we get down to the bed rock?"
The next morning two diggers arrived on the scene; they saw at once bythe methodical manner in which the place was being worked that the partymust have found gold in paying quantities.
"Is it rich, mates?" they asked eagerly.
"Ay," Abe replied, "rich enough for anything. There are the boundariesof our claims, lads, and ye are welcome to set to work below them."
The miners threw off their coats, and at once set to work, and a shoutof exultation greeted the result of the first bucket of stuff theywashed out.
"Another week," Abe said, "and every foot of ground in the gulch fromhere down to the Yuba will be taken up. The news will spread likewildfire."
His anticipations were justified, and no one who came along a fortnightlater would have recognised, in the scene of life and activity, thequiet wooded valley which Abe and his party had entered. The trees onthe lower slopes were all felled; huts and tents stood along on theslopes from the head to the mouth of the valley, and several hundred menwere hard at work.
For once every man was satisfied, and it was agreed that it was therichest place which had been discovered in California. But though allwere doing well, their finds did not approach those of the party at thehead of the valley. The spot on which these were at work was indeed anatural trap for gold. At the lower end of the claim the bed rock wasfound at the depth of three feet only; but it sloped rapidly down to thefoot of the fall, and here an iron rod had been driven down and showedit to be forty feet below the surface.
The bed rock had indeed, in the course of ages, been pounded away bythe fall of water, and by the boulders and rocks brought down in time offlood, and in the deep hole the gold had lodged, a comparatively smallproportion being carried away over the lower lip of the basin. When thebed rock was found at the lower end of the claim, they set to work toclear away and wash the whole surface to that depth, as far as the footof the rocks on either side of the little amphitheatre.
Frank and two of the men went down to Sacramento with horses to bring uppumps, for below the level of the lip of the hole it was, of course,full of water. The stream was carried in a shoot beyond this point, andwhen the pumps arrived they were soon set to work.
Every foot that they descended they found, as they expected, the gravelto be richer and richer; and many nuggets, some of them weighing upwardsof a pound, were found.
At the end of each week four of the miners, armed to the teeth, carrieddown the gold and deposited it at the Bank of Sacramento. An escort wasneeded, for many attacks were made on gold convoys by parties ofdesperadoes; four men would indeed have been an insufficient guard, butat the same time other diggers in the valley sent down their find, andthe escort was always made up to eight men from the general body.
Frank, from the first, generally formed one of the escort; he himselfwas perfectly ready to take his share in the more laborious work ofdigging, but where Frank went Turk went, and Turk formed so valuable amember of the escort that the rest of the party begged his master alwaysto go with the treasure. Every week had added to the weight and power ofthe animal, and he was now a most formidable-looking beast. He wasextremely quiet and good-tempered at ordinary times, except that hewould not allow any stranger to touch him; but when at all excited, hishair bristled from his neck to his tail, and his low, formidable growl,gave a warning which few men would have been inclined todespise,--indeed, of the many rough characters in the camp, there wasnot one who would not rather have faced a man with a revolver in hishand than have ventured upon a conflict with Turk.
The dog appeared to know that the escort duty was one which demandedespecial vigilance. On the road a low growl always gave notice of theapproach of strangers; and at night, when they stopped, and the heavyvalises were carried from the pack animals into the waysideresting-places, Turk always lay down with his head upon them. He seemedso thoroughly to understand that this was in his special charge, thatalthough at no other time would he leave Frank's side for a moment, hewas, when thus on guard, content to lie quiet even should Frank take astroll after reaching the hotel.
This guardianship greatly relieved the cares of the escort, as onceplaced under Turk's charge they felt no further anxiety about thetreasure, for it would have been as much as any stranger's life wasworth to have entered the room where Turk lay on guard. Once, indeed,the attempt was made. While the escort were taking their meals, a manwent round to the window of the room, and, opening it, threw a largepiece of poisoned meat to Turk. The dog placed one paw upon it, butremained, with his great head on the treasure, watching the man outsideholding another piece in his hand, and speaking in soothing tones. Theman, seeing that he did not move, began to climb in through the window.Suddenly, as if shot from a spring, Turk hurled himself from hisrecumbent position upon him.
The movement was so rapid and unexpected, that before the man couldspring back from the window Turk had seized him by the shoulder. Ashriek, followed by a heavy fall, brought the party rushing into theroom. It was empty, but there was the sound of a scuffle outside; theyran to the window, but their interference was too late. Turk had shiftedhis hold, and, grasping the man by the throat, was shaking him as aterrier would a rat; and when, in obedience to Frank's voice, heloosened his hold, life was extinct. Not only was there a terrible woundin the throat of the robber, but his neck was broken by the shaking.
This was the only attempt which was ever made upon the treasure; forTurk gained such a reputation by the deed, that it was questionablewhether, had he accompanied the pack-mules as their sole escort toSacramento, the bravest stage-robbers in the district would haveventured to interfere with them.
After a time the lower valley became worked out, and numbers driftedaway to other diggings; but it was four months before the party at thewaterfall completely worked out their claims. The value of the ground inthe last few feet, at the lower end of the hole, was immense; for inthis, for ages, the gold from above had settled, and for the lastfortnight the clear-up each day was worth a thousand pounds. When thelast spadeful had been cleared up, and the last consignment sent down tothe bank, they made up their total, and found that in four months theyhad taken from the hole upwards of sixty thousand pounds.
It had been agreed before beginning that the two women and the boys wereeach to have a half-share, and that the two women who had looked afterthe families below were to have the same. There were then in all sixhalf-shares, and eleven shares, and each share was therefore worth overfour thousand pounds. There were many instances in California in whichparties of two or three men had made larger sums than this in the sametime, but there were few in which a company had taken out so large aquantity from one hole.
At the meeting that night the partnership was dissolved, it being agreedthat they should all go down to Sacramento together, and there eachreceive his share. One or two of the party said that they would go downto San Francisco for a spree, and then return and try their luck again.Four of the western farmers said that they should buy farms in the Stateand settle down there. Abe, and two other hunters, said they shouldreturn east.
"And what are you going to do, Frank?"
"I don
't know," Frank said. "I don't want to return to Europe, and haveno particular object in view. I think that I shall let my money remainin the bank for a bit, at any rate, and go in for freighting on a largescale. I shall buy a couple of dozen mules, and hire some Mexicans todrive them. I like the life among these mountains, and there is a goodthing to be made out of carrying. But I have had enough of digging; it'stremendously hard work, and I couldn't expect to meet with such a sliceof luck as this again if I worked for fifty years."
"Well, Frank, I shall not try to dissuade you," Abe said. "If I wasgoing on hunting, I should say 'Come along with me to the plains'; butme and my mate is going east, as each of us has got some one waiting forus thar, and I expect we shall marry and settle down. I will write toyou at Sacramento when I get fixed, and I needn't tell you how glad thesight of your face will make me if you are ever travelling my way."
A few days afterwards the party separated at Sacramento, Frank onlyremaining two days in that town. The wild scenes of dissipation andrecklessness disgusted him; he looked with loathing upon the saloonswhere gambling went on from morning till night, broken only by anoccasional fierce quarrel, followed in most cases by the sharp crack ofa revolver, or by desperate encounters with bowie knives. Bad as thingswere, however, they were improving somewhat, for a Vigilance Committeehad just been started, comprising all the prominent citizens of thetown. Parties of armed men had seized upon some of the most notoriousdesperadoes of the place, and had hung them on the lamp-posts, whileothers had been warned that a like fate awaited them if they were foundthree hours later within the limits of the town.
Similar scenes took place in San Francisco, for the force of the law waswholly insufficient to restrain the reckless and desperate men whocongregated in the towns, and who thought no more of taking life thaneating a meal. To put a stop to the frightful state of thingsprevailing, the more peaceful of the San Francisco citizens had alsobeen obliged to organise a Vigilance Committee to carry out what wascalled Lynch law, a rough and ready method of justice subject to graveabuses under other circumstances, but admirably suited to such acondition of things as at that time prevailed in California.
For some time Frank worked between Sacramento and the diggings. Heenjoyed the life, riding in the pure mountain air, under the shade ofthe forests, at the head of the team. Sometimes he wondered vaguely howlong this was to last; if he was always to remain a rover, or whether hewould ever return to England. Sometimes he resolved that he would gohome and make an effort to clear himself of this stain which rested uponhis name; but he could see no method whatever of doing so, as he hadnothing but his own unsupported assertion of his innocence to adduceagainst the circumstantial evidence against him, and there was no reasonwhy his word should be taken now more than it was before.
In many of the camps life had now become more civilised. In cases wherethe bed of gold-bearing gravel was large, and where, consequently, workwould be continued for a long time, wooden towns had sprung up, withhotels, stores, drinking and gambling saloons. Work was here carried onmethodically; water was, in some cases, brought many miles in littlecanals from mountain lakes down to the diggings, and operations werecarried on on a large scale. Companies were being formed for buying upand working numbers of claims together.
The valleys were honeycombed with shafts driven down, sometimes througha hundred feet of gravel, to the bed rock, as it was found much moreprofitable working this way than in surface-washing. Stage-coaches andteams of waggons were running regularly now along well-made roads.Frank's earnings were therefore smaller than they had been at first,but they still paid his expenses, and added a few pounds each trip tohis account at the bank.
He took shares in many of the companies formed for bringing down waterfrom the lakes, and these were soon found to be an exceedingly valuableproperty, paying in many cases a return each month equal to the capital.
The life of a teamster was not without danger: bears in considerablenumbers were found among the mountains, and these, when pressed byhunger, did not hesitate to attack passing teams. In times of rain therivers rose rapidly, and the valleys were full of fierce torrents,sometimes preventing horses from crossing for many hours, and beingstill more dangerous if the rise commenced when the track to be followedwound along in the foot of the valley. Several times Frank narrowlyescaped with his life when thus surprised; but in each case he managedto reach some spot where his horses could climb the sides before thewater took them off their feet.
The greatest danger, however, of the roads, arose from the lawless menthat frequented them. Coaches were frequently stopped and plundered, andeven the gold escorts were attacked with success. Strong parties of theminers sometimes went out in pursuit of the highwaymen, but it was veryseldom that success attended them, for the great forests extended sovast a distance over the hills, that anything like a thorough search wasimpossible.
Frank, however, treated this danger lightly; he never carried money withhim save what he received on arrival at camp for the carriage of hisgoods, while the flour, bacon, and other stores which he carried upoffered no temptation to the robbers.
THE ATTACK ON THE GOLD ESCORT.]
One evening, however, having been detained some hours before he couldcross a river swollen by a thunderstorm, he was travelling along theroad much later than usual; the moon was shining brightly, and as thelong team of mules descended a hill he meditated camping for the nightat its foot.
Suddenly he heard a pistol-shot ahead, followed by five or six others.Ordering his men to follow slowly, he put spurs to his horse, and,drawing his revolver, galloped on. The firing had ceased just as hecaught sight of a coach standing at the bottom of a hill; three bodieswere lying in the road, and the passengers were in the act of alightingunder the pistols of four mounted men who stood beside them. Frank rodeup at full speed, Turk bounding beside him.
The highwaymen turned, and two pistol-shots were fired at the new-comer.The balls whistled close to him, but Frank did not answer the fire untilhe arrived within three paces of the nearest highwayman, whom he shotdead; the other three fired, and Frank felt a sensation as of a hot ironcrossing his cheek, while his left arm dropped useless by his side.Another of the highwaymen fell under his next shot; at the same instantTurk, with a tremendous bound, leapt at the throat of one of the otherswho was in the act of levelling his pistol. The impetus was sotremendous that man and horse rolled in the road, the pistol explodingharmlessly in the air. The struggle on the ground lasted but a fewseconds, and then Turk, having disposed of his adversary, turned to lookafter a fresh foe; but the field was clear, for the remaining robberhad, on seeing Turk, turned his horse with a cry of alarm, and riddenaway at full speed. The passengers crowded round Frank, thanking him fortheir rescue.
"I am glad to have been of use," Frank said, "and to have arrived justin time; and now will one of you help me off my horse, for my left armis broken, I think."
The driver of the coach had been shot through the heart by the firstshot fired by the robbers. There were two armed guards, one of whom hadbeen killed, and the other wounded, while two of the passengers who hadleft the coach to take part in the defence had also been killed; thewounded guard was helped down from the coach.
"You have done a good night's work," he said to Frank; "there are nighten thousand ounces of gold in the coach. No doubt those fellows gotwind of the intention of the bank people at Yuba to send it down toSacramento; it was kept very dark too, and I don't believe that one ofthe passengers knew of it. They would have sent more than two of us toguard it if they had thought that it had been let out; there must havebeen some one in the secret who gave notice beforehand to these chaps.
"Now, gentlemen, if one of you will take the ribbons we will be movingon. I will get up beside him, and I will trouble any of you who have gotColts to take your places up behind; there ain't no chance of anotherattack to-night, still, we may as well look out. Now, sir, if you willtake your place inside we will take you on until we get to some placewhere your arm can be
looked to. You will hear from the directors of thebank as to this night's work."
Frank's team had now arrived on the spot, and he directed the men tocomplete their journey and deliver their stores, and then to go down tothe stables where they put up at Sacramento and there to wait hisarrival.
Frank was left behind at the next town, his fellow-passengersoverwhelming him with thanks, many having considerable amounts of goldconcealed about them, the result, in some cases, of months' work at thediggings.
One of them proposed that each man should contribute one-fourth of thegold he carried to reward their rescuer, a proposition which was at onceaccepted. Frank, however, assured them that although leading a team ofmules he was well off, and in no need whatever of their kind offer.
Seeing that he was in earnest, his fellow-passengers again thanked himcordially, and took their places in the coach. They were not to bebalked in their gratitude, and three days later a very handsome horse,with saddle and holsters with a brace of Colt's revolvers, arrived upfrom Sacramento for Frank, with the best wishes of the passengers in thecoach. On the same day a letter arrived saying that at a meeting of thedirectors of the bank it had been resolved that, as he had saved themfrom a loss of fifty thousand pounds by his gallantry, a sum of twothousand pounds should be placed to his credit at the bank in token oftheir appreciation of the great service he had rendered them.